When Stephen Jones decided to retire, he and his wife sold their home, moving into an RV in December 2019.
“My wife hasn’t done much traveling, and I wanted to move and show her the world,” Jones told FOX Carolina. “It’s been a blessing to be able to move around and plant where I need to plant.”
Jones and his wife currently live at GSP RV Park, located in Greer, South Carolina. The property manager Cyndi Dean said that the park is mostly fully booked throughout the year.
“Most of our guests are grandparents visiting grandchildren in the area or people looking for a new home or building a new one,” Dean said. “We also have travel nurses and physical therapists. There’s even a traveling doctor staying with us.”
Dean said that the majority of the park guests don’t stay for more than a month, but approximately half remain between 30 and 90 days.
Dean is also a member of the American RV Campground Association (ARVC) and has followed the RV industry with a keen eye.
“There was a 320% spike in the sales of RVs in 2020,” Dean said. “Since COVID, we have gotten more requests to stay at our RV park.”
Houston McDaniel, the owner of Sonny’s Camp N Travel in Duncan, said that they’d witnessed an increase of 48% in RV sales since 2019. McDaniel stated that many of his customers began working from home during the pandemic.
“Why have the ‘sticks and bricks’ as they call it when you can move around and see the whole country?” McDaniel said.
Because so many people have adopted the same lifestyle, Jones said it’s sometimes difficult to find a place that can accommodate him for more than two months.
“If you want a particular place, you might have to plan well ahead,” Jones said. “But if you just want to wing it, we’ve had success doing that as well.”
This article originally appeared on Fox Carolina.