From a year into retirement 2005, until she died early 2012, my wife and I used a 30-foot C as you describe.
Getting around, parking, there is not much difference 22 to 32 feet in length, because the greater problem parking is the width, 8 to 8 1/2 feet vs maximum standard vehicle width of 80 inches. Beyond 19-20 feet you are already spilling into a second space with respect to length, or sticking out into an aisle. One thing that sometimes works with a C, because of long rear overhangs, is backing into a space at the edge of a parking lot, to put the overhang off the edge.
Getting around, and parking, also depends on how crowded a place is. Small towns, rural areas, even some suburbs are not too bad. Getting into the center of large cities is a different issue, there are places like Houston and Chicago where even my standard length van is a problem because parking spaces are tighter, other drivers more aggressive about taking position in traffic, tightly filled traffic lanes make wide swings more difficult, open parking lots tend to be full and have narrow aisles, and much of the parking is in ramps with low clearance.
But most of our RV travel was in places where a 30 foot RV fit fine, we did our shopping and sightseeing enroute, seldom had to leave a campsite once hooked up. Most of the time if I plan to leave for a while I can hook up only power (needed for air conditioning 6-8 months here in the middle of the country) so the only problem left getting in and out was putting interior stuff away (including grandchildren) so slideouts could be pulled in and the C safely moved. I didn't want slides, wife wanted the space, so we dealt with the extra trouble. If I buy another motorhome, it will not have slides, I prefer greater mobility over a little extra interior space.
I have 42 gallon fresh water capacity, 25 gallon black waste, 31 gallon gray waste, 18 gallons (~ 60 pounds) LPG, two Group 24 house batteries. Wife and I could go 3-4 days between having to dump waste tanks or refill fresh water. With wife, daughter, two granddaughters aboard, they could fill the black tank in less than two days (thus the experience with quick trips out of the campsite) and could probably do the same to the gray if they didn't go to the bathhouse to wash their hair.
Furnace could go through 30-40 pounds LPG in a week in winters with 40 F days and 20 F nights, otherwise a 20-30 pound fill might last a year or two heating water, cooking, and running the refrigerator when not hooked up. Furnace needed power, though, and could drain the two batteries overnight if we didn't have an electrical hookup.
Where and when we traveled, I didn't worry much about finding parks with hookups for overnights. When we had to be in a specific place, at a specific time, for a specific length of time, we did make reservations, unless the place did not allow reservations (e.g. our state parks). But we also avoided the difficult times and places: holiday weekends, weekends on recreational lakes, parks a short drive from major urban areas, family theme park or amusement park destinations, the sea shore, California, Florida, and the whole East Coast. My middle of the U.S. experience may not apply to the densely populated areas where 80% of our population is concentrated in 20% of the space.
If we didn't have a power hookup, we could run microwave and air conditioning from the generator. Coming into a campground with a full fuel tank, we could do that for 40-60 hours if we had to, but generally did not. Power hookups are relatively easy to find, power and water only a little less, mostly in dry parts of the country where a remote campground has no wells or city water service at all. Also, I will not run the generator while sleeping, so dry camping for us meant places or seasons where outside temperatures were comfortable.
Since my wife died, I use the RV differently, don't care much to road trip in it alone, it is too big for me. Since I still own it, I've taken it on a few RV club outings where I have friends around who take care of my transportation when we go do things together. A dozen or so times I've driven it out to local lakes for a week or so, to overnight in that environment. For this I've towed, first my small pickup, then I outfitted a Honda Fit for towing. This lets me take care of business in town, go out to the lake at night, where the motorhome is functioning as my cabin at the lake. For that, a small trailer would work just as well, maybe better. But for what you want to do, a motorhome works.
Tom Test
Itasca Spirit 29B
