95 South questions

[Carrie Ellis]

Hi...we are so close now!!! Less than 30 days away!!! yippee!

Now that I am putting the finishing touches on the trip to FW, I have a question!

We have never pulled TT but plenty of horse trailers so this will be our first. We bought a used 29'!

We live South of DC and about an hour North of Richmond, VA. I just printed out mapquest and of course we will be on 95 most of the way.

We are planning to leave about 3am so that we can be there around 6pm. Estimated time on mq is 13 hours and 43 minutes. We are leaving on a Saturday (sept 18).

What is the worse that we could run into? I am sure construction? How about Jacksonville, FL?

 

[tim5055]

Jacksonville, except for Mon-Fri rush hours is usually no problem. I just take 95 through the city.

Traveling on the weekend you should have no problem.

 

[emanuel]

Just got back last week from making the drive. The ONLY place we hit traffic was around DC (evening rush hour) .

I was surprised how BORING I-95 is. I thought it would be scenic going through so many states. Nothin' doing! Only exciting part was getting south enough to see the Palm trees.

 

[Linda Talbot]

I-95 is boring unless you start counting and reading all of Pedro's billboard for South of the Border. That does tend to break up some of the boredom.

 

[TmnsnMD]

Hi, we live on the Eastern Shore of MD and just did the drive. We left on Aug 7th at 4am and stopped about 5pm at the Savanna South KOA in GA (very nice place). The hard (seems like the longest) part for us is the ES of VA and the CBBT. We left the KOA at about 8:30am and did not get to FW until about 3-3:30pm. We thought we would be there sooner but ......

There was a lot of road construction on 95 in GA and also on I4. We also had a lot of rain to deal with - there were times that with the road construction and rain we were almost at a stand still. The road construction had slowed us in some spots to about 40 mph - then dump buckets of rain on that and you get the picture. We used the bypass (295) around Jacksonville only because the last time (in 2001) we had a lot of traffic going thru Jacksonville. The bypass was great, mostly locals and big trucks - no stress!

Overall the ride was good. We stop every 3 hours or so to either fuel up or get out of the truck to walk around, get lunch, etc. This just works really well for us. The rest areas down south are amazing to me -- they are so big, ours here seems like 2 cars and there is a traffic jam (haha).

Hope you have a great time!

TmnsnMD

 

[ftwildernessguy]

I have driven through Jacksonville both towing a trailer and not. When I tow, I take the bypass. Jacksonville can get hairy especially with a 29 foot trailer behind you. The bypass may add a little time, but I think it is worth it. I also no longer tow through Orlando on I-4 - had a close call there a couple of years ago. I take 95 down to the beeline. It may cost me a few bucks in tolls and a little more time, but beats the white knuckles through Orlando. I know there are others who may disagree with me, but that is my 2 cents. I just like to make the drive as easy as possible for me. So drive safely, drive defensively, and as I tell my troops in the Army: Nobody gets hurt!

 

[Carrie Ellis]

We are leaving Sat at 3am with 2 sets of twins in a crew cab! So I am hoping to make it as smooth as possible! Otherwise there could be a lot of this....



ha!

All info is greatly appreciated!!!

 

[emanuel]

Make sure you make a lot of stops. We made a mistake and stopped for a LOOOONG lunch (1 hour+). We would've been better off making more, shorter stops.

 

[mixsap]

I would only go THROUGH Jacksonville late at night/early in the morning. Otherwise, take I-295 around. The savings is about 8 miles.