cross country trip, $ for suggestions

[T-God]

Are you Deliverance?

[wannabe2]

indianpolis- hinkle fieldhouse,butler university for a basketball game.. u will never get more chills.. if u need to know it.. watch hoosiers

[ALReturnsLOL]

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when are u taking the trip?

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dec 5th most likely

[rubbrband]

Do you like outdoors stuff at all? If so the Pacific north west will be a blast I def recommend Mt. Rainer. Try posting in B&M and ask them the best casinos to visit in the mid-west/west.

[colonel81]

wow pray to the weather gods once u get past st. cloud minnesota. No trees and any snow could be a disaster as it is always windy up here. Prolly the worst time other than maybe january to be heading through the midwest.

The heartland poker tour is having their championship In Gary Indiana

In Minneapolis i would definately say hit up the canterbury poker room. Maybe hit up the mall of america if u are into that mess. Also the tubby smith led Minnesoooota Gophers are playing at the barn Dec 12. There is a pretty nice casino near fargo called the shooting star casino about an hour northeast with some extremely soft games on the weekends. Other than that speed as fast as you can through north dakota.

Im still sticking to it you probably want to head south when u get to minneapolis and take i-90 through minnesota and south dakota it will be ten degrees warmer too. In south dakota u can hit up the badlands, mount rushmore, sturgis (actually see how small it is when there is no motorcycle rally) and deadwood (lots of poker rooms) all not too far from each other.

From there head into myoming maybe visit jackson hole and head north through both Grand Teton National park and yellowstone and up to bozeman and go skiing at Bridger Bowl possibly.

Like i said im not sure of your interest etc. but IMO there is not much to do this time of year west of minneapolis and the weather can be nasty.

[rubbrband]

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ok I have 25$ ftp to give away, and here is what I need. I am going to be taking off from Charleston,WV, and driving to Seattle Washington. Basically I need 2 things, one person gets prize for listing the most cool stuff I can do on teh drive, second gets a prize for the cheapest rental car. I need to be able to leave it in seattle tho, I wont be coming back for a while

edit to say I like casinos and fun stuff



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Your route looks good if you want to get there quick but terrible if you want to stop and see anything. For example Montana is a bunch of nothing but you can drive 100mph

[MFpoker]

ok first of all I took a trip from PA to WA last summer and it was awesome. you should take I-90 west from the chicago area, not that boring northern route that you're planning on. plus the weather is going to be terrrrrrible.

a few stops are a must...

-chicago is a fun place to party and spend the night
-yellowstone national park - one of the most beautiful places on earth. finally
-grand teton national park - the other most beautiful place on the earth.
-seattle has casinos, btw.

[RunDownHouse]

There's more or less nothing between the Twin Cities and Badlands Nat'l Park. The only experience I have is with South Dakota, not North, so I'll give you that.

Eastern SD is basically Nebraska. About 45 minutes east of Rapid city you'll come to Wall. I'm sure you'll see billboards for it starting at the border. If you don't need to stop, don't. I worked there for a while. It's nothing but a tourist trap, of which SD is amazingly packed. Don't stop for Wall Drug, don't stop for the "Cosmic Zone" or whatever it's called, don't stop for Reptile City. I know it's bizarre, but you'll see tons of billboards for tourist traps, almost all in the western portion of the state. Trust none of them.

Wall is basically the eastern border for Badlands National Park. It encompasses a really amazing terrain; the Badlands are like nothing I've ever really seen. I wish to god I could remember the name of the small, mostly abandoned town just inside the eastern border of the park, but I can't; I'm sure once you're there locals will point you to it with ease. National Geographic did a feature on it. It's got an old, abandoned jail from the 1800's that you can simply step inside. The "town" has a few buildings along the road, one of which is a bar. The bar has a floor covered with sawdust, sawed-off 55-gallon drums for stools, a low ceiling covered with carvings of names, and numerous bullet holes from its history of lethal bar brawls. When I stopped in, back in 2001, my friend and I got the stare down from the bartender and three locals covering the stools, who then ignored us when we said we just wanted to look around. All in all, a worthy little diversion as you travel through Badlands Nat'l Park.

Once you're west of Wall, there's several places of interest on your way out of humble SD. Deadwood should be worth a visit because it's not only the deathplace of Wild Bill, but there's a casino there as well. I was there before HBO filmed Deadwood, but I still fancy I recognized the hillside where they shot Bill's funeral, since his marker really is up on a hillside. Also, I ate so much at the Deadwood Casino's buffet that I threw up.

Mount Rushmore is also in western SD, and is more or less exactly like you'd picture visiting Mount Rushmore to be. Ditto for Devil's Tower, which is a few hours over the border into Wyoming. If you're going through in August, Sturgis hosts the largest Harley-Davidson rally on the planet. They've got live concerts in addition to the thousands - and I mean thousands upon thousands - of bikers for local color. Just a warning, though, don't go through the biker campsites at night. Locals warned me that people were routinely robbed and not infrequently beat up and/or knifed in those places during Sturgis.

Something that's just a head's up, since I don't really have any details, is to look out for scenic routes and unmarked roads on your trip. Between Deadwood and Devil's Tower, we took a scenic road. Eventually, it devolved into a gravel road for part of the time. Looking for a place to spend the night, we saw a used fire ring off the side of the road. It was in a natural clearing and just over a shallow creek. We drove our truck over the creek and set up the tent, and it was far and away the most beautiful and incredible camping experience I've ever had. At the time, we had heard that you could set up a camp anywhere there was an established fire ring. Double check that everywhere you go, but we did the same thing right on the western border of Rocky Mountain National Park, and it was also fantastic there. A short drive up a trail only a 4WD could get up, no RV's ten feet away, and an incredible camping experience. If you've got the vehicle and inclination for it, don't be afraid to take gravel roads off your main travel path and spend a few minutes looking for fire rings.

[RunDownHouse]

Also, you could consider taking the closest route to the old Oregon Trail. That'd take you on a more southern route, but could be fun, especially if you've got a laptop and a way to play the original game. Start in Independence, Missouri!