I dont even know how to plan a cross country trip LOL

[stew47]

I guess this is half vent and half need help from experienced rvers. Last year we bought an 06 skyline seaview. Needed a few things but we have it ready to go except I want the brakes checked and bearings greased. Have a 01 suburban that should make a trip. If not I guess there are car dealers all across the country.
Anyways I was looking at the map and Im just lost. In a few weeks I can sign up for vacation and I should be able to get 3 straight weeks in june or july. Im sure the reservations will start filling up but Im not sure when we are gonna be anywhere. The only thing I am sure of is we are leaving Ohio and my destination will be Goleta Ca where I grew up. would also like to see Yellowstone but that might be too ambitious.
I remember as a kid making trips back to Ohio in a van. Trip tic in hand my dad just stopped and got a hotel when he was tired. Cold cuts in the cooler. I don't know how my parents did it.
So anyways I should decide soon if we are going to do this grand adventure.

[Haulinhazmat]

I think you should hire someone to take your vacation for you. That way you don't have to worry about nothing. On the other hand you could buy a atlas at Walmart an follow the blue or red lines.
If everything goes perfect on your trip you will have no stories to tell when you get back.
As ole biscuit said " Wing it "

[h2guy]

Just get in and go. You'll find that throughout the US, everyone speaks English, and can answer any question (usually).

Its an adventure. Don't overthink it. Your greatest times will be the unplanned ones. Drive as far each day as you like, stop when you see something interesting, and when you're halfway through your timeframe, turn around and go home.

[KA4EBU]

This may or may not help. I look at a direct trip in miles using Streets and Trips with all my speed and hours set up in it. Then I start adding and moving places around. Usually there is not much to see the first day or two out and back or you would have already been there. That gives you time to make up some time for elsewhere. A trip that long, I do the major sight seeing on the out leg if possible and make the return the shortest and quickest assuming you really need to go to CA.
Just some ideas.

[john_bet]

My trip planing is a lot different than most on here.

My first cross country trip was as single 21 year old on military order from central Ill. to southern Ca. Travel time was 5 days at 300 a day. I was on leave so I could make it longer if I wanted to. I looked at an Atlas to find a general route(most direct) and headed out.

Route 66 was my chosen road. If I saw a road sign of an interesting sight I went to it. Even had time for the Grand Canyon. I made it with time to spare. Granted it was by car not an rv, but I basically do the same now with the rv.

Back in '02 we had to go to the Black Hills and the DW ask how we were going. I said turning right of the driveway, Turning right at US-50(2miles), turning right in Colorado on to US-385 north into the Black Hills. This was a two week vacation trip. We came home via I-90,I-29,I-80,I-74,I-70,I-65,US-50. But I realize not everyone is like me and do things thier own way which is just fine.

I took a quick glance at the latest from GS route planning and it looked very interesting. Might have to look at it some more for a summer '14 trip of unknown length, maybe 3 months. Enjoy your trip.

[wbwood]

If you go to my Pinterest page here and click on the board titles "Cool Places We Have Been", then you can see a few pics from our last trip. Or you can go to my website that's listed in my profile and go to the pinterest section on the right and get to it from there. I'm going to try and do a better job with taking pics this time.

[wbwood]

stew47 wrote:
Ok that's funny you mentioned destin. My wife more than once has said lets do destin in a condo this year and work on long distance camping the year after. We both like our beach trips as well. We have done hilton head every year for a while. Reason we were considering destin is we hear beaches are gorgeous. I just don't know. So many decisions and so little money! Realistically figuring a conservative budget of 3 grand I just don't think the west coast is possible. Unless gas plummets and I stay at wal mart parking lots 3 g might get us to Yellowstone and no farther. Seriously folks I appreciate all the help. So much good advice. Rest assured whatever we do will be easier thanks to folks on the board.

Destin beaches are gorgeous. And the camping is grand. We will be spending the night in 2 different state parks over a period of 6 nights. 3 in each. Total cost was about $240 ($40/night). Can't beat that with a condo!

[2gypsies1]

We would suggest that you head the shortest route and directly to your "need to be" California destination. Then you can more accurately judge how long a drive it is and how many hours per day you feel comfortable. We would also suggest that you not make reservations. There are plenty of RV parks in the area.

For your return trip, do take the Yellowstone route if you really want to see it. Again, there are plenty of sites not allowing reservations within the park. If you stay nearby the previous night and get into the park by 9-10am, you'll get a site.

We travel to those places constantly as full-timers and we rarely make reservations. We've been to Yellowstone many, many times and have never made reservations. You'll have a more relaxing trip if you 'wing it'!! Have a good one.

[clikrf8]

Planning a trip, especially one with many miles, is a marathon requiring a back up array of books, maps, iPhone apps, internet accumulation of pdfs, maps, images. I am the planner/navigator and DH is the driver/mechanic. Maps include Benchmark Road and Recreation Atlas of each state plus their fold out maps of each state, NFS maps of forest land, National Geographic Trails Illustrated maps of national parks, monuments, recreation areas, AAA maps of the US West and Indian Country for an overview and to put our distances in perspective, etc. Books specific to our interests are the excellent series by Laurent Martres on photographing the US West, rockhounding guides for individual states, backroad guides for regions of different western states, Moon guides for camping and some books on specific areas like the Eastern Sierras, Eastern Oregon, ghost towns, etc. I bring the books/maps where we plan to go plus the iPhone, Garmin GPS and my 13" Mac laptop. Quite an arsenal. We also stop at Visitor centers, USFS/BLM offices for more specific info on road conditions. I also call up before we go to ask the rangers where they enjoy hiking, photo/rocks sites, any other special places. We make no reservations and I check out places to boon dock.

That said, we aren't averse to following a road that wasn't planned. Or, exploring a place longer than planned. Be aware that mechanical issues can alter your plans significantly. We left our home on September 11. Part of of the way into our trip enroute to the major destination of Yellowstone/Tetons, the motor on our pop up mechanism failed. We had to scoot over to north of Denver from south of Burns, OR as it was under warranty. We missed the fall color in the Tetons so headed over to the Eastern Sierras where the aspens were golden and the weather and lakes were gorgeous. It was also during the shutdown so we did lots of boon docking. Our detour brought us to some amazing places that we would not have gone to otherwise. Just be open to the possibilities and be cool with what come syour way. Happy trails.

[stew47]

Ok that's funny you mentioned destin. My wife more than once has said lets do destin in a condo this year and work on long distance camping the year after. We both like our beach trips as well. We have done hilton head every year for a while. Reason we were considering destin is we hear beaches are gorgeous. I just don't know. So many decisions and so little money! Realistically figuring a conservative budget of 3 grand I just don't think the west coast is possible. Unless gas plummets and I stay at wal mart parking lots 3 g might get us to Yellowstone and no farther. Seriously folks I appreciate all the help. So much good advice. Rest assured whatever we do will be easier thanks to folks on the board.

[wbwood]

There have been some good recommnedations, but I will stick to my initial posting. You have to decide what is the amount of driving you can do and want to do. To be honest, it does take more concentration pulling a trailer or drinving a motorhome than it does (or should) a car. But if it is wearing you out physically because of trying to keep it straight on the road, then there is another issue. Whether its something mechanically, a wrong setup or inadequate setup.

As one mentioned, there are destination trips and sightseeing trips. If your goal is one or two places and to get there in a short amount of time, then you will want to put your blinders on go. Get up early and leave. Stop around supper time or maybe just thereafter. Consider stops an overnighter. Do not setup camp. Unhook if you have to, but if you don't have to, then don't. Plug into electric and water if necessary. Don't hook up a sewer hose unless you need to dump. If there are bathouses available, consider using them. The less setup you do, the less time it will take you to get up and go the next morning.

Now if you want to sightsee along the way and take it leisurely, then do the opposite of what I just said.

We drove from our home to Destin, Florida a couple years ago. That was driving the F250 we had, pulling an 11,000 lb 35' TT. Total driving was about 600 miles. It took us roughly 10-11 hours driving. The worse part was the 2 lane roads. We drove there in a day. Got set up and enjoyed a nice dinner out. I did sleep good that night, lol. On our way home, we went a different way. It added about another 150 miles and about another 1.5 hours to the total time. We did decide to stop about halfway and spend the night. To be honest, it didn't have any different physical toll on me. If I can make it to a destination with a little further drivingg, and I have daylight left, then I would rather do it and get it over. Then have some time to recoup. Whether you drive 400 miles or 600 miles in a day, there's not going to be a whole lot of difference in how your body will feel. At least that is how it affects me. Everyone is different.

We are going back to Destin this spring. We are breaking up the trip there and back into two days. Not for the distance, but because of available space at the state parks we are staying at.

[Redsky]

When planning a trip I start with a general itinerary and with your wants I would work on a route from Ohio to Montana and Yellowstone and then south to either Salt Lake City and cut across to SF bay area or go further south on I-15 to Las Vegas and then head across to Goleta going through Tehachapi, CA rather than the LA basin. Going through Tehachapi to Paso Robles will put you on Hwy 101 north of Goleta and in the heart of the central California wine country.

I then use Google maps to determine the approximate mileage and in your case from your home town to Yellowstone, Yellowstone to Salt Lake City, Salt Lake City to Tehachapi, and Tehachapi to Goleta. I would guess that the total distance covered will be close to 3,000 miles. Round trip you would be driving 6000 miles. At an average speed of 55 MPH (allowing for rest stops, gas, meals) that would be 109 hours of driving at a minimum.

If you have 21 days for the trip you will be spending an average of 5 hours a day driving which is not going to be fun for you or your passengers. The difficult part is traversing the country.

An alternative is to fly to not try to go by RV from your home but instead rent an RV in Bozeman or Boise for Yellowstone and Grand Tetons, and then flying to San Francisco and renting an RV there and driving it south to Goleta. You give up 3 days with air travel but that is better than the 3,000 miles and 6-8 days of cross country travel to get to the western USA from Ohio.

Once I have a manageable trip laid out I next look at where I want to stay along the way and where I can get diesel and where I can find dump stations.

Consider changing your plans and visit Tahoe, Yosemite, Mineral King, the Pacific Coast and the central coastal areas from Monterey, Morro Bay, "SLO country" to Goleta. There are RV rentals available in the San Francisco area of Class C and B and B+ motorhomes.

Even living in northern California it is nearly a 3,000 mile journey for us to go to Yellowstone and I would not try to combine it with a segment going through Goleta/Santa Barbara on one trip unless I had a couple months to travel.

[BobnMelba]

This past September we planned a 4 week trip to the Colorado area. I spent countless hours planning. I had satellite views of every interchange,gas stop, rest area and campground for the entire trip. This was for backup as I had committed most of them to memory. First destination was Estes Park. Middle of the third day my wife sees a sign that says Pikes Peak area and says "My Mom went to Pikes Peak during the war and it sounded neat." (I had the greatest mother-in-law that ever lived.} At the next rest stop I looked and we were only 120 miles away and I thought about one of the best things about owning a mh is you have everything you need with you. So I hung a left and we went to Pikes Peak and it was the best part of the trip. I say all this to make the point not to over schedule and leave some time to do something that you didn't plan. If you haven't been there in this long it will still be there next year.

Now if somebody wants a very detailed trip plan from Arkansas to Colorado I have an unused one available!

[bsinmich]

You idea of Black Hills/Yellowstone is a great one for the time. We have done it with children and Grandchildren and they have all enjoyed it, as well as us. There is so much to see and do in those 2 places you could spend a month in each place.

[sdianel_-acct_c]

We use www.mapquest.com or www.googlemaps.com for trip routing. Point A to point B. Then you can add stops along the way. Once you have the stops you can look for rv parks. We use www.woodalls.com to select a couple, then check them out on www.rvparkreviews.com We do not make reservations unless it is in a very popular tourist area like Yellowstone, a weekend (Friday or Saturday night) or a holiday. We arrive early (before 4pm) and never have a problem finding rv spots. The trip straight through on Mapquest shows 36 hours of driving. Divide that by 5 hours per day and that's 7 or 8 days to get to CA. Couple of days in Yellowstone, then 7 or 8 days back and it's doable. To keep from feeling dead tired from driving we like to leave early in the morning and stop earlier to sightsee in the afternoon. Works for us. Keep us posted!