Driving with dogs can be really fun but it has it challenges, especially if it is a long road trip. I recently drove 2,900 miles in 8 days with Chester in Gretel. We dove from Seattle to the annual BlogPaws conference for pet bloggers in Las Vegas.
Chester and Gretel love riding in the car with me. Gretel sleeps most of the time and Chester either dozes or looks out the window (he doesn’t like to sleep). Riding with your dog in the car for hours and hours can be hard on them though.
Of course, several potty breaks are needed – for both me and them! Another thing I didn’t think of, because I have never driven for 8 days with Chester and Gretel before, is stiff joints due to age. After the first long day with few breaks, I noticed that 11-year-old Chester’s back legs were a little wobbly when we stopped for potty breaks. Heck, *I* was a little wobbly from sitting so long!
This prompted me to invent a new road trip game. I call it the “100 mile game”. The challenge is to stop every 100 miles for a break and find something “cool” in the area.
There were some times that we had to fudge a little with the 100 miles because that put us in the middle of nowhere land on the side of the freeway but at around 90 miles I would start looking for a place to stop. We never went more than 110 miles without pulling over somewhere.
Sometimes our breaks coincided with a planned stop along the way, like a scenic area or short trail. Other times we discovered something we had no idea existed. These are some of the hidden gems we discovered:
Cape Horn Viewpoint, Columbia George, Washington
Jackson House Historic Site, Washington
Duncan Reservoir, Oregon
Collier Logging Museum, Oregon – 702 year old Clatsop Fir
Historic Caliente Train Depot, Nevada
Have you ever taken your dog on a road trip? Do you have any games you like to play when you are driving with dogs?
prancer pie says
Hi furriends! We’re glad to see that you made it home safely. We think that sounds like a good game for all animals. We kittehz cannot imagine going that far in the car, though. MOL!
Have a great Thursday!
XOXO
Jessica Rhae says
I’ve seen some Kittehs that like to ride for hours and hours in cars…like an RV cat. I can see how constant movement and jiggling could get annoying though.
Melissa says
Leeloo loves roadtrips! I the longest one we’ve done with our little chihuahua was a round-about trip from Arizona to North Carolina (and then on to Germany…but obviously that wasn’t by car!) that lasted about a month with stops in Nevada, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Missouri, etc etc. We drove no more than 6-8 hours per day and stopped at least every 2 hours, with lots of stops involving hikes (and lots of destinations involving hiking and camping, too). I like the idea of finding something interesting every 100 miles! If we move back to the US and have a car again, we will certainly think about doing it that way!
Jessica Rhae says
I took a solo road trip in college once that was over a month. I didn’t own Chester then. I did stop a lot but also drove for LONG hours without stopping (didn’t have a dog I had to look out for) and I know that was not good for me.
You are over in Germany for school or work? I forget. Is there a possibility of moving back to the US someday. It sure would be fun to meet 🙂
Melissa says
We’re in Germany for work – I’m a biologist conducting postdoctoral research on reef fish (fieldwork in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea) and teaching several courses at the University of Tuebingen. We hope to move back when I get a professorship in the US (which is a big if these days – lots of competition, not a lot of funding)! Yes, it would be very fun to meet! Definitely contact us if you are in Europe in the meantime – we just did a small 3-day roadtrip with Leeloo here (in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland)! We don’t have a car (soooo nice not to need one) but rented one for a couple of the days we had family in town. Usually Leeloo enjoys riding the bus and train here!
Jessica Rhae says
I thought I remembered something about work AND school 🙂 It must be kind of nice to not own a car. I am not sure I could survive without one but my step-Dad doesn’t have one. He has a pretty stress-free life.
Jenna,Mark “HuskyCrazed” Drady says
I can only imagine driving that far with my three huskies! Ha!
The longest road trips we have been on with the dogs are a total of one hour. And by the end of that trip, they are already getting restless! But we still even stop halfway between just to let them stretch their legs and go potty.
Hope you had a great time at blog paws!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Jessica Rhae says
An hour? Pfft…that’s nothing 🙂 Chester has driven 4 or 5 hours with me at a time since he was a wee pup. When Gretel joined our family, that was one concern of mine – that she be ok with long car rides. I can’t imagine traveling with 4 big dogs tough. I imagine it being like driving with 4 young kids in the back seat….”I have to pee”, “He’s touching me”, “are we there yet”. Ha, ha.
Taryn says
We take the dogs on lots of road trips, but generally we are focused on getting to the destination and only make gas stops. Boring, but it keeps the day in a car from getting too long.
Jessica Rhae says
We were more rushed on the way back home so that is kind of what it turned into. I tried to stick with the 100 mile rule but I skipped over one more than once. However, I still think I stopped more often than I would have if it was me alone. Driving with the dogs is good for me because, I too, have a tendency to push on and go too long between potty stops….which has led to some health issues later 🙁
Elizabeth says
That sounds like a great game. You got some great pictures there and I’m going to look up that Jackson house as I have no idea what that is. We don’t do road trips – they are called “moves across country” which sadly require us to drive for more than 6+ hours on some days. Your game sounds like something we should adapt into our time spent on the road.
Jessica Rhae says
OH…our days were over 6 hours of drive time. The “day” was actually more like 10 hours on the road if you counted breaks. We were on more of a deadline on the way back – which I am sure you are when you move – so I fudged and took less breaks. I didn’t like it much though 🙂
Mary says
Great plan, we never make it very far without having to stop for a break too. Except we are the old ones, not the dogs. LOL
Jessica Rhae says
Well, the game is a reminder mostly for me to stop and pee 🙂 I have a habit of pushing on….
Jessica says
We drive Silas back to see my parents a few times a year. It’s about 14 hours in the car, depending on traffic. My husband and I drive in two hour shifts. I am so relieved that he’ll finally get out of the car at gas stations, which means he’s out for at least five minutes every two hours. We also have a few “favorite” rest areas along the way, where we really let him run and play for 15 minutes or so. It would be nice to let him have more time out of the car, but if we drag out the drive too much we can’t make it in one day.
Jessica Rhae says
It sounds like you make a lot of stops. A lot of our little side breaks aren’t more than 15 minutes….although they may be more exciting than a rest area or gas station 🙂 I sure understand driving on a deadline though!
Vlad & Barkly's Dee says
Barkly started going on long road-trips with (OTRB-Dannyboy) from TN to KS when he was 5 mths old. Dannyboy didn’t start RV-traveling with his companion (OTRB-Sharkly) until he was 8 yrs old. Now we’ve got Vlad and he began his road-trips to KS, with Barkly, when he was 4 mths old. Ever since their first trips, all of our dogs have gotten overly excited when they figure out we’re packing the RV. Dannyboy would go as far as sneaking out of the house behind one of us, when our arms were full, to jump into the RV and lay on the sofa until we left. Now when we’re finally leaving, Vlad will drag you to the RV. We don’t really go by miles, but we go by every 2 to 2.5 hours using the GPS info to plan where to stop to see new things, and we don’t drive longer than 8 hrs a day. Despite having all that room to move around in, no matter how young, we ALL find ourselves needing a stretch fairly often. If you’ve never taken your dogs on a long road-trip with you, we highly recommend it. Dogs really seem to love new scenery just as much as humans.
LOVE your photos! Would really like to see more, so I can put them in my “When-He-Retires-Trip-Plans” folder.
Jessica Rhae says
I’ll have more photos coming in the next two weeks. I am going to write about one particular place we stopped and share a set of random photos too.
Traveling around in an RV has always sounded fun to me. We have a couple of friends that do it.
Leah says
Jessica, I love the 100-Mile game! (It sure beats my see-how-far-I-can-drive-before-our-bladders-burst-and-we-go-insane game). Good to see you made it home safe and sound. I am glad we had time to meet and chat last week!
Jessica Rhae says
That was my old game 🙂
Jen K says
This is precisely what we do! Moses and Alma are great travellers – they sleep or look out the window, but we try to make sure we stop about every 3 hours on long days of driving. It’s good for everyone to get some fresh air and stretch. And I definitely plan ahead looking for cool roadside attractions to check out! Looks like you found some pretty cool spots!
Jessica Rhae says
Really, Chester and Gretel would probably just sleep for hours with no problem. I am stubborn and hate to stop so “doing it for them” makes me actually do it 🙂 Looking ahead for cool spots is good but part of the fun was finding random things we wouldn’t have found otherwise. In the case of the reservoir, it took a 30-minute detour to find though. I don’t always have that kind of time to explore.
Caren Gittleman says
I mentioned this to you before, but HAVE to mention it again, you ARE AMAZING! I bet that had to be a most rewarding trip for all of you and I LOVE the idea of stopping every 100 miles. If I ever drive a long distance with Dakota, I will certainly heed that advice!
Jessica Rhae says
Ha, ha. Thanks Caren. I have another friend that’s in awe of how full my schedule always is yet how little it stresses me out. One person’s normal can be a real reach for someone else. It was great to see you at BllogPaws!
Genevieve says
Our longest road trip was 100 miles. We stopped twice along the way at rest stops to stretch our legs and for a potty break for me. No potty break for Mom because she couldn’t bring me in and she never leaves me in the car.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Jessica Rhae says
100 miles? Pfft! 🙂 We drive that long for a hike or mountain bike ride a dozen or so times a year. A road trip of any length is fun though.
Emma says
Wish we could have taken our time and made more fun stops, but we had about 3600 miles round trip and did it in two days each way. Bailie and I ride well, but it is still quite boring. Katie does have issues on long rides now that she is older which is one reason she stayed home this trip. Our biggest challenge was getting Bailie to go to the bathroom as she would only go on grass and that was limited for a large part of our trip. The weather was terrible as well, but we made it and have no regrets.
Jessica Rhae says
Holy cow. That is a ton of driving! We had about 1,400 miles to cover on our way home. We did it in two days but they were LONG. However, we did leave the Valley of Fire State Park near Vegas around 2 pm on Sunday and got back around 6 pm Monday. Even though we only drove about 8 hours on Sunday, it felt really long since our morning actually started around 8 am. Glad you guys made it back safe!
Dolly the Doxie says
Those are great ideas! We never stopped anywhere fun (dad) but we did stop a lot mostly rest areas. Some had fenced in dog parks even. We logged in over 4,000 miles in 10 days don’t think we would do it again! Love Dolly
Jessica Rhae says
A rest area with a fenced dog park? That sounds amazing. Hey, at least you tried the drive once. I loved our experience but it was exhausting and made me think twice too. I had never been gone from my Hubby for 10 days before either. Next time we’ll have to bring him to split the driving 🙂
Susan from LifeWithDogsAndCats.com says
What a great way to take a break and discover new places.
I know we didn’t have much time to talk, but glad I got to meet you and your wiener dogs!
–Wags (and purrs) from Life with Dogs and Cats
Jessica Rhae says
There never seems like enough time to talk at those conferences. Glad to meet you too…even if it was brief.
Roberta says
A rescue friend, now deceased, adopted several dogs to truck drivers as companions. Don’t know what tricks they used but they were very happy.
Drove from Sioux Falls, SD to Great Falls, MT, and then, 4 years later, here to Cape Girardeau, MO – multiple hundred miles at least; cats in SD did not quiet till 50 miles from Rapid City, my first real stop. On the way to MO, a friend drove and would not wake me after someone peed in her crate….I was exhausted. I then got the joy of cleaning them up in a service station bathroom.
But I love to drive and am looking forward to using the 100 mile marker in my next trip – even if it’s just to St.Louis or Chicago!
Jessica Rhae says
Maybe they taught the dogs to pee in a bottle like they do. He, he. I’ve never driven with a cat in the car except to the vet. Kitteh was NOT happy about it 🙂
Kathy says
We take our dogs to Cape Cod where we have a vacation home. It’s 3 hours each direction. Unfortunately, I am almost always traveling alone, so it is a huge challenge when I need to use a restroom as I don’t want to leave them in the car, and can’t take them in with me! And how would I hold onto them both on leash while I’m trying to…. I still haven’t mastered that part. Sometimes I just hold it for 3 hours and then run into the house as soon as I get there!! Would love to hear tips on traveling alone and what to do? Wear an adult diaper!? LOL!
My “dream” has been to buy an RV and drive across the U.S. with my dogs. I hope some day to really do it. I loved seeing/hearing about your trip! Amazing!
Jessica Rhae says
Do you not leave the dogs alone in the car because you are afraid someone will steal them? I don’t worry with the car I have now but my ex has a soft top Jeep and we NEVER left Chester in the car alone. I do take the dogs with me into rest stop bathrooms a lot of the time. It’s not because I don’t want to leave them in the car (unless it is super hot…then it is) but usually because I have just pottied them and I’m too lazy to put them back before I go myself. Plus it gives them an extra couple minutes to stretch their legs.
Kathy says
No, not really. We live out in the countryside, and a very remote area of Cape Cod is where we vacation, so both towns are very small towns, not a lot of crime and “everybody knows everybody”. I travel at odd times, too, both to keep the dogs out of the mid-day heat and also because I can’t stand the tourist traffic. I have never seen any news reports of dogs being stolen in our state. Plus, my dogs are insane… if someone approached the car they would probably eat him/her!! Charlie goes absolutely bonkers if anyone comes near the car. !!!
Jodi says
When we do travel long distances with the dogs we generally stop every two hours or so, to let them get out, stretch, walk around and grab a drink. But we are usually on major roads and plan it around rest stops. Of course, if someone indicates they need to ‘go’ we will pull over wherever we have to.
I commend you for making such a trip by yourself!
Jessica Rhae says
Thanks. I don’t ever research rest stops ahead of time. I just figure they will appear at some point…or we’ll just use the side of the road 🙂
Lida (Olivia's Human) says
this is such a great idea because you’re right- it’s easy to forget that other than potty or food stops all of us, two legged or four, need to stretch and walk around! Will have to keep this in mind next time Olivia and I go on a long journey (may not be until our first blog paws next year)!
Lori Ammons says
I have taken several long car trips with my dogs (up to 3 days). I find dog parks on-line along the route we are taking and near the hotel we will be staying. I take them over to the park in the morning before we leave, stop at one mid afternoon (when I get my lunch too) and then at the new hotel the next night I take them to the park before we turn in for the night. The park visits wear them out enough that they will sleep a good part of the travel time.
Bruce Sherman says
I did a 6,000 mile, 3 week road trip with Abby and Murphy when they were younger. Just the 3 of us. I used them to help me stop more regularly, just like you have done. It’s a great way to go, and better for the humans as well as the dogs. We drove from Seattle to Nebraska, to Baltimore, to Philadelphia, to Atlanta, to Savannah, to Memphis, back through Nebraska and home. Epic trip, and the dogs were awesome!
Alane says
I have once a quarter “hot date with my camera” and take my pup (Mini Longhaired Doxie) Jayne with me. We typically cruse around the state (New Mexico) and stop plenty of times to look at something cool, interesting, or I don’t think the car can make it off road and lets see what’s down this dirt road. He is only 8 months and has been on two dates and so far he’s adapting great to them. I have kept them shorter day trip or one overnight. Our rules are no interstates, or 4 lane roads, get off the beaten path, if you see a sign stating local interest we stop and check it our. We sometimes stay in a hotel over night of sleep in the car (some small towns don’t have dog friendly hotels or we are to far out in the desert) This fall we are going to New Orleans and the trip is 14 hr drive each way, the 100 mile idea sounds great, I always stop at the first rest stop in each state and walk around as much for me as for the pup this up coming trip will be a long drive through Texas.
Jessica Rhae says
That sounds like a lot of fun and like you have a good plan. May you two have many interesting discoveries in the future!