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Anyone Else: I Detest Driving and Have An Upcoming Road...

BlackTalon
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I love driving, but only for the 'playing' aspects (entrance/ exit ramps, tight turns, etc.). For work and family trips I cap my willingness to drive at 5 hours, and book a flight for destinations that take longer to get to. Can uber or rent a car at the destination. For just one person, flying can be cheaper than driving ($0.625/ mile is the current IRS rate)

Sometimes you need to haul stuff, which could throw a wrench into things unless you can ship the stuff.

I actually took the train from DC to NJ last week, even though that drive was theoretically less than 4 hours each way. But I know I would hit multiple rush hours heading up and coming back, which would easily extend the drives to 5 hours. Flying wasn't going to save much time. For the train you only had to be there 15 minutes before departure. Plus we finished our work early and made it to the station just in time to move up to an earlier train back. It was expensive though -- $700 for tix versus car wear&tear/ gas/ tolls of about $300.

Scenery helps make longer drives more tolerable, but after 3-4 hours of looking at mountains the tolerance runs out. The exception for me is coastal highways, as they are scenic plus very run to drive on -- but I have never needed to be on one for more than 2-3 hours.
 
Foo2rama
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So to clarify depends on what your driving.

some cars are just lots of work to drive long distances.

example a bmw can do 8 hours and you feel refreshed. Low driver workload, good seats. a fast BMW is even more fun for the non straight line areas.

Foogirls jeep on the other hand wanders and doesn’t have the most comfortable seats and so a 3 hour drive is tiring. Even if your not actively fighting the steeeing all of the subconscious steering updates and higher task involvement take their toll.


Also a thing I found driving from LA to SF is that leaving very early in the morning like 6 am makes
It easier. The leaving at 10 to arrive at 6 vs arriving at 2 pm also helps to reduce the overall miserableness.
 
gbesq
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Some automated driving technology can also make a huge difference on a long trip. In heavy traffic, I let my radar cruise control with stop and go technology do the work. I set the speed and distance from the car in front of me and the car accelerates and brakes - including down to a full stop - on its own, as necessary. All I need to do is steer and the lane departure feature makes that easier too.
 
SC1
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Two hours in, wife is inside Starbucks getting coffee, no arguments (yet)...

eight to go.
 
time flies
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A few Colorado gummy bears every now and then and the miles just melt away...or so I've heard.

Safe trip. Have fun
kfw
 
noelekal
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We made a number of 865 mile road trip jaunts from West Central Texas to Nashville, Tennessee in a single day to see grand kids. We've always had good road trip cars in which to do it. It was a 16 hour slog, but worth it with tunes playing in the car and stops as needed.

Thankfully both we and our son and family moved closer so it's 6 1/2 hours one way now.

Despite the relocations Dallas is still an unavoidable pain!
 
JayBe
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Normally, I like to drive with the right car, which for me doesn't mean a car with assisting technology, but one that is as pure as possible and keeps me engaged. I don't mind driving long stretches like that, as driving the car keeps me awake and entertained.
That being said, I spend two weeks of driving up and down the mountain roads of Corse this summer and, without much rest in between (hiking, biking, climbing), that started to be quite demanding and tiresome. Imagine shifting 1,2,3 in 5 second intervals, heel and toe, double clutching, corner after corner, narrow roads, bad visibility, sudden potholes, very narrow roads for 2 hours, just to go 50km. That seemed like fun at first, but not for long...

20220907_185014.jpg
 
SkunkPrince
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I never was into it. I have no depth perception because private. At some point, what goes past the car windows might as well be movies on a screen for all the difference I can tell.

I do like playing music and old radio shows when I do this. I usually shut down the distractions when driving in town.
 
krogerfoot
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SkunkPrince SkunkPrince
I do like playing music and old radio shows when I do this. I usually shut down the distractions when driving in town.
Satellite radio and podcasts and whatnot would have been game changers in the old days. Finding and staying tuned in to a ball game or a call-in radio show—Bruce Williams, Car Talk—was a triumph on those long drives, and listening to a book on tape was a nonstarter with five other guys in the van.
 
noelekal
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Being a fogey, I haven't cared for any of the nannying assist technology that I've sampled on various vehicles I've rented or are owned by relatives or acquaintances. I try to avoid assist tech on our own vehicles.

I resent being nannied.
Edited:
 
BlackTalon
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JayBe JayBe
Imagine shifting 1,2,3 in 5 second intervals, heel and toe, double clutching, corner after corner, narrow roads, bad visibility, sudden potholes, very narrow roads for 2 hours, just to go 50km.
That is actually my definition of driving heaven ::psy::
 
SkunkPrince
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krogerfoot krogerfoot
Satellite radio and podcasts and whatnot would have been game changers in the old days. Finding and staying tuned in to a ball game or a call-in radio show—Bruce Williams, Car Talk—was a triumph on those long drives, and listening to a book on tape was a nonstarter with five other guys in the van.
I have zero interest in sports, but living in Milwaukee... just the music of Bob Uecker's sharing of experiences and calling a game.... everyone needs to hear that once.
 
krogerfoot
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SkunkPrince SkunkPrince
I have zero interest in sports, but living in Milwaukee... just the music of Bob Uecker's sharing of experiences and calling a game.... everyone needs to hear that once.
Likewise with Car Talk and similar call-in advice shows. Listening to someone who really knows what they’re talking about hold forth on that subject is a sublime pleasure even if you have no particular understanding of or experience with it. When Vin Scully died there were a lot of his game-calling episodes passed around and it was like you say, like listening to music.
 
STANDY
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My driving gets broken up by a beer out of the esky (cooler) every two hours….
No boat license, no DUI in Northern Australia. Just have to be under for the last 2 hours driving home on bitumen

Day fishing is 2.30 hours driving 10 hours driving a boat 2.30 hours driving home…

My style of fishing is mostly trolling for Barramundi
 
Alpha
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Most of my life has been spent driving commercial vehicles and to be honest I don't really enjoy driving cars but thankfully our motorhome is large enough to give me some enjoyment 👍
 
SC1
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Made it... 10.5 hours of driving, not a single argument with The Wife even though she promised to drive and ended up behind the wheel for only 45 minutes before announcing "Too much traffic on these mountain passes, I'd like you to drive please?"
Feet still tingling from highway bumps & undulations while my entire body feels like it's swaying forward & backwards from too much time sitting in a vehicle even though we are checked into our Airbnb... busy day tomorrow and then 10.5 hours back home on Monday.

Ugh.
My 3861 was my driving partner this time...

20221119_230933-01.jpeg
 
SC1
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Off to bed, six hours of sleep (hopefully)... and just a mere 10 hours of driving and then home!!

I am, officially, too old for these kinds of trips.
 
noelekal
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Well, there's the problem with enjoyment of long road trips; lack of sleep and a break from the journey.

Of course sometimes one has to do what he has to do.

I'm too old for that as well.
 
janice&fred
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[ ="Foo2rama, post: 2080900, member: 20013"]some cars are just lots of work to drive long distances.

example a bmw can do 8 hours and you feel refreshed. Low driver workload, good seats. a fast BMW is even more fun for the non straight line areas.

Foogirls jeep on the other hand wanders and doesn’t have the most comfortable seats and so a 3 hour drive is tiring. Even if your not actively fighting the steeeing all of the subconscious steering updates and higher task involvement take their toll.[/QUOTE]

Boy oh boy it's almost as if you read my mind (and seen the vehicles in our driveway). We recently moved from Connecticut to Florida and while the wife and kid made the one-way trip via plane, I was tasked with driving both our cars down. First trip was in her 1998 BMW which was a breeze. I zipped along i95 basically non-stop and had a grand ole time for myself enjoying the scenery. Here's a shot at the Florida welcome center off the Highway.

IMG_5281.jpg


The ride down with the Jeep Cherokee was another story. Compounding the usual ill-handling of that thing was pulling a U-Haul with a bunch of our household stuff in it. Even with careful loading of that trailer I couldn't manage anything over 52 mph without the rig yawing back and forth. It was a white-knuckle ride the entire trip and required many stops to regain my sanity. Here's a shot I took right before embarking on that trip from hell.

IMG_5705.jpg
 
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