Planning our 2014 summer trip

[DonnaR57]

AAA vs AARP.....

We are AAA members - always glad to have the peace-of-mind of the ERS as well as the free maps and tour books.

In yesterday's mail, we got an application for AARP membership. Other than Motel 6, can anyone think of lodging or restaurants that give discounts to AARP members and *not* to AAA members? That's the only one I can think of. They're also willing to throw in an insulated backpack, which looks nice for road travelers who like to hit the trail periodically. I'm still looking into the political aspect (we got out of AARP when they started to support something that we were very strongly against).

Comments?


Donna

[Pmount]

Currently Denny's is offering 15% off total ticket all day for AARP members. Over the years we have gotten a better room rate with AARP than AAA (also a member).
-Pat

[Lifemagician]

Denny's at Truck Stops give that to Pilot card holders as well. In fact sometimes I have been given 20%. Not that I go there much. Not much on their menu I eat.

Lifey

[DonnaR57]

Here's how the trip looks so far. (These are major stops. Not mentioning lay-heads-down-and-rest stops overnight unless there's a reason we're stopping there.)

Houston - Johnson Space Center
Sallisaw OK - an overnight, because hubby wants to return to Shad's Catfish Hole,
a restaurant he loved back in '11 - it works that it's a good mileage between Houston and central MO for 1 day drive
Osage Beach/Columbia, MO - family (stop at LI Wilder Mansfield on the way, and hopefully in Joplin to have coffee with GLC if the timing works right)
Gettysburg - this is try #3, as this section of the trip has been aborted 2x before
Suburbs of Chicago - family
Northern Wisconsin - still tentative, family
Northern MN - Headwaters of the Mississippi River
Minneapolis/St Paul - still tentative, Mall of America - may decide to forego and
stay longer in Bemidji
DeSmet/Huron, SD - day stop for LI Wilder, overnight in Huron (prices better at motel)
Badlands NP - Rapid City - Custer State Park - Mount Rushmore NM - Wind Cave NP
Devils Tower NM (on the way to Billings)
Yellowstone NP - Grand Teton NP
South Bay Area, CA - family
Coastal route home to SD



Donna

[DonnaR57]

Valuable lesson that worked out for us:

I had made reservations online a few weeks back, for the Black Hills portion of our trip. I had found a place in Custer City that seemed to meet our requirements, and did all the stuff to get reservations. Well, we never got an email confirmation, though I was sure I'd given my email address. I even checked that email, to make sure that the confirmation hadn't gone into the Junk/Spam, and no, it hadn't. (Nothing else has, so why would that?!)

So today, I got on the phone and called. Well, WHEW!!!! They had gotten our reservation, everything was great. The lady at the Motel was SO nice. She immediately sent out a confirmation after apologizing for the system failing us. I was able to ask a few questions about their place, and it sounds like all of the reviews I read were spot-on, as far as the friendliness of staff was concerned.

As long as I was on a roll ... often, we go without reservations. However, this trip is taking us into some tourist-y places. Once or twice we are there on weekends, too. After noticing that one place we thought about winging it with a coupon was rather high-priced on weekends, we looked elsewhere and found a better deal. Went ahead and made reservations. They're cancel-able if I do further research and find that it's in a lousy area or something. However, "Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio" (John Denver) will be the way it will be.

Donna

[DonnaR57]

Another thread brought to mind this question:

Is a 2-axle pickup truck charged as a Passenger Vehicle (Class 1) or a Class 2 vehicle (7000-15000 lbs) if it's an F250 (3/4 ton), on the Pennsylvania Turnpike?

Going out to Gettysburg, we are taking I-70 to I-79, south to I-68, pick up I-70 again, to I-81 north to Chambersburg, then US-30 over to Gettysburg. Returning, we were going up to Carlisle and catching the PA Turnpike there, then taking it to the Ohio Turnpike, to the Indiana Turnpike, to old home area. Hubby wants to make time, so it would be nice to know HOW we will get charged on the Turnpike West.


Donna

[glc]

PA: The weight is critical. Better load up the truck like it will be for the trip and go find a scale. If you are over 7k, you may or may not be able to BS your way through the toll booth.

OH: Class 1 as long as you are less than 7'6" tall.

IN: 2 axle class.

IL: Unclear. You may get charged small truck rate, to avoid that use the exact change buckets if any are open. I have an I-Pass and drive a F-150, I got billed the small truck rate once when I went through a manned booth instead of the express lanes.

[Midwest Michael]

IL: Unclear. You may get charged small truck rate, to avoid that use the exact change buckets if any are open.

With the exception of unmanned exit ramps, I don't believe IL has any change buckets anymore. It's now just "open road tolling" and exits off for cash. Considering most of the tolls are now over $1, change buckets don't make much sense anyway. I still do remember loading up my change in 40 cent intervals for the drive into Chicago on the NW tollway before they doubled the rate for cash, prompting me to pick up an IPass.

What you could do is drive through the Open Road/Transponder lanes and go back an pay it later. As long as you pay online within a week, there is no penalty.

[DonnaR57]

Illinois is one place where we will NOT be hitting any toll roads -- just PA, OH, and IN. We have different routes planned for IL which will avoid tolls completely.

We already know what the truck weighs -- we had to have it weighed when we transferred licensing and registration from AZ to CA, 3 years ago. I doubt if it's lost any weight. It's 8000+ lbs with the camper shell on (and we have no intentions of removing said shell). Do I have to find the paperwork with its stated weight? (I don't want to pay $15 again to have it weighed, if I don't have to.)


Donna

[Midwest Michael]

You're going from Indiana to the Suburbs of Chicago and onto Wisconsin, and you've got a route that will completely avoid tolls?

Would you mind sharing how you're pulling that off and/or are you someone who loves surface streets with stop lights every 500 yards?

I'm annoyed by tollways, but I've never found a good option around Chicago that wasn't much much worse.