Dayton, OH - Oakland, CA = 2400 miles over 4 days. My wife and I drove out together but she flew home and I drove back alone. I would’ve taken longer to catch a few sights, but I had a job interview the day after I arrived.
Memphis to Portland, OR. - about 2300 mi. in 3 1/2 days.
What do you mean by alone? I drove from New Jersey to Colorado Springs by myself but my friend was following me in the moving truck he was driving. If that doesn’t count, I’ve driven from northern New Jersey to Newport News, VA all alone.
ding ding ding ding ding
4500 miles
Dallas to Anchorage, the scenic way.
11 days.
Ha!
Cross country, solo, four times, including one trip where I went 1400 miles without stopping for anything but food, fuel, and bathroom breaks. At an average speed of 65 mph (Yes, I was haulling ass, majorly!). Ah, the power of a strong tailwind, buttloads of coffee, youth, and stupidity…
Plus any number of trips up and down the eastern seaboard, or into the mid west, or up and down the California coast… Anything less than 500 miles doesn’t even make me think twice, at this point.
Let me clarify: The 1440-mile day was part of my San Diego-Philadelphia PCS, which took three days, total.
I did carson city nevada to upstate new york, then a quick hop to trenton new jersy and back to carson city (i forget the milage, but it was alot) in 5 days, alone. lots of snow and rain all the way out and back. i was delivering 2 motorcycles i sold and after expenses i figure i got paid about $100 a day.
wouldn’t do it again! i was seein’ shit towards the end, and at one point in wyoming, during a heavy snow, after driving about 18 hours straight, i seriously didn’t think i would make it.
not one speeding ticket!
Suicide by sleep deprivation is not a good thing.
From Virginia to L.A. to the Olympic Peninsula and back to D.C., about 8000 miles, I’m guessing, over the course of six weeks during the summer of 1983. Itinerary, in part:
Blacksburg, VA
Arkansas City, KS
Cañon City, CO
Cortez, CO
North Rim, Grand Canyon, AZ
Las Vegas, NV
Los Angeles, CA
Sequoia NP, CA
Yosemite NP, CA
San Francisco, CA
Portland, OR
Olympic NP, WA
Seattle, WA
Glacier NP, MT
Black Hills, SD
Washington, DC
The drive from just outside of Glacier, to the Black Hills, I did in one day, with a side trip to Devil’s Tower. (No UFOs.) 800 miles in 16 hours in midsummer in a 1970 Buick Skylark with no A/C that had 172K miles on it at trip’s start.
Second-best summer of my life. 
Johnstown PA to Omaha NE, alone, in a 3 cyl subaru Justy, that wont go overf 70 with the AC on,in the summer, WITHOUT RADIO!!! 16 hours and 1 speeding ticket. Then I got home at 2 am to my humanless apartment. I was more lonely than I had ever been in my life. At least I could hear human voices again with the TV. I can drive Omaha to St.Louis (~6 hours) in my sleep.
dead0man
L.A. to Ft. Myers, FL and, a couple of years later, from Ft. Myers to Santa Cruz, CA. Also, from Sioux Falls, SD to St. Petersburg, FL and return.
Cross-country (meaning at least Atlanta to Denver, and usually Cape Cod to Tucson) 21 times. Eighteen times by myself. Usual time for a cross-country trip: three days.
When I was a student, I worked for Hertz relocating rental cars to their original destination. I’d pick up a Renault with French plates in Maastricht (Netherlands) and drive it to Paris, then pick up a Spanish registered Audi in Paris and drive it to Barcelona, only to then pick up a Dutch registered BMW and drive it to Maastricht.
I was allowed to stop for the night, but you had to pay your own motel (the pay was quite low). So often, I’d just gun these cars at top speed to make good time. On a typical “long” day (such as described above), I’d leave Maastricht at 6 AM and return more than 24 hours later, having slept for maybe 2 hours, and having covered 2000 kilometers or so.
Complete insanity. I quit after a few months. You only need to nearly fall asleep behing the wheel once. :eek:
1,200 miles from L.A. to Hoquiam, WA. Fifteen hours.
I love to drive long distance alone. Several times between New Jersey and Jacksonville, Florida and several times between Pocatello Idaho and L.A. (Plus a couple of crosscountry jaunts, but those were with another person.)
Definitely take breaks if you feel the least bit tired. Get a map that shows rest stops. For some reason, I usually find myself getting sleepy around 10 in the morning, so I’ll stop for a 20 minute snooze and then feel perfectly fine to hit the road again. If it’s late at night, I’ll find a hotel. I also check my car (fluids, tire pressure, clean windows) before I leave.
Have fun - what a great chance to see the country!
18000km (~11000 miles) in October-November 1997.
I had just finished 17 months of continuous duty at CFB Kingston and had a lot of paid leave days accumulated. I had also bought my first car in the summer of 1997 and it was time to go where I didn’t have to follow anyone’s schedule but my own.
Montreal (home base)
Long Island, NY (dropped in on a cousin)
Heshey, PA (for the chocolate)
Washington, DC (Smithsonian Air & Space museum)
Savannah, GA (no real reason, except I like the name)
Cocoa Beach, FL (Kennedy Space Center, Universal Studios and I watched that Galileo probe lauch - the one with all the plutonium on board)
Fort Knox, KT (saw the gold repository from a respectable distance)
Huntsville, AL (rocket city, man)
Chicago, IL (museum of science & industry)
South Dakotas (Rushmore and Crazy Horse, of which I purchased a scale model)
Montana (Custer’s Last Stand)
Seattle, WA (space needle)
Vancouver, BC (hi, Aunt Sandy)
Edmonton, AL (West Edmonton Mall)
Vulcan, AL (how could I resist?)
Ontario (dropped in on sister and family)
Niagara Falls
Buffalo, NY (bought some chicken wings)
Montreal
I saw both oceans and both “Washingtons” and 8 air/space/science museums. Most times, I stayed on U.S. military bases for a mere $10-15 US a night.
You have my sympathies, friend. I made a similar trip just as a passenger, and it was like being stuck in the opening scene of High Plains Drifter for half a day. Not fun.
Ranchoth
Not very far. Manhattan, KS to Kansas City, MO and back.
Or maybe the time I drove around the island of Oahu. It may be small but it still took about 5 hours. Some beautiful scenery though.
My first road trip was Pensacola, FL to LA (for a couple of days) to San Diego (overnight) to Vallejo (two weeks) to Roseburg, OR (overnight) to the Black Hills (overnight) to St. Cloud, MN (10 days) to Homestead, FL (2 1/2 years). I was 19, and after a year of living in barracks with a bunch of other women it was HEAVEN.
A few years later I had an Orlando to Minnesota to DC-via-Laurinburg, NC trip, but that first one I think is the longest.
About 2000 miles IIRC. From Albuquerque, NM to Reston Va. I drove a U-Haul towing a car with 3 cats in pet carriers. The cats were not happy campers. To top off a really long drive I hit the D.C. beltway at rush hour in the rain while all my cats were complaining loudly about being in the pet carriers.
Also, the travel person (I was promoted and the company paid for relocation) made a mistake and gave me only one week to pack my stuff and haul it to Reston. I agued with her but she claimed a week was policy. I packed for two days then drove. So I show up when I was told to and was informed that I had the next week off. I was really pissed at Ms. Travel Lady. Then she got fired.
Slee
~1200 miles, from Florida (either Daytona Beach or Orlando) to Detroit, Michigan and/or Windsor, Ontario. Did this several times. About 18 or 19 hours on the road, usually stopping overnight around Chattanooga, Tennessee.
(Drove this straight through a couple of times with my Dad, taking turns at the wheel, but I would never try that driving by myself.)