Carpool from Minnesota and Share a Room

marcuspohl

Hello! I'm very interested in attending PAX this year, but none of my friends can go. I thought I'd look for people to hook up with here, otherwise I most likely won't be able to go. I would prefer to stay at the hotel for friday, saturday and sunday nights. (Driving thru the night on Thursday and home on Monday.)

I would prefer to drive (it's around a 24 hour trip one-way), but I'm an excellent long trip driver (I've made 12 hour drives solo in the past). Some benefits to driving are obviously going through Montana and the Rocky Mountains. Also, the drive will be completely by freeway. I-94 and I-90 I believe.

As far as a room and gas money are concerned, I am looking to split it evenly. (I don't really care if I sleep on the floor either.) I am willing to be the one who books the room at the hotel. I have not pre-registered for PAX yet, but will as soon as I can get enough confirmed people to go with.

Please post in this thread if you have any questions or comments.

UPDATE: I have a friend going now, we are still willing to share our room and carpool. I have also pre-registered.

UPDATE 2: I have booked a room at the Double Tree as well. Friday night through Sunday night.

Älphämönkëy

Sorry, Im flying, though I will mention it to people who are interested.

marcuspohl

Thank you alphamonkey!

TheKoolEagle

hey alpha how much does a ticket cost for round trip? since i got $250 saved already i might just fly

DJ Eebs

If the East Coast Supertrip/Great American Supertrip gets off the ground, there may be a Waypoint in Minnesota.

marcuspohl

I have a friend going now, so I have pre-registered.

marcuspohl

I have now also booked a room at the Double Tree. Just keeping this thread up to date!

precisionk

Whereabouts do you live?

marcuspohl

I live in Annandale, MN near St. Cloud. My friend, who is coming with, lives in Minneapolis.

Dog

a round trip air ticket from minnesota costs over $400...

I'm thinkin bout kickin off from Becker this year... maybe we'll meet up on the road

marcuspohl

I saw lots of roundtrip tickets on Northwest for $280. Maybe you should check out the site: http://www.nwa.com

Framling

Hey, we (Jordyn and I) are in Brookings, SD, a little under an hour from Sioux Falls and I-90. Let's talk logistics: are we just talking about all piling into a car? What kind of car, what kind of gas mileage does it get, etc.

We're planning on flying, since she can probably get her parents to use their frequent flyer miles to get her a ticket, so we'd only have to pay for mine. If driving's significantly cheaper, though, we'll do that.

marcuspohl

Well, now that I have at least one friend going I did some estimating.

If just the two of us went, it would come out to about $600 total for gas, food, hotel and some spending money. So I'm going to be paying $300 myself as it stands now. It's hard to estimate expenses further than that, because we'd be meeting at a different location and the money split for gas would change. (You aren't going as far.) I was planning on driving my Honda Accord, but who knows? I may have a new car by then, or if there's more people going, I might need to get a larger vehicle.

Another thing to consider if we meet up somewhere, so one would be leaving their car behind. Would need to find a safe location to park it for a few days.

Framling

Well, since we're comparing this to flying, let's consider just the actual travelling costs. I'd be willing to drive in shifts on the way there, so we'd basically just be talking gas. Sioux Falls to Bellevue, according to mapquest, is pretty much a 1500-ish mile shot straight across on I-90. With that in mind:

1: what's a good per-gallon gas price estimate, considering the majority of travel will be through parts of the midwest that can be expected to have lower-than-national-average gas prices (it's only (god, only?) $1.92 a gallon here, for example)? Do we want to say $2.50?

2: What kind of gas mileage does your car get? Also, I'm tall (6'5" ish). Am I going to wind up folded in half in this thing? (Though it's hard to imagine it being more cramped than coach on an airplane.)

As for car parking, don't worry. We've got enough friends and relatives in the area, we can make arrangements.

marcuspohl

Hmmm. Well I didn't do any "hard" estimating, just rough. I recently did a 12 hour drive into Missouri and only had to fill up once on the way down (and again before I left). So I figure since the drive to Bellevue is around 24 hours from my place, I'll have to fill up 4 times on the way there (including the fill up on arrival) and 3 times on the way home. My car has a smaller gas tank at 13 gallons and I've never paid more than $25 to fill it up.

As for your height, you would probably be cramped unless you sat in the front seat. (Not a lot of leg room in the back, but it is a four door.) Please take into account that I'm not sure if this is the vehicle I'll be taking, the trip isn't till August.