REVISED Route/Hotels/Stops

  Proposed route and pacing. This turns out to be a 19-day Roadtrip. According to this itinerary, we would leave Antigo on August 1st and return to Antigo on August 19. This allows for four or five days on either side to stay in Antigo and prepare for the road trip and also to prepare for the trip back to Japan.

Dad suggested shortening the trip and driving longer. Okay, here we go. It is now a 15-day trip.

https://goo.gl/maps/ux9CzC6FsoqcVjuWA

I am adding dates today because this shit is becoming real. I will also print off a calendar and map to send to Dad.

Edited to add: Talked to Dad today (9/5/2021) and he is OK with this 15-day plan.

Sturgis is scheduled for August 5-15. 

Day 1 August 3rd

Antigo --> Sioux Falls, SD - 7.5 hours

Passing by Pepin which supposedly has some Little House on the Prairie stuff. Look into this. There are other things nearby that we can see in relation to LHotP.

Day 2 & 3 August 4th, 5th

Sioux Falls, SD --> Rapid City, SD - 5 hours

This is just east of Black Hills. The Black Hills has all the stuff, including Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave. Devil's Tower is just northwest of this. We will plan to stay two nights.

Day 4 August 6th

Rapid City, SD --> Cody, WY - 6 hours

We would like to see the Rodeo. Apparently, this is a happening place. It is one hour from the east entrance of YNP. It is a three-hour drive to Gardiner. RESERVED

Day 5 & 6 August 7th, 8th

Cody, WY --> Gardiner, MT - 3 hours

We will enter YNP through the East Entrance on Day 7 in the morning and end up at our hotel in Gardiner (North entrance) later that day. Staying two nights at the same hotel in Gardiner. RESERVED

Day 7 & 8 August 9th, 10th

Gardiner, MT --> DuBois, WY - 4 hours

We will stay two nights in Lava Mountain Lodge in DuBois. This is just east of the GTNP. It is about one hour to the Moran entrance. (Need to study more about GTNP entrances and so on.) RESERVED

Day 9 August 11th

DuBois, WY --> Rangely, CO - 6 hours

We will drive through the NE corner of Utah and stay at a lodge in Rangeley, CO which is near the National Dinosaur Monument. I may change the hotel though. I want something a little closer to the monument or in the town of Vernal, UT. RESERVED

Also, looking into skipping Utah and driving through Laramie, WY to get to Colorado. It only shaves off 3 hours. I was excited about the Dinosaur monument, but I'll see if the Laramie route has any cool stuff. Either way, we still need to spend the night somewhere halfway because I am unwilling to drive that much in one day.

Day 10, 11 August 12th, 13th

Rangely, CO --> Colorado Springs, CO - 6 hours

We will stay in CO Springs for three nights to visit Shannon. Jill plans to come and meet us there as well. We can stay at Shannon's house as she says she has plenty of space.

It might be better to skedaddle by Sunday afternoon because Shannon's kids' first day of school and stuff will likely be the very next day. She probably would appreciate if we left them on Sunday afternoon.

Day 12 August 14th

Colorado Springs, CO --> Salina, Kansas - 6 hours

Somewhere in Kansas. It does not have to be Hays. It is just that it is a halfway point. Caravaning or riding with Jill.

Day 13 August 15th

Salina, Kansas --> Columbia, MO - 4.5 hours

We will stay at Jill's house, depending on her space. On the way there, we can stop and see some stuff.

Day 14 August 16th

Columbia, MO --> Springfield, IL --> Madison, WI - 3 hours - Leave early to get there by lunchtime.

We will stop here because it is the hometown of Lincoln. Look into Library, museum and log house. Make sure they are open on Wednesdays or Thursdays. We will only stay for lunch and sightseeing. Get on the road by 3 or 4.

We will strive to spend the night in Madison. LaQuinta here we come. I love LaQuinta.

Day 15 August 17th

Madison, WI or Evansville, WI --> Antigo 3 hours

I still want to stop and see Betsy and Jim if possible. I'll ask Dad what he thinks closer to that time.

HOME!

Route / Times / Hotels / Sightseeing Spots

 Proposed route and pacing. This turns out to be a 19-day Roadtrip. According to this itinerary, we would leave Antigo on August 1st and return to Antigo on August 19. This allows for four or five days on either side to stay in Antigo and prepare for the road trip and also to prepare for the trip back to Japan.

Sturgis is scheduled for August 5-15. 

Day 1

Antigo --> Rochester, MN - 4 hours

Near Pepin which supposedly has some Little House on the Prairie stuff. Look into this.

Day 2

Rochester, MN --> Sioux Falls, SD - 3.5 hours

Day 3 & 4

Sioux Falls, SD --> Rapid City, SD - 5 hours

This is just east of Black Hills. The Black Hills has all the stuff, including Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave. Devil's Tower is just northwest of this. We will plan to stay two nights.

Day 5

Rapid City, SD --> Buffalo, WY - 3 hours

This is just east of Big Horn. There may be some cool things to see. Look into this.

Day 6

Buffalo, WY --> Cody, WY - 3 hours

We would like to see the Rodeo. Apparently, this is a happening place. It is one hour from the east entrance of YNP. It is a three-hour drive to Gardiner.

Day 7 & 8

Cody, WY --> Gardiner, MT - 3 hours

We will enter YNP through the East Entrance on Day 7 in the morning and end up at our hotel in Gardiner (North entrance) later that day. Staying two nights at the same hotel in Gardiner.

Day 9 & 10

Gardiner, MT --> DuBois, WY - 4 hours

We will stay two nights in Lava Mountain Lodge in DuBois. This is just east of the GTNP. It is about one hour to the Moran entrance. (Need to study more about GTNP entrances and so on.)

Day 11

DuBois, WY --> Rangely, CO - 6 hours

We will drive through the NE corner of Utah and stay at a lodge in Rangeley, CO which is near the National Dinosaur Monument. I may change the hotel though. I want something a little closer to the monument or in the town of Vernal, UT.

Also, looking into skipping Utah and driving through Laramie, WY to get to Colorado. It only shaves off 3 hours. I was excited about the Dinosaur monument, but I'll see if the Laramie route has any cool stuff. Either way, we still need to spend the night somewhere halfway because I am unwilling to drive that much in one day.

Day 12, 13, 14

Rangely, CO --> Colorado Springs, CO - 6 hours

We will stay in CO Springs for three nights to visit Shannon. Jill plans to come and meet us there as well. We can stay at Shannon's house as she says she has plenty of space.

Day 15

Colorado Springs, CO --> Hays, Kansas

Somewhere in Kansas. It does not have to be Hays. It is just that it is a halfway point. Caravaning or riding with Jill.

Day 16

Hays, Kansas --> Columbia, MO

We will stay at Jill's house, depending on her space.

Day 17

Columbia, MO --> Springfield, IL - 3 hours

We will stop here because it is the hometown of Lincoln. Look into Library, museum and log house. Make sure they are open on Wednesdays or Thursdays.

Day 18

Springfield, IL --> Madison, WI or Evansville, WI - 3 hours

It is a 6-hour drive to Antigo from here. We may want to stop halfway but I will ask Dad what he thinks. We could stop in Madison or Evansville if he is up for it. Plus, if we are sightseeing in Springfield, we might not be able to leave until later in the day and then won't want to drive for 6 hours.

Day 19

Madison, WI or Evansville, WI --> Antigo, WI - 3 hours

HOME!

 Some notes from my research:

By breaking YNP into four quadrants, I figured out that Lamar Valley, Lake Butte Overlook, and Fishing Bridge Museum are located in the NE Quadrant; Mammoth Springs and Tower Jct are located in the NW Quadrant. In the central area are Lake city, Mud Volcanoes, Sulphur Caldron, Yellowstone Lake (the north tip of it). The SE quadrant has most of the the Yellowstone Lake and Stone Lake. The SW Quadrant is where all the popular stuff is: Old Faithful, West Thumb (the lake, so I guess this is a city), Grant Village, Grand Prismatic Springs, Paint Pots. The East entrance doesn't seem to have much there, as well as the South Entrance, but the latter is where the John D Rockefeller Parkway goes through.

I have heard that the west entrance is very busy, but the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center is located here. I am sure there is plenty of other stuff to do there but we may avoid it.

Next step:

Look more into Grand Tetons and find out what is there.

First hotel booked in Gardiner Montana

Sunday 8/7- Tuesday 8/9

Absaroka Lodge (Link)

This room has a kitchenette.

It is located 1/2 a mile from the north entrance. It is 97 mi from West Yellowstone.

Second hotel is booked in Dubois, which is closer to Grand Tetons.

I may want to extend by one more day on the front end to give us a full five nights around this area. It looks like there are some good outfitters in Gardiner and most of the cool stuff is in W, NW or NE. So, we may want to spend more time there. However, others have said GTNP is better and to spend more time there. 

Tuesday 8/9 - Thursday 8/11

Lava Mountain Lodge (Link)

This room has no fridge, so I think I might cancel it and find elsewhere. (I did pay a little extra for this ability.)

There is a restaurant that looks kind of cool.

The two hotels are 3 hr 41 min from each other. That is the same distance as Antigo to Madison. What a huge-ass couple of parks.

This KOA called Dubois/Wind River KOA Holiday looks really excellent, but I cannot reserve until much closer to the date. Dangerous. However, it may be hard to secure a cabin with a full bathroom.

https://koa.com/campgrounds/dubois/

Thursday 8/11 - Friday 8/12

Moosehead Lodge & Cabins

Whew, this was a hard one. Everything was booked up in this area. This is near Vernal, Utah and Dinosaurland. (The Dinosaur National Monument)

Apparently, each room has a fridge and a kitchenette, but I am a little perplexed by the whole thing.

This way, we can leave the area on Friday early afternoon and reach Shannon's by dinner time, if she will have us. We can spend a few days in CO with them and then move on.

Friday 8/12 - Monday 8/15

Shannon's house in Colorado Springs

Okay, one step closer. Can't wait to show Ailin the Garden of the Gods. If we cannot go horseback-riding in YNP or GTNP, we can surely try to go in Garden of the Gods. She also mentioned going to Pike's Peak.

If we leave GTNP area on Thursday to make it to our next destination, I think we should endeavor to reach Shannon's by Friday evening or early Saturday morning. So, I am going to look at various routes. I know if we drive straight there from DuBois, it only takes 7 or 8 hours. But I would like to see more of the west side of CO and a little of Utah.

I found a hotel Holiday Inn Express Dinosaurland which sounds perfect in Vernal, Utah. Then we go through some really pretty areas of CO and it divides a 13 hr drive exactly in half. Perfect.

Next step:

Start planning activities if we would like to do anything. I don't want to do rafting with Dad, but I think kayaking on a lake would be nice if they offer that. Have not seen much about that yet. I think most outlets are located outside the park, and they bring you into the park for the activity...which makes sense as that is how things work in Wi and Mi too.

Activity Ideas besides the usual hiking, driving around, and looking for food.

Kayaking - No mention of this yet. Weird.

Boat tour - Jenny Lake shuttle costs $18 per person and takes you across the lake where you can choose from several short hiking trails. This might be good enough.

Horseback riding - Sky Line Ranch was recommended.

Guided hike

Bus tour of Yellowstone

Possible Outfitter Companies:

Private Wildlife tour with Yellowstone Wolf Project - https://www.yellowstone.org/private-tours/

This would cost 775 for the tour.

Flying Pig Adventure Co for rafting, kayaking, float trips

Car Rental:

To rent a car, reservations cannot be made until possibly late in 2021 for the following summer, so I will wait a bit on that. By that time, I will know the annual calendar for the 2022 school year too at least for myself. I may look into renting a topper for the SUV, and if I can do that through the rental company, that would be really nice.

I usually rent through Expedia for Hertz or whatever, but some people are recommending Turo or Costco. As I am not a member of Costco, I doubt I can use their services. I have never even heard of Turo.

I heard that older folks can get an upgrade or some kind of discount as AARP members; also an extra driver. It might be better for Dad to take care of the car rental.

Some more notes:

Jill says she will meet us CO, hang out that weekend with us, and then caravan back MO with together. From MO, I would like to drive up to Galena and stay there or at least drive through it because I have always wanted to see it again.

Jill recommended that we go to Springfield, IL to see Lincoln's museum, log cabin, and library.

I am still perplexed about why it is so hard to secure hotels rooms at the big chains, but I asked on FB. Turns out they do not release rooms quite this early, and I should wait a few months. I will maybe just wait on this.

Even though I usually use Expedia to reserve hotels, etc., people are recommending Hotels.com instead. Someone suggested we call the hotels directly as they do not release all of their rooms to 3rd party sites. 

Looking at the locations of the places we want to stop and see, I think we should stay at Cody, Wy for one night and then go into the park early next morning through the east entrance. Cody has a daily rodeo, and that would be really awesome. People have said really good things about Cody. Cody has a firearm museum, Buffalo Bill's famous Irma hotel. Nearby is Big Horn Canyon on Wy and Mt border. 

Buffalo, Wy also would be a good stop as it is just outside of the Big Horn NF. There is just so much to see and do.

Recommended stops from FB group: Black Hills, Deadwood, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devils Tower, Badlands, Wall Drug, and Cody. Also, North Platte NB (not sure what this means) has Golden Spike Tower to see the largest railroad switching yard in the world, Buffalo Bill State Park, Penny's diner where you can have delicious bison burgers. Also, in SD, i90 Porter Sculpture Park. Black Canyon of the Gunnison.

Sturgis Rally is scheduled for August 5-15. Fark. Well, I was going to stop in Deadwood but it is the closest town to Sturgis, so maybe not!