I also am not a fan of stopping just to stop. I know people who stretch what should be a 2 hour drive into 3+ hours by stopping several times to get out and stretch, get something to drink/eat, etc. I prefer to drive straight through and stop as little as possible. Stops for fuel only (with eating and bathroom stops combined with fuel stops).
I have MS and have a “cranky spot” in my right hamstring that bothers me if I drive too long, especially if I can’t use cruise control. My trick is to put a tennis ball right under that spot, between my thigh and the car seat, and drive as usual. The counter pressure helps and makes you feel as if you’re stretching your muscle a bit rather than endlessly compressing it as you drive.
A tennis ball is a bit large though. I may look for a slightly smaller ball in the dog toy aisle of the pet store.
Racquetball is slightly smaller than a tennis ball.
I have been on a couple of flights that were delayed where I had very tight connections as a result. The first time they made the announcement but everyone ignored it. I ran like crazy and just made my connection.
The second time they were very forceful, announced there were TWO people aboard with tight connections due to the delay, and everyone was to remain seated until we left the plane. I was so thankful they handled it this way. I made my connection.
I travel for work 2-3 weeks each month. We are given Mondays and Fridays to travel. When I make my travel plans, I look at distances/connections/costs and sometimes I drive, sometimes I fly, sometimes I take Amtrak. Whatever makes the most sense and is most cost effective.
Our S just graduated from college this past weekend. We drove there - around 6.5 hours. Needed room in the car for contents of dorm room, so D and I flew back while H and S drove.
We love road tripping and have cars that are very well suited to it. Anything over 9 hours driving gets to be less fun for us, though.
From where we live, 9 hours can get you to a lot of fairly cool places. Anything over 10 hours is a flight, though.
We don’t do 2 day road trips (although we may if D17 goes to college farther away to drop off and pick up her stuff).
We won’t drive more than 5-6 hours unless the point of the trip is a road trip to see the country. Luckily, since I’m based in Chicago, I often have the third option of the train if I’m going beyond that limit (Minneapolis, etc.). I prefer the train or bus to driving unless I’m going to need a car at the destination and rentals are overpriced in that location. It’s so nice to be able to nap or read on the way. If I didn’t have the train option, I would certainly fly these distances.
I like to fly and also like road trips as long as they are not down the I-95 corridor. We generally drive if it’s within 8 hours or so. I really like trains though and am trying to figure out how to incorporate that into a vacation. Coincidentally, I just booked our flight for our summer vacation across the country. Prices have sky-rocketed!
In the last year we’ve gone to Albuquerque and to Glacier National Park on the train. If you can afford the roomette, it’s delightful. We met many wonderful people, including some who are even more devoted to old-school travel than we are. One of our new friends on the Albuquerque-Chicago route was on her way from LA to NYC, there to catch the Queen Mary 2 to England! Sounded like a fantastic trip.
I just made a plane reservation for September. The prices are great…but the early bird check in on Souteest is now $15 each way…up,from 12.50 last time we did it in April. But im doing it.
I’d love going to Glacier NP on the train. Maybe one day!
I’m doing a 9 hour drive with D tomorrow, then a cross-continental flight the following day.
The drive is one we make often, and I know it well,and I only have to drive half the time, so I’m good with it. Google Nav has lately been really good about finding faster routes for us as we approach the city (or even if there is a backup along the highway).
I purchased Jetblue’s “Even More Speed” for the flight, hopefully that avoids the super long TSA lines I’m reading about…but it’s only $10, I imagine a lot of people will have purchased it so that may make it slower, we’ll see.
Ah well, just bring patience and get there early, I guess.
OHMomof2 I think it will help you get in a shorter line to play “security theater” but not help you skip the “security theater”. unless they also toss in pre tsa for you. but for only $10.00 it is worth finding out.
When I’m deciding between flying and driving, I like to play around with this “decisionator”:
http://www.befrugal.com/tools/fly-or-drive-calculator/
It takes into account the number of passengers, how many hours you’re willing to drive in a day, your make and model of car (for wear and tear purposes, I think), any hotel costs, and so on, and then shows the time and cost of both decisions. I usually use the app after I’ve already made my decision about driving vs flying, and the result has never made me change my mind once, but it’s still interesting to see the comparison.
Edited to add that the app also shows the C02 impact of each decision.
ccmthreetimes cool website!
one thing missing from the equation… stress of the entire time from when you wake up in the morning… leave your home all the way to checking in and boarding the flight and the high probability of delays. stress of course is unique to each person/situation but that has a value too. of course the program can not measure it.
Yes, the stress factor would be a great feature, @zobroward – especially if I could refine it to include stressing over tiffs about the temperature in the car vs freezing on a flight 
I’ve found the combination of global entry/pre tsa and airline lounge membership has made flying a lot less stressful. Since my cutoff for flying vs driving is about 6 hoursI tend to fly enough to get a decent status level on American. The status level also allows me to travel 1st class a bit, which for a domestic flight isn’t awesome, but isn’t too bad either.
We recently did a road trip from Florida to NC in our newish SUV. I have to say all the new technology in these cars, especially the cruise control that auto adjusts for traffic, makes driving easier than I remember.
Yesterday’s experience at O’Hare: The drive to and from the airport was approximately 5 hours (we live in Wisconsin). Tolls were at least $15. Both Ds got through security in less than half an hour, despite what looked like long lines. D2 was upset because the TSA screener was kind of rude to her. D2’s plane left on time, although it did do a few donuts on the tarmac before taking off. D1’s flight departed approximately an hour late. The huge number of people traveling through O’Hare is amazing and overwhelming.
@UCDAlum82 our car also has adaptive cruise control (you set the gap between you and the car ahead of you and it maintains it), and it is one of the best road-trip technologies!
Once it was us and a car in front and a car behind that obviously all had adaptive cruise control, and we were like a robotically perfect convoy just zipping down the highway for hours with no effort at all-it was flawless. It’s not that awesome in heavy traffic, but it’s pretty sweet otherwise.
We like road trips so much that we will fly into a city, get a cheap unlimited miles car and put 2-3k miles on it, we plot a big circuitous route and see some of the country.
When a flight goes well and when I can fly from my local airport, it’s great, when I have to take the 2.5 hour shuttle to the big city and deal with their security and all the hurry up & wait, yuck. I would rather drive and be on my own time schedule, assuming I can spare the time away from home, it’s more complicated with dog care and senior parent care, sometimes the least number of days away from home is the best choice.