Sami and I have never done a trip of this extent before, so we wanted to make sure we allotted plenty of time to make the 34-hour drive safely. We have to be checked in Friday evening in Moab to begin the weekend’s wedding festivities.
I took a half day off work on Tuesday and left at 10am. Our goal time to leave was noon, and we only missed it by 45 minutes which wasn’t too bad. Our route includes going through the entire panhandle of Florida, through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and then through Texas (Dallas). We made it out of Florida by around 9pm and the time change works in our favor on the trip there. On this leg of the trip, we were able to catch up on our favorite Jeeping podcast, On the Trail with Kevin and Scott. We stopped by the MS/LA state line at a rest stop around 3am and slept until 6am. Our first day driving was overall pretty uneventful.
On The Trail With Kevin and Scott Podcast 
Rajah on the trailer
We continued driving through all the daylight after our little nap. Louisiana was a breeze, but Texas proved a heck of a drive. Crossing Texas might be worse than getting out of Florida. Not to mention, we haven’t exactly showered all day and realized we have to stop.
We treated ourselves to a nice Cracker Barrel breakfast, which only turned into a 40 minute stop but a perfect meal and fuel to start the day (which in reality we had already started 4 hours prior).
Eventually we crossed through the big cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. Our next milestone goal became Amarillo, TX. I spent around six hours practicing towing so that Sami could get some sleep. Finally we made it to Amarillo and stopped to see the famous Cadillac Ranch art installation off the side of the highway. This was probably the highlight of the drive for us.
We continued to Albuquerque, New Mexico where we stopped early for the night and got a good night’s sleep in a big hotel bed. Woke up early the next morning and continued to Page, Arizona where we did a few touristy things during the day.
Page, Arizona was a two hour detour from our route to Moab, but it was well worth it! Check out everything we did in Page in this blog post!
After our adventures in Page, we finished the next four hour leg to Moab, Utah. We crashed in a friend’s Air BNB for one night so we could wake up and wheel!