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

[java]

4 hours in and we are in Virginia! Only hit a small log jam near Harrisburg PA. There are signs for construction but we have not seen any ongoing( don't know if it's night time work or not) we are hoping to get to Charlotte to stop for the night.

So far so good, only one car sick slowdown so far.

 

[monymony3471]

4 hours in and we are in Virginia! Only hit a small log jam near Harrisburg PA. There are signs for construction but we have not seen any ongoing( don't know if it's night time work or not) we are hoping to get to Charlotte to stop for the night.

So far so good, only one car sick slowdown so far.

Hope your travels are going well.

I know you, I just can't place you! My memory is thinking we frequented the same threads years ago.

 

[Goofygirl17]

We left shoreline CT at 3:40 this morning. Stopped for gas once and then stopped at 3:30 for lunch/dinner right before the border of north and south Carolina. Now we're swimming in a pool in Rock Hill SC and are done driving for today.

Traffic wasn't bad except for some real slow downs in the mountains. There was a couple VERY long traffic jams on 77 north.

Also lots of trees down and a rest area or two closed on 81. Tree damage seemed to go all the way down through VA.

 

[java]

Just back from dinner at Trexcafe!

Easy drive, only issue was on I4 no surprise. A brief back up that added maybe 20 minutes. Good luck to those still on the road.

The real fun has begun!

 

[dvcville]

Aaagghhh! We leave 3 a.m. Saturday and I'm not done packing!!!

DH said as long as I have sunblock and bathing suits we're all set.

Guess I should go finish packing. Got the recall work and an oil change done on the car today. Went to the car wash yesterday and just need to vacuum the back seat (the dealer vacuumed the front only?).

 

[dvcville]

Hi there! We have driven around a dozen times, 7 times since Jan 2009. In the beginning, we stopped in Florence SC, which is around halfway. We found we got bored just sitting at the hotel, so next time we decided to drive at least 12 hours, then stop. That takes us to Walterboro SC. Much better schedule, the second day driving is only 5 hours so there's still plenty of Disney day left.

In June 2011 we decided to drive straight through, so we left home around 4:00 am. Hit a TON of traffic in DC, sat for 2 1/2 hours to go around 9 miles. It was heartbreaking. But we still kept driving and checked in to WDW around 10:30 pm when we should have gotten there around 8. Driving home was okay, but pretty long.

January 2012 we tried the straight-through again. We happened to leave on the one snow day of the year, and spun out on 422 around Oaks where we hit a pole. Luckily we only dented the front passenger door and under it so we could still go on the trip. Lost about 2-3 hours on that trip because we could only go around 25 mph until we got out of the snow area.

So, we talked about it and we are going back to stopping overnight. For the next trip, we're going to leave around 9 am on a Monday. That will put us in DC around lunchtime, so the traffic shouldn't be bad. We'll go to Walterboro, should get there around 10-11 since we'll stop for lunch and dinner. Take it easy instead of rushing. Then we'll get up by 7-8, hit the road and check in by 2 pm.

I would never recommend straight-through if you don't do a lot of road tripping. There are many folks on here who are pros at it and do it all the time. We tried it both ways and we prefer to do the overnight stop. We don't mind the driving but we hate that extra fatigue that comes with the last 4 or 5 hours, so we're not going to do it any more.

We love taking our time, finding nice local restaurants and enjoying the trip.

We have tried 202 to 95 and Blue Route to 95. We found the Blue Route is easier, as long as you're not driving during any sort of traffic/rush hour time. 202 gets annoying after a while with too many lights in southern PA into Wilmington.

Thanks for the info. We are not sure how the ride is going to be for us. We’re going to just drive and see how we feel but one thing is for sure we will leave no later than midnight and we would like get past Jacksonville Fl if we can. We will see how it goes.

 

[marius97]

Our adventure finally came to an end this week. On our trip down from MI, we left at 6 am planning to drive straight down. We were run off the road in Nashville and almost hit a construction sign, stopped for an hour on the highway while two people were airlifted from an accident and the rest of the trip was not much better.

We ended up leaving a few days early because of Tropical Storm Debby. After waiting out the first mess of her on Sunday/Monday (when the weathermen didn't know where she was going), we decided to leave on Tuesday instead of Friday. We just didn't want to sit around in potentially bad weather for the chance of one or two nice days at the end of the week. We got up early Tuesday and I checked the weather. We can either go (from Daytona) up 75 through Georgia or 95 through South Carolina. I decided based on where the rain was that going 75 would go around the backside of the rain and not be too bad at that point. Bad choice. I never thought that I needed to check traffic because they wouldn't close a highway. Bad bad choice. They'd closed down i-10 and diverted us onto a local two lane road for about thirty miles. Right when that met up with 75, the skies opened up worse than I'd ever driven in. I should have pulled over it was so bad, but the amateur weatherman in me said that we would drive out of it by the Georgia border. For once I was right.

I'm glad that we had decided to stop for the night for the first time. We stopped in Lexington and were left with only six hours home the next day. That went so much better. That will now be our method of choice. I'm just glad this vacation from heck is over. People keep telling me that it will be the one we look back on the most, but I really hope not.

 

[pwdebbie]

Our adventure finally came to an end this week. On our trip down from MI, we left at 6 am planning to drive straight down. We were run off the road in Nashville and almost hit a construction sign, stopped for an hour on the highway while two people were airlifted from an accident and the rest of the trip was not much better.

We ended up leaving a few days early because of Tropical Storm Debby. After waiting out the first mess of her on Sunday/Monday (when the weathermen didn't know where she was going), we decided to leave on Tuesday instead of Friday. We just didn't want to sit around in potentially bad weather for the chance of one or two nice days at the end of the week. We got up early Tuesday and I checked the weather. We can either go (from Daytona) up 75 through Georgia or 95 through South Carolina. I decided based on where the rain was that going 75 would go around the backside of the rain and not be too bad at that point. Bad choice. I never thought that I needed to check traffic because they wouldn't close a highway. Bad bad choice. They'd closed down i-10 and diverted us onto a local two lane road for about thirty miles. Right when that met up with 75, the skies opened up worse than I'd ever driven in. I should have pulled over it was so bad, but the amateur weatherman in me said that we would drive out of it by the Georgia border. For once I was right.

I'm glad that we had decided to stop for the night for the first time. We stopped in Lexington and were left with only six hours home the next day. That went so much better. That will now be our method of choice. I'm just glad this vacation from heck is over. People keep telling me that it will be the one we look back on the most, but I really hope not.

Oh my, I'm sorry you had such a bad time of it. It can only get better from here on out though, right?

 

[marius97]

Oh my, I'm sorry you had such a bad time of it. It can only get better from here on out though, right?

It got soooo much better once we were home. We drove the 40 minutes to the beach, only to get there and look to the west across the lake and see black clouds rolling in. Kids weren't too happy driving the 40 minutes back home after never getting out of the car. (Stopping for dinner during the 13 hour part of driving home earlier, my DS7 hopped out of the car and pronounced FREEDOM FROM THE CHAIR!!!!!) We made up for it yesterday taking the kids for a tour of the YMCA and joining it for the first time. Living out in booneyville, this is a big deal for the kids.

Oh well, there is always next year.

 

[cruisingkat]

For those driving down I65 through IN, KY to Nashville - I65 in KY is miserable. We drove on a Sunday - traffic was horrendous as they are working on the bridges in Louisville. Both the right and left lane merge into the middle lane - 3 lanes merge into one.
Also, I24 is closed both directions in Nashville Fri 9pm to Mon 5am for a stretch and traffic is diverted onto I40/I65. Huge traffic jams on a Sunday.

 

[marius97]

For those driving down I65 through IN, KY to Nashville - I65 in KY is miserable. We drove on a Sunday - traffic was horrendous as they are working on the bridges in Louisville. Both the right and left lane merge into the middle lane - 3 lanes merge into one.
Also, I24 is closed both directions in Nashville Fri 9pm to Mon 5am for a stretch and traffic is diverted onto I40/I65. Huge traffic jams on a Sunday.

That i24 detour in Nashville is where we got run off the road. I'd stay out of that area if at all possible. Nashville is always a tough city to drive through. This just makes it that much worse.

 

[monymony3471]

Our adventure finally came to an end this week. On our trip down from MI, we left at 6 am planning to drive straight down. We were run off the road in Nashville and almost hit a construction sign, stopped for an hour on the highway while two people were airlifted from an accident and the rest of the trip was not much better.

We ended up leaving a few days early because of Tropical Storm Debby. After waiting out the first mess of her on Sunday/Monday (when the weathermen didn't know where she was going), we decided to leave on Tuesday instead of Friday. We just didn't want to sit around in potentially bad weather for the chance of one or two nice days at the end of the week. We got up early Tuesday and I checked the weather. We can either go (from Daytona) up 75 through Georgia or 95 through South Carolina. I decided based on where the rain was that going 75 would go around the backside of the rain and not be too bad at that point. Bad choice. I never thought that I needed to check traffic because they wouldn't close a highway. Bad bad choice. They'd closed down i-10 and diverted us onto a local two lane road for about thirty miles. Right when that met up with 75, the skies opened up worse than I'd ever driven in. I should have pulled over it was so bad, but the amateur weatherman in me said that we would drive out of it by the Georgia border. For once I was right.

I'm glad that we had decided to stop for the night for the first time. We stopped in Lexington and were left with only six hours home the next day. That went so much better. That will now be our method of choice. I'm just glad this vacation from heck is over. People keep telling me that it will be the one we look back on the most, but I really hope not.

Sorry about all of that, yes, we went down through a hurrican leaving FL once and it is the one we look back on and laugh at now.

Almost ankle deep puddles in MK and it closing forcing us to leave, sideways rain trying to fill up at a gas station, etc.

What is your usual route down? We are from SE Michigan and we take I-75 as far as it will take us. Any suggestions, heads up? We are leaving Aug 5th.

 

[WIDisneyFan]

We are less than 2 weeks away from our drive from Wisconsin down to Florida and I am curious to see what people are experiencing. We normally go I65-24-75 but I have been reading a few things that have me wondering if we need to adjust our route.

I understand the Kennedy bridge in Louisville is a mess (lane reductions for resurfacing and we would hit it near rush hour), so obvious choice seems to be I57-24-75, but I just read where I-24 in Nashville is also a mess.

Any recent experience or suggestions?

 

[marius97]

Sorry about all of that, yes, we went down through a hurrican leaving FL once and it is the one we look back on and laugh at now.

Almost ankle deep puddles in MK and it closing forcing us to leave, sideways rain trying to fill up at a gas station, etc.

What is your usual route down? We are from SE Michigan and we take I-75 as far as it will take us. Any suggestions, heads up? We are leaving Aug 5th.

We're from way down in SW Michigan so our normal route is through Indiana down to Nashville. With our desire to avoid Nashville we took 75 all the way up to Cinncinnati. There really wasn't anything to cause problems. There were the normal construction slow downs, but nothing to detour around.

 

[cruisingkat]

We are less than 2 weeks away from our drive from Wisconsin down to Florida and I am curious to see what people are experiencing. We normally go I65-24-75 but I have been reading a few things that have me wondering if we need to adjust our route.

I understand the Kennedy bridge in Louisville is a mess (lane reductions for resurfacing and we would hit it near rush hour), so obvious choice seems to be I57-24-75, but I just read where I-24 in Nashville is also a mess.

Any recent experience or suggestions?

You would hit the I24 detour no matter which way you go down - either I65 or I57. But when would you be driving - I24 is only shut down from 9pm on Friday to 5am on Sat. Here is a link to the detour - instead of the red route on 24, you go around with the green route.
http://www.nashville.gov/pw/docs/projects/tdot/I-24Closure.pdf

We normally drive down to Disney 4 times a year and much prefer the 57-24-75 route - due to less truck traffic on 57 than on 65. If we didn't have to do an errand for our daughter and son-in-law in Southern IN, we would have taken our normal route using 57. This was yesterday (Sun 7/1). Instead we got stuck in two traffic tie-ups and the one on 65 in Louisville was much worse than the detour on 24. At least the 24 detour was two lanes instead of 3 lanes merging into 1 on 65 (plus cars entering and merging into that one lane of traffic at the entrances).

 

[Gumbo4x4]

We saw that warning on 24 in Nashville on our way down & planned to take Briley Parkway on our way home (we went through on a Thursday & came back through on Saturday the 23rd). Turns out, road was open on the 23rd, so we got lucky I guess. Must have moved the construction back a week or so. Big tie-up in Chattanooga at rush hour though. Whodda thunk it?

 

[emksmama]

For those driving down I65 through IN, KY to Nashville - I65 in KY is miserable. We drove on a Sunday - traffic was horrendous as they are working on the bridges in Louisville. Both the right and left lane merge into the middle lane - 3 lanes merge into one.
Also, I24 is closed both directions in Nashville Fri 9pm to Mon 5am for a stretch and traffic is diverted onto I40/I65. Huge traffic jams on a Sunday.

Our first trip to Florida we took the 65-24-75 route down from Indianapolis, and I hated it. I hated driving through Nashville, and the mountains near Chattanooga freaked me out. Coming home, and every trip since, we take 75 the whole way to Indy.

I personally think 75 is a lot prettier anyway.

 

[cruisingkat]

We saw that warning on 24 in Nashville on our way down & planned to take Briley Parkway on our way home (we went through on a Thursday & came back through on Saturday the 23rd). Turns out, road was open on the 23rd, so we got lucky I guess. Must have moved the construction back a week or so. Big tie-up in Chattanooga at rush hour though. Whodda thunk it?

The reason you lucked out was that the road wasn't closed that weekend - there were 4 weekends when the road wasn't closed for the weekend:
April 27-29 (Country Music Marathon), May 25-28 (Memorial Day Weekend), June 7-10 (CMA Music Festival), and June 22-24 (Concert at LP Field).

 

[cruisingkat]

Our first trip to Florida we took the 65-24-75 route down from Indianapolis, and I hated it. I hated driving through Nashville, and the mountains near Chattanooga freaked me out. Coming home, and every trip since, we take 75 the whole way to Indy.

I personally think 75 is a lot prettier anyway.

We don't mind the "mountains" - but we lived in Colorado for a short time and drove up Pike's Peak several times. Nashville isn't that bad - now that we know which lane we need to be for the next interstate merger (I keep a list of the lanes that we need to be in.
What do you take to get to 75 as 75 doesn't come to Indy (it runs through Florida. Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan?

 

[emksmama]

We don't mind the "mountains" - but we lived in Colorado for a short time and drove up Pike's Peak several times. Nashville isn't that bad - now that we know which lane we need to be for the next interstate merger (I keep a list of the lanes that we need to be in.
What do you take to get to 75 as 75 doesn't come to Indy (it runs through Florida. Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan?

We take 74 from Indy through southeastern Indiana. We're an hour north of Indy now, so it's 31 to 465 to 74...although 31 on the north side of Indy is a MESS so we'll probably cut through county roads to get to 465 instead. I always forget that 75 doesn't go to Indy.