Success with LONG drives in a day

Dont know that I'd trust the teenager for the driving, but the wife could certainly drive part of the way if both of you will be able to sleep while another drives.

That said,

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staying in roadside hotels on the way there and back

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Can be part of the fun if you find the right places to stop with some decent attractions

If you have multiple drivers its not bad at all. My parents are both from Illinois so I drive the 14 hours there once or twice a year usually and do that alone, its not really that bad. By the end you are ready for a switch though.

A couple keys:
1.) Wake up early as hell and have one person drive while another sleeps
2.) Pack food - stopping for lunch takes a lot longer than you think, 20-30 mins usually to order, eat, and clean up
3.) Don't drink too much - more pee stops
4.) Coordinate pee and gas stops. If someone needs to pee badly, stop and gas up at same time even if not needed. Then next stop you can often go 3-4 more hours and don't have to stop in 2 for gas just because you need it.

ETA: If you can go 4 hours and get gas/ pee and switch drivers, don't need 3 even just one. The other can take a nap while the other drives. 16 hour days are fairly easy.

ETA2: Pro tip, plan around traffic times. You don't want to go through Houston at 5pm or whatever.

I love road trips but that sounds brutal. We used to drive from eastern NC to north west LA and that is about 18 hours. My wife would drive 1 hour at most. Too old to that now and I realized I wasn’t a safe driver the last hour so I don’t do that anymore.

After a long drive like that you probably won’t feel like doing much. I would try and get within a 6 hour drive of your first vacation destination and get up early on your 2nd driving day. You get rest in a bed and are more ready to do something than if you drive straight through.

When I was touring with a band, we played our last show in Boulder then booked it straight home to Baton Rouge. 24 hours. That was brutal and I wouldn't recommend it at all.

I agree with the other poster that said that cheap hotel stops can add to the fun of it. All depends on your attitude and what you make of it. 4 road-weary bandmates out in the middle of nowhere made for some really really fun times.

If yall dont work late night shifts... Leave a day earlier after work... Have the vehicle loaded and ready to go, then knock out 5-7 hours right after work

I'm good for about 10 hrs in the car, then my body complains LOUDLY. I'd rather fly--but if that's not an option, I'd rather stop along the way. What's the point of a vacation if you're not enjoying the journey?

We do long drives pretty often as a family (12 hours is a walk in the park and pretty routine). I do all the driving unless I'm just totally exhausted, as I prefer to drive over being a passenger.

My biggest piece of advice is get up and leave very early (like 3am). There's something about knocking out a few hours before you even have breakfast that makes the whole trip go faster. We drive out to Santa Fe several times a year, which is around a 12 hour drive. We get on the road at like 3am (gain an hour on the way due to timezone change) and are there before check-in at AirBNB.

We did a 20 something hour slog from Palm Beach back to Arkansas over Christmas. That was pretty rough, but it's doable. Stop as little as possible, listen to podcasts, stretch your legs when you do stop.

Edit: I should add that the reason we don't stay overnight in hotels is that we usually are hauling 4 bikes with us at least. Loading/unloading 4 bikes into a hotel room kind of sucks, and we've found it easier to just get to our destination if at all possible.