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Old 04-25-2008, 09:53 AM   #1
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In about a week my DW and I are starting our first cross country trip in an RV. We will be traveling from Washington State to Virginia and back. We have made this trip in auto's many times and we have flown many more times. We have always been limited in time so we had to drive long days and not dilly dally.

I retired last fall and my wife will retire next Wednesday so we can take as much time as we want. Our plan is to drive 4 or 5 hours on travel days and to stay a few days whenever we find something that interests us.

Our only scheduled stop is an RV Park near Disneyland. We will drive to the LA area and then fly home and pick up three of our grandkids. A few days later our daughter, son-in-law and two other grandkids will fly down and join us for a week at Disneyland.

After we fly our grandkids back home we will start our way to Virgina through a southern US route.

It should be quite the adventure but I hope it doesn't turn out to be like Robin Williams' RV movie
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Old 04-25-2008, 09:53 AM   #2
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In about a week my DW and I are starting our first cross country trip in an RV. We will be traveling from Washington State to Virginia and back. We have made this trip in auto's many times and we have flown many more times. We have always been limited in time so we had to drive long days and not dilly dally.

I retired last fall and my wife will retire next Wednesday so we can take as much time as we want. Our plan is to drive 4 or 5 hours on travel days and to stay a few days whenever we find something that interests us.

Our only scheduled stop is an RV Park near Disneyland. We will drive to the LA area and then fly home and pick up three of our grandkids. A few days later our daughter, son-in-law and two other grandkids will fly down and join us for a week at Disneyland.

After we fly our grandkids back home we will start our way to Virgina through a southern US route.

It should be quite the adventure but I hope it doesn't turn out to be like Robin Williams' RV movie
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Old 04-25-2008, 10:16 AM   #3
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Why I thought the RV movie was alot of fun.
Enjoy your self and have a safe but eventful trip on the good side that is.
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Old 04-25-2008, 11:40 AM   #4
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Sounds like a wonderful trip! Take you time and enjoy it. If you don't feel like driving 4 or 5 hours on travel days don't. Don't stress everything will be fine. Take anything that breaks as an opportunity to learn and see and do something different. Keep us posted.
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Old 04-25-2008, 12:41 PM   #5
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A few things we have found helpful...

Try if at all possible to avoid schedules! Trying to be somewhere by X date can create stress and a situation when you travel in less than ideal conditions. If you do have to be somewhere at a particular date, give yourself plenty of slack time.

In the lower 48 states, we plan on travel days of about 350-400 miles assuming that most of that is Interstate travel. For non-Interstate roads, try to plan for 250-300 miles a day. In Alaska and in Canada (on the way to Alaska), no more than 250 miles a day worked out well.

We usually get underway about 8:30ish and like to put the jacks down about 3ish.

After three or four days of travel in a row, we are ready to spend a couple of days for a break.

I like TL's Campground Navigator (program for the PC) when planning stops - I figure out where 300-400 miles is towards our destination and look for nice CGs on our route in that circle. If they are the typical Interstate overnight CGs, I don't bother to call ahead. Better call ahead though for resort-type CGs. We have been to a couple of nice CGs handy to the Interstate where they book up on the weekends. We found that if the CG has a pool and activities for families, make reservations for a weekend stay in the summer.

You will have a blast Just be flexible and not in a hurry.

In fact, I'm getting excited about getting our 'beast' ready for the road - we're rarin' to go again!
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Old 04-25-2008, 12:59 PM   #6
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I would suggest that you take your laptop with you and that it has a wireless adapter (built in or USB).

If you plan to travel non-interstate routes I suggest
1) this book
"Moutain West Directory for Truckers, RV and Motorhome Drivers" (available from amazon.com)
2) you make sure your cell phone is on a nationwide plan
3) you buy a trip routing package ... Microsoft "Streets and Trips" or something equivalent
4) you buy a CD (or printed version) of some campground directory ... I use "Trailer Life" but there are other good ones ... Woodall's is also good ...

Enjoy the trip ... there are lots of interesting things to see between LA and Virginia ... arches (natural in Utah, man-made in Nebraska and Missouri), caves (New Mexico, South Dakota, Tennessee, ...), National Parks (Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, ...), race track in Indiana, motorhome plants (Iowa, Indiana), Great Lakes (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania), waterfalls (New York, Michigan, ...)

The point of this is that there is lots to see and it you can't see it all in one trip ...

ADVICE: Stop at the welcome center at each state that you enter ... get a state map and ask the attentendant what are the sights to see in their state in the next week ... where are the places where you can sample the "local" food
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Old 04-25-2008, 03:59 PM   #7
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by "007":
Why I thought the RV movie was alot of fun.
Enjoy your self and have a safe but eventful trip on the good side that is. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

007,

Made me want to get a Valtera Y adapter. Any volunteers to hold it up while I pull the handle? Don't worry, it will be fun!


JD,

Don't let it stop being fun. Don't get too hung up on schedules and embrace change when it happens, many times thats what leads to the most memorable parts of the adventure.

Enjoy!
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