Eastern NC to Vegas via I-40! (AGAIN!)

[Midwest Michael]

Listen, we can tell you all day and all night how dangerous it is to plan to push yourself to the brink of exhaustion, by trying to push yourself beyond the limits of what the human body can safely do. Professional drivers are limited by law to driving roughly 600 miles in a day - after which they are required to rest. Your plan has multiple days where you plan to drive more than 700 miles, and you've got quite a few "short" days that are about 600 miles, but on most of those "short" days, you're also planning to do siteseeing on top of those long hours on the road.

While your plan isn't as homicidal as your previous drive, it's still beyond the limits that most rational people - and tons of scientific research - would consider safe, much less enjoyable. Ultimately, however, we can only warn you of the dangers, you're the one who has to decide how you'll act.

[DonnaR57]

I'd like to take this one day at a time and make some suggestions:

Leave Goldsboro, NC @ 7:00 a.m. Arrive in Nashville, TN @ ~4:00 p.m. (including 1hr time change) See Country Music Hall of Fame Go out to dinner with sister-in-law Crash in hotel

OK, you've left 9 hours to make a trip of 591 miles. If this were me, I'd assume that I wasn't going to make it in 9 hours, but in perhaps 11. You have to stop for food, gas, and pit stops. Did you pull the travel times from an online mapping website like Mapquest? They're notoriously wrong. If you really, really want to make Nashville before the Hall of Fame closes (and leave enough time to SEE it), leave at 5 in the morning. That means packing the car the night before.

December 5th - Breakfast w/sister-in-law Leave @ 10:00 a.m. Arrive in Oklahoma City, OK @ 9:00-10:00 p.m. Crash in hotel

This is not a good idea. Chances are, you're not going to leave as early as you think. You've got traffic through Memphis to think about. Also, this is almost 700 miles -- as others have said, you should only plan to drive 600 miles MAX in a day.

December 6th - See Oklahoma City memorial See National Cowboy & Western History Museum Leave Oklahoma City @ 1:00 p.m. Arrive in Albuquerque, NM @ 10:00ish p.m. (including 1 hour time change)

Possible to make this drive in about 10 hours, but have you looked into the opening times for the places you want to see?

December 7th - See Indian Pueblo Cultural Center Leave Albuquerque @ 12:00 p.m. Arrive in Las Vegas, NV @ 10:00 p.m. (including 1 hr time change)

Once again, this is almost 600 miles (11 hours drive) after a sightseeing morning.

Like the others, this is a lot for a body to endure, and I don't think it would be pleasurable either. My husband and I don't USUALLY sightsee on any driving day of 500 miles or more. We have done it on occasion, but usually end up talking about it later and then regretting it.


Donna

[lmking1224]

Thanks for your input, everyone.

I'm not trying to be hardheaded here.

Our first day, we are going to need to drive to Nashville. It's not going to be a big deal because we've done it before to see my sister-in-law. The trip really only takes us about 9 hours because we usually only stop once (somewhere in the NC mountains, near the TN border) to stretch our legs, fill up and grab something fast to eat. Plus, we do gain an hour due to the time change. I'll drive the first half, and he'll drive the second. The drive is familiar, and we'll be beating Raleigh rush hour, so we should be fine.

Packing the car the night before and leaving bright and early in the morning is not a problem. If we leave at 5:00am, we should get there at 2:00 in the afternoon Nashville time...that gives us 10 hours (with the time change), so we have an hour of leeway. That should give us time to see things...we've been to Nashville multiple times, so we don't need a "lot" of time to sightsee.

After that, I'm open for suggestions. If we added an extra day, we would spend 3 nights in-between Nashville and Las Vegas. Which three cities along I-40 should be choose?

Oh yes, and we can possibly add 2 more days to our return home...leave Vegas one day early so we can stop somewhere in Utah in-between Vegas and Denver, and then add another day in on the way home from Denver so that we can spend three nights between Denver and home...

Does that sound better?

[glc]

If you did not want to do any sightseeing, you could drive from Nashville to LV in 3 long days. It's almost exactly 600 miles a day. However, the ideal overnights are in places with limited lodging - Henryetta OK and Moriarty NM. Stretching it out to part of a 4th day would let you stay the night in Fort Smith AR, Amarillo TX, and Holbrook AZ, all of which have ample lodging choices and will get you into Las Vegas midday. Using up the whole 4th day would allow for limited sightseeing, choose carefully.

LV to Denver is a 1.5 day drive via fastest route - I-15 and I-70. The halfway point would be Moab or Green River, possibly Grand Junction. You don't really have time to see too much of Utah or Colorado, choose diversions carefully.

Denver to Goldsboro can be done in 3 long days, overnights in Topeka/KC and Louisville/Lexington, so a 4th day would allow for some sightseeing.

[lmking1224]

If you did not want to do any sightseeing, you could drive from Nashville to LV in 3 long days. It's almost exactly 600 miles a day. However, the ideal overnights are in places with limited lodging - Henryetta OK and Moriarty NM. Stretching it out to part of a 4th day would let you stay the night in Fort Smith AR, Amarillo TX, and Holbrook AZ, all of which have ample lodging choices and will get you into Las Vegas midday. Using up the whole 4th day would allow for limited sightseeing, choose carefully.

LV to Denver is a 1.5 day drive via fastest route - I-15 and I-70. The halfway point would be Moab or Green River, possibly Grand Junction. You don't really have time to see too much of Utah or Colorado, choose diversions carefully.

Denver to Goldsboro can be done in 3 long days, overnights in Topeka/KC and Louisville/Lexington, so a 4th day would allow for some sightseeing.

Thanks for the response!

It is okay for us to get to Vegas later in the day/early evening on the 8th. Even with the change of plans, we'll be staying for 7 nights, so it'll be fine. So really, it would be a total of five driving days, with four overnights -- one in Nashville, then three in....?

I was also thinking Nashville to Fort Smith to Amarillo. Thanks for the suggestion about Holbrook AZ. I was wondering about the last day.

It's just the two of us, and we tend to "see" things fast. We were fine with spending about an hour at the Grand Canyon when we saw it, for example. We're also the ones who eat and run at restaurants, so maybe we're rushing through life...who knows. :P We don't have to stop and see EVERYTHING...but there are some things we didn't see on our last crazy trip that I'd like to stop for this time..

I'm thinking that leaving here on the 4th, leaving Nashville sometime before noon on the 5th, spending a night in Fort Smith on the 5th, then Amarillo on the 6th, then Holbrook on the 7th, then Las Vegas in the evening would probably be about our speed.

On our FIRST cross-country trip, we actually spent almost a whole day with a friend in Utah and saw lots of Colorado, so I'm not necessarily worried about sight-seeing from LV to Denver. The beautiful mountain views (of which I took literally HUNDREDS of pics last time while hubby drove) are enough for me. I so want to make it from LV to Denver in one day, but realistically, it's probably not a good idea. We probably will need to stop somewhere lame in Utah half-way.

[glc]

You may want to spend the night in Holbrook in the Wigwam Motel.

Between LV and Denver, your best selection and most reasonably priced hotels will be in Grand Junction, not anywhere in Utah.

[lmking1224]

You may want to spend the night in Holbrook in the Wigwam Motel.

Between LV and Denver, your best selection and most reasonably priced hotels will be in Grand Junction, not anywhere in Utah.

Oh wow, that place in Holbrook looks awesome! Thank you!

Hubby really wants to drive straight from LV to Denver. He just keeps saying that there is nowhere worth staying in-between. I'm going to keep working on him.

[glc]

LV to Denver is 750 miles. Don't even try it. You will be driving through the mountains in CO after dark and if the weather is bad that's the last thing you want to be doing, been there done that. It's just over 500 miles from LV to Grand Junction, and that's as far as you should attempt to go.

[lmking1224]

That's what I'm thinking. I think it will be a rough drive because of the weather especially.

[lmking1224]

Okay, is this better? I know y'all don't like the Goldsboro to Nashville drive, but we've done it several times before, so I know we'll be fine. Every other day is 500 miles(ish) or less. Plus, we are staying two nights in Nashville, so that will give us time to see things, spend time with my sister-in-law and rest a little bit.

Leave on December 3rd
Leave Goldsboro, NC
Arrive in Nashville, TN
(592 miles)
Stay in Nashville, TN on December 3rd and December 4th

December 5th
Leave Nashville, TN
Drive to Fort Smith, AR
(498 miles)

December 6th
Leave Fort Smith, AR
Drive to Amarillo, TX
(441 miles)

December 7th
Leave Amarillo, TX
Arrive in Holbrook, AZ
(518 miles)

December 8th
Leave Holbrook, AZ
Arrive in Las Vegas, NV
(340 miles)
Stay in Vegas December 8th - 15th

December 15th
Leave Las Vegas, NV
Arrive in Green River, UT
(406 miles)

December 16th & 17th
Leave Green River, UT
Arrive in Denver, CO
(343 miles)

December 18th
Leave Denver, CO
Drive to Salina, KS
(434 miles)

December 19th
Leave Salina, KS
Drive to St. Louis, MO
(423 miles)

December 20th
Leave St. Louis, MO
Drive to Louisville, KY
(261 miles)

December 21st
Leave Louisville, KY
Drive to Prosperity, WV
(303 miles)

December 22nd
Leave Prosperity, WV
Drive HOME (Goldsboro, NC)
(321 miles)