fantaman

Just curious as to what is the longest drive Fodorites have taken without a stop for sleep and driving all the miles yourself. Not the safest record to be proud of but in reality we have all pushed the limit in driving too far without rest at least once in our lives

Myself - 18 hours, 1240 miles

Patrick

In 1974 I left Ft.Myers, Florida and drove straight through to Dayton, Ohio, a distance of 1090 miles. I left at 9 in the morning and arrived in Dayton about 3 the next morning. I stopped for gas obviously and stopped twice to eat and have coffee. I hadn't planned to drive straight through, but after dinner in the early evening I wasn't really tired and then after driving a few more hours it seemed silly to stop so close to "home". But in those days the speed limit (can someone help me out here) in Tennessee on the Interstates was 80 I believe. Of course, everyone drove at least 10 over the limit which meant I kept it at about 90 most of the way through that state.

fantaman, you averaged about 69 miles an hour for the whole trip. Considering you had to stop at least for gas, that is really an incredible average speed. You covered 150 miles more than I did in the same amount of time. But you must not have stopped to eat!!!

Scarlett

A loooong time ago, I drove from San Francisco to San Diego, stayed for part of the day then drove back. So the driving without sleep part came to about 2 days.
Thank God for that truck stop coffee!

fantaman

Patrick -

I drove that fast many years ago when we all were a little more carefree -

The power of caffeine, drive-thru food, and my long-distance girlfriend at the end of 1240 miles helps the motivation in getting there fast.

howitzer

this thread reminds me of that hiddeous new celine dion song..".i drove all night".
otherwise...i dont have anything to contribute.

Flyboy

I drove 22.5 hours and 1385 miles from Missoula, Montana to Wausau, Wisconsin. It was insane and I would never do anything like that again. We had no air conditioning. It was near 100 degrees during the daytime portion of the trip and so dry that we were drinking 2-litre bottles of soda and never had to stop between filling the gas tank.

scigirl

I drove from Augusta, GA to Fort Worth, Tx in one shot. I only stopped for gas, etc. I tried to time my drive to get through Atlanta prior to rush hour. Unfortunatly, the day of my drive a small commuter plane crashed onto the highway crossing Atlanta (the one I needed to take) and skidded into 6 Flags Park. This added at least 2 hours to my drive time due to traffic snarles. Then somewhere in Alabama or something I saw the wreckage of a terrible car crash on the other side of the highway. When I stopped for food later someone noticed my license plate and wanted to strike up a converstation about the gruesome aspects of the accident (which he apparently witnessed also).

I was so pooped when I finally reached Fort Worth. Worse - my arms cramped up and I couldn't move them from a slightly bent "holding the steering wheel" position. I think it took me 14 or 15 hours - but I've repressed some of the details because it was a horrible drive.

With another driver I made a drive from San Antonio, TX to Fort Lauderdale, FL - that was about 20+ hours total. But the driving was split between 2 people.

JJason

Drove from Denver after a long night of going out, all the way through Kansas, past St. Louis, to Terra Haute, Indiana. About 18 hours with three people asleep in the car, windows down, lots of loud music and a few Cokes.

speedo

Sacramento to Quad Cities, (cruised thru Nevada at 105 mph - pre-oil imbargo and "safe and reasonable" days) and DC to Amarillo, TX. I was a space cadet both times after finally stopping.

X_Bellman

St. Louis to Pittsburgh then back to St. Louis. By far, the dumbest damn thing I have ever done.

speedo

X_Bellman, were you bored and just out for an evening ride? If so, yeah, it sounds pretty stupid. But then, don't most of our responses?

X_Bellman

Took a college friend to pick up his car and didn't have enough money for a Hotel so we just drove back. I had so much coffee in me It took me a couple of hours to fall asleep once I got back!

jersey

Grand Rapids, Michigan to Montclair, New Jersey (I was 19 and could drive all night) in January. Being young and energetic, it never occured to me that this might not be the smartest thing for a cute 19 year old female to do on her own. It took me somewhere around 14 hours and many cups of coffee. Now, many years later, I would strongly discourage my 19 year old daughter from doing this. Well, at least we now have cell phones.

jasper

is there anything better than a long drive?? this is a great post. i'd love to hear the reasons why the people made these trips. i've done 14 hours from seattle to san francisco but wasn't driving. when i was the driver, i've done 12 hours (not bad)from long island to bar harbor maine. by the end by eyes hurt so much from the lines in the highway just running by! both vacation trips.

Don

Drove from Austin,TX to Raleigh, NC (including an ice storm for the last couple of hours, which slowed me down some). Why didn't I stop? I wanted to watch the New Year's Day bowl games on TV with my friends, and I got there about 15 minutes before the first game started. Then I fell asleep and missed most of two games. Dumb--really dumb.

jor

11 hours. I Hate driving and can not understand how some people can drive day and night. My Dad can out drive me!

stragic

Longest drive ever was made by my boyfriend-but he didn't let me sleep-at the conclusion of our roadtrip in July 2000. His logic? Since we hadn't had one really long drive on the entire trip we should go out with a bang. The result? We drove 1245.49 miles from Green River, Utah to Greenland, Arkansas which was 20+ hours! We left Utah apx. at 9 am and arrived in Arkansas at 6:30 am the next day. Great memories of rolling the windows down in the pre-dawn hours and singing Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" along with the radio.

wow

Jasper, is there anything better than a long drive, you ask! Anything is better than a long drive (except if you are on the golf course where nothing is better!!!)I'm w/Jor on this one....I hate driving....My mind wanders, I miss the exit & next thing I know I have driven 70 or 80 miles in the wrong direction!! Sad but true.

jnn1964

21 hour drive from DC to Boston, and that was after being at work all day. It started to snow as soon as we left, and just got worse the entire time. Why didn't we stop? Because EVERY weather forecast said the storm was going out to sea, and the further north you were, the less snow there would be. Of course, that was the opposite of what actually happened.

bookhall

A couple of years ago, an Army Captain was driving home from Ft Bragg to upstate PA. He died when his truck went off the road around 5:30 AM about 15 miles south of his home. His wife and their young (and only) child perished with him.

Don't know what the mileage was...