Road Trip!- Boston area to Minneapolis Mn

So yesterday my wife, as we were getting up, went, "i'd like to show the kids where i went to grad school (Minneapolis/ St Paul area)" and i went, umm ok... we talked for a minute and she went, drive or fly, i went Driving would be cheaper getting there if we just "drove" there (takes about 24 hrs barring traffic)

so i do my morning then and go to work and an idea popped into my head,,,instead of driving straight, lets do a "vacation" (the movie- original not that new one) sort- amusement parks etc.

now i know the route, but no idea of what to see otw, so into google maps i go and my first thought was hersey park in Penn - about a 6.5hr drive- and in the general direction of mn (west)

then i from watching travel channel and discovery remembered there was supposed to be a great place in ohio, so googled amusement parks in ohio and got Cedar Point as the first response, and i was --yep that is the one-- added that (6 hr drive from hersey park)

so for the next stop i am thinking Illinois -there any good amusement parks near chicago area- that is not Six Flags? i chose raging waters(water park) just to switch it up some...(6 hr drive from cedar point)

then after chicago, it'd be another 6-8ish hrs to minn (valley fair is the nearest one there but i think the kids might be amusement parked out by then and we'll just "sight see" show the kids como park/zoo the state zoo, mall of america, etc...


i showed my "itinerary" to the wife and she liked it, so we will most likely do those 3 parks (definately doing hershey and cedar point) in some order and staying overnight a day or two at each spot... Most likely scenario would be skipping cedar point on the way out and doing that LAST on the way home. the reason i say that is travel distances.... can do boston to hershey in under 7 hrs, then hershey to chicago in 10 hrs, then to minn/st paul 6 hr then minn/st paul to sandusky in 11 hrs and then sandusky to boston in 10.5 hrs. (barring construction/accidents/traffic)
day 1 travel to hershey- overnight- park overnight- travel to chicago overnight park overnight travel to mn overnightx3 travel to oh overnight park overnight home so that would be 9 days...


there is one OTHER leg of the journey that is possible but we might skip it due to time - which is to go farther West and see mount rushmore/custer state park- and stay in rapid city SD for 2 nights. (~10hr drive there, overnight, do mount rushmore/park overnight, start heading back to home) that would tack on 3 days since we'd have to stop around chicago to overnight)


so what good restaurants/sights to see should i be on the lookout for around the Chicago area/ hersey park penn and sandusky oh areas, besides the obvious amusement parks (and the chocolate factory in hershey-my youngest son, when i went hershey park- he went, not going i hate chocolate!- i went, yes the hershey factory is nearby but, its an Amusement park with rollercoasters!)

i'd do the rv thing, and there is a rental place in my city, but the rates are atrocious.
1200 a week/700miles then 25c every mile after that...

i'm doing 9 days so that is 900 miles for "free" 1200+400=1600 for the RV then
total trip is 4200 miles more or less so 4200-900=3300x0.25= 825 for milage

so renting the rv would be 2425 (plus tax) and gas

which is ABOUT the same price as renting a minivan for 9 days and doing a hotel every night (@150 a night)

or 1000 more if i just take my minivan....

i am hoping the timing for the trip would facilitate slightly less crowds (ie week days (mon-wed) vs latter part of the week or weekend...

Buying the fast pass plus for cedarpoint that way we can be those Dicks that skip most of the line. ....trip planned except for 2 nights that we are not sure how far we are getting reservations made for all the main stops- day 1 - stopping somewhere between rochester and buffalo, then 2 nights ohio, 1 night wisconsin, 3 nights minn/st paul 1 night somewhere around indiana/ohio depending on how far we drive that day then 2 nights hershey penn, then home- leaving on a sunday . coming back 10 days later. the kids wanted to skip chicago area stuff so for parks we are just doing cedar point and hershey park.