3 month trip out West


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fixin2retire

New Member
We are retireing in June and are planning a 3 month trip from Fl. to Wash. state. We don't like the interstates unless we have to use them so we are looking for good alternate roads that does not have low bridges and are in good condition. Any advice ,we have a 40 ft Mountain Aire. :)
 
RE: 3 month trip out West

You are going to do a lot of searching to find back roads routes for your trip to avoid interstates. I suggest you go to walmart or another large retail store or a local truck stop and pick up a truckers atlas and use it to determine which route you would like to use. Those atlas also have bridge and overpass info for your rig and weight class. Should be able to cut you a good route that way.
 
Re: 3 month trip out West

Hey fixin2retire, welcome to the forum. There are many good back roads, but you will probably need to use Interstates to connect to them. I don't recall any major back roads that would go straight through from FL to Wa. GPS routes are usually good if you have one. Make sure you don't rely entirely on it. They (GPS) surprise you sometimes. Put you vehicle in the GPS as a big TRUCK. Otherwise it will try to take you on some back road shortcuts that are alley ways or such.
 
RE: 3 month trip out West



Wow...what an awesome adventure!

Don't know your final destination (north, south, coast etc.) but you can catch US Highway 2 almost anywhere. I have traveled it from WA to Montana and it is a beautiful trip. Through Glacier in Montana...at the WA Idaho boarder you can go north on 20 through the Okanogan, North Cascades etc. You have so many options I wouldn't know where to begin!

Best of luck and have a safe trip!
 
Re: 3 month trip out West

I'm jealous....I'm going for 3 weeks
where's my lottery ticket :laugh:
 
Re: 3 month trip out West

i wish i could go for 3 weeks ,, i did do a month trip once ,, but now it looks like several week trips ,, the rv business is driving me crazy.... :o :o :laugh: :laugh:
 
Re: 3 month trip out West

Down here, there seems to be more out there for sale than usual. Not just RVs, but all toys in general.
Every other year we try to do it for 3 weeks... That's 101 weeks vs 3 weeks.
But when problems come up, I always have my phone & laptop with me
 
RE: 3 month trip out West

I'm also heading out west from Fla in May or June and I've been looking at the Good Sam Club trip planner. It's similar to AAA trip-tik but geared more to RV's. You can tell it to avoid Interstates, low clearances (13'6" I think) and ask it to favor scenic roads and/or National Parks or other options. It will e-mail a printable route to you. If you want to go thru specific states on the way, you can just do a series of 4 or 5 or maybe 6 individual trip plans from state to state. BTW, I retired last month. Just waiting for the warmer weather.

Bill
37' Georgie Boy.
 
RE: 3 month trip out West

hey i'm with u on the warmer weather thing .. i hate cold weaher ;) :laugh: :approve: :approve: :approve: :approve: :approve:
 
Re: 3 month trip out West

US 2 and US 20 are good options to head west from WI or IL. I've been on both Highways and found RV Campgrounds along the way. Don't look for big fancy RV Resorts though. Once off the beaten track or Resort areas, the pickins get slim, but that's half the fun.

Getting up to IL from FL is a little tricky to navigate on back roads, but can be done with a good Rand McNally Roadmap from Wal-Mart. That way you will know where all the Wal-Mart Supercenters are located. :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: The old trusty portable GPS is an option I wouldn't be without now that I finally broke down and purchased one.

I haven't used Good Sam as I think the fun of RVing is just going in the direction you intend to travel and make up your route as you go. However, I'm sure using their routes would work really well. Especially the low clearance aspect. My GPS has delivered me to tricky places before. I just look ahead on my map to make sure the GPS is going to the same place I intend to go.

Yesterday I was traveling on US 98 around the Gulf of Mexico and all of a sudden my GPS starting telling me I was on the wrong road and I needed to turn around. It kept saying turn left or right at next unpaved road. Can you imagine turning off the paved road onto an unpaved road you were not familiar with while towing a RV? I kept going on the road I was on because I knew it was heading in the right direction (onboard compass and GPS direction arrow) Well, I think what happened was that the road I was on, was a new addition (shortcut) that wasn't programmed into the latest version of GPS software (2008) I'm using. Totally confused the GPS. It showed me out in the boonies with no road. Also, I never did see the dirt roads I was directed to turn onto. Moral of the story: know where you are going and don't rely on your GPS (Garmin) totally. ;) ;) :o
 
RE: 3 month trip out West

I would use AAA. They have a website that can filter major highways and anything else that you need to filter. Good luck
 
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