Drove 32 hours straight, now beginning to hate driving!

[Meghan54]

Moving from GA to CApe Cod, MA......wife and I moving up here to care for her 82 y.o. father who has suffered a bad heart attack and either goes into a nursing home or needs someone at home to assist him. (Wife "volunteered" to move up here to keep him out of the nursing home, and I really don't blame her. At least we get 4.5 acres of Cape Cod real estate and a 1997 Camry out of the deal.)

Anyway, we loaded a 6x12 U-Haul trailer with what we could fit inside (refrig, W&D, 2 office desks (one walnut, one oak), port. dishwasher, queen sized Stearns and Foster bed, clothes, ton of small appliances, stereo (Onkyo receiver and 5 speakers and sub, etc., wife's quilting/sewing center, etc.. etc.

Top speed with the trailer loaded and Blazer loaded with four dogs (Lab, Chow, Aussie sheperd, Golden), four cats in carriers is around 60mph....faster and the trailer begins to sway and gas mileage sucks. We leave Savannah GA at 7AM Sunday morning. We average 55mph (and get 26.7mpg average gas mileage at that speed....best compromise of speed and mileage.)

We arrive at the house on Cape Cod at 3:30PM Monday afternoon.

32 hours straight driving just sucks! And honestly, while it probably was too much in one stretch, it was only New York City that sucked badly.....the roads there weren't any better than cow paths through the woods back in GA....horrible condition! And the drivers there....worst I saw anywhere, and that includes D.C.

BTW....5 hour energy doesn't last 5 hours, esp. after the third bottle. Thank goodness for espresso.

And I get the privilege of driving back to GA to pick up stuff that we couldn't bring the first time....a 5x8 utility trailer, riding mower, boat parts I don't want to lose (bow mount trolling motor and battery, seats, etc.), and various other pieces of crap she can't live without.

I am beginning to hate driving.

 

[Nik]

Glad you made it safely

 

[Murloc]

32 hours straight is not really safe. Also don't do it again if you're traveling alone.
You should drive with your wife so that you can change driver, also you need someone to wake you up if you begin to doze off. Driving alone at night or with an asleep passenger makes accidents more likely to happen.

 

[Anubis]

while it adds miles its actually faster to avoid DC and NYC by not taking 95, depends on where you wanna take the detour. its also a lot cheaper

NYC is easy to avoid by taking 83 north of DC into PA and then getting on 81 to Scranton and then taking 84 across back into CT

avoiding DC takes a larger detour earlier but its generally worth it.you have to take 64 out or Richmond to get to 81 and then take 81 all they way to PA like above

 

[Imp]

Nice going.

My ass fell asleep after driving 3 hours straight (most I've done in a single sitting). I've driven up to 5 or 6 with breaks. No thank you...

 

[ch33kym0use]

Yeah long car rides suck, rather not go and do something else.

 

[shortylickens]

I'd prefer to take a comfortable SUV with lumbar support and an ACTUAL u-haul instead of a clunky u-drive.

 

[chin311]

me and my brother drove to NY from FL back in May, we swapped driving every gas tank or so, but I probably only slept an hour the whole time, that was a longgg 20 hours in a shitty Toyota Yaris.

 

[rasczak]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ2HcRl4wSk

 

[dud]

OP, what do you do for a living that allows you to just pick up and move to Cape Cod like this? Are you retired?

BTW how are the taxes in MA? If you had moved to NY you'd be paying through the nose for propert taxes.

 

[monkey333]

I did LA to Dallas and was hallucinating at various points... not good

 

[BurnItDwn]

Yowzers ... that's way tooo long to be stuck behind the wheel.....


Worse I've done is from Chicago burbs to New Orleans ... about 1000 miles .... I wasn't towing anything at the time, and I was like 22 or 23 .... So the drive took about 12 hours...

Planning to drive there again this January .... due to road conditions It may take several hours longer, and since I don't like speeding tickets as much as I used to, I will probably keep my speed a bit lower too ... ugh

 

[Thump553]

As Anubis said you should have definately detoured around NYC and probably Wash, DC as well. Much easier and faster drive.

It is extremely dangerous to drive straight through like you did-falling asleep at the wheel is a major cause of accidents. Heck, even professional truck drivers are limited by law to no more than 11 hours per day.

Make a two day trip out of it on the way back.

 

[Hail The Brain Slug]

As Anubis said you should have definately detoured around NYC and probably Wash, DC as well. Much easier and faster drive.

It is extremely dangerous to drive straight through like you did-falling asleep at the wheel is a major cause of accidents. Heck, even professional truck drivers are limited by law to no more than 11 hours per day.

Make a two day trip out of it on the way back.

It already was a two day trip. He'd have to split it over three days.

 

[dainthomas]

Yowzers ... that's way tooo long to be stuck behind the wheel.....


Worse I've done is from Chicago burbs to New Orleans ... about 1000 miles .... I wasn't towing anything at the time, and I was like 22 or 23 .... So the drive took about 12 hours...

Planning to drive there again this January .... due to road conditions It may take several hours longer, and since I don't like speeding tickets as much as I used to, I will probably keep my speed a bit lower too ... ugh

1000/12 = 83. Not even accounting for various stops, so probably 85-90. For 12 hours. Wow.

 

[Sixguns]

Longest Ive ever done was 15 hours straight and I was even driving. I rode with my dad as we towed his truck to my grandfather to get it worked on. Was by far the worst day ever driving through NV into Arizona in the middle of the summer.

 

[angminas]

Wow. One thread to whine about this wasn't enough? I gave your first one a pass in case you had been recently hit on the head, but now you're sounding very small and selfish. Your family needs help, and you're even being decently compensated for it. What's wrong with you?

*shakes head*

 

[MotF Bane]

OP, what do you do for a living that allows you to just pick up and move to Cape Cod like this? Are you retired?

BTW how are the taxes in MA? If you had moved to NY you'd be paying through the nose for propert taxes.

We're called Taxachusetts for a reason.

 

[Capt Caveman]

As others have mentioned, pretty stupid to drive like that. And if you had asked beforehand, people here could have told you how to easily avoid driving thru NYC.

With all of animals, I would have driven 3-4 hours at a time. Take a service area break, to walk the dogs, stretch your legs, fill-up the tank and/or take a 15-20 minute nap if you were feeling tired. Lucky, you didn't kill yourselves or anyone else. And your wife didn't share in the driving duties?

You hate driving b/c you didn't plan very smartly on how to deal with it.

 

[Capt Caveman]

We're called Taxachusetts for a reason.

Middle of the pack compared to the rest of the country.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Please stop and get some rest.

 

[Spikesoldier]

what you shoulda done is get the big ass uhaul and have wifey drive the blazer with pets. that way you would have moved everything in one shot.

 

[seepy83]

wife

ATOT is really slacking.

 

[Alone]

Thanks for putting other peoples lives in danger because you didn't want to take your time and rest properly. :thumbsup:

 

[Jeeebus]

Jesus... I've done the DC to FL trip a few times by myself without stopping for the night, and that is about 15 - 18 hours depending on traffic. Any more than that and I'd probably be wrapped around a tree or in a ditch by the side of the road.

32 hours definitely requires an overnight stop, regardless of whether you have two people in the car.