I recently traveled 15 hours without eating or sleeping. I only stopped to pee and stretch my legs.
BAM!!!
I bet your man can’t do it like that!
How about you? How long have you traveled without stopping?
In my poor, and very stupid, college days, I once did nearly 24 hours straight, by myself, to visit a friend over spring break. As soon as I got to her place, we had dinner that I barely remembered, then I crashed.
Not only was it a long *looooooooong *drive, but I was going from West Lafayette, IN, to Denver, CO. A great big stretch of that is across Kansas. There was snow on the ground. Miles and miles of flat white. As I think back on it, I’m lucky I survived.
For an engineering student, I was pretty stupid.
I don’t stop to pee on drives under 8 hours.
I did Denver to San Francisco once; it about 20 hours if I remember correctly. I, too, am lucky I survived. I started the drive after leaving work on a Friday evening…
Indianapolis to Boynton Beach. That was a long damn drive…
You are making yourself a candidate for deep vein thrombosis. A coworker once drove from Memphis to Ann Arbor and ended up requiring treatment for DVT.
I’d recommend stopping at least once every 90 minutes and taking a short walk to stretch your legs and get the blood flowing through your calf muscles.
I’ve flown to/from Japan three times now, a 12-14 hour flight depending on which direction you’re going. I make it a point to get up once per hour, use the bathroom, do a bunch of calf raises, and then take a long route back to my seat (cross over to the opposite aisle, walk way toward the back of the plane back over to my aisle, back to my seat). I bring a couple of big bottles of water with me onto the plane (they never give you enough water on the flight); not only does this keep me well-hydrated, but it also forces me to get up and go pee on a regular basis, ensuring that my legs don’t sit still for too long.
I did Santa Fe, NM, to White Plains, NY, in about 4 days (with some detours to make state high points) making for a number some 10-hour-driving days.
But on one part of that (around the Tennessee area), I filled up the gas tank, got on the highway, and didn’t stop the car until the gas light came on again 400+miles later. No eating, peeing, or “stops to stretch legs”. I figure there’s got to be some category for doing the maximal amount of continuous driving possible for your vehicle.
Are you not counting stops for gas? You have to refuel at least every to 300 to 350 miles. I never risk letting my tank drop below 1/4 on a highway. Never know how far it is to the next open gas station.
I think my longest continuous trip was 12 hours. These days I pull over after 8 or 9 hours of driving.
Kansas City to South Padre Island.
1100 miles
about 17 to 18 hours.
Unless by traveling you mean solo driving, because those trips we had multiple drivers.
My longest solo was Beaver Creek, Colorado to Lee’s Summit, MO (Kansas City Sub) with a car full of toddlers and a very food poisoned wife. - 15 hours
I regularly drive from NJ to Buffalo without the car coming to a full stop at any point. I would go further but the gas tank capacity only allows for about 420 miles.
BTW, the crazy guys for marathon travel are the competitors in the Iron Butt Rally. This is a motorcycling event that has competitors visiting checkpoints and taking various side trips along the way to collect points. The winner typically ends up riding about 11,000 miles in 11 days, though I’ve heard of some cases where the winner went as much as 14,000 miles.
I once knew a guy who took second place. Near the end of the event, his clutch was slipping so badly that he couldn’t continue. After a cell-phone pep talk from a dear friend, he bought a big-ass can of coffee grounds, cut out the lid, trimmed it to shape, and stuck it into his clutch pack to act as a spacer, restoring clutch function so he could finish.
The BMW R1200GS Adventure bike comes with an 8.7-gallon tank. It’s not uncommon for IB rally competitors to fit their bikes with aux tanks. So you could start your day with 12 gallons of fuel on board; at 40 miles per gallon, it’s possible to ride for 6+ hours without stopping.
I used to routinely do 10-12 hour days when on military leave. The worst was a 22 hour day because I cut my return date too close and didn’t want to be AWOL. Twenty-two hours in a car with four kids, wife, cat and dog. I honestly don’t remember the last few hours, part of which was spent driving through the Los Angeles area. I came back to awareness sitting in my driveway; everybody else in the car was asleep. It was a foolish and dangerous thing to do.
aceplace57 is right. I think we’re all forgetting about gas stops. Altho if the then-SO could’ve done it, he’d have driven without stopping at all! :eek:
I have done several trips from Los Angeles to jackson Ms with only gas and bathroom breaks about 1800 miles. I now limit mysef to about 800 miles per day. I have known quite a few truck drivers who have gone 72 hours they claim, with the aid of pills. After 72 hours halucinations are almost guaranteed.
By myself? When we lived in NC, I made the 10-hour drive home to western Kentucky by myself in one go a couple times, although I typically built in an overnight with some friends in Lexington, so it was usually just 7 hours.
With other people? We road-tripped to Vegas once, and did about 30 hours straight both on the way out and coming back.
A long, long, time ago, I was in Del Rio Texas and needed to get to Boston rather quickly. I did it by greyhound bus, and honestly travelled straight thru, switching buses of course. I started out Friday evening, and was back in Boston early Monday morning (around 2:00 a.m.)
That ride was worse than any nightmare I have ever had. Crazy people, crazy smells, offers of moonshine (I kid you not), it was truly the worst trip I ever took.
1000 miles in under 20 hours for a Saddle Sore Rally. Riding a Yamaha VStar. Only stopped for gasoline, nicotine, and Gatorade.
These don’t hold a candle to 20 hours on a motorcycle or 15 hours with toddlers and a vomiting wife, but here it is anyways:
I did Ft. Hood, Texas to Chicago in 24 hrs with my brother in a 16 ft. U-Haul pulling a trailer.
I also did Chicago to Florrisant, Colorado in a rag-top Jeep, 18 hours solo. Longest drive of my life. As far as I’m concerned, Nebraska can suck it.
My current car gets around 35mpg highway and has a 19 (!) gallon tank. It’s a serious bladder-buster.
Flying: San Francisco to London. 5300 miles, about 11 hours as I recall.
Driving: Probably Sacramento - Seattle, as a passenger. Short stops to change drivers but nothing else. Completely nonstop as driver, maybe 200-250 miles on I-5.
Walking: Maybe 10 miles a few times in my life.
I once rode my bicycle 228 miles in about 14 hours. I did stop to pee and pick up supplies like gatorade and food, but ate it while riding the bike.
I’ve ridden the bicycle 62 miles without stopping in under 4 hours. Never even put a foot on the ground. I did what is known as a track-stand at stop lights where you just stay balanced without moving.
I use to drive to/from Clovis NM to Cincinnati OH which is 1250 miles in under a day. It was in a 1972 Toyota Corolla without cruise control. It was a very uncomfortable car compared to what I own now.