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Driving from Dallas to St. George Island, FL (near Destin)


Jameslaw121

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We have a beach house rented for the week of July 5th. It's about a 14 hour drive and it's me, wife, 6 yea old bow and 1 year old girl. Ideally, I would like to leave early on the 4th and stop somewhere for the night about 4-6 hours away from St. George. It would be great if I could find fireworks, but mostly, I want to get the kids out of the car doing something fun for a few hours before we go to sleep. 

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56 minutes ago, Jameslaw121 said:

We have a beach house rented for the week of July 5th. It's about a 14 hour drive and it's me, wife, 6 yea old bow and 1 year old girl. Ideally, I would like to leave early on the 4th and stop somewhere for the night about 4-6 hours away from St. George. It would be great if I could find fireworks, but mostly, I want to get the kids out of the car doing something fun for a few hours before we go to sleep. 

You crazy - we have an 18 mo old and no way he would sit in the car that long 

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3 minutes ago, conVINCEd said:

Get a carafe of coffee for you and some Dramamine for the kids.  Leave around dinner time and drive straight through.  Kids sleep while you drive and they wake up around the time you arrive.

If you are set on driving, this is the way to do it. As long as you can drive through the night without putting your family at risk.

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2 hours ago, Jameslaw121 said:

We have a beach house rented for the week of July 5th. It's about a 14 hour drive and it's me, wife, 6 yea old bow and 1 year old girl. Ideally, I would like to leave early on the 4th and stop somewhere for the night about 4-6 hours away from St. George. It would be great if I could find fireworks, but mostly, I want to get the kids out of the car doing something fun for a few hours before we go to sleep. 

We made this trip lots of times over the years while the kids were growing up.  Most years we'd stop in Baton Rouge to split up the drive (take 20 to Shreveport and then go down through Alexandria rather than 45 to Houston).  With a relatively early start that gets you to BR by dinner time.  A couple of times we would go all the way into New Orleans and make it a double destination trip (spend a little time in NOLA that evening and next morning before getting back on the road), but the drive into and out of New Orleans adds a lot of time with traffic and extra miles.  

Other than that there's really no particularly great place to stop along the way.  Mostly just your standard Motel 6 and Waffle House places as food and lodging options.

Edited by DDD Dad
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We’ve been taking long road trips with our kids since they were little without doing overnight drives and it’s never been an issue. Stop every few hours for bathrooms and food, let them run for a little while, and then right back on the road. We also always found it harder on them to stop overnight because they never got settled which kept us from getting much sleep. Our trip is 14 hours plus a time change and we just leave at 5-6 and drive the whole thing. They are older now, but we are getting ready to make the 4th and 5th trips of the year to the beach house with them at Thanksgiving and Christmas and we’ll just drive it.

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We've done some sort of trip like this every year for awhile. Driving's never been an issue. I actually like the overnight driving. a couple of years ago, I was in San Antonio for work, drove from there back to Dallas, picked up the family and drove to the Florida/Alabama state line. Once the kids were asleep in was pretty relaxing for me, just listened to baseball until around midnight, then podcast.

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15 minutes ago, futureman said:

off I-10 just before mobile is dick russell’s.  bbq place but stick to the fried catfish, fried okra, greens, cheese grits, and biscuits.  biscuits are tier one, for real.  worth the stop if you don’t mind a sit down meal on the road.

We actually prefer the sit down meals when we drive, unless we're in a hurry or the kids are asleep

 

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1 hour ago, Jameslaw121 said:

Mobile would be a pretty good stopping point. But I don't know what we would do there other than dinner

Battleships, Maritime Museum, and the forts in the area are about all I know of in Mobile. They are all worth a visit, but your kids are probably in the young side for it.

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3 hours ago, Dr Fear said:

If you are at all interested in aircraft, the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola is a must visit.

Yes! I took my kids to Pensacola few years in a row, we usually left Dallas around 9-10 at night and drove straight through. I felt the trip went faster that way. One year we went around the 4th and actually saw several fireworks shows on our drive back. 

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29 minutes ago, DallasHorn26 said:

Yes! I took my kids to Pensacola few years in a row, we usually left Dallas around 9-10 at night and drove straight through. I felt the trip went faster that way. One year we went around the 4th and actually saw several fireworks shows on our drive back. 

How old were your kids at the time?

 

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Orange Beach, AL / Perdido Key, FL.

You'll be 4.5 hours from St. George's and there are tons of fireworks on the 4th in that area.  Some really big shows around Perdido Pass and personal shows all up and down the beach....some quite elaborate.

Book in advance but there are a few national brand hotels (non-condo) right there on the beach.

It would take you about 40-50  minutes out of the way off I-10 to get down there using the Baldwin / Foley Beach Express.  From there you could decide if you wanted to stay on the coast for the rest of the drive or backtrack to 10. Depending on the time of day/night you are traveling the last leg it might be a wash time-wise.

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  • 4 weeks later...

We drove from San Antonio to St George Island on the way to Miami. We stopped for 2 nights in New Orleans and took a scenic route from NOLA to SGI. Pine forests are nice, but not much there. Just get to the beach as fast as you can so everyone can enjoy themselves. 

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Check out Fairhope AL, it’s the picture in my avatar. Great Southern City along eastern shore of Mobile Bay. Easy access to I-10, and would fit your 4-6 hour out requirement. There is great Fireworks show on the bluff overlooking the city pier /beach. Your wife will like the shopping, good way to stretch your legs after being in car 9 hours. Orange Beach , Perdido and Pensacola will be a nightmare traffic-wise.  I would not advise Biloxi (0 to do for kids and well it’s MS). Fairhope is regular voted best small town in the South (along with Beufort SC). Check it out 

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Made that trip once with a 5 and 7.5 year old.  The problem is not getting there in one piece, it’s getting back. I was able to drive straight there with a lunch stop in Baton Rouge. 
You are exhausted, sunburned, hungover and tired as shit from spending a week at the beach.   It would be smarter to stop on the way back.  On the way back was the hardest drive I will never make again.   Stoping on the way back would be ideal. 

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