Ha ha - great idea. But not trying for speed record. Extremely flexible and looking for fun. And route may change on a moment. If 'World's largest collection of hats made of cheese' is 30 miles off plan - I may go there. As far as time limit... once I start all I need do is finish by the end of the year. Got lots of friends I could visit (old and new), relatives, a few graves, and some memories good and bad that I need to reconcile. Above all - have fun. Most of my travels have been hurried and I missed a lot. So.... busy, perhaps, but no real hurry. I agree - if interest could be held, move to its own thread.
If, after checking my current route on the previous map, anyone can suggest something unusual to veer off to, please let me know. Like best snow cones in the world, largest Paul Bunyun (yes there are several), favorite swimming hole, local brew, cheese steak not in Philly. You get the idea.
Aww yeah!! I saw your route goes through the Pocatello and Idaho Falls, Idaho area, and I have one for there. And then if you're close enough to Bozeman, MT, I have a two-fer there. Experimental Breeder Reactor-I (EBR-I) - INL EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder Reactor 1) was the first nuclear reactor in the world to be used to generate electricity, in 1951. It is a museum site now, and they do daily tours of it, but that's only during the summer half of the year--from Memorial Day through Labor Day. It's a pretty fascinating piece of history. So that's about a 20-some mile detour off of I-15 near Blackfoot, ID. Craters of the Moon is near there too, with some neat caves (bring a headlamp), but you probably don't want to be looking around there during the middle of summer with the black volcanic rock radiating the 106 degree heat. But if you're going during a cooler part of the year, it's interesting. And in Bozeman, MT, there are two very interesting museums, about two blocks away from each other, on either side of the Montana State University football stadium. Home Museum of the Rockies is one of those really big regional science and history museums that has some excellent dinosaur fossil exhibits. American Computer and Robotics Museum American Computer and Robotics Museum is obviously smaller than the really big Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, which I've also been to, but the one is Bozeman is amazing. They have some of the computers from the NASA space missions. They have one of the actual remaining Nazi Enigma encoding machines, and a display about creating the machines to crack that code. And there's stuff about programmed punch cards being used mechanically for weaving machines to make tapestries in the 1800's. And when I read the book Ready Player One, there is a scene where he is writing about a character working his way through levels in this virtual museum of the history of video game consoles, until he gets to the very bottom level, with the very first video game. It was called "Tennis for Two", and it was basically the precursor to Pong, but hand-built in a wooden box, with vacuum tubes and stuff. And when I read that, I was bouncing up and down, because I had seen that actual original in a display case in Bozeman. As someone for whom computers and electronics and video games have been deeply involved in my life--in hobbies and career--I found it amazing. You can do a nice day of this, where you do Museum of the Rockies in the morning, and then go over to the Computer museum, because it's only open from noon to 4PM.
AWESOME !!! Love going to see old computers. Occasionally, I'll find one of my old ones in a museum (that'll really make you feel old). Anyway was planning to veer off thru West Yellowstone, over to Cody, WY then toward S Dak. But now re-thinking and may go north then across Montana (have a few friends I could scare in Mont). I can always dip south to the edge of WY and S. Dak. Was thinking of doing the Beartooth Hwy. Did it last year - an AMAZING drive!!! But if I skip that, I can leave earlier due to weather up there.
I don't know if you've visited Colorado before but it looks like your route would only take you to the Four Corners part of Colorado. IMHO, that's not the best of what Colorado has to offer and could leave you disappointed. Besides being commercialized and requiring a per person fee to get past all the vendors, I believe it is currently closed due to COVID restrictions. A few years back, we drove over 5000 miles across every part of Colorado. We visited all four corners of the state, all 64 counties and every page of the Delorme Colorado Atlas, so we've been within about 30 miles of any part of Colorado. There are many, many other places I would recommend throughout Colorado before I would recommend Four Corners.
Yes, I have been to Colorado many, many times - aside from just the airport. My family lived in Colo Springs when I was a teen - hiked all over Garden of the Gods. My first month of driving, I took my dad up to Pikes Peak. Last year, I got to repeat except with my son. Also, same trip we drove from Moab across Colo and up to Wyoming. Winter at Breckenridge 3 years ago. So, on this trip, since I will be alone, I thought the logistics of my goal would allow me just touching Colo. And, never been to four corners - trust me - I can deal with Vendors. I once bought a Honey dispenser in Western Australia with the name of the town imprinted on it. A week after I got home in Md, I found the same Honey dispenser for sale at our drug store with name of our little town on it.
Ouch !!! Hope the news gets better for my trip. But, if not, I may still visit those states, but will re-route to just skim the borders. Sorry.... not politics. I have worn a mask and taken precautions (not for myself - my second dose vaccination will be done soon). My mask protects others from me. And if states are prematurely eliminating the requirement for political reasons, I will just have to avoid as much of those areas, (and spend as little of my life's savings there as a result). But plenty of other places to spend extra time with.
For whatever reason, every time I see the title of this thread, my brain immediately starts singing, "Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...." Hope yours goes better than the Minnow's.
The thing to be careful about at Four Corners (other than the potential COVID closure) is that they close at some absurd hour like 5 or 6pm even in mid-summer. The first time I went there they shut the gate right in front of us. We had driven hours out of our way to go there lol. But we were 23yo at the time and I knew I'd be back. The sad thing is that a group of senior citizens in an RV pulled up right as we were leaving.