Questions about our first (and big) trip

riley5 wrote:
We are taking our first trip in a 1998 C Class RV starting next week for the next 3 weeks. Heading from Maryland to the National Parks out west. I'm looking for any and all advice. ?? (It wasn't supposed to be our first trip, but we were thwarted in a search for parts that set us back a long time. Not ideal.)

My big questions -
Do I need to plan to carry in water for national parks? Where to fill up?
How hard is it to add a second battery to store power for being unplugged?
How much additional time do we need to allow when traveling from park to park (Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Arches) during the summer?
Do any of those national parks have any wifi access? If not, which I suspect, where can you get access?
What is the opportunity to get gas along that general route?

Thanks in Advance

Sounds like an awesome trip!
I'll address a couple of your questions relating to the RV and leave the driving/distances for you to get plenty of opinions on from the crowd, lol.
Water on board? Uhhh yeah that's why I bought a camper. Got up to 50gal on tap. If I didn't want unfettered accesss to RV features, I'd save the gas mileage and pack a tent.
Getting water is not hard. Bring a hose. I've never found it difficult to get water .....or dump.
Extra battery, you'll still kill 2 good 12V batteries in about 2 days even running fridge onpropane in hot weather. Unless you're hyper milling your electrical usage. Adding a battery is super easy. You have everything there and can parallel another battery or 2 easily without modifying anything else. Just gotta find the space to put them and know how to wire them up, which is straightforward even for a beginner. Get some 2 or 4 ga wire and good lugs. +to + and - to - its that easy.
Boondocking will require good solar or generator for recharging unless your rv has a great charging circuit for when you're on the road.
If the rv is in good order and you all have basic mechanical altitude you'll be fine.
Our first test run of the camper was from WA to AK. You can test the camper functions in the driveway. Either hey work or need fixed. The coach, go take it for a hard drive for a couple hours in the hot sun. Push it's limits a bit. If it doesn't puke you'll be fine there barring totally unexpected things.

Good luck. And have fun