Live Video Chat Notes: RV Routing & Selecting Campgrounds

On Dec 3, 2013 at 7pm CST we broadcast our live chat on:

Routing & Selecting Campgrounds

We talked about how we pick our routing, pace of travel on long re-positionings and selecting our campgrounds. A Q&A followed.

Here’s a video archive of that chat:

 

General Chat Outline:

Section 1: Picking our Routing  

• Don’t be afraid to veer off the Interstate – back roads can increase views, decrease traffic and sometimes even save miles. How to pre-scout them to make sure they’ll be fun and not lead you to avoidable challenges.
• Tools we use for navigation:
  • Google Earth for checking out routes in advance
  • AllStays Camp & RV app for checking road grades and low clearance points
  • Coverage? for checking cellular coverage (DOH! Can’t believe we didn’t mention this in the video.. our own app!)
  • iMaps Weather Radio app for weather alerts
  • Apple maps & Google maps for on device routing
  • Rand McNally RV GPS app for on device maps and routing
• How far in advance to set intentions, and being flexible to changes (it’s kinda like a hurricane tracking model!)

Section 2: Picking our Pace

• Balancing efficiency for drive time & fuel costs with Serendipity
• Allowing time for exploring a location, social life, time for yourself, resting up, keeping active, chores and work hours.
• Being in tune with yourself to be flexible. Know when its time to stop for a couple days, and when it’s time to make miles.

Section 3: Selecting Campgrounds

• Researching the options – apps, maps, review sites, satellite mapping and social networking:
  • AllStays Camp & RV app for campsites, RV Parks and overnight stops
  • Passport America app to see if any 1/2 off campgrounds are along the way
  • RVParking App for extensive list of RV Parks & Reviews (love their website too!)
  • RVParkReviews.com for checking reviews of sites (clunky user interface, but lots of reviews)
  • CampSitePhotos.com for checking photos of individual campsites.
  • Checking satellite maps & street view to scope out ideal campsites
• When to wing it, and when to make reservations

Here are some additional resources on our blog related to this topic:

• Our past post on: Finding Camping & Boondocking (a bit out-dated, but extensive listing of resources. We’ll update this soon!)
• Our listing of mobile apps we utilize for routing & finding campgrounds: Our iPhone & iPad App Essentials for RV Travel

 

Chat Reminders:

As a reminder, we do these chats for FUN!

It’s a great way for us to share information and answer questions in an efficient manner, and we thoroughly enjoy sharing in this medium. We can laugh, be casual and share a different slice of life on the road. These chats, like the content on this blog, are our gift to you – they are free to view, and we’re not selling you anything. Heck, we even forget to mention our own directly related products in them! DOH!

Please keep in mind that we are using our only source of unlimited data (our iPad on AT&T) to stream these videos, and it may be fuzzy, choppy or out of sync on occasion. That’s just the way it is.

Enjoy these chats and/or the content we provide and want to say thank you with $$? We do appreciate contributions/gifts/donations of thanks:  

View archives of other past chats.

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