The biggest question I get now that I've taken an RV trip with my wife Jane is whether we're still married.
The answer is yes ... and better for it because of the long weekend in the 31-foot recreational vehicle.
The call of the road seems ingrained in Americans' DNA. We have a lot to see. We have the roads to get us there. We have the motivation of "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac or "Travels with Charlie" by John Steinbeck or, for a real twisted take on the theme, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter S. Thompson.
And we Baby Boomers are positioned with our sense of adventure and empty nests to continue to take up where Kerouac, Steinbeck and Thompson left off.
One vision I had of my retirement is packing us up into an RV to follow my beloved Red Sox around on a series of away games. Go from park to park to park. I want to re-see America with older, wiser eyes than back in the 1970s when I took a cross-country trip in a Dodge Dart.
A retirement gift gave me the chance to get a taste of the RV lifestyle, one that maintains its pace despite the recession. Even though the sales of RVs is down, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, RVs are still on the road, their owners determined to keep on truckin'. The trade group says that 64 percent of RV owners plan to travel over the Labor Day weekend, a slight increase from last year.
The gift certificate for a three-day rental gave us the opportunity to trek north to a campground in New Hampton, N.H., near Pemigewasset Lake.
Steering the 31-foot Winnebago Chalet on the highway was a bit like navigating the Queen Mary on the high seas; it felt more like floating than driving. And, despite a cursory demo by the rental agent, the hook-ups at the campsite of electrical, water and sewer were a bit daunting.
But the folks at the Twin Tamarack Campground were extremely helpful to a couple of newbies like Jane and me.
There were no disasters, a la the Robin Williams movie "RV".
In truth, for a few days we had the comforts of home -- albeit a small home -- but a home with running water, a shower, flush toilet, electricity, cable TV, internet access and the ability to cook the same meals that I would in my own kitchen.
We ate well, we explored, we entertained ourselves with good books to read and Scrabble.
We met a couple in their 60s who live the lifestyle full time in their fifth wheel rig: summers in New Hampshire, a site at a favorite campground in Florida and in between trips to various places throughout the country for Habitat for Humanity building projects. They are genuinely happy with a life that isn't anchored to a house, a life that allows them to roll with whatever urges the road offers.
Getting ready to leave meant dumping the gray water (basically the shower, kitchen sink water) and black water (from the toilet) -- black water first through the hose, then gray water to wash out and rise the black out of the hose. Then fresh water from the water hook-up to finish the job.
Would we do it again? Yes, with the caveat that we tow a car. Once the rig is parked, leveled and hooked up, you don't want to undo it all to travel around and sight see. We wished we had a car to do that because there was a lot to see that we didn't.
And that's the lure. There's a lot to see out there.
1 comment:
I took my first RV trip last October and loved it. I dream of one day getting a little Roadtrek and seeing the rest of the country. I went with a friend and, yes, we are still talking.
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