Key West or Out West

woodtrucker wrote:

ford truck guy wrote:

BarabooBob wrote:
And this is one of the great reasons I love living in Wisconsin. We are 1000 miles from the east coast, northern Florida, New Orleans, Denver, the Big Horn Mtns. I can be at any of those places within 2 moderate days of driving. Being on either coast means much more driving.

BUT, you are a frozen cheese head all winter ! :B

Sorry, could not resist !

All kidding aside, that would be awesome to be within 1ooo miles of everything

Man would it!

Agree with this 100%! Being in polarized parts of the country makes it difficult to get many places in a reasonable timeframe, which I think is part of the reason why we see so many try extremely ambitious trips.

South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado are some of my favorite places.

ford truck guy wrote:

BarabooBob wrote:
And this is one of the great reasons I love living in Wisconsin. We are 1000 miles from the east coast, northern Florida, New Orleans, Denver, the Big Horn Mtns. I can be at any of those places within 2 moderate days of driving. Being on either coast means much more driving.

BUT, you are a frozen cheese head all winter ! :B

Sorry, could not resist !

All kidding aside, that would be awesome to be within 1ooo miles of everything

Man would it!

BarabooBob wrote:
And this is one of the great reasons I love living in Wisconsin. We are 1000 miles from the east coast, northern Florida, New Orleans, Denver, the Big Horn Mtns. I can be at any of those places within 2 moderate days of driving. Being on either coast means much more driving.

BUT, you are a frozen cheese head all winter ! :B

Sorry, could not resist !

All kidding aside, that would be awesome to be within 1ooo miles of everything

woodtrucker wrote:

wowens79 wrote:
Alot depends on what they family likes to do, and how much you want to drive. The keys are a long haul, but out west is twice as far.
We've done the keys twice, and spent a week there. Both trips we spent one afternoon and evening in Key West. We like the water and to fish, so we snorkled from the beach and kayaks, and did a trip on a boat out to the reefs. We also fished from out kayaks and the beach, and also did a half day shark fishing trip that was a blast. Also central FL has some great springs to paddle and explore.
We are in GA, and have not gone west, but would really like to, but with limited time, I cant justify the drive/enjoy ratio :)

That's part of my struggle too. We'll be in transit much more exploring the area that we intent to arrive at. And about 3 weeks is as long we could afford to be gone. We have grown in our camping experiences and our family situation to handle longer periods of time away from home but none of us are really excited about riding in the truck for 4 days to get there.
That's why the outer banks are looking better for us because we can stay a week and a half very easily and it is at least a place we've never been as a family.

A

And this is one of the great reasons I love living in Wisconsin. We are 1000 miles from the east coast, northern Florida, New Orleans, Denver, the Big Horn Mtns. I can be at any of those places within 2 moderate days of driving. Being on either coast means much more driving.

wowens79 wrote:
Alot depends on what they family likes to do, and how much you want to drive. The keys are a long haul, but out west is twice as far.
We've done the keys twice, and spent a week there. Both trips we spent one afternoon and evening in Key West. We like the water and to fish, so we snorkled from the beach and kayaks, and did a trip on a boat out to the reefs. We also fished from out kayaks and the beach, and also did a half day shark fishing trip that was a blast. Also central FL has some great springs to paddle and explore.
We are in GA, and have not gone west, but would really like to, but with limited time, I cant justify the drive/enjoy ratio :)

That's part of my struggle too. We'll be in transit much more than exploring the area that we intent to arrive at. And about 3 weeks is as long we could afford to be gone. We have grown in our camping experiences and our family situation to handle longer periods of time away from home but none of us are really excited about riding in the truck for 4 days to get there.
That's why the outer banks are looking better for us because we can stay a week and a half very easily and it is at least a place we've never been as a family.

Alot depends on what they family likes to do, and how much you want to drive. The keys are a long haul, but out west is twice as far.
We've done the keys twice, and spent a week there. Both trips we spent one afternoon and evening in Key West. We like the water and to fish, so we snorkled from the beach and kayaks, and did a trip on a boat out to the reefs. We also fished from out kayaks and the beach, and also did a half day shark fishing trip that was a blast. Also central FL has some great springs to paddle and explore.
We are in GA, and have not gone west, but would really like to, but with limited time, I cant justify the drive/enjoy ratio :)

woodtrucker wrote:
So do I need to pre book the trip? That’s really only thing west worries me about.
Other than that, I think we can burn 3 weeks but that’s about all the time we’ve got.

We never pre-book. Drive until we figure out where we will be at the end of the day. Pull out a well used campground directory and start looking at what is ahead. Phone them up and have a site ready when we get there.
If we drive late and want to get an early start, there are all sorts of parking lots and rest areas. We don't do truck stops - too noisy. We also don't do isolated pull-offs (obvious reasons)

agesilaus wrote:

Make your reservations and cancel if you need to, be on the safe side. wrote:
And that is a major problem for RVer's. People with that attitude and the lack of financial pain for cancellations. Parks need to start charging people for cancelling at least within a couple of weeks of the date. Otherwise park spaces are denied to people who would really use them.

All California RV parks operate on some version of fees for cancellations. Another issue with reservations is Rver's that make reservations for just week ends which make it difficult for RVers that want to stay for weeks or longer through the weekends. It is a non intended conflict .

woodtrucker wrote:
Well, I have been on here before dreaming about a trip out west. I got VERY good feedback.
Didn't imagine I'd be trying to do it right now with COVID restrictions but here we are.
We are a family of 5. Kids are 15, 13, and 10 and we are ready for an adventure before our oldest is gone.
We have the time and money to actually take a trip out in our 5th wheel to either key west or out west. I prefer out west but a lot of things are closed due to covid so I'm apprehensive about going.

I also HATE to book something a year out. I'd love to book it right now and be able to go mid may time frame.
Any suggestions on where I should look right now?

Simple answer - WEST - we spent 12 weeks out in the Rockies last Summer and had no Issue - from Montana to Taos, NM - the West is open.

I did the trip with my two son's and 5 Granddaughter's a couple of their Cousins joined us with their Mom so our group totaled 14, with no Issues.

Our kids age group went from the 8 YO twins to a 21 YO cousin - For the most part we spent 1/2 our time in the Parks and 1/2 out - mostly on the Water - Lakes - Streams - Reservoirs, kids just love the water.

Think their favorite spot of the trip was Flaming Gorge on the Beach - On the Water.

IMHO you need to work up a Plan and roll on out to the Rockies.

JMHO,