Cross country RV road trip

mbalbritton

mbalbritton

#@$%!
Joined
Mar 22, 2005
Location
Greensboro, NC
Thinking about renting an RV for me, the wife and our two small dogs and driving cross country.

Looking for must see and best paths to take. I’ve done the southern I-10 route and then up the left side to Seattle and have no interest in I-10 ever again.

I was thinking 40 westbound and 80 eastbound. This would be in January with the intent of hitting Disneyland for the wife’s birthday.

Having never RV’d before, what are something I need to consider and understand? I hope to stay away from RV campgrounds as much as possible. I’d rather camp in remote locations and empty and fill tanks as needed. What type of places would I be looking for to do that?

Like I said, never done this before, so I don’t know what I don’t know and need to know.

Also, anyone have a motorcoach or standard RV style they rent out? I can go to a rental place, but if anyone here has one that I could my money to you instead, I like that idea.
 
Something like this
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mbalbritton said:
Having never RV’d before, what are something I need to consider and understand? I hope to stay away from RV campgrounds as much as possible. I’d rather camp in remote locations and empty and fill tanks as needed
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RVs suck for this kind of stuff. Creeping down miles of washboard, listening to the dishes rattling in the cabinets, wondering if you're going to rip the generator out from under the camper on the next chug hole, etc. Suburban or pickup is the way to go if you want to get off the beaten path. RVs aren't allowed on a lot of roads (too big, long, etc). You'll see some folks in RVs camped out in the desert in NM and AZ, but they're usually there for months a time.

We've driven across the country six times now, plus twice down and up the West Coast. Camped along the way every time.
 
shawn said:
RVs suck for this kind of stuff. Creeping down miles of washboard, listening to the dishes rattling in the cabinets, wondering if you're going to rip the generator out from under the camper on the next chug hole, etc. Suburban or pickup is the way to go if you want to get off the beaten path. RVs aren't allowed on a lot of roads (too big, long, etc). You'll see some folks in RVs camped out in the desert in NM and AZ, but they're usually there for months a time.

We've driven across the country six times now, plus twice down and up the West Coast. Camped along the way every time.
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it would be minimal of that kind of thing. And having the dogs and wife with the smallest bladder, having the onboard facilities is the ticket.
 
Harvest host is a resource for "remote" camping. Places like vineyards, breweries, and farms or even people's land. You camp there 1-2 nights free. Somewhat assumed is a donation or patronage of the establishment. Usually no hookups occasionally there is electricity and or water.
Paid subscription but the money you save on a trip like that would be worth it compared to staying in campgrounds.

www.harvesthosts.com

Unique RV Camping at Farms, Wineries, Breweries, & More with Harvest Hosts

Discover unlimited overnight stays at unique locations with no camping fees. Join Harvest Hosts and explore farms, wineries, breweries, and more!
www.harvesthosts.com www.harvesthosts.com
 
Just a few random thoughts. Our "big" trip was in 2022, we took almost 2 months.

Don't think you are going to save money over motels -- 6-8 mpg, and campgrounds aren't cheap. 30-50+ bucks average, some were a hundred or more.

The only bedbugs are YOUR bedbugs.

200 miles a day is a lot easier on you than pushing 500 in an RV. Easy in a car, not in an RV. You'll have time (and energy) to do things along the way. I'd much rather do 200 a day and have fun and do things rather than knock a cross-country out in five days and hate each other.

On that note, plan some stuff apart from each other. Living with someone in 200 square feet is not the same as in 2,000 square feet. Leave the missus at the campground to read, while you go off to hike for the afternoon (or obviously, vice-versa).

If you are going to take more time for the trip, plan some down days. We spent 1-5 nights at any one campground. Like in Moab, we allowed plenty of time for touring around, but I wish we had planned one totally down day each week, just to chill out and do laundry and groceries. Trying to make a grocery run after sightseeing all day gets old. And campground laundry facilities get busy in the evenings. Think about doing the errand/down days on a Saturday -- avoid the folks just out for a weekend at the touristy places.

Avoid the interstates as much as you can. There are a lot of good 4-lane US highways that are underutilized. We got on one I think it was in KS that we didn't see a car coming or going for a long while. Much better condition than the interstates too. (The worst road we were on was I-40 across New Mexico).

I'm not sure I'd want to do I-80 in January/February. Good chance of getting held up for snow and ice. Found this out when I was first doing route planning. It was in January, and I found that Apple Maps is real-time only. I-80 was closed in WY and NE due to snow, and there was no way to plan a route thru there on the map until the roads re-opened.
 
No fries said:
Harvest host is a resource for "remote" camping. Places like vineyards, breweries, and farms or even people's land. You camp there 1-2 nights free. Somewhat assumed is a donation or patronage of the establishment. Usually no hookups occasionally there is electricity and or water.
Paid subscription but the money you save on a trip like that would be worth it compared to staying in campgrounds.

www.harvesthosts.com

Unique RV Camping at Farms, Wineries, Breweries, & More with Harvest Hosts

Discover unlimited overnight stays at unique locations with no camping fees. Join Harvest Hosts and explore farms, wineries, breweries, and more!
www.harvesthosts.com www.harvesthosts.com
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Yes, definitely join Harvest Hosts.

Since he mentioned it first, ask @No fries for a HH referral link. It won't do anything for you, but will give him a couple of months free.

If you hit HH several nights in a row as you travel, it's still not hard to find a dump station. Some campgrounds will let you dump, some places like Flying J have dump stations, state and federal campgrounds will usually let you dump for ten bucks or so if you're not camping. Google "RV dump station" and there are several websites with databases.
 
mbalbritton said:
Ya, probably not the best time of year, but the opportunity has arisen and thus we’re contemplating this.
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Just saw your map. Understand that a lot of East Coast folks heading to the Hammers in January will take I20 instead of I40 to avoid weather. Depends on the year, but it's a thing. Your rental RV also may not have black and grey tanks inside heated space.


kaiser715 said:
There are a lot of good 4-lane US highways
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US412 is not one of those
 
Rv's are awesome and very enjoyable.

Have fun. Get insurance. Take your time and enjoy the open road. Don't be in a hurry

Harvest host is great.
 
January out there ain’t like January here. Some pretty high elevations that are drastically different than what we’re used to out here.

I think @kaiser715 summed it up pretty good and covered all I would have said. I would 100% agree about not driving too much, at least too often. 200-300 miles a day was good for us. Sometimes it was more or less but it’s exhausting to try and really knock down the miles and be a road warrior.

Absolutely do this trip, you 100% should do it. Maybe just not in January.
Plan for down time as said, plan big interest points you want to see, leave days in between and fill in the gaps.

I highly recommend some E-Bikes to get around within the areas you stay. Pickup some Amazon specials or whatever, you won’t regret it.
 
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My wife and I just got back from a big trip, we were gone for 15 days, we went to 8 national parks and covered 5800 miles. We definitely drove too much each day but its the time that we had. We didn't have HH but we stayed at a few KOA's and searched and found plenty of national forests, and nature preserves along the way that we stayed at for free. There's a first come first serve campground in Dumas TX that is free and just gives a place for people to stop for the night and enjoy the town. There's probably more like it in other areas, our RV is a travel trailer and even having it was great for bathroom breaks and making lunch on the road. Just make a loose plan for the trip and go for it, its something you'll never forget or regret.
 
How much time are you thinking about taking? You've got a couple of people now telling you that you can only do 2-300 miles a day in an RV. On the Glacier trip, we drove through the night twice to make miles. On the most recent Colorado trip, we did one night on the way home. Both were two week trips. It'll take you two weeks to get to Cali if you're only going 250 miles a day.
 
shawn said:
How much time are you thinking about taking? You've got a couple of people now telling you that you can only do 2-300 miles a day in an RV. On the Glacier trip, we drove through the night twice to make miles. On the most recent Colorado trip, we did one night on the way home. Both were two week trips. It'll take you two weeks to get to Cali if you're only going 250 miles a day.
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Some days we drove 7-800 miles, those 12-16hr days aren't the most fun but it allowed us to see what we wanted, having the RV wont hinder you from putting the miles down it will just require more fuel stops.
 
mbalbritton said:
I was hoping 2 weeks would be good, but sounds more like a minimum of 3 weeks to make it truly enjoyable. And for the places I’d like to see, a more favorable time of year would be better.
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Now that we know the timeframe, toss the 200 miles a day out the window. Will your wife be able and want to drive the RV also? Split the job, take turns. My missus can drive ours in an emergency, but I do 99% of the driving on trips.

Or fly out to CA, rent an RV there. Our old neighbors did that. Once they got the RV picked up, they went to walmart and bought all the extras they needed (kitchen stuff, camp chairs, etc that didn't come with the rental), and dropped the stuff off at goodwill at the end of the trip. Still came out cheaper than the gas and campgrounds to drive there.
 
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Whats the point of the trip? Is there specific stuff you want to see, or is it just to GTFO and take the time to explore and see lots of things?
If its the latter you better either take 3+ weeks or do like @kaiser715 suggested bc you've got a whole lot of hours of driving ahead of you. The question is whether they are condensed or spread out.
 
Save this for next time. It's been a minute since I've messed with it, but you used to be able to plug in legs of your trip and it would show roadside attractions, museums, parks, etc. It's probably worth a subscription for a month or so if you really want to dig into trip planning.

roadtrippers.com

Roadtrippers Road Trip Planner – Find the best stops along the way

Plan your next trip, find amazing places, and take fascinating detours with the #1 trip planner. Every trip is a road trip.
roadtrippers.com roadtrippers.com
 
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