Mike debunks all the reasons he delayed his first motorhome purchase.
By Mike Wendland, F426141
April 2015
When I look back over the past three years and the 80,000 miles we have traveled in our small motorhome, I have one major regret. We should have started earlier, years ago, when the notion of exploring North America in a motorhome first grabbed hold of my soul.
My wife, Jennifer, and I are extremely blessed with good health, are in reasonably good shape, and still have a lot of active years ahead of us (God willing). But we could have been doing this much earlier.
I kept waffling and postponing. An RV is a lot of money. What if we didn’t like it? Maybe we should wait for a while, until everything lines up perfectly.
Guess what? Life never lines up perfectly. Ever.
I wish someone had shared the tape measure illustration with me five or 10 years ago. It might have gotten me moving sooner.
The tape measure illustration, if you haven’t heard, is a sales closing tool that, in my book, is pretty darn effective. I first heard it from Jim Hammill, president of Roadtrek Motorhomes. It goes like this:
Take out a long tape measure. Ask yourself how long you think you will live. Say it’s 90. Then ask yourself how many years you think you will be healthy enough to enjoy RV travel. Say the answer to that is 85. Put your finger on the 85-inch mark. Now put another finger on your current age. The length of time between those numbers is how much time you have left.
Now look at the numbers between one, signifying your birth year, and your current age. The time went by pretty fast, didn’t it? Now consider the numbers between 85 and your current age. Puts things into perspective, doesn’t it?
As the calendar turns to April and, slowly, spring works its way north, Michigan RVers like us are taking our units out of storage, dewinterizing them, and lining up 2015 travels. The snowbirds who fled the cold are planning trips back north to their sticks-and-bricks homes. Those who live in the South and Southwest are doing the reverse: plotting trips to escape the heat by heading to the mountains or to the northern states.
I think it’s safe to say that we are all working off a bucket list. Ours keeps getting longer and longer. But time gets shorter and shorter. That’s one reason why last year we made the decision to have no off-season. We are not full-timers, but we’re on the road with our coach about two weeks out of every month.
That’s just our style. We’re not sitters. And while we do indeed put a lot of miles on our RV, it’s by choice. There are just so many places to go, things to see, and adventures to live.
After three years of this lifestyle, we have discovered that the things we thought would be obstacles really aren’t. I worried that by traveling, I would not be able to work. Granted, I am fortunate that I am a writer and journalist and can practice my trade anywhere. I have two blogs that are updated with fresh content daily. I prepare two podcasts every week. I do a video report that is sent out to all 215 NBC-TV stations weekly. I have never missed a deadline. I even assembled a mobile podcast studio in our RV so I can record right from the road.
We worried about the cost of RVing. For the first year or so, we spent way more than we should have on eating out. But as we got used to the lifestyle, we came to prefer preparing meals in the coach. Our passion is boondocking in the wilderness, so overnights for us are often free or only a few dollars. Our entertainment comes from what’s right outside our window. We do pay for admission to museums or special attractions we encounter on occasion. And because we have limited storage space in our Type B, we don’t make many purchases.
We both worried about missing the kids and grandkids. Truth is, we probably see them more now than we did before. We travel a regular circuit between the homes of our three children.
Another concern was what would happen to our stationary home in Michigan. Neighbors and friends check it daily. Also, we often have houseguests who live in it while we are on the road. Security and monitoring devices watch over the temperature and air quality and alert me on the smartphone if something is amiss.
And, finally, we wondered whether we would spend all that money only to discover that the RV lifestyle wasn’t for us after all. That hasn’t happened. In fact, just the opposite happened. We have made so many new friends and have seen so many amazing places that when we’re not traveling, we find ourselves restless and eager to get out there again.
But suppose, just suppose, traveling in an RV was not as fulfilling as we hoped? We would have simply sold our motorhome. We might have lost some money, but not much. Type B RVs really hold their value.
So, the worst thing that could have happened was that we would have discovered a lifestyle we didn’t want. And then we could have moved on in search of another.
I don’t know how long we will keep up with this lifestyle. Will it be until that space on the tape measure runs out? Right now, I’d say, yes. Because this is the best season of our lives. And I can’t wait for the next adventure.