Well, after 6 full years, and a damn good portion of the 2 years prior to that… I’m putting an end to my days of being a full-time RVer.
Earlier this week, I signed a lease on a home in Cody, WY where I’ve spent a good portion of my time on &/off over the past 3 years. Starting in mid-August I’ll be settling down there for awhile, and just making shorter RV trips to get away occasionally.
It’s been a GREAT run, and I’ve enjoyed just about every day of my nomadic traveling life. I’ve been blessed & fortunate enough to have checked off just about every place on my ‘wanna-go-there’ & ‘wanna ride my motorcycle there’ lists… many of them multiple times now.
But the bottom line is, these days… well it just isn’t as much fun anymore.
If you care, or maybe just bored and want something to read… here’s the longer version:
There are various reasons that have brought me to this point, and I’d actually considered doing it a couple of years ago. But I have to say that 2 things have seriously brought me to the point I am now.
First is the near-continuous maintenance & repair issues I’ve had on the rig just this year… though I know that could be mostly resolved by trading it in on a new one. I got lucky, and have had a pretty good unit. But with the high miles & constant use it’s had… as Frank’s said in another post… “It’s time”.
The 2nd, and more compelling reason is the change & evolution of the lifestyle that many of us have witnessed within the past 24 months.
As I said, it’s just not as fun anymore. This is not a slam against anyone, nor do I mean these next comments to be insulting, because we were all new to RVing at some point. But the overwhelming influx of newbies into the RV world… combined with the high demand & low availability of campsites, has turned what used to be a leisurely activity into a labor-intensive quest for desirable locations.
Gone are the days of being able to somewhat ramble about, and wander the country aimlessly… to make plans & amend reservations on the fly, and just go wherever you felt like going. While I’ve always had a basic itinerary, it was always easy to change direction and amend the plan if desires changed. If I got late notice to meet up with a friend or 2, or if maintenance & repair issues arose causing me to delay departure… it wasn’t all thot difficult to make alternate arrangements. But that just isn’t available anymore. The same goes for trying to get RV maintenance & repairs. The service centers (which have always been busy) are now overwhelmed and booked with clients for over a month in advance in many cases… making the ability to get in for emergency repairs damned-near impossible. This is especially true with many of the newbies having no discernible mechanical knowledge of their rigs whatsoever. They buy these things thinking they have the same build quality, reliability, and customer service options as their Acura’s & BMWs… and are genuinely surprised when they find out that’s not the case.
Although the numbers have been ticking up for awhile (to include the time I bought my RV and began), and things were beginning to change… the invasion of COVID into the world kicked all of the changes in this business & lifestyle into high gear. People quit flying, they didn’t trust hotels… but they still wanted to get away occasionally, even if it meant just staying close to home. Then the celebrities, who were no strangers to staying in RVs on movie lots & filming locations, began posting videos of their travels in their own safe little RV cocoons on social media… and a whole new means of travel was exposed to the masses. They went out and began buying RVs by the hundreds & thousands.
I read a report recently which stated than an estimated 1.2 MILLION RV units had been purchased in the past 24 months (new & used)… overcrowding an already underdeveloped campground/RV park network, unprepared for larger modern-day rigs, nor updated with sufficient modern amenities (WiFi, site development, etc)… which only added a generously estimated 20,000 sites nationwide.
Now I have no idea if those numbers are accurate… but if they are, the math works out to a 60-to 1 deficit. Or in other words… 60 new RVs on the road for every new site that was built. Even if you consider that probably only half of them are on the road at the same time… that still works out to 30-to-1.
As such, it’s no wonder why it’s so hard to find & make reservations anywhere less than 6 months to a year in advance.
And before anyone gets their pantries in a wad… I wanna make it clear that I’m NOT blaming everything on the new owners. As I said, 8 years ago, I was a new owner. My comments were about the evolutionary cause & effect the huge short- term influx has had. Plus, there are many other factors that were calculated in my decision. Some trivial… some major… but most too involved to to list here with out becoming a full blown book, complete with chapters.
But some of those other factors are that I’m getting older… the lingering aches & pains from my spinal injury a few years back are making tasks more difficult to accomplish… and, going back to comments made above, campsite prices are going through the roof. The laws of supply & demand are in full effect… and unless you don’t mind staying in either a plain dirt field, or a campground sitting beside an industrial area, the daily rates are getting damned expensive in most any location that has a desirable attraction nearby (national park, sports venue, the beach, etc).
So that’s why I’m getting out… at least for now. I don’t mean out of RVing altogether… just out of the full-time mode.
Who knows, maybe the market will change again in a year or 3. The same report also stated that its estimated that over 60% of these recent buyers won’t keep their RVs after things eventually normalize, and they begin trusting the convenience of airline travel & hotel occupancy again. Of course, by that time, I’ll be older still… and I’m quite certain my health won’t have improved significantly. But we’ll just play it by ear, and see how it goes.
Earlier this week, I signed a lease on a home in Cody, WY where I’ve spent a good portion of my time on &/off over the past 3 years. Starting in mid-August I’ll be settling down there for awhile, and just making shorter RV trips to get away occasionally.
It’s been a GREAT run, and I’ve enjoyed just about every day of my nomadic traveling life. I’ve been blessed & fortunate enough to have checked off just about every place on my ‘wanna-go-there’ & ‘wanna ride my motorcycle there’ lists… many of them multiple times now.
But the bottom line is, these days… well it just isn’t as much fun anymore.
If you care, or maybe just bored and want something to read… here’s the longer version:
There are various reasons that have brought me to this point, and I’d actually considered doing it a couple of years ago. But I have to say that 2 things have seriously brought me to the point I am now.
First is the near-continuous maintenance & repair issues I’ve had on the rig just this year… though I know that could be mostly resolved by trading it in on a new one. I got lucky, and have had a pretty good unit. But with the high miles & constant use it’s had… as Frank’s said in another post… “It’s time”.
The 2nd, and more compelling reason is the change & evolution of the lifestyle that many of us have witnessed within the past 24 months.
As I said, it’s just not as fun anymore. This is not a slam against anyone, nor do I mean these next comments to be insulting, because we were all new to RVing at some point. But the overwhelming influx of newbies into the RV world… combined with the high demand & low availability of campsites, has turned what used to be a leisurely activity into a labor-intensive quest for desirable locations.
Gone are the days of being able to somewhat ramble about, and wander the country aimlessly… to make plans & amend reservations on the fly, and just go wherever you felt like going. While I’ve always had a basic itinerary, it was always easy to change direction and amend the plan if desires changed. If I got late notice to meet up with a friend or 2, or if maintenance & repair issues arose causing me to delay departure… it wasn’t all thot difficult to make alternate arrangements. But that just isn’t available anymore. The same goes for trying to get RV maintenance & repairs. The service centers (which have always been busy) are now overwhelmed and booked with clients for over a month in advance in many cases… making the ability to get in for emergency repairs damned-near impossible. This is especially true with many of the newbies having no discernible mechanical knowledge of their rigs whatsoever. They buy these things thinking they have the same build quality, reliability, and customer service options as their Acura’s & BMWs… and are genuinely surprised when they find out that’s not the case.
Although the numbers have been ticking up for awhile (to include the time I bought my RV and began), and things were beginning to change… the invasion of COVID into the world kicked all of the changes in this business & lifestyle into high gear. People quit flying, they didn’t trust hotels… but they still wanted to get away occasionally, even if it meant just staying close to home. Then the celebrities, who were no strangers to staying in RVs on movie lots & filming locations, began posting videos of their travels in their own safe little RV cocoons on social media… and a whole new means of travel was exposed to the masses. They went out and began buying RVs by the hundreds & thousands.
I read a report recently which stated than an estimated 1.2 MILLION RV units had been purchased in the past 24 months (new & used)… overcrowding an already underdeveloped campground/RV park network, unprepared for larger modern-day rigs, nor updated with sufficient modern amenities (WiFi, site development, etc)… which only added a generously estimated 20,000 sites nationwide.
Now I have no idea if those numbers are accurate… but if they are, the math works out to a 60-to 1 deficit. Or in other words… 60 new RVs on the road for every new site that was built. Even if you consider that probably only half of them are on the road at the same time… that still works out to 30-to-1.
As such, it’s no wonder why it’s so hard to find & make reservations anywhere less than 6 months to a year in advance.
And before anyone gets their pantries in a wad… I wanna make it clear that I’m NOT blaming everything on the new owners. As I said, 8 years ago, I was a new owner. My comments were about the evolutionary cause & effect the huge short- term influx has had. Plus, there are many other factors that were calculated in my decision. Some trivial… some major… but most too involved to to list here with out becoming a full blown book, complete with chapters.
But some of those other factors are that I’m getting older… the lingering aches & pains from my spinal injury a few years back are making tasks more difficult to accomplish… and, going back to comments made above, campsite prices are going through the roof. The laws of supply & demand are in full effect… and unless you don’t mind staying in either a plain dirt field, or a campground sitting beside an industrial area, the daily rates are getting damned expensive in most any location that has a desirable attraction nearby (national park, sports venue, the beach, etc).
So that’s why I’m getting out… at least for now. I don’t mean out of RVing altogether… just out of the full-time mode.
Who knows, maybe the market will change again in a year or 3. The same report also stated that its estimated that over 60% of these recent buyers won’t keep their RVs after things eventually normalize, and they begin trusting the convenience of airline travel & hotel occupancy again. Of course, by that time, I’ll be older still… and I’m quite certain my health won’t have improved significantly. But we’ll just play it by ear, and see how it goes.
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