Bataan Death March

[Dave H]

OK, I know Canada Phil is a candidate for this, but I was wondering what's the longest continuous endurance drive folks have done.  I just got a wild hair up my ass yesterday and instead of splitting-up a trans-America drive into a couple of days, I decided to drive from Keystone, Colorado back to Indianapolis in one God awful, endless, Kansas just won't f**k*ng end, sh*t their goes the V1 radar detector for the 100th time, get me out of this nightmare trip.

Total mileage was 1200 miles.  With stops to change nappies, pour endless amounts of petrol into my Disco-Very and put my head under the front wheels of Tractor Trailers in the vain hope that it would all just end,  it took us 21 hours from door to door - sad bastard here driving the entire way.  I've actully done this drive many years ago with someone else to share the driving (and therefore providing the ability to sleep), but this was far more challenging.

The most depressing part was around midnight last night with about 3 hours to go, somewhere in Illinois when I started to come across large bits of deer at relatively regular intervals.  The truckers obviously just blow through them, but a good buck or doe could have really put a damper on my evening.

So who's got an intergallactic enduro story?

[Bobblehat]

Not as spetaculer as Dave H.

This year I drove my farthers Merc Vito crew cab from Lake Garda to Riems, which took a good 16 hours, it would of been a lot quiker if there had not of been the mother of all traffic jams around Milan. Fortunatly we had a portable DVD player in the back so the bobblehat jrs were happy (portable DVD pos the best invention ever!!!) and not one game of I-spy plus very little "are we nearly there yet"  If I ever do that journey again it will not be in a Merc Vito, it took three days for my a**s to recover!

[Fax]

Hey Dave,
Jesus, 21 hours!  You did have moment of temporary insanity.
Some of those trips from Calais or Dieppe down to your folks place seemed to take about 21 hours, especially when everyone set off in different directions...
All of those ten hour drives down to Talladega in Steve's 1975 Chrysler camper were pretty hellish, just sitting there waiting for our beer supply to fall through the rusted floor every time we hit a pot-hole.
John

[Steve Pyro]

I drove from Chelmsford to Portsmouth (ferry to Le Havre) then Rouen, Le Mans, west coast of France down to Pau and to near the Spanish border in one stint 5 years ago - in a Land Rover Defender 110 with a large trailer carrying a hot air balloon.
Not sure how long it took, I know my arse was not my own on arrival - very tedious with only the rumble of the cross plies for comfort.
50 mph flat out on the Mulsanne staight was 'interesting'.

[Matt Harper]

Las Vegas NV to Orlando FL in a Chevy Astro van! Had a co-driver and stopped in Winslow AZ, Wichita Falls TX and Gulfport LA.
Likewise, New Mexico and Texas would just not quit and we were both suicidal by the time we crossed the Big Muddy.
Compensation was The Grand Canyon and The Iron Horse Pub In Wichita Falls. Other than that, it was f**k*ng purgatory.

[Nordic]

Talking of crosscountry drives, fancy doing a coast - coast in a Chevy sport van with a whooping great fuel tank, in 1971 the first cannonball, won by Dan Gurney (!)
such a van finished 2nd having only stopped once.

 http://www.allamericanracers.com/cannonball.html

The longest drive I have done is Crawley to Milford Haven & back only 700 odd miles, but I did get done for speeding.

[BigH]

Hi Matt,
Glad to hear you're in one piece, your drive back from Road Atlanta must have seemed like a long'un, if only from the perspective of 'WTF's waiting for me when I get there?'. Similarly, a walk to the dentist at the top of our street can take me several days. I once got jet lag visiting the STD clinic in Sunderland.
I don't think I've had any real monster drives though, let's face it, you lads are in the best place for that. Surrey to the Isle of Skye was a biggie, about 14 or 15 hours door to door, non-stop apart from the ferry, I got a little dismayed when I realised Glasgow was about half way. Almost got my my little (at the time) sidekick to puke badly when enjoying some of the Great Wee Roads on the West Coast. Going there was fine, once over the border the driving just got better and better. The return leg was suicide inducing though, there's nothing like the prospect of the M25 towards the end of your journey to dampen ones spirits. The fuel bill was also entertaining, I had to fill up five times in that 14 hours. Don't mention my haemorrhoids. I had to treat them later with some Leather Nourisher.
A high speed blast to Milan in a 500 Merc to catch some of the 1990 World Cup, was also quite a wheeze. (literally, have you ever kicked a ball about in a service station up a mountain in Switzerland!) but we rotated the driving on that one. Nice car though, we set the cruise at 140 and just watched the miles fall away.
Aaah, salad days...
H

[Andy Zarse]

Christ alive, get your wife to check your buttocks for blackheads is my tip Dave. That journey's simply insane and I reckon it's why God gave us the aeroplane.  I would do owt to avoid spending so long in a car.

Having said that, done one or two epics myself, though not on the Harper scale. Once drove from Miami to New Orleans and that bit of Florida which runs from Tallahassee to Pensacola is not only mind sappingly long, the road is dull dull dull, oh so desparately dull. And three days on a coach from Cairns to Sydney NSW had me gnawing the stuffing out of the seats, such was the mind sapping tedium.

For sheer hard work though, nothing is more wearisome than five noisy hours double-stinting at the wheel of a Commer in France. It demands total concentration to keep speed up and van twixt the white lines. A bad back is guaranteed too, given the seating arrangements which appear to have been designed with hunchbacked dwarfs in mind. But what makes it worse is seeing your passengers lounging around on the beds in the back, drinking beer, playing poker or fast asleep. The bastards. I am always a man drained of vitality on arrival at MB.

[Matt Harper]

For sheer hard work though, nothing is more wearisome than five noisy hours double-stinting at the wheel of a Commer in France.

Hi Andy
I feel your pain. I've not done the trip in as excentric a vehicle as yours, but the combination of plodding motorhomes, campers, MPV's that we've slogged down to Le Mans in, gives me a sense of what you endure.
Don't you ever catch yourself thinking, "Why the f**k do I keep subjecting myself to this torture?" I know I did. The end result is usually worth it - and after you've lubricated your neck on arrival, the pain kind of fades away - it's knowing you've got to endure the whole bloody nighmare in reverse, with nothing save the prospect of going back to work at the end of it, that had me reaching for the razor blades.

[Chef]

An ex used to live on Leon in France and decided that a day trip to Les Deixs Alps in the Alps was not good enough and decided she wanted to go home and visit her mum. We drove from Leon - Les deux Alp - Leon - Dejion - Paris (got stuck in rush hour traffic around the perriferique) - Le Havre for the night sailing. Murder as i was just a passenger. Even worse it was an 'F' reg Vauxhaul Nova.
Comfort, i think not!

[ian murat]

this holiday we did

quimper (Brittany) - cheshire via C'Bourg/poole set off at 5.30 am french time arrived home for tiffin (went straight acroos the middle of Brittany rather than m/way)

previously

Cheshire - Falmouth, half hour site meeting, Falmouth  - Cheshire in.............9 hrs

Le Mans - Cheshire via Eurotunnel set off 9.00am, home for tiffin, again

off to Ipswich this pm

[critchetti]

10.5 hours from Leeds to Goodwood Circuit on a friday afternoon towing Caterham, stuck on M25 for three hours around Heathrow in sweltering heat. Unhappy children and even more unhappy partner questioning why she had let me talk her into allowing me to start racing in the first place. Going to have a nice picnic on the sussex downs failed to placate.

[Robbo SPS]

Left Morrocco ferry port ( Algerceras )  on Thursday morning on my motorbike. and went to get to ferry port at Caen asap. Arrived next day at 5pm for the ferry and a Steak. 1500 miles in 17 hours riding and my skip lid was covered in road kill

[hgb]

The uniform reminds me of the "pimp outfit" thread.  

[Andy Zarse]

I think the pimp outfits look like being surplus to requirements, due to an outbreak of tonsilitus, flu and other ailments amongst the participants.

But he'd make a lovely pimp with that hat and tash.