Wandering ...

[JayArr]

We did our cross country trip last year like jymbee and SargeW mentioned in another thread, every stop planned, reserved and paid for. The trouble was we had problems with the vehicle and some nights we didn't get to the camp site until 9:00Pm or 10:00PM. Luckily we had paid for the sites and they were still there when we arrived but it might have been nicer to just pull over at 5 or 6 and find a spot for the night and arrive at our destination a day or two late.

This year due to Covid we will likely have to stay closer to home so we may just spend three weeks exploring Beautiful British Columbia. I've mentioned to Michelle that I'd like to try "wandering". If we find a nice spot we stay for several days and explore the area, boondock whenever we can and have no firm plans or reservations. We'll see how that works out.

I'd like to hear which side of the fence people are on, do you plan and reserve or just wander about?

JayArr

 

[Uncledave54]

I'd like to hear which side of the fence people are on, do you plan and reserve or just wander about?

JayArr

I've always enjoyed a combo approach, that is, I know where I'm heading then wander.

Example.... I'll head to Lake Michigan, then wander.

 

[UTTransplant]

If we are going to a real destination, I make advanced reservations early. if we are going on a wandering trip (like we are now), I used to plan 2-3 days ahead at most. I prefer having the flexibility to stay longer at a place when I found something really interesting or if we have bad weather when we planned sightseeing. This year I have been making reservations 4-5 days in advance because I was slightly spooked at how crowded people were saying things are. So far we have found places without much trouble, though one place was full (another one as nice was open) and another place didn’t have the full 5 nights we wanted so we took 4 nights instead. Not too much trouble.

 

[jackiemac]

We do 6 month trips and we don't usually book more than a day or two in advance unless we absolutely know when we will be somewhere and know we need to book. Yellowstone for example.

We love the spontaneity of driving somewhere and seeing a great place and finding a spot nearby to camp. We can stay as long as we like (within campground restrictions) if it's a first come place. Or if we don't like an area or weather deteriorates we can leave. The freedom and feeling of liberation makes my soul sing! We love that.

 

[phil-t]

We usually have a general route and places to visit planned for a 3-4 month adventure. Seldom make a reservation until the day we travel for that night. We use mostly private campgrounds and state, village parks. We like the flexibility of changing plans and finding places to visit.
Though it doesn't look like we will be doing that this summer, we are still doing short, 1-3 day trips locally, seeing things and going places we have not been to before. Fun times in our retired lives.

 

[John From Detroit]

Just so you know Michigan officially re-opens fully on July 1 (About 2 weeks from today) I notice the Covid infection rate near me was 96/100,000 today's 2 week average 1.1/100,000 Now that's getting close to ideal (just 1.1 to go)

 

[Isaac-1]

Traditionally we have always booked destinations weeks or months ahead of time, and travel night stops mostly either pull off and stop or call ahead a few hours out, possibly reserving night 1 of a trip a few days in advance. Last month we tried much more fluid wondering approach for the first time only booking 3 nights of a roughly 2 week trip in advance. The trip was theoretically centered around being in the Memphis area for our nieces graduation, our original thoughts were after leaving Memphis to cross into Arkansas, perhaps go as far north as southern Missouri before looping back home to Louisiana. Well as it turns out we arrived in Memphis the day after the crack was found in the I-40 bridge making crossing the Mississippi river a much bigger deal than normal, on top of that, the weather forecast for the following week for much of Arkansas and Missouri started calling for rain nearly the entire week. So instead of going west from Memphis, on about 24 hours notice we decided to go east instead, made reservations for 3 nights at a well rated state park (Tues-Thurs nights) in central Tennessee, explored the area, found interesting things that we never knew existed, ...

So being flexible turned a highway congestion and rainy week potential into a surprisingly nice trip.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

We were what I might call "structured wanderers". Would map out a general route based on some places we wanted to visit, e.g. a national park or some region we had not seen before, and then wander between the major points. Would typically make reservations for the most popular spots, thus setting a general time table over a multi-month journey, but we had enough time available to avoid having them too close together. That let us wander at whim. As we wandered, we might make a reservation for the next stop, or not. If we were confident that there were plenty of decent campgrounds in an area, we felt no compulsion to reserve, but if there seemed to be limited choices we would call ahead or make a Rez online a day or tow before. Rarely did we leave one campsite without a pretty firm idea where we were going to end up that day. Planned on the fly, as it were.

 

[SeilerBird]

Dion was a wanderer back in 1962.

And three months before he released this song to brag about all the women he was wandering with he had a hit with Runaround Sue in which he complains about this girl who was doing some wandering. I guess what is good for the goose...