Newbies need guidance!

[BenjaminHarrison]

Hi All! We are testing retirement with a LONG road trip in our newly purchased 2015 Thor Vegas 24.1. Our goal is to drive from St. Petersburg, Florida to Portland, Oregon. We have no time constraints but figure 3 weeks to get there and at least 3 weeks back, with lots of sightseeing in between. Any suggestions on route planning? We're concerned with campgrounds being full and fear we will be staying in a lot of Walmart parking lots! Obviously, planning is not our strong-suit! Are we crazy thinking we can just load up the dogs and head out west? We have never done this before and any guidance for us crazy newbies is appreciated.

[16ACE27]

You may want to consider an RVLIFE Pro subscription for your trip if, for no other reason, than the trip planning software is a great resource for finding campgrounds, reviews, and website/phone information. You could also but an RV specific GPS but it's campground database is not as complete as the RVLIFE one.

[ducksface]

Become a Harvest Host member.
Download Rvchecklist for a pre-travel checklist.

We never plan beyond having to be somewhere on a certain date if absolutely required.
We headed from South Dakota to Idaho one morning and by dark that night we were in Wisconsin.
Harvest host and municipal parks allows us to do this.

Go to post 115 in my signature thread to learn about the bins on our/your huge dashboard. It makes our trips a bit easier.

[Chateau_Nomad]

Make sure your rig is "road worthy". Tires, belts, hoses, fluids, filters... all that stuff. Be reasonably prepared to make minor repairs while on the road, so basic tools, some duct tape, Eternabond tape and a tube of roof sealant. You don't need to go overboard - just stuff for quick fix emergencies. For the BIG stuff - like a breakdown, consider roadside assistance SPECIFICALLY for RVs.

Groceries/food... some folks prefer restaurants, but we cook exclusively in the RV... that's why we got it. So we basically plan a menu and stock the fridge accordingly. We've yet to take the motorhome cross country, but when we do next year, the RV Life app will play a big part in trip planning. There are tons of other apps to try; for gasoline, campgrounds, or pretty much anything you're trying to find on the road.

The BEST way to learn is be reasonably prepared... KNOWING you'll forget something... we ALL do. Just roll with it. Load up the pups, jump in and GO! Remember to enjoy the journey... make adjustments as you go. You'll find the travel style that's comfortable for YOU. But it all begins when you just jump in feet first and hit the road!

[ducksface]

Take 50% or double the clothes you'll need.
Laundry stops are a hateful thing.
We've met some very nice people and some very edgy people, just about equally.
We sometimes just buy socks and panties at Wal-Mart when we stop for other supplies. It is almost always easier/timely-er than laundering if we run low.

Slides and levelers and lawn chairs are bad form at walmart and cracker barrel.

[MJC62]

Pilots, Flying J, Loves are some of the truck stops that are RV friendly and, in a pinch, will do for an overnight, albeit usually a noisy one. Likewise, Interstate rest areas are ok for overnights if you aren't light sleepers. We generally pull into one of these and fire up the genny turn on the overhead A/C to drown out the idling truck noise.
For states you are traveling through look up the National Forests, National Grasslands or Bureau of Land Management that are along your route. Most have developed campgrounds that are cheap and have some amenities such as vault toilets and potable water. Some even have electric hookups and dump stations,
The public lands also offer areas with free boondocking if that is your thing. Check with the regional BLM or Forest Service office before just setting up on public lands. We have noticed more areas that used to be open to off grid camping being closed as more and more "campers" are trashing the resource and ruining it for everyone!

[JimOIB]

We are half way into a 3 month 8000 mile trip. We used RV Trip Wizard (part of the RVLIFE subscription) for all of the planning, and are using a Garmin RV 780 for the GPS - not a single wrong turn…yet.

Planning has been based on Harvest Host stops (20%), state and municipal parks stops (30%) national park and corp of engineer stops (30%) and the rest have been mom-n-pop campgrounds. Both recreation.gov and ReserveAmerica accounts are needed for National, COE and state parks. If you are old enough get a Senior Lifetime NP pass and put the number in recreation.gov and get 50% off camping in NP. When you get to a state park let them know you are a senior and/or a vet and you usually get a discount.

Boondock - know how to do it and use it frequently. Practice a few times before your trip so you know how to conserve power and water. Find your biggest water consumer (dishes probably) and cut it back - my biggest water consumer is DW and I can’t fix that. Over 60% of our trip has been boondocking so far. Propane and water - keep an eye on both if you do a lot of boondocking. We can go 5-6 days on a 40 gallon fresh water fill up. Top up the fresh water tank whenever you get a chance.

Don’t be afraid to move campsites. For example, we couldn’t get into a single 4 night campsite in West Glacier so we moved every day into a new one. No problem, we don’t tow so we were driving inside the park everyday.

Find a setup and breakdown routine that works for you. Making a lot of stops on a trek can test everyone’s patience. I take care of the outside DW takes care of the inside. We pull in, get level the the fun begins. A knock on the window is her queue to extend the slide, then a knock on the rear left is her queue to extend the left stabilizer, then a knock for the right. I do “utilities”, she preps inside and we have cocktails 10 minutes after pulling in. The reverse as we tear down…minus the cocktails.

Get groceries along the way in a town with a local national/supermarket unless you like paying $6.00 for a loaf of bread in the camp store outside a NP.

We do not drink from the city water or the FW tank. We use store water. Water west of the Mississippi is expensive. A 2.5gal jug back home is $2.50, out here it close to $5.00. We bring 8@one gallon jugs and fill up inside a Walmart or grocery store for 45 cent for RO water.

Most importantly, have fun, take your time, pull off the road and look at things, we like secondary (truck routes) vs looking at billboards and exit signs on the interstates. You really see America off the interstate. Do something quirky - we look for odd stuff along the way - National Pigeon Museum, Cadillac Ranch, Golden Spike historic site, Route 66 midpoint, Miracles of America Museum. Trip Advisor comes in handy for this.

Here is our trip so far - we need a down day to update the blog.

https://sites.google.com/view/jkrvadventures/home

[paulwadley]

If you are looking at interstate highways to travel, Interstate 10 takes you west through some interesting sights along the way into California and then you can head north into Oregon along the coastline. Lots of places to stay along that route. You can also head a bit north through Virginia through Kentucky up to Branson Missouri and then head a bit south to Interstate 40 into California and then north. Local campgrounds have interesting sights to see. We stayed in Tenn. at Loretta Lyn's Ranch and campground one night when heading out of Kentucky. Stop at the state welcome centers along your way. They usually have a lot of local information about the areas.

Paul

[Chateau_Nomad]

My problem driving through the Smoky Mountains is I could very easily get lost... on purpose!! That's our "sweet spot" for "glamping".

[Elite Washington]

Have you decided on what sites you want to see? That will determine if you need to plan reservations. If you want to see glacier, Yosemite etc. reservations are a must and a lot of the parks you have to have a reservation just to get. If you want to have services when you stop get a KOA membership those are almost always easy access to the highways and a lot of even if they don’t have a spot available will have overflow parking that you can use.

But I would either take the 10 west to the 15 and take that up to Montana and catch the 90. Or follow the 10 in the so cal and follow the 5/ pch north to Portland.

The other option is figure out your preferred route to the 25 and take that north to 90 in SD then just head west.

In October we drove from Spokane to Disneyworld and back and really there are so many places to stop if you need to so you shouldn’t have a problem.

[Chateau_Nomad]

Maybe the well-seasoned folks who've taken many cross country trips could compile a list of "gotchas"... things on a scale of 1 to 10 that bit them, then how they solved it. A list of things us mere mortals (me included) might overlook on a LONG trip. . I, for one, am taking CAREFUL notes for next year!!

[EA37TS]

Most important item

Learn how to plan and start doing it.

Many Harvest Host locations are dropping out of the program

Many communities are passing no overnight parking ordinances

Many property owners of Walmarts and Lowes are no longer allowing overnight parking and will have RV'ers and Truckers cited for overnight parking

Many states do not allow overnight parking in rest areas

Plan.

Also, plan for a breakdown. What will you do if your rig breaks down during your travels? We had three breakdowns last year and one of them (number 2) required a tow. Only 1 (the first) Freightliner dealer would allow us to stay in the rig on their lot overnight so for the other 2 we had to get hotel rooms and haul food back and forth or allow it to spoil.

Plan.

We started planning our current adventure when the last one ended last October. We have been on the road since we picked up our rig from warranty service at the dealer mid April. We will be on the road until the end of September or beginning of October. I would have to pull up RV Trip Wizard but I believe we are looking at 177 nights and approx 8500 miles with stops ranging from 1 night (overnight travel stop) to 21 nights (visiting the grandkids). With prior planning we have confirmed reservations for over 60 nights of 50 amp full hookup back in sites for a 40 foot RV at no cost (yes free), and we are not using Harvest Host, Walmart or any of the other overnight parking methods.

As we were sitting in the rig Wednesday evening going over our current plan in RVTW we realized we did not like having 4 one nighters back to back. We made a few adjustments and were able to find two additional free nights of back in, 50 amp, full hookup in Cincinatti at the FMCA campground.

What we found is that although campgrounds and RV parks may be at capacity if you are flexible with the dates you can get a reservation.

Plan, it's half the fun.

As a note, we do maintain a state of rigid flexibility (rigid fluidity) so making changes to the plan for various reasons is a given.

[The Gritz Carlton]

Keep your fresh water tank and your fuel tank full and just dive in. The best medicine is OJT (on-the-job-training). It's so easy to over plan and over pack. Some here plan and reserve sites weeks in advance, adhere to a rigid schedule, and it works for them. To me, this takes away the fun of impulse and you can possibly miss so much along the way. All you need is food and water...everything else is a luxury. There will be times you'll wake up in a great environment and decide to just stay put 2 more days.

[DaveLoriC]

We boondock a lot. Just returned from 4500 miles in our 2017 Thor Vegas, OH to NC to AL to SD to IA and back to OH with all the states in between, a mix of work, family, and fun. We spent several nights in Cracker Barrels(we cook in RV mostly, but shop in store for gifts to give family along the way), a couple Walmarts, Home Depots and Harvest Host sites. We found a few state parks had availability if we would have decided to stay.
I agree with above posts about laundry, we pack extra sheets, towels, and undies then throw dirty clothes bags in an underneath bin and do laundry only when necesssary. We use RV Dump Sites App to find locations to dump, some state rest areas have them! Water always seems to be our need when we are on extended trips, you learn quickly to conserve(we installed a shower head shut off valve that helps). We carry a 6 gallon igloo jug(it is blue and fairly flat so fits underneath), it gets heavy, so fill only what you can lift. We have actually filled it from a drinking fountain using a small container once when desperate. If you visit any state parks as you are traveling through as a day trip, you can often find a spigot that they will allow you to fill up at.
Your battery should recharge as you drive, but always be aware of that if you are stopped for very long while unplugged. We have a LuminAid Packlite that is solar, it is amazing. Just lay it in your window during thre day, blow it up and use it to light up the RV inside at night. One version also has a usb charger for phones/kindles. We use this especially when staying at National Parks with no hook ups, it saves the battery. I would also highly recommend a Type S Jump Starter Power Bank, just in case...keep it charged...we had to jump the RV once when we accidentally let our batteries run down and it drained the main. Yes, we have made many mistakes and will probably continue to do so, but oh the memories!
Some great things about the 24.1: it is small enough to drive almost anywhere, you can park it in one space if there is nothing behind you, and you can sleep without bumping out.
Have a wonderful trip!

[bjslifeline]

We had our first big trip from PA to south Texas and back. Started late February and home 7 weeks later. We used the Allstays app. To find campgrounds. We prefer state campgrounds over private generally speaking. We stayed one night at a Walmart, and 1 night at a Cracker Barrel all others were state campgrounds or 3 were private. We used gas’s buddy app to buy fuel, we were surprised at the price difference in 1 block even! We did Laundry at campgrounds or nearby laundromats but read the reviews so you know if it’s a safe/clean place (make sure you have plenty of quarters, laundry soap, &dryer sheets). We took our 2 Great Danes with us so we googled nearby dog parks every so often so they could run off a little steam and were surprised at some of the amazing dog parks that are only found this way! We had some issues with our rig along the way. If we couldn’t fix it we figured out a workaround until we got home. Enjoy your adventures we are looking forward to our next big adventure!

[Jimbo56]

My wife and I are very hesitant to use Walmarts. Ours here in hometown. There are a lot of sketchy people wandering the lot. I went there one night at 10 pm and wished I was carrying. I’d rather be on an on-ramp.

[Chateau_Nomad]

Originally Posted by Jimbo56

My wife and I are very hesitant to use Walmarts. Ours here in hometown. There are a lot of sketchy people wandering the lot. I went there one night at 10 pm and wished I was carrying. I’d rather be on an on-ramp.

Don't give up your "secrets"...

[Scubawise]

Originally Posted by Jimbo56

My wife and I are very hesitant to use Walmarts. Ours here in hometown. There are a lot of sketchy people wandering the lot. I went there one night at 10 pm and wished I was carrying. I’d rather be on an on-ramp.

Be careful
We always say nothing good happens after 10pm.
If out carry something for protection

[16ACE27]

OP

[Mr Sunshine]

Back to the OP: Welcome to the forum!

You started with a great question, and you've had some great answers. Your planned six week trip figures up to over six thousand miles! I calculated that to an average of over 140 miles a day if you drive every day. That's pretty aggressive if you want to see much along the way. Certainly not "lots of site seeing! "

Preference varies, but we normally limit our days to 350 miles or less. With time allowed for stops and some relaxing, we have done 4000 miles in 8 weeks. That averages to about 70 miles a day. If we had two drivers we might go farther with longer driving days.

We have stayed at many Wally markets, but never, ever near a big city. If given the option, we prefer the Krakr Barl. We usually plan a campground every 3rd night. To refill the water and dump the tanks. Rest after 3 days with minimal stops. We have never stayed overnight at a truck stop or rest area. Campgrounds are typically full on holidays and many are full on weekends, so we are more likely to avoid them on those days, or at the least arrange reservations. We've found some really nice Corps of Engineers campgrounds that are reasonably priced with the senior Natl Park pass.

With the self imposed miles limit, I plan our route and expected stops. Not as much on the way home if we have some flexibility on arrival. We try to get through cities if possible and stay on the beyond side, and fill with fuel then when the stations generally tend to be less busy.

It's harder then before to travel in a RV without planning, especially in the summer or in southern states most of the year. That's been our experience, yours will vary. Enjoy your retirement!