Separate Electric Charges for Weekly RV Park Stays

[mlh]

I have a friend who is a doctor of weed control no joke. If you eliminate all roundup ready crops everybody in the country would starve. He is retired and now grows sweet corn. The corn he is growing this year was sprayed with Roundup and resistant of corn worm. So it’s plant and pick. It’s not as sweet as the double sweet or the shrinking gene corn but it’s still better than any you will get at a big grocery store.
Lynwood

 

[Mark77]

I suppose this is what happens when you don’t read the fine print.

We are at Lafite’s Hideout RV “Resort” in Port Aransas this week. I got an email from them today for electricity usage $26.74. I went to the office for an explanation and she said “Oh, that is a mistake…your balance is $0. We will charge your credit card for electricity usage when you check out. LOTS of the parks are doing that now. Some parks build it into the rate.”

I told her WOW - I guess I did not read the fine print. This is the first time we have ever paid separately for electricity.

Based on our usage for 2.5 days - I should look for ~$100 bill for electricity on my card next week. I have always assumed utility usage was part of the daily rate. We paid $724 for 7 days when I made the reservation. I will be reading the fine print more closely for campgrounds in the future.

So - is this just part of our camping routine now? Are you guys regularly seeing this at campgrounds. This was a first for me. We have stayed here a couple of times in years past, but the grass burrs are SO BAD now…they growl at you when you walk by. One of the dog parks is clear plus a small section of San Augustine grass. The park location is great for watching the harbor fire works from our site. I guess I will pick out grass burrs during the big booms!

Read the fine print!

Did you guys see you were quoted in an RV Life email that went out today re: this thread?

Your somebody now

Don't Get Blindsided at Checkout: How Campgrounds Are Changing Electric Billing

Think your nightly rate covers all the A/C you can handle? Think again. More parks are using smart meters to bill short-term guests for actual power usage. Here is how to protect your wallet.

rvlife.com

 

[Mikendebbie]

Wow…I guess that’s even better than being in the phone book!

Edit: add to the famous list…Carl and Bourbon County were also quoted in the article!

 

[Byron B]

Based on this one invoice i got (see below) - it looks like $0.14 per kilowatt hour. No idea if that is good or highway robbery. I dont even know what i pay at the S&B per KwW hour…i will try to check that now,

Mike, we are presently paying .14 per kWh at SGRV.
Sad to learn we have to read the “small print” now. Not something I am accustomed to doing.

 

[scottz]

...

Don't Get Blindsided at Checkout: How Campgrounds Are Changing Electric Billing

Think your nightly rate covers all the A/C you can handle? Think again. More parks are using smart meters to bill short-term guests for actual power usage. Here is how to protect your wallet.

rvlife.com

Is it me or does that look like something produced by AI?

 

[scottz]

...If you have solar and a Victron Multiplus it will help offset shore power usage...

I may be wrong, but I think this would only work if you shut the shore power off and ran on batteries/solar at times. Otherwise, with shore power connected, your batteries are going to charge to 100% and just sit there. Once your batteries are at 100% the solar panels will idle. All the power used buy your rig will come from the shore connection.

 

[Mikendebbie]

ScottZ said “Is it me or does that look like something produced by AI?”

…only Mark77 could answer that…but I dis not think it was AI when his post appeared.

 

[scottz]

ScottZ said “Is it me or does that look like something produced by AI?”

…only Mark77 could answer that…but I dis not think it was AI when his post appeared.

I was not referring to Mark's post; I was referring to the RV Life newsletter.

 

[Mikendebbie]

Oh…it could be that their AI bots crawl these forums and find “threads of interest” using the AI generated summary at the top of each thread. Maybe you are on to something.

 

[scottz]

Not against it, just thought it was interesting. I can't see a real person searching all the threads and writing a news letter article about them.

 

[Carl n Susan]

Back in Jan 2026, there was a Thread about RV Life using AI to provide Thread summaries and possibly improving Titles.
Forum Updates: Introducing Summaries and Smarter Topic Titles

I suspect that is also used to mine topics for their newsletter.

 

[mlh]

Like Mark77 said Roundup is on almost everything we eat in one way or another. Almost all feed grains are Roundup ready so cows eat the grain and you eat the cow or chicken. Soybeans are all Roundup ready most corn and wheat and everything else you eat. A friend said he wouldn’t eat anything that had Roundup sprayed on it. I asked him what he was going to eat. I explained this to him and he decided Roundup was better than starving.
Lynwood

 

[Bourbon County]

Like Mark77 said Roundup is on almost everything we eat in one way or another. Almost all feed grains are Roundup ready so cows eat the grain and you eat the cow or chicken. Soybeans are all Roundup ready most corn and wheat and everything else you eat. A friend said he wouldn’t eat anything that had Roundup sprayed on it. I asked him what he was going to eat. I explained this to him and he decided Roundup was better than starving.
Lynwood

Good point; that could be expanded to everything we eat AND lots of things we drink. Fermented grains are the main ingredient in beer and distilled spirits.

 

[Mark77]

Is it me or does that look like something produced by AI?

I am guessing that spiders are crawling the forums and grabbing things that spark their interests especially threads that get a lot of hits.

I am admin on another forum (unrelated to RV stuff) and I can see everyone or everything that is visiting that forum at any given time. Not unusual to see a half dozen or more "spiders" crawling through the pages. Guessing that is what makes search engines work as well.

I find it fascinating that there are now thread summaries at the start of every thread on this forum, though I seldom read them. It is the thread title that catches me.

 

[Carl n Susan]

I am guessing that spiders are crawling the forums and grabbing things that spark their interests especially threads that get a lot of hits.

I am admin on another forum (unrelated to RV stuff) and I can see everyone or everything that is visiting that forum at any given time. Not unusual to see a half dozen or more "spiders" crawling through the pages. Guessing that is what makes search engines work as well.

The number of currently logged on "members" is displayed on the Home page in the right hand pane. Right now it says:

Members online

• Carl n Susan
• hcampers
• DuneBuggyBuilder
• kingdaddy

Total: 697 (members: 4, guests: 693) ​

As a MOD, I can't see who all those 697 guests are, but you can bet they are "spiders" or equivalent sucking up anything they can. One reason why you should never post personal information such as email address or phone number.

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