Comments (68)

1. My fiance and I drove from Columbus, OH to Wrightsville Beach, NC for her birthday last year. Not terribly far, I know. We’ll break our own record when we drive a moving truck from Troy, OH to New Orleans, LA this summer.

   posted by Ira on 5-5-2008 at 3:22 pm

2. Before Hurricane Rita, my wife and I got into our seperate cars (our cars are not worth on paper what they are as modes of transportation) and we made the normally 5 hour trip to Dallas in a little over 21 hours. Including a nap in the Taco Bell parking lot in Palestine at 4 AM, when we were about to leave the employees brought us out free tacos (they had sympathy on us). There was also a Shell station in Cosicana that my wife threw up behind, and the poor cashier was grabbing toilet paper off the shelves to keep the restroom in stock (they had run out of the cheap stuff).

   Good times.

   posted by Wiyy Nickname on 5-5-2008 at 3:24 pm

3. My longest drive wasn’t very long, just I-90 from Philadelphia, PA to Madison, WI. About 16 or 18 hours of non-stop driving. I don’t have a horror story about driving a stick shift station wagon that’s bleeding oil, when I don’t know how to drive stick shift, a thousand miles. But I do have one about finding the Holy Grail of rest stop bathrooms. I was about halfway through Ohio when I had to stop for gas and to put another two quarts of oil in my car to stop the smoke from pouring out from under my hood. When I go inside to use the men’s rest room. It was an experience akin to walking into a telephone booth and finding yourself in the TARDIS. You expect dingy lighting and urine coated floors, but what I found defies description. It was brightly lite, with row after row of polished urinal’s and stalls, gleaming faucets, fully stocked paper and soap, and bone dry floors. I could almost hear a choir of angels introducing this modern marvel. Sadly, on subsequent trips, I have been unable to locate it again. It is like a magical city that only appears in a fog, then fades away only to be found years later by another beleaguered traveler.

   posted by martin on 5-5-2008 at 3:30 pm

4. When I was a kid we traveled every summer to see my grandparents. This long trek started in Ardmore, OK and ended in St. Petersburg, FL. My father was a staunch believer in making good time so we only stopped for gas and food. As I got older my grandparents moved from FL to Sun City, AZ. Same kind of trip just heading the opposite direction. The month before I got married my father decided he and I should make the trip ourselves, the trip out went okay but on the way back when it was my turn to drive I woke up underneath an overpass outside Amarillo, TX with the front of our vehicle just kissing the road barricade that blocked a concrete embankment. Luckily I guess I had the presence of mind to pull off the road before I fell asleep, but honestly I do not remeber a thing until I woke up. My father slept the whole time…

   posted by David on 5-5-2008 at 3:32 pm

5. On a trip from San Francisco to Longview, TX with my 5 month pregnant wife, we ran out of gas in the desert in Arizona. We had to wait 2 hours for a tow truck to bring us some gas so we could make it to the next exit. Upon starting our adventure again, I remarked, “Well, maybe running out of gas prevented us from getting in a wreck in the future..who knows?” So a couple of hours later we are in New Mexico and a rainstorm hits. The exact moment I think to myself, “Self, you better slow down or you’re going to hydroplane,” a guy goes flying past me and does just that. He hydroplaned, without notice, into the driver’s side of my car. We were going 70 and he was going about 75. If we hadn’t been pulling our life possessions in a UHAUL trailer, we probably would have slid off the road and died. But the trailer pulled us back onto the road and nothing was lost except for minutes off our lives sometime when we’re in our 70’s. You should have seen the look on our boxer’s face. He flipped out more than my wife did!

   posted by tommy on 5-5-2008 at 3:41 pm

6. I always thought that “swim across the Atlantic” bit was pretty cute. I bet they had to take it out due to legal reasons. Litigious Americans.

   My longest trip was from Lincoln, NE to Jacksonville, FL. It was awesome. I was 19 and with six other cars of college students. It was even fun when one of the cars broke down outside of a Waffle House in northern Georgia on Memorial Day. We broke down on the way back too, and spent four hours in a ditch outside of St. Joseph, Missouri. Good times. I’ve not been so terrified in my life as I was driving through Atlanta at 5:30 pm with my parents’ minivan loaded to the ceiling though. I definitely had never experienced that kind of traffic before and was certain I was going to die.

   I’ll break my record this summer when I move to Ithaca, NY. Too bad gas is twice as much now. :(

   posted by kate on 5-5-2008 at 3:44 pm

7. It’s a 15-hour drive from my home in Fostoria, OH to my summer camp in Waterford, ME, and one that my family did for about five of the ten summers I attended.

   It’s 18 hours from home to my grandfather’s condo in Jensen Beach, FL, where I roadtripped with three of my friends after high school graduation.

   It’s 9 hours from home to Washington, D.C. (3 times) but only 6 from my university to D.C. (this past weekend).

   posted by Laura R. on 5-5-2008 at 3:44 pm

8. When he was still only my boyfrien, my husband and I drove from Rougue River, OR to Santa Barbara, CA in about twelve hours, riding a storm the whole drive down. It was terrifying to drive between big rigs on the Grapevine with rain coming down in sheets. The best part was driving through the Frasier Park area, listening to Enigma, and trying desparately to stay awake. The distant lights of LA and the dead animal on the side of the road seemed like a scene from a bad movie.

   The most recent was a trip from San Diego to Santa Barbara (a drive that can take as few as three hours). It took six hours because we had thirteen jr high students with us. And when thirteen jr high students have to stop for a restroom break, it takes much longer than just five minutes. Ah, fieldtrips. . .

   posted by andrea on 5-5-2008 at 3:54 pm

9. The longest road trip I’ve driven is Bakersfield, CA to Virginia Beach, VA… which is 2,736 miles. I made that drive seven times when I was in the military and would drive home to visit family. I always drove it alone and averaged making the trip in about 50 hours.

   maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Bakersfield,+CA&daddr=Virginia+Beach,+VA&sll=22.105999,-51.152344&sspn=71.623371,163.828125&ie=UTF8&z=4

   posted by Jason! on 5-5-2008 at 3:58 pm

10. Due to relocation for a great job…my longest trip was (and probably will remain) Greensboro, NC to Las Vegas. Many days on the road in a Penske truck – so much fun….

    posted by Mel on 5-5-2008 at 4:01 pm

11. Longest road trip – I helped my brother move back to NJ from Northern California. We refer to it as ‘The Trip from Hell’. It included a broken drive train on the rental truck 5 miles from our start, an ice storm in Oklahoma City, sweating our a Federal Marshall checkpoint coming out of White Sands NM (fine time for my brother to tell me he had illegal fireworks in the truck). But it also included some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever laid eyes on and the most beautiful full moon I ever saw! It’s a beautiful country and I would love to do it again some day.

    posted by JaneM on 5-5-2008 at 4:02 pm

12. My longest road trip was Lake Tahoe, CA to Atlanta , GA. While google maps lists the shortest route on this trip as 2,438 miles, it shows our itinerary as 4,160 miles. We went through Oregon, Idaho, Wymonig, Montana, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia. We were on the road for a month, we figured that made a “suitable” road trip. My favorite story was having our tent peed on by a buffalo in Yellowstone NAtional Park. It was amazing to see that much of our country and it is a shame more people don’t get to do that.
    This was the second trip of this sort I had taken, the first was also to Atlanta and took me through Kansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada and Utah. Google maps lists it slightly over 3,200 miles.

    posted by Sean on 5-5-2008 at 4:04 pm

13. While driving from San Antonio, TX to Glens Falls, NY, we broke down in Hope , AR. While we did not know who Bill Clinton was, during the Reagen years, we all joked about Hopeless, AR.

    posted by gus on 5-5-2008 at 4:07 pm

14. Google maps is a little weak with international trips. There theoretically is a path from China to Europe. There would have to be, right? However according to google, it tends to be unable to even find paths from Germany to France…

    Longest I ever went on solo is an 18 hour-one sitting (ok, some gassing too) from Florida to Indiana. I also did a Boston to Florida in one haul with an ex girlfriend, in a Dodge Avenger (can’t recommend the girl or the car for such a trip), and also took a prolonged trip around the southwest over 4 months one time with so many miles logged on the car I can’t remember the number. A lot of long nights on that one.

    posted by Kinglink on 5-5-2008 at 4:11 pm

15. My longest drive was from California to Mobile, Alabama for Mardi Gras. My most interesting drive was when I was a kid, I was buried under a heap of pinatas in the backseat of a minivan driving across the Mexican border.

    posted by Lucky on 5-5-2008 at 4:16 pm

16. I’ve done many a long roadtrip — my parents were big on driving vacations, and they definitely passed that on to me.

    My parents took us all over the mountain west, west coast, mid-west, and we even did an east coast road trip one year.

    We used to embark on “Whirlwind Thanksgivings” where we would drive from Jackson, WY to Jenkins, MN (and back) which is 1,064 miles one way. In years we didn’t go to Minnesota we would drive round-trip from Jackson, WY to Santa Clara or Cucamonga, CA (950 miles and 912 miles one-way respectively). These trips were always straight-through drives with my parents taking turns driving and sleeping. We’d leave the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and return the Sunday after.

    As an adult, I have driven from Eugene, OR to Tijuana and back — that was done during a college Spring Break with many stops in between.

    I once moved from Nashville, TN to Jackson, WY and a friend flew out to road trip back with me. We drove from Nashville, TN to Savannah & Tybee Island, GA to Atlanta, through Birmingham, AL through Tupelo, MS to Memphis, TN and then from Memphis we drove on I – 40 through Oklahoma City, I – 35 up to Salina, KS and then I-70 into Denver, CO before heading to Steamboat Springs, CO to see my sister. From there we drove to Jackson, WY our final destination. That was a long one!

    Also long was the move out to Nashville from Jackson, WY. Although we took a more direct route that time.

    These days, I live in NYC and don’t have a car. I miss road tripping! My last long drives were from Salt Lake City to Jackson, WY and from NYC to Hope, Maine. Not super long by my personal standards, but a good chunk of time in the car.

    posted by Katie on 5-5-2008 at 4:19 pm

17. My longest roadtrip was from chicago to los angeles. Bur probably the craziest was “The Day Gatorade changed the world,” aka the day that terrorists supposidly had crazy bombs or whatever inside of water bottles. I was in Washington DC and on the day of my flight back to Chicago, i turned on the news and saw the alert. Then they showed the airport and there were lines going out the door. I figured “screw this!! if i drive, i wil probably make it home around the same time and i wont have to stand in line all day.” Plus, my best friend happened to be working in Lebanon, Pen. and was planning on flying home that day. So i called him up and we decided to drive back. so i took the 3 hour drive up to Lebanon, picked him up at the airport (he had to drop off his rental) and then proceded to make the 18 or so drive back to Chicago. Lucky for us, we were able to rock out in a convertable all the way back, plus, our company paid for all the food and gas!!!! Hooray for AMEX!!!! BOOO to terrorists and gatorade!!!

    posted by Andy on 5-5-2008 at 4:25 pm

18. Longest trip:

    Our Honeymoon- Summer ‘02

    My husband and I drove from Brady, TX (the geographical center of Texas) to Santa FE, NM, to Las Vegas, NV, to San Francisco, CA, to Portland, OR, to Vancouver, BC, to Laramie, WY, to Pueblo, CO, to Austin, TX.

    It took us about two weeks and we had a blast. We mostly camped in state parks and took the time to visit every national park we reasonably could get to including Grand Canyon, Zion, Death Valley, Yosemite, Crater Lake, Mt. St. Helens, and Little Big Horn on the anniversary of the massacre- we didn’t plan it that way, though, just stumbled upon it.

    We want to do it again when our child is older. He is one; I couldn’t imagine doing it with him now.

    posted by Lightlylilly on 5-5-2008 at 4:28 pm

19. My first (and worst) road trip was in 1972 going from Washington, DC to Disneyland and back in a 1972 Ford Country Squire Station Wagon with my parents, younger sister and one set of grandparents. We broke down twice, ran out of gas once, and my grandmother got food poisoning and was hosptialized in Fresno on our way to Yosemite.
    After that my dad bought a Winnebago. Every summer we took a three week trip from DC out west. Those were great. My parents loved it out west and we moved to Salt Lake City. Then we spent every vacation going back to DC to see relatives. We could make it from SLC to Baltimore in just under 48 hours just stopping for gas switching drivers every four hours.

    posted by Robert on 5-5-2008 at 4:34 pm

20. My now-husband and I drove from Austin, Tx to St. Louis, MO to visit my mom. That was no sweat. Then we continued on to Bloomington, IN to check out Indiana for grad school, then visited a friend in Springfield, OH all in one day. For our next leg, we trekked up to Ann Arbor, MI (for another grad school visit) then to Muskegon, MI, again, all in one day. After that, we stopped in Chicago before another pit stop at my mom’s in St. Louis. We ended the trip with a stop in Baton Rouge, LA for a friend’s wedding and FINALLY made it home to Austin. Not a bad trip since it we had plenty of stops, but it really sucked living out of a car/suitcase for 3 weeks.

    posted by Marie on 5-5-2008 at 4:42 pm

21. My longest was a 31-hour drive from Boston, MA to Corpus Christi, TX. We had a cat, a puppy, 7 boxes, and 3 bags stuffed into the backseat (well, the kitty’s carrier was lovingly secured away from all the bags, with multiple checks by me, and the puppy got to sit on my lap). I drove maybe five hours of it, my boyfriend did the rest.

    We stopped in some gas station in Pennsylvania. The restroom was the worst I’ve ever seen. I had to walk out of it three times before I was willing to sit on the seat, it must have been tar on the floor (I hope), and the toilet paper was kept in a hole in the wall. I’ve been to multiple countries in South America, and yet to come across a toilet that was worse than that one.

    I have relatives who were about to drive from Arkansas to Alaska. It would’ve taken them three days non-stop. They decided on a plane last minute because they didn’t want to have to drive through Canada. Surprisingly, it wasn’t because they would’ve had two small children in the backseat the whole trip.

    posted by Silva on 5-5-2008 at 4:46 pm

22. The Unalaska, AK to Southern Newfoundland, Canada should not really be considered a drive. The first 1000 or so miles has absolutely no road and takes 4 days on the M/V Tustumena in the North Pacific Ocean. The real driving starts in Homer, Alaska… which would still be a long drive to Newfoundland (~6,000 miles)!

    posted by Nick on 5-5-2008 at 4:53 pm

23. Longest one I’ve driven myself was 636 miles Napa, CA to St. Helens, OR, with all my worldly goods in the backseat of my Buick. Just as I was crossing the border, I got a phone call from a woman I knew in grad school who wanted to get together for coffee.

    Longest one I’ve been on was Napa, CA to the Grand Canyon via Anaheim and Las Vegas, in August with no air conditioning. Google Maps says it was 974 miles, but I’m sure that’s a conservative estimate.

    posted by Mary Sue on 5-5-2008 at 4:56 pm

24. In 2002, I believe it was, I drove from O’Fallon, MO (suburb of St. Louis) to New Orleans, LA…by myself! It’s about a 10 hour drive, survived thanks to a large quantity of mix CDs and many, many bottles of caffeine-laced beverages. The trip took a little longer than expected, though, when I made time to stop through Graceland. And when I arrived in NO, the friends I was meeting were just heading down to Bourbon Street. So I rolled into town, got my bags thrown on the hotel room bed, and was down on Bourbon Street not 15 minutes later. Ahh, to be young again…

    posted by SpaceMonkeyX on 5-5-2008 at 4:58 pm

25. My longest drive was from Colorado Springs to Muskegon, MI; about 1,200 miles. The vacation was actually twice that distance, broken up a bit… We went from South Dakota to Colorado Springs, stayed a week, then from Springs to Michigan, stayed a week, then back to SD. All that in a borrowed monster-sized Chevy Caprice wagon with a luggage pod on top and three kids (6, 4, 1) in the back seat. Narnia Chronicles Radio Theater tapes were a life saver that trip.

    posted by Dave on 5-5-2008 at 5:01 pm

26. My longest roadtrip was from Hastings, MI to Copper Harbor, MI it took 11 hours. Not bad for still staying within the state. No crazy stories just beautiful views.

    It seems more than coincedence that this subject came up today because 2 weeks from today my husband and I will be embarking on a very long road trip. Hastings, MI to Palmer, AK mapquest says it will take 64 hours. Hopefully we’ll just see some beautiful scenery without problems.

    posted by Ananda on 5-5-2008 at 5:05 pm

27. When I was in middle school, my family moved from Tampa, FL. to San Diego, CA. We couldn’t afford to fly there, so we had to drive it. A moving van moved all the big stuff, but my family and our pets all had to go in one car.

    We had to fit Seven people (myself, my parents, and my four siblings), 5 dogs, 3 birds and two cats all into a Chevy Lumina mini-van for the cross-country trek.

    The dogs in question were not small dogs either, they were all adults at full size. There was one Scottish Deerhound (very big dog) and four Saluki’s (about the size of a golden retreiver). The dogs had to lay down in the footwells of the car, which meant we did the whole drive sitting indian style. The cats were in small pet carriers so the dogs couldn’t kill them, and the birds were in their cages. Oh yeah, and did I mention that the Scottish Deerhound had really bad gas?

    We left on new years eve and drove through the southern states across through texas and on to California. The drive took us about 6 days, as we had to stop frequently to let the dogs and cats stretch and go to the bathroom.

    We got some very funny looks from people as we’d pull into a gas station and all of us, people and dogs and cats, would come flowing out of the car.

    No road trip I have ever taken since, and I have taken many, has quite compared to that one.

    posted by Patrick on 5-5-2008 at 5:16 pm

28. Hmm… let’s see. My name is Sheryl Hoover. I brought my brother, Frank (who’d want to be known as the highest regarded Proust scholar in the US) to stay with my family when he tried to kill himself; my husband Richard, who tries to extoll a self-help and self-improvement technique using nine steps to reach success but is actually a failure himself; my son Dwayne who has taken a vow of silence as a follower of Nietzsche and aims to be a jet pilot; Richard’s father Edwin who was sent away from the institution for elders Sunset Manor and is addicted in heroin; and our little daughter Olive… who has dreams of competing in a beauty pageant, hence the reason of our travel from Albuquerque, NM to Redondo Beach, California in a mechanically unsound old Volkswagen microbus.

    So, what could go *wrong*? Anong things, we forget Olive at a gas station pit stop, Grandpa dies of drug related issues, Dwayne discovers a snag in his plans, Olive’s routine etc. etc.

    Ohhhh – wait – this is the plot to Little Miss Sunshine! My bad… ;-)

    posted by Anonymous on 5-5-2008 at 5:41 pm

29. The summer after my freshman year of college, I drove from Austin, TX to Durham, NC by way of Los Angeles. You read that right — my brother was graduating from USC, so my mom picked me up in Texas and we drove to California and then back to our home in North Carolina. We took I-10 between Austin and LA, which took us through El Paso, Tuscon and some side trips throughout; the drive home we decided to travel through Las Vegas to I-70 (though significantly out of our way, it was a far more scenic drive) which took us through southern Utah (we drove through Zion Canyon, which was gorgeous), the Rockies, Topeka (where we stopped to pay homage to Brown v. Board), Independence MO (where the world headquarters for the Reform LDS Church are located), etc. It was a pretty kick-ass trip. Thank God my mom and I travel easily together.

    posted by Nora on 5-5-2008 at 5:41 pm

30. Ottumwa, Iowa to Orlando countless times. Philly to Des Moines a couple of times.

    The worst was Spring Break when I was in college – four of us drove to Disney and back and my car broke down on the way home. In Paducah, Kentucky. The tow truck driver’s name was Billy Ray, I kid you not. And the mechanic was Darryl. We had to spend the night in this crappy hotel and we were cranky, sick of each other, and feeling the aftershock of six days of drinking. Not. Good.

    Still have the car. It’s our junker now.

    posted by Stacy on 5-5-2008 at 5:44 pm

31. hrm… i’ve driven from toronto to vancouver through the US, and back, twice. I drove to new brunswick from toronto one day, and back from it the next – 16 hours straight each way. On saturday morning i’m driving from toronto to ottawa, and back, the same day, and then on monday i’m turning around and driving to Santa Fe, staying for a week, and driving home.

    Pity my honda.

    posted by Lerren on 5-5-2008 at 6:05 pm

32. Longest drive so far is from LA to San Diego, and then back…

    …BUT,
    near the end of this month I’m driving solo from LA to Albany, NY. I plan to take 5 days, but I’m also going to see people and places on the way, so it’s less wimpy.

    posted by PeteRepeat42 on 5-5-2008 at 6:26 pm

33. My wife and I had just finished visiting her parents in Sequim, Washington headed home to Ogden, Ut. We got to Jerome, ID and a snow storm hit. Other than the cars stopping ON the Freeway to scrape their windshields the trip went without a hitch, until I realized that I had missed our turn off where I-84 and I-86 split. The signs had been covered with snow. We’re now headed to Pocatello adding an additional 6 hours on our already 12 hour drive.

    posted by Matt on 5-5-2008 at 6:32 pm

34. Yorktown, VA to Miami, FL…1000 miles in 13 hours….that’s my claim to fame…

    posted by Kevin McDonald on 5-5-2008 at 8:02 pm

35. My longest drive was from Molalla, OR to Homer, AK. According to GoogleMaps, it’s 2,778 miles, or 2 days and 5 hours straight through. Yeah, right. If it’s not winter, it’s construction season, with huge delays. But the construction workers were all great, especially one outside of White Horse, Yukon. The craziest thing that happened to us, though, is probably when I was reading our Guideposts incorrectly and directed the driver through the middle of a town of about 30,000 people. We were in a 28′ motorhome trailing a pickup. Things were fine, though, until I directed them to a narrow, one-lane wooden bridge that crossed a viciously high river. We couldn’t turn around, and so just prayed and drove. All of the other drivers parked way back and looked on in awe.

    posted by Manda on 5-5-2008 at 8:19 pm

36. I’ve been on heaps of road trips! When I very young, my family relocated from Connecticut to Oklahoma. Every other year or so, we’d make the trip back to Connecticut in a huge Suburban. My brother and I would have plenty of room to play in the back section while the 4 adults with us would be comfortably seated in the front. We stopped along the way, so the trek took 3 days each way.

    In later years, I moved to Pennsylvania to go to College, and drove back to Oklahoma almost every summer by myself. The first time I did it, I took 2 weeks and explored a few cities on the way.

    After that, I went straight through with only one stop in Indiana for the night (and just a couple stops for gas – I had a Honda Civic!) – it’s a 16-hour drive.

    The best road trip by far, though, is the one I went on with my friend Darrel in New Zealand. We explored the South Island over seven days. The trip was so awesome I moved here two years later. =)

    posted by Dawn on 5-5-2008 at 9:00 pm

37. Two long drives. First was a family trip from Victoria,B.C. to Tampa, mapquested at 3,245 miles. Don’t remember how long it took us, just remember getting so sick and tired of I90. Was so relieved once we turned south.
    My longest solo trip was San Pedro Sula, Honduras to Winnipeg,Manitoba, 3,553 miles. With the cautions of my friends “don’t
    drive at night” ,”take care”, “watch your back” in my thoughts I admit I was very nervous to
    drive thru some of the most dangerous countries in Central America. In 10
    days I passed thru Honduras, Guatemala, Belieze, Mexico and the USA. With a
    sense of relief of having survived the trip without incident, I arrived in
    Winnipeg late Thursday evening. Friday, I spent unloading my truck
    (a Dodge Ram 1500, year 2000) of funiture and other personal effects. Saturday morning I discovered that my truck had been STOLEN !!! Oh, the irony, having come
    from a lawless country and making the trip safely to my illusion of a safe
    home country is palpable! As a courtesy to these countries I feel that they
    should be notified to publish a “tourist advisory” for their citizens that may visit Winnipeg.

    posted by MagicBoy on 5-5-2008 at 10:00 pm

38. My senior year at Notre Dame, my roommate and I drove from South Bend to Tampa for spring break. The trip down was pretty uneventful — about 16 hours. The trip back — we ran into a “storm of the century” near Atlanta and spent three days in a hotel in Cartersville, Georgia (two of them sleeping on the lobby floor).

    posted by Paul on 5-5-2008 at 10:09 pm

39. In 1968 when I was 9 and my sister was 7, my dad drove us and our mom cross country from NYC to Anaheim, CA (Disneyland). We had a 1960 Plymouth station wagon that we painted white and covered with flourescent colored flower power decals. We made it there in 3 days, stopping just for quick pit stops. We had a cooler of food so we didn’t stop much except for dinner. We drove most of the way along Route 66. We saw our first hippies. Nothing exciting except we lost our portable toilet along the Will Rogers Highway in OK. And we saved a young indian man’s life when his truck flipped over near our campsite in Oak Creek Canyon.

    Oh, and we did it with 4 8-track tapes:
    Simon and Garfunkle
    Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass
    The Buckinghams
    Paul Revere and the Raiders

    posted by Sue on 5-5-2008 at 10:15 pm

40. Sorry – it was 4 4-track tapes

    posted by Sue on 5-5-2008 at 10:21 pm

41. If you look at the first longest trip (the Unalaska one), a ferry is used considerably for the first part of the trip, so that one would also not be car only, insofar as a boat is carrying the car.

    posted by L on 5-5-2008 at 10:24 pm

42. My longest drive was actually a post-graduation circuit that startes as a joke over a few beers. We were graduating from the ROTC and getting our commissions and, over a few beers, realized we had never seen the country we were about to serve. Three of the seven of us had delayed entries and so we decided to see the USA. We made 44 states in 60 days and have pictures of my childhood GI Joe “action figure” (”It’s NOT A DOLL!!”) in front of monumnets in Washington, DC, on the bridge in Key West, in a corn field (about 30 different times), in front of Mt. Rushmore, on Alcatraz and in front of the Alaskan pipeline. Even after 2 months straight of living in a moving station wagon we still remained friends afterward. However, none of us can eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, listen to Gordon Lightfoot or Mickey’s wide mouths anymore.

    posted by Gerald on 5-5-2008 at 10:30 pm

43. Helped one of my nieces and her medical school attending husband move in August of 1999. Drove from Northern Utah to Missouri and from Missouri to Detroit before turning around and driving from Detroit to Utah. Mapquest measures that out at: 3444 miles. This was the year an F2 tornado tore through downtown Salt Lake City. We were sitting in a hotel just outside of Detroit, watching the news when I saw my other niece standing with debris behind a reporter, waving at the camera. At least we knew she was all right.

    posted by N Stone on 5-5-2008 at 10:50 pm

44. In the summer of 2006 I drove (with my mother and younger sister) from Shelby, NC to Yuma, AZ (2178 mi according to Google). After that, we drove from Yuma to Greeley, CO (1150 mi), and then from Greeley back to Shelby (1559 mi). That’s a giant 4887 mile long triangle around the country. With my mom and my sister, and without a single cigarette.

    Never. Again.

    posted by AMT on 5-5-2008 at 11:59 pm

45. It’s not the longest road trip I’ve ever been on, but the most memorable is this: we were driving from Everett, WA to Anaheim, CA (Disneyland, of course) and we stopped at this run-down looking gas station to fill up and use the restroom. We ended up doing neither, because I walked into the women’s restroom and there was a bathtub in there. In the bathtub was a mannequin, who was missing an arm and her head. Backed out, hopped in the car, and took off as quickly as we could. I wish I hadn’t been so tired because I would have tried to remember the name of the place, just so I could always remember to never go back there.

    posted by Jenna on 5-6-2008 at 12:26 am

46. Here’s a trip for your books. I relocated for work and traveled last November from Columbia, SC to Fairbanks, AK. Instead of taking boring pictures of me in front of different attractions, I focused the trip on the Slinky that I kept on my desk. I documented the trip on a blog: http://www.yukonben.blogspot.com

    posted by Ben on 5-6-2008 at 12:33 am

47. About 10 yrs ago we moved from Norfolk, VA to Bremerton, WA. In a BRAND NEW hertz moving truck. A 24 footer and towing my little p/u behind. The rental had brand new shocks, and yep, that means tight shocks. It was nice, it was clean, but only a single bench seat for the 4 of us. That being, 2 adults, a 6 yr old lab,(granted she was the runt of the litter), and a 10 year old cat. Did I mention the very tight shocks? Anyway, We drove across I-40 and then cut down into AZ to see family then turned right back around and headed back up to I-40, finally on our way to WA! We got to Bremerton, unloaded the truck, turned it in and within a day headed back down the road in my little B2000 pickup back to Arizona. Again,’us’would be 2 grown adults, a 6 year old lab and a 10 year old cat..no backseat, and a front seat about half as wide as the moving truck, but amazingly enough, a bit more comfortable. Needless to say, we were a very close group of beings after the trip. This all took place in a 9 day period. Ah! Good times! In fact I just watched the video about 2 months ago thinking I would erase the tapes for another use..heck no! It almost made me sore watching us drive down those patchy roads(in every state)..and yes again I will mention those bastard shocks!…but the footage was actually very moving. Heading coast to coast through this beautiful country was amazing; the drastic, wonderful differences. Having said that, I don’t know that I would do it again. Perhaps in an old beat up U-Haul or something…I don’t know…new shocks, no shocks, which is worse?

    posted by shaker on 5-6-2008 at 1:51 am

48. Hi from Old Europe! My mom and I are German and my stepfather is from Italy, and when I was a child (back in the 70s and 80s) we used to drive all the way from our hometown in northern Germany to the southernmost tip of Sicily to visit the family. That’s about 2500km or 1500 miles one way. We used to split that into 3 day trips and spend the nights at motels. One of our regular stops was in Pompei, and I spent at least a dozen of nights there as a child without ever seeing the famous roman ruins, although the entrance was just opposite our motel! My parents always wanted to drive right on.

    A few years ago I did the trip again with my fiancee. And this time we spent a day in Pompei, so I finally made my long-desired visit to the ancient roman town.

    posted by Kasmeneo on 5-6-2008 at 1:59 am

49. I had been off work for a time and was due to head back to work so I figured I should take advantage of my last few days left. My dog, Missy, and I took off from AZ on a Tuesday and arrived in LA on Wednesday. We stopped for a couple of days, had a great time with friends then drove on to Pensacola, FL to completley surprise one of my old miltary friends. She had no idea that I was coming, and we completely surprised her. Missy and I spent the next 4 days in heaven. Lots of rain that we don’t get at home, fabulous food, and laughter/love beyond anything. We then turned around and headed from whence we came. Stopped again in LA, one more good visit, then we were on our way across what felt like the oblivion. We stopped and listened to the singing sands, and saw the most amazing sunrise after one hell of a storm…yeah…good stuff. I had put 3421 on the rental car in 8 days. Missy and I never had so much fun. And it was our last trip together. That one I would do again in a heartbeat.

    posted by shaker on 5-6-2008 at 2:17 am

50. My wife and i drove from providence to Del Ray Beach FL (1500 miles)for her sister’s wedding….in July…with our 3month old son…our 16 month old daughter…on the way back we had our 10yr old niece with us….a little crazy, but a good trip none the less…i’ve driven to florida and back 6 times now and enjoed every trip…

    posted by ziggy on 5-6-2008 at 7:03 am

51. My best friend and I have taken several road trips together. Chicago to PA, SC to FL amongst others. We get lost on every trip. Even the ones to Blockbuster. The SC to FL trip was the most insane; 4 girls and one guy in a Toyota that really only held 4.

    posted by Joanna on 5-6-2008 at 9:09 am

52. Longest drive was non-stop from Cheyenne, WY to Camden, SC. I received word that a relative passed away in the morning after arriving at work. I worked the full day, then packed up and drove for 30 hours (1,700 miles).

    By the time I got to the NC border my eyes were literally burning. If not for my wife keeping me awake with Trivia Pursuit questions (excellent roadtrip time consumer BTW) , I would not have made it and probably ended up in a ditch.

    The return trip was done in two days, with a stop at a hotel in Illinois. During the night it snowed about 10″ and froze every lock on our van. The back door never (ever) opened again, and the side door could only be opened from the inside after breaking it to get in.

    posted by Joe King on 5-6-2008 at 9:21 am

53. I moved last summer from San Diego, California, to Frederick, Maryland…just myself and my cat, in a minivan, with all my belongings. To her credit, she was an excellent companion, and so were my books on tape. I was supposed to go with my roommate, but she backed out at the (literally) last second due to an illness. I had driven across country before, but with three other people. The thought of going by myself was initially frightening, but once I got out on the road, it was one of the best experiences I ever had.

    I recommend solo cross-country driving to anyone!

    posted by Lauren on 5-6-2008 at 9:39 am

54. I drove from Knoxville, Tennessee to Denver, Colorado straight- with my car mate driving for one hour while I slept crazy fun- on the road inspired madness-

    posted by adele on 5-6-2008 at 10:10 am

55. Okay, ever since I was six, I had lived in a town near Houston, TX. Partway through the first semester of my junior year of high school, my dad got a job in Harrisburg, PA. My mom (and I) said, no way, you can go, but we are staying until the end of the semester. I personally was pissed, I wanted to stay to finish high school; I was finally fitting in, and I was sooo close! But of course it didn’t work out. (My parents did let me choose what school we found a house near, my two sisters were switching schools after the next semester anyway.) When my dad went to Harrisburg, he drove his truck, and it took him two days. He flew back and helped us finish packing. We were loading up the moving truck, on the last day of 2002, in Baytown, TX, wearing t-shirts and shorts. IT took us four days to get the ~1400 miles from Baytown to Harrisburg. Our truck (a Budget) passed precisely one moving vehicle the entire trip: a disabled eighteen-wheeler that almost wasn’t moving. The truck was loud and bumpy, so I couldn’t read or listen to my CD player. But I spent one day in the crowded car with my sick mom, screaming baby brother, and two annoying sisters, and promptly decided that the truck was better. We had to gradually add layers as we went, there was snow on the ground from about Virginia on. And our hands were chapping so badly that I eventually resorted to seeing if Carmex works on skin (blissful relief! – for a few seconds). My dad wanted to stop as little as possible, so the stretches seemed superhuman.

    Even after all of that, I decided that I liked the trip alright (sleeping in hotels, even cheap ones, is always cool) except we couldn’t end up back where we started.

    My parents ended up making a round trip a year and a half later to take me back to live with my grandparents to go to college in Texas, and my mom flew back to drive me back to Harrisburg a semester later. (Stuff happened, college wasn’t working out, c’est la vie.) I don’t do highways if I can avoid it, and the first time was also a vacation/family visit, and the second time, my car was in iffy shape, and my mom wanted to be there in case anything happened.

    I ride with my parents on long trips occasionally, to Baltimore or Virginia, but to this day, the longest drive I will make is the 25-min-maximum trip to Hershey.

    I don’t even want to think about what happens when I transfer in a couple of years to a University farther away…

    posted by peacefulvalley on 5-6-2008 at 10:35 am

56. To L and Chris:

    The longest trip, from Unalaska to southern Newfoundland, would require more than one ferry trip. Since Newfoundland is an island, and is quite a distance from the mainland, there is a ferry crossing necessary from North Sydney, NS, to either Port-aux-Basques, NL or Argentia, NL–the shortest ferry trip is to Port-aux-Basques, and is (if memory serves) at least eight hours.

    posted by Adam on 5-6-2008 at 10:48 am

57. My wife and I drove our family from London, Ontario to Cocoa Beach, Florida and then on to Key West. Total distance from London to Key West is 1660 miles (2670 kilometres). We drove straight through to Cocoa Beach and then on to Key West two days later.

    posted by Andrew on 5-6-2008 at 12:04 pm

58. My (first) senior year of college, I went on my first missions trip to New Orleans to help with Katrina clean-up. Fifteen of us from my college church piled into two vans and drove from Muncie to Vincennes, where we hooked up with another college church group, spent the night and piled onto a big blue bus with a stick shift at about four in the morning and booked it down to New Orleans. We spent a lot of time on the bus that week because volunteers were responsible for their own transportation to and from the work sites, and on the way back to Indiana we ended up stuck at a fairly nice gas station for about an hour and a half while we found a new part for the bus’ engine. Good times.

    The next year we went without the other group and rode vans all the way down. Also good times, although twice I ended up standing outside a restroom bathroom squeezing hand sanitizer on people’s hands as they came out because there was no soap (I always carry some in my pocket on road trips).

    Then there was St. Louis trip where I fell down the stairs and sprained my ankle about two hours before we left … that was fun.

    posted by Joanna on 5-6-2008 at 12:20 pm

59. I have driven from Virginia to California and then from California to North Carolina one year later. 5-day trips, the first made with a small UHaul trailer attached to the back of my ‘02 Jetta (whose shocks have never been the same). The trip from VA to CA involved one tranq’d-up cat in the backseat; the trip from CA to NC involved two.

    This is what happens when you fall in love over the Internet. Consider it a cautionary tale. Oh well, we’re getting married on Saturday so all we need to worry about now is how we’re going to afford the plane tickets for an annual Christmas trip back to California to see his folks :)

    posted by Rachael on 5-6-2008 at 12:22 pm

60. Longest trip…San Jose, CA to Bearsville, NY for Jewelstock. Trip out (with a fellow EDA) in 47 hours. Two days in Bearsville (and surrounding area), then back. Trip back took a little longer, 52 hours, with a side trip to Valley Forge to drop off someone who got there and needed a ride home. Google Jewelstock and recall the power of the internet before myspace, facebook and online predators.

    posted by Tom on 5-6-2008 at 1:50 pm

61. My longest road trip was a school trip to Idaho for the Lionel Hampton jazz Festival during senior year. I live on the Northwest coast of Washington so it took the better part of a day just getting there with a whole 2 bathroom stops along the way.

    Driving across two states with a bus-load of annoyingly loud choir and band members = not fun. If my mp3 player hadn’t held out the whole trip I would have gone insane.

    posted by heather on 5-6-2008 at 2:21 pm

62. Longest road trip was when I was 10 years old and our family drove from Coral Gables, Fl to Kelowna, BC (approx 3100 mi) with a tent trailer. There were 7 of us (parents, a pair of 2 years old twins, a 7 year old smart ass and a 15 year old heartbroken over the boyfriend she left behind. Not to mention the dog.) Ah yes. It was a leisurely journey with many side trips and daily tantrums that ended each day with us camping, all sharing a tent trailer together. Good times. . .

    posted by Michelle on 5-6-2008 at 2:28 pm

63. I wish to talk of the longest solo driving trip I have ever taken, though I have taken longer, just with more people to help. My longest solo drive was from Daytona Beach, Florida to Norfolk, Virginia, on the day that Florida bike week ended. So, a usual 12 or so hour trip turned into about 17 hours, about 7 of them filled with stupid drunks on Interstate 95 causing an accident LITERALLY every 2-3 miles.

    posted by Celeste on 5-6-2008 at 3:13 pm

64. My husband and I drove down with our two dogs from our home in Eagle River, Alaska to Austin, Tx to be with family for a few months. By the time we wound around and visited some great spots, we had traveled for 16 days and 5650 miles-We camped most of the way-braving herds of buffalo in a campsite, mosquitoes the size of hummingbirds that attacked our eyeballs, cranky Canadian border guards, and crazy cold in the Yukon but there were a million amazing things-the scenery and wildlife-unbelievable as well as some darn good brew from a little brewery in Whitehorse, Yukon.
    We are heading back in a couple of weeks and plan to take the pacific coast hwy! YEAH! Life is an adventure…

    posted by AKAlice on 5-6-2008 at 9:35 pm

65. The Australian one also another 445km ferry trip – the mainland is a lot more than 3km away from Tasmania! The first ferry is just across a river.

    posted by Alex on 5-6-2008 at 10:37 pm

66. My longest drive, sharing the load, was from Vancouver to Bennington, Vermont, about three days and change, IIRC. No hotels, high speed, sleep while the other drives.

    My longest drive alone was from Sacramento, CA to Cheyenne, Wyoming, about 18 hours.

    The funniest thing happened on the Vancouver to Bennington trip. From the start, all the way to Winnipeg, we drove Canada-1. Canada-1 is essentially a straight line from Calgary to Western Ontario. (At one point going west to east in Alberta, you hit this right-angle turn right and a straightaway south to join up with the east-to-west leg of the highway. When they built the road, two crews worked from opposite directions. but when they met they were a couple of miles north and south of each other, so they had to build an extensine to join the two.)

    My girlfriend’s car, at the time, could reach speeds of 130+ mph, and we drove that fast routinely. I’ve actually driven across Canada-1 three times, this time, once from Vermont to Calgary and once from Calgary to Vermont. During these three trips, we saw 4 police cars.

    One night, we were in Western Manitoba and my girlfriend was driving, full speed down the straight, largely flat road. All at once, coming straight for us was the largest porcupine I have ever seen. With his bristles he stood a good 2 1/2 to 3 foot tall, huge, I’m not exaggerating, in fact I might me a bit conservative in my estimate. He was trundling down the middle stripe and he wasn’t getting out of our way.

    She slammed on the brakes and we went spinning down the highway, completely out of control, we must have done about five or six 360’s before we ended up in the grass off the road. Lucky for us it was pretty flat and we didn’t flip.

    The funny thing about it is, I remember vividly, that during one of the spins around we got to see the porcupine from behind, still hulking down the middle of that line as if nothing had happened. It was a hysterical moment.

    posted by John M. on 5-7-2008 at 6:34 am

67. My longest drive ever was from Northern California to Massachusetts… via Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South and North Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut… for a total of 6,743 miles!! My best friend and I took a month to complete this journey and it was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life! There really are some amazing places in this country.

    The longest continuous drive I’ve done was essentially from western Montana to Vermont with no stops longer than an hour or so. Google maps puts it at 2,574 miles. That was a lot tougher. I highly recommend taking your time if you have the opportunity (unfortunately I did not in this situation)

    posted by Kelco on 5-8-2008 at 8:04 pm

68. For the military I had to move from Twentynine Palms, California to Kittery, Maine and I was given about 8 days to do so. Which doesn’t sound bad but it was with 3 animals and my wife in a seperate car. 2 cats and a dog in a compact car and a regular cab truck end up with loads of hair, and a few dog “accidents.

    posted by Adam on 5-13-2008 at 6:15 am

Comment