Trip reports for those currently on the road

[Bigventure]

I thought i would start a thread that
Airstreamers could use for information about getting home.

Please post your route, fuel prices, and whats open in your travels.

What are they doing at the state lines?

Please we all know we are not suppose to travel during these times. But, some people are snowbirds and need to get home, some are moving ect.

[Bigventure]

Anyone traveling?

[rowiebowie]

Give it time. Someone should post, but there are likely very few traveling now. And those few that are, should be just trying to get home.

I too am curious about what they are encountering.

[TheGreatleys]

We are full time, and "traveling" insofar as we are "out there." But we're trying our best to stay put. "Home" is on the other side of the country, parked in our family's driveway. But getting there would require significant travel, and could potentially expose our older family to the virus if we happen to be carriers. And our home state is one of the current "hot spots." Adding ourselves to our family's household would increase the risk for everyone. The state we're in is under a stay home order, so we're staying home in the Airstream.

Lots of state and National parks are closed, so finding a spot is a bit more difficult than usual. Fortunately, National Forest dispursed camping is still available here. Don't know yet if they will be enforcing the 14 day maximum, but it seems more in line with the governor's order to avoid relocating every two weeks if possible.

Our off-grid setup is serving us well, and we could easily stay in this area indefinitely. We just have our fingers crossed that they won't close National Forests to dispursed camping. If they do, a lot of full timers are going to have to pack into Walmart (and similar) parking lots. Doesn't seem logical to create a refugee crisis by kicking people out of unimproved camping areas, but I'm not sure the powers that be are aware of the issue.

I was last out a couple of days ago to get water and pick up two extra jerry cans I ordered to the UPS store. Gas prices were normal. Last we were at the grocery store was over a week ago, and it was stocked better than it had been in the prior weeks.

[OTRA15]

FYI there are many threads in the Covid-19 forum that relate to folks on the road -- or not -- and the reasons why:

https://www.airforums.com/forums/f549/

It is hard to report about problems on the road without looping the virus into the discussion IMO.

Peter

FYI
FWIW

[turk123]

We just got back from our 6-month trip two weeks ago. We left Palm Springs heading east on 10. At that time private campgrounds were still accommodating travelers. All have their offices closed, but you call, make the reservation, give them a credit card and pick up your paperwork usually pinned to the office door. We did not have a problem and all of the campgrounds were very empty. Those that had 10 or twenty campers that night had them all spread out in the park giving you a sense of safety.

Most will have their bathrooms closed so do not expect services at these RV parks. Camp stores were closed also.

Most of the Ma Pa RV parks included locations of grocery stores and restaurants with their paperwork. I believe they all wanted to help and preserve a little income while doing so.

It was not much fun keeping your distance from fellow campers and it makes your trip a bit lonely. So expect that. If you have a dog, remember not to let children, as well as adults, pet your animal! Our Maddie dog was sad about that.

[PatLee]

turk123 - Aww, what a little sweetheart!

[Mikebrady62]

turk123
Tell Maddie to hang in there. Everyone wants to pet her, they just can't right now! She looks like a really sweet dog.

[dbaur]

We are full timers and fortunately have a cabana site at Traveler's Rest in Dade City Florida. Our park is closed tight except for stockholders. Not certain about other area parks but would doubt they are open. This is a very nice place but we really have no option to travel back to our family. They are in Maine and the Governor has closed all RV Parks, motels, hotels and B&Bs. Everyone stay safe!

[Bill M.]

We are snowbirds in Fl. A number of people have recently left our campground and headed home. We have emails from many who made it home with no problems. None that we have kept up with were actually pulling a trailer. We will stay through April and then decide again what to do. Year round rental on the space.

[banderabob]

Not a full timer, but we traveled 10 days ago to a State Park a couple of hours away. Took all our food and other needs so we wouldn’t have to interact in any community. It’s just my opinion (and maybe not a popular one), if my wife and I can isolate in a park as well as we can at home including walking and biking (which we do at home) we feel we are meeting the intent of the Shelter/stay recommendations.

[out of sight]

Originally Posted by banderabob

Not a full timer, but we traveled 10 days ago to a State Park a couple of hours away. Took all our food and other needs so we wouldn’t have to interact in any community. It’s just my opinion (and maybe not a popular one), if my wife and I can isolate in a park as well as we can at home including walking and biking (which we do at home) we feel we are meeting the intent of the Shelter/stay recommendations.

I agree. There are orders for non-essential travel and also orders for social distancing. These can conflict for RV travelers. The travel restrictions are aimed mostly at travelling to a meeting or event where social distancing would be difficult to achieve. Using public transportation is also targeted by the travel restrictions. In the case of an RV it is possible to travel and never get near another person. Touching a gas pump may be the only thing required and that can be taken care of with disposable gloves. Once you get to where you are going, the question becomes, do you have more social distance at your destination than at your home?

[BigSxyWhtGuy]

We full time. My wife is a travel nurse and we are on our way from FL to MI, straight up 75. Stopped in Jackson Center for some work on rig that has been scheduled for a little under 6 months.

Boarders are all fine. Atlanta specifically was very weird to drive through. Haven’t seen 8 lanes across so empty.

Plenty of cops on the road but didn’t see anyone pulled over.

Fuel prices for diesel slowly trended down the farther north we got. Started at 2.48 in Orlando on Thursday. Pulled into Jackson Center last night and filled at 1.98

I used gloves to refill diesel anyways due to the leakage and general grossness of the entire dispensary in most all cases.

We shopped for all of our supplies prior to leaving FL. First person we interacted with was the Airstream service manager for about 3 minutes to let him know he could have our rig until Friday.

[Bigventure]

Thank you for the trip reports. Keep them coming.

[MomcatA]

I think it’s good news that there are so few trip reports. Means that for those of us for whom being “out there” is optional, we have chosen to stay at home. For those on the road, take care, stay healthy.

[trailerKat]

When the virus got serious we were in the Corpus Christi TX area. Left there 3-19 staying at a Walmart one night to get to Natchez MS. Stayed at the City/Natchez Trace visitors centers [closed] 3-20, 21, 22. We rested & walked around downtown on Saturday which was mostly closed and deserted. Used the dump station and and water in the parking lot there. Got supplies and got on the Natchez Trace Parkway on 3-23 for four days. Stayed at 2 Trace campgrounds [Jeff Busby & Merriweather Lewis,] 1 Walmart and Tishomingo state park along the Parkway, social distancing of course. The traffic was light, campgrounds were half full [no reservations], bathrooms were closed, which we didn't need of course. The drive was wonderful with dogwoods and red buds in bloom and lots of historical pull-outs along the way. Lots of Canadians in the campgrounds who were also heading north [their government gave them a deadline to be home.] Arrived home 3-29 after one night at a Cracker Barrel in KY and one more Walmart in IN. No problems and glad we got to check off another National Park off the list though we couldn't get a souvenir post card because of the closed visitor centers. Reminded us of the government shutdown last December when we had reserv. at Midway CG in Everglades NP where the gates were open, bathrooms locked! We were kicked out of a private campground in October on the Russian River, Jenner CA. Mandatory evacuation due to the Kincade fire. Drycamped 3 nights at the Petaluma Fairgrounds, a designated evac/rescue center planning where to go next. We are so grateful to have our Airstream and be self-contained! Be careful everyone and best wishes for a safe journey to wherever you are heading.

[SMKovalchik]

We’re currently on the road returning to Northern Michigan from FL. We are currently in KY, waiting for a bit weather after today’s storms, tomorrow’s snow, wind and freezing temps in Mich and a couple more days of bad freeze. We’ll head north from KY driving straight home because both Indiana and Ohio are totally closed. Our conundrum is the water etc with freezing temps. We need to remain self contained, using our bathroom. Our plan is to arrive late at night, plug in and turn heat and tank heater on. We’ll get up the next day, unload essentials like refrig and food items then take it the same day to our indoor storage site (heated). The owner is gracious about letting us in early. Campgrounds haven’t been busy and all have done curbside check-in. Pay in advance makes it quick and in some cases they email your receipt and send you directly to your site. We travel up I-65 through AL, Georgia, KY to Indiana and pick up I-69 to northern Michigan then West to Traverse City. Traffic has been extremely light and diesel for our truck ranged from $2.49 to $2.29 (AL) no issues at any border.
Note, we too understand the “no travel” but because we are totally self-contained our doctor said, “come home”.

[harriganp]

We left Marfa Monday and got to Vermont Saturday late afternoon. We went from Marfa to a Weatherford Ft Worth KOA. From there to Forrest City Arkansas just west of Memphis where we stayed at Delta Ridge RV. Then to Sevierville, Tennessee where we stayed at Riverside RV Park. Everyone was very good about no contact. Lots of truck traffic and no issues at any borders. From there it gets dicey going north. All the states on our route north of Tennessee had either closed all RV parks or you had to stay for 14 days and quarantine. We were lucky to find a harvest host dairy farm in Pennsylvania where we could stay the night.

We only stopped for gas and made sure we had enough food . Many rest stops were closed and all the truck stops were overflowing. I would not even consider them available to RVs.

Hard trip. Plan carefully.

[moby_1851]

After a year of careful planning I began full timing on March 12. Needless to say the things I was worried about (regular newbie things) now seem insignificant compared to the larger challenges of both being new and managing as a full timer during the pandemic. One big change - rather than moving around frequently, I now intend to stay as long as possible in any location I can find adequate services (a potential upside to this - I think this method will work better for me when things normalize - it takes a while to figure stuff out when you arrive - so it's nice to have a month or more in a location to acclimate).

Anyway - I started in Sonoma, CA for a shakedown of a couple of weeks. Every reservation I had ended up cancelling on me. So I spent time calling park after park...ended up with 2 months in the Sedona AZ area. In June I am set up in Santa Fe. So far no serious issues - I can get everything I need, I have a place to stay - currently Zane Grey at Camp Verde AZ. Just very little to do - as is the case everywhere. So hiking with the dog, bike rides...hoping things lighten up in June.

[Justinfinity]

Hi Folks,

We are from CT and have been parked in Palm Bay, FL for just over three weeks at a family member's property. We are planning to depart FL tomorrow to gradually make our way back to CT.

Our first planned stop 300 miles away is Fort McAllister State Park near Savannah GA. As of this writing, Georgia State Parks are all open, so we are hoping we'll find a place to stay the night and enjoy the historical site.

Our next planned stop, another 300 miles away, is the Top of Georgia Airstream park in Helen, GA.

If/when we leave Top of Georgia, we want to find an access point to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I have read that the Parkway is open but some access points to the southernmost and northernmost sections have been closed. We are hoping to gain access somewhere between Cherokee NC and Asheville NC.

When we took delivery of our Globetrotter at the end of last year, we never dreamed that it would serve as our "Mobile Quarantine Unit". We are well provisioned and extremely grateful that we have had the comfort and security of our rig.

That's all for now.