Re: [VAC] AS parks?

["terry tyler" <tylerbears@mindspring.com>]

Yes, Ralph - here it is.
Terry

Hi Everyone who contributed to this thread,


We just rolled into our property in Upstate New
York (April 00) after leaving it in October 99. 
For the record, our average cost for the winter 
was $7.92 per night. This is the most expensive 
7 months we've had in 11 years. The reason is we
stayed 6 weeks in one campground (the longest 
ever for us) near our son and his wife while they
delivered a healthy baby girl and prepared their 
house to sell in 2 months. Typically, we do not stay 
in one place for more than one week. We are 
permanent explorers of the continent and still 
average between $5-6 per night. That has
been consistent for the last 10 years. 

Before you start thinking we're cheap, we pay our
fare every step of the way. Sometimes it is in the
form of greenbacks while other times it's in the 
form of a service (regardless of whether it is 
asked for or not). Many of you have mentioned 
camping in parks operated by the National Park 
Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, State Parks, 
State Forests, County Parks and City Parks.
 
There is also RV camping and/or RV parking in many
towns, villages, municipalities, fairgrounds,
power and light companies, environmental 
conservation campgrounds, lumber companies, 
swim clubs, gas companies and reservoir
authorities.  The State Recreation Areas in
Nebraska sell a $14 annual permit to use their
campgrounds for a nominal fee. That bargain 
has been used extensively while traveling west 
and returning east. In every area of the
continent, there are a variety of options for
those who pay attention to details. 
Serendipity is alive and well - but is only 
available to those who are comfortable 
with and enjoy such simple mini-adventures 
as not knowing in advance where they might
stay the night. 

Before you get the idea every place we stay is
strictly bare bones, that's not the case. Yes, we
are solar enthusiasts and boondockers, but that 
only provides us with a significantly wider range 
of places where we can comfortably stay. Some 
are absolutely gorgeous and they generally have 
water, electric and a dump station. Granted
the water may be a central spigot, the dump
station may be in another section of the acreage,
the electric may be marginal and paying the fee 
may be on the honor system. There may not be 
a recreation hall or shuffle board court
and the grocery store may be a hike. 

For bare bones RV camping (not RV parking), we
generally do that on BLM land and other
undeveloped sites (in all three countries). In 
the USA, here are National Wildlife Refuges 
that offer RV camping (sometimes free). In
Florida, the four National Forests south of
Tallahassee have been a pleasant stop for us and
were free when we used them a few years back. 
In Arizona, south of the city of Why, there is 
no fee and no permit required to use BLM
land. As soon as services are provided (i.e.
dumpster), then fees and annual permits start
appearing. 

Along the Baja, RV parking seldom costs more 
than $3 to $4 and often, there  is no charge. 
In one small Mexican town served by a dirt road, 
we paid for our free night of RV parking along 
a lovely lake by doing community service (we 
cleaned the beach of trash). 

Some lumber companies and gas companies offer 
primitive and resort facilities depending on the
state. The same goes for counties depending on 
how developed they have become. In parts of 
Florida, we have stayed at county parks which 
didn't charge anything and others that wanted 
$10+ a night. 

Then, there are the miscellaneous RV Parking sites
like Bridge Tunnel Authorities, Ferry Companies 
and Fairgrounds all around the country. The Ohio 
Turnpike has three RV parking areas on the east 
bound and west bound side. Kansas has RV parking 
with water spigots and picnic tables at Interstate 
Rest Areas. RV dealers generally offer overnight 
parking and a dump station to customers who spend  
money there. We use these spots, but we're very 
aware of all our options, everyday. By the time 
we are ready to begin looking for a spot to spend 
the night, we have 3 or more layers of options in 
mind, ranging from what we'd like, to what we 
want, to what we need. 

Another category is seen when some folks stay
overnight at department store parking lots (after
spending money there and asking the Manager if 
it's okay to stay the night and continue shopping 
in the morning). The same goes for restaurants, 
gas stations (Flying J offers 1 cent a gallon 
discount to registered RVers), garages and auto
parts stores with large lighted parking lots. We 
have found little risk in doing this when selected 
carefully and using common sense criteria (that's 
another one of our seminars). 

There are Fraternal organizations scattered around
the continent that offer limited RV parking to
those who are members, or who are invited by 
members or who ask to eat in their restaurants, i.e. 
Lion's Clubs, Elks (with their campground guides 
called "Elkdom"), Moose Lodges, American Legion 
and Knights of Columbus. On more than one
occasion we have been introduced as a guest and
invited to stay the evening on their "back 40."
It's not uncommon for this to later evolve into 
a courtesy parking invitation at the home of 
one of the local members. 

Courtesy Parking is a separate matter. Even if we
didn't belong to any organizations, we would have
a list of people who have extended this invitation 
to us. Like everything else, there is courtesy parking
etiquette and it's little more than common 
consideration and appreciation for being an invited 
guest. We enjoy visiting families immensely and 
have always felt it was a high point in our week. 
There's an Escapees family in Ajo, AZ with room for
a dozen rigs. We and another couple stayed there
three nights while exploring the area. Before we
left, the host family was our guest at a local 
restaurant. Another time, we gave the family a 
gift of a carved iron wood fish from Mexico that 
complimented their collection of ceramic fish. We 
try to tailor our "Thank You" in a personal way.
 
There is a LOT more to finding enjoyable spots for
camping than my BRIEF overview comments here. 
When we started RVing in the 60s, we kept data 
on 3x5 cards about every location we found. 
Now, it's mostly in our heads. Someday, we
may put all of it in our book. There are more
delightful places to park our Airstream on this
continent than we will ever use. The best part 
is they don't cost a lot of money and most of 
them are not advertised in the big directories. 

Members of the Escapees Club have an
inside track into this data by way of the 
"Day's End" column. We and hundreds of others 
contribute to it. Any RVer who does serious
traveling will find belonging to this club
a veritible gold mine of information.

Anyone wishing to begin compiling their own list
of places to stay throughout this continent
can easily start from the smattering of data in
the above paragraphs. In every Chamber of 
Commerce office we've gone into, we've found 
information about RV camping and RV parking 
sites. Generally, it's an obscure reference that 
most people won't recognize. Almost always,
we have to track them down with great 
persistence. Information is found in many 
unlikely places, i.e. handouts at restaurants, 
descriptions about bluegrass festivals, shrimp 
festivals, local celebrations, you name it. We 
are always on the look out for new options. 
For us, it's a game we enjoy. If we didn't enjoy 
it, we'd be paying the high prices found in big 
directories. 

What it all comes down to is -- take your
pick. Do your homework or pay the price.

And you thought restoring Airstreams 
was an art form,

Terry
====================
In a related posting, I offered the
following about casinos:

We've found some of the Indian Casinos 
have actual RV parks associated with the 
casino, in addition to free RV parking on a 
level parking lot. Prices range from zip to 
ouch, but the fringe benefit of inexpensive 
buffet meals often makes it a wash. Combine 
that with cheap gas at casinos on Indian 
Reservations and there's no contest -- 
especially if that's what you'd like to do 
for a few days (and nights). 

Another bonus about Indian Reservations 
(without casinos) is a few have inexpensive 
RV parking. Those also range from parking 
lots next door to their museum to a bonafide 
campground along a stream. Seldom are 
these advertised anywhere. We ask, "Do you 
know where we could stay the night in our RV? 
We'd like a safe place to park and get some 
shuteye before continuing our trip in the morning." 

That's usually enough to get the conversation 
started. If we don't ask, we never know. But, 
if we do ask, we might stumble onto something 
worthwhile -- and that will always get stored 
in our mind's data bank.  

Terry