High fuel prices to slow RV traffic, impact on boating unknown

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) -- Soaring fuel prices may not have much of an impact on the number of boats on area lakes this summer, but they very well could change how the watercraft get there.

Kelly Larson of Seneca says he usually pulls his boat behind his recreational vehicle to Beaver Lake in Arkansas five to 10 times a year. But now that it takes about $200 to fill the 90-gallon tank in his RV with diesel -- and that's not counting the gas he needs to power his boat -- Larson said he might not be making those trips this year.

"Who can afford that?" he said.

About 50 RV owners have canceled reservations in the past six weeks at Cedar Oaks RV Resort on Grand Lake in northeast Oklahoma, co-owner Beverly Coke said. She said her customers are telling her they'll have to skip their RV trips this year because of high gas prices.

Boat builders throughout Missouri are backed up more than usual, he said, which is a good sign for the summer. But how much those new boats actually will be used is another matter altogether.

"I'm sure there will be a decline of people on the lake because they're going to be more spendthrift with their money," said Tom Berry, controller of Tera Miranda Marina and Resort on Grand Lake, near Grove, Okla.

Ron Plymate, owner of Orleans Trail Resort and Marina on southwest Missouri's Stockton Lake, agrees.

"People only have so much disposable income for recreation, and they probably have to use that to get back and forth from work," he said.

Plymate said two-thirds of his customers at the Stockton Lake marina use sailboats, which saves them money. Still, many of his regulars come from Kansas City, Springfield, St. Louis and Wichita, Kan., he said, and he's concerned they may not want to spend the money to get to the lake this year.

Linda Sherman, manager at Campbell Point Marina on Table Rock Lake near Shell Knob, said Table Rock was busy the first weekend in April because of warm weather, and people were filling up their boats for the first time of the season.

"No one was grumbling yet," Sherman said.

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Information from: The Joplin Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com