Planning to fly into Hobby then pick up an RV and drive to College Station. How feasible is to drag that monster around? Where to park it?
Any info would be appreciated.
Choose your RV down there carefully
As others have stated, IAH is north of the city while Hobby is near to downtown. From IAH, you can use Beltway 8 (88 mile long loop around Houston) to circumvent the city. However, it can get pretty backed up in the mornings and evenings.
There is another option: You could head a few miles north from IAH and hit the NEXT loop around the city, Hwy 99 (123 miles long). The overall mileage to get to Katy is longer but 99 is newer and the area is far less built up so there's usually significantly less traffic.
Hobby isn't near downtown per se. It's more SE between 610 and the Tollway.
Either is probably fine to fly into, as Katy is due west of the city, west of the Beltway/Tollway and halfway between the north end of the 610 loop/Beltway and the south end of the 610 loop/beltway concentric circles.
Realistically, Hobby is probably closest from a pure mileage standpoint, but both Hobby and IAH are going to dump you onto the Beltway (although I'd pay the tolls), and loop you around, then dump you onto 10 near Memorial, then it's West to Katy.
That said I haven't driven a ton in Houston lately, and all that driving has been confined to primarily the NW side, so if there is Tollway construction, that would change my answer. But IAH is more north of Katy than Hobby is South of Katy, and at that point, you're just using the outer rings to get to 10 then West, although depending on where in Katy, the Westpark Toll could be an option as well.
It's landlocked where it is and the roads aren't sufficient for the number cars passing in and out. My experiences of driving to Hobby have been long, frustrating, and claustrophobic.
Not that IAH is some paragon of transportation organization but it's far bigger and more spread out, so once you get in your car traffic seems to move pretty freely.
Both airports are roughly equidistant from Katy, one on the North side and one on the South so this discussion is probably moot.
and left me a mule to ride
I was halfway crucified.
you are flying Southwest, then it's likely to be Hobby. In terms of Katy, I'm not sure it makes much difference.
30 to 60 minutes away from each other, depending on bad traffic. IAH is further north of HOU, which makes it easier to Katy, but I would suggest looking for airline cost vs airport location. There can sometimes wide price variations based upon which airport you fly into! I’ll be at the game as well. Be prepared to sweat your ass off!
To the Hardy toll road a factor in favor of IAH. Katy is basically 10 and 610.
Hobby is closer to 610 than IAH, even though it's a tad more east than IAH.