Planning A Cross Country Travel Adventure

Here are some tips that might help make your planning you cross country trip easier!  

And don't forget, that you can travel across country and stay at cabins instead of with an RV!  

If you haven’t tried the KOA Trip Planner, we highly recommend it.  You can bookmark it at (https://koa.com/trip-planner/). It is a great tool for planning your trip. Simply enter your starting address, and your ending address, and press the “Get Directions” button.

What pops up next is a map with every KOA within 5 miles along that route. Your can change that option to 10 miles or some other distance, if a particular area doesn’t seem to have a KOA right along the route, but remember to add that extra travel time and expense to your trip travel calculations. 

Next, click on the KOA’s along the route that you estimate might be about 5 hours of travel time away. Then, Google the distance between those two destinations, until you find a KOA that is about 5 hours away. 

If you stop every couple of hours for potty stops, fuel, or meals along way, the 5 hours on the GPS equates to 8 hours of travel time a day. So we’ve found that 5 hours of travel time works about right for us, and equates to about an 8 hour day. If you spend an hour on lunch, or don’t want to be on the road for 8 hours a day, then lower the miles to 400 or whatever amount will work for your travel style. Fatigue becomes an issue if you travel more than 8 hours a day, and then of course, you run out of daylight too. So we try to arrive at or before dusk, so we’re not trying to get into an unknown campsite and set up in the dark.

Then, simply repeat this process over and over until you’ve completed your whole trip. If you’re planning a cross country trip, don’t forget to download The KOA Camping App! It is available for download at the Apple App Store and Google Play sites. It’s a great way to have 500 of the best campgrounds in the USA and Canada at your fingertips. For more information or to view a special video on the KOA Camping App, go to http://koa.com/get-the-koa-app/. It’ll help you find KOA’s across the county, and provide you easy access to their addresses for your GPS. It’s a great idea to carry that paper KOA directory too for backup just in case you need written directions to get you to the campground or RV Park.  Unfortunately, there are places that the GPS can’t find, and places where there is no cellular service. So until technology catches up, a plan “B” is always a great idea! 

In addition, “stuff happens”. There will be traffic jams, or high winds which means you need to slow down, so you can’t make your desired destination for that travel day. When that happens, you may need to find another park along the way to get you off the highway that became a parking lot, or out of the bad weather. So a physical directory and the app, will help you do both!

By Robyn Chilson                                                                                                              

Tim & Robyn Chilson own and operate Meadville KOA Campground.  Robyn can be reached at 814-789-3251.     

Get The Most Out of Your RV

Get The Most Out of Your RV

No matter what RV you own or are thinking of purchasing, you’ll want to get the most out of your RV.  RV’s can be used for tailgating at sporting events, attending seasonal festivals or special events, temporary housing for out of town work, vacations, and a host of other applications as well. 

Most RVer’s know that camping and RVing is still America’s most cost-effective style of vacationing.  What most people spend on one, one week vacation, RVer’s spend on a whole season of camping or RVing fun!  That means that they get a lot more fun and recreation for their money! Seasonal camping will help you get the most out of your RV! 

Camping seasonally usually means that your RV stays on the campsite for the whole season or all year, depending upon the kind of camping agreement you have with the Campground or RV Park. 

Seasonal Campers usually occupy a site for a greatly reduced rate, because they have a long-term camping agreement with the park owner, make their payments during the campground or RV park’s off season, and provide winter income for the campground during low cash flow seasons.

Because of this trade-off, there are huge savings to be found for the Seasonal Camper.  They can participate in all the activities and events at the campground, and get a lot more use out of their RV than the person who travels from campground to campground on a regular basis.  Why?  RVing is a lot of fun, but it still involves a lot of work.  The clothes, food, bedding, towels, and personal toiletries need packed, the trailer needs hooked up, towed, set-up, tore down, towed home and unpacked.  Towing isn’t cheap.  There’s wear and tear on the RV, the tow vehicle, and the driver, not to mention the price of gas. 

The Seasonal Camper, cleans and stocks their RV in the spring, stocks food as needed throughout the camping season, and closes it up in the fall.  Other than washing the RV, or regular maintenance, seasonal camping is much less expense and less work – which makes it easier and more pleasurable, and in turn, more likely to be used more often.  It also allows the seasonal camper to spend the savings on other recreational activities like golf or other hobbies, or on other forms of entertainment rather than on gas and vehicle maintenance. 

Seasonal camping has also changed a whole generation’s way of life.  Instead of owning a home in the North and a Vacation home in the south, many people live in their RV’s full time, or own a home in one place and live in the RV in other.  RV’s are easily winterized and that makes it convenient to go south for the winter and leave the RV in the North, or you can always take it with you if you decide to do so!  The RVing industry has not only changed the way we vacation, it’s changed the way we live!

When we combine the convenience, savings, and the versatility, seasonal camping is the best way to get the most out of your RV and your wallet!

Call us today for a list of our available seasonal campsites!  We’re happy to show them to you!  

By Robyn Chilson  (Robyn & her husband Tim, CPO own & operate Meadville KOA Campground in Meadville, PA).