For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only! (II)

[dvczerfs]

Cool. So, you will be there in October, too?

All the best.

we will be arriving at okw tuesday sept 27th and leaving sat. oct 8th. it will be just the two of us. dd18 starts col. in aug. its just going to be dw and i for the next 4 years or so.

 

[pamkev]

We are driving for the first time this December. Leaving from stroudsburg, pa. Is it easier to drive straight through or to stop somewhere in between? I want to drive straight through but my girlfriend does not. And what would the best route be to take? I want to leave at 6pm on the 29th and drive through the night.

We are leaving tomorrow morning and live near Harrisburg this is our first drive down and we are stopping along the way many of the veteran drivers drive straight though.

Pam

 

[pamkev]

12 hours and counting till our drive

 

[BC1836]

we will be arriving at okw tuesday sept 27th and leaving sat. oct 8th. it will be just the two of us. dd18 starts col. in aug. its just going to be dw and i for the next 4 years or so.

Alas, we'll miss you in October; however, we look forward to cross your path in June.

All the best.

 

[sharadoc]

LOL, yeah so's my DH. (committed to driving) It was HIS idea to drive. I'm the reluctant passenger, or actually "the real driver" as he tends to get sleepy an hour out and has me take the wheel and he sleeps for hours. I'm slowly getting into the idea of driving and the whole road trip experience I was just dragging my feet, didn't mean to upset the apple cart. LOL. It's been a few days and I've accepted the facts now so I'm good. And I've started to find excitement in being on the road. I still don't sit still well after about 45 minutes but heck I can stop every hour for a break if I want (when I'm driving that is).

Accepting it is half the battle! Once you know it's driving or nothing, you can start to see the positives. Just think - when you need to stretch your legs, you can stop the car, maybe have a meal in a restaurant, run around at a rest stop. Can't stop the plane to do that.

 

[sharadoc]

We are leaving tomorrow morning and live near Harrisburg this is our first drive down and we are stopping along the way many of the veteran drivers drive straight though.

Pam

Good advice. We are driving straight through for the first time in June. We've done 5 trips since January 09 with the kids and we think we/they are finally ready for it. DH and I can handle it and we figure might as well just listen to whining all at once, rather than stopping, sleeping and starting over.

 

[sharadoc]

were are passing this year on the party but my dw and i are eating breakfast in the castle. we are going to be the only people in there without kids.

Awww. Are you going to do something romantic for your princess? That sounds really sweet.

 

[mainelyj]

We are looking to drive in August, unless the air prices go down.

We want to leave on Aug 10th, and drive until we get to Orlando - there will be three drivers and it takes 24 hours. We may consider an overnight hotel somewhere along the way. We plan to leave about 5-6am from Portland. Any suggestions for a safe an inexpensive 1/2 way to Orlando hotel should we consider??

On the way back we plan to take 3 days to return home. Some considerations are the DC area, Williamsburg, VA and even NYC. We want to spend 2 nights in the same place. Any suggestions??

One more big question, based on your experience, which States have the cheapest gas - I know NJ is one of them.

I hope I have not duplicated any parts of this thread, but I have not read all posts.

Thanks for your help.

 

[BC1836]

We are looking to drive in August, unless the air prices go down.

We want to leave on Aug 10th, and drive until we get to Orlando - there will be three drivers and it takes 24 hours. We may consider an overnight hotel somewhere along the way. We plan to leave about 5-6am from Portland. Any suggestions for a safe an inexpensive 1/2 way to Orlando hotel should we consider??

On the way back we plan to take 3 days to return home. Some considerations are the DC area, Williamsburg, VA and even NYC. We want to spend 2 nights in the same place. Any suggestions??

One more big question, based on your experience, which States have the cheapest gas - I know NJ is one of them.

I hope I have not duplicated any parts of this thread, but I have not read all posts.

Thanks for your help.

If possible try a name brand hotel in either Petersburg or Emporia, VA. Either of those would be a satisfactory "1/2 way" point. Hmm. Three drivers; 24 hours? Why not a straight-through drive with each driver going about 8 hours?

Stay south of that greater DC area: anything north of Fredericksburg, VA gets a bit hectic. And Williamsburg is out of the way. NYC: not a good idea for a number of reasons.

NJ has the cheapest; however, it's going up constantly. Our cheapest gas in our area is now $3.79.


All the best.

[Why is most of this message in bold?]

 

[pamkev]

I;m up and ready to go could not sleep last night should have gotten everyone up around 3 am. to hit the road Gonna go get them up now Mickey is waiting . Will try to check in along the way.

Thanks again to everyone all this board for all your great advice

Pam

 

[SondraC]

I;m up and ready to go could not sleep last night should have gotten everyone up around 3 am. to hit the road Gonna go get them up now Mickey is waiting . Will try to check in along the way.

Thanks again to everyone all this board for all your great advice

Pam

Safe travels!

 

[blondietink]

VA, SC and GA has the cheapest gas. Florence, SC and Savannah, GA had the cheapest gas for us on the way south last month. In Florida, the Hess stations in WDW had gas cheaper than out on the street in Orlando. Even cheaper than Wal-Mart, go figure.

 

[dvczerfs]

Awww. Are you going to do something romantic for your princess? That sounds really sweet.

romantic??? i just want to go to wdw!!!!!

 

[aarmando20]

We drive every year and this year I am a little concerned about timing. We will be leaving after the kids final exam in school. They will be getting out at 1:00. So if we leave at 1:30 from Philadelphia will we make it through DC or am I going to hit prime DC traffic on a Friday afternoon?

 

[budafam]

We're going to be leaving Friday morning around 6am which will put us in Chicago around 9:00. How is traffic around this time? I'm assuming bad but we really don't have another choice. The only other city I worry about is Atlanta and I've timed that so we'll be going through on Saturday around 8:30am which shouldn't be too bad

 

[Laurabearz]

We're going to be leaving Friday morning around 6am which will put us in Chicago around 9:00. How is traffic around this time? I'm assuming bad but we really don't have another choice. The only other city I worry about is Atlanta and I've timed that so we'll be going through on Saturday around 8:30am which shouldn't be too bad

Are you going to be on 90? At that time you should be able to keep a steady pace through downtown, although it will be crowded as you approach.

 

[budafam]

TripTik has us on 294 going through Chicago. Now that I'm looking at the map, 90 looks so much easier though... would you recommend 90 vs. 294? It seems like 294 takes us out of the way a bit.

 

[dvczerfs]

We drive every year and this year I am a little concerned about timing. We will be leaving after the kids final exam in school. They will be getting out at 1:00. So if we leave at 1:30 from Philadelphia will we make it through DC or am I going to hit prime DC traffic on a Friday afternoon?

im heading down the following friday. im going 78-81-77-26-95. friday afternoon, early evening on i95 is nothing but rush hour and shore traffic. you stand a good chance of sitting in traffic dc, bal, richmond and south.

 

[sharadoc]

We drive every year and this year I am a little concerned about timing. We will be leaving after the kids final exam in school. They will be getting out at 1:00. So if we leave at 1:30 from Philadelphia will we make it through DC or am I going to hit prime DC traffic on a Friday afternoon?

You are going to hit beach traffic heading to Virginia, so it could be bumper to bumper from DC to Richmond. Not a pleasant thought, that's for sure.

I agree with Dave that you should think of an alternative route, or take a nap and leave and drive overnight. Friday nights and Saturday through 3:00 pm are always crazy once the summer beach weekend thing starts.

Believe me, we sat in it and lost an additional 5 hours because we hit it too late on a Saturday morning (around 10 am).

This trip we're waiting until Sunday just because of the traffic.

 

[loveysbydesign]

im heading down the following friday. im going 78-81-77-26-95. friday afternoon, early evening on i95 is nothing but rush hour and shore traffic. you stand a good chance of sitting in traffic dc, bal, richmond and south.

We'll be taking that route in october
I'd like to buy some gas station gift cards to help budget for our trip but I have no idea what "brand" of gas there is along that route as we only drove it once! Suggestions anyone?