The Wendlands have found that motorhome travel enhances their ability to enjoy their hobbies and also has inspired new interests for them.
By Mike Wendland, F426141
February 2016
As I write this from my Michigan home, we’re in the throes of winter. Our RV travel time is a few weeks away yet, but that’s okay. To enjoy it, I need only glance at my office wall.
Today, I’m looking at a photograph of a half-dozen horses. Just seeing that photo takes me back. I remember the day I took it. In my mind, I can still smell the crisp, clean, late-spring air. We were on the east side of the Teton Mountains, late in the afternoon, not long after a thunderstorm had rolled down from the hills. The sun was breaking through what was left of the clouds, and the light was astounding, that “golden time” just before sunset that every serious photographer knows so well. Thanks to our motorhome lifestyle, I have become a serious photographer.
I had spotted the horses as we were driving around taking photographs of the area near Dubois, Wyoming. I parked along a fence and started shooting pictures. The horses made their way to me, and soon the soft nuzzle of their muzzles interrupted my picture taking.
The horses made a low chortle that I like to think of as a horse purr as I nuzzled them back. I was so moved by their beauty and affection that I almost cried. And when I look at that photo, I remember the experience and the feelings again almost as though I were there.
I’ve given a copy of that photo to my grandson, Matthew, and my son, Jeff. Both of them have it framed and displayed on their own walls. The fact that they enjoy the photo almost as much as I do makes it even more special. But, for me, it’s more. It brings to mind appreciation for what our motorhome lifestyle allows us to see and experience, up close and personal. The majesty of God’s creation; the beauty of wildlife; the awe-inspiring vistas of mountains and beaches and forests and the night sky, rivers, and prairies; and the people and places whose memories will last a lifetime.
Last year during our motorhome travels (40,000 miles through 27 states), I took more than 4,000 photos and realized yet another benefit of this lifestyle: how it complements and enriches other hobbies.
Now, as we plan our travels, we consider photo-taking opportunities. My newly discovered love affair with photography has been intense. I’ve taken a half dozen in-depth classes from some of the United States’ most renowned photographers, thanks to online learning sites such as CreativeLive.com and Lynda.com. For RVers, one of the benefits of online education is the ability to learn as you travel, made possible by the ubiquitousness of Wi-Fi. Then, of course, travel gives us the opportunity to go out into the field and apply what we’ve learned.
Photography isn’t the only hobby that my motorhome lifestyle has intensified. Exploring history is one that has hooked both Jennifer and me bigtime. We have traveled almost the entire route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, learning about their Corps of Discovery journey, which in 1804 was the equivalent of man landing on the moon in 1969.
That prompted another trip for us, which traced later migration westward as we learned about and visited many of the stops on the old 2,200-mile-long Oregon Trail. After researching old diaries, reading books, visiting museums, and watching documentaries, we were able to actually see — in several places — ruts across the prairie that are still visible some 160 years later.
We also traced parts of the old Route 66, from Illinois to California, which in many places was built atop those earlier wagon routes.
This year, one more hobby will be in use in our motorhome. Our travels have made us fall in love with America’s national parks. And as the country celebrates the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary in 2016, I’ll be joining in something called NPOTA, which stands for National Parks On The Air.
Using portable two-way equipment I’ve been assembling all winter with plans to place it into a backpack, we’ll take our motorhome to as many national parks as we can, and then I will hike up to remote places and operate my amateur radio station (K8ZRH) to make contact with as many other amateur operators around the world as possible. It’s a cooperative year-long event endorsed by the National Park Service (NPS) and the American Radio Relay League to spotlight the diversity and treasure that constitutesthe more than 430 official NPS administrative units and affiliated areas across the United States, including 59 national parks.
I won’t be able to visit all of them, of course, but I’ll visit a bunch of them. Bet I also will take a lot of photos.