Action-packed RV adventuring is fun, but sometimes you need to settle down
The allure of RV travel is the endless possibility. You can go anywhere.
One day, you can camp in an idyllic paradise, the next day you can hit the road for a completely different but equally beautiful destination.
That’s how it felt three years ago when we first started RVing. We were so giddy with the constant, intoxicating adventure of the roadway that we hardly ever stayed in a place for more than two days. Motion can be addictive.
Now that we’re in our fourth year of RV travel, we’re looking for places to settle down and stay for longer periods.
Our journey this year started out with a fairly packed schedule of stops at major national parks through Wyoming, Utah, Arizona and southwest Colorado.
It was a fun, action-packed beginning, but we knew we’d eventually need to chill, so when we hit New Mexico, we turned down the adventure temperature considerably.
As we look ahead for the next few months, we’re continuing to linger for longer stays, particularly around holidays. This Thanksgiving, we’re spending 10 days in Sedona, Ariz, at the excellent Rancho Sedona RV Park. And at Christmas, we’ve booked two weeks at the Malibu Beach RV Park near Los Angeles.
We’re going to Sedona for a couple of reasons. First, the red rock canyons surrounding this lovely Arizona town are gorgeous and offer lots of recreational opportunities. And in 2020, we were marooned in Sedona during the beginning of the pandemic, so we wanted to return to experience the area now that it’s fully open again.
Malibu is on our list as a location for holiday family fun with our grown-up kiddo. It doesn’t hurt that December weather in Malibu is beautiful, and the views of the Pacific Ocean from Malibu Beach RV Park are stunning.
Where else are we zeroing in for longer stays? In January, two weeks are booked in Palm Springs and another two weeks are planned for beach stays San Diego and San Clemente.
The beauty of RV living is that you can call all of these places home.
Day of the Dead, RV version
Speaking of holidays, New Mexico loves Halloween, or more specifically, the day after Halloween, known as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). That’s when you remember deceased loved ones with celebrations and parties. Everywhere we go, we see festive decorated skulls and skeleton people, the folk-art symbols for Day of the Dead.
That got us thinking about the RVs that were once alive as possibilities when we first started shopping for a rig. Ultimately our excitement died, and now they are just fond memories. So in honor of Day of the Dead, we celebrate the following RV models:
VW Vanagon, VW Eurovan: You have to love the campervan aesthetic -- everything organized and in its place. These vehicles provided fun first trips, but they are way too tiny for two people to live full time.
Airstream Basecamp: An elegant small trailer that’s easy to pull and we loved the kitchen, but that bed sure was hard to put together.
Hymer van, Winnebago Revel: These agile Class B vehicles are among the most popular on the market and we thought long and hard about buying one of them. In the end, we found them to be too small.
Caravan Freebird: This unusual campervan from Campbell Nissan in Edmonds, Wash. has a lot to like: Nice price, great fuel economy. Wonderful for a weekend camping option -- but not big enough for our full-time needs.
Maybe we need to look at the BIG picture and consider one of the new, smaller Class A rigs? Like the A.C.E. from Thor Motorcoach.
