We're from Ottawa and made our 1st drive down last fall (family of 6). We took the 416 straight to the Bridge Crossing at Ogdensburg. We had GPS, MapQuest AND CAA Trip Tik. We relyed mostly on that Trip TIK from CAA even when our GPS wanted us to travel down a dirt road (I demanded DH turn around and follow the CAA Map in the Trip TIK). Somewhere in the Syracuse area, there was a hairpin curve in the highway, on the way down, so be sure to watch the road signs.
Someone had suggested to us to use the Pennsylvania Turnpike (it's a toll road), but this person claimed it saved 1/2 hour of time, so we did that. We travelled down over 2 days, driving 13 hours the first day. Going through West Virginia? the 1st night, we did have issues with deer. You see dead dear along the sides of the roads down there like you see dead Groundhogs along our highways, but with deer being bigger, it was Horrible. At one point just after dusk, a doe jumped into our path from the left of the highway, DH swerved to miss her and did by just mere inches. THANK goodness there were no other cars around us at the time. Our hearts were in our throats and then 20 minutes later, two Wild? Dogs, one chasing the other, bounded across the highway in front of us. DH slammed on the brakes. At that point, we decided to just find a place and stop for the night.
We had left at 8:30 in the morning our 1st day of driving (later than was originally planned), and had a FULL tank of gas. (We drive a Ford Freestar).
We stopped for lunch at a CrackerBarrell in Binghampton. It was great, had never been before, but I wouldn't do it again on the way down, as it ate up a good portion of our time.
In Hershey PA, we had to stop for gas, we were running on empty. Filled our tank for $60.00 USD!!!!
We stopped for the night at a DAYS INN in Fredericksberg Virginia.
I recommend stopping at the welcome centres in the states you end up being in when you are getting close to stopping for the night. They have room saver catalouges (you can also get them online) with coupons for good deals on rooms. At the days in, we had a coupon that got us a room for $ 47.95 for the night. The hotel itself was pretty ok, not 5 star by any means, but CLEAN, and thats what mattered to us. We just wanted a place to sleep and feel safe.
Don't know how you feel about it, but had I checked us into the hotel, I would have just said my husband and I and our children. DH mentioned we had 4 children, and the attendant insisted we had to take two rooms then. But he ended up giving is the same rate for the second room. We really could have done without that. I had checked with other hotels in Florida prior to leaving, about our being a family of 6 and most said, they would rent us a cot, and WOULD let us have just ONE room not two. So you might not want to say how many children you have, it's up to you, (at least in the hotel you eventually stop at on your way down).
DAY 2, again we left later than planned, but did make it to Orlando between 9 and 10 that night. Had a few days in a hotel off property and then were at our WDW Resort for the remainder of our Stay.
OH, yes, avoid the DC area. Our Trip Tik rerouted us around it, but basically we took the 81 to the 95.
Do try to time your drive (as we had tried to plan), so that you aren't travelling too much in the dark. We had wanted to leave between 5 and 6 am both days of travelling, and go for about 12 hours each day. As it was, we spent a lot of time both evenings driving in the dark. Next time, this fall actually, we will leave earlier. I'd LOVE to enter FL in the daylight this time!
