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TinkLover
06-09-2004, 07:56 PM
Next Tuesday we are driving from Portland, to Disneyland. Does anyone know about how long it will take, I heard its between 13-16 hours. And should we drive throught the night, or start out early in the morning? Any suggestions would be great. Also, does anyone know how much gas is in Cali, here its about $2.11, I drive a 2003 Toyota Corrola, it gets pretty good gad milliage.
Thanks for the help,
Michelle!

sleepyjeff
06-09-2004, 08:15 PM
Leave about 8PM. Rush hour traffic is completely gone, and you will have a much nicer drive durring the night then you could ever possibly have durring the day. It will take you about 15 hours driving straight thru, stopping only for gas, restrooms, and maybe a couple of very fast, fast food joints. This will put you in LA around 10am or so....right after the worse of their morning rush hour, but before their afternoon rush. I live in Portland, and used to do this drive all the time( now I fly, because my wife is not fond of long distance driving :~D )

Take me toooooo :fez:

mrs_toad
06-09-2004, 08:29 PM
Gas seems to be in the $2.25-$2.35 per gallon range in the SF Bay Area.

TP2000
06-09-2004, 09:07 PM
I drove up the coast last month for fun, but I took three days to get to Portland. The drive sleepyjeff outlined should work fine, but it will be a real marathon. If you arrive in the San Fernando Valley any time before 9am, expect traffic into Anaheim.

Gas is selling for 2.40 a gallon, 87 Octane, in the Disneyland area. In some more affluent suburbs of Los Angeles and Orange counties, it is more.

Hamradio
06-10-2004, 08:06 AM
Have a safe trip!

Sebastian
06-10-2004, 09:38 AM
We have driven thru the night and driven thru the day and let me tell you leaving early in the morning is much easier. If you leave around 4:00 in the morning and drive straight thru without stopping for very long you should be in the disneyland area around 7 or 8 at night. I believe the approximate miles are around 1000 ( I might be wrong ) .

We found driving thru the night was hard because of the lack of sleep we left Portland around 1:00 pm and got to the disneyland area around 4:00 am. We ended up being very tired for a couple of days and I don't think we caught up on sleep until we got home.

Twilight
06-10-2004, 09:54 AM
We made that trip a couple of years ago. Drove straight thru from Vancouver to Anaheim. It wasn't a bad drive. I think we left around 3pm and ended up in Anaheim around 9ish the next morning. I don't remember that we ran into any traffic either in Portland/Salem or LA. We had two vehicles (4 adults and 3 kids) and my sister will probably say that she wouldn't do it again with the kids until they're older. For myself, I really enjoy road trips. The trip home was a little bit more of a drag and we were all very tired. We stopped somewhere near the OR/CA border to break up the drive.

On a side note... when I was growing up and we'd go to DL (I've only flown there once) my parents would drive at night while my sister and I slept in the back of the van. We even had a little bed all made up and everything. During the day we'd stop at a motel so the adults could sleep while we played and swam in the pool. It really worked out well back then but probably not the safest thing to do these days. I was maybe 10 or 11 and my sister was a few years older than me.

Have a wonderful time and a safe trip!

I love road trips and Disneyland so of course I'm a little bit jealous! ;)

tink1234
06-10-2004, 11:22 AM
We drive from OK to DL at least once a year. It is a 20 hour trip for us and we always split it up between 2 or more days. Of course, I love the road trip idea in general. We leave out 5 AM with the kids in their pjs and hopefully asleep. Then we stop and eat at 8 AM and dress everyone. We drive and eat picnic style about 1 PM (noon with time change) and see some touristy type thing. Then we drive about 4-5 more hours, check into motel and eat in room.

The next day we leave at about 7 AM and do a similar type thing arriving in time to do Mideival Times before hitting the pool and bed for the night. Although, it is not the same driving from OK as OR, this way is manageble with small children. I also pack 1 activity or snack for every 1/2 hour to hour of the trip. So I can easily keep kids entertained. With a DVD thrown in to take up a couple of hours in the afternoon for quiet time we actually enjoy driving during the day and count it as part of our vacation.

Activity ideas for small children: clay, magnets, window clings, headsets, bubbles and sidewalk chalk for picnic times, paper with colored pencils, DVD, stickers, puzzle books, mad libs, books on tape from library and a couple of travel games like ABC's (see who can go through the alphabet fastest by finding ABC's on bilboards and license plates).

Snack ideas: string cheese, carrot sticks, pretzels, water bottles, nuts, dried fruit.

This list would easily get you through a 15 hour trip and be able to fit into a backpack for space sake.

sleepyjeff
06-10-2004, 11:36 AM
Snack ideas: string cheese, carrot sticks, pretzels, water bottles, nuts, dried fruit.



Just stay away from fresh fruit.....California is scared of Oregon fruits .............and will make you throw it all away if they catch you with it in your car :eek:

keschy
06-11-2004, 02:10 PM
We drove from Portland to LA last summer. We left beaverton at around 7 am and got to LA at about 11pm. It wasn't so bad. I am planning a drive down to Anaheim again soon & I posted here about it last month. i got alot of useful replies, if you look up the thread it would probably be helpful. Have a great trip!