Driving from Minneapolis, anyone do this?

[tegdig]

Question about the Mountains, how long does it take to cross and how big are they?

between Nashville and Chatanooga there is just one "bad" mountain, Eagle Mountain. It is "bad" to me. Probably by other's standards, or if you have traveled much through the Rockies or anywhere else, you may not consider this bad. I kind of have a heights problem. It is however a beautiful trip. We also have taken Nashville to Huntsville instead and there are no "mountains" like Eagle Mountain that way. Takes about the same amount of time and you miss Atlanta that way, although, I never really had trouble with Atlanta if you plan it around rush hour. Doesn't take long at all to go up or down Eagle Mountain.

 

[lovemygrowingfamily]

So the mountains are that bad? The closest that we have came to mountains were out in the Black Hills of South Dakota on all of the senic routes. DH was driving but my break was on the whole way. I didn't do well with them.

For those that drive straight through how many hours does it take? We are leaving 6pm Friday night and should hit the cities around 11 or 12.We are driving non stop as long as the kids are sleeping.Oh and we have not 1, not 2 but 5 dvd players for our truck. 3 units but 2 can play 2 different movies at 1 time.Each kids gets their own headphones for Christmas so we don't have to hear 5 movies either.Plus they each have their nintendo ds's and homework! I am making sure everyone is happy.

 

[Disneylush]

I am wondering what your budget is for driving from the cities? We are flying and I would like to compare.

We are flying Air Tran 79.00 each way (tax and fees included) then we used the 25.00 off each way from the budget board making it $108.00 round trip each person. $648.00 for the 6 of us.

You have
____ gas
____ food
____ hotel
____ tolls
____ ???
I prefer flying because I prefer to spend my vaction days in the parks rather then on the road but if airfare was higher this might be an option depending on what your budget is.

 

[disneymom3]

I haven't driven from MSP but I had to read this thread (I have family in the area). I was laughing about the GA bathrooms - grossest I have ever seen! My DH even thought they were disgusting!

I tell my kids to NOT touch anything! I would rather give them antibacterial wipes when they come out than have them use most of the sinks we have seen. As I said though, the rest stops are some of the nicest in the country IMO>

.

.STAY IN YOUR LANE and just go through it. You can go online later and pay the toll on the toll athority's website. I've seen some crazy moves by people trying to get out of the IPASS lane at the last second (including people BACKING UP! ) and it's not worth an accident.

That is really good info to have. We are always way careful about being in the right lane and have seen some of hte crazy moves too. But we have wondered what you are supposed to do if you realize too late that you are in the wrong place.

I also wanted to add - you can get an I-Pass for free for the Illinois toll road. We got ours at a grocery store in Illinois - but you maybe able to get them online. They will save you alot in tolls and you can also use them in different states (I think FL is one of the co-operating states). Happy driving!

Good to know. Besides saving money, it can save a lot of time.

So the mountains are that bad? The closest that we have came to mountains were out in the Black Hills of South Dakota on all of the senic routes. DH was driving but my break was on the whole way. I didn't do well with them..

The mountains are not bad. If you have done the Black Hills there is nothing to worry about. The HIlls are way more twisty and such. The intersate runs straight through these mountains so it is a nice wide road without a lot of twists and turns and no sheer drops at all. REally compared to the Black Hills, it's nothing.


This thread is fun. We might have to try one of those alternate routes this time around. The same ol' way through the WI Dells is getting quite boring.

 

[seasheller]

I agree on the Briley Parkway through Nashville. We always take it if we happen to hit rush hour traffic.

Also, if you go through Rockford, you only have two tolls in Illinois at $1 each. It used to be much higher, but we went through last April and last December and that's all it was. There was a lot of construction at the time so I don't know if that had any bearing on number of tolls.

The 'mountains' you go through are not bad at all. I didn't like the ones out west because of the steep drop offs, but these are nothing like that. The only thing that creeped me out were the runaway truck roads, which you see in several places. These usually go off to the left, so just stay right. After driving this route twice a year for the last 11 years, I have yet to see a runaway truck.

 

[johnGorski]

We live in the twin cities area
did it once with 4 adults and a mini van so we switched driving. I see you have extra drivers too. It was not that bad of a trip. Bright side we have been on a road trip to LA, Seattle, El Paso Tx, Southern Tx McAllen area. Orlando was the best road trip then the distinations mentioned above. 6 of us adults are going in Dec and we where really thinking of driving down, but the rate we are going here weather wise we would get piled in with snow.

 

[ohlas]

We drive becaiuse the airline can change the price till you print a ticket and even after you print a ticket they can change the time or cancel a flight on you they can make you stay in atlanta ga airport for 8 hours they make you take your shoes off to get on the plane and then they charge you 25- 15 bag if they dont lose it. airlines such, more then driving and i can bring more junk with me in the car,

plus do the real math on how long it takes to take airplan time to get to airline cost to park your car, wait to get on plan wait to get in the air plane ride to lay over lay over time to next plane ride get bags get ride to disney.

Form my house to disney i can drive 15 hours and pay 350 in gas round trip add in that 2 hotel at 100 night that 550 total

Get this 8 hours now the cheapest flight i see are plus to rent a car for 4 people 950 plus 350 car 1300

 

[tinarena2000]

Thanks for all the tips, I enjoy reading this. I was worried about the mountains but if they are not too bad I should be OK. We are excited about the adventure of driving and more excited to get down to Disney.