We have been on the road since September 2016; attending our first RV Rally in Tallahassee Florida in February 2017 changed our traveling lives.  We were there for the Annual Fulltime Families Family Reunion.  That event hosted close to 90 RVs, all of which were home to families with kids.  We had a great time, and from that event forward, we rooted ourselves into the Fulltime Families organization and made an effort to attend as many events as possible.  In just under 2 years since that event, we have been to 4 rallies, 2 organized hangouts, a family retreat and Nomadfest (not Fulltime Families, but a great event).  We have found that RV rallies are definitely the place to connect with your friends, make new ones, and network with like minded people.  It’s the community that we all seek!

We were hanging with a bunch of our friends at and around the Fulltime Families Up and Away Rally in Albuquerque this past fall, and were getting asked often if we were going to be attending the Xscapers Annual Bash in Lake Havasu.  At that time we were undecided.

What are Xscapers, and what is the Annual Bash? 

If you know anything about RV living, you probably know what Escapees is.  It’s a large member organization that assists RVers in many different ways.  Their website is packed with RV related resources from setting up domicile to mail service.  I cannot possibly write about everything that they offer, nor is that what this post is about.  Within the Escapee organization is a sub group of RVers called the Xscapers.  This group is mainly comprised of the growing number of working age RVers, which are not into the 55 and up RV parks or bingo nights.  This group is a community with passion for an active and free-spirited life of travel and adventure. 

Fast forward back to October 2018, and we were sitting around a campfire, and our friends that were already signed up, kept asking us if we were going.  My canned response was always, “I’ve heard it’s not very family friendly”.  Which was a true statement, I had heard stories of the atmosphere at their events having a very “spring break” feel.  During this time, I had been asked by several different friends of ours, most of which had their own canned response to my canned response, “they are trying to change that, and get more families involved.”  So after hearing that response a number of times, we talked about it, and decided to go.

Membership:

First things first, we had to be members of Escapees to buy tickets.  We had been previously, we had joined back before we launched, as we received a free year when we joined Fulltime Families.  But within the first year, we didn’t use any of the services offered for being members, and we decided to let that membership lapse.  So in order to attend the event we had to renew our memberships.  The cost for a year was $39. 

So now we were members, and we went to the Xscapers website and bought our tickets to the event just in the nick of time, as it sold out the next day.  We paid as a Couple for General Camping which costed $125 and included T-shirts for Doug and Harmony.  When registering, we had to pick which section we wanted to camp in, the options were:  General, Solar, Party, Solo or Family.  We chose the Family section of course.  There was also a catered meal, but we opted to wait and see if it was something we would want to attend and in the end we skipped it since most of us have made some dietary changes that wouldn’t be supported by the catered meal.

Pre-Event:

Communication was great leading up to the event.  We received a couple newsletters filled with useful information leading up to the event.  They sent out the schedule, and let us know about the Event App that would be used.  We were added to the private Facebook group, sent GPS coordinates (including which roads to take, or not take when arriving), and a printable hang tag to display in our window when arriving to get us parked in the right area.

Arrival day:

We were staying very close; it was approximately 8.2 miles from the state park we were staying in to the Lake Havasu Rodeo Grounds where the event was being held.  We drove in about 11am, and there was no line.  There wasn’t a line because there were not any people arriving; it’s because their parking team was that good.  We pulled up, were directed to a set of cones, and parked very quickly.  I loved that there was no question of registration while parking, just show our hang tag and roll right into our spot.  Now once were set up, we did have to walk up and register, but that was a quick process as well.  The overall organization of checking in, and registering was very quick and painless.

Now that we are at the event, I am not going to go through the play by play of all the activities, but tell you more about what went down, what we liked or maybe disliked about it. 

I’ll start by saying, the overall organization and structure of the event was top notch.  The planning and logistics were excellent, especially for an event of this magnitude.  At last count, there were 312 RVs in attendance.  That is a large number of rigs, people and pets.

Venue:

The Bash was held at the Lake Havasu Rodeo Grounds.  It was a very short drive into Lake Havasu City, and the nearest grocery store was less than 5 miles away.  There was potable water, rest rooms, dumpsters, showers and a dump station on site for use, making this 9 day event very easy to manage since we were all boondocking.  They even had a mail room that accepted packages for attendees!  A majority of the events were held either on the rodeo bleachers or throughout the main area which had a large covered patio feel and a metal building that was used often because the weather didn’t cooperate through the entire week.  There are many great hikes right out of the rodeo grounds, and even a dog park right up the road.  I cannot say enough great things about this venue, and wish that more RV events and Rallies held in places like this.

Schedule: 

A 9 day event for RVers is hard to schedule and make work for all attendees.  We definitely know that from experience.  The schedule was arranged in a manner that left most of the day time hours pretty wide open, which is great since many of the attendees still had to work.  They used the App Eventmobi to share the schedule with everyone.  It worked out great; every morning there were announcements, including changes to the schedule and any housekeeping items to pass along.  We have used other apps at previous events, and this one is one of the best we have used, or at least they did a great job using it to get the messages across.  In addition, there was a Facebook group which was great for sharing stories, pictures and unofficial activities as the event rolled along, and a Facebook chat, that I opted out of due to the large number of members; I just couldn’t keep up with all the dinging! 

What kind of activities were there?

There was so much to do!  The activities were very broad.  Many of the panels/talks were centered on different aspects of RV living like solar power, RVing to Alaska, RV renovations, Tax preparation, and the list goes on and on.  There were casual daily activities such as, yoga, kid’s camp, coffee talks, etc.  And every night there was entertainment like live music, a DJ or karaoke.  There was also a board game night, video games, and a movie night for the kids.  The nights were definitely filled with activities meant to get attendees mingling amongst one another and having fun.  There was the catered meal, a pot luck, and a couple different “throw downs” for Margaritas and Guacamole!   GeoAstroRV was there with their telescopes, and put on programs for both night and day solar viewing throughout the event. 

Was this event kid friendly?

Although I would say yes, it would quickly progress to PG13 and beyond as the sun went down and adult beverages were consumed.  But they did a great job making the families and especially the kids feel welcome.  We had our own camping section that was half empty with lots of room for kids to run and play.  They even brought in a truck load of sand/dirt, and made a huge sand pile in the back of our section, with a bunch of sand toys for the kids to play with.  They brought in some bounce houses one day that the kids had an absolute blast on.  The schedule included daily kid’s camps with various arts, crafts and activities.  Most of the attendees were very friendly and engaged with the kids throughout the event.  There were a couple of times were grumpy adults were less than respectful towards the kids, but overall no worse than experiences we have had at campgrounds and RV parks around the country.  

Would we attend another Xscapers event?

Most definitely, we made some great new friends, and really enjoyed most of the activities.  We really wanted to follow up the Annual Bash with the Convergence being held in Baja Mexico a week after the Annual Bash, but financially wasn’t feasible for us at the time.  They have a full schedule of events through the rest of the year from Alaska to Baja Mexico, and places like Moab in between!  If you are on the road, or looking to hit the road and need to find your tribe, definitely check out the Escapees RV club and look into the Xscapers!