One of the joys or living a life filled with RV travel is the ability to go and see various parts of the country. At first thought this is an easy task. Pick a spot, make a reservation and go! This is entirely true when you head to a single, or maybe a couple, destinations but what about when you plan a BIG trip? Well that my friend, as the Wizard of Oz said, is a horse of a different color!

THE TRIP

We knew what areas we wanted to see and the direction we wanted to go. We knew we wanted to focus on national parks and hitting as many as possible along the trip. We also knew doing this was going to take time………and planning………and more planning. What we didn’t know was just what all goes into planning a trip of this magnitude. What magnitude you ask? Well…….after all is said and done………FOUR MONTHS!!!!!!!

So let’s back up a minute and look at the big picture of where we will be heading. Leaving from East Tennessee we knew our first destination was ultimately Big Bend National Park in South Texas. From there we would start working West picking up parks. Once in Southern California we plan to turn North all the way to British Columbia before turning back East. From there its back into the states in Montana heading South picking up parks ultimately ending up in Denver, Colorado.

So you see that’s quite a trip to start planning campgrounds for and pinning down dates. But WAIT!!!!!! This is such a long trip that we still have to make money because unfortunately this YouTube, Instagram and Facebook gig isn’t doing it yet! This means it’s all on me and my working gigs across the country………..unless you kind folks care to throw some spare change at us!!! LOL. In doing this I had to research more in depth on areas so I knew where we needed to spend a week or two so I could make money to continue on and keep the bills paid. Plus for some reason these 2 kids always seem to want to eat!!! 😂 This means the trip gets extended quite a bit!

CAMPGROUNDS

Finding campgrounds was another challenge entirely it’s own that I’m still working on with less than a month until we hit the road. We still have several places to fill in along the way and we’re looking for suggestions. To make this easier we’ll be hosting our first ever YouTube Live this Sunday (February 5, 2023) at 7:30pm EST. Hope on over and help us out!

To start we turned to our Thousand Trails membership since all those campgrounds are free…….or included with our membership. This allowed us to book 7 of the big stops with longer stays. From there we started looking to the national park sites where there’s not much other option. Next we started looking to Passport America for campgrounds since members always get 50% off! This allowed us to book another site or two. Finally we turned to Harvest Hosts and Boondockers Welcome. With these we were able to potentially add in a handful of short 1-5 night stays in various areas. Now we’re left with where we can potentially boondock safely near some of the national parks.

Now that I thought things were on track and falling into place I find out that our planned campground for 2 weeks (work weeks) in Tucson, Arizona has turned into an age restricted park for 55+ only. That, on top of the other gaps, means I’m back to square one trying to figure out where to stay during our time in Arizona! Fun, Fun!!!!!

ROUTE PLANNING

Now for the easy part……and YES I actually mean the easy part!!! Previously this part was the most stressful because we had to worry about road conditions, height issues, propane restrictions and many more concerns. No more!!!!! Now we use RV Life Pro and RV Life Trip Wizard to plan our routes and couldn’t be happier! This program allows us to input all of our information once on set up and it then routes accordingly. We enter our total length and height, total weight, do we have propane, etc….. All the important information is entered so the system knows how to route us. Then we set up our circles for routing. Ours are set at 100, 200 and 300 mile rings. This is fully customizable but it gives me an idea of where I need to stop for the night so everyone isn’t totally drained from road time.

The best part about this is when we’re ready to hit the road it will route us right from my phone. The program will also do SO much more like providing campground reviews and community forums loaded with information! Check it out from the link here or at the bottom of the page and you’ll get a 7 day FREE trial PLUS 25% OFF your subscription!!

Wish us luck and by all means log in an check out our live event Sunday night!!! Until next time…….