Cross Country trip

[hcharpentier]

We are planning a cross country trip and are starting to add potential stops, and stops where we have reservations. How do I add the start date for a site that we have confirmed reservations? For example we have just received confirmation for a campground near Yosemite arriving 5/20/2020 and departing 5/28/2020. We have 7 weeks of camping before this and we are not sure where or for how long we will stop prior to Yosemite. When I pull up Yosemite Pines campground the start date is grayed out on RV Trip Wizard.

[Sue46]

Currently it is not possible to change the date on stops other than the starting point.
You can change the starting point date for your trip by selecting the starting point (the very first entry in the Trip details window on the left side of the screen). When you click or hover on that starting point, a small menu will show up just to the right of that entry. Click the small pencil icon, and you'll be able to edit the start date.

The dates in the trip are all sequential, based on the starting point date and will automatically adjust as you change the number of nights you stay at a campground. So, if your starting date is correct, then assign a number of nights to each stop you have in the Trip Details window on the left side. The dates will automatically adjust for you.

There is a current project to allow setting a fixed date range for each stop in your trip. This is scheduled to be implemented sometime in 2020.

[Alan_Hepburn]

You'll need to do some math - since we can only set the start date of the trip you'll have to figure out when you need to start in order to make it to the desired stop at the desired time. The easiest way is to set an arbitrary start date to determine how long it will take to get to the destination, and then reset the start date accordingly. RVTW keeps track of the dates so you can easily work out the start date.


For multi-month trips I usually set an arbitrary start date, and then plan out the trip. Once the trip is pretty well planned we then determine if any stops need to be "set in stone" - if so then we need to adjust the start date. I've found that it can help to convert dates to a Julian number, add or subtract as needed to find the required start date, then convert back to calendar dates. We used this method for our trip coming up this year: we have 2 stops that are set in stone: the FMCA Northwest Rally in Oregon, and the FMCA International Rally in Nebraska. All the other stops are based on getting to those 2 stops on time.



When the fine folks at RVTW add this functionality to the program our lives will be easier!

[timjet]

Like Sue said you can't adjust the date except at the start location.
When I have long trips with many stops I keep the long trip, make a copy with a different name and then on the copy delete several of the first stops. That breaks up the trip but saves the original long trip.

So for my long trip to Alaska last summer with more than 60 stops I broke that trip up into 3 smaller trips with the destination of the 1st to be the origination of the second. Do that in sequence until you have 3 manageable trips. Each trip can now have their own start dates.