three4me Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 Our family of five was planning to fly from SoCal to the Midwest in August, but we’re now considering borrowing a friend’s RV and driving the 25+ hours. I’d love some tips from those who have done this before. How do you plan overnight stops? Meals? Ideally this trip would be as budget-friendly as possible. Also, we’re going there to visit family, so while we’d like to see some sights on the way (and back), this is primarily just to get us there and avoid air travel. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pen Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 CV19 aspects? Or just in general? Not CV19 related: Only done it once and I was not an organizer ;) Just a driver—- we ate in the RV mostly, lots of Cheese and crackers, PBand J, and had stops at some National Parks or similar. Bryce, for example. The National Parks along way were good. . I don’t recall if stops were planned ahead, I Don’t think so. Probably just a AAA guide was consulted at around lunch or when getting tired or little kids cranky maybe to pick an RV suitable campground or truck stop or similar to aim toward for the night. Some people at least pre CV19 would spend nights in Walmart parking lots. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmilyGF Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 We've done this trip at least 8 times and we love it!!! We've gone northern, southern, and middle routes. We plan overnight stops based on what we want to see. We love love love Craters of Moon national monument in Idaho. If we go that way, we also go to either Grand Tetons or Yellowstone. On a more central route, we love camping somewhere in the Rockies and going up to Mt Evans (watch out for altitude sickness - two of mine got it bad). Kodachrome campground is near Bryce Canyon in Utah but a much better place to camp than Bryce. I look for about 6-8 hours per day on driving days and then try to spend a full day or two in favorite places. While we also see this as transportation, we try to make the travel time fun with stops built in to look forward to. Our quickest trip was 5 days from Chicago to SF bay area via New Mexico during winter. We plan breakfasts and lunches that are cold and easy generally, but in the desert in summer, the morning is the coldest. We had fun making hot breakfast over a fire in a Utah desert on a cold morning. We usually get out the camp stove for one meal a day and plan to shop every few days. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheReader Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 Just be sure and at least look at the route you have planned as far as national parks, if you plan to stop in those, and be sure which ones are open right now. I'd for sure do some preplanning at this time, b/c of that. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
three4me Posted June 25, 2020 Author Share Posted June 25, 2020 Thanks! I also thought I’d add that we’ll have our small dog with us on the trip. So I suppose I need to look up rules for having dogs in some of the national parks if we’re going to stop at some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J-rap Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 We did that trip almost yearly when I was growing up (we lived in California and relatives lived in the Midwest), though we didn't do it in an RV. I love the memories of those trips! We stayed at roadside motels back in the day. The only meals we ate out were dinners... Although you'd be able to do all meals out of your RV if you wanted. On travel days, we'd always get on the road right after breakfast, stop for a picnic at lunch, and pull into a town for the night just before dinner. We took longer than necessary because we made the trip out a type of vacation in itself -- not just about getting to the Midwest as fast as we could. So, we often stopped at one of the national parks for a few days on the way there. But, you certainly wouldn't need to do that! We loved going through South Dakota and seeing their random sites like the Corn Palace and Wall Drug, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawz4me Posted June 25, 2020 Share Posted June 25, 2020 If you're just looking for campgrounds to stop for the night (not national parks or other scenic areas) then Campground Reviews is a good source, as is the KOA app. And I love the iExit app when traveling on interstates. You can look ahead and see what's available at upcoming exits. If you're driving a larger RV then it's common to look for big box stores (which have large parking lots) to stop for lunch and rest breaks if interstate rest areas are super busy (or nowadays, perhaps closed). When we had our big RV and towed a car (and thus were over 50 feet long altogether) we'd choose exits with lots of gas stations, and often we'd use Google maps and zoom in to see which ones were roomiest, had the pumps oriented in the easiest accessible way for us, etc. If you're in a smaller RV you won't need to think about those things as much, though. Most national parks have pretty severe dog restrictions. Generally they're allowed in parking lots and campgrounds. Generally they are NOT allowed on trails or to be left in unattended vehicles, but that may not apply if you have an RV with an onboard genny so you can leave the AC running. And of course if you feel confident your dog won't bark and you put him/her in a crate no one will know he/she is in the RV. You'll want to let your dog get used to the RV before you set off on your trip if possible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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