Unless you live on an island, and a small one at that, you’ve probably had occasion to drive at least a few hours non-stop. On a proper road trip, perhaps your driving stints go as long as six hours, assuming you’ve got a co-driver to switch off with.
But what about really big solo hours? Not necessarily alone in the car, but a single driving session where you didn’t relinquish the wheel? Perhaps you’ve gone eight or ten hours.
Or even longer?
Mind you, I’m not trying to determine who among us has the biggest fuel tank and/or bladder. Ya gotta stop for gas and the call of nature, and while that may count as a leg-stretching, it’s not a proper break if you just gas up, hit the head, and grab a snack that you only unwrap once you’re back on the interstate. Side note: If you’re picking up a brisket sandwich at Bucc-ee’s, I recommend you just take the extra 15 minutes to eat it in the parking lot or else you’ll be wearing it.
The longest I’ve gone with only quick gas and/or drive-thru stops is about ten hours, in an effort to make up time when the first two legs of a Dallas to Newport, RI road trip took longer than expected. After that much wheel time, I’m just too tired to keep going. I don’t really fall asleep, but my brain does this weird thing where there’s a lag between what I’m seeing and what I’m doing. Maybe it’s a sleeping-with-eyes-open thing. Anyway, that’s when I ask my wife to take over or ask Waze to find a motel.
Your turn: what’s the longest you’ve gone/can go in a non-stop driving session?
Top graphic image: DepositPhotos.com
Stuttgart – Trollhättan (16h, roughly 1600km) with just short brakes for pee brakes and refueling. Goal was to be on the Lofoten Islands as soon as possible. 3 days.
Minus gas and pee breaks, about 18 hours of driving for an Oppo meet to Indiana and back all in one day with no cruise control. About 9 hours before a sitdown lunch and took 6 red bulls and a buncha water throughout the day to keep at it. Lack of cruise control really forces you to pay attention to hold a speed lol.
In 1992ish I drove from Mitchell SD to Missoula MT via the Badlands and Black Hills. That was 1,000 miles in about 17 hours. I was moving from Concord NH to Tacoma WA at the time. Previously, I drove from Jackson WY to Berkeley CA, but there were two of us driving that time. When I am driving cross country, I usually do a thousand miles at least one day of the trip.
I used to semi-regularly do a 23 hour straight-through trip along almost the entirety of I-35, though that did involve fuel stops.
True non-stop driving I’ve done seven hours, arriving at my destination riding on fumes and feeling pain from needing to use the restroom so bad.
I’ll spare the details but got a call that I was scheduled for a last minute university meeting that was non-negotiable. Problem was I was 8 hours away at my parent’s place. The following night, drove 8 hours there overnight, had the meeting for an hour in the morning, drove 8 hours back. Miserable, but it beat staying all summer at the school!
22-ish hours from Detroit-ish to Austin, TX
multiple non-stop round trips over the years. because I could
18 hours, by myself, while young and full of life.
I got a speeding ticket in WY, probably the only cop in the whole state? I drove straight to the court, they knocked $2 off, I kept driving. Got to St Louis from MT with only pee breaks timed while gas is pumping.
About 10 hours? I’ve driven to the east coast of Canada a couple times, and there’s a long stretch that I’ve done between Montreal and St. Andrews that’s just under 10 hours most of the time. 8 hours north to Sault Ste. Marie happens too. Buuuut… I think I’m slowing down my trips. Maybe not more than 6 going forward…
Non stop, Ottawa to Chicago 12 hours no long stops except gas, soup and sandwiches to go.
The return trip took longer as we got caught on a gigantic snowstorm and had to hide out on a hotel until the storm passed.
Going off topic slightly, ok a lot, what is the longest time anyone spent traveling, regardless of the method, from home doorstep to the next place you will sleep. Personally I’ve done around 30 hours travelling to Oceania and parts of Asia.
Cabs to planes to rentals to trains was brutal and required a day to recover, but I would think there are many who have done worse. Just love hearing others battle scars.
Depends on whether I’m flying through ORD.
I still avoid ORD too, among others. They’re all horrible one way or another.
I did 32 hours from Ottawa, Chicago, Seoul Korea to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk Russia. Did the same trip via Tokyo, Hakodate to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk that took about the same time. The next longest was about 30. Ottawa, Montreal Paris, Moscow Vladivostok Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
I think I was well over 30 hours traveling from Concord NH to Armidale Australia.
Generally it takes me 12 hours to go from my moms house in california to my daughter’s apartment in Brooklyn. six hours on the ground and six hours in the air.
Once I droped her off at SFO an hour and a half before her flight and she got home before I did. Spent 5 hours on the Altamont pass when a truck driver delivering an 18 wheeler load of wine bottles to Gallo decided to pull over to check his tires just as he was going under a railroad overpass.The overpass pushed all the wine bottles off the truck and of course they couldn’t get the cleanup crew to the site because of the trafic. It was one of those traffic stoppages where people got out of their cars, and walked around, sort of like that scene at the beginning of LaLa land but not so much dancing. A startling amount of making out however.
2 weeks ago was my record! Loaded up the wife and kids in our trusty 140,000 mile Caravan and went from Bergholz Ohio to Bradenton Florida in one shot. All total it took about 20 hours. The way back home was much more enjoyable, we broke it up by stoping in pigeon forge for a couple days, turning a 20 hour drive into two separate 8-10 hour sprints.
18 hours, Strasbourg to Sofia. 1000 miles, half on Autobahns, then on smaller roads. That included about 90 minutes of waiting at border crossings. I was lucky with those, as sometimes they’d take several hours on their own, but we were lucky on that trip.
Once arrived, I went on to do different things for another eight hours. I had just discovered the virtues of Red Bull.
An year later, it had no more effect on me than tap water.
I used to do Maine to Minnesota, or the reverse, on the regular. Now I nap somewhere in upstate NY. Also back in the day: Tucson to Nashville; Santa Barbara to Madison, WI; Minnesota to telluride; I’m sure I’m forgetting others
Buffalo NY to Ridgefield CT, almost 400 miles and 6ish hours. Never beat that run since. Done in 1999ish in my 1988 Nissan Stanza.
That was with NO stop.
Theoretically, a man driving an over the road truck can make it from Jacksonville FL to southeastern Massachusetts with only one stop for fuel in 19 hour if they are trying to out run an impending snow storm that’s going to hit the entire east coast and they have a quality jug for pissing in. The jug MUST have a screw on cap and the drive must begin early in the day. The driving very well might only fully stop the vehicle for that one fuel stop and otherwise just keep rolling the whole way.
Though as a commercial truck driver, I would NEVER do this as it would put one over their legal driving time limits.
If one were to do that, it would be a feat of iron will that would make even the most hardened of the 60s and 70s truckers tip thier hat.
Theoretically.
No sitimulants other than caffeine either!
Houston to Milwaukee straight through more than once. Worst was the time I left Houston at 8pm and arrived in Milwaukee around 6-7pm the next day. Hit Chicago just in time for a delirious rush hour experience.
Phoenix to Seattle. Nearly 24 hours straight. I was young and an idiot.
I used to do Chicago to NJ pretty regularly, and sometimes I could do it with one stop at about 400 miles. I couldn’t do it now!
I’ve done DC to Milwaukee twice. Roughly twelve hours; once in a Jaguar XK8, once in a Mercedes C-Class. Got out of the Jaguar feeling like I’d just gone to the corner shop. Got out of the Benz feeling like I’d sat in one of those corrective chairs they give kids who sit weird at primary school.
Hollywood to Pocatello by motorcycle. Memphis to Albuquerque by Buick.
I once drove from Santa Barbara to somewhere northeast of Denver? Things were a bit mentally hazy at that point. It was a long time ago, and I couldn’t do even half of that now.
About 15 hours, St. Paul to Denver, through a snowstorm, for a terrible reason.
January 3, 2004. My brother called me at 3AM to tell me my mother was back in the hospital and the doctors thought it was the end for her (she had been fighting cancer for years). I immediately checked for flights and found out that the soonest available flight didn’t leave until 2PM. I couldn’t sit around doing nothing, so I got in the car and started driving. Packed nothing, had only one CD in the car (Barenaked Ladies, Everything To Everyone). I didn’t make it; she died while I was still somewhere in Iowa. But at least I had just been there for Christmas.
Sorry to bring the room down. Fuck cancer.
If the stopover at the Coors Brewery doesn’t ruin the “streak”, 18 hours from Sterling, CO to Lake Arrowhead, CA.
I was planning on overnighting in Vegas, but driving out west right after graduating college and miscalculating cash reserves after buying a new Mustang on a job offer letter that wouldn’t start for another month, it’s lucky I had enough money for the gas.
Two different trips for me.
Greensboro to Dallas towing a Ferrari with a E250 van. Ferrari had to be there Christmas eve for a present. Does a stop for sex in a rest stop with my companion count as a stop or break?
2nd trip: Flew to LA and picked up a Ferrari. Tried to make it back to Greensboro but had to stop in Nashville. That’s all my body had.
21 hours,MD to WI in a ‘68 Dodge Dart. Traffic, carb issues, the whole lot.