Advice on how to plan the trip

Hey all,

We have been talking about a couple of different options for our big summer trip.  I think after talking to others on different threads we may need to cut a few parks out of our trip (yellowstone and Teton) in order to get from Knoxville, TN to Rochester NY in 17 days and not go further then SD.  I guess we will have to plan a trip to get further out next time.  Unfortunate because we really wanted to get to those 2 but I don't want to put to much on our plate and end up just driving and not being able to stop.

HERES THE QUESTION/ISSUE:

One of the best things we love about our RV is we love the fact we are not tied to anywhere.  But until this trip we have a specific destination and purpose (such as going to Stone Mountain for the weekend) and so on. 

This is however is a much different type of trip.  How do we plan this?  I just tried for kicks and giggles KOA Mnt Rushmore for July 7-10 and several sections were already not available. 

How do we know when we will be somewhere?  Is there a trick?  A planning ratio/formula that you seasoned RV'ers use?  I mean....Our idea was to pack up the kid and dogs into the RV and head towards the Midwest and have a good time.  I just figured we would pull into a park and catch an open spot and head to a different location or view the area.  We wont have a tow behind so our rig will be our transportation. 

Should I lock myself into specific dates/locations?  I would rather just go out and enjoy the country but I am getting scared that there will "be no room at the inn" issues.  If so....how do you do that?  Or better yet....how would you do that?

I appreciate your responses. 

Mike

When I plan a trip - I first map out the route and see the "projected" total miles, then divide by 300 as my standard max per day. I then add back in the planned number of days for sightseeing and relaxing. Then deduct or add stops based on my time frame.

Once that is done I divide the trip into destination drives and then plan my stops from there. I rarely make advance reservations but try to end my driving day by 4:00 pm which usually gets me in a campground before they fill up.

I use Microsoft Streets and Trips for my planning and since I preset my limit of around 300 miles, I pretty much know where I will be each day and then research RV parks and pick a spot - maybe 295 miles or 325 miles....

Most peoples mistakes is to try and cover too much territory and miss the enjoyment of relaxing and "taking in the view".

Good Luck, part of the fun is planning the trip and doing research, but since I am retired and rarely have a firm hard date to be somewhere it is much easier...

Jim

In 25 years of RVing, rarely have we made reservations or planned on being at a specific place on a specific date. Holidays are a different issue and, if we plan to be somewhere on a holiday, we'll make reservations and make sure we're there on the date(s). Similarly, if we plan to attend a rally with numerous other folks on specific dates, then we make reservations. This applied when we were working full time, and also applies during retirement.

Our preferred mode is to leave home with minimal planning and just have a few planned waypoints. We then take it day by day - toss a coin, heads we stay and tails we move on. If tails, we stick a pin in the map and head in that general direction.

When we make equivalent trips by boat, things get planned in much more detail, with lots of contingencies. We still take a somewhat unstructured approach to when we'll arrive at a location and how long we'll stay. However, weather and sea conditions have a large influence on reality vs planning when on the high seas.

Our plan for the summer is go to the Northwest and stop by Illinois in late August to see the kids before they go back to school. The rest will work itself out.

In my 10 years of full timing I have very rarely made reservations. Go get yourself a copy of Woodalls Campground directory and look through it for a while. You will notice it is bigger than the New York phone book. It lists thousands and thousands of RV parks and campgrounds. I have only had one time in ten years where I reached a campground and it was full. There is a wonderful smart phone app called AllStays that would be a great help in finding a place to spend the night.

My trip planning: Pick a destination, Point rig in that general direction, Roll down the road til I get tired then tell DW to open our campground App and find a place to stop.

I don't usually stay at any one place at our destination for more than a couple days. We explore and find new to us places to camp and they are everywhere!

This is our first travel season...we purchased our Fleetwood Bounder 33U in October 2012 in order to complete the setup and get the bugs worked out of the coach.

Our first major trip in June (3 weeks) to the Southern Coast of Oregon I have made reservations at our primary destinations and left for chance the stop overs. Our trip to Yellowstone/Grand Tetons in August is fully reserved (since January).

Perhaps as I gain experience I won't be as worried about getting a place to park.

Plan    a trip????  What is that????

I am retired. I don't need no steenking plans!!

We don't normally don't plan far ahead, but if we are going to  a major tourist destination we know need reservations and that means picking some dates. Ditto for holiday weekends- we make reservations because of the expected crowds.  That in turn means making some estimate of travel time and sight-seeing days in between. And sometimes it also means adjusting our travel style to meet the fixed dates.  It's no different than your fixed target date in Rochester - everything else becomes subordinate to that more important goal.

In between pre-planned dates, we generally figure 200-300 miles/day and no more than two consecutive "one night stands", because we find making and breaking camp every day to be more like work than play. But we usually have unlimited time, or at least can allot enough time to the trip to make that mode of travel practical.

If you don't include the effects of other travelers in your own itinerary, you are [sooner or later] going to get a very unwelcome surprise when you find no room at the inn and no alternatives available. That's a hassle that can ruin a day pretty quickly. Of course, one way to do that is to simply avoid popular places and busy summer weekends. We do that as well, i.e. hole up somewhere remote on Thursday night and don't set out on the road again until Sunday or Monday.

Good to hear you are making your trip shorter driving wise, not fun having to drive several hundred miles wver day avergae.  I would actually just skip even going to Rushmore, its really not that exciting especially if that's the farthest west you are going.  Save that for when you have time to go farther west, hit the badlands and Rushmore plus Tetons Yellowstone and especially glacier when the kids are older..... Awesome park! 

Possibly just head east, even head all the way up to Maine which would put you a lot closer to New York.  There are some really cool places up there


My wife prefers to get reservations before we head on our trip so she know when we will be where. 

Our idea was to pack up the kid and dogs into the RV and head towards the Midwest and have a good time.  I just figured we would pull into a park and catch an open spot and head to a different location or view the area.

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That's pretty much what we do unless there's a specific need to plan ahead.  We seldom make campground reservations but, as Gary mentioned, there are always exceptions such as for holidays and special events such as a long ferry.  In that case we estimate how long it will take to get where we need to be and make reservations accordingly.

Should I lock myself into specific dates/locations?  I would rather just go out and enjoy the country but I am getting scared that there will "be no room at the inn" issues.

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I'm always amazed at people who plan detailed itineraries down to the gnat's eyelash.  It pretty much eliminates any spontaneity if you want to stay longer at a place you unexpectedly come across or if the weather changes and you need to change direction.  We've been known to change direction 180o and end up at the opposite end of the country (Cheyenne in snow to El Paso in sunshine that time).

As to the "no room at the inn" issue, it usually is not a problem unless it's a holiday weekend or there's something special going on in the area such as a NASCAR race or some festival.  We haven't encountered filled campgrounds all that often.  When the economy tanked we noticed it even less.  So, we take into account where we are going, the calendar, and the weather when planning.  The weather can be a huge factor.  You don't really want to head into snow, a hurricane, floods or fires so you may need to change direction.  We've also had unexpected illness/accident situations where we've had to cancel reservations for ferries and before-ferry and after-ferry campgrounds.  The more reservations you have to cancel the more hassle it is, and it can be expensive if you get into a no refund situation.

ArdraF

Guess it all boils down to where you want to stay.  If you want to stay in a National Park in any mountain area during the summer I would say reserve a spot.  Most private camps will have openings.  I'm planning an entire National Park trip that requires I reserve a spot, cause if I don't there won't be any.  Out west especially, they fill FAST!!

You mentioned Stone Mountain and said you didn't have a toad. We stayed there around Christmas and we didn't have a toad either. We were in a very cramped sight and the mountain and restaurants were 3 miles away (according to them). Had friends that came and met us, so we had transport. But at that time SM said they didn't have a shuttle, so make sure that's available.  Having said that, I've met people who love it there, but in our particular situation it wasn't good.

Mike,
You have heard from me elsewhere about your trip but I will add some info not posted elsewhere.  If you don't know how far to go and now long you can stay, you should download (buy) a routing programming such as Streets and Trips.  With this kind of software you can plan out how far you would like to travel each day and which stops are optional and which stops are mandatory.  You can do multiple planning options to see which route will get you where you would like to be when you would like to be there.  Once you are pretty firm on where you will be and when you can make the necessary reservations.  Generally, you are not going to need reservations except the "must see" locations like Yellowstone.  Even it you can't get the site you wanted at Yellowstone, there are options.  West Yellowstone, dry camping (yes, even with wife and kids you can dry camp for a couple of days), the N. entrance to Yellowstone has an RV park and S. of Yellowstone between Yellowstone and the Tetons are available.  You may have to think outside your current comfort zone (dry camping, which is great!) but you CAN make a plan.  Just understand that there is almost 0% chance that your plan will work out exactly as you had hoped.  You will still have a excellent trip and one you will be able to talk about (or joke about) for the rest of your life.
Don't sweat the big stuff.  Get a mapping program, plan the trip (after 400 miles you are not going to want to see the sights so plan another day for that) and make a plan that will get you from TN to NY via Yellowstone (again, I think you will die if you try this) in 20 days.

When we were working, I was able to get three weeks vacation. We asked the children where they wanted to visit.  When it was narrowed down such as SLC Tetons Yellowstone, I went to the local travel agent and asked for a Tauk tour brochure for those areas.  they usualy do a five, seven, and ten day trips.  If the route was good enough for Tauk,it was good enough for me.  We followed the route and had a great time.  A lot of driving on the first day, LI to SLC total of four days to SLC. Than followed the route.  On the way home about five days of driving.  Yellowstone, Cody, Devils Tower, Mount Rushmore.  Another Tauk Tour. 

It worked for Vegas, Bryce, Zion, Grand Canyon, COS well you get the picture.

Don't forget AAA. Miss the trip tiks.

On your planned trip Knoxville to Rochester, the farthest west I would travel would be Nashville than north to Kentucky, than on to Rochester.

Jim

I'm very encouraged by the number of people who have no problem finding a spot at the National and State parks. I have some experience with the no room at the inn problem. For example, Catalina SP just north of Tucson fills up to capacity fairly often. We ran into this problem two years ago when we were looking for a spot for a 2 week stay. We wound up with 12 days in 3 different spots. Last year we made plans in advance so we could be sure to have a full 2 weeks stay. We made reservations for 2 weeks in February on August 8. Unfortunately someone typed in 3 instead of 2 on the month of stay when making the reservation, so we were there a month early. The overflow lot, in mid February, with no water, no elect, no sewer, had only 2 spots left.

So, there we were looking for a 2 week stay somewhere else. The fourth RV park we called could accomodate us and was only 26 miles away from where we had wanted to be.

We stay at 15 to 20 different places each winter and only occasionally have to try more than one location, but it does happen. You have to be flexible sometimes. We generally know in the morning where we will be when we're ready to stop for the night. The wife then calls where we're headed to make sure there is a spot for us. Sometimes we'll make a reservation for that evening, sometimes they tell us there's plenty of room and no problem, but we feel better knowing we'll have a place to stay when we get there.

Ken

Like Ken, I am really glad to hear so many of you saying you have no problems finding places to stay.  We are going to the Rally in Moab, but we also have the week after the rally off.  We are planning to just go where the wind takes us.  Hoping to pick up a lot of suggestions from framily members at the rally.  I've been a little nervous about not having reservations after Moab, but you all seem to feel it's not a problem, which puts my mind at ease.  We are looking forward to being spontaneous.  8)

Steve

Tried to make reservations at Colter Bay in Tetons and they are full ( end of July to first week of August)

Looks like its going to be a busy season.  Economy must be picking up..

Tin man said:

Tried to make reservations at Colter Bay in Tetons and they are full ( end of July to first week of August)

Looks like its going to be a busy season.  Economy must be picking up..

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I made my reservations for Colter in January for mid-August...same for Grizzly in Yellowstone. I am one of those OCDs that reserve almost everything, months and even years in advance. I've made reservations at Rush-No-More outside of Sturgis for the rally in August 2014...cost a 50% non-refundable deposit.

That is the only downside in my opinion, every once in a while I give up a $10-$15 reservation fee when life happens. If I miss the Sturgis Rally in 2014 I'll give up several hundred bucks.

O M

We will be in Grizzly first week of August. Reservations are made. We always make reservations at the HOT SPOTS.  On the roads, we wing it.  We will call ahead in the morning to see if there are available sites.

We were going to Alaska this year, then because of family commitments, decided to go to the Winnebago ralley. So being halfway there decided to visit Yellowstone. 

Jim