I've been looking at campgrounds close to places I'd like to visit on the amazing epic road trip around the United States (& Canada!). I started to look at national and state parks. The average fee for a campsite that has water and electric seems to be around $35 anywhere on the East Coast. The West Coast is a different story. There, prices range from $75 (no joke) to as little as $18 a night.
I've started seriously considering going with a KOA card and using their campsites. The prices are normally pretty reasonable ($27 ~$42 depending on where the campground is) from what I've looked at so far and the card (or kard as they put on the website) would save me an extra 10%. It's $27 for the entire year - staying at any KOA site for over a week would make the card pay for itself.
The reason many campgrounds sound pretty expensive - let's face it, most Motel 6's are only $42 a night still- is because you do get cable, wifi, plus water & electric. Even if I stay at one site for a month (many sites have 14 or 28 day maxes), it would be roughly $1000. That's far less than I'm currently paying for my mortgage, cable, internet, water, electric, and the stupid home owner's association fee per a month. The good thing about camping is that I know when the sheets were last washed, how old the sheets are, and I have a very comfortable mattress.
To save money on the trip, I could sometimes stop at Walmart parking lots - they let customers spend the night in their RVs- and use some "tent" camping spaces at campgrounds. The tent spaces are typically a good deal cheaper since they don't have the water or electric.
Luckily, I have a few months to plan for all of this - I haven't even gotten around to putting the house up for sale officially yet. Still, I want to be ready to jet the heck out of Dodge the second I sign the house over.
