Hello to Everyone,

This week we continue with our travel guide: How do we find a campground, RV Park or an overnight parking spot? The process we use now has evolved over the last two years. Much of what we discuss here will only be of value if you travel like we do. And if you are not going to travel by RV or you like pictures more than words, just skip this week's email.

How do we travel?

We move frequently. We have been to 633 different sites since September of 2021.
We travel short distances on travel days. Our target is 150 miles/day.
We like to have hookups, but can dry camp up to 10 days at a time.
We drive on highways rather than freeways whenever we can, to see the countryside.
We never pay for a site after dark.

At the beginning we joined every camping club we ran across.

Good Sam Club - 10% discount.
FMCA - 10% discount - Family Motor Coach Association, for Class A motorhomes only.
KOA - 10% discount, parks listed on online.
Escapees - 15% discount and some very low price Co-op parks, parks listed online.
Passport America - 50% discount, parks listed online.
Elks - Camp for Zero, 5, 10, 15 and up to 35 dollars a night. Online Elks descriptions are often not accurate.
1) Walmart in Rancho Mirage, CA, $0, Rating 2.
2) Terribles RV Park/Casino, Pahrump NV, Passport $16, Rating 5


Other non-camping memberships that we recommend:
Coach Net, a motorhome/RV towing service.
National Park Pass which is $80 (09-2021) but covers parks, BLM, monuments and other federal lands.

We mostly used the Trailer Life book when we started. We no longer use books. Here is our routine now. We know our general direction. For example, at the end of May we will head to the Northwest and we have not set a date for any visits or returning back to California. That is all we know for now. We have people to meet along the ways but no dates set. Some of you may not be able to handle "knowing nothing", but it gives you total flexibility. Yes, it means that you may miss someone or have a shorter visit than you want. And this will not work if you have limited time to visit specific people and places. But when you travel full time it gives you the luxury of extended visits in great places or leaving others early.

The night or two before we travel, we get online.
We check www.weather.com. We look for 70s and 80s!
We find some place we have not been to and a road we have not driven.
Then the search is on. We do several types of searches:
a) Overnight Only: We are only going to stay one night on the way to our final destination:
   We search Elks, Walmarts, Cracker Barrel, Flying J's. and Google searches.
b) Stay Two or More Nights: We are planning on staying for two or more nights
   We search Elks, Passport America, Escapees, Good Sam Online, and Google searches.
c) Pamper Ourselves: We want pools, spas, fitness center and more!
   Big Rig Bible 4/5 Star Resorts
d) Visiting friends and relatives!
   We stay at their house if possible or close by: Elks, etc.

1) Cape Girardeau, MO, Elks, $10, Rating 4
2) Devil's Garden, Arches National Park, Utah, $15, Rating 3. Only a few sites available for 40+ foot motorhomes


How to find your place:

1. www.elks.org > click on Advanced by Lodge Locator, enter the state and district > Search. None of the RV lots at the 117+ lodges we have been to are "fancy" but many of the lodges are in great settings: Panama Beach City Elks, Florida was right on the water. We had a private lake with no other RVs in August in Cape Giradeau, Missouri and the Salisbury, Maryland was on their own 18 hole golf course. They are all different. Almost all will let you dry camp if they don't have facilities. And you meet the locals right away who can tell you everything about the area. Elks are full of old-timers who have lived there "forever". We always call when we get close to see if there is an opening. Most do not make reservations, but some do! The websites are typically out of date. Silver City, New Mexico had their 5 year old address which is downtown with narrow streets! So call first. You must be an Elks member. Go to your local Elks and ask how. You will need current Elks as sponsors and it can take weeks or months to be accepted. You have to pay an annual fee. This has saved us thousands of dollars.

2. www.passport-america.com > click on Campgrounds > desired state > view campground > Important Campground Notes. Each park has its own restrictions, such as, "valid for 5 nights", "not valid on weekends and holidays", etc. We did not buy this for a long time because of the restrictions. Very foolish! Passport online costs $44/year. We saved $36.00 on our first two nights usage! All the parks we have been to have been okay, no road apples. We have saved hundreds with Passport.

3. www.escapees.com > click on Benefits > RV Parking > Travel Guide> select type of parking. You save 15% on all escapee Travel Guide parks. The Co-op parks are owned by the Escapees Club. Typically RV parks with full hookups (water, power and sewage) will cost you $25 to $65. We paid $12 (04-2007) at the Escapee Co-op park in Alabama on a 40 foot by 80 foot, all grass site. It was like sleeping in a city park. In Aguanga, CA we stayed at Jojoba Hills RV Park. It has full hookups and a large pool, two spas, billiard room, tennis and pickle ball courts, shuffleboard courts, book library, $.50 (fifty cent) video library with lots of top videos, coin laundry and free hot showers and sauna. All for $35/night (02-2020). The people could not be nicer. Escapees costs $50.00 (12-2008) per year and is a must-have membership.

1) BLM Lake Hugo, OK, $15, Rating 4.
2) Caliente Springs RV, Desert Hot Springs, CA, $45, Rating 3


Those are our top three searches. Next we will go to various websites to find camps. Most of these will give a 10% discount if you are a Good Sam or FMCA member. We no longer search for KOAs. For us, we felt they were overpriced and usually have lots of kids at the pool/spa. We have enough kids of our own, we don't need more!

4. www.goodsamcamping.com > Find a Campground > enter state and city and search.

5. www.reserveamerica.com > Enter city or other term and select from list. No discounts, these are government parks.

Other sites we have used with success.

All Stays or $$ Pro Version

Campground Reviews

RV Parky

www.google.com and search for RV Parks, Campgrounds, Camping, etc.

Harvest Hosts. You pay an annual fee, dry camp for free and make a donation.

Many times the photos on the park websites look better than the park itself. This is why on our park listings we show pictures of the park. Mostly we show the RV sites as so many times the central facility photos are accurate but the sites are not.

We rarely make reservations. We will get up early and drive 150 miles. When we get to the park we inspect it and decide how many days to stay, which might be zero! If we don't like it we might: a) check others parks in the area b) head to the closest Walmart, Flying J or other parking areas or c) drive a little further. We have only found two parks in the USA that would refund your money once you have paid. So we almost always pay for a single night and then add additional days if we like the park.

If you are flexible and move often as we do, there are lots of bargains available. Most parks uses specials to get you to try their park. Most assume that if they give you a few days free, that you might stay and pay for more. We have received up to 5 five free days at nice parks. And we have dozens of coupons for free weeks, free days, half or low price weeks, etc. If a freebie fits our route or close to it, we use it. We use the free days and usually move on!

1) Jojoba Hills, Aguanga CA, $35 Escapees, Rating 4.
2) Vacation Station, Ludington, MI, $free 5-day trial, Rating 4.


And finally we meet so many nice folks along the way and many have invited us to stay with them when we reach their state.  Warning: "If you invite, we will come!" We have stayed at 48 (02-2020) different homes around the US. Some relatives, some long time friends and some RV travelers we met at RV parks.

You can spend $82.00/night (01-2007) at the Motorcoach Country Club in Indio, rating 5+, or find a free overnight location. With a little research you can average less that $20.00/night traveling fulltime Our subjective rating system, 1 to 5, reflects how much we enjoyed our site. For example a decent site for cheap might rate higher than a very pricey better site. Objectively, it might look like this.

0 - Unacceptable, we would never stay there
1 - Okay, but some facilities don't work, would rather not stay there again
2 - Clean, dry site with minimal or no hookups and no facilities (pool, showers, spa, stores close by, laundry)
3 - Clean, dry site with water, electric, sewer and some facilities (pool, showers, spa, stores, laundry, concrete patio)
4 - Full hookups with many facilities like cable TV, spa, concrete pad or decorative gravel, great view, lake, pond, river, ocean.
5 - Beautiful sites with concrete, patio, fully landscaped, pool, spa, cable, fitness center, restaurant, nearby store, i.e. 5 star!

Happy Trails,

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Apr 2008