an idea of time?

[Chrismin]

My husband and I are planning a road trip for this October. As we are coming from Australia, we do want to see as much as possible - but not to overdo it (i.e. travel so much that we are unable to enjoy the actual experience!) - and we have been to the States previously so there are some things we have decided to miss.
Our plan is to fly to LA and get a connecting flight straight to San Antonio to visit a friend for a few days. It is there that we will pick up our vehicle and head for Houston (2 days),
followed by New Orleans (2 days),
Memphis (2 days)
and Nashville (4 days).
From Nashville we planned on flying to New York (so we weren't having to drive in the big apple! - 5 days)
then heading to Niagara Falls (2 days), where we would pick up another vehicle and continue our road trip through
Cleveland (2 days),
Chicago (5 days),
Des Moines (2 days),
Omaha (2 days),
Denver (2 days),
Salt lake city (2 days),
Carson city (2 days).
A few days in wine country/Napa then down through Big Sur (total 5 days) and right down to Huntington Beach to visit with some family before heading home.
My question is, with these 'planned' stops, would the road travel in between towns still be too lengthy to cope with? Are there any distances there which would require more than say, 6hrs?
Thanks in advance!
ChrisMin

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

There's only one place I have a question about on your trip? How are you planning to get from New York City to Niagara Falls? That would be about an 8 hour drive, but you said you weren't picking up the car until you get to NF. Are you flying there or perhaps taking the train?

I don't think any of your distances are too much for a long days drive, although you've got a few places where you will need to drive more than 6 hours. The Omaha to Denver, Denver to SLC, and SLC to Carson City legs are all 500-550 miles long, which will take about 9 hours to drive.

500 or so miles is usually a long, but sustainable distance over a long trip. And since you'll be stopping for a full day between each of those legs, I don't think it would inherantly be a problem. However, the idea of spending that much time in a car doesn't appeal to you, you might want find some intermediate stops to break up those legs a bit.

[Chrismin]

thanks for that Michael! I was planning on train for the leg of the trip to Niagara, however we did Italy this year and one six-hour trip on a train was enough for me, so I may have to rethink that part (although the trains weren't exactly what you would call 'modern' if you know what I mean!).