Extended trip planning

[wtmtnhiker]

Posted on another forum also want to get thoughts here. I planned a trip out to Yellowstone from New Hampshire and going to take about six weeks to get out and back. I felt that I needed to secure reservations for the entire trip because of the increased popularity of RVing and campgrounds being mostly if not totally filled most nights and especially on weekends in the more popular areas. This is so contrary to the way I used to travel pre pandemic when I wouldn't plan more than a couple of days out. One of the problems with this sort of travel is that if I find an area that I really like and want to spend an extra day or two I can't because of the ripple effects of all the reservations I have going forward. Even worse would be if I had a mechanical issue and got delayed a day or two then every reservation would need to be canceled or rescheduled and I'd probably be out of luck with some of them if not most. Wondering how others have handled this and curious how many of you have run into these sort of issues or have you not changed the way you do things since the pandemic hit? Love to get your thoughts. Thanks for reading.

[whjco]

wtmtnhiker wrote:
Posted on another forum also want to get thoughts here. I planned a trip out to Yellowstone from New Hampshire and going to take about six weeks to get out and back. I felt that I needed to secure reservations for the entire trip because of the increased popularity of RVing and campgrounds being mostly if not totally filled most nights and especially on weekends in the more popular areas. This is so contrary to the way I used to travel pre pandemic when I wouldn't plan more than a couple of days out. One of the problems with this sort of travel is that if I find an area that I really like and want to spend an extra day or two I can't because of the ripple effects of all the reservations I have going forward. Even worse would be if I had a mechanical issue and got delayed a day or two then every reservation would need to be canceled or rescheduled and I'd probably be out of luck with some of them if not most. Wondering how others have handled this and curious how many of you have run into these sort of issues or have you not changed the way you do things since the pandemic hit? Love to get your thoughts. Thanks for reading.

We plot our trip route using Garmin Basecamp so that we can upload trip segments directly into our Garmin. By early afternoon we have a good idea how far we want to drive. We'll use Google Maps or Orbitz to find a hotel/motel near the day's projected destination and then make a reservation. This has worked well for us.

[Matt_Colie]

Whitemountainhiker,

Yes, one can down load a copy of Strips and Treats, but if you read it, you will find that it is a 2010 copy last published in 2013. I suspect that the charts will be a little out of date.

My 2015 Street Alas is only a few years better. It wasn't all that good when it was new in 2015. One place we were planning to have a day's drive around and were pleasantly surprised by an uncharted bridge. Then later that same year we were mis-directed to a bridge that had be torn out two years before.

There is no replacement for these planning and navigation packages, that is all there is to it. When I can really get universal internet coverage with no dead places, then I might accept a web-locked thing.

Matt

[wtmtnhiker]

Also available from Microsoft website

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=20056

[wtmtnhiker]

Veebyes wrote:

Matt_Colie wrote:
It is a real shame that both Trips and Streets and Street Atlas died. There is no planning package that compares to these. If you run them on a laptop with a GPS dongle, there is everything important to you right at your finger tips.

It was like having a big road map with a "You are Here!" arrow and two counters telling you how far to the next planned end of day or fuel stop. If you decided to change either, that change would ripple though the whole plan from there on.

I really miss this. I am getting along with a 2015SA, but I am not sure how much longer.

Matt

My Streets & trips 2013 died with a 2011 laptop, a veteran of many thousands of miles getting banged about on the in truck table. Sure do miss that software. It is like having any map anytime, anywhere. No need to be connected like everything today.

I am making do with google maps & the phone but don't like the situation at all. The phone is useless in many mountain areas & sometimes away from the interstates, the routes we like to take.

With S&Ts if you could see the satellite you were in business.

Available as a free download from cnet

https://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-Streets-and-Trips/3000-20426_4-53961.html

[Veebyes]

Matt_Colie wrote:
It is a real shame that both Trips and Streets and Street Atlas died. There is no planning package that compares to these. If you run them on a laptop with a GPS dongle, there is everything important to you right at your finger tips.

It was like having a big road map with a "You are Here!" arrow and two counters telling you how far to the next planned end of day or fuel stop. If you decided to change either, that change would ripple though the whole plan from there on.

I really miss this. I am getting along with a 2015SA, but I am not sure how much longer.

Matt

My Streets & trips 2013 died with a 2011 laptop, a veteran of many thousands of miles getting banged about on the in truck table. Sure do miss that software. It is like having any map anytime, anywhere. No need to be connected like everything today.

I am making do with google maps & the phone but don't like the situation at all. The phone is useless in many mountain areas & sometimes away from the interstates, the routes we like to take.

With S&Ts if you could see the satellite you were in business.

[Matt_Colie]

It is a real shame that both Trips and Streets and Street Atlas died. There is no planning package that compares to these. If you run them on a laptop with a GPS dongle, there is everything important to you right at your finger tips.

It was like having a big road map with a "You are Here!" arrow and two counters telling you how far to the next planned end of day or fuel stop. If you decided to change either, that change would ripple though the whole plan from there on.

I really miss this. I am getting along with a 2015SA, but I am not sure how much longer.

Matt

[Bob806]

We are heading out west on Easter Sunday (April 17), a prettty long 6 week trip. I have reservations for 5 of the 6 weeks. At the beginning, we will wing it for about 4 nights, then all reservations from April 21- May 23rd. When you head towards popular areas, I believe you need reservations for peace of mind. Of course, you can be derailed by the unexpcted but that's the chance we take.

It is sad in a way that reservations are a must. We accepted it and feel if we really loved a new area, and wish we had more time to explore it, it gives us a reason to go back in the future. Good luck.

[Sjm9911]

Lots of good advice. Im in nj and most all the places here that are good fill up fast. So, we have been booking as soon as the place opens to get our reservations. Sometimes this is a year in advance. This was before the pandemic also. On a linger trip, as above, i het there in a day or so more then it really takes. So we have one last stop close to the final destination that we can use to ajust stuff. All in all , as we haven't really known better it works for us. I will say that I have had to cancle the odd trip, i know not good on many levels. But when you book a year out things come up, like work. Just because you have a scedual dosen't mean your held to it. I call if im going to be a day late etc, and places are usually accommodating.

[Seattle_Steve]

Veebyes wrote:
Maybe the boom will taper off when the pandemic newbs find out that it is not quite as seen on TV & they will be on to the next fad thing.

Nice thought, but the problem with this is that when the newbs give up they aren't going to just drive their RVs to the scrapyard and have them crushed, they will sell them. So the same number of RVs, just different owners.

[Veebyes]

We get started on a six month excursion next week. More reservations made than ever before but still trying to wing it as much as possible.

Sundays to Thursdays no reservations generally. Weekends reserved depending on where we will be & holiday or special event consideration. Not a real big change in habits but more thought is needed than previous years.

Maybe the boom will taper off when the pandemic newbs find out that it is not quite as seen on TV & they will be on to the next fad thing.

[4runnerguy]

For us this problem pre-dates the pandemic. We also used to travel without reservations except for popular destinations like Yosemite, Yellowstone, Zion, etc. No more. Now I have reservations for virtually every night of our upcoming five-week trip to Oregon. The only reservations I didn't do this time was for heading out and back, but since it's across NV and UT, we know of boondocking sites in the middle of nowhere where we can stop (we will travel on weekdays.)

Even for a one-week trip here in CO, I had reservations as soon as they opened up. Now we will do some camping this summer at NFS CG's that don't have reservations, but we will arrive early in the day on a Monday through Wednesday.

As a side note, we now camp a lot of NFS CG's in areas where we used to do a lot of boondocking. But there are so many people boondocking, we're willing to pay for a NFS campsite just to have a little more privacy. Some popular boondocking locations are so crowded they are like parking lots.

I hate the lack of spontaneity, but have learned to adapt. I especially feel sorry for people who work in jobs where they can't request time off very far in advance. Don't know how they fare with the need to reserve so far our.

[jdc1]

If we find we want to stay somewhere longer, we just bite the bullet and pay the for non-used reservations....BUT, we also let the place we canceled at know we won't be there so, by chance, others might have the use of that spot. We can afford it. The last trip, we changed reservations three times, mostly at KOA's. They were understanding. It's their business, and they want to keep us as customers forever. Private places may not be so understanding, and I can respect that also.

[ppine]

After 60 years of road trips habits are hard to change. I only make reservations under duress or one day ahead. I prefer the off season for long trips and move when I feel like it.

The idea of a tight schedule and having to be somewhere has no appeal at all. In the West there is always some public land around. It allows great freedom, but people from the East take time to adjust to it.

Recently it seems there are no refunds at a lot of RV parks. That makes them unattractive to me except for filling and emptying tanks, powering up and taking a shower and washing clothes.

[srdeane]

wtmtnhiker wrote:
Posted on another forum also want to get thoughts here. I planned a trip out to Yellowstone from New Hampshire and going to take about six weeks to get out and back. I felt that I needed to secure reservations for the entire trip because of the increased popularity of RVing and campgrounds being mostly if not totally filled most nights and especially on weekends in the more popular areas. This is so contrary to the way I used to travel pre pandemic when I wouldn't plan more than a couple of days out. One of the problems with this sort of travel is that if I find an area that I really like and want to spend an extra day or two I can't because of the ripple effects of all the reservations I have going forward. Even worse would be if I had a mechanical issue and got delayed a day or two then every reservation would need to be canceled or rescheduled and I'd probably be out of luck with some of them if not most. Wondering how others have handled this and curious how many of you have run into these sort of issues or have you not changed the way you do things since the pandemic hit? Love to get your thoughts. Thanks for reading.

My post-retirement trip covered 9000+ miles over 4 months in a motor home. Even back in 2011 I felt the need to make sure we had secured reservations along the way. My spouse laughed at me at first but quickly realized why I had taken so long and so much effort to assemble a 5-page spreadsheet with each reservation and all the info I'd need if it was necessary to change or cancel. It was invaluable and truly worth the effort and time involved. It didn't make us feel obligated to meet the schedule; it just gave us needed information and a means to access these reservations if necessary. It also helped with the daily budget knowing what had been paid for and what we needed to ante up when we arrived.