I'm not on IRV2 any more. Got tired of the skoolies are trash/Beverly hillbilly/rolling meth lab "jokes". As for "campground discounts" we have not found them to be worth it. Maybe Passport America, but I have only been in one Passport America Campground (Dixie RV Park, Vienna, GA) in about a decade... maybe two (campgrounds, not decades). As for Good Sam... I spent YEARS getting rid of the Good Sam garbage they filled my mailbox with. Never again. And we only joined because we stayed one time at a Good Sam park in Nashville and it worked out cheaper to buy the plan and get the immediate discount off the stay. Kinda like the Presidents club at Camping World... we buy it only if we are making a big enough purchase that the $20 plan PLUS discount makes it worthwhile (bought the plan last time because we had to replace our 6 gallon water heater). We rarely buy RV stuff from anyone, much less Camping World... but they do have nice pics to link to. I have not found most of the "groups" worth joining. We don't RV like that. We work and happen to live in an RV, not the other way around. For us, the RV is not much different than renting an apt. Except we rent our site and own the "apartment". Kinda like a condo setup but much cheaper. Escapees is the best of the RV forums.
I have joined Escapees in the past but let it lapse when we lost our job in construction (that was an extra and we had to cut out all extras and cut back on the necessities). I do need to rejoin. You do not need to be a member to post on the forums. We have never used the SKP discount nor stayed in an SKP park (we did drive past the one near Carlsbad NM... The Ranch?) or member park. The discount is only for one night (like most of the campground discounts offered) and it's about 10% or so. To do use SKP mail forwarding, you do have to be a member. That is why we will be joining again. I will set up the mail forwarding next month. My daughter is a lousy mail forwarding service. We have a hard time getting our mail while living in the same town. We plan on leaving NM after two winters (if David's doctor says he can). The plan is to stop in Livingston and shift everything over to TX registration and become "Texans" (don't forget plans change...often). Texas is full-time RV friendly and Polk County (headquarters of Escapees) is very comfortable with full-time RVers claiming them as a residence (no problem with voting in the elections... some SKPs even vote in the local level elections). I've had two TN based mail forwarding services disappear on me (my mail disappeared as well... either trashed or "returned to sender"). Plus I no longer have a TN based drivers license. TN claimed they sent me a notice (guess where) telling me I had to have a new pic on my drivers license since I had been renewing online. I found this out less than a week before my license expired. TN would only grant an extension if my license was current. By the time I got the info on the extensions, my license had expired. I was NOT driving back to TN from NM just for my drivers license. Polk County isn't like that. But we plan on being fairly near that area every so often once we get back east. Escapees is more of a political force in TX than a club. At least that is how I see it. They have gone the extra mile in getting their mailing address to be accepted as a "legal residence" for the many full-timers who use their services. Financial institutions, government agencies, insurance companies all recognize the Livingston addy as a valid addy. And like TN, TX does not have state income tax. Filing multiple state taxes is a PITA. Been there, done that for MANY years.
