After dropping off Daughter Number One at her theatre rehearsals, we had three hours to kill in downtown Calgary last Saturday. Spurning the wonderful suggestions of Ikea or Build-A-Bear from Daughter Number Two, we headed into Stampede Park and set about examining the world of Rv'ing.
Here is an archetypal RV - the Winnebago. A huge, glossy affair with swivel leather chairs up front and a veritable feast of essential comforts out the back. These babies are posh.
After entering and exiting several dozen RV's and trailers, I felt like I'd signed up for a step aerobics class. Water, now please, garcon!
They began to blur in my mind into a myriad of beige and faux wood. Some were huge enough to host a visiting party for an Irish wedding, and yet only had one master bedroom. They must be aimed at the more mature buyers, those snow birds that bugger off to Pheonix for 5 months in the winter.
Look at this wee cutie though ....
Now this just made me smile. A designer sleeping pod. Harks back to 1960's British caravanning - but with funky pink go-faster stripes.
Personally, I thought it was a clever design and well, just cute. Strictly a two-person affair. Not sure I could take the sniggers from the other "proper" campers as I waddled down the highway towing this bubble behind me.
From the sublime to the ridiculous - look at this mama - that's bigger and more posh than my kitchen I think - granite counter tops, large fridge-freezer - the works. A cocktail dahling?
Now that is just getting silly - a built in washer and dryer? When you are up at this level of fixtures and fittings, I think a 5-star hotel is calling.
This was the most expensive price-tag I saw - I suspect there are far more pricey items on the market, but my step-aerobics class was coming to an end and I did not have the energy to hunt out any more.
I think this is more my price range!And no, we are not in the market for a new recreational vehicle. Two hundred bucks on a mini-tent might be our level at this time. Oh - and unlike one in three Albertans, we don't have a truck, nor are we likely to have a truck in my lifetime - so this trailer lark is out.
I might hire an RV one summer just to try it out though.
These exhibitions are always worth a nosey.
With a price that like that they could come with a butler or maid or something!!
ReplyDeleteRV is hell for everyone else. They are the most selfish items I have ever come across. If you can afford one of those gas guzzling beasts that block the view and the roads and uglify the countryside you can afford to stay in a hotel.
ReplyDeletephew, rant over
Hey there! Thanks for visiting FT-L and your nice comment. Our blog is called FullTime-Life because we have been full-time RVers for 10+ years, so I had to laugh when I came back to visit you and read your latest post ;>). We are old and retired, we do have a washer and dryer, but no maid . Don't believe the prices you see when you go to one of those shows. Nobody with a brain would pay those prices. We have loved our full time RV life style (but wouldn't have wanted to do it when we had kids). Back then we camped with a tent. We visited Alberta one summer and loved it; I hope we get to come back again.
ReplyDeleteCome back and see our blog again someday to get another point of view on RVing.
That kitchen! We don't even have a drier in our house, so I can't imagine taking one on holiday ("did you pack the drier, dear?"), especially somewhere sunny where washing would dry fast on an outside line.
ReplyDeleteAs Brits our only experience of RVs has been in British Columbia, watching open-mouthed as RVs went past towing a car...
We went to one of these shows when visiting A mall in Buffalo - fascinating stuff. My childhood was punctuated with caravanning trips which were not so much fun (therapy has helped), but with one those monsters it might not be much quite so traumatic and certainly more comfortable...and one wouldn't have to give up on fashion and clean laundry!
ReplyDelete