Where do you stop?

[digskat]

We just stop the one night, never drive straight through as my DH is our only driver (he cannot be a passenger, only a driver!).[/QUOTE]
Is he any relation to my husband???

 

[briarberry]

I am driving in August and plan to leave around 4 a.m. and hopefully make it to Dalton by 7 or 8 p.m. I live near London, On. I have booked Jameson Inn off I-75 because it was recommended in Along I-75. We are leaving on a Saturday and I wanted to have a room booked just because it's summer and a weekend. Hopefully Atlanta traffic won't be too bad early on a Sunday morning. We should be checking into our Disney hotel sometime in the early afternoon if we get a good start in the morning. I drive alone with my DD8 so I would never dream of driving straight through plus I don't want to be exhausted when I arrive.

 

[Yzma and Kronk]

Whatever you do try to stop before Atlanta or after Atlanta. Traffic thru this city is insane!

We just moved back from Atlanta - and yes, traffic can be insane, but believe me it is much better than Toronto!!

Anyway, a bit of advise. Do not take the I-285 bi-pass, despite what CAA will tell you. Go right through the city on I-75. Generally there are less accidents (or wrecks - as they call them!) and the trucks are not supposed to use I-75 during the day, so less through truck traffic.

Once you get into the city limits you will see a HOV lane which is in the far left. It is what they call a commuter lane. It goes right through the city. This lane requires more than 1 person in the car and it is great!

We were leaving for FLA late once and hit the road right at rush hour. Took the HOV and it was clear all the way through the city.

When using the HOV try to keep up with the traffic flow and pay attention if the other lanes are stopped. Sometimes you will get some "joker" trying to cut into the HOV when it is moving!

The speed limit through Atlanta is only 50 or 60mph, but usually everyone is going about 75mph. It is much like driving on the 400 highways in Toronto. Limit is 100kmp but no one goes that slow. Once out of Atlanta watch your speed as there are many speed traps as indicated in the I-75 book. Mostly people are in a hurry to get to Florida once south of Atlanta and the police know that!!

The Atlantan's also like to weave across lanes (there are 6 usually) so staying in the HOV is a good idea so you can avoid the weavers.

A good traffic radio station is 750AM WSB. They have reports all the time during rush.

Happy driving!

 

[RedRuby]

This time we are leaving early afternoon and driving staight through taking the 77.79.95 route again.

We are leaving late morning/early afternoon, (noon is our goal) and driving the 77.79.95 route as well (for the first time). Given the age of our kids, though, and the fact only one adult does most/all of the driving, we're planning on stopping overnight twice.

I'm hoping for a first night in West Virginia (about 6-9 hours from home), and then a second night in Columbia SC or somewhere in north GA -- so that we have three roughly equal days of 8 hours driving each. We have friends to meet in Columbia, schedules permitting, so that's why we don't expect to be further south on our second night. I was hoping for somewhere closer to FL, so our last day would be less driving and more Mickey but eh, we'll have a whole week there as it is.

We *were* originally going to do three nights down, but we are meeting 26 other people for breakfast at Chef Mickey's on the fourth morning, so we want/need to be at WDW by that third night!

 

[RedRuby]

Does anyone try to book a hotel before they leave or is it to hard to predict where you'll want to stop for the night when you haven't even left yet??

We might try Priceline for a larger city

 

[LoriLea]

We stayed at a Jameson Inn in Perry, Georgia in August 2004. (Recommended in Along I-75 book.) It was reasonably priced, clean, included breakfast. We did make reservations and were glad that we did. There was some big dog show going on in Perry that weekend and we would not have got our room without a reservation. We left Kitchener at midnight and arrived in Perry around 4:30 pm. We had supper at Cracker Barrel and the kids had a swim while my DH (the driver) slept.
With regards to making reservations, I believe there was a penalty if you did not cancel. We had reservations for our trip home at a Jameson Inn in Dalton and had to cancel as we got stuck in Hurricane Frances.