Florida to Wyoming

[birkincaptain]

Hello, Everyone! New to this website but I'm glad I found it. I need all of your advice and opinions. I'm an 18 year old female who just got employed at Yellowstone National Park for the Summer. I'll have to make the drive alone from Boca Raton, but will only have 4 days to get there. It will take me 38 hours. I plan on driving 12 hours the first 3 days, and the last 2 hours on day 4. I check into my job on Day 4 in the morning, which is why I can only drive 2 hours. I'll be making 3 overnight stops, sleeping at hotels. And I'll stop for gas about 7 times. I'm wondering what you think of this, if you have any advice for me, or maybe you think this is not a good idea. Thank you.

[glc]

Welcome to RTA!

I'm sorry, but you are grossly underestimating how long it will take you to get there. This is a 2600 mile drive and it will take you 5 FULL DAYS to do it.

You are being fooled by using an online mapping program to get your drive times. There is no way in the world you can do this in 38 hours. This would require you to average 70 mph with absolutely no stops or delays. This is impossible and unsafe.

If you start your job on a Friday morning (for example), you must leave Sunday morning.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I'm sorry, but you are seriously misguided on your plans. It's simply not possible to do what you've proposed, and you MUST take much more time to do this trip safely. I'm sure a major part of that is that you are believing some very bad information from online mapping programs that suggest you could complete this trip in 38 hours. In the real world, driving 12 hours a day for 3 straight days wouldn't even get you to Denver, much less to within 2 hours of Yellowstone - and even trying to drive that far in 3 days would be far more than we'd recommend.

Boca to Yellowstone is 2600 miles.. A professional driver would be required to take FIVE days to make this trip because of safety laws.

When looking at a trip of this distance, you need to think in terms of days, not hours. 550-600 miles is a very full day on the road (10-12 hours a day), especially for a solo traveler with little to no long distance driving experience. That also falls in line with the rules and guildelines that professionals with years of experience and training are required to follow. It also does not make sense to think in terms of "7 stops for gas." On a long distance trip, especially when traveling solo, it is very important to frequently stop and take even a short break from the road, just to move around and give yourself a mental break from focusing on operating a 2 ton machine at 70 mph.

I'm very excited for you that you'll get to spend your summer at one of my favorite places on the planet, but if you are going to drive there, you need to give yourself 5 full days to get there. If you can't take that time, then driving can not be an option for you, and you must look at flying.

[birkincaptain]

Thank you! This is the kind of response I was hoping for.