Frazz by Jef Mallett for February 04, 2023

Just go to the nearest Walmart. People park their RVs there all the time – and often camp there while traveling!

The best part about driving two days to see them change is that you can change them back relatively easily.

There’s the can-and-will and the could-but-won’t and never the twain shall meet.

I always think about an albatross . .

Swapping out ten year’s worth of elitist running shoes would probably cost the same as a motor home. Life’s about choices, Frazz. Oh, by the way, How are the ole knees feeling lately?

I like to drive cross country at times for leaf peeper and other things. Prefer a hotel room to an RV. Dislike paying for an RV and upkeep.

Grandpa, if he’s RVing full time, doesn’t have to shovel snow.

people in campgrounds are too social

Having owned a fifth-wheel I can say, it is pleasant watching winter arrive in your rear view mirror.

I drove trucks for far too many years; the last thing I’d want to do now is to drive another – to a gravel lot where I’m 3 feet from another truck.

I’m with Frazz; I loved shoveling snow – until my back got too bad (from driving trucks………).

I hate that I can no longer camp, but those monstrosities have nothing to do with camping!

RV = rolling road block.

The emotion that Grandpa is describing is ‘envy’

OK, we full time in a motorhome. We enjoyed an epic road trip last summer, east on 10 from TX to Florida, up the easter seaboard, across the top to Washington state and then down (sorry California, we skipped you this year) and then east again to winter in Texas. I can’t imagine doing that with a car and finding hotels. We like our own bed and living room and places to keep our dog’s things.

A motorhome is basically an instant motel room wherever you happen to be when you stop, except that you need a fairly large amount of space to park it. They perform well on interstates but can be a real challenge, up to downright dangerous, on the secondary roads that take you to the interesting places. This is often solved by towing a small car behind the land-yacht, which is a problem when it becomes necessary to back up. And the cost of feeding and repairing such a beast is breath-taking.

We solved those problems with a Lance camper in the bed of our Tundra pickup. It has a queen bed, kitchen, dining banquette, shower, flush toilet, heat & A/C. It’s easy to maneuver, comfortable to drive on dirt roads, doesn’t require hundred dollar fill-ups, and can be serviced at any Toyota dealership. If we decide to stay somewhere for a while, we leave it on its legs and drive just the truck to see the sights. It is, by far, the most inexpensive, comfortable, and flexible way for a pair of retirees to travel.

I imagine that anyone in Hawaii who’s reading today’s strip is just smiling about it. Of course there’s nowhere to go in Hawaii with a motor home, but they never need to. If necessary, they can just fall asleep under the stars whenever they want.

We had a travel trailer. Used it hardly at all, though when we did, it worked okay for us. But. Spouse was very uncomfortable in the bed (wanted more padding)… and we found the constant set-up; tear-down; set-something-else-up; … required to live in one room to be a major hassle. So we sold it, and now we rent something if we want to be elsewhere for awhile. If you look at the savings in gasoline (and wow, that’s a big deal this last year!), taxes and lost opportunity cost, I figure we can stay somewhere for a week for free… compared with owning the trailer. AND I don’t have to park it (not a big deal) or TOW it (a bigger deal… for me). Yeah, that DOES cost a little more, but it’s also a lot more comfortable. The RV life styles isn’t for everybody.

Grampa’s got big wads of moola.