MetaChat - Greetings from California!

MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

08 September 2006

Greetings from California! Hi bunnies! I'm on vacation! In California! I drove! From Houston! I left early Wednesday morning! That day I drove 1000 miles! Yesterday I drove 500 more miles! I never want to drive again! But I am on vacation! And I love vacations! Hi bunnies! I'm just a little punchy 2nd-day drunk right now! But I am on a driving vacation!

What's the longest distance you've driven in one swell foop, and how did it affect you??

post by: WolfDaddy at: 14:40 | 31 comments

And I didn't do a more inside! Hope me? Hi bunnies! I'm on vacation!

posted by WolfDaddy 08 September | 14:41

Hi! Hi!

I drove cross-country by myself and averaged about 500 miles a day. my car was teeny and noisy and didn't go very fast, so although 500 miles doesn't seem like an incredible amount, it was pretty rough.

One evening, whilst checking into a hotel, I realized that I was shaking pretty hard. The next day I drove less.

Happy vacation!

posted by Specklet 08 September | 14:44

December 2004 I quit my job and went on a 6-week, 12,000-mile solo road trip. The longest single day of which was just under 1000 miles-- LA to Portland, OR.

posted by dersins 08 September | 14:54

I drove from Austin to California in a 26' U-Haul with a car trailer towed behind. It was so stressful, I don't remember anything about the trip, except for a weird little souvenir stand in Arizona and the fact that the truck's transmission burped a bit on a big hill near San Bernardino.

I so fucking win.

posted by mudpuppie 08 September | 14:55

I have driven from Pa to Denver, from Denver to SLC, and from SLC to San Francisco. Alone.
I have driven from Pa to Ca with another driver along.
I have driven from PA to the White Mountains of NH.
And lots of other shorter trips...

posted by getoffmylawn 08 September | 14:56

Oh, and although the 1000-mile day exhausted me, in general all that solo driving (the majority of it NOT on interstates) was profoundly relaxing and meditative.

posted by dersins 08 September | 14:56

Oh, and I forgot to add that my bitchy ex was riding shotgun.

I soooo fucking win.

posted by mudpuppie 08 September | 14:57

gaspode and mr. gaspode's famous odyssey began in Collingwood, NZ. We were going to drive down the west coast of NZ and stop at one of the glaciers for the evening, and then carry onto Dunedin. We left around 11am, and drove and drove, stopping quite often to take in the beauty of it all.

When we got to Franz Joseph and discovered that the hotel that we had booked had lost our reservations, we just thought "fuck it" and carried on. 730 some miles total later, at 4am, we made it to my home town. It was kind of scary driving through the Haast Pass in the early hours of the morning, as there are no lights and plenty of animals to hit (luckily no deer, but a few possums and bunnies went under our wheels.)

posted by gaspode 08 September | 14:57

Wait, this is a contest, right?

posted by mudpuppie 08 September | 14:57

Oh, where in California are you?

posted by getoffmylawn 08 September | 14:57

When I was younger, so long ago that the speed limit was 55, I did the drive from Baltimore to Houston.

1,000 miles the first day, 500 miles the second. When I arrived, I could only look back over my shoulder if I really wanted to, and then only by twisting my body.

I had to get the tranny yanked after that trip, as I messed something up in the long drive.

It really is a game for the young. However, you have to tell them that falling asleep at the wheel will happen, and if it does not kill them it may give them close-call nightmares for years afterwards.

posted by sarah connor 08 September | 15:05

It's hard to drive a long way in the UK without falling off the edge. The longest drive I did recently was what should have been 125 miles from my sister's. It turned into 250 miles because I had to come off the motorway, due to a huge traffic jam that I'd sat in for 2 hours, edging my way to the exit, and then I had to drive, in the dark, through unfamiliar towns, taking a wrong turn, ending up on a one-way system, going north-east instead of south-east and then having to backtrack south again.

I couldn't even stop for a break because that was the day my central locking had decided to pack in so I didn't know whether I would be able to get back into the car if I got out of it.

When I got home six hours after starting out I was both exhausted and wired. I had to take the next day off work.

Normally I like driving, but rarely go further than a 20-mile radius from home, and never, ever into central London. Ever.

posted by essexjan 08 September | 17:43

Vancouver to San Francisco, ~1500 miles. There were two of us driving, so we did about 750 miles each. Non-stop.

posted by Zack_Replica 08 September | 17:43

I drove Cincinnati to Denver in one shot, straight thru, in a Dodge Grand Caravan, loaded to the roof, that started threatening to overheat somewhere around St. Louis.

my bitchy x was riding shotgun, and too sick to drive (so he claimed).

only books on tape saved me from committing homicide on that trip.

posted by lonefrontranger 08 September | 17:44

My beau and I drove from eastern LA to Bellingham, WA in 2 days (600 mi the first day, 700 the second). A week later we drove to Banff, Alberta in one tortuous 14 hour day.

500 miles on good freeway is nothing. 500 miles on the only road in Canada during construction season in the back of a tiny SUV is pretty much hell (although the country was beautiful).

posted by muddgirl 08 September | 17:46

Hi wolfie! I dunno distance wise, but I drove 12 hours stopping only once from nc to pa and was quite the basket case when I got there and will never do it again.

posted by chewatadistance 08 September | 17:55

One shot deal from Sea Bright, New Jersey, to Daytona Beach, Florida. Only I can't say I was driving. I was half of a couple, the car belonged to the other girl of the other couple, and she wouldn't allow anyone other than herself and her boyfriend to drive it. And we nearly ran out of gas 'cause she only allowed a certain brand of gas in her vehicle. And we drove through a hurricane. By the time we got to our timeshare in Daytona, we crashed-for 15 hours straight. We woke in the bright light of nearly afternoon the following day.

If you only knew the half of it....I win.

posted by redvixen 08 September | 18:50

I love the road. Longest was a solo trip from Richmond, VA to Chicago for an audition. Day and a half. Didn't get the tour. Crashed with some fellow auditoners in a hotel. Gave a ride to a guy back to Harrisonburg. Down on his luck, didn't get a part either, but promised to send me $20 gas money (back in the day of $1 gas, and he helped with the driving, plus he set me up for the hotel crash). I never excpected to see the $20, but about five months later, I did, with a lovely thank you note.

So I didn't get the tour. Day I got back, a new friend called me and told me they needed someone for a mystery dinner show. I was snobby about it and didn't wanna do it. I said, ok, who else is doing it. . .he said, "C, Y, X, Z. . . .and Jeff C." (Jeff C. was a guy I'd met once.) I said, OK I'M THERE GIVE ME THE NUMBER. I got that gig, and I got the boy, too. Been married eight years.

Road trips rule. God, they clear your head.

posted by rainbaby 08 September | 19:00

Have fun, WolfDaddy! Drive safely!

posted by jrossi4r 08 September | 19:08

I did Portland OR to Baltimore to Philly to Chicago back to DC and then back to Portland in the winter of 2002 ALONE! (I spent Christmas day on the road in Northern Pennsylvania, and New Years eve on the road in North Dakota! Took me all of 8 days too!
I so fucking win!

posted by ramix 08 September | 19:11

I've done Las Vegas to Calgary (2100kms) in a single shot with two drivers and Kamloops to Santa Barbara (2300kms) with a single driver but we stopped in Portland for a day.

I've also put 7200kms on a rental car in 12 days storm chasing (I love unlimited mileage). Running rallyes I've put 1250kms (70% on gravel) on my car in 36 hours and ended up where I started.

posted by Mitheral 08 September | 19:40

PS: I'd really love to do a winter Alcan.

posted by Mitheral 08 September | 19:45

Among my longer roadtrips:

- By myself from Iowa City to Laramie, Wyoming (about 800 miles) in a single day.

- Also by myself, made the 2000+ miles from Chicago to Los Angeles in 3.5 days on the road -- 1 day to Oklahoma City, 1 day to Santa Fe, a few days R&R in Santa Fe, 1 day to Kingman, AZ, then half a day to L.A.

- Various other long roadtrips -- Iowa City to Toronto, St. Louis to New York -- splitting the driving with one other person over the course of a day or two.

posted by scody 08 September | 20:04

i did laguna beach, ca to vancouver, bc once. approx. 1300 miles solo, one day, no sleep. middle of august. 1986 nissan sentra. no air conditioning. a baggie full of biker speed. and no radio - the tape deck was stolen the night before.

i'll never do that again.

i also did los angeles to washington, dc in three days. sober. that wasn't so bad.

posted by syntax 08 September | 20:20

When my wife and I needed to buy a house in the town we were moving to, we drove 1500 miles straight through, slept in the back of the car at our destination, looked at houses in the morning, made an offer in the afternoon, and drove straight through back home. I am an evening person, she does mornings, we took turns sleeping in the back. We make a formidable team.

posted by LarryC 09 September | 00:31

2000 miles with a 4 hour nap inbetween at 1k. Northern Wi to Nahville and back. When I was young and foolish. I don't think I can physcially do that anymore. But have done 700 miles in a day a few times each of the past few years

posted by edgeways 09 September | 03:37

I drove 1300 miles from Lubbock, TX to Newport Beach, CA, starting at 6 a.m. and ending just before midnight, with stops at meteor crater and a few other interesting places, detour on Route 66.

posted by PlanetKyoto 09 September | 10:56

Wolfdaddy, did I read the post right? You are not drunk on vacation and driving are you? Please be drunk on fun and safe with the automobiles. Rest when you need to, etc. We want to keep you around here forever and ever.

So you know I'm not coming down from on high with my safetytalk, I must confess to driving a 19 foot moving van from Seattle to Chicago in 3 or 4 days, I can't remember the time exactly, with a ridiculous detour to Boulder, CO thrown in for good measure. Each day we were bleeding out the eyes by the end of it. So bleary, so stupid.

posted by safetyfork 09 September | 13:13

I rode from Springfield, Missouri, to the Washington, DC, area--about 1100 miles--nonstop in about 20 hours. I got a ride with somebody, and they had a stick shift and I couldn't drive a shift at the time, so I felt bad and stayed up to keep him company thanks to Jolt and No-Doze. I was haluccinating towards the end of the trip. Elton John's "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues" was a big hit at the time and we heard it about 20 times, so now I have PTSD when I hear that song.

Another time I rode shotgun from Biloxi, Mississippi, back to DC, without stopping or driving, but that was because my dumbass buddy wanted to do all the driving.

posted by kirkaracha 09 September | 14:48

safetyfork, thanks for your concern, but no ... I drove drove drove and then I quit driving and had a fabulous dinner with lots of tasty drinks with friends in Palm Springs--one of whom I've known for 22 years and yet haven't seen in person for 12. The revelry lasted well into the wee hours, and I slept the sleep of the fallen unconscious before waking the next late morning to compose this post. Several cups of coffee later, I was on my way to Santa Barbara, where I have spent the last two days wearing as little clothing as possible, soaking up the warmest and gentlest rays the magnificent sun can manage to beam down upon our beautiful planet, and basking in the company of fine friends long missed and happily reunited.

And, ohhhhh, how I had forgotten the beautiful young men of this place, sexy and sleek and swarthy and all manner of goodsexyhot things. They must grow them here special. They certainly aren't in Houston.

Dear lord how is it that so many of them can wear pants that are only held up by their asses and how is it that that is so incredibly erotic here in this paradise

I think I'll have another martini now. I have eight more days of this before I have to get into a car again. Siiiiiiiiggggggghhhhhh.

posted by WolfDaddy 10 September | 19:39

I used to regularly drive ridiculous distances to boat race meetings - we would travel in groups of 3 or 4 cars all towing boats, leave at about 5 on Friday afternoon, arrive wherever the race was on Saturday morning then race all day Saturday, get falling-down drunk on Saturday night (this was before the days of zero-reading breath tests before every race, obviously), sleep for 2 or 3 hours, get up and race all day Sunday, then drive home just in time to go to work on Monday. Round trips were usually around 3,000km or so.

But I think mudpuppie still wins.

posted by dg 10 September | 21:11

← Calgary Meetup || Priest phones in bomb threat in hopes of nixing Madonna concert. →

HOME || REGISTER || LOGIN