I’ve been everywhere. When I was young, though I don’t remember it really, my family drove from the LA area back to the DC area. I was only 4 or so and only remember bits and pieces of that trip.
I took a trip in high school from DC to Myrtle Beach and up the coast to Ocean City, MD.
Then I got a motorcycle and started traveling every where. I’ve been to all the lower 48 states, some much less then others, a number of times. I’ve gone around the preimeter of the US once, and chriss-crossed the other states over the years.
Two years ago I took a motorcycle trip around a good amount of Europe from the UK down to Italy and then across to Romania and back.
Last year for our honeymoon Iris and I took a trip around Spain.
I don’t know where I’ll go next, but I’m sure it will be awhile because of the baby. I might get restless.
Once as a kid my family went from VT to Orlando. We stopped in a hotel at least one night.
Then in college a bunch of usd spent spring break in Naples, FL. So Albany, NY to Naples, FL. Just over 24 hours of solid driving (we switched drivers during the trip, of course.) This was when we discovered The Great Ontario Conspiracy.
Charleston, West Virginia to Mazatlan, Sinaloa (Mexico), 4851 miles, in the Spring of '95 was a good warm up for the next Summer’s trip to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska: 11,936 miles (including various side trips, over 500 miles and two rolls of film/day on average).
Cleveland, OH --> Tuscaloosa, AL --> Gulf Shores, AL --> Atlanta, GA --> Great Smoky Mountains --> Cleveland. 1994 with my entire immediate family (6 of us) in a minivan to attend a family reunion/vacation. Total of 2,113 miles (3,401km)in a 1 week period.
Chicago, IL --> Washington, D.C. --> Chicago, IL. In 1995 with some guys from university to attend the Million Man March. Drove there and back in 1 day for a total of 1,396 miles (2,247km).
Longest trips with me as the driver:
Cleveland, OH --> Twin Cities, MN. Made this trip three times from 1996 to 1998 for a internship with Northwest Airlines. 759 miles (1,221km)each way, and always in the crappiest of winter weather.
Cleveland, OH --> Toronto, ON --> Bobcageyon, ON --> Cleveland, OH. Motorcycle trip last summer with my wife and friends. The trip itself was 788 miles (1,268km), plus another 300+ miles riding around on Ontario backroads for a total of about 1,400 (2,253km) over the weekend. Let me tell you, those kind of miles on a sportbike is hell on ya back and butt!
My husband and I took a month-long road trip in '95 when we were moving from Anchorage to Omaha. We stopped a few places along the way to see friends and family, so our route was kind of roundabout. It was:
Anchorage, AK -> Beaverton, Oregon -> Las Vegas -> New Orleans -> Destin, Florida -> Omaha, Nebraska.
According to the map sites I used, we travelled a little over 6500 miles.
Family vacation in 1981 when I was 14 (took about 5 weeks total including actual vacation time):
[list=a]
[li]Hamilton Ontario []Chicago []Wisconson Dells []International Falls []Winnipeg []Thompson, Manitoba []Prince Albert, Sask (Waskesiu was our destination)[/list][/li]Return:[list=a]
[li]Saskatoon []Winnipeg []Thunder Bay []Sault Ste. Marie []Tobermory []Hamilton [/list] [/li]TOTAL ~4500 miles?
After my first year of college we had a brief break between school and work-term, on a whim with a friend we went:
[list=a][li]Hamilton []Sudbury []Sault Ste. Marie []Thunder Bay []Prince Albert []Edmonton []Calgary []Banff (walked around for an hour or so and headed home)[/list] [/li]Return: [list=a][li]Regina []Winnipeg []Thunder Bay []Sault Ste. Marie []Tobermory Hamilton [/list]TOTAL ~4500 miles? Took about 10 days.[/li]I also drove 1-way from Edmonton to Hamilton by myself via the same route as above. ~2000 miles in about 4 days
My wife and I spent a vacation covering the coast of Scotland for 10 days and drove about 1500 miles, and loved it!
I’ve now taken our twins on 2 trips from Toronto to Sarasota Florida (twice) when they were 2 and 3 years old. At least the trip in each direction was broken up into 2 sections, the first was 450 miles (about 8 hours) and the second, a marathon of 1000 miles (about 18 hours).
cantara - contributing to the global economy…
San Diego to Bar Harbor (via Great Smoky Mountains) and back (via Theodore Roosevelt National Park). 3 months on the road.
San Diego to Key West (via Big Bend National Park) and back (via Mammoth Cave National Park). 9 weeks on the road.
San Diego to Chicago, then hop in my friend’s RV, drive to Colorado Springs to pick up another friend, cruise around the Rockies for a week. Then back to Chicago in the RV, hop back in my vehicle, drive to Portland to pick up my girlfriend, and then back to San Diego via the coast. 7 weeks on the road.
South Island, New Zealand. Christchurch to Nelson to Hokitka to Arthur’s Pass to Queenstown to Te Anau to Oamaru to Christchurch. 16 days.
Western Australia. Perth to Pemberton to Albany to York to Cervantes to Carnarvon to Exmouth. 9 days.
Sacramento to New York (via train) to upstate New York to Rochester to Niagara Falls to Independence, OH to Chicago to Albuquerque (via train) to Gallop to Sacramento.
My roommate at the time and I drove from Eugene OR, to Seattle, to Vancouver BC, across British Columbia (I forget all the random little places we stayed…Camloops was one), to Banff Alberta, across Alberta to Edmonton, down from Edmonton to Calispell Montana (not originally planned as part of the trip, but circumstances sort of intervened), over to Moscow Idaho and then finally back to Eugene. I have no idea how far it was altogether but it took us two weeks to do it (of course, travelling very leisurely and staying in some places a couple nights, like Seattle, Vancouver and Edmonton).
When I was a kid we drove back from Vancouver to Toronto. It took us two weeks, leisurely rambling through the prairies. We also drove to P.E.I. and back, with a dip through Maine and New Hampshire.
My longest adult road trip was from Toronto to Little Rock and back. It’s not that far, but we drove straight down with no stops for sleeping. It takes 24 hours if you get hopelessly lost in Little Rock (which doesn’t have any frigging road signs!) and can no longer tell the difference between right and left turns.
I drove solo from my little neighborhood in NJ to the SF Bay Area via Boulder, CO, Moab, UT, the Grand Canyon, and Death Valley. Took me three weeks and I camped out all the time. It was great.
Another time I drove from Denver to Durango, then up to Yellowstone, back down to Denver, rented a van, picked up a bunch of stuff in Boulder and hauled it to Hoboken, NJ. I guess that was the longest (although I switched vehicles). Also solo. Around 4000 miles and change.
I did a bunch of trips back and forth between Boulder and NJ.
When I was a kid we drove back and forth between NJ and Mississippi a bunch of times. I think that got me hooked.
One thing that happened on that 4000 mile trip is that I felt like I just had to keep going. No matter where I was, especially on the Wyoming leg, the primary thing was to keep going. Get on to the next thing. It was wierd because I’m usually not like that.
Madison, Wisco to Key West, via New Orleans. It was fun, went with someone fun. Se stopped when we wanted, for strange things We wanted to see some union organizer statue somewhere in Illinois, so we were driving all around looking for this statuue. Never found it.
We stayed 2 days/1 night in Key West, and went back. Stopped in Memphis for her cousins house, Hattiesburg for another cousins house and her moms in Boca Raton. Went scuba diving for that underwater Jeebus somewhere in the Keys. Miami drivers were the worst, bar none. Not only do they change lanes without signaling, they change lanes without bothering to check if somewhere’s already there. We were amazed by the traffic out of Atlanta. about 9:00pm on a friday night going away from Atlanta and it was stop and go on a 6 lane highway.
Welcome to my childhood – ever summer we’d pack up the camper and see the country. When we got back, my father would mark the family map with where we’d been.
For some reason, he didn’t mark off a couple of the trips…we toured all the southern states (exept Florida), but the map doesn’t reflect it.
I’m just glad that all that travelling was done before there was such a thing as children’s car seats. I’d have gone bonkers if I couldn’t have spent those days on the road climbing around the back seats of the Family Truckster.
When I was ten years old, my family drove from Lexington, KY to Pacific Palisades, CA and back during the summer. It took six weeks, and was probably the best experience of my life. We saw the Glenn Canyon Dam, Taos Pueblo, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Lake Meade, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Capitol Reef, Arches National Park, Mesa Verde and the Black Canyon. The car, an 88 Nissan Stanza Station Wagon, suffered a broken windshield wiper in Colorado. Otherwise it performed perfectly.
I drove by myself (not including the cat), in a moving van, from Tacoma, WA to West Melbourne, FL - I took I-5 down to I-15, so not the “usual” route everyone thinks of (it was October, and I didn’t want to drive that damn moving van over the Rockies all by myself!).
It was more than 3200 miles, and took me 5 days.
I’ve also driven from Lewiston, Maine to Havelock, NC (with a friend) and from Havelock, NC to West Melbourne, FL (alone).
As a child, there was my parents’ Seattle to East Pennsylvania in three days run. (And no, we didn’t have a DVD player and TV in the car and managed to stay quiet and mostly non-whiny anyway. It can be done.) We visited people in NY and DC. It took about 4 days to come back.
On my own, New Zealand - total of about 3000 km (IIRC). One week, zigzagging like a madwoman around the North Island, one week from Hokitika/Greymouth down a big U to the bottom of the South Island, ending in Christchurch. On my own. On the left side of the road (not all of which were paved).
I would really like to do the pacific coast highway one day. Or more likely, one month.
I have twice driven from the north of England to the Black Sea coast of Romania and back again, through Holland, Germany, Austria and Hungary.
Both times were just after the revolution there and we were taking in medical and educational aid in small trucks (the biggest you are allowed to drive with a regular licence - 3 tons?? I forgot!)
The first time was the hairiest as I had only passed my driving test a few weeks before. Got lots of practice in all conditions after that!!
I have no idea of the distance any more. It took us three days of all day driving to hit the Romanian border. After that progress was harder to measure as we looped around the country delivering stuff and meeting with people to make lists of what they needed.
, ah to be young and foolhardy again!