How far do you go in a day?

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MikeyInNY

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Joined
May 13, 2010
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101
Location
Colonie, NY (Near Albany)
Like most working people who dream of retirement, we are looking forward to the day when we hop in the RV and take off with no time limit.  Now I have driven cross country seven times, but in a car, staying in hotels.  With no time limit, I'm not planning on driving during rush hour in a city, and there is no reason to drive into the night either.  I'm not planning on spending many nights in parking lots either.  So I was wondering, how far do you go in a day? 
 
When travelling from point A to B we go about $100.00 of gas a day

We start around 8 am, stop and look around where we want, and stop for the day around 4 pm

Cheers
 
Even though I have driven farther and less in a day, I try to figure a good days driving around 280 to 320 miles. I like to stop early enough in the day to be able to set up camp , barbecue and then walk some.  It is really what do you feel comfortable with without over doing it.
 
I have gone as far as 750 and as little as 50 miles in one day but usually a 300 to 400 mile day is a good day.
 
When work was putting time constraints on us I used to shoot for 500 mi whenever possible. Leaving early in the am and sometimes getting in after dark, that was not fun at all.
Now, a good day is around 300 miles. We leave around 8 - 8:30 and are usually at our next stop by 1:30 - 2. This leaves plenty of time for exploring etc. This way you also have a better chance of getting a spot in a busy CG as I have seen them fill up around 4 or 5. I don't like making reservations.
 
I always say we are going to leave by 9 - DW and the dog are ready by ten. 250 miles is a big day driving - normally would try to be closer to 200. We try to never do two, one night stops, back to back. We will stay at least two nights every other day. We never drive at night, and if it is raining or windy we stay another day.
 
We are retired so usually don't have to be anywhere at a certain time. Most of the time we travel 250 to 300 miles a day. We like to set up camp early in the evening and useally stay at each campsite at least 2 to 3days
 
If my DW and I are going alone, we usually try for 300-200 miles. We will stay in a truck stop or big box store parking lot.  If we are traveling with the Grand-kids we like to stop about 4 PM and stay in a nice Campground with swimming pool. It is a lot more fun and gives them a chance to burn off some energy. 
 
I'm usually ready to go about 7 or so in the morning.  The DW is ready by 9.  We'll travel about 350 to 450 miles a day.  The DW will drive for about two hours after lunch.  In January we're making our annual trip to Santa Cruz, CA from Florida.  We have to use our 2 month "free" camping site each year.
 

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With no time constraints, we travel at a very leisurely rate. Start late (11 am) and stop early (4 pm) and take a lunch brake along the way. Go 250-300 miles. And we don't travel every day - usually only 2 (or at worst 3) days in a row before a multi-day stop.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
With no time constraints, we travel at a very leisurely rate. Start late (11 am) and stop early (4 pm) and take a lunch brake along the way. Go 250-300 miles. And we don't travel every day - usually only 2 (or at worst 3) days in a row before a multi-day stop.

We look forward to those days!  In the mean time, we'll keep putting our time in here in the salt mines..... :-\
 
To answer your question, for us, a day is not so much measured in miles as it is in time.

We religiously try to avoid long, consecutive travel days. For us, it defeats the purpose of enjoying this lifestyle if you cannot stop along the way when your interest is piqued or there are some worthy detours. In fact, we purposely choose routes that allow us this luxury of smelling the roses along the way. We don't always choose the shortest routes, either.

A long day for us is six hours, most being between four and six hours. We usually swap drivers every two or at the next convenient rest stop.

We have learned that the stress of rolling too hard invites camp setup/camp breakdown mistakes, hard feelings, and harsh words. Life is short enough without inviting wife wrath. Just sayin...  8)

 
    There is only one correct answer to your question!  You drive a far as you want to.  As others have said, unless we are trying to make a destination by a certain time, we rarely travel on two successive days.  On the days we travel, we may drive 50 miles, or 500 miles.  But part of being free, is being able to come or go as you please.  There is no need to try and schedule every day, we subscribe to the moto that long range planning is where we will be by noon, so that we can plan lunch.
    For example, we put on 8,000 miles last spring, the longest place we stayed was in Salt Lake to allow DW time at the LDS Library, most stops were for 2 to 4 nights, and most travel days were a bit over 400 miles, yet sudden tornado warnings in Northern Ontario changed our planned short day into a 750 mile day.  (the plus of that change was that we had to drive at dusk, which allowed us to see dozens of moose grazing along the roadsides)

Ed
 
Wife retired last January and we are still establishing our routine. Living in the cold north we try to get as far south as we can in the first day to find warmer weather (500+ miles). Then after that we try to take the attitude of traveling 200-300 miles or so. Our shortest day so far was 42 miles. Last year we went to Quartzsite for the first stop and were under a slight time constraint to get there in time. This year we are going to Florida with no particular plans except just to get there and enjoy the nice weather.
 
Usually we try to maintain a schedule that keeps us below 300 miles a day.  Sometimes when we are traveling to a destination, i.e., grand kids etc. we will push a little harder or if the choice of stops is bad we will push to a good one.  We usually go for up to 4 days if trying to make time but then stop and enjoy the local area for a day, do laundry and shopping.  When planning a long trip, east coast or ???, I will plan stops so that we can do sight seeing and smell the daisy's as we go so we don't get tired. 

 
We recently completed a trip from the Olympic Peninsula to Arizona. At the start, we had a couple of cities where we had to stop to have work done, and then we did want to avoid some approaching storms by traveling more consecutive days than usual. The daily mileage totals were: 196, 104, 311, 245, 207, 258, 255, which was seven travel days in eight calendar days -- a very fast trip for us (and tiring). Normally, we would try not to travel more than two consecutive days without a layover of at least one day. We tend to leave around 9:00 to 10:00 in the morning and arrive around 3:30 to 4:30 in the afternoon.

We try to stop every hour to hour and a half, and switch drivers. Our practice is not to exceed 55 mph set speed (can get to around 60 downhill etc.). No need for speed -- it is a recreational vehicle!
 
Typically I would do about 200 to 300 miles a day if I'm out with the RV and just relaxing. It about relaxing and enjoy the trip of the RV.  8)
 
Along with several short trips (from one to ten days) each year, Jane and I will make the NC, Ill and NY loop.  Each segment is somewhere between 550 and 800 miles.  We generally take two days travel for each segment with stops of one week, to several weeks, between travel segments.

That makes for some 400+ mile days and some 200+ mile days.  We like to always make the long days, the first travel day of each segment, because the end of the second (or sometimes third) will result in a need for CG setup time. 

We usually let the smell of the crock pot tell us when it's time to stop after a long day.
 
When we (the family) went on vacation, and only had two or three weeks, we left at 4am drove till 4-5 PM the first day, second day about 8 hrs, and arrived at our destination the third day. NYC to Grand Canyon, or NYC to Salt Lake City, and than worked our way home.  Always went to farthest destination first and worked our way home. 

We always gained a hour a day on the way out, but lost one going home.  Still took three days to get home, but in our travels we generally were only one time zone away from home when we ended our trip.  Good to be young.

Still leave NYC at 4:30AM just too get off Island.  First day is still travel day but than it's Miler time. 

Always went away with the family for at least two weeks every summer. 25' class C 4 adults (in laws) two children and the dog. Great times and memories. We are now going back to stay longer because we can.

Just the bride and I.
 

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