Before Discovery #139’s four routes onward from Las Vegas to Portland, there’s an earlier, separate leg of the same trip: the drive TO Las Vegas, starting in Charlotte, NC — now extended two more stops past Vegas into San Francisco, retracing Discovery #139’s own Route 4 for that final leg. Ten real stops, geocoded and mapped below, September 28 through October 14.
Some of this is a real forecast now — not all of it.
Charlotte’s dates (Sept 28–29) and Ruston, LA’s date (Sept 30) fall inside the National Weather Service’s 7-day forecast window, so those figures are real forecasts, fetched September 24 and September 26, 2026 respectively — not typical averages. Everything from October 1 onward is still outside forecast range and shown as a rounded, sourced historical/climate-normal average for that calendar date, clearly labeled as such below. Worth flagging: the real forecast for the first few days is running noticeably warm versus typical October averages, so the later “typical” stops may end up warmer than shown too — that’s an observation, not a prediction. As the trip gets closer, Dallas onward will roll into real 7–10 day forecast range on its own — no need to wait a week or two, it’s already starting to happen with Charlotte and Ruston’s data.
Charlotte, NC — September 28–29 (Real Forecast)
- Sept 28: high 80°F, low 55°F, sunny
- Sept 29: high 82°F, low 57°F, sunny to mostly clear
- This is a real National Weather Service forecast, not a historical typical — fetched September 24, 2026, well within the 7-day forecast window
- Source: National Weather Service 7-day forecast (forecast.weather.gov), fetched September 24, 2026
Ruston, LA — September 30 (Real Forecast)
- Sept 30: high 86°F, low 66°F, partly sunny with a real chance of afternoon thunderstorms (~30%)
- This is a real National Weather Service forecast, not a historical typical — fetched September 26, 2026, well within the 7-day forecast window
- Running warm versus Ruston’s own October climate-normal average (high 77°F / low 56°F per Weather Spark) — the same first-few-days-running-warm pattern already showing up at Charlotte
- This 776-mile drive day from Charlotte passes near or through Atlanta, Birmingham, and the Jackson/Meridian corridor along I-20 without an overnight stop this time
- Source: National Weather Service Shreveport/Monroe forecast office 7-day forecast (forecast.weather.gov), fetched September 26, 2026
Dallas, TX — October 1–2
- Typical high: 76–78°F
- Typical low: 57–59°F
- Just outside the current NWS forecast window — shown as a historical typical, not a forecast
- Source: Weather Spark / currentresults.com October averages
Odessa, TX — October 3
- Typical high: 80–83°F
- Typical low: 54–56°F
- Typical conditions: dry (around a 10% daily rain chance), sunny and breezy
- Source: Weather Spark / AccuWeather October averages
El Paso, TX — October 4
- Typical high: 76–80°F
- Typical low: 56–59°F
- Typical conditions: dry, sunny, low humidity
- Source: Weather Spark / currentresults.com October averages; NWS El Paso normals
Tucson, AZ — October 5
- Typical high: 88–90°F
- Typical low: 62–64°F
- Typical conditions: still notably warm — the tail end of monsoon season
- Source: Weather Spark October averages
Phoenix, AZ — October 6
- Typical high: 94–97°F
- Typical low: 68–70°F
- October has the steepest early-to-late cooling swing of any month in central Arizona per the NWS, so early October runs well above the ~89°F/66°F monthly average
- Source: NWS Phoenix 1991–2020 normals (weather.gov); AccuWeather
Las Vegas, NV — October 7–12
- Typical high: 83–85°F
- Typical low: 60–62°F
- Typical conditions: dry (around a 4% daily rain chance), sunny
- Source: Weather Spark October averages
Mojave Desert to Bakersfield, CA — October 13 (Overnight Stop)
- Typical high: 81–83°F
- Typical low: 54–57°F
- Typical conditions: dry (around 2 rainy days for the whole month of October), mostly sunny
- The route in from Las Vegas crosses Mojave National Preserve — the same Route 4 leg covered in Discovery #139
- Still well outside the National Weather Service’s 7–10 day forecast window as of today (September 26, 2026) — a historical typical, not a forecast
- Source: NWS Bakersfield October climate normals (weather.gov/hnx/bfl10nrm), Weather Spark
San Francisco, CA — October 14 (Arrival)
- Typical high: 66–68°F
- Typical low: ~55°F
- Typical conditions: dry (about 0.9in of rain for the whole month of October)
- A real, sourced contrast: after roughly a week of desert heat from Odessa through Las Vegas and Bakersfield, San Francisco runs noticeably cooler — the city’s coastal marine layer and fog are a genuine local feature this time of year, not an invented detail
- Also still outside NWS forecast range — a historical typical, not a forecast
- Source: Weather Spark, currentresults.com October averages
What’s Real, What’s Typical, and the One Pattern Worth Watching
Worth being precise about this, because it’s the whole point of the post: Charlotte (Sept 28–29) and Ruston, LA (Sept 30) are real National Weather Service forecasts, fetched September 24 and September 26, 2026 respectively — not historical averages. Everything from October 1 onward, every stop from Dallas through Las Vegas, Bakersfield, and San Francisco, is still outside the forecast window and shown as a rounded historical/climate-normal typical for that calendar date, sourced from NWS/NOAA normals where available and the named aggregator sites elsewhere.
One honest observation, not a prediction: the real forecast for the first few days is running warm — Ruston, LA is headed into the mid-80s on Sept 30, well above its own October climate-normal average of 77°F/56°F. If that pattern holds, the “typical” numbers for Dallas onward may end up running warmer than shown too. That’s flagged as a possibility here, not baked into the numbers above.
The one real pattern that does show up cleanly in the climate-normal data itself: from Dallas onward through Odessa, El Paso, Tucson, Phoenix, and into Las Vegas, the route dries out to essentially desert conditions through that whole desert stretch — a genuine, sourced pattern in the historical averages, not an invented detail to make the route sound tidier than it is.
That desert stretch doesn’t last the entire trip, though. After roughly a week of desert heat — Odessa through El Paso, Tucson, Phoenix, and Las Vegas all sitting in the 80s and 90s — the drive into Bakersfield and San Francisco brings a real, sourced cool-down. Bakersfield’s typical highs stay in the low 80s, still desert-dry, but San Francisco’s typical highs drop into the upper 60s, driven by the city’s genuine coastal marine layer. That’s a real contrast in the climate-normal numbers themselves, not exaggerated for effect.
No need to wait a week or two for a live-forecast regeneration anymore — it’s already partially happening. Charlotte and Ruston are done with real forecast data. As the trip gets closer, Dallas and the stops beyond it will roll into the National Weather Service’s 7–10 day forecast window on their own; just ask and this post can be rebuilt with live data for whichever stops are still showing as typical.