Some observations as we make our way to Florida

We just enjoyed a fantastic Thanksgiving celebration with some of our family, pretty good turnout from Viv our 94 year old great grandmother, to Faith and Christian, her great grandchildren.  And many in between, Tom and Karen, Walker, Kelly and Todd, and Jason.  It dawned on all of us I think that many changes are underway, folks are moving, chunks of family are all over this country and getting a majority together in one spot anymore will be virtually impossible.  It could very well be one of the last Thanksgivings that we will even have this many together.  Not all bad, just a reality, and I'm sure it affects families all over as we become way more scattered.

Jan's mom, Viv on her way to Lubbock,
with Karen and her Mickey D breakfast:)

Todd, Tom, Faith,
and Viv in the foreground

Karen and Kelly

Tom, Jan, Jason, Kelly, Todd, and Karen

Walker, Tom, Jan, and Jason

Walker and dad, Tom

4 generations, flanking Viv,
Faith, Jan, Kelly, and Christian

So thinking of changes, Jan and I have observed quite a few this last year that have been increasing year over year.  You might find it interesting.

A)  Many, many people are now living in campgrounds.  For many it might be because of losing their house, or job, or....  They have evidently found that if they get a older, read rundown RV, and pay a monthly rate at a campground, they have found one of the most affordable ways to live.  And now maybe they have decided to keep living that way to further save money.  Others, who knows?  As a result many of the campgrounds are turning into trailer parks, and no, I am not putting down trailer parks in general, just the ones that go into disrepair and have no pride in ownership and allow tons of crap to accumulate all around them, and correct me if I'm wrong but each of you know exactly what I am describing.  It makes a lot of otherwise desirable campgrounds undesirable.  I'm sure the campground owners go back and forth between steady monthly income, albeit lower than transients, to wondering how many campers they would get on any given night.  In our opinion they need to clean things up or they are going to see less and less transients as the word gets around.

B)  Etiquette in campgrounds is at an all time low, at least in our observation, and it may be directly attributable to A, in that many people who know nothing about campgrounds in general are living there now.  Etiquette says you respect each other's campsite as if it is their own property, you don't walk through it, you don't have your kids play in it, and you don't let your dog crap in it. You respect quiet times, late at night, and also at 5am when a bunch of you are heading out to work, do you really need to yell back and forth?  A lot of this comes from ignorance, but isn't this just common sense and consideration?

C)  We are finding weekends, especially at State Parks, National Parks, etc are full.  Makes it very hard for us to find a spot if we try to just go with the flow and see where the road leads.  We have learned that on weekends and especially holidays, we MUST make reservations way in advance, in fact for big holidays, Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day, a year out is appropriate.

D)  Campgrounds are getting more expensive.  Supply and demand right?  Even many State Parks, etc are over $35/night, in fact our yearly average so far is $37/night.  There is a huge difference in nightly vs weekly vs monthly rates, which is why we are trying more and more to get a weekly rate when possible.  An example at a random campground; $37/night; $220/week; and $550/month.  This gives you a glimpse as to why people have chosen campgrounds to live in if the owner allows.

E)  More campgrounds have or are adding bright streetlights.  Why?  Most are out in the country, didn't I come here to enjoy nature, or are they doing it for security?  Does this go back to "A"?  This really bugs us, we want it dark at night, remember most of these campgrounds are not in the city.

F)  RVing is popular again.  We talk to many new people that are out for the first time in their new rigs learning how to park, set up, and how to run their own systems.  Does this go back to etiquette?  Ignorance?  

G)  Then we notice even with the proliferation of outside TV's, something Jan and I just do not get, but we aren't into sports, most people hole up inside with every awning and shade drawn, in their little cocoons, but leave outside lights, porch lights, even LED ropes crisscrossing their sites on ALL NIGHT LONG!  Why are they camping?  Why are all the lights on?  Why?  Back to etiquette??  Or are they frightened of something?

H)  Many campgrounds seem to not be aware that rigs are getting bigger and especially taller, how bout trimming your trees?  We have scratched our rig many times and see many others do the same.  We try to deal with it with the campground when we can but even being careful sometimes it bites you.  Come on campground owners, get with it.

I)  Rest areas.  These are our lifelines.  We stop and walk around, use the rest room, eat lunch, check our coach and toad, but there are fewer and fewer of them.  In fact some states have closed theirs.  We go hundreds of miles between.  Is it budget considerations?  What about safety, what about the truckers, what about the cars that have sleepy drivers, what happened with this?

J)  Left lane drivers.  It used to be a mostly east coast phenomenon, we'd head out west and we wouldn't see it so much, well not anymore.  It is everywhere.  Don't know why, is it not mentioned in driver's ed, is there driver's ed?  Some states even have signs up, "Left lane for passing only", has absolutely no effect.  While griping, what about texting or cell phones?  When I am driving, I sit up high above most vehicles, I can easily look down and into the cars that go by, and my own unofficial observation is at least 30-40% have a cell phone in their hand texting away, and oh by the way, speed has nothing to do with it, even out west when on a 75-80 mph road, they fly by texting at 90+.  Wow, and you wonder why you see so many single vehicle crashes on gorgeous days??

K)  We drive at 62-65 mph mainly to save fuel, and it is much more relaxing.  Over the last several years we have noticed even at that speed we would be passing lots of semi's.  Found out many trucking companies had installed governors on their trucks to save on expensive fuel.  Well our unofficial observation is that those governors for the most part must have been removed as once again 95% of the trucks are passing us.

L)  Speaking of truck stops, we use Pilot and Flying J almost exclusively.  We have through our Good Sam membership a discounted charge card that allows us to pay at the pump and get a discount off the cash price even while using our card in the truck lanes.  Several years ago Pilot bought out Flying J and is now combining them into Pilot Flying J's.  We are happy to report they have gotten cleaner, friendlier, and cater more and more to RV's and cars as well as the OTR truckers.

M)  You would think with this proliferation of RV's there would be more and more places to service them, and maybe there are, the problem is we hear more and more horror stories of folks being taken advantage of, ripped off, had shoddy service done by untrained, uncaring people.  It makes us very careful to recommend the few excellent shops we have experienced and hope they continue on their path of excellence.  It seems to me that if you were to offer trained, professional, caring service with a mind to customer service you could have more work than you could stand as word got around.  Remember we are a mobile group and have no problem driving to your shop or away from for that matter.  I can recommend without reservation several shops; Elite in Oregon, Amazing Creations in Oregon,  Marv's Truck Service in Indiana, Creative Coach in Florida.  There are several others we would recommend if you would comment or ask.  These are shops we are closely familiar with but have no affiliation with.

This might sound like a rant instead of a group of observations and who knows it might be.  Through it all though we love our lifestyle, like any other it has challenges and changes you have to work with.  We've made alterations in how we travel and make many more reservations today than we did even a few years ago.  Funny when we first started this lifestyle we figured we'd just be fancy free and go where the wind blew us.  Ha, doesn't work that way for the most part, there is always life, and it makes it necessary to be here or there when called, there are special events that need to be attended or friends or family that need some help, or whatever.  Things happen unexpectedly, repairs are needed, delays occur, but all in all we wouldn't trade this life for anything.  We love the variety, the change of scenery, the ability to take advantage of the weather, to see the sites, to meet people, enjoy family and friends wherever they may be, and sleep in our own bed every night.  Yes there are a few disadvantages and we certainly know this lifestyle doesn't appeal to everyone, thank goodness or we'd never find a campsite:)  We miss not having a place to have family and friends come to visit us, to not have a big enough place to gather everyone together to celebrate a holiday, a place where Jan could have a garden or me a place to have an aquarium, but all in all it's a fine excellent adventure for Jan and I.  See you all in Florida:)