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This is my first post to this forum so I hope you all can help..
I'm looking for advice about driving from Orlando to Minneapolis by myself and my daughter. How safe is it for a woman and a 6 year old to drive both ways, plus how can I find out the best route and best stops to make without driving into bad areas.
I have a navigation system in my car, so I figure that will be my crutch.
Thanks for any info!!!
Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!
Thousands of women and children make long cross country drives every day of the year. But the subject of solo travel safety comes up pretty regularly here - so you should have a read through this fairly lengthy discussion. I would hope that you remember that everywhere you go will be someone's home town and that you have the best 'bad area' detector known: your own two eyes and the sense to use them. I would hope that ultimately you treat this trip as an adventure rather than a walk through a minefield and convey that sense of wonderment, rather than fear, to your daughter.
The fact is that the modern Interstate system is one of the safest transportation systems ever built, and you will probably never be out of sight of dozens of other travelers on your drive. Just make sure that you know where you're going (more in a minute), have some sort of roadside assistance insurance such as AAA, and a cell phone, and you'll be fine.
As to finding the best route, there are any number of on-line mapping services that will pick the shortest, all Interstate route for you. And a car navigation system can prove useful, but for my money, nothing beats a good old-fashioned paper atlas, especially as your daughter is old enough to start to help with the navigation.
But mainly, as I said, keep your radar up, but relax and enjoy the trip. You will need a minimum of three days each way to make the trip safely, more if you plan to stop and see places in any detail along the way.
AZBuck