And I would drive five hundred miles...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Five hundred twenty five, actually.

Today I drove from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire. Yesterday I drove from Delaware to Pennsylvania. The whole production today took about seven hours, what with stops and everything. Yesterday was about two. The purpose of the road trip, for those of you who do not closely follow the details of my life, was to get the car that my parents gave me for my 21st back home to New Hampshire with me. The goals were as follows: Not get killed, get home, and name the car.

I didn’t do it alone- I had a friend from college with me and our venerable Doper BadAndi as the navigator. I was the only driver, though, and I have to say that I feel a bizarre sense of accomplishment on account of not getting us killed, extremely lost, or dented. I’ve driven parts of the drive to NH before, but I’ve never done it by myself.

I only got flipped off twice, on the wrong road twice (“Are we supposed to get on 87 or 287?” “87, I think.” “Okay.” “Um… actually…”), and I can’t say that there were any major shenanigans. I have learned, however, that all you need for success on a one day road trip is lots of good music (we had Nields, Great Big Sea, Simon and Garfunkel, and Tegan and Sarah on heavy rotation, among others.)

As far as the road goes… I really hate 84. The Garden State Parkway is incredibly dull. And there’s a great place in Deerfield, Mass, off of 91. It’s a butterfly conservatory; go in and there’s several thousand butterflies flitting about. I highly recommend it if you’re ever in that neck of the woods.

The nicest part of the trip was when I got onto 91. You know that point where the terrain goes from being just terrain to something familiar? That felt good.

Visiting the 'rents was nice, but it’s wonderful to be home.

Oh, and I have named the car Squishy. Those of you who have been to the movies lately will get it.

2

I once drove 750+ miles a few times - 'twas no big deal. In one 7-day stretch I drove 3,000 miles (From Knoxville to Daytona Beach and back and right back to Daytona and back to Knoxville). Also, when my grandmother had her final stroke, I left K’ville at 7:30pm (after a full day’s work, of course) and drove all the way to Daytona, arriving at 5:00 in the morning.

3

DC to Jonesville (450-ish) to Columbus (420) back to Jville (350 this time, different route) to DC again (450) in … a weekend. 1670 miles in a weekend. A few weeks before I had done DC to Jville to DC to Jville to DC, though to be fair I didn’t do every minute of those.

I’m glad I don’t have to do those drives anymore.

4

The week of my grandmothers funeral, I drove to DB and back in a 3 day span, and then the day after that I drove to Houston and back (4 day trip). Total travel: 3,300 miles (not counting the driving in Houston and DB).

5

I’ve been to the movies. Still don’t get it? Please don’t tell me it’s a 2fast2furious ref.

6

Go see Finding Nemo.

7

I drove from Mexico to Seattle in four days along PCH, the summer I graduated from college. I have no idea why I did it so quickly, but next year I’m gonna slow down and enjoy myself a bit more.

And why is your car named Squishy? Do I really want to know?

8

Okay, okay, the full explaination.

In the movie Finding Nemo there’s a scene where the two fish, Marlin and Dory, are swimming over a trench. Dory, who is a complete wacktart, runs across a baby jellyfish. Dory goes on this whole riff about how she will name it Squishy and keep it as a pet… and then the two of them realize that they are surrounded by eleventy billion jellyfish. Hilarity ensues.

I liked the scene a lot, and I figured that if one was going to name a car, it might as well be a name that sounds wildly inappropriate.

My old car, which died a few years ago on account of me accidentally running it into an SUV, was named the Evilmobile of Highest Debauchery, if that gives you any idea of how my sense of humor runs.

9

24 hours, from Troy NY to Tampa Bay, FL. Granted, there were four (well, really three) drivers. I started off driving at 5 PM Friday evening. I drove until miodnight-ish, then another guy took over until 8 AM when we got to his house in S. Carolina (we dropped him off there on the way.) Third guy took over until early afternoon, then lsat guy started to drive. He didn’t really know how to drive stick, but saince it was interstate, we figures as long as he could get out of the rest stop and get it up to fifth gear, we were generally OK. But we ran into traffic, so I took over after he drove about an hour. Of course, I only got three hours of sleep Thursday night, and only slept about an hour in the car the whole time, because I have trouble sleeping in a car. So from the time I woke up to when I got done driving (around 6:30 PM,) I had four hours of sleep, and was driving for almost twelve hours. And to top it off, we got to a guy’s uncle’s house, ate dinner, showered, then went to a boardwalk thingy for an hour, then went to a college to visit another guy’s friends and party there until 2 AM, still going on three hours of sleep, and was the designated driver, so I had to drive the hour back to the uncle’s house as well, all still on four hours of sleep in the past forty-eight hours.

10

I drove from essentially NYC to Salem, OR in about 60 hours. 3,060 miles according to the trip meter.

The first day I drove 14 hours.
<sleep 5 hours>
The second day I drove 20.5 hours.
<sleep 5 hours>
The third day I drove 12.5 hours.

Thank God I was alone. Having someone along with me would have made us hate each other by the end of that trip.

I was remarkably lucky in that I never had any bad weather or traffic and I never once got lost.

11

This would explain why you weren’t home Friday night when I stopped by. Oh well :slight_smile:

12

I saw all those Jvilles and I immediately thought Jacksonville and I was going to yell at you for not calling when you came into town… But it wasn’t Jacksonville, so you’re in the clear. :smiley:

13

On the 28th, Buglet and I set forth on our Cross-country extravaganza - Maryland to Montana, then north to home. 2500 miles. Send me some good music mojo!

14

Well done!
The scariest thing I ever did was drive from my home 45 minutes east of belfast to Dingle in County Kerry in a single day. Takes about 7 hours, and you have to drive over the Conor Pass. then driving back 2 days later.
It’s only about 300 miles each way, but the roads are hellish.

15

Last summer my mother drove from Denver, CO to Morewood, Ontario Canada (a 2500 mile trip) in 2 1/2 days. I, being unable to drive, sat in the passenger seat, humming and napping the whole way. Mommy was very cranky at the end, and very anxious to get there. (We were moving to Ontario, and were staying with my grandfather.) Oh, did I mention we had an eplieptic, arthritic dog and a whiny teenage girl with us.

16

Aawwww, Squishy sounds like a lovely name, now I’ve got a 'splaination. You had me worried for a minute. I thought it might have had something to do with what was found under one of the seats. If they give Squishy beanies away, you’ll have to get one for your rear view mirror. Tre girlie chic.

17

I think cmosdes wins. I’ve found that 14 hours is my breaking point. Last month I did Las Cruces, NM to Bakersfield, CA in one day (900 miles), then two days going back. Next was back to BFD in two days with a truck and trailer. Up to Oregon in a day and a half. Made it from Portland back to Bakersfield (900+ miles) in 14.5 hours. Total mileage for the month: about 6,000.

I don’t want to take a roadtrip for awhile.

18

Well, I (we, actually, 2 of us trading off) drove from Guthrie Oklahoma to Galesburg Illinois this winter/spring during a winter storm that limited our speed to about 30 mph in places. Took 17 hrs by the time we were through. Bathroom and gas up breaks only. We ate in the truck.

Oh yeah, We were draggin’ about 20,000 lbs of trailer full of tools and supplies.

Yummy.

19

I’ve done Harrisburg, PA to Albuquerque, NM in 2 days by myself. I’ve also done it nonstop with my Father, and learned the meaning of patricide. Never again. :smiley:

20

New York to Texas in two days by myself several times. First day takes me to Chattanooga, second day takes me to destination. 1700 miles altogether and it doesn’t bother me at all. But then, I was “born to a mother trucker and raised behind the wheel” - Dad used to take me with him in his semi when I was just a small child, so I’m used to long drives.

Also, I once went with a girl I vaguely knew in college from Mississippi to Buffalo, NY in 16 hours overnight. Now, that wasn’t too much fun, as she gave me no notice before dragging me off so I didn’t get to sleep for about two days straight.