Full-Time RV Living - Planning Your Next Route

One of the fundamental requirements of a roaming full-time RVer (as opposed to full-timers that are stationary) is planning a route. We generally choose our destination by Chelsea's jobs, but this next trip is more of a vacation (yaaaay!).

Since I just finished planning our next trip, I'll use that one to show you guys how we plan our routes!

So we're currently in Mexico Beach, FL and we're heading to Woodland Park, CO. We know we want to stop by Ocean Springs, Baton Rouge for a little while and Colmesneil, Texas for a little bit before we head on to Colorado. After our first move from Louisiana to Florida (a 7.5 hour drive that took us 11 hours with looooots of delays...urgh) we were completely exhausted and drained by the time we finally made it and had to set up in pitch dark. We decided that from now on we'd only travel for 3-4 hours or not after 3 PM - that way by the time we get somewhere, we'd have time to set up and cook/get dinner and nobody would be completely dead on their feet. Given this new travel plan, we're taking 4 days to get from Colmesneil, TX to Woodland Park, CO and I'm super excited about it!

We use the app RV Parky to help us figure out our route, which is great! We also use Allstays to help us find RV Parks in areas and to see what shops, stores and food are also there. So we generally find a few possibilities for RV Parks and start there.

We started from the end, since we knew we wanted to go to Colorado. We initially wanted to be closer to Denver and I probably called 50 RV parks for quotes and dates and was having problems finding one that wasn't $1300 a month or completely booked. We just kept increasing our radius from Denver and finally found a perfect spot in Woodland Park, CO at Bristlecone Lodge and RV Park!

This was our first possible route:

After calling around, we found that 2 of these parks weren't open yet and didn't have anyone answering emails or phone calls so we switched gears:

We got Raton Pass booked, then tried calling around again with the same kind of luck. No one open or no one manning the emails/phones.

One thing we've learned is not to be upset when we have to reroute and change plans. We're both learning to adopt the "go with the flow" lifestyle. If we don't get to stay at an RV Park that we really wanted to stay at on this trip, we know we'll have another chance eventually.

We did finally get our entire trip booked and now we get to see parts of Texas that we've never seen before along with New Mexico and Colorado. We did have to stretch day 2 out to almost 5 hours, but we've decided to leave earlier in the morning so we can be there before the sun sets. We're super excited about getting to see these cool places and about our route! Also super stoked to see friends and family - and get crawfish!

So all in all, when you are planning your route, we suggest working backwards from your wanted destination and not getting frustrated if it doesn't work out the way you originally planned.

Also, if you are going to be at any of these RV Parks when we've got them booked, send us a message! Or just come on by and meet us! We love meeting other RVers!