please help

[Chitababy]

My husband just surprised me with a trip to see my long lost cousins in the greater Detroit Area, we live in Albuquerque, NM. We will be leaving Jan 2 and have to be there the 5th. He also wants to go to Lambo Field in Green Bay and to Reinlander WI to see a long lost AF buddie. Any suggestions? Anything to see or check out on the way or back? We also might go to NC to see some neices. Help, I don't know if I'm up for this, I'm almost 65 and he's 71 and we're not in the best of health. Please, please some words of encourgment or some hints. Our car runs great and is very comfortable and our son bought us a GPS system for Xmas and for this trip. Anything you can add would be greatly appreciated, but hurry up please.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

You are looking at an awful lot of miles in not many days, even without the 'side trip' to North Carolina. So let's deal with just Albuquerque to Detroit first. The shortest route that I can find clocks in at around 2200 miles, which means that you'd have to cover 550 miles each of the four days that you have on the road. That is just about the most that we recommend for a relaxed, multi-day cross-country drive. The one saving grace here is that Rhinelander works out to be a relatively good stopping place for the end of the third day, so that might let you have dinner and a quiet evening with his old Air Force buddy before making the final drive into Detroit on the 5th. So here's how that would all go.

On day one you'd leave Albuquerque headed east on I-40 and then strike out northeast on US-54 up into Kansas, stopping for the night somewhere between Dodge City and Wichita.

On Day 2 leave Wichita on I-35 north to Des Moines, IA and then take I-80 east with a goal of around Iowa City by the end of the day.

On Day 3, continue east on I-80 to the Quad Cities and then use I-88/I-39/I-43 up to Green Bay and Lambeau Field after which WI-29, US-45 and US-8 will get you to Rhinelander.

On Day 4 US-8 east out of Rhinelander will take you to Norway, MI where you would join US-2 east to St. Ignace, MI and I-75 south across the Mackinac Bridge and on into Detroit.

Now that is 4 full days of driving, without too much time for sight seeing. And while driving is not physically strenuous, it can be mentally draining. if you and your husband feel up to it, why not give it a go. If you find yourselves getting too exhausted by the end of the first day or two of this kind of pace. just pull up, rent a room, and phone in your regrets. And then try the trip at a slower pace or by plane at a later date. On the other hand, if you find the drive exhilarating, then you can contemplate continuing on to North Carolina, but that is a fairly long detour from Detroit to Albuquerque. I wouldn't rely too much on GPS, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the technology. Rather, I'd suggest that you get yourself a good road atlas and map out the route(s) I outlined for you. Make sure you know where the roads go and what towns you should be passing through and then navigate with good old-fashioned paper.

I guess my bottom line is that, yes, such a trip may prove too much in too short a time span for you, but you won't know unless you try. So go for it! It could also prove to be an eye opening experience and lead to a whole new way for the two of you to explore the world.

AZBuck