Need a little help with timing, pls!

Planning a trip in Oct from Little Rock to Melbourne Beach, FL. I need a little help with how far I can realistically expect to travel in the time available. I need to arrive in Melbourne Beach for a meeting at 12:00PM on Thursday. The earliest I can leave Little Rock is 7:00PM on Tuesday.

Our intent is to hit the road Tuesday, drive till maybe midnight; back on the road 8AM or so and drive through the day Wednesday with short stretch your leg stops every two/three hours and get far enough before we stop for the night to reach Melbourne Beach by noon Thursday.

Interstate, speedier routes are probably what we'll chose this trip. We usually seek out scenic routes but this trip is more about the destination - although we wouldn't hesitate to take a rest stop for something interesting along the way! I've tried to map it out but am getting frustrated because I don't really feel confident about how many miles it is realistic to expect to travel each segment and I'm just not familiar with much of this part of the country. I know five hours in the car and these old bones have to spend some time walking around - even if it's only walking around a convenience store!
I'm probably making it more complicated than it needs to be and would welcome any advice or suggestions on routes and/or how to plan out the trip!

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

I'm not familiar with this route, but after mapping it out, I would be looking to get to the Tupelo area on night 1 to make sure I got a good nights sleep. You could be tempted to push on further, but that could lead to fatigue setting in next day. If you get on the road by 8am, I would then look at staying in the Ocala FL area for night 2 which would be close to a 12 hour day with rest stops. That should leave you with a fairly comfortable 3 hour[ish] drive to your destination. If I had a meeting I would want to be on the road by 7:30am allowing myself plenty of time and hopefully a little time to unwind and relax, rather than rushing straight into the meeting.

I know this is a road trip forum, but in this particular case have you considered flying to Orlando and renting a car?

I agree with glc. All you need is an accident up ahead and a hold-up of an hour or more. The stress levels would go through the roof, and your driving for the rest of the trip would suffer. Not to mention the state in which you would arrive at the meeting.

Such a hold up is only one scenario which can go wrong - and often will - when you are on time constraints.

Lifey

Thanks for the recommendations. We'll play with the Tupelo and Ocala stop ideas and see how that works out for us. We pretty much drive in tag team style - unless I'm really wound up after about the first 30 minutes of hubby driving, I'm asleep! He drives in peace and quiet for 3-4 hrs or till he needs to stop then he gives it to me to drive (I usually last about an hour!).

It just seems the older we get the less inclined we are to do the drive all night routine like we used to when we were spring chickens!

We've driven to Orlando before with two overnight stops starting around 7/8AM and driving till 11 or 12 each evening and it was tiring but manageable. Melbourne Beach is about another two hours or so beyond Orlando if I'm reading correctly? I may have to see if I can push the hubby to get off work earlier on Tuesday so we can just leave sooner! And the meeting isn't any big deal just hooking up with some friends who are coming from other points and we're just all trying to arrive around the same time. If we're late the world will continue to revolve!

Thanks again for the input and suggestions from all! I love this site for getting ideas and really helpful advice!

Hubby's distaste for flying is deeply ingrained. Only when driving absolutely is not an option do we go that route!

Hey do you guys have a favorite map site? The map on here doesn't seem to work well for me-not sure if it's my browser maybe but I seem to have a hard time getting it to be functional for more than a starting and stopping point tool. Can't figure out how to make it add stops in between or try a different route to the same destinations. I am using an older Internet Explorer browser (work computer not allowed to upgrade till IT blesses it)

Instead of using the Map Wizard, use the full service Map Center, which will allow you to add waypoints.