South Carolina to Washington State

jamieline

Senior Member
RV LIFE Pro
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
178
Location
Conway, SC
In the process of planning our cross country trip. Looking at 400 miles a day max. Spend an extra day at every other stop.

Anyone that has planned this type of trip did you have hard set dates for staying? Any flexibility?

Weather issues?
 
We booked all sites prior to leaving on a 70ish day trip NH-ID with hard dates. Everything worked well until Montana. Unfortunately due to a breakdown at Glacier NP, we wound up staying there an extra week and missing Idaho and Tetons. That said, I had to cancel some reservations. No campground charged me any penalty fee, canceled our reservations, and we extended our stay at Yellowstone. That could be due to the places we planned on staying at but I found each site very cooperative. I planned for 250-350 miles/day (max was 380) with a one night, one night, two night protocol. We missed exploring a lot in the areas we drove through, even the two night stays. I considered it a learning trip to be repeated.
 
I ALWAYS make plans. I boondock about 80% of the time at per-selected spots. Make reservations at NP and BLM land if I can.. Put in a day or so ever 5 days to allow for bad weather, buy food, do laundry or simply rest etc. -- or unexpected problems. Plan for flexibility (what if) in your planning.
 
In the process of planning our cross country trip. Looking at 400 miles a day max. Spend an extra day at every other stop.

Anyone that has planned this type of trip did you have hard set dates for staying? Any flexibility?

Weather issues?
We always make reservations for places I definitely want to see. Our summer is mostly all booked and reserved; except.... if just traveling day-to day to get out West we just call ahead during out daily drive to a place we want to stop at depending on how long/far we want to drive that day. We usually don't have any problem doing that and it allows us a lot of flexibility. Same on the return leg - just leave it open and decide where to stay each day.
 
We are not sure what we want to see on the way out and back. I like the flexibility in case we see something on the way. Just want to be sure we will have a place to stay. Prefer at least electric each night but need water to flush tanks when needed.
 
400 miles per day makes for very long travel days. How fast do you drive, with comfort? What time of year do you plan to travel? Where in WA are you headed for? I've planned these type trips (just finished SC to AZ round trip Nov & Dec) and set every stop during preplanning. Just one day of travel did we decide to pass the planned stop and continue traveling to the next. That stop we planned to stop at didn't require prepayment or deposit so there was not issue, they just took our reservation. We were averaging 350 miles per day but with a rig much smaller and lighter than yours. We usually did 300 miles per day max when we had a 36' 5th wheel.
 
We booked all sites prior to leaving on a 70ish day trip NH-ID with hard dates. Everything worked well until Montana. Unfortunately due to a breakdown at Glacier NP, we wound up staying there an extra week and missing Idaho and Tetons. That said, I had to cancel some reservations. No campground charged me any penalty fee, canceled our reservations, and we extended our stay at Yellowstone. That could be due to the places we planned on staying at but I found each site very cooperative. I planned for 250-350 miles/day (max was 380) with a one night, one night, two night protocol. We missed exploring a lot in the areas we drove through, even the two night stays. I considered it a learning trip to be repeated.
In the process of planning our cross country trip. Looking at 400 miles a day max. Spend an extra day at every other stop.

Anyone that has planned this type of trip did you have hard set dates for staying? Any flexibility?

Weather issues?
We made all reservations ahead of time when we went out last summer. You shouldn’t have much of a problem finding a place to stay going out but could be limited to certain areas due to no reservations. I would recommend you make reservations for your stay for some areas are not going to be available at high demand campgrounds. Some places don’t require a deposit and word of advice some campgrounds say they will refund you if you cancel ahead of time but that’s not the case from what we experienced from other travelers who we talked with. We generally try to stay around 300-350 miles a day when traveling and will normally stay two nights at each stop unless it a area of interest then we stay longer.
 
I'd also say weather conditions can impact how many miles you want to drive, not to mention the inevitable road construction. Fighting winds out west takes it's toll. On our three trips west, I was happy at 250-300 mile range on some days. Occasionally a tad over 300. I do 16 hours straight with no trailer to/from daughters but pulling heavy in wind over terrible interstates is tiring.

I made reservations well in advance at our intended destinations (national/state parks for instance) then plotted a nice route to get there and back, filling in locations and checking availability in between.
 
We traveled from Arizona to Savannah, Georgia, visiting South Carolina and many states in between. We traveled a couple months started in March and got home in May. The weather was fine, actually perfect. There was some rain and a little snow flurries here in there in Texas, but that was about it. Our mileage varied between 200 and 300 miles a day. I like it best when we stop for two days and then travel again. Once we hit the nicer destinations, we would stay up to a week to 10 days. You never know what weather. But have fun and you’ll be just fine.
 
In the process of planning our cross country trip. Looking at 400 miles a day max. Spend an extra day at every other stop.

Anyone that has planned this type of trip did you have hard set dates for staying? Any flexibility?

Weather issues?
In 2018 I drove from Alaska to Washington stayed nine day then headed out for Florida we didn’t make any pre planned stops with the exception of thenRV park in Florida where we stayed two weeks, we never had an issue finding a place for the night. We did the same on the return trip and only reserved a spot in Galveston, TX.
 
I have a 4.5 month trip planned. I always make reservations in advance to ensure i get the best campgrounds with hookups and locations that check my boxes. Many campgrounds that are very desirable are booked well in advance. Also certain locations may not offer backup campgrounds. I book one to several extra down days at each campground, depending on minimum days staying due to attractions in the area, so we also get relaxation and dont get burned out. Also I feel if I am going to pay for a site at a campground, i might as well get the site I prefer by planning. I had the west loop planned one yr in advance with the points of interests noted. I booked all the campgrounds I could in the beginning and setup ticklers for the dates the other campgrounds opened up for reservations. It was a lot of hrs and work but the 4.5 mo trip I believe will be more relaxing and less stressful since the planning is behind us and we have reservations. I will admit that I had originally hoped it would be a spontaneous adventure but given my experience the last couple years with quality of campgrounds, sold out campgrounds and our desire for full hookups as well as pull throughs, and maintaining maximum daily mileage for a more relaxing vacation without setup in the dark, has changed my outlook on how I decided to handle the scheduling of our lifetime bucket list trip. We travel 200-250 miles on travel days unless next stop closer. RVLife helped tremendously with this effort although it has a downfall in that it was necessary fir me to put points of interest under campground notes versus dots that could stay on travel map.
 
Weather conditions are a function of what time you year you are traveling. Can't help with much else except for traveling through Washington state. When will you be there and what part of the state are you planning on going through?
 
We are planning on starting May 2nd. Will be traveling first to Eugen OR and then to Kennewick WA for 8 days. Our return is up through Spokane to Missoula for a couple of days and then head back to SC.
I usually drive around 60 which is comfortable. I used to live in WA (Pasco, Tricities) and camped all over WA, OR, ID, MT. Moved to VT and towed non stop with 2 of us that I would never do again. This is a pleasure trip.
My thought is to leave each morning by 8 and off road around 4 which would include stops, lunch, gas. At select stops we would spend an extra night.
 
Haven't mention it but we have a different setup, travel trailer with a F150 truck.
That’s what we have is a F150 when we crossed the country we were pulling a 24’ TT we just upgraded to a new 31’ but tow with the same F150
 
It sounds like you are familiar with the area. My main concern was where in Washington you were going. I have driven from Yakima, south to Oregon several times towing a prior trailer with a half ton truck. Some of that road is two lane, very steep and it gets plenty hot there during the summer. Would always be expecting the engine to explode on some of those hills.

I grew up in Salem Oregon. From what I remember of those roads I wouldn't be too concerned with them.
 
I will be traveling RT 5 to Portland and then 84 to the Tricities area. Not too worried about them except the wind can be interesting through the gorge.
Plan on stopping at Multnomah Falls again. Also the view of Mt Washington is great.
From the Tricites we will be going to Spokane on the way to Missoula. Have traveled that before as we traveled to Yellowstone and Glacier National. Some good sized hills but slow and easy is the plan.
 
In the process of planning our cross country trip. Looking at 400 miles a day max. Spend an extra day at every other stop.

Anyone that has planned this type of trip did you have hard set dates for staying? Any flexibility?

Weather issues?
We plan all stops prior to leaving. This year we will be traveling from our home base in southern Mississippi to Utah East to Maine and back to Southern Mississippi. So far everything is booked from June 1 through September 20. We still have the last month to book. Last year (25 states over 4 1/5 months) only one time we had to adjust by a couple of days for some RV repairs. We’ve been through bad weather (including bad hail storms) which required temporary repairs - thank you eternabond tape. The hail damage mentioned above resulted in taking both the 5th wheel and the truck in for repairs once we got home. $24,000 later we are back at it. Of course the repairs were covered by insurance. The damage happened mid-June and we returned home early Oct. the funny thing is it took that long to get the appointment for the RV. Ended up having a great summer adventure.
 

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