Longest trip in planning mode, St George FL, advice sought

[ron]

Planning a trip in next 4 weeks, that will be our longest. This is out of my comfort zone, so any thoughts on:
-non interstate routes from east TN to gulf coast.  Mapquest takes me over Asheville mountains to Spartanburg and down i95.  Alternately thru Knoxville, Chatt and thru Atlanta on I75.  Booo!!!   How about 129 / 441 thru Athens and Macon?

-good stopping points? Or more accurately, this time of the year, during the week, do you make reservations for camping at your driving mid points, or just wing it?  We will probably break this 750+ mile trip into three driving days each way.

- I saw the good info on St Joe and St George, so we will try to do 4 days at each, as that is the max of our 14dbs holding tanks for us.  Any additional thoughts on these?

-- any closing thoughts on a longer trip like this?  I have four new Maxxis 8008 tires coming tomorrow, and will give them a shakedown trip first of next week.

thanks all. Looks like we went from summer to winter up here, skipping fall. 

[david]

[p]I don't know if MapQuest does it, but Google Maps often shows you some alternate routes, and you can always drag a leg over to a more scenic one and GM will complete it for you.

Another app that I find indispensable is Allstays. This is an app for Android or iOS devices which has a very detailed map base which overlays icons indicating camp sites. You can use a filter that lets you select the type of campground- independent, NFS, WalMart, etc. Then click on the icon for a summary and click on the top to be directed to their web page.[/p][p]
[/p][p]If you have a cell data plan on your device you can do the looking on the fly, then call and book from the road.

The only thing lacking is a link to Google Maps so you can easily plan a route to get there.

David[/p]

[sandyu]

This time of year I think you will be fine winging it. During the summer vacation months you may need to get reservations on the weekend stays.  

I agree with the advice about google maps and allstays apps are the best. Play around and master them before your trip. You will be glad you did.

I plugged my phone into my car stereo while running google maps. My phone sits in my instrument panel behind steering wheel. This setup work great for me.

I just returned from St. Joseph Peninsula State Park next St. George.  Ky to Fl trip with a stay over in Alabama at Rickwoods state park. Very convenient to interstate and highways.

[leslie]

An alternative to AllStays is www.rvparky.com   I prefer rvparky to allstays, and I prefer rvparky's website to its app. You get more detailed info from the website. Check out both of them to see which you prefer.

[david]

Leslie:

I just tried Rvparking, not Rvparky. Rvparky was not recognized by iTunes. So, in any case, here is the good and the bad:

The good- I loved the interface to Google Maps. Click on directions to park and you switch to Google Maps with a route from your present location to the park. Great!!

The bad-

The filter didn't work right. I selected USFS, NPS and State Parks and also got a bunch of commercial parks shown.

There is no link to the park's own web site. That was a big plus will Allstays. Sometimes it is almost impossible to find a public park's specific web site. Allstays gets this right about 99% of the time.

So, I guess I will stick with Allstays.

David

[leslie]

I don't have an iPhone, so I don't know anything about that system. Strange that it would prevent you from going to the website. I will check out rvparking.

[daplumbr]

Do not go through Atlanta on I-75. Avoid that like the plague. 

We've been to St. Joseph Peninsula State Park and St. George Island State Park many times from Michigan and have had good luck with I-65 to US-231 to US-98. If you can get on those routes from "eastern" Tennessee you should be fine. 

[leslie]

Ron - we - husband and I - just drove down to Central Florida, towing our Camplite. We had to get together with the contractor who is working on our little house. He gave us some homework and I am exhausted.

We would have been here sooner, but RV parks were filled up with people escaping the hurricane. There are vacancies now, but we met some campers who are still waiting to get back into their flooded homes.

We just wanted to get to Florida. We decided I-75 would be best. Hah! Chattanooga to south of Atlanta took the better part of a day and was a mess! Now we are sorry that we didn't consider surface roads through that area!

Please post here to tell us which route you took and how it went. Happy towing!

[docktorjj]

As a full time Floridian AVOID I-75,& I-4.   I-10 is pretty good!  We prefer Hwy 27, US-41, US-441. Hwy 90 in the pan-handle is a very scenic road.  All the secondary roads will go through small towns and you will only average 50 miles and hour at best but the Id10T or idiots of the interstates are not present, and you get to see Florida. These secondary roads in our larger cities can have problems too.  I live here and I HATE I-75!  We recently went to Stephen Foster Cultural Center State Park in White Springs took I-75 up but Hwy 41 & Hwy 27 home to Wildwood.  Loved the drive home.
St George Island is Fantastic! If you have time go to   Torreya State Park, 2576 NW Torreya Park Rd. Bristol, FL 32321 (850) 643-2674 it is full of history and was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).  

Just my 2 cents worth on FL

[uscg]

I drive two of those routes often, as I have a camp near Tellico Plains TN, and I also have a son that lives near Athens (I also drove big trucks for 18 months after I retired and was working on my degree, so I ran through ATL several times per week with an 18 wheeler).  DO NOT take that 129/441, its very busy, hilly, and there is really nothing to see.  I came through ATL last night pulling my camper, no problem but I came through at 10:30pm, (as planned)  I then stopped at the rest area at the 475 Bypass outside Macon, it always has plenty of room for stopping for the night and sleeping in your camper If you did not want to do I75 from Macon to FL, you can go down I16 to Savannah, and then turn south, its longer, but a road less traveled for sure, until you get to 95.  But, you could take hwy 301 outside Statesboro GA, and run it down into FL, there by bypassing both I75, and I95, and yes, I have run that road many times too, its nice, flat and 4 lane in many areas, NO traffic at all really.  IF you do use I-16, the rest area near mm50 is closed.  best Gas stops south of ATL are at I75 Exit 201, I16 Exit 49 or 51, and if you needed help, I am at Exit 104.

[ron]

Wow, thanks for all the great and detailed advice from all of you.

By all means we are avoiding the interstates, especially I75 thru Atlanta.  Not brave enough for that.  We had two options on mapquest, over the mountains thru Asheville and down that way, or thru Knoxville and Chatt. Both routes were within 30 miles total distance of each other, so I will opt for the Knoxville to Chatt route, hopefully getting to State Route 27, and take it most of the way down. I go over the Asheville mountains enough, and would rather not pull this, if I can do this alternate route with just 30 more total miles.

Unfortunately we are due out our first night this Friday, and second stop this Saturday [we wanted to take a leisurely 3 days to drive down] and we are finding all state parks full due to the Halloween "holiday".  Geez.  We wanted to just wing it and stop when we are tired, and now it looks as if we have no choice.  I have a slew of potential park names and phone numbers and we will just call on the road or get our first stay at a Walmart or hotel if we cannot find anything.

We were hoping for James Sloppy Floyd SP just south of Chatt.  Maybe they will have a cancellation.  

We knew to avoid 441 out of the smokies.  Thanks all for the input and we will try Allstays or RVParky too on her phone.  [ I am retired and gladly gave my iPhone back to my employer, now my flip phone does just fine  

Safe travels everyone.

[gbpack]

[p]
Another app that I find indispensable is Allstays. This is an app for Android or iOS devices which has a very detailed map base which overlays icons indicating camp sites. You can use a filter that lets you select the type of campground- independent, NFS, WalMart, etc. Then click on the icon for a summary and click on the top to be directed to their web page.

We really like the Allstays app as well and find it (like you) indespensible. So easy to use and a lot of good info and links at your fingertips. We have been using it almost exclusively in planning trips and making reservations.