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

[pwdebbie]

I have done the NH to WDW drive 7 different times. I always used to alter my sleep patterns for a week leading up to the trip so I could leave around 9:00 pm. By sunrise I was already well into Virginia, having avoided Hartford, NYC, Baltimore, and DC during normal hours. My wife and kids would sleep thru the drive. We stopped in Santee SC early afternoon, and the next day was a nice easy drive to WDW.

Now that we are getting older, my wife has put a stop to the night drives. Too uncomfortable for her, and too dangerous since I supposedly get tired easier. She's right.

Last trip, a hurricane was getting ready to hit eastern Carolinas on our departure day, so we tried 26-77-81 home. Loved this route! It adds about 1 hour to our drive according to the maps, but with 95 traffic? It's even, at least. And it's such a nicer drive.

So my long winded question. I will now be leaving around 4:00 am and plan to drive 13 - 14 hours day 1 going the 81-77-26 way. This would put me somewhere near the 81/77 intersection of VA. Is anyone familiar with a nice area to stop? All I want is a safe area to sleep with no police breaking up fights in the parking lot (Yes, my first time I made the mistake of stopping in Lumberton, NC!).

I don't mind somewhere on 81 close to 77, but would also like to get a little bit onto 77 before stopping.

Thank you!

We have stayed in Statesville, Comfort Inn, but there are a lot of other choices there now than when we stayed there ten or so years ago. We do prefer the "inland" route ourselves. Going down we shoot for Orangeburg, coming home we just get whatever hotel we can find.

 

[justreading]

I have done the NH to WDW drive 7 different times. I always used to alter my sleep patterns for a week leading up to the trip so I could leave around 9:00 pm. By sunrise I was already well into Virginia, having avoided Hartford, NYC, Baltimore, and DC during normal hours. My wife and kids would sleep thru the drive. We stopped in Santee SC early afternoon, and the next day was a nice easy drive to WDW.

Now that we are getting older, my wife has put a stop to the night drives. Too uncomfortable for her, and too dangerous since I supposedly get tired easier. She's right.

Last trip, a hurricane was getting ready to hit eastern Carolinas on our departure day, so we tried 26-77-81 home. Loved this route! It adds about 1 hour to our drive according to the maps, but with 95 traffic? It's even, at least. And it's such a nicer drive.

So my long winded question. I will now be leaving around 4:00 am and plan to drive 13 - 14 hours day 1 going the 81-77-26 way. This would put me somewhere near the 81/77 intersection of VA. Is anyone familiar with a nice area to stop? All I want is a safe area to sleep with no police breaking up fights in the parking lot (Yes, my first time I made the mistake of stopping in Lumberton, NC!).

I don't mind somewhere on 81 close to 77, but would also like to get a little bit onto 77 before stopping.

Thank you!

I started taking the "inland" route based on advice from all the great people on this thread and haven't gone back to 95 yet. I've stayed at Hampton Inn in Dublin, Va on 81 but right by Rt 77 and Jonesville, NC on Rt 77. (The Jonesville Hampton said they were rated #5 out of all the Hamptons in the county, for whatever that's worth) I can also recommend Hampton Inn Harrisonburg South in Va. Hope that helps and have a great trip!

 

[dingleberry]

Thank you for the recommendations! That is the part of 77 I would love to get to Day 1.

One more question...

How much of a concern is Charlotte (and Columbia to a lesser extent) for morning rush hour traffic? It would be a Wednesday morning and would be looking to leave the Statesville or Jonesville hotel around 6 am.

Thanks again for the help!

 

[pwdebbie]

Thank you for the recommendations! That is the part of 77 I would love to get to Day 1.

One more question...

How much of a concern is Charlotte (and Columbia to a lesser extent) for morning rush hour traffic? It would be a Wednesday morning and would be looking to leave the Statesville or Jonesville hotel around 6 am.

Thanks again for the help!

We drove down on Sundays and home on Saturdays, so didn't have to deal with rush hours.

 

[lorilori]

I’m in NC about 30 minutes north of Charlotte. The Jonesville/Elkin Hampton Inn (Exit 82) is about an hour and twenty minutes from Charlotte( Exit 11A/B). IF you can be sure to leave the hotel NO LATER than 6:00am, you *should* be fine. Not sure when you’re going but the Statesville area, exits 50-49-48, is still a big mess with a lot of roadwork so a bit of a slowdown there. The volume usually starts building around Exit 36 but there are new toll lanes just south of that which has helped somewhat. Charlotte to Columbia is around an hour and a half but isn’t that bad after the first 30 minutes through Rock Hill.

 

[sheilafri]

Definitely check the cancellation policies. It was convenient when you could cancel up till 6 PM of check-in day. But many require by midnight the day before now.

If you can’t find any with generous cancellation policies, the only alternatives are to book where you’d like to end up that day, or take your chances on locating a place on the road.

If you opt for the latter, I would suggest checking out possible stopping places ahead of time so you have the names and phone numbers of hotels with you. Get some for hotels in locations before and after where you hope to stop. This way if you decide you want to stop within say the next theee hours, figure where you will be then and start dialing, modifying your stopping point based on room availability.

We try to decide mid to late afternoon how much farther we think we’re good for. I, the passenger, then check first on an aggregator site to see where the hotels are concentrated then check with our favorite brands to actually book on my smartphone.

 

[sheilafri]

Just came home from our 3rd road trip to WDW from North NJ. This time was our first time driving a Tesla Model 3 Long Range down to WDW. Here was our schedule:

Day 1:
Left North NJ around 10:30pm. In the past we left by 5am and would get stuck between DC and Richmond VA in the traffic. Arrived at Pooler GA the next day around 3pm for the night. Stayed at Embassy Hotel (Not recommending that place. Bad front desk who overcharged our credit card.) Savannah Airport has the lowest charging rate.

Day 2:
Left Pooler around 8am. Arrived at Kissimmi just before 2pm.

Departure Day:
Left WDW around 8am and drove over night back to North NJ. We only stopped to charge the car. We also stopped at the Biden Welcoming Center in DE for 1.5 hour to nap in the car due to exhaustion. Got home around 8am the next day

Difference between driving a hybrid SUV vs. EV on a road trip:
Although it took more time to charge the vehicle than to fill up the gas tank, we didn't feel as exhausted as before. We would stop about every 2-2.5 hours to charge our car. The time that took to charge the car was about 20-30 minutes each time. Enough for us to take bathroom breaks, get food, and stretch. What bothered us the most was the seats of Tesla. Those seats are so hard and hurt our tushes.

This entire road trip cost us about $120 to charge/fuel the car. The Embassy Hotel at Kissimmi has free Tesla Destination Charging station which saved us about $12-$15.

I love it when hotels offer free charging. I don’t have a Tesla, only a PHEV, but the perk influences our decisions on where to stay. It’s not the money so much as the time saved and the ability to drive on electric power.

 

[dvczerfs]

Had to laugh this morning. Got into the van, haven’t used it for awhile, dropped my phone between the seats and pulled this little beauty out. Lol
Wont be needing this anymore.

 

[justreading]

View attachment 601449
Had to laugh this morning. Got into the van, haven’t used it for awhile, dropped my phone between the seats and pulled this little beauty out. Lol
Wont be needing this anymore.

I use your chart on every trip I take! ❤ Thanks for sharing it many years ago!

 

[mac_tlc]

I started taking the "inland" route based on advice from all the great people on this thread and haven't gone back to 95 yet. I've stayed at Hampton Inn in Dublin, Va on 81 but right by Rt 77 and Jonesville, NC on Rt 77. (The Jonesville Hampton said they were rated #5 out of all the Hamptons in the county, for whatever that's worth) I can also recommend Hampton Inn Harrisonburg South in Va. Hope that helps and have a great trip!

We just completed our 26th drive from CT to Orlando. This is the first time we took the 84/81/77/26 route. I’m not going back to I-95. In tolls alone we saved probably $65.

We took the auto train down and still went 84/81/270 to the DC Beltway to get to the Lorton VA station.

mac_tlc

 

[dvczerfs]

I use your chart on every trip I take! ❤ Thanks for sharing it many years ago!

Your welcome. Glad someone else could take part in my OCD. Lol
Im still planning on making a drive north sometime late October early November.
We have some stuff at my mother in law’s house that we have to bring down.
Going to the post office this morning, I was thinking I havent seen north Florida from the ground since May.
We maybe getting a visitor in our new house this fall, my mother in law said she is coming down. She said she will get on an airplane. She is 78 and really shouldn’t drive and she is and always was very claustrophobic.
Nothing that Xanax and a little alcohol can’t fix. I know it works good for my wife. Lol
If she happens to make it down and won’t get back on the plane, I guess I would be the one driving her back.
My wife was deathly afraid to fly for years. When my father in law got sick, she figured she better start getting on a plane in case she had to head to Florida. At the time the in laws were snow birds.
Now, she flys alone to Pa to see her mom and flys back to Florida.
We have flown more in the last five months than we have flown in the last 20 years. Lol

 

[BC1836]

Headin' back to the GFR tomorrow!

All the best!

 

[amcnj]

Headin' back to the GFR tomorrow!

All the best!

Hope the drive doesn’t prove too long for you!

 

[dvczerfs]

Hope the drive doesn’t prove too long for you!

Stressful, very stressful. Lol

 

[dvczerfs]

one more week, we take possession of our house at noon next Friday!!!
I will be adding time and distance to our trip to the happiest place on earth, we our going from 8 miles away to 17.8 miles away.
It has been a long, stressful process for someone like me who has no patience lol
But after almost six months, knock on wood, we are almost done.
Final walk through and settlement all have times and dates.
Utilities and insurance all have dates.
I am almost done on this journey, I’ll keep you posted. Hopefully the next time it will be poolside under the palm trees.

 

[BC1836]

It's official: dvczerfs is a home owner in Florida! The all-time long-distance driver and his family (72 drives; see page 1) join yours truly (46 drives; see page 1) as "inactive" participants on this thread. Anyone else going to join us in the not-too-distant future?

All the best!

 

[Sunelis]

It's official: dvczerfs is a home owner in Florida! The all-time long-distance driver and his family (72 drives; see page 1) join yours truly (46 drives; see page 1) as "inactive" participants on this thread. Anyone else going to join us in the not-too-distant future?

All the best!

You have no idea, how often I wish I could... But being Canadian adds whole other level of complexity to the project.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

It's official: dvczerfs is a home owner in Florida! The all-time long-distance driver and his family (72 drives; see page 1) join yours truly (46 drives; see page 1) as "inactive" participants on this thread. Anyone else going to join us in the not-too-distant future?

All the best!

YES!!! Hopefully within 5 years!

 

[dvczerfs]

We made it!!!! This was a house warming gift from our realtor. See you soon!!!

 

[dvczerfs]

Anyone making the drive soon? Crowds haven’t been to bad considering.
I was over at World of Disney at 10am when it opened this morning. Just needed a few pool towels and a few sweatshirts.
If your planning on going to World of Disney in the 50 year mech section, bring your elbows and leave your manners and feelings at the door, it’s a nasty scene. Lol People are nuts!! I usually get there at 9am, do my laps and out of there by 10:30, 11:00 before it gets to touristy. Lol
If you just want to go for a nice walk in the morning, the Springs is nice. 9am it’s pretty quiet, just a few retires doing laps and some cast members going to work and doing there thing.