If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

I have only been on a few long trips in my life. When I was a kid we went to Ohio which was a 10 hour drive. We blew out a tire and got stuck in the middle of nowhere. When I was a little older we went to Hilton head and drove straight through the night. I got terribly sick from a rest stop burger.

So i really don't have good experiences with long car trips. DH and I have done trips in the 3-5 hour range we've done fine. His family drove to Fl twice a year so to him it's nothing. To me, I get freaked out.

We're driving down to NC in a few weeks. It should be about a 12 hour drive. We anticipate leaving NY at 3pm on Friday (i know this is a terrible time to leave, but it's when we get out of work, and we only have the weekend).

Originally I figured we'd drive straight through and then get sleep at the hotel in NC. Now I realize my mom doesn't want to drive on the interstate and I have a little trouble with driving at night (vision/headaches), so a LOT of this driving will fall on DH. I'm thinking maybe it's better to Drive until about 10pm, stop somewhere in..I don't know, would that be Virgina? and then do the rest at 6am and meet the family at that point and still have the whole day ahead of us after a good night's sleep. This way, my mom could do the NYC part of the driving, or I could, my DH could do the night driving on the interstate, and I could pick up the morning drive in daylight. DH is terrible early in the morning but find at night. I'll be find getting up early to drive.

Which do you think would work better, and do you have a suggestion about where to stop?

On the way home I think we're going to leave about noon-ish on Monday and hopefully drive it straight through.

I'm REALLY nervous about this. I can easily drive for 2-3 hours straight and 6 hours in the past hasn't phased DH, but I don't want to be in a position where we're allfalling asleep and i can't even stay awake to try to make sure DH is awake.

If it were just me and DH, i would probably fly, but it's me, mom and DH and mom doesn't really fly, and it really adds up in terms of cost.


ETA: We drove down this past weekend. I put my findings below

Message edited 7/24/2012 2:46:47 PM.

If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

I can complete understand about being concerned about driving a long distance. My mom and dad do it from Florida to NY and they do it in one long drive. My dad's a nut though, but is also a truck driver.

How long can your mom drive for?

If your mom starts out driving in NY, how far do you think she can go? Then, depending on that, you can take over and drive until darkness hits. From that point, DH can drive. Do you think you could stay awake for awhile to keep him up? And how about your mom?

I think a good place to stop would be Virginia. I think Richmond is a good 8 hours from NY. Then you would only have about 4 horus or more to go.

Message edited 7/5/2012 1:59:51 PM.

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

We just got back from NC. 95 the whole way with 2 kids.
I would rethink the leaving NYC at 3pm. I understand that is when you get out of work, but it will add hours and stress to your long drive.

We actually like to leave at 4am. This way we get a couple of hours of sleep under our belt and get through the city with no traffic. We usually like to stop in Fredricksberg VA. About 5 hours. So about 9am and we will stop in the Cracker Barrel there and have a nice long breakfast.

Once you get through Richmond, 95 is a great ride I feel. So usually my dh does the drive through the city, NJ, Deleware, Maryland/DC and then I feel fine taking over in VA and NC. I also can't drive at night and this way we really are only driving at the most 2 hours of darkness.

It's really not that bad, except when we were coming back and landed in the NYC metro area at 3pm on a Friday. It took us 2 hours to go 30 miles. Total buzz kill when we were averaging 150 miles in 2 hours!

We have done the drive 3 times in the last 3 years and it is actually kinda fun!

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

You do not want to start your trip in rush hour traffic...it will mess up your whole ride.

We leave at 4am and get to Jacksonville FL the first night. DH drives and its not too bad, we enjoy it!

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

We just returned from FL - 95 most of the way. We left at 2:30am got through all the traffic zones without a problem. Like the pp said I would seriously rethink leaving at 3:00pm. There is a ton of construction going on in NY & NJ add in the Jersery Shore traffic and you are going nowhere fast.

Message edited 7/5/2012 5:20:38 PM.

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

Thanks for the advice.

When should we leave? I feel if we leave at 2am, we won't get ther until 2pm on Saturday and then we'll be exhausted and we really only have Saturday and Sunday. I'm trying to make the most of those 2 days.

I'd say my mom can probably drive about 2 hours, until we get to South Jersey, since she's familiar with that.

If I started the drive instead, I could probably go 3 or 4 hours and then let DH take over, maybe he can drive for 4 hours, we'll take a break, and dirve another 4 hours. But hvaing done car trips with my family, I know that i go completely stir crazy in a non-moving car. I still remember how awful I felt 18 years ago sitting in the car at south of the border for 3 hours.

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

What if we could leave a little earlier on Friday? Like 1 or 2 pm? Maybe we could clear enough of the city by rush hour?

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

I agree about try avoid all city traffic. Now you know when I avoid 95..... It's a little west, but you NEVER have to worry about DC/baltimore/Richmond!

If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

NY to Fredricksburg, VA (we stop at that Cracker Barrel too!) then the rest of the way for us!

- Kimberly Hill
Mouse Tales® Travel
LIFamilies Vendor
Creating Magical Vacations for LIFamilies since 2008

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

Thanks for the advice!!!

i thought I'd report back in case anyone else is going to take a similar drive.

We left about 4:15 on Friday (Ugh..I know..we wanted to leave at 2 or 3, but work, etc). DH didn't want to go through manhattan at that point to take the Holland to 78 which would lead us to 81.

We ended up going through Staten Island, which wasn't terrible and we took the Jersey Tpke. We could have cut up to 78 but didn't and ended up going down 95 until DC and cutting over around there. We took our first stop around Trenton with was 2.5 hours but only 73 miles into the trip. I was SOOOO over it all by then I can't even tell you, but once we got out of the NY area it got better. We hit DC around 8:30/9 I think and there was a little bit of traffic but nothing bad.

We were trying to make it to Roanoke but the weather was terrible so we stopped and stayed over in Harrisburg. Virginia was a KILLER both ways. it just seemed to never EVER end. We left Harrisburg around 8:15 and got to our hotel in the Lake Normal Area around 12:15. The trip was about 11.5 hours of driving.

On the way back we left around noon. We took 81 the whole way. One bad thing I feel the need to warn about the Western Route is that it doesn't have the kind of reliable, flashy rest stops every few exits like 95 does. When we made our first stop, we had to drive 2 miles off the highway for food and gas, which took time. Another stop was about a mile. There are a few places with amenities right off the highway, but you have to know where they are i advance to plan it, and it's still not the easy drive on/drive off on 95. We really didn't hit any traffic on 81 at all, but there were some slow moving trucks we got stuck behind for a bit since its only a 2 lane road in most places. A little frustrating. 81 was more scenic with beautful mountains on either side.

On 78 we had a half hour delay for road construction and TWICE the road went down to one lane. UGH. other than that, smooth sailing., We got in about 11:45, so it was 11.5 hours on the way back, too.

As an inexperienced interstate driver, i don't know which route I prefer. i think 81 was a more peaceful drive, less craziness on the road, no major city traffic, but 95 felt more comfortable because I'm more familiar with it, and it has all of those reliable rest stops like maryland house, etc.

My DH who really did all the driving was kind of indifferent. He's pretty easygoing though

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

Oops, wrong post

Message edited 7/24/2012 2:47:19 PM.

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

all I do are long car trips. We drive often to ohio, NC, and Maine. growing up we drove from maine to ohio regularly. for ny- ohio and ny-NC Usually we leave in the afternoon around like 2pm and stop around 8pm. But this depends on the time of year. NC we go to chapel hill and have done it all at once, but we leave really early in the morning. Last time we went a couple weeks ago we stayed over in PA amish country, but we made that a side mini trip.

I'd suggest looking online at your route on google maps and seeing what motels are just off the highway and try to get a good price for them online if you plan to stay over somewhere. especially if you leave NY at 3pm. You will hit traffic in jersey. Maybe look into staying in VA once you get past DC.

eta: I didn't realize you already went on this trip! I thought it was a new post. :)

Message edited 7/24/2012 4:54:14 PM.

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

We live in the DC area and we have declined several invites to the Outer Banks because the drive was too far. It is 8 hours from DC no traffic.

We do drive to/from DC to NYC often and I can tell you that if you leave at 3pm on Friday, you will be sitting in NY/NJ traffic for several frustrating hours. I would seriously rethink leaving at that time. It would make a huge difference if you could leave at 1pm or earlier. Then you can fly to Philly and MAYBE bypass DC rush hour traffic if you leave NY before noon. At the same time, we have left at 10am to sit in miserable traffic and this is just NY-DC and vice versa.

If you could, I would try to leave Thursday night around 7, spend the night in DC and then drive to NC on Friday morning.

eta: Totally did not see that you already went on this trip. lol

Message edited 7/24/2012 4:02:08 PM.

Re: If you have experience with long car trips (esp down 95), come in!

We drive long distances all the time. It doesn't work for everybody, but we actually don't mind the trip. My DD has been doing these trips since a baby, so she is pretty used to them by now and good in the car. We leave Friday to South Carolina, then Sunday from there to Disney.