Just do it. Some anxiety about something new is understandable, but as a woman who loves to drive, and usually does it alone, I can tell you that the world out there really isn't any scarier than the world near home. Take the GPS and a cell phone. Also look up the mapquest directions before you leave to compare with the GPS route (there is a way you can look at the gps to see what route it is taking you before you get there). If you have to stop on the road, and in a 4 hour drive you probably will stop at least once to stretch, use the bathroom, etc, be sure to stop someplace with people around. If it feels wrong, don't stop. I have never had a problem at interstate rest stops right along the highway, or a fast food restaurant right off the highway.

As for mom- set up times to call her from the cell phone. Maybe tell her you will stop approximately 1/2 way through the drive and call her when you are at a rest area, and then again when you get there. Parents don't relax about these things until we do them a few times. I'm 31, live 2 hours away from my parents and still keep them informed if I am driving far (for example from Philly to Boston). Since you can't prove to her it will be ok until you do it, you just have to try to make it as comfortable as possible for her.

Nothing in life is completely safe, you know this, but with some common sense a 4 hour drive should be a good trip. Maybe mom will see it isn't so scary and venture out on her own some too.

I agree with Jenngirl. Just do it. You'll be fine. If you're worried about getting a flat, then practice changing the tyre. Anything more serious probably requires assistance so take a phone. You can perhaps avoid getting into trouble by carrying out a pre-drive check on oil and water levels, etc. Maybe get the car serviced before hand if you're really worried.

As for advice to guard against getting lost: buy a real map! If you have an actual map and plot your route out on it then you are more familiar with that route. Familiarity will help with your confidence. Plus, if you do miss a turn then you have something to help guide you back to where you need to be. GPS is fine but it turns you into a robot unfamiliar with your surroundings and if it fails you've got nothing.

I would often take long road trips to get to school while I was in college. Often they involved stopping for the evening, and this was before cell phones were so common.
I found that I could go drive for about 4 hours before stopping for gas; you might be able to ake it the whole way on one tank.
I would usually only stop to get gas and would pay at the pump. Of course, a rest break may have been necessary, but a public gas station is pretty well-populated most of the time. Other than that, while I was less concerned about my safety, I still kept an aluminum baseball bat in the front seat with me. I never expected to use it, unless someone ran me off the road for some reason (which never happened). i may have kept mace in the car too, just in case.
With a cell phone, GPS, directions, a full tank of gas, a can of mace and a baseball bat, you will likely find that you were more than well-prepared for the journey.
(The only thing I would say is make sure you don't doze off; that almost happened to me on my first long road trip.)
-Jut

I went to college for 3.5 years 3 hours away from home and did that drive about once a month in my hoopty 1995 Toyota Corolla. I don't want to say you have NOTHING to worry about, driving at night by yourself can be scary, but I've had more contact with really nice and friendly guys on the road when I've had trouble than I have ever had with people I thought may be threatening. I'm a generally more trustful person than I probably should be sometimes, but I find constant fear is generally more harmful that good when it comes to solving problems like a stalled car on the side of a highway. I know the cop shows and Criminal Minds and stuff LOVE to paint the picture of the creepy killed/rapist waiting for the woman to stall on the side of the road, but like the common story of "stranger" rape and the guy jumping out of the bushes for you it's kind of an overused scare tactic for Hollywood, I think.

If you are worried then drive during the day. Keep you cellphone charged and you'll be peachy. Just call your parents when you get there or make a plan to call them every hour if you're really worried. But really, you'll be fine and if something does happen to your car (though if you're THAT worried about your car breaking down maybe you can borrow a newer or more reliable care) I bet you'll be surprised how much help you get. I always was. :) Plus with your phone you can always call and let your parents know what's going on and where you are in case something does happen.

I second what everyone else has said (especially about not relying soley on GPS - I have GPS but always make sure I have a Mapquest backup that I've looked over beforehand) and will add that in my experience as someone who made the hours-long drive by myself between home and college quite a few times, the most dangerous thing I encountered was dozing off at the wheel. I would find myself fighting to stay awake when I made the drive after dark (which, during the winter, happened more often than not). If I didn't get enough sleep before doing it, it could happen during the day, too. I never once seriously considered myself in danger from "scary men on the road" but always worried about keeping my eyes open.

Considering you've made this drive before (which should make finding your way easier), I'm with everyone above. My parents were nervous the first time I drove in and to the city alone, but I was familiar with most of the area, and the part I didn't know well I simply asked for directions. It's generally pretty hard to get extremely lost on the highways, and in towns there's always someone you can ask for help.

As a dad, I can tell you it's a parent's job to worry. And it's your job to make us worry. So buy a paper map just in case, and enjoy the rush of taking on one of your fears.

You do have one advantage over a man making the same drive: if you get lost, you'll be able to stop and ask directions.

My advice is to memorize your trip before you go and just use your maps and GPS as a reference.

Four hours will go by pretty fast, especially if you bring some great music or a book on tape (my personal favorites for long drives).

I lived in Texas, so one or two hour car trips were pretty common for me when I started driving. Then, I was driving a four hour drive four times a week (two and from an internship). I had gas stations that were "mine," that I trusted to be well-lit and friendly. Usually, though, for a 4 hour trip, you don't have to stop for gas if you top it off before you leave.

And DON'T PANIC, even if you get lost. Chances are that the people you meet will be nice and friendly. It's pretty easy to retrace your steps on highways and since you've made this trip a few times, you'll be able to tell if you make a wrong turn.

I second all the suggestions above. You can do it!

I'd also recommend you get educated about your car. Learn how to change a tire, how to use jumper cables, and how to recognize if there's some kind of mechanical problem that needs to get checked out. If you didn't learn these things in driver's ed, find a friend who can teach you. Unfortunately this is the kind of thing that dads usually teach their sons, but somehow women miss out on this important information. I had to learn most of what I know from guy friends and boyfriends.

Make sure you know what to do in various emergencies (snow, low visibility, dangerous debris on the road).

If you know all these things, and have a cell phone and a map, then you're prepared for pretty much any situation. Drive safely, and enjoy!

Everything above times ten!! Also
don't forget to go to an auto
store and graba driver's safty kit
It will have things like flairs
jumpers cables, a first aid kit and
fix a flat. That little kit has
saved my butt more the once on
a roadtrip. and DONT TALK ON YOUR
PHONE AND DRIVE! Wait untill you egt to that pit stop :)

Total agreement above! When I was 19 I lived 10 hours away from home, and probably drove back a home a half a dozen times by myself (the first being in the middle of the night, and scaring the living daylights out of my parents). Though nothing has ever happened, looking back I was really unprepared to deal with anything that might happen. I am lot smarter now, and better prepared.

Real Map -- YES! One time coming back from Buffalo there was a horrible accident and traffic was backed up for miles/hours, luckily I had a map and was able to plan a new route home.

Rest Stops -- I've never once felt unsafe stopping at one, even with my daughter who is now 6 or through the scary dark vacant mountains. Just check your surroundings before getting out of the car, park close to the restrooms. Sometimes you don't think of these when with others, but now I do it no matter who I am with. I usually would also call my mom to tell her exactly where I was before getting out of the car.

What type of Car Insurance do you have? Some offer roadside assistance, make sure to have your info with you and the number handy if you need to call them.

Women (like me, my sister, my mom, my aunts, and my grandmother) have driven across the country in snow and ice with unreliable old cars and no cell phones or GPS all the time. You've gotten some excellent advice above. It may be scary, but you can do it if you just push through that discomfort. And you will feel great once you have.

Long-distance driving alone still makes me nervous to this day (31 years old), mostly due to the getting lost issue. But I do it anyway. My parents are the same way as your's- I lived a 2-hour straight shot to my college and they wouldn't let me drive back to school for the longest time. My parents STILL act shocked when I make even an hour's drive by myself, even after I've driven alone along the entire eastern seaboard in the past. I think a lot of the fear and anxiety comes from your parents telling you you can't do it. So you just have to think about how stupid your parents are being and how many other women drive long distances alone every day, and that you're a smart person and you can handle issues that may arise. Yes absolutely take a cell and a gps if you can. Anything you can do to prepare for ANY trip, driving or otherwise is a good idea.

When I first graduated from college, I had a new job and there was a training for new employees about 4 hours away at the home office. I lived with my parents at the time too. This was back when cell phones were very first becoming ubiquitous and internet mapping applications were new. I looked up the directions on map quest and took off, and didn't think a thing about it. My parents freaked out and told me there was no way I could handle this drive. I had just graduated from one of the best schools in the country, I going to a training for very competitive new job, I'd driving other places plenty of times, it was completely irrational.

Somewhere in Connecticut, my directions went wrong. I got off at an exit in an attempt to turn around. I couldn't find a place to turn around and lost all sense of direction. The problem was, I was in Greenwich, CT, one of the wealthiest communities in the country. As such, all it was was quiet suburban streets- nowhere to ask for directions. I had never been in a situation like this before and I didn't know what to do. I drove around for a good two hours, getting more and more frustrated and panicked the whole time. I had a cell phone but the last thing I wanted to do was call my dad and admit that I was lost and had failed as he expected me to. Eventually I had to, because I just didn't know if it was ok to knock on someone's door and ask for directions. By the time I called my parents I was sobbing, not because I was scared, but because I felt like such a horrible failure, and I was terrified of my parents' reaction.

As expected, my father freaked out. He "knew" I wouldn't be able to handle this. And now he "had rescue me." I kept saying I just wanted to know if it was ok to knock on one of these rich people's houses and ask the direction back to the highway. My dad was in his 50s, I explained, I thought maybe he had been in a similar situation. I didn't want him to "fix" anything. He of course, did not believe that I was scared of him and only frustrated about being lost. He kept saying, "what do you want me to do? I can't come out there and find you. You should have just let me drive you like I wanted to." All I wanted was to find out if I could knock on one of these doors.

Finally, I found a house with some kid's toys on the front yard. I said, "dad, there is a nice house here with kid's toys in the yard and it looks like they're home. I'm going to knock on the door and ask for directions. I will call you with the results." I knocked on the door and a 30-something guy with a little kid in tow opened it and seeing my tear-stained face and the shake in my voice as I said, "I'm sorry to bother you but I've become lost..." became very concerned and he and his wife got a pad of paper and wrote down exact directions to where I needed to go. I wasn't far from the right highway at all, I just couldn't find it in the maze of well-manicured lawns.

My dad took this entire incident as hard evidence that I could not take care of myself. It has been 9 years since this has happened. I've traveled ALONE to foreign countries and across this one, I've moved 800 miles, I've had numerous jobs, several apartments, I've paid rent, I've killed spiders, I've repaired bikes, I've negotiated salaries...yet anytime I want to do ANYTHING my dad still says, "remember that time you tried to drive to new york? I knew you couldn't do it and you came running back to me all scared and I had to save you in the end, as usual." I will never, ever, live down that car ride in my life.

But the moral of the story is the only bad thing that happened was caused by my parents. I was faced with a difficult situation, but it turned out ok. I found the highway and got to the training and nothing like that has ever happened again.