How to plan??

We did a grand tour of the southwest, west coast and northwest a few years ago. I made NO reservations as I didn't know where we'd be stopping or when. It worked out beautifully since every time DW got tired and wanted to stop for a day or two we simply found a campground with a site open or a nice truck stop or something similar. :C

I think there have been maybe a dozen or so nights where we made a reservation ahead of time and THOSE times were holiday weekends. Travel is supposed to be fun (and in our case, spontaneous) and laying down plans like reservations means you're NOW on a schedule. Be a little bit flexible and it's rare you can't find a place to stay. so far I've been SOMEWHERE every night and I've NEVER stayed in a parking lot though I have used some highway rest areas for an overnight.

We find that if we stop early during the week we don't have any problems finding campgrounds. For holidays we do make reservations. For weekends, we arrive early Thursday and stay thru Saturday or Sunday night. Most weekend campers arrive Friday afternoon and have to leave Sunday to go back to work.

I would go without reservations in September. This would give the most flexibility.

thanks!

We usually contact a campground early in the day after determining where we may stop that evening. Checking map programs (Google, Bing, or Streets and Trips) or Good Sam gives us a radius of where we plan to stop. We can then plan from there.

BTW OLD 66 has pretty much been replaced by interstates. Be careful that you don't get on an old stretch still identified as US66 and find it is not maintained or dead ending somewhere down the road. This is very common on parts of 66 that traverse AZ and NM.

Here is a link to some good info on route 66 through AZ:

Arizona Route 66

Our coast to coast loops...we had a 'general' plan and direction like you do.
Mostly just pulled into campgrounds without reservations..Did call ahead in the morning sometimes for our next stop that night.

You really only need reservations at popular - resort location campgrounds. Stuff like waterfront, Grand Canyon, Disneyland, etc. in the summer and on weekends.

Never stayed at Walmarts, reststops, etc.
Planned flexibility.