1900 miles in 3 days

...wish me luck.

When I was younger, it might not have been such a task. But I'm older now.

Day 1, Vegas to Denver
Day 2, Denver to Des Moines
Day 3, Des Moines to Grand Rapids, MI

Then in 10 weeks or so, I shall reverse the journey.

Good luck! What brings you to GR?

See some old friends and do some volunteer work on things I love

Keep in touch, we love to ride along.

Yeah, this sounds like an Adventure board post.

You got this.

Sounds like fun.

EvanR wrote: See some old friends and do some volunteer work on things I love

Awesome. It's a fun town. I'll be moving there from Detroit near the end of August.

Duke wrote: Yeah, this sounds like an Adventure board post.

Not really much of an adventure, just gobbling up miles.

Notes:

The chunk of Utah I drove, I-15/I-70 has (mostly) an 80mph speed limit. People mostly drove around 80. Which proves that if a speed limit is sensible, people will obey it.

Also, a 1.8/5MT Chevy Sonic, which can get 38mpg at 65mph, only gets about 34mpg at 80.

Chevy Sonic windshield wipers are all but useless at 80.

Colorado has lower limits, but it should. I-70 in Colorado is the twistiest Interstate, because it has to be. It's good to go slow anyhow, because Colorado is breathtakingly beautiful.

Just east of Denver now. Tomorrow I finish Colorado on I-76 and take I-80 as far as I can get, hopefully Grinnell or Iowa City.

I just did 1400 in three days with 2.5 kids and a dog. I do not envy you. I'm pretty much maxed out at 500 miles in a day as a solo driver if I want to be paying proper attention to the road.
If you want to tack on a couple hundred more you should come up to Magnum Opus this weekend. I can provide lodging and test drives in the van.

500 miles is generally 8 hours. 8 hours is generally a solid work day. Ergo: more than 8 hours is putting you into overtime and that's no good for solo-driving.

I just did 300 miles driving, immediately before that was another 300 miles riding. That is a long day.

KyAllroad wrote: 500 miles is generally 8 hours. 8 hours is generally a solid work day. Ergo: more than 8 hours is putting you into overtime and that's no good for solo-driving.

Sounds about right, the last major mileage I did completely on my own was Cherry Hill, NJ to Tulsa, OK. Took about 1.5 days.

Did 950 miles on day one (that was about 14.5 hours), then from Southwest of St. Louis to Tulsa the next morning.

The absurd One Lap transits going late into the night were easier than doing less mileage by myself during the day because we could swap drivers every 2-3 hours. I used to want a motorcycle for long adventures. Now I want a car and a co-driver.

2 years ago, on the return leg of the Saints 2 Sinners rally I did Vegas to NJ in 3 days, solo. You can do it ;)

1000 miles a day is my absolute max but honesly, road trips are about enjoying the trip and seeing the sights so I try to limit it to 300-400 miles a day unless I just gotta get there.

Drove upstate NY to Wichita Falls and back a few times. Before interstates. took about four days. Long days.

After Des Moines on I-80, there'll be an exit for Kellogg that claims to have Iowa's Best Burgers at a gas station, which also asks that you "CAMP HERE" in a black circle sign. I'm not saying they're amazing, but they're pretty good for a road stop. Too bad you'll hit it about an hour after breakfast.

As you pass through Coralville/Iowa City, there's a shop called Hurtz Donut. It's not an easy off-on, but Google'll lead you to it just fine. If you need a break and aren't hauling a trailer, they're worth stopping for. Their coffee sucks though (too strong and flavored).

You may have missed it on the way out, but on the way back, check out Ole's--- IIRC, it's just East of 76 on I-80 in Paxton NE

http://olesbiggame.com

Unless you are a vegan.....then don't go there-- you'll be horrified!

Day 2.
Henderson (Denver) CO to Iowa City, IA, another 775-ish miles.

Here's the thing... I started road tripping in the 55mph days. States like Nebraska were death by boredom at 55mph. They click by a lot quicker now.

The tank I filled in Glenwood Springs, CO got me all the way to Ogalalla, NE - an amazing 42.5 mpg! Not bad for a car rated at 35 highway. It didn't hurt that most of the run is downhill! Sonic needed 4th gear to get up a few of the hills, and 4th gear to (safely) get down a whole lot of hills!

In Ogalalla, as with many mountain towns, you can buy gas all the way down to 85 octane. None for me, thanks. Instead, I bought 91 octane, ethanol-free gas for $0.40/gal more. Never tried booze-free gas before. The Sonic seemed to like it, felt like a bit more passing power than I'd experienced before. Got a couple more mpg than I expected, as well, but not enough to make it cost effective.

Two back-to-back 11.5 hour days is killer, but it means tomorrow is only 6 hours! woohoo!

i'll be going through GR and staying a couple hours north of there july 4th week.

I did a little over 1000 miles solo in one shot back in December. It was not the smartest thing I've ever done, but it all worked out. Sounds like you are done with the two long days and have a short one to go. Safe travels.