Cost of Living vs Cost of Camping

Out of curiosity and since I keep pretty good records and since I have a lot of time on my hands, I looked up what we spent on camping during our first year of full timing in 2013 and then compared those prices to what it would now cost in 2020.

Short answer: More.

On average about 13% more: $35.84/day in 2013 vs $40.51/day in 2020. By the way, according to Social Security the Cost of Living went up 8.4% from 2013 to 2019.

From April through October 2013 we stayed at 37 campgrounds. All but 6 of these campgrounds have increased their prices. One of the six stayed the same and the other 5 campgrounds actually lowered their prices. These 5 were mostly state or county campgrounds.

However, the other 32 campgrounds raised their prices. While the median increase is between 25% – 29%, the highest increase was over 200%.

On Another Note . . .

People keep telling me online that they never or seldom make campground reservations. I wish them luck. Each year we find it increasingly difficult to get into campgrounds without reserving in advance.

So this announcement really didn’t surprise me . . .

I Turned 70 Today

To me, turning 50 was saying goodbye to youth (bummer), turning 60 was retirement (yahoo!), and 70 is YIKES!

Three quarters of a century didn’t seem that bad until I downloaded Sailing by Christopher Cross tonight on the way home from dining out. I really like the song so I looked up when I first heard it . . . 1980. Forty years ago!

Those of us in this age bracket all have similar experiences . . . When did I see that movie? I think it was just a few years ago. Well, maybe 5 or 10. And then you discover it was more like 30 years ago.

C’est la vie.

Anyway, Jan & I are still planning future travels . . . 2021 East Coast RV Trip, Tom’s Amtrak Adventure, Jan’s Ireland Visit, . . .

Finally, dined at Cha Bones earlier and had two fine desserts . . .

 

 

10th Annual Havasu Balloon Festival

It was almost looking like a repeat of previous years — too windy — at this year’s Annual Balloon Festival. High winds yesterday prevented a morning balloon ascension.

However, this morning it was perfect weather. Jan got up early and took the best photos. I was up late (8:30am ish) and took pictures of balloons landing in our “back yard” . . .

 

 

 

Wi-Fi Wireless Weather Station

 

I just installed an Ambient WS-2000 personal weather station at our park model in Lake Havasu City, AZ. The weather station measures temperature, humidity, wind speed, rain amount, and a bunch of other things. However, what I think makes the WS-2000 exceptional is the ability to add up to 8 temperature/humidity sensors to it. More on this later. Finally, all of the WS-2000’s measurements can be displayed on the Weather Underground or on Ambient’s own site — AmbientWeather.net.

 

 

 

Our WS-2000 is mounted on a 16-foot fiberglass flag pole I bought from Poles and Holders who also sell the pole mounting holders, like the white one above and the black one on the back of our RV:

Our goal is to take the weather station (and pole which collapses to 4 feet) with us in our RV when we travel. Of course, it would be a PITA to put the pole up for just short campground stays, but at least this summer we’ll be staying longer at places.

All the weather information — including any optional sensors — appears on the included LCD display . . .

 

. . . and on a web browser, a tablet, or a smartphone:

About Those 8 Additional Weather Sensors

This feature is a real boon for RVers as it allows you to monitor temperatures while away from your RV. For example, in addition to the indoor sensor in our park model (and soon to be in our RV), we also have a temperature/humidity sensor in our refrigerator and in the freezer. We plan to put another sensor in our RV’s basement water compartment to alert us if the temp drops to freezing.

In the short movie below, you can see the LCD display cycling through

• Indoor Temperature/Humidity,
• FRIDGE (Optional Sensor 1) Temperature/Humidity, and
• FREEZER (Optional Sensor 2) Temperature/Humidity:

 

These addition sensors offer RVers pet protection during hot summers and food protection in the case of refrigerator failure.

 

For More Information

• PWS02-WS2000_Box
• In-Depth WS-2000 YouTube Review
• Ambient Weather WS-2902A (WS-2902A YouTube Review) — a less expensive version of the WS-2000 that has a cheaper LCD display and cannot use optional sensors.

What’s in the Box?

As promised in my Happy Thanksgiving post, here’s what’s in the box:

 

 

It’s a portable generator . . .

 

 

After several campground power outages (one in summer = no AC), we decided to get a small backup generator. This gen is powerful enough to power our park model, except for our washer/dryer and outside AC. However, it will power a small wall AC we have. Also, the gen is “dual fuel” so it can run off either gasoline or propane. Very handy.

The box I built, which ended up costing about as much as the portable gen, was designed to reduce generator noise. Did it work? You be the judge . . .