Driving Cross Country

[Jeri Lynn]

Hi Folks,
One of my daughters got an internship in the Redwood National Forest. She has to arrive there the first week of June. I may be driving cross country from MA with her.

Any advice on a trek such as this? She is 24 and I don't want her driving such a long distance alone. If her boyfriend or brother can't go with her I will be stepping in.

I'll admit I'm a little nervous. My DH usually does most driving and we've never driven such a long distance.

[dnickels]

Nowadays the Interstates have hotels and gas stations at just about every exit (save for a few stretches in some areas of the great basin area) so you really don't need to plan those things very far ahead. If you stop and get gas at each bathroom break that gives you an extra buffer.

Might be worth it to get a AAA membership in case of breakdown.

When it comes to the driving just take it easy, it's going to take awhile so set the cruise control and enjoy the ride rather than trying to do the stop-and-go-speed-up-and-slow-down thing that is more the norm in a daily home to work commute. Start looking for a hotel well BEFORE you get tired. There's nothing more frustrating than wanting to fall into a bed and walking into a hotel to find out they're full. You can always get a hotel an hour earlier than your plan called for and get up an hour earlier the next morning.

I do Florida to Montana and back every year and there's really nothing too complicated to it, any particular reason that you're worried about her? At 24 I had driven from Florida to Michigan and Michigan to Colorado multiple times with friends so if she's an average 24 year old I don't see much to be nervous about.

[TheDuckRocks]

Oh, how lucky you are! Crossing this glorious country by car is so wonderful and can be quite an adventure, I absolutely love road trips. Being a complete control freak I do all the driving on our adventures. We have done the cross country trip on the southern route but never the northern one.
Here are my suggestions for 2 women doing this alone:
1) Make sure you have a really good GPS system with updated maps and program it to tell you of upcoming potty stops. On the whole the state rest areas are so much better than the gas stations and hit and miss McDonald's. The other place we use a lot are Cracker Barrels.
2) AAA or someother road side sevice is also a must for me.
3) When picking a place to spend the night choose one with interior corridors and request a room on an upper floor.
4) Don't schedule your days on the road for too many hours..........it will wear you out and your attention at the wheel will not be as alert as you shoud be.
Have a good time! What a great experience to share with your daughter.

[diz_girl]

Go with her if you can. It would be a very special trip for the both of you.

Pace yourself and try to see what sights that you can on the way (Mount Rushmore and other National monuments and parks). You'll be driving somewhere between 3000-3500 miles, so if you drive 700 miles a day, then you'll get there in 4-5 days. It's enough distance each day that you make decent progress, but not so much that you'll get too tired from the drive.

If there are certain hotels that you like, go on their Website now to see where they are along your route. The same goes for chain restaurants too (Bob Evans, Cracker Barrel, etc.)

Ditto for AAA. And if one of your cars is a GM product with OnStar, take that one for emergencies. The emergency service with OnStar should be more reliable in areas with spotty cell service, since it only needs a clear view of the southern sky, rather than a nearby cell tower.

[Jeri Lynn]

My husband thinks she would be fine driving all that way by herself, the nervous mother in me can't see that happening. All of our kids are good about driving, Amanda (daughter #2 going to CA) and Katie (daughter #3) both drive to our camp in Maine without a problem, they have also done a road trip to Niagra Falls. But going cross country still scares me...I think when she has to drive back in August I may not be as nervous to let her drive alone. It looks like it's a pretty straight shot on one highway and even when she arrives in CA it does not look like it would be difficult driving.

Amanda will arrive back in August and then Katie will be heading to Southern CA for one semester of school. That drive I would be really nervous about because of the city driving.

We do have AAA which will come in handy.

If her boyfriend can't go I'd like to see if my son would go, I know he would enjoy seeing the National Park, but if he doesn't want to I will make the trip with her...although she will have to listen to MY music!! LOL!!

My kids have always been pretty independent but I've never had one across the country!

[Janmac]

Just saw your post and I don't think you're a nervous mother. Well, maybe you might be, ;) but a single (and young) woman driving across country by herself - she'd probably be okay but if you can afford the price of a ticket home, why not go. Road Trip! :thumbsup:

We have AAA and would not leave home without it. We have AAA Plus which has extended towing - up to 100 miles free. I would upgrade to that.

I agree with the fewer miles per day, as was posted previously, if the time allows. For years DH and I had to get wherever we were going, with marathon drives - 20 and more hours on the road at a time. One year, we were taking our daughter's car to her (she was in the Coast Guard, stationed in Washington state) and just drove maybe 300 miles a day. Every day we had planned to get out and sight see some place. We had the best trip.

Also highly agree with the post about the motel chains that you like. It used to be Best Western with us. We'd plan our stops around their motels. Now it's more Comfort Inn and the ones in that group. We have found we are happier all around if we have a reservation for the night, when we start out in the morning. We're not too tired, driving around a strange town, trying to find a decent motel. Seems like on the few occasions we've decided to wing it, we've run into the "concert" or some such in an area and have driven for miles looking for a motel with availability.

One last tip, when you are in the west - especially past Nebraska or maybe Colorado, gas stations, even on interstates, can become rare. Add to that the possibility of head winds wrecking your miles per gallon. When driving out that way, we pretty much always fill up at half a tank. A couple of times we didn't and we have funny (now) stories about those times. :D

I'd go with her! Or if I were her, I'd like a copilot.

Jan