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Old 06-01-2017, 06:00 PM   #1
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Model: 25.2 Axis
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Westward trip

I am going from Nashville to all sites west to Oregon. 3 month trip next year. How do I make reservations this year for next year. Any place I can go for help. Time is no problem. What are the best months, sites, and places to stay. Need electricity. Just me and my wife. 25.2 axis.

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Old 06-01-2017, 06:34 PM   #2
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Go into RV Parks and reviews List all most all RV sites for all states. They will have great info. and their webb sites
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Old 06-02-2017, 02:12 AM   #3
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In more than 10 yrs, 10 months per year, I have only made advance reservations 1 time.
And in that time we have only been turned away with no place to stay twice. And we do not use Walmart or such. You're over thinking it.
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Old 06-03-2017, 10:13 PM   #4
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We have been stationary visiting family for over a month but will be heading to Oregon and then S. Dakota in about 3 weeks. A couple months ago were planning the route/trip and began making all reservations. There were two CG's that were full already. Traveling out west during the peak summer season is when CGs fill up. If you don't care where you stay or how much it costs then skip the planning and reservations.

We use the app "RVPARKY" plus the Good Sams book for planning and reserving. It worked for us while full time and is working now. Good luck pulling into a GC on the 4th of July weekend and getting a spot without reservations, you will be celebrating that weekend at either Walmart or some rest area.
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Old 06-04-2017, 01:56 AM   #5
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Some folks are planners, and some are wanderers! We are both, depending on the situation. I do reservations for peak times, especially the first week of July, and all of the summer months at the more popular areas.

We plan flexible nights when we are traveling, that we can stay at a WalMart, Cracker Barrel or truck stop and save a few coins. If the weather is problematic, we'll find a campground with aps from RVParky or AllStays Camp and RV.
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Old 06-04-2017, 12:29 PM   #6
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Just spent 3 months out west, had 1 reservation in Seattle so we could jump on a cruise ship otherwise no reservations. We do call ahead mid day using RVparky, KOA book, or Good Sam directory. Have a great safe trip.
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Old 06-04-2017, 01:01 PM   #7
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We do similarly to the others. Also use the Next Exit app.
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Old 06-04-2017, 01:22 PM   #8
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RVParky, Woodall's, and KOA are all good for finding parks. I like to look ahead and plan my stays based on distance, proximity to where I want to go, park ratings, and how easy the park is to get to. If I'm in a hurry I'll drive 500 miles a day, if not about 250-300 miles, so I look ahead to find places to stay in that range.
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Old 06-04-2017, 01:37 PM   #9
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I would suggest a little preplanning, even if you want to be a wanderer. We have a home in Atlanta and one outside of Moab, UT. There are three basic routes between them: I70, I40, and I20/I40. I70 has an RV park in almost every small town, so, it is easy to find parks at the distances we want to travel each day. I40 has way fewer options and it makes it harder to find someplace at an appropriate distance. We added I20 to the I20/I40 route to have more options of where to stop.

So, a little preplanning might be wise to know approximately how many options you'd have on any given route.
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Old 06-04-2017, 01:49 PM   #10
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I agree: You are a bit early for reservations. Depending on when/where you want to travel:
  • If you are preplanning everything I would start making reservations for next year after Labor Day this year at the earliest (in many cases you probably wouldn't be able to make reservations until spring next year)
  • If you want to wing it: When travelling in "wing it mode" we'll still plan the next days drive after we've stopped for the night. Pick how far we want to go and 2 or 3 options (this way we can do all that searching the night before while stopped instead of a frantic one while on the road). Then while driving during the next day start calling the options.
  • Prior to leaving for any trip I review the route on google maps, even inspecting the major turn points in streetview (especially if we haven't gone that way before) to get familiar with the surroundings--makes navigating so much easier "knowing" the intersections--love streetview

Just my $0.02
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Old 06-04-2017, 02:01 PM   #11
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JamieGeek "Prior to leaving for any trip I review the route on google maps, even inspecting the major turn points in streetview (especially if we haven't gone that way before) to get familiar with the surroundings--makes navigating so much easier "knowing" the intersections--love streetview!"
How do you get street view on google maps?
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Old 06-04-2017, 02:10 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sforl
How do you get street view on google maps?
When you are using a web browser on a PC/Laptop/Mac/etc. at http://www.google.com/maps zoom in close enough to see the streets, then click on a street and/or intersection (you should see a small grey pushpin appear and a window at the bottom of the screen appear; if you don't see it click again). In the window at the bottom you see a small streetview picture there...click on it.

Once streetview is open you can click and drag with the mouse to look around--all 360 degrees. Once there when you hover the mouse over the streets you'll see some small arrows with circles around them: clicking on them will move you in the direction of the arrow (the arrow will only appear on streets where they have image data captured).

To get back to the map click on the left arrow at top left.

There is also a small map at the bottom left: Hovering over that will show all the streetview image data available (the roads highlighted in blue) you can click there on any blue road to move the camera there as well.

In google maps on a mobile device:
Zoom in the maps to see the streets. Tap and hold to see a pushpin. With the pushpin you'll also see a small streetview image on the bottom left--tap it.

Navigating streetview in mobile is similar to above: Left arrow at top left exits streetview, the bottom of the display shows the arrows where you can follow the roads, and you can drag around to see everything.
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Old 06-04-2017, 07:11 PM   #13
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Thanks Jamie that's awesome!
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Old 06-10-2017, 02:17 PM   #14
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Hi,
I use Good Sam trip planner. It has a lot of info and gives you most of the camp grounds along your route (it can show good sam, private and public camp grounds) along with trip cost and planning. It was a little confusing when I first started using it but it didn't take long to figure it out.

It is a good resource for RV parks and trip overview but I still use google maps as well to make modifications to the trip. Good Sam trip planner can be improved but between it and Google maps it works good.

Have fun and be safe
Don
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Old 07-07-2017, 02:44 PM   #15
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Our current "out west" trip is just over 4,200 miles complete. We will put another 2,700 plus on before getting back to Florida. As posted before all camp sites were reserved in advance. What we have found was almost 50% of the campground we have stayed in would not have had a site for us if we would not have booked. But we have to have at least a 60' pull thru site so I'm not sure if some of these places could have provided a shorter site or a back in site without reservations.

A couple of these CG's are the same as we used three years ago, but most are different ones we have never stayed in. It seems to us that traveling in June and July out here there are more RV's than just three years ago.

Also, by calling and reserving in advance we always get information on how level their sites are, will they be wide enough for our two opposing slides, plus request a site where we can get satellite reception for our roof mounted Direct-TV dish. Out of 15 campgrounds so far we have only had 2 where our front wheels were an inch or so off the ground after leveling and no sites where we could not get good satellite reception.

Our average price per night for the past 2 months has been $24.50. Out west we are usually paying between $35 and $45 a night. What made our overall average go down was almost a month in a CG in central Illinois at $11 a day.

Compared to 3 years ago we have noticed that the wifi at most parks is getting much better.
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