theboondork's RV blog

So, are there more or less RVs traveling than usual?

1/2/2021

Roses are red, violets are blue, clicking the pics, gives the shutterbug his due.

Last nights sunset at the boondocking area.

I was considering going to the Pima Air and Space Museum today. But, after looking at the calendar and determining it was Saturday, I decided to postpone my visit until a weekday when hopefully there would be less of a crowd. When It's crowded, it's challenging to take a snapshot without having a bunch of people in the picture.

I don't know if crowds are even a problem nowadays. It seems like I'm getting mixed messages about how busy things are wherever I go.

The Bosque Del Apache in New Mexico wasn't crowded. But the lost Dutchman campground state Park near Phoenix was packed. In Quartzsite, most of the boondocking areas weren't crowded, and yet the Dome Rock area was more crowded than I've ever seen it. The Yuma VFW wasn't crowded. The one RV Park in Dateland wasn't crowded. In Ajo, the boondocking areas weren't crowded at all, but from what I could tell, the RV parks looked busy, and the golf course RV parking was packed. That brings me to the Pima County Fairgrounds, where there are four different camping areas, five if you count boondocking, and the four camping areas, because of the social distancing look almost full.

So I'm not sure what all that means to an RVer. In general, I would say there are fewer boondocker's than before, but the same, or maybe a few more normal RVers that depend on hookups.

You would think with all the restrictions about traveling; there would be fewer RVers, in general, running around. On the other hand, you could say that with New Mexico state parks closed to outsiders, that would make more RVers skip New Mexico and come to Arizona. But from what I've seen so far, it's hard to tell what's going on. Like I've said before, it will be interesting to see how the Big Show in Quartzsite goes this year. Will it be a blast? Or will it be a bust? I guess we'll know in a couple of weeks and that will give us all a better idea about how many RVers are on the road.

theboondork

Very few roses at the Fairgrounds right now.

This is what I call the main campground at the Fairgrounds. They've got three others. You can see how they have campers spaced out skipping every other site.

Campgrounds Pima County Fairgrounds Picture

This is the camping area at the Fairgrounds that I stayed at last spring self isolating. I was camped under the tree that's blocking the sun. I stayed here so long I have a lot of memories connected with this place. I'll never forget the high school seniors that had a graduation ceremony self isolated in their cars in the field right next to where I was camped, I found it so sad.

12 Comments

OFM

1/2/2021 08:12:21 pm

We are definitely having considerably fewer winter Texans here in Rockport, Tx. At least 20% fewer I would guess.

Tom

1/2/2021 08:28:05 pm

It does appear that the states lockdowns have caused a lot of RVers to stay home. But it's been hard for me to tell how much because all the RV parks I've stopped at are social distancing the RVs, except the Lost Dutchman state Park, and their campsites are spread out so social distancing isn't a problem. Without making a special effort to walk around and count RVs its difficult to tell how full the parks really are.

At least in Rockport fewer RVers running around should keep the campground prices reasonable.

Tom

JWFitz

1/2/2021 08:21:53 pm

Things are picking up. The Yuma VFW filled up the week after you left. And the Imperial Dam LTVA has filled faster in the last 2 weeks than the weeks after Thanksgiving.

Judith

1/2/2021 08:59:00 pm

Sorry I missed your party. I was stepping out onto my front porch to watch the snow. A rare event here in central Texas. And it's always gone within a day or so, so no shoveling or anything. Evidently the Big Bend area got a lot. And it stayed on the ground for more than an hour. Sounds like you missed it in AZ. Surely there must be an occasional snow around Tucson??
You did have some lovely clouds for your morning sunrise.

1/2/2021 09:41:10 pm

I had you down for an invitation to my New Year's party. On the party list you were right between Bill Gates, well-known billionaire, and author, Stephen King. But Arizona was limiting holiday parties to 200 people or less so to do my part and help stop the spread of the Bat flu I had to limit all party attendees to those having a net worth of 1 billion or more, and you just barely missed the cut.

Funny you should mention snow around here. Yes Tucson gets snow in the area, normally in the mountains around the town. The other afternoon I noticed some mountains in the area looking a little white, I just thought it was some fog, but I zoomed in with my camera lens and took a picture of some snow on the mountain I'll put it on my blog first chance I get.

Thank you Judith, I do love clouds, they can jazz up most any picture, and my pictures need all the jazz they can get

Tom

1/2/2021 09:17:05 pm

Thanks for that information, sounds like I hit the VFW just about right. I like it there for a variety of reasons, and my biggest complaint is it sometimes gets too crowded.

Sounds like RVers might be slowly heading towards Quartzsite for the big show.... I usually head in the opposite direction.

Tom

Larry Worsham

1/3/2021 05:20:55 am

IMHO based upon the State Park reservations in Texas and reading other blogs. There are new RV ers that are hitting the road but prefer full hookups and are weekenders. I've found that the Texas State park system reservations are about a month out or more for popular places. I think most boon docker types are taking a slow approach. I think finding places with hookups after this bat flu thing clears up will be tough for a couple of years due to the amount of new RV ers. I read that a lot of snow birds are staying put for a while........my opinion is just a wild guess.

Happy New Year......

1/3/2021 07:18:56 am

Thank you for that information Larry. That sounds like a well thought out opinion to me. Something else I haven't heard anyone mention is I believe the Canadian border is closed because of the Bat flu, and there are a lot of Canadians that normally come to southern Arizona, and especially southern Texas. It wouldn't surprise me if the term "Snowbirds" came from describing Canadians heading South during the winter.

In the past I've talked to a lot of people that are RVers from Canada, and in Quartzsite you can't miss all the Canadian flags flying from various RVs. So their loss would be significant.

Tom

Linda Sand

1/3/2021 02:16:31 pm

Yes, there are fewer Canadians because the border is closed for driving across so only those who left their RVs here and fly down will be around. But, from what I read, there are a lot of new RVers in the USA because it's seen as a safer way to travel during this pandemic. I expect all of them to be in parks with hookups because they haven't had time to figure out boondocking yet. And a lot of them will never bother to figure it out which is good for those of us who prefer lots of space around us. Listen to me talking like I'm still out there. :)

1/3/2021 03:42:44 pm

You're right, a lot of the new RVers will be in campgrounds.... Except maybe the van people. You having been one, might know more about this than I. I'm not sure but it seems like a lot of the Vanners got their start reading about folks building their own camper van and most of them were young people, as opposed to us retired geezers. And some of them adopted the "stealth camping" philosophy, which is nothing more than boondocking in the city, and hoping you don't get caught.

So its an easy transition from being a stealth camper, and becoming a boondocker. Because I do see a lot of vans in the outback now days. Maybe just because vans are so popular now as a means of escape and a frugal way that younger people can work from the van and make a living of some kind on the Internet.

I'm actually all for that, it seems backwards that we work our whole lives just so we can have some fun when we get old and by the time we retire were too old to have fun.

Once a boondocker, always a boondocker. You're just a reserve boondocker, waiting to get called back into the service. So keep your military bearings, and your gig line straight.... You can ask your Dave what that means.

Tom

Linda

1/4/2021 02:50:30 pm

Actually most of the van dwellers I know are geezers who are living on not much more than their social security checks. The trend now is for no-build vans where you just move a cot and some plastic drawers and maybe a port a pot into a van and start living in it. I realized, if I cut my desk's knee hole down some, I can move it, a twin bed, and my chest of drawers into a full-size van and be pretty well set. I still want a fridge and a microwave, though, and I don't know how that would work. My desk is big enough to put a small microwave on one corner but the fridge would have to replace the passenger seat?

1/4/2021 03:41:24 pm

I think what I'm seeing most of now are millennial's in the very expensive Mercedes and Dodge vans that are already completely fitted out like a real RV.

When I was experimenting with running around in the Colorado mountains sleeping in a tent, a couple summers ago, I took out my passenger seat in the truck, and didn't miss it at all, but I loved the extra space. Since I don't carry other people around, and don't know why I would, I could live without a passenger seat. But if you absolutely, positively, have to carry somebody they can sit in the back of the van.

Would you use a little generator, or a few solar panels? A lot of folks like those little ice chest sized refrigerators for vans, and I don't think they use to many amps, but if you want to run a microwave also, my thousand watt microwave uses 140 amps an hour, of course it only runs for a minute or two.

I know they cost about the same as gold, but these new lithium iron batteries are the greatest thing ever, it's like they were built specifically for RV use, I don't even think about batteries anymore I honestly forget their there.

My biggest amp hog is my 17 inch Asus laptop which idles at 6 or 8 Amps and uses 12 or 16 Amps doing anything important. But I sure wouldn't want to live without it.

It sounds like you could make this work, and there's always a Home Depot wherever you travel where you can buy things to help make it work.

Tom

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

So, are there more or less RVs traveling than usual?

Leave a Reply.

Archives

CONTACT THEBOONDORK