How to plan??

I am still wayne_tw wrote:

MarshaNichols wrote:
how do I reserve a campground ahead of time but still be unscheduled?

You can't! Come on, how would you reserve anything without a schedule to be there when reserved? Think about it, call the campground and tell them, "I want to reserve a site for next Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. I am not sure which day I will be there. I may arrive before noon, but could also arrive after 9 at night." How could a campground possibly reserve a site for you?

Come on, yourself! You know what I mean! I like to stay free to go where/when I want but wanted advice, not sarcasm. Most people responded appropriately...thank you to THEM! :(

MarshaNichols wrote:
how do I reserve a campground ahead of time but still be unscheduled?

You can't! Come on, how would you reserve anything without a schedule to be there when reserved? Think about it, call the campground and tell them, "I want to reserve a site for next Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. I am not sure which day I will be there. I may arrive before noon, but could also arrive after 9 at night." How could a campground possibly reserve a site for you?

Much of the old 66 is heartbreaking. We often pull off to go into the small towns it goes thru.
There are several books on the 66, check to see if your library has any of them. If you find one that will help, buy it from Amazon.
I keep thinking I should get our pictures together and write a book but I also know it would be depressing.
Some state visitor centers have information that will help you.

We figure out an itinerary of our travels (full-timers) and then only make
reservations to cover the major holiday weekends. We very seldom travel more
than 200 miles in a day and we always stay a minimum of two nights when we
stop. Sometimes, depending on where we are, we make reservations for our next
stop a week or more ahead, or sometimes just a couple days. Before May 31 and
after Labor Day, reservations usually are not needed. Have never stopped at
a Walmart or Truck Stop.

Don't know about Arizona or California parts of the trip. Grand Canyon can still be pretty busy, and September sees a big influx of RV visitors from Europe to the Colorado Plateau parks and tourist sites.

From experience, I can tell you along the Old 66 route through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri reservations will not be needed if you are just looking for a place to stop. RV park and campground space will not be a problem after Labor Day weekend, and things don't start closing for the winter until later in October.

I don't know Nebraska, haven't been there yet in a RV, September and October.

RV parks in the Rocky Mountains, if your route takes you to Colorado and maybe NE New Mexico, you might start having a problem with closures for the winter, middle to late September. It slacks off that much. You will find parks open, and spaces in campgrounds, but not everything will be open, the way it is during the busy summer season. A lot of RV park operators go south for the winter, and public campgrounds depend on volunteer hosts who will also flee to a warmer climate.

Get a good RV park and CG guide (I used Trailer Life, guess it is now Good Sam) and check at the middle of the day where you might stop. Pick out some parks in the area, call ahead to see if they are still open. Many listings include the dates if the parks have a season, but dates can change.

hedgehopper wrote:
When we arrived at the RV park, which was some distance from the highway, we discovered that they were no longer in business.

Did that once. :R It was on all the maps as an active RV park. I believe there may have even been a sign on the highway.

Pulled in and looked around and the guy came up to the coach wanting to know why we were in their construction company parking area. Seems they had bought the RV park earlier in the year and were using it as a "home" station and RV lot for their traveling crews. He politely asked us to depart immediately.... or else?

Usually, we do not make reservations and that has seldom been a problem. Sometimes, when we see that we will not arrive at our intended destination until after the office will likely be closed, we call ahead. Usually, we get to talk with a live person and find that reassuring. Oftentimes, the person will give instructions for late check-in. Sometimes she will promise to stay late until we arrive. Calling ahead like this is generally preferable to just showing up and then looking for a site, especially if we will arrive after dark.

On one occasion when we did not call ahead, we wished we had. When we arrived at the RV park, which was some distance from the highway, we discovered that they were no longer in business.

I followed a lot of route 66 this past winter. Some of it is so badly deteriorated that driving on it will scare you. Some of it goes right through the middle of little towns and becomes a narrow street with parking on both sides and stoplights. It crosses and/or blends with route 40 in many places. The best stretch that I was on went through Williams, AZ.

I doubt that you will need any reservations unless there's a holiday or a special event going on. Of course, in major population areas, arriving on a weekend may necessitate reservations.

Frankly, I was pretty disappointed in route 66 and really thought that, given its history and historical importance, it would be better preserved. Some maps show it as the National Highway, others don't show it at all, even though it's still there. None of the maps I have show it as route 66.

The route 66 website was a big help.

We are planning our first lengthy trip, next month. We have reservations at our final destination at James Island County Park (5 nights) but since we are traveling during the week and don't know exactly where we may stop for 2 nights along the way, we did not make any reservations for the overnight stops. We'll see how it works out.

We've been fulltiming three years. At first we made reservations found it a waste. Traveling in September after Labor Day you should have no problems finding campsites. Just get a early start and get off the road by 3:00. That said if you roll into a tourist area on Friday you may still have a problem. Last year, week after Labor Day we pulled into Moab UT noonish on a Friday and got site in a near empty campground by late afternoon the place was full.