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I'm having a new house built in Windsor, CO, and will be moving out there from Berkeley Heights, NJ once it's completed, somewhere in the June - August timeframe, I hope.
I've got 2 vehicles, a 2003 BMW 325xiT & a 2016 Ford Explorer Sport that I will be bringing out with me. My current plan is to drive one vehicle out, fly back east (I'm retired from United Airlines, so airfare is not an issue), and then drive the other vehicle out.
It appears as though I could drive out either I-80 or I-78/I-81/I-70. According to Apple Maps, there is only 72 miles difference between the two routes, so I am figuring to take one vehicle out via one route & take the other route for the other vehicle.
I haven't been on I-70 between the western end of the PA Turnpike and Denver or on I-80 between Chicago and North Platte, NE, so anything in between would be new ground for me.
Will be mostly driving straight through with overnight stops. Looks like both routes will take 3 roughly 600 mile days. Don't really want to go over 700 miles/day.
I know that I-80 has tolls in OH, IN, and I think IL, and I-70 has tolls on the PA Turnpike. Also E-470 around Denver has tolls, but I know the roads to use to avoid the E-470 tolls. Any other sections of either route have tolls? I'm not concerned about bridge tolls, unless we are talking about something like the $15.00 Cash toll needed to cross the George Washington Bridge into NYC...
Any suggestions on "must see" attractions along either route? The Gateway Arch in St Louis comes to mind.
Gateway Arch is cool, but if you're planning to ride the elevator to the top you have to purchase tickets well in advance. It's usually a madhouse at the museum beneath the arch, too.
I-70 has tolls from Kansas City to around Topeka because it's part of the Kansas Turnpike.
Both Kansas and Nebraska are a beatdown, but I personally prefer I-80 across Nebraska over I-70. There's really nothing to see in either state once you get west of Salina in Kansas or North Platte in Nebraska (although I've heard people rave about Ole's Steakhouse in Paxton).
If you go the I-80 route you can skip Denver completely by taking US-34 from west of Fort Morgan, Colorado, to Greeley.
Also in NE is "The longest straight stretch of Interstate anywhere in the Interstate Highway System is the approximately 72 miles (116 km) of I-80 occurring between exit 318 in the Grand Island area and mile marker 390 near Lincoln"
In IA, Northwest of the Quad Cities in Walcott is Iowa 80, the World's Largest Truckstop
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Take I-70 to west of MO, (Enjoy BBQ in KC) they angle up through Nebraska City (Hwy 2) to I-80 (great food in Lincoln + Capital Building - scenic / historic wonder)
Be SURE to stay at Minden, NE (Pioneer Village), reduced entry with motel stay / camping. It is fabulous!!! so are the 'hot-cakes!' been enjoying them for 50+ yrs! (when passing through NE) Pioneer Village
Windmill State Park is nearby and quite interesting.
Kearney
North Platte (Watch the PBS "North Platte Canteen" before you go to NE, you will appreciate NE more!) https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...-heart-in-wwii
of course can not miss Ole's! (Paxson) https://www.olesbiggame.com/ Spend some time talking with the waitress, get to know the locals! (You will be back!)
Ft Collins friends usually head to Sidney (Cabelas) / Cheyenne.
I head to Sterling and take 14 across to Ft Collins (I like small towns and have FOND memories of prairie life and Pawnee Pass (my FIRST speeding ticket) ... Stoneham / New Ramer / Briggsdale CO (truckdriving through blizzards... Missile silos, cattle mutilations of 1970s, hitchhiking and Got picked up @ 3AM by 2 weird couples chasing flying saucers ...) and one night I came upon a bankrobber shootout... the cops had blown ALL the windows out of the car.. !). Broke down in Stoneham and walked to the pay phone. The operator was aghast the phone even worked @ -22f with blowing snow) The phone booth was kinda warm...
Next trip to Europe... consider getting rid of that NJ scared 325 and take a Euro delivery 325d !!!! it will make you SMILE driving in Colorado mtns! 50 mpg will make you smile too! I have (3) friends that luv'em. especially in mtns.
When you get moved in... take the drive to Devil's Backbone and Masonville (my home ranch MANY yrs ago) I like to drive back to FtC via Rist Canyon.
and...
Very nice day trip... up the Poudre to Walden, over to Encampment, WY (Excellent museum) on to the Hobo (Free) hot springs in Saratoga, over the Snowy Range into Laramie, then sunset at Vedauwoo!!! (lay on the HUGE rocks and watch the stars (Meteor showers in Aug!)) We used to do that after work on our MC's (but usually went over Trail Ridge Road in summer, then to Walden.
Next trip to Europe... consider getting rid of that NJ scared 325 and take a Euro delivery 325d !!!! it will make you SMILE driving in Colorado mtns! 50 mpg will make you smile too! I have (3) friends that luv'em. especially in mtns.
Thanks for the info StealthRabbit.
But I don't plan on getting rid of the 325xiT anytime soon. Picked it up in Munich on the Euro Delivery Plan in October 2002 & put over 700 miles on it over there. It's a bit of a rarity - it's a Touring (i.e. station wagon in this country), and it has a manual transmission. Here it is in Füssen, Germany in front of where we stayed.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fanjet
Thanks for the info StealthRabbit.
But I don't plan on getting rid of the 325xiT anytime soon. Picked it up in Munich on the Euro Delivery Plan in October 2002 & put over 700 miles on it over there. It's a bit of a rarity - it's a Touring (i.e. station wagon in this country), and it has a manual transmission. Here it is in Füssen, Germany in front of where we stayed.
Mark
understand... I too am 'stuck' on Euro Wagons (B4V) have 4 of them... 1250 miles per fill-up.
Keep people off your tail (I have had (4) cars destroyed in chain reaction Rear-end collisions at stop lights (Cell phone talking SUV's).
AND... carry a 'specialty binder' on the 325xiT, since the 'paying' insurance company is not likely to go fetch an equivalent by noon tomorrow.
Thus... I have had to BUILD my last 2 B4V's (from low mileage GLX's)
Keep people off your tail (I have had (4) cars destroyed in chain reaction Rear-end collisions at stop lights (Cell phone talking SUV's).
This happened to my 2012 Escape on I-78 in Newark, NJ 2 years ago last January.
This was on a Wednesday, it had snowed the previous weekend. I was going home from Newark
Airport after a flight from FL.
I was all by my lonesome in the Express side of the highway. Over on the Local side, a driver hit a patch of unplowed snow, slid into a Semi that was along side of her. The Semi slammed on his brakes & jackknifed, then slid over the median right in front of me. Luckily, I hit the Semi on the rear tandem axle tires of the tractor (the trailer was still jackknifed over to the right).
I survived with a fractured left radius bone, next to the wrist and having to cancel a week's ski vacation @ Beaver Creek that was supposed to start the following Sunday.
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) ... Stoneham / New Ramer / Briggsdale CO (truckdriving through blizzards... Missile silos, cattle mutilations of 1970s, hitchhiking and Got picked up @ 3AM by 2 weird couples chasing flying saucers ...) and one night I came upon a bankrobber shootout... the cops had blown ALL the windows out of the car.. 
!). Broke down in Stoneham and walked to the pay phone. The operator was aghast the phone even worked @ -22f with blowing snow) The phone booth was kinda warm... 
