Drive night Sleep day Boondocking

The only time I drive at night is when it's 90F+ and I don't want to bake my tires.

Someone close to us is a truck driver and does night driving all the time. Many times driving at night is one of the best ideas, especially to avoid traffic in and around major cities. I used to enjoy night driving all the time. Many times going to Dog Shows, we would leave in the night, I drove while family slept. When we got there, they would do their thing, and I would sleep, ready to drive all that night. So, yes, it does work well for some.

delosholly wrote:

Johno02 wrote:
and DutchmanSport If you want to party all night, ... PLEASE don't park next to me!!! ...

I do not think you read the original post. There is nothing in it about partying all night....

Perhaps a bit of explanation of the term "party". Anyone in the military, especially in the Army would have understood the intent of this term "party" and probably caught it's meaning immediately. But, even after 30 years since military service, some terms are still a part of my life.

Anyone in the Army is first introduced to this word, usually the first or second day after their initial induction. We're introduced to a "G.I. Party".... which sounded pretty cool when the drill sergeant used the term, only to mean we had to clean up the barracks. That was the first introduction to the term.

"Party" was the term used whenever a task had to be performed, and it mean .... "do it with all your might!" "Party Hardy!" Whether that was cleaning the barracks, or getting ready for a road convoy, or qualifying at the riffle range, or going to the DMZ in Korea! Whatever you do, do it with all you might!

So, just to clarify the language .... If the OP wants to drive at night and sleep all day, there's nothing wrong with that! Go for it man! Do it and live the "gusto"! Do it with all your might! (Party Hardy!)

The rest of us old folks will just lay around at night and remember those former days when "rock-and-roll" meant .... grab your riffle, grab the ammunition, load it, and let's go, fire away! The mind wants to "go", but the danged old body just won't let us! I'll stay in bed at night! I'm to danged old for the drinking group "party" these days!

I prefer to drive at night. When we first moved from NJ to GA, we preferred to drive through the night to go back to NJ to visit family. We'd leave around 8 or 9 pm and get there around 7 or 8 am. Which was great, except we were exhausted when we got there. I have a really hard time sleeping when it is day time.

We adjusted our schedule and now usually leave at 3 am. Getting a few hours sleep and then heading out around 3 am makes a huge difference for me. It takes a little longer to get there because we are driving during the day more, but we aren't exhausted when we get there. We do generally go to bed earlier that first night.

It works pretty well for the kids too since they generally fall right back to sleep after the initial wake up at 2:45. When they were little and we could easily lift them, we didn't even have to wake them.

Since I am not normally awake during the overnight hours, it can be hard to make that switch short term.

-Michael

Biggest drawback is going to be day use noise levels. Next time you're at a day use area pause and listen for a while and you'll see (hear) what I mean.

There will be people constantly coming and going and slamming car doors and yelling at each other. You'll also find that if you're the only car in the parking lot the next party in will want to park right next to you, no matter how far to the edge of the lot you are. And then comes the slamming of doors and yelling, etc! You'll have an advantage being higher up in your TC but you'll definitely want ear plugs for sleeping.

Second issue will be daytime heat. Doesn't matter how cool the temps are the sunlight is going to cook up your rig, and this will be particularly uncomfortable for sleeping. So pack one or two industrial-sized fans for comfort.

My experience doing this is similar to the other posters--Friday night departures and Sunday night returns. Only thing I would add is that Sunday evening return traffic from recreational destinations can be rough surprisingly late into the night, as there are plenty of other people on the road who've already had the same idea. This is why Mondays are a typical travel day for fulltime RVers.

I too prefer driving at night. It cuts down on traffic and makes it easier to get in and out of gas stations.

Before I had a crew cab, single cab with topper I would haul Collies in back. In the Midwest the heat would be to much during the day for the Collies to travel. I would drive during the night and check into a campground before lunch. I would have a nice lunch and go for a swim then back to the rv for some sleep. The A/C would drown out noise and shades would block out light. When others went to bed for the night I would hit the road.

My body was use to working shift work. This was a very pleasant way to travel. I did this for 1 year before I bought a crew cab. As I got older my night vision is not as good so I travel during the day now.

I would love to do most of my driving at night. 25 years of shift work left me with a bit of a sleep disorder anyhow. The DW, however, would never go for it.

Still, I start off long drives in the wee hours of the morning (typically around 0300) and enjoy the drive in the dark.

I'm like a kid and can't sleep in anticipation of a vacation or long trip, so I might as well hit the road anyhow.

We enjoy night driving, but usually stop 1-2am to catch a few zzzzz's.

We are a young family, so we need to haul a## in order to get anywhere, see something, and get back in one week.

I love leaving after DH gets home from work. I drive, we stop for a late dinner and then I find a rest area or truck stop to get a quick nap around 2am. DH will have been sleeping in the passenger seat and will be ready to take over driving in the morning... I tend to fall asleep after breakfast while on a trip LOL. We are a good team.

But we don't truly do the "drive all night, sleep all day" thing you described.

From reading the forums, I'd bet it is an especially small group who does... but I bet there are people who do it!

delosholly wrote:
So why not drive during the night and sleep during the day at one of the many, many day use only type locations: preserves, monuments, refuges ... located all over the place?

Because this.

kohldad wrote:
I save my days for sight seeing and nights for sleeping. There is just too much to see during the day and too many places to boondock at night to catch a good nights sleep. Even traveling I see lots of beautiful country and would hate to miss that by traveling at night. So much for seeing an interesting thing and not being able to stop to investigate.

Driving at night is boring. We've done it -- and we'll do again if we need to. But definitely not our preference.