Given the current prevalence of social distancing around the country, it might seem like people who live in RVs have it easy compared to people confined to houses or apartments. Since earlier this spring, people who call RVs home have encountered more difficulties than you might think — including the temporary closure of some of the facilities that they’ve come to rely upon when driving around the country.
Now, a new article by Lana Bortolot at The New York Times explores the difficulties RV owners have encountered during the ongoing pandemic. Bortolot explores a wide range of RV users — from people who use their RVs to travel to jobs across the country to RV owners currently staying with family or friends, sometimes awkwardly so.
Among the issues they’re dealing with? The number of parks that normally house RVs which have temporarily closed:
While people can set up on “dispersed” public land — open grounds without utilities — most are still in need of R.V. parks that offer connections for power, water, septic tanks and Wi-Fi, among other services. Leigh Wetzel, co-founder of Campendium, an online resource with 27,600 campsites in its database, said that as of March 20, 9 percent of those sites were closed. A month later it was 46 percent.
This has led some, as Bortolot writes, to attempt to get these facilities deemed essential. At the parks that have remained open, other concerns abound — including whether or not people are following social distancing guidelines.
Much as RV owners are a wide-ranging group, so too are the ways RV owners are coping with the current situation. There are numerous temporary solutions, but — like the rest of us — many are still waiting to see what the future holds.
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