How old are participants in the Escapee forums?

[Kirk W]

The discussion of owning property got me to wondering what sort of age mix we have on the forums today. I will share mine as I am currently 81 years old and my wife is 82. We have been RVers since the 1970's and members of the Escapees RV Club since 1998. Feel free to remain anonymous if you prefer but please do help us to understand who we are as a forum group.  

Edited April 14 by Kirk W
repair a typo

[Danfreda1]

We are full timers I’m 55 and my wife is 61. Former property owners from Illinois. Been camping /rving our whole lives. Domiciled in South Dakota,spend winter in Arizona and come back to Illinois twice a year to visit family. This year we are trying out volunteering at a corp of engineers park in southern illinois. 

[DanZemke]

I'm 75 an single.

Kirk - the current results show zero for the 80 or more category.  Did you forget to "vote"? ;-)   Also, clarification please.  For couples with a single forum ID, whose ages fall in different categories (like Danfreda1): should they use the age of the most active participant, or the average age of the two?

[jblo]

I just added a '1' to the +80 group...

[jbh]

Physically 67, mentally 14.

[sandsys]

Wow! No wonder I feel so at home here--2/3 of the participants are in my age group.

As to those whose ages appear in two different groups, I would either choose the one who actually posts to the forums or make two entries if both are active. However, you do you.

Linda

[lappir]

Thanks for thinking of something I didn't when I  posted about the property thing. Age certainly makes a difference. For many years I felt I'd never "Retire" would just keep on working. Now that I've given the not working a chance, it's really not that bad. 

 

Rod

[Kirk W]

4 hours ago, DanZemke said:

For couples with a single forum ID, whose ages fall in different categories (like Danfreda1): should they use the age of the most active participant, or the average age of the two?

I went back and added my age group to the poll. I wrote it with intention of the person making the post but if two people use the same ID I guess that they need to choose. I did consider a second question for a spouse or partner but the poll wouldn't allow a second question. At this point, it is running about as I might have guessed. Having been to many Escapades, I know that there are increasing numbers of younger members but they don't participate in this forum. 

[Danfreda1]

6 hours ago, DanZemke said:

I'm 75 an single.

Kirk - the current results show zero for the 80 or more category.  Did you forget to "vote"? 😉 Also, clarification please.  For couples with a single forum ID, whose ages fall in different categories (like Danfreda1): should they use the age of the most active participant, or the average age of the two?

I did do that with the age. I use this forum but she does Facebook. I won’t do Facebook. 

[Mark&Chong]

I also thought I’d never retire. However things changed and I don’t know why I waited.

Mark

[bruce t]

We joined SKPs around 1996. (No my number doesn't reflect that as we rejoined years later).

Health forced me to hang up the RV keys 18 months ago. But every day I dream of hitting the road again.

[kb0zke]

"Physically 67, mentally 14."

My mind says I'm 37. My back and knees beg to differ.

Question: When you get old enough to know better?

[Kirk W]

12 hours ago, kb0zke said:

"Physically 67, mentally 14."

Last fall I celebrated the 42nd anniversary of my 39th birthday!   😏

[jenandjon]

I am 50 but I joined when I bought my truck in 2018. 6 years ago. I would have been 44.  Seems longer than that. 

[Ray,IN]

I was 81 Christmas day.

The huge age gap between our generation and those <50 means differences in how we travel and camp. The instant communication on a cell phone of the facebook escapees better fits their needs and lifestyle.

I predict the escapees discussion forums will mirror the decline of the FMCA discussion forums, although some years later, as they too have a facebook site.

Edited April 20 by Ray,IN

[Steven@146]

The poll results so far is pretty much what I thought, at least for this forum. The majority of people here are mostly retired and probably full time or full time stationary or part time snowbirds, age group 60-79. Younger folks are not thinking full time and so are not interested in Escapee's yet, and a lot of people older than 80 are hanging up the keys because of health or mobility issues.

Friends of ours are 85 and still full timers, but don't travel a lot. Others are mid to late 70s and are a little more active traveling. They are not Escapee's members. We at 67/66 are still pups compared to our good friends. We try to meet up once a year too swap stories!

[Kirk W]

4 hours ago, Steven@146 said:

Younger folks are not thinking full time and so are not interested in Escapee's yet, and a lot of people older than 80 are hanging up the keys because of health or mobility issues.

While that was once true, have you never heard of the Xscapers Group, which is for the still working Escapee member? That is currently the fastest growing part of the Escapees RV club. When Escapees was created in 1978, most of the membership was still working and 60% of them were under the age of 50. When we first attended an Escapade about 20 years ago there were a few children there and by 2010 when Travis Carr joined the business there were almost none. But today the Xscapers are the most rapidly growing segment of the club and Escapade now has Kids Scapade specifically for children and each year since it's inception is had gotten bigger. There continue to be many retired or retiring folks joining the club but the average age of the membership is declining. That is probably a very good thing for the future of the club, even if it does leave some of us out of the mainstream today. 

[lappir]

5 hours ago, Kirk W said:

While that was once true, have you never heard of the Xscapers Group, which is for the still working Escapee member? That is currently the fastest growing part of the Escapees RV club. When Escapees was created in 1978, most of the membership was still working and 60% of them were under the age of 50. When we first attended an Escapade about 20 years ago there were a few children there and by 2010 when Travis Carr joined the business there were almost none. But today the Xscapers are the most rapidly growing segment of the club and Escapade now has Kids Scapade specifically for children and each year since it's inception is had gotten bigger. There continue to be many retired or retiring folks joining the club but the average age of the membership is declining. That is probably a very good thing for the future of the club, even if it does leave some of us out of the mainstream today. 

But do they participate on this forum? That's the big question about how long the forum will continue to exist. I have visited a Forum for VehiCross owners that used to be very active. There is nothing on it now except for a ad for something useless on repeat. It's the only new thing and I've tried asking questions and posting but there have been few if any responses. I don't even check it any more. 

 

Rod

[kb0zke]

We have a friend who is in his 80's, widowed, who still pulls his trailer cross-country every year. Other friends are somewhat younger than us and are no longer traveling much. Health and finances probably have more to do with travel decisions than anything else.

[mike5511]

1 hour ago, kb0zke said:

We have a friend who is in his 80's, widowed, who still pulls his trailer cross-country every year. Other friends are somewhat younger than us and are no longer traveling much. Health and finances probably have more to do with travel decisions than anything else.

Finances are fine. Health is becoming more problematic and laziness is increasing! 😲

[Kirk W]

12 hours ago, lappir said:

But do they participate on this forum?

I would say that the answer to that is pretty obvious? There is a very active Escapee Facebook page and while don't know how active it is, there is also an Xscapers Facebook page which I suspect is active as well. For some reason, even though there are still many new Escapee members who are retired and thus might be less than 60 years of age and most would be under 70, yet the number of active participants in this forum continue to dwindle. If half of the active members have responded to this poll, that means that we are down to 120 members still active. When I first joined this forum I don't know how many participants there were but I do know that there were 50 or more posts per day and now we seldom have more than 5.

I know why the number of participants of age 70 and above are declining as I know or have known many of them and most that have left have stopped RVing and more than a few are deceased. What I haven't been able to figure out is why we don't seem to attract the newly retired RV folks and what we can to about it.  I wish that I knew an answer!  

[lappir]

2 hours ago, Kirk W said:

I wish that I knew an answer! 

Kirk, 

I think you gave the answer in the rest of your comment. I don't do Facebook like I used to and don't want to get back to that addiction, so I'm not the answer. Apparently you do participate on Facebook too. How often do you remind them of the rvnetwork.com? 

The HDT Rally was a big activity stimulator when I first started here and it's mostly gone to Facebook. Every year I try to remind the promoter, organizer or head honcho that some of us don't do Facebook, but come to the Rally still. I get "oh yeah, I keep forgetting about the forum". 

Rod