<p>Driving D who will be a freshmen this fall to move in. Thinking it will be a good idea to drive half way stop overnight in a hotel and finish up the rest the next day. Any one from New England who has done the same have any suggestions where to stop? Somewhere maybe close to outlet shopping or some attraction or diversion to spend a couple of hours after driving all day…?</p>
<p>Hey im also from CT, theres not many attractions on that ride down, one would be Hersey PA, that may be one of the few attractions that there are. We stop somewhere in VA, its about the exact half way. 6 hours both ways from this spot. To be honest, there is not much on the entire drive, kinda boring.</p>
<p>We are from Long Island,NY.
when S drives alone, he stops at the exit outside Baltimore…White Marsh I think its called.Not much to see but theres decent motels and places to get food.
You have to time your trip to miss the rush hours in the DC area and the Richmond Va. area!
When we have driven with S, we pushed all the way through…its abt 13 hrs with stops.
Another idea for you is to do the one day drive, arrive the night before move in and be fresh in the a.m…thats what we did soph year.Freshman year we flew in.</p>
<p>I just drove back and it took about 12 hours and some spare time, there are ways around DC which we took and you really dont go through any major cities so you do not hit any traffic</p>
<p>Hi, I also am from CT and my S will be attending USC in the fall. I was thrilled to find this site, it has answered so many questions for me and I was excited to see that there will be other students from CT. We were planning on driving down on 8/14 and driving straight through. I thought it was going to take much longer than 13 hours! Just wondering if you all went 95 the whole way or if you took some other alternate route.</p>
<p>we did the 95 route all the way.S did another route once but didnt like it…
maybe all you Ct people can hook up somehow!!
mekimber…welcome to the Gamecocks and just let us know if any questions are unanswered!!</p>
<p>Just a suggestion to consider…If you take the PA turnpike over to Carlisle Pa and then take Rt 81 south you miss DC and Richmond. We have found that it is a much easier drive and takes approximately the same amount of time. If you hit DC or Richmond rush hours it can delay you by an hour or more. I just did mapquest from Hartford both ways and the difference was 8 minutes…a little traffic in DC would eat those 8 minutes up fast. You also cruise right by James Madison University on the way in case you have younger ones that want a look LOL</p>
<p>PAMom
thats the route S took once that he didnt enjoy…less obvious places to stop (gas,reststops,food) and he didnt like the Va/West Va portion…twisty,curving highways perhaps? it could be that it was an unfamiliar route as well …somebody else might be perfectly fine with it…</p>
<p>There are definitely fewer options for stops but decent rest areas on 81. I went to JMU and still visit friends in Charlottesville so I am so used to that route. My daughter has used both, but gets really frustrated when the trip takes extra time due to DC traffic. If she leaves on the weekend it’s usually okay, but for weekday travel she picks 81.
I can’t believe she’ll only be doing the trip a couple of more times and she done! This has been a fast 3 years.</p>
<p>thanks PAmom for the suggestion to visit James Madison. I do have a D that will also be going in Fall 2010! My D plays softball and we traveled to Cary, NC for a tournament, we took 81 for that trip and I thought it was a pleasant ride. I definately don’t want to hit DC traffic or NY traffic either for that matter, we went 84 to 81 last time and it wasn’t bad, i just wondered if 95 was quicker.</p>
<p>We took 84 to 81 to 77 i think and it was a good trip that wasnt bad in anyway.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions. It will definitely help. Was thinking of flying in…but D will have much “stuff” to bring. Much easier with son a few years ago…brought the bare minimum…lol…</p>
<p>girls do tend to bring more than boys…
we did fly in the first year,sent some boxes to the USC mailroom,carried some bags and placed a Bed bath order we picked up there with a rented car.Alsohopped target,WalMart,etc with no problems,everything in stock and no big crowds.
Instructions for sending stuff ahead will be in the Move In guide,which you can read online (it’ll be the 2008 version upp there now but the info probably hasnt changed) look on the Housing pages.</p>