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Boondocking at the ranch

10/28/2016

My Boondocking site at The Ranch Escapees RV Park

I had planned on staying in Roswell for another night so I could at least visit the UFO Museum in town, but things didn't work out.

I went to the RV park that I had planned on staying at and found out they were full. That's kind of strange because every other place I've been New Mexico has been kind of deserted. I tried out another place and found them way too expensive. It really bothers me to have to pay almost motel rates just to sleep in my own trailer.

So looking at the situation I determined that the UFO Museum can wait and I drove the 60 miles or so down to the Escapees RV Park called "The Ranch" just south of Artesia New Mexico.

As is usually the case at an Escapees RV Park I was greeted as if I was an old friend. As I was checking in 3 or 4 people came into the office just to welcome me to the park. I was telling everyone I was only going to be at The Ranch for a couple of weeks and one lady chimed in, "that's what I said 20 years ago".

I'm staying in the Boondocking area for my 1st week, and it cost $5 a day plus your 1st day is free if you pay for a week, so it only cost me $30 plus a couple dollars in tax.

My next week I will stay at a full hookup site because they have a discount if you've never been here before which is $50 for a week with full hookups. And that's only a little bit more than the Roswell RV Park was going to charge me for one night. Like I said before, I only carry two club cards, a Good Sam and an Escapees card. And so far the Escapees card has been the most useful.

theboondork

2 Comments

Vall & Mo link

10/28/2016 10:34:42 pm

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the post. We too avoid staying at outrageously priced campgrounds, not only for the money but for the principle: after all, if we pay the price, then what we are saying is that it wasn't so outrageous after all; not good encouraging the greedy...

Also, the most expensive campgrounds we stayed so far were also the less enjoyable, so it seems there's an inverse relationship between price and satisfaction.

Please keep us posted on your further impressions on The Ranch and whereabouts, New Mexico is an area we are really interested in knowing more about.

Cheers,
--
Vall and Mo.

theboondork

10/29/2016 10:03:03 am

Nice to hear from you Vall & Mo. I have the same opinion about high-priced RV parks. I don't like staying in RV parks where I'm jammed together with 100 other RVs and no matter what direction I look all I can see is another trailer. And oddly enough those places often have "resort" in their name and charge some of the highest prices. I can't always avoid staying in places like that but I try and keep it to a minimum.

The Escapees parks that I've been in are kind of like that in that they have a lot of RVs in a small area. But the lots are very wide so that you're not right next to your neighbor. And they're inexpensive, I can put up with a lot of things I don't like if I believe that the price is fair.

As for New Mexico itself it's a pretty good place for RVers for most of the year and the inexpensive state parks are a big draw for full timers. Especially when you can get an out-of-state park pass for 200 and something dollars that will allow you to camp in New Mexico state parks with hookups for $4 a night, or a primitive or developed site for free. That's a real bargain if you going to spend part of the year in New Mexico.
In the summer time all you have to do is stay in the northern part of New Mexico and adjust your altitude based on the heat and you can stay comfortable. But one of its problems is there's no place in New Mexico, that I've found, that doesn't get very cold in the winter time. Even down in Las Cruces it still gets very cold in the winter.

Tom

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Boondocking at the ranch

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