is 2500 +/- each way road trip pratical in 10 days?

[TCBob]

Considering trip next yr to AR from Oregon. Enjoy road trips, but is it praticle for 3 +/- days at destination? In TC?
There was a day when we would drive straight through swaping drivers as needed. But I think they are in past. Google looks like 30 hrs drive time, so I am thinking 3x10 hr drive each day. A few days at destination and hot foot it back. So I am wondering if that is even pratical?
heck, I get off on rabbit or squarl trails just going to the store.....still think it would be fun. Comments?

[Stars101]

Google "Lolo's Extreme Cross Country RV Trips". It will give you some valuable info re: long trips and routes/times and what works and what doesn't.

One thing about having a TC, it's perfect for long hauls cross country. Get up early and drive. Take quick breaks during the day. Make your long break at dinner time. Enjoy a nice meal, stretch, and drive until midnight. Pull off and grab some sleep until 6-7 am and hit the road again. Interstates are the only way to go when just covering miles.... plus you can always find a rest stop for the night. My DH and I trade off driving and can cover a lot of miles this way, but we enjoy driving and consider it part of the adventure 🙂

I'd do a marathon if I wanted to get to a family reunion and was staying in one place. We have found that 12-14 hours is about our daily max. You end up eating either fast food or snacking while driving. And 3 days would be the max we'd do this for before stopping.

[FreebirdFlies]

IMHO, the scales tip on whether you, and your family, LIKE, or even enjoy, long days of driving, watching scenery pass by, and things typically go smoothly between the family members/travelers.

Of course this is only after evaluating whether the rig is mechanically sound and likely to be trouble free.

Best wishes either way...

[Farmerjon]

TC Bob. It is doable and based on your reasons why you have great incentives to make it work.
We would do it.
We have a 2000 F350 and if it were our only truck we would take it knowing there could be a surprise but not expecting one as the truck is in excellent shape but old.
Good luck and I hope you have a terrific trip and visit with family.

[Steve_in_29]

TCBob wrote:
To answer the real QUESTION....why Arkansas - My youngest sister and her (large) family have a home on acreage in Arkansas that we have never seen (the home that is, and a good portion of her family). ALSO my Mom (88) is now living with them. Since we are in Oregon we don't get to see Mom very much. SO.... having the TC bug....we were toying with the idea of a "road trip" and a Family Reunion combined. We have just not been able to take off much more time than that in a single trip.

Frankly we had some of the concerns expressed here....a bit too much driving! Thus the post...to get some of you veteran TCer's input.

The other side of that ...is if we never dream.....we don't accomplish anything!

We appreciate all the input! Thanks again to all!

I don't know how leave works at your place of employment but a trick I did in Civil Service was to pick one of the months with 2 holidays within a week or two of each other and combine the holiday time off with leave. That way I could work in a longer time off work without using so many leave days.

[bka0721]

Hi TCBob. Thanks for responding with your plans and the reasons behind your trip. I must say what you are doing is worthy of your trip plans. The question would be too, whether the equipment will be up for it, you and or the truck.

Growing up we never went on road trips, camped, fished or hunted. But that didn’t keep me from dreaming that I would someday. What I did do, chased my work and moved away from home. I was one of those that moved away from family to do what I dreamed. Because of that, it was always considered my responsibility to travel “Home” for holidays and family events. “Because it is easier for you and not as far.” Huh? Since then I have always encouraged people to validate their kids when they move away from home and go visit them! Or where they work. Mine? My family never visited me in the 3 National Parks I worked in. But the pull of family never ever waned. Now my parents are gone, I am never sorry I didn’t make that effort.

For over 20 years I would frequently drive 1,300+ miles in a day alone. As that was the distance to many of the race tracks I raced at from Denver, Road America, Sears Point, Fontana and many more. Pushing 18k of truck and trailer is sobering now but then I felt I was capable. My kids traveled with me, but more often they flew to the tracks. But when they did travel with me, we had “Road Trips” and found many places along the way to stop and explore. They learned how much fun a road trip could be and not a marathon. Now they enjoy cross country road trips with their own families.

Now? I might travel 30 miles in a day as life is more interesting one step at a time. Family? Nope, they still like staying right in their home area/county and have no desire to visit me in a National Park. But, I wouldn’t miss traveling there and seeing them. Enjoy this time with your mom and sister, just travel safely and switch drivers often. There will be another time to make the time to travel much slower, like 30 miles in a day.

Go for it, Bob!

b

[Grit_dog]

Well, if you gotta go and can pound out the hours, it's possible, but still won't leave you much time there.
Even with cheap fuel, you'll spend about $1000 in just diesel plus 6 days living on the road (can be cheap w a camper, but figure another few hundred).
Prolly get 2 plane tickets for $3-400 a piece and another $1-200 for a rental car.
If you got somewhere to stay there, I think you could fly/rent for the same price and stay 3x as long.

[Dave_Pete]

TCBob.

My input in that light.

Take as much time as you can get off. Load up the family. Make the travel days the destination. In the middle of it see Mom and the farm. By the end of it, look at what you've seen all along the way. Drive for several hours then take one hour here, one hour there, and drive some more. And see those road-side things along the way. Surely, that world's largest ball of string (in Kansas is it?) only takes a leg-stretching few minutes right?

Not sure of a route, and no doubt Interstate is a big part of it, BUT perhaps a new topic to start wouldn't be "should we do this" but go over into the "routes" category and say, "We are doing this and want to see America enroute. What road(s) should we take for the most fun in this VERY short amount of time"?

I guarantee there will be awesome suggestions, and then you can pick out which ones you want to check on as you do a whirl-wind cross-country run!

Yeah, it still might be logistically impossible (maybe not), but think of the fun in planning, even if you decided in the end it isn't doable.

Two last thoughts.

1-Don't choose to do something or not just because "naysayers here" have expressed their sometimes not so humble opinion (SNSHO), and

2-You should live your life in one of three states. On vacation, just getting back from vacation, or planning your next vacation. In my case, planning my next vacation is generally the best combination of least expensive/most fun. And that's a pretty nice combination to have for one of your three states of living!

[TCBob]

To answer the real QUESTION....why Arkansas - My youngest sister and her (large) family have a home on acreage in Arkansas that we have never seen (the home that is, and a good portion of her family). ALSO my Mom (88) is now living with them. Since we are in Oregon we don't get to see Mom very much. SO.... having the TC bug....we were toying with the idea of a "road trip" and a Family Reunion combined. We have just not been able to take off much more time than that in a single trip.

Frankly we had some of the concerns expressed here....a bit too much driving! Thus the post...to get some of you veteran TCer's input.

The other side of that ...is if we never dream.....we don't accomplish anything!

We appreciate all the input! Thanks again to all!

[nycsteve]

Steve_in_29 wrote:

nycsteve wrote:
Your talking a trip with roughly the same amount of miles as the OP but with more than double the days to do it. Realistically I can average 50 miles in an hour of driving ,accounting for fuel and food stops, traffic and toll stops. 2500 miles each way; 3 15 + hour days of driving in a row, 2 days there , three 15 + hours days of driving home. To much driving ,to little destination.

Your math is off, they allotted 10 days for the trip, so if it's 3 days travel each way that leaves 4 days at their destination not 2.

Your right. I thought it was a week but my numbers are wrong for that to. Still its to much driving.

[Steve_in_29]

nycsteve wrote:
Your talking a trip with roughly the same amount of miles as the OP but with more than double the days to do it. Realistically I can average 50 miles in an hour of driving ,accounting for fuel and food stops, traffic and toll stops. 2500 miles each way; 3 15 + hour days of driving in a row, 2 days there , three 15 + hours days of driving home. To much driving ,to little destination.

Your math is off, they allotted 10 days for the trip, so if it's 3 days travel each way that leaves 4 days at their destination not 2.

[Steve_in_29]

trail-explorer wrote:
Totally not practical or worth the aggravation, or expense.

While I can't argue with your opinion as to the first two, expense is a relative thing that is dependent on many variables. I drove from CA to GA for my grandson's graduation from Army Boot Camp/Infantry Training as it was MUCH cheaper to do so then to book airline tickets and a rental car. I drove from CA to Dallas area in one day where we stayed at my son's place and then took him along when we left a day later and I drove straight through to GA. Gas was less then a third what I would have spent on tickets/rental.

This was in our Mustang getting 25mpg though and not my F350. With a more economical car the cost would have been cheaper still.

[nycsteve]

BillL1356 wrote:
I would say go for it.

We took two 5000 mile trips past year. The first trip was a swing from PA west to WY, CO and NM and the second a loop around TX with a 5 day stay in Big Bend. Both trips were 21 days and while somewhat rushed we still had a great time. Our trips are more about the journey rather than the destination.

Costs, all in, were about $0.55 per mile, which included fuel, meals, groceries, admissions, camping fees, etc. Our longest day driving was about 500 miles and once west of the Mississippi the stress of driving drops way off.

Good luck,

Bill

Your talking a trip with roughly the same amount of miles as the OP but with more than double the days to do it. Realistically I can average 50 miles in an hour of driving ,accounting for fuel and food stops, traffic and toll stops. 2500 miles each way; 3 15 + hour days of driving in a row, 2 days there , three 15 + hours days of driving home. To much driving ,to little destination.

[time2roll]

NO. With 10 days stay closer or fly. If you must RV rent at the destination.

[trail-explorer]

Totally not practical or worth the aggravation, or expense.