Motorhome Musings: Why You Should Buy A Motorhome

One of my favorite authors, John Steinbeck, took to the road in 1960 eight years before he died with a French poodle for a traveling mate, traveling in a truck camper named Rocinante (named after Don Quixote’s horse).

Fearing a heart condition would catch up with him, Steinbeck hit the road with his French poodle Charley, which resulted in the 1961 classic, “Travels with Charley,” one of the most heartfelt travel books of all time.

Steinbeck just wanted to live a little.

For example, why travel without your favorite companion in the world, your pet?

Why not enjoy the outdoors, while you travel? Why be stuck eating expensive restaurant food, when you can travel and cook your own meals. And why sit indoors at night, when the stars are out there, calling to you?

Without doubt, you have also seen the motor homes towing dirt bikes on a trailer or with a 19-foot bass-trolling boat lashed to the roof. These guys are not living small. These guys live large. They wake up early, fish, play golf, swim and hike trails in national parks before going to bed. To some, a motorhome is a man cave on wheels — a toy chest with a kitchenette and a bathroom built in.

So, here are 10 of the most common reasons you’ll see listed for hitting the road in a motorhome:

1. You call the shots. Travel, but change your itinerary as you see fit. Stay in one place for as long as the weather holds, then hit the trail when you feel the itch.
2. Travel with pets and kids. This is, of course, the very opposite reason some people travel; they travel in part to get away from the pets and kids. But the beauty of a motor home all that space, which means kids can hang out in the living space and keep themselves amused, while you drive and take in the scenery.
3. Speaking of scenery…the great outdoors is the very reason many folks hit the road. After years of working in an office and feeling cramped up indoors, the wide open spaces are still to be found when you hit the road.
4. A cookout every night. And why not? Some of the world’s best cooking takes place on a grill with simple, solid meals that you can perfect as you go. Really. If a barbecue every night of the week sounds like a good option, all it takes is a motor home to make that dream come true.
5. Join the RV community. Again, if you are feeling stuck at home, you will find a made-to-order community of motorhome owners out there, who love to trade travel stories and give you advise on how where to go, how to get there, and how to maintain your vehicle (and maybe your sanity) while you are on the road.
6. A solid investment. A plane ticket is used once and that’s it. Travel in a motorhome is close to the opposite of that. It is decidedly slower and lower in cost than traveling by plane. But it is also an investment that has a resale point at the end. Also, motorhome financing is easier to obtain than financing for a second home with interest rates that are generally lower than mortgage rates.
7. Did you ever notice how Zen motorhome drivers are? If you look at their faces as you pass them on the road, you rarely see a scowl or even pronounced stress lines. Driving a motorhome might be the equivalent of doing meditation. Whatever the reason, you rarely see stressed out motorhome owners. They take life slow and easy. Maybe they even live longer. (Steinbeck did. He went on the road fearing he was running out of time, due to a heart condition, but he lived eight more years after his trip with Charley ended.)
8. Big savings. Do you like the idea of traveling with your favorite CDs, board games, toys, snacks and drinks? I do. And think of the savings of buying soft drinks at a grocery store and stashing them in the motorhome as opposed to buying at convenience store prices. You can also stock up on snacks you like, instead of grabbing whatever high-priced snacks you are forced to consider when you are traveling.
9. Quiet nights. A friend of mine said just this week that the last time she went camping, she was woken up by something that “sounded like a pterodactyl.” I thought that was great. And good for Steven Spielberg for educating us on various dinosaur noises. For the most part, however, pterodactyls notwithstanding, your nights under the stars in your motorhome will be soothingly quiet. Just the sound of your thoughts – and maybe a French poodle snoring, of course.