Never done this before- Cross USA plans
Me and two other blokes have some time off in November and December. We want to purchase a smaller motor RV (thinking like Winnebago Riata) and traveling from Vermont to Cali, down to Florida and back...
Forum Discussion
I think it is certainly something you could do. Most of the major highways are kept passable most of the year. Car and truck traffic keeps moving, and a motorized RV is not that different than a car or truck of the same size. The front drive Rialta is as mobile as a large minivan, which is essentially the platform it was built on.
Unless the motorhome you choose has been designed for cold weather use (smaller ones often are not) you might be traveling "winterized" in those areas that stay below freezing. If so, the experience might not be much different than doing the trip in a van with beds and some furnishings installed. More camping than RVing.
In the parts of the country that have cold winter, you will find most RV facilities closed for the season. Not sure what you want to see, but you will also find many of the destinations that vacation travelers visit in other seasons to also be closed for the winter.
When I have to move my RV through winter country, I find myself sometimes using motels, for the creature comforts the RV can no longer provide when out of its design range. (Mine does OK with days that are slightly below freezing at the low, about 10 F above freezing for most of the day; any colder and I winterize).
You need schedule flexibility. While roads are kept open generally, they can be closed for weather briefly. This happens as far south as I-30 and I-20, running through Arkansas, northern Louisiana, and northern Texas. I've been in the area west of Dallas when I-30 and connecting highways closed for almost a week after Christmas, until the highway department could borrow enough snow removal equipment from a more northern state.
The problem tends to be worse in places where snow is rare, ice is more common, and they don't have removal equipment for big jobs. They do better where winter is more severe. 30 of my first 35 years were in Great Lakes snow country, and I was used to regularly driving through places that get 200 inches or more snow every winter; you just don't make the trip during the storm, you make it after things are cleared. But even those places have their limits; I was in Chicago for the snow storm that paralyzed the city for a week, took months to clean up, and brought down the mayor in the next election.
So you go when you can, you wait or find alternate routes when you can't go. You could get lucky and find your whole route just cold and dry, at the time you want to go through (though not as likely crossing the Sierra Nevada and Coastal Range, as it is on the Plains).
Unless the motorhome you choose has been designed for cold weather use (smaller ones often are not) you might be traveling "winterized" in those areas that stay below freezing. If so, the experience might not be much different than doing the trip in a van with beds and some furnishings installed. More camping than RVing.
In the parts of the country that have cold winter, you will find most RV facilities closed for the season. Not sure what you want to see, but you will also find many of the destinations that vacation travelers visit in other seasons to also be closed for the winter.
When I have to move my RV through winter country, I find myself sometimes using motels, for the creature comforts the RV can no longer provide when out of its design range. (Mine does OK with days that are slightly below freezing at the low, about 10 F above freezing for most of the day; any colder and I winterize).
You need schedule flexibility. While roads are kept open generally, they can be closed for weather briefly. This happens as far south as I-30 and I-20, running through Arkansas, northern Louisiana, and northern Texas. I've been in the area west of Dallas when I-30 and connecting highways closed for almost a week after Christmas, until the highway department could borrow enough snow removal equipment from a more northern state.
The problem tends to be worse in places where snow is rare, ice is more common, and they don't have removal equipment for big jobs. They do better where winter is more severe. 30 of my first 35 years were in Great Lakes snow country, and I was used to regularly driving through places that get 200 inches or more snow every winter; you just don't make the trip during the storm, you make it after things are cleared. But even those places have their limits; I was in Chicago for the snow storm that paralyzed the city for a week, took months to clean up, and brought down the mayor in the next election.
So you go when you can, you wait or find alternate routes when you can't go. You could get lucky and find your whole route just cold and dry, at the time you want to go through (though not as likely crossing the Sierra Nevada and Coastal Range, as it is on the Plains).
