How far is too far to drive?

MypinchofItaly said:
I love drive my car and I often do both for work and for holidays top or to have a ride in the surrounds. Ten years ago I had a terribile car accident while I came back home, the other driver didn't see the stop signal and my car was destroied and I went to hospital. I broke my hand, head, chest, and a lot of other things....but although this, I said my self "do you want to Live with this trauma or fight and at least try to drive again?"
After two months, I bought a new car and I drove from Milano to Puglia (1000km)...and I never stop to drive. Obviously now I'm more careful and when I see a stop signal, back in my mind a little light turns on, but then I go on.
I also love to take Flight, when my husband still lived in Roma, for two years I taken Airplane almost every weekends and he did the same. 50 minutes flight time. When I didn't find flight tickets or freccia rossa train tickets (Milano-Roma 3 hours non stop), well...full of gasoline and went by car (5 hours).
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We have one road that every time we drive it, even though the other road has the stop sign, I always look out for cars. Several years back, we were right behind an accident. A kid not wearing his seat belt was thrown from the vehicle. Kid made it. He had to have his head sewed up. We were 30 minutes from any emergency services and this was before cell phones.
 
Cinisajoy said:
We have one road that every time we drive it, even though the other road has the stop sign, I always look out for cars. Several years back, we were right behind an accident. A kid not wearing his seat belt was thrown from the vehicle. Kid made it. He had to have his head sewed up. We were 30 minutes from any emergency services and this was before cell phones.
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Great invention cell phones. Even now I instinctively look at the stop sign, or the signal of precedence. When I did the accident I thought I was dying. The airbags in the car opened (a stench of gunfire, I thought the car had taken fire) , airbags saved my life but also split the knuckles of my hand and wrist (I still have problems). Head broken, sternum trauma, broken knees ... my car turned over herself and ended up near a pole shattering the windows.
I was alone. How scary. But I'm here and I drive safely and go everywhere.
 
On that wreck, the first thing the paramedic asked when he saw me was "are you all right?" He saw the blood on my hands. I said yes, the child has a head wound. He promptly went and got a bandage. His partner helped me up because I had been in the same position for over half an hour.
 
Cinisajoy said:
On that wreck, the first thing the paramedic asked when he saw me was "are you all right?" He saw the blood on my hands. I said yes, the child has a head wound. He promptly went and got a bandage. His partner helped me up because I had been in the same position for over half an hour.
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Ugly experience also yours. But are you still driving? Sorry maybe you had already written it in previous posts but did not read them all.
 
MypinchofItaly said:
Ugly experience also yours. But are you still driving? Sorry maybe you had already written it in previous posts but did not read them all.
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I don't drive myself because I cannot judge distances at all. I even run over walls.
 
Running over walls, @Cinisajoy. Why, you'd fit right in with the Boston drivers! :laugh: Not sure if any of them can see signs or other cars or walls or...

MrsDangermouse said:
...2700 miles is a lot in 2 weeks...
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Um, I think you may have misunderstood me. It is 2700 miles from our house in Massachusetts to where our son lived when he went to college in Arizona. 2700 miles one way. We did have to come back, ya know! :wink: The second year he was there was especially challenging. We had sold our home in Ohio, had to drive to Massachusetts to sign documents to change house ownership here from the builder to us, and then head back to Ohio to take our son to school. Between July 31, 2000 and August 19th, we drove:
July 31-Aug 1 Ohio to Massachusetts. Sign papers on August 3rd, leave to return to Ohio on August 4th (driving straight through 625 miles). Leave Ohio for Arizona on August 7 or 8 (things are a bit fuzzy after 17 years), drop the kid off, run around getting him a few more things for college, and return to Massachusetts, collapsing in our own beds on Saturday, August 19th. If I have it right, we put 5800 miles on the car in just under three weeks. :sleep:

To this day, we still drive for all of our vacations! I guess that trip didn't cure us of liking to drive.
 
buckytom said:
That reminds me of when I worked dayshifts and my boy was about 2 or 3 a decade ago.

I would work double shifts every Saturday, 8A to 12M.
Since we had no nearby family to help, my wife was home all day taking care of our son by herself. In order to give her a break, I would take my 2 meal breaks together at 7PM after the Evening News was finished, hop in the car and race home (only 29km, but we're talking aboit driving through NYC on a Saturday- tourists, taxis, and amateur drivers everywhere). I'd run in the house, read a few books with my boy, then give him a bath, a bottle, and put him to bed.
Then it was back into the car as fast as possible back to work by 9ish.

It was crazy, but I'd do it again if I had to.
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Hubby went through a bit of the same when our kids were 18 months old. From May through mid-September, he spent work days in Pittsburgh PA, about 200 miles or so from home, coming home on weekends. The first week of Daddy Gone! were OK, then he came home for the weekend. The second week, the kids were inconsolable. They were up crying and carrying on for about 2 1/2 hours from about 1 AM to 3:30. The neighbor behind us had some kid nights, too, since she had a son roughly 9 months older and a daughter roughly 9 months younger, and a hubby who worked nights. If one of us was up, we would blink the kitchen sink light. If the other was up, too, she would call. We helped keep each other sane. But she wasn't up. Who to call at 3:30 AM? The DAD! :D He came home after work that day (a Tuesday), worked out of the Cleveland office on Wednesday, then went back to Pittsburgh for Thursday/Friday. He bounced like that all summer. He was an angel, I swear. :angelic:
 
Even though the traffic where I live is horrendous (it took me 1/2 hour to drive the one mile home in the middle of the day when I popped over the supermarket; and ten minutes of that was spent just queueing to get out of their car park!), I prefer driving to taking public transport. Going to my daughter's is a nightmare by public transport. I can drive it in under 2 hours, yet it can take anything up to13 hours by public transport if I waited for all the connections. There are only 4 trains a day from the nearest city and buses are not much better. Taxis from the city to her town work out too expensive, and it is not always convenient for her to pick me up. In fact when she lived in a small village just outside her town, you were lucky to see a bus. When she lived there, in all the times I visited her, I saw one bus! Besides, it's a lot, lot cheaper to drive there and back.
 
Elawin said:
Even though the traffic where I live is horrendous (it took me 1/2 hour to drive the one mile home in the middle of the day when I popped over the supermarket; and ten minutes of that was spent just queueing to get out of their car park!), I prefer driving to taking public transport. Going to my daughter's is a nightmare by public transport. I can drive it in under 2 hours, yet it can take anything up to13 hours by public transport if I waited for all the connections. There are only 4 trains a day from the nearest city and buses are not much better. Taxis from the city to her town work out too expensive, and it is not always convenient for her to pick me up. In fact when she lived in a small village just outside her town, you were lucky to see a bus. When she lived there, in all the times I visited her, I saw one bus! Besides, it's a lot, lot cheaper to drive there and back.
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When my brother and I were younger, we used to fly between our parents towns. If I could get the flight I wanted, it was a little less than 3 hours. Usually got stuck with a layover of about an hour.
My brother on the other hand once took 10 hours. (On purpose. ) He had a 3 hour layover in Houston and a 4 hour layover in Dallas. What he had done was told the ticket agent what he wanted to do and since the cost was the same: she sold him 3 tickets instead of 1. She sold him a ticket to Houston, then one to Dallas then one to Odessa. Parents were not amused. He was 11 or 12.

At that time, it was a 9 hour drive between the two places.
 
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There are two small private airfields near me, and one near my daughter's. Trouble is, by the time I drove to one and got from the other one to her house, plus the length of the flight, I might as well drive - it would be quicker and a lot cheaper.
 
Driving from Phoenix AZ to Las Vegas NV just for a loaf of German bread. Yeah thats way out there and carried away.
 
I'm a breathing gas technician. My route takes me to fire stations all over parts of south Florida, from east to west coast and the center part of the state as well. I have no choice.
 
When DD and DGD lived in New Orleans, it was just over 860 miles. I drove that several times by myself in my early to mid 40s in 1 day, but it was exhausting. One time, I got there and then had to turn around and go back home the next day because of an emergency. That was not a fun trip.

My dad lived 998 miles away. In my early 50s, I drove that in 1 day once, never again. It was either a 2 day trip or I flew into 1 or the other of the 2 nearest airports, rented a car and drove for an hour and a-half to 2 hours. He lived in a very rural area.

My mom lived over 1300 miles away. My dad also lived in same town until he remarried and then retired. Those trips were usually 2 days, but I did do it in 1 day once as I had to get there fairly quickly. Rough trip by myself.

My father's grandmother and a dear family friend lived in southern North Carolina. That was about 750 miles. Those were 2 day trips since they were vacations so there was no rush.

When I was a kid, family vacations were driving destinations to various places. We'd drive a day or part of a day, spend the next day or 2 doing the tourist thing, then drive to next destination and repeat.

Our girls live 165 miles away. It takes about 2-1/2 hours but is interstate nearly all the way. We regularly do that in 1 day.
 
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Nz is a big country really, we drive 5 hrs to the place we have our holidays. With my work I worked out recently I've driven over 2,000,000 kms, with work I used to get calls from customers 300 kms away on the west coast, I'm east coast. Sometimes as many as 6 times a week I'd take orders over there and back in the same day. That's a 600km round trip. Longest trip I've driven was 7 hr nonstop to invercargill with my son for him to drive a horse. We were there 30 mins , then turned around and went home. His horse never won,lol. I love driving.
When we did a 6 week trip around the uk we used to stop at a place for 2 or 3 days and explore the area.
Elawin mentioned Keswick, we discovered it because we were staying at a large inn at Penrith. Loved Lake District.
Also stayed at Inverness and explored all all around the isles.

Russ
 
rascal said:
When we did a 6 week trip around the uk we used to stop at a place for 2 or 3 days and explore the area.
Elawin mentioned Keswick, we discovered it because we were staying at a large inn at Penrith. Loved Lake District.
Also stayed at Inverness and explored all all around the isles.
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UK is much easier to explore than US or NZ. We are tiny! I moan about driving for 75 miles.
 
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