We did it! Soon to be on our way...

[Wizards&OZ]

Just purchased our first pre-owned Tiffin Allegro Open Road 34TGA, obtained insurance, joined Good Sam Club & KOA, completed the RVUniversity and now I'm working diligently with RVTripWizard to plan our first route. Cheers to our first 6-month road trip in an RV starting in May! 

[Pat & Pete]

Congratulations . Make it fun .

[Wizards&OZ]

2 minutes ago, Pat & Pete said:

Congratulations . Make it fun .

Thank you!

[NDBirdman]

Congrats!  Enjoy the adventure.

[sandsys]

Way to go, go go! But, remember to slow down and enjoy the trip.

Linda Sand

[RV_]

Good for you! Exciting right! Congrats, it's a wonderful sense of freedom, new friends and adventures. Good luck!

[Kirk W]

Congratulations! Tiffin products have a very good record and the company has a long history of supporting them. It seems that you have made a good choice.

[Aggie79-82a]

Congratulations.  Remember there are lots of roses to smell along the way.  Take time to enjoy.

[momdoc]

Congrats on the new coach. You will LOVE your Tiffin.

Enjoy the adventure and don't be in a hurry to "get there" but enjoy the trip getting there.

[kb0zke]

Congratulations! Take it really slow the first few weeks. Keep your speed down to 55-60 mph on wide-open highways, less on more congested roads. Figure on four-five hours of driving on travel days, followed by a couple of days of rest. Part of that is that you are getting used to a new, MUCH larger vehicle, and part of it is getting your mind reprogrammed to a slower pace. Take your time as you get ready to travel. If someone interrupts you, start your checklist over again so that you don't forget a step. For example, if step one is "put down antenna" you don't have to actually put the antenna up and then take it down, but verify that it is down. Then go on to step two and verify that it has been done, etc. Same thing when setting up at the campground.

Many people follow a 2-2-2 or 3-3-3 rule. Drive no more than 2 or 300 hundred miles, stop by 2 or 3:00 and stay for 2 or 3 days. After five years of full-timing we've done all sorts of things. We've driven 500 miles in one day (outrunning a blizzard), traveled for four consecutive days (daughter's wedding), and driven less than 100 miles in one day and stayed for two weeks. Normally, if we're completely on our own schedule, we like to arrive early afternoon and stay for a week. Two hundred miles is a reasonable day's drive, and 250 miles is a good cutoff.

[Wizards&OZ]

7 hours ago, kb0zke said:

Congratulations! Take it really slow the first few weeks. Keep your speed down to 55-60 mph on wide-open highways, less on more congested roads. Figure on four-five hours of driving on travel days, followed by a couple of days of rest. Part of that is that you are getting used to a new, MUCH larger vehicle, and part of it is getting your mind reprogrammed to a slower pace. Take your time as you get ready to travel. If someone interrupts you, start your checklist over again so that you don't forget a step. For example, if step one is "put down antenna" you don't have to actually put the antenna up and then take it down, but verify that it is down. Then go on to step two and verify that it has been done, etc. Same thing when setting up at the campground.

Many people follow a 2-2-2 or 3-3-3 rule. Drive no more than 2 or 300 hundred miles, stop by 2 or 3:00 and stay for 2 or 3 days. After five years of full-timing we've done all sorts of things. We've driven 500 miles in one day (outrunning a blizzard), traveled for four consecutive days (daughter's wedding), and driven less than 100 miles in one day and stayed for two weeks. Normally, if we're completely on our own schedule, we like to arrive early afternoon and stay for a week. Two hundred miles is a reasonable day's drive, and 250 miles is a good cutoff.

Thank you for all the very helpful and useful information! We can't wait to start our journey soon. Lots of planning to do first. Thanks again for commenting!

[scouserl41]

Well done! I remember the excitement of that portion of our own adventure.

The hardest part is what everyone else is saying, getting out of the "2 week vacation mode". Don't over plan things, if you make too many reservations you get tied to them and can't experience the thrill of long term travel. If you like somewhere you can stay longer and really explore, if you don't like, it your reservations may make you stay even though you don't want to.

My personal advice is stay off Interstates. The country isn't at a rest stop. You'll find more special moments on the back roads. There are plenty of fast, traffic free roads, so use them. 

You will meet some great people too so spend time listening to them, they will tell you where the best places are. Join your local Elks Lodge, when you travel visit other local lodges, they are an incredible source of good places to visit and local highlights. So too are Moose, VFW, Eagles etc.

Biggest thing is learn to live with your partner. You may have lived with them for many years but now it will be in a smaller space and 24 hours per day. Respect each others point of view, be patient and give them space. Sometimes just an hour apart can be so refreshing for each of you.

But most of all WELCOME and ENJOY!

BnB

[Maccheym]

Congrats, it will be a great adventure. 

[Wizards&OZ]

On 1/8/2019 at 12:26 AM, scouserl41 said:

Well done! I remember the excitement of that portion of our own adventure.

The hardest part is what everyone else is saying, getting out of the "2 week vacation mode". Don't over plan things, if you make too many reservations you get tied to them and can't experience the thrill of long term travel. If you like somewhere you can stay longer and really explore, if you don't like, it your reservations may make you stay even though you don't want to.

My personal advice is stay off Interstates. The country isn't at a rest stop. You'll find more special moments on the back roads. There are plenty of fast, traffic free roads, so use them. 

You will meet some great people too so spend time listening to them, they will tell you where the best places are. Join your local Elks Lodge, when you travel visit other local lodges, they are an incredible source of good places to visit and local highlights. So too are Moose, VFW, Eagles etc.

Biggest thing is learn to live with your partner. You may have lived with them for many years but now it will be in a smaller space and 24 hours per day. Respect each others point of view, be patient and give them space. Sometimes just an hour apart can be so refreshing for each of you.

But most of all WELCOME and ENJOY!

BnB

Hoping I didn't make a mistake in my planning. I have been using RV Trip Wizard to plan our route. My trip preferences are input at 62 miles per hour, using highways, but avoiding toll roads, and averaging 4 hours of travel per segment. Well... I got excited and nervous about campsites being sold-out. Some websites had mentioned things like "only 2 sites left..."  or something of the sort. Anyway, I pre-booked ALL of our campgrounds along our route and daily travel is around 3 hours to 6 1/2 hours about. Now your post has me thinking I made a mistake?! We're young... married couple in our mid-30's with a toddler. We don't mind being on the road in a car... figured the RV would be more comfortable and travel would be more effortless. Still room for food/gasoline stops along the way. Do you think I over did it? Too much planned and should have left some more wiggle room in there? 

[chief916]

46 minutes ago, Wizards&OZ said:

Hoping I didn't make a mistake in my planning. I have been using RV Trip Wizard to plan our route. My trip preferences are input at 62 miles per hour, using highways, but avoiding toll roads, and averaging 4 hours of travel per segment. Well... I got excited and nervous about campsites being sold-out. Some websites had mentioned things like "only 2 sites left..."  or something of the sort. Anyway, I pre-booked ALL of our campgrounds along our route and daily travel is around 3 hours to 6 1/2 hours about. Now your post has me thinking I made a mistake?! We're young... married couple in our mid-30's with a toddler. We don't mind being on the road in a car... figured the RV would be more comfortable and travel would be more effortless. Still room for food/gasoline stops along the way. Do you think I over did it? Too much planned and should have left some more wiggle room in there? 

I feel that you are over thinking the travel process.  Remember if things don't work out as planned for making a reservation for an evening....you still got truck stops all over this country.  We just finished up a round trip from Snow Hill NC to Sturgis SD to Yellowstone Wyoming and back to Snow Hill.  Some nights we would stay in a reservation travel park and at other times it would be at a truck stop.  They're always open and have decent food and they're free overnight parking.  We try to get to the truck stops before dark so we can always find a parking spot before all the truckers stop for the night.  If you pick it right the best stop are always where you can park next to on the edges of the parking lot and deploy your slides a little bit.  That way you'll have room to move around in your coach and still leave room for anyone who happens to park next to you.  Take care and enjoy the adventure.

[scouserl41]

Its going to be a great experience which ever way you do it. You will be learning every day and trying new things all the time for the first couple of months. It's hard to go from vacation type planning to full time living but you'll find how you like to do it.

Go with what you have and then make changes when you find what suits YOU.

Most of all remember to enjoy it all.

BnB

[Kirk W]

2 hours ago, Wizards&OZ said:

Too much planned and should have left some more wiggle room in there? 

There are people who are only comfortable with everything planned but much more common in the RV world is to be flexible. You don't mention how much time your plan allows. Does the plan mean that you move every day, or do you plan more than one night at some stops? If you begin to travel in May and stay on the road for 6 months, you will probably want to be able to change your plan at times to stay longer in one place or less time in another. When we travel by RV we do not book ahead more than 1 day except for major holidays and if spending time at a location with major tourist attractions. We typically start with a rough idea of what routes we will travel and we plan major stops but rarely do we leave home with any RV site reservations. In most cases, we choose where to stop for the evening while stopped for lunch and use the cell phone to call ahead and verify that a site is available. One of the major advantages of an RV like you now have is that you can spend a night or two without any hookups at all if nothing is available. Unless you have put deposits on your reservations, I would cancel most of them. A plan such as yours takes away most of the freedom that comes with an RV. You should plan your trip so that you have the ability to change directions completely if you should choose to do so at some point. Six months is a very long time to have every location tied down. 

[WILDEBILL308]

3 hours ago, Wizards&OZ said:

Hoping I didn't make a mistake in my planning. I have been using RV Trip Wizard to plan our route. My trip preferences are input at 62 miles per hour, using highways, but avoiding toll roads, and averaging 4 hours of travel per segment. Well... I got excited and nervous about campsites being sold-out. Some websites had mentioned things like "only 2 sites left..."  or something of the sort. Anyway, I pre-booked ALL of our campgrounds along our route and daily travel is around 3 hours to 6 1/2 hours about. Now your post has me thinking I made a mistake?! We're young... married couple in our mid-30's with a toddler. We don't mind being on the road in a car... figured the RV would be more comfortable and travel would be more effortless. Still room for food/gasoline stops along the way. Do you think I over did it? Too much planned and should have left some more wiggle room in there? 

So where are you headed?

Let me give you a couple of suggestions. First just so you know. We did a short trip this summer. Earley June to late September. We went North East. 5500 miles 26 states and 2 provinces. We have been in all of the lower 48 states with my Rv in the last 6 years. 

Plan your travel time at a average of 50 miles per hour. You will never average 62 in a motorhome. Example if you plan on 300 miles in a day and you drive 65 on the interstate you will still need to take breaks about every 2 hours and lunch and fuel breaks. 

You need to explain this to me. " but avoiding toll roads," Why? Get an EZ-Pass for when you are in the east/north east. Not using toll roads that are beneficial in getting where you are going is, well dumb. You add greatly to your travel time and aggravation.

Some apps to help you plan your trip. http://www.rvparky.com/

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/

http://www.passport-america.com/ Gets you a 50% discount on camping spots.

By the way what are you towing as a toad?

Bill

 

[sandsys]

Driving a motorhome is more tiring than driving a car. I plan to stop for a break at least every two hours and rarely have actual driving time of more than 4 hours per day. And I prefer to only travel two out of every three days unless we are doing something like Historic Route 66 where we are spending hours at museums and diners along the way; even then we made several two day stops. We also rarely made reservations since we never knew how long our sightseeing stops would be. But our full timing years were 2008-2011 and my snowbirding years were the three following winters and we've been told there's more competition for campsites now. We were totally willing to stop overnight at Walmart or Cracker Barrel, though, so not having reservations was never a problem for us. I suspect you will only follow your plan for a few days then will cancel all the remaining reservations. After all, this is supposed to be leisurely travel not a race to see how much you can quickly see.

Linda Sand

[Barbaraok]

Please believe everyone who is telling you to take it slow and DO NOT OVER PLAN.  I know that you want to have everything planned out, but you can't.  Instead try to focus on getting to some place for your first week.  Then about 1/2 through that week, figure out where you will go the next week.  Have a general destination and about when you want to get there, but otherwise, 'go with the flow'. 

[duraduk]

We RV for a average of 4 months a year and have travelled mostly in the west.  My rule has been no more that 200-250 miles on travel days.  Sometimes we only go 50. Leave around 8 am and in a spot between 2-3.  We try to stay at least two days in a location.  We only make reservations in tourist destinations and on holiday weekends.   A lot of online reservations require a fee to make them and cancel them.  The fees are around $7.00 per reservation.  Making a reservation and canceling can add fees quickly to your lodging cost.  The first year out we overplanned.  There are more folks on the road now and I fear that we may have to make more reservations in the future.  Prime example is the Oregon St. Parks in the Spring through fall.  Travel is situational.  Have fun, take your time and don't stress.