Think of it as Mobile Easy Sightseeing Housing

Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2000 | 8:46 a.m.

When Gary Haugh tires of his neighborhood and wants to find greener grass, he merely unplugs his home and plugs it in somewhere else.

The 45-year-old baggage handler at the MGM hotel-casino lives the way an increasingly large segment of American society is living these days -- in recreation vehicles (RVs) and motor homes.

What once was a vehicle for weekend and vacation getaways has become a primary residence for thousands of people who prefer the simple things in life and don't want to be encumbered by such things as roots.

"I don't really travel a lot," said Haugh, who has lived in his 33-foot motor home for three years. "But I've been trying to pay off some bills, and this is a cheap way to live."

He expects to put his wheels to more use next year, taking advantage of the mobility.

"I can hook my vehicle to the motor home and move whenever I want," said Haugh, who resides at the Bond Trailer Lodge on East Tropicana Avenue. "Everything I own is in here. I don't have to worry about selling anything."

Cathie Carr is a spokeswoman for one of the largest club for RV owners in the country. Escapees Inc. of Livingston, Texas, has 60,000 members. "About 56 percent of those members are full-time RVers," said Carr, whose organization is the third-largest support network in the nation.

People are selling their homes, getting rid of the stuff that fills them, loading up a few family pictures and living like nomads as they travel to RV parks that are springing up all over the country to accommodate them.

"It's a really neat way to live," Carr said. "There is tremendous freedom in living in an RV. You look at all the people so busy with their lives and they are wanting to downsize. With RVs they can take their home with them. Every day can be an adventure."

Escapees Inc. and similar clubs smooth out the rough spots in the road to RV living. The clubs act as a communication center, forwarding mail to members, providing information about events and parking locations and answering questions people have about the lifestyle.

"People may stay in one spot as long as they are enjoying it, then go somewhere else to meet new people. My husband said when the grass gets too high or you get tired of your neighbors, you can move on," Carr said.

She added that those who are living year-round in their RVs are people who are looking for quality living as opposed to living for their possessions. "We get wrapped up in having a nice big house and forget that what's really neat is life's experiences," Carr said.

The Internet, wireless telephones, satellite television and other technological developments have added to the quality of the nomadic existence. "Escapees have mail-forwarding, voice mail, e-mail all sorts of things to make life easier," she said.

Although most of those who live in RVs are retired, many are employed. Writers, photographers, carnival workers, rodeo participants, professional golfers and others who have to spend a lot of time traveling find it cheaper and more comforting to take their homes with them.

"Some travelers have their children with them and have home schooling, which is pretty interesting," Carr said. "They show the children the country as they teach its history."

There are numerous manufacturers of motor homes and RVs, such as Airstream, Gulf Stream and Winnebago. According to industry sources, 250,000 new units are sold annually.

National RV Holding of Perris, Calif., is one of the largest builders of Class "A" (bus-sized) motor homes in the country. Spokesman Peter Samet says it is a growth industry.

"I've heard that one out of seven car owners is a motor home owner," he said.

The fourth quarter sales for 1999 hit a record for National, with quarter sales up by 10.1 percent over 1998. Samet said that today's biggest market is the baby boomer population. "About 12,000 per day turn 50 in the United States," said Samet, whose company has manufactured RVs since 1964.

Andy Wheeler, a co-owner of Wheeler RV on Las Vegas Boulevard South, has been in the business since 1977 and has seen the increased interest in year-round RV living. His company sells between 900 and 1,200 units per year, with 25 percent to 50 percent of the buyers intending to live in them year-round.

"Entire books have been written about the subject," Wheeler said. "All the questions about living in an RV have been answered. It's a way of life. People enjoy it. I know people who follow rivers -- they start at the head waters of a river, follow it all the way down to the end and then follow the tributaries. Some of them may only do 10 miles in a day.

"These people get off the interstates," Wheeler added. "They may go into a town and stay till they know everything there is to know about the town and then move on. Some people follow Civil War sites. Some just want to be on a river or creek and wherever you are, you're home."

Wheeler said that owning an RV may be better than buying a cabin in the mountains because it is lower maintenance and if you get tired of the site where you are, you can move on.

But there are still those who use an RV for weekends and vacations and as a second car. "You can go wherever you want, and you're always ready to go," Wheeler said. "A lot of hotel rooms are $100 a night, which means $3,000 a month or so for sleeping accommodations. That compares to an RV payment of $500 to $1,000 a month.

"If not for RVs, a lot of people wouldn't be able to go on tours."

RVers follow the warm weather. Many live in the northern part of the country in the summer and the southern part of the county in the winter. "Many will follow the turning of the leaves -- they're called 'leafers,' " Wheeler said.

In addition to a wide variety of parks that have become available for RVers, many travelers are welcome to park their vehicles in the lots of such places as Wal-Mart or at service stations that are not open all night.

The campers provide some degree of security where they park.

The RV season generally runs from October through May. States along the southern border benefit the most from RVers, especially Arizona and Southern California.

Nevada has the climate to attract more people than it does, but not the space, according to Marshall Goldman, an RV park developer who created Boulder Oaks RV park in Boulder City. "The situation in Nevada is unlike the situation with our neighbors, which are destination states," Goldman said.

Arizona especially has gone to great lengths to accommodate the RV population. One major difference is that Arizona allows the parks to be subdivided so that RV owners can buy a lot.

Although on the state level there is no law against selling RV lots, Goldman said that Clark County and most municipalities in the county don't permit it. Boulder Oaks is the only RV subdivision in the county where travelers can buy a lot, according to Goldman.

"Boulder City has allowed us to subdivide 25 acres," he said.

With 275 lots, Goldman said that the park is not large compared to those in Arizona, where 1,000 or more lots may be sold at numerous parks around the state.

The problem, he said, is the scarcity of land. With 400 land developers putting up permanent structures there isn't much left for the RV group.

"I think it won't open up," Goldman said, "not because it's not needed but because any kind of land suitable for an RV park may be suitable for homes. I think in a tug of war between builders and RV people, the builders will always win."

He noted that Pahrump allows subdivided parks and expects to see some built there in the near future. "People who live in a park more than one or two months out of a year prefer to buy because it doesn't cost much more than rent."

Goldman added that Boulder Oaks is in the top 1 percent of the RV parks in the country. "The rating is determined by the National Directory of RV Parks," Goldman said. "The determination is based on amenities, cleanliness and location."

Those who park at Boulder Oaks simply tap into the utilities provided, and they're home. "We've got a large clubhouse with a dance floor, year-round heated pool and an owners' lounge," Goldman said. "We've got all the usual things -- trash disposal, dog runs, paved roads. It's just like a housing subdivision, but you can't stay here year-round."

He said that most parks have restrictions on how long you can remain at the site for any given period, even if you own the lot. It is six months at a stretch in Boulder City.

Marshall said that those who live in RVs 12 months out of the year don't see themselves as gypsies.

"They feel they are getting the best of all worlds for a nominal cost," he said. "They can live all over, have friends all over. They can swim, golf, run and jump whenever and wherever they want."