On Tue, April 25, 2006 12:59 pm, Jason Bleazard wrote:
>
> Josh, I have two questions for you:
Jason, I have a few answers for you:
> - How long does it usually take you to travel to and from the BBQ?
Well, if I travel on my own at "normal" crusing speeds (70 - 90 mph,
depending on location/traffic/police presence) it's anywhere between 6 to 9
hours. Travelling with Tom last year it took about 12 hours because we
stopped for gas every 15 minutes. It usually only takes me 2 full tanks each
way to Jon's.
> - Is the area around South Bend and Elkhart, Indiana as scummy as Gary?
That's a nice area, I have relatives in Elkhart and Middlebury. Gary is a
relatively unsavory area but it's pretty contained. Stay out of Hammond,
Whiting, and Gary and you'll be okay. Once into IL you'll probably want to
avoid Calumet City too.
>> Right near me here there's a campground (RV Friendly)
>
> Heh... is that a polite way of saying "don't plan on crashing at my place"?
> :-) No worries, with the trailer I'm not planning on getting too far off the
> freeway anyway.
Not at all, if you guys want to use my parking lot that's no problem. I'd
just need the date you'll be in the area to let the association know you'll
be parking your RV in the lot near the pool for one night. My floor isn't
that comfy but it's all yours should you like. If you're travelling with
animals though I can't allow them in my unit. I'm not even supposed to have
the two that I do.
>> called "Windy City Campground and Beach" that's pretty reasonable from what
>> I
>> hear. I've not stayed there but my cousin's cub scouts are always camping
>> out there.
>
> This place here? http://www.windycitycampground.com Looks pretty nice, but
> it's $33 per night. That's a bit more than I was planning on spending for
> overnight stops. I was thinking that $10 is about the limit, as I'm hoping
> to
> find a Flying J or Wal-Mart parking lot, or even a rest area where we can
> park
> for free for a few hours of sleep and a meal. We'll be pulling our bedroom
> and supplies, all we'll really need is some empty ground where we can park
> for
> a few hours.
That's the place. There's no Flying J in the area but there is a Wal-Mart
within about 10 minutes from here.
> I don't know about the highway rest stops, though. I've heard they're not
> terribly safe places to sleep. I've read good things about Flying J, as long
> as you're at a location that has separate parking areas for RVs and
> commercial
> trucks. I'll have to think about this some more.
I've caught a few hours sleep in rest stops before, but they can be sketchy.
I wouldn't want to spend more than an hour or two there at most given the
choice.
> I'm also starting to think that I might want to spread this drive out over
> four days instead of three. It'd be cool to stop in your neighborhood but
> that's quite a ways from Jon's place at 60-65 MPH. If we do three days,
> we'll
> need to average 525 miles per day. For four days, we can get away with just
> under 400, so that saves us two hours per day. I have the time off of work,
> I
> just have to figure out if I'd rather be on the road for more days, or for
> some really long hours each day. We pushed close to 700 per day when driving
> to SLC, but that was empty. Pulling the RV is slower and takes more constant
> attention to everything that's going on.
If you didn't have to stop at Jon's it would knock a considerable amount of
time off of your trip. It's only about 3.5 - 4 hours to Canada from here,
via I-94. We used to make the trip from here to Rochester Heights, MI in 4
hours. (It's north of Detroit, near Troy)
> At any rate, the four day plan starting from Jon's puts us around South Bend
> or Elkhart the first night. That's why I was asking about that area to begin
> with. I think after that we'd be around Des Moines and then somewhere in the
> middle of Nebraska. No matter how I split this trip up, we end up spending a
> night somewhere in Nebraska. It's just too wide to tackle in a single day.
IIRC there's a rather nice KOA near Elkhart. I woulndn't be concerned with
overnighting in that area, you'll be good to go.
It's very obvious you've done much more planning than I. I'm not even sure
the route we'll be taking yet.
-- - Josh www.omg-stfu.comThis message has been brought to you by the American Kneejerk Coalition for Equality, Compassion, and the Restoration of Karmic Unity of Self And Other Silly Hippy Happy-Swell Gayness Bullshit, or AKCECRKUSAOSHHSGB for short.
. . .------------------------------------------------------------------. | Make your plans NOW to attend the National DML Meet in Colorado! | | Date: July 15-23, 2006 - More info: http://meet.dakota-truck.net | `------------------------------------------------------------------'
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon May 01 2006 - 09:38:05 EDT