When planning an adventure of this magnitude I must calculate what the cost of certain known expenses will be. Like road side assistance, insurance, sewage fees (there is actually a site called rvdumstations.info), water, fuel for cooking to name a few. Then there is also educating myself, like you can stay in 1 spot on BLM land for up to 16 days for free, then you just need to move to a different location. Well I think 16 days off between farms and communities would be ah-mazing! Sitting by a body of water fishing, painting, reading and reconnecting with nature. However, It appears that not much in the way of BLM land exists east of New Mexico.
Then there is KOA for $30 a year you get access to 485+ places with a total of about 60,000 sites the RV sites range in price from $35-$83 per night. I heard remote camping in some of the National Forests is also allowed for free. Then there are actual jobs that you can do for specific months (seasonal usually and some year round) that can provide you with full hook ups and more, and those are all over the US (found some at forestcamping.com camphost.org and workingcouples.com just to name a few).
The biggest thing about all this is the fuel cost to do the driving. This is an unknown amount and it will not be that cheap so the routes and places need to make sense as to not waste the fossil fuels we will need. And yes I dream of a day we can do this on renewable energy, bio fuels or H2O. Planning a path will be key at keeping gas costs down. Which also opens up the topic of what type of vehicle and what type of fuel, unleaded versus diesel. New or used.
Another big decision is timing. Deciding when is the right time to depart. I mean who wants to start the adventure in winter staying in cold places with snow everywhere. That will be fine at some point but maybe winter would not be the best time to start out on. Spring time, when the farmers need help could be a great time to start. I have done this type of adventure with bands traveling across the US and we hit all sorts of weather so being prepared will always be important.
The planning continues…