Best Campground book for our first TM trip!

[dryadi]

So we are so excited to have bought our first TM. We are planning a trip cross country from FL to Oregon. I thought I read a thread where someone posted the name of a really good book to buy to call ahead and pick campgrounds as you go. Anybody know the name of a good book ? And is there a thread with cross country tips on camping with TM? We are newbies but I have four months to plan and I am SOOOO excited !!!

[scrubjaysnest]

There is no single book, the closest is Good Sam RV travel guide. $25.95 for non members and $9.95 for members. Get it at any Camping World. For us it is last resort as we find it difficult to use.
Camping with the Corps of Engineers is very good with directions and GPS coordinates. Even lists the secret free ones. ISBN 978-0-937877-51-7
Coleman had one that was started in 2000, no longer in publication, look for it on ebay but it can be very pricey. Got our copy for $15, but saw it as high as $125. It is for USFS CG's and between 10% to 20% are now closed. Has directions and GPS coordinates. ISBN 0-7627-0787-9 ;original price $19.95

This link will give you links to a lot of websites for finding CG's.
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=11073

Ultimate Campgrounds has a new app. It is actually better than the web version. You can filter it and it has an aerial view. I've been trying it for a few days and I'm really impressed.
This is only for State Parks, COE, FS, BLM, etc. (21,000+ campgrounds). There is very few if any private campgrounds.

[mecicon]

Also:

http://www.recreation.gov/welcome.do

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/

http://freecampsites.net/

http://www.freecampgrounds.com/

http://www.ultimatecampgrounds.com/uc/index.php

http://www.rvparklist.com/

YMMV.

[Bill]

One thing to remember is that in order to use these online apps and data bases on the road, you must have access to cell service. If you plan far enough ahead, that is OK. But if you are on the road and there is no service at the moment, you can be out of luck. When my wife and I travel, we sometimes find that toward the end of the day, we have driven more (or fewer) miles than expected, and only now do we have some idea where we will be when it is time to camp. The Big Book, although unwieldy, is a life saver at that moment.

Bill

[scrubjaysnest]

Originally Posted by Bill

One thing to remember is that in order to use these online apps and data bases on the road, you must have access to cell service. If you plan far enough ahead, that is OK. But if you are on the road and there is no service at the moment, you can be out of luck. When my wife and I travel, we sometimes find that toward the end of the day, we have driven more (or fewer) miles than expected, and only now do we have some idea where we will be when it is time to camp. The Big Book, although unwieldy, is a life saver at that moment.

Bill

This is why we pre-load CG's into the GPS with alternates about 50 miles either side of our desired CG. Bill is right about the big book, it saved us in 2010 in Helena MT; our desired CG was under a foot of snow with another 1 to 2 feet expected that night. The first one listed by the book was a moble home park; the one we ended up at was a regular RV park

RVParky is a good app. But as Bill said u gotta be connected.
I think the Good Sam book is the best as it combined with Woodall's a few years ago. Good Sam membership may be worthwhile and u get the book cheap enough to pay for half your membership.
Good luck on your trip!