Driving from CA to CT
 

my 2 cousins and i are driving from Irvine, CA to Stamford, CT. we are leaving sunday 11/20 at around 6 am. do you think we can get to CT by wed night 11/23? we are going to take rt 40E all the way across and then hop onto 81N in virginia. any tips, suggestions? thanks

The math is pretty easy

3000mi
4 days
750 mi/day

10hrs per day at 75mph average
12hrs per day at 60mph average

Assuming the 3 of you take turns driving, yes it is doable. Long, hard drive, but doable.

As j62 stated, it's doable. Go to freetrip.com for milage, time and hotels. Enter the trip in segments since you want to use I-40 and I-81.

Irvine-Knoxville, Knoxville-Scranton,PA, Scranton-Stamford

If we hadn't taken a side trip on the way, we could have driven Woodstock,VA (I-81) to San Diego in four days last September. You would have about an additional five hours to Stamford.

Any specific reason why you want to take I-81?

The flatter and faster route would be I-40/44/70/71/80.

It's about 2930 miles if you take I-40/81:

Day 1: Irvine, CA to Albuquerque, NM. 784 miles.

Day 2: ABQ to perhaps Russellville, AR (before Little Rock). 806 miles.

Day 3: Russellville to Wyethville, VA (lots of motels there, but other SW VA towns are okay). 775 miles.

Day 4: 569 miles to Stamford.

If you take I-40/44/70/71/80, it's about 100 miles shorter.

Day 1: same 784 miles to Albuquerque.

Day 2: ABQ to Springfield, MO. 831 miles.

Day 3: Springfield to Columbus, OH. 635 miles.

Day 4: 581 miles to Stamford.

Don't forget that you lose 3 hours driving from Pacific Time to Eastern Time.

no real reason to take 81N. from looking at the map, it looked like a good route to hop on.

rkkwan - i will defintily go with the shorter route! thanks so much for your help, i appreciate it!