Gobbler Nation

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 6:54 am**

Been looking at a late season trip to the Black Hills in WY/SD. I have no intention of driving 2300 miles each way from S/W Florida so flying was my only reasonable option. Airfares are still very good BUT when I started to try and lock in a needed rental car things got almost funny. Allegedly because of the pandemic (what's new) rental car prices are off the charts. Many have mentioned it is best to fly into Rapid City SD. Today's best rate for a 6 day rental in Rapid City is $1,120 and that's not including the damage waiver coverage. Denver somewhat better but still 2x what I consider reasonable. This will probably cause this trip to be a "wait until next year". Too bad. Was looking forward to it.

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 6:59 am**

Dang that sucks!

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 8:30 am**

Still shopping on all the discount sites. I have a target "go or no go" figure. We'll see. The current airfare is through Southwest so cancelling for a 100% refund is not a problem. Tired of everything is the virus' fault.

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 9:11 am**

Price drop alert! Rapid City down to $1,101.00 for an intermediate size car. LOL. Wouldn't you like to have a big deposit down at one of the many hunting operations in either state? Take a Uber.

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 10:09 am**

i don't know what my buddy got for a rate for us next week on a mini van, big enough for the 3 of us and guns & luggage at Rapid, but then again it was a couple of months ago that he booked it!

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 12:07 pm**

Booking early probably helped. Good luck.

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 1:54 pm**

Just got back from Wyoming/SD...the birds are hot! We tagged-out in Wyoming and then headed to SD and tagged-out there. Came home a few days early because we ran-out of tags.
It was my first time hunting Merriams...and now all I want to do is hunt Merriams!

Go!!!!!!!

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 1:54 pm**

Some folks are booking U-Haul trucks, because they're cheaper.

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 3:19 pm**

I have to say I cannot believe the money that people spend to kill turkeys. Seriously. I would spend money to hunt elk, grizzly, moose, caribou, and big whitetails but not birds. Not trying to give u a hard time north port joey.

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 3:44 pm**

LOL. Turkeys have been my passion since the late 1970s. I've always wanted to see Wyoming and the west and this is a good excuse to do it. The nice thing about a turkey is that in an hour I can have him cleaned, iced and in a cooler. An elk maybe not so much. To each his own. Good luck. :turkeywave:

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 7:36 pm**

Headed to South Dakota Saturday. I thought about a rental but for what they were asking I’ll rack up some miles on the Tacoma!!!!

Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 9:28 pm**

Prices were reasonable reserved back in Feb. $750 for a full sized truck or SUV for a week in Rapid City.

The problem is, you can reserve a vehicle like that you need, and they can do the old 'switch a roo' on you when you land and swap u out to a subcompact because all their trucks are gone. Consider renting from a local company. Have to Uber from the airport, but you should get the vehicle you reserve.

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Posted: **May 4th, 2021, 9:33 pm**

joey46 wrote: ↑May 4th, 2021, 3:44 pm LOL. Turkeys have been my passion since the late 1970s. I've always wanted to see Wyoming and the west and this is a good excuse to do it. The nice thing about a turkey is that in an hour I can have him cleaned, iced and in a cooler. An elk maybe not so much. To each his own. Good luck.

Same here! Other than an occasional jaunt across the border into Kentucky deer hunting, I never consider traveling to hunt anything but turkeys.

Posted: **May 5th, 2021, 7:42 am**

Seen the news report a couple nights ago about this. People have resorted to U Haul.Heck if you rent a big enough box truck you can even sleep in it at night.

Posted: **May 5th, 2021, 11:07 am**

I've found some good deals off airport in Denver on Ford cargo vans but it doesn't mention unlimited mileage. Bet not but still investigating. I could sleep every other night in a van. Be like the 60s. LOL.
BTW - my 2005 Tacoma just turned 170,000. Not sure it's ready for a 2300 mile trip and return. My back would never recover.

Posted: **May 7th, 2021, 12:00 pm**

Yup, was planning to rent one for 2 weeks in May. Prices over double what I paid in 2019. We will be driving instead!

Posted: **May 7th, 2021, 1:00 pm**

Either that or just won't go - again very frustrating. Not sure I want to do 4600+ total miles in a truck with 170,000 miles. Even if the truck does ok my mental condition probably would not.

Posted: **May 7th, 2021, 5:41 pm**

I envy you guys that have turkey hunting buddies. I can’t find anyone who wants to travel to hunt them. Typical response, you’re going all the way to South Dakota to kill a turkey??? So I’m going by myself. My circle of friends are not as fanatical as I am.

Posted: **May 9th, 2021, 1:46 pm**

We just finished our annual trip to South Dakota. 7 day rental fee for a Ford Expedition was $1509. Just a little bit higher than in years past.

Posted: **May 17th, 2021, 6:23 am**

Still have flight reservations into Denver on 5/24. Rental cars still IMO about 2 to 3 times higher than I'm willing to pay. The only thing I'm seeing is cargo vans, in town, at a reasonable price. Would require getting to a rental place 25 miles from the airport and then driving probably a thousand miles or so total in a cargo van. Yuck. Deal breaker.
Had an alternate trip up to PA discussed with a cousin's kid who lives in NJ. He's now waffling because of worries about gas. I would drive up and that is a concern since I'd be going through all the states currently having lines and shortages.
Afraid we're back to "try again next year". Still good for a laugh to look at rental car prices in Rapid City SD. Hard to believe.

Posted: **May 17th, 2021, 8:37 am**

joey46 wrote: ↑May 17th, 2021, 6:23 am Still have flight reservations into Denver on 5/24. Rental cars still IMO about 2 to 3 times higher than I'm willing to pay. The only thing I'm seeing is cargo vans, in town, at a reasonable price. Would require getting to a rental place 25 miles from the airport and then driving probably a thousand miles or so total in a cargo van. Yuck. Deal breaker.
Had an alternate trip up to PA discussed with a cousin's kid who lives in NJ. He's now waffling because of worries about gas. I would drive up and that is a concern since I'd be going through all the states currently having lines and shortages.
Afraid we're back to "try again next year". Still good for a laugh to look at rental car prices in Rapid City SD. Hard to believe.

Here in my part of NC the gas "crisis" seems to be easing.

Posted: **May 17th, 2021, 8:55 am**

Fly into Helena and I'll rent you a 1999 Honda Civic for half the cargo van price.

I can't guarantee it's performance on gravel roads. I can guarantee that you'll feel like a mouse when you pull up beside a big 4x4 at a stop light and that you have to look up at every drive thru window that you go by.

Posted: **May 17th, 2021, 9:33 am**

Turkinator wrote:I envy you guys that have turkey hunting buddies. I can’t find anyone who wants to travel to hunt them. Typical response, you’re going all the way to South Dakota to kill a turkey??? So I’m going by myself. My circle of friends are not as fanatical as I am.

Most times it’s the best way. It’s about all I do

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Posted: **May 17th, 2021, 10:25 am**

Hobbes_mobile wrote: ↑May 17th, 2021, 8:55 am Fly into Helena and I'll rent you a 1999 Honda Civic for half the cargo van price. I can't guarantee it's performance on gravel roads. I can guarantee that you'll feel like a mouse when you pull up beside a big 4x4 at a stop light and that you have to look up at every drive thru window that you go by.

2 years ago I was still driving a Honda Civic all over National Forest gravel roads in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Wouldn’t have been much different than most of the roads I drove last week in Nebraska. The 2 days it rained would have been very different though on the couple dirt roads. Civic wouldn’t have made it on them. Amazingly, in all the travels I did in the Civic, I never messed up a tire on gravel.

Posted: **May 17th, 2021, 11:02 am**

jhogue wrote: ↑May 17th, 2021, 10:25 am
Hobbes_mobile wrote: ↑May 17th, 2021, 8:55 am Fly into Helena and I'll rent you a 1999 Honda Civic for half the cargo van price. I can't guarantee it's performance on gravel roads. I can guarantee that you'll feel like a mouse when you pull up beside a big 4x4 at a stop light and that you have to look up at every drive thru window that you go by.
2 years ago I was still driving a Honda Civic all over National Forest gravel roads in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Wouldn’t have been much different than most of the roads I drove last week in Nebraska. The 2 days it rained would have been very different though on the couple dirt roads. Civic wouldn’t have made it on them. Amazingly, in all the travels I did in the Civic, I never messed up a tire on gravel.

I bowhunted whitetails and turkey hunted from a 1988 Dodge Daytona back in the early 90s to about 1995. I sometimes had to walk a little farther than other folks.

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