What it is Like to Drive 2800 Miles to Get to Work

Yes, you heard it right, I did it, driving 2800 miles to get to work, in 6 days, alone and all by myself, from Syracuse NY to Seattle WA. The trip brought me some amazing experience that I perhaps might never have again in my life.

Doing such a “tedious” job was something pondered about for several days before I actually started. I calculated with discretion how long it might take and what unexpected situations there might be.

As can be seen from the above picture, it is safe to say I crossed the entire North American continent, passing NY, PA, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, ND, MT, WA, traveling mostly on I-90 and partially on I-94. The journey took place in January 2016, luckily except for the last 100 miles I did not get much bothered by harsh Winter weather along the way. In North Dakota the temperature dropped to as low as -27 degree celsius but weather was clear so my car operated OK. In WA near approaching Seattle there had been some blizzards making the road extremely slippery and visibility very poor, most cars crawled as slow as 30 MPH. The following video clip shows what it was like driving on I-90 in Montana. You can see streams of dry snow blowed by strong winds across the road surface, yet my car speed is maintained at a high level.

The vehicle for this trip was a 2013 Mazda 3, which proved to be very reliable without even the tiniest glitch. I only fed it with fuel and window glass water along the way. Not even air pumping was needed. This added to my good impression about Mazda cars. (Maybe because it was relatively new one?)

Experiences gained from the journey are very useful. The most important, in my mind, is don’t drive at night, especially when it comes to unfamiliar territories where roads diverge and converge frequently (as this is common to see when inter-state high ways go through big cities in the US). It would be really easy to get lost and also accidents prone. The second is to make sure having something interesting to listen to in the car (for me it is music and talk shows), as this can help you concentrate. Lastly, getting good rest is a guarantee of safety – thought I averagely drove nearly 500 miles per day, I stayed at very comfortable hotels during the 5 nights on road and got very good sleep (sleep can hardly be not good when you do that much driving in the day!).