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[OracleUsr]

My 2009 lighthouse trip.  Drove all the way from Newark Airport to Lubec, ME, and couldn't photograph the West Quoddy Head Lighthouse because of the fog, then got stuck in Maine trying to get wifi access because of a problem at work and returning to New Jersey fifteen minutes too late to eat dinner at a nearby IHOP.

[hbelkins]

In downtown Louisville at a reasonable distance from the Galt House? Ha!

What do you think is a reasonable distance?

I dunno.  In my experience, conferences provide plenty of time for people to get to and from their locations.

I suppose parking would be a factor, though.  Adding on $20 a day may hurt.

Parking is reimbursable. Nearest non-fancy hotel/motel to the Galt House is an EconoLodge at 2nd and Liberty.

https://goo.gl/maps/44DNAog6jH62

[Rothman]

...and staying on the Indiana side is out of the question, I take it.

[hbelkins]

...and staying on the Indiana side is out of the question, I take it.

It would require an out-of-state travel request, which they wouldn't be likely to approve for a conference on the Kentucky side of the river.

[inkyatari]

Well, went on a trip to the black hills when I was a teen.  My dad and mom were fighting the whole way out.  The first night out, my mom and sister slept in the van.  They eventually got along for the rest of the long weekend, but it all culminated in divorce several years later.

Yeah, it sucked.

[Roadgeekteen]

Well, went on a trip to the black hills when I was a teen.  My dad and mom were fighting the whole way out.  The first night out, my mom and sister slept in the van.  They eventually got along for the rest of the long weekend, but it all culminated in divorce several years later.

Yeah, it sucked.

Wow, that was such a long time ago! What were the roads like back then?

[inkyatari]

Well, went on a trip to the black hills when I was a teen.  My dad and mom were fighting the whole way out.  The first night out, my mom and sister slept in the van.  They eventually got along for the rest of the long weekend, but it all culminated in divorce several years later.

Yeah, it sucked.

Wow, that was such a long time ago! What were the roads like back then?

Probably not much different through South Dakota than they are now, but I don't know, because that was the last time I was through there.

[leroys73]

I have been really thinking on this one.  Any road trip is better than no road trip except when it is mandatory and you have little to no control over it.  I don't do those. 

Even the road trip last summer when I broke my leg 3000 miles from home was still a good road trip everything considered.

I guess if there is a worst (other than for a funeral) for me it was a trip to Florida with my wife, 3 daughters, best friend=my dog, to have Christmas with relatives.  All was good until we stopped @ Disney World to camp and visit the parks.  I got so sick the first day I had to go back to our pop up trailer by noon to pass out.  I would have been glad to let someone shoot me.  It was almost 5 days later before I felt half human.  However, by then everyone else, including the relatives we went to see, were sick.

The only good parts of the trip I remember was the day before I got sick we went to St. Augustine.  I also remember the Disney campground was nice.     

[Roadgeekteen]

I have been really thinking on this one.  Any road trip is better than no road trip except when it is mandatory and you have little to no control over it.  I don't do those. 

Even the road trip last summer when I broke my leg 3000 miles from home was still a good road trip everything considered.

I guess if there is a worst (other than for a funeral) for me it was a trip to Florida with my wife, 3 daughters, best friend=my dog, to have Christmas with relatives.  All was good until we stopped @ Disney World to camp and visit the parks.  I got so sick the first day I had to go back to our pop up trailer by noon to pass out.  I would have been glad to let someone shoot me.  It was almost 5 days later before I felt half human.  However, by then everyone else, including the relatives we went to see, were sick.

The only good parts of the trip I remember was the day before I got sick we went to St. Augustine.  I also remember the Disney campground was nice.     

Wow, did you see a doctor or something?

[leroys73]

I have been really thinking on this one.  Any road trip is better than no road trip except when it is mandatory and you have little to no control over it.  I don't do those. 

Even the road trip last summer when I broke my leg 3000 miles from home was still a good road trip everything considered.

I guess if there is a worst (other than for a funeral) for me it was a trip to Florida with my wife, 3 daughters, best friend=my dog, to have Christmas with relatives.  All was good until we stopped @ Disney World to camp and visit the parks.  I got so sick the first day I had to go back to our pop up trailer by noon to pass out.  I would have been glad to let someone shoot me.  It was almost 5 days later before I felt half human.  However, by then everyone else, including the relatives we went to see, were sick.

The only good parts of the trip I remember was the day before I got sick we went to St. Augustine.  I also remember the Disney campground was nice.     

Wow, did you see a doctor or something?

Yep, some doc near Disney, he did not know what it was but gave me some meds.  I don't know if they helped or it just ran its course.   I don't remember feeling that bad in all my life.

[kennyshark]

It took me a few minutes to come up with one, since most of my road trips are at least generally pleasant.

However, my trip to a weeklong "Guitar School" for music ministers (I've played in church for 28 years) in the summer of 1995 might qualify as my least favorite road trip to date.  This took place in Belleville, IL (across the river from St. Louis).

The school itself was great (learning new techniques, bonding with other musicians from around the country, etc.) and something that left its mark on me.  I also got to see my uncle's family at the beginning and end of the week.

However, I spent the week plagued by what I thought at the time was just a bad cold (but was, in retrospect, a severe sinus infection).  And the scenery (or lack thereof) on I-55 and I-70, especially in Illinois...need I say more? 

On top of that, I had planned on spending the night in South Bend on my way home...except that the Brickyard 400 at Indy, which I had never heard of, was that day, so no hotel rooms in South Bend or Elkhart were available.  Long story short, I drove all the way through to Plymouth, MI, arriving at 3 AM.

The final coup de grace...After having visited a few places on that trip that someone I had been dating had recommended (she had lived in metro St. Louis for a few years), and presenting her with a few souvenirs, she unceremoniously "Dear Johned" me less than 48 hours after I got back.   

[kkt]

Most of them have been really good.  I did have one troubled trip when I was maybe 9 years old.  I was stuck in the back seat of a VW bug.  For anyone who doesn't remember or never knew, the engine of the bug was in the back and vented fumes into the back seat.  It was also noisy and bouncy and the windows were too high for little me to look out and see anything.  Anyway, we headed out from the S.F. Bay Area, south to Bakersfield and then east on 58 and I-40.  All went well until we were in Oklahoma and trying to make time driving at night when the engine threw a rod.  Tow to a town.  Engine repairs on that scale were not easy for us to afford at that point.  My mom and I went on by Greyhound to our destination, visiting a friend in SE Missouri.  Our friend was a biologist they knew from college, who bought a piece of property with a cave on it.  His career became exploring the large cave system, studying many previously unknown organisms that lived there, learning about water flows from the surface and various places in the state into the subterranean water of the cave, etc.  My parents took turns going into the cave to be shown around, but I was considered too little so I had to twiddle my thumbs on the surface while the adults had fun.  My dad joined us with the car when the repairs were done.  I don't remember our exact route home.  But the whole trip was a lot of sitting in the back seeing nothing and feeling vaguely nauseous, a lot of stress about being stranded, and very little fun.

[J N Winkler]

Let me run down a few of my travel fiascoes:

*  In 1984, I went with my parents to a convention in Vegas, neither they nor I realizing how little the city then had to offer to someone who was too young to gamble.  A rental car excursion to the Hoover Dam was the high point of a very understimulating trip.  I also had a bad reaction to the time zone change and at one point had nausea so bad I had to vomit.

*  One autumn in the early noughties, I booked a plane ticket to Madrid several weeks in advance and then caught a cold just as it was time to fly there.  It was a bad one, made worse by ambient tobacco smoke (smoking was then still legal in indoors spaces in Spain), so I spent a lot of time resting and very little sightseeing.

*  In 2003 I did a long roadtrip in my 1986 Nissan Maxima, covering large chunks of the Rockies and the Pacific Northwest in both the US and Canada.  Around Edmonton, the brakes started feeling funny, though the car still stopped responsively.  I kept pushing on for at least another two thousand miles until Berkeley, where I was staying with a friend for a few days and thus was in one place long enough to deal with an apparent non-emergency.  It turned out that the rear pads had worn down so far the calipers were biting into the rotors, ruining them.  That was a $400+ repair.

*  In Amsterdam in 2007, I was headed to a conference when I caught bad norovirus, with urgency at both ends:  I would vomit and then ten minutes later I would have diarrhea.  I was in bed for over 24 hours, much of it with my head clenched to the pillow because I also had vertigo and the world seemed to be spinning.  I ended up missing the conference altogether.

[leroys73]

It took me a few minutes to come up with one, since most of my road trips are at least generally pleasant.

However, my trip to a weeklong "Guitar School" for music ministers (I've played in church for 28 years) in the summer of 1995 might qualify as my least favorite road trip to date.  This took place in St. Clair, IL (across the river from St. Louis).

The school itself was great (learning new techniques, bonding with other musicians from around the country, etc.) and something that left its mark on me.  I also got to see my uncle's family at the beginning and end of the week.

However, I spent the week plagued by what I thought at the time was just a bad cold (but was, in retrospect, a severe sinus infection).  And the scenery (or lack thereof) on I-55 and I-70, especially in Illinois...need I say more? 

On top of that, I had planned on spending the night in South Bend on my way home...except that the Brickyard 400 at Indy, which I had never heard of, was that day, so no hotel rooms in South Bend or Elkhart were available.  Long story short, I drove all the way through to Plymouth, MI, arriving at 3 AM.

The final coup de grace...After having visited a few places on that trip that someone I had been dating had recommended (she had lived in metro St. Louis for a few years), and presenting her with a few souvenirs, she unceremoniously "Dear Johned" me less than 48 hours after I got back.   

Yep, that would rank as a bad road trip.  I'm not sure what is worse the Dear John or I-55 & I-70.   Sorry to hear of the break up but just look at it this way:  A marriage saved as she may have been the one to ruin your life.  Been there done that.

[JMoses24]

I have three.

--June 2002 east coast swing. The first week was a blast as a 16 year old, going to Daytona Beach with a church group (because what 16 year old doesn't like looking at cute girls on the beach?). The second week was the family vacation, going to D.C., stopping in NYC and then the last weekend in Niagara Falls. I liked seeing the Smithsonian museums and the monuments in D.C.. New Jersey is where the trip took the bad turn. First I got a pitcher of ice water dumped on me (total accident) at a Friendly's restaurant somewhere near Trenton. The next day I caught a cold and got us lost in New York City (because we wanted to see the WTC site -- remember this was 9 months post-9/11) before the long trip along the Thruway. I spent most of the Niagara portion of the trip in the hotel room because I couldn't talk and the family was going to go on the Maid of the Mist...something that would almost surely have made my cold worse by going under the falls. The trip home took forever and I hated that part because by that point I was in full blown misery both from the cold and my bad back.

--A few years later, I think 2011, our family vacation to Branson, MO was marred by trouble between my sister's boyfriend and one of my brothers who opted not to make the trip. They had a major fight and it led to the trip being cut short and the boyfriend of my sister being kicked out for a period of time.

-- Finally, a short distance trip to Dayton, OH makes this list. Not only did the girl I went there to meet suddenly turn into Ice B----, but a snowstorm delayed my Greyhound home by 4-5 hours AND they forgot about my accessibility request to use my wheelchair on the trip back, leading to me having to be carried on and off.

[jcn]

OMG, my worst road trip was back in 2014 when we were driving back to Philly from South Carolina.  After noticing that I-95 was backed up between Fredericksburg and DC, (which is no surprise) we decided to detour onto 301.  But, a car broke down on the Nice Bridge into Maryland, out of all places.  This caused traffic to be so severe to the point where we decided to turn back onto 95 which was fortunately clear by that time.  What's worse was that we were probably in front of the car that eventually broke down, until we decided to stop in a convenience store on 301.

[roadman]

Worst road trip I can recall was with my parents and siblings in 1972.  We were traveling from Massachusetts to Williamsburg - to visit my sister at William and Mary, when we got a flat tire on I-86/Route 15 outside of Sturbridge.  After changing the flat, my father stopped at a couple of gas stations between Sturbridge and Hartford to get a replacement.  Neither station had the right sized tire, but the second station referred us to a tire shop in East Hartford.  While waiting for the replacement tire to be mounted, my sister and I decided to walk over to a nearby bakery.  Following the aroma from the bakery, and not watching where I was going, I suddenly found myself enveloped in files - I had just stepped on a dead cat.

After all that, we got back on the road and the remainder of the trip was uneventful - except that a normally 12 to 14 hour trip had extended to almost 18 hours.

[hbelkins]

Seeing the news about the I-86/NY 17 closure because of a flood-damaged bridge reminds me that my trip to the Watertown meet a few years ago was cursed.

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/horseheads-to-binghamton-via-detours--2

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/binghamton-to-watertown-via-i-88-detours--2

I had driven from home to Horseheads, NY, the previous day without incident. The next morning, I discovered that significant flooding had taken place between Horseheads and Binghamton. Practically every detour route I attempted to use was flooded out. I finally found a way to get to Binghamton, only to discover a couple of I-88 closures. It was late and dark when I finally made it to Watertown, and I was disappointed to have to drive through the Adirondacks in the dark.

Then, on top of that, I had to cut the trip short by a day to get home. One of our cats had taken a serious turn for the worst health-wise, and I needed to come home so we could make that final trip to the vet's office.

[Nanis]

When I was 3, my family took a trip to DC. That was the only time I have ever gone to New Hampshire.

[CapeCodder]

The day I officially clinched the Missouri portion of I-70. Rained like a son of a bitch the whole time. I left the PSB (it entered MO on the PSB at the time) and saw flashes of lightning in the distance. Got hit by a Mesoscale Convective System. That stretch of 70 in Callaway County had standing water on it. Folks were hydroplaning and getting run off the road. Stopped at a gas station near Boonville. Clerk told me "good luck" in a thick drawl.

[US 89]

My family and I went down to Southern Utah to see the 2012 Annular solar eclipse. While seeing the eclipse was quite fun, I got sick on the 4 hour drive back to Salt Lake and tried to sleep but couldn't because my stomach hurt. There was also a major traffic jam on that drive. Normally I would have been happy since it was late, longer time in car, wouldn't get home till midnight, etc... but I wanted to get home as fast as possible. I threw up right when I got home.

[CapeCodder]

The infamous "Illinois Circuit" of 2010. I have never posted about it here before.

The itinerary: From St. Louis head north on I-55 to Springfield, then get on I-72 west towards Jacksonville. Exit 72 at Jacksonville and head north on 67. Stop for lunch in Macomb at IIRC the Family diner on Main street. From Macomb, head N on 67 to the Quad Cities. Hop on 80 east. Stay overnight in Joliet. The following morning head on 80 east to 57 south. Take 57 south to Cairo/MO line. From there head s on 57 to 55 N.

What actually happened: From the get go the weather was shitty. Since it was spring, there were showers every afternoon. Severe weather  had formed early in the morning of the first day. There was a SPECTACULAR light show on 55 headed towards Springfield. Right at the I-72/55 partial cloverleaf thing is when I entered the core. Let me tell you, when the rain comes down in sheets, it is safe to pull over. My wipers couldn't keep up. So here I was on 72 barely west of Springfield waiting for the thunderstorm to clear. The storm seemed to take forever to clear the area; when it finally did, I was behind schedule. Come to find out, just down the road there was IIRC a confirmed tornado touchdown. Can't remember if there was a TOR that day. I exited onto 67 and headed north. Flash floods galore. Thought for sure I wouldn't make it to Macomb. I finally made it and had lunch at the diner. Just when I had thought the weather would hold, we went right back into the severe thunderstorms. Sky got pitch black just south of Rock Island. 280 was a mess, as was 80.

I made slow progress to Joliet. Stayed overnight at this really, really run down motel that I swear had an infestation of spiders. They were everywhere: in the shower, in the closet, in the bed etc... We're not talking about wolf spiders here, but brown recluses.  I ended up sleeping in the truck in the parking lot. The following morning, I checked out and headed east to the 57 interchange. I guess on this day the ISP were in full force on 57.

I didn't get the memo.

I was pulled over just north of where 70 heads off to St. Louis. They searched the truck and found nothing of course, but the whole time the officer was just being a plain asshole. I get that 57 is a big drug route and they have to be on their toes and their heads on a swivel. Got a ticket for going 5 over. There was an accident near 24 that had everything backed up for miles.

That's when I noticed it.

My thermostat shit the bed. The needle climbed up into the red zone. I turned on the heater full blast and the needle went down. By this time it was about 5 in the afternoon and finally passed 24 and made it to Cairo. I toured Cairo, which was really cool.

The rest of the trip was uneventful.

So there is my ultimate worst.

[Rothman]

To CapeCodder:  One for the history books, indeed.

[J N Winkler]

Yes indeed--one for the history books.

The near-overheating episode sounds to me more like a problem with the engine fan, possibly a failed fan switch.  Older cars that don't have stepless operation or soft start for the engine fan usually wait until the coolant temperature (as reported to the PCM by a thermistor screwed into the engine somewhere) reaches a point just below overheating, at which point the PCM commands the fan to turn on.  If the fan is properly designed and in good mechanical health, the coolant temperature will then drop rapidly.

In my 1994 Saturn, which has this type of hard-start control logic for the fan, the engine temperature normally reaches fan-on point only if I encounter many miles of stop-and-go traffic, which hardly ever happens around here.  In fact, the last time the fan actuated more than once in a single day due to high coolant temperature was in 2014 when I was doing a loop on the San Francisco peninsula that began with a crossing of the Golden Gate and ended with a crossing of the Bay Bridge.

Newer cars have the ability to run the fan at varying speeds, with the goal of controlling engine temperature to within a very narrow range regardless of operating conditions.  One benefit is more consistent oil temperature management, which helps prevent sludging.

[bandit957]

I can't think of any road trips (at least not overnight) that were truly horrendous, but I was very disappointed that it rained throughout pretty much all of my Virginia Beach trip in 2000. On the plus side, that was the trip where we discovered that the bun of an Arby's roast beef sandwich is chewy enough that you can blow bubbles with it, so we didn't need to buy gum. I do remember when I was 10, we visited a state park in Ohio with a Native American burial ground, and I came down with the Plague of '83. But that wasn't an overnight trip.

As for trips in general, imagine being the youngest in the family (grade school age or younger) and having to do what the rest of the family said. You just don't have the energy to keep up with older sibs or parents.