Traveling stinks. Well, sort of. I had honestly forgotten how lousy traveling can be when you’re not traveling in your RV. What am I talking about? How good we have it as RVers.
You see, I get to go back to Indiana so I can check out 2027 model RVs for two whole weeks. Yup, I’ll be seeing the latest and greatest from a number of RV companies over the next two weeks, beginning on Tuesday and spending 14 days just looking at various RVs.
The way this usually works is that I hop in my trusty ol’ Ram and yank my trailer from New Mexico to Elkhart, where I know which campgrounds I like, the restaurants I like, and even the stops along the way.
I can tell you about the Corvair Museum, Uranus Fudge Factory, Atlanta, Illinois, where the Muffler Man Museum is, The Big Texan Steak House, and plenty of other fun tourist traps. I love them all. And now they’re landmarks on my way to a known destination.
My favorite way to navigate any journey is simply to hop in the ol’ truck and just go. While it might be great to have stops planned, I’d rather not. And that’s why the whole roof of my travel trailer is filled with solar panels; I have a larger lithium battery in our pass-through and can charge the trailer with the alternator on my truck.
But that’s not what I’m going to do this time around.
Headed on board Amtrak
The 1,400-or-so mile journey from New Mexico to Indiana takes me about five days to complete and, I’ve found, those long travel days are starting to take me ever longer to recover from. Must be all the exciting scenery, right? That’s what’s causing it. Sure.
So I thought, instead, I’d get on board the Southwestern Chief, an Amtrak train, and go from Albuquerque to Chicago, then rent a car to finish the journey. Not bad, and Amtrak claims it’s a 24-hour train ride, plus I got one of those sleeperettes, so I should be just fine in there.
I also know that Amtrak tends to be extraordinarily optimistic in their travel times.
That part of the journey should be a lot of fun and something I like about the train, over flying, is that you can bring your luggage without fighting a bunch of lines. Plus, you don’t have to go through the third degree just because you’re going somewhere.
I absolutely abhor the joke that is airport security and their invasive delays. But it has the illusion of safety, so we tolerate it. Well, I don’t. I’m riding the train.
Then you get into a flying germ tube where you have to coordinate your breathing if you are anyone other than a tween because just an inch less leg room—nobody will notice. Sure.
So I am looking forward to the train portion of the adventure.
Rental car and hotel
But then comes the rental car and the hotel.
The hotel was also not very complicated. I have stayed at the place I’m staying before partially because it offers kitchenettes so I can be more diligent about what I eat rather than enjoy dining out.
Of course, if I had my trailer I’d have a full and proper kitchen.
But the rental car—holy mother of pearl! Who suddenly changed the rules such that you almost have to buy the darned car? And, knowing how Amtrak is always late, the likelihood that I’ll arrive in Chicago after the rental agencies are closed is almost a surety.
Coordinating details of arriving, renting the car, making sure I get to the hotel, wrangling luggage and all the other annoyances of just going somewhere makes me truly appreciate my RV, which is the whole point of this.
Figuring out the timing of arriving, getting to the car rental, shuttling myself to Indiana, getting to a hotel, juggling baggage and all of that on someone else’s time is bothersome. And maybe it’s the “someone else’s time” factor that has me most aggravated.
With the RV I could bring whatever I want (okay, I would have to leave my service rhino behind but he’s used to that) and not have to make any real reservations.
Originally, I thought this would be a cheaper way to go than buying the gasoline for my pickup. But looking at that, I’d be in for about $1,500 round trip in fuel alone, and that’s about what the Amtrak ticket cost. Almost.
Then there’s buying the rental car, the hotel and all of that. Frankly, I should have taken the RV. But, for anyone who’s known me for a while, you know that this is spurring another nutty idea.
Buy a van?
I’m considering buying a van. Not just any van, mind you.
My idea is that I have a van that can adequately tow my 6,000-pound travel trailer with about a 1,000-pound tongue weight. So that means most of the modern vans are out of the question.
But the Chevrolet Express or GMC Savana are available with up to 10,000 pounds of pulling capacity and well over a ton of cargo-carrying capacity, if you get the big momma with the V8.
Further, I have so much camping gear that I’ve reviewed for here and other places I could outfit a van with everything I need, and I do mean everything. Cooler, toilet, cooktop, cots, portable power station, all sorts of camping gear. Oh, and I could bring my bicycle, too.
And, lately, the amount of stuff I have to bring to make even a short journey has been annoying me with the trailer. While I’d have to load and unload actually more stuff in the van, somehow the idea of all these portable gadgets appeals to me.
The sheer simplicity of a gadget that, if it fails, I simply toss out and replace has a lot of stress-relieving factors.
No plumbing or leveling or other issues to worry about
No thinking about plumbing concerns or leveling or slide room operation or leaks or any of the things that have never happened to me in an RV but still are things I think about constantly.
In fact, a while back Peggy and I went tent camping, and it was super relaxing for just this reason. If something went awry, it would be no concern of mine. I wouldn’t have to fix it. And it wouldn’t really alter my course.
Also, with the van I could travel farther and faster than I do when I’m towing a trailer. While I wouldn’t give up the trailer, it’s great for a lot of things. Having a camper that’s fast and nimble (as much as a three-ton van is fast and nimble) really, really has a lot of appeal to me.
Having an adventure vehicle sounds appealing
So, my point in all this is that as traveling by “common carrier” has become ever-more annoying, to me, and there are also more details that have to be handled when I’m traveling in the RV, the simplicity of having an adventure vehicle is really starting to appeal to me.
Perhaps I’ve been to one too many Overland Expo events or something. Or, perhaps I’m just crazy.
In fact, my wife might be coaxed into signing an affidavit to that effect.
But having an RV really makes travel a lot easier and more fun. I know my dear wifey loves to have reservations and make plans, but I like to sit around looking at Roadside America and then travel to see the next goofy destination.
But taking all the comforts of home with you and seeing the incredible adventures as the road unfolds, plus knowing that you can choose your type of destination and form of travel—from elaborate to off-grid—really makes me appreciate what we all have as RVers. This truly is the best way to get around and see this wonderful country.
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