48 State Contiguous Roadtrip in 10 Days and 10,000 miles.

[aspenedelen]

On March 5th I am going to embark on a monumental 10 to 12 day roadtrip from MSP airport in Minneapolis and heading east to Fort Drum, NY over to Lake Champlain, to Bar Harbor, ME to Cape Cod, to NYC to Washington D.C thru W. Virginia to Lexington, KY to S.E Tennessee thru North Carolina to Charleston Harbor, SC to Savanna, GA to Panama City Beach, Fl to New Orleans, to Texarkana, Arkansas to Oklahoma then onto Dallas down to San Antonio, TX thru New Mexico to Four Corners to Elko, NV to Lake Tahoe, CA onto Napa, CA then to Portland, OR, then Seattle, WA thru Idaho, Montana, Cody, WY, and finally thru N.Dak and returning my rental car to MSP and driving home to S. Dakota.

I would like this trip to be on backroads so I can see the backbone of America. Granted I have already done this type of trip but only in certain portions of this amazing great country of ours. Now is my chance to drive a completely nonscripted trip and see what most people driving on interstates don't get to see. I"ll be Facebooking the whole trip and blogging somewhere (not sure where yet) ideas?

Anyone want to figure out mileage for this trip? I think it is somewhere btw 8500 miles and 10,000 miles.

I have ten days plus a few if it needs be. Sleeping in car, hostels and couch surfing then showering in fuel stops on interstates and friends homes.

Ideas, Thoughts?

I have already travelled througout all 50 states and this is just a spontaneous roadtrip b/c I have just found out wife is pregnant and due in Nov. so my roadtripping days are coming to a slight end here shortly.

My main goal of this is to get sponsored by a car company to take a 10,000 mile, if not longer, roadtrip throughout Europe next Spring or Fall. I did a Munich, Germany thru all of Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, France and back to Germany in 2 weeks and 4500 miles last Fall. I rented a BMW 3series station wagon getting a average mpg of 42.6 which was crazy since I found out the car went 138 on the autobahn in Austria and I raced a Porsche in Monaco.

Has anyone ever been sponsored by car companies to showcase lastest and greatest most fuel efficienct model? I love travelling and seeing the world's backroads. I would think that a car company would love to sponsor someone like me driving the most fuel efficient car in the lineup to prove to buyers that their car gets the best gas mileage. Any takers out there?

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Sorry, but I just don't think I see the point of your trip. How and Why exactly do you think that driving about 1,000+ miles a day for 10 days is going to show a car company that they should give you a car to take another trip in the future?

First of all, if I was a marketing executive of a car company, you showing me that you are willing to drive 20 hours a day every day for 10 days really wouldn't impress me much. If anything, it would make me question your judgement and maturity as someone with whom I might be doing business with.

Second, if you haven't noticed, these aren't exactly booming times for the auto industry. Any sort of promotional/sponsorship is going to have to have a far more specific goal than just driving around and showcasing a fuel efficent car. You would have to have a very specific plan to show why your idea would be drawing new customers to them - and you're going to have to prove that you can do that. Proving that you can drive a large number of miles in a short amount of time really won't do anything to show that you can sell, and no company is just going to give you a sponsorship so you can drive around on a vacation on their dime.

If you've got some more specifics with your plan that perhaps I haven't thought of here, I'd love to hear about them, but otherwise, I see a lot more wishful thinking than realistic goals.

[Midwest Michael]

Actually, I missed a big part of your plan to do this whole thing on backroads - which really makes your plan impossible.

Even if you could stay up 24 hours a day for 10 straight days, you wouldn't have enough time to actually make this trip by backroads. It would simply require more than 240 hours of travel to do such a thing, so it is a physical/mathematical impossibility.

Of course, even by interstate is really only possible in theory if you have 3 drivers where you can be on a strict rotation of 2 people away, one person sleeping at all times. If you don't have that, then you need a whole lot more than 10 days to even be thinking about doing this in a safe manner.

[aspenedelen]

This whole trip is about sponteanaity and the wantenness to see America from a backroads (probably Internstate) point of view. Thats it!!

You talk about being the executive of a auto company and why this wouldn't impress you much. Now, that is your view but my view would be that this guy is willing to take on a challenge and adventure such as a 10,000 mile roadtrip in 10 to 12 days that most people would say you are crazy. This guy takes risks and is willing to put it on the line to prove what he can do.

Secondly,
Hmmm..USATODAY states "What recession? Cadillac's toniest Escalade in demand" Look it up and read please!!

Well then I think I need some time and a great roadtrip to "have a very specific plan to show why your idea would be drawing in new customers" to my auto company.

[aspenedelen]

I personally think 1,000 miles a day is definetly doable. I have taken many roadtrips over 1,000+ in less than 20 hours. This trip is doable in ten to 12 days.

If not possible on backroads then it is the interstate then!

[Midwest Michael]

If you can find someone to give you a car and pay for your vacation, that's great. I just think you've got much more of a pipedream than something rooted in reality. I'm not really sure what sales of one model of a high end car has to do with the auto industry in general (last I checked GM is still being run by the US government despite sales of the Escalade), but if you find something that actually make this dream of yours come true, we'll love to hear about it.

There is crazy because of dedication, there is also crazy because you are doing things that are beyond what is safe and thus start becoming a danger to other. Make no mistake about it, that's exactly what you'd be doing if your plan is to drive 10000+ miles in 10-12 days, and I don't think you'll find a lot of people who find that to be impressive, especially as a business proposition.

On the interstate can you cover 1000 miles in 20 hours, sure. Can you do it safely for 10 straight days. Absoluetly not, and you are fooling yourself if you think you can. If you are really about to become a father, perhaps you should think about the distinct possiblity of this trip leaving your child without a father - or even worse, having a child who grows up knowing their father's desire to drive a reckless number of miles caused someone else to lose a loved one.

[aspenedelen]

Maybe my math is wrong but based on 1000 divided by 60 is 16.6 hours of constant driving. Breaks, fuel, etc is 18 hours. How is 18 hrs not possible over the course of 10 days? This leaves you 5 hours of sleep per day ( and 30 min to get to sleep and 30 min to wake up) Am I wrong here?

I am still up for coffee and we can chat about this in detail if you would like to! (it won't be for very long since I theoretically can't do this) but I am a half full type of person vs half empty. We'll see I guess!

[Midwest Michael]

5 hours of sleep, to drive for 18 hours and repeat for 10 days and you don't see a problem here?

The fact is the human body simply can not safely complete such a drive, and its that exact mentality that is responsible for more than a thousand deaths, and countless more injuries every year in the US.

Professional drivers are limited by federal law from doing something so foolish and reckless - they are limited to 11 hours a day of driving, and even that is considered by some safety experts to be too much (In Europe its 9 hours). Research has shown that driving skills start to dramtically decrease after 8-9 hours of driving, and people who've been driving for more than 11 hours are SEVEN TIMES more likely to be involved in a crash. That doesn't even factor cumulative factor of doing your plan of doing this for 10 days while never even getting 6 hours of sleep!

For the sake of those with whom you share the road, and for the sake of your unborn child. Please do not seriously plan to do something so extremely reckless and dangerous.

[aspenedelen]

I have tried mapping it out and it is btw 8200 and 10,000 miles on Google Maps and AAA Map & GO (depending on route). I would think this is doable but I could be fully wrong. At 9,000 miles a day for 12 days is 750 miles a day which is completely doable. It would take you 12.5 hours to drive this mileage so with gas and stops 14 hours. I have ten hours to rest and see the sights.

Is this doable for a normal person or am I abnormal when it comes to somthing like this?

[Southwest Dave]

I think we should draw the line under this one, you will not get the support you are looking for by driving 750 -1000 miles a day on a multi day trip, it simply isn't safe. You may achieve this trip in the time you have said, you may not, the same as a drunk might think he safely drove home after too many drinks and it's OK to do it again. Statistics don't lie and being "normal or abnormal" doesn't come in to it, if you do this trip you must accept that not only is it a risk to you but those that share the road with you.

Good luck with whatever you do.

[Please do not start another thread on this trip or you will lose your ability to post here, thankyou.