Listening to The Signal on WYPR right now, and they are interviewing a couple who lost their apartment about a year ago after the bank foreclosed on their landlord. They bought a 22 foot Winnebago and hit the road. Sadly, after a year of traveling, the couple had to sell the RV because the husband has immigration issues. His visa lapsed, so now he’s out of work and has no driver’s license. Now they’re moving back to England.
You know, I’ve discovered there’s this entire subgenre of RV literature. I’m sure it all started with Steinbeck, but now there are RV mysteries, romances, fiction (general fiction seems to fall into two sub-sub categories: buddy stories and tales of self-discovery), and, of course, memoirs. The thing is that sof far I’ve found no one writing about fulltimers who still have to work so are either tethered to a location part of the year or who travel from job to job. They all seem independently wealthy or somehow came into a windfall that allowed them to purchase the RV outright and cut loose from their regular lives. There are LOTS of folks out there living and traveling in RVs but who still have to make a living. Where are their voices?
Maybe we’ll have to write that book. One of the memoirs I just finished involved a woman who kept a blog and then edited the entries together into a book. There you go!
RV lit I’ve read so far:
Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck
Aluminum Fever by Robert Pratt
Towed in a Hole by Lawrence Chance
A Sense for Deception by Tara Gabor
Queen of the Road by Doreen Orion
Reading Right Now:
The Serpent’s Trail by Sue Henry
On the list to read:
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
The Tooth of Time by Sue Henry
The Refuge by Sue Henry
Carpet Ride by Norm Brown
Running Into Temptation by Jacqueline DeGroot
Running Up the Score by Jacqueline DeGroot
There is also a long history of RV movies, most of them comedies (not a shocker, eh?). Some I’d already seen and some I watched recently to help hold me until we began our own RV adventure.
RV movies (or movies featuring RVs) I’ve watched:
The Long, Long Trailer with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz (my personal favorite but Lex couldn’t watch it. A little too close to home)
Lost in America with Albert Brooks
RV with Robin Williams
About Schmidt with Jack Nicholson
National Lampoons Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid
Stripes with Bill Murray
Spaceballs with John Candy and Mel Brooks
Independence Day with Randy Quaid (again)
Meet the Fokkers with Robert DiNiro (in the baddest Class A evar)
Have yet to see:
The Wild Thornberrys (animated)
The Grapes of Wrath with Henry Fonda
Am I missing any books or movies? Add your suggestions to my list.
Tags: film, fulltiming, literature, rv
