Cross Country VA to LA

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

I'm sorry, but successfully getting through a few rounds of Russian Roulette does not mean that I get to say "I don't believe that...will be an issue" for any and all subsequent rounds. The FACT is that drowsy driving is every bit as dangerous as drunk driving, and there are legal restrictions on professional long-haul drivers for just that reason. You're proposing to do twice what those limits are. We can not and will not condone any plan that relies on such ill-considered expectations of what's possible.

The fact is that you would need two full weeks just to do the driving entailed in the itinerary you've set out. And that's if you plan to use motels where you pull off the highway and directly into their parking lot, go to bed, sleep eight hours, get up, and hop in the car and go. If you plan on camping, you'll have to add the time to get to the campsite, set up, strike the camp the next morning and get back to the highway. So at best, if you have three full weeks for the loop, you might have seven days to visit seven sites, each of which is worthy of several days' exploration.

If all you have is two weeks, then this trip is a non-starter. You might as well just lock yourselves in the car on your driveway and run the engine. If you can make it three weeks, it becomes 'possible' but you'll be spending the vast majority of your time sitting in the car or asleep, not visiting scenic locales. And no, having multiple drivers does not help. The legal limits cited above count ANY time in the cabin as time behind the wheel, and in any event, having more drivers does not mean the car will go faster or that there will be more hours in the day. Quite the opposite. You'll be spending more time at each food/fuel/restroom break, always constrained to wait for whoever is slowest at that stop.

Please reconsider the scope of this trip, add more time, or both. But tips on other places to see would just be a waste of both our time and yours. You simply do not have enough time to safely do what you are already proposing to do.

AZBuck