Nov 19, 2013

Roughing It with the 1%

2013-11-18 Monday (1)One of the beauties of travelling in a dinky “mini-Class C” RV is that pretty much everyone in a given RV park will tower over us and we make them feel superior in multiple ways (until we talk about gas mileage and maneuverability). We’ve parked near people who clearly live from one welfare or Social Security check to the next and their outfit still makes ours look meager, which I’m sure gives them some sort of “mine is bigger than yours” comfort. If we’re doing some small bit to make other Americans feel better about themselves and to consumer slightly less, I think that’s a good thing.

2013-11-18 Monday (2)While we’ve been in our Lake Texoma campsite, our nearest neighbors are a pair of temporary “full timers” in a fifth-wheel rig that is about 50% larger than our unit. They are planning on being in this location for at least another three months, since they unexpectedly sold their home and are shopping for a new one while working out of their temporary wheeled home. They are an interesting couple. Don is a machinist starting a new business in this area, primarily servicing industrial farming equipment. Margret maintains the company website and is the company accountant. He’s usually gone before I get out of bed at 6AM and she barely comes out of the RV until late afternoon. They are both incredibly pleasant people and great “neighbors.”

2013-11-18 Monday (3)This morning, a diesel semi-tractor rattled into the campground about 9AM, pulling what looked like a full size single-wide mobile home (not an RV, but a tornado-magnet mobile home). The driver had to make two passes at fitting this monstrosity into a campsite and after he parked the huge thing, it turned into a Transformer with pop-out extensions on its extensions. I swear this thing has a hallway extension that turns into a whole ‘nother room.

2013-11-18 Monday (4)Listening to the hydraulics squeeze out all of those bits was a lot like a slow-motion robot movie where the evil robot starts flexing its muscles just before it starts tearing new assholes in innocent bystanders. I’ve been to a few RV shows in the last year and I’ve never seen anything like this thing. In true 1%’er fashion, we haven’t seen or heard a word from our new upscale neighbor. I imagine he/she is waiting for the entourage to show up and purify the neighborhood of riff-raff.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice looking rv. How are you liking it? Also looking for motorcycle recommendation. I am retired 6 foot 200 lbs 30 inch inseam and live in Houston and go to the Texas Hill Country a lot. Might carry wife occasionally. Enjoy your retirement. We are figuring as out as we go.

T.W. Day said...

Dale,

We're enjoying the RV and the trip.

We'd need to talk more before I can help much with a bike recommendation. I'm going to be on and off on-line over the next few days. There is an email link on the blog page, if you want to give me a little more detail about your experience, bike choices so far, and expectations.

Trobairitz said...

I think I'd prefer tootling around in your RV, sounds more fun.

I look at the huge rig being pulled by a semi truck and just think - someone has too much money. Definitely can't call it camping or even roughing it at that point.

T.W. Day said...

Right now, stuck in Carlsbad, NM waiting out an ice storm and record low temps, I think I'd like to be back in front of my fireplace reading a book. Too much driving, too much bad weather, and I hate all things 4-wheeled. I have to get my wife to do some driving or this whole idea is going to run its course soon.