A 12-Part Exploration Before the Engine Starts
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.
After completing my 50 at 60 journey and now editing my way back through those miles, something has shifted. The idea of visiting all 63 national parks has taken hold. Not as a checklist, but as a deeper invitation. Linger longer. Study light more intentionally. Tell better stories. Meet people whose lives intersect with these landscapes in meaningful ways. And quietly, the RV question attached itself to that vision.
Could it support this next chapter? Or would it complicate it? This series is my attempt to answer that — slowly, honestly, and publicly.
Why I’m Doing This Out Loud
I could have researched this privately. I could have built spreadsheets quietly. Watched reviews. Visited dealerships. Run numbers in isolation. But something about this decision feels bigger than a purchase. It feels like life design. And if I’m wrestling with these questions, I suspect others are too.
Maybe you’re considering:
- A trailer
- A Class C
- A Class A
- Van life
- Snowbird life
- Or simply a new rhythm entirely
Maybe you’ve walked through a rig and felt that same pull. Maybe you’ve done the napkin math and realized it’s not as simple as the sticker suggests. This series isn’t about convincing anyone to buy an RV. It’s about clarity. It’s about defining the mission before choosing the vehicle. It’s about separating emotion from ecosystem. And it’s about including the quiet variables — like the comfort of a tortoiseshell cat named Penny — that don’t show up on spec sheets.
What This Series Will Explore
Over the next twelve posts, I’m going to walk through this decision in layers. Not rushed. Not romanticized. Not cynical either.
We’ll explore:
- What problem I’m actually trying to solve
- Whether renting before buying is the smarter middle path
- If a Jeep and trailer setup could be enough
- Why Class A comfort still pulls at me
- What RV life actually costs beyond the purchase price
- How to think in cost-per-night instead of monthly payments
- The Penny factor and designing travel around stability
- Ownership versus access
- And ultimately, where I stand when the dust settles
There won’t be dramatic conclusions in each post. Just steady refinement. Because the goal isn’t to win an argument. The goal is to make a decision I can live with — financially, creatively, and logistically.
This Is Not a Buying Announcement
Let me say that clearly from the start. I am not announcing a purchase. I am announcing a process. If I buy something eventually, it will be because the mission and the math align. If I decide renting is smarter, that will be just as intentional.
There’s no finish line here. Just exploration. And perhaps that’s the deeper point. The RV question is really a life question. How do I want to move through the next decade?
Faster? Slower? More rooted? More mobile? And what platform best supports that rhythm?
An Invitation
If you’ve found this series, I’d invite you to follow along not as a spectator, but as a participant. As you read each post, ask yourself: What am I trying to build? What am I trying to solve? What kind of movement fits my life right now?
This isn’t about horsepower. It’s about alignment. The next twelve posts won’t hand you a verdict. They’ll reveal a thought process. And if we do this right, by the end of it, both of us will have a clearer answer than we started with. Tomorrow morning’s walk already has the next question queued up.
And Penny, as usual, will be waiting in the best patch of light when I get home.
