California to Maine Summer 2021

[awoodwaring]

Can I get some input on route/time?

Trip w/ dogs, adult-teen daughter, and husband. We like fishing, hiking, historic sites and sweets 🙂

Is this even feasible given the covid situation (I realize no one can predict the future, but just best guess). I picked mainly private campgrounds to avoid the state park closures that have been going on in California.


https://www.rvparky.com/trip/6478816505757696

Galt, CA, United States 6/20/21
Needles, California Needles Elk's Lodge #1608 6/20/21
Gallup, New Mexico USA RV Park 6/21/21
Amarillo, Texas Oasis RV Resort 6/22/21
Checotah, Oklahoma Lake Eufaula State Park 6/23/21
West Memphis, Arkansas Tom Sawyer's Mississippi River Park 6/24/21
Rossville, Georgia Holiday Travel Park 6/25/21
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee Riverbend Campground 6/27/21
Charlotte, NC, United States 7/1/21
Virginia Beach, Virginia North Landing Beach Riverfront Campground and Resort 7/2/21
Williamsburg, Virginia Chickahominy Riverfront Park 7/4/21
Abingdon, Maryland Bar Harbor RV Park & Marina 7/7/21
Clarksboro, New Jersey Philadelphia South / Clarksboro KOA 7/8/21
Old Mystic, Connecticut Seaport RV Resort & Campground 7/10/21
Portsmouth, Rhode Island Melville Ponds Campground 7/11/21
Bourne, Massachusetts Bourne Scenic Park 7/13/21
Foxboro, Massachusetts Normandy Farms 7/15/21
Scarborough, Maine Bayley's Camping Resort 7/19/21
Lincoln, New Hampshire Country Bumpkins Campground and Cottages 7/21/21
Alburg, Vermont Alburg RV Resort 7/23/21
Clayton, New York Merry Knoll Campground 7/23/21
Grand Island, New York Branches of Niagara Campground & Resort 7/24/21
Jackson, Michigan Hideaway RV Park 7/27/21
St. Louis, MO, United States Cahokia RV Parque 7/28/21
Lincoln, Nebraska Pawnee State Park 7/30/21
Cheyenne, Wyoming AB Camping & RV Park 7/31/21
West Valley, Utah Cracker Barrel West Valley - I-215 Exit 18A 8/1/21
Sparks, Nevada Sparks Marina RV Park 8/2/21
Galt, CA, United States 8/3/21

[DHamm20]

Looks GREAT we are doing something similar this summer but going East - West. I do live near Niagara Falls NY. I strongly suggest Golden Hill State Park instead of Branches. Branches is nice but Golden Hill offers natural beauty. They have one site left for Sat & Sun night.

St Louis has a tremendous RV Park right downtown. It does seem sketchy as you pull in as it is basically a parking lot that is fenced in. I stayed there for four nights and really enjoyed my time in St. Louis.

Tom Sawyer on the Mississippi is a diamond in the rough. Again driving into the area seems sketchy but once you enter the campground you are so far away from the industrial section you do not even realize what you drove through. You are only minutes away from Memphis and will really enjoy your stay.

[awoodwaring]

jkwilson wrote:
Around the 4th of July, you are just about guaranteed to hit minimum 2 or 3 night stays. You may also come across that on other weekends some places. You may need to book the same place for the 3rd and 4th at least.

Agreed...I’ll probably book most places in advance because it was really hard to get any reservations on the west coast this last summer.

[jkwilson]

Around the 4th of July, you are just about guaranteed to hit minimum 2 or 3 night stays. You may also come across that on other weekends some places. You may need to book the same place for the 3rd and 4th at least.

[awoodwaring]

bukhrn wrote:

Crowe wrote:

awoodwaring wrote:

bukhrn wrote:
Looks like a lot of driving and not much touring/Site seeing, you've entirely left out the Boston, Cape Cod, Salem area, and only 2 days in Scarborough, out of all of Maine, not to mention missing all of Vt just to overnight at Alburg, then on to Clayton, far more to do in Alexandria Bay, than in Clayton.
Unless there are some specific attractions to the places you've listed, i'd give serious consideration to revamping the list.
OF course I understand if there are time constraints.

Foxborough seems like the closest I could get to Boston. Is there a closer site?

Also, figured we could see Cape Cod while in Sandwich.

Salem would be from Foxborough to Maine. Is it more than a day trip?

I’ll look at Alexandria Bay...not at all familiar with the area, just trying to pick points along the route ??

Foxborough is about as close as you can get to Boston. The alternative is Boston Minuteman Campground in Littleton, MA. Keep in mind that we speak of traveling in terms of time and not distance. A rush hour into the city can be a 2-3 hour trek at the wrong time of day from either spot.

Bourne is the Cape as is Sandwich. It's about a 2 hour drive to get from Sandwich to Provincetown.

Foxborough to Scarborough is a few hours. You can easily spend a day in Salem.
you can also spend a day doing the Freedom Trail In Boston, tons of History, it's only a 2.5 mile walking trail, but it's , walk, stop and site see, then repeat over and over, plus a lunch Stop at Feneuil Hall, and a visit to the USS Constitution, it'll eat up the better part of a day.
Plus, if you stay near Bedford, at the Hanscom AFB, you're in close proximity to Lexington and Concord.
No matter where you stay, make use of mass transit,(bus & Subway) as driving in downtown Boston is a nightmare in it's self, you couldn't force me to drive downtown with a big stick.



There are some on here who will tell you it's a doable trip as "they've done worse". Question is do you want to just visit or explore? You don't have much of a buffer to factor in weather, traffic, unexpected illness or any other unexpected issue. A teenager is going to get bored just sitting in a vehicle. I agree with others who have said you might want to rethink your itinerary.

What would you recommend in VT?

I looked at Alexandria Bay vs Clayton...is there a park you can recommend? The one I have in Clayton I picked based on the good reviews and it is only 20 minutes away.

[awoodwaring]

DrewE wrote:
I would consider whether it would be better to concentrate only on the New England area sites you're interested in, and skip most or all of Pigeon Forge through Philadelphia or so; or maybe concentrate on the southern areas, and skip the northeast. Maybe seeing less but in greater depth would be a better use of your vacation time--more vacationing and less traveling.

For the southern parts, spending some time around Washington, DC is well worth consideration. There is so much to see and do in the city, much of it free of admission charges. (Possibly you've already been there...in which case driving on by kind of makes sense.) Similarly, New York City has much, much more to see and do than can possibly be seen and done in one overnight by the city.

(I feel it's my civic duty to point out that Vermont is a wonderful state and, while basically driving through it is pleasant, stopping for a day or two is even more pleasant!)

For what it's worth, most if not all of the states in the northeast opened their state parks to camping over last summer, many somewhat delayed. Quite a few did and still do have quarantine requirements for people entering. A great deal probably will change before next summer on that front. However, I would not rule out state parks at this point for pandemic reasons when planning; I don't think they're particularly more or less likely to be available than private parks in the timeframe you're considering. I could be wrong, of course.

I would like to spend a week in the larger cities, but in a hotel at another time 🙂

So, we may do a day trip into a city, just for fun. But, I know there is way too much to do for an rv trip where we have to stay outside the city.

[awoodwaring]

TenOC wrote:
It looks to me like your plan is to rush to the East Coast to see historical sites. If so here are some of my thoughts.

Depending on the size of your RV, camping at Cracker Barrel will be very tight Walmart Or a casino is a better choice If you only plan to sleep for the night.

You have missed a large number of national parks. For example you can see the key elements of Yellowstone in a day. You can also spend a lifetime seeing the important elements of Yellowstone.

Check with some senior citizens tour bus routing and see how they see an area of the country in a very short Amount of time.

We have been to the western national parks, so we will be skipping those. I am just interested in TN, but daughter wanted to go to the east coast. She may want to move there, but has no idea what it looks like.

[awoodwaring]

dedmiston wrote:
That looks like an AMAZING trip.

There's going to be a lot of competition next summer for reservations next summer. That shouldn't stop you though.

One question/suggestion for you...

Is your adult daughter still in school, or is there any business constraint that borders your family into the summer months? What would you think about pushing the trip back by a month or two? We typically travel in the fall, and the combination of smaller crowds and nicer weather is incredible. If you came home in October instead of August, it would be a totally different trip.

Other than that though, this looks amazing. It's a lot of driving, but there's nothing wrong with that.

What's your strategy for pivoting if your plans get off track a little? Some of those days look pretty long, like Cheyenne to SLC. Nobody ever realizes just how wide Wyoming is, until they try to cross the state like that. Our daughters went to university there in Laramie, and I swear it took a day to get from Laramie to Evanston on the UT border. Our kids could make it all the way home in a day, but they were young and dumb.

What's your plan for reservations? Will you book every spot that needs rezzies, or hope for the best?

Based on some of your stops, I assume you have military IDs. Thank you for your service.

Thank you, no military though 🙂

Not really interested in west coast, so just blasting through. Yeah, those days will be painful!

I try to get reservations for places that tend to be busy. The west coast was ridiculous this year, so I may get reservations for each night. I hate to do it that way, but we have had to search around when nothing was available and that’s no fun when it’s late and you’re tired!

I wish we could go in the fall or spring...we are all in education, so not going to work.

[DrewE]

I would consider whether it would be better to concentrate only on the New England area sites you're interested in, and skip most or all of Pigeon Forge through Philadelphia or so; or maybe concentrate on the southern areas, and skip the northeast. Maybe seeing less but in greater depth would be a better use of your vacation time--more vacationing and less traveling.

For the southern parts, spending some time around Washington, DC is well worth consideration. There is so much to see and do in the city, much of it free of admission charges. (Possibly you've already been there...in which case driving on by kind of makes sense.) Similarly, New York City has much, much more to see and do than can possibly be seen and done in one overnight by the city.

(I feel it's my civic duty to point out that Vermont is a wonderful state and, while basically driving through it is pleasant, stopping for a day or two is even more pleasant!)

For what it's worth, most if not all of the states in the northeast opened their state parks to camping over last summer, many somewhat delayed. Quite a few did and still do have quarantine requirements for people entering. A great deal probably will change before next summer on that front. However, I would not rule out state parks at this point for pandemic reasons when planning; I don't think they're particularly more or less likely to be available than private parks in the timeframe you're considering. I could be wrong, of course.

[TenOC]

It looks to me like your plan is to rush to the East Coast to see historical sites. If so here are some of my thoughts.

Depending on the size of your RV, camping at Cracker Barrel will be very tight Walmart Or a casino is a better choice If you only plan to sleep for the night.

You have missed a large number of national parks. For example you can see the key elements of Yellowstone in a day. You can also spend a lifetime seeing the important elements of Yellowstone.

Check with some senior citizens tour bus routing and see how they see an area of the country in a very short Amount of time.

[bukhrn]

Crowe wrote:

awoodwaring wrote:

bukhrn wrote:
Looks like a lot of driving and not much touring/Site seeing, you've entirely left out the Boston, Cape Cod, Salem area, and only 2 days in Scarborough, out of all of Maine, not to mention missing all of Vt just to overnight at Alburg, then on to Clayton, far more to do in Alexandria Bay, than in Clayton.
Unless there are some specific attractions to the places you've listed, i'd give serious consideration to revamping the list.
OF course I understand if there are time constraints.

Foxborough seems like the closest I could get to Boston. Is there a closer site?

Also, figured we could see Cape Cod while in Sandwich.

Salem would be from Foxborough to Maine. Is it more than a day trip?

I’ll look at Alexandria Bay...not at all familiar with the area, just trying to pick points along the route ??

Foxborough is about as close as you can get to Boston. The alternative is Boston Minuteman Campground in Littleton, MA. Keep in mind that we speak of traveling in terms of time and not distance. A rush hour into the city can be a 2-3 hour trek at the wrong time of day from either spot.

Bourne is the Cape as is Sandwich. It's about a 2 hour drive to get from Sandwich to Provincetown.

Foxborough to Scarborough is a few hours. You can easily spend a day in Salem.
you can also spend a day doing the Freedom Trail In Boston, tons of History, it's only a 2.5 mile walking trail, but it's , walk, stop and site see, then repeat over and over, plus a lunch Stop at Feneuil Hall, and a visit to the USS Constitution, it'll eat up the better part of a day.
Plus, if you stay near Bedford, at the Hanscom AFB, you're in close proximity to Lexington and Concord.
No matter where you stay, make use of mass transit,(bus & Subway) as driving in downtown Boston is a nightmare in it's self, you couldn't force me to drive downtown with a big stick.



There are some on here who will tell you it's a doable trip as "they've done worse". Question is do you want to just visit or explore? You don't have much of a buffer to factor in weather, traffic, unexpected illness or any other unexpected issue. A teenager is going to get bored just sitting in a vehicle. I agree with others who have said you might want to rethink your itinerary.

[Crowe]

awoodwaring wrote:

bukhrn wrote:
Looks like a lot of driving and not much touring/Site seeing, you've entirely left out the Boston, Cape Cod, Salem area, and only 2 days in Scarborough, out of all of Maine, not to mention missing all of Vt just to overnight at Alburg, then on to Clayton, far more to do in Alexandria Bay, than in Clayton.
Unless there are some specific attractions to the places you've listed, i'd give serious consideration to revamping the list.
OF course I understand if there are time constraints.

Foxborough seems like the closest I could get to Boston. Is there a closer site?

Also, figured we could see Cape Cod while in Sandwich.

Salem would be from Foxborough to Maine. Is it more than a day trip?

I’ll look at Alexandria Bay...not at all familiar with the area, just trying to pick points along the route ??

Foxborough is about as close as you can get to Boston. The alternative is Boston Minuteman Campground in Littleton, MA. Keep in mind that we speak of traveling in terms of time and not distance. A rush hour into the city can be a 2-3 hour trek at the wrong time of day from either spot.

Bourne is the Cape as is Sandwich. It's about a 2 hour drive to get from Sandwich to Provincetown.

Foxborough to Scarborough is a few hours. You can easily spend a day in Salem.


There are some on here who will tell you it's a doable trip as "they've done worse". Question is do you want to just visit or explore? You don't have much of a buffer to factor in weather, traffic, unexpected illness or any other unexpected issue. A teenager is going to get bored just sitting in a vehicle. I agree with others who have said you might want to rethink your itinerary.

[Matt_Colie]

Awood,

All you have listed are the over night stops..
You are not listing just about a dozen must see stops.
OKC. The Western Heritage Museum
Virginia, The Marinier's Museum - the Monitor
Mystic CT, not Old Mystic, The Seaport Museum
On the way to Jackson MI, plan the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.
St.Louis - get to the Cahokia Center.

This is just what I could thing of without looking at my log books.

Matt

[awoodwaring]

valhalla360 wrote:
The trip sounds great and we've done Michigan to California and on to Texas this fall. No real issues. Watch for holidays, weekends and festivals at popular tourist areas but otherwise, you shouldn't have problems getting campsites. Unless the vaccination program completely blows up, everything should be easing by mid June. I wouldn't let that worry you, just be ready to adapt a bit (ie: we ran the south edge of N. Mexico in one day because they had heavy restrictions when we were passing thru).

Where I question your plan, is the schedule. If I counted correctly, that's 29 travel days out of about 45 days total trip...that sounds tiring.

At probably around 7000+ miles (I didn't plug in all the stops so it might be more), those are going to average probably 5hr driving but add an hour at the beginning and end for tear down and set up...those are full days (7hrs for travel) before seeing any sites.

We shoot for 100-200mile days with at least 1 non-move day between travel days but we are much less restricted on the schedule, so that might not work for you.

If you are locked in on the start and end dates and skipping Maine is a deal breaker, I might suggest planning a few key long travel days and then slow down between.
- Presumably, you've seen the stuff within 500 miles of home, so 1st and last day could be a 12-15hr day trading off driving duties. Assuming 50mph average speed, that would eat up 600-750miles of the 7000 miles freeing up some days to relax and tour at destinations.
- Then if there are areas where you don't have much that interests you, blast out a 600-750 mile day. I won't say where I would do it but you can't see everything and there are some areas where there just isn't much to see.

If you can come up with 5 days like that it will eat up around 3000-3500miles and allow a lot more down days making for a more relaxing trip.

Yeah, most of California to TN is just driving, then we slow down.

[awoodwaring]

wanderingbob wrote:
To much traveling , not much time for seeing or doing .

Unfortunately, we do have somewhat of a time limit. From California to about TN, we are just driving. Been there, done that, so nothing new.

Where would you recommend we spend more time?