portland to minn

April 28, 2007 8:58 PM

i'm driving from portland, or to washington, dc via minneapolis, mn. i'm a little bit worried about that first leg.

i'm completely unfamiliar with that stretch of land. it just looks so big. and empty. and big. i'm driving by myself. so i'm also a bit weary of that. i've never done a big trip like this so i'm not sure how long i'll be able to go at a time - i'm guessing 8 hours. is that reasonable? assuming so, where should i stop? i don't need to do any siteseeing, really. really just looking to get through there as quickly and cheaply (and safely!) as possible.

posted by sacho to travel & transportation (20 comments total)

sacho,

IMO, the driving you do in the west will be the most peaceful, serene, and wondrous of your trip. As you get further east, I think it will feel more monotonous. 8 hours a day seems fine, if only because you'll have plenty of daylight. I would recommend ensuring the passes are OK, as this time of year you may still see snow.
posted by docpops at 9:10 PM on April 28, 2007

2nd checking the passes for snow...

You said you're not interested in sight-seeing, but that doesn't mean you can't plan for interesting scenery!!

Now - get ready for one of the best times of your life. I've made that same trip quite a few times...

1. Take a camera. Take the extra 5 minutes to stop at every "Welcome to [insert state here]" sign and take a pic of yourself. And then post them here!
2. Take time to enjoy the scenery pre-Minneapolis (hell, all the way to West Virginia).
3. Eat at a diner. Even better, commit yourself to eating Breakfast Burritos from McDonalds every morning as you cross the country (it's bad for you, and not original, but very 'grounding' in a way)
4. Plan your hotels along a route of yes, about 8 hours a day.
5. Don't be in such a hurry to get to DC. It will still be here after you arrive.
6. Assuming you're going to jump up to Montana, please do stop in Bozeman for the night (just don't go drink at the Cat's Paw - you'll end up in the hospital after a bar-fight. Regardless, it's a beautiful drive through Western Montana.
7. On your way through North Dakota - you must Must MUST drive through the Badlands... spend the night in Rapid City if you have to.

Really, a drive by myself across the US was always a 'great adventure'... something that I always looked forward to with excitement. Enjoy the freedom of being on your own while basically being 'unknown', with no real commitment to anyone except yourself and the road. It's a 4 or 5 day escape from the world, and a great chance to SEE the world while you're at it.

I'm envious...
posted by matty at 9:42 PM on April 28, 2007

7. On your way through North Dakota - you must Must MUST drive through the Badlands... spend the night in Rapid City if you have to.

That would be tough, as Rapid City is in South Dakota.

Billings, Montana resident here.

You might want to go through Montana, then swing south to South Dakota. Rapid City, SD is preferable to the Badlands Nation Park in ND. Simply because of Mt Rushmore, in my opinion. But the Badlands Park IS indeed an awesome sight as well. Might be worth doing both, but it's not a straight shot.

You can get as far as Billings, Montana, then take a southern turn and go by the Devils Tower Monument in Wyoming on the way to Rapid City. DO take time for Devils Tower. It will be a little off of your route, maybe a half hour each way, but it is well worth it. Nothing like it exists anywhere else in the world. (You know, it's where they filmed Close Encounters.)

Too lazy to get a route together for you right now, but I might check in later.

Enjoy! Oh, and DO reserve hotel rooms ahead; hotels can sell out quickly due to conventions, school atheletics, etc.
posted by The Deej at 10:00 PM on April 28, 2007

I've done this a few times myself. The first time my plan was like yours. I wanted to just get it over with as fast as possible. I drove the most direct route I could, driving 8-10 hours a day. I picked up a Motel 6 book and made reservations for the next stop at each stop. (That's maybe not such a good idea, but it worked for me fine. And, the Motel 6's were universally clean and cheap though it's been a few years.)

Anyway, the trip was super stressful and unpleasant.

The next time I planned my trip by destinations I wanted to visit (Outer Banks, Shenandoah Valley, Mom's wedding, Meteor Crater, Las Vegas) and had an absolute blast practically the whole time. You're probably not going to take three weeks, but you'll still have a much better experience to take as much time as you can and map out a route that sounds interesting.

Make sure your car is up to date maintenance-wise, buy yourself a AAA membership if you don't have one or something similar, make sure you have a decent cell phone with a car charger, and have fun. Sure some parts of the west are sparsely populated, but you can plan a route that won't be that empty. And besides--some of the empty parts have the best scenery you'll ever see.

Oh, and instead of breakfast burritos I went for Chinese take out everywhere.
posted by sevenless at 10:10 PM on April 28, 2007

1. Unless you really, REALLY like semicoherent religious AM talk radio, bring your own entertainment.
2. If you get drowsy or road hypnosis, you have to take a break. Sometimes rhythmic music can make me drowsier than listening to talk. So maybe put some comedy or audio books on your ipod, too.
3. Check your oil. Check your tire wear and pressure before leaving. Do any other car maintenance things that need doing. Have a emergency road kit.
4. More Car Talk Road Trip Advice.
5. Interstate Guideline That Nobody Seems To Know Anymore But Is Good For Your Karma: Stay to the right unless you're passing, in which case you merge left, pass, and merge right again.
6. When you pass an RV, check out the campy model names.
7.
posted by IvyMike at 10:11 PM on April 28, 2007

Oops. I guess you need to fill in #7 yourself.
posted by IvyMike at 10:12 PM on April 28, 2007

Oops, braindrain... The Badlands National Park IS in SOUTH Dakota. You can go to Rapid City, and the badlands are in southwestern SD. The NORTH Dakota area I am thinking about is Painted Canyon in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which ALSO is the badlands, just not the badlands Park. A stunning area, that! But it's a 5 hour drive north from Rapid City, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you are in no rush at all.
posted by The Deej at 10:20 PM on April 28, 2007

I have driven from Flint, Mi to Portland in just under two days, by myself, so I think only 8 hours a day would be a breeze. I've also driven to and from MI in the dead of winter, it's a little hairy snow wise in the passes but not too bad. Nebraska is the longest most boring state to drive through (sorry to any Nebraska people) but the western part of that drive is wonderful. The maps make it look like there is no one, no stops, nothing but that was never the case for me. Always places to get gas and cheap bags of licorice. I highly second (third?) the bring music or books on tape or something, it's slim pickings radio wise for a whole lot of the drive. Have fun and remember, somewhere in either Nebraska or Iowa, there is a sod house museum. Sod!!
posted by yodelingisfun at 10:37 PM on April 28, 2007

1. Unless you really, REALLY like semicoherent religious AM talk radio, bring your own entertainment.

I think it'd be a great bit of experience to listen to the talk radio of different geographical areas while you drive across the entire United States. Why miss that?
posted by Mikey-San at 11:23 PM on April 28, 2007

I did the reverse drive when I moved from Washington, DC, to Portland, Ore., six years ago. I even stopped in Minneapolis, like you.

Eight hours was about the maximum I could drive in a day, unless I rested for at least two or three hours in between stretches.

I suggest you get a national parks map and park pass (maybe $50 or $75 these days). There are a lot of parks along the way, and going for a walk and looking at something scenic is a great way to shake off the long-drive-zombie-brain.

Also, AAA is a great investment. You'll save on hotels/motels, car repair, car towing, locksmithing, and all kinds of stuff you might not even realize you need until you need it. And AAA will give you maps of any regions of the country you're likely to pass through, along with detailed guidebooks listing interesting stuff to do.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 11:51 PM on April 28, 2007

Do you have to go via MN? I'm pretty sure that the slightly more southern route (I84 to I80 to Chicago) is a bit shorter, but only if you don't actually need to go to Minnesota.

Anyway, you are on the interstate system -- there is almost nowhere further than an hour or two from hotels and gas. Get AAA membership, and then get the (free) state guidebooks from them -- they have hotel information for each stop on the interstate. So you can stop at a reststop at noon or 2pm, look ahead in the book to where you might want to stop for the night, and phone ahead for hotel reservations. But: there are some big stretches out west with no cellphone coverage, so you will need to either do your phoning ahead from cities with coverage (eg Billings), or plan your trip from the beginning. (Or just take the gamble that you will be able to find something -- usually, if one town is full, there will be rooms at the next town. But events like Sturgis will clog up hotels for many miles around, and can really mess up your sleeping plans if you aren't expecting them.) I would advise against planning all your stops before you start, because you don't know where you will be delayed by road construction, or where you will have gotten an early start and want to get another fifty miles down the road. Reserving one day ahead is the maximum I would suggest.

Honestly, I think the advice to "eat at McDonalds every morning" is terrible. There are much better chain restaurants to get breakfast at, and lots of local diners if you are feeling adventurous. Or stop at a grocery store (Walmart signs are often visible from the interstate) and get yoghurt, granola, and fruit.

How many hours per day it is safe to drive will depend on the weather, your car, how heavy the traffic is, etc. I think commercial drivers are limited to about 10 hours a day for safety reasons, so that might be a good maximum to start with. But you can drive a lot of hours safely on a sunny, dry summer day with lots of daylight, while three hours in a storm will leave you needing a long rest. As a general rule, you can cover a lot more distance per day in the west, where the roads are better maintained and straighter, and there is less traffic, than you can in the east.
posted by Forktine at 12:15 AM on April 29, 2007

I think it'd be a great bit of experience to listen to the talk radio of different geographical areas while you drive across the entire United States. Why miss that?

Maybe, but if you live near a major metropolitan area with a wealth of different commercial radio stations, your expectations may not be correctly calibrated.

There are vast portions of this country that appear to be so sparely populated that they are unable to support radio as a business model. Press "FM Scan" and the radio endlessly seeks without ever finding a single station.

That doesn't mean no radio at all, though. Apparently AM radio can still serve as a great way to proselytize a religion. Perhaps there is some regional flavor to get by listening to these stations as you pass in and out of range of the various transmitters. Personally, they all sound the same to me.
posted by IvyMike at 1:38 AM on April 29, 2007

For best results since you haven't travelled the route, I'd stick to major freeways. You could go up to Seattle and catch I-90, which is the same road all the way to Mpls (it changes into I-94 in MT).

I've done that trip many times ... the most eventful part is passage through the Rockies (pass near Butte MT).

I usually drive no more than 10 hours (averaging 50 mph) a day ... though MT is straightforward once out of the Rockies. Mpls is 1600 miles so that's three days ... less if you stop in Bozeman, then do MT in one jump.
posted by Twang at 1:50 AM on April 29, 2007

You could go up to Seattle and catch I-90, which is the same road all the way to Mpls (it changes into I-94 in MT).

Please look at a map before starting the drive -- it is a lot faster to head west through the gorge on I84, then hook north near Hermiston and Kennewick up to Spokane which puts you on I90. On such a long drive, diagonals are a lot better than the kind of routing suggested above.

About the radio issue: it is not as dire as IvyMike is saying. Huge areas have no FM reception, but there is more going on on AM than just religious programming. For one, there are hugely powerful stations, often out of big cities, that you can pick up several states away, so it isn't just a "local culture" issue. For another, there are a rapidly expanding set of AM Spanish-language stations, playing everything from banda to rock en español. And there are fun super-local stations in the small town west where they interrupt the music to announce, "Cindy, your mother is trying to reach you about Jim. Give her a call, ok?" and things like that -- in the rural west, radio still does play a connecting role.

All that said, if you are at all picky about your music, you'll be a lot happier with either a satellite radio or an ipod connection. The worst thing about radio these days is how non-local so much of it is, and especially on FM you find yourself changing from one Clear Channel station to another, playing the same five crummy songs.
posted by Forktine at 5:31 AM on April 29, 2007

I have driven from California to Ohio and Ohio to Portland, Oregon. I wold suggest doing most of your driving the first day. On the way back from Ohio, we did 14 hours (even though i had a friend with me, she was a horrible driver so I was stuck driving by myself). Don't think of it as a 14 hour drive, though. Think of it as chunks. We left at 5 or 6am, drove for a few hours stopped and had breakfast. Then did the same for lunch and dinner. It was nice to break the day up that way and it gave us ample opportunity for much needed stretching. Plus, we got to eat at some really great local places. One hint, ask the person at the booking desk at your hotel/motal for breakfast suggestions, we got to eat at this really great diner outside of Yellowstone beacuse of a great tip from a local. It took us four days, but we stopped at Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone and saw a friend. If we had not done sight seeing we could have done it in 2 and a half days - it's a 36 hour drive. Also, we did not make reservations for hotels/motels before we left. She had a AAA book, so we would look at the map, and pick a spot to sleep for the night and call while we were on the road. It worked out well for us, even though we were driving in the peak summer season.
posted by miss meg at 7:15 AM on April 29, 2007

I just did a similar (but shorter) trip last fall. I went from Seattle, to Iowa via Portland. It was an awesome road trip. Are you sure you don't want to do any sightseeing?
Places I hit along the way:

• Crater Lake
• Craters of the Moon
• Grand Teton
• Yellowstone
• Cody, Wy
• Devils Tower
• The Badlands

If you do some sightseeing, make sure you take lots of pictures. If you are asking yourself if you are taking too many pictures, then you are taking enough :)

Now, If you really do want to do this the fastest way, I went from Upstate New York to Seattle in about 4 days stopping when I was hungry or sleepy (about 8-10 hours a day). The route I took for that was: I-90 to Chicago (Toll Road), then I-80 through Iowa, I-29 to I-90 which ends up in downtown Seattle (could have taken I-94 from Chicago to cut through Wisconsin and Minnesota, but didn't want to deal with Minneapolis/St. Paul).

The National Parks Pass was $50 and paid for itself on this trip, as admission to Yellowstone and Grand Teton would have come to $40. The pass also worked for Craters of the Moon and Devils Tower.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 7:19 AM on April 29, 2007

If safety is a concern, handheld GPSes are about the cost of an iPod. I use mine to find highways when I miss an exit, reroute on the fly, find nearby hotels and to see my progress as I travel. They're a "trip".
posted by clango at 8:35 AM on April 29, 2007

I went from DC to Seattle (though the twin Cities) via Amtrak. It was quite fun. If you don't need a car you could take the train.
posted by nimsey lou at 8:53 AM on April 29, 2007

I am also a BIG fan of finding a gas station whenever I have a quarter tank left. This does two things (for me)...
-gives me peace of mind knowing that I have lots of gas in my tank
-gets my butt out of the car often. Great time to stretch, clean your windows, hit the bathroom, and empty out the trash.
posted by BigJuiceMan at 9:12 AM on April 29, 2007

This is pretty late, but I just drove from CT to Portland, and the southern route (via 70/76 to 25 to 80 to 84) was swell. There was a freak late snowstorm in Wyoming, and the tornadoes in KS the days I was passing through, but none of it was very delay-ful. If you don't need the MN stop, I suspect the southern route is both shorter and faster.

Since you haven't done much long distance driving, I think the 8 hours is probably a good place to start. If I'm going from coast to coast, I don't like so much down time in the little towns where I stop, so I usually shoot for 10-13 hour days, and break that up with a day or two where I only have to drive 4-6 hours so I can visit friends or go to a museum or park. The trick is to be aware of your own body, and what you feel like before you notice your fatigue. At that point, stop for gas (always good to have gas) or a snack (I like milk and animal crackers --- not too unhealthy) or a quick walk.
posted by janell at 7:59 PM on May 6, 2007