Dirty. Two days of driving through rain in Texas left all the conveyances a dirty mess. I did wash the coach and cargo trailer yesterday, mostly because any surface you touched on them left a grimy layer on your hands. And, there are a lot of cargo doors on the motorhome that you need to get into.
I washed the coach and trailer yesterday. After the office here closed (they close at 3:00 - really early for an RV resort; more on that in a bit). This morning, after getting in a bicycle ride (first in over a week), I washed the car. No need to be clandestine about that - there is a car wash area at the end of our block, complete with a hose and a sprayer. The car was every bit as filthy as the coach had been.
You have to work fast at car washing here in the desert; the humidity is around 10%, so if you don't get it wiped down immediately after rinsing off the soap, it will be a spotted mess. I couldn't do my usual Texas style: wet down the whole vehicle, soap up the side in the shade, rinse, soap up the side in the sun, rinse, wipe down the side in the sun, then wipe down the side in the shade. Here: wet down, soap up, rinse off, wipe down - a section at a time. And work fast.
I have enough of the road grime off the car that we can take it to an automated car wash as necessary. Yes, it was that grubby.
Now, about this being a "Golf and RV Resort"... that's how it is advertised. The golf is 4 holes, mostly dirt; grass on the tee and greens, dirt everywhere else. It doesn't matter to me, 'cause I don't play golf. The other real RV resorts we've stayed at in this area have actual 18 or 36 hole courses, where everything is grassy and kept green. Even though I don't play golf, it is nice to see grass once in a while.
As far as the RV part of it: you can tell by the layout of the sites that this was designed to be a modular home park in the front, RV park in the back. When the modular home part didn't take off, they put monthly (or more) RVers in sites designed for a modular home... meaning: spacious sites, especially for an RV. The last 5 years or so, different management here is once again pushing modular homes and it has been popular. Sites that were previously occupied by RVs now have a modular home on them. Meaning: fewer available RV sites. I get that - the modular homes are year 'round site rentals, no daily/monthly check-in/check-out.
This place started an expansion about 5 years ago, and then stopped before any of the sites were finished. In the two years since we've been here, they went back to work on that expansion, and it is about 80% occupied, with both modulars and RVs. The place is bustling. They can afford to make up stupid rules, like "no cargo trailers," because they aren't hurting for business.
To compare the differences in site size, we have about half the space in these RV sites as a site set up for a modular home.
I think they are calling them "resort homes" rather than modular homes. These are not the same as a typical mobile home. They are factory built, usually arrive in two mostly completed sections, then those are joined together (on a metal frame, but the wheels are a temporary thing just to get them here), siding put on the joint sections, utilities connected, cement and landscaping work done, then the new owners can move in.
I toured through one a couple years ago, and was impressed by how they were put together. The down side of this type of "resort living": you don't own the land your house sits on... so you will be paying some kind of site rental fee (which also covers the common areas) for as long as you live here. While some buy these as a winter residence, I think a lot of them are occupied year 'round.
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Those are what's known in AZ as "park models". They are technically on wheels for transport, but are not intended to move once settled - they live on jack stands or blocks. The in-laws owned one up in Munds Park just south of Flagstaff to get out of the Phoenix summer heat. It was roomier and more comfy that many smaller RV's.
Hi Earl. Park models are up to 400 square feet (although a lot of people add on an additional room and/or car-port, after it is moved in). These modular homes are significantly larger than that, though there are a few park models in this resort. At some point while we're here, I'll walk through a couple of their model homes and get some photos.
To confuse the matter, some RV manufacturers offer what they call "park models" that do have contained tanks and can be moved regularly. The emphasis on those seems to be as much sleeping capacity as possible. Lines get blurred as building standards are different within each category; and it is more than square footage that determines those standards.
Where we live in Texas, park homes are allowed, modular homes are not. Most of the actual houses there are "stick built" (built on site). Weird zoning.
That's what I get for commenting on a topic with only superficial knowledge. My brother lives in a modular home of about 700 sq ft in west Texas, when he is not living in his truck (long-haul trucker). I think he actually gets home maybe every 6-8 weeks.
Happy belated Texas Independence Day, btw.
Alas, we weren't in Texas to celebrate Texas Independence Day. ;-) There are a lot of RV parks/resorts in Arizona that cater to park homes. Some that have RV sites, park homes, and larger residences. Explosive growth in the Phoenix area again right now... they are building houses and apartments everywhere it seems. A park home or modular is another alternative.
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