Transferring old IPad Air to new IPad Air takes two days?

I’m pretty sure something is wrong here. I’ve tried three times to transfer my old IPad data to my new one, but the transfer times keep rising. I’m sure it involves my terrible internet connection speeds, so I’m wondering… is there a way to connect them with a chord like we used to do with computers when we transferred data? Is there ANY possible way to do this without super fast internet?

I did find the article that advised to use two separate power sources for each tablet. Doing this at least enabled the process to start, but the completion times keep getting longer and longer. Are there any other hacks that I’m missing here?

Thank you for any guidance. I’m at the place where I delete everything and am forced to start over without any of my data.