Traveling Without Reservations

[DEarle]

Greetings, DW and I bought a 2008 2720SL last month. We are getting it ready for Our first 16 day journey in October. No real maintenance appears necessary, however I'll be checking age of tires before we leave. The forum has been helpful as we are doing the shower curtain mods, used suspenders to hold the sheets on the mattress and I am in the process of replacing the florescent tubes with LED lighting (will attempt to make LED adapters for the auto style bulbs). Also adding the wall mounts for The 23 in flat screen TV. We've done a couple of nights in the driveway and are comfortable with the stock mattress.

Main question is: we typically travel free style meaning we stop when we get tired and find a motel for the night (only one time in 20 years have we not found a vacancy). Will this work with Campgrounds? We will be leaving East Texas heading to Carlsbad New Mexico. From there into Arizona, up to Utah (longest layovers), through Wyoming, down Colorado and back into Texas.

We are thinking (hoping) we'll miss most of the summer and winter travelers in October, but this is all new to us with the TM. Is Walmart still friendly to camping on their parking lots? Advice?

[LoveToCamp]

One of the main questions to answer is: how far off the beaten path do you want to camp?

If you are in the vicinity of Forest Service campgrounds, they should have plenty of space in October, unless you get into a very popular elk hunting area. But, that is still early-season, so it shouldn't be bad. If your travels take you close to FS campgrounds, great! If not, and you are hoping for KOA or private campgrounds, I would check with a few of them in the general area where you think you may be stopping, and see what their occupancy rate normally is in October. If all you check with say there is no problem, you should be good. If some or all say that they still get full, you may have a problem.

Just me, but parking lots are not an attractive option, unless you are getting in late, and plan to leave early. I still would opt for a FS campground, but it depends on where your travels take you. From the list of states, I can find plenty of routes that are in attractive areas, and have FS campgrounds very convenient.

Good luck! Sounds like it could be a very nice trip.

Some areas prohibit overnight stops in parking lots. It is best to ask the store manager if overnight parking is permitted by store and local policy, and if yes then buy something at the store to support them.

[scrubjaysnest]

We have never had a problem finding camping. There are a few "rules" we follow to avoid problems.

Stop early, no later then 3 PM
Don't move on weekends or holidays
Do your move monday through thursday

Now for the exceptions:
Always make reservations at Fl state parks.
ACOE that take reservations or USFS or NP's that also take reservations; after you get there make reservations for additional nights. Sometimes you may have to change sites.
We ran into one situation last year where we had paid for the site at a POS in the NP. It wasn't tied into the national reservation system and we had to move our last night there as the site had been reserved. We and the hosts didn't find out until 5PM. This is highly unusual and not the norm. The CG was full and we had to move to another 10 miles away; turned out to be a better CG and a dollar less.

Texas SP usually have Halloween specials and are fully booked on that weekend.

You've got a folding trailer. if you want to travel without reservations just sometimes stay in motels. no motel is going to question a folded down trailer in the parking lot.

yes-it will somtimes cost more than a campsite.

Hope I am not breaking rules sending you to another forum but this is a place that lists every known Walmart, whether they offer ONP or not along with a phone number. They have all sorts of files and even have them where you can download them and a few other friendly overnight parking places, and the rules of etiquette. I have spent nites at several and only a couple were unpleasant in noise, etc. Most have over nite security so you are relatively safe too.

By the way, it is Wal Mart Corporate that allows, it is local municipalities that restrict, unless the lot is owned by someone else, such as in a Plaza.

http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/walmartrving/info

Dave

Take a few trips in order to get to know your routine: how long it takes, and how much energy you have left over for the driving. You will be towing at 55mph for most of the trip which can be mind-knumbing on an Interstate! Back roads are more interesting, but you need to do more advance work for planning and more time for the travel.

Most likely, I am older than you, and you will be able to do more than me and my DW, but here is my routine and equipment.

1. Get a good smart phone with reliable mobile "hot spot" - I use Verizon. (Few campgrounds have great Wi-Fi. ) You can use it in your TV as you travel or in your TM in the morning before you leave - I use mine with a laptop.
2. At 55mph, you will probably travel about 5 hrs before you start thinking about what you want for dinner and the set-up steps to be done before dark. That's about 250 - 300 miles. Less with strong winds, rainy weather, and/or construction.
3. Use a good RV camp site rating service on the web to locate possible, good parks along your road within your estimated range of travel and write down there phone numbers and locations.
4. Sometime around 3 or 4pm, judge how much farther you want to travel and give one of the pre-determined campsites a call to reserve a site. If it's full, start calling the others on your list, or go back to that rating website for additional help.
5. Note: Directions from Google Maps, MapQuest, and/or GPS can save some awkward turnarounds - it's really not all that easy to u-turn back in traffic with a trailer.

So far, it has worked for me. Good luck in your travels!

[tgpmd1]

I've done what Dave does and use the Walmart spreadsheet and plan to go from Walmart to Walmart that allows for overnight parking. We've never had a problem yet. Even the time when some youngsters parked behind our TM, cranked up the music and we thought bad things were going to happen. Less than 10 minutes later security pulled up and chased them off. Security drove by every 30 every so often to make sure they didn't come back. We always go to the customer service desk and ask permission. Most times they ask you to park near the garden center. One time they asked us to park next door at the Sam's club parking lot. We even had one one pickup park and watched us open up the TM. His passenger said, "What are we doing?" He answered, " I want to see them set this thing up." Then he told us, "That's cool" and drove off.

[FujiPedaler]

Scrubjay and others.,

When responding to newbies and others, would you all refrain from one, two of three letter abbreviations. I have been reading the website for some time but I sure don't understand all of your "Letters".

Maybe you all have a dictionary of terms that are posted somewhere that I missed?

Thanks.

[DEarle]

Thanks to all for the replies. I'm feeling more comfortable and will use the info learned. I will try using an online CG service as I cannot get a Good Sam guide until the 2014 issue is published. I had failed to mention that I will have a WIFI repeater (learned about on this forum) as mentioned by TravlinOn. The Walmart PL option was/is to be a last resort.