Cross Country Trip - NH to SD

[AJK2015]

Hey All,

My Wife and I are planning a cross country trip from NH to South Dakota this summer. She has some extended family we are going to visit in eastern SD, but ideally I'm hoping to make it out to the Badlands. We are still trying to figure out the route, but below is a list of some of the states we are driving through. Two Adults, 2 toddlers so we will be aiming to stop every 5-6 hours, and camp in a roof top tent as much as possible. My wife and I have both camped before, but are by no means super experienced. Any tips, suggestions, or places you recommend we should stop and visit?

Sleep Arrangements: Purchased a Smittybilt Overland XL tent, looking to camp in the roof top tent as much as possible. Fall back to a cheap hotel if weather doesn't permit camping (lightning storms?)
Sleep sites: Still trying to identify good spots to camp. Hoping to drive through state\national parks as much as possible to camp.
Dates: Mid July, for about 16 days.
Food: 1 or 2 Coolers - 1 cooler in the back of the Jeep. The plan is to have a days worth of food (lunch stuff, dinner, breakfast) with us in that. Daily trips to grocery stores as needed. Potentially a second cooler on a Trailer hitch cargo carrier if needed.
Cooking\Kitchen: My father in law has a "camping box" he said we could use. It has a propane stove and some other things he has found useful over the years. I've yet to see it but trying to get my hands on it sooner then later to try it out.
Entertainment: Kids have tablets, otherwise my wife is trying to find some in-vehicle entertainment. Coloring books, magnets, road trip games.
Touristy stuff: Still trying to figure out places to stop and see. Kiddos love playgrounds, so we are hoping to try a new playground in each state we pass through.

States we are driving through:

1. Massachusetts - Drive-Through, not planning on stopping unless kids need to
2. Connecticut - Drive-Through, not planning on stopping unless kids need to
3. New York
4. Pennsylvania
5. Kentucky
6. Illinois
7. Missouri
8. Kansas
9. Nebraska
10. South Dakota
11. Iowa
12. Indiana
13. Ohio

Thanks!

 

[SandlapperOverland]

When you get to South Dakota, stop at 1880 Town (1880 TOWN). It's right off of I-90 and close to the Badlands. It's basically a recreated town from the 1880's along with some other roadside attractions (Dances with Wolves props and stuff) and an old train that's been turned into a diner. For a couple extra bucks, the wife, kids and you can dress up as cowboys and walk around the town. It sounds cheesy I know but my kids loved it and still talk about it two years later.



Just a warning...the food on the train isn't good and it's overpriced but you get to sit on a train which my kids thought was just the best (they were 5 and 2 1/2 at the time).

Le Claire, Iowa is just across the Mississippi from Illinois on I-80 and I wish we spent more time there. The shop from American Pickers is there which, I mean, meh, but the rest of the town is a quaint river front town reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn. There's plenty of riverboats, shops, breweries and restaurants along the banks of the river and if you're lucky you'll catch a train on the tracks which run right next to the river (which again, my kids thought it was awesome).

Custer State Park in South Dakota is definitely on par with any other National Park in the Black Hills. We didn't get a chance to make it because of time constraints but a couple of co-workers made it out there and their pictures and videos are just amazing. Speaking of the Black Hills...check out the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research (Museum @ Black Hills Institute). It's a dinosaur museum with fossils recovered in the area. Their webpage doesn't really do the place justice...they have a bunch of intact dinosaur fossils on display and the price is right: Adults tickets are $7.50, kids (6-15) are $4.00 and children (5 and under) are free.

Last place is also in the Black Hills and that's Big Thunder Gold Mine (Black Hills Gold Mining History | Gold Panning | Big Thunder Gold Mine). You get to walk into the mine and learn about how the old school miners mined for gold and what equipment they used. Afterwards, you can buy some dirt and pan for gold which again, my kids loved.


We're heading back to South Dakota in 2021 so if you find anything cool, please let me know! Have a great trip!

 

[Nomadik Nova]

Watching!

I'm planning a trip myself for August, my wife and I and our pup. We are hitting MAOF August 8-11 and leaving from there to head west. Going to try and make it to Idaho.

Seeking Recommendations - Virginia to Montana/Idaho Trip

I'm pretty excited to be planning a 20th Anniversary Trip for August 2019. My wife and I, along with our pup, will be attending the Mid-Atlantic Overland Festival (MAOF) in Huntingdon, PA August 8-11. This will kick off our adventure as we will leave from there and head WEST! Nothing concrete...

www.overlandbound.com

 

[AJK2015]

When you get to South Dakota, stop at 1880 Town (1880 TOWN). It's right off of I-90 and close to the Badlands. It's basically a recreated town from the 1880's along with some other roadside attractions (Dances with Wolves props and stuff) and an old train that's been turned into a diner. For a couple extra bucks, the wife, kids and you can dress up as cowboys and walk around the town. It sounds cheesy I know but my kids loved it and still talk about it two years later.
View attachment 102015


Just a warning...the food on the train isn't good and it's overpriced but you get to sit on a train which my kids thought was just the best (they were 5 and 2 1/2 at the time).

Le Claire, Iowa is just across the Mississippi from Illinois on I-80 and I wish we spent more time there. The shop from American Pickers is there which, I mean, meh, but the rest of the town is a quaint river front town reminiscent of Huckleberry Finn. There's plenty of riverboats, shops, breweries and restaurants along the banks of the river and if you're lucky you'll catch a train on the tracks which run right next to the river (which again, my kids thought it was awesome).

Custer State Park in South Dakota is definitely on par with any other National Park in the Black Hills. We didn't get a chance to make it because of time constraints but a couple of co-workers made it out there and their pictures and videos are just amazing. Speaking of the Black Hills...check out the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research (Museum @ Black Hills Institute). It's a dinosaur museum with fossils recovered in the area. Their webpage doesn't really do the place justice...they have a bunch of intact dinosaur fossils on display and the price is right: Adults tickets are $7.50, kids (6-15) are $4.00 and children (5 and under) are free.View attachment 102012

Last place is also in the Black Hills and that's Big Thunder Gold Mine (Black Hills Gold Mining History | Gold Panning | Big Thunder Gold Mine). You get to walk into the mine and learn about how the old school miners mined for gold and what equipment they used. Afterwards, you can buy some dirt and pan for gold which again, my kids loved.
View attachment 102014

We're heading back to South Dakota in 2021 so if you find anything cool, please let me know! Have a great trip!

Awesome! Thanks for the tips, I think my kids would love those places.

 

[Dave K]

In South Dakota add:

The Pioneer Auto Museum in Murdo SD. If you are a car guy you’ll love it. More collection that museum. Need a couple hours. I do anyway.

Wall Drug in Wall SD. Touristy? Yes. Cool. Very. Again, think collection meets tourist trap. Tons of stuff here. You could spend HOURS here if you dive deep on the display artifacts.

If you are into roadside attractions I like to use www.roadsideamerica.com . All sorts of stuff on there searchable by attraction, city or state.

 

[AJK2015]

WooHoo, Leaving Monday morning! The roof top tent came in last Friday, order it back in May so we haven't had a chance to test it out other then just hanging out for a hour or so at a time. If I think of it I'll try to post updates after on what worked & didn't work. I've had to baby the jeep for the past week. Once we put everything on, my MPG dropped down to 15MPG. After driving all week and keeping it under 2K RPM I've managed to creep it back up to 19.5MPG. Nowhere near the 24MPG I was getting when I had soft doors\soft top and no roof rack.

 

[SandlapperOverland]

Be sure to post some pics of the trip!

 

[AJK2015]

Hey Everyone,

Finished our 12 day trip last Thursday, we were all a bit skeptical about the RTT but man it changed camping for us. We will never ground camp again if we have a choice. We spent 12 days in it, did around 6000 miles round-trip and my kids & wife still want to go camping next month! The Jeep was a bit cramped by day 9, but over-all it went fantastic.

The landscape change from the Northeast to the midwest was crazy. I've traveled some for work, but air travel in and out of cities is different then seeing the country. Going from Northeast to the rolling hills\mountains of Pennsylvania, the never ending farm land (I can't stand the sight of corn now) of Iowa\Nebraska\Indiana, and then the Black Hills, Badlands, Custer State Park was amazing. My family is still talking about it, and my wife is asking what we will be doing next year when I have more time off.

Somethings that were beyond useful.

1. Waze - Helped reroute us around some bad traffic between stops.
2. Campendium - iPad app \ Website
   1. We used this to find campsites when it was getting to around 2-3pm. It helped us search a radius, get reviews, and see prices.
3. Take frequent breaks
   1. At one point I fell asleep at the wheel. Everyone was tired, I thought I could stay awake and ended up going off into a ditch. We lucked out and my wife woke up and snapped slapped me awake before we crashed and I was able to recover the Jeep before rolling. After that we started making sure we had breakfast and coffee before starting the Journey, instead of trying to drive a few hours with the kids asleep before stopping. Lesson learned, but we lucked out big time.
4. Bring spare keys
   1. My wife lost my Jeep key, and the Padlock key that was attached to it. I had brought my spare Jeep key, but no extra padlock keys (they were on the dining room table at home). Luckily we found both after we finished packing up, but there was some panic.
5. Stop and Enjoy the areas when you can
   1. We had a schedule, I only took 2 weeks off and had a few date commitments to family members. We ended up cutting out a lot of stuff that we wanted to see, didn't get to explore as much as we wanted. My wife and I both wish we were able to spend a couple days in various areas. Next year I may try to do 3 weeks so we can have more of a flexible schedule.
6. Keep a Journal
   1. I brought a notebook along with the idea of taking notes. It wasn't until day 3 that we started doing it. With how much we saw and experienced we forgot things that happened each day. I'll probably dedicate this notebook for future Camping \ Overlanding \ Family Experiences.

We took a lot of pictures (thousands), here is a collage showing some of them. A lot of the pictures we took have my wife & kids in them, so you end up getting a lot of pictures of the Jeep.

 

[CampWithChin]

Awesome trip. I’m sure your next adventure will be more epic. Trust me, i’ve been there. I do keep my journey like a blog online.