RV Podcast: Camping during the coronavirus crisis

Travel plans for RVers are being disrupted by fear of the coronavirus and state campground closures, interstate rest area closures and growing travel restrictions. But lost in the deluge of news is the fact that the vast majority of private campgrounds in North America are still open and still welcoming RVers. Many are seeing increased bookings from RVers who want to hunker down there during the crisis To get an idea of where RVers can still camp during this crisis, our guest is Mark Koep, of the website campgroundviews.com, which works very closely with more than 1,700 privately owned campgrounds in North America. Show Notes for Episode #286 March 18, 2020 of The RV Podcast: WHAT MIKE AND JENNIFER ARE UP TO THIS WEEK What a week it has been: Many State Parks – New Mexico, North Carolina, Illinois, all 175 Florida State Parks and state and local parks in many other parts of the country - have been closed to camping. Schools, Bars, restaurants, movie theaters and businesses are shut down or have limited services pretty much nationwide. People are urged to stay home, indoors and practice social distancing. Some places have total lockdowns. Further restrictions are threatened and leaders are urging people to postpone all discretionary travel… which would obviously include RVing. There are hundreds of thousands of RVers already on the road. Where can they stay until the immediate crisis has passed? In our interview of the week, we’ll talk about that but even though the information we are giving you is current as we record this podcast, everything is changing… daily…sometimes hourly. So… our best advice to you right now is… stay where you are. Or, if you must, try a private campground and then stay there. We are in our condo on Okaloosa Island along the Florida panhandle’s Emerald Coast. Like many of you, we had travel plans. This week, we were supposed to be speaking at the RV Entrepreneur Summit in Lake Gunterson, AL. Like all RV rallies, RV shows and other events, it has been cancelled but moved to online. You can attend virtually by going to https://therventrepreneur.com/. After that, we were planning to head to Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. But all those plans, as with millions of others, have been put on hold. So we are hunkering down on the beach… not a bad place to be at all. So we don’t know where you are but we want you to know we are all in this together. We’ll try and stay in touch on social media as much as possible and we will use our RV Lifestyle Channel on YouTube to do live reports and updates about the coronavirus and its effect on RVing from time to time. But we will all get through this and it’s our hope that as we follow our government’s recommendation to lay low and practice social distancing this will all pass and life will quickly get back to normal. So hang in there everyone! Here is a link from our friends on Campendium that tacks the latest closings and openings of RV-related businesses, events, campgrounds and the like This part of the podcast is brought to you by the Nimble Pet Monitor 4G, the surest way we know of to have peace of mind that the temperature for your pets back in the RV is not too high. More information and a discount for listeners ot the RV Podcast is available at https://rvlifestyle.com/nimble RV LIFESTYLE NEWS OF THE WEEK Some states close state run campgrounds because of coronavirus If you are planning to move into a new campground anytime soon, be sure to call ahead to make sure it is not closed because of coronavirus. State run campgrounds in New Mexico , Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania all have closed because of coronavirus concerns. Many tourist destinations are also closing. The changes are numerous. Hotel reservations may be down, but campground reservations are up in some places as people seek to escape the coronavirus Last week we told you how the coronavirus was the reason Japan was experiencing a surge in campground reservations. This week it is happening in California and some western states. As the virus spreads, many are leaving their neighborhoods and heading to the outdoors. One campground owner in California said people are trying to avoid airports and cities, and are turning in the last few days, to camping in large numbers. Stay tuned for our interview of the week, where we will talk much more about this. Some events in National Parks canceled because of cornoavirus fears The Washington Monument has closed because of coronavirus concerns, and a maple sugar harvesting event was canceled at the Indiana Dunes National Park, but otherwise things are generally going on as normal as of this writing at the nation's national parks. But the way things are changing so quickly, it wouldn't surprise me if we see certain things temporarily close in the weeks ahead. So far, all is open, but if you have any doubts, call ahead. Strong winds rip through RV Park in Texas, injuring one Strong winds, that may have been a tornad