Things learned on first cross country trip

[llberge]

This was our first long trip with our new 2014 35' Flagstaff Classic Super Lite trailer. We went from Connecticut to South Dakota, Black Hills area and back. Before we left, I replaced the original tires with Maxxis which performed flawlessly. I follow RV.net regularly and avoided a lot of problems by learning from the experiences of all you folks. It was a great 3 week trip and we had no truck or trailer problems. I did make a couple of observations along the way, the first of which I should have listened to most of you RVers.

·300 miles is about right for a day’s drive if you are driving multiple days in a row. You can do more if it will get you to your final destination, but not every day.

·All gas stations are not equal when it comes to trailer access. Why do some gas stations place the pumps perpendicular to the travel lanes? Flying J has the best with its RV friendly gas/diesel lanes.

·Cross winds eat almost as much gas as head winds and are a lot less fun.

·Don’t accidentally pass the entrance to the campground on a busy country road. You may have to drive 25 miles to find a place to turn around.

·We bring way too many clothes. Even my wife admitted that, although I suspect she will do it again.

There's probably more, but those are the ones that jumped out at me. Thanks for sharing all of your years of camping wisdom.

[lots2seeinmyrv]

"All gas stations are not equal when it comes to trailer access. Why do some gas stations place the pumps perpendicular to the travel lanes? Flying J has the best with its RV friendly gas/diesel lanes"

I know, would be nice if these gas stations were RV Friendly or the signs on the road stated "RV".

Just got back from a trip and had to pass up a couple stations to get gas.

Sometimes we use findfuelstops.com and you can get an ariel view of the station to see if you can get in and out.

[ken56]

I agree on the point that most places don't have any good place to park an RV. See an interesting little town on your way to where ever? They will not have anywhere to park an RV so you can stop and enjoy their little bit of paradise. Gas stations too you would think they would be more agreeable to vehicles that get 10 mpg and orient their pumps to accommodate them. We are on a big trip now 4k miles so far and counting. The only place I have encountered rude drivers is Astoria OR and Portland OR. So far I have had 3 people (oncoming left)turn in front of me so as to cut me off and make me stop abruptly so as not to hit them. A few more made it their mission to get ahead of me and then promptly turn into a parking lot. Got honked at a few more times because I had to make a wide turn and took up both lanes for 15 seconds. Now, my experience in Washington state was great. NO ONE got upset about anything and was courteous to a fault that I saw.

[dadmomh]

Our "get up and get going early" means try to be out between 8:30 and 9:00. I use MapQuest, but also our GPS and we try to keep the driving to around 6 hours + gas/food stops, so 7 - 8 total. By then, we've had enough fun, want to park it, fix a cold beverage, put some dinner together and relax. I've done the thing where you try to cram as much food in the frig as possible so we don't have to make as many stops...bad idea because the frig/freezer won't work as efficiently. With just the 2 of us, I plan menus for most of the trip, but only buy for maybe 4 - 5 days tops. You know there is a Walmart right around most any corner. Clothes? DH is much worse at packing than I am. That is what the laundry at the campground is for. We take for about 5 days and then hit the laundry...you meet some really fun folks there! We can run a couple of loads, chat a bit and be back to Rocky within a couple of hours.

Re the Chicago thing....we were dreading towing through all the toll booths, not to mention the cost factor when towing...they charge extra for that. DH set the GPS to "avoid toll roads" and it was a snap. I honestly think we made better time than the ones stopping every few miles to contribute. The alternate roads were not bad at all and several places we were parallel to the toll road for some distance. And came out money and nerves ahead.

We've never been ones to just get going at 5:30 or 6:00 and drive 12 hours or more. The older we get the less time we drive....so it takes us an extra day or we find something really great to stop at. It's part of the trip. BTW, if you happen to be stopping over in Amarillo, allow yourself a "wind day". I had added a down-day to our CO trip with the intention of it being at the campground with our best friends from CA....instead we woke up during the night to the trailer bumping back and forth. In the morning we checked and there was a wind advisory with 45+mph gusts from the south. Didn't seem prudent to tow in that. Fortunately the campground had our same spot open so we just stayed over, did a load of laundry, checked out THE most awesome gift shop, enjoyed their free Wi-Fi, and in the morning all was quiet again. The locals told us it was like that all the time and to allow for it. The return trip was fine.

On our trip to the UP a few years ago, I just didn't allow enough time to do all we wanted to, so strongly suggest you allow a day here and there with nothing planned because something great will pop up and you'll have the time. My major screw up was at Mackinaw....we ran out of time and never got to the island, let alone my long desired lunch at the Grand Hotel. In Detroit, The Henry Ford and Greenfield Village was high on the list....1 day won't do it, allow 2. If you're prone to stopping at every winery sign you see, allow a day to fill up the time you'll lose tasting and enjoying visiting.

[rbpru]

Okay, Okay one more. Do not drive through Williston ND, unless you like creeping along with bumper to bumper oil boom traffic. 😉

Congrats on the trip.

[Dennis_Smith]

330 miles, or stop at 3:30 which ever comes first.

[llberge]

Chris3403 - you were fortunate to have such patient kids for your trip. I would have been whining after all of that riding. Thank goodness you arrived before the pool closed.

SkipnChar – is was a great trip, and you are right about driving time vs. mileage. If we can get into a campground at 3pm instead of 4:30, it doesn’t make much difference how far we drove. We shortened our travel time in the days going home and were able to take in some local sights near the campgrounds. It made a big difference, (except for that day we missed the entrance to the KOA.) I don't know how we didn't see the yellow billboard.

Oasisbob – you are correct. We were in a couple of buffalo herds in Custer State Park and absolutely no one was roller-skating.:)

[Oasisbob]

You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd.

Positive attitude and perspective are your most valuable tools

[skipnchar]

Sounds like you have a great trip. One thing I would suggest is that you measure a days travel more in TIME than miles. Putting a mileage limit sort of puts you right back on a schedule and vacations or retirement SHOULD be about not needing that sort of constraint. If we're traveling through very interesting country or find those little out of the way places to stop and look around we feel free to take them for as long as we like. We travel completely without reservations (exceptions are for any of the big three holidays) so once again gets us out of the "gotta be there by" routine. Some say they're concerned that they might not find someplace to spend the night but after several hundred thousand miles of travel with our RVs, so far, we've been somewhere every single night and it's NEVER been a retail parking lot. 🙂
Good luck / Skip

[chris3403]

Earlier this summer I left the daughter's home with the 9 year old granddaughter and her friend and drove 202 miles to the 5th wheel. Spent 45 minutes unloading the truck and hooking up to the 5th wheel. Then we drove an additional 379 miles to Lazy Day Campground Danville, MO arriving with 15 minutes to spare before they closed the swimming pool for the night.
Next day we drove 449 miles to Sioux Falls, NE arriving with 20 minutes to spare so the girls could go swimming before they closed the pool.
We did the final leg 402 miles the next day arriving in Grand Forks, ND where we met grandma.
I couldn't have asked for two better young ladies to accompany me on that trip.
We spent a week out there drove about 200 miles spent another week there in the Nisswa MN area before heading home with grandma.
We took 4 days to get home driving a more manageable 300 miles per day on our Maxxis tires.
Including our trip last year we have now put around 13,000 miles on those 3 year old tires with nary a problem.
This is my first set of Maxxis and I haven't changed my driving style. This compares to 2 blowouts on factory installed that were less than 2 years old and 5,000 miles.
With my other 5th wheel I had 4 blowouts. 2 were dry rotted but the other 2 blowouts came on fairly new tires with very little miles on them.

[llberge]

PureMI wrote:
"Don't drive through Chicago if you can possibly avoid it."

We successfully executed a "Chicago bypass" on the way out. On the way home we followed the same routes and sat in traffic for about an hour. Timing is everything.

[PureMI]

"Don't drive through Chicago if you can possibly avoid it."

+1000 on that and especially on a summer Sunday afternoon. Worse than rush hour IME although it always seems to suck.

And don't forget, you can buy just about anything you need. Don't go nuts trying to make sure you bring everything you MIGHT need

[mleekamp]

This list could have been written by me....

I complain every time I see a gas station with perpendicular (vs Parallel) lanes. UGH!

Too many clothes, check!

300 miles a day is ideal. I have pushed many trips "to get there ASAP" and end up doing close to 600 miles in one day driving. Not fun, very tiring, and I am slowly working that number down. But with limited vac days, its "hurry up" and get there to relax. Sometimes!

[jspence1]

If you have young kids plan on 250 miles or less every day.

You will drive faster than you planned.

Preparing meals while traveling is hard without a lot of planning in advance.

The more tired you are the more likely the campground you pick is to have 1000 trains going by.

The unplanned stops are the best.

No matter how much you prepare, your vehicle can/will break down.

Windy days are always crosswinds

The more you need to do laundry the more likely that the next campground will not have facilities

You will meet some amazing people, I ran into the same people 3 times (SD,OR,BC)

BC has the worst drivers.

Don't drive through Chicago if you can possibly avoid it.

Do not stop for the night in Shelby MT unless you really like trains.

Every town no matter how small has an auto parts store.

The only reason you get full hookups is because that's what they have on the pull through sites.

You'll want to spend another night and the site you are in will be booked.

48 days is too long to spend in a trailer with 3 kids and a dog.

48 days isn't long enough time to spend traveling with your kids and dog in a trailer....see above.

You'll always want to go somewhere that wasn't part of the plan.