Comments on: What’s Your Longest Drive?

By: Adam

Adam — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:15:42 +0000

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.

By: Kelco

Kelco — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:04:33 +0000

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)

By: John M.

John M. — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:34:30 +0000

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.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 07 May 2008 03:37:34 +0000

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.

By: AKAlice

AKAlice — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:35:35 +0000

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…

By: Celeste

Celeste — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:13:13 +0000

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.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:28:40 +0000

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. . .

By: heather

heather — Tue, 06 May 2008 19:21:05 +0000

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.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:50:20 +0000

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.

By: Rachael

Rachael — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:22:55 +0000

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 :)