It’s funny how many people we can trip up when we mention that we travel full time. They can’t get over that fact that we no longer are tied to a property, and the idea of needing to find a place to stay in our skoolie conversion is pretty frequent. It can get stressful especially in the camping seasons, but so far our travels up and down the East coast have been fairly smooth.
Quickies and One Night Stands
For me, the harder “stays” are the one nighters. Where you just need a place to park, sleep, and keep going.
Currently, we NEED exterior/generator power to keep our fridge cold and that makes one nighter’s difficult because these locations don’t offer a hookup.
Cracker Barrels/Walmarts etc
So far the old one nighter location that we have used is Cracker Barrel. We generally like to ask the managers/let them know we are planning on staying over night, and we leave no traces behind when we leave.
RV “Suburbia” Parks
These are large parking lots that remind me of the suburbia neighborhoods we’ve lived it. Some are definitely WAY nicer than others and usually provide all the amenities that are needed… BUT everyone is just kind of crammed into parking spots with a pitiful patch of grass.
The Longer Stays
I never did the campground scene when I was younger. We camped on islands and “roughed” it out. So when I started looking into what campgrounds to book I was fascinated at the different types campgrounds
Campgrounds with Amenities and MORE
Nashville Jellystone Park: This was wonderful for families. We happened to show up while they were having a Grandparents weekend and they had a whole host of activities for the kids to partake in!
Check the calendar for the one you choose to visit to see what they have!
Boone KOA: I loved this KOA. It was absolutely beautiful, located 6 minutes from Boone’s downtown and had an awesome staff. We ended up hanging out in the rec room our whole trip since it rained the entire time we were there.
More Remote Campgrounds
We lucked out with finding two BEAUTIFUL spots in Tennessee using a site called Recreation.gov . These two were run by the Army Corps of Engineers and are pretty simple in what they offer for amenities but that’s because these are meant to be more remote and osterior!
Staying with Friends
Neighbors come out of the woodwork to see this 40ft beauty parked in the driveway. It’s been awesome being able to travel and connect with so many of our friends that are all over the US!
Workamper Opportunities
While the stay in Georgia wasn’t a true “workamper” opportunity, we chose to offer ourselves to whatever manual labor they needed on their farm. Johnny and the kids helped to water over 100 trees and we also helped to set up and breakdown the yard party.
There are plenty of opportunities to work for trade too. You can google workamper to see all sorts of opportunities.
What’s Next For Us
Our next big stop will be Lee New Hampshire, where we will stay at a family-owned campground. We will help in fixing up their campground for about 20 hrs a week in the trade of full site hook up (water/electricity/sewer/wifi).
We can’t wait till our solar power gets finalized and we head out west for more boondocking and off-grid opportunities.
