Connorsmom,
Welcome to the forum, from a gal that lived for 15 years or so right next door in Westland.
If you have not done so, run over to Camping World in Belleville and find their book section. There are big fat books that list campgrounds by state. They have maps in the front to show you approximate placement of campgrounds.
From experience I can tell you that your first day or so out you are gonna have to haul butt or sleep in a Flying J or Walley world. If you are headed to Florida first, head out 75 south and keep going till you get to about Covington KY for the first commerical campground that is open all year long. It is a KOA, it is convenient, but, placed between a double set of railroad tracks and the highway, so you might hear some rumble and you will hear some horns!
Now, I don't remember, but, the Ohio State Campgrounds might be open, so you might want to check that out and see what is available in January. (Now, disclaimer, I have not traveled this route in 3 or 4 years, there may be other campgrounds open now, that I am unaware of, north of Covington.)
OK, if you are headed to Texas, New Mexico, etc., suggest taking 94 west to 69 and heading south to Indianapolis. Hit I 70 and head west to about Effingham Illinois, then hit the 55 and 57 south through Illinois and Missouri into Arkansas, I 40 from there to ????? There are few campgrounds that are open in this area either, but you might check out just north of Indianapolis, there is a small campground that MIGHT be open, it is off 69 around mile marker 10. There is one near Effingham, I think the name of the town is Waters, but last year, this poor campground was left OUT of one of the major campground books, in error, even tho they had paid for their advertising, etc. They were a bit upset. Too bad, they are nice people. There is a KOA just into Indiana on the 69, Aurora??? Not sure that is right without a book in front of me. Not far down the road, but if you get a late start in the day, it might work for ya. They are open all year.
If you want to stay in campgrounds, you need to get the books, or quite possibly you can do a lot on line these days, even tho Al and I have used computers since the ice ages, we still use the old fashioned campground book. I currently do not have cell phone access to the internet all day long without using up mega minutes and my connection is very slow. Some day in the future we hope to get an aircard, but it will require some switching of services here at the stick built as wel, so that is on hold. Some use the aircards and surf while on the road looking for campgrounds etc. We just pull the ole book out, figure out how many more miles we can do before we are ready to get off the road (so many variables that sometimes we do this on the fly, long lunch, too many stops along the way that eat up time, bad traffic, stuff like that can throw ya off schedule). So, we figure out how far we want to continue driving, and start looking for campgrounds. Sometimes we find a little place and the next one is 80 miles down the road, and we are not prepared to do another 80 miles, so that is our choice.
Biggest problem at this time of the year is finding commercial campgrounds open in the north country. Many close in October sometimes and do not open again until April sometime.
We usually call ahead as soon as we decide which campground we are going to head for as soon as that decision is made, so that they hold a site for us. Snow birds and Winter Texans are on the move big time and these few places do tend to fill up each night. In fact, we have taken to calling some of the ones that usually fit into our travel scheme before we leave home to verify that they are still open ALL winter long!
OHHH, some people we know, haul for 2 days till they get into Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas area. They stay in hotels/motels until then. It is another option that might work for you.
Al and I don't do Flying J or Walleyworlds. I can do without water for 2 to 3 days, baby wipes for showers and cleaning up, but, I want my Telie and even more I want MY morning coffee in MY rig with MY choice of coffee! HA HA. I have a electric coffee maker, used to have a on the stove version, no longer take it. Getting a bit soft in my ole age!
Good luck and YOU GO GIRL!!!
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