(Sept. 30, 2009) -- RV Daily Report publishes a newsletter Monday through Friday containing summaries and links to all the stories, product releases and opinion blogs posted to its website at www.rvdailyreport.com. The publication covers every aspect of the RV industry including dealers, manufacturers, suppliers, campgrounds and even RV owners.

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(March 20, 2009) -- RV Industry News announced today that it must go offline for a while, effective immediately. The decision affects the website at www.rvindustrynews.com as well as the publication of the highly popular daily e-newsletter. Unlike other businesses in the RV industry forced to close, the decision is not due to financial concerns, but rather legal issues.

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(March 20, 2009) -- The Bacon family is making the trip of a lifetime. They packed up their Scripps Ranch home last June and moved into an RV to tour 50 states in 50 weeks. They are 38 states into their journey and made a stop in San Diego as they prepare to visit the final 12 states enroute to their new home in Washington State.

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(March 20, 2009) -- "The RV lifestyle goes on, but the RV business, starved by $4-a-gallon gas last year, is now reeling from the recession and a serious credit drought. An industry that has always been characterized by peaks and valleys, ultrasensitive to economic change, has entered the Valley of Death."

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(March 20, 2009) -- Women outdoor enthusiasts can celebrate not only the first day of spring today, but also the rollout of a brand new web site. Women Outdoors, a national, nonprofit organization that promotes leadership, friendship, adventure and enjoyment, created WomenOutdoors.org; a way for women to connect with other women who share their outdoor interests and values.

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(March 20, 2009) -- Times are rough for the RV industry. Tightening credit and a lack of financing options are keeping new customers on the sidelines. Shattered consumer confidence is forcing many RV owners to cancel extended trips. But in a year when maintaining the current level of business is considered solid growth, industry officials are cautiously optimistic.

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(March 20, 2009) -- Ron Fenech, president and chief executive for Keystone RV, a local manufacturer, said the stimulus bill is for naught without the unfreezing of credit markets. "I can't imagine people lined up at the fence waiting for a $400 tax break to buy a $100,000 RV," said Mr. Fenech, whose company announced in February it was laying off 350 employees.

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(March 20, 2009) -- The city will receive $4.2 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation to rehabilitate a runway at the Elkhart Municipal Airport, and it will get $2.2 million through the Department of Housing and Urban Development to be used to purchase foreclosed or abandoned homes.

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(March 19, 2009) -- The theme for the segment is "Save This Town" and it will feature interviews with local business leaders such as Doug Lantz, CEO of Evergreen RV; John Letherman, a local real estate consultant; and Elkhart Mayor Dick Moore. Huckabee himself will play the bass along with local musicians "The Little Elkharts."

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(March 19, 2009) -- Tournament play began yesterday and continues through March 22 when the finals are telecast live from Norwich, Conn., on ESPN beginning at 1 p.m. EDT. The event is rebroadcast March 23 at 1 p.m. on ESPN Classic.

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(March 19, 2009) -- The Wallaces, who own the LazyDays RV dealership and live in a lush Mediterranean-style estate on Bayshore Boulevard, consumed 16,000 gallons per day on average. That is 47 times the typical U.S. family, according to the America Water Works Association.

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(March 18, 2009) -- The Lake Forest City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance to prohibit these types of vehicles in all business and industrial zones. This would affect 43 of the city's streets.

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(March 17, 2009) -- “Safeguarding reputation is even more critical today because companies have developed successful ways to make reputation risk management part of their overall risk management,” says Ellen Hexter, director of the Enterprise Risk Management at The Conference Board. “In addition, different stakeholder groups are becoming more sophisticated in how they drive corporate reputations. Critics on the Internet can now transmit their opinions and complaints around the world with ease.”

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(March 17, 2009) -- The show will be taped before a live audience at the RV/MH Hall of Fame facility in Elkhart. Huckabee's show will attempt to distill the notion that people will cut back on travel and recreation because of the economic slowdown, said Bill Baker, RV Industry Association senior director of communications.

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(March 17, 2009) -- It's a rare occurence, but somebody has died on a Coastal Bend beach from a lightning strike. It happened Sunday, while a Lubbock man was walking back to his RV in Port Aransas.

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(March 17, 2009) -- The call center, which will begin taking calls on Wednesday, will assist workers with questions ranging from immediate needs such as food and shelter to options for their future, such as job retraining.

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(March 17, 2009) -- Bob Skelding of Deerfield is recovering in North Carolina from a highway crash that killed two of his horses and demolished his homemade RV. Skelding said he plans to build another rig, retrieve the pair of horses in Mississippi and return to the road.

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(March 16, 2009) -- "NuWa will be a smaller company, so we will not be as much at the mercy of a volatile economy. NuWa will focus even more on product reliability and exceptional customer service. NuWa will have fewer dealers by choice, and these will be selected for their commitment to HitchHiker trailers and the exceptional customers, who seek our products."

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(March 16, 2009) -- According to the February travelhorizons survey, the U.S. Traveler Sentiment Index rose to 90.2 in February 2009 from 78.2 in October 2008 due to an increase in the perceived "affordability of travel." In recent months, the Go RVing campaign has been heavily promoting the affordability of RV ownership and RV travel in the down economy.

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(March 16, 2009) -- TransCanada Keystone Pipeline company is looking at the potential for expanding and developing recreation vehicle parks to help handle lodging for the construction workforce.

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(March 16, 2009) -- Last December, after former Long Island residents Ronnie Sue and Dominic Ambrosino parked their RV for the winter in Surprise, Ariz., they got the shock of their lives. The couple, who had invested their savings with Madoff, had lost $1.66 million.

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(March 16, 2009) -- Next month Christine Alfonso will be out of a job. The RV supplier she has been working for past 17 years is closing its doors. But Alfonso is turning her worries over to God. "Because of my faith and the church I belong to, I am not stressed," she said.

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(March 16, 2009) -- "Baby boomers are definitely one of our biggest markets right now," said Casey Cross of McKee Auto & RV. "They're just getting ready to retire or just retiring, and they've been waiting for this their whole life."

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(March 13, 2009) -- Approximately one hundred classic travel trailers and motorhomes will return to camp on the grounds of the Saratoga Automobile Museum in Saratoga Springs State Park this August. Many of these vintage vehicles, dating from the 1940s through the late 1970s, will be open to the public.

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(March 12, 2009) -- In response to 650 complaints about RV parking files in the past few years, Brownstown Township invests $70,000 to draft a 280-page ordinance to regulate the issue.

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(March 12, 2009) -- Through RVIA's efforts, the RV industry has been included in both the Term Asset-back securities Loan Facility -- or TALF -- and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Both provisions contain language that could still hamper the credit market's willingness to make RV loans but the association remains hopeful it can get some the restrictions eased.

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(March 12, 2009) -- A total of 5,862 visits were logged at www.rvinews.com on Tuesday, March 10, and they viewed a total of 15,590 pages on the site that day. By comparison, from March 1 to March 31, 2008, the site saw 6,195 visitors who viewed a total of 16,021 web pages that month.

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(March 11, 2009) -- "Cook County's ordinance is too restrictive," said Nick Valadez, a local attorney donating time to help fight the 33-year-old ordinance. "We want to work with the county to see if we can make the ordinance less stringent."

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(March 11, 2009) -- The 13 semitrailers that came to Elkhart carried more than $2.1 million worth of food, enough to help sustain about 5,200 families for a week. In addition to those who picked up supplies Tuesday, Feed the Children arranged for shipments to 3,600 northern Indiana families.

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(March 10, 2009) -- A survey in last weekend’s RVtravel.com newsletter revealed that nearly two-thirds of the more than 1,500 readers who responded believe that fewer than half of today’s RV manufacturers will still be in business next January, and nearly half believe that less than 40 percent will survive.

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(March 10, 2009) -- House Bill 1227 would also prevent cities and counties from requiring the RVs to be moved out of the parks when the vehilces are used as a primary residence. As things stand now, people living in RVs are often forced into more-expensive RV parks, or to trying to find spots beside the road.

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(March 10, 2009) -- LazyDays owner Don Wallace helped fifth grade students at Yates Elementary School sweep the awards for their district in a statewide Stock Market Game simulation.

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(March 10, 2009) -- State troopers stopping an RV for following too closely find 24 bundles of marijuana weighing 398 pounds and valued at $600,000 hidden in a compartment under a bed.

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(March 9, 2009) -- City Planner Bob Tener said the city isn’t going to ticket RV owners as they pack for a trip, but neighbors shouldn’t have to put up with a vehicle the size of a school bus on their street year-round.

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(March 9, 2009) -- Dozens of companies supplied Monaco and Country Coach with paint, glass and other parts. Now, their futures are uncertain. The rest of the Swensons' business depends on small body shops. Monaco's bankruptcy could mean some suppliers won't get paid. But Dave Swenson says it's a drop in the bucket compared to how much their company, Automotive Paint Industrial, made from the boom.

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(March 6, 2009) -- Boarding a motorhome he terms the "Wiebago," John Wieland, CEO and founder of John Wieland Homes and Neighborhoods, pledged to tour the Southeast, stopping at his nearly 60 neighborhoods, until he sells 101 homes. Armed with a mattress, a fold-out table and a lamp, Wieland aims to inform Americans about the immediate and stimulative affects housing has had historically, and can have now on America and its neighborhoods.

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(March 6, 2009) -- Also in the works are rules governing septic systems. They’ll have to be full systems, not just tanks, said Norman Schroeder, mayor of Holiday Lakes. And travel trailers no longer will be allowed to be set up as permanent homes.

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(March 5, 2009) -- The downturn in the economy and recreational vehicle industry do not mean RV manufacturers are sitting on their hands. To the contrary, they're designing and producing some great new products and camping tie-ins that should catch the attention of RV enthusiasts everywhere.

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(March 5, 2009) -- It's a tough break, but furloughed employees could have it much worse, says Marion Crain, an employment and labor law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. Employees are often "upset and angry" when they first hear about the unpaid leaves, she says. But they're better off than many who'll be handed pink slips or forced to take less pay for the same amount of work.

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(March 5, 2009) -- Mark Thoma, an associate professor of economics at the University of Oregon, sees buyers' outlook as "fairly pessimistic." The stock market crash has hurt the wealth of retirees who otherwise might have been in the market for an RV, he said, adding that when the economy does recover, people will save more and consume less.

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(March 5, 2009) -- According to show manager Dianne Seymour, last year's event drew about 30,000 people. This year, with roughly 175 exhibitors and a busy demonstration schedule that includes such topics as fly-fishing for women, eco-friendly road-tripping and camp cooking made easy, Seymour, who has been plugged into this event for more than twodecades, says she expects just as many attendees this year.

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(March 5, 2009) -- Walter Ray Williams and and his wife, Paige, committed 17 years ago to hitting the road during the PBA season. They graduated from a succession of fifth-wheels, spacious RV trailers pulled by a truck, to the luxury motor coach two years ago. Then daughter, Rebecca, came along.

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(March 5, 2009) -- Mike Gelinas has a lifestyle most people envy. He has no mortgage payment, no tax or water bills and no nosy neighbors. The Gelinas now spend their days touring Canada and the United States, picking up temporary jobs along the way.

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(March 5, 2009) -- As FEMA ponders whether to resume public sales of thousands of surplus travel trailers and mobile homes that once housed Gulf Coast hurricane victims, at least one purchaser has figured out a way around the suspension: Buying “scrap” units not intended for human habitation and then returning them to the housing pool.

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(March 4, 2009) -- Road Trip National is a grassroots project started with three college friends, Mike Marriner, Brian McAllister and Nathan Gebhard, without a plan after graduation. The three decided to load into an RV they borrowed from a parent and travel the country to interview people from all walks of life and careers, finding out what makes them passionate.

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(March 4, 2009) -- Mainstream RV manufacturers have laid off thousands. But today, thousands more are still on the job: nearly 2,000 at Keystone in Goshen, 1,100 at Jayco in Middlbury, and just under 600 at Duchman Manufacturing in Goshen. Newmar and Gulfstream in Nappanee also have work orders.

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(March 3, 2009) -- In Manhattan, the average apartment sells even today for what opulence fetches elsewhere -- around $1.6 million. Monaco Coach, which makes busses and recreational vehicles and as recently as 2007 recorded more than $1.2 billion in sales, can be had for less than $2 million at the moment.

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(Feb. 27, 2009) -- Taryn Davis is gearing up to take a cross-country road trip in an RV covered by the names of nearly 5,000 soldiers who have died. It's a moving tribute to the soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan -- soldiers like her high school sweetheart, her husband Cpl. Michael Davis.

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(Feb. 26, 2009) -- As part of a unique, two-quarter advanced video projects course, this year's 419 media arts and studies students at Scripps College of Communication are hard at work converting Russell Banks' collection of short stories "Trailerpark" into a feature-length film.

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(Feb. 26, 2009) -- Henry Flores, general manager of Los Banos-based Toscano RV, believes the industry has already hit rock bottom and things are beginning to look up. While his sales haven’t surged yet, he’s seen more traffic on his lot than in previous months. The buyers perusing his wares are hip to the situation the industry is in and willing to capitalize on it, too, he said.

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