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Luis

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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.

 

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Very enlightening topic. 

I'm planning on travelling to Southern Florida in May.  So far, the reservations are OK, but not great.
After reading through  4 pages of experiences here, I may be too late to make any reservations near the Great Smokey Mtns Nat Park at the end of May.  I'll have to search a little farther out from the park, if there isn't anything close.
The Oregon State parks are using Reserve America for thier guests. 6 months to the day you can make a reservation.
I was able to get 10 days just outside of Brookings Oregon near the end of August 2022, but I think it was just luck..The sites went fast!

I'm hoping that there won't be any fuel shortages along with the higher prices!!.

It's a mess, using RV Wizard, Harvest hosts, Allstays, and Allstays military while planning a route. Almost sucks the joy out of going..

 

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1 hour ago, Danfreda1 said:

I was telling you what I saw I didn’t say you did it but I believe you would have after listening to you. All the sights there had the SAME amenities it was the parking that was different and there is no shortage of parking at blm lands or campgrounds. 

So the fact that my relatives would need to park right at my campsite has no impact on your entitlement to the longer parking site. Interesting.

Linda

Blog: http://sandcastle.sandsys.org/

Former Rigs: Liesure Travel van, Winnebago View 24H, Winnebago Journey 34Y, Sportsmobile Sprinter conversion van

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Our RV-ing these days is usually an annual rental of either a Class A or Class C.  Last year was a rental in Alaska after flying into Anchorage and getting sites wasn't bad since the Canadian border was closed for people wanting to drive from the lower 48.  This September we will be doing a 3-week rental from Wisconsin and heading west.  I have some reservations made already and some I can't do more than 6 months in advance so that will happen in March.  I do plan to have reservations for the whole trip to avoid unpleasant surprises.  I figure if our plans change for any given nights and we forfeit our deposit, it's not the end of the world.

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The argument over who should get what site first has been around since the introduction of the first RVs because tents were taking the best spots and as interesting as the debate may be, it really isn't the subject of this thread so start a new thread to debate that one and lets keep this about RV site availability and the need for reservations, please? We seem to have lost Luis who started the thread but hopefully he will return. 

8 hours ago, franco-bolli said:

It's a mess, using RV Wizard, Harvest hosts, Allstays, and Allstays military while planning a route. Almost sucks the joy out of going..

I am concerned about that same issue. As I read through this topic I have begun to think that we didn't fully appreciate what we had years ago. Maybe we should also start a thread about the history of RVing and RV sites? 

Keeping with the current theme, we will be traveling from north TX to Escapade(east of Nashville) and probably visit eastern TN before it begins, then from there up into KY and from there west to KS before returning to TX. We do not have specific needs to return so we might even divert up toward CO & WY at some point in July & August. Has anyone done site investigation along those routes? 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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45 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

lets keep this about RV site availability and the need for reservations, please?

Speculation about the number of RV travelers, the availability of sites and the impact of high fuel costs and inflation in general on travel plans was what sparked the discussion about income.

49 minutes ago, Kirk W said:

probably visit eastern TN before it begins, then from there up into KY and from there west to KS...We do not have specific needs to return so we might even divert up toward CO & WY at some point in July & August.

Anywhere close to Smokey Mountain National Park will likely be crowded, particularly on weekends. We have not found a lot of choices near Chattanooga, but the campground at the Camping World use to be first come first serve. Kentucky State Parks have a reservation system you can checkout. A park close to some friends of ours had openings in May and June as of today. We had no trouble finding overnights in Kansas last August. We found sites at COE parks, county and city parks during the week. The COE parks were pretty well booked on weekends. As I am sure you know, there are a lot of small towns in Kansas that allow overnights in their city parks. Some even have electric and a dump station. The Ultimate Public Campgrounds Project lists most of them and includes information about the amenities available.

Late Summer early Fall last year, areas in the higher elevations of New Mexico were difficult to find spots so the cooler areas of Colorado and Wyoming may be the same.

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If I missed this sorry.  From some experience as a volunteer years ago at a popular state park I saw for certain weekend, holidays and a good part of the summer people would make a reservation at the start of the reservations available period just to be sure they had a spot. Then they would either cancel just in time to avoid a charge or even forefit the one night charge on an unclaimed site.  I suspect this is a common practice with some and of course it creates issues for all others. Our park had popular weekends and holidays all year long so it was a constant problem. We would have campers/rv'rs lined up sometime for 1/2 mile to claim an open when the cut off time came to open unclaimed sites.  (we had 355 sites on a lake near a metropolitan area)

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2 hours ago, bigjim said:

If I missed this sorry.  From some experience as a volunteer years ago at a popular state park I saw for certain weekend, holidays and a good part of the summer people would make a reservation at the start of the reservations available period just to be sure they had a spot. Then they would either cancel just in time to avoid a charge or even forefit the one night charge on an unclaimed site.  I suspect this is a common practice with some and of course it creates issues for all others. Our park had popular weekends and holidays all year long so it was a constant problem. We would have campers/rv'rs lined up sometime for 1/2 mile to claim an open when the cut off time came to open unclaimed sites.  (we had 355 sites on a lake near a metropolitan area)

This  is why we gave up on state parks.   We could usually get a Sunday-Thursday night reservation of some sort a week or two out, but weekends, no.  And the few times we did get the weekend, we would find there would be loads of empty sites as people just didn't show up.   

Barb & Dave O'Keeffe
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1 hour ago, Barbaraok said:

  And the few times we did get the weekend, we would find there would be loads of empty sites as people just didn't show up.   

I've seen that myself and wondered if the reservation system was functioning properly.  Just yesterday a maintenance worker at a FCFS Lake Mead campground told me to "reserve" a site by pitching a cheap tent a few days ahead of my actual arrival time.  I don't like gaming the system and would never do that - because I hate when others do it.

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1 hour ago, hemsteadc said:

I've seen that myself and wondered if the reservation system was functioning properly.  Just yesterday a maintenance worker at a FCFS Lake Mead campground told me to "reserve" a site by pitching a cheap tent a few days ahead of my actual arrival time.  I don't like gaming the system and would never do that - because I hate when others do it.

As someone that was on the OTHER side managing the campgrounds to this day I still curse the name "Al Gore" that foisted the REC.GOV disaster onto the Federal land management agencies.

Yep, that was a common strategy.  We were a popular destination National Forest just over from the ridge from Seattle. 

Got the money, reserve a site for days in advance and don't show up until the weekend.  Your paying for it, but NOBODY can use it!!!

Got the time, come on up and throw a tent on the space and show up three days later.   Your paying for it, but NOBODY can use it!!!!

So we said, you reserve the site....be there the first night or we are cancelling and taking your tent to lost and found.

No matter what system you use....humans are going to GAME the system. 

In the end, the ONLY fair one is first-come, first-served....and you have to COME and show up.

Vladimr Steblina

Retired Forester...exploring the public lands.

usbackroads.blogspot.com

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The first come first served worked well before , it would be nice if more parks would limit half of the sites to reservations. Some corp. parks in Mississippi did until last year I think but they didn’t post it on the web site. When we got to Grenada Lake the host told us it was all reservable. Not a big deal in December we just had to get on the site and reserve when we found a spot. We have seen parks half empty on a weekend and couldn’t have a spot because they had to wait till the next day to release them. We’re not fans of the reservations but it’s probably here to stay. 

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Reservations are both good and bad. Bad since it allows someone to block a campsite when it isn't in use but good in that I can make a reservation when traveling and know that there will be a site for me when I arrive. That same thing is true for the shortage of RV sites. If you own an RV park you probably like the sites to all be filled by early in the afternoon, while most of us wish that there were sited that remain empty, just in case we happen to stop there. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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I don't mind sites being reservable as long as the guidelines say you must show up, or at least call with an ETA, by 6 pm the day of the reservation. Any site not claimed by then becomes available to people who do show up. We stayed in many a site that had been reserved but was not claimed by coming in right after 6 pm.

Linda Sand

ps. for those who might not know ETA stands for estimated time of arrival.

Blog: http://sandcastle.sandsys.org/

Former Rigs: Liesure Travel van, Winnebago View 24H, Winnebago Journey 34Y, Sportsmobile Sprinter conversion van

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11 hours ago, Kirk W said:

The argument over who should get what site first has been around since the introduction of the first RVs because tents were taking the best spots and as interesting as the debate may be, it really isn't the subject of this thread so start a new thread to debate that one and lets keep this about RV site availability and the need for reservations, please? We seem to have lost Luis who started the thread but hopefully he will return. 

I am concerned about that same issue. As I read through this topic I have begun to think that we didn't fully appreciate what we had years ago. Maybe we should also start a thread about the history of RVing and RV sites? 

Keeping with the current theme, we will be traveling from north TX to Escapade(east of Nashville) and probably visit eastern TN before it begins, then from there up into KY and from there west to KS before returning to TX. We do not have specific needs to return so we might even divert up toward CO & WY at some point in July & August. Has anyone done site investigation along those routes? 

We have a done a few trips some of that direction from TX to IN and our summer trip will go out to WY and ID from SC. Our fall trip coming up will take us from TX back up to IN but taking a different route. We have stayed at Golf Coast RV park in Beaumont Texas, then to Fontainebleau State Park in Louisiana, then up to Wallace Creek campground in Pope, MS, and then into Illinois last fall. In TN we have stayed at Clarksville RV park in Clarksville TN, Deer Run RV park in Crossville, TN and Old Mill Camp near Cummins Falls State Park & Cookeville, TN. There are a lot of State Parks in this area. There are also some nice Harvest Hosts in the Clarksville area. 

Heading west our plan is to do Springbrook State Park in IA just west of Des Moines, then a Harvest Host in Lincoln NE, then to Lake McConaughy State Rec area in western Nebraska and then up to a couple of  KOAs in Wyoming.  From there we head to Idaho and come back thru Montana.

Our fall trip will take us up thru Texas again, plan to be staying at Magnolia RV park in Goodrich, TX then Texarkana KOA, then up to Tom Sawyer's RV park in West Memphis, AR and up to IL. 

We are 72-73' long so any places we fit should fit just about anyone else.

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When we were traveling in 2020, many of the State Parks had gone to reservation only for the campgrounds and even were restricting the amount of usable sites due to COVID and guidelines that the states were following. New Mexico state parks were closed to people from other states.  Even private campgrounds were being forced to limit capacity. I think many of these locations just found it was better to do the online reservation system and charge you to do it with a non refundable fee even if you canceled within a certain amount of time in which you would get some of your money back. 

2005 Freightliner Century S/T, Singled, Air ride ET Jr. hitch
2019 46'+ Dune Sport Man Cave custom 5th wheel toy hauler
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Check out http://www.hhrvresource.com/

for much more info on HDT's.

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2 hours ago, sandsys said:

I don't mind sites being reservable as long as the guidelines say you must show up, or at least call with an ETA, by 6 pm the day of the reservation. Any site not claimed by then becomes available to people who do show up. We stayed in many a site that had been reserved but was not claimed by coming in right after 6 pm.

Linda Sand

ps. for those who might not know ETA stands for estimated time of arrival.

Florida State Park no-show policy:

"Park staff will hold reserved campsites or cabins until the applicable check-out time, one day after the scheduled arrival date. In the event that campers do not arrive for their reservation and the camper does not call the park directly to cancel, the remainder of the reservation will be canceled as a no-show. The remaining balance of the reservation, if any, will be refunded."

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
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2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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12 hours ago, sandsys said:

say you must show up, or at least call with an ETA, by 6 pm the day of the reservation. Any site not claimed by then becomes available to people who do show up.

Not only have I never run into that rule, it would be sure to start a lot of fights since many people leave work at 5 pm and plan to arrive at their reserved site well after 6 pm! In the summer the northern states the sun doesn't set until after 9 pm and many a camper arrives in the public parks well after 6 pm. When we were campground hosts on the Oregon coast in July and August it was very common for 1/4 to 1/3 of the sites to fill after 6 pm. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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15 hours ago, Danfreda1 said:

, it would be nice if more parks would limit half of the sites to reservations. 

X2.  I frequent the Salton Sea campgrounds, and all the sites, no matter how little use they get, are reservable,  which is nuts.  Your non-reserved occupied space will not show as taken on the reservation site because park staff can't do that.  

 

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7 minutes ago, hemsteadc said:

X2.  I frequent the Salton Sea campgrounds, and all the sites, no matter how little use they get, are reservable,  which is nuts.  Your non-reserved occupied space will not show as taken on the reservation site because park staff can't do that.  

 

I agree that some sites need to be held back as reservable, but not site specific.  Trying to come into a park for just 5 days is getting to be impossible unless you booked months ahead of time.  You find sites open for a day or two and you have to move for two more days and again for another day.  I'll go to a commercial park before I pack up and move that often.

You see people bragging about booking 13 months out into 2023 to snag their favorite spots.  Shoot, we barely know where we will be in a month or two, forget about next year.

Ken

Amateur radio operator, 2023 Cougar 22MLS, 2022 F150 Lariat 4x4 Off Road, Sport trim <br />Travel with 1 miniature schnauzer, 1 standard schnauzer and one African Gray parrot

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28 minutes ago, TXiceman said:

You see people bragging about booking 13 months out into 2023 to snag their favorite spots.  Shoot, we barely know where we will be in a month or two, forget about next year.

Ken

Some of us may be bragging, but the rest of us are complaining about having to book that far out in order to be assured of a site at all in popular parks. Especially if we want to stay for more than a couple of days. I remember not that many years ago when we could pull into an SKP owned park and be guaranteed a site under the "FIFO" rule in effect back then. Now we have to reserve a site up to a year out in order to be assured a site for peak periods. 

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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2 hours ago, TXiceman said:

I agree that some sites need to be held back as reservable, but not site specific.

When we were campground volunteers (information hosts) at Ft Stephens State Park, in OR they did take site specific reservations starting on Jan. 1 for the entire year. We were there for July & August and each morning the visitors who either didn't have reservations or who got their reservations late would make a parade of movement starting about 10 am as sites would empty to move to a different site because the one that they were in was booked for the next night. I actually spoke with a family that stayed in the park for a full week and in that time where spend time in 4 different sties to be able to do so. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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6 hours ago, Kirk W said:

Not only have I never run into that rule, it would be sure to start a lot of fights since many people leave work at 5 pm and plan to arrive at their reserved site well after 6 pm! In the summer the northern states the sun doesn't set until after 9 pm and many a camper arrives in the public parks well after 6 pm. When we were campground hosts on the Oregon coast in July and August it was very common for 1/4 to 1/3 of the sites to fill after 6 pm. 

The situation you describe is easy to care for by simply arranging for late arrival when making the reservation. We did indeed get spots in many state parks by arriving at 6 pm and taking a previously reserved spot where no one had called to make arrangements for late arrival.

Linda

Blog: http://sandcastle.sandsys.org/

Former Rigs: Liesure Travel van, Winnebago View 24H, Winnebago Journey 34Y, Sportsmobile Sprinter conversion van

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59 minutes ago, sandsys said:

 We did indeed get spots in many state parks by arriving at 6 pm and taking a previously reserved spot where no one had called to make arrangements for late arrival.

Linda

How about sharing what states that has happened in?

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

            images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQqFswi_bvvojaMvanTWAI

 

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1 hour ago, sandsys said:

The situation you describe is easy to care for by simply arranging for late arrival when making the reservation. We did indeed get spots in many state parks by arriving at 6 pm and taking a previously reserved spot where no one had called to make arrangements for late arrival.

Linda

We have stayed in state parks in most states, and cannot recall a single state that required arrival by 6:00 pm or making arrangements for "late arrival".  Every one of them held the site through the first reserved night, and then released it the next day if unoccupied. I wonder if you weren't getting sites the night after the first vacant night had passed.  

Mark & Teri

2021 Grand Designs Imagine 2500RL, 2019 Ford F-350

Mark & Teri's Travels

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23 hours ago, Vladimir said:

In the end, the ONLY fair one is first-come, first-served....and you have to COME and show up.

FIFO ensures Locals get camp sites. State/national campgrounds are tuned into city parks.

BTW, the way to game the "you must show up" rule is to just park your boat/camper on site before the weekend, leave, and then come back for Sat/Sun.

Physical presence doesn't work either.

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