Kristy:
It's great you are working on organizing this for us. I hope that thed Heartlnaders can come to some basic areas of agreement in planning caravans.
Here are some basic questions that come to my mind:
1) What day do you want to arrive in Gillette? The first day of the rally, or before?
2) Do we want to hit any sightseeing points of interest along the way, or just get the miles behind us?
3) What travelling speed can we all agree on? Some post about cruising 65 mph with their rigs, I try to limit myself to 55 mph.
4) Based on the answer to #3, how many hours/miles do we want to average every day?
With some consensus on the above questions, we could start backtracking on Google mpas or mapquest figuring out the daily drives, availible campgrounds, fueling sites, etc. I did this on my Pacific Coast trip starting with a begin of rally arrival date, then working my way backwards along my desired route to home, finding stops at the correct distances each day until I was home and had a starting date.
I think in such a caravan, communications would be vital in case anybody had any problems. Along with sharing all cell phone numbers, everybody should have a Family Radio Service (FRS) walkie-talkie turned on to the same channel for immediate, group wide updates. I think having walkie-talkies on like this also at rallies would be great for those impromptu get togethers, or other public address announcements.
I am strongly interested in attending the Gillette National rally, if finances permit.