Drive Cross Country: Share Your Adventure

[jtbell]

I will say three to four hours, but I am living in Switzerland.

One of my favorite jokes has a Texan bragging to a Vermonter about how big his state is. "You can start in El Paso, drive all day and all night and all the next day, and you'll still be in Texas!" The Vermonter nods knowingly and says, "I know what you mean. I once had a car like that, too."

 

[jobyts]

Seems like we both succeded
Somehow I doubt our wives will be interested in taking part in 'my is longer' discussion.

Longest route in Poland, from Ustrzyki Dolne to Świnoujście, is about 1018 kilometers. Slightly over 700 km in the straight line. But, you won't be able to properly pronounce "Chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie" and it makes me feel better

Jimmy, I would say you are going to fail miserably, if you compete with Borek on a 'mine is longer' game. Borek is Polish.

 

[Chi Meson]

I have driven cross country 7 times, Oregon to Pa. It takes about 60hrs driving time. Most of my trips have been on I80, have done some on I70 and I90. The most remarkable thing is just how barren much of the trip is.

Wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat corn corn corn corn corn corn wheat wheat wheat corn wheat corn corn corn potatoes potatoes

 

[Moonbear]

Wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat corn corn corn corn corn corn wheat wheat wheat corn wheat corn corn corn potatoes potatoes

Oh, cool, new lyrics for the Badger song!

 

[turbo]

Oh, cool, new lyrics for the Badger song!

Thanks, you sadist! Now I'll have to listen to at least one equally annoying song to get rid of that one!

 

[WhoWee]

I've done a lot of long distance driving. My personal comfort level is about 400 miles one way now.

However, at 19 years, I volunteered for a trip from Boston to the High Desert area of California with 2 other guys in a 26' Ryder truck. We had less than a week to deliver and install an expensive piece of equipment. We stopped ONLY to buy fuel and use the facilities. We ate in the truck, went without bathing, and took turns driving. We slept upright. It was horrible.

The bus ride home was almost enjoyable by comparison.

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Jimmy, I would say you are going to fail miserably, if you compete with Borek on a 'mine is longer' game. Borek is Polish.

Shhh. My wife thinks it's gigantic. My ancestors on my mother's side came from Grodno when it was in the Russian Empire. It was in Poland for a while, now it's in Belarus. My grandmother spoke Yiddish and Polish.

 

[lisab]

I drove from Seattle to Washington DC with a friend...I think it was 1989. It took 6 or 7 days, IIRC. Nice trip, I highly recommend it for all young Americans...well young people in general. I saw so many cool things...like fireflies for the first time (we don't have them in Seattle).

We stayed in camp grounds. There are (or were, back then) KOAs everywhere. Cheap, as low as $7 a night. What a deal...aaahhh, clean bathrooms with showers and flush toilets .

 

[xxChrisxx]

Driving from Manchester to Lyon on Friday. Does that count?

You driving it alone? I find long dull motorway trips to be a pita when you are solo, they arent too bad if you've got a 2nd driver.Also, you actually from/live in Manchester? I just get that rather odd 'small world' feeling when someone from the interwebs lives remotely close.

I've done a lot of long distance driving. My personal comfort level is about 400 miles one way now.

Thats a fair old distance that.

I always get some romantic image of driving in the US, some long straight road with only me on it driving into the sunset. As opposed to stuck in a traffic jam, in the rain, somewhere near Birmingham.

 

[Integral]

Wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat wheat corn corn corn corn corn corn wheat wheat wheat corn wheat corn corn corn potatoes potatoes

Don't forget the pile of rocks they call Wyoming!

Edit:

I did find the Green River stretch of Wyoming beautiful... for a bunch of big rocks!

 

[lisab]

I always get some romantic image of driving in the US, some long straight road with only me on it driving into the sunset. As opposed to stuck in a traffic jam, in the rain, somewhere near Birmingham.

Not far from the truth, xxChrisxx. It's a vast place. But you should come see for yourself, of course .

 

[GeorginaS]

Cross country. Well, I took a Greyhound bus, once, up and down from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale and back again. That was special. Good thing I was young and stupid enough to do it.

I've driven from Ottawa to Charlottetown and just noticed that, looking at a map, it doesn't seem that impressive of a drive. We took it slow and easy, stopping everywhere and looking at everything, though. That was vacationing, not trying to actually get somewhere.

I've driven from Ottawa to Vancouver five times, each time for a reason and with passengers. I count myself lucky we all survived one another. That drive, at a trying-to-get-there rate takes, five and half, maybe six days to do. Mind you, without cruise control (those were the good old days) you had a fairly numb right thigh by the time you got there. I've driven mountains at night, through rain, hail, sleet, snow, and cloud cover. I've driven long flat highways that went on endlessly that I swore I could have simply pointed the car, gone to sleep, and woke up when we arrived at the next prairie province.

Mind, I've never had a highway accident. Never whacked any wildlife, save one stupid bunny that bounced back and forth across the road in front of me so I came to a stop. When it bounced off into the ditch, I started rolling again, and that's when it bounced back out and I thumped over him. It broke my heart.

Some of the trips I had to arrive by a certain date for work. One trip was a rush to get back before my grandmother died.

Hmmm. The long-distance haul is not all it's cracked up to be. For real. Shorter jaunts, like Edmonton to Vancouver that takes about 12 hours can be a really nice drive. I've made that one several times both with company and alone with a cat. I rented a car once when I went to Phoenix and drove, alone again, to Flagstaff, Grand Canyon, over to Colorado, back to Sedona, and Phoenix, Was a lovely trip. I've driven Phoenix to Las Vegas. That was decent. Houston to um, Dallas and San Antonio. Drove all over creation in Florida. Shorter jaunts. Way less stressful.

I forget what the question was.

 

[Moonbear]

Shhh. My wife thinks it's gigantic. My ancestors on my mother's side came from Grodno when it was in the Russian Empire. It was in Poland for a while, now it's in Belarus. My grandmother spoke Yiddish and Polish.

Nah, Snyder is a pretty short last name.

 

[Huckleberry]

I always get some romantic image of driving in the US, some long straight road with only me on it driving into the sunset. As opposed to stuck in a traffic jam, in the rain, somewhere near Birmingham.

This can be hard to find on the coasts if you are taking the highways anytime during the day. Driving between the Appalatians and the Rockies is often as you describe. Some places you are more likely to see a tractor-trailer convoy than other cars. Those big trucks are on all the highways at all hours of the day or night.

 

[DaveC426913]

Canada takes me about 70 hours driving time to go coast to coast. Basically a weeks travel time.
I recommend driving it at least once. Just for the appreciation of just how big the place is. After 4 or five times driving across, I now fly and save the vacation time for the visits with friends.

I've always wanted to. From Toronto, it'd prolly be 1/4 shorter (which would make it 52 hours by your accounting).

How many hours per day did you put in? I could put in about 8 if it were a straight drive through - so that's 7 days, one way.

What route do you recommend? Do you dip into the States at any point?

 

[Borek]

About 10 years ago we get from Warsaw to Hvar - I was driving alone - in about 48 hours. That's about 1000 miles, but we had to drive through several cities (Warsaw peak hours, Krakow 8 p.m., Budapest 7 a.m., Split peak hours) which slowed the trip down, and we avoided highways (not there were many in that part of the world). I don't think I would be able to repeat it now.

 

[Alfi]

One thing I found about driving across the Canadian prairies.
If you bumped Manitoba into Alberta, you would never now Saskatchewan was missing.
That's one seriously boring stretch of highway.


I found out once, that it takes 40 hours to go from Toronto to Calgary if you don't stop for anything but food and fuel. 24 hours just to get out of Ontario.
Fun trip that one was.

 

[byronm]

The craziest drive i ever did was a 3 day round trip from Philadelphia PA to Houston Tx.. 24 hours each way there and back - left philly after work on friday and got to work monday morning.

 

[brewnog]

You driving it alone? I find long dull motorway trips to be a pita when you are solo, they arent too bad if you've got a 2nd driver.

Also, you actually from/live in Manchester? I just get that rather odd 'small world' feeling when someone from the interwebs lives remotely close.

The girlfriend's coming too, but I can't insure her on my car so she's on mapreading (satnav programming) duties.

I don't live in Manchester any more (I'm in Stoke, just down the road) but will be in Manc on Thursday evening. Where are you?

 

[Borek]

The girlfriend's coming too, but I can't insure her on my car so she's on mapreading (satnav programming) duties.

GF? It can be an interesting trip. Asking my wife to do map duties is a sure way of visiting places I would never find a way to.

Before you will even start the engine, make sure when she says "left" she means it

 

[byronm]

GF? It can be an interesting trip. Asking my wife to do map duties is a sure way of visiting places I would never find a way to.

Before you will even start the engine, make sure when she says "left" she means it

hahaha my wife is the same way..

I solved the problem by purchasing a tomtom that speaks the turns instead. My wife thought it was a useless toy at first and now she uses it more than i do.

 

[GeorginaS]

I found out once, that it takes 40 hours to go from Toronto to Calgary if you don't stop for anything but food and fuel. 24 hours just to get out of Ontario.
Fun trip that one was.

I've always wanted to. From Toronto, it'd prolly be 1/4 shorter (which would make it 52 hours by your accounting).

How many hours per day did you put in? I could put in about 8 if it were a straight drive through - so that's 7 days, one way.

What route do you recommend? Do you dip into the States at any point?

If you go down to the Falls, and cross there into the States, and come back up into Canada in Manitoba, you save yourself a whole bunch of travel time. The longest stretch from Toronto to Calgary, while staying in Canada, is the trip up to Sault St. Marie, around Lake Superior to Thunder Bay. Lake Superior is massive. Long, long trip that is. Really spiffy little towns all along the way, though. When I drove it, many moons ago, it was two lanes the whole way. Pure entertainment.

The prairies are a breeze. Flat, straight, and the horizon goes forever. It's fascinating at first and gets astoundingly boring very quickly.

 

[xxChrisxx]

The girlfriend's coming too, but I can't insure her on my car so she's on mapreading (satnav programming) duties.

I don't live in Manchester any more (I'm in Stoke, just down the road) but will be in Manc on Thursday evening. Where are you?

Ahhhh you can't beat a map, especially with women map readers. If you don't follow their instuctions you are 'an idiot' and get shouted at. If you do follow them but they read the map wrong, you are still somehow the 'idiot' and get shouted at.

I'm from Manchester, I acutally live in Denton, just outside the M60.

 

[Moonbear]

Probably the longest driving trip I did was from MI (near Detroit) to Toronto for a conference for a few days, then about a week of vacation driving through Montreal (I was going to stop, but got worried when all the road signs turned into French only, so kept going), entered the US through ME, down along the East coast, into MA, CT, NY, then down to VA and finally returning via WV, PA and OH back to MI. I also zig-zagged up and down the coast a little. I was going to spend most of the week in VA, but when there were thunderstorms predicted the entire week, after I got to NY, I headed back up to MA again for a few more days, and then did the trip home with just a stop to see Luray Caverns and various scenic outlooks.

It's the only time I've ever traveled without having reservations anywhere (other than for the conference in Toronto). It was great fun, because I wasn't committed to any fixed schedule. If I got somewhere and wanted to spend an extra day by a pool at the hotel reading a book, I could. If I didn't get to see all the sights I wanted to see in a town in one day, I could just book an extra day. I just stayed in cheap motels along the way, and never ran into any problems finding places with vacancies along my route. If a place didn't have any vacancies, I just headed to the next exit or next town and found a place that did (I wasn't usually driving late into the night before looking for a hotel...I pretty much was stopping around dinner time each day, so wasn't pressed for time). The biggest advantage really was being able to just change my mind at the last minute, when I saw thunderstorms headed for the beach towns I was planning to visit.

 

[Moonbear]

Ahhhh you can't beat a map, especially with women map readers. If you don't follow their instuctions you are 'an idiot' and get shouted at. If you do follow them but they read the map wrong, you are still somehow the 'idiot' and get shouted at.

http://smilies.vidahost.com/cwm/3dlil/nonono2.gif

If you can't read road signs, you have no business criticizing the map reader. I'm guessing you've more often fallen into the former category of not following their instructions, rather than the latter of them actually reading the map wrong.

 

[turbo]

Sounds fun, Moonie. I should add that I never traveled without reservations. Sometimes serious reservations! I hated being in the grips of the airline industry and I hate driving. It's a wonder that my career as an industrial consultant was so successful, much less profitable. I cleaned out a lot of my old records a few days ago, and had to throw away some airline tickets from Bangor ME to Tallahassee, FL. That was the cheapest way to get myself into the deep south so I could rent a car and drive until I was sick of it. Imagine! $1000 round-trip from Bangor to Hartsfield/Atlanta reduced to to $250 because I got off the plane (sometimes didn't even get off!) and took off from there on another flight to FL. That $750 savings would pay for my rental car, lodging, and expenses on-site for a week in south GA or AL. That's a big deal when you're running a one-man consulting business out of your house!

 

[jtbell]

If you go down to the Falls, and cross there into the States, and come back up into Canada in Manitoba, you save yourself a whole bunch of travel time.

The big problem with that is you have to go round the south end of Lake Michigan, past Chicago, which can be a real bear (and I don't mean the football team!). Plus you have to go through/past either Detroit, or Buffalo and Cleveland.

Of course the traffic in Detroit isn't nearly as bad as it used to be, because of the general downturn in the area economy that started long before the Great Recession hit. A few years ago I visited the area, and happened to drive from downtown Detroit to a northeast suburb along Gratiot Avenue, the main non-expressway artery in that direction. This was during the afternoon rush hour, and I was amazed at how little traffic there was. I got to my destination 15-20 minutes earlier than I expected.

 

[BobG]

http://smilies.vidahost.com/cwm/3dlil/nonono2.gif

If you can't read road signs, you have no business criticizing the map reader. I'm guessing you've more often fallen into the former category of not following their instructions, rather than the latter of them actually reading the map wrong.

Roundabouts in Italy are fun until you figure out how the signs work.

The road you want has the route signs on both sides of the road, pointing in towards the road you want. If you don't realize that and only see the first sign, you think the sign is saying the road you want is further around the roundabout and wind up skipping the road you wanted.

If you're lucky, you notice the sign saying the road you wanted is somewhere behind you, which seems like a really strange thing to say since you can only go one way on the roundabout. If you miss the second sign, you just wonder what happened to the road you wanted until you wind up passing it again.

I think it was about the third or fourth time around the roundabout before we figured out what the signs were actually trying to tell us: Aim your car between the signs!

 

[Moonbear]

If you don't realize that and only see the first sign, you think the sign is saying the road you want is further around the roundabout and wind up skipping the road you wanted.

That's like one of the signs in this town. To get to one town, you need to cross a bridge, which is a right turn from one of the main roads through downtown. The sign with the big right turn arrow is posted AFTER the bridge. When I first moved here, I kept missing that turn, thinking it would be the NEXT right, and then realizing there wasn't a next right.

Just before you get to that is also the place where the road changes abruptly from 2 lanes to three, with the middle lane just arising from the location of the white line between the original two lanes, and no instruction about which lane is the one that should yield to the other if cars from both lanes want to be in the middle lane. I think the rule is that the person with the most experience driving in NYC wins, since I usually manage to squeeze my way into that lane regardless of which side I started on.

I don't think I've ever seen a rule in any driving manual that explains that one. All they'd need to do to fix the problem would be to pick a lane and draw a dotted line to show that one gets the right of way and the other has to merge. I *think* the right lane gets right of way, but I'm not sure, and apparently neither is anyone else.

Edit: Just for clarity, I'm attaching an illustration of what the road does.

 

[DaveC426913]

GF? It can be an interesting trip. Asking my wife to do map duties is a sure way of visiting places I would never find a way to.

Before you will even start the engine, make sure when she says "left" she means it

Seriously. I wonder how my wife makes it from living room to bathroom for all her ability to navigate.

Every trip starts with the same orientation lesson:
"OK well, on most maps, the top of the map is North."

 

[Integral]

This can be hard to find on the coasts if you are taking the highways anytime during the day. Driving between the Appalatians and the Rockies is often as you describe. Some places you are more likely to see a tractor-trailer convoy than other cars. Those big trucks are on all the highways at all hours of the day or night.

We have pretty good truck traffic up and down I5 but it is NOTHING like I70 through Indiana and Ohio.

 

[xxChrisxx]

http://smilies.vidahost.com/cwm/3dlil/nonono2.gif

If you can't read road signs, you have no business criticizing the map reader. I'm guessing you've more often fallen into the former category of not following their instructions, rather than the latter of them actually reading the map wrong.

It's more A and B roads where I go wrong, the missus used to be a poor map reader and sent me awry more than once. To be fair she's much much better now and mistakes are quite rightly me not following/listening.However I postulate to you; that if one could read road signs, and the roads signs were that complete you didnt have to rely on a navigator to get to new places, then there would be no need for maps or mapreaders in the first place. And no one would ever get lost.

 

[Huckleberry]

We have pretty good truck traffic up and down I5 but it is NOTHING like I70 through Indiana and Ohio.

Looks like the truck traffic is growing there too. They want to build dedicated truck lanes on I70 from Missouri to Ohio. 28% truck traffic seems like an insane amount to me.

The volume of freight movement along I-70 states is growing. Current truck volumes are such that truck traffic is 21.5 percent in urban areas and 28 percent in the rural sections. The proposed corridor and changes in size and weight have the potential to attract freight movement from other parallel routes (Interstate 80 and Interstate 40), as well as other major north/south interstates. These options make I-70 a reasonable candidate for a tolled facility.

http://www.corridors.dot.gov/i70.htm

 

[Moonbear]

However I postulate to you; that if one could read road signs, and the roads signs were that complete you didnt have to rely on a navigator to get to new places, then there would be no need for maps or mapreaders in the first place. And no one would ever get lost.

Indeed, once you have a general direction of where you need to get to as your endpoint, you don't need maps. I don't travel with maps most of the time. If I do get disoriented, the best plan is to find the nearest interstate highway to get back on track. If I need to find a road I missed somewhere, my general rule of thumb that always works is until I find it or an equally suitable alternative, don't cross any bodies of water, a state line, or an international border.

Though, if people are so critical of their navigators, why don't you let them do the driving and you read the map?

If we're talking about a cross country trip, it's really quite easy. Pick a direction, for example, you want to head from the east coast to the west coast. Then, any time you are faced with a choice of roads that states East or West, keep picking West. If they are North/South, don't take them since that means you're already on the East/West road...unless you want to take a detour for some sight-seeing, of course. Big tourist attractions have tons of signs. Even little tourist attractions have tons of signs. If you don't see signs for a tourist attraction, you're not that close to it yet. The bigger attractions even often have a billboard after them saying, "You just missed... Turn around at Exit..."

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

The bigger attractions even often have a billboard after them saying, "You just missed... Turn around at Exit..."

After I passed the sign that said "Welcome to Rhode Island", I looked in my rear view mirror to see the other side of the sign. It said "Welcome to Rhode Island".