WME
Well-known member
I actually tell newcomers to spend 2 nights at a Wal Mart. So everything you didn't know you needed is within walking distance. If local laws prohibit Wal Marting then as close as possible
Stops along I-80
- Thread starter Joenew61
- Start date
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ennored
Well-known member
World's largest locomotives
Most folks drive right past without noticing the two train locomotives on the hill. Nothing to really do there, but trains are cool, and these are two of the biggest on the planet, don't get to see that every day.
Most folks drive right past without noticing the two train locomotives on the hill. Nothing to really do there, but trains are cool, and these are two of the biggest on the planet, don't get to see that every day.
Larry N.
Well-known member
That articulated 4-8-8-4 Big Boy is something special to see. They still run a different Big Boy occasionally for rail fans. The 2023 schedule:
2023 schedule: Union Pacific Big Boy returns to steam with its Home Run Express - Trains
Union Pacific Big Boy returns to the rails this week for a nearly month-long tour of Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa as it travels to Omaha.
www.trains.com
Joenew61
Well-known member
Understood - the dealer has been terrific with information and advice, and said we could stay as long as we like on his lot with hookups before we head home. I am confident he will give us all the time and support we need to make this purchase and trip home a success. That's the main reason I decided to buy from him - the after purchase support. Family business that has been around for almost 100 years. I could not get comfortable with any of the dealers here along the east coast.
The earliest that we would take delivery is April, since the RV is being built to order with delivery estimated at 4 months+ from mid December.
UTTransplant
Well-known member
I third or fourth the recommendation to stay close to the dealer and a Walmart for a couple of days. And I am much relieved you don’t plan doing this trip in February! As for good places to sight see, look at the Omaha Zoo. Fabulous place, and right off I-80. Well worth a day. The railroad museum mentioned is another interesting place. The Amana Colonies, a collection of towns of a communal religious group is interesting if you like history or antiques. The I-80 truck stop in Walcott has to be seen to be believed! It also has every variation of 12v appliances in the known world LOL!
Arch Hoagland
Well-known member
Once you get home and have discovered some items that need warranty repair do you know where you will take it for those repairs?
Joenew61
Well-known member
Got it. We planned to bring some supplies out with us, but I am sure we will forget something, and will schedule a few shopping trips near the dealer before we head home.
I don't have a feel for how easy it is to get a spot on a days notice, or how easy it is to just extend a day in the event there is nothing available at the next stop on the next night, hence my being a little cautious with the planning/reservations ahead of time. Maybe it's best to just get the research done ahead of time to have a list of sites along the way, and then as you say go day by day on reserving until we are more certain of the schedule then.
Joenew61
Well-known member
I guess it depends on what the work is. There is a RV service outfit around 30 miles from us that I had some discussions with when we were considering bringing the RV home and having the tow hitch etc. installed here. He can handle general coach repairs.
The nearest Renegade dealer is almost 200 miles from us, so I wasn't thinking that buying "local" like that would be much more convenient than Nebraska, and the service reputations of the two dealers in that radius is horrible. My working theory is that having a dealer that is cross country with a great customer service philosophy, along with referrals for service reps for components that might need warranty work would be better than making a 400 mile round trip to a "less-than-enthusiastic" dealer every time I needed warranty work. That's the formula I used when we bought our boat, and it worked out pretty well. Given the large distances between dealers, I would think that support model is pretty common. I have always done a lot of maintenance and minor repairs myself. Time will tell!
Isaac-1
Well-known member
Over the last 7-8 years we have traveled in our coach ranging from Florida to Wyoming, to Arizona and north east as far as Iowa and Missouri traveling up to about 75 nights, about the only time we make advance reservations (more than 24-48 hours out) is for major tourist destinations (Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, etc.), holidays, or when we need to be somewhere for some fixed date obligation such as when my wife was attending a conference in Little Rock, AR last year.
We will often call ahead and make same day reservations when we are a few hours out, or sometimes just stop and take our chances to see if there are vacancies.
In the nearly 30,000 miles of travel I can think of only about 2 occasions where we did not get to stop at our first choice of stops, one was in Tupelo, Mississippi in 2021 where we tried calling ahead a couple of hours out to find out every RV park in town was booked solid, we ended up continuing on our route to Corinth, Mississippi where we found a very pleasant small mom and pop RV park, and ate some incredible pizza for dinner in a converted brick warehouse downtown. (google says it is 51 miles from Tupelo to Corinth), the second one that comes to mind was at a county fairground in Iowa that has an RV campground. This was a first come first serve setup, we pulled up and found there was car races going on at the race track next door, and while there were a couple of open RV sites due to the noise we opted to continue on another 20 or so miles where we ended up staying at one of the most ran down commercial RV parks I have yet seen. On a couple of other occasions we snagged one of the last available sites (we try to stop at least 2 hours before sunset), and saw people pulling in closer to sunset being turned away.
We will often call ahead and make same day reservations when we are a few hours out, or sometimes just stop and take our chances to see if there are vacancies.
In the nearly 30,000 miles of travel I can think of only about 2 occasions where we did not get to stop at our first choice of stops, one was in Tupelo, Mississippi in 2021 where we tried calling ahead a couple of hours out to find out every RV park in town was booked solid, we ended up continuing on our route to Corinth, Mississippi where we found a very pleasant small mom and pop RV park, and ate some incredible pizza for dinner in a converted brick warehouse downtown. (google says it is 51 miles from Tupelo to Corinth), the second one that comes to mind was at a county fairground in Iowa that has an RV campground. This was a first come first serve setup, we pulled up and found there was car races going on at the race track next door, and while there were a couple of open RV sites due to the noise we opted to continue on another 20 or so miles where we ended up staying at one of the most ran down commercial RV parks I have yet seen. On a couple of other occasions we snagged one of the last available sites (we try to stop at least 2 hours before sunset), and saw people pulling in closer to sunset being turned away.
Joenew61
Well-known member
I'll take those odds any day - thanks for the history and perspective!
Ex-Calif
Well-known member
Ahh. Much better. I thought it was an imminenet trip. April could still be chilly but the weather will be a lot more friendly.
When I travel with "intent" - i.e. to get someplace I generally reserve the morning of travel. Usually the previous evening I look at the route, identify any "must see" things long the way and plan the next days distance.
It's a lot more difficult to schedule look-see stops with a rig as big as yours but the point is I have never been stymied on a place to park up.
Also when I am traveling with intent I have no qualms at a free stop at an interstate rest stop, Cabellas, Walmart etc. One advantage of being fully self contained is one can stop for rest almost anywhere.
Joenew61
Well-known member
That seems like the more common travel approach. A few questions on those other (non-campground) overnight options come to mind.
- Do the majority of the interstate rest areas allow for RV overnight parking? I found this website that lists the general rules by state - just wondering if it is accurate...i.e. if it says 3 hour maximum, is it enforced and/or followed? Rest Areas Overnight RV Parking Rules By State - UPDATED 2023. It looks like Pennsylvania and Illinois don't allow it, but Nebraska, Ohio, and Iowa do.
- Any issues overnighting in the truck pull-through stops at rest areas and running the generator, or leaving it on standby? Is that common practice for RVs? With the Toad, we can only go in one direction!
- In general with a mid to late afternoon arrival, are big-rig friendly parking spots generally available in truck stops/rest areas? I know it's an open ended question, and would depend on the location and time of year, but was wondering how much we could rely on that option.
- Is there any resource that lists the Walmarts and Cabelas that allow overnight parking? In general, are there designated pull-through friendly areas that could accommodate 60 feet of coach and toad? Even a back to back spot would be too short for us. Knowing what I know about the Walmarts here in the northeast, I can't picture how we could pull in at 5:00 and pull out at 9 the next morning.
Thanks!
Isaac-1
Well-known member
Rules for overnighting at rest areas vary by state, some allow stopping for 4, 8, 12, 24 hours, ... and in my experience I try to avoid interstate rest areas for overnighting, lots of big trucks pulling in and out at all hours, some of them blowing air horns. This is the same reason I avoid overnighting at truck stops, too much activity going on all night long. Having said that, I don't mind overnighting at off the beaten path rest areas on secondary highways, these tend to see far fewer 18 wheelers coming and going. Texas in particular is good about having rest areas on secondary highways, and it is legal to park at any of them for up to 24 hours. In October I spent the night at one just outside Fredericksburg, TX by the LBJ historic park, nearly had the place to myself, no other overnighters, and only maybe half a dozen cars pulling in overnight to use the restroom.
As to the rest of your questions, I have not found it hard to find places to get pull through parking, though this means there are places I don't even try to get into when pulling a TOAD, that I might have stopped at when not pulling one. We traveled without TOAD for the first 20,000 miles in our current coach, which is a 28 ft class A and even did not take a TOAD on my recent thousand mile solo trip to Texas in October. With our Toyota Yaris TOAD we are still under 45 feet in length, which means we can almost fit in 2 standard 22 ft long parking spaces end to end even with TOAD.
There are lists online that show free overnighting options, though of course rules change and no list is up to date, so it is always a good idea to confirm overnight parking is still allowed at big box stores, etc. upon arrival or call ahead. One other thing to keep in mind there are lots of under utilized free and low cost camping options across the US, these include county fairgrounds, city parks, COE campgrounds, National Forest campgrounds and others, I have even found a few with free hookups, perhaps the nicest of which was provided by the Andrews, TX chamber of commerce, it was a large paved parking lot with 6 water and electric hookups, and a dump station, where anyone can stay for free up to 2 nights per month.
As to the rest of your questions, I have not found it hard to find places to get pull through parking, though this means there are places I don't even try to get into when pulling a TOAD, that I might have stopped at when not pulling one. We traveled without TOAD for the first 20,000 miles in our current coach, which is a 28 ft class A and even did not take a TOAD on my recent thousand mile solo trip to Texas in October. With our Toyota Yaris TOAD we are still under 45 feet in length, which means we can almost fit in 2 standard 22 ft long parking spaces end to end even with TOAD.
There are lists online that show free overnighting options, though of course rules change and no list is up to date, so it is always a good idea to confirm overnight parking is still allowed at big box stores, etc. upon arrival or call ahead. One other thing to keep in mind there are lots of under utilized free and low cost camping options across the US, these include county fairgrounds, city parks, COE campgrounds, National Forest campgrounds and others, I have even found a few with free hookups, perhaps the nicest of which was provided by the Andrews, TX chamber of commerce, it was a large paved parking lot with 6 water and electric hookups, and a dump station, where anyone can stay for free up to 2 nights per month.
UTTransplant
Well-known member
Don’t use a rest area or truck stop if anything else is available. Look for a big box store that allows overnight parking, easily confirmed with a phone call. Truck stops and rest areas are bright and noisy. They are also needed for truckers who have federally mandated rest hours and not much flexibility. Yes, I know it is as legal for an RVer to stay in a rest area as a trucker, but it is considered impolite. And as Isaac said, there are lots of inexpensive or free community campgrounds, across the Midwest in particular.
Mountain high
Guest
This is for Western Colorado Interstate 70, but it probably applies to I-80 too...
1. No Overnight and No Camping. Rest for 4 hours maximum for cars and RV's, but 10 hours for truck drivers. It's strictly enforced in Western Colorado. Seen our rural area Sheriff enforce it with multiple LEO's with the homeless campers, so we all get the same treatment of don't stop for long. We exit off of I-70 in rural Colorado with some rest area parking spots, but no infrastructure. It's not utilized much now since just leaving the pavement on foot to the other side of the sign is stated as Trespassing. They have recently clamped down hard there with even more signage. My assumption is that they don't want any of the big city issues. What a shame since there is no place to rest for long. Keep moving.
2. See #1.
3. There's very limited big-rig friendly truck stop parking for trucks as it is. 4 hours maximum, then move on.
4. Nothing like that in Western Colorado available. Tough enough to pull into a fuel station between Denver and Silt which is about 175 miles, since the truck stops are non-existent.
WME
Well-known member
Good starting point...The Complete Guide to Walmart Parking Lot Camping (and Real Alternatives)
Mountain high
Guest
Unlike the Eastern US there's not a whole lot of choices of Interstate highway routes in the Mountain West, especially alternative highway routes. In Western Colorado most of the rest areas except for the two closest to Utah are in mountainous regions where they are packed tightly within the Rockies by the highway. Having RV's park overnight means lots of folks not being able to stop.Thanks for the inside perspective - that is consistent with how Colorado is represented in the 50 state list:
Colorado
303-757-9011
Overnight parking is not allowed
Homepage
www.codot.gov
I made a note of this for our hopefully soon-to-be trip across the country!
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