Hello All,

Ive been following the forums reading the tips , and hopefully it will all be helpful in Panama City Beach.

Anyways me and a buddy of mine are driving down from Washington DC tomorrow (the 14th). Probably leaving around 5-6PM. So if anyone is going to be driving down I95 around that time, it would def make a night drive more interesting.

Were actually going to be stopping in Jacksonville for the night (picking up 2 other friends the next morning from the airport), and expecting to be on the way to Panama City Beach by 12PM on Saturday.


By the way does anyone know how the cops are in Georgia, NC, SC, and Florida? I know in VA they are preety bad, and you really dont want to do more then 15mph over speed limit, cause over 20mph if they stop you in VA its big trouble.

Everything you need to know...

The Most Expensive States For Speeding Tickets - Forbes.com

WikiAnswers - Will a speeding ticket from another state affect your auto insurance




From my experience driving to Orlando, and Myrtle beach...is that the more south you get, the looser the police are but the harder they are when they pull you over because you generally have to be doing some crazy speed to get pulled over. Leave earlier so you don't have to drive uber fast, don't go 10-15 over the speed limit and drive sober, and safe.

Just read in that article NY doesn't recognize out of state violations at all, unless it's serious and egregious...so eh, no drunk driving or over 100mph speeding tickets...I'll be set. I just better hope I never need to drive through that state I got the ticket in again, lolz, some places will arrest you if you don't pay! eeeEEeekk

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Regarding points on license, if you have a NYS license, then you only get points in NYS, Quebec, and Ontario.

Slick deal.

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Hey Yev, my group is leaving from College Park, but we arent leaving til much later on Friday, probably around midnight, or even a bit later on Saturday morning. Have a good drive, see you down there

We're flying into Jacksonville tomorrow, and spending the night at the airport Travelodge before driving to PCB on Saturday - we hope to be on the road by about 10 though so we can take a scenic route and see a bit of the country. 6 English guys in a Ford Expedition ("or similar"), probably going slow as hell as we get used to an auto-box, driving on the wrong side, and US roads in general!

A question for anyone that might know; should we feel like venturing out into Jacksonville for a couple of drinks (Chances are we're only gonna be there for one Friday night our whole lives!), what area should we point the sat-nav at?

To be honest, i've never been to Jax. But this site seems very helpful Jacksonville Nightlife|Listing of restaurants|Nightclubs|Concerts, Events in Jacksonville, Florida See ya in PCB

Were actually staying at the Travelodge by the Jacksonville airport too. Although Im expecting to get there at 3-4AM and leave at like 11ish 12ish.

Im actually not sure what Im going to be driving cause its a rental, and im not picking it up till tomorrow, but im expecting a relatively nice big sedan.

Gre by the way if your renting a car I would make sure that youre either 25 or above, or the rental agency allows people under 25 to have big SUV's. The reason Im saying that is cause I used to work at rent a car, and most places dont allow people under 25 to get anything bigger then a full size car, save for minivans at some places.

Actually if youre renting I would recommend going to fatwallet.com, and going to the travel section in the forum, they have a whole list of codes you could use at rental car agencies to get rid of fees. Some of them are shady in that they are govt, but as long as theyre not govt and dont include any insurance I think theyre fine to use.

That's really good actually; there's a few roads that keep cropping up in their bar listings - I think we'll be looking for a couple of quiet drinks rather than a club after our day - we'll maybe give them a shot.

I'll be sure to come shout at you when you wake us up then, or return the favour when we go get breakfast You'll probably overtake us somewhere on the way - no doubt we're gonna be stopping at every random bit of Americana we see.

Thanks for the advice on the car rental - we're all 25 so no problems there. We booked it through a UK agent, so we got a way better deal than booking direct. That said it was all a bit messy; first there was only me of us going, then 2 of us, then 4, then 6. So we started with a Mustang drop-top, then an Explorer, and finally an Expedition. None of us have driven anything even approaching that size, so it could be interesting!

Well if you see a relatively large nice sedan with Virginia, DC, or Maryland plates, itll probably be mine.

Btw Random rental car tip, if they give you a choice of SUV (chances are they wont), but if they do look for one with an antenna thingy at the top (dff from a radio antenna), it might have Sattelite radio.
Also if you have a chance take a Chevy Suburban over the Expedition. If they try to give you a Dodge Durango try to avoid it, because it is smaller then both a Suburban or an Expedition, and with 6 people youll need the space.

Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure I got points on my NYS license for a ticket I got in Ohio. I could be wrong though.

This is from the NY DMV website:

The NYSDMV does not record out-of-state violations committed by NYS drivers in other jurisdictions. The exceptions are alcohol-related violations, drug-related violations, and moving violations committed in Quebec or Ontario. Under special agreements, traffic convictions in Quebec or Ontario are recorded on NYS driver license records and carry points. Except for violations in Ontario and Quebec, points are not added to your NYS record for out-of-state violations.
If you do not respond to a ticket or fail to pay a fine for a moving violation that you committed in any state except Alaska, California, Michigan, Montana, Oregon or Wisconsin, the DMV suspends your NYS driver license until you respond to the ticket or pay the fine. If a driver from a state except these six states fails to respond to a traffic ticket issued in NYS, their driver license will be suspended until the driver responds to the traffic ticket in NYS.
Drivers from other states must contact the DMV in their home state to get information about the effect of a traffic violation conviction that occurs in NYS.
If you receive a conviction for an alcohol-related or drug-related driving violation in any state, your NYS driver license is revoked for at least six months.

Well that kind of pisses me off. I was living in Ohio when that happened but had a NYS license. The ***** at the bmv(thats what they call it here) lied to me..haha

I was going to pay it anyway but I thought my license had points on it because of that...

That's still pretty awesome! As much as paying $200 sucks for a speeding ticket it sucks wwaaaay more when you have to pay hundreds more in insurance every year. Wow, thanks for the information. REPPED!

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Well Ill be driving a silver-bluish Chrysler 300 with MD plates. So if you see that at the Travelodge, or Origin itll be mine.