Camping at the county fair (grounds)

Free camping at an Idaho fairground.  R&T DeMaris photo

Looking for an off-the-beaten path place to spend the night without spending a fortune? Think cotton candy and snow cones. OK, maybe you won't find these sweet-tooth pleasers when you camp, but many county fairgrounds have RV facilities available year-around at low cost. We've found a quiet place to "dry camp," at no charge; other fairgrounds offer full hookups and the clean, fresh smell of--cut grass--for twenty-something a night.

If working fairgrounds camping into your trip, it's best to do a little checking in advance. Unless there's an active event at the grounds (at which time you might not find space available) the office probably won't be keeping "RV park hours." A phone call to the fairgrounds is in order, but how do you know where to look?

A quick Internet search of "X counties" where "X" is the name of the state will often pop back an alphabetical list of counties, and sometimes even a state outline map. Pick your desired county, then search for "X county fairgrounds" and you'll quickly find the information you'll need. Some fairgrounds have their own websites with camping information right on hand; others will need a phone call to check it out.

We've found the friendliness of county fair folks to be warming. Once, when traveling through Oklahoma, we called out in advance to find out about camp site availability. The folks at the other end of the line told us their facility was small, but on hearing when we'd be arriving, send someone out to unlock the gate, show us where to stay on, and even sent the police to cruise through our area just to ensure we were "getting along all right." All that, and no charge, M'am!

Don't let your bank rob you--switch!

After suffering flash burns from heated up customers last fall, Bank of America set aside plans to charge its customers a $5 a month fee for the privilege of using a debit card. Fear not, BOA is at it again, this time with plans to gaff customers with basic checking accounts with a monthly fee.

BOA's plans include an alternative to the fee-instead-of-free plan: Bank online, buy more of our products (read that "loans") or maintain a certain bank balance. Non-profit watchdog Consumer Reports says to be on the lookout for other banks to try and play this same sort of shell game.

A lot of us in the RV lifestyle have enough financial concerns to worry about without getting gouged by banks. What's to be done? First off, don't toss out those fluffy mailings that come with your bank or credit card statements. If your bank intends to change the way they do business, they'll often stick a circular in your monthly mailing, along with piles of useless adverts. If you don't pay attention to what they're up to, you won't be able to "opt out."

If you've got your money in a commercial bank, don't hesitate to yank it out and move it to a customer-friendly organization like a credit union. Used-to-be credit unions were pretty tight to get into, say those made up of employees of specific industries or groups. These days a lot of credit unions have memberships for Joe Everyman. You'll find credit unions often have really FREE checking accounts, better interest rates on savings, and lower rates on loans--even for RVs.

Many people shy away from getting out of an abusive bank relationship, simply because they aren't sure how to proceed, or imagine it will be an ordeal worse than they're undergoing. Here's a link to easy walk-through instructions on how to make a switch http://news.consumerreports.org/Move-Your-Money.pdf