Married couple hosts seminar at Inland Northwest RV Show

A Spokane couple has spent most of the last 20 years learning the joy, intricacies and sheer frustrations that traveling in a recreational vehicle can provide.

Jo Ann Bender and Frederick “Bud” Budinger both try to pass that hard-won RV knowledge onto others at the Inland Northwest RV Show. But mostly, they try to convince others to succumb to the lure of the road.

“I don’t want to discourage anyone from taking an RV trip,” Bender said. “It offers one thing we don’t have in our lives: freedom.”

Budinger, 78, is a retired geotechnical engineer. In 1984, he convinced Bender, who chose to keep her age a mystery, to come live in Spokane nearly 30 years ago.

Between trips to Arizona and other warm places in the winter, the couple operates the Lazy Bee Ranch, a bed and breakfast located near the Canadian border.

The couple started their snowbird adventures in 1996 with the negotiated purchase of a 1973 Ford vintage RV with a 390 engine that averaged a breakdown a day on their first major adventure to Texas.

The trip became the basis of Bender’s latest book, “Snowbirds,” which she self-published last year.

“Our continual mechanical problems were beginning to remind me of my first marriage,” she wrote in the book. “Motor homes and gambling casinos have this in common: Both have the juice to recharge the batteries of life.”

Budinger holds a seminar during the Inland Northwest RV Show to help prospective road warriors on what size and model of adventure to try first.

“One of the big things we like to tell people is, ‘Don’t get anything too big,’ ” Budinger said. “We have all kinds of friends who have stuff so big they don’t use it.”

Bender, who will also be offering to sell her book, said RV starters should not try to solve everything at once.

“For newcomers, one of the important things is to try it out first,” she said.

For a decade, Bender and Budinger took an RV to Arizona to a mining claim they owned about two hours northeast of Phoenix. The couple had to kayak 2 hours before hiking 2 miles in their search for lost Spanish gold.

“We had a secret plan, if we did find something,” she said. “We got to the place where we needed big equipment to go any further.”

Mostly, Bender helps RV enthusiasts by coaching them on what to bring.

“You always forget something: a favorite fishing pole, favorite recipe or somebody’s address,” she said. “That’s why you go on a trip – to forget everything you left at home and see what’s out there.”

After moving on from the 1973 20-footer that had wallpaper, the couple upgraded to a 33-foot diesel pusher before eventually downsizing to a class-c van with a raised roof.

“I can drive the van comfortably. But the 33-footer was very difficult,” Bender said. “But I’m really bad at backing up. They banned me from the landfill because I can’t back up a trailer.”

Whether it’s a brand new RV or something that will force its owner to become an instant mechanic, the couple suggested that anyone and everyone try at least one road-bound adventure.

“As Bud says, don’t buy too big. Start small and move up,” Bender said. “I hope that anyone who tries RV-ing will have a spectacular experience.”