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The Different Styles of RVing
I’ve always been interested in the many different styles or types of RVing.  For example, one of our RV friends usually stays at resort type private CGs.  And other couple will cover great distances to see new places.

Margee and I didn’t really have a “style” until recently.  We have preferred public CGs but often covered too many miles during our longer trips.   During our current trip, we’ve discovered that longer stays (14 days) in quieter wooded CGs is our preferred style.

We have seldom felt as relaxed and peaceful while RV camping as we have on this trip.  I’ve attached a picture of our kitchen window view. 

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #1
Still in the cover ground and explore mode, for at least the next two years (Alaska & Newfoundland) though with options to stay a while once there.  After that, I suspect more of the same, head to places like Vancouver Island or the Canadian Rockies and explore.

Not opposed to heading to a destination and staying a while, as I enjoyed doing so on the Washington coast and Rainer this year, just plenty of places I want to see first.
Dave

2017 TK

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #2
I spent 7 years living on a motorcycle.
4 years outside the US and 38 countries visited.
Came back to the US and did 3 more years on a different bike before I had had enough of that lifestyle.
Found and bought my Lazy Daze from the original owners in 2007 and have been living in it full time since the day I bought it.
I don't pay to stay, use public lands and try and be away from as many people as possible.
Spend the summers in the high country of Utah and winters in the desert around Tucson.
I keep a small dual sport motorcycle on the back to do a lot of my errands, and for exploring new places to stay.
It's a great way to live for me, being on a very low fixed income.
Jota
96 23.5 FL

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #3
We very rarely stay in private campgrounds, maybe a KOA journey every now and then. We mostly prefer NPS, state or county campgrounds. We have also found a lot of city's have nice, inexpensive RV parks to stay a few days in. Prefer to never drive more then 3-4 hours in a single day, so travel time is always built into our planning if on our way to a certain destination.
2001 23.5 twin/king. Second owners, first time Lazy Dazer

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #4
We have preferred public CGs but often covered too many miles during our longer trips.   During our current trip, we’ve discovered that longer stays (14 days) in quieter wooded CGs is our preferred style.
Our trips have been 6 to 8 months. We drove a lot of miles in the first few years due to adrenaline-fueled excitement. We found that finding a spot in public CGs worked best on Sundays when the working folks were headed home and Thursdays, a day before the working folk covered the parking spots like locusts. If we missed one of those we just waited until the next moving day came.

When we could find a perfect spot, usually on BLM land, that offered nothing but a view, we would stay a week or several weeks.

Staying in a private CG was like a prison to us.

We found most small towns in the midwest have city parks. Some are really nice with pools, others not so nice, but free or very low cost.
Don & Dorothy
Sold our LD in June of 2023

Our boring always non-PC travel blog
Traveling Dorothy

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #5
Words from the Past:

When we were out and about in our LD, our plan such as it was, was to explore museums and sights we'd read about.  Sometimes those places were from books and newspapers, sometimes they were from classrooms, sometimes they were from one of the myriad brochures picked up here and there.  And of course word-of-mouth and the internet.  Our general pattern was to pick a location and explore the heck out of it.  Such explorations included the many museums and sights in DC,  lights of Marfa TX, the green ping at sunset from the airport in Sedona, the Getty Museums in LA, and presidential museums and state museums usually found in state capitals.  And lots of town/county/city museums from big places like OK City to quite small places such as (the Nuckolls County Museum in) Superior NE.

Sometimes we stayed just one overnight and sometimes a couple of weeks with Las Cruces NM being a place I always found hard to leave and many times we spent 6 weeks.  We had very very few set "appointments" to meet and largely went without reservations.  I've read that today's RV-ing is quite different in that respect.

As well, our style of travel was generally 250 miles or 3:30 p.m. per day when on the move.  I-10 across Texas was a boogie from Texas Hill Country to El Paso. 

We largely stayed in organized campgrounds (I hesitate to say "Private" in that we were generally side-by-side) with experiences in dry camping on public lands and also in state parks.  We stayed in one Wal-Mart parking lot from 2007-2019.  Some places along the way were amenity rich and some were pretty basic. 

My theory is:  No one does it "wrong" (well except for that guy who emptied his tanks without gloves and wearing sandals), no one does it "right," and everyone does what best works for them.

TinaP
formerly of "Wild Thing" 2006 MB
(sold in 2019 to a new and enthusiastic owner)
2006 MB

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #6
Although it wasn't what we intended when we bought our RV, these days we use it as an oversized mini-van and a mobile hotel room.

We find ourselves going to events (festivals, races, ball games, amusement parks, rocket launches, etc...) and using the rig as a base camp for activities.  We park anywhere from rally style RV parking (an empty gravel lot or grass field) to hotel parking lots to industrial areas.  None of these are what I would call peaceful locations, but they make it easy to roll out of bed and be where the action is.  

We also use the RV to travel for 2-10 hr drives and ignore the gas prices because we appreciate the comfort and convenience.

We started when our kids we young. and did our share of national and state parks, as well as public and private campgrounds.  Now that they are older (late teens), we don't do as much of that as we used to.     

Rich
2003 MB

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #7
Depends.

In our 'early' days we did a lot of sightseeing.  Basically, we followed the RV truck hood.  We drove till we stopped at the next interesting spot.  Sometimes it was a Walmart parking lot sometimes a 'high' end private RV park.   Camped in and around BLM, COE, State, Federal and local campgrounds.   Sometimes just a wide spot on the side of the highway/road.  

Today I'd call what we do is hermit camping.    We find a out of the way spot - quiet, dark at night, and few to any other humans.   <smile> in our old age we just don't like loud drinking campers with large campfires.

We are blessed to live in a large country with all sorts of places to visit.   I was just sharing my DW that the purchase and use of Baxter the RV was one of the top ten experiences of my life. 

glen
personal fine art photo stuff
TF Mack | Flickr
It's all good .......
2014 Twin King

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #8
I haven't owned or lived in a house in more than 20 years now, and really don't miss it at all.
When people ask me where I live, I tell them, I'm always home.
It is so nice to be able to be comfortable and have everything you need in a nice compact,
mobile package.
I learned a less is better lifestyle living on motorcycles for so long.
And have transferred that knowledge over to my LD, which seems like a castle compared
to a motorcycle.
I plan to keep on this way as long as possible, the nomadic life will be hard to give up.
Jota
96 23.5 FL

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #9
Over the 20 years we had our two motorhomes we enjoyed a wide range of camping styles including boondocking, drycamping, sites with limited services and full service sites including higher end RV resorts.  We usually were more exploration oriented but sometimes stayed for longer periods like a month near Washington DC to really explore the Capitol and 3 months in Cortez, Colorado during the height of the COVID outbreak.  The LD was much more suited to boondocking and drycamping, so we did a lot more of that style when we had it.  When we decided to go fulltime, we wanted more comfort and cargo capacity, so we went with a good sized diesel pusher which was a bit large for many of the county, state and federal campgrounds we had enjoyed in the LD, but was a good choice for us living in it full time.
Art and Barbara
Settled in Atterdag Village of Solvang
2015-2022 fulltime in a 2016 Tiffin Allegro Bus 37AP
2002-2015 2002 LD MB
Art's blog

Re: The Different Styles of RVing
Reply #10
Years ago, Beverly introduced me to the Hermann city park in missouri.  My favorite!
2005 RB