THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING
THE SUNDAY
Tempe friends find homes for shelter dogs
Tribune
PAGE 3 West Mesa Edition
INSIDE THIS WEEK NEWS | 6
Judge to hear case on recreational marijuana
EAST VALLEY
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Mesa council candidates talk issues PAGE 10
Sunday, August 7, 2016
New age for East Valley RV resorts
Megaplexes hustle to meet travelers’ expectations
COMMUNITY | 14
Crossing guards are schooled as they prepare for fall
BUSINESS | 18
Zia Records’ new Mesa store is owner’s dream come true
(High Res Media LLC/Special to the Tribune)
OPINION.....................16 SPORTS.......................20 FAITH...........................27 CLASSIFIED ...............29
Venture Out at Mesa RV resort has made $9 million in improvements in the last 14 years, according to general manager Mary L. Schmidt. In the center of the resort, popular pickleball courts are always in demand during cooler months.
MUSIC | 23 Thousand Foot Krutch leads pack of Christian artists coming to Valley ENTERTAINMENT | 24 Chandler Center for the Arts announces season lineup
BY ROSE HUTCHINSON TRING TRIBUNE CONTRIBUTOR
S
itting under a shaded area at Apache Palms RV Park in Tempe, Doug Schnorbus taps away on his laptop, two cellphones lying nearby on the folding table. Wearing brown shorts, a North Face T-shirt and flip-flops, he’s dressed for the triple-digit weather in Arizona and not as the full-time account executive that he is for a national financial services company. Schnorbus represents an emerging demographic among America’s RVers, a telecommuter with a full-time job who can set up his office anywhere
that has Wi-Fi. During the past 10 years, change has overtaken the RV industry from all fronts with the age of travelers dropping by several decades and RV owners demanding more amenities because they want to live as well on the road as they do at home. “The single biggest change in the past decade has been the lowering of the age of a lot of RV’ers,” says David Gorin, owner of David Gorin & Associates, a McLean, Va.-based RV industry consulting firm. “Ten years ago, they were 55 and up. Now the
owners are in their mid-40s and beyond. When you look at the industry as whole, it’s a lot different now.” See
RV PARK on page 4
(Will Powers/Tribune Staff Photographer)
COVER STORY
Doug Schnorbus discusses life at the Apache Palms RV park in Tempe. “We’ve been here for about six weeks," he said. "We’ve found it very friendly here.”