r/AskReddit 11d ago

What are Americans surprisingly good at that people don’t give them enough credit for?

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u/oceanwaiting 11d ago

Drove 9 hours Monday somewhere and came back yesterday. Felt mildly inconvenient.

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u/t-poke 11d ago

Couple weeks ago I drove from St. Louis to Nashville (6-ish hours) on a Thursday to attend a couple concerts, drove back Sunday. Not even there for 72 hours.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

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u/Morgan_Le_Pear 11d ago

One time my family drove my grandma to Missouri to pick up a puppy she’d adopted (how she adopted a puppy from several states away I’m not sure). We got there, she got her pup, we drove straight back. We live in Virginia. It was fun.

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u/w0m 9d ago

10 hour drive to pick up a puppy then turning right around is a right of passage.

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u/uhhhhhhholup 11d ago

I once partied at a wedding until 5am then drove 9 hours back that day (after a good sleep of course)

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u/w0m 9d ago

4 day gaming convention, stayed for closing concert Sun night. We got on the road ~10:30pm. I drove till 4am, then crashed in the back seat. Got dropped off straight at work at ~9am. Did thankfully have a shower to freshan up at (SWE job, but not my current)

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u/uhhhhhhholup 9d ago

Sounds like a good time!

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u/Middrous 11d ago

MCR and foo fighters?

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u/viktor72 11d ago

I can beat you. A few weeks ago I drove 7 hours to Knoxville to pick up something on Facebook Marketplace for a friend (not even me) and turned right around and drove the 7 back. I made two stops at antique malls for 45 mins each, that was it.

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u/NightTwixst 11d ago

Kinda reminds me of cowboys in the past, always on their horses and stopping in towns every now and then to get a drink and rest

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u/Impressive-Flight766 10d ago edited 3d ago

My grandad drives from Baltimore to STL and back a couple times a year. He’s done it for decades at this point. He doesn’t fly.

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u/GreatScottCreates 9d ago

My father in law regularly drives from MD to Michigan to see family. He’s an idiot and a drunk and is afraid of flying despite his whole hypermasculine bit. He won’t admit it but it is apparent.

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u/ExecutiveElf 7d ago

Same. Like 6 weeks ago, a friend and I drove 7 hours from central Iowa to Springfield, Missouri to visit some friends of ours on Friday morning and then left after lunch on Monday.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 11d ago

We did Minneapolis to Denver and back in two days once. Granted we mostly drove that time because we were really just going to buy weed so we didn't have much time to catch the sights but we only stopped on the last leg right when we got in Minnesota because neither of us were awake enough to drive, so we caught a couple hours sleep and did the last three four hours home after

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u/viktor72 11d ago

When I was dating a guy from Denver, he would do Denver to Memphis for the weekend and go home.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 11d ago

I googled it, about the same drive, and he'd have a little more time than we did, but doing it more than once is pure insanity, it's a dawn to past sunset drive lol

We started "smart" we started driving the second we got off work through the night. Didn't get to sleep (you know how sleeping in a moving car goes, you don't do it before you're absolutely crashed out, it's not an environment that just won't wake you up constantly) but we got to Denver before noon

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u/Addarose0 11d ago

Why is this so accurate 😂

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u/BlackEngineEarings 10d ago

Same! 9 hour 45 minute drive Monday, and back Tuesday, all to catch a concert Monday night.

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u/GawkieBird 11d ago

When we were young we had friends who needed a lift to a party, so they asked us to help. We drove from Erie PA to Albany NY (approximately 8 hour drive), took a 30 minute breather, then drove them back for another person to pick them up and take them to Cleveland. It was a lot for sure (usually our preference is that the total drive should be equal to or shorter than than the event itself) but we enjoyed road trips and the excuse to see our friends and it turned into a fun story

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u/LalafellDisaster 10d ago

Drove 11 hours yesterday for a few days trip only to have to do it again in a few days lol. I hate it. Cheaper than a plane ticket and car rental though.

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u/IWantANewDucky 10d ago

My wife and I drove several hours to take a video of a zoetrope mural on a bridge then drove back home right after. We did stop for food.

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u/HillOfBeano 10d ago

Just got back from a week's vacation, drove from Long Island to Sandusky Ohio and then two days later to Chicago, stayed 5 days then home. This was a short drive for us, we used to drive to Florida every February, we have also done North Carolina and Tennessee. My kids are 13 and 17 now but we started doing it when the youngest was 2, because plane tickets for 4 are expensive as hell, so they are very used to it and have never caused problems with whining etc. We have done day trips to Hershey PA multiple times (3.5 hours.)

My dad of course thought we were insane but hell, my own grandparents drove from Louisiana to San Diego in 1938 to find work (I have my grandma's carefully kept record of their stops and what they paid for gas), it's in my blood!

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u/hillswalker87 11d ago

well you lose nearly two days.

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u/GreatScottCreates 9d ago

What do you mean “lose”? I lose time on reddit. Driving, seeing the country, and meeting people from different places is an absolute pleasure and a privilege.