"For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" (Part V)

[dvczerfs]

We took it!!! Hopefully will be there just a few months till we find a house. We are 6 miles from the Magic.!!!

 

[pwdebbie]

Not to go off topic (so jealous, btw) but just found out I am going to be making the drive by myself with 3 kiddos in a few weeks. I am slightly terrified. The longest I have done with them by myself was 8 hours. This will be about 18. Kids will be 12, 10 and 5 and used to road trips. We are stopping overnight somewhere because I don't drive well after dark. Coming from central PA so probably doing 95 for most of the way. Any words of wisdom? Ideas for a family friendly audiobook that won't put me to sleep?

I agree with the others about taking the "inland" route. It is a lovely drive. Spring should be busting (bursting?) out all over. If you can make it past Charlotte the first day, then do so. We push for Orangeburg, lots of hotels at the St. Matthews Rd. exit. If going beyond Charlotte is too much for one day, then perhaps Statesville would be a good stop. We did stay there once. Just be sure to leave early enough or later in the morning to avoid the Charlotte rush hour (which is really not nearly as bad as DC).

 

[TheHamm]

Ideas for a family friendly audiobook that won't put me to sleep?

Harry Potter is a favorite audiobook of my kids that does not make me want to swerve into oncoming traffic, but we don’t go past book 4 as the content is a bit too intense for them (7yos). The Percy Jackson series is Also good, and entertaining for adults who know a bit of Greek mythology. If you want to dive into podcasts, Million Bazillion is kid oriented and by NPR’s Marketplace. It was fine for a 6yo, and adults learned something as well.
Happy Trails!

 

[dvczerfs]

I am back north. Boooooooooo. Lol
I didn’t even want to come back to pack.lol
Had a nice meet with the founder of this thread.
It was nice seeing you again Bc. Hopefully things will get back to some kind of normal again real soon. Now that I’m a resident, my next drive won’t be to WDW, just home.
I’ll be moving DD and DW down permanently on April 15 th. I’ll be driving back north again soon after to finalize the move, what I’m taking and what the mover will be taking. We are just about half way through the moving process.
so, the solo drive home. I left WDW Thursday around 6:30pm, I took 417 up to I4.
I stayed the night at The Hampton Inn in Kingsland Georgia. ( stayed there quite a few times ). I departed there at 3:30 am and headed north on I95. Being a holiday weekend I figured I’d hit plenty of traffic. Took i26, I26 can be a bit busy and I wanted to hit it early, which I did around 5:30 am. No traffic!
Got through SC and NC no problem. My mover was heading down and asked me if I got stuck behind that accident on i26. Luckily I missed it. I hung out at the Virginia welcome center for a while. I crawled in the back, blocked off my windows and front seat, kicked my shoes off and took a nap for an hour on the double bed in the van. I’m going to miss that part about driving.
Woke up and started driving, started going up the mountain and the signs are blinking, “ crash mm 10, left lane blocked “ MM 5 we stopped. Crawled for five miles and when I got to the accident, nothing but the road assist guy picking up the cones, it was all cleaned up. I drove to Roanoke Va and stayed overnight again. I left this morning from the hotel, and I remembered why I’m moving south, it was 27 degrees. Lol
I made it home at 9am.
So that’s it my friends, my final drive to WDW, staying on property and head back to Pa.
I live about 11 minutes from the Magic, if anyone ever wants to meet up, just pm here or BC, he knows owe to get ahold of me. We can meet up for a quick hello in a park or The Springs.
Will give me a good reason to drive down.
Anyway, thanks for listening to me ramble and following along. I’ve been dreaming of this since I was eight years old and finally got to do it.
I’ll be around and hopefully in a few months we will have a house. Ill keep you posted when that happens.
Thanks everyone!!

 

[RK13]

We are headed down from Central NJ to WDW this June. We are looking forward to our 2000+ mile drive and time away from the house. We will picking up a friend in Middletown, DE to join us on our trip and plan to take US301, however I was wondering, would it make more sense to hook up with I-495 East of DC or continue on US301 south to I-295 east of Richmond the on to I-95. We plan to leave roughly 2am on Friday and would likely run into morning rush in Richmond. Having never taken US301, I'm not sure if it would be an advantage taking it beyond the Beltway and just making our way to I-95 as quickly as possible. Additionally, I am considering taking I-295 East around Jacksonville to 9B to I95 and, also, potentially headed to FL528 instead of I-4. I've made this drive nearly 10x since 1999, but never have really gone too far from the I-95 to I-4 route. Would love some advice and I'm a huge fan of thread. Thx!

If you take the I295 around Richmond, you won't hit any rush hour traffic.
I always take the I295 to avoid Jacksonville, follow it east towards the beach and enjoy the bridge.
Have you thought about taking 417 instead of I4, its a little more driving and a toll road, but no traffic

 

[AlexCalWil]

If you take the I295 around Richmond, you won't hit any rush hour traffic.
I always take the I295 to avoid Jacksonville, follow it east towards the beach and enjoy the bridge.
Have you thought about taking 417 instead of I4, its a little more driving and a toll road, but no traffic

I’ve always thought about taking 417, but chickened out and took I-4. Last time I-4 was such a nightmare, so we’re definitely going to do something different and 417 sounds like a good bet. We can’t wait to get away!

 

[patclairesmom]

I’ve always thought about taking 417, but chickened out and took I-4. Last time I-4 was such a nightmare, so we’re definitely going to do something different and 417 sounds like a good bet. We can’t wait to get away!

I-4 makes me so nervous to drive on. 417 is such a nicer ride and a much better way to approach your vacation

 

[bluezy]

If you take the I295 around Richmond, you won't hit any rush hour traffic.
I always take the I295 to avoid Jacksonville, follow it east towards the beach and enjoy the bridge.
Have you thought about taking 417 instead of I4, its a little more driving and a toll road, but no traffic

What's the current situation with the tolls on 417? Do you need Sun Pass or have they started accepting EZ Pass?

 

[justreading]

I’ve always thought about taking 417, but chickened out and took I-4. Last time I-4 was such a nightmare, so we’re definitely going to do something different and 417 sounds like a good bet. We can’t wait to get away!

And your EZPass works all the way to Western Way (but not passed there) on 414 & 429.

 

[dvczerfs]

I-4 makes me so nervous to drive on. 417 is such a nicer ride and a much better way to approach your vacation

I took 417 for the first time this trip. we always hit Jax at 3:30am so no traffic and hit Orlando after 5am so things haven’t started getting hopping yet.
This time I hit I4 around 6:30 and even that far out of the city there was a lot of traffic so if figured why not. Very little traffic and I have a sun pass in my window. Lol
It was great, I used it again when I headed out. I just never had the need to take it before.
We leave again in 8 days. I can’t wait. That will be three, 1100 mile one way trips in six weeks to the sunshine state.

 

[riversend22]

Hi everyone! I stumbled upon this thread and have loved reading many of the pages! My family and I (DH, DS 2 and DS 4) will be making the long trek down from upstate NY to WDW next week. We are breaking the drive up into two days, hoping to stop somewhere after about 12 hours on the first day. I was wondering if the experts in this thread could weigh in on the better route to take down. I've done the 1-95 route a few times before, but I'm wondering if the 81-77-26 route although a bit longer is perhaps a better drive? Could anyone provide some insight? We are planning on driving Saturday-Sunday if that makes a difference. Thanks!

 

[dvczerfs]

Hi everyone! I stumbled upon this thread and have loved reading many of the pages! My family and I (DH, DS 2 and DS 4) will be making the long trek down from upstate NY to WDW next week. We are breaking the drive up into two days, hoping to stop somewhere after about 12 hours on the first day. I was wondering if the experts in this thread could weigh in on the better route to take down. I've done the 1-95 route a few times before, but I'm wondering if the 81-77-26 route although a bit longer is perhaps a better drive? Could anyone provide some insight? We are planning on driving Saturday-Sunday if that makes a difference. Thanks!

This all depends on where you live etc. but I live a few miles north of I78 next to the NJ state line in Pa. I81/I77I26 is actually faster than taking I95 for me. Google maps says it’s an hour long, and I have determined that was lie. Lol
I78 west runs into I81 south so for me, it’s right there. Here a little guide I use. I outrun the times anymore.
Just a heads up, what your speed in Virginia. There are places that go from 70mph to 60mph for no reason and anything over 15 mph is not speeding, iis a reckless driving charge. They don’t care who,what or why you are. A good friend of mine is a Pa State trooper and he got nailed. And that’s Maryland not Massachusetts. Lol Times include stopping for gas and quick rest stop. I beat this by an hour the last few years.

 

[BC1836]

I-4 makes me so nervous to drive on. 417 is such a nicer ride and a much better way to approach your vacation

The I-4 Ultimate Project is supposed to be completed before the end of the year, i.e., 2021. However....
All the best!

 

[AlexCalWil]

And your EZPass works all the way to Western Way (but not passed there) on 414 & 429.

We actually picked up a Uni-Pass for this trip. I couldn’t quite figure which tolls were covered by EZ Pass and thought it could be useful elsewhere too.

 

[AlexCalWil]

This all depends on where you live etc. but I live a few miles north of I78 next to the NJ state line in Pa. I81/I77I26 is actually faster than taking I95 for me. Google maps says it’s an hour long, and I have determined that was lie. Lol
I78 west runs into I81 south so for me, it’s right there. Here a little guide I use. I outrun the times anymore.
Just a heads up, what your speed in Virginia. There are places that go from 70mph to 60mph for no reason and anything over 15 mph is not speeding, iis a reckless driving charge. They don’t care who,what or why you are. A good friend of mine is a Pa State trooper and he got nailed. And that’s Maryland not Massachusetts. Lol Times include stopping for gas and quick rest stop. I beat this by an hour the last few years.

I’ve been pulled over in Va. on I-81 and they don’t care why or what your excuse is. I was lucky not to get dinged with the reckless driving.

 

[AlexCalWil]

Hi everyone! I stumbled upon this thread and have loved reading many of the pages! My family and I (DH, DS 2 and DS 4) will be making the long trek down from upstate NY to WDW next week. We are breaking the drive up into two days, hoping to stop somewhere after about 12 hours on the first day. I was wondering if the experts in this thread could weigh in on the better route to take down. I've done the 1-95 route a few times before, but I'm wondering if the 81-77-26 route although a bit longer is perhaps a better drive? Could anyone provide some insight? We are planning on driving Saturday-Sunday if that makes a difference. Thanks!

Depending on where you’re starting from and how much you want leftover the next day there are some decent stops. I’ve been to Johnson City TN and it would be good for a hotel and dinner but leaves 10hrs to WDW. Further down I-26 is Asheville NC which if your looking for more of destination is a nice town with some great breweries. The New Belgium brewery is great with kids. You can grab a beer after a day in the car and let the kids run on their lawn and play. This still leaves 8-9 hours the 2nd day though. South Carolina isn’t my specialty so I’d be hard pressed to offer a suggestion there. Bypassing those stops, I’d consider pushing to 95 and shortening the 2nd day’s drive.

 

[dvczerfs]

We actually picked up a Uni-Pass for this trip. I couldn’t quite figure which tolls were covered by EZ Pass and thought it could be useful elsewhere too.

I have a SunPass and man, I looked at my statement and it seems to not miss anything. Lol
I used it the last couple years in Charlotte, they have express lanes.
Being a first time florida resident , I pumped into my GPS everywhere I had to go and didn’t turn off toll roads. Lol Again, I know my transponder is working just fine. Lol. Cost me $6 in tolls to drive to Lowe’s. Lol

 

[dvczerfs]

Well, we are here!!! We are now residents!!!!
our house up north lasted two days on the market. It was sold yesterday.
so I’m officially retired off the 2000 plus

 

[justreading]

Well, we are here!!! We are now residents!!!!
our house up north lasted two days on the market. It was sold yesterday.
so I’m officially retired off the 2000 plus

Best of luck but please don't retire from this blog. We need your sage advice!

 

[AlexCalWil]

Well, we are here!!! We are now residents!!!!
our house up north lasted two days on the market. It was sold yesterday.
so I’m officially retired off the 2000 plus

Congrats! Two days is crazy, the market in NJ is nuts too. Wishing you all the best and don't be a stranger!
As for 2000+, we're just getting started. 60 days until we drive down with our newest family member. Last drive in 2017, we had one 6-year old and now we're rolling with a 10 yo, 2yo and 7-month old. Hopefully we can provide something close to the insight you've provided over the years.