Hey everyone. Rod and Georgia here in Lakewood WA. We are just looking into FT RVing. Will take about a year to get everything into place. Any ideas about the best RV park memberships like Thousand Trails etc. Take care and thanks for sharing with the nesbeees. R&G
Just wanted to share a bit about us after our first message. Have been reading and learning a lot from you all. RVing---not as simple as it looks from the outside. Over 60 years of living in a few paragraphs..ya. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this site. Just added to profile:
7-2010 Hi everyone. Well, where do I start? Currently renting a Salt Box style home (built in 1908) in Lakewood Wa. Both of us are "retired" and just slightly over 60 (so G will not kill me). Married 13 years, blended family. 7 kids between us. R-3 mine--G-4(hate being beat!) Have 14 1/2 grandkids. Lost a son in Iraq, Joe Blickenstaff (#461---could write a book on this event). Both prior teachers. R Special ed, G Music. When worked had many diff jobs. R-teacher, several businesses, Workers' Comp (OR and WA), retail...on and on and on. G-music teacher, own business 28yr-taught families about how money works (retired), church music-piano. Currently renting and getting ready for FT RVing in 12-18 mo. We are new wannabees. Due to health issues we are free---no jobs, church but no responsibilities (G has been music director and played piano for 50 yrs (from age 12--ooops). It's time...who knows how long each of us has. Have had parents-friends who waited to "retire" and then pass before they could live what ever their dream was. Our complete thanks go to you all for this site. What a blessing to us. Will do our best to contribute as we progress throught the stages. Starting to get rid of stufffffffffff. Told the kids this weekend. Went ok. Best to all. R&G "No RV as yet" 1986 Taurus
-- Edited by RodandGeorgia on Tuesday 27th of July 2010 07:42:15 AM
Happytrails said
11:57 AM Jul 11, 2010
Hi Rod and Georgia!! Welcome to the RV Dreams forum and family! This is a great place to be and to make wonderful friends. Looks like you are in the planning stages of full-timing so you are busy....lots to do. We started full-timing in August 2009...wow almost a year ago. It doesn't seem like a year. It went by so quickly and what a wonderful year it has been. We have learned so much this first year. We are loving it!!
We decided to not join a campground membership such as Thousand Trails. I have heard good and not so good about those memberships. With campgrounds closing due to the economy and such we just thought having a membership with Passport America would be more beneficial for us. We also belong to Escapees which gives you access to their campgrounds at a reduced cost. We like to stay in state, national campgrounds as much as possible because we like nature. I guess, bottom line, we felt it would limit us too much.
I am sure someone on this forum does belong to Thousand Trails and maybe they will give you some better advice or at least a different twist on things.
Good luck to you guys and stay in touch. :)
RodandGeorgia said
08:08 AM Jul 12, 2010
Mike and Gerri. Thanks for the info. Rod talking. I'm an x-Special Ed teacher(high school-voc training and math-etc) and Georgia also taught piano. Will look into Passport and Escapees---If we join--do you receive a referral "something". If so, would be glad to list ya. Yes. Lots to do in the next year. I barely know what a wheel is on an RV--lots to learn. Headed towards FT with lots to look at. This new adventure is quite a process (mentally and otherwise) Know, in the end, that we will not know if FT rving is for us until we get into it. Good point about closing membership plans. Considering because trying to keep costs to a min. Thanks. Will look into what you have said. Take care and thanks again. Rod
Jbbar said
03:16 PM Jul 12, 2010
We are members of Escapees and that gives us a discount at a lot of places. Although we have thought of other memberships nothing has jumped out at us as being a real deal. We boondock a lot so maybe that colours our thoughts also. If I was looking for a membership I would be investigating buying one 'secondhand' rather than a new purchase, I have heard that like time shares they are usually more reasonably priced.
Speedhitch said
07:33 PM Jul 12, 2010
We use our SKP and Passport America. My favorite is the National Park Pass. We stay at all the COE parks for half price and you can't beat that one.
bjoyce said
09:28 AM Jul 13, 2010
The standard advice is to not buy into membership camping until you have been on the road a year. The reasoning for this advice is that most people find how they travel and where they travel does not match what they originally thought it would, including a few finding that full-timing is not for them. Until you really know what you want you can't really do the math and see if a particular membership will benefit you. Passport America and Escapees are relatively cheap, Escapees in more ways than lower cost camping, so they are a good start and are recommended for beginners. For boondocking spots you can't beat Escapees Days End listings. Plus there are some low resale values for membership camping for those who are patient, don't pay retail. If you are an Elk or Moose a benefit is they often have camping, plus they are great organizations.
We have and use Thousand Trails (we use this one a lot, but know people who barely use their membership), a Coast to Coast (C2C) park that is cheap, and Sunrise (this one we are not using enough).
Edit: I realized that being the detail oriented person I am I can give you our true nightly costs for each membership or discount we get, which includes all buy-ins, dues, nightly surcharges, etc: Passport America $17.64 (182 nights), Escapees $19.25 (161 nights), Elks $24.29 (56 nights), Thousand Trails $21.46 (261 nights), C2C $21.10 (107 nights), Sunrise $49.08 (106 nights).
-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 13th of July 2010 09:29:08 AM
-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 13th of July 2010 09:40:41 AM
Luvglass said
10:14 AM Jul 13, 2010
Bill, From your historic analysis of actual usage, it's evident the the TT and C2C are not the bargains that they are presented to be in the sales hype, so what is the attraction? Are the campgrounds that nice?
RodandGeorgia said
07:24 AM Jul 14, 2010
Wow!! What great information! Thank you all so much for the benefit of your experience. Especially the financials. We have about $3500 net coming in and this info is important. I'm (Rod) the information junkie----Georgia is the real brains. I'm just the grunt man. Went out to an RV sales last week and decided that 31' motor home (with expand living room) feels like the right size for us. Goal is to get one in 12-14 months--depends on how things go with downsizing-money-etc. Motorhome is what we think will be best for us. Will get a small car--very small to pull behind.
Have had some experience at TT when my X in-laws had me stay with them in Pacific City-Bend-Florence OR. Was about 15 years ago and was very nice at that time. Just looked at the financial reports for the parent company and I'm not an expert or accountant but they have a little more debt then I like to see. Not like OMG but I'm a tad (only we would know what this means) nervous. Over the next year will just have to look at it all before we decide. And if we do it, will buy a previously owned--ya, I found out that there are many-many different contracts during the years with TT. Ok, breeeeeth. We have a year or so.
Being on the road a year is good advice. Will seriously look into the sites listed and share with Georgia. Thanks again "RV Family" and God Bless. R&G
-- Edited by RodandGeorgia on Wednesday 14th of July 2010 07:25:38 AM
bjoyce said
09:36 AM Jul 15, 2010
Luvglass wrote:
Bill, From your historic analysis of actual usage, it's evident the the TT and C2C are not the bargains that they are presented to be in the sales hype, so what is the attraction? Are the campgrounds that nice?
C2C and TT are bargains compared to many other campgrounds, where our averages are $30 or more per night (this does not include Passport America campgrounds). The campgrounds are decent and some are very nice. Many who have TT have older memberships with dues frozen at much lower numbers than ours, so it is more of a bargain for them. If we did not have TT our C2C usage would be higher and our nightly cost would be lower. But, yes, they are not the bargains the salespeople like to portray them as but we did our homework and are using them about as expected. We originally thought we would use Sunrise much more than we did, so we lost that bet.
Just wanted to share a bit about us after our first message. Have been reading and learning a lot from you all. RVing---not as simple as it looks from the outside. Over 60 years of living in a few paragraphs..ya. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for this site. Just added to profile:
7-2010 Hi everyone. Well, where do I start? Currently renting a
Salt Box style home (built in 1908) in Lakewood Wa. Both of us are "retired" and just slightly over 60 (so G will not kill me). Married 13 years, blended family. 7 kids between us. R-3 mine--G-4(hate being beat!) Have 14 1/2 grandkids. Lost a son in Iraq, Joe Blickenstaff (#461---could write a book on this event). Both prior teachers. R Special ed, G Music. When worked had many diff jobs. R-teacher, several businesses, Workers' Comp (OR and WA), retail...on and on and on. G-music teacher, own business 28yr-taught families about how money works (retired), church music-piano. Currently renting and getting ready for FT RVing in 12-18 mo. We are new wannabees. Due to health issues we are free---no jobs, church but no responsibilities (G has been music director and played piano for 50 yrs (from age 12--ooops). It's time...who knows how long each of us has. Have had parents-friends who waited to "retire" and then pass before they could live what ever their dream was. Our complete thanks go to you all for this site. What a blessing to us. Will do our best to contribute as we progress throught the stages. Starting to get rid of stufffffffffff. Told the kids this weekend. Went ok. Best to all. R&G
"No RV as yet" 1986 Taurus
-- Edited by RodandGeorgia on Tuesday 27th of July 2010 07:42:15 AM
Mike and Gerri. Thanks for the info. Rod talking. I'm an x-Special Ed teacher(high school-voc training and math-etc) and Georgia also taught piano. Will look into Passport and Escapees---If we join--do you receive a referral "something". If so, would be glad to list ya. Yes. Lots to do in the next year. I barely know what a wheel is on an RV--lots to learn. Headed towards FT with lots to look at. This new adventure is quite a process (mentally and otherwise) Know, in the end, that we will not know if FT rving is for us until we get into it. Good point about closing membership plans. Considering because trying to keep costs to a min. Thanks. Will look into what you have said. Take care and thanks again. Rod
We have and use Thousand Trails (we use this one a lot, but know people who barely use their membership), a Coast to Coast (C2C) park that is cheap, and Sunrise (this one we are not using enough).
Edit: I realized that being the detail oriented person I am I can give you our true nightly costs for each membership or discount we get, which includes all buy-ins, dues, nightly surcharges, etc: Passport America $17.64 (182 nights), Escapees $19.25 (161 nights), Elks $24.29 (56 nights), Thousand Trails $21.46 (261 nights), C2C $21.10 (107 nights), Sunrise $49.08 (106 nights).
-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 13th of July 2010 09:29:08 AM
-- Edited by bjoyce on Tuesday 13th of July 2010 09:40:41 AM
Wow!! What great information! Thank you all so much for the benefit of your experience. Especially the financials. We have about $3500 net coming in and this info is important. I'm (Rod) the information junkie----Georgia is the real brains. I'm just the grunt man. Went out to an RV sales last week and decided that 31' motor home (with expand living room) feels like the right size for us. Goal is to get one in 12-14 months--depends on how things go with downsizing-money-etc. Motorhome is what we think will be best for us. Will get a small car--very small to pull behind.
Have had some experience at TT when my X in-laws had me stay with them in Pacific City-Bend-Florence OR. Was about 15 years ago and was very nice at that time. Just looked at the financial reports for the parent company and I'm not an expert or accountant but they have a little more debt then I like to see. Not like OMG but I'm a tad (only we would know what this means) nervous. Over the next year will just have to look at it all before we decide. And if we do it, will buy a previously owned--ya, I found out that there are many-many different contracts during the years with TT. Ok, breeeeeth. We have a year or so.
Being on the road a year is good advice. Will seriously look into the sites listed and share with Georgia. Thanks again "RV Family" and God Bless. R&G
-- Edited by RodandGeorgia on Wednesday 14th of July 2010 07:25:38 AM
C2C and TT are bargains compared to many other campgrounds, where our averages are $30 or more per night (this does not include Passport America campgrounds). The campgrounds are decent and some are very nice. Many who have TT have older memberships with dues frozen at much lower numbers than ours, so it is more of a bargain for them. If we did not have TT our C2C usage would be higher and our nightly cost would be lower. But, yes, they are not the bargains the salespeople like to portray them as but we did our homework and are using them about as expected. We originally thought we would use Sunrise much more than we did, so we lost that bet.