Am I the only one to notice the abundance of Travel Camper People?

My wife and I have been on the road quite a bit of late and we have noticed something that is certainly weird and near alarming.

That "something" is that as we approach "smallish" towns, say population between 2,000 and 17,000, we notice we pass literally dozens of camp parks kinda like "Good Sam" campgrounds complete with pads and hook-ups and such.

Today we drove into one just to see what it was all about and the park turned out to be huge! Must have had pads for 200+ travel campers and the travel campers are immense. By immense I'm talking 5th wheel style with slide outs. As we drove through it became patently obvious that many of these had been parked there for months and in some cases, it appears to have been years. We also noticed that most of the occupants appeared to be aged 65~95; but there were some younger and with small kids running about.

I doubt I could ever find the true nation-wide number of people permanently living in travel campers, but I'm beginning to think the number is HUGE! I'd guess at this point that across the entire lower 48 states, we're talking something like MILLIONS of people living like this.

I have to go to an appointment so I won't be able to respond to any comments for a while but my question is.................

Are any of the rest of you noticing this? And if so.........just what the "H" is going on with this?

a reply to: TonyS

Well it is the transition season for snowbirds. I worked with a divorced cat that lived in a rv cuz it was cheap as hell compared to a house.

Lots of Boomers retired, good weather on the horizon hopefully.
not buying the doom and gloom..

a reply to: TonyS

you must not get out much, they are literally everywhere and have been since the 80s. its called "American camping" by our northern neighbors, or just camping here lol. a lot of people i know get seasonals and park their RV there for the summer. i know people that get the same seasonal in FL and park it there for the winter.

Not gunna lie, seems like a sweet life.

i would estimate less than 5% of them live in their RV year round. and if they do, its "comfortable" to say the least.

These are tent cities here, they are resorts.

I'm headed out to Salisbury Beach, MA this summer for some car camping, they have similar setups(full power and water hookup) although no seasonals... 2 weeks max.

I retire in a few years and plan on living in a RV for awhile, I also have a few friends with the same plan. Sell it all, go on the road.

a reply to: smkymcnugget420

Just spent 4 days camping on Jetta Park in Port Canaveral. Between watching the cruise ships, rocket launches and occasional shark attack... Its a cool place.

They just passed a law in San Diego no overnight parking.

People are parking in front of multi million dollar homes.

A few have been seen dumping sewage.

All of or storm drains lead to the Ocean.

It’s a huge stinky problem.

My wife and I currently full time in a motorhome. Sold our house in Oct. and hit the road.

Oh yeah. huge uptick in campers in the last couple yeas.

My theory is this lifestyle has taken off because of instagram

Everyone on social media posting traveling lifestyle pics. People see that and jump on board.

The good things is they usually don't go to the deep camping spots you have to hike to.

a reply to: TonyS

We call them 'grey nomads' in Australia.

Don't think the trend is all that recent either... I spent a few years on the road, from like 2008 to 2012 and grey nomads were absolutely everywhere I went.

There are so many RVs parked around the NA casino's that the whole area smells like a sess pool.

I've noticed it too. First of all, that is not "camping" to me. If you have a tv with you, your not doing it right.
But I do know a few people that live in an RV.
I couldn't do it.
People parked right next to you most of the time. No real privacy. No room to breath when you argue with your spose?

Nah.
I stay here, where I can run into the woods and actually be alone.

Or grab a tent and just take a vacation.

a reply to: TonyS

Hopefully in a few years when the hubs retires we will be joining them! Our children are spread out across the country and we plan on taking a few years to travel the country to visit with family and see all of the natural wonders our beautiful country has to offer.

I'm in one now, while I build my house.

Yes, there are a bunch of full timers living in them.

Probably 75% or more at this place.

Some have the school bus drop off their kids here.

RVs are much more popular in the south, I have noticed.

When my house is done, so is my RV career.

"Hold on, byb the sh'rs full and the propane tanks empty, owwwe crap!! I just smashed my shin and hit my funnybone, lemme open the valve so I can pee, oh damn, the tank is a giant frozen turd popsicle. Screw this, I'm going to go take a nice 3 min shower, ugh, nevermind, the water hose is frozen now."

-rv life in a nutshell...all your time is spent circumventing those issues.

I can handle a lot of those issues, but the tiny home thing is my line in the sand.

We considered doing it when we left CA in 2014 but chose a house near Austin TX. We thought of a Jayco MS that was 36' and could be had for under a hundred grand at the time. Happy here with our pool. My best,

Just curious, what do you do for internet/ phone and t.v.?
a reply to: abago71

originally posted by: TonyS
My wife and I have been on the road quite a bit of late and we have noticed something that is certainly weird and near alarming.

That "something" is that as we approach "smallish" towns, say population between 2,000 and 17,000, we notice we pass literally dozens of camp parks kinda like "Good Sam" campgrounds complete with pads and hook-ups and such.

Today we drove into one just to see what it was all about and the park turned out to be huge! Must have had pads for 200+ travel campers and the travel campers are immense. By immense I'm talking 5th wheel style with slide outs. As we drove through it became patently obvious that many of these had been parked there for months and in some cases, it appears to have been years. We also noticed that most of the occupants appeared to be aged 65~95; but there were some younger and with small kids running about.

I doubt I could ever find the true nation-wide number of people permanently living in travel campers, but I'm beginning to think the number is HUGE! I'd guess at this point that across the entire lower 48 states, we're talking something like MILLIONS of people living like this.

I have to go to an appointment so I won't be able to respond to any comments for a while but my question is.................

Are any of the rest of you noticing this? And if so.........just what the "H" is going on with this?

An entire generation of Boomers who are starving and penniless...the Worlds largest recorded Generation cannibalised itself after it consumed everything that belonged to it AND everything that belonged to the 3 generations after them.....and then 10% of that massive number accumulated 80% of the entire generations wealth and power leaving millions and millions destitute.

Several generations AFTER the Boomers were also destroyed fiscally morally and societally by Satans Generation.

We are talking about the first Generation to enmasse receive Post Secondary Schooling...they took over everything....like a fat piggy.....they CREATED MILLIONS OF NEEDLESS JOBS....they also created millions of jobs because of their abnormally large generational needs.... then when the economy crashed and Companies needed to dump them THEY ALL GOT BUYOUTS of course AFTER they had hamstrung the generation immediately behind them by refusing to allow promotions or advancements by refusing to retire at normal ages by MONOPOLISING MANAGEMENT TO SUPPORT THEIR OWN GENERATIONS EXTENDED TIME FEEDING AT THE TROUGH....they EMPOWERED THEMSELVES to take over Entrepenaurship and small business with the money from those buyouts and enmasse they did exactly that shutting out TWO CONSECUTIVE GENERATIONS.....they manipulated markets so they could all buy cheap houses and real estate then they all got rich as they rode the bubble we still sit upon.Then they began to feed on each other and now we are seeing the results.The fiscally empowered 10% of Boomers have now raped and pillaged even their own generation and are not having any MERCY on their peers.

a reply to: darkwingduck

We use our phones as hotspots and we have an antenna for OTA tv.

a reply to: TonyS

It's pretty common actually. In fact, our family has some friends who did this upon retiring. It kind of works like a timeshare sort of (at least this was how our friend's deal worked). You buy a "lot" which is really just a stake in the company. Then you travel around by making arrangements with other owners, kind of like trading sort of. Our friends bought this mammoth motorcoach thing (it was outrageous how much they paid for this thing...like $750,000). They sold their house and just traveled around the country in this thing, staying at various places anywhere from 2-6 months. They primarily went between Ohio and Arizona, but they also traveled other places too. Kind of like a 'snowbird' thing, but with a motorhome.

originally posted by: one4all

originally posted by: TonyS
My wife and I have been on the road quite a bit of late and we have noticed something that is certainly weird and near alarming.

That "something" is that as we approach "smallish" towns, say population between 2,000 and 17,000, we notice we pass literally dozens of camp parks kinda like "Good Sam" campgrounds complete with pads and hook-ups and such.

Today we drove into one just to see what it was all about and the park turned out to be huge! Must have had pads for 200+ travel campers and the travel campers are immense. By immense I'm talking 5th wheel style with slide outs. As we drove through it became patently obvious that many of these had been parked there for months and in some cases, it appears to have been years. We also noticed that most of the occupants appeared to be aged 65~95; but there were some younger and with small kids running about.

I doubt I could ever find the true nation-wide number of people permanently living in travel campers, but I'm beginning to think the number is HUGE! I'd guess at this point that across the entire lower 48 states, we're talking something like MILLIONS of people living like this.

I have to go to an appointment so I won't be able to respond to any comments for a while but my question is.................

Are any of the rest of you noticing this? And if so.........just what the "H" is going on with this?

An entire generation of Boomers who are starving and penniless...the Worlds largest recorded Generation cannibalised itself after it consumed everything that belonged to it AND everything that belonged to the 3 generations after them.....and then 10% of that massive number accumulated 80% of the entire generations wealth and power leaving millions and millions destitute.

Several generations AFTER the Boomers were also destroyed fiscally morally and societally by Satans Generation.

We are talking about the first Generation to enmasse receive Post Secondary Schooling...they took over everything....like a fat piggy.....they CREATED MILLIONS OF NEEDLESS JOBS....they also created millions of jobs because of their abnormally large generational needs.... then when the economy crashed and Companies needed to dump them THEY ALL GOT BUYOUTS of course AFTER they had hamstrung the generation immediately behind them by refusing to allow promotions or advancements by refusing to retire at normal ages by MONOPOLISING MANAGEMENT TO SUPPORT THEIR OWN GENERATIONS EXTENDED TIME FEEDING AT THE TROUGH....they EMPOWERED THEMSELVES to take over Entrepenaurship and small business with the money from those buyouts and enmasse they did exactly that shutting out TWO CONSECUTIVE GENERATIONS.....they manipulated markets so they could all buy cheap houses and real estate then they all got rich as they rode the bubble we still sit upon.Then they began to feed on each other and now we are seeing the results.The fiscally empowered 10% of Boomers have now raped and pillaged even their own generation and are not having any MERCY on their peers.

WOW!!! Ummmm...you're supposed to add water to the coffee and percolate it in a pot before drinking it...NOT mix the espresso grounds with Red Bull and mainline it!!

Sheesh! LOL