Tired of driving?

[highdesertranger]

report to the YARC thread. highdesertranger

 

[wayne49]

I was a fanatical "I have to keep going from point A, until I get to point B". Could not relax until I got there. Delays were always frustrating.

Now the distance from A to B is much shorter. I will take time out if I see something that interests me. And point B can be changed.

Fuel is a big budget item. The less I drive, the less I spend on fuel.
Shorter drives. Longer stays. Rule of 2s.

 

[MG1912]

Nice thread! I have only been full-timing for a little over a month now, but I find that 5 or 6 hours is okay if I need to get somewhere. I would prefer 2 to 4 hours if traveling at my leisure. I hate driving at night and driving in the rain... and I hate driving at night in the rain the worst. I like the 1-2-3 and 2-2-2 rule.

 

[PODebbie]

I have trouble getting started and I have slowed down. But...I worked the graveyard shift for over 25 years, and I would stay up reading all night when I was a kid. I am a night owl. So when I am going on a trip from Michigan to Florida, I'll leave about 3:00 pm and just get my music adjusted and my caffeine high going after sunset. I drive all night, the nuts are gone, and it is me and the truckers. Just when I start to get tired, the sun is rising and I wake up internally. I used to stay away a 24 hour day at least once a week. In fact, I didn't sleep last night. I have been awake since 10:00 AM on Monday. It is 8:00 PM on Tuesday. I am not tired. I'll probably have to drop a sleeping pill to go to sleep tonight. The last few long trips, I drive about 10-12 hours and then sleep at a rest area for a couple of hours. I am not full time. I am a destination driver at this time in my life. If I was full time, 2 hours sounds great. I'll go 5-6 days and not leave my house.

 

[eDJ_]

We mention planning a lot especially when the conversation turns to the 2-2-2 system.  

I personally mention the lower website in my signature line for using when on the road.  It has a load of links categorized
to topics that can make life easier for you.

The trip planning section has websites that use Google's "Street View" as part of planning technology.  They will help you plan a route with a destination,  but also will suggest places and things to see along the way by how far off your route you are willing to go.  (Ideal for a 2-2-2 Nomad) It's powerful stuff if you've ever seen a demo of it.  You can literally go see some of the side trip attractions from your laptop or a Library computer.

If you aren't familiar with using "Street View" in Google or websites that incorporate that technology in them, here is a Youtube Video Tutorial that shows how to use the little orange "pegman" on the maps to actually view these places before hand.  It is brief and simple. 

Anyone who hasn't been exposed to this will marvel at it the first time they see it.  So show it to some friends !

[video=youtube]

 

[ZoNiE]

200 is my limit. I'm not in a hurry in a 35' motorhome anyway.
2-2-2 works.

We both still work, and live in a house, so we usually leave friday, travel 2 hrs, stay two nights, then get home by two on Sunday.
If I'm heading home, (I still live in a house) I try to leave by 10-ish, but no later than noon.

If we are doing a 200 mile trip, I try to stay at least 3-4 nights. I guess that is 2-3-4

 

[Qxxx]

I usually don't get [font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]organized and [/font]out of the house until 3, then I drive for 4 hours or roughly 250 miles, then I need a 5 hour nap. I guess that's 3-4-5.  I just love that they started this numbers game.

 

[orangeclouds]

Personally, I found a deep irony within myself that I love the nomadic lifestyle and traveling for a living, but I really dont enjoy driving for more than 2 hours at a time. For reference on my current trip I started in norcal then Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho again, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and currently I'm in Arizona. It's been almost 9 weeks so far. The longest drive I've done was from Sandpoint, ID to Kalispell, MT. It took nearly 4 hours. I've done a few 3 hour legs too.

As the trip has gone on, I've also found myself slowing down a lot. It's sort of hit me really hard that I can just die at any moment and there's no guarantees I'll ever be able to do this again. So I try to make the most of every place I decide to let my feet hit the ground.

Also, I'm all on board with the night owls. I typically go to bed at 2 AM and rise at 9 or 10.

 

[Qxxx]

Cloud, I'm guessing your trip has been 6,000 miles or so. A long way. I did a loop through WA, MT, and ID in 5 weeks in June-July. No doubt a lot of the same routes as you, eg Sandpoint to Kalispell. For such a long trip, I found it much more enjoyable to at least every 10 days spend around 4 nights or more  in the same place for a travel break. 

Looking back, there are places I wish I had spent a week or two. It does tire you out when you're hitting the road day after day. There is difference between a trip and nomadic lifestyle. Last winter I spent 5 weeks around Quartzsite, and found to be most enjoyable. Then I traveled. Similarly, I spent a month just around the Bend-Sisters area the year before. 

That makes a nice lifestyle. Drive for a few days to a cool destination and stay in the area for several weeks, and repeat.

 

[maki2]

Yes I do find that I don't want to drive as many hours as I would when younger. It has nothing to do with having got tired of long days of driving. It is the other way around, long drives bring too much physical discomfort and that tires a person much more quickly. Therefore I have given myself no directives on how far I will go in a day. Plus burning a lot of gas just to drive alot for pure amusement is not in my budget scheme. If a place is nice I am perfectly content to stay until I need to leave. I do have days I need to go to a place where I can ship things so that is one of the issues that will influence me to think, might as well try a new campsite if I am on the road anyway.

 

[MotorVation]

I love to drive. Most of my night at work is driving. What do I do on my night off? Go for a drive, but I go hang out somewhere in the van for a while near the water,watch videos, relax.

When I hit the road to go out west in December or so, I may have trouble sitting in one place (BLM) for too long of a time. When I'm driving at work, I'm using my old Rav4 which is pretty good on gas and I get paid to drive it.

Those rules will change in the van. It does like to drink itself a wee bit of gas and I'm going to have to limit how much cash I'm putting in the tank

 

[orangeclouds]

Cloud, I'm guessing your trip has been 6,000 miles or so. A long way. I did a loop through WA, MT, and ID in 5 weeks in June-July. No doubt a lot of the same routes as you, eg Sandpoint to Kalispell. For such a long trip, I found it much more enjoyable to at least every 10 days spend around 4 nights or more  in the same place for a travel break. 

Looking back, there are places I wish I had spent a week or two. It does tire you out when you're hitting the road day after day. There is difference between a trip and nomadic lifestyle. Last winter I spent 5 weeks around Quartzsite, and found to be most enjoyable. Then I traveled. Similarly, I spent a month just around the Bend-Sisters area the year before. 

That makes a nice lifestyle. Drive for a few days to a cool destination and stay in the area for several weeks, and repeat.

Yes, it has been a long strange trip indeed. Mostly I've gone so far because in my previous adventures, i mostly just explored the southwest and on this particular trip I just  wanted to see everything and go everywhere I haven't been yet. I'm a sucker for novelty apparently.

Ever since i hit Colorado, i definitely started doing what you say with 3-4 day travel breaks. I also agree that looking back there's so many great places I wish I spent more time in. That's definitely my biggest gosh darnit, but hey I am young and those places aren't going anywhere. 

I definitely see the difference you are pointing out between a trip and a lifestyle. For myself, the lines became suddenly blurred at some point because it dawned on me I don't ever have to stop living out of the van and I love living in the van. I only planned on being gone for a month and more than likely it'll be 3 months before I return home. Discovering Bob's videos also led me to finding out about LTVAs and the yearly New Mexico state parks camping pass which I had no about. 

I agree wholeheartedly what you've laid out sounds like a good lifestyle!

 

[Qxxx]

Cloud, given your description, it's clear this was mainly a "trip" for you. To check out west. Now you know a lot of good places to go back to, to spend some time. The eastern side of the Oregon Cascades and Hwy 395 eastern Sierra are two of my favorites. Buena Vista area in central Colorado and check out Matalas Captain's Log. He's spent 2 or 3 months in northern NM. Wonderland, . You might be interested to read Travels with Charley by Steinbeck and also Blue Highways by Wm Least Moon.

Edit: almost forgot, the Oregon coast is the best of the Pacific states.

 

[crofter]

I think about 100 miles a day is now good for me.

Then there is that day that the road calls you and you drive on and on. ~crofter

 

[PODebbie]

eDJ_ thanks for the Pegman. I have used street view on Google maps and would be confused how I was able to move down the road sometimes, and other times, I couldn't turn a corner. Now I can use the street arrows and my new BFF (best friend forever) Pegman.

 

[MrNoodly]

My first official day as a nomad I drove from Lancaster SC to Cincinnati OH, with a brief stop in Lexington KY to see a friend. About 560 miles. The next day I drove more than 700 miles to the junction of I-35 and I-90 in Minnesota (including a couple of scary hours following semis through super dense fog). And the next day I drove another 500+ miles to my mail forwarder in Rapid City SD to set up residency. I was on a mission. And I was FREE!

Then there was the time I was in Flagstaff and realized I was running out of one of my medications, so I drove to Los Algodones MX and back in one day—about 700 miles. I avoid things like that, but I have no problem driving 450± miles from the AZ desert to spend a couple of days at the ocean, then drive back. And when I was through with cancer treatment a month ago, I drove from Los Angeles to Moab, but at least I broke it into two days.

 

[Qxxx]

My first official day as a nomad ....

I need to take a nap from just listening to that.

 

[travelaround]

Some people like to burn gas.

I'm seriously one of them right now. I'd like to drive 700 miles in a day to get out of this cold weather.

 

[eDJ_]

PODebbie,  in the bottom link of my signatures under trip planning there are a couple of sites that use that street view technology.   Trip O Matic uses some of this as does  Free Campsites Net (check the trip planner button on the top left)  and I've seen others as well that use cell apps. 

Having this kind of digital technology available while traveling would have been beyond my Dad's wildest dreams.  He had to call it a day by 9 or 10 pm when everything was closing for the day and wait until 8 am the next morning.  He had a few run in's with LEO's (Law Enforcement Officers) who were trying to claim he was camping (where it was prohibited) while he was claiming he was just taking a nap in his car. (telling them he heard  the local radio station's public service announcement explaining that if you are getting sleepy, to pull over and sleep for awhile rather than to cause a wreck)
Today we have good information available 24/7 and have even come take it for granted.

Now we can live cheaper, better, and more comfortably on the road than ever before while having much of the safety and convenience of our sticks and bricks homes.  Even plan the next leg of our journey in camp and with our electronic devices actually drive ahead to scout it out and evaluate side trip attractions.   Thus the quality of our life on the road isn't just left to "luck" as we aimlessly ramble about.  Now we have direction, purpose, and control going for us if we just use it. (or learn to use it)

I'm glad to hear that video made a difference for you. You can now show others who may not know what is possible for them to use.

 

[orangeclouds]

Cloud, given your description, it's clear this was mainly a "trip" for you. To check out west. Now you know a lot of good places to go back to, to spend some time. The eastern side of the Oregon Cascades and Hwy 395 eastern Sierra are two of my favorites. Buena Vista area in central Colorado and check out Matalas Captain's Log. He's spent 2 or 3 months in northern NM. Wonderland, . You might be interested to read Travels with Charley by Steinbeck and also Blue Highways by Wm Least Moon.

Edit: almost forgot, the Oregon coast is the best of the Pacific states.

Thank you for the suggestions, appreciate that!