First "long" overnight trip

Matt_Colie wrote:

tev123 wrote:

Matt_Colie wrote:
Tony,
You have hit squarely on the value of self contained travel.
You need to get on line to RVParky and the other resources. There are lots of possibilities.
In a few states, the highway rest areas have signs posted as you mentioned. We have crashed in those a number of times and never been bothered. Most states do not have such rules. But then there is either Kentucky or Tennessee that plowed in most of the highway rest stops.
There are always alternatives to campgrounds. Learn to work the resources that are available on-line or by smartphone.
Matt

Thanks Matt.
Agree and will do. One thing that crippled us and did not account for in our trip is that as soon as we crossed into Canada, we were without cell data and research online was only possible when on wifi (or by paying exorbitant cell data charges to AT&T);

Oh they do get you, don't they....
So, if you are not traveling with a laptop, think about it. When you do, get Street Atlas (w/a GPS is good) and then go to Discovery Owners and collect the overlays. Learn to load them up and now you don't even need cribbed WiFi to get some good information. Their Canada stuff is less good than the US side, but it beats the hell out of nothing.

As you can tell, there is a lot of negative response for those of us that don't like to waste money on what is only a place to sleep. As you gain experience, you will find that there are many more places to catch a nap than you might have anticipated.

Oh, you will need a little inverter to run the laptop from the house battery and don't run it too long when the main engine is not live. They are usually about 5amps, the same as taillights.

Second Oh, When we travel in Canada we do our best to do all exchanges in $ca. It saves a lot of problems. Do your best to not re-enter the US at the Ambassador Bridge. Customs there is the most annoying I have ever been through.

Safe Travel

Matt

Great info/tips.

We re-entered US through I89 (Vermont) and it was a piece of cake; agent was nice. Will avoid Ambassador Bridge if I am ever up that route (Michigan?)

I've used an iphone app called citymaps2go which downloads selected maps to the phone and you can use them without network access, but agree a laptop with large screen (or ipad) and some street atlas loaded data/app is best.

We've got plenty of power sources too :) (solar, gensets, inverters, etc)

Yeap, I've learned to just ignore negativity and not let it bother me. I normally use a credit card with no international fees but this place's credit card machine was "broken"... Normally if I travel abroad I take out money local currency from an ATM, but I guess since I was not in an airplane, the brain was not in "out of country" mode.... LOL

thanks! safe travels