How much in 3 months?

[Southwest Dave]

I have to agree with Lifey above, your trip is set at a rushed pace in lots of areas which may become tiring on a trip of this size and possibly frustrating. In Yellowstone you will barely have time to drive around the park and see 2 or 3 attractions. The parks in Utah will be little more than a blur as you drive through them. The west is where I am familiar so that is the part I will comment on. Personally I would not go so far west as far as Mt St Helens, Portland, Craters of the Moon etc and would enjoy much more family time in the National parks. To 'gain' some days I would go from Devils Tower to Glacier and then head south to Yellowstone (not forgetting the Grand Tetons) and then take a direct approach to Arches and Canyon lands and continue from there with more time to enjoy the parks, each of which deserve at least a full day.

There is an RV park at Malibu beach which is a little closer to Carson and closer still is Dockweiler RV park which is close to airport, noisey perhaps ?

[DonnaR57]

Day 2: LA-out of San Diego (Alpine?). Day 3: Alpine-Benson. Just a driving day.

You're obviously trying to stay east of San Diego: very, very good! You could stay in any of these places and be in a good place to leave the next morning:

El Cajon - exit 20b - Greenfield - there's an RV park there right next to the freeway, Circle RV. Just down the road on Main Street, there's one called Vacationer RV. Circle RV has easier access.

El Cajon - exit 22 - Rancho Los Coches RV.

Alpine - exit 33 - Alpine Springs RV

Any of those 4, I'd recommend. There are a couple of others that are very run-down.

There are also some public campgrounds, but there are no hookups and they are considerably further from the freeway than you may want to go if you are trying to make Benson the next day, including Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and the Cleveland National Forest campgrounds in the Descanso Ranger District. Boulder Oaks is about the closest one to the freeway, has NO hookups and may or may not have water. I wouldn't want to try to get an RV into Cibbets Flat unless they've improved the road.

Day 17: Rockville-Hersey. Gettysburg, Choc World.

Unfortunately, you won't see much of Gettysburg. It's 1/2 day just for the visitor center, which explains what you are seeing. If you skip that, and move on to the drive, it's at least a half day and that's not doing a lot more than stopping, reading a sign, snapping a pic, and driving on to the next one.



Donna

[Cappy!]

First time on this site and was curiously looking over your trip. As a native Floridian, I just wanted to throw my advice in, after others have noticed your itinerary may be rushed. An option in Florida would be to cut out Everglades National Forest/Miami and replace it with St. Augustine.

Miami isn't as tourist friendly as St. Augustine would be for one. Miami beaches are beautiful with gorgeous blue/green water... which you'll be experiencing later on your cruise in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Jamaica. The Everglades is literally just swamp land in South Florida. Expect alligators, mosquitos and pythons. An airboat ride/tour would make it more worthwhile if this is really a destination that you would like to experience.

St. Augustine will already be on your route heading north out of the Cape Canaveral/Daytona Beach Area and its south of Jacksonville. St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied European settlement in North America. Ponce De Leon, The Fountain of Youth, Castillo de San Marcos (The Fort) there's like 450 years of history there. And, its beautiful.

Locals around here never go to Miami/Everglades as a weekend trip. When they head that far south in the State its usually to the Keys (Key West in particular). Key West will, once again, be much like the islands on your cruise. I'd recommend saving all that driving time after Orlando and just head east to Cape Canaveral/Daytona then on to St. Augustine.


One more thing. Orlando. It would take a week (maybe more) to see everything in all the theme parks. Look over the Universal Studios website and pinpoint the places you'd really like to see. Possibly purchase the tickets in advance online, you can save a few dollars and it will save time waiting in line. Plan everything (parking for RVs, attractions to ride, etc). The time of year you'll be visiting Florida is notorious for severe thunderstorms in the afternoon... and if its not raining, it is incredibly hot and humid. Basically, your day could be cut short due to weather, get in as much as you can in the morning!

With the time saved from bypassing South Florida, you could look into staying around Savannah (beautiful), Georgia and cut down your long driving day Jacksonville(not so beautiful)-Richmond.