RV Trippin'

[WV Sawmiller]

   I strongly agree with 21" on towing the smaller vehicle but I disagree with the reservations part. He is right it is a busy time and that is the smart thing to do but if you do too much of that you just limited your flexibility to visit unexpected things you find along the way. A compromise may be to reserve 2-3 day at a spot then use that as a base camp and use your towed vehicle to explore.

  The best trips I ever had were highly unstructured. If we got there and did not like it we left early but if we did we'd stay longer or stop anywhere along the way if we spotted something unusual we liked.

  If you are rushed every day to leave early to get to the next reserved campsite you are going to miss a lot. JMHO.

[whiskers]

I'd stay far,away from NYC especially with a rv.

Propane Tanks in Tunnels - RV Trip Wizard
don't rely on signs, plan ahead.
what size rig, gas or diesel? 
rented rv  water systems can be really cruddy.  

[TroyC]

Some good advice here about having/not having reservations for your destinations. It works both ways. I've done both kinds of trips. If you are looking for a parking place at 10 pm at night in an unfamiliar area, especially on the east coast, you might not sleep well that night.

If you haven't RV'd in the past year or so, be aware that there are about 1.5 million new RV's that have been put on the road since COVID began. Record number of units produced yearly for the last several years. Campgrounds have consolidated under bigger companies but they have not added a corresponding number of new campsites.

Google and read as many RV articles that pertain to what you want to do and how you want to do it. I've camped since the mid 70's and I can tell you, it ain't like it used to be!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Interesting link there from Whiskers.

    A hazard around here is the A/C units on top so be real sure you know your  clearance. We have overhanging limbs on many of our county roads that are real friendly and love to reach out and shake hands with out of town A/C units on top of passing RVs.

   I know of one local road with a tunnel height of 9'6". It does have warnings well in advance. 

   When I drove a truck I had a trucker's guide that listed any height restrictions on the route so as part of our trip planning we'd verify there was nothing on the route lower than our truck height. As I remember anything under 13'6" had to be listed. I don't know if there is such a guide for RVs.

[aigheadish]

Holy replies, Batman! Thanks gang!

Let's see if I can hit the questions... My kids are 15 and 13. We like to do some light hiking/walking, some museuming, swimming, and a lot of stuff that seems similar to WV Sawmiller; flea markets, shops, weird places, meals (surprisingly, we've also stopped at cloth stores!). The wife and I are big fans of looking at nature, the kids get a little antsy with that but I don't mind slowing them down a bit. Historic places are always neat.

The RV is a 30 footer, gas fueled, I've definitely considered the roads an RV may not fit on. I'm not entirely sure what can be done about that other than use my best judgement. I've certainly considered some backroads that may be a problem. I've also spent some time on the Ohio/WV so I understand what Southside is saying about impassible spots! Specs are: 30 ft. long, 55 gal fuel tank, 40 gal fresh water tank, 25 gal sewage tank, 22 gal grey water tank, 



I'd much rather not have many scheduled stops, I agree with being tied down to locations and timeframes doesn't sound like much fun. And, yeah, it does feel like a Griswold vacation! We considered Outer Banks/Kittyhawk/Nags Head, that's a neat place. I like the idea of staying off the interstates as possible. Stay off 95, ok! I'd like to see NYC from the vehicle, not hang out at all, but maybe we'll skip that.

btulloh- I considered heading north of Taxechussets a bit, that may still be an option.

OGH- Excellent call on getting the kids to research some, they'll love to do that.

OGH and WV Sawmiller, Beware, I may take you up on your spots! Thank you for offering! I like to think we are gracious guests and hopefully you'd be fine to have us! Consider what kinds of beer or bourbons you like and let me know!

I considered towing the car, I know it's a good idea but haven't decided if we'll go that route or not.

Thank you guys for all the suggestions and info! Keep it coming if you think of other stuff! You guys rock!

[Raider Bill]

NYC= Manhattan where all the seeing is to be done such as skyscrapers,museums, Times square, people watch/freak show is NOT RV friendly. Nothing in that area is. Even if you found a place to park it for a few hours I'd bet it would be hundreds of $$$.

Also, New York Sate is NOT firearm friendly. They do not recognize any other states permits.

The Adirondacks and Catskills are beautiful.

Gettysburg.

[WV Sawmiller]

   WARNING - be polite to the locals if you visit WV and other parts of Appalachia.

   I was talking to a neighbor about 20 years ago and a guy pulled up in a 40' motorhome on our little county road and stopped and motioned for us to come over instead of getting out to come see is. His tone was pretty condescending almost like "Hey Rubes, where does so and so live." My neighbor immediately replied and a very submissive tone "Oh yes sir. Glad to help. You drive on up this road about three miles and come to a fork. Take that right fork and they are about 2 miles ahead on the left. You can't miss them." The guy drove off without so much as a thank you or anything.

  As he drove off I told my neighbor "Keith, you just sent him up to Freezeland Mountain. There is no place he can turn that rig around up there and he's going to have to back it all the way back down. Why did you do that?"

  My neighbor paused a bit and replied "Yeah I thought about that but I hadn't done nothin good for nobody all day and couldn't think of no reason to start now."

  Anyway if you're in the area give us a shout. We love to see/meet other FF members.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, as you are in the planning stages and thinking the whole thing through at this point. I am not trying to sell you on our area or any other one, just gonna list some things around here that may grab somebodies interest from the perspective of a family trip.
 First, you may want to consider renting a small car in a few areas you stop at for more than a day or two to tour the area, this can take a lot of stress off handing that monster and picking up stakes just to go get food. Also you won't have the extra fuel towing costs. Just another option.

For around here, I can think of the following stuff in our general area that others have traveled here to see. Now if NYC is on your mind, I have had several guests who come and leave their vehicle at our place then take the train to NYC for the day. I could maybe provide shuttle service to and from the train station if you like, but keep in mind ticket costs, etc. NYC is an interesting pace to walk around, but I would suggest you carefully research and have a plan before you go. You would be getting on the train in Rhinebeck or Poughkeepsie from my place.

 Share this list with your kids and let them do some research to see if anything pops out:
Baseball Hall of Fame in Oneonta, NY
Hudson River Maritime Museum and Boat building institute in Kingston NY (10 minutes form us.) is very good.
Woodstock, NY (Bearsville theater, Shopping, Music, people watching, and 'stuff'. I could give you a little driving tour of some of the unknown stuff, like where artists live, etc.)
 There is a very fine rustic campground on top of the Devil's Tombstone nearly in the center of the Catskills which gives direct foot access to the hundreds of miles of hiking trails. Great place to stay and the trails run right through the campground. There is a great hike up to the east from the CG that is challenging in summer and a killer in winter. 1,500 foot gain in under a mile. Great views. This is a State CG and reservations need to be made early. Very popular. They have a good website.

 Hiking in general is all around us. Hundreds of miles of trails within short drives of my place.
 Fishing, likewise is all around us. If you want to fish the reservoirs, you can get a permit online, but you still need a state license. I think you can buy day licenses online now.
 Albany (an hour north of me) has some great museums and such.
 Live music can be found everywhere 7 days a week around here, but we won't know who, what, or when until we get closer. The Gray Fox Bluegrass Festival is in July and that is made for families and RV's but it's not going to fit with your timeline and that is a 4 day deal anyway.
 There are a lot of smaller museums around the area, but these are dependent on your more specific interests. If your wife happens to be a quilter, my wife can make up a list for her. There is a big store up in Windham she goes to a few times a year, but you have to hit the hours right. Windham is just over the hill from Barge country about 15 minutes.

 I checked with the boss and we are good with y'all plopping down here for a couple of days and using us as a base camp. I can feed you electric, but I wouldn't put our well water in your tank, we don't drink it either (too much iron), but it's fine for cooking and washing. I could spend a day shuttling you around or touring some sites. We certainly have room for a campfire and other stuff and if you ask nice I can give you a sawmill tour. :D Obviously, as the summer events get posted I will pass along anything that might work for you. Right now the only ones I can think of don't coincide with your dates. Also, I will be at Grey fox from July 11-18, so unless you are there, you won't see me, sorry.

 Put your kids to work and see what you come up with. Have fun with it!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Washington DC actually has some interesting things to see and the traffic is among the biggest negatives. If you can find a campground near the subway and ride it into DC you could go see the various Smithsonian museums, the Smithsonian zoo, etc. Take the kids to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch then walk around the corner to Ford's Theater run by the Park service and get the details about the Lincoln assassination then walk downstairs to the museum. I never realized how many, apparently innocent people got caught up in the aftermath. We visited the Bureau of Printing and saw where the money was made and such. Many of those things are free.

  My wife took her high school band up there and stayed near Baltimore and caught the subway into the city. Seems like there was a Medieval Times dinner show we went to near where we were staying that the kids really liked.

   EDIT/ADD-ON: Many of the hotels and I suspect campgrounds around the area offer shuttles to the nearest subway entrance and from there access to most anywhere in the District is easy. You don't have to stay close to DC just close enough to get to the subway.

[hedgerow]

We rented a motorhome coming up eight years ago this June. We went north of home into north Dakota then west to the coast and into northern Calif. About seven thousand miles in total in three weeks. We were going to take my wife's Jeep Wrangler on our tow dolly but we couldn't get the motorhomes insurance and our insurance company's to play nice with each other so we left the Jeep at home. Our goal was to stay off the interstates and not eat at chain places. We normally stayed in camp grounds every second or third night and ate in the camper in the morning and noon and found a local cafe in a small town in the evening. Its was a good trip and I saw a lot of country I hadn't ever seen. It wasn't cheap back then. It was just my wife and myself.   

[btulloh]

Lots of good stuff being mentioned in theses posts. Everywhere across this country has interesting and fun things to do and see.  It would take a lifetime to see just some it.  

And then there's the rest of the world . . .

[Southside]

WV. By chance does your neighbor sell squirrels? 

[TroyC]

In the DC area, I stayed at a campground on the north side of town, Greenbelt Campground, run by the National Park Service. About 10 miles NE of Washington. Had train station right next to it. It was beautiful, not crowded, and inexpensive.

[btulloh]

There's a bike path that goes from Mt. Vernon (George  Washington's home) to Harpers Ferry WV along the old C&O canal/Potomac River. (Oops - I'm co-mingling two different bike paths there, Mt. Vernon is on the south side of the River and the C&O is on the north side.  But there's a connection at some point I think.)

[21incher]

A couple things you should  check with  theRV dealer if you are planning  on backroads are the GVW of the RV and if it's 96 or 102 inches  wide. Most units  are 102 and each state has different rules on roads. Plus another  issue  we ran into was max bridge weight ratings. Many rentals will be available in both widths and from the sound  of your  plans you may want to stick to the 96 wide 18000 pound chassis with lower clearance that won't limit back road usage in states like NY.  Definitely  plan major stops ahead because there will be more RVs on the road then ever this summer and many  RV parks have switched a large numbers of sites to seasonal rentals lately limiting availability. 
One of my favorite parks was Burlingame State Park in Rhode Island near Mystic  Seaport and many small coastal towns. Have fun.

[aigheadish]

I'll ease everyone's concerns about NYC, we'll just skip it. I don't like cities to begin with and enough of you have said it will be a drag to drive through. My wife has already said she wants nothing to do with it. 

I looked into towing my car and Uhaul wants like 700 bucks to rent me the trailer thing, so that's out. Locally renting a car may be a great idea depending on where we go.

Raider Bill- I didn't consider bringing a firearm but thank you for mentioning it! Gettysburg is on my list now!

WV- I've lived in WV (just east of Huntington) for a short spell, and while I try to be friendly to everyone I can appreciate the WV'ers. They were always more friendly and accepting of me being a weird kid than anywhere else I went. I've got you on my list if we are moseying through the area! I'd love to meet you and hear some of your stories first hand!

OGH- That sounds terribly generous of you and the boss! I think we'd be interested to see the Maritime museum and Woodstock. Not to mention, after listening to From the Forest, just driving around to see all the little towns that are mentioned. It sounds like that whole area is pretty neat. My wife is a purse maker and loves checking out fabric stores, she doesn't quilt. I've been to a couple fabric stores with her and they were more interesting than I'd thought they'd be. 

I'm not sure about DC. We've all been semi-recently and while I think the mall area is neat it's a day that may be better spent elsewhere, we'll consider it though. 

btulloh- That bike route sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately, my slacker son doesn't ride a bike, so I'd have to put a full sized adult seat on the back of mine!

21incher- Good call. Accessibility in this big ol' vehicle is one thing I'm a bit nervous about. 

Thanks again guys, I didn't expect nearly this much help/advice/kind words! As we get closer to the time I'll probably hit a couple of you up!

[WV Sawmiller]

   I'm surprised U-haul wants that much for a 2 wheeled dolly. You might look around and find one reasonably cheap, use it for the trip then sell it when you get done with it and get most, if not all your money back. Or you might put out feelers and find someone nearby who has one they'd rent cheap for a few weeks. I'm surprised the camper places don't rent them - actually they may so you might check with them or at least ask for their suggestions. 

[farmfromkansas]

If I were to go to the east coast, would want to check out the Jamestown colony, have seen shows on TV how they are excavating there, and Williamsburg. Also would like to go along the coast of MD, and stop and check out the records in Caroline County, as my family lived there for some time early in our American history. Then down to Guilford county NC, same reason, and on to Dillon county SC, same reason.  Found my family in Dillon county SC census 1810, before they came west. There are lots of records you can comb through along the east coast, and interesting if your family was there 200 -300 years ago.

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, you could buy a car dolly for the rental price, but dragging a car behind a 30' rig would not be my choice for a first time RV trip. Consider that rentals can have 'issues' and you might lose some time on fixing it, add another vehicle and that extra fuel and it just raises the chances.

 I will second Gettysburg been there many times and it get better every few years. The electric map was a disappointment when I saw it in the 60's, very hokey, but when they re-did it in the 70's it was really cool. Lots to do there. Many campgrounds too as I recall. 

 Likewise Williamsburg there is a ton to do there. We've been several times and the last time was on our honeymoon (camping), so 45 years ago this April. If you go there, look for the Lightfoot Pottery Factory, just a neat place to shop and walk around, or at least it was and I hope it still is.

 We have yet to hear what your kids want to get out of this, I'm curious.

[Nebraska]

Sounds like a great  adventure brewing. Looking forward to the recap.

[Southside]

On a serious note.  If you go to Maine, the coast is where everyone goes.  It's touristy, has some nice features.  But if you want to see the other part of the state head north, past the end of I-95, and keep going on Rt 1.  Aroostook "The County".  Thousands of acres of potato fields will be coming into bloom toward the end of your trip, the moose will still be around, the Fish River chain of lakes in The Valley will be busting salmon and trout.  You can make a loop south via Rt 11 and be right on the edge of 2 million acres of working commercial timber ground.  It will be polar opposite from the coast in terms of both population and geography / topography, and it's absolutely beautiful.  

[aigheadish]

Welp, here's the route so far, and I've booked sites for the first week. Dayton to Detroit (Henry Ford Museum, staying in a KOA, 2 nights, lakeside spot!), Detroit to Niagara Falls (staying at State park on Lake Ontario, 2 nights, Lakeside spot!), Niagara Falls to Lake Piesco, NY (staying in state park, 1 night, lakeside spot!), Lake Piesco to Mt. Washington, NH (staying at a localish campground, 2 nights) Going to ride the Cog to the top!



 

From there I'm not sure. I didn't expect to take a week to get to New Hampshire and I'm potentially aiming to keep the rest of the trip less planned. 

From here I could swing down to OGH's neck of the woods, or head down the coast(ish) and maybe get as far as Virginia before turning around to come home.

What do y'all think? 

[Old Greenhorn]

OK, looks like you have a plan! I'm sure that wasn't easy to settle on. ;D I can't blow your map up enough to be sure of your route, but it looks like you will be crossing NYS on I90 (Thruway). FYI, that will have you passing just about 30 minutes north of Barge Country and 50 minutes north of me. You got a route that allows lots of 'in flight options' which is good. You could detour up to the thousand islands region for a day, for instance along with dozens of other options along the way. The route you are on will also take you close to WoodMizer, NY, past Charles Stahl logging and JS Logging (just sayin'). Both of these are 10 minutes off the thruway.
 By the time you are thinking about maybe hanging out around here, you guys may have your RV game pretty nailed down and can just use my driveway. I have electric and I MIGHT be able to arrange a dump station 2 miles away. I'd have to check on that.
 Having a plan is more than half the battle!

[aigheadish]

Thanks Tom! You rock! 

My guess is we'll either stay away from the coast in the Mass, Rhode Island area (I wouldn't mind seeing all the big houses in Newport) and I'll take you up on the offer, or we'll stay along the coast and I'll have to catch you a different time. There seems to be a lot of neat stuff by you, so I'm inclined to go that way, but there needs to be a few conversations with the family first. I know my son wants to go to the beach but my daughter doesn't really.

I'm actually aiming to stay off the highway as much as possible. The trip from our campground around Niagara Falls to Mt. Washington is claimed to be about 10-10.5 hours, which I assume is likely closer to 14+ in an RV, and I've attempted to go on a lot of backroads to make the journey. Though it's certainly no guarantee I've actually followed along for pretty much every mile, on Google Maps, to make sure there wasn't any low bridges or spots that look like trouble.

You are right about it not being easy to settle on something. I hope we get clear weather at Mt. Washington and I didn't know that I wanted it to be a destination until I looked at it, but then I didn't realize it was so far away. Beyond that I'm guessing at places, and with my brain that can be a bit nerve wracking. 

[SawyerTed]

Sounds like an awesome trip is in the works!  Mount Washington should be a highlight!  Looks like you have a couple of nights stay at the campgrounds which should slow the pace a bit - which is the whole reason for a vacation!

The coast of New Jersey or Maryland might be a good alternative to spending another day in the RV on the road to Virginia.  There appear to be many campground options in that area both public and private.