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

[dvczerfs]

wish we were ready to retire, I would buy so many points I could snow bird there!!!!!


che

I could handle that myself.

the first thing im going to do when we head south for the last time, im going to put the snow blower and the shovels in a pile in the middle of the drive way and light'm up!!!!!

 

[Ladygoldenhair]

we had luck in both areas at Hampton inns. we don't stop to often but when we do, we hit Hampton inns. just never gave me a reason to look around.

We wondered into a Hampton Inn, Lumberton and extremely happy. Total bill came to $89 wonderful bed, great breakfast.

 

[chepic]

I could handle that myself.

the first thing im going to do when we head south for the last time, im going to put the snow blower and the shovels in a pile in the middle of the drive way and light'm up!!!!!

My husband feels the same way. The boys keep asking when are we moving south.

 

[nono]

Thanks for the quick responses, and I welcome even more opinions. Are there any recomondations for motels, near Fayetteville, or lumberton?

OK, here's the answers to the questions you didn't ask.

1. Pack a smaller carry-on style bag, and put it under your child's feet as a foot rest. It will help keep him more comfortable, without the dead weight of legs pulling on him for hours.

2. Pack his favorite lunch in a cooler and picnic at a rest stop. It saves time, and it keeps his system normal (predictable) on the road.

3. Think about a variety of media to get through the day. We always get one or two beautifully illustrated books that the adult passenger reads, and for each 2 page spread, hand it to the back seat for both kids to admire the artwork. Depending on the book, this can take up to an hour, and the adult isn't having to read exhaustively. Also, consider an audiobook, which you should be able to download from your library. I find the audiobook is always better before breaking out the dvds. YMMV, but I find the later hours in the trip where everyone just wants to zone out and enjoy a favorite movie.

4. Wiki sticks or colored pipe cleaners...this will depend on whether or not your son likes to make "sculptures". We have made some seriously weird things on the road. It would be a stretch to call it art, but it passes the time. And, my kids enjoy it...


Oh and if you end up in Fayetteville in the afternoon, here's a place I bookmarked, but have never gotten to visit: Monkey Joe's. Or if you pick a hotel with a pool, that should get your child's blood moving again, too.

 

[oneprincessjo]

My wife and I are considering driving down from NJ( union county) in February. Our ds is over 2 now so paying for 3 tickets, and renting a car is looking expensive. I guess 95 is our best bet, that's how I went in 2000, when I was single and we only stopped for gas. My wife wants to stop once on the way down, and twice on the way back so we don't over do it with ds. In the spirit of happy wife happy life, can anyone recommend a stop about 9 or 10 hours in? Or 2 stops on the way back? Any sites not to miss? Thank you in advance.

Everyone had given excellent ideas. But I'm going to add in my experience too... Haha. To start I have a 2 year old DD and we drive from PA. The last couple trips we left around 7pm right before dd's bedtime, this way we are good to pop in a DVD and after a couple of hours when her curiosity of looking out the window turns into exhaustion she falls asleep. She might pop up a few times throughout the night especially when making stops for gas but she falls back to sleep quite easily when we start moving again. We drive all the way to Kingsland, GA, it's exit 3, the last exit before Florida. We get there about 8am and have breakfast at The Cracker Barrel (I won't lie, the last 10 minute stretch before we stopped is when my daughter got tired of being strapped in and had a major meltdown, but considering how close we were to our stop we trudged through). We then check into The Hampton that's next door to the Cracker Barrel and stay there for the day and night, grab their complimentary breakfast the next morning... Make sure dd is good and full and then finish the last 4 hours to Disney. The drive down is a piece of cake... Can't say that for the drive home because we are doing daytime hours and my dd is awake for most of the drive instead of being asleep.

 

[BC1836]

Regular gas prices at our closest station dropped another two cents today to $3.27; however, prices in Atlantic County (south of us) are about ten cents cheaper. Yet Morris County (where I was this evening) prices are about 20-25cents higher.

All the best.

 

[mikek]

Regular gas prices at our closest station dropped another two cents today to $3.27; however, prices in Atlantic County (south of us) are about ten cents cheaper. Yet Morris County (where I was this evening) prices are about 20-25cents higher.

All the best.

different areas get different gasoline blends as part of the clean air act. Philly area counties are allowed to pollute more than NYC area counties (even though all their pollution gets blown into NJ/NYC)- so gasoline in the region that is assigned to philly is frequently cheaper than NYC assigned gas.

(also depending on what the gas companies toss in it to get it to "burn cleaner"- the cleaner gass can get worse mileage so you cost/mile can go up even more)

oh and the blend of gas required can change at different times of the year too.

When Sandy happened- the governor had to get double secret permission from the EPA to allow the wrong philly type gas to be allowed to be sold in the greater NYC region to help with the shortages. There were a couple days before the EPA gave the permission when it was relatively easy to get gas in Trenton area but all but impossible 20 minutes north in Hunterdon county.

I wonder how many other places along the length of 95 have similar things going on where one county is inherently cheaper than the next?

 

[marius97]

Regular gas prices at our closest station dropped another two cents today to $3.27; however, prices in Atlantic County (south of us) are about ten cents cheaper. Yet Morris County (where I was this evening) prices are about 20-25cents higher.

All the best.

How is yours still going down? Here in MI, it jumped 25 cents on Monday. I never did hear a good reason for that happening.

 

[Beast2Prince]

How is yours still going down? Here in MI, it jumped 25 cents on Monday. I never did hear a good reason for that happening.

Jumped nearly 40 cents in Indiana, hopefully it goes back down over the next 2 weeks.

 

[amcnj]

Gee, I wonder what the reason was for the sudden gas price jumps in Michigan and Indiana. Those were sizeable increases. I hope that doesn't spread eastward. NJ has been in a slow downward trend for many weeks now. Prices had been dropping, then stalled, and now are dropping again, albeit more slowly now. As BC said, most of the prices I saw today were in the $3.16 to 3.19 range in the southern part of the state (Atlantic and Burlington counties - sorry, I wasn't paying attention in Mercer county!)

 

[BabyMine2]

Gas in NJ is generally the cheapest in Salem County just before the Delaware Memorial Bridge due to the lower tax rate of I believe 3% instead of 7%. Anyone traveling through South Jersey to Delaware to reach 95 should stop for gas just before the bridge. Its at $3.13 today. Delaware is a tax free state so those of us living near Delaware benefit with a lower tax rate to keeps us from driving over the bridge. My husband and I always fill up at the Flying J before we leave NJ or anytime we are near there.

 

[glaserjm]

We had the cheapest gas in the country as of Monday ($2.89) and as of today we've jumped $0.20 to $3.09. I don't know what the trends will be, but it looks like it's going up around here right now.

The good news is that with gas prices always in flux nowadays we can still have several fluctuations and another downward trend by the time we set off for WDW in 3 weeks.

 

[OKW Lover]

Saw regular for 2.949 in South Carolina on I-85 today.

 

[Shir Kahn]

I miss American gas prices. Right now, it's the cheapest it's been in months here at only $1.16/L. At 4 litres to a gallon, that's $4.64 Canadian which at today's rate is around $4.46 USD. It was at one point up to $1.32/L, so $5.28 a gallon.

 

[dvczerfs]

How is yours still going down? Here in MI, it jumped 25 cents on Monday. I never did hear a good reason for that happening.

it was windy in gulf this weekend.............. mars ,earth and the moon didn't line up................ the moss on the trees was a light shade of green........
(I'm running for congress, how am I doing???? )

stopping in to say hello!!! hello!!! tomorrow I will be at the 69 day mark till we head south for Christmas!! I love lights on the palm trees!!!

someone is a little home sick today. her first day back to work after 3 days off in a row. which she spent at the beach and universal studios and eating at teppen edo. for some reason she only gets home sick when she has to go back to work after long weekends.

I think she is full of it and just looking for pity from her mother. she wont get any from me!! pity someone who lives in wdw for eight months.

i forgot to mention my favorite cast member got to work in the castle last week!!!

 

[Shir Kahn]

We're toying around with the idea of a Christmas trip too! If we go, we'll probably leave on Dec 20th and come home Jan 4th or so. We'd arrive on the 22nd and have to leave on the 2nd, so that would give us 10 days in the parks. We've never been there for Christmas Day before, although we were down for NYE last year.

 

[dvczerfs]

We're toying around with the idea of a Christmas trip too! If we go, we'll probably leave on Dec 20th and come home Jan 4th or so. We'd arrive on the 22nd and have to leave on the 2nd, so that would give us 10 days in the parks. We've never been there for Christmas Day before, although we were down for NYE last year.

its great!!!! the only thing is the northeast weather. bugs in the summer, snow in the winter.

we were down a few times in December. 2007 we spent Christmas at okw. we did the candle light proc. in epcot Christmas eve. Christmas eve night the resort emptied out. Christmas day it fills back up again.

we had a tree and did some shopping at dtd for some gifts for Christmas. (we did Christmas at home the week before with family)

not sure if they still do this but if you have a child, a gift bag is left on you door Christmas eve. so make sure you check you door Christmas morning.

we are going down to spend the holiday with dd. most likely going to be working most of the time but at least we will be together when she is not working.

if you decide to go, make sure you bring a tree with you!!! I grabbed a 4 footer at a yard sale for $5 with the lights. took it to work, had them shrink wrap it and tossed it after we were done with it.(nobody wanted it on the tree exchange, it was almost new years eve when we left)

 

[LadyBeBop]

if you decide to go, make sure you bring a tree with you!!! I grabbed a 4 footer at a yard sale for $5 with the lights. took it to work, had them shrink wrap it and tossed it after we were done with it.(nobody wanted it on the tree exchange, it was almost new years eve when we left)

If you retained the original packaging for the tree, you can use that. Else, a large trash bag will do. Not Disney, but we were away one year for Christmas. My two DDs went to a discount store on Christmas Eve and bought a four foot tree (I think they spent about $20 for it). We did drive it home; it's now in my youngest DDs apartment.

 

[sharadoc]

its great!!!! the only thing is the northeast weather. bugs in the summer, snow in the winter.

we were down a few times in December. 2007 we spent Christmas at okw. we did the candle light proc. in epcot Christmas eve. Christmas eve night the resort emptied out. Christmas day it fills back up again.

we had a tree and did some shopping at dtd for some gifts for Christmas. (we did Christmas at home the week before with family)

not sure if they still do this but if you have a child, a gift bag is left on you door Christmas eve. so make sure you check you door Christmas morning.

we are going down to spend the holiday with dd. most likely going to be working most of the time but at least we will be together when she is not working.

if you decide to go, make sure you bring a tree with you!!! I grabbed a 4 footer at a yard sale for $5 with the lights. took it to work, had them shrink wrap it and tossed it after we were done with it.(nobody wanted it on the tree exchange, it was almost new years eve when we left)

If you retained the original packaging for the tree, you can use that. Else, a large trash bag will do. Not Disney, but we were away one year for Christmas. My two DDs went to a discount store on Christmas Eve and bought a four foot tree (I think they spent about $20 for it). We did drive it home; it's now in my youngest DDs apartment.

Driving makes it so much easier to bring decorations

We have a spiral tree that collapses flat into around 5 inches high and a foot and a half square, so it can sit on the floor. We brought our flat stained glass Disney ornaments from the 80's and 90's and hung them on. We also brought a wreath for the door, smaller things to place around the room, and a 1 foot tree with lights for the bedroom. It was SO festive, we stayed at the BWV and put the tree at the window to the balcony and kept the curtains open. The boat to DHS went by the room and we felt we were spreading a little Christmas cheer to all the boat riders

When I get home, I'll attach some pics.

We're staying at Fort Wilderness this year. We're bringing all that stuff, plus window candles, lights for the deck, who knows what else??

 

[LadyBeBop]

This might be something, or it might be nothing. I don't know. But if I was driving down from the East Coast this weekend, I'd take the inland route for sure.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/truckers-ride-for-the-constitution_n_4061118.html

http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/do...block-i-495-to-prevent-trucker-protest-51553/