Yeah, I'd heard the same thing about I-80 vs others. I-80 is more of a "get there" route, where as 90 is more of a "yaytraveling!" route.
You're not missing much in NE. LOL. After you pass Lincoln, it's more or less all corn until you hit the western edge. Southern WY is phenomenal tho. Love southern WY. Rock springs, Green River, Laramie...cool scenery around all 3. Green River has a cool tunnel.
The only major problem with 90 vs. 80 is that to get from SD to Idaho Falls you have to wind through Yellowstone on US-14 or take a long (4 hour) detour on I-90 to Butte and then south on I-15...now, don't get me wrong, I'd love to go through Yellowstone, but that's 7 hours on non-Interstate highways, and it's all in the park, there probably is not a lot of places to stop like on the Interstate where there are bathrooms, gas, etc. It was certainly like that on US-191 from Hoback Junction to Rock Springs.
When Ethan and his maybe-sibling are older, we're going to do an Awesome Yellowstone Adventure (tm) and we will go on I-90 and see the Badlands (I SOOO want to).
Yeah, US-14 is the one I took. It's v. srs mountain driving, but Bighorn National Forest and Bighorn canyon are beautiful places that are probably overshadowed by Yellowstone being the next park over. I probably wouldn't recommend US-14 for kids. Not many stops in Bighorn forest, and it's a long drive. The signs around there recommend US-16 for getting to Yellowstone if you have camper type vehicles. It has a lower grade and might be more user-friendly?
The detour up to Butte might be very lovely. Montana doesn't get scenic until probably west of Billings (haven't been there) but my understanding is that it is extremely beautiful.
Also, once again, there is a pretty rad free rest stop in Milwaukee, with cats and everything, if you need it. If you try out I90 on the way back, you'd have the option of passing through milwaukee. Even if it's at ridiculous o'clock, I'll get up and be happy and social.
NE is one of those states, like Florida is for me, where Joel has always had an unintended adventure/crisis every time he's been through. I assume that when we make our Colorado/Utah trip that we've been planning, we will have some kind of excitement by having Joel in the car.
Thanks for the info on US-14. There is an alternate diversion from Livingston down US-89 or you can go down from Bozeman on US-191, but I imagine it's all about the same as US-14. Regardless, andy I-90 route adds about 3 hours to the 36 hour drive that is I-80.
If Ethan is anything like his parents, he will love US-14 when he gets a bit older (I love love love driving those mountain roads!) ;)
And as for the awesome rest stop in MKE, who knows what's gonna happen. If the drive down is too arduous and we decide to stop a couple of times on the way home, the detour from I-80 to MKE is only 2-3 hours, for a free night's stay + socialfuntime, so might be a good detour. If i had $350 I'd take the ferry to Muskegon so we could skip Chicago traffic...
I have various notes and documents in my google docs of places to stop that were good last time, etc. I spent more time figuring it out last time tho. This time, since I know what the lay of the land is, I won't spend so much time on it.
I went so far as to figure out how many miles at what speed each state was lol! Then I knew how long we'd spend at what speed, used that to figure out exhaustion (faster speeds are more tiring).
I also planned each leg of the trip so as to make it fair...where we were to change drivers, restaurants to grab food at, etc.
Wow, that's pretty hardcore. I check for my favorite gas stations, and food-wise I try to bring sandwiches for the first two days. Sometimes I'll research good native restaurants in advance.
I used google earth and maps too...helpful in figuring out what restaurants are at a given exit and useful for verifying other info as well. Brit wanted to hit an American Taco Bell asap so we were able to figure our first fuel stop to coincide with Taco Bell. And likely we'll end up hitting the same place this time too lol.
The planning is part of the entertainment too. Being able to predict what stuff is where before you get there is like some kind of lame ESP lol.
Wandering off the planned route is fun too though...like pulling over in Green River, WY and finding Pepsi Throwback. We hadn't found any before then. That was a random win :)
You're not missing much in NE. LOL. After you pass Lincoln, it's more or less all corn until you hit the western edge. Southern WY is phenomenal tho. Love southern WY. Rock springs, Green River, Laramie...cool scenery around all 3. Green River has a cool tunnel.
The only major problem with 90 vs. 80 is that to get from SD to Idaho Falls you have to wind through Yellowstone on US-14 or take a long (4 hour) detour on I-90 to Butte and then south on I-15...now, don't get me wrong, I'd love to go through Yellowstone, but that's 7 hours on non-Interstate highways, and it's all in the park, there probably is not a lot of places to stop like on the Interstate where there are bathrooms, gas, etc. It was certainly like that on US-191 from Hoback Junction to Rock Springs.
When Ethan and his maybe-sibling are older, we're going to do an Awesome Yellowstone Adventure (tm) and we will go on I-90 and see the Badlands (I SOOO want to).
Reply
The detour up to Butte might be very lovely. Montana doesn't get scenic until probably west of Billings (haven't been there) but my understanding is that it is extremely beautiful.
Also, once again, there is a pretty rad free rest stop in Milwaukee, with cats and everything, if you need it. If you try out I90 on the way back, you'd have the option of passing through milwaukee. Even if it's at ridiculous o'clock, I'll get up and be happy and social.
NE is one of those states, like Florida is for me, where Joel has always had an unintended adventure/crisis every time he's been through. I assume that when we make our Colorado/Utah trip that we've been planning, we will have some kind of excitement by having Joel in the car.
Reply
If Ethan is anything like his parents, he will love US-14 when he gets a bit older (I love love love driving those mountain roads!) ;)
And as for the awesome rest stop in MKE, who knows what's gonna happen. If the drive down is too arduous and we decide to stop a couple of times on the way home, the detour from I-80 to MKE is only 2-3 hours, for a free night's stay + socialfuntime, so might be a good detour. If i had $350 I'd take the ferry to Muskegon so we could skip Chicago traffic...
So many variables...makes my head spin lol.
Reply
I always make excel spreadsheets to plan trips and estimate costs. :D
Reply
I went so far as to figure out how many miles at what speed each state was lol! Then I knew how long we'd spend at what speed, used that to figure out exhaustion (faster speeds are more tiring).
I also planned each leg of the trip so as to make it fair...where we were to change drivers, restaurants to grab food at, etc.
Reply
Reply
The planning is part of the entertainment too. Being able to predict what stuff is where before you get there is like some kind of lame ESP lol.
Wandering off the planned route is fun too though...like pulling over in Green River, WY and finding Pepsi Throwback. We hadn't found any before then. That was a random win :)
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment