Celebrating the Fourth By Hitting the Road
Sun Jul 4, 2010
Author: Lauren Garber
Source: wicz.com
Albert Rappleyea has been bringing his RV to Pine Valley Campground in Endicott every summer for the past four years.
"Our friends are down here, we all get together every night and have a campfire, and just have a good time down by the lake," said Rappleyea, an RV camper.
Although Albert lives in Syracuse, he and his wife make the trip to this campground every weekend - including this weekend to celebrate Independence Day. His neighbor is an avid RV camper, too.
"With these RV's these days, it's much more comfortable, all of the amenities are in there. It's just a lot easier," said Bob Hoerz, a camper from Endicott.
They're part of a growing trend of RV-ers who set up shop for the summer in one of the area's RV parks. Visitors come from all over, but many of them are from around the Southern Tier.
"A lot of them are local, a few of them are from out of town. we get reservations all the time from around the country," said John Kumzman, owner of Pine Valley Campground in Endicott.
The RV Industry Association says this weekend they expect about 18 million people out on the road in RV's, but this campground wasn't as busy as it usually is on the holiday weekend.
"Participation in terms of number of campers is down a little bit, and I don't understand why. We had a lot of reservations for Memorial Day, and we had a lot of campers, and we're already booking up for Labor Day, but this one for some reason was a little bit strange and a little bit off," said Kumzman.
Still, the campground had plenty of visitors ready to ring in their independence in comfort of their home away from home.
