Advice for a cross country trip

I only keep about 5 gal of water on while traveling

I've travelled cross country for 4 different summer trips. We have teen-aged kids and a campground with a pool makes the evenings much more pleasent.

We drive 400 mi/day which is about 8 hours. We plan out every stop to ensure we are staying at good campgrounds. There are a lot of campgrounds out there that have lots of permanent residents, and I generally don't feel save there. I'd rather plan each stop than stay at a bad campground.

Also, weekends can have limited availability.

With kids during summer months, I think reservations are required. I need a campground with a showerhouse because it takes to long for 5 people to get a shower and still get on the road at a reasonable time.

Atlee wrote:
...........The impending birth of twin grandchildren during the time frame of our trip out west, has ended our big trip this year.......

No reason to cancel a trip. Just Skype in. You need to stay away until they're out of diapers anyway. If you think hard, you'll remember what that smelled like.

On our trip to the west coast early in 2014, we never had reservations ahead of time. The main reason is I didn't want to be tied to a date certain to be at a particular place. I had an idea when I'd be at a particular place, but didn't know for sure.

What would happen is I'd have the navigator (DW) call ahead when I knew for certain I'd be at a place to stay. Most of the time it was the morning just after we got on the road again.

That said, for this year's planned trip to Yellowstone, I did make reservations months in advance because I'd heard it's very hard to get a place inside Yellowstone at the last minute.

Unfortunately, I've got to cancel those reservations now. The impending birth of twin grandchildren during the time frame of our trip out west has ended our big trip this year.

TNGW1500SE wrote:
Pulling 31' trailer. Never pulled it more than a couple of hundred miles from home. Thinking of a trip from Knoxville TN to Yosemite Park in CA. No generator so no A/C if not plugged in :(. Has slides but bath and bed can be used without opening slides.

Thought I'd change truck oil, get new tires on camper, repack camper bearings, fill fresh water tank and propane. Pack a cooler in truck bed with food and drinks.

I'm thinking drive 6 hours a day for 3 days in a row and then stay two days to get over it. Allows us to empty tanks and reload.

Do you "wing it" or do you plan every stop and have reservations?

Do you just buckle down and do a 10 hour drive for two days, sleep at walmart and then stop and rest up?

New at this. Have all the time off I want. Not really interested in killing ourselves trying to get there fast. Any advice welcome!

CommuterCruiser wrote:
We have a cross country trip planned beginning in March - Florida to S. Utah, the 4 Corners area, then up through Denver and back to Illinois. We have reservations at Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon and that's it. So many of the national park campgrounds we're hoping to visit don't take reservations. And in that area there's lots of BLM camping, although it'll be a new experience.

Here's a link to a planning tool that I just love, makes it so simple and shows campgrounds as well as rest stops, WalMarts, Cracker Barrels etc. The reason I like it is I can zoom in on the map, find our next spot about 250-300 miles away. Once I identify the range and add it to our map, there's a link below the location saying "Find a Place to Stay" or something like that. Clicking that shows me a map with all the area possibilities as well as an info window and a link to the campsite website.

It's called RV Parky at http://www.rvparky.com/http://www.rvparky.com/. I have no affiliation other than I like using it. Note the website version has the planning tool (scroll down and look on the left side of the page), but the app at this point does not.

Thanks I'll check it out.

We have a cross country trip planned beginning in March - Florida to S. Utah, the 4 Corners area, then up through Denver and back to Illinois. We have reservations at Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon and that's it. So many of the national park campgrounds we're hoping to visit don't take reservations. And in that area there's lots of BLM camping, although it'll be a new experience.

Here's a link to a planning tool that I just love, makes it so simple and shows campgrounds as well as rest stops, WalMarts, Cracker Barrels etc. The reason I like it is I can zoom in on the map, find our next spot about 250-300 miles away. Once I identify the range and add it to our map, there's a link below the location saying "Find a Place to Stay" or something like that. Clicking that shows me a map with all the area possibilities as well as an info window and a link to the campsite website.

It's called RV Parky at http://www.rvparky.com/http://www.rvparky.com/. I have no affiliation other than I like using it. Note the website version has the planning tool (scroll down and look on the left side of the page), but the app at this point does not.

Reading and learning. Thanks. We can be gone for a month or more. Plan to stay out there two weeks or longer.

I had the time, but still stopped at Walmarts. For example, after we left Virginia, we had two stops before getting to our first "destination", Vicksburg. I had no reason to play full price at a campground for those two nights, when all I wanted to do was sleep for a while.

Once I got to Vicksburg, or any other place I planned to actually visit, I found a good campground.

Campgrounds are great places, but not for just grabbing 6 or 7 hours of shut eye, and then leaving.

K Charles wrote:
we never make reservations because we have to stop and see that "oh wow" that we didn't know was there. Even if we drive 10 hrs which we don't do very often, we still stop early enough to relax before supper. In an RV park or campground you can walk the dog, talk to the people that are local and relax outside in a comfortable chair and a drink. At a Wal-Mart you stop, sleep and go. If you have the time, why sleep at walmart.

Trip planning is a function of the individuals doing the trip. Some like the security of a known reservation, other are content to roam and look for a campground (CG) about an hour or so before they stop.

We do both.

I can tell you from experience, if you are heading to a popular area in season, i.e. Yellowstone, Glacier, Everglades, Disney World etc. it is best to reserve ahead. You may find that the CGs are full for several miles around.:(

Likewise some road warrior push from sunup to sunset to reach their destination, we average about 250 miles a day, about four hours of drive time and see the sights. How else can you find that life-size statue of Popeye? :E

As I mentioned in another post, spare tires for the TV and TT, jacks and the tools to change them, practice changing them at home so you “know” you can do it, are is very handy; you cannot buy knowledge at Wal-Mart on the road. :h

It took us 5 weeks to mosey from Indiana to western MT and back. We saw a lot and fished a bit and learned a lot for our next trip.

TNGW1500SE wrote:
...

I'm thinking drive 6 hours a day for 3 days in a row and then stay two days to get over it. Allows us to empty tanks and reload.

Do you "wing it" or do you plan every stop and have reservations?

Do you just buckle down and do a 10 hour drive for two days, sleep at walmart and then stop and rest up?

New at this. Have all the time off I want. Not really interested in killing ourselves trying to get there fast. Any advice welcome!

I'm not sure about your timeline. You are going to drive for 3 days in a row, stop at a campground for 2 days, then continue driving? Surely you don't mean you are only going to stay for 2 days at the park. I am assuming you are thinking of resting 2 days before exploring the park? I think a one day rest would be plenty - you will probably be bored 2nd day and want to get going.

10 hours drives can get long, but are very doable. On our two trips up and down the East Coast (Disney World), I planned one 15 hour day and one 10 hour day driving. That gave me time to stop about every 1 1/2 hours, which included filling up every 3 hours (at about 1/3 tank), and otherwise stopped whenever I felt I needed a break.

First trip we stopped at a hotel mid way there, parked the rig in back, and slept in a room. Second trip stopped at a campground on the way there for 1/2 the price, and were able to use our camper's hot shower - and we had sewer hookup, so was able to drain and flush the black tank if needed. Now I prefer a campground.

A full hookup campground is nice when traveling with family. You can use all of your camper's facilities, and flush tanks if needed.

I have not done the "Walmart" or rest stop overnight thing, so can't really comment on that. I would be more comfortable doing that if it was just myself and son (if he is with me), don't think I'd like it if wife and daughter were with me. Just me.

Stop and take a break whenever you feel like it. I would recommend having at least some water on board for emergency bathroom breaks. The added water weight I don't think will make a significant dent on fuel mileage.

I love listening to books on tape, particularly non-fiction -- because that way I don't have to pay attention to the plot line! lol