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The wife would like to go on a cross-country road trip to see relatives and east coast sights (we're in Southern California). The problem is that the relatives are spaced out quite far (way more than 20 hours of driving between, so additional stops would be necessary).
How much is too much when you're stuck in a car driving? She has limited vacation available, so most of the "between" days would only be driving in order to maximize the time at the relatives and some east coast sights (Washington DC; NYC; Boston). The tentative plan is to drive on the low side out (I-40), up the east coast, possibly Montreal/Toronto, and back on the high side (I-80/90). Relatives are along those lines...
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You need at least 2 weeks to drive from So Cal to the east coast and hit all those places.
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8 hours if one of you is the primary driver.
10 hours if you spell each other every hour or two.
But if you're stopping to see the sights, that throws the whole thing off.
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That'd be a GREAT trip!
Is there just her going? I voted 10 hours based on one driver... If there's two, 7-8 hours each, in 3.5-4 hour shifts would be a maximum day.
Me personally, I can do 8 hour days back to back, but more than one ten hour driving day starts wearing me down.
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It depends on the roads, conditions, what there is along the way...
I would say 8-12 hours, depending on those. Sometimes I'll put in a 12hr day so that the next day can be 4hrs and give us time to enjoy something along the way.
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I said 8 hours, but that is only if every other day is a non driving day. Otherwise, take the plane. I once did a 12 hour nonstop drive to go see my girlfriend who had changed universities after her undergrad degree. It was brutal. If you're going to be driving every day at 8 hours per day then what is the point...it will be miserable.
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I usually do a 1 day drive from Denver to Minneapolis. That is the longest I can go, and if I do that I really wouldn't want to set foot in a car the entire next day.
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I used to drive from Houston to NYC with all in one, only gas, coffee & piss stops, every 400-600 miles.
Entire 1650 mile trip in 23-27 hours.
Also a Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and back to Houston circuit, 750 miles all in one day, with business done in all those cities.
Point being that unless you are sightseeing, you can easily cover a lot of distance driving cross country....
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Last October we did a loop to New Orleans and back since the wife had a conference in Austin TX for several days. On that trip we specifically did every other day of driving -- drive somewhere; stop overnight; next day of sight-seeing in that location (or a short distance) and second night; and then repeat...
On the off-driving days we visited Tuzigoot National Monument; Out of Africa Wildlife Park; Montezuma Castle National Monument and Well; Carlsbad Caverns; Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden; French Quarter; Parkway Bakery and Tavern (gotta get that Po'boy); Audubon Zoo; San Antonio River Walk; The Alamo; Austin Bat Bridge multiple times while in Austin for the conference; basically out and back on I-10. No family that trip, just friends in Dallas and New Orleans.
That was about 8-9 hours for each driving day but it would take forever to do that for a cross-country trip. It's about 100 hours total round-trip driving time and wouldn't allow time for multiple days in the east coast destinations; we're looking at a 4-week vacation plus weekends on the two ends to extend it (longest off-work allowed)... This trip, once again, is both of us, so, yeah, driving could be longer -- even though I'm the one who ends up doing all the driving (she usually falls asleep in about an hour -- I guess I don't do good conversation or something)... This is still very early planning stages...
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M A V I C wrote:
It depends on the roads, conditions, what there is along the way...
I would say 8-12 hours, depending on those. Sometimes I'll put in a 12hr day so that the next day can be 4hrs and give us time to enjoy something along the way.
We did 3800 in 2 weeks, with only half the time on the road, and many of those days were 5-6 hours or less. 2 adults, with me doing maybe 80+% of the driving.
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