A little story from my own experience: I was young, in college, and 4 of us needed to get from Missouri out west -- two lived in California, I was living in Arizona, and the 4th was going with one of the Californians to visit. One of us had a car. We piled 4 suitcases in the trunk, had travel necessities in the car with us, and we decided to drive straight through to CA, no overnight stops. The plan was that each of us drove for 2 hours. The rotation was Driver-Driver's Passenger-Backseat-Backseat, every 2 hours. We stopped for gasoline and food. What we did NOT plan for was the exhaustion that occurred.

It was NOT comfortable to sleep in either of the backseat positions. You had to sleep sitting up, with your feet crammed in with your own purse or gear bag at your feet. Not much room was left for a pillow. Four hours sleep, broken up by stops to change drivers/get something to drink/go to the bathroom, was not really enough to be fully awake to do your next driving stint. The front seat passenger was not allowed to sleep, she had to keep the driver talking and awake. I arrived in Arizona, and when I finally got to the house, I slept for 10 hours straight.

There was some comaraderie in the car, but with us all so tired 16 hours after we left, it became very quiet as two of us attempted to sleep. I still correspond with them, via Facebook, almost 40 years later, though one has left the world.

I do agree with Lifey -- "best you go back to replan this trip". You'll enjoy it a lot more if you aren't so darned exhausted!


Donna