R V Parks, or Whatever...

[Pete Masterson]

It really depends on your travel style ... we'd pick up "weekly" rates when we could -- often cutting 15 to 20% off the equivalent daily rate. This takes a little planning and possibly a little more driving (the toad) to take in the sites you might want to see. We also tended to travel in 'shoulder' season -- early, before summer and later, starting out after Labor day. Staying at home in the SF Bay Area during the hot summer months and the coldest part of winter (Jan-Feb) proved to be a good strategy for avoiding most unpleasant weather.

For example, we had an event near Scranton, PA ... we stayed 8 days (1 day free after first seven for a 12% discount). The event we attended took 3 days. Then we took in some sights in northern PA (The "Grand Canyon of PA" in Tioga County (nothing like the one in Arizona) and a fancy garden, at the DuPont Longwood estate (as good as or better than Butchart Gardens near Victoria BC). These were each a couple hours drive from our spot near Scranton...

Then we moved our coach to Adamstown, PA in the Amish country for another week-long stay. From there, we were able to take several trips to Lancaster, Hershey (Chocolate plant), and other scenic areas in the region. My only comment is that Hershey was rather a disappointment -- primarily an amusement park, the "plant tour" is now a high-volume ride through a display (some distance from the actual plant). In contrast, we visited a Hershey plant in Oakdale, CA a few years ago, and actually saw the whole chocolate making process (from bean to candy bar) -- and it was much more interesting to see the real deal.

This trip continued south, with stops in Virginia to allow us to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway (in our toad) etc. Again, staying several days to a week at a time allowed us to get good rates while visiting the area.

Tight schedules and limited time can make it hard to take advantage of longer term rates or special deals. But there are many state and local parks that allow economical stays. (But budget problems in many states might have caused rates to rise, recently.)

We've visited Lockhart TX (30 miles south of Austin) several times, staying in the local state park for up to 6 weeks at a time (it takes special dispensation to stay so long from the park manager -- but if you're in off-peak season and if you're not obnoxious, the permission is usually granted). The full hook-up sites are about $15-18 per night (get an annual TX state park pass and the cost pro-rates lower as you save the daily "per person" fee). This pass gave us a discount at other TX state parks -- and many of them have decent full or partial hook-ups -- we stayed in a couple others for short visits.

Passing through the Omaha, Nebraska area, we stayed in a city-owned park for a couple of nights. No sewer hook up, but we were able to dump the tanks on the way out, so no real difficulty there. Only $15 per night.

Passport America is a very handy membership to have. Only $44 per year (multi-year memberships with discounts available), it gives you "half-price" access to hundreds of RV parks. Admittedly, most are a bit out of the way (but not all), and many are somewhat run down and/or lacking in amenities. But if convenient on your route of travel -- or even better, if near your destination -- they can be a real money saver. Just 2 or 3 nights a year in a PA park, pays back the cost of membership. More nights, generate even more savings. PA park policies vary, some will charge extra for 50 amps -- but still, the discount is significant.

We stayed for $12 per night in Williams AZ while we visited the Grand Canyon. (Advance reservation required for PA rate.) Our early December visit found the RV park practically empty -- as was the Grand Canyon national park. We've often managed to 'grab' PA parks enroute to planned destinations. While a few were a little out of the way, most were simply not located in "destination" locations. For example, a PA park a few miles east of Hays Kansas (at Russell, KS) was half the price of the non-PA park across the road -- but it made for a comfortable night with full hookups (opportunity to dump the tanks) while we were enroute from North Texas to Denver (via I-35 to I-70). Fuel stop at Edmund OK was a plus since OK has some of the lowest fuel prices...

With both a little planning and a little flexibility in schedule, you can tour around and find good bargain camping spots. If it's a slow time of year, campground owners (especially if locally owned) are open to some negotiation, if you're going to stay a little longer. Due to family needs, we've stayed in the Golden CO vicinity a number of times for 2 to 4 weeks at a stretch, and were able to make some decent arrangements.

As Don says, you're not going to find bargains in California --- but we found some pretty decent prices in Washington State, on the coast at "Long Beach" north of Astoria and there are some pretty good parks in Oregon with reasonable prices (including some PA parks). But even in California, there are PA parks. We've stayed several times at Newberry Springs, CA (near Barstow). Very quiet park, about 3 miles off I-15 (and accessible from both I-15 and I-40). We also stayed in Red Bluff (while visiting Lassen NP) -- but that park has dropped out of PA -- but there's two parks nearby that have joined -- one in Corning (just off I-5) that's $14.30 and one in Los Molinos (a bit further from the beaten path) that's $20 -- it appears to be a nice park with large trees located near the Sacramento River.

Pete Masterson

(former) '95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42

El Sobrante CA

"aeonix1@mac.com"

On Sep 25, 2009, at 8:58 PM, Don Bradner wrote:

A lot of fulltimers spend significant time in one place, and get monthly rates, and of course only a small percentage are doing that in California.

We've been traveling an average of 6 months per year for 7 years now. We have, on occasion, spent a week or two in one place because there was a lot to see or do, but except for Quartzsite we are most often only 2 or 3 days in a spot.

Back in '05-'06 our average cost per night for the two years was $18.28. I don't keep as close an eye on it anymore since fuel has so massively displaced it as the big expense, but I would estimate we are up around $25 now.

The average results from a mixture of high-priced resorts, mid-priced RV parks and State Parks, and free spots (driveways of friends and relatives, and the occasional Wal-Mart parking lot).

We spend a significant part of January and February around Quartzsite, where 2 weeks now costs $40 (used to be $30). On top of that you have to factor in generator fuel and propane, which adds a few dollars per day at least.

Don Bradner
90 PT40 "Blue Thunder"
My location: www.bbirdmaps.com/user2.cfm?user=1
Home in Eureka, California, until the rally at Buellton next month. We will be there for a total of 2 weeks.

On 9/26/2009 at 2:42 AM jackcj7 wrote:

We are wondering how one can travel a lot without the R V Park fees

eating them alive. Several years ago, we traveled for 6 months and

22,600 miles in our SOB. We stayed at all kinds of parks, but it seemed

most were about $30 a night. <snip>