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Driving Cross Country

DeaconSoDear

DeaconSoDear

A.W. Hamilton
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Who here has experience with this?

I have to decide in the coming weeks whether to drive cross country or ship my car and fly. I have never done a drive like this before and am worried I will get a couple of days into the trip and regret my decision if I try to drive it.

Any thoughts, advice, stories to share?

For reference I will be heading from San Jose to Charlotte.
 
I've done it. Did it over 4 days. made it from NC to just west of St. Louis, west of St. Louis to Denver, Denver to Twin Falls, ID, and then Twin Falls to Portland.

It wasnt the worst thing ever, but I don't plan to do it again. It was kind of cool to truly experience just how big our country is, but I was in the car with someone and we do car trips together really well. also lucked out in that we didn't hit any bad weather.
I feel like the route I took would be more interesting than what you'd do.
 
I did it with my dad 10 years ago, from Las Vegas to Connecticut. Not the best 3 day stretch of my life, but it wasn't too bad. The first day I made it to just before the Colorado/Nebraska border. Utah and CO were both very scenic, and I was amused that my little Sentra barely made it over the continental divide. At the end of day 2 I stopped in Gary, IN... Definitely the biggest mistake of the trip and probably doesn't require an explanation. Day 3 was the worst driving-wise though, with rock bottom being Ohio. It's a 55 mph limit the whole way, there were cops everywhere and there's nothing to look at.

I remember a thread about driving cross country on TOB, and in that one someone suggested chewing sunflower seeds to help pass the time. That sounded like good advice, because eating them is more of an activity.
 
I did one from Winston to San Diego with two friends, our trip west was roughly: Winston to Birmingham, BHam to Tyler TX, Tyler to Carlsbad NM, Carlsbad to Phoenix, Phoenix to San Diego
 
Did it both ways, San Diego to Wake and Wake to San Diego both times with my mom. Being able to split the driving is crucial. Don't really remember the first trip it was more of a just get there trip, we took a more southern route that time I think. On the way back to California we took our time a bit more and went a little more north. We went from what I remember Asheville, blue ridge parkway, somewhere random in Tennessee, bourbon trail, horse farms in Kentucky, boring crap, stopped in Kansas City to see family, bored as shit through Kansas almost died in a crazy thunderstorm, Colorado was pretty, parts of Utah were pretty, Vegas!, San Diego.

It can be fun if you have a good copilot and can take the time to hit destinations that may be of interest to you. If you are going to be alone doing it as fast as you can that sounds pretty awful. Probably significantly cheaper than shipping your car though I believe.
 
Oh and we did a couple audio books that helped pass the time. Back then Cracker Barrel had a good deal where it was cheap if you got one at one location and returned it at another. Not sure if they still have something like that. Coming west had to rush to finish one to drop it off at the last CB in Colorado.
 
I've done it three times - twice alone and once with a second person. All three times I did it in 4-5 days.

The I40 route is boring as shit once you get past the NC/TN border. Unless you're trying to do it as fast as possible, I would go north and then try to stop at a national park or two, especially in Utah or CA.

If you want to power through then plan on 3-4 nights. Pick a city where you want to stop, and Priceline a hotel that morning. Should save you some money.
 
Went from Cleveland, OH, out to Moab, UT in 4 days. I looked a the map/planned the route, and tried to find people I knew to stay with at night. Mostly to save money but also to have someone to talk to - 8+ hours in the car by yourself and you get a little stir crazy.
 
A lot of stuff is reeeeally boring scenery in this country. Probably works most everywhere.

For two days driving across Canada from Winnipeg to Edmonton basically all we saw was canola fields. A quick google search makes it look pretty but that shit got old quick. At least after that it got awesome pretty quickly.
 
From San Jose, he won't get much of TX. It'll basically just be the top part of the state near Amarillo. I-40 in AZ and NM is very pretty.

The hassle in this drive is getting to I 40.

If you have no kids or pets, you could easily make it in three days/2 nights. Most of the way you can easily average 80 MPH on the road.

One major hint- when you get on I-40 and it says 120+ miles to Needles/No services-you'd better have enough gas and not need to go to the bathroom. There are no places to get gas and a cactus is your toilet.
 
My sister and I did New Jersey to Arizona in 2.5 days with 2 cats. I was only allowed to pee once per day and we stopped at Cracker Barrel for dinner while staying in Motel 6s (most allow pets). Also, my sister only allowed us to listen to Johnny Cash, Fleetwood Mac, or Kanye West's first album. I think the cats were the most traumatized from the experience.
 
I'm surprised one of you isn't buried in the desert give that tuneage.
 
This reminds me that she and I are going to Vegas in a car next month....
 
I did it and it was a very cool experience. I would say that if you can, take your time and find some cool spots to post up. For example maybe post up at the Lazy Lizard in Moab, or drive through the pass in Colorado via I-70 and post up in some small town up there. The plains are boring as fuck, but it makes you appreciate the expansiveness of the US, while also making you appreciate you never had to live there.
 
I have done it a few times. Baltimore to Seattle..Seattle to Wisconsin which isn't all the way across the country but still a long drive. Dallas to Seattle and back a couple of times. Having XM helps a lot. I also would download a couple of books to your phone or hit the library and check out books on cd. I also had scheduled stops for things I wanted to see or places I wanted to eat. Sometimes I would tie my stop in to a sporting event, just to do something different. The drive through the central time zone is the worst and it is going to take a day. Don't eat at cracker barrels or fast food places. Jump online and find some local diners, better food and better stories.
 
I've done it both directions multiple times.

Don't drive through the southern US unless it's the dead of winter.

Texas is a miserable shithole to drive through.

Take your time and stop and see some parks, historic sites.
 
Somewhat have done it. Drove from Atlanta to LAs Vegas and then back to Chicago for work. Also just drove to Austin from NC when I moved here.

The drive from Atlanta to Vegas is still one of the most memorable things I've ever done. I went Atlanta-Memphis-Oklahoma City-Flagstaff and then the quick 2-3 hour drive to Vegas. The OKC to Flagstaff drive was just breathtaking. Pretty much drove through five different types of terrain in one day. Did it in March, left OKC when it was in the 70's and then 5 hours later I was in a snowstorm on the way to Albuquerque in the Rockies. Stopped off in Laredo b/c its the only real town you hit in the Texas Panhandle (was my first time in TX) and stopped a few other times just to take it all in.

Then on the way out of Vegas, to Chicago, we spent the nights in Denver and Omaha. The two things I remember from that was driving through southern Utah, which was amazing and just had insane geographical sightlines. I could describe it buts its something you have to see for yourself. Also I thought driving through Iowa and eastern Nebraska was kind of neat, because of the bluffs as well as the ridiculous amount of wind mills.
 
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i did it in january. one of the best weeks (well 10 days) of my life. granted i did it w/ my fiance and dawg, so the company was a big part of that.
 
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