I'm not sure I would want to be another driver in your vicinity after you've been driving 15 or 16 hours straight. Your reflexes can't possibly be sharp at that point.
I KNOW people do it. But, emergencies aside, I simply don't think it's a good idea.
I think a lot of us who drive through share the driving with another adult. So we are not actually driving 16+ hours straight. Some may, but most posters were clear on that.
We have driven from Canton, OH 6 times and Lexington, KY 5 times with a child. It is 1,000 miles from Ohio, 865 from here, 15 and 13 hours respectively.
We have driven from Canton, OH 6 times and Lexington, KY 5 times with a child. It is 1,000 miles from Ohio, 865 from here, 15 and 13 hours respectively. We have never stopped overnight heading to the world. We leave in the early morning hours and arrive in Orlando around 4-6 PM. We unpack, grab a Giordano's Pizza, and chill at the pool for the evening. We are refreshed and ready to go the next morning.
We have stopped twice heading back north, once on the way to Canton, and once heading back to Lexington. Both times we said that we felt worse by stopping and wished we had just driven the remaining 6-8 hours to get in our own bed. I drove the entire way home this past October, 13 hours with 4 stops. It is not unusual for me to be in the car that long for work on any given day, so 13 hours is nothing really.
I think a lot of us who drive through share the driving with another adult. So we are not actually driving 16+ hours straight. Some may, but most posters were clear on that.
We're going this weekend. We live in the Chicago suburbs so we're planning on everyone going to bed at 7pm and sleeping until midnight. We're going to have the car completely loaded and just get in and go. We're attempting to drive to just south of Atlanta and stop for the day (around 2-3pm). We can get the kids some swimming time in the pool and have a nice dinner and then an early bed. We get up the next morning and have only a 5-6 hour drive the next day, much easier.
We know the kids travel better at night and the traffic is soooo much better. We would drive all night straight through but then we are totally tired and the kids are ready to go all day. This way we get some sleep too.
Christy
PLAN TO STOP STOP STOP.
DH and I have done a LOT of long distance driving (over 100 days of trips at 400 miles plus). Most with our kids. 17 hours in 1 day is doable, but you will be exhausted and while the kids might sleep they will be cranky. Also, despite what Mapquest may say for time we always allow 8 hours for every 400 miles of non-city highway driving with potty and gas breaks. Road Construction, accidents, Cities with Rush Hour and Moutains can add hours to your time. Can I tell you about time we got stuck behind an RV in the appalachians in PA for 35 miles with highway down to one lane that whole way due to road construction - can you say double planned the time?
Also unless you plan to stop by 5 PM your first day I'd also recommend you book the hotel before you leave - you never know when you're going to run into a convention or whatever. We didn't do this one time and really regretted it (NASCAR event). We started looking for a hotel at about 8PM and we'd been on the road for 14 hours already. There were no hotels available for over 100 miles. Boy, were we exhausted when we finally stopped at about 11PM.
Hehe, our first time driving was the opposite. We beat the mapquest time by a little bit, but only stopped 2x. We'd planned on stopping a few more! As in my pp, we accidentally arrived at 2 30 am.
Hehe, our first time driving was the opposite. We beat the mapquest time by a little bit, but only stopped 2x. We'd planned on stopping a few more! As in my pp, we accidentally arrived at 2 30 am. THAT was a pain. We had a lot of time to kill, but ended up having a wonderful day at EPCOT. I do think stopping for the night somewhere is safer, but we prefer not to get into the car for hours 2 days in a row.