I should add the entire experience was scary and surreal ~ I kept picturing a drugged out Sly Stalone working with his arm wrestling weights screaming at traffic. The main thing I was figuring would happen was some sort of catastrophic wreck - the cop nailing him was a much better ending than what I was expecting.
Albuquerque, NM to Houston, about 900 miles and took me about 16 hrs total driving alone. I feel like a girly-man in comparison to some of the stories told here.
I won't compete in this category, as far as longest drive. I did endure many Cedar Rapids/Iowa City to Houston drives, however. One is enough. Many is torture. These drives were because my dad is afraid to fly (not uncommon). The worst time was when we went with his girlfriend and her two little kids from Iowa to Texas; I visit my mom, who lives in Houston, Dad visits his other relatives, who live in The Woodlands (I see them every so often; hey, tell me if ya'll are bored yet). Before we even left, the girlfriend's little girl was whining, (and I mean WHINING; say these words in a high pitch through your nose), "I don't want to go to Texas, it's gonna be boring," etc etc. And on the drive, we stopped at midnight or later at a Waffle House; this was the first time my dad's girlfriend had heard Southern accents in person (and we're talking middle-of-nowhere Deep South accents). The girlfriend, without looking at me, and spearing her food with her fork, said, "They sound so ignorant. (pause, then addressing me) Does your Mom talk like that?" Dad was sitting across from me and gave me a look, very slightly, almost imperceptibly, shaking his head No, as if to say, Don't. That is, Don't stab her hand to the table with your knife, let's just get through the trip, I still want to get laid, even if she is a pain in the ass. So: 1100 miles can seem like 2200, hmn?
The longest drive I ever did was 432 miles from Dallas to Laredo. I left at 10pm and got there around 5am. I was sleepy.
Once I was working back and forth from Atlanta to Houston, I had a big meeting on monday morning in atlanta, I got drunk saturday night in houston and missed my 4pm flight on sunday to atlanta. It was the last flight out for that day and none in the morning early enough to get me there. So I took the only fight I could to memphis tenessee, rented a car and drove all night to atlanta, don't remember how long it took, but I got there about 45 minutes before my meeting was supposed to start, it was an all nighter in a foreign place with a foreign car, I remember stopping somewhere in the middle of nowhere to buy a map.
Someone check this one: It is the same distance from Houston to either Disney--world or land. Houston to Orlando = Houston to Los Angeles? Someone told me it was MUCH BETTER of a scenic view if you go to Disney Land. I am hoping--as I stated above--that this will be my family's next trip. We've gone to 'World twice already. I am surprised no one here has traveled NON-STOP in Mexico traveling any direction. My father-in-law does this ALL the time, and I promised him I would drive the next time with him as my co-pilot.
Not solo, but in 1984 my brother, a friend, and I did New Orleans to Orlando non-stop in my grandfather's RV. It had two huge gas tanks (90 gallons total maybe), so I really mean "non-stop" No gas, food, or restroom stops. We even changed drivers without pulling over. We left NO at 4 am, arrived in Orlando at 2:30 pm. Not exactly light speed, but pretty fast for a camper. I got totally busted by the wife recently for telling the story to our son.
