Not stopping on road trip?

[scottmandue]

Don't get me wrong, at my age (fifty something) I like to stop every couple hours to stretch my legs, back, and empty my bladder.

And I am not against a short stop to view a natural wonder (oh look... there is a grizzly bear eating a family that got out of their car to feed it a donut) or a roadside oddity (the worlds largest paper clip!).

However I do like to calculate approximate departure/arrival times to avoid traffic.

Wife... not so much...

My dad was like this (probably where I get it from) and my brother.

Is this a guy thing or what? (ladies please chime in)

Carry on...

[vash]

i'm not that old, and i like to stop. i'm never in that much of a hurry.

and dont dangerous blood clots form in our legs, snap off and form a blockage in our heart valves?

[KaptKaos]

How long are you on the road for? Here'e my metric:


under 3 hours - no stops
4-6 hours - 1 to 2 stops, depending on the trip. Sometimes, but rarely, straight through.
6-8 hours - 2 to 3 stops, one that is at least 30 minutes long.
8 or more hours - take the airplane :-)

My wife and kids are pretty well accustomed to this schedule as well.

Oh, no in-car movies for trips 3 hours or less. Look out the window and be bored like I was dammit!!!

Hope that helps.

[vash]

joe. pretty thought out!!

my max is about 24 hour road trips. i sip water the entire time..so i piss alot. forces me to stop. i can drive 10 hours a day easy.

[Jim Richards]

I've done a few long non-stop trips, with ~20 hours as my max. All of those trips when I was younger and in a hurry. I don't roll like that anymore. Otherwise, you miss out on a lot of what's along the way.

[mreid]

The wife and I are leaving PA for TX on Saturday. My wife would kill me if I maintained my schedule of making it in two days (1500 miles). Our first stop is my brothers house in VA, then TN, then LA, and finally TX on Tuesday. After VA we do 400 miles a day, with several stops and figure 10 hours a day. With the Porsche in tow of course.

[Jim Richards]

I'll do 8-10 hours/day nowadays, but less if there's things to see/do along the way. If I'm driving the Porsche, twisty roads take precedence over making good time on the interstates.

[mikeferg75]

I calculate and stop for gas, pee at the same time, live on candy and sleep in the car.

Few years back did a bonzi run in the Boxster to Monterey for the historics, slept 4 hrs somewhere in WY in the pass seat of the Boxster on the way home at 2am, not recommended

[BeyGon]

a couple friends and I drove from California to Daytona twice, we stopped for gas, when we were at the station you better get what you wanted to eat and hit the head, the next time we stopped was for gas, and so on. Straight through.

When my friend and I drove to Costa Rica from Calif we stopped for gas and sometimes for food, we always stopped at night, someplace safe and locked up the truck. We did NO sightseeing, we passed stuff I really wanted to see but we couldn't leave the truck, too much stuff in it. Stopping every night we made it to my house in Costa Rica in Five Days from Los Indios, just north of Brownsville. Passport stamps to prove it.

Last summer another friend and I drove to Anacortes, north of Seattle, almost straight through, we did stop for gas and ate at the same time and stopped the first, only night in Grants Pass.

OF course none of these trips had women in the car, that would have been impossible.

[12own911]

For me... it depends.

If going to Vegas (tyically less then 5 hrs), 1 stop to the outlet mall/gas/food.
If going somewhere else, 1 stop for gas if less then 6 hours or two stops if greater then 6:01 hours but less then 12 hours.
If greater then 12 hours, stay overnight then travel on.

[SteamWolf]

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

How long are you on the road for? Here'e my metric:


under 3 hours - no stops
4-6 hours - 1 to 2 stops, depending on the trip. Sometimes, but rarely, straight through.
6-8 hours - 2 to 3 stops, one that is at least 30 minutes long.
8 or more hours - take the airplane :-)

My wife and kids are pretty well accustomed to this schedule as well.

Oh, no in-car movies for trips 3 hours or less. Look out the window and be bored like I was dammit!!!

Hope that helps.

This is my schedule also. I hate stopping but the older I get the more I realise how it affects my level of driving attention. These days 800-1000km or 8 or 9 hours is my daily limit before I just get too brain-fried.

[krystar]

getting up and stretching might be a lifesaver.

doctor said, if you're sitting for long time like roadtrip or plane trip, it may lead to a blood clot in your thighs/butt. when the blood clot finally gets free, BAD NEWS

[GH85Carrera]

It depends on if my wife is with me or not. I have made many long trips in my 911. I have driven it to both coasts twice. I have done a few 900 mile days. That is 12 hours by myself. I stop only to pee and get gas. I have "road food" and eat at the gas station while the car is filling up.

When Mrs Carrera is with me we don't go but 800 miles or so in a day, and it takes longer. When you go to a car convention it is better to have your car there.

[SteamWolf]

Originally Posted by krystar

getting up and stretching might be a lifesaver.

doctor said, if you're sitting for long time like roadtrip or plane trip, it may lead to a blood clot in your thighs/butt. when the blood clot finally gets free, BAD NEWS

this is true, but a greater risk is falling asleep and driving off the road, or having brain-fade and wandering over the centre line.

[Aragorn]

I had someone hand me an empty bottle in a car one time when I said I wanted to stop. "It's only 200 miles till the next gas stop. Hold it in or use this. Were making good time."

[Rick Lee]

When we drove to spring break in FL from Pittsburgh in college, we only stopped for gas. We peed in our Schaefer pounder empties and tossed them out the windo. Only had to stop three times for gas. Driving to Vegas this Fri. and we always stop in Kingman for gas and potty break.

[kaisen]

When I delivered MRM's Audi RS6 there was a mechanical issue with the jet upon planned departure that put me six hours behind schedule.

I got into the Pittsburgh airport at 7:30pm, filled up just into Ohio (<5 minutes, it wasn't empty), stopped for fuel, energy drink, and bladder again in Indiana (7 minutes), and made it to my final destination in Minneapolis at 7:30am in time to shower and make it to a 9:00am appointment. That was a solo drive.

860 miles in exactly twelve hours, including stops.

When I travel with my lady, we typically stop once every 3-4 hours

[BeyGon]

Yes, that's why they make GatorAid bottles.

[SteamWolf]

throwing trash out the window offends me more than pissing in a bottle.

[Rick Lee]

Littering was the least of our college crimes in those days. I guess shooting fireworks out the windows was also littering though.