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
33 hrs. Bluff Utah, solo, no sleep, to Chapel Hill NC. 2020 miles stopping for nothing but gas.
I woke up Saturday morning at the edge of the Grand Canyon and had to start med school orientation Monday at 8a.
Made it, but my radio shorted out crossing the Mississippi into Tennessee. There was so much condensate from the AC running for 24hrs at that point, that when I crossed the bridge, it sloshed and spilled behind the dash and fried the aftermarket head unit in my Suzuki.
Finished the drive listing to a portable CD player and made it on time to start school.
12 hours straight from San Francisco to Portland, with snow through the passes. Only stopped for gas (two full tanks). It wasn’t fun, but we didn’t feel like stopping anywhere for the night and powered through.
7 hours, today. But I drove 5 of them and we stopped at Buc-ee’s. I highly recommend the brisket sandwich.
Though the longest was about 20 hours. Slept in. BK parking lot with the family. Continued to Kissimmee in the AM.
I did Alaska to Indiana driving 22 hour shots with 4 hour sleep breaks.
Coventry to Clermont Ferrand, through Reims and Lyon in a Citroën AX… ok, there was an hour of technical pause to cross the Channel on a ferry (no tunnel at that time) early in the trip… but the whole thing started at 4PM and ended the next day at 9AM when my father saw a zombie climb the stairs to his bedroom. (Why, going to Lyon ? because I was carrying people to lower the cost of the whole thing… student time)
If I had been alone I would have made a stop near Paris, my grandmother would have loved to host me for a night.
The last 100Km or so were done with all the windows open to keep me awake (did I mention it was near xmas? no… well it’s mentioned now)
About 7 hours several times (Córdoba-Buenos Aires, then back).
About 12 hours (Concordia [Argentina] – Tubarao [Brasil]), the central stint of a non-stop, 21 hours’ drive between Córdoba and Florianopolis. About the same on the way back.
Just after Christmas 2012, I was moving from Mechanicsburg, PA to Costa Mesa, CA. To get my Challenger out there, I decided to drive it, along with some things I would need right away that were too large to take on a flight. This was a solo trip.
Day 1: Mechanicsburg, PA, to East St. Louis, IL – 772 miles, 12 hours with stops for fuel and snacks.
Day 2: East St. Louis, IL, to The Big Texan in Amarillo, TX – 751 miles, 11 hours with stops for fuel and snacks.
Day 3: Amarillo, TX, to Costa Mesa, CA – 1,078 miles, 15 hours with stops for fuel and snacks.
I only stopped for a real meal after checking into the hotel each night.
2,601 miles in 38 hours over three days – average of 68 mph, inclusive of all stops except the overnights.
Fastest segment: The Big Texan to the TX/NM border – 75 miles in 42 minutes, averaging 107 mph. Keep in mind that this was at about 6:30am, on a cold but clear day between Christmas and New Years, and had been informed that I was extremely unlikely to encounter police or even much traffic on this mostly-straight stretch of I-40 at that time. Soon as I hit the NM border, I slowed to 80-85 mph.
The Challenger is, by far, the most comfortable roadtrip car I’ve ever driven. I was in my early 30s, but I felt fine except for some stiffness each morning, though I cannot recommend driving from TX to the Pacific Coast in one sitting. I should have stopped in Kingman, AZ at the 12 hour mark. “Oh I’m at the CA border, might as well just finish it up.” Dumb.
There also was an interesting segment in Oklahoma where I thought was going to be pulled over, so I moved the large shoulder against the median on the left. As I did, a Dodge pickup came up behind me very fast with no warning, and in an attempt to avoid me, drove into the grass in the median. It turned out that there were SEVERAL police cars coming up behind me, which quickly converged on the pickup in the median. Cops got out, guns drawn on the pickup.
So I apparently accidentally ended a police chase because I saw a police car on an overpass all lit up, assuming I was about to get a speeding ticket for going about 85. Needless to say, I got the hell out of there without knowing how that whole situation went.
So, looking back at photos I took of my tripmeter, here were my actual miles and hours with the car running:
2,629 miles
35 hr 8 min
Average speed: 75 mph
My recorded top speed from that trip still resides in my cluster from 2022.
I’ll concur on the Challenger’s comfort. Taking ours to California from Detroit was great. It’s a great balance of fun and comfort a very sold-feeling grand tourer. I had done really well being able to maintain speeds of 90-100 mph on most of the empty stretches heading out there. On the way home, we decided to hit Vegas. Right at the freeway split on the I-15, I was doing about 90 mph and noticed the CHP under the overpass way too late. I didn’t try to fake it, so I slowed down to 70 as fast as I could and realizing that I was caught and was getting my apology ready in my head. He hit his wig-wags, I tapped my brakes twice, he flashed his brights at me, and never pulled out of his space. That was another lucky day.
Between Hollywood and Littleton CO on a few separate occasions – 16-20 hours depending on how I hit traffic. Not recommended but I am still alive.
17 hrs by myself from Boulder to LA in an ’89 Camry. I was 24, it wasn’t too bad. I’m in my 40s now and I did a couple 12 hr days on a 3000 mile solo road trip just this past week, and a couple more on a somewhat shorter drive a few months ago. Those last two hours of a 12 hr drive are pretty rough just in terms of staying focused, I don’t think I could do 17 again.
Just drove 928 miles from Hendersonville, N.C. to Kansas City – 15 hours. I got an early start and when I got to my halfway point, it was only 2 pm, so I decided to go on. By evening time I was only 3 hours from home, so I just decided I’d rather sleep in my own bed than do another night in a hotel. 7 am to 9:30 pm, but I’m really too old to be doing this…..
Road construction, horrible rough roads and terrible drivers meant I took the longer way home, trying to avoid some of the worst areas, but I still got stopped on 24 hiway twice west of Nashville, once for 30 min and the second time for about 20 min. Thank dog for good A/C as it was 95* out there….
My son and I got in my car at 6:00 am and did not get out of the car until 3:13 when we pulled into my in-laws’ driveway 650 miles away. No stops for fuel, no stops to eat or to pee.
What brand of diaper do y’all prefer?
No diapers, just didn’t pee for 9 hours. The low fuel light wasn’t even on when we got there.
14 hours from Buffalo to Savannah. Driving my dad to Florida in his 42 ft RV, towing his small SUV. He had planned a 3 day trip, but I had never been to Savanna and want to poke around there. So we skipped the first stop and rolled straight there. Checked things out the next morning, had a nice lunch, then headed for Sebring.
My father once drove from Central Florida to Boston without stopping for anything but pee breaks and snacks. 20 hours.
I’ve done the same drive with him a couple of times, but we broke it up into 5-8 hour shifts.
Longest for me personally is probably around 11-12 hours. A full day of driving the 26-foot Penske truck while moving cross-country in 2005.
Alone trip I drove 9 hours from Sarasota, FL to Northeast GA alone with the longest time behind the wheel of that trip 5 hours. I bought a car, flew from Greenville to Sarasota, and drove back a 2004 Subaru Forester XT 5 spd with low miles.
I have to give credit to my wife. She did 1,044 miles from South Georgia to middle Connecticut by herself in one go. All of this in her 2016 Ford Focus SE hatchback. Drove to Boston the next day, dropped off her car, caught a plane back to Georgia. When she landed, she picked up a Hyundai Tucson rental car and did the drive again with our cats while I followed very far behind in the worst moving truck I’ve ever experienced.
About 19 hours, Laurel, MD to Fort Polk, LA. Had to make it back before my leave expired. Looking back, I probably should have left a little bit sooner.
A little over 15 hours… driving an RV west on I80. I just got into a groove, and didn’t feel like I needed to stop. I was tired at about 5 hours, then pushed through, and didn’t get tired again til at the end when I thought, “Hm, no, now I have a REASON to be tired.. I’ll stop.” Did 6 or 7 hours of sleep in a truck stop parking lot, had breakfast, then got moving again.
943 miles 15hrs. Three times going from Jersey to Davenport IA on the way to Bonneville Speedweek on Rt80 the whole way.
Fifteen hours in a ’99 F350. From Houma, Louisiana to Savannah, Georgia.
My favorite book!
Longest was Montpellier (France) to Kiel (Germany). Around 1600km. The interesting thing was the car – it was my aircooled ’80 VW Transporter T3 with whopping 50hp. I believe I did 4 stops and needed around 22 hours. Only possible with a horrible amount of Coca Cola. But I was 24, it was in the 80ties – the sky was the limit!
A tankfull. So about 6 hours+ / 400+ miles.
Don’t really keep score on that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Brooklyn to Chicago a few times, and back the next day
I drove a few straight-through coast to coast trips, once with three women. One was my girlfriend, and one couldn’t drive stick. When it was the one who couldn’t drive stick’s turn to drive I would sit in the front passenger seat of my VW Dasher, drive from the passenger seat until we were up to speed, then go to sleep. When we needed to stop for gas I would take over again. We were towing a trailer because the girlfriend was moving to San Francisco and the girl that wasn’t the one I had to shift for had a cello.We finally stopped in Nevada, and by the end of the trip the cello lady was my girlfriend. We were driving kind of slowly because of the trailer, so I think the NY to Nevada time was maybe 40 hours?
Personal coast-to-coast record with a co-driver was 42 hours. Would have been faster without stopping for traffic court in Wyoming.
Despite being a car guy, I actually don’t drive all that much. In recent memory, buying my current daily has been the longest I’ve driven in a while. It was at a dealer about an hour and a half away. Rode with my dad up there and drove the car back.
Though that does remind me, back about 17-18 years ago, I was asked to take some stuff up to another location of the restaurant I worked at back then that was in the same area as the dealer I just mentioned. I spent about three hours on the road that day with two friends of mine in my B16A2 swapped 96 Honda Civic CX hatchback with no cruise control or A/C during summer in the South. It wasn’t three straight hours though. Stopped to pick up the stuff, stopped to drop it off, stopped on the way back to go to BestBuy and Suncoast Video in the big shopping town in between, and stopped to get something to eat.
I did all my long distance trips with my parents many years ago when I was kid. The last big trip I went with them on was like 10-12 hours each way, but I only drove for like 30 minutes, if even. Also, several stops.
The longest I have done solo is Gothenburg (Sweden) to Geneva (Switzerland) which is a bit over 1’800 km. This includes one short ferry, and took me something like 21 hours. This was back when I was in my 20’s, and I was driving a Celica having great fun on the unlimited portions of the German autobahn. I do remember starting to get a bit concerned when I reached Switzerland as my exhaustion started playing games with my vision, but I made it safely home.
This year I made a similar one. I was up in Höganäs (Sweden) visiting family, and I decided to drive back solo in one go to Geneva. I was driving my Mini Countryman, and the distance was a bit less at 1’600 km. This time it took about 18 hours, and even though I am now in my 60’s, it really was a breeze. Granted, I was thoroughly exhausted upon arriving, but I wouldn’t hesitate to do it again. Being used to doing long stints through France and Spain, it was such a relaxing experience to be in the German traffic where the majority of the drivers actually respect others.
Also German motorways are far better than the ones in Spain at least…
Every year I drive up from the North/South Carolina border to visit my parents and go to a specific car show in the Finger Lakes of New York. ~740 miles, ~12 hours. That’s fuel stops obviously but I always just drive straight through. My next sojourn of that type is coming up in a couple weeks.
I also on a couple occasions drove to Western Michigan when I still lived in the Finger Lakes to go look at cars to buy (one of which I didn’t even get!) which was about 8 hours each way going through Canada. Those were both long ass days; though there was an hour break or so each time.