Planning a trip any tips?

[onenav]

:) My husband and I just purchased our retirement rig we've decided to full time it. We are both currently active duty in the Navy, but my end date is November 08 and my better half will finish his 28 years in March of 09. I am starting to plan our first long trip across the USA. We currently live in Va and want to spend about 6 months on the road. We realy want to see Mt. Rushmore then travel to the Grand Canyon and everything in between. Any suggestions on route, season or anything else we might need to know?

[k0129rwv]

I too retired from the Navy and took an around the country trip as soon as I retired....My big mistake was driving too much...Meaning I did not stay parked in a campground long enough.....Back then gas was less that a buck ... What I learned later was to only go 100-150 miles per day then you can visit 50-75 miles out from that....I had placed a large map of the country on a bulletin board in our hallway....I told the kids to put a push pin every place that they heard about that they wanted to visit then we connected the dots....It was a lot of fun....."Stop and Smell the Roses" should have been our motto but sadly it was not.....After we returned we asked the kids what they had seen and they said "nothing" but after they went back to school they would come home from school and say that they had discussed a place that they had visited. I had taken an accordian folder and labled by state all the slots and mailed off and got all the literature I could get my hands on then sorted it by states so I had a ton on information available at all time....Utilize the military fam camps, county and state and federal parks, corps of engineers parks and parks like Passport America, etc..It will make your money go further.......FUEL will be your biggest expense.....:eek:

[onenav]

Thank you for your time in answering my post. I have an RV road atlas and I am Pain stakingly reviewing our route. I was thinking about driving about 5 hours a day but you made a good point ............. why rush :) I will look into getting information on the states we are going through on our travels, I didn't think of that. It must be a Navy thing, because I too have an accordian folder but only for camgrounds I have visited. I think I'm going to re-adjust that for state information. It is amazing how much the gas has gone up, but not to worry we are saving up extra just for the added expense. I tell you I can't wait to lay eyes on the biggest ball of twine and all the other neat stuff this country has to offer.

[k0129rwv]

You will also find that there are places that you stop that there is nothing very close to see...While other stops you could spend weeks and not see every thing. We had gone to Myrtle Beach for 4 days while on our way to DC about the time the sniper was running rampant so we ended up spending 10 days then changed our direction...Some places you won't want to move on...Keep a travel log to show where you stayed and what was there over time you will forget.....We were in camping clubs while in the Navy and it is great to look over our old logs and try to remember those good times.....:)

[k0129rwv]

Go to the exchange and get the Military travel guide that has the fam camps listed in it.....There are getting to be more and more campgrounds on bases..

[justcrusin]

The biggist thing you do not want to do is travel where there may be snow and ice. It can ruin everything. Also most all campgrounds are closed in the cold country from Oct 1 to mid April or may.

[elainefaith]

Get a gas company credit card or discount card from TA or Pilot, or whatever. I got Hess, it gave 10% discount for first 90 days, 5% after that, 1% on all other purchases. Even 5% is a big deal these days. Find out what oil company is prevelent where you are going, maybe several, cards will help.

[john3697]

I researched every forum I could get on to learn the ins and outs of fulltiming for three years before we hit the road. Of all the things I learned one of the most valuable was what's referred to as the rule of 2's. That is: Stop every two hours, be off the road by 2PM and don't stay in any one place less than two days. Given the price of fuel maybe I would stay in one place as much as a week to stretch the gas budget. Most campgrounds give better rates if you rent by the week. I try not to travel more than 300 miles a day with about 250 being just right. Consider this: if you push it you arrive at the campground exhausted from too much driving. Because you're tired you may make a mistake while backing in or setting up. It's just not worth it. Also, if wifey spots your backing for you, a set of FRS radios is a great marriage saver and also prevents her being heard all over the campground. Happy Trails.

[grouchrc]

I am also retired navy. Look into SMART, they have a website. It is for retired Military and great. Chapters all over and great Caravans to Alaska, the West and Maritime Provinces among others.

[bukhrn]

Go to the exchange and get the Military travel guide that has the fam camps listed in it.....There are getting to be more and more campgrounds on bases..Or, you could go here,
http://www.militarycampgrounds.us/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

[pappytx]

One thing we found invaluable was a GPS system (we have Garmin 530c) and cell phone, by the slim chance you don't have one. The GPS gets you around detours, shows restaurants, gas, etc and will get you to the "out of way" campsites...which are just about all of them. It also locates the major area attractions and tells you the distance and estamated time of arrival. Great for planning the day trips.

[utmtman]

I agree with that pappy, we bought the tom tom for Christmas last year. Its been great so far.

[acmyno]

We have been retired since 1999 and our first trip was to Mt. Rushmore. We planned to stay in that area for 3 or 4 days and found so many interesting things there that we stayed more than 2 weeks. Some day soon we plan to go back there. k0129wrv gave you some great advice STOP and smell the roses and take your time. We are not fulltimers but if my husband had his way we would be. We've traveled all over the US in the past 9 years from Alaska to Maine and the biggest regret we have is not taking our time. My husband was in the Navy also but only 3 years in the late 60's. Good luck with your adventure.