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Mr. Luddite

On 12/3/2015 5:18 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 3 Dec 2015 04:46:20 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I have always scheduled my MdFlorida trips so I do Virginia to the
Georgia line at night. Traffic is always light and it is usually just
me and the truckers. We move right along.
If I left my house in Md (south of DC) at around 2100, I was in North
Carolina shortly after midnight and crossing the Florida State line at
sunup. Going back I left St Pete around 1500 and had a similar
schedule in reverse, crossing the Potomac River Bridge north of
Dahlgren at sunup.

I did many roundtrips from MA to Jupiter, FL driving everything from BMW
740's to 36' Class A motorhomes to pickups hauling boats or trailers. I
once drove the BMW non-stop, other than for gas and grabbing something
to eat. Never again.

The worst part was from MA to just south of Virginia if I took I-95.
Getting through the southern part of CT and then NY, NJ, Delaware and
Maryland was always a nightmare, regardless of what time I left. The
I-84/I-81 route was better but considerably longer. The Carolina's were
usually ok unless you hit road construction that seemed like it was
going on forever. Navigating a big Class A through the winding, narrow
Jersey barriers that were set up was always a thrill. Glad I don't
make that trip anymore.

The last long distance trip I took was last December when
I drove to Mt. Pleasant, SC to see my son and his family over the
Christmas holidays.

I think the most pleasurable trip I took was driving out to Denver,
Colorado in the F-350 diesel hauling a car trailer to pick up a '55 Ford
F-100. The roads west of Illinois were straight as an arrow for miles
upon miles with almost no traffic. I took my time, taking 3 days to get
to Denver. Enjoyed that trip.

I'd much rather do the trip to Florida by boat.

For some reason Md to St Pete seemed like a reasonable "straight
through" drive but tacking on the extra 100 miles or so to Ft Myers
was too much. I guess it is what you get used to. Since I moved here,
I have little reason to make the trip. When we go up we take the
mountain route and spend close to a week getting there. We fly back.

I do agree, starting south of DC makes it a lot more pleasant drive. I
really did not hit the interstate until right north of the Richmond
toll road and then it was 95 all the way to the Florida line where I
hopped off to A!A, 301 and 526 over to I75. (speed trap city in Waldo
although I was never stopped)
Sometimes I would stop at a rest stop and take a power nap in the
Carolinas for an hour or so but I usually just kept going if I had
started fresh. It was about 16 hours if you were running legal but if
I was working the "breaker breaker" and I had a trucker or two I knew
out there I have made it in 14 (a tad over 900 miles).
When I was dating my (now) wife I made that trip a lot ;-)

I usually came down once or twice a year to see the folks before then
but in 83 it was more like 6-7. I was working midnights, 10 on and 4
off and if you worked the "23:45" trick you could make that 5 days
off. Tack on a few vacation days and you had enough to make the trip
worthwhile. I could really stretch out 4 weeks of vacation.

The ride from my house in MA to Jupiter, FL is just about 1500 miles.
Too long to do it non-stop. Other than that one time (which was
stupid), I'd go from MA to Richmond the first day, Richmond to
somewhere in Georgia the second and be in Jupiter by 1 or 2 pm on the
third day.