<p>My S wants to go to a school 10 hours away. Do you have them break it up in two days or drive straight through? </p>
<p>I would say two days! Ten hours straight would be brutal.</p>
<p>I used to drive home from college 10 hours straight from Alabama to Ohio - in a 65 Buick before cell phones. It was long, but not too bad - especially if I could find someone who needed a ride who could keep me company.</p>
<p>My kids drive 8 hours. I don’t like it–makes me nervous. Is your kid going to drive alone, or will he have someone else in the car to keep him awake? Coffee? My D will drive 12-13 hours to visit friends. She has a lot more stamina than I do.</p>
<p>My kids both did ten hours. They would start early and take a few breaks along the way. Neither of them minded the drive too much.</p>
<p>I would spend much of the 10 hours fretting about their safety. They would ease my mind by texting progress reports at each stop.</p>
<p>Fly</p>
<p>^^^Wouldn’t it be cheaper and easier to fly?</p>
<p>My school was 20 hours away. I did it in two stints of 10 hours each, always with a buddy in the car to help drive (this was in 1972!). Coffee helped ~O) </p>
<p>I’d never let a kid do that today, though – not with texting while driving and all the nutcases on the road. Things were simpler back then.</p>
<p>There is a very good chance he will find someone at the school that needs a ride home - at least close to home to share the drive. My D goes to school 8 hours away and I will admit I was nervousness the first time but it was fine. And she drives through mountains. Never has she traveled alone though. </p>
<p>My D drives 8 hours straight. I’d let her do 10. It does worry me when she’s on the road. I don’t like her driving at night so I encourage her to get an early start, and to take a long lunch break. I also have her stop and call or text me along the way. </p>
<p>For a new college student, I would either fly the child home or I would fly to the child and ride back with the child. Dividing the drive into two days would be an option I would consider.</p>
<p>Ten hours by mapquest or google maps does not equal ten hours every time - count on the drive taking longer.</p>
<p>Ten hours in some cases has risks to plan around - for example, going from Alabama to Ohio/Michigan has some challenges in the winter as black ice is a hazard, especially before dawn and after dusk. You want to time the trip to drive in as many daylight sun-hitting-the-road hours as possible to lower your risk of encountering black ice. In winter, there often aren’t enough daylight driving hours to make that long of a drive in one day. Timing the drive during daylight hours can put you in the middle of a major city at rush hour, which will add time to your trip.</p>
<p>Having done the “ten hour” thing, please know that ten hours can turn into twelve or fourteen or more with a holiday, construction, a rain system that stretches the entire drive, and if high schools are returning to school from spring break and all those vehicles are on the road trying to get home at the same time you are. Holidays and spring break not only put more traffic on the road that slows traffic, but holidays crowd rest stops, restaurants, and gas stations and make a quick in-and-out stop impossible.</p>
<p>A child on a 10 hour drive - this is when that app that puts GPS on your child’s cell phone would come in handy for a parent. Someone here mentioned that one. (A friend of mine has it on her freshman in high school - and she knows where the team bus is when the team is at an away game.)</p>
<p>There are too many variables to give a straight answer. When S was 5 hours away, I would drive the first 5 hours by myself but had him with me to drive the second 5 so we would do both directions in one day. When I returned him to school, I would stay overnight so I didn’t have to drive the second 5 hours by myself when I was tired. Holiday, rush hour, or weather related delays could make the normal 5 hour trip a 9 hour trip. I think 10 hours is doable under good road conditions, especially if traveling with another person (unless the other person is like my husband who immediately falls asleep when he is a passenger).</p>
<p>S1 is a 12 hour drive away. I drive him (he doesn’t want to drive and has no license) to college in fall and drive back in spring to move him home for the summer. Usually I drive the 12 hours in one day, stopping every 3 hours for gas and stretch my legs.He flies home for Christmas and Spring breaks. He takes college shuttle to airport, which is only 30 minutes or so away. So far this has worked well for the past 2 years. If he were to drive the 12 hours, the GPS app sounds great.</p>
<p>Not enough info. </p>
<p>If it’s for a holiday time…fly. The driving is insane. </p>
<p>If it’s 10 hours across Texas, that is different than ten hours from Boston to Virginia (which takes ten hours because of the wretched traffic).</p>
<p>Is it 10 hours driving from San Francisco to San Diego? That’s tough too!</p>
<p>Is the kid drivng alone, or can he find someone to share the driving? My two kids drive from CT to AZ in three days…all longer than 10 hours. But they shared the driving, weren’t driving through huge traffic areas on a holiday weekend.</p>
<p>Neither of our kids had cars in undergrad. </p>
<p>DS lived a 12 hour drive from here in grad school…but he never drove home for the holidays…he flew.</p>
<p>I remember driving with friends between NJ and CO (30 hours straight) on breaks from college. Taking turns sleeping and keeping each other up when we needed to. </p>
<p>Same here…we drove from Ohio to NYC or NJ several times. Three drivers…all night…no issues. </p>
<p>But I don’t think we told our OARENTS about those trips :)</p>
<p>When I was in college I drove 24 hours straight to get home and back all the time (with another person to share the driving.) Non driving person would try to sleep but it usually wouldn’t be for very long. </p>
<p>10 hours is nothing for a college student to drive in one day. </p>
<p>S drove with a friend from Maine to South Florida for Feb. break two years ago after their last exams (so they were up late the night before studying, too) After leaving Maine they drove another friend to Logan to catch a plane and so didn’t get on the road for good until 11:00pm that night. </p>
<p>I don’t think either of them got much sleep - just dozing now and then. I certainly didn’t get any sleep and did text everyone in awhile - much to the aggravation of my kid. I took a sleeping pill for their drive back to school so I wouldn’t be up all night worrying. </p>
<p>I can barely do 7. And I agree on holidays driving time can be much, much worse. I’d seriously consider flying that distance. We drove kid to CMU (6.5 hours, but more with a lunch break or traffic). He flew for all the holidays.</p>
<p>When I was in college, we drove 17 hours from Portland to Los Angeles, with 4 drivers trading off 2-hour shifts. The worst part, however – and this applies to those driving home from college after final exam week – is that you may begin this trip already exhausted. I think 8-10 hours for one driver is manageable – I still do it, and I’m waaaay past college. But you shouldn’t do it alone in the car, and if you’re not reasonably well rested when you start, it could be a very bad trip.</p>