I can hardly believe it is that time of year again! Time for year end summaries! We’ve had some major changes this year – read on…

First off, if you are interested, here are links to all summaries: Summary page links

We ended last year at our workamping jobs in South Jersey, at Country Oaks Campground. We worked about a week after our on the road anniversary, leaving New Jersey the day after Labor Day.

So, starting August 29, 2017, and ending August 29, 2018, here is our campground summary:

9 PRIVATE CAMPGROUNDS (197 nights total/115 we paid for = $23.70 average per night) :

Country Oaks, NJ:   7 nights       $0 (part of our employment compensation)County Oaks
Hickory Hollow, PA:  24 nights     $18.75 average per night (monthly rate) + $38.54 electric                                                            Hickory Hollow
Heartland RV Park, KY:   3 nights   $20 per night (before Amazon started paying)                                                                68 nights  $0 (part of Amazon compensation)  Amazon
Clearwater Travel Resort, FL:  7 nights   $27.50 per night (half off with Passport America)                                                           31 nights   $28.33 per night (monthly rate) + $32.36 electric FL
Lazy L & L, TX:   27 nights   $15.56 per night (monthly rate) Texas Time!
La Paz, AZ:   6 nights total (2 pre-rally, 4 post-rally)   $15 per night Quartzsite AZ
Wine Ridge, NV:   5 nights   $31.60 per night (rally rate) Rally at Wine Ridge
Nevada Treasure, NV:   6 nights   $38.15 per night (rally rate)    Nevada Treasure                                                                                           7 nights   $0 (rally)                                                                                                                             1 night    $38.15 per night (rally rate)
Circle the Wagons, CO:   5 nights   $41.95 per night  Great Sand Dunes and La Veta

STATE PARK:

Boyd Lake, CO:  5 nights   $24 per night + $8 per night per vehicle = $40 per night  DRY
Boyd Lake SP, Loveland CO

NATIONAL PARKS:  (12 nights  $13 per night average)

Boulder Beach/Lake Mead National Recreation Area, NV:  3 nights   $10 per night  DRY   Stewarts Point, Boulder City, NV & Boulder Beach
Lone Rock Beach Primitive  (dispersed), UT (near Page, AZ):   9 nights    $14 per night   DRY
Page, AZ

NATIONAL FORESTS:  (18 nights  $23.11 per night average)

Jacob Lake, AZ:  2 nights    $20 per night  DRY  Jacob Lake, North Rim Grand Canyon
Ansel Watrous, CO:   6 nights   $21 per night   DRY  Poudre Canyon
Stove Prairie, CO:   2 nights    $21 per night   DRY (see above – Poudre Canyon)
Prospector Campground, CO:  8 nights    $26 per night DRY  Dillon CO

ESCAPEES: (10 nights  $11 per night average)

Pair A Dice, NV:   7 nights   $7.14 per night (first time visitor special)                                                                          3 nights   $20 per night (member rate)  Pair A Dice, Pahrump

12 ELKS (48 nights total – average cost per night = $18.54):

Ephrata, PA:   5 nights   $10 per night w/e  Ephrata, Lancaster County, PA
Decatur, AL:   1 night     $10 per night DRY
Indio, CA:      3 nights    $25 per night elec only  Indo and 29 Palms
Twenty Nine Palms, CA:   2 nights   $15 per night elec only (see above)
Pahrump, NV:   1 night   $10 elec only
Boulder City, NV:  5 nights   $30 per night  FHU  Stewarts Point, Boulder City, NV & Boulder Beach
St George, UT:  2 nights   $15 per night  elec only   St George, UT
Page, AZ:    1 night    $20  elec only  Page, AZ
Cortez, CO:  4 nights   $18 per night elec only  Mesa Verde – Cortez CO
Colorado Springs, CO:    5 nights   $20 per night  w/e  Colorado Springs
Boulder, CO:   9 nights   $17 per night w/e  Boulder, CO
Westminster, CO:   10 nights    $16 per night w/e – some FHU Denver Area, Westminster Elks

BOONDOCKING – $0 cost:  (52 nights)

My daughters driveway, PA: 6 nights
Cabelas, WV:  1 night
Costco/Bass Pro, FL:  1 night
Cracker Barrel, FL:  1 night
Cindy & James, LA:   2 nights
Walmarts:   4 nights total
Quartzsite, AZ:   7 nights  Quartzsite AZ
Borrego Springs, CA:   5 nights Borrego Springs
Stewarts Point, NV:  7 nights Stewarts Point, Boulder City, NV & Boulder Beach
Williams Fork Reservoir, CO:   11 nights  Williams Fork Reservoir
Stillwater Pass, CO:   7 nights  Stillwater Pass, Grand Lake CO area

FAIRGROUNDS: 

Pueblo Fairgrounds, CO:  7 nights   $20 per night (rally rate)  Pueblo, CO – Rally at Fairgrounds

COLORADO RIVER DISTRICT:

Wolford CG, CO:  14 nights  $17 per night (weekly rate) + $60 (extra vehicle fees)= $21.43 average

Something we have run into a lot this year, more than other years, is additional fees for my car. Some places actually charge for the truck AND the car! Extra fees we paid this year were anywhere from $5 to $8 per night! That surely does add up! Needless to say, we have a huge issue with this, as Class A’s towing a vehicle, in most locations, do not pay for the towed. How unfair is that? I consider us to be a camping unit, we are still only two people, not using any additional resources because we choose to drive separately. Most of the time, actually all but once I think, we fit within the site, not even taking up an additional parking spot. It is public parks that charge these fees, not usually private parks. Sometimes the people at the gate will “look the other way” when they realize you are together, as the rangers did at Lone Rock, where our America the Beautiful pass got me in as “daily use.” Technically, they were supposed to charge me an additional nightly fee of $14 per to bring my car in – doubling the rate! I get that they charge even for a car, as lots of people drive in with a car and bring tents to stay the night, but to charge me double just because I have a car? Boyd Lake in Colorado charged individually for the truck, car and campsite. Seriously – how do they expect you to get the RV to the site? They do offer seasonal passes for the car, but it wasn’t worth it for us, as we only stayed 5 days, and I would have needed two! I believe a more fair way would be to charge per person, some people come in a van and have up to seven or eight – they are using way more resources than we are. Just another reason to stay at Elks and/or boondock when possible. National Forest campgrounds usually aren’t as bad, although some are. Okay – rant over.

MEMBERSHIPS:

Escapees: $40 per year. We stayed at one of their parks in Nevada, but to us joining Escapees is more about supporting an organization that looks out for full-time RVers.  One way they do this by keeping an eye on political issues that effect us, and keeping us informed of things we need to write congressmen/women about. They also have an excellent website and forum, full of helpful information. They offer a physical mailing address for those who need one for their driver licenses, vehicle registrations, health insurance, etc.  Their SKP and Rainbow campgrounds offer people places to have a reasonably priced home base, Many independent campgrounds offer Escapees discounts, from 15% up to 50%.

This Escapees park does not show non-member rates, so I’m not sure they allow non-members to stay, but a campground right up the street has a weekly rate of $175 and nightly rate of $30, so if we weren’t Escapees, we would have paid $265 for a 10 day stay. We saved $155 by being members. The membership fee is $40 so we are still ahead financially $115 by being Escapees.

Elks: This is another organization that we just love to support, as most of their funds go to help veterans, especially those local to each lodges area.  Yearly dues can vary greatly, but our home lodge (Ephrata PA) is $68 per year. We also really love the warm welcome we get at each lodge we visit, as well as a safe place to stay. Sometimes, as was in the Boulder and Denver areas in Colorado, they are just so much less expensive than other places, it is a no-brainer to stay there. They are not always the most attractive places to stay, lots of times just a parking lot, but when staying one or two nights, or when working, or when just needing a place to park while sightseeing, it makes sense to us. Another huge plus is Elks are generally very quiet, especially on weekends, compared to campgrounds. There aren’t “weekenders” being loud and partying.

I did a quick look at each of the areas where we stayed at Elks Lodges to determine how much we saved on fees by staying at Elks verses an actual campground. I chose the closest place and here is a look at the results:

Ephrata PA: $41 – paid $10 – saved $31 per night X 10 nights = $310
Decatur AL: didn’t count this as it was a quick overnight and we probably would have stayed at Walmart
Indio CA: $25 – paid $25 – saved 0
Twentynine Palms:  $0 – paid $15 X 2 = $30 (would have stayed on Jessie’s yard) paid $30 more
Pahrump, NV:  $30 – paid $10 X 1 = $20 saved
Boulder City, NV:  $48 – paid $30 X 5 = $90 saved
St George, UT:  $30 – paid $15 X 2 = $30 saved
Page, AZ:  $50 – paid $20 X 1 = $30 saved
Cortez, CO:  $40 – paid $18 X 4 = $88 saved
Colorado Springs, CO:  $25 – paid $20 X 5 = $25 saved
Boulder, CO:  $40 – paid $17 X 9 = $207 saved
Westminter (Denver) CO:  $55 – paid $16 X 10 = $390 saved

Using the above numbers, we saved a total of $1,160 (this also accounts for spending $30 more in 29 Palms). Considering we have yearly dues of $68, we are still ahead by $1,092. I have to say, some of the campgrounds I found were FHU’s, while most of the Elks are not, some have water/electric, only one or two have sewer. Some of the Elks are tight spots and more closely resemble a parking lot, others have a more campground feel. What we have found every single time, is welcoming friendly people, a reasonably priced bar, and in most cases, reasonably priced decent meals. Can’t say that about too many traditional campgrounds.

Passport America: $39 per year (usually $44 but we opt to not get the paper directory). We haven’t really used this much this year, except for 7 nights at Clearwater Travel Resort, but using it there makes it worth the yearly cost. If we ever stop using that specific campground, we will probably not renew this.

Good Sam: $25 for 2 years. You actually pay $50 but get a coupon for $25 when you sign up. We have joined this again, not so much for the minimal 10% off campground fees, but more for the discount at their stores.  We purchased new camp chairs, and a few other hard to find elsewhere items, and that made it worth paying the membership.

FAVORITE CAMPGROUNDS:

This is a really tough question this year. I think to make it easier for myself, I am going to have more than two categories, favorite independent campground (for amenities), and favorite boondock (dispersed) spot (its all about the view!); as well as least favorite. I’m also going to have a favorite and least favorite Elks.

Here we go!

Our favorite independent campground, the kind that has full hook-ups, with lots of amenities, is Nevada Treasure, in Pahrump Nevada. This type of campground is usually way out of our price range, but we were staying here for the RV Dreams Spring Rally, plus a few days before and after, as Bill had installs there. It was an absolutely gorgeous place, with a heated pool, hot tub, work out room, an on-site bar and grill (with reasonable prices), a mini bowling alley, and beautifully landscaped property. Our site had a private “backyard” with a picnic table under a cabana. They had Karaoke nights, and other entertainment.

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The runner-up isn’t a private campground, but we LOVED it, was Ansel Watrous campground. Its a National Forest campground, so no hook-ups, but having the river right behind our site was just our kind of place!

It is difficult to choose one boondocking spot to call a favorite, as we’ve spent time in so many great places this year!

I’ve got to say Lone Rock was my favorite. Yes, it was $14 a night – so not free – but had water/dump station and dumpster access. The views were just amazing! (See featured picture above) There was a lot of space, so you never felt too close to anyone, even when you purposely parked near someone (Bill had an install while we were there.) Page, Arizona was close by, and a large enough town to have good food shopping and a Walmart.  There were also well stocked local hardware stores.  Our phone signal was great, which we were really surprised about.  There are lots of great places to go see from there, check out our post to read about what we did there. Page AZ Highlights

Since its so hard to pick just one, we also loved Borrego Springs, in southern California. There are lots of great little towns to go walk around and explore, as well as trails to hike.  SoCal Boondocking

We also loved Stewarts Point, near Valley of Fire in Nevada. Valley of Fire, etc

Williams Fork Reservoir, between Granby and Kremmling, Colorado was also a great spot.

NOTE: Borrego Springs, Stewart’s Point and Williams Fork were FREE!

Now, on to Elks Lodges. My favorite for the layout of the parking and “real campground” feel was Boulder City, Nevada. We enjoyed full hook-ups, and the proximity to Las Vegas was great!  Close enough to visit, without the noise; plus close to Hoover Dam (even though we skipped that this time.)

The runner-up for “campground feel” would have to be Westminter, Colorado.

There wasn’t really a view though, at either of these, so the best Elks Lodge, this year, for views is St. George, Utah. We backed up to amazing red rocks, and the views while having a drink or  dinner in the lodge were unmatched at any other Elks.

It isn’t hard to answer the “least favorite” full hook-up campground, the award goes to Heartland RV Park in Campbellsville, Kentucky. This is where we stayed for 10 weeks while working at Amazon. We had stayed there before, so we knew what we were getting into: a boring gravel parking lot with while painted lines. We stayed in 2015, and returned again in 2017, for one reason: convenience. It isn’t somewhere we would stay if it weren’t for that. There is a bathhouse and laundry, and a common room.  There isn’t any view or anything, unless you count looking out at the Amazon building.

I’ve decided to skip the least favorite dispersed boondock spot, as we really enjoyed all we stayed at.  We would return to any of them when in the area again.

Our least favorite Elks Lodge is another tough one. If we agree that least favorite means we would not return, we can’t pick any, as we would return to stay a night or two at any of them. Some have nicer set ups for RVers than others, as mentioned above, but all allow us to stay for a nominal fee, in a safe and friendly environment. Hard to beat that!

Above, I said that we had some awesome FREE boondock spots, but I feel the need to say that while there are lots of places to camp without campground fees, there is a cost to boondocking. For us, we feel more like we have “pre-paid”, in the form of solar. I’m not going to get into the exact cost of that for us, since it is so variable to each RV, but had we not invested in solar at the very beginning of this journey, it would have made boondocking much less desirable. It could be done, but would much be much more noisy, for having to run a generator a lot. Another cost involved in boondocking is propane, as that’s what we use for our water heater, and furnace. Its also used for our stovetop and oven, but that would be the same even if on a plug. We also have premium ethanol-free gas for the generators for when air conditioning is needed, and/or repeated cloudy days. Sometimes there are also fees for dump stations and/or taking on water, usually nominal, but worth mentioning.

TRAVEL COSTS:

As a reminder:
our truck is a 2011 Ford F350 DRW XLT Extended cab, current mileage:  87,000
our car is a 2006 Honda CR/V, current mileage:  196,000

Our total miles traveled this past year was 6,150 miles. That number is total towing miles, a.k.a. miles we were moving from one location to another. Miles put on the truck without towing was 745, so total truck miles was 6,895.  We added 18,761 miles to my CR/V; it is easy to conclude 12,611 were miles saved on the truck, as we use the CR/V as the primary “exploring” vehicle.

Average fuel cost per mile for the truck when not towing was 18.5 cents. Average fuel cost per mile for the CR/V was 9.4 cents. Using these numbers, we determined we saved $1,147.60 just in fuel costs by having the CR/V this past year.

Other costs saved in truck maintenance; put another way – additional costs in maintenance we would have had if we had added an additional 12,611 miles on the truck:

1 1/2 oil changes:   $100
1/2 fuel filter:             $ 25
tire wear:                  $400
DEF and Cetane boost    $100
total saved maintenance = $625

increased depreciation:   $1,300

total savings:              $1,925

This savings would be offset by additional maintenance costs on the CRV

2 oil changes    $50
tire wear   $150
front brakes   $50
Trans fluid change    $25
Total  additional maintenance costs $275

Depreciation loss  $200

Insurance  $600

Total Cost   $1,075

If you add it all together we saved $850 by keeping the car.  To us, it is still worth having, especially now with doing solar installs, as we have often needed the extra space to pick up supplies. The truck is full of tools, etc. and it is much easier to use the car when going to Home Depot, UPS store, etc.

MODS, MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS:

New Leather Lazy Boy recliner chairs:  $1,500
Weld leaf spring hanger:  $100
Repair Hub/Stripped Lugs:  $128
bypass water heater valve/plumbing supplies:  $68
MCD shade hanger hardware:  $9
sewer cap:  $10
finish bedroom slide floor repair:  $35

Whew! That’s a lot of numbers!

In the past, I’ve talked about how much money we’ve earned at our workamping jobs. I will not be discussing our income from RV Solar Solutions. We have always considered our income to be personal information, but since workamping jobs were available to everyone and basically public knowledge, we decided to include that information on our blog. We wanted to show anyone looking into workamping how much it was possible to make. Since the solar installing doesn’t really fall into that category, we’ve decided to keep it private.

That about wraps up our year, by the book. Hope you’ve found it helpful! If you have any questions, please reach out!

Previous post: Kremmling, CO

Next post:  What’s the Same? What’s Different?

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