Yes. Quiet, air conditioned, super comfy and adjustable seats, one with built in seat massagers, driving aids like adaptive cruise control and lane keeping makes 5 hrs easy-peasy.
Concur, for all the things above that the 172 doesn’t have. Autopilot (we don’t have) is super helpful to reduce active workload, but does nothing for all the other environmental factors.
You do that with little kids? I couldn't even sell that to my teenagers.
Tell ‘em they can pee out the window, and they’ll be on board.
With little kids, there's not really a way to do it as they're going to need to go to the bathroom/diaper changed/fed at about the 2.5-3 hour mark. However, if you drive at night, it is often possible to pull it off and once they get to be eight or nine, that is an easy stretch with judicious management of beverages (kind and frequency). My parents used to do it a lot with eight of us kids in the car, ranging from baby to teenagers - and I even remember it fondly somehow, even though I probably could still sing a whole CD's worth of children's songs backwards from listening to it over and over one vacation! The driving got a lot easier once the youngest got to be five or six for sure.
So what's the GA equivalent of a 35' class A motorhome? And a 1 minute lunch/bathroom break?
Did your parents stop every 3 hours? Also 8 kids in the car. Dad's rule every year driving Chicago to Salt Lake was "the car stops when it needs gas. You figure out the rest." This is why I am able to do a 10 hour Atlantic crossing commercially without getting up out of my seat.
Only during the day and only when the youngest was under two. During those years, we'd drive a lot at night and then we drove until the baby woke up or the car needed gas, whichever came first. Once we all were over the age of two, the average time between stops rose over 4 hours, closer to 5 most of the time. I think our record, though, was about 6.5 hours in a middle-of-the-night leg when my dad joined a convoy of semis and just drafted behind them for hours.Did your parents stop every 3 hours? Also 8 kids in the car. Dad's rule every year driving Chicago to Salt Lake was "the car stops when it needs gas. You figure out the rest." This is why I am able to do a 10 hour Atlantic crossing commercially without getting up out of my seat.
“Go to the bathroom before we get in the car (or airplane.)”
Next question. Were you like us and counted off after every stop? Had to make sure we were all in.Only during the day and only when the youngest was under two. During those years, we'd drive a lot at night and then we drove until the baby woke up or the car needed gas, whichever came first. Once we all were over the age of two, the average time between stops rose over 4 hours, closer to 5 most of the time. I think our record, though, was about 6.5 hours in a middle-of-the-night leg when my dad joined a convoy of semis and just drafted behind them for hours.
It was a requirement that everyone use the facilities every time we stopped for gas even if you didn't think you had to, and if you needed to stop later and you were the only one...it could be quite an adventure getting in and out of the vehicle after it was packed and between that and the time wasted on an extra stop, let's just say you were not very popular. There was a lot of peer pressure to learn how to hold it.
Pretty much - my parents called by row and you were responsible for alerting them if your seat buddy/buddies were missing from your row. We never left anyone behind, so I guess it worked!Next question. Were you like us and counted off after every stop? Had to make sure we were all in.
I mean, most of the time...but also, my parents were a lot scarier when I was a kid than they are now.I guess you all liked each other. I would have seen this as an opportunity to ditch a sibling...
Great reply! Thank you. I agree on that 500 mile mission.