RVing Down? Not if CalParks Reservations Any Indicator

Thursday California State Parks officials opened the phone lines to take reservations for next May--as in 2008. A record setting number of reservations quickly tallied up 8,472 to be precise. That's a big uptick from the same "opening day" for reservations for 2007--at that time a little over 7,000 reservations were made.

Over a 1,000 reservations were logged in the first two minutes. Apparently there's still a hefty interest in camping the Golden State. "Competition for popular California State Parks campsites is fierce," said Jim Luscutoff, who heads the Concessions and Reservations Division. "We understand those who did not get the reservations they wanted are disappointed, which is why we encourage our visitors to consider many of our other beautiful parks. There are 278 to choose from and each one has something worth experiencing."

Parks that were 90 percent full by close of business Thursday, in alphabetical order, were Bolsa Chica in Orange County, Carpinteria State Beach in Santa Barbara County, Doheny State Beach in Orange County, San Clemente State Beach in Orange County, San Elijo State Beach in San Diego County, and South Carlsbad State Beach in San Diego County.

Photo: California State Parks

Fleetwood May Say "Adios" to California

Smarting from declines in profits and sales of its towable RV's, industry giant Fleetwood Enterprises has told company planners to "explore" the possibility of relocating its operations out of Riverside county, California.

In an article appearing in the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly, published in Indiana, locals are grinning broadly at the prospects that the big RV maker may decide Indiana's 'the place you ought to be,' and may reap financial benefits from such a move. The company has indicated they'd like to have their operations closer to their customer base, and adds that California is a far more expensive state to operate in.

Fleetwood has made plenty of news lately, and infuriated vast numbers of readers of this blog when, after closing a number of manufacturing plants in the US, followed up by opening an RV plant in Mexico.