Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park & Cottages
As park owners, Gerrie and I are always looking for ways to improve our park, and our camper’s experience here. Whether it is installing new washers and dryers in the laundry room, remodeling the bathrooms, painting, carrying more RV parts in inventory, upgrading the roads and sites, upgrading the WiFi, or just making sure all of us keep a great attitude toward our campers and each other, there are always areas we can “work” on.
We also look at trends in what campers are looking for in parks and other areas we may be able to incorporate into Bluebonnet Ridge RV Park & Cottages without degrading the experience of our campers and stay “true” to being a “Good Sam” park. One of those areas we have seen recently is the move of many from the traditional large house to tiny houses. In many cases, these tiny houses are what manufacturers like Platinum Homes, Athens Park Homes, Cavco Homes, and others, call Park Model Homes.
In looking at this trend, we talked to the manufacturers and were told that, in many cases, neither “traditional” RV parks nor mobile home parks would accept privately-owned tiny homes. A buyer of a tiny home needed to have a piece of property to put it on and many people looking at tiny homes didn’t want to buy a piece of land and have to take care of it. They wanted a simpler lifestyle, with a tiny home and site to put it on that others would take care of. That gave us an idea!
The Retreat at Bluebonnet Ridge…a Home for Tiny Homes
There is an area in our park, which is separate from the “main” camping area of 90 sites, but could be cleared and used for additional sites. Why not see if we can put in new sites in the separate area and do what we need to do with the regulating entities to make them available to those with tiny homes? That way, we remain a Good Sam park in the main park, but also have a separate area for tiny homes.
The Retreat at Bluebonnet Ridge opened on June 30. In the planning, we decided to make it upscale, with each of the 40’ x 100’ sites having 100 amp power, a 15’ x 50’ concrete pad, 12’ x 12’ patio and paved parking for 2 – 3 vehicles in front. So far, we have 8 tiny homes and 13 motorhomes and 5th wheel travel trailers. It is our intention that, eventually, The Retreat will be “home” for 30 tiny homes.
Our park is on 64 acres, with a 5 ½ acre catch and release lake. A blessing of “country” living for our short and long term campers, but a lot to mow, weed eat, etc., to make it look great for our campers. We are blessed with a team that has a passion for the park and our campers, as they work very hard to keep it looking good/great!
What’s next? We are looking…
