A Nice Place to Visit--or to Live : Vacation Park Is Home to RV Owners Who Like to Stick Around

They arrive almost any time, day or night.

Turning off Beach Boulevard, the large trailers and recreational vehicles lumber past the gate, roll into parking spaces and hook up their electricity, water and sewer lines. Some stay only a day or two, just long enough to visit Knott’s Berry Farm a few blocks up the road. Others like the place so much that they never leave at all.

“It’s a freer lifestyle,” said Joan Johnson, 60, who has lived in a 29-foot trailer here for the last 20 years. “I like the area.”

Welcome to Anaheim Vacation Park, a parking lot for people whose homes are on wheels. While most of the country’s estimated 15,000 recreational vehicle parks cater primarily to weekend travelers, this one attracts drivers who want to pull up their emergency brakes and stay awhile.

“We cater to the permanents,” said Max Barker, who has managed the 22-acre park since 1991. Unlike mobile home parks, in which manufactured houses sit on permanent foundations, the only permanent structures here are the extra bathrooms, recreation center and office containing a tiny store dealing in auto and trailer parts. “We have every walk in life there is except executives,” Barker said. “Most of them have penthouses.”

Of the RVs occupying the park’s 222 spaces at any given time, Barker said, about 75% are inhabited by people who live in their vehicles at least six months a year and, despite its name, call the Anaheim Vacation Park home.

That’s an extraordinarily high percentage, according to Sue Bray, executive director of the Agoura-based Good Sam Club, to which 900,000 American and Canadian RV owners belong. A recent survey commissioned by the club, she said, indicated that about 6% of the nation’s estimated four million RVers live in their vehicles full time, with another 16% reporting that they spend long periods of time in them. Many of these “permanents,” Bray said, are attracted to Southern California--and Orange County in particular--because of the area’s moderate year-round climate, coastal environment and proximity to first-rate amusements.

“Southern California is definitely a destination where RVers like to stay,” Bray said.

When Barker began noticing the unusually high number of long-term residents his park was attracting, he began catering to them in a number of ways. The park already featured a pool, recreation room with a billiard table and piano and big-screen TV. In addition, Barker began trying to create a sense of community by serving coffee and pastries every Sunday morning, as well as organizing frequent potlucks, buffets and holiday gatherings.

The result is a quiet, almost intimate setting in which RVers--who pay an average of about $45,000 for their vehicles--can have all the comforts of home for $25 a day if they are “transients,” or $365 to $395 a month if their stays are long-term. Most of the permanents have small cars, in addition to their RVs, so that they don’t have to uproot their homes every time they run an errand.

On a recent summery afternoon, the place seemed to have a distinct air of permanence as residents relaxed under their awnings while chatting with neighbors amid veritable forests of hanging plants, potted gardens, picnic tables and folding chairs.

“The people here are nice,” said Owen Parker, 71, who left his home in Tulsa, Okla., in 1987 on a six-month stint for Rockwell that turned into six years. Now retired, he lives in a 35-foot motor home with his wife, Vivian, who works for H&R; Block. “I like it fine,” he said of the park. “You can live next door to people in a house and never speak to them. Here people are friendlier.”

Allen Stewart, a 14-year resident, sees other advantages as well. “When we had a house I always had to mow the yard and paint,” said Stewart, 61, who shares a 29-footer with his wife and dog. “Here you have limited space, so there’s not a lot to take care of.”

Frank Ransom, a retired parts manufacturer, was on vacation 12 years ago when he and his wife happened to pass the park, got curious and decided to pull in. His wife died recently, but Ransom stayed on.

And Stewart, whose wife, Lila, works next door at Ralphs Market, says he wouldn’t move into a larger place even if he could. “I like living in a trailer,” he said. “It’s pretty easy to get anywhere from here. And if I need more space, I just open the door and the whole world’s out there.”

Indeed, in recent times that world has occasionally intruded in unwanted ways. During the past year, Barker said, he has had to evict four tenants for using their vehicles as places of prostitution. And three others, he said, had to be removed for selling illegal drugs directly out of their trailers. What they were doing “was obvious from the traffic,” Barker said, adding that the infractions were first noticed by two policemen who live in the park.

For the most part, though, life at Anaheim Vacation Park is fairly tranquil as cars whiz continuously down Beach Boulevard on the other side of a six-foot-high block wall marking the park’s perimeter. Beyond that barrier, one senses, is a separate world little connected to this private spot of serenity.

A sign at the exit provides those on the way out with a warning checklist of things to do before leaving. “Antenna up. Steps up. Hoses okay. Sewer cap on. Lights working. Spouse, kids, pets aboard. Buckle up,” the sign advises.

Most residents seem to savor the sense of separateness the park engenders. “I’ll tell you one thing,” said Don Harper, 73, a retired building contractor who has been sharing a 32-foot trailer with his wife and dog for the last 11 years. “We don’t get any in-laws coming to stay with us.”