Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosGayle Chew, of Granite Falls, Wash., reads Friday afternoon outside her RV at Crown Villa RV Resort in Bend.
Melissa Jansson / The Bulletin
Sacrifices for recreation’s sake
Sales of new RVs may be slowing, but determined owners are still on the road
By Bob Albrecht / The Bulletin
Published: August 04. 2008 4:00AM PSTThe Bodines would probably be in Florida, and the Edgars would be enjoying the cool weather and scenery of Alaska.
But both families altered their summer plans as the cost of diesel approaches $5 a gallon in some places, making it a several-hundred-dollar investment to drive their RVs to their preferred vacation destinations.
“It has affected how much we move around,” said Ron Bodine, 66, who lives in his RV year-round with his wife, Bertie. “We would probably increase our travels by about 100 percent, and visit different places and friends that we have” if fuel prices weren’t so high.
While they are taking shorter trips, dedicated RVers determined to see the country and visit family are still traveling, despite staggering fuel bills that sometimes exceed $700 — the cost of filling the 150-gallon tank of the Bodines’ home on wheels.
People who already own RVs are finding ways around high costs, but slumping sales indicate a slowdown in new RV owners.
Coburg-based Monaco Coach Corp., one of the industry leaders in RV sales, last week reported $9.7 million in losses in its second quarter. The company scaled back production from 180 RVs a week to 90 and temporarily laid off 225 employees in Coburg.
Wes and Glennis Edgar are among the RV owners who have chosen to make sacrifices, rather than simply park their rig.
With the sun’s rays blocked by the clouds, pine trees and their fifth-wheel’s awning inside the Crown Villa RV Resort in Bend, the couple said they were planning on going north for part of the summer as late as March, when diesel was hovering around $4 a gallon. At the time, the Ontario, Ore., couple were vacationing in Arizona.
“That was the plan for this year,” Wes Edgar said Friday. “But we decided to hold off on Alaska.”
“It has curtailed our traveling plans,” added Glennis Edgar.
Steve Molstad said his family salvaged their summer plans by towing their own shelter in lieu of staying at a motel.
“We try to do a couple trips a year in the camper and a couple in a motel,” said Molstad, as his daughters biked in circles near the family’s plot. “The motel is probably where we’ll cut back.”
The Molstads’ approach is common among travelers who are trying to make the most of their summer as fuel and food costs rise, according to a study commissioned by the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association that found RV family vacations cost up to 74 percent less than other types of vacations after factoring in airfares and hotels.
The Molstads, who live near Seattle, have visited Bend each summer for six years. “We visit Crater Lake and the lava beds,” Molstad said.
Future plans
Every summer, Gayle and Ron Chew use their vacation time to make either an RV trip to visit family in Connecticut or explore new places.
Gayle Chew said Friday that the couple and their two dogs, Maggie and Stuart, were spending two nights in Bend as part of a trip from their home in Washington along the coastline. Chew said she and her husband had planned to travel into California but only made it as far south as Bandon.
“It wasn’t the fuel that made us shorten our trip,” said Chew, who lives in Granite Falls, Wash., about 55 miles east of Seattle. “It was friends who told us about windy roads and smoke.”
The high price of fuel wouldn’t have stopped the Chews, even if Connecticut was the final destination.
“It’s family,” she said. “At this point in time, it’s still in the books for next year.”
Having already traveled 4,300 miles and visited 15 states as far east as Missouri since the beginning of June, Janet Hofmeister and Ken Smith said they’ll probably stay home next summer. They plan to travel through California on their way home to Phoenix, Ariz., where they’re slated to return Sept. 1.
“We usually take 30 days,” Hofmeister said. “We’ve never gone this length of time.”
Because of high fuel prices, Hofmeister figures they won’t take their RV out at all next year.
Travel costs have affected the Bodines but not grounded them, said Ron Bodine. He said the effects of high gas prices are curtailing others’ plans, and it’s apparent by slumping RV sales and vacant camp spots.
Strong attendance
Regionally, attendance at area RV parks is running about even with last year, said Alana Audette, president and CEO of the Central Oregon Visitors Association, which promotes the area’s tourism industry. But that could change.
“It looks like travel is going to drop off fairly precipitously toward the end of August,” Audette said. “August may not fare as well as last August” when RVers flooded the area for one of two major RV events.
Last summer, The Rally, one of the nation’s largest annual RV events, was held in Redmond in July and attracted about 3,500 RVs. In August, the Family Motor Coach Association held a rally in Redmond, attracting more than 2,600 rigs.
Most RV travelers cite the high cost of fuel as the driving force behind their decisions to stay closer to home this summer.
Attendance at Hoodoo Recreation campsites Dexter Shores RV Park and Patio RV Park is either up or even with last year, according to General Manager Matthew McFarland.
He said any declines in the area’s RV numbers are the result of snow that lingered well into summer. Black Butte RV Park just opened last week, McFarland said.
“Most of our RV people don’t come from New York or Colorado,” McFarland said. “It’s Oregon traffic. The little bit extra they’re spending on fuel isn’t the deterrent.”
In 2005, when Bodine bought his RV, diesel cost about $1.50 a gallon. Last week, diesel in Bend was running about $4.80 a gallon, according to AAA’s Fuel Price Finder Web site.
“This year’s trip is probably ... triple the cost of what it was five years ago,” he said.
But traveling is easier for Bodine and his wife than it is for most RV owners because they live in their camper, he said. “We don’t have a mortgage, and we don’t have property taxes.”
Bob Albrecht can be reached at 541-617-7862 or at balbrecht@bendbulletin.com.
ARTICLE ACCESS: This article is among those available to all readers. Many more articles are available only to E-Edition members. Sign up today!
blog comments powered by Disqus
