Ever tried to talk to a non-RVer and explain why you enjoy the life style so much? You'll probably be told how much more comfortable a good motel is. You'll be reminded that even though campgrounds are less expensive, when you figure in your initial purchase, you aren't saving any money. And how about the horrors of driving a rig that big? Why do you do it?

Well, the members of this forum have asked themselves the same question. Following are some of their answers. The first an essay that was prepared several years ago and probably summarizes most of the others. It's author is Will Sill, affectionately known as "The Curmudgeon of Sill Hill."

People who don't understand often ask: "How can you justify such an expensive. . . uh, mobile home?" They understand neither the terminology nor the motivation! Not pretending to speak for all who own/use RV's [many of whom disagree with me on general principles!] here are a few of the reasons the RV lifestyle is popular in OUR family:

We enjoy travel as much as the destination. We are really thankful to live in a free country where one can explore virtually any road we like without being hassled by checkpoints or attacked by bandits. We can stop at a country vegetable stand and talk about the harvest. Try that from Flight 203! Unlike untold thousands of other "campers", we do NOT want anything to do with squatting in "campgrounds" that are really rural slums loaded with moss-covered "RV's" and their semi-permanent porches - complete with weeds growing through - and surrounded by debris such as expired cars, broken lawn furniture, and tarp-covered snowmobiles/boats/motorcycles. If THAT environment is what people escape to, we wonder where they LIVE that makes this look better!

We love to see how other people live, especially away from huge metropolitan areas - and where there are few if any motels, convention centers, and restaurants. This country has vast reaches of beautiful farmland, spectacular mountains, forests, grasslands, lakes, rivers.... Have you heard the one about where can an 800# gorilla sleep? Anyplace he wants. We can easily refuse to stay in places that have rules we think are idiotic, and if we are assigned to a site with an obnoxious neighbor, it is not the end of the happy hour... we can move.

We enjoy sleeping in our own bed, not wondering to whom it was last rented, and without having to haul suitcases in and out. Our 'motel room' is as warm, cool, or well ventilated as we like. And we like to sleep with the windows open.

We enjoy solitude, away from honking horns and roaring jets - places where the most raucous noise is the cawing of a crow. Where the most pungent odor is that of wild flowers. We stay OFF the interstate system except to get through a crowded metropolis, and as a result we arrive slower but without the stress of being caught up in the thundering herds of almost-out of-control vehicles hammering along well over their personal skill level - to say nothing of the speed limits.

We *enjoy visiting* the relatives - whether or not they have spare rooms or a convenient motel - and having our own bathroom and privacy while we're there.

We love having *choices*: breakfast/lunch/dinner in the motorhome, or that really nice-looking restaurant. Ponder THAT as you hammer down the interstate in your car, wondering if they used 40-weight Havoline instead of salad dressing at the last take-it-or-leave-it diner with its cardboard cuisine!

We like *having the grandkids with us* (sometimes!), seeing a moose in person rather than watching Bullwinkle on TV, and learning to get along with each other instead of playing electronic doom games. They really enjoy the trip more if they can move around instead of being strapped into the back seat like captive zoo specimens. [please no lectures about seat belts on the rear queen bed, huh?]

We love the *secure feeling* that a traffic tie up will not create a crisis for us and stir up the personal stress level. War story: Once a freak fall snowstorm virtually shut down New England as we were returning from Maine. Stranded by downed trees and traffic for a time, we were warm and dry, with plenty of food & water. Contrast that with a friend's true horror story about how he and his family very nearly perished in a freak storm just this Spring. How's the restroom in your Ford Taurus? 8-)

*Flexibility* is the key advantage for us - being able to decide on the spur of the moment to go north instead of west, and not worrying about being at the motel before 6, or wondering if they over booked.

We like *saving money*. After all, our rig (we don't buy the newest and most costly) didn't cost any more than your car**. It gets terrible gas mileage by your standards, but we don't HAVE to eat in restaurants all the time, and we don't EVER pay $75 or 100 bucks for a motel room. When the trip is over we have spent less money than if we went by car, and we will have seen more, enjoyed more, and not been restricted to a route that passes available food & lodging. To say nothing of convenient clean rest rooms.

Other people have suggested additional good reasons THEY enjoy it: after all, ball games, races, music festivals and similar events are far more enjoyable when you have your "house" along.

What's YOUR special reason for enjoying your RV?

Since this was written, most of you realize we have splurged - buying a new-with-nubbies-on-the-tires van for a class B conversion. First new vehicle for us since 1961! But in spite of that, we expect to still have fewer dollars invested than many folks have in their Northstar or Town Car, and in terms of miles traveled we'll still be 'way ahead. Our last Class C MH took us 30,000 miles in 18 months, so even though your "mileage" may vary and most of you will not be able to financially justify your choice, for us RV travel is a clear winner economically.

Dale Blankenship reminded us that the motel stays weren't quite as good as other folks keep insisting:

I think we all like RVING, be it full time or just extended weekends with a few longer get a ways thrown in for good measure, like us. Having a RV of any type is just more relaxing. Always knowing who's slept on your bed, who's been in the bathroom, where your next meal is coming from, and even the fact that you can have a meal, just about anytime you want all contribute to the enjoyment we get out of RVing. When was the last time you sat down and had a conversation with the guy in the next room at a motel? Man, that's even scary to think about. Granted we have only been RVING for about 4 years, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Even if we do have to bring the kids, but at least they aren't sitting in a seat 2feet behind us, and they can move around if they need to.

Having said that, let me tell y'all about my last 10 days. We left last Wednesday for Miami to attend a business convention. So we flew down, I hate even typing that! Got to the Hotel, it was nice but it wasn't the motorhome, and after 5 nights in the Sheraton Bal Harbor, I think the new motorhome is on the back burner for a while. You know, I don't think I ever had a 8 dollar salad in the motorhome! To add to this wonderful time, my lovely wife Regina, had talked me into taking a cruise afterwards. And to add to my enjoyment, her sister and brother in law would fly down bringing my 2 kids, their 4 kids and my in-laws! Got the picture? If not, let me elaborate; pack at home, get to airport, land in Miami and get to hotel, unpack. Have fun, spend mega bucks (some on alcohol, but not enough) pack again, get to boat dock, check into cabin, uh I mean closet. I swear to goodness, the cabin was SMALLER than my Motorhome, and damn near cost as much! unpack again, have more fun, try to ignore kids, wife, nieces/nephews and sea sick in-laws. Pack again, get to the airport, land, get home and unpack and do laundry! Sound like fun? NEVER AGAIN! Our convention next year is in Las Vegas, Caesars Palace of all places. All I have to say is I hope they have room for a 34 foot Southwind in their parking lot, or I'm not going!

Whew, THAT'S why I like RVING. By the way Will, those campgrounds with shoddy run down sites you were talking about, I saw a lot on the cruise, there they call them the Bahamas. After that, a run down campground would looked like heaven.

Donna Ransdell added her ideas:

There's something about staying in a national park or forest campground, while visiting that park, and being able to sit outdoors in the camping/trailering area and enjoy the view. You can't get the same feeling or "flavor" while staying at the hotel or guest lodge facilities in the park, because you're inside a massive building. When I think about the national park camping facilities that we've stayed in over the years, the only one that didn't have a great view or outdoorsy feeling was Grand Canyon's Trailer Village. Had we been over in the campground, it would have been different perhaps.

Our daughters think, "Oh! An adventure! Motels! Restaurants!" I think, "Oh, drudgery....motels that I have no clue whether they're clean or not, restaurants that will all taste the same every night. Suitcases to lug in and out. Worry about the car being broken into at the motel. Figuring out whether or not the motel's wakeup service is reliable and how early it will open."

Jean Ann Sullivan reminds us that one of the attractions of our lifestyle is the outdoors that surrounds us!

Cause it gets me out of the house! I already have the sound of the crows, and the doves and parakeets, and a giant size gold fish ready for the frying pan - but as I looks across the back yards of my neighbors, I can see the interstate which so many RVers use to travel from Arizona across Hoover Dam, heading to the gambling center of Las Vegas. I get a lump in my throat and a painful knot in my stomach (no, its not an ulcer) and the urge to load up and head them out can be so overwhelming. The MH which sits in our driveway has a full tank of diesel and packed with food and ready to go, but, alias! it is only a monumental reminder of the wide open spaces and new horizons to be reached but for only the time and a turn of the key.

We also enjoy seeing the different parts of the country, more than we could probably manage without our RVs. Lem and Carol Hunter's experiences are probably similar to many:

We call our country the Ultimate Suburb of America and planned on making it an endless vacation to see everything we could while we were still able to do so.

I had been to various cities to attend seminars and wanted to share my experiences in those places with Lem; he had been to some different places and wanted to share them with me, so we set a date, August 1994, traded up for the 3rd time to a larger truck and trailer and put the house on the market. My two daughters and their families helped us with yard sales and fixing up. We had a great farewell party with family and friends and set out.

To date, we have pulled this trailer to or through all but the Pacific Northwest (had been there before in the van) and Alaska. This past summer we counted the states and did 26, though a lot of them we'd been in before. We try to steer clear of questionable weather, follow the sun as much as possible, and have enjoyed our membership at RoVers Roost SKP Co-op Park in Casa Grande for the past 2 winters, making side trips whenever we can get away. We even went back and had a wonderful time 'doing' Colorado a couple years ago, seeing some of the sights we missed before all over the state. Full-timing doesn't mean the same to everyone, but we have a tendency to do everything we do, with gusto, as we're doing this. We loved the idea, and feel that after 4 years, going on 5, we are jack-leg authorities on "Just Do It." Our first 5W had a bumper sticker on it, "We're out spending our children's inheritance." I'm not sure if we're OUT, spending, etc. or We're outspending, etc. but we do know what it's like being on a fixed income and live accordingly, or try to. Our richness has come from the many wonderful people we've met all over the country and has restored our faith in humans of all walks of life. We've seen the hills and shores of Maine, the mountains Pennsylvania and of the east, and shores of Cape Fear and the east coast, Dauphin Island and the Gulf coast, San Diego and the Pacific coast and almost everything in between. The words of America, the Beautiful come to mind and every time we encounter them in real life, we say them over again. It's truly a beautiful country.

If you begin to have doubts when your friends argue for their lifestyle, try a vacation *without* the RV! Shelley Zoellick tells of her recent trip:

We recently took a 5,100 mile road trip, and decided, of all things, not to take the fifth wheel. Our reasoning was, since we live in it full time, it would be a nice 'change of pace' to stay in motels, have maid service and eat out all the time, and not have to worry about driving the big rig, hooking up and unhooking all the time, etc.

Well, you've probably guessed by now, I regretted that decision, and missed our 'big rig' the whole trip! For starters, we spent between $65 and $150 a night on motels. Even $30 KOA's look like a bargain compared to this! It was necessary to rent two rooms to have any privacy at all (and after spending all day on the road with two rambunctious boys, our own room became almost a necessity!) The first night out, we paid $70 for a room at a Comfort Inn that was dirty and run-down. The rest of the trip, it was potluck, but there was always the stress of not knowing what kind of accommodations we would wind up with. Sometimes there was nothing available at all - one night, we drove till 3:00 am because every motel we stopped at, starting at about 9 pm, was totally full. Finally we arrived at the Grand Canyon (our planned destination for the following day), exhausted, to get the last available room. For $72, we shared a cramped, shabby, rundown (oh excuse me - I meant to say 'rustic'!) room with the boys. Then there were maids banging on our door early in the morning, even if we hadn't checked in till the wee hours of the morning, and if we didn't get to the door in time, they would unlock it and attempt to walk right in! The nicest place we stayed in (near the end of our trip) was a suite hotel in New Mexico. It was nice, yet I kept noticing the cheap furnishings and cabinetry, and thinking of the Corian countertops and oak cabinetry in our own fifth wheel that we had left behind. Even though we wound up paying a small fortune for lodging on this trip, we never once stayed in a place that was as 'nice' as our RV!

One memory that is especially vivid, is driving along one of the scenic byways in southeast Utah as the sun was going down, and seeing the RVers parked here and there along the river, just sitting back and enjoying the breathtaking scenery of the rose-red canyon walls on both sides. It was enough to bring tears of longing to a person's eyes (and that wasn't caused by the smoke from the campfires which wafted in on the crisp evening air as we drove by!). Of course, there were no motels there. Incidentally, that's the very night that we wound up driving till 3 am...

Then there was our last night on the road, when we reached San Antonio by midnight, and decided to push on to Houston so we could sleep in our own beds! It was raining hard and there were flood warnings. Then, just outside of town, we came across a roadblock - the interstate had been closed. Nothing to do but go back to San Antonio and get a room for the night. We stopped at a truck stop for a soda, and learned that they had just closed the interstate on the other side of us, effectively trapping us where we were! Faced with no option but to sleep in the truck, the four of us tried to get comfortable in our Ford F150 extended cab while the rain poured down. Right across the parking lot were several RVs, one a fifth wheel similar to ours, with lights in the windows. I could just imagine them enjoying a late night snack and watching TV before they crawled into their comfortable beds for the night... After a couple of restless hours, we were able to get back into town, but must have stopped at 15 or 20 motels before we finally found one with vacancy and slept for the remainder of the night.

Next time, we are taking the 'big rig'!

Your friends are right about one thing, however ö there are some things you don't get to do when you take your RV. John Daniels reminds us of what we must give up:

There are some things which I do not get to do while using my RV. I don't get to whack all my belongings except for the ones I will need into a suitcase . I don't get to rush through terrible traffic and a snarled parking lot to get to a flight which will be either canceled or delayed for takeoff anyway. I don't get to sit between two people of incredible size. Nor do I get to wait for the bathroom to become free. When I reach my destination there's no unpacking no getting dressed to go out to eat (unless I want to). When I walk around the campground at night there are always friendly people to talk to not folks who look the other way. Then there is the dreaded motel. They all have MO. That's motel odor. Even with the perfume they put in the air there is the underlying odor of bathroom disinfectant. Now maybe not if you get to stay only in rooms renting for a couple of hundred per night but in all the places I've been in there is that odor. Also you get to eat what you want when you want it. If you eat out all the time you will invariably eat more than you really need or want. Here comes the blubber. There's lots more but been there done that ö hate it.

And when you consider the cost, we do have some advances (if you ignore the cost of the initial purchase, of course!). Donna Ransdell shared an article she recently came across:

There was an article in this morning's San Diego Union-Tribune's Travel section. The couple in the article had taken a "special discount rate" at a hotel for $189/night for 10 nights. However, when they went to check out at the end of the 10 days, the bill came to over $2500. The extra charges were for hotel taxes (not included in the quoted rate), plus they had had room service, laundry, the hotel automatically added a tip for maid service to the room, phone charges, etc.

Her 10 day hotel bill came to more than twice what we spent on our 4 week RV vacation this summer. Ours included ALL food eaten out, fuel, campground costs, and miscellaneous costs. I hope they enjoyed that vacation as much as I enjoyed ours.

Most of us in this group enjoy traveling on short notice. Lynne Wendell reminds us of some advantages:

One of the main reasons that we RV is because it is much easier to pack for four people including two preteens. I keep the four different types of shampoo, three different conditioners, two types of toothpaste, three types of soap, etc. in the camper at all times. When we get ready to go on a trip, I don't even have to think about all those things. We keep toothbrushes and hair brushes in there. We keep swimsuits in there. Yes, I know it is getting to be winter but you never know when you will happen upon a hot tub or indoor pool. I keep sweatshirts for everyone and yes, we've had to pull them out unexpectedly in July. All those "little things" that I might forget to put in the suitcase are always in the RV.

And if you enjoy visiting your grandkids, remember an advantage that Billy Doyle points out: "The little ones do not come into your room, turn on the light at 5 a.m. and announce that it is time to get up."

Most of the time we RVers like to argue among ourselves, but this is one time we are in agreement: RVing is the way to go!