I used to be a road warrior in my youth, making 16+ hour drives on my own in one day, or with others to split the driving.
Now the Mrs. and I just prefer to take our time, check out what’s in the local vicinity (after about 8 hours of driving) off the beaten path, check out the local cuisine and spend the night.
After thinking to myself, eh, do it in one day, I have to think back at my last long drive. Just under 8 hours by Google Maps, and the trip down I chose to break up with a visit to my sister, the trip back was in one long go, and took over 9 hours with traffic. That sucked, hard, and I’m expecting myself to finish that 9 hour slog and stay in the car for another 7 hours?
No thanks, I’m too old to be wanting that punishment.
Our trip is from Chicago suburbia to the DC/Fairfax area. We each take a 3hr shift and wind up around Dayton, OH at the six hour mark. Call it a night and hit the other half in the morning.
I’ve made a couple of long drives - more like 22 hours - and both times I lost a full day to catch-up sleep anyway. And that was in my younger. (These days I don’t even own a car, and the few times I’ve rented one, a two-hour drive seemed interminable.)
OTOH, my drive from Pleistocene State University to my parents’ was only 6-7 hours, but I figured that was a day shot anyway. After the first year I’d tack on a couple more hours on back roads, stopping for anything that looked interesting. My favorite was Archer City, where The Last Picture Show was filmed. Not only were the buildings still intact, the layout of the town was exactly as shown in the movie.
For many years I drove home for holidays etc. It was 900 miles of solo driving. I found that I could do it in a day, but I was somewhat wiped out the next day.
Then I decided to make the drive an adventure. I picked a place halfway, had a hotel room reserved, and explored en route to it, then finished the drive the next day (with more side excursions).
And then I decided to stop along the way, but keep going. I mean, I remember seeing a scenic cemetery and I had my cameras with me so I stopped for 20-30 minutes and shot some photos. This sort of thing made the drive a bit longer, but I was less exhausted when I arrived home. It’s weird but deciding that I was in charge, not the clock on the wall, was somehow liberating.
I’ve been there a few times. Did you realize that the ghost town of Anarene is south of there? I thought he just made up the name.
I’ve done marathon solo drives before, including one that was essentially border to border, stopping only for on-load, off-load and fuel. Oh, to be young and foolish again, instead of just foolish…
2 days.
I used to semi-regularly do a 14 hour trip, and I sometimes did it in two days if the people who lived about half way could give me a bed for the night. Without that I hated spending money on a motel. It wasn’t horrible doing it by myself, but I’m too old now. I’d fall asleep.
But I have memories of doing 80-90 mph on I5 dodging the semis. Once in a driving rain. Oh, to be young and immortal.
Weather and time of year make a difference. An hour of driving in the dark and the rain is more tiring than 3 on a sunny, clear day. I juat drove across the TX panhandle. One way was super windy, the way back wasn’t. The wind made it much more tiring, because you were constantly making microcorrections (it was VERY windy).
Another issue is who is on the other side. If it’s family, I don’t want them to have to wait up till midnight for me to get there. 16 hour drive means getting in late.
I’d do it in two, in middle age. I’d leave at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, in the summer, and drive till 9. Sleep, get up, back on the road by 7 or 8. Get to my destination in time to visit, then have dinner. If you can just leave early from work on day 1, it doesn’t even eat into vacation time. Almost gives you more time, really, because now you get that first evening to visit, instead of getting in after 10.
But more realistically, for anything 16 hours away I would likely fly. Chicago to Denver is $750ish for 2 people round trip, it looks like. Less, sometimes. Still more than gas and snacks and a hotel, but not a lot more. And the vacation days have value, too. If you fly out in the morning and fly out in the evening, you can cut the trip 2 days shorter, and either take fewer days off, or have a day on either end to rest, pack/unpack, recover from the social.
Break it up. Two days. You’ll drive more safely, and you won’t be exhausted when you get to your destination.
I’ve driven between Calgary and Toronto at least five times. It’s about a 33 hour drive, and I’ll spend three nights on the road, in a Comfort Inn, or similar. Yes, I suppose with a co-driver, it could be done in two, but I’ve always done it solo. Besides, it allows me to stop and see interesting things without worrying about keeping to a schedule, and I can look forward to a cold beer after eight hours on the road.
I’ll offer the experience of my brother-in-law, who tried to do the same trip (Calgary-Toronto) in two days. He figured he could get a couple of hours of sleep in the back of his van, in Wal-Mart parking lots, before getting back on the road, driving through the night, and so on. Gotta get there as soon as possible, and it’s cheaper than getting a motel room, right? Problem was, that by the time it came time to turn off to Toronto, he was basically driving on autopilot, missed the turnoff, and almost got to Ottawa before he realized where he was. Thankfully, he did not get involved in an accident, but his experience illustrates just how dangerous long drives without breaks can be.
Break it up. Your mind and body will thank you.
I would do it in 1 day with 1 driver, so I see having 2 drivers as an opportunity to do it in 1 day but even easier. Extra hotel stay is “no real attraction” as you say, and would just bug me as an added expense. I would make plenty of stops, though, mostly for health reasons.
I said 1. I like to leave after dinner in the evening and drive all night. That way there are fewer people on the roads. It also helps with Traffic in the major cities you go through. When I arrive, I will usually take a short nap, and then to bed early that night.
But then again, I have had long drives all my life so it is just normal for me.
It depends on your tolerance for being confined in a shiny metal box. When I was 32 I drove 1,000 miles from Boca Raton, Fla., to Silver Spring, Md., in one day by myself (well, with three cats). I just stopped twice, when I needed gas.
Now I don’t like to drive more than 2 hours without a break, and would probably max out at 8 hours. Even if I could share the driving I would not want to be cooped up in a car for 16 hours.
So the answer is pretty personal.
As I type this I’m sitting in a hotel in Amarillo because I’m splitting my 16 hour drive into two days. So, that’s my answer.
There are two drivers, plus the car does lots of the work. I’ve done the same Denver-Austin/Austin-Denver trip in one day several times, and I don’t really like it. I’d do it again in one day if getting there was the most important part, though.
Now, happy kid = happy parents, and the promise of time in the hotel pool at the end of the journey is good to ease the road whining. I really do not want to deal with getting dinner in Amarillo, and then loading everybody back in the car with another nine hours to go.
This brings back memories of a trip that had a crosswind. A strong one. A strong, gusty crosswind. When we finally got to our motel, it took close to an hour for my tension headache to go away. I was lying on the bed, trying to get some rest–I kept feeling like I couldn’t rest without closing my eyes, but every time I closed my eyes, the room would start spinning.
So did I!
We used to do a 10 hour drive every other year, visiting our relatives. Having a break in the middle meant that we had a night for ourself. We’d pick out a nice BnB, which promised a good breakfast.
We’ve also made the decision to take a slightly different route, which would add 2 hours or so, so we could stop something else.
If it’s one long drive, then we break it up about 60/40. If we expect to be doing a lot of drives, then we try to keep the driving down to 4 hours or less. Otherwise the driving becomes the main memory of the trip, rather than the sights.
It really depends on the drivers and their preferences. And their capabilities.
But if it were my wife and me, we’d do it in one day. Even at my age, and I’m 60. We’d go to bed really early, like 6 or 7 pm, then wake up at midnight and hit the road then. That way most of the miles are driven during the day and you’d arrive for dinner. We’re still road warriors. Oh and I do all the driving for us.
I have never had a problem driving long distances. Even now (in my late 50s), if I were traveling alone, I’d do it in one day.
If I were traveling with Mrs. Geek (who doesn’t drive, so I’m doing all the driving no matter what), I would definitely split it into two days. She’s not going to tolerate sitting in a car that long. She would also have to take more breaks.
I’m with Mrs. Geek. I went to school an 18 hour drive from my home town. I made the trip solo many times. Three six hour chunks.
Thirty years later I need more frequent restroom stops. My back and knees stiffen up sitting in one position. Also, I can more easily afford a motel room so there’s less incentive to press on.
That’s what I used to do back in the '80s when I would drive home on leave. But it was more starting out at 10:00 p.m. or so (after taking a three or four hour nap after my shift).