travel plan...

[grammynmaggie]

I was wondering what you all do when traveling with out a towed...like when you want to check out something in the area...and you have to drive your rig...my big worry is getting there and it no place to park...not rig friendly...how do you go about checking for that problem...JudyJB said on her blog she was going drive somewhere to check out the sights...how did you check for parking ??This keeps me from sight seeing in my traveling north & south...thanks for you input...donna

[gingerK]

Don't know Donna, I will be interested in answers to this one too. I know Judy rents cars whenever she needs to get somewhere or has her grands visit. Some of the others have said they do this too on occasion. As far as knowing ahead of time if where you're going has parking for an rv, that I don't have a clue about. Hopefully wiser heads than mine will chime in.

[chalet05]

I have called ahead. Sometimes you get a person who can answer correctly. I also look at satellite maps.

[Bethers]

I never really have had trouble finding places to park when I didn't have the toad. It's having one that has limited my stopping enroute - as sometimes I'm just not sure I'd be able to get out of an area without unhooking, rehooking, etc. Without the toad, that's never been a problem - even if it took a 5 or 6 or 7 point turn. In cities/picturesque towns, often there is offstreet parking - or look for bigger parking lots near enough (stores, businesses) to park in while you walk around. Unlike you, I have more problems because of the toad. The toad is good when I'm staying somewhere for longer periods. For traveling, I'd rather be without.

[JudyJB]

I very seldom can't find a place to park. Almost every tourist site has some big rig parking. In Lake Placid, I knew the town was tight and with narrow roads, so I called the visitor center to ask where I could park. They sent me to behind a train station/historical museum with a large dirt lot. The shuttle picked me up from there.

A lot of towns on rivers or lakes have harbor parking for people with boats and boat trailers, so I often drive past and check there or in a park nearby. Often you can even find street parking as long as you go down side streets and not try to park on the main road. I am fussy about my motorhome, however, and don't like to park along a road if it hangs out even a tiny bit. Sometimes it takes circling a block or two to find the right spot.

I am in New Brunswick, Canada. I stopped a couple of days ago at a visitor center driving in from Maine and asked them if downtown Saint John had big rig parking and it does! They showed me the specific lot, gave me a map, and tomorrow I am going to drive in and do some shopping and visiting a museum. This is a downtown area where you might not think you could go in a big rig.

Another thing I do is use Google Maps to find a large parking lot slightly on the edge of something. Often, you can even see the RV spots on the view that shows more than the map. Look for Walmart parking lots or major shopping centers nearby stuff.

If any of you have been to Jerome near Cottonwood, AZ, you know that town is halfway up a mountain and has very tight streets. I wanted to go and called around. (Some people in my campground said I was nuts.) Turns out if you drive up the mountain and turn right at the first light, go past the fire station, you will find a very large and almost always empty lot for big vehicles!

[Gentleladybear]

Drive by the location if you see room to stop do so. I would do that, knew if nothing else I could cut through a parking lot and get out of there, still do that even though I have a tow vehicle.