bruce t

How healthy are 're usable straws? How do you clean and carry your straw while out for the day? I'm all for cleaning up our environment but how about cleaning up those who drop straws? It's a person problem. Just like fuel use. We can change things by changing our habits and not being told by others what we can and can't do.

There's more that can be done to help the hip pocket. I recently watched a video of an American couple driving from Denver to Alaska. They have a camper almost the same as us. They drove at 75mph and used over 17ltr per 100k. We drive at 60mph and get just over 9ltr per 100k. So? So we can complain all we like about who or what is responsible for current prices. But there is a lot we can do ourselves to take away some of the pain. Slow down. Have shorter days. And remember why you purchased an RV in the first place. "To relax and enjoy life".

Without getting into politics a quick look back a few months and you can see this fuel crisis coming way before the Ukraine crisis. Ukraine is just an excuse. Sure it hasn't helped but it's not the core reason for our current energy crisis. Australia is the top coal exporter in the world. One of the top gas exporters. And uranium. Yet we have a power crisis. Train loads of coal pass by coal fired power stations that are short of coal. Why? States that have blanket bans on exploring for gas. Just like fuel prices the politicians stuck their big noses where they don't belong. And as usual got it wrong. Ideology is your enemy. Not the fuel companies. They even took away my plastic straw. Now I have to fight with a soggy paper one. Thank god I'm getting too old to worry!

Here in Australia we always envied the price of fuel in the USA. If $7.00 a gallon is correct then everything has changed. So doing a rough conversion, litres and exchange rates, that's 2.60 a litre. We are paying $1.90 a litre. Me thinks there is a political agenda mixed in US prices.

And that's sums it all up. Well said.

Pam and I owe a lot to our years of living and traveling in an RV. I would be interested in reading what others believe RVing has done to their lives. We learnt that mother nature/god, depending on your beliefs, has created many many wonders that we would never have seen if it wasn't for RVing. We have traveled through the wealthy and poor regions that gave us a reality check on what is important in life. We learnt that 98% of folks are great people. We learnt that Hollywood has prejudiced our minds. We learned that 2% of other folks can't rule our lives. (Years ago, early in our travels, we walked into a popular family restaurant in one of the SE states. Ahead of us were what we assumed to be a mother and daughter. The waitress escorted them and us to our tables. We sat at our table. Beside us was a black family. The mother and daughter objected to sitting beside THEM. Loudly. That shock us and from that point on we determined to see everyone as respectfully as we would expect to be treated). Oh I could tell a lot of discrimination stories but the thread would be locked. We started our RV journey because I was given a stern talking to by my Dr. We learned to slow down. We learned that in the morning we would decide if we moved or not. We learned that if the grass was getting too long then it was someone else's worry. I learned that traveling with your best mate was very rewarding. I learned that RVing can save your life. What has been you biggest lesson from Rving? bruce

Another topic for another time. But I once read that travel was the best cure for ignorance.

I said in my earlier post that I had camped with the boy scouts. True. Several times. In the mid 70's we hired a small campervan for a week. That was my life's experience with camping. In 1994 I got sick. Very sick. The doctors gave me a real wake up call. We had regularly traveled to the USA and Europe on business. During our visits to the USA we observed all these 'huge', well they were 'huge' to us A Class motorhomes. With an hour or two to spare before our flight back to Australia we visited a dealer who had several new A Class units on the lot. WOW. And the prices were a bargain. Well we thought so. The salesperson was very patient and understanding and gave me a pamphlet on a 1996 Fleetwood Southwind. Over the next 12 months I coveted that pamphlet. During bad days while confined to bed I read that pamphlet hundreds of times. It and a dream kept me going through all the bad days. Well long story short. We sold our two businesses. The house and the dog. Kids were at uni. Got in a plane and flew once more to the USA. We were buying an A Class. No experience. Zip. Zero. Nothing. We found a dealer in Atlanta with a Holiday Rambler Endeavor that seemed just dandy. We never bought then but had a deal that was good for a while. So back onto the plane back to Australia. Back home we hit the go button. Ordered the motorhome via fax. Remember faxes? Well everything was done via fax. Options, colours etc etc. 4 months later back onto the plane. Signed the paperwork and jumped behind the wheel. That was the first time in a camper since our rental unit 20+ years beforehand. Crazy? Sure. Did we do some dumb things in the first week or two. Oh sure. Lots of dumb things. But that was the start of the RVing bug. Disease. That pamphlet and the dream it represented kept me alive. It's why I wanted to keep going. Since then we have had 3 more motorhomes. Love the life style. Sometimes it's not a dream. Sometimes things break or go wrong. But sh#t happens at home to in the sticks and bricks. 22 years later and I got very sick while in the USA. That ended some marvelous years in the USA. Met and made some good friends. But in all those years it wasn't the number of motrhomes we had. It was the lifestyle. A way of living that changed my life and even saved it. I'm sure the number of RVs one has owned isn't what matters. It's what you do with those RVs. PS. FWIW we purchased a DP sight unseen from Australia. It was on the internet at a dealer in Texas. Would you buy a six figured RV without seeing it? See what the RV disease does to you?

How did this thread get on to EVs? Anyway. My first camping was with the boy scouts. Hire B class and mid 90s our first A class. Then a custom bus conversion. Then a 40ft DP. Now a 20ft van conversion. All fossil fuelled gas guzzlers. Love them. RVing is a disease. Nothing can cure it apart from using the RV. So given it's incurable I will just have to live with the darn disease.

Consider your fuel bill if you knocked 10 mph off your speed!

You could just sit at home and count your regrets.

My first car was a Mini. Front wheel drive so a dolly would be fine.

Take out the self interest of business, politicians and the media and the picture may become clearer.

Something is very wrong when the US domestic market all but quits oil drilling while at the same time oil is imported from Russia. Company boards around the world are making green statements. Yet it's business as usual. When profits from oil exceed profits from green energy the truth will be there for all to see. They will chase the profits before virtue signalling.

I'm not taking any risks!

Kirk you can pay at the pump in Australia. Many do. With a card. But many folks still like to go inside pay for their fuel and fill up with pies, candies, drinks etc etc etc. Just a comment on the EV 'revolution'. Wont happen. GM, Ford Toyota will still make ICEs for decades to come. You see us 'rich' countries ignore markets like the sub continent. Tell the Indians they have to buy an EV and charge with what? Tell all the poor countries in Africa that they will need to spend billions on a power grid and billions on a new EV. Money they don't have. Many of those folks don't even have power to their house. Don't look at the world with blinkers on. Nope. ICEs will be here long after we are all worm food. I get annoyed when rich folks are telling those who aspire to be like us that they can't be like us.

No such thing as a pre pay in Australia. Always fill then go inside. So is it a cultural thing? My guess is that if you asked the average Australian to pay first they would simply drive up the road to the next station. While in the USA we just accepted it as normal. But there's more to it than just the handful who drive away without paying.

Oil price is back below, $100.00 a barrel. So next excuse!

Many of the large companies buy fuel futures. Just read what happened to Flying J a few years back. Fuel is all about supply and demand plus a lot of politics. Russia is now a convienient excuse. But look back a number of months and see what was already happening. The middle east countries are limiting supplies. The USA is going "green" while buying Russian oil. If anyone gives you a simple answer to the current prices then don't believe them. It's a very complicated mix of politics, profit and greed.

We have also always used an old Mcdonalds bag. Silly story - we paid for a $100000+ motorhome with cash. Coming through LAX customs queried the cash. ( I had declared it). Going through security I dropped my coat and $60000.00 in cash dropped onto the floor in full view of dozens of people!!! A security guy stood by me while I picked it up. No one mugged me. But we did give a lot of folks something to talk about. We dealt a lot in cash in business. Large amounts of cash never worried us. 99.99% of folks are honest. Don't live your life worrying about the 00.01%.

Cherry Creek SP in Denver lost us some years back when they 'demanded' we pay an extra fee for our toad while trailers and 5th wheels only paid one fee. When we tried to debate the issue they asked us to pack up and leave. On the thread itself, it's a case of supply and demand. Since covid the RV industry has going crazy with thousands of new RVs hitting the road. So name me a new RV park since covid started. More RVs and the same number of sites simply doesn't work out. And for new investors there needs to be a return on their money. Public or private. So there are only 2 options for a return on the investment. Charge more per site until there is consumer resistance. Or develop new parks and charge like heck to recoup the investment. Either way expect to pay more $$$$$ for the pleasure of sleeping in your own bed. Australia is no different with the covid led RV boom. Not a new park in the country. In fact sites have disappeared for cabins. But what has happened is more folks have gone bush. Almost every RV now is covered in solar panels. Lithium batteries are the norm. Bush camping in free or low cost sites is the norm. Hundreds of towns now offer free or low cost camping with few, if any, facilities. Showgrounds/state fair ground have opened up for low cost low facility camping. Australia has about 500 RV Friendly towns that offer free or low cost camping. That's the equivalent of 7500 towns in the USA!!! The answer???? Well my nickles worth would be to look hard at BLM or forestry land. Approach towns for limited facility, limited time parking. I developed the RV Friendly Town scheme in Australia. It can be done in the USA. It just takes a bit of hard work. Escapes is the ideal organization to promote such a scheme. In fact I offered them the information some years back. Yes there will be blow back from RV parks. But small towns have many businesses crying out for customers. Not just the RV parks but food outlets. Repair facilities etc etc etc. There has to be some lobbying of the local politicians as well. There are answers. Grumbling about shortage of sites doesn't fix the problem.

I thought that affordability was a key point! Having a fixed income makes planning way easier. Those with limited funds simply can't rely on future income from some benefit. Business owners/self employed have to make those choices. Often there is no choice when working for yourself. The business comes first. Selling up/cashing in is often not a choice that can be made. I have no issues with folks and their choices. But I do sometimes wonder if folks realise what it takes to be self employed and the choices that that requires. Getting into a business is a choice. That choice comes with consequences. For whatever reason that choice can limit what you can, and can't, do in retirement. Life is full of choices. We have to live with them. But we all need to understand that we often get to retirement age by some unplanned route. Life's not always fair. Nor is it equal. We have worked for ourselves all our lives. We made that choice. Others choose not to take the risk and choose to go another route. That's ok. But I just ask that others be sympathetic to those who have a limited ability to work around the no vacancy issue.

If you have never been self employed and don't understand what it takes to be self employed then I suggest that comments about choices be very tempered. Finding the next dollar to stay in business is usually a priority. Not retirement benefits. Selling up and making money on the sale is often fantasy. Who will buy a business that is just making ends meet. Millions of self employed folks employ millions of other folks. Those self employed folks pay the benefits of their employees before their own. We were always self employed. We have saved every penny we now have to live on in our retirement. No employee contributions. That money gets smaller every year. No adjustment for inflation. Live in someone else's shoes before you make rash statements.

I drive backwards. No bugs on the front of my camper. 🙃

Each state can and does interpret visa/green card status differently. Long long story but we almost started another civil war between the feds and Texas dmv. Don't take anything for granted. Check directly with each organization for their interpretations.