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

[ddluvsdisney]

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 Dave!! Can’t wait to hear about your new journey.

 

[pwdebbie]

I miss the lively chatter of this thread. Hopefully it will pick back up as more and more folks begin to travel. And I'm definitely hoping Dave pops in with updates and still offers advice.

 

[bluezy]

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

That's awesome that your house sold so quickly --- hopefully at asking price or above! A friend of mine put her house in FL on the market last week (10 minutes from DW) and it literally only lasted a few hours and she had more than one offer. Crazy!

 

[pwdebbie]

That's awesome that your house sold so quickly --- hopefully at asking price or above! A friend of mine put her house in FL on the market last week (10 minutes from DW) and it literally only lasted a few hours and she had more than one offer. Crazy!

My dd has been trying to buy a house in the Lexington KY area for the last two months and owners are doing open house on Saturday, reviewing offers on Sunday, many of which are well over the asking price. Dd has bid $20,00 and more over asking price and still hasn't been able to get a house! Definitely a seller's market right now.

 

[dvczerfs]

Thanks everyone. I’ll be driving back north later this week. Got some packing and moving to do. I’ll also be driving back to Florida in the beginning of next week. Lol. And the week after, and the week after. Lol
Our house went on the market 7:30 am Thursday. By the end of the day, we had 40 showings book. That afternoon we had a offer to write us a check for the full asking price. After day two, there were over 70 showings and 16 offers. My realtor shut it down. It went 25 percent over asking. He waived everything and he Is basically paying everything to settle.
I moved DW and DD down on Friday, we got here around 9am. We are comfortable in the condo we have rented In Davenport. Very nice, very quiet here. DD started her new job yesterday and it went well. DW started her old job and it’s all the same other than the view. Now she looks out the window and sees palm trees, which is a dream come true to her. We spent the weekend celebrating at Epcot , Disney Springs, Boardwalk and the contemporary eating.
Also did some hotel hopping and sky liner riding. We wore our wrist bands to fit in. Lol
Tonight we are meeting some friends from home at Splitsville. These are the same people who we road out hurricane Irma with.
Being ten minutes from the happiest place on earth is great!!!
Ill post my driving trips back and forth the next 5-6 weeks.
remember, watch out in Virginia for those blue lights !!!

 

[dvczerfs]

Forgot to mention, I don’t remember seeing this on here but we stopped at the Florida welcome center and “ the juice “ is back!!
also if anyone wants to meet up quick, always looking for a reason to go to WDW, I’d be glad to meet up with anyone. Just send me a pm or BC, he can get in touch with me. I’ll be back and forth till May 28 but I’ll be around. The Springs is the easiest now days. They don’t let you in to a resort unless your a guest or have reservations to eat.

 

[dvczerfs]

Hello all, Left Davenport Fl. this morning at 3am, shorts, short sleeve shirt. More on that in a bit. Headed up I4, looks like the regular lanes are all in heading west on I4, looks like they are just working on the express lanes.
Got through Jax before rush hour. Smooth trip. Only hit the brakes once for construction in North Carolina but it wasn’t bad. Now for the shorts. With everything going on, I checked for sun, not temperature. Let’s just say I froze my butt off getting gas and stopping at rest stops. Lol
I’m like a Floridian, I think it’s 80 degrees everywhere. Lol. Anyway, stopped in Roanoke Va. for the night. Made it in 11 hours. About the norm. Up early tomorrow, 2:30am to finish the ride. Talk to you soon!

 

[pwdebbie]

Hello all, Left Davenport Fl. this morning at 3am, shorts, short sleeve shirt. More on that in a bit. Headed up I4, looks like the regular lanes are all in heading west on I4, looks like they are just working on the express lanes.
Got through Jax before rush hour. Smooth trip. Only hit the brakes once for construction in North Carolina but it wasn’t bad. Now for the shorts. With everything going on, I checked for sun, not temperature. Let’s just say I froze my butt off getting gas and stopping at rest stops. Lol
I’m like a Floridian, I think it’s 80 degrees everywhere. Lol. Anyway, stopped in Roanoke Va. for the night. Made it in 11 hours. About the norm. Up early tomorrow, 2:30am to finish the ride. Talk to you soon!

I think you may see snow in the Poconos. I started looking at real estate in Davenport today . . . Just thinking about the future.

 

[dvczerfs]

I think you may see snow in the Poconos. I started looking at real estate in Davenport today . . . Just thinking about the future.

I was getting pictures from people who live in my hometown, Nazareth and it was snowing the other day. Lol ( reason 1,968,332 to live in Florida)
Oh you won’t have a problem finding any real estate in Davenport, you drive by an open field one day and the following day there is a 800 unit condo sitting there. Lol
We come into Disney property on a road called western way, its next to Coronado Springs. They are building, I think it’s the biggest condo project I’ve ever seen in my life. Lol and I was in a construction trade for almost 40 years.
Clermont is another area we like. You have to get use to a lot of traffic. A friend of mine said they couldn’t handle all the traffic but, if you want to live in the middle of it all, that’s what comes with it.

 

[dvczerfs]

I made it home yesterday morning at 9am. I left the hotel in Roanoke at 3:15 am.
Smooth sailing. It’s getting pretty sad, the lady’s at the front desk in these hotels I stay at are starting to call me by name. Lol

 

[AaronInWI]

Starting to do some preliminary planning for our drive from Wisconsin to WDW later this year. The current plan is to leave early morning on Black Friday, and drive 14ish hours to the Atlanta area. Saturday we'll complete our drive to Orlando. This will be our 5th drive to WDW, so there isn't too much "real" planning to do since we stay in the same places every time. The only real decision right now is how to get to Nashville - down I65 through Indy/Louisville, or take I57 all the way through Illinois. Every time, I say I'm going to take I57 because it should be an easier drive in regards to traffic. And every time (save the one time we drove to South Carolina) we've taken I65 because we're country bumpkins who like driving through the big cities. This'll probably be a last minute decision based on construction on our two route options. Just 215 days until we hit the road...

 

[dvczerfs]

Got the house all packed up and ready to go. Most of it was already done but I figured it would take me more than 2 1/2 days. Lol
Tomorrow morning it’s off to see one of my ex costumers, okay, more of a good friend. Two days after my last day of work, he came down with COVID. It was a ruff six weeks but he’s back up and running. Still can’t go a full day like he use too but he’s getting there. Hes 63 years old, built like a truck and works like an animal, it was hard seeing him like that. He lost 30 plus pounds. But, he’s gaining weight and starting to yell again. Lol
Than it’s off to get an oil change and my last Pa inspection on the van.
Come Tuesday morning, to quote Willie Nelson, on the road again!!

 

[TheHamm]

Low lead time road trip ahead! No park tickets are available, and APs lapsed so this will be a hang out by the pool trip. We are debating leaving after work/school and heading down I75 to about Knoxville and spending the night. Does anyone have a preferred stopping point in the area? Has anyone had experience with this route recently? Coworkers taking a similar route (for work, now WDW) stated their usual fast food stops with bathroom breaks were not an option as dining rooms were closed. Has anyone here experienced this, and can you comment if this is also what you have seen at gas stations? The return plan is to leave closer to 4am and make it home in one drive.

 

[dvczerfs]

I’m home!!!! Got home around 8:30am this morning. Unloaded stuff in the storage unit, picked up DD and off to Earl of Sandwich for lunch. Should have done this years ago.

 

[AnnaS]

You have been busy Dave!! Enjoy Florida and retirement . Nice looking condo and happy house hunting.

 

[Minniedap]

Planning our drive from Wisconsin in 60 days. We have made the trip once a year since 2001, except last year, and I was wondering where we might run into road construction. We will be doing I-65 to I-75.

 

[Shaft41]

Starting to do some preliminary planning for our drive from Wisconsin to WDW later this year. The current plan is to leave early morning on Black Friday, and drive 14ish hours to the Atlanta area. Saturday we'll complete our drive to Orlando. This will be our 5th drive to WDW, so there isn't too much "real" planning to do since we stay in the same places every time. The only real decision right now is how to get to Nashville - down I65 through Indy/Louisville, or take I57 all the way through Illinois. Every time, I say I'm going to take I57 because it should be an easier drive in regards to traffic. And every time (save the one time we drove to South Carolina) we've taken I65 because we're country bumpkins who like driving through the big cities. This'll probably be a last minute decision based on construction on our two route options. Just 215 days until we hit the road...

We live in west-central Illinois, so going over to I-65 isn't really an option for us, but I've been down I-57 many, many times from Champaign south. I can't speak to the traffic north of Champaign, but, going south, it is wide open until you get to Mt. Vernon. It's usually a little heavier from then down to I-24, but not usually terrible. We will be making that drive on July 5 for my 3rd drive down. We are also hoping to get south of Atlanta, which is probably around 12 hours.

 

[AaronInWI]

We live in west-central Illinois, so going over to I-65 isn't really an option for us, but I've been down I-57 many, many times from Champaign south. I can't speak to the traffic north of Champaign, but, going south, it is wide open until you get to Mt. Vernon. It's usually a little heavier from then down to I-24, but not usually terrible. We will be making that drive on July 5 for my 3rd drive down. We are also hoping to get south of Atlanta, which is probably around 12 hours.

Good to know! Mt. Vernon is our usual stop on the way home. That leaves us with about a 6.5 hour drive home the next day. Our first couple drives, we stayed in Morrow, GA on the way down, which is just south of Atlanta proper. We stayed a little north of Atlanta in Marietta on our last trip to avoid late afternoon traffic driving through Atlanta. It seemed to work out well, and Atlanta traffic the next morning was minimal. That's leaving home on Friday or Saturday. I see you're leaving on a Monday, so I don't know how much better Tuesday morning would be compared to Monday night.

 

[dvczerfs]

Well, now that trip four is complete in eight weeks, DD and myself will be leaving
Florida on a 737 on Tuesday via Sanford airport. Picking up the UHAUL on Wednesday and leaving for the sunshine state in the uhaul on Thursday morning. Most likely won’t get everything on the truck but Im guessing I’ll get 99 percent of it. We got prices to move what little we have to move yet and well,
I’ll do it myself. Lol
I love the drive, I really do. And with no job it gives me something to do. Lol
Rented another storage unit this morning. Didnt think it would be a good idea to show up with a 15’ truck of stuff and no place to go with it.
I will be taking my time, if it takes me three days that’s fine. Truck don’t have to be back till Monday morning.
I’ll keep you posted on the “truck trip” lol

 

[dvczerfs]

We are back up north, cold, cloudy, wet and grey...... just as I remember it.
First time I’ve ever taken a flight to or from Florida. Went on a ride share app to get a ride and nothing available. Tried a taxi service and no answer. So we drove to the airport and parked in long term parking. Lol
I also now remember why I like to drive. Lol
Other than no car service which, could all be my fault, I really have no experience with any of it, the rest of the experience was great.
Flew out of Sanford and it was great. Airport clean, cozy and a great experience. We turned and burned on the runway at 12:15 and landed at 2:15, half hour ahead of schedule. Nice flight, just a few minor bumps but very smooth.
We pick up the uhaul tomorrow. Looks like we will hit the road 3am Thursday morning. Probably pull into the storage unit early Saturday morning.
Will keep ya posted.