The Road

It starts innocently enough. You’re walking an RV show floor — or scrolling listings on a Tuesday night — and a travel trailer catches your eye. Clean lines. Reasonable footprint. And a price tag that, for a brief and optimistic moment, feels almost manageable. $29,000. That’s doable. That thought lasts about three seconds. Because the next question arrives immediately, the way it always does when you’re being honest with yourself. What would I tow it with? And just like that, the $29,000 trailer isn’t $29,000 anymore.

The first mistake most people make when considering RV life isn’t financial. It isn’t logistical. It isn’t even about choosing the wrong rig. It’s starting the conversation at the wrong end. They walk into a showroom, or scroll through listings at midnight, and immediately begin comparing floorplans, slide-outs, and monthly payments. The question driving the whole thing is which one, when the question that actually matters comes before that. What problem am I trying to solve?

This series didn’t begin at an RV show. It didn’t begin in a dealership. It didn’t even begin at a campsite.It began on a walk. Voice memo on. Phone in hand. Thoughts tumbling out somewhere between curiosity and caution. Penny waiting at home. Coffee waiting on the counter. And a question that kept circling back no matter how many times I tried to simplify it. Should I buy an RV? Not as an impulse. Not as a midlife cliché. But as a serious tool for what might be the next chapter of my life.