Shortage Of Rv People On Road

I've gone from Hilton Head SC to Park City, UT in last 30 days. I do this trip each year. I don't see a dramatic change in park occupancy for this time of year. Several parks were full (Independence, MO and Park City, UT) while others were at reasonable levels. I have made advance reservations in places like Cody, WY and found that they are nearly full. I got last available spot in Cody and made reservation 45 days ago for mid-August. It will be interesting to see how the rest of summer works out. I'm going from here to MT then to WY to CO and on back to IN and then down to SC by mid-October. I'll get a good view of business.

As to fuel prices, they aren't going to go lower by much if at all. We've had it good for decades and will have to adjust. I recently planned a trip to UK and found fuel at $8.00/gallon in some spots. If one browses an RV web site like the rvforum.net you will see a number of UK folks buying and using RV's in US and then shipping back to UK for use. They are amused at our angst at "high" fuel prices. The price of fuel is really a minor cost of ownership when put up against annual depreciation, maintenance and financing charges. The pain will vary of course.

 

QUOTE(ecker @ Jun 30 2006, 09:58 PM) [snapback]4510[/snapback]

I've gone from Hilton Head SC to Park City, UT in last 30 days. I do this trip each year. I don't see a dramatic change in park occupancy for this time of year. Several parks were full (Independence, MO and Park City, UT) while others were at reasonable levels. I have made advance reservations in places like Cody, WY and found that they are nearly full. I got last available spot in Cody and made reservation 45 days ago for mid-August. It will be interesting to see how the rest of summer works out. I'm going from here to MT then to WY to CO and on back to IN and then down to SC by mid-October. I'll get a good view of business.

As to fuel prices, they aren't going to go lower by much if at all. We've had it good for decades and will have to adjust. I recently planned a trip to UK and found fuel at $8.00/gallon in some spots. If one browses an RV web site like the rvforum.net you will see a number of UK folks buying and using RV's in US and then shipping back to UK for use. They are amused at our angst at "high" fuel prices. The price of fuel is really a minor cost of ownership when put up against annual depreciation, maintenance and financing charges. The pain will vary of course.



One must keep in mind that fuel prices in many foreign countries includes much of the cost of their health care programs, and other social programs available to every citizen. Here you get a gallon of gasoline and road repair.

 

Evidently not bothering the folks out west. We are in Circleville Utah and the 3 RV parks in this area are having their best year since 9/11.

 

I haven't noticed any shortage this trip out. We stayed at the Virginian in Jackson Hole. Thank God, we had reservations. The guy running it said they are booked solid all the way thru the end of August. We were there 3 nights and there was not an empty site any of them. We are now at the Grizzly in Yellowstone. We originally booked for 4 nights and then yesterday, hubby decided he wanted to stay another 3. When we inquired at the office, they said they had no vacanies available. Luckily, while we were going thru Yellowstone, they called and said they had just had a cancellation and so we now are able to stay. Rv's were certainly plentiful on the road also.

 

Early June is simply not a reliable time to judge summer travel statistics. You may find that folks will now turn their attention to closer recreation areas. I suspect that the major tourist areas such as Yellowstone will still be busy as people tend to budget those trips and take gas into consideration.

Won't know until it's over, but our experience right now is that little has changed with the exception of us fulltimers who are moving less often and for shorter distances to manage our monthly budgets.

 

QUOTE(Homer @ Jul 1 2006, 05:10 AM) [snapback]4511[/snapback]

QUOTE(ecker @ Jun 30 2006, 09:58 PM) [snapback]4510[/snapback]

I've gone from Hilton Head SC to Park City, UT in last 30 days. I do this trip each year. I don't see a dramatic change in park occupancy for this time of year. Several parks were full (Independence, MO and Park City, UT) while others were at reasonable levels. I have made advance reservations in places like Cody, WY and found that they are nearly full. I got last available spot in Cody and made reservation 45 days ago for mid-August. It will be interesting to see how the rest of summer works out. I'm going from here to MT then to WY to CO and on back to IN and then down to SC by mid-October. I'll get a good view of business.

As to fuel prices, they aren't going to go lower by much if at all. We've had it good for decades and will have to adjust. I recently planned a trip to UK and found fuel at $8.00/gallon in some spots. If one browses an RV web site like the rvforum.net you will see a number of UK folks buying and using RV's in US and then shipping back to UK for use. They are amused at our angst at "high" fuel prices. The price of fuel is really a minor cost of ownership when put up against annual depreciation, maintenance and financing charges. The pain will vary of course.


One must keep in mind that fuel prices in many foreign countries includes much of the cost of their health care programs, and other social programs available to every citizen. Here you get a gallon of gasoline and road repair.


First, it doesn't matter where the money goes,one is still faced with cost per mile when driving. Second, our fuel prices include large amounts of taxes for both federal and state and in some cases cities. The money seldom ends up in roads at the end of the day.

 

This is reported prices to Federal DOT EIA


Weekly Retail On-Highway Diesel Prices

Dollars per gallon, including all taxes

Change from Change from
6/12/2006 6/19/2006 6/26/2006 week ago year ago

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

U.S. 2.918 2.915 2.867 -0.048 0.531
East Coast 2.909 2.907 2.864 -0.043 0.496
New England 2.979 2.960 2.952 -0.008 0.476
Central Atlantic 2.997 2.990 2.956 -0.034 0.495
Lower Atlantic 2.866 2.867 2.816 -0.051 0.498
Midwest 2.874 2.873 2.819 -0.054 0.505
Gulf Coast 2.848 2.859 2.822 -0.037 0.534
Rocky Mountain 3.041 3.018 2.960 -0.058 0.672
West Coast 3.149 3.117 3.068 -0.049 0.635

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

California 3.217 3.185 3.140 -0.045 0.618

 

We just got back from a week-long camping trip and the park was completely full! They turned away several people who showed up looking for a spot.

We met quite a few first-timers who were tent camping rather than staying in a hotel.

Scoutmom

 

Just returned home from the 42nd Holiday Rambler International Rally at Fryeburg Maine. The Fryeburg Fairgrounds was the site of the rally and 740 rv units from the USA and Canada were in attendance, many from great distances. On the return trip to our home we stay two nights in Vermont at "Pine Valley" campground on route 4, and was not full but close to it. The number of other brands, other than Holiday Rambler, on the road was not in the numbers we have seen in the past. Fuel prices seem to limit the numbers traveling long distances but most are still camping and are staying closer to home. We have found a local campground, 38 miles from home, and have been using it on weekends. In the past we used a campground at Wilmington/Lake Placid at 125 miles oneway for weekends, but now is to costly for just a weekend. Fuel prices were from $ 2.77 to $ 2.95 per gallon on the return home. Hope all have a good summer Rv season-safe travels.

 

We just finished 2 trips. One was over 1100 miles and the other was about 800 miles. Both trips we saw lots of RV's on the road. I don't think the gas prices are stopping a lot of people from getting out there. Maybe they are taking shorter trips though.

 

Not sure of the cost of diesel, but unleaded went to 3.08 here in Denver today. We have a trip to Oklahoma coming up at the end of the month and our (grown) kids want to take the motorhome so they will be more comfortable. Normally we take our SUV, which doesn't get that great of mileage either, but the 16 mpg it gets sure beats the 6 the rv gets. We will have to think about this one!!!! We will stay at the in-laws ranch so won't need it for sleeping, and it is a one day trip, so not sure they need to be that comfortable.

 

I agree with a lot of you in regard to folks just camping closer to home. The other thing I see is folks deciding to stay a day or so longer to maximize on the cost of getting there.

The other perspective I have is from the "toyhauler crowd". Most of the folks in my chunk of the RV populace have made a huge financial committment in toys for their #1 hobby i.e. motorsports (off-roading, sand duning, various forms racing). RVs are but another huge expense added to their hobby to make it even better, albeit RVing is a form of recreation all to itself, it's still an adjunct to the other prime activity.

How that's germaine to this discussion is this group of people would about rather give up about everything else to be able to pay for gas to get out in the RV and do their favorite hobbies. To them, the price of fuel is more of an irritant than a show stopper. I see more and more folks out at the popular areas I frequent all the time. I keep wishing some of them would give it up but it's been the opposite so far. The 1 thing you can't say about this RV segment is the average Joe will use his stuff rather than let it sit beside the house 360 days a year.

 

Completed a 24 day trip on 5 August to Yellowstone, Tetons (Jackson Hole, Wy), Mt. Rushmore, Badlands, Oshkoch, WI & Lake St. Louis, MO. Thought the fuel prices would thin the crowds---- boy was I wrong! The RV parks were full by 4-5 PM in the popular places such as Jackson Hole & Mt. Rushmore. If your going to these places---make reservations. Many, many RV's on the highways & byways.

Diesel prices ranged from a low of $2.799 (Mobile station in Wentzville, MO) to a high of $3.249.

This 5,230 mile trip required 688 gallons of diesel.

 

I wonder if people are storing their RVs at a place they visit most? We just got back from a trip to the beach and one of the employees told us that they've had an increase in on-site storage. This place charges $500 per year and offers free towing to the campsite with at least 48 hours notice.

 

Scoutmom: I think you have hit on one thing that is going on, and that is the storage of these RV's for the seasonal campers particularly. It is happening big time down in Florida and I am sure it is happening elsewhere. Our winter resort is awash in stored campers of all descriptions, they are setting on site even, as the storage facility is full. As long as you are not using it, the c/g is giving a storage rate to leave it there during the summer. Of course there are limitations on the total number of sites they can tie up this way, but it is way more than it used to be.

 

One more update from FL. No one down here! This state is empty of RV people. I pass by Lazy Days and Flying -J all the time outside Tampa. The lots at Lazy Days are dead and the J's fuel pumps only has cars and some local pickups. We were at Core park outside Ft. Myers numbers of weeks ago, only couple class A's in park. People who run park said it has been very slow over past number of months. On I-75 & I-4 we see no RV's. It has been that way couple months now. We have a number of parks east of Lazy Days and all are empty. I know it is very hot down here but last year this place was full of RV units. I guess from what I read in post that everyone is north of here this year. Snow birds will fly back down soon!

 

QUOTE(John Blue @ Aug 14 2006, 10:42 PM) [snapback]4814[/snapback]

I know it is very hot down here... Snow birds will fly back down soon!



There's your key right there. I'm not retired or a snow bird but I have no desire to visit Florida in the summer (I did it once, it was way to hot).

We've been in the U.P. of Michigan a couple of times this summer and there are a lot of RV'ers traveling up that way.

 

Amazin: Believe me, while it is hot in Florida this time of the year, the heat has little to do with the significant dropoff in RVers on the road. We are now in the sixth month of a road trip and, believe me, fuel prices are having a dramatic impact on RV park occupancy. We see the same thing everywhere we do--parks that are normally heavily occupied all week long are now, for the most part, seeing heavy vacancies during the week, but are filling up again on the weekends. What seems to be happening is that most parks that formerly enjoyed heavy "pass through" travel during the week are not not enjoying that traffic but, rather, only fill up on weekends with people from a nearby radius of 50 miles or less. In short, people are simply not driving their RVs long distances but are staying at local parks in many cases. We are currently in the UP of Michigan and have seen several parks that, during the week, are ghost towns but, on the weekends, are doing okay. I have talked with several park owners who say their mid-week business is down 50 to 75 percent, but weekend business is still holding up.

 

Beastdriver
QUOTE
What seems to be happening is that most parks that formerly enjoyed heavy "pass through" travel during the week are not not enjoying that traffic but, rather, only fill up on weekends with people from a nearby radius of 50 miles or less.

I wish that was true in the western states, we have been on the road since the first of June traveling through, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wy., Montana, Idaho, Washington and heading to Oregon tomorrow. We have found full camp grounds all the way. Campground operators are all telling us that they are having 90% or better during the week and the weekends are 100%. This is the first year taking a trip that we have had to make reservations for a campsite in the middle of the week.

 

We have been hanging out in Utah again this summer and the several parks that we have stayed at are having a good year.