Roadtrip questions: Nevada to Vancouver

[michelel72]

I've just found this community, so hello! It may be odd for a USian to be asking this question, but I live in New England and I've never driven anywhere west of Louisiana, so I hope this is all right.

I have a character (Rodney McKay of Stargate: Atlantis, in case that affects anyone's answers) who needs to drive from Nellis AFB, Nevada, to

Comments

[phoenix_melody]

Having recently made a portion of that journey (May 2009 and December 2007), it is possible to make it in the 20 hours Google quoted. You will have to factor in an hour or two for stops.

However, you very well could run into trouble with the weather. March is a perfectly reasonable time for there to be snow issues in Utah and the Blue Mountains in Oregon (which he will be going through). And just so you know, there are long stretches of nothing along that route, so he will need to be smart about when and where he stops for fuel. When my sister and I drove from college back home, we stopped in Provo, UT; Snowville, UT; Boise, ID; and Pendleton, OR; but we were probably overly cautious. Then again, I have had friends who weren't watching their gas closely and ended up running out in Eastern Oregon.

He can't stop off at any old exit--one thing that really freaked me and my sister out was the number of exit signs that had a blue sign underneath saying NO SERVICES (Which is why we stopped so often for gas--whenever we hit half a tank). If he runs into a problem along the way--like bad weather--the wait for help could be hours. Signs will say things like "no services next 60 miles" as a warning to stop and do things if you need to.

I'm not sure on the timing, but he could end up in the Blue Mountains in Oregon at night. If that happens, he's probably going to want to slow down. The mountain passes suck--they're steep and curvy enough to warrant runaway truck ramps. When we tried going through there, we had to stop and buy chains (it took several stores to find one with the right chains) because of the storm, and it was bad enough we were going 35 mph tops. Once we got out of the mountains, passed Pendleton, things went much better. But it was nerve-wracking, especially since we didn't have much experience driving in the snow.

If you haven't already, you should zoom in on Google maps and get a feel for just how empty some of those stretches of highway are.

...and bonus trivia, if he tries to fill up in Oregon, he can't do it by himself. In Oregon the gas station attendants are the ones that are supposed to pump your gas--if you try to do it yourself, you will get yelled at. If he goes there at night, he'd better find a 24 hour gas station. If he can't find one and he's out of gas, he's going to have to wait until the station opens in the morning or do illegal things in order to get gas.

That help at all?

[michelel72]

This does help a lot, thanks. (I drove an East Coast trip that Google said was 18 hours, and it was two full days of driving with a stopover night, and I can only blame about one hour of that on traffic, so I'm not a good person to judge the accuracy of travel time projections!) I've checked the historical weather for the area by Wunderground, and it looks reasonable to presume there isn't any significant snow or ice to deal with.

There's a decent chance he'd hit that mountain area you mention in the predawn hours, though, if I'm figuring correctly. I wouldn't want to drive it in those conditions by your description, but this character is on the confident side (she understated). So it sounds as though his expectations aren't completely impossible, even if they don't prove accurate. Hooray!

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to write the drive itself, but you've given me some very helpful material in case I do. I'm glad to hear there are signs warning of services gaps -- I think he would heed those, so it's good to know he would have some warning. I knew about the OR/NJ pumping laws but had forgotten that they would likely affect this scenario, and that gives me ideas for a scene or two. Hee. Thank you!

[phoenix_melody]

We made an 860 mile trip (most of which is along the route your character will be taking) somewhere between 13 and 14 hours, including stops and some heavy traffic in one of the bigger cities. We stayed very close to the speed limit (never going more than about 7 mph over), too. I think the 20 hours is a good estimate, but he will need an extra hour or two for stops. He could get away without food stops if he had enough time to prep--just get a little cooler and fill it with ice and food. The smaller ones would fit on the floor by the passenger seat.

FYI, in rural areas of Utah and Idaho, the speed limit goes up to 75 mph. In Oregon it drops down to 65 mph, no matter how rural the area.

I'm glad my info could help! Sounds like you have an interesting story to write. Best of luck.

[casusfere]

What, you don't like Cabbage Hill and the 6% downgrade and sheer drop off and runaway truck ramps? Try it in a fog, it's really fun then. :D

And it really is smart to stay on the upper half of your gas tank when traveling in winter in Eastern Oregon. Sometimes there's delays several hours long, and you really don't want to get stuck up on top of those passes. The ice gets bad enough that it becomes a local pastime to count how many wrecks you see crossing the pass. And when it's a semi that overbalances and dumps its load across the freeway, it takes hours to clear it, and then you're often stuck between a pair of semis and crawling along at whatever speed they consider safe. Been there, done that. :P

Also, hee, I'd almost forgot that the rest of you have to pump your own gas. :D As a side note, most towns that have gas have at least one station open 24-hours. Baker's Truck Corral, the Island Ave Chevron and the Flying J in La Grande, and so on. There's a lot of trucks coming through here, so truck stops are common, and usually open 24/7. Even if they're hard to find here in La Grande sometimes.

[phoenix_melody]

It made me and my sister nervous: my sister because she was driving, and me because my sister was driving. XD Luckily, we didn't do it in fog--we got to enjoy the rather gorgeous view around 5 p.m. We were kind of surprised at how many warning signs they had about the downgrade and the curves and the truck ramps--I took some (rather blurry) pictures of all that.

It was kind of creepy how many semis there were some legs of the journey. There were points where there were only semis and my little car as far as I could see. I felt outnumbered. XD

I didn't pump my own gas until I went to college out of state. It was so bizzarre, and it didn't help that the first time everyone else in the car with me were Oregonians, too. We were rather puzzled and spent several minutes figuring it out.

That's right, the Flying Js! There was one we stopped at in Snowville, and we saw a whole ton of them along the way, usually with half a dozen semis crowded about.

[casusfere]

Cabbage Hill is beautiful... as long as you're not afraid of heights. I admit I've had more than one harrowing experience on that stretch made a lot worse by knowing that there's a sheer drop off a few hundred feet long off to the left. :P

Heh, I was lucky, I worked at a gas station before I ever had to pump my own gas out of state. Made things a lot easier to figure out!

Random addition: If you ever travel I-84 between Pendleton and La Grande during the day, stop at Meacham Restaurant. The huckleberry cheesecake is the awesomest thing ever.