Hey there hi there oh you know the rest...
Like most WDW vacations, our next trip will be a road trip; Slappette and I live close to Trenton, NJ. In the past, driving overnight, stopping when necessary, walking into rest areas together and back out to the car together was the norm. But now we have Slapperina and Slappetina. And we're getting old and the kids are making us older, faster So it makes more sense to split up the trip with an overnight stay along the way, the question now is HOW to split it up.
Slappette prefers splitting it in half, which would put us around Lumberton, NC, and drive during the day. My concern is that, even with no traffic or delays, we have at least 16 hours of solid driving. To drive half of that, with kids who are awake and in car seats, we're going to have to make lots of stops. The 8 hours of driving each day will easily take 12 hours, and we'll be pulling into our overnight hotel (or into WDW the next day) right about the time the kids are usually getting ready for bed. Which minimizes our chaces of being well-rested and happy.
My preference is to leave early Monday night (we arrive in WDW on a Wednesday), give the kids a movie to watch, then letting them sleep the rest of the night. When they wake up Tuesday morning, we'll be about 2/3rds of the way there, about 6 hours of driving. At that point, we'll only drive a few more hours, stop around Jacksonville, get a room for the night, go to sleep very early, be back on the road by 8am-ish and in WDW by noon.
But that means when it comes to bathroom breaks, we can't walk in and out of a rest area together, since the kids will be sleeping in the car, and that worries Slappette a bit. If anything happens to either one of us, the other won't know it unless they leave the car, and the kids, to find out what's what. And to be honest, I don't find that to be a completely invalid concern. Some of our stops along the way last time we went down wound up being a bit sketchy.
Hence the thread title. For those who often drive down via I-95, which are the rest stops and gas stations that you feel are the "best?" Best lit, most secure, least skeevy, all of the above? Thanks in advance.
I also made the oh-so-sweet suggestion of using our bluetooth headsets to remain on the phone with each other while venturing out to the bathrooms and back. Don't tell me I'M not romantic!
Like most WDW vacations, our next trip will be a road trip; Slappette and I live close to Trenton, NJ. In the past, driving overnight, stopping when necessary, walking into rest areas together and back out to the car together was the norm. But now we have Slapperina and Slappetina. And we're getting old and the kids are making us older, faster So it makes more sense to split up the trip with an overnight stay along the way, the question now is HOW to split it up.
Slappette prefers splitting it in half, which would put us around Lumberton, NC, and drive during the day. My concern is that, even with no traffic or delays, we have at least 16 hours of solid driving. To drive half of that, with kids who are awake and in car seats, we're going to have to make lots of stops. The 8 hours of driving each day will easily take 12 hours, and we'll be pulling into our overnight hotel (or into WDW the next day) right about the time the kids are usually getting ready for bed. Which minimizes our chaces of being well-rested and happy.
My preference is to leave early Monday night (we arrive in WDW on a Wednesday), give the kids a movie to watch, then letting them sleep the rest of the night. When they wake up Tuesday morning, we'll be about 2/3rds of the way there, about 6 hours of driving. At that point, we'll only drive a few more hours, stop around Jacksonville, get a room for the night, go to sleep very early, be back on the road by 8am-ish and in WDW by noon.
But that means when it comes to bathroom breaks, we can't walk in and out of a rest area together, since the kids will be sleeping in the car, and that worries Slappette a bit. If anything happens to either one of us, the other won't know it unless they leave the car, and the kids, to find out what's what. And to be honest, I don't find that to be a completely invalid concern. Some of our stops along the way last time we went down wound up being a bit sketchy.
Hence the thread title. For those who often drive down via I-95, which are the rest stops and gas stations that you feel are the "best?" Best lit, most secure, least skeevy, all of the above? Thanks in advance.
I also made the oh-so-sweet suggestion of using our bluetooth headsets to remain on the phone with each other while venturing out to the bathrooms and back. Don't tell me I'M not romantic!
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