Virginia to Arizona

[jtancred]

My husband and I are planning to travel from Virginia to Sedona, AZ during spring break this month. My husband believes we can make it to AZ in 30 hours by driving 15 hours a day. We have 10 days total for the trip. I think this is really ambitious. This is our first trip out west and we want to see the Grand Canyon and Sante Fe as well. Is this realistic? Thanks for any help!

[UKCraig]

15 hours driving in a day is horribly tiring (I do a lot of driving and even I think it is a lot) but 30 hours in two days sounds like a recipe for disaster. In Europe - and I presume it is similar over there - professional drivers are limited to 9 hours driving a day and are additonally required to take rest breaks within that time. Those regs are there for a very good reason - and if professionals can't drive those hours without problems then you and I don't stand a chance. Sorry to sound negative but, in my opinion, you are right - its' too much.

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

It is over 2100 miles from Richmond to Sedona. Not only is trying to make such a drive in two days "really ambitious", it is as Craig says "too much". I would go further in my typically blunt assessment style and call it suicidal. I have made the case before that most of the regular contributors here have done a 1000 mile leg at one time or another, myself included. Not one of them recommends such a drive. You are exhausted by the end of it and need at least a full day to recover. To try to do two such drives back to back is, as Craig points out, illegal for professional drivers whose rigs cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and are equipped with every creature comfort.

The bad news (What, it's not already bad enough?) is that even if your husband could stay awake, alert, attentive and safe for the entire 30 hours, you could still not get to Sedona in that time without seriously breaking some speed limits along the way. The estimate of 30 hours assumes that you can drive 70 mph every second of those 30 hours: You will never have to slow down for traffic. Your car will never need gas. You will never need food. You can sit for 30 hours straight. You will never need a bathroom break. You can do 70 mph on exit and entrance ramps. etc., etc., etc. In the real world, you can expect to make good, on average, about 55 mph when all those stops and slow downs are taken into account.

This drive requires four days, not two.

AZBuck