Garrison Keillor on the Death of RV's..

[Cornbread Red]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/keillor/20 ... winnebago/

..I think it's a mite premature, Garrison, but times are 'a changing..

CHip

[markopolo]

That was interesting to read.

There's nothing like having the freedom of the road and the comforts of home. But $5 gas is pushing the fantasy of comfortable vagabondage to the wall.

In Canada we have been paying more than $5 per US gallon for a while now but we pay less than France at $8, Germany at $9 and the United Kingdom at almost $9 per gallon! They still go caravaning. Maybe they don't drive as far.

[Davydd]

We get Garrison Keillor's commentary every Sunday in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper. Most of the time he is totally incoherent and can't seem to stay on topic. Usually no matter what he says he eventually ends it with a tenuous tie in to bash George Bush although he somehow missed that on this RV topic. However, he did seem premature on the demise of the RV. I think once again he was plucking at a subject he knows nothing about. The Salon commentary seemed shorter than the one I read in the Star-Tribune. Maybe the Salon editors cleaned him up a bit.

Though he can't write a coherent commentary, I do enjoy Prairie Home Companion. When he is non-political he is tops. I started listening to him on the radio when he did the local Twin Cities morning public radio drive time show in the early 70s. I was put onto that show by his cousin, a fellow worker at the time. That's where he honed his material for the later Prairie Home Companion.

[renrut]

I didn't read the entire article but I won't be getting rid of my RV too soon. Since I have a family of 5 with 2 dogs, traveling by air or train would cost us our life saving to go anywhere. And, if we did take the train or plane, we would need a rental car on the other end that can accommodate us all and then get a hotel or motel. We would probably need 2 rooms so we all could get a bed space too.

I've priced out flying, taking the train and driving my RV. The RV always ends up being cheaper. When you factor in restaurants, hotel/motel and rental cars, the price gets way too high to go anywhere.

I was recently looking up train fairs. For my family to travel to Toronto and back, 3 hours round trip by car, it would cost us over $300. Yes, $300.00. They keep telling us to take the train but at that price, I can't see how anyone would ever take it. I can drive to Toronto and back for probably $40 or less in our full sized van.

[paulm]

I can fly to Vegas for $88, but see my sister in Newfoundland is $700, funny same distance.

For years we have gotten use to .80 or $1.00 gas and we still drive SUVs. $1.20 or $1.35 just will take a little getting use too. (1.35 = $6.00/gal)

Can a hybrid RV be too far off. LOL

My Natural Gas has had a recent price increase from .67 to .81 per litre. My tank capacity is at best 180KM @ $12 (old price). Was really thinking of adding a couple of tanks to the trailer. Propane running the same kind of pricing, but better range.

[renrut]

Gas is $1.15/L here right now and it's sad to think that's cheap. We're lucky now. We have numerous Provincial Parks and privately owned campgrounds in the local area. All are easily within an hours drive. We're hoping to get out camping when I finally take some holidays. I just have to get the RV safetied and licensed before we go anywhere.

As far as propane prices go, we'll be finding that out this fall. We purchased a new furnace for our house in the spring. The house use to have base-board electric heat but now we have a high efficency forced are furnace with a heat pump/air conditioner. We have to get propane installed for the furnace but have left it until we need it. (There's no natural gas where we live). We're hoping the price drops a little more before the fall. We've been told we should get a minimum 300 pound tank and fill it. The cheaper the price, the happier we'll be.

[markopolo]

Solar powered RV hits the road:

http://video.aol.ca/video-detail/solar- ... 3835205532

[Davydd]

But it doesn't move the RV down the road.

This guy's solution might be a bit overkill but I am guessing he is doing it for demonstration purposes.

[Cornbread Red]

Out here in sunny AZ, there's more and more rigs with completely off-the-grid solar power.

I'm headed to Quartzite next year and doing this is one reason I'm going. Maybe there will be some deals on the equipment there.

Chip

[Davydd]

I don't know much about Quartzite but if it is about boondocking with no facilities the Bs biggest drawback is its tank capacities. I don't think it would take all that much solar power to keep going for a long time and definitely beyond the water, gray and black tank capacities. We just boondocked on State Street in La Crosse, WI for two nights this past weekend and did not draw down the battery but one idiot light. We took our two daughters and one granddaughter down to our son's house so we slept in the van because the small house was full up.

State Street