THSCC Forums

So, I'm looking at booking a hotel for the trip. Damn that's a long ways off. Looking for advice from people that have made the trip before.

The smart mature thing is, if I'm trying to get there the morning/early afternoon of 9/20 for practice starts and stuff:

Leave morning of 9/18. Drive until tired. Find hotel, crash. Rinse and repeat for Wednesday and then drive straight to the site on Thursday. That's almost leisurely.

The other option is to leave later on Tuesday or fishing early on Wednesday. And gut check and push through for longer on that first day. Like, St. Louis at minimum. I could one day it, but I'd be completely cashed by the time I got there. And that's not good.

Book a room in Topeka from Thursday until the following Saturday? If I'm feeling chippy I might cut out late on Friday night. But I'll book the room to be safe.

Any ideas? Has the cheese slid off my cracker?

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

Screw sleep!!!

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Todd Breakey
STS 42 - 1992 Sunburst Miata
Dammit!
"You souldn't play leap frog with a porcupine. You might get hurt." - Eliza

The best trip of the three out there, I stopped over night in Columbia, MO. That put me on the road for 15 hours out to Columbia and afforded me a nice night's sleep. I then only had a 3 hour drive into Topeka the next morning the day before my first day of runs.

I have driven straight back on Saturday, leaving 5AM Topeka time. Very doable. Leaving any time after 8 in the morning will require a stop along the way.

Plan your over night stays and book those rooms in advance. It makes the trip a lot better. Otherwise, you add to the fact that you are tired and trying to find some place to crash. My first and third time out I stopped in Louisville and Nashville. Actually on the east side of Nashville and slept in the truck...not advisable

I stopped about one in the morning. Figured I would get a couple of hours of sleep and be back on the road at 4AM. Much to my surprise, I awoke about 7AM. I guess I was a lot more fatigued than I thought.

Since this is your first long trip, I can not stress enough not to push past 1 or 2 in the morning. Weird things start to happen that can kill you.

I left Toledo at 5 in the afternoon, got held up an hour on the Ohio turnpike before I could make it 3 miles to an exit. I do not remember Winston Salem. I remember getting onto I40 and wondering how I got there. Then the hallucinations started. Big cones, big heads and small animals were littering the road way.

And people complain because Roebling is 5 hours away

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Jim Pastorius
2008 Silverado VortecMax
1992 Camaro CMC#92
2002 BMW R1150R

2009 3rd Place CMC Mid-Atlantic Championship
2009 CMC Hyperfest Winner

I highly recommend the Clinton Lake campground http://www.nwk.usace.army.mil/clinton/clinton_home.htm. I stopped there on a road trip out to Jackson Hole a few years back.

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Silver Honda
Green Ford
Blue/White Suzuki
Red Triumph
Grey BMW

"Never let life be shaped by fear of its end"

No, you're a towel!

Since I do 12 hour trips a few times per year let me make a few suggestions.

Get one of these:



And something like this



And one of these (or similar)



Or one of these loaded with interesting podcasts or audiobooks:



With a good radar, GPS, and something *interesting* to listen to, time will literally go twice as fast on the road.

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Mike Whitney
whit32@gmail.com, 919-454-5445
V10, V8, V8t, I6, I6, V6, F4t, I4, I4, I4, I4, I2, 1, 1

David - Eric and Donnie are the masters of this trip. They can tell you where all the good rest stops are, what hotels are good choices and in what cities you should plan to stop. As an additional bonus, they also know the location of every Arby's between NC and KS. Last, but certainly not least, they can get you the CDL 10% discount at every adult entertainment establishment - Larry Flint's is not to be missed (or so I hear....Eric swears he has not been there ONE TIME!)

I knew there was a reason I have kept my Class A CDL current.


For me the hard time for driving was usually from 3 am to sunrise.

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George Bright Member # 141
One of the youngest of the old farts.
Yes I voted against you joining the club.

Listen to those guys/gal and ignore anything I say!

I'm planning on driving straight through on Wednesday and then straight back the following Wednesday. But I don't sleep much so 18+ hours is like a quick trip to Raleigh.

I take it you are running on Thursday/Friday for the regular championships?

One useful thing I can offer is to bring/buy some *very* comfortable walking shoes! Some form of small portable transportation wouldn't hurt either. My one and only time out there, I managed to bruise the bottoms of both of my feet from all the walking and I could barely get around by the time I was actually supposed to drive. I hear the new site isn't quite as spread out as the previous one but showing up in beat up sneakers will make for a long week.

Jim

Yeah, I've done the pull over and sleep thing after about 18 hours on the road. Pulled into a campground, shut the car off, in gear, parking brake.

We're good, right?

Recline the seat, fall asleep and wake up every 20 minutes convinced I'm running off the road, grabbing the wheel, stabbing at pedals.

Ahh to be dumb and 22 again.

Mike's list.
Radar Detector: Check.

GPS: Check. (It's Palm based, can I tell you that live traffic reports and rerouting kicks all sorts of road trip booty?)

iPod: Check. With a dock connector. But the books are a good idea.

Chris:
I'll bug Eric and Donnie in PMs about their contributions to the "Lonely Planet" travel guides.

Campgrounds can be fun, I'll have to check that out.

Also, I was thinking about the "cowboy up" and get back on Saturday option, thanks for the start time on that JimP.

JimF, I wonder if I can shoe horn in a bike or something. Anything faster than my two feet but it has to be no bigger than the Top Gun trophy.

Thanks guys. Keep it coming.

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

I'm going to start shopping myself and I'll let you know if I find anything useful. At the very least, one of those little push scooters would be better than nothing-- it's supposed to be pretty smooth out there. I'll just have to add my trademark blue tape to distinguish which one is mine.

Jim

Great. Now I have to throw out all my blue tape just in case.

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

A quickie search:

This might work well and would be easy to transport.

I'm extremely tempted to get one of these but I don't know if I can fit it in the car.

If I wind up with a hitch/tire trailer, I should have tons of extra space but I'm not sure if I want to take that leap. I may also wind up towing out there but I doubt I can get all my ducks in a row in the short time we have left. If I do either, I could carry some extra stuff for you if you need it.

Jim

Do you think I could fit on the big wheel? That would be schweet!

You could trailer it. . . .

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Not spectacular just decent.
I'm not sure what I'm driving.
Maybe an ITR in DS.
Or half-assed STX prepped 330.

I thought about the electric big wheel just for the silliness factor. That thing could be a riot but I envision somebody (me!) crashing the poor thing trying to do something stupid.



Pocket bike on a trailer behind the CRX? That might even be more humorous! And hey, if the CRX breaks down, I'd still have a way to get home!

Even better, Jim P. and I could go cruising!

Hmmmmm

Jim