Even when camping, it pays to pay attention to weather forecasts.  A campground in Kentucky, Camp Nelson Campground was hard hit from weekend flooding.

Last week we took a short trip to eastern Arkansas and, after that, over to northeast Kentucky.

Our first campground was at Village Creek State Park.  The park is located on Crowley’s Ridge, a geologic anomaly of rolling hills in eastern Arkansas’s Mississippi Alluvial Plain. 

With five trails totaling 7 miles, we had hoped to spend one day in the park doing some hiking.

Unfortunately, there was some kind of gnats hatching out.  After taking one walk the first evening where we couldn’t get away from them, we decided to alter our plans and check out some of the other parks in the area. 

The first day, we went to Parkin State Archeological Park and Jacksonport State Park.  The next day, we drove over to Memphis and spent a few hours at Mud Island.  I’ll be posting more on these as I get the photo gallery set up for each one.

The last evening that we were there and the next morning before we left, we didn’t have much problem with insects at all.

Our next destination was Paducah, Kentucky, so that Karen could go to the annual Paducah Quilt Show.  Karen has several posts on her blog from the quilt show:

• The Quilt Show
• More from Paducah
• Second Day in Paducah
• Back from Paducah
• Our Last Day in Paducah (Saturday)

The story features the r-pod light weight travel trailer by Forest River and Damon’s Avanti motorhome.

Note – if you’re reading this in a feed reader, you’ll have to go to Haw Creek page to view the video

A RV manufacturing industry executive says that, as a result of the recent recession, the move to lightweight RVs is probably going to be permanent.

The ”Great Recession” probably has made permanent the RV industry’s move toward lighter weight, ”greener” units, Wilbur Bontrager, Jayco Inc. chairman and CEO, told a northern Indiana television audience this weekend (April 10-11).

“I’ve been through a couple of these downturns,” Bontrager said. ”We’re seeing a lot of the same dynamics where we, along with all the other manufacturers, have gone into building lighter weight products. This time around, I believe it will stick.

”This time around, we have technology, we have materials and suppliers who can produce components that can be lighter weight and greener. In the past, this has been more difficult.”

Read the full RVBusiness article – Bontrager: Lightweight Movement Will Stick

• Southeast roundup: Oceanfront state parks; Atlanta Journal Constitution
• No one’s in neutral, To hit the road with economy or ease, with just enough or lots of space, all it takes is an RV and a destination – a Boston Globe correspondent embarks on her first “off-ground” camping trip; Boston Globe
• Vermont – State Parks thrive despite tough economic times, Bennington Banner
• Camping season looking up with early reservations, good attendance at RV and Camping Show; WCSH6.com; Portland Maine
• RV Financing: A Vehicle for Growth – rvia’s latest video about the promising market of Rv enthusiasts (7:48)

A California Assemblyman, Bill Monning, Democrat from Santa Cruz, has introduced legislation that, if enacted, would ban the use of 6 chemicals that can damage various types of septic systems and pose threats to groundwater sources.

The legislation, AB 1824, would ban the use of holding tank products containing bronopol, dowicil, formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, paraformaldehyde and para-dichlorobenzene, according to a news release.

“We fully support this legislation and think it will encourage businesses to step up their marketing and distribution of environmentally friendly holding tank products in California,” said Debbie Sipe, executive director of the California Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds (CalARVC), which has spent the past five years trying to find ways to protect its members’ septic systems and nearby groundwater supplies without forcing private park operators to become “potty police.”

Read the more in the RVBuisness article:  Law Would Ban RV Holding Tank Chemicals .

• Campers a sure sign of spring;  “If you see daffodils popping up, you can bet pop-up campers, RVs and even tents are once again beginning to repopulate state, county and commercial campgrounds across Siouxland;” Sioux City Journal.com
• Outdoor shows offer the opportunity to see what’s new on the market; Cape Breton Post
• ‘Tent Tax’ repealed; New Hampshire Senate unanimously voted for the house bill to repeal the tax that extended rooms and meals tax to campsites; UnionLeader.com

I’m continuing to process photos from last year’s travels into photo galleries.

The most recent is from the day that we arrived at Mesa Verde National Park during our 2009 trip to Colorado.

Because it was actually a fairly short drive from Ouray to Mesa Verde, by the time we got set up at the campground, we still had plenty of time to go exploring, including a hike down to one of the cliff dwelling ruins, Spruce Treehouse. 

The gallery includes images from the ruins as well as other views in the park, including several images of the beautiful Colorado sky that we had that day.

Gallery: Spruce Treehouse and More – September 12, 2009, Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

3rd Annual Roaming Times Green RV Award

Roaming Times, a leading RV review and RV consumer report website has selected Earthbound RV travel trailers as the 2010 Green RV of the Year.

David B. Hoefer, Earthbound’s VP of sales and marketing said:
"We’re at the cutting edge. Instead of traditional RV-building methods, we’ve turned to experts in other fields, such as automotive and plastics…”

The V-2 Earthbound being produced has already eliminated all wood and wood by-products. “Earthbound has leaped ahead with the use of composites, thermoplastics, and lightweight hybrid structural materials. We’ve been partnering with major international composite suppliers for over 8 years.”

Earthbound trailers are eco-friendly and lightweight. “We have the potential to add 11 million new customers to the towable RV buying market. Our RVs are towable with vehicles that are already parked in many of today’s family driveways.”

Read the rest of the Roaming Time’s announcement:  Roaming Times’ Green RV of the Year Award 2010 – The Earthbound travel trailer.

• Smokies campsites reopen with stimulated improvements, WBIR, Knoxville, Tennessee (use of federal stimulus funds for park improvements.
• New Report Reveals Full Extent of Public Outrage at Forest Service Concessionaire Policies, Fly Rod & Reel Online
• FEMA trailers at discount prices, todaysthv.com, Channel 11, Little Rock – Buyer beware!
• Teardrop trailer makes her a happy camper – The Daytona Beach News-Journal
• Jeep introduces campers built by Livin’ Lite, RV Daily Report
• Cost of sleeping under stars gets astronomical…Fees for your site, reservation, firewood — even getting through the gate — are on the rise, The Vancouver Sun
• Vermont state parks expect upswing, WCAX.com

A post in a Seattle Times blog, nwautos, discusses four of today’s crop of small camping trailers.

If you think of travel trailers as mobile motels for the retired set, think again. Their popularity is surging among families and adventurers wanting to make the most of the road-trip destinations available in our vast and beautiful backyard.

They are cheaper than RVs, far greener, can go pretty much anywhere, and can be towed by nearly any truck or SUV and, in some cases, even small cars. This new generation of trailers is hipper, lighter and more agile than ever before.

The four camping trailers in the post are

• • • • SylvanSport GO
      • Compact Camping Concepts Explorer Box Trailer
      • Thor Industries T@B
      • True North Freelance Outdoor Support Vehicle

Read the entire nwautos post: Car campers: Travel trailers are getting smaller, cooler and more multifunctional.

The economy is loosening up and people seem to be changing the way they vacation. These, along with other factors, are resulting in improved RV sales, according to an article in the Denver Business Journal.

Recreational vehicle (RV) dealers report big sales increases, and RV show organizers say there’s been higher attendance at their events in early 2010.

The number of RV units shipped from national manufacturers to dealers rose by 116 percent from January 2009 to January 2010, from 7,300 units to 15,800, according to the Reston, Va.-based Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA). The numbers have spurred RVIA officials to predict shipments will increase 30 percent this year, a predictor of vehicle sales.

That growing interest in motorized homes and non-motorized trailers was visible at two Denver-area RV shows this year. Attendance at January’s Colorado RV Adventure Travel Show at the Colorado Convention Center rose by 24 percent over last year. And it was up 14 percent at March’s Colorado RV, Sports, Boat and Travel Show at the National Western Complex, said Vilma Fraguada, regional manager for Affinity Events, organizer of both shows.

Read the rest of the Denver Business Journal article: RV dealers expect much better sales this year

(click on image for larger version)

For all of the conveniences, though, we found that we were not doing the kind of camping that we really preferred.  We prefer national and state park and forest campgrounds, but found in some of those kind of campgrounds that maneuvering into sites that could accommodate the size of our 5th wheel was often difficult and, in some instances, there just were not any sites that we felt comfortable with trying to get into.

We now have a small motor home and are able to get into just about any campground that we want to with little or no difficulty.  The only ones we can’t get into are those restricted to tent camping and those that we can’t get to with the camper.  We’ve visited a couple of places where the curves were so tight that our 25 foot motor home was over the length limit.  We’re also not quite yet prepared to go too many miles down an unpaved road.

In 2009, we camped in 4 national park* campgrounds, 4 nights in each one.  We didn’t have satellite TV or internet and we were doing the kind of camping we really prefer.