@sweeyener Do you have OneDrive enabled and set to automatically sync the contents of Documents with cloud storage? If so, please either disable auto sync or disable OneDrive entirely, at least long enough to test.
If that doesn't help, move your entire Sims 3 folder out of Documents\Electronic Arts and onto your desktop. Launch the game, start a new save, and try to travel with a random family. Please do so right away, as in, within a few in-game minutes of starting the save. And don't use Create a Sim or Build/Buy before going—the idea is to see whether the travel transition works when the game engine hasn't had much work yet.
By the way, you don't need to leave the game on overnight to see whether it loads. In a new save, the travel transition should take less than 10 minutes even on the slowest hard drive. In a long-played and overloaded save, it might take 30-40 minutes, but even that is unusual.