Parade: Exploring America in an RV

The Go RVing team is the consumer-facing voice of the RV industry with a mission to inspire potential RVers, spark curiosity, and raise awareness about the benefits and accessibility of RVing through rich, authentic, and diverse storytelling. Go RVing has previously worked with Parade, with this article appearing in print edition.

The sandhill cranes were migrating, and so were we. The birds were on the wing, and we were in a Mercedes Sprinter van, tricked out as a vacation home on wheels.

It was springtime 2021, and 20,000 cranes were making a pit stop in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, building strength to continue their flight to the northern U.S. and Canada. That’s where they mate with their lifelong spouses and raise their young, before reversing their commute back to New Mexico in autumn.

To catch all of their sexy (to a crane) antics—stretching their nearly 7-foot wingspans, bobbing their red-flared heads and prancing seductively—my own lifelong spouse, Claire, and I made the same choice as flocks of American travelers: We rented a recreational vehicle—RV for short, though that abbreviation is the only “short” thing about them. Just like those peripatetic cranes, RVers are migrating in staggering numbers.

Why an RV? Why now? Thanks to the pandemic, people began renting and buying RVs for lots of reasons: Reluctant to fly, some folks were looking for new escape routes. In an air-droplet-driven pandemic, the great outdoors was even greater, and RVs were COVID-free bubbles on wheels. When schools went to remote learning, an internet-connected RV could be a classroom, wherever it roamed. Add to that the burgeoning number of boomers who were born to run and like to have a beer fridge and bathroom handy and it’s easy to understand why RVs are accelerating into the passing lane. In a year when the Best Picture Oscar went to a movie about living in a van (Nomadland), the industry is forecasting a 23 percent growth in RV shipments, which would make it their biggest sales year in history.

Claire and I are inveterate travelers, from mountain huts to Airbnbs around the globe. Now we wanted to try, and drive, the next big thing. Being a cautious type, I first reached out to experienced RVers to help ease me on down the road. Here are their stories and a bit about our own adventure.

Check out the rest of the article from Parade here.