Averaging more than 12 is not usually a thing, though. It is fairly common to alternate days between ten or twelve or more and about half that, with a events outside of driving day.
I drove from south Florida to San Francisco. It took about a month because I went to places that I wanted and visited friends along the way. Stayed one day or 4. It was my choice. Unforgettable experience! Coast to coast with no agenda but to experience EVERYTHING 🎉
Yeah, when they said they stopped to stay overnight after two hours, my brain exploded, lol. My dad drives two hours to come take me to lunch then drives two hours back 45 minutes later. I think it would be really great to experience the difference!
My 124 mile commute (before retirement in 2015) was approx 1 hr (+ or -)each way, BUT that depended on a lot of factors like the weather, traffic, road construction, crashes & oddly enough (pertaining to the traffic situation), time of day.
@@jlaurelc so did we. Since I was taller than my sister, I would usually spot them before she did. Even though they're few and far between, she says she still flinches when she sees a VW bug.
(9:48) As someone who drives a truck for a living, I'm pretty confident that the image shown here is a Love's truck stop bathroom. They do an excellent job of keeping them very clean...and no cracks to peek through in the toilet stall doors.
@rowynnecrowley1689 I don't know if you were a driver yourself, so if you already know what I'm about to say, just ignore it. There is an app called "Trucker Path" that can help a person find truck stops, rest areas, etc if they are planning a trip. You just enter a starting point and a destination and it will show you where truck stops are located along your route. You can also filter out truck stop chains (like TA, Pilot, Flying J, petrol, etc) so that only Love's locations will be shown. Yeah, their showers are great. Oddly enough I'm not sure what the price for a shower is these days. I earn a free one for every 100 gallons of fuel I get from Love's locations.
@rowynnecrowley1689 Are you familiar with the "Trucker Path" app? In the app you can type in your origin and destination, and the app will show all points of interest/services along the route. You can even filter out locations you don't need so that it will only show the types of places you prefer to stop at.
In the US “service station” is an old term for gas station. Mostly from when they were also repair shops and would check your oil and clean the windshield while pumping your gas.
My first job (40 hr week, $1.85 hr) at 11 yrs old during summer break, was at a full service gas station as a pump jockey/flat fixer/floor & driveway sweeper/cleaner! I checked the oil/radiator (if not hot!), tire pressures & general condition under the hood, while pumping the gas. Oh & squeegied the windshield. It was great experience in learning the value of earning my wages & using it. My mom let me use the money to buy the things I wanted, like special clothes for school & bikes & other gear. Great times. And the next summer, Mr Boyd the station owner, hired me back with a raise! $2.00 hr!(Whoo hoo!) 🤠 God bless Texas!
In spring of 1994 my friend and I made a trip from where we lived in northwest Montana to where my friend grew up in Detroit Michigan. This was a 31 hour drive. Since we were two guys in our early 20s we drove straight through. Stopping only for fuel and to switch drivers.
For school on the reservation, it was 25 miles each way. So, 50 miles a day, 5 days a week, but if you need groceries or to do laundry, it's another 50 to town and home. But to visit relatives it can be 8 hours to spend 4 hours then home again.
Recently travelled 1400 miles. We did it in 3 days about 8 hours a day. We had our dog with us so lots of rest stops for us and the dog. Lots of fun along the way. Lots of music and talking. It wasn’t too bad. My husband is going to travel about 1100 miles this week. He’ll stop along the way at National Parks and that will break it up nicely. We also have a chef here with a show Diners, Drive ins and Dives about local restaurants all over the US. My husband looked up those and ate at a few and had good food along the way.
I feel for you man, i just got off the road and have seen the drastic change in driving habits over the last two decades, people care more about the phone than driving and this includes this new generation of commercial drivers. Stay safe and stay sane out there man.
My former company had an office 3.5 hours away. It was common for management to make the drive to and back in the same day. It’s crazy for me to think that 3 hours is a long time for smaller countries.
0:23 🏴 To give Britain a moment of glory 🏴 A Scottish vlogger routinely drives 🚗 from Edinburgh to London and back. Roughly an 8h3m drive at 416miles (669.49km) Shaun likes to drive the distance in one go.
To be fair, that drive is incredibly expensive compared to flying or taking a train/bus and most people don’t drive it unless it’s more than 2 people going.
That’s about 600 miles. I have done that drive a few times. I might use local roads next time. Since they changed their tolls from live people to cameras, the tolls have doubled. Not a fan.
In 2016 I agreed to go help out my sister after she had surgery. I drove from2 my home in Spring, TX (north of Houston) to her apartment in Sacramento, CA (over 1900 miles) stopping along the way to do some touristy things. After 2 weeks caring for her, I visited a friend in Chico, CA, then drove back home in January.
Commute to work Is 90 Minutes on the Way. In ahead of major traffic and yeah, is two hours and twenty minutes on the way out with the early rush hour, but beating the bulk of rush hour out of the urban center.
America does have rest stops with lobby type areas and information, mostly at state lines. Truck stops with food, very basic shopping and a few other things. But while travelling along the interstates you will see rest areas. A small road side place with restrooms and vending machines. You can park, eat or sleep there for free but you have to do it in your car.
I am retired now, but I used to drive about 40 minutes to work everyday. I have no issue driving 3 hours to visit my cousin and come back home in the same day. My longest drive, while hauling a large camper, was about 1900 miles. I did one overnight at a truck stop and we all slept in the camper. I played many different games with my children but one time I was getting tired of playing games so I told them to count how many dotted lines they saw on the road. 😅
As a horse crazed youngster from the age of 5, one game we would play on long drives was counting horses. Seeing a horse, one of us would yell out "horse". If there was more than one, each horse required a "horse" yell. A herd of say 10 horses - horse, horse, horse etc. And we kept a running count throughout the days drive.
I am 6 hours from Disneyland in Anaheim California. We drive straight through and then go to the park when we arrive!! Leave home at midnight and arrive at 6 am. Go to Denny's across from the park.😂😂
Rest stops are right off the interstate or highway. You don’t have to exit and then get back on. You have to merge to get back onto it, but so much easier. My experience is bathrooms and maybe vending machines. And picnic tables/
My sister's house is a 13 hour drive. It's long but you usually do it in one day. I like to stop 3/4 the way up. There are so many side trips that will take you 2 side hours to get to. But so much fun! So many local restaurants and antique shoppes
Though the destination is the reason for the trip, it is always about the journey to me. Stop and smell the roses! We live in a beautiful country. Enjoy it!
If I am just traveling and stop only to rest, I generally prefer motels over hotels due to the easy outside access - quick in and out at my own convenience for generally less cost. If I am looking for a place to stay while vacationing, then I generally prefer hotels with the additional amenities they tend to offer.
My wife and I just finished our ninth coast-to-coast trip. We had many 15-hour driving days. Even an 18-hour day to make our way around the big snowstorm that just hit New Mexico.
Drove my daughter from Baltimore to Chicago for college; trip took 12 hours, dragging a U-haul behind the minivan. When I was a kid, we drove cross-country from Seattle to Baltimore; with stops along the way (Grand Teton and Yellowstone NPs, Chicago...)- 2 weeks! We used to regularly drive between Baltimore and Stamford _ 4-4.5 hours depending on traffic.
When I was working in the office pre-pandemic, 30 minutes was a normal commute each way. For vacation/holiday going between Texas and South Carolina, it's a day and a half drive each way (with a nightly break at a motel)
in the US the stops on toll roads are called Service Plazas, but when not on toll roads they are called Rest Areas and they have minimum amenities compared to Service Plazas.
Btw, you're not banned from truck stops just cuz you're not in a truck. And if you're doing a long road trip, you should definitely try to plan your route around the truck stops. That's generally where you're gonna get the best food. And a truck stop shower is sooo worth it. It cost $10 in 2012, but it's the cleanest shower you'll ever have. You get a private cubicle, and it's cleaned and sanitized after every person. Worth it.
On the way to see family, we always stop at one along I-55 in central Illinois. Never used any of the showers, but everything else (restaurant, store, bathrooms), are nice!
When I was in my 20’s I lived in Pennsylvania and I was a Sales Representative. My territory was NE Pennsylvania & New Jersey. It was normal for me to drive one way 2 hours to get to my first account. I loved it! Played my 80’s Rock music and everyday was an adventure! Couldn’t do it now 😂. But back then it was awesome!!! Best memories of my youth!
In America, a "Service Station" is a place you take your car to get serviced. Don't ask for that if you're looking for a rest area. You will be very disappointed. Also a "rest area" isn't gonna have anything but a bathroom and maybe a keosk with some info about the area. If it's got restaurants and stuff, it generally won't be designated as a "rest area" on the highway signs. It'll just be a little fork and spoon icon and a gas pump icon.
In US when we hear road trip we think of how many days you are going to gone…..at least a week or two. When we travel for a few hours we just think that we are taking a drive.
Growing up most places to stay were motels. Howard Johnson’s and Holiday Inns were nice and did have pools. Then Days Inn. Then most transitioned to hotels and yes, now motels are pretty old. And I’ve stayed in a couple scary, sketchy ones when there were no other choices.
I can't imagine stopping two hours into a road trip to spend the night at a hotel, that would make trips last forever. Last month i drove 785 miles from NY to TN. We managed it in 13 hours to get there, and the trip back was just shy of 12 hours. No hotel needed. Anything longer than that, and being middle aged, we'd use a hotel. Earlier in the year we did an overnight stop from Dallas TX to Tucson AZ, it turns out 980 miles was just a bit too much.
Yeah, my husband and I frequently make a two-hour drive down to where our younger daughter lives, spend the day visiting with her and our grandsons, and then make the two-hour drive back home that same day. An easy day-trip! However, when we drive to visit our older daughter and her family, it's a two-day drive because they live almost 1,000 miles from us. We did drive straight through once, but the second time we tried to do that we realized it was too much for middle-aged us to do, so now we stop after around 500 miles and spend the night before finishing the drive the next day.
In the 70's and early 80's on family trips in the car we played spot the state. The object of Spot the state was to see how many license plates of different states we could spot, whomever had the most at the end of the trip won. We didn't have the internet, cell phones or portable dvd players to pass the time. We enjoyed our conversations, books, 8 track players, and cassette players. Fun fact; in 1970 a gallon of gas was .36 cents and in 1984, when I graduated high school, a gallon of gas was $1.14. Today it was $2.89!
Yeah, we don't seem to mind longer trips. More so because of the size of the country, we kinda just are used to everything being far away, at least if driving. My mom would travel almost three hours to Columbus from Cleveland every week for conventions. We drove to Yellowstone from Ohio, which was about a day and a half drive, with about 6 hours of sleep on a road side parking place.
The last road trip I took, was 2,200 miles each way! But I drove it in a 35ft long, 8 1/2ft wide motorhome, pulling a car, so we'd have an economical vehicle to get around with and do some sightseeing after we drove across the country. Taking all the creature comforts of home with you makes for a fun and relaxing trip. We do things a little grander here.
we played a game a lot called slugbug ... you have to look for a Volkswagen beetle and whoever spots it gets to punch the other in the arm ... basically the same game as Charles said but called it punchbuggy
One of our road trips when I was young, was a SUMMER road trip through Northern Arizona(Grand Canyon) and down to Carlsbad Caverns in SE New Mexico. We'd hit the road about 5 AM and stop for breakfast a couple of hours later. We'd drive until 1, eat lunch, then get a motel room. My dad would nap, and mom took us kids to the pool.
I drove from Atlanta to Phoenix. It took me 3 days. The last leg was a marathon. Amarillo to Phoenix nonstop. I believe it was about 13 hours nonstop, except for gas and food.
Motel = clean room, pool, hot tub, ice, laundry, free parking, free breakfast, free wifi, and more! Need a toothbrush, a phone charging cord? Available at the front desk!
For years my commute to and from work was about 40 minutes each way. Driving to my brother's house is 4 - 5 hours, and the longest I've done in a single day is 8 hours. We used to keep track of how many different State's license plates we could spot.
My dad was in the military in the 70's and when he was assigned to a new base, we usually traveled there by car. During that time, the Volkswagen bug was the most popular car (est. 1 million on the road at that time). So, we played "Yellow Bug" instead of yellow car. Also, trying to get the truck drivers to blow their horn for us as we passed them was also fun. My niece and her family on Friday drove from Pleasant Grove to Disneyland in less than 7 hours (399 miles). That's a fair road trip in California. I live in Sacramento, and we are roughly 2-3 hours from everywhere. Lake Tahoe is 3 hrs., the ski resorts are 2 hrs. San Francisco is 2 hrs.; Wine country, redwood forest state and national parks and the coast (Bodega Bay and Half Moon Bay) are roughly 3-3.5 hours. Lots of great day trips.
My most common road trip is to my parents' house. 461 miles from Southwestern Ohio to Northern Virginia...about a 7 hour and 45 minute drive one way without stops. I usually stop once for fuel. I used to drive that once a month, stay a few days, and then drive the almost 8 hour trip back. The farthest I've ever driven is back to my hometown in Southeastern VA. That drive can be as short as 9 hours or as long as 11; just depends on the way you go.
I take long road trips every year. My longest was from Mt. Pleasant, TX to Colville, WA to turkey hunt. On the first day, I made it from Mt. Pleasant, TX to Ft. Collins, CO.
The most common road trip i do is between Alaska and Montana and thats usually more than 50 hours of driving depending on conditions. If im in a rush, i usually drive 18hrs a day
My usual trip is NYC to Fort Lauderdale, FL. It’s about 1,300 miles each way and I break it up into two 10 hour days, taking a night’s rest around Raleigh, NC. The interesting part is that Raleigh is clearly farther North than the mid-point. This is because the Northern part of the drive is through much heavier traffic due to much higher population density. Oh… and the entire drive is basically down one motorway: I-95.
Punchbuggy was a road game I used to play. If you spotted a VW Bug, you punched the person next to you in the arm and say "Punchbuggy" and the color of the car. My addiction to that led to a couple of friends finding a VW Bug dealership to surprise me.
@@rowynnecrowley1689 if you're riding with siblings or friends, the game of always on!! Lol But I never played this game with anyone else. My girls are 9 and 6 years older than my son. They knew it and played it growing up but they are out on their own. My son doesn't remember, isn't driving yet. Hasn't been driving around in cars with all his buddies yet. So it might be going away?
My husband and I drove with our three kids from Texas to North Carolina for spring break. My husband gets car sick if anyone else drives, so we stopped after about 11 hours and stayed in a hotel. With stops, it was about 20 hours of driving to get there.
For many Canadians, we regularly drive from Toronto to Orlando Florida. Just to get across the province of Ontario can take 48 hours. 5 hours is just a day trip to Montreal. It can take 2.5 hours just to cross the city of Toronto.
We drove from Alabama to Washington states. Olympia park with a side trip up to North and South Dakota (Mount Rushmore). It was a two week trip, the days were mainly driving. the nice thing is we went through the Badlands and Yellowstone and many other nice places along the way.
You don't see as many Motels as you used to nowadays, the one exception is Tucumcari, New Mexico. Tucumcari, is like a stop in the 'Twilight Zone', not quite a ghost town, but pretty darn close, with a handful of open old motels and three times as many abandoned ones. More important than having good snacks or petrol, is having great tunes. Some music was just meant for the open road, especially night drives on empty roads. I once creeped out my buddy by mixing a tape, "yup I am that old", for a dark desert drive. I can't remember all the artists, but I do know "The Doors - Riders on The Storm" and "Siouxsie and The Banshees - Drifter" were on it.
I've driven across the eastern half of America many times and I have yet to see a rest stop like the ones Lawrence showed here. There are truck stops that have the amenities and travel oasis' on turnpikes but normally when I think of rest stop the only ones I have ever seen were just a parking lot with restrooms and a picnic table.
My wife and I drove from our home on the Connecticut shore to Tucson, Arizona and back for a winter getaway a few years ago. Going out, it took us a solid week of traveling, although we did stay an extra night in the Texas Hill Country to enjoy the scenery and wineries there, and visit Lyndon Johnson's "Western White House." It's a distance in excess of 2800 miles, so we averaged about 400 miles/day, which is not terribly long. A couple months later, on the way back home it only took us 6 days, because we didn't spend any extra nights anywhere. We took different routes in each direction, but it came out about the same distance. I don't know if I'd do it again. My wife definitely wouldn't!
I spend 2 days a week at my office, which is a 20 minute drive from my house. The other 3 days, I am in my truck driving to different job sites. The longest drive I have is 2 hours one way. I enjoy the time behind the wheel. I used to drive a semi-truck 10+ hours a day, so 2 hours is a piece of cake.
Land's End to John O'Groats is 839 miles. We have driven father than that in a day (with little kids) to go visit in-laws. It was nice when the speed limit was raised.
Among others, Another name for the Yellow car/ Volkswagon Bug game in New England US.. I knew it as "Punch Buggy".. Granted, it was a lightish tap from a sibling, but the one who saw the VW Beetle first, got to "Punch" the other.. LOL
Before the SJ Sharks existed, I drove solo to LA from the SF Bay Area to see an NHL game. After the game, I drove back. At least twelve hours of driving. That wasn't the plan, but it was either that, or my friends and I would have eaten the cost of the three tickets. I was able to sell their tickets to a scalper for them.
I have driven several trips over 1000 miles in a single day with my English Bulldogs, taking 18 to 23 hours. I regularly drive 500+ miles, 7 to 8 hour drives.
I've driven across the country, was a good 44 hours. I'm about an hour from NYC, spent a year doing 2-3 days a week up in Boston after we bought a company up there to help transition them... An easy several hours up there and back (though I'd get a hotel for the time I was there).
i normally drive 15 minutes to work, but on the rare occasion i make a road trip to see family its a 12-14 hour drive that I will do in 1 shot on the way there and stop half way to get a room somewhere on the way back normally because of leaving later in the day
It takes us longer one-way than 2 hours to get to my inlaws, 1.5 hours to my son's university, but we drive 40 minutes one-way once a week to my daughter's lessons. My husband works at home and schools are 5-8 minute drive, so not much daily.
The longest trip I drove straight through from start (Middle North Carolina) to end (Southern Maine) about 915 plus miles mostly on high speed highways ( between 65 to 80 miles per hour ) and it was 18 hours and only stopping for fuel and restroom breaks and then sleeping approximately 9 to 10 hours after I got home. That was a long day.
Car games, Slug Bug which is punching each other whenever you see a Volkswagen Bug. Also double punch ,,,Wack Smack Cadillac. Lol , Alphabet game where you have to find the alphabet on road signs along the way.
Michigan here. Driven to my brother's place near Seattle and back on a two week vacation a few times. I like to detour off to visit parks along the way.
SUV crossovers are more common that minivans. We call them soccer mom vehicles. They're great for packing American football equipment or hockey equipment around which is quite a hefty bag. Punch buggy is for spotting VW bugs or Popeye for spotting gone out headlights.
My wife and I took a traditional car road trip in September from Louisiana to southern Colorado and back in my wife's Jeep Cherokee, 2,400+ miles round trip
The games you play depends largely on who you are road tripping with and what the purpose of that road trip is. Normally if it's a business trip with co-workers the road trip sucks. If it's a family trip the road trip is ok but ends up with more memories of the bad stuff like the arguing and mishaps than the good stuff. The best road trips, in my opinion, are the ones taken with your friends. When you are younger it may be a college spring break road trip where the games are a bit more "adult" like mooning or flashing passing cars. When you are older it may be a weekend trip outta town to get away.
Idk. But for road trips, I prefer the motels. You can park right outside your room door. Which makes it a quick trip with an overnight bag and you can keep an eye on your loaded down vehicle lol. Also, quite a few motels have their own diners which is really convenient and food and coffee generally good. Most are pretty well maintained and not creepy. And many over the road truck drivers will utilize them when they are on their longer forced breaks. Allowing them to stretch out, shower and either eat at the diner or have local food delivered. You can generally tell if a motel is a shady one and if so, drive a bit further and you'll find a better one. In my late teenager years, I spent a summer working as a housekeeper for a motel. Maybe that's why they don't really bother me.
I live in almost the center of Texas. From here in Temple, Texas it's over a 9 hour drive to the westernmost part of the state near El Paso, an 8 hour drive to the northernmost part near Dalhart, an 8 hour drive to the easternmost part northeast of Houston, and an 8 hour drive to the southernmost part near Brownsville. Aside from immediate family here in town, my closest relative is my sister in San Antonio, just down the interstate and a 2.5 hour drive.
Electronic communications are changing some things, but there still quite a few people who spend a lot of time on the road. Chain hotels can be very good value and well appointed. Most of them have members cards which will give you various perks and deals, you will be put into their computer system which can also act as a database. They also do things like no checkout - you can just leave without having to check out, they will have extensive breakfasts, and also bags and disposable coffee cups etc. If you need to get on the road, you can put yourself together a bagged breakfast, grab a coffee and get back on the road. You can also just tell the front desk your next stop, they will call ahead and book your room and the database will tell the next place what preferences you have, you may want to be on a ground floor you might be allergic to feather pillows etc. There is competition between the various chains, they want to keep your business, and they are (mostly) very good at supplying what people want. At the end of a day on the road, to be able to pull in and just be handed your room key without having to check in, know you won’t have to phone housekeeping about needing extra pillows etc, have a good bed, A/C and in the morning just grab a breakfast and go, is everything you could possibly want.
When I was in school in San Francisco, CA I had a teacher who LIVED in Hawaii. He would fly into San Francisco's airport (SFO) on Monday, stay the week, then fly HOME on Friday.
Beesleys, I may have said this before, but re. the length of drives, the first 2 days of my drive back in '84 from northern IL to Alaska were 12 and 14 hours. Then, in 2000, I had my longest day ever in Africa, driving from Chobe N.P. in Botswana to Johannesburg, S. Africa--19 hours. Needless to say, I was "shot out of the saddle" at the end of that, since there wasn't even 1 mile of interstate driving--all like back road European driving. Rest stops don't have gas. Rather, they're a place to check the vending machines, "visit Johnny" (translated as "visit Louie [the loo]", and if it's time for food, grab a picnic table for a picnic. My experience with truck stops has been that, though they have special pump areas for them, as well as mechanical services and a place to eat, they also have, at the larger ones, showers, barbers, and maybe a place to spend the night, though many "over the road" trucks have the back half of the tractor set up as a bedroom. You apparently watch too many weird movies. I've stayed in tons of motels the past few years, since my 40+ year old tent died during a vacation a few years ago, which I used hundreds of times, without the slightest problem in either situation, i.e., no bears, no dangerous people. None!! Also, I've stayed in several motels that had a pool, though they are rare. To answer his final question, when I was in the UK back in '86, I stayed in youth hostels every night. Unlike today, they were ridiculously cheap back then--a real bargain.
I lived in a small mill town for a number of years where the mill had closed down. As a result man awful lot of residents commuted 65kms to the town to the north or about the same to the city to the south. Because the roads ran either through the mountains, or along the sides of mountains, radio reception was dire. You would have to change the frequency 3 or 4 times through the journey to stay on the one station that could be received up there. As a result of this, the town had a library that was almost all books on tape. I should add that back in those days, the road was not always reliable, rockslides, washouts and an annual snowfall of 26 feet could make for a long commute. But it did create a strange phenomenon, that the whole town - about 800 people in the whole area, lived a rather rather wild and woolly life, but at the same time must have been one of the ‘best read' communities on the continent, with many residents going through an absolute minimum of at least a book a week, and due to availability, would listen to a wild range of books.
We have bingo-like cards with 50 state license plates, but we always forget to take them with us on road trips. And yelling padiddle when we were teenagers meant you got to kiss someone else in the car.
I remember in college I bought a new car. I hadn’t had a car in a couple of years so I was really looking forward to hitting the road. Come the next Saturday I just took off on an aimless drive, and wound up driving for 11 hours all over Maryland and Virginia.
Once it was determined that I was old enough to road trip (decades ago) and not transition into an evil beast after three or four hours on the road we would take at least one and sometimes two road trips each summer. We never stayed in hotels. Couldn't afford it. It was not uncommon to see motels with a pool AND COLOR TV!!! And--oh joy--occasionally a motel where each room was actually a separate small cabin!! Almost all the rooms came equipped with a small electric kettle to heat water with packets of instant coffee, sugar and powdered creamer. Most of our trips were through the New England States, sometimes Pennsylvania and once to Washington D.C. We had a blast. I'm 69 now and the memories are still bright and clear.
13:41 did you just say you would drive 2 hours get a room for the night just to travel 2 more hours? When I go to my sister’s (10 hours) I just drive straight through.
Yeah, 2 hours is nothing. Where I live in Oregon, it's about 2 hours to the coast in one direction and 2 hours to the mountains in the other. It's not uncommon to wake up on Saturday morning, decide on a whim that you want to go somewhere, drive 2 hours to your destination, have a picnic, spend a couple hours hiking or playing on the beach, then drive 2 hours back. With no preparation except maybe stopping by the store to pick up food for the picnic. We don't even call that a road trip; it's just your average day trip.
Here are some other commuting statistics for Toronto, Canada: (one way) The average commute time by car is 25.5 minutes The average commute time by bicycle or on foot is 15.6 minutes The average distance traveled during a one-way commute is 12.29 kilometers Only 6.75% of people in Toronto have a long commute trip of two hours or longer The average wait time for public transit is 12 minutes
We played slugbug... if you see a VW bug; you yell it out, first one to say it, punches the other playing (not a hard punch) we'd get very competitive... if we"d say it at the same time, then we'd say, pinch, punch, poke, you owe me a coke! And laugh😂 I liked to yell Dodge, then tell my brothers "dodge this" and punch one of them lol. I've never heard of padiddle. Must be a regional thing? 🤷♀️
Yeah, on a typical American road trip, a lot of people drive 10-12 hours per day. Sometimes more
Averaging more than 12 is not usually a thing, though. It is fairly common to alternate days between ten or twelve or more and about half that, with a events outside of driving day.
I drove from south Florida to San Francisco. It took about a month because I went to places that I wanted and visited friends along the way. Stayed one day or 4. It was my choice.
Unforgettable experience!
Coast to coast with no agenda but to experience EVERYTHING 🎉
That's the type of trip I wish to take one day. 😊
@whyask6446
What a life changing experience! Can't imagine how fun that was!
2 hrs isn't a road trip. That's my commute.
Hubby's commute is usually 1 and half hours.. if traffic bad then longer.
Yeah, when they said they stopped to stay overnight after two hours, my brain exploded, lol. My dad drives two hours to come take me to lunch then drives two hours back 45 minutes later.
I think it would be really great to experience the difference!
My 124 mile commute (before retirement in 2015) was approx 1 hr (+ or -)each way, BUT that depended on a lot of factors like the weather, traffic, road construction, crashes & oddly enough (pertaining to the traffic situation), time of day.
I live in the New York City metro area and have to say the commute can be ghastly.
Just now finished my own 3hr evening commute. "Road trip" lmao.
7:48 we had one called Slug Bug - the first person to see a Volkswagen Bug would slug the other person yelling, “slug bug.”
Same but we called it "punchbuggy"
Punch Bug here!
@@jlaurelc so did we. Since I was taller than my sister, I would usually spot them before she did. Even though they're few and far between, she says she still flinches when she sees a VW bug.
We also had "Cadillac Smack.". Obviously from the name the first person to see a Cadillac would lightly smack the other person(s) playing.
We called it Slug Bug and a yellow one was Jackpot!
(9:48) As someone who drives a truck for a living, I'm pretty confident that the image shown here is a Love's truck stop bathroom. They do an excellent job of keeping them very clean...and no cracks to peek through in the toilet stall doors.
If I ever get to do a real multi-state road trip, I'm planning it around the truck stops. I love their showers. Worth every penny.
@rowynnecrowley1689 I don't know if you were a driver yourself, so if you already know what I'm about to say, just ignore it.
There is an app called "Trucker Path" that can help a person find truck stops, rest areas, etc if they are planning a trip. You just enter a starting point and a destination and it will show you where truck stops are located along your route. You can also filter out truck stop chains (like TA, Pilot, Flying J, petrol, etc) so that only Love's locations will be shown.
Yeah, their showers are great. Oddly enough I'm not sure what the price for a shower is these days. I earn a free one for every 100 gallons of fuel I get from Love's locations.
@rowynnecrowley1689 Are you familiar with the "Trucker Path" app?
In the app you can type in your origin and destination, and the app will show all points of interest/services along the route. You can even filter out locations you don't need so that it will only show the types of places you prefer to stop at.
In the US “service station” is an old term for gas station. Mostly from when they were also repair shops and would check your oil and clean the windshield while pumping your gas.
Fill 'er up, oh and can you check my oil, please? I miss those days!
My first job (40 hr week, $1.85 hr) at 11 yrs old during summer break, was at a full service gas station as a pump jockey/flat fixer/floor & driveway sweeper/cleaner! I checked the oil/radiator (if not hot!), tire pressures & general condition under the hood, while pumping the gas. Oh & squeegied the windshield. It was great experience in learning the value of earning my wages & using it. My mom let me use the money to buy the things I wanted, like special clothes for school & bikes & other gear. Great times. And the next summer, Mr Boyd the station owner, hired me back with a raise! $2.00 hr!(Whoo hoo!) 🤠 God bless Texas!
Ah the good old days
In spring of 1994 my friend and I made a trip from where we lived in northwest Montana to where my friend grew up in Detroit Michigan. This was a 31 hour drive. Since we were two guys in our early 20s we drove straight through. Stopping only for fuel and to switch drivers.
Is that the part of Michigan you have to drive down into Canada to get back into Michigan? Or am I picturing the map in my head wrong? Lol
@@lianabaddley8217That would be the Northwest Angle in Minnesota, there is also Point Roberts in Washington that also has that geographical quirk.
For school on the reservation, it was 25 miles each way. So, 50 miles a day, 5 days a week, but if you need groceries or to do laundry, it's another 50 to town and home. But to visit relatives it can be 8 hours to spend 4 hours then home again.
Recently travelled 1400 miles. We did it in 3 days about 8 hours a day. We had our dog with us so lots of rest stops for us and the dog. Lots of fun along the way. Lots of music and talking. It wasn’t too bad. My husband is going to travel about 1100 miles this week. He’ll stop along the way at National Parks and that will break it up nicely. We also have a chef here with a show Diners, Drive ins and Dives about local restaurants all over the US. My husband looked up those and ate at a few and had good food along the way.
I'm a long distance truck driver in the US. I usually get around 500 miles a day and over 3000 miles a week
If you want to know where to eat a good meal that is reasonably priced ask a local or a trucker.
I worked as a courier and drove 350 miles a day. Seems like a lifetime ago.
I feel for you man, i just got off the road and have seen the drastic change in driving habits over the last two decades, people care more about the phone than driving and this includes this new generation of commercial drivers. Stay safe and stay sane out there man.
My former company had an office 3.5 hours away. It was common for management to make the drive to and back in the same day. It’s crazy for me to think that 3 hours is a long time for smaller countries.
We have swimming pools in every motel I have stayed at, and I have stayed in motels all over the west and the south and the midwest.
There's plenty that don't. But you're just as likely to have a pool as to not have one.
0:23 🏴 To give Britain a moment of glory 🏴 A Scottish vlogger routinely drives 🚗 from Edinburgh to London and back.
Roughly an 8h3m drive at 416miles (669.49km) Shaun likes to drive the distance in one go.
To be fair, that drive is incredibly expensive compared to flying or taking a train/bus and most people don’t drive it unless it’s more than 2 people going.
@afcgeo882 I bet it would be spendy with UK fuel prices. Shaun owns a Tesla, though. Expensive car for the trip
The furthest I’ve ever driven is Pennsylvania to Florida, about 1200 miles and 18 hours of driving.
There are also a few “no-tell motels” that rent rooms by the hour.
I drove from Gettysburg Pa, to Mason Michigan last year. Took 11 hours with construction. My back still hates me. Well done guys.
My cousin lives in Mason, Michigan. Not important but it is a small world.
That’s about 600 miles.
I have done that drive a few times.
I might use local roads next time. Since they changed their tolls from live people to cameras, the tolls have doubled. Not a fan.
Many motels do in fact have swimming pools not all but many.
In 2016 I agreed to go help out my sister after she had surgery. I drove from2 my home in Spring, TX (north of Houston) to her apartment in Sacramento, CA (over 1900 miles) stopping along the way to do some touristy things. After 2 weeks caring for her, I visited a friend in Chico, CA, then drove back home in January.
Commute to work Is 90 Minutes on the Way. In ahead of major traffic and yeah, is two hours and twenty minutes on the way out with the early rush hour, but beating the bulk of rush hour out of the urban center.
America does have rest stops with lobby type areas and information, mostly at state lines. Truck stops with food, very basic shopping and a few other things. But while travelling along the interstates you will see rest areas. A small road side place with restrooms and vending machines. You can park, eat or sleep there for free but you have to do it in your car.
Lots of motels do have swimming pools and many have a restaurant.
I drove 2 hours (halfway between us) yesterday to meet my cousin for lunch and then drove home.
Our license plate game we used the numbers to get the highest poker hand.
Punch buggy, you punch your companion when you see a VW Beetle Bug.
I am retired now, but I used to drive about 40 minutes to work everyday.
I have no issue driving 3 hours to visit my cousin and come back home in the same day.
My longest drive, while hauling a large camper, was about 1900 miles. I did one overnight at a truck stop and we all slept in the camper.
I played many different games with my children but one time I was getting tired of playing games so I told them to count how many dotted lines they saw on the road. 😅
As a horse crazed youngster from the age of 5, one game we would play on long drives was counting horses. Seeing a horse, one of us would yell out "horse". If there was more than one, each horse required a "horse" yell. A herd of say 10 horses - horse, horse, horse etc. And we kept a running count throughout the days drive.
We played that one too. We had a rule that if we passed a grave yard on your side of the car, you lost all your horses.
How did he not bring up "Slug-Bug" game. If you see a Volkswagen Beetle, you yell Slugbug and you get to hit the other person in the arm!
I am 6 hours from Disneyland in Anaheim California. We drive straight through and then go to the park when we arrive!! Leave home at midnight and arrive at 6 am. Go to Denny's across from the park.😂😂
Rest stops are right off the interstate or highway. You don’t have to exit and then get back on. You have to merge to get back onto it, but so much easier. My experience is bathrooms and maybe vending machines. And picnic tables/
My sister's house is a 13 hour drive.
It's long but you usually do it in one day. I like to stop 3/4 the way up.
There are so many side trips that will take you 2 side hours to get to. But so much fun! So many local restaurants and antique shoppes
Though the destination is the reason for the trip, it is always about the journey to me. Stop and smell the roses! We live in a beautiful country. Enjoy it!
If I am just traveling and stop only to rest, I generally prefer motels over hotels due to the easy outside access - quick in and out at my own convenience for generally less cost. If I am looking for a place to stay while vacationing, then I generally prefer hotels with the additional amenities they tend to offer.
My wife and I just finished our ninth coast-to-coast trip. We had many 15-hour driving days. Even an 18-hour day to make our way around the big snowstorm that just hit New Mexico.
Any driving in heavy traffic is long.
Drove my daughter from Baltimore to Chicago for college; trip took 12 hours, dragging a U-haul behind the minivan. When I was a kid, we drove cross-country from Seattle to Baltimore; with stops along the way (Grand Teton and Yellowstone NPs, Chicago...)- 2 weeks! We used to regularly drive between Baltimore and Stamford _ 4-4.5 hours depending on traffic.
Commute to work is 27 miles one way. Depending on traffic that can take the usual 40 minutes or has taken me up to 2 hours.
When I was working in the office pre-pandemic, 30 minutes was a normal commute each way. For vacation/holiday going between Texas and South Carolina, it's a day and a half drive each way (with a nightly break at a motel)
in the US the stops on toll roads are called Service Plazas, but when not on toll roads they are called Rest Areas and they have minimum amenities compared to Service Plazas.
Btw, you're not banned from truck stops just cuz you're not in a truck. And if you're doing a long road trip, you should definitely try to plan your route around the truck stops. That's generally where you're gonna get the best food. And a truck stop shower is sooo worth it. It cost $10 in 2012, but it's the cleanest shower you'll ever have. You get a private cubicle, and it's cleaned and sanitized after every person. Worth it.
On the way to see family, we always stop at one along I-55 in central Illinois. Never used any of the showers, but everything else (restaurant, store, bathrooms), are nice!
When I was in my 20’s I lived in Pennsylvania and I was a Sales Representative. My territory was NE Pennsylvania & New Jersey. It was normal for me to drive one way 2 hours to get to my first account. I loved it! Played my 80’s Rock music and everyday was an adventure! Couldn’t do it now 😂. But back then it was awesome!!! Best memories of my youth!
I always appreciated the time in the car. it was my own time and I could get my thoughts sorted.
In America, a "Service Station" is a place you take your car to get serviced. Don't ask for that if you're looking for a rest area. You will be very disappointed. Also a "rest area" isn't gonna have anything but a bathroom and maybe a keosk with some info about the area. If it's got restaurants and stuff, it generally won't be designated as a "rest area" on the highway signs. It'll just be a little fork and spoon icon and a gas pump icon.
In US when we hear road trip we think of how many days you are going to gone…..at least a week or two. When we travel for a few hours we just think that we are taking a drive.
Growing up most places to stay were motels. Howard Johnson’s and Holiday Inns were nice and did have pools. Then Days Inn. Then most transitioned to hotels and yes, now motels are pretty old. And I’ve stayed in a couple scary, sketchy ones when there were no other choices.
I can't imagine stopping two hours into a road trip to spend the night at a hotel, that would make trips last forever. Last month i drove 785 miles from NY to TN. We managed it in 13 hours to get there, and the trip back was just shy of 12 hours. No hotel needed.
Anything longer than that, and being middle aged, we'd use a hotel. Earlier in the year we did an overnight stop from Dallas TX to Tucson AZ, it turns out 980 miles was just a bit too much.
Yeah, my husband and I frequently make a two-hour drive down to where our younger daughter lives, spend the day visiting with her and our grandsons, and then make the two-hour drive back home that same day. An easy day-trip! However, when we drive to visit our older daughter and her family, it's a two-day drive because they live almost 1,000 miles from us. We did drive straight through once, but the second time we tried to do that we realized it was too much for middle-aged us to do, so now we stop after around 500 miles and spend the night before finishing the drive the next day.
In the 70's and early 80's on family trips in the car we played spot the state. The object of Spot the state was to see how many license plates of different states we could spot, whomever had the most at the end of the trip won. We didn't have the internet, cell phones or portable dvd players to pass the time. We enjoyed our conversations, books, 8 track players, and cassette players. Fun fact; in 1970 a gallon of gas was .36 cents and in 1984, when I graduated high school, a gallon of gas was $1.14. Today it was $2.89!
Its $4.89 here!
@garycamara9955 where is here? 2 dollars is a big jump!
Yeah, we don't seem to mind longer trips. More so because of the size of the country, we kinda just are used to everything being far away, at least if driving. My mom would travel almost three hours to Columbus from Cleveland every week for conventions. We drove to Yellowstone from Ohio, which was about a day and a half drive, with about 6 hours of sleep on a road side parking place.
❤the sign off of “peace.” A lovely message.
The last road trip I took, was 2,200 miles each way! But I drove it in a 35ft long, 8 1/2ft wide motorhome, pulling a car, so we'd have an economical vehicle to get around with and do some sightseeing after we drove across the country. Taking all the creature comforts of home with you makes for a fun and relaxing trip. We do things a little grander here.
You drive a couple hours then pay for a room? When you only have a couple hours till your destination?
Am I missing something?
we played a game a lot called slugbug ... you have to look for a Volkswagen beetle and whoever spots it gets to punch the other in the arm ... basically the same game as Charles said but called it punchbuggy
One of our road trips when I was young, was a SUMMER road trip through Northern Arizona(Grand Canyon) and down to Carlsbad Caverns in SE New Mexico. We'd hit the road about 5 AM and stop for breakfast a couple of hours later. We'd drive until 1, eat lunch, then get a motel room. My dad would nap, and mom took us kids to the pool.
I drove from Atlanta to Phoenix. It took me 3 days. The last leg was a marathon. Amarillo to Phoenix nonstop. I believe it was about 13 hours nonstop, except for gas and food.
Damn and you stayed awake the entire time.
Motel = clean room, pool, hot tub, ice, laundry, free parking, free breakfast, free wifi, and more! Need a toothbrush, a phone charging cord? Available at the front desk!
For years my commute to and from work was about 40 minutes each way. Driving to my brother's house is 4 - 5 hours, and the longest I've done in a single day is 8 hours. We used to keep track of how many different State's license plates we could spot.
My dad was in the military in the 70's and when he was assigned to a new base, we usually traveled there by car. During that time, the Volkswagen bug was the most popular car (est. 1 million on the road at that time). So, we played "Yellow Bug" instead of yellow car. Also, trying to get the truck drivers to blow their horn for us as we passed them was also fun. My niece and her family on Friday drove from Pleasant Grove to Disneyland in less than 7 hours (399 miles). That's a fair road trip in California. I live in Sacramento, and we are roughly 2-3 hours from everywhere. Lake Tahoe is 3 hrs., the ski resorts are 2 hrs. San Francisco is 2 hrs.; Wine country, redwood forest state and national parks and the coast (Bodega Bay and Half Moon Bay) are roughly 3-3.5 hours. Lots of great day trips.
In the midwest, we'd play slug bug & weasel. Volkswagen and station wagons. Those vehicles got harder to find on the roads throughout the 80's lol.
My most common road trip is to my parents' house. 461 miles from Southwestern Ohio to Northern Virginia...about a 7 hour and 45 minute drive one way without stops. I usually stop once for fuel. I used to drive that once a month, stay a few days, and then drive the almost 8 hour trip back. The farthest I've ever driven is back to my hometown in Southeastern VA. That drive can be as short as 9 hours or as long as 11; just depends on the way you go.
American cars don't have "boots". They have trunks. :P
I take long road trips every year. My longest was from Mt. Pleasant, TX to Colville, WA to turkey hunt. On the first day, I made it from Mt. Pleasant, TX to Ft. Collins, CO.
The most common road trip i do is between Alaska and Montana and thats usually more than 50 hours of driving depending on conditions. If im in a rush, i usually drive 18hrs a day
It takes me 45 minutes to drive 12 miles to work each morning in Jacksonville, Florida.
My usual trip is NYC to Fort Lauderdale, FL. It’s about 1,300 miles each way and I break it up into two 10 hour days, taking a night’s rest around Raleigh, NC. The interesting part is that Raleigh is clearly farther North than the mid-point. This is because the Northern part of the drive is through much heavier traffic due to much higher population density. Oh… and the entire drive is basically down one motorway: I-95.
Punchbuggy was a road game I used to play. If you spotted a VW Bug, you punched the person next to you in the arm and say "Punchbuggy" and the color of the car. My addiction to that led to a couple of friends finding a VW Bug dealership to surprise me.
We called that "Slug Bug"!!
@lisarhae9692 yep! Whoever spotted the Slug Bug called out slug bug yellow, then slug(punch in the arm) whoever they were "playing" against.
@@lianabaddley8217 Problem is, many times you didn't know you were playing until you got randomly punched in the arm.
@@rowynnecrowley1689 if you're riding with siblings or friends, the game of always on!! Lol
But I never played this game with anyone else. My girls are 9 and 6 years older than my son. They knew it and played it growing up but they are out on their own. My son doesn't remember, isn't driving yet. Hasn't been driving around in cars with all his buddies yet. So it might be going away?
I have road tripped in the US, UK, and Europe on multiple occasions. I've stayed in Premiere Inns and Novotels.
My husband and I drove with our three kids from Texas to North Carolina for spring break. My husband gets car sick if anyone else drives, so we stopped after about 11 hours and stayed in a hotel. With stops, it was about 20 hours of driving to get there.
For many Canadians, we regularly drive from Toronto to Orlando Florida. Just to get across the province of Ontario can take 48 hours. 5 hours is just a day trip to Montreal. It can take 2.5 hours just to cross the city of Toronto.
We drove from Alabama to Washington states. Olympia park with a side trip up to North and South Dakota (Mount Rushmore). It was a two week trip, the days were mainly driving. the nice thing is we went through the Badlands and Yellowstone and many other nice places along the way.
I just hope the engine didn't over heat because of a such a long trip.
You don't see as many Motels as you used to nowadays, the one exception is Tucumcari, New Mexico. Tucumcari, is like a stop in the 'Twilight Zone', not quite a ghost town, but pretty darn close, with a handful of open old motels and three times as many abandoned ones. More important than having good snacks or petrol, is having great tunes. Some music was just meant for the open road, especially night drives on empty roads. I once creeped out my buddy by mixing a tape, "yup I am that old", for a dark desert drive. I can't remember all the artists, but I do know "The Doors - Riders on The Storm" and "Siouxsie and The Banshees - Drifter" were on it.
I've driven across the eastern half of America many times and I have yet to see a rest stop like the ones Lawrence showed here. There are truck stops that have the amenities and travel oasis' on turnpikes but normally when I think of rest stop the only ones I have ever seen were just a parking lot with restrooms and a picnic table.
My wife and I drove from our home on the Connecticut shore to Tucson, Arizona and back for a winter getaway a few years ago. Going out, it took us a solid week of traveling, although we did stay an extra night in the Texas Hill Country to enjoy the scenery and wineries there, and visit Lyndon Johnson's "Western White House." It's a distance in excess of 2800 miles, so we averaged about 400 miles/day, which is not terribly long. A couple months later, on the way back home it only took us 6 days, because we didn't spend any extra nights anywhere. We took different routes in each direction, but it came out about the same distance. I don't know if I'd do it again. My wife definitely wouldn't!
I spend 2 days a week at my office, which is a 20 minute drive from my house. The other 3 days, I am in my truck driving to different job sites. The longest drive I have is 2 hours one way. I enjoy the time behind the wheel. I used to drive a semi-truck 10+ hours a day, so 2 hours is a piece of cake.
I drove 12 and a half hours to Florida from Indiana in May. Stopped 1 time for a sandwich, gas, and a restroom break. 800 miles
I drove from San Bernardino, Ca. to Manchester, New Hampshire in 71 hours flat! I didn't stop to sleep. I just kept going and going and going!
My last trip was to the in-laws house in Tennessee . 14 hours up and back. The rest stops are very helpful.
Land's End to John O'Groats is 839 miles. We have driven father than that in a day (with little kids) to go visit in-laws. It was nice when the speed limit was raised.
Among others, Another name for the Yellow car/ Volkswagon Bug game in New England US.. I knew it as "Punch Buggy".. Granted, it was a lightish tap from a sibling, but the one who saw the VW Beetle first, got to "Punch" the other.. LOL
As kids we used to see how many 18 wheelers we could get to honk the big air horns.
Before the SJ Sharks existed, I drove solo to LA from the SF Bay Area to see an NHL game. After the game, I drove back. At least twelve hours of driving. That wasn't the plan, but it was either that, or my friends and I would have eaten the cost of the three tickets. I was able to sell their tickets to a scalper for them.
I have driven several trips over 1000 miles in a single day with my English Bulldogs, taking 18 to 23 hours. I regularly drive 500+ miles, 7 to 8 hour drives.
I've driven across the country, was a good 44 hours. I'm about an hour from NYC, spent a year doing 2-3 days a week up in Boston after we bought a company up there to help transition them... An easy several hours up there and back (though I'd get a hotel for the time I was there).
Rest stops in the SW has restrooms and picnic tables and of course parking area, thats it. Service stations are quit different.
i normally drive 15 minutes to work, but on the rare occasion i make a road trip to see family its a 12-14 hour drive that I will do in 1 shot on the way there and stop half way to get a room somewhere on the way back normally because of leaving later in the day
It takes us longer one-way than 2 hours to get to my inlaws, 1.5 hours to my son's university, but we drive 40 minutes one-way once a week to my daughter's lessons. My husband works at home and schools are 5-8 minute drive, so not much daily.
The longest trip I drove straight through from start (Middle North Carolina) to end (Southern Maine) about 915 plus miles mostly on high speed highways ( between 65 to 80 miles per hour ) and it was 18 hours and only stopping for fuel and restroom breaks and then sleeping approximately 9 to 10 hours after I got home. That was a long day.
Car games, Slug Bug which is punching each other whenever you see a Volkswagen Bug. Also double punch ,,,Wack Smack Cadillac. Lol , Alphabet game where you have to find the alphabet on road signs along the way.
Wisconsin, here. Just finished a road trip about a month ago. Put 6470 miles on in 15 days.
Michigan here. Driven to my brother's place near Seattle and back on a two week vacation a few times. I like to detour off to visit parks along the way.
SUV crossovers are more common that minivans. We call them soccer mom vehicles. They're great for packing American football equipment or hockey equipment around which is quite a hefty bag.
Punch buggy is for spotting VW bugs or Popeye for spotting gone out headlights.
We called the cars with just one working headlight a Cyclops
My wife and I took a traditional car road trip in September from Louisiana to southern Colorado and back in my wife's Jeep Cherokee, 2,400+ miles round trip
The games you play depends largely on who you are road tripping with and what the purpose of that road trip is. Normally if it's a business trip with co-workers the road trip sucks. If it's a family trip the road trip is ok but ends up with more memories of the bad stuff like the arguing and mishaps than the good stuff. The best road trips, in my opinion, are the ones taken with your friends. When you are younger it may be a college spring break road trip where the games are a bit more "adult" like mooning or flashing passing cars. When you are older it may be a weekend trip outta town to get away.
Idk. But for road trips, I prefer the motels. You can park right outside your room door. Which makes it a quick trip with an overnight bag and you can keep an eye on your loaded down vehicle lol.
Also, quite a few motels have their own diners which is really convenient and food and coffee generally good.
Most are pretty well maintained and not creepy. And many over the road truck drivers will utilize them when they are on their longer forced breaks. Allowing them to stretch out, shower and either eat at the diner or have local food delivered.
You can generally tell if a motel is a shady one and if so, drive a bit further and you'll find a better one.
In my late teenager years, I spent a summer working as a housekeeper for a motel. Maybe that's why they don't really bother me.
I live in almost the center of Texas. From here in Temple, Texas it's over a 9 hour drive to the westernmost part of the state near El Paso, an 8 hour drive to the northernmost part near Dalhart, an 8 hour drive to the easternmost part northeast of Houston, and an 8 hour drive to the southernmost part near Brownsville. Aside from immediate family here in town, my closest relative is my sister in San Antonio, just down the interstate and a 2.5 hour drive.
Electronic communications are changing some things, but there still quite a few people who spend a lot of time on the road. Chain hotels can be very good value and well appointed. Most of them have members cards which will give you various perks and deals, you will be put into their computer system which can also act as a database. They also do things like no checkout - you can just leave without having to check out, they will have extensive breakfasts, and also bags and disposable coffee cups etc. If you need to get on the road, you can put yourself together a bagged breakfast, grab a coffee and get back on the road.
You can also just tell the front desk your next stop, they will call ahead and book your room and the database will tell the next place what preferences you have, you may want to be on a ground floor you might be allergic to feather pillows etc.
There is competition between the various chains, they want to keep your business, and they are (mostly) very good at supplying what people want. At the end of a day on the road, to be able to pull in and just be handed your room key without having to check in, know you won’t have to phone housekeeping about needing extra pillows etc, have a good bed, A/C and in the morning just grab a breakfast and go, is everything you could possibly want.
When I was in school in San Francisco, CA I had a teacher who LIVED in Hawaii. He would fly into San Francisco's airport (SFO) on Monday, stay the week, then fly HOME on Friday.
Beesleys, I may have said this before, but re. the length of drives, the first 2 days of my drive back in '84 from northern IL to Alaska were 12 and 14 hours. Then, in 2000, I had my longest day ever in Africa, driving from Chobe N.P. in Botswana to Johannesburg, S. Africa--19 hours. Needless to say, I was "shot out of the saddle" at the end of that, since there wasn't even 1 mile of interstate driving--all like back road European driving.
Rest stops don't have gas. Rather, they're a place to check the vending machines, "visit Johnny" (translated as "visit Louie [the loo]", and if it's time for food, grab a picnic table for a picnic.
My experience with truck stops has been that, though they have special pump areas for them, as well as mechanical services and a place to eat, they also have, at the larger ones, showers, barbers, and maybe a place to spend the night, though many "over the road" trucks have the back half of the tractor set up as a bedroom.
You apparently watch too many weird movies. I've stayed in tons of motels the past few years, since my 40+ year old tent died during a vacation a few years ago, which I used hundreds of times, without the slightest problem in either situation, i.e., no bears, no dangerous people. None!! Also, I've stayed in several motels that had a pool, though they are rare.
To answer his final question, when I was in the UK back in '86, I stayed in youth hostels every night. Unlike today, they were ridiculously cheap back then--a real bargain.
I lived in a small mill town for a number of years where the mill had closed down. As a result man awful lot of residents commuted 65kms to the town to the north or about the same to the city to the south. Because the roads ran either through the mountains, or along the sides of mountains, radio reception was dire. You would have to change the frequency 3 or 4 times through the journey to stay on the one station that could be received up there.
As a result of this, the town had a library that was almost all books on tape.
I should add that back in those days, the road was not always reliable, rockslides, washouts and an annual snowfall of 26 feet could make for a long commute. But it did create a strange phenomenon, that the whole town - about 800 people in the whole area, lived a rather rather wild and woolly life, but at the same time must have been one of the ‘best read' communities on the continent, with many residents going through an absolute minimum of at least a book a week, and due to availability, would listen to a wild range of books.
We have bingo-like cards with 50 state license plates, but we always forget to take them with us on road trips. And yelling padiddle when we were teenagers meant you got to kiss someone else in the car.
I remember in college I bought a new car. I hadn’t had a car in a couple of years so I was really looking forward to hitting the road. Come the next Saturday I just took off on an aimless drive, and wound up driving for 11 hours all over Maryland and Virginia.
Once it was determined that I was old enough to road trip (decades ago) and not transition into an evil beast after three or four hours on the road we would take at least one and sometimes two road trips each summer. We never stayed in hotels. Couldn't afford it. It was not uncommon to see motels with a pool AND COLOR TV!!! And--oh joy--occasionally a motel where each room was actually a separate small cabin!! Almost all the rooms came equipped with a small electric kettle to heat water with packets of instant coffee, sugar and powdered creamer.
Most of our trips were through the New England States, sometimes Pennsylvania and once to Washington D.C. We had a blast. I'm 69 now and the memories are still bright and clear.
Lots of motels and motel chains have all the perks like pools gyms breakfast wifi etc
13:41 did you just say you would drive 2 hours get a room for the night just to travel 2 more hours? When I go to my sister’s (10 hours) I just drive straight through.
😂 Oh yes! You have to drive at least 12 hours before staying overnight.
Yeah, 2 hours is nothing. Where I live in Oregon, it's about 2 hours to the coast in one direction and 2 hours to the mountains in the other. It's not uncommon to wake up on Saturday morning, decide on a whim that you want to go somewhere, drive 2 hours to your destination, have a picnic, spend a couple hours hiking or playing on the beach, then drive 2 hours back. With no preparation except maybe stopping by the store to pick up food for the picnic. We don't even call that a road trip; it's just your average day trip.
Here are some other commuting statistics for Toronto, Canada: (one way)
The average commute time by car is 25.5 minutes
The average commute time by bicycle or on foot is 15.6 minutes
The average distance traveled during a one-way commute is 12.29 kilometers
Only 6.75% of people in Toronto have a long commute trip of two hours or longer
The average wait time for public transit is 12 minutes
To go from Pensacola to Key West is about 13 hours to drive. They're both in Florida
We played slugbug... if you see a VW bug; you yell it out, first one to say it, punches the other playing (not a hard punch) we'd get very competitive... if we"d say it at the same time, then we'd say, pinch, punch, poke, you owe me a coke! And laugh😂 I liked to yell Dodge, then tell my brothers "dodge this" and punch one of them lol. I've never heard of padiddle. Must be a regional thing? 🤷♀️