Planning and planning and planning and plann....

Planning and planning and planning and plann.... well... you get the drift!

In the past, we have not really concerned ourselves with doing too awful much advance planning. I would try to go ahead and reserve Thousand Trails campgrounds for the dates we anticipated we would want them -- easy to do and no cancellation fees -- could change the dates pretty easily -- but other than that, we would either not have reservations at all or make them within a week or two of our planned arrival at a campground.

Well... COVID changed a lot of things, and campground usage is one of them -- campgrounds are a lot more fully booked, and it is harder to get campsites. A number of campgrounds that used to be first-come, first-served (FCFS) - which we *like* because people who have only a few weeks of vacation a year and who make reservations to be sure they have a spot generally do not try to use FCFS campgrounds. A number of FCFS campgrounds have put in reservation systems (don't get me started on how poorly many of the reservation systems work!) so the number of FCFS sites is dwindling.

In addition, this year, we are planning a BIG TRIP to Newfoundland. Longtime readers may remember that Dwayne and I went to the Maritime and Atlantic provinces (including Newfoundland) in August/September of 2016. For that trip, we weren't even thinking about going there until mid-July, so I certainly didn't make reservations way in advance. We *did* have some challenges as Miss Doozie was definitely bigger than almost every other camping vehicle we saw - so there were campsites that we barely fit into, and roads that were tight and/or difficult for travel. We have to take ferries twice (once *to* Newfoundland and once *back* to Nova Scotia from Newfoundland) and reservations are required, especially for big vehicles.

So... I've been doing planning for several weeks for this BIG TRIP. I started using a tool that is new-to-me - RV Trip Wizard. I'm actually still in a trial mode with it, but it is definitely helping. I will work on it for a day or two, and then get interrupted with a SOWER project or an FMCA convention, and then get back to it when the interruption is finished.

One of the challenges is that Parks Canada (the National Park Service for Canada) changed their reservation system this year. As a result, everyone had to get new logons into the new system (which I did a few weeks ago), and then the reservation systems have opened on different days for the different provinces. Because I wanted to make sure that the campsites would fit Gracie, I had looked up the sites at each of the campgrounds where we plan to stay and rated my top 6-10 at each campground.

The parks for New Brunswick opened for reservations at 8am Atlantic time on 3/17 (7am Eastern time) -- while we were at the FMCA convention. I got online a few seconds past 7am and was greeted with a screen something like this:

You'll see that I'm in line -- I took this screen capture at about 7:12am after being in the queue for about 12 minutes. When I first got in, there were 5654 (or some number like that) in line ahead of me and the message told me that I should get into the reservation service in about 15 minutes. The screen updated every 30 seconds or so - Carl watched my screen and moved the mouse every once in a while to keep the screen active while I brushed my teeth and did other things to get ready for the day. 

After about 15 minutes, sure enough, I got into the reservation system. I went directly to the campground that I wanted (Headquarters in Fundy National Park), and went to the section of the campground that had most of the sites I were on my top 10 list. My first choice was not available, but my second choice was, so I booked it and all was good.

A few minutes later (like 7:35am), I went back in to see if any of my top 10 were still available for the dates we wanted, and they were not. There were 2-3 sites still available that were large enough for Gracie, but that was it (out of about 300 campsites at this particular national park on those dates).

The national parks in both Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island opened on 3/18. I was buoyed and optimistic by my success getting the New Brunswick reservation. I debated which park I should try for first, and decided to go for Nova Scotia as there were fewer sites that we could fit in there than the campground we wanted on PEI. I got into the system before 7am, and was told that I was early and that I would get a randomized spot in line when the waiting room opened.

5009 ahead of me in line! Great!

I was let in to the reservation system by about 7:10am, got my first choice campsite at Broad Cove in Nova Scotia, and then headed over to Cavendish Campground on PEI. NOTHING was available for the first 3 days I wanted to book (I wanted 7/6-7/11). There had been a LOT of sites that we could have fit into, but they were ALL booked for 7/6-7/9. What in the world? Victoria Day is in May, before we will be entering Canada. Canada Day is 7/1 (and I had purposely made sure that I booked a private campground to ensure I had a spot for that weekend). 4th of July is not a Canadian holiday but US people might be traveling for that date, but... that wasn't in the dates for which the campground was fully booked. What was scheduled for 7/6-7/9 on PEI?

Turns out that there is a music festival on the beach that is very close to Cavendish Campground. Who knew? (Well, obviously, a LOT of people knew, but *I* didn't!)

I don't know if I could have gotten a site if I had chosen to book the PEI campground first and Nova Scotia second -- probably not because even though there are 200+ campsites at Cavendish, if there were 5000+ ahead of me in line, and if it is a really popular event, then I probably was out of luck anyway. And... we probably would not want to be at the campground if everyone else is there for the music festival (we looked at information about it and it is not appealing to us).

As a result... I got 7/9-7/11 at Cavendish, and have found a private campground that is far enough from the music festival venue to not be filled (at least not yet) by festival attendees.

So... I have been busy doing planning! 

Here are some of our planning maps as captured by RV TripWizard:

Pre-Newfoundland - Virginia to Nova Scotia where we will catch the ferry to Newfoundland

Newfoundland plans (between ferries) -- we are also planning to take the ferry at the north over to Labrador for one night at a B&B (in the Jeep).

Post-Newfoundland - returning to Nova Scotia and then traversing the northern part of US and southern part of the eastern provinces (collecting states and provinces). This part of our trip is cast in Jello at this point -- still being figured out exactly where and when we will be in different places.

Our end-point is in Nappanee, Indiana for service on Gracie's slides at the Newmar "Mothership" (100 bay service center at the factory) during the third week of August. If you've been following along, you may recall that we've had slide issues a couple of times on Gracie. We decided after the last fix (March, 2022) that we wanted to take Gracie to the mothership for a complete inspection and tune-up on the slides / motors / gears. When we called, they were scheduling 11-13 months out, and we decided we did not want to go to northern Indiana in February or March of 2023. Since we were already tentatively planning the trip to the northeast, we selected a date in August. When we had factory service reps work on Gracie at the Newmar Kountry Klub rally during the Tampa Super Show in January, they concurred that we should get attention at the mothership on the slides. So, we have a specific end date and place to our summer travel plans.

Carl used to do all the planning for trips for Sue and him; I did all the planning for Dwayne and me (though, as I noted above, we did a lot less planning). Carl was happy to give up the planning responsibility. There are times (at 7am when I'm more than 5000 people deep in a line) that it gets a wee bit stressful. But, when it all comes together, I enjoy it.