The motorhome life can be easy-breezy, particularly with one special item aboard. Read below to see readers’ responses to this month’s question:
What motorhome accessory can you just not live without?
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Our most important motorhome accessory is our trio of GPS systems. Each performs an important function in our full-time adventures. When planning trips, we begin with an ultimate destination for a season. We use a laptop GPS system to find rest stops, campgrounds, gas stations, and restaurants along the way. We determine which campgrounds we’ll stop at and explore from. While traveling, we use the laptop GPS software to find the best or most scenic routes. Points of interest (POIs) are displayed on the laptop computer as we near them. Once we’re settled in at a campground, we move to explorer mode and a TomTom GPS system for the car. We have it programmed for local POIs and for the latitude and longitude of our campground, so when we explore roads less traveled, the GPS system can navigate us back. Our latest device is a Palm Pre smartphone, which has Google Maps and “yellow pages” built-in. We use it to locate local attractions while on the road in the car. So, modern technology has enhanced our full-timing experience.
Chuck & Jeanne Fingerman, F345878
Emery, South Dakota
Spring and fall camping are often the most peaceful times for us. It’s so relaxing to sit by a campfire or gaze over a lake in the evening hours, listening to the night sounds. On cool nights during these seasons, we are often huddled up in sweatshirts or jackets, not willing to leave the delicious warmth of the fire and sweet smell of the burning wood to go inside the motorhome. When the chill finally overtakes us, we head inside and switch on our heated mattress pad. We’ve camped our whole married life of more than 40 years and now enjoy the soothing heat on our aches and pains. We know it’s not “roughing it,” but we paid our dues. We still enjoy cooking over the fire, fishing, bird-watching, and savoring all the joys of camping, plus our favorite luxury at the end of the day: the luscious feeling of a warm bed.
Kay Glover, F259098
North Royalton, Ohio
I’m a full-timer in a converted 1976 MCI-8, and the motorhome accessory I can’t live without is the trash compactor. On the road and in the boondocks, trash can accumulate quickly. Storing all the little plastic grocery bags full or the bigger garbage bags with their bulkiness gets to be a real problem. With the compactor, after weeks of accumulating, I end up with one bag about the size of a standard file box. Additional upsides are that it eliminates the kitchen garbage pail and the need to transfer the full bags to somewhere else, and, in my case, I gained additional countertop space by planning it into my kitchen design.
John Wardell, F371482
Fort Mohave, Arizona
My favorite motorhome accessory is our satellite radio system. As the copilot, I no longer have to find a new radio channel as we go through the wide-open spaces between Nevada and Texas, or to change compact discs. I just select the channel, sit back, and listen. It’s great.
Polly & John Holmes, F323788
Mountain Home, Texas
My LP-gas oven! Because of my many volunteer activities, I prepare more meals when away in our motorhome than in our stationary home. In addition to the gas oven, I use my convection-microwave oven and the range burners simultaneously. My kitchen counter is L-shaped and is perfect for serving buffet-style meals.
Sondra Davis, F235559
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Future questions:
1. What’s your favorite amusement park?
2. Have you traveled with an unusual pet? Explain.