I have been gone on vacation for the last two weeks. Did you miss me?
You probably did not even notice I was gone. I wrote all my posts ahead of time and scheduled them so that things would pretty much be the same around here. If you have emailed me or left a comment and I have not gotten back to you, it is because I pretty much disconnected for most of the last two weeks.
I have not disconnected from the internet and my site for awhile, and it was just what I needed. I am a little behind now on everything from email to laundry, but plan to work on catching up over the next few days.
Today I thought I would share how we traveled the last few weeks, because I really do not think we travel like most people. Here is why.
We drove from NE Oklahoma to the far NW corner of Oregon. Now the driving the 2000 miles is not really the crazy part, lots of people travel cross country to see family and friends. I think the crazy part may be how we travel.
And the even crazier part might be the fact that this is not the first time we have done this.
You see we don’t stop. I mean we stop, but our stops are less than 10 minutes each, most around 7 minutes.
We get gas for the car, use the restrooms, and are back in the car in no time. We sleep and eat in the car. And yes I am very thankful for portable DVD players, iPhones, and iPods.
We left the Tulsa area at 5:30 am CST on June 21st and arrived in far NW Oregon on the 22nd, at 10:00 am Pacific Time.
We traveled north to Kansas, went west at Salina, and headed to Denver. At Denver we went north to Cheyenne and then across to Salt Lake.
We went up into Idaho and through Boise. Into Oregon and then we followed the Columbia River until it almost ended.
And we did it all in 30.5 hours. Yes, yes we did. We traveled 2,000 miles in 30.5 hours. Like I said we are kind of crazy when it comes to traveling…..
And then we reversed our route and did it all over again on Thursday and made it back to Oklahoma yesterday afternoon.
Like I said, I don’t think we travel like most people. Or am I wrong? Is there anyone else out there that are crazy travelers like us? 🙂
I will share a few more photos and details from the trip next week, but right now I am off to recover from our crazy cross county trip.
This is exactly how we travel. We’ve done it this way since we were married 19 years ago.
Well I am glad we are not the only ones. 🙂 We got married and moved to OK 18 years ago, and have traveled this way to visit my family ever since.
This is how we travel too.
I am glad we are not the only ones. 🙂
thats the best way to travel…..no time wasted on sleepin….we’ve done non stop trip to Smoky Mtns from Mid Mo…to New York twice, Ohio, Ark, Texas…..we love traveling in the middle of the night…less hassle, less headache, less traffic…you do it that way enough with your kids and it becomes what they expect…..
Exactly the reasons we do it. We don’t mind traveling at night at all and agree it is less hassle. Our kids have always traveled this way, so they are used to it for sure. 🙂
My dad did this when we were growing up. I’ve almost fully recovered. Almost. I will be praying for your children. 😉
Glad you’re home safe and sound. I missed you!
Mine, too. Now I’m a “grown up”, and I make my husband stop at night. I like my outside picnic lunches, too!
We do too!!
That is pretty much the way we do things… 🙂 A couple summers ago, my husband had a workshop in Virginia (he’s a science teacher – we spend summers going to workshops for him). So, we make our way from Great Falls, MT to Virginia (via Cheyenne ). After a week there, we drive up to Connecticut (visit daughter-in-law at her summer internship). That stop included a day trip to NYC & the Museum of Natural History. We made our way back home, stopping at Ashfall State Park (NE- dinosaur digs), and of course, another stop in Cheyenne w/ the grandbabies. It was a great 3-week trip!
We love to travel by car, but try to plan a route that will take us through the sights along the way. We like to get out and explore. We don’t usually have as much time at our final destination when we arrive there, but we have a grand adventure getting there! We have seen the Grand Canyon (twice), the Painted Dessert, Arches National Park, Pike’s Peak, Meteor Crator Park, Sunset Crater Park, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Death Valley, the Hoover Dam….I don’t know what else. The next road trip will be toward the East Coast! Time to see DC and Boston!
WE traveled like that for years but have sworn it off the last 5-7 years as we have gotten older. So for the first 20 years of our marriage we definitely did! We lived in Texas/Oklahoma 10 years and our family lived in FL(some in central FL and some in south FL) so it was between 24-30 hours travel time. We would leave around dinner time one night and usually got there by late evening the next day. Most of that was before Ipods/Dvd players/etc. The kids would usually go to sleep about 3 hours into the trip and then sleep til morning. We would usually stop for a picnic lunch to let them out to run around for about 30 minutes and then sometimes repeat that at dinner depending on how they were doing. After 10 years of that we moved to VA and the trip was only 15 hours then so much nicer 🙂
We do and we don’t. Since I’m a single mom, I don’t have anyone to switch off with for the driving. So if we were to travel such a long distance, we’d have to stop to spend the night somewhere. The most I’ll drive is about 12 hours, and we’ll do what you do – stop for gas and bathroom, but we’ll also stop so I can stretch my legs (so we usually make one of the bathroom stops at a rest area where we can walk around safely).
Since there are only 3 of us, I can easily fit a cooler in the front passenger seat, but we’ll either have the get the food/drinks when we’re already stopped (gas station, rest area), or I’ll have to pull over to get to the stuff inside.
I am so glad that you both like to travel this way. As for me, I wouldn’t go if I had to do it this way. 🙂 But since you both are good with it – good for you! I’m glad you enjoyed your trip!
My in-laws live in NW Washington (state) and we live in western NY. We have taken 2 road trips now, out to see them. (We have visited more than twice, but we flew when there were only 2 kids, with 5….forget it) We have planned our trips so that we can visit various sites along the way and stop to enjoy picnic meals, at least some of the time. There have also been segments of the trip, typically the tail end when we are rushing to get back home in time for my husband to return to work, where we have driven straight through the night. In our experience, many of our kids (and our own) best memories have been made during our stops. The times we drive straight through, people are not sleeping as efficiently and tend to be a bit grumpier, so needless to say, those make for the less than pleasant memories on the trips. Having said all that, when we take trips that would be achievable with driving through only one night (NY to WA takes a minimum of 2-3, depending on weather conditions along the way), we would probably do it, at least one way. But, we still really enjoy seeing all that our country has to offer (from kitschy roadside attractions to national parks and places like The Corn Palace), so we might not 🙂
I traveled this way almost yearly from VA to IA with my parents while growing up. I loved traveling and really enjoyed it! We actually did it 4 times in one year when my grandparents were sick and passing away. We’d get books-on-tape from the Library, and I loved reading and playing little traveling games with my parents. When I was real young, of course I had to use the bathroom more frequently, and I remember having a port-a-potty in the back of the van to use, lol. 😉
My Hubby always liked to travel this we. We used to go to California from Washington state basically without stopping. We have not done this in years. Recently, however, we took a road trip and travels about 5,000 miles in 2 weeks. We went south through Utah and Zion National Park, then to the Grand Canyon, on to Tucson, east to Carlsbad Caverns, up and across north Texas to Arkansas, north through Branson, MO, and up to South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore, then west through Yellowstone and part of Montana and Idaho back home. It was lots of fun, but I can relate if you are now tired.
We always travel this way, and live to tell about it and repeat it. One of the kids was carsick the whole way home on our last trip, so there were a few unscheduled stops.
Can’t wait until we can get it down to 7 minute stops. We do ours in about 11 minutes (but the 4 yr old really slows us down).
We have traveled with sickness and that is no fun….. This trip is the quickest our stops have been. The kids getting older has helped that a lot, so the older they get the easier it gets. Plus, they get used to traveling this way and it is all they know and they don’t think anything of it. 🙂
We’ve travelled like this for the 38 years of our marriage. In the past few months, we’ve had two trips from Omaha to Tampa, Florida, one to Ocean City, Maryland, several to southeast Iowa and one coming up to Las Vegas. I must admit, however, we have actually made detours if there were places we wanted to see near our driving route!
Some of my fondest memories are the “crazy” car trips as a child! We would drive from AZ to IL every summer in 29.5 hours when speed limits were a lot lower ; ) It was always a challenge to see how quickly all 6 girls/women could get in and out of the restroom before my dad pumped the gas, paid and used the restroom himself. None of us wanted to be the last in line because the car was always moving towards the exit with us RUNNING to get in. I can still hear my grandma, “don’t flush the next person will”…I don’t know that it saved a lot of time but whatever worked. lol
We do something similar. My girls and I use the restroom and my husband pumps gas and then my son and him use the restroom. We love to see who makes it back to the car first. We can almost always beat them back to the car. 🙂 I hope my kids look at it as fond memories when they grow up. I am hoping we have not ruined them for traveling. 🙂
Like the others, we do it the same way. We drove from Detroit to Badlands, SD nonstop, well it was supposed to be nonstop, but at 1 am (took over at 4 pm) I woke up my husband to finish the drive. After an hour of narrow lanes of road construction I woke up in the parking lot of a hotel.
When I was single and drove alone I would drive for as long as I could then find a campground for the night. I like it that way cuz then you have more time where you want to be plus I love to drive and see the country.
I don’t do it on a regular basis, but that’s exactly how I traveled in 1977 to come home for Christmas after I moved to Utah from NJ. I got two other girls who wanted to go home and we split the driving from Salt Lake City to just the other side of Philadelphia. We followed I-80 until the quad cities where we headed south to pick up I-70. The only toll road we were on was the PA turnpike. It took us about 54 hours.
I did it again in 1996. I was married and divorced with two kids by then and learned that my mother had almost died the previous Thanksgiving (my father thought he shouldn’t “worry” me.) I decided it was time to come home. I drove with my two kids (my son was 15) and our two cats from Sierra Vista, AZ to (again) just across from Philadelphia in NJ. I left Feb 5 and got home Feb 11. I drove straight through until a couple hours before Dallas Ft. Worth where I taught my son to drive stick shift and let him drive the long straight highway so I could get a break. I took over again as we approached the city and didn’t stop until Memphis. I had enough money for one night in a cheap motel where we could shower and really sleep. I stopped again in Louisville, KY, to see a friend where we stayed a couple more nights. From there, it was a long drive home. I tried to sightsee along the way because I was pretty sure I’d never be along that way again, but only if the sight was right off the highway. We had everything we owned packed on my little Subaru – we looked like a tiny band of gypsies! But, we made it fun and had a blast.
yes, you’re crazy…LOL…actually my hubby would probably like this type of travel…not me…I like to stop, enjoy the scenery etc…on another note..you were in my neck of the woods….we live in SW washington on the border of Portland.
I stumbled across this post from your more recent traveling post. We travel like this as well. DH and I take turns driving while the other naps.
I am glad we are not the only ones. 🙂 A lot of people think we are crazy to travel like this, but you get where you are going so much faster and it saves you money not staying in hotels.