"For 2,000+ Mile Round-Trip Drivers Only!" (Part V)

[justreading]

I had to cancel my November trip this year. Plan to reschedule it for next year when things are more back to normal.

 

[disneysteve]

Just checking in on all the long distance drivers who haven't been driving to WDW of late.

All the best!

I don’t think I’ve been more than about 20 miles from home since March. It’s very strange.

 

[deedeew80]

Just checking in on all the long distance drivers who haven't been driving to WDW of late.

All the best!

I haven’t been far from my home in months. Now that I think about it, the last time I was far from my home was in Oct 2019, when we drove to Florida for a wedding. Anyway. We are still planning on our trip to Disney the end of November! We will be leaving the day after Thanksgiving, in the early morning hours. Not sure if we will be driving straight through or stopping for the night. In past trips we have driven straight through and stop for the night on the way back home. So we’ll see. My brother lives in Florida and just drove here (NJ) and back a few weeks ago. They didn’t run into anything crazy along the way.

 

[dvczerfs]

Just checking in on all the long distance drivers who haven't been driving to WDW of late.

All the best!

Well since it’s quiet around here, we were supposed to hit the road next Friday for our annual two week trip to the Boardwalk. But life just got in the way. Since I last posted things have been moving along. Looks like this coming February trip will be the last. As I mentioned before, we had enough driving twice a year and at the end of every vacation heading back north. We all know how that feels. For thirty years we kept saying, why are we doing this?
For the most part, our house is sold. Family friend. He’s waiting patiently for March also. Lol.
We are all signed up with a realtor in the sunshine state. (Just happened last night).
Interestingly enough, we met a few years back at the Boardwalk in the Belvue lounge.
We always seem to meet up every September to just hang out. We are a little nervous, my wife and I have never lived anywhere other than the community we live in now our entire 55 years ( my wife 25 years, she tells me she’s only 25 lol) but we are very excited. Can’t wait to get settled in. People ask me, your leaving all your friends from home? I’m just moving a little south to spend time with my other group of great friends. Well, thanks for reading along. I would like to leave you with a quote that a good friend just told me the other day. “ There was no better feeling when I got to set my snow shovel next to my garbage can. “
This is going on my head stone. Lol

 

[rj9555]

I don’t think I’ve been more than about 20 miles from home since March. It’s very strange.

Same here.

 

[RedSox68]

I don’t think I’ve been more than about 20 miles from home since March. It’s very strange.

Agreed! And we like to be out and about on weekends. Our anniversary just passed and we were afraid to go away and stay in a hotel. Wonder if it will ever be "safe" or normal again just to go about the day running errands with a mask.

Our car lease ran out and we finally took the plunge and bought a car last month -- and have driven maybe a total of 50 miles over the past month on short sightseeing trips. We went to see a lighthouse and the museum was open and we were pathetically beyond excited.

 

[disneysteve]

Our car lease ran out and we finally took the plunge and bought a car last month -- and have driven maybe a total of 50 miles over the past month

Congrats on the new car!

I just bought a car on Friday myself. As I was searching for cars, I was noticing that many had mileage below average which makes sense since for the past 6 months, most people have done very little driving. I got a 2-year-old car with only 13,500 miles on it. But essentially, it's really only got 1-1/2 years worth of driving on it.

 

[RedSox68]

Congrats on the new car!

I just bought a car on Friday myself. As I was searching for cars, I was noticing that many had mileage below average which makes sense since for the past 6 months, most people have done very little driving. I got a 2-year-old car with only 13,500 miles on it. But essentially, it's really only got 1-1/2 years worth of driving on it.

That's awesome. Congrats. After 12 years of leasing, we decided to buy since we know we like Ford Escape by this point. However, not a fan of all the new says they "sleaked" it down inside - like removing the stick shift and taking away a lot of the nice storage bins. But it's new and ours and we love the new navigational screen, and we hope that maybe by October we can take a long weekend trip for my husband's birthday. Who knows if that fear of going to public places will ever really subside.

 

[disneysteve]

After 12 years of leasing, we decided to buy

Good for you. I know this isn't the Budget Board, but leasing is such a waste of money.

I hear you on the fear of going places. I don't know when that will feel okay. It certainly doesn't right now. I'm hoping that by March all is pretty okay for the DIS/GKTW event because we did buy tickets for that. Assuming we go, we'll probably fly though due to time constraints.

 

[pwdebbie]

I have a friend that has just made her second trip to WDW since it reopened. She says things are being kept super clean.

I had the same apprehension about going places but my mom was dying five hours away and there was no way I was not going to be there. We stayed in a hotel in a resort town where they retired thirty years ago, Ocean City, MD. Of course, eating out in restaurants was also needed and the few we tried were great in terms of covid awareness. I probably would not have chosen to travel and stay in a hotel this summer, but necessity overruled that preference.

I can't say I have fear so much as I have an abundance of caution. I don't see a need to take unnecessary risks.

 

[disneysteve]

I can't say I have fear so much as I have an abundance of caution. I don't see a need to take unnecessary risks.

Exacxtly. I get so annoyed by the people saying, "Oh, you're living in fear." No I'm not. I'm not lying awake at night afraid I'm going to catch COVID. But I'm also not going to the casino to play a slot machine just for the heck of it. We're not eating inside of a restaurant.

We're not voluntarily putting ourselves in risky situations just for fun.

 

[BC1836]

I don’t think I’ve been more than about 20 miles from home since March. It’s very strange.

Ain't that the truth (at least in a single day). All the best!

 

[dvczerfs]

152 days, but who’s counting.

 

[pmdeve]

We are planning to drive next month and I am concerned. We usually stop overnight In South Carolina and of course we will be stopping at rest stops along the way. Are the hotels safe. Are the rest stops opened?

 

[VeeHam]

I just found this thread. Not sure how I have been on the boards for 10 years and never knew this one existed. We drive from south of Houston every time we go to Disney. This trip will make our 7th or 8th to the Orlando area. Our kids are older now, 16 and 13 and mostly do school work and look at their phones in the car. Hubby and I take turns driving. This year we have to drop off our dog at my moms house in Mississippi along the way. So it will take an extra 6 hours or so of driving. Blah...

 

[pwdebbie]

We are planning to drive next month and I am concerned. We usually stop overnight In South Carolina and of course we will be stopping at rest stops along the way. Are the hotels safe. Are the rest stops opened?

We had to travel out of town for my mom's final days and her passing in July which necessitated staying in a hotel. We had no issues at all. No room service, which was fine with me. I think you will be okay with hotels as long as you don't pick one that offers one-hour rooms (yes, we made that mistake once -- still don't now how it got a number 1 rating in Orangeburg, SC, from Trip Advisor -- filthiest place ever, but at 11:30 p.m. after driving through torrential rain and one tornado alert, all you want is to get to the room you reserved and go to sleep). To say it more briefly, stick with trustworthy chains.

 

[dvczerfs]

135 days.
Since it quiet around here, time is flying along. Started rewiring the house, gotta love 1941 electrical jobs. Lol
Still keeping my eye on the real estate in central Florida. ( I have to stop lol ) We know what we want
I have to start getting an idea on apartments. I haven’t lived in a apartment in 35 years. I dread looking for a apartment than a house or a job. Lol
My poor Disney van is full of boxes, we are using it for storage for the packing we have done till I’m done working on the house.
We are looking forward!!! We are looking forward to our last 2400 mile round trip in February to WDW. Coming home and selling the house. Our DD is going along so we will be driving straight through both ways.
We still have two week reservation at the Contemporary in the A frame, Magic kingdom view in September. I did it in two reservations so i can cancel a week if we have too. My guess at least one if not both will be canceled. All depends how fast this moves. Won’t need two weeks at the Contemporary if I live 20 minutes away. Lol
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.
happy driving!!

 

[deedeew80]

45 days until we hit the road! Our plan is to leave 3-4am the day after Thanksgiving! We did this the last two years and have made great time! We will be driving straight through (we hope) and spending our first night at an offsite hotel. Then we check in to Pop Century for two nights, before moving over to Caribbean Beach for the remainder of the week. We check out 12/7 and will drive as far as we can before stopping for the night. I’m not a huge fan of driving, but I’m getting used to it now! Lol!

 

[pmdeve]

We will be driving from South Jersey to Disney in a couple of weeks.. We typically use I95 to I4. Are the rest stops opened along the highway? Are they clean? This will be our first trip outside of our home town and we want to be careful.

 

[deedeew80]

We will be driving from South Jersey to Disney in a couple of weeks.. We typically use I95 to I4. Are the rest stops opened along the highway? Are they clean? This will be our first trip outside of our home town and we want to be careful.

We are in South Jersey too! Camden County! We take that same route. I asked this question a while back in another group I believe, and from what I understand, everything has been opened!