Shortage Of Rv People On Road

Here in the Northeast, (New York, & Vermont), the campgrounds are either full or close to full on weekends, but the middle of the week the numbers are just not there. Because of the price of fuel, gas @ $3.01 today 8/18/06, has put a cramp on the longer trips to Rv campgrounds. In the past ten years We had used a campground in the Lake Placid area, but a four day outing would cost us, 100+ for fuel and 150.+ for the campsite in 2005. For 2006, we cancelled our standing reservations- to expensive. We have been planning our annual vacation trip to the state of Maine in the month of September. Should prove interesting as to the cost of fuel, although the price, locally, has started down in the last few days. We will limit our motor home travels to four or five days for the 24 day trip. Last year our trip to Maine, with the high fuel prices, cost us $ 515.00 for the September fuel bill. That was for seven traveling days. We think the Rving public is traveling, but are using campgrounds closer to home, so are not on the road for the longer traveling times. We personally have two campgrounds within forty miles of home and use them to get away for a weekend. Our travel times are just about an hour, and the outing cost is about 90+ dollars for a weekend.

 

The thing to keep in mind, especially in the Southeast, is that many of these folks lost their homes to the rash of hurricanes over the past few years. Alabama & Florida got hit really hard in 2004; Mississippi and Louisiana in 2005. For many of these folks, living in a "crappy" RV is all they have to keep them off the streets.

Have a little compassion. It could be you next year.


Edit: Sorry, I posted this to the topic about "Have RV parks become havens for the less fortunate?" and somehow it posted on this topic.

 

I can confirm beach campgrounds in Myrtle Beach are full. We just returned from 18 nights and was a great break.

 

Really? We were just at Myrtle Beach for a week the end of July. While there were still crowds, everywhere you went, the campground had several empty sites most of the time we were there.

 

I know that we are staying closer to home because of high fuel prices. We are cancelling a long-distance trip and decided to stay closer to home this fall and go on more long weekend trips to nearby state parks. We just got back from CO and figured that it cost roughly 40 cents per mile to drive our F350 diesel pulling our 35-foot Excel fifth wheel.

The private campgrounds in southwest Colorado are filled but many of the campers in private campgrounds are repeat customers and stay at an RV park for the whole summer. Our closest COE campground to us in New Mexico has seen a very busy season - more than usual - filled by campers from the surrounding area. It just now thinning out due to the start of the school year.

I do think the national park campgrounds are probably filled as usual but I know that fuel prices are prohibiting many from taking crosscountry trips or trips that are more than 500 miles one way.

My two cents.

 

We are staying at one of the most popular RV Parks in Michigan. We stayed here last year on the exact same dates. Last year, it was difficult to find an empty space during the week. This year, the place is half empty except on weekends. People are definitely curtailing their travel, probably due to fuel costs. Diesel here is $3.20 per gallon,

 

we just finished a 1000 mile round trip today. there didnt seem to be a shortae of rv people on the road . the campgrounds most places were about 1/2 full during the week and about 80 % on the weekends. also found a lot of the campgrounds had a fairly large number of sorted rvs and what looked like seasonal users. rqn into some people from upstate new york in western nc so at least they and we were traveling. big surprise gasoline prices were low ofd 2.60 per gal and high of 2.78 per gal. seem to be that way generally on the inerstate and in some spots in towns in others it was higher(didnt buy there)

 

We haven't noticed a big change in the number of people on the road this summer, but we are mainly weekend warriors with one big trip a year. The local parks have been full every time we have gone. We did not notice a shortage of people on our big trip this summer to Myrtle Beach the 2nd week of July. The campground we stayed at was full everyday for 10 days. We checked out a couple of the other BIG parks and they seemed full also. Most of our neighbors at Myrtle Beach were from the northeast or Canada. Our philosophy is that if we can't afford the gas, then we should sell it. So far the gas prices have not affected our travel plans.

 

We normally do not use our RV a great deal during summer. But next to our cabin 30 miles south of the Canadian border, there is a beautiful State Park that recently opened--along with two new/or remodeled RV Parks in the very tiny resort town. Owners had hoped for a super fishing season (May--Sept), but the RV parks are almost empty and State Park is probably 50% full. The number of boaters, too is down. Although we have seen many RVers on the road. We checked the national park in that area, it too was down to 50% on the weekends. We recently drove to MI and could not believe the number of RVers on the road! Gas was $3.19/gal for unleaded reg. Just took a dip down to 2.85 as of yesterday! in this area. The cost is fuel is indeed a cost of RV/camping, but those of us on a fixed income are really feeling the pinch!!

We purchased a tow dolly recently to help with the 'running around' expenses while spending the winters in TX and NM. We'll tow a Lumina that gets 30mpg! We had a smaller unit previously with good mpg, and now have a bigger rig. We plan on cutting corners in other areas to help off set the fuel costs. Probably do more booddocking and staying put longer. The cost of fuel does not seem to affect the ATVs, boats, snowmobilers in this area!

 

I have been on the road since 2 SEP and the roads are crawling with RVs. In a single 1-hour period, on I5 in California my wife counted over 100 RVs of various configurations coming south while we were headed north.

As an aside, we found nearly all Oregon State Parks "full-to-the-gills" and couldn't find a slot for more than one day at a time. In the otherhand, we had a fairly open selection of provate CGs available.

Since we have been on the road the price of both gas and diesel have gone down quite a bit.

 

We just came back from a long trip pulling the trailer and we saw plenty of rv'ers heading north and south during our drives going and comeing home. Gas prices do seemed to be falling in ILL as gas is $ 2.25 a gal and diesel is $ 2.65 a gallon. Safe travels to all full timers who are still running the roads.

 

Have just returned home from a 24 day vacation to the State of Maine, and can tell you that the Rvs were on the move during the month of September in the New England States. We had stayed at three different campgrounds, and all three were at about 3/4 full at the time we were there. Please note that "Newmar Corp." was about to hold their rally at Essex Jct Vermont, so many Newmar Rvs were present and was killing time in Maine before their rally. The weather was the best and get this, Fuel prices were dropping daily like a rock. Gasoline low was noted at $ 2.279, and diesel was noted at $ 2.429. Some difference as New York gasoline is selling at $ 2.629 as of yesterday (09/26/06). A fine example of: "the grass is always greener on the other side", for now anyway.

 

Well as fuel prices drop down we see more and more RV people back on the road here in Tampa. This is the first year we have found this problem down here. This state is full of RV people year round. As soon as prices dropped down a little we found the high dollar motorhomes on road again and now we see all types of units on the road. It has been an odd year to see all the parks and roads empty of RV people.