im a planner and it makes him crazy.

[sharibartling]

We are planning our first real trip from NE to WA in May to June. On the way there we will probably boondock. I'm thinking we can stop at some pilots along the way but my biggest concerns are fresh water refills and I found a couple links for waste dump sites but (not litterly) go into a panic because not sure where to get fresh water. Help :S

[Veebyes]

How did anyone manage to go anywhere & manage to find their way home before we had the internet & cellphones? They must have traveled with a ton in weight of guidebooks & brochures. It also must have been much more difficult to simply 'wing it' as we do today traveling with no reservations, a bit of a plan A & a thought of a plan B.

[bigwheelsturnin]

if this forum offered a like button...id be punchin em all...so many ways to go RV ing..yea.. 😄

[2oldman]

Where to fill fresh water
Where water II 2010

[doxiemom11]

Why make it so complicated -- just go! If you need something there is always some store in any little town where you can get what you need, a Walmart around the corner, and a campground not too far away if you need water, to dump. There is also the sani-dump website with places listed to dump and at many you can also fill with fresh water. For an rv park or campground try rvparky.com or allstays.com which also lists flying j, rest stops, walmarts, etc. Life can be fun if you let it be.

[elle8]

oh so your a control freak ,,,,,thats a bigger issue than running out of water ....i promise you that when you get to new england ,,,especially maine ,,,, that seeing it should handle any fears you have . on 100 a in plymouth vermont ,,,almost across the street from calvin coolige house ,,,, there is a pull off with piped running spring water ,,,,the best water i ever tasted . its free ,,,,all you want . 100a is hilly,,steep,,,narrow . but can be done

[Chock_Full_o__N]

Veebyes wrote:
Nothing wrong with planning. Just be prepared to chuck out the plans & change on the fly. You never know. There might be a mechanical problem. Weather may delay you. Somebody gets sick. In transit to someplace far away we do the Walmarts, Cabelas, small town CGs, even a regular CG for laundry, water, dump & WIFI every few days.

Oh, yes! I can't stress this enough. When we were on our 2 month cross-country trip in 2007, the first lesson we learned was that plans are just that--plans. They can go out the window at any time. Thankfully, our plans were pretty flexible so our issues didn't ruin the trip. We had no way of knowing that we'd have serious illness crop up, nor that we'd have a couple of less serious illnesses, a small accident, and a death in the family that required us to stop in our tracks a few times.

Might I suggest trying a "skeleton" schedule. When we were planning this trip we set out goals everyone listed 1 thing that we MUST do and 2 things that were Nice To Do If We Can. We attached very few actual dates to those goals and we made only one advance reservation(Yellowstone). We divided the trip into two parts. We knew we wanted to see certain things on the first leg of the trip and that we HAD to be off the road by July 2,so as to avoid the crowds. By keeping things a little loose, we were able to attain those goals. For the second half of the trip, we knew we needed to be in Yellowstone in mid-July for a family reunion and we had to be back in Atlanta by Aug 1. By setting those parameters we were able to see many things and meet those goals. By the time we got home we had done almost everything on our master list and nobody was stressed out. The only bad part was we missed being on the road, LOL.

[rwynkoop]

FlyingJ / Pilot near my house has water at the RV pump lanes and at the truck lanes (Do not camp at the truck lanes getting water too long)

[garmp]

OP: what are your sources when planning a trip? Any favorite web sites other than the norm, ResrveAmerice, RVReviews, uscampgrounds.info, and such? Please share.

[Veebyes]

Nothing wrong with planning. Just be prepared to chuck out the plans & change on the fly. You never know. There might be a mechanical problem. Weather may delay you. Somebody gets sick. In transit to someplace far away we do the Walmarts, Cabelas, small town CGs, even a regular CG for laundry, water, dump & WIFI every few days.

[Matt_Colie]

Shari,

As I am a waterman and have often had the job title "Navigator", I too plan a lot. On the water, navigation is a full time occupation and flexibility is required. My answer on the road, even before we carried wire was to learn to use one of the navigator packages. I have never run Co-pilot and ran MStrips and Treets until I outgrew it and now do everything thing Street Alas and a GPS puck. Get one of those sets, learn to make it work for you and then go to the Discovery Owners Wonder Lists and collect the overlays for what you want.

Then, with a DC power adapter and your laptop, you can change the existing plan in a heart beat and still have confidence that you will be able to access what you need.

Matt

[sharibartling]

I never would have thought about HD, one of my favorite places to shop!

[sharibartling]

Executive wrote:
Any Home Depot will let you fill up at their stores if you simply stop and ask a manager....they all have hose bibs outside..just try to do it early morning or late night so you don't interrupt their business......Dennis

[sharibartling]

Thanks everyone! I agree about going to a campground at least once. I make my husband crazy...once we went to Maui, our kids and grandkids.... I planned every detail and activity to the last minute. They all got mad. Oh well.
Thanks again.

[Dtaylor]

There is phone app called RVDump that will show all the places that offer dump stations. Many campgrounds will allow you to dump for a fee and would probably allow for you to add water