"The RV Turns 100"

[Nomadcat]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/autom ... RV.html?hp

[TomH]

Hmmm, I tell my students that James Frazier Reed invented the world's first RV in 1846 when he had built for himself by others a two story connestoga wagon, complete with spring seats, beds, and a wood stove on the first floor, whose flue went through the second floor and out the canopied roof. This Pioneer Palace Car was designed so that his infirmed mother-in-law, who had once traveled as a child with Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap to the wilderness of Kentucky, could go a pioneerin' once again with her daughter and grandchildren on the Oregon-California Trail to California prior to the Gold Rush. The old lady was already ill and passed away within weeks, not witnessing the tribulations of her family as they journeyed on westward with other families, one of whom was named Donner.

[Nomadcat]

That is valid - and useful information that I appreciate, I might add - but "pioneering" is not quite the same as "recreating..."

;-)

[TomH]

LOL, I agree. Thing is, they all thought they were going to be recreating and enjoying the entire trip. They dressed up in their best suits and dresses for travel. They were unprepared in so many ways.

I have backpacked for many years, deep into the wilderness, for the remoteness and wildness. As I grow too old for that, I want my "RVing" to be the Sportsmobile type where I can still feel some sense of "pioneering" into the wilds. The "recreating" in a concrete and smoke filled lot full of Class A "Palace Cars", toterhomes and such just isn't my idea of adventure. Staying at home in my log house with the woodland (forest like) garden I've grown would be a lot more fun than those campgrounds. When I get away, I really like to be "away".

[Nomadcat]

You know what would be a fun combination of the two - an SMB forum meetup in Highrock Canyon/Emigrant Trail area, above the Blackrock Desert.