Fly and Drive road trips

[roadman65]

I know many of us have flown in to a city to rent a car.  Then begin our road trip from this airport's rent a car area to travel hundreds of miles.   This way we can go to the opposite side of the nation and cover it without having to need more time away from work, or better yet have more time to take it easy.  I  have driven to South Dakota from Florida, and I can say that wears you out.

Anyway, have any of you actually traveled on road more miles than you flew to get there at least one way?  I have from Indy I rented a car and drove US 31 all the way to the Mighty Mack and then I-75 to Sault Ste. Marie.  Spent some time there, then returned via I-75, US 127, and I-69.  I usually do not like to travel at night, but to be a close to Indianapolis as possible I needed to travel some extra miles not seeing I-69 during daylight from Lansing to US 6 where I spent the night at a small motel cause most motels north of Fort Wayne to Michigan are extremely pricey, especially around I-80/ I-90.

As you already figured out I traveled  more miles all together with my rental car than the overall road mileage from Orlando (my hometown) to Indy.  Has anyone ever done this?  Even if dropping off at another city and paying the drop off charge.  I am sure some might of landed in Chicago and maybe returned from Seatle just to cover all the northern states from WI to WA.  Or maybe more regional, or even from San Fransisco to Seatle just to do the Pacific Northwest.

[hbelkins]

Ask Steve Alpert about his current trip. He flew into O'Hare from New Jersey, attended the Joliet meet, then set out on a multi-state swing through the upper midwest, down to Oklahoma, and then using old US 66 back to Chicagoland.

[NE2]

I use my flying car.

[realjd]

If you've ever landed on ATL's new south runway, I'm pretty sure your plane ends up taxing farther than it flies. Does that count?

[oscar]

I know many of us have flown in to a city to rent a car.  Then begin our road trip from this airport's rent a car area to travel hundreds of miles.   This way we can go to the opposite side of the nation and cover it without having to need more time away from work, or better yet have more time to take it easy.  I  have driven to South Dakota from Florida, and I can say that wears you out.

Anyway, have any of you actually traveled on road more miles than you flew to get there at least one way?

I've done that at least twice -- once for a road meet in St. Louis from which I drove a zigzagging route to and from southwestern Wisconsin before flying back home, and also  in 2003 I flew out to San Diego, and back from San Jose, putting 4000 miles on my one-way rental between the two via southwest Washington state.  Both trips were before I retired, at times when I was unusually busy at work and had to squeeze a lot of roadgeeking (and other stuff, like a college class reunion) into a week or less off work.

Having done ten cross-country road trips, and plotting an eleventh, it definitely gets tiresome and boring just to get your vehicle to the other side of the country and back, even if you stop at other destinations along the way.   (Sometimes I want to use my own vehicle rather than a rental out there, such as for the substantial off-pavement driving and camping I did on my trip to California.)  I'm toying with various alternatives, including possibly a permanent move to California, as well as something like "fly and drive", that would cut down on the cross-country driving.

[hbelkins]

Having done ten cross-country road trips, and plotting an eleventh, it definitely gets tiresome and boring just to get your vehicle to the other side of the country and back, even if you stop at other destinations along the way.   (Sometimes I want to use my own vehicle rather than a rental out there, such as for the substantial off-pavement driving and camping I did on my trip to California.)  I'm toying with various alternatives, including possibly a permanent move to California, as well as something like "fly and drive", that would cut down on the cross-country driving.

I haven't done any cross-country stuff, but it does get old traversing territory you've traveled many times before to get to somewhere new. I-79 in West By God Virginia was interesting the first two or three times I drove it, but now I just want to get it over with. Even I-68, which is such a beautiful drive, is getting old.

[1995hoo]

I agree with hbelkins (although I believe he meant "I-79 in West Virginia"), especially when there are limited route options or another reason why you can't do much in the way of finding alternative routes. I was looking at Jim Teresco's site once and I recall him commenting about the difficulty of finding new routes in areas like Virginia and Pennsylvania where he's traversed it all hundreds of times. I know exactly what he means because the drive to New York is like that for me. It's to the point where if I want to find a new route, it means adding lots of additional time and distance, and with gas over $4.00 a gallon I just don't see the point of doing that these days.

My wife and I have multiple relatives in Florida and we usually make a two-week visit in the summer when the relatives' kids are out of school. For that amount of time flying and renting a car doesn't make sense financially nor logistically (TSA hassles; luggage limits), but my wife has a low tolerance for the long drive and she has even less tolerance if I were to start straying off I-95 to find other routes. The Atlanta route via I-75 and I-85, or the Atlanta/Chattanooga route that would take us up I-81, just won't happen because either adds a minimum of 200 miles to the drive, which means around three more hours if you factor in the traffic and the extra gas/toilet stops. Plus there just aren't many great alternatives to I-95 in southern South Carolina or Georgia. US-301 and US-17 are there, but both of them add time to the trip and go out of the way, they probably pass through speedtrap towns, and my wife quite understandably prefers to maximize the time in Florida seeing the relatives than meandering around in South Carolina just because I wanted to go a different way. In other words, the best options for finding other routes are mainly at the northern part of the trip in Virginia and North Carolina, but I've used all those alternatives many times over the years as well.

So, as I've probably mentioned in another thread at some point, we've taken to using the Auto Train one way and driving the other. For us it works quite well because the Lorton depot at the route's northern end is within ten miles of our house. The Sanford depot at the southern end is perhaps an hour from my sister-in-law's house. As much as I like to drive, I have to concede the advantages of an overnight trip during which you can do things other than drive (that is, when I'm driving I can't read a book, take a nap, etc., and I have to be wary about the amount of wine or beer I drink with dinner....none of those caveats apply on the train). The other thing is, from my sister-in-law's house, or the Disney World area, to our house is around 860 miles and by around 700 miles we're both tired of the drive. The two of us have not done the whole 860 miles in one day, even if we hit the road at 7:00 AM. So there's something to the idea of having your morning free, showing up at the train depot at 2:00 PM to check in for the 4:00 departure (cars MUST be checked in by 3:00, no exceptions, to allow them to assemble the consist), then arriving at the other end around 9:30 or so the next morning and being either home or back on the road by late morning.

But to circle back to the original topic: As far as distance goes, when I compare the train trip–which Amtrak states is 855 miles from Lorton to Sanford–to the driving distance between our house and the Sanford depot, the train turns out to be about 20 to 30 miles longer because of the slightly meandering route the tracks follow through South Carolina (from Florence they head southeast to North Charleston, then turn back to the west and rejoin the I-95 corridor at Ridgeland) and Georgia (they cross near I-95, then turn southeast into Savannah, then head back southwest towards Jesup and then southeast along the US-301 corridor to Jacksonville). OVERALL we drive further than the train trip when we do our loop around Florida (typically Sanford, Venice, Fort Myers area, Miami area, then Melbourne area) and add in the 860 miles back home.

[agentsteel53]

I once flew into Vegas, as that is where the rentals happened to be the cheapest, and did 17000 miles in 21 days.  44 states visited.  missed the Upper Two, and also WA, OR, FL, and DE.

[InterstateNG]

I just moved to Texas and am on a quest to visit every county in the state.  I'll probably be doing several of these trips.

[Alps]

I've done this a few times. 2 years ago, flew to Atlanta for a conference, drove through GA, AL, FL, MS, AL, MS, TN, MS, LA, AR, OK and flew back from there. Las year, flew to San Diego, drove through CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK on old 66 and then AR, TX, LA, TX (US 380), NM, AZ, CA. This year I flew to Chicago, and from Joliet went up WI to Green Bay, over to MN, down through IA, NE, KS, OK, and back on old 66 through KS, MO, IL, MO, IL, MO, IL (thanks to St. Louis having many bridges). I also have multiple trips planned that will do this: west coast US 99/101, across the western Canadian provinces, WA/OR/ID/MT area...

[roadman65]

I've done this a few times. 2 years ago, flew to Atlanta for a conference, drove through GA, AL, FL, MS, AL, MS, TN, MS, LA, AR, OK and flew back from there. Las year, flew to San Diego, drove through CA, AZ, NM, TX, OK on old 66 and then AR, TX, LA, TX (US 380), NM, AZ, CA. This year I flew to Chicago, and from Joliet went up WI to Green Bay, over to MN, down through IA, NE, KS, OK, and back on old 66 through KS, MO, IL, MO, IL, MO, IL (thanks to St. Louis having many bridges). I also have multiple trips planned that will do this: west coast US 99/101, across the western Canadian provinces, WA/OR/ID/MT area...

Be sure to include I-90 in Idaho.  I have not done it, but from streetview it seems awesome.  I have always wanted to do it along with MT, WA, OR and even Northern CA.  I even want to see Grand Coulee Dam as I heard that in Summer months they have a spectacular laser light show there.

Anyway, do the I-90 in Idaho.

[formulanone]

If you've ever landed on ATL's new south runway, I'm pretty sure your plane ends up taxing farther than it flies. Does that count?

Do you have to clinch I-285 that way?



I've flown into Atlanta a couple times, and then had to drive a couple hundred miles about for work; but I can't say I've exceeded the mileage of a round-trip flight by using my rental. I can only do so much on the company plastic, within the confines of making my flights and being home to be back with the wife and kids on the weekends.

[texaskdog]

I just moved to Texas and am on a quest to visit every county in the state.  I'll probably be doing several of these trips.

Texas is big but come on, drive it!

[texaskdog]

Before I moved to Texas I had to attend a convention in San Antonio.  Flew to Dallas, drove to Odessa, Carlsbad Caverns, Big Bend, then San Antonio, back through Austin, then back to Dallas.  Probably the only time I've ever done it since usually its just cheaper to spend the gas money to drive there, such as our Colorado trips last year & this year.