Another option is to find a Thousand Trails membership.
They have campgrounds on East and west coast, and the south - almost nothing in the north central US.
But you have to look carefully for memberships and examine the restrictions. But many people who used to use their membership no longer do (too old to travel, medical reasons, etc) and some of them are literally giving them away - all you have to do is pay transfer fees and yearly dues. So look carefully and then calculate how much it would cost per night.
With many of the memberships, you get 50 days for your dues - up to 7 nights in one camp (some are 14 or 21) before you have to move out of the camp. After your 50 days are used for the year, you pay between $5-$12 (again, depending on the membership) per night. Also, EVERY membership seems to have different transfer fee, different annual dues, different cost per extra night, and different amounts of time you can stay in one camp before having to move on.
Read up before you offer to take over someone's membership and call the 1000 trails with their membership number to check the details of THAT particular membership. Be sure you can transfer it when you want to get out of it.
NEVER buy a new membership.
Here is the website to 1000 Trails:
http://www.1000trails.com/
Someone said some of the campgrounds in the NE are not very good (NJ/NY? I dont recall), but most everything I read about them is that they are great camps, just expensive if you buy directly from them.
Someone also said if you accept their free weekend (used as bait to get you to buy the membership - which is basically a timeshare), you can't buy or transfer a membership unless its new for a year, so be wary of that.
People seem to either love it or hate it. And some of the sales pitches seem to be very strong - although some say otherwise.
When I go full-time, I will probably be looking for a give-away (for the price of the transfer fees and annual dues and maybe some nominal fee) that includes some combo of NATIONAL 1000 trails, Coast to Coast, Leisure Time, and/or NACO (four different campground memberships that can be purchased separately or together or upgraded for), as this will give you more campgrounds to use, and since they are three different systems, you can go from one to another with little problem (although you might have to have reservations). I say national, because some of the memberships are for east or west coast only.
Sometimes when you purchase an RV, the dealer will give a free membership, or sometimes a trial membership.
I noticed some of these links get messed up by the browser, so you might have to cut-and paste to see the actual page, instead of just click on the link (for the ones that look like a link but have black text after them).
You Tube video pitch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzgJ2A0K1LI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVt-N9RHKd4
Here's some write ups good and bad:
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/027/RipOff0027278.htm
http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/0/205/RipOff0205342.htm
http://www.rvparkreviews.com/invboard/index.php?showtopic=1098
http://escapees.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=search&reqWords=thousand+trails
http://irv2.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2656094452/m/9596076262
http://www.myrvspace.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42
http://www.rvparkreviews.com/regions/California/Jamul.html
http://retirementtips.homestead.com/Retire1000Clubs.html
Here's some sites that have memberships for sale/gift:
http://irv2.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7856094452/m/64810171341
http://www.rvproperty.com/memberships_for_sale_1.htm
http://everythingelse.search.ebay.com/thousand-trails_Memberships_W0QQsacatZ16709
http://www.rvonline.com/campgrounds/camplocate.html
http://www.rvparkstore.com/campground_memberships.htm
http://irv2.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7856094452/m/64810171341
http://escapees.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/frm/f/417607761
http://www.sellmytimesharenow.com/timeshares/index/content/search_sell/Operation/5/SearchResortID/6868/
http://www.buyatimeshare.com/searchResults.asp?keywordSearch=thousand+trails&btnSearch=Go
http://www.buyandselltimeshares.com/search_results.cfm?type=&locationid=&unit=0&week=0&min_price=&max_price=&Id=&keywords=THOUSAND+TRAILS&frm_submit.x=0&frm_submit.y=0
http://www.vpresales.com/searchResults.asp?keywordSearch=thousand+trails&btnSearch=Go
Like I said, I've seen the great memberships (Gold or Platinum) go for free or < $1000 plus transfer fees of $450-$750, and often the annual fees/dues are paid up for some part, if not all, of the current year.
Hope this helps someone.
Walter
