Cross Country Trip, Reservations Yes/No

[Bob26894]

Planning a 4 week trip in August/ September, from Tucson,AZ to Maine. This is our first long trip and we would like to feel free to divert and see sights along the way. Is it better to have reservations at RV parks along the way or would that create a schedule that would prohibit being flexible enough to see the sights. I guess I'm leaning towards no reservations and hoping to find suitable overnight stops. Any advice from experienced travelers would be welcome. 

[desertdeals69]

I very rarely book any reservations because it is so limiting as to where and when you can go.  If there is one event I want to see or do I may book it but thats it.  We are leaving next week for 4 months and the only thing besides the FMCA in Indy is the eclipse in Aug and we book into a campground in Virginia.

[manholt]

In New England, I would book!  Also depends a lot on the size of your coach, especially in PA and North East.  Otherwise I would not bother.  I'm leaving in 10 days for 3 month's, my Reservation is Indy and a RV park in NW Indiana, where we are leaving the rig for 2 weeks, while we are in Scandinavia. 

[manholt]

Bob.  My bad !  Welcome to the Forum!

[BillAdams]

If you are planning to visit any National Parks or similar popular destinations while the schools are out for the Summer I would make reservations.  For lesser popular destinations I don't make reservations but instead call the campground when I am certain I am on the way.  Yesterday we arrived in Raton, NM looking for an overnight spot where we did not need to disconnect the tow.  We called after lunch, made a reservation and got in around 4pm.  Good choice as all the pull-throughs were booked by the time we got there.

[manholt]

BillA.  Your right, I forgot about National and State Parks and I do make my daily reservations around just before or after lunch!

Carl

[wildebill308]

Welcome to the forum. Where are you going in Main? In the North East in a lot of areas it is already to late to get a reservation. Are you going to DC? 

Bill

[tbutler]

We do pretty much the same thing as mentioned in previous posts.  When we start out on a trip like this, we may decide to alter our route along the way for one reason or another.  Sometimes we decide to stay a little longer in one place, other times we may decide to skip a visit to get us to our destination on time.  If a location turns out interesting we may contact the office early in the morning and extend our stay, a day or a week.  This gives us near total freedom in our travels.  We also exercise the option to park overnight with no hookups which can open up more options for stops along the way.  It really is a gypsy lifestyle, rolling along, discussing our next stop and what we want to see.  Usually sometime after lunch we'll gauge our rate of travel and if we want or need to be in a park for the night we'll pull out our information sources and start looking at RV parks in the vicinity of our planned overnight stop.  This way we can adjust for those days when we're just tired of driving and want a little more rest time.  At other times, we're close to being able to get to a desired location if we drive a little longer we can spend an extra day there.

If there is a location or feature that we definitely want to stay for a while we'll make a reservation ahead of time.  That can be a few days ahead as we are getting close or if we know it to be a popular resort location, or a holiday is coming up, we'll reserve weeks ahead.  There are occasional compromises with this method of travel.  The nicest park in the area may not be available and you may end up in a park which is "substandard" for your tastes but then it is only for a night.  We did this at the Grand Canyon last summer.  We had no advance reservations, called the day before our arrival and got a park.  It turned out to be a real dud, couldn't open slides on one site, no usable electric at another site.  So we started looking for another site further from the south rim.  The next nice park was full.  Still further south, we found a park with a vacancy.  It was getting toward sunset and Walmart was beginning to look like our only option for the night.  That park turned out to be a real nice find.  We had to drive the toad further to get to the Grand Canyon but we extended our stay, spent time in that town, Williams, and toured other features in the area.  We even made a stop there on the way back east and spent a day at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.  That turned out to be another highlight of our trip that we hadn't even thought of doing in making our earlier plans. 

Later on this trip we visited the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  We stayed at a US Forest Service campground with no hookups.  Following that we booked into a park for a long weekend just to get our laundry washed and get a some rest from several weeks of heavy driving.  We made an impromptu visit to Zion Canyon during that stay.  Got to experience a thunderstorm while hiking in the canyon (not in a flood zone).  There is nothing like thunder in Zion Canyon.  Just one more bonus item I didn't even know was on my bucket list.  One of Louise's favorite quotes, "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving." 

 

[elkhartjim]

Another consideration re making reservations would be if your travels fall on holidays.  July 4th and Labor Day can sometimes be difficult to book on short notice. Have a great trip.

[Bob26894]

Thank you all for the responses, we will use the valuable advice we received and this will be a learning experience. 

[manholt]

Bob.  Feel free to let us know how your doing or just re post when you get back! 

Happy trails

Carl

[jleamont]

Bob, living up here in the NE, I would book them! Just give yourself adequate time so you are not killing yourself to get there on time. This area is flooded with RV's and not many campgrounds, especially campgrounds that can accommodate an RV over 28'. If you need some recommendations let me know where you are traveling (route). If headed into New England stay clear or I-95 in NJ, NY, and CT. You drive an RV up I-95 in those states you will begin to dislike mankind, the tolls will kill your pocket and the road's will kill the RV. I wont even do it in a car when I travel up there for work.

When we travel out West we usually just wing it unless as Tom mentioned there is a place we want to park the coach and explore for a few days.

[jleamont]

On ‎5‎/‎21‎/‎2017 at 4:54 AM, desertdeals69 said:

I very rarely book any reservations because it is so limiting as to where and when you can go.  If there is one event I want to see or do I may book it but thats it.  We are leaving next week for 4 months and the only thing besides the FMCA in Indy is the eclipse in Aug and we book into a campground in Virginia.

DD, where in VA? PM me if you want. There are a few along the beach areas to avoid. Just trying to save you as headache..... Unless you want to be a fill in bystander on an episode of C.O.P.S

[desertdeals69]

6 hours ago, jleamont said:

DD, where in VA? PM me if you want. There are a few along the beach areas to avoid. Just trying to save you as headache..... Unless you want to be a fill bystander on an episode of C.O.P.S

My advancing years caused my memory to have a malfunction.  The campground is in South Carolina.  It is a Thousand Trails, Carolina Landing in Fairplay, SC.  Thanks for the concern.

[jleamont]

Good! VA is sketchy when you get to the coast.

[manholt]

Nice thing about NE, if you have been there many times before and you have seen all you care to see, you can clear it all in a day....As Joe said, stay away from I-95 and that was true in the 1980's....Don't even think about it now! 

It's not easy to find a campground under $100 for a 45 footer!  Linda and I, will go and do Tom's Blog on Labrador next year, but not in my coach or her's! 

[wildebill308]

If you are going to be traveling in the North East that you get an E-ZPass for the coach and for your toad. Saves money on tolls and much easier not stopping to pay tolls. 

Bill

[wildebill308]

On 5/22/2017 at 6:06 AM, jleamont said:

Bob, living up here in the NE, I would book them! Just give yourself adequate time so you are not killing yourself to get there on time. This area is flooded with RV's and not many campgrounds, especially campgrounds that can accommodate an RV over 28'. If you need some recommendations let me know where you are traveling (route). If headed into New England stay clear or I-95 in NJ, NY, and CT. You drive an RV up I-95 in those states you will begin to dislike mankind, the tolls will kill your pocket and the road's will kill the RV. I wont even do it in a car when I travel up there for work.

When we travel out West we usually just wing it unless as Tom mentioned there is a place we want to park the coach and explore for a few days.

I drove I-95 from DC to RI. This was before I got my E-ZPass and the toll on the George Washington bridge was $76.00 cash only.  I don't know what it would be with my pass and I don't intend to find out.

Bill

[jleamont]

Bill, I wont go over that bridge in a car let alone a coach . I go out of my way through the country to avoid that entire area as much as I can.

EZPASS, if your coach is over a certain GVWR you now have to purchase a Commercial EZPASS. Found that out the hard way when it wouldn't ping at the booths. I called them and they were stumped that an RV could weigh so much. I guess some people don't get out much

[wildebill308]

54 minutes ago, jleamont said:

Bill, I wont go over that bridge in a car let alone a coach . I go out of my way through the country to avoid that entire area as much as I can.

EZPASS, if your coach is over a certain GVWR you now have to purchase a Commercial EZPASS. Found that out the hard way when it wouldn't ping at the booths. I called them and they were stumped that an RV could weigh so much. I guess some people don't get out much

I had planned on going over the Tappan Z but couldn't get the map navigation program to go that way. So I tried routing to the town on the outher side of the TZ so it would take me that way.  I thought we were good to go. Apparently it changed and yes it was routing me to that town buy going up 95 till I crossed the GW then going north on the outher side of the river to that town. Note to self ALWAYS confirm routes on map.

When I looked online before that trip they said I needed a Commercial account. I ended up not geting it online because of the time constraints. (it would get to me 10 days after I left) I ended up doing a walk in in New Hampshire. There they told me I didn't need a commercial E-ZPass. They also instructed me to put the transponder for the toad in its foil pouch so it couldn't be read when in tow.  When it is in tow it is charged as a "trailer" at a lower rate than if it was driven. They never asked how much the coach weighed and it has worked flawlessly.

Bill

[wayne77590]

What route are you going to take?

We have traveled to NE several times and always avoid the Right Coast I-95.  The easily explained way is I-81 to I-84 and we get off at Sturbridge, MA.  LL Bean in Maine is not that far

As for reservations. Depending on when school starts you will find 99% of the campgrounds are booked for weekends.  Once school starts that diminishes somewhat.  If you have a route planned I would consider reservations for any weekends up  in NE, and as stated the Holiday weekends are pretty well already booked.  Call ahead to see what is available and then plan your route to go through that area.  

Also, costs for RV camping in NE are considerably higher than the South and mainly because they have to make their money 5-6 months of the year and are closed down the other months because of sn*w.

I'm not trying to chill your travel plans but "it is what it is, and then it is what you make of it!"

[manholt]

Wayne.  I like it up there after LD Weekend...we would have a reservation for the Cape and wait out Labor Day.  Then go up to the coast of NH and Main, no reservation needed.  Best done in a 34 foot or less coach.  

[wildebill308]

41 minutes ago, manholt said:

Wayne.  I like it up there after LD Weekend...we would have a reservation for the Cape and wait out Labor Day.  Then go up to the coast of NH and Main, no reservation needed.  Best done in a 34 foot or less coach.  

I haven't had that much of a problem geting around in my 38ft coach with the toad. Yes if you try to drive through every little town you will have problems driving a car. The outher problem is there are a lot of campgrounds that close after Labor Day. I talked to a guy who had a campground at Newfound Lake about staying open later. He was close to a big ski area. He told me the city would not let him stay open. I know the owner of Worden Pond Family Campground in RI and they close right after Labor Day. They open Memorial day. Joe you might like this place $45.00 for 50 amp and water. Dump site or pump out. Great location. 

[obedb]

Never cross the GW. Don't even think about it. Re: Labor Day Weekend/ we have learned to have a reservation for that weekend. Other wise we just wing it. When we get out west in an area we plan on staying around we make reservations well in advance. We were in one park for a month. Without a reservation we would have moved several times during that month. When we boondocked a lot with our first coach, if there was room at a park so we could have a day taking long showers and doing laundry we took our chances. If nothing available, just paid for a dump and water fill. Washed clothes at a truck stop. Many have several washers and large commercial dryers.

Again/ Never cross the GW.😩

[manholt]

Bill.  A lot of them don't close until the 3rd weekend of September.  Next year, we will be in NE on our way back not up!

[wayne77590]

On 5/23/2017 at 1:02 PM, manholt said:

Wayne.  I like it up there after LD Weekend...we would have a reservation for the Cape and wait out Labor Day.  Then go up to the coast of NH and Main, no reservation needed.  Best done in a 34 foot or less coach.  

My brother lives in Central Mass. so we just park it there. (No, you cannot have the address)