Home sweet road: Despite high gas prices, baby boomers are taking to road in comfort and style

It's popularity has been growing despite the high price of gas. Like gas prices, there's no sign of the recreation vehicle boom letting up, thanks to baby boomers heading into retirement with plenty of expendable income and the desire to hit the wide open roads.

Driving around with a big house is big business to the communities the motorists pull into and the Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe are no exception.

According to a recent University of Michigan study, the number of recreational vehicle enthusiasts has surpassed a record-breaking 8 million people, a figure representing an 58 percent increase in a quarter of a century.

The $14 billion industry generates $44.6 million in revenue for El Dorado County campgrounds. The majority of those proceeds goes into private campgrounds, a California Travel and Tourism Commission study points out. But now, the public entities are seeing the potential of expanding the opportunities.

Sly Park Campground near Pollock Pines approved its master plan recently with pledged improvements to accommodate the big-rigs, which have such a demand for space they park without hookups there.

At D.L. Bliss State Park off Highway 89, the California Parks' Sierra District has upgrades in store for its campsites, which fail now to provide enough space for the land yachts as they're called.

In town, the city-run Campground by the Lake makes more than it spends, raking in $359,751 in fiscal year 2005-06 while costing $249,000 to operate. The 34 RV sites with hookups fill up through July and August, with the Fourth of July holiday selling out the moment the city opens up the reservation book in the fall. The demand has been so great it has prompted campground supervisor Susan Kezich to open up additional sites at the last minute.

"We're hoping to get more with the 56-acre project," Kezich said of a proposal to develop and expand on the recreational and cultural offerings in the area anchored by the campground and spanning from South Lake Tahoe Senior Center to El Dorado Beach.

More RV camp sites were designed into the original concept, Mayor Kathay Lovell confirmed. The project is still in the design process for community input.

Living up to the potential

"The best thing I ever did was sell the lawn mower," campground host Richard Christini said, poking his head out of his RV and glancing at the artificial turf near the front door. For the last decade, Christini lives some of the year at the Highway 50 campground. When the Tahoe campground closes in the winter, he heads south to Arizona. He's called a "full timer" in the RV vernacular.

RV campers have come as far as Switzerland and England, while others take the short jaunts from Sacramento and Pollock Pines.

And with gas prices threatening $4 for a gallon of unleaded, self-serve, some RV travelers find they're venturing closer to home.

"We take shorter trips. But this is an investment. We try to use it. You don't want to just park it in the garage," Al Schmidt said. The El Dorado Hills man came up to Tahoe for a few days with his wife and friends.

"We know more and more of our friends buying them," Sandy DeCourey said of the aging baby boomer crowd. "You feel safer with four walls."

And there are other reasons.

"Been there, done that" was DeCourey's response to tent camping, while nestled into a camp chair waiting for the couples' cocktail hour.

It's difficult to define the spillover in South Lake Tahoe tax revenue, but tourism-based businesses located nearby may receive some of its cash receipts from the travelers with big bucks.

Joe Hansen of Rojos said he's convinced he gets some diners drifting over to his restaurant but doesn't know how many.

"I think they do. The ones with the nicer RVs spend more," he said.

Nevada's wide open marketing potential

The marketing theorists believe the RV numbers are pushed by aging baby boomers with disposable income, time on their hands and an unwillingness to sleep on the ground like they used to.

"These (boomers) are used to cruising in the VW van. But now it's the Winnebago, and they're bringing their toys with them," said Margaret Ann Schneweis, an RV marketing specialist with the Nevada Commission on Tourism.

NCOT has dedicated an entire marketing effort to these open-road enthusiasts. Schneweis hits many of the motor-coach gatherings and events including those the Good Sam Club puts on.

"In Nevada, we did a visitor profile and decided to pitch the RV market," she said. "We found that: 'Guess what? We have all this wonderful space.'"

And now it's the Gen Xers getting in on the act.

The Nevada Parks Department has recognized the potential, extending the number of RV sites at Valley of Fire State Park near Las Vegas and Big Bend State Park near Laughlin. And the California-Nevada Bistate Park proposed to be built behind the Stateline casino corridor will provide space for 75 RV sites.

"The demand is probably higher than that but we have limited space," Nevada Parks Superintendent Steve Weaver said of project expected to be completed in 2012.

Seven years ago, Aramark concessionaire invested in upgrading the RV sites and installing cable and Internet access at Zephyr Cove Resort.

On the California side, Nancy Poulen said she'd like to invest in more RV sites than the 20 she runs at KOA Campground in Meyers.

"It's not just about the money. It's about the need," Poulen said of the demand.



Here's a few of the U.S. Forest Service's Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit campground openings

-- Baldwin Beach Day Use - Open

-- Bayview - May 11

-- Fallen Leaf Campground - May 11

-- Inspiration Point - Open

-- Meeks Campground - May 11

-- Nevada Beach Campground and Day Use - May 11

-- Pope Beach Day Use - May 25

Information: (530) 543-2694