Pick a Park, Any Park...

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Guy's,

A last minute decision to take Labor Day weekend off and escape with the bus has worked out.

A resort that we normally have to book months in advance has many big rig sites open. Humm... I was wondering

if this economy was catching up with RVers.  I just read a article about how the Class A delivery's are off almost 50%

from last year. Along with Lazy Days axing 75 employees...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25886538/

Anyway, this may be the first Labor Day weekend away from my business in years. Maybe I will have the whole place to myself

Nick-

[van]

I have seen a sharp decline in tourizm here in vegas,living 2 miles from hoover dam on nev hwy get to see alot of travelers  comin and goin .Not so much lately even boating has sharply declined,the best western behind me has always been flooded  with out of towners and there boats.Have only seen maybe 4 boats all summer.I think that people have adapted the staycation mentalaty,to save dough and maybe have at least one good hoorah for the summer.Havent seen that happen yet but suspect labor day might be the big week end to come ,we'll see.In any event try to have a nice stress free get away.

[WEC4104]

I would have to think that Campground attendance has experienced a noticeable drop.  With fuel prices doing what they did this summer, every time you opened a newspaper there were more stories about steps folks were taking to adjust their lifestyle (car pooling, mass transit use was way up, and everyone was generally driving less).   Naturally, folks are quicker to cut back on RV trips, viewing them as non-essential. (Their opinion, not mine  )

On our big trip in July, we stayed in about 7 different commercial campgrounds, mostly KOAs.  We set the pace of the trip as we went, so we never made campground reservations more than 36 hours in advance, and typically it was more like 2 hours notice.   Even still, we never encountered a campground that was full and could not take us. That included the July 4th holiday weekend, too.

At one point, my wife called ahead to one campground and asked if they had room for us, and they confirmed that they did. In the process of making the reservation, she found out they wanted $68/night for full hook-up. For a campground that didn't appear to be anything special, and was it the middle of nowhere, this seemed to be well above "fair market price".  My wife and I agreed this seemed out of line, so my wife politely told the women on the phone that we decided to reconsider as the price was more than we wanted to spend.  The woman on the phone responded back in a fairly snooty tone: "Well you know it IS the middle of July!".    Hmmmm. I wonder if their park was filled up that night.  I know we had no problem finding a nice second alternative.  

I suppose some folks are compensating for the fuel costs by picking spots closer to home.  But I have to believe a lot of trips are getting flat-out cancelled.  I know my wife questioned our plans for our 2200 mile trip a few weeks before we left, but we decided to go ahead and take the trip anyway.    

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend trip Nick!

[Eagle]

The FMCA International Convention that they just had in St. Paul Minnesota only had 2300 family coaches there.  That is quiet a drop from the late 90's into the early 2000's when they were over 4000 coaches at these conventions.  Have a friend at Tiffen's (Allegro) in Red Bay Alabama this week and they are only building 6 coaches a day.  The RV industry is at rock bottom.

[Ednj]

Hi Guy's,

A last minute decision to take Labor Day weekend off and escape with the bus has worked out.


Anyway, this may be the first Labor Day weekend away from my business in years. Maybe I will have the whole place to myself

Nick-

Nick,
I now know where there is an open big rig site for that weekend in Cape May 

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi Guy's,

A last minute decision to take Labor Day weekend off and escape with the bus has worked out.


Anyway, this may be the first Labor Day weekend away from my business in years. Maybe I will have the whole place to myself

Nick-

Nick,
I now know where there is an open big rig site for that weekend in Cape May 

Hi Eddie,

We are headding down to Island Resort, just outside Ocean City, MD. Want to join us?

Nick-