Open Mike: The Appeal Is Real

Mike shares part of his endless list of reasons why he and Jennifer love the motorhome lifestyle.

By Mike Wendland, F426141
July 2014

We are smack-dab in the middle of the summer traveling season, and the interstates and two-lanes are filled with motorhomes this month as tens of thousands of us are on the move across North America in search of the next adventure.

If we’re on schedule as you are reading this, Jennifer and I will slowly be making our way west, eventually heading to Oregon and a “High Desert Sunrise” — the theme of the next FMCA Family Reunion and Motorhome Showcase. This event is set to take place August 13 to 16, 2014, at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center in Redmond.

To get to Redmond, we’re taking a meandering route that retraces major parts of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the Oregon Trail, following along in our 21st-century version of the covered wagon. In fact, we’ll share photos and things we learned from our Oregon Trail route in a seminar during the Reunion in Redmond.

We’ve been on the road much of the year now, visiting the Gulf Coast, Florida, Cape Cod, and the Great Lakes. We’re now on our third year of this new small-motorhome lifestyle we have embraced. Probably the top question friends and relatives ask us is, “What appeals to us so much about our RV lifestyle?”

There is no single answer. There are a bunch of them. Following are some of the reasons we are enjoying this so:

• Waking up to sunlight streaming around the edges of the shades in our motorhome, and the smell of that first cup of coffee brewing as I start the day.
• The first peek out the window at our surroundings. We boondock a lot in state and federal forests and wilderness areas across North America, so often it’s wildlife I see when I look out. I love to sip that coffee and quietly watch the world wake up.
• The smell of bacon frying as I start to make breakfast on the picnic table outside, after first looking around for bears or signs that we might be in an area with bear activity. Bears, I’ve discovered the hard way, love bacon even more than men do.
• Walking our dog, Tai, in a new campground or forest, watching him take in the new scents and sounds with his amazing nose and ears.
• Strolling with Jennifer, exploring our surroundings, hand in hand, not in a rush to be anywhere but in the moment.
• Doing my morning blog work from a camp chair next to the motorhome. Sure beats the offices and windowless cubicles and hotel rooms where I used to toil.
• Watching the landscape unfolding like a high-definition movie on the other side of the windshield as we head to our next destination.
• Changing our mind en route and stopping on a whim to spend the night at a spot we didn’t expect to find but that looks inviting.
• Quiet, two-lane state or county roads, the “Blue Highways,” which let us see the small towns and farms and wide-open spaces far off the hurried interstates.
• Finding a local “Mom and Pop” restaurant, market, or produce stand that lets us experience local and regional foods that aren’t prepackaged, frozen, or microwaved.
• Taking a nap in the middle of the day in our “look at the sky” antigravity chairs outside the motorhome.
• Meeting new people who share our love of travel and the outdoors. I’ve learned during these three years of travel that everybody has a story. Everybody has something to teach us.
• Watching a sunset from a new place.
• Seeing the clouds pass by in a bright-blue sky, with some birds way up high coasting on the thermals. Or gazing at the stars in a jet-black sky far from big-city light pollution. This is why we call our tilt-back antigravity chairs “look at the sky” chairs. They are perfect for this.
• The smell of a campfire.
• Watching the fire while sitting next to Jennifer, with Tai behind us with his back to the fire. We can sit that way for a long time, not saying a word, just being together, content, relaxed, and listening to the wood crackle and burn as it turns into a bed of red-hot embers.
• Hearing an owl late at night just before we drift off to sleep in our king-sized bed atop the four-inch mattress topper that makes it so comfortable.
• Being awakened in the middle of the night by howling coyotes or, if we’re really lucky, as has happened to us a few times in Montana, Wyoming, and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, howling wolves. Awesome, simply awesome.
• Being snug and secure inside our little motorhome, connected when we need to be thanks to Wi-Fi and the Internet and our mobile phones, but yet far away and removed from the hustle and bustle and high-stress atmosphere of the rest of the world.
• Seeing how big and vast is this continent and how up close and personal we can get to it. Being hypnotized by tasseled corn waving in the wind, or the great prairie that stretches from horizon to horizon, or snow-covered mountains visible from hundreds of miles away, or mighty waves crashing on the shore of one of the Great Lakes or the oceans.

Okay. That’s my first pass at a list. I could sit here all day and keep writing, because there are more reasons why we so enjoy this lifestyle. But we’ve got places to go, adventures awaiting, and Tai is making it known that he expects his morning walk before we break camp and head out for the day.

We hope to see you next month in Redmond. I’ll be presenting a couple of seminars. Please come by and share the things you’d add to your list.

’Til then, enjoy the day!

Veteran journalist Mike Wendland, F426141, FMCA’s official on-the-road reporter, travels the country with his wife, Jennifer, and their Norwegian elkhound, Tai, aboard the couple’s Roadtrek Type B motorhome. Mike can be reached at openmike@fmca.com.