Coming soon to Downtown Brownwood's RV Park !
It's official: Motor homes have arrived
Cheryl Blackerby | Cox News Service
Posted April 30, 2006
Travel books that make us want to travel
It's official: RVs are cool. Matthew McConaughey, Sean Penn and Shaquille O'Neal have been turning up in magazines behind the wheel of motor homes.
And now, the movie RV, which opened Friday, is making RVs the talk of entertainment shows.
RV dealers are hoping the movie, starring Robin Williams, does for them what Sideways did for the wine industry. Not that they need any help.
Nearly one in 12 U.S. vehicle-owning households owns an RV. That's nearly 8 million households -- a 15 percent increase during 2001-2005 and a 58 percent gain during 1980-2005. RV rentals were up 36 percent in 2005.
The RV is clearly not just for seniors anymore. The typical RV owner is 49 years old, married, with an annual household income of $68,000 -- higher than the median for all households. More RVs are now owned by those ages 35 to 54 than any other group. The movie was inspired by the experiences of RV producers Lucy Fisher and Douglas Wick, who packed their three young children into an RV for a long road trip.
"RV life is pretty funny because suddenly your whole family is cramped into more or less one room for however long the trip is," Wick says, "and you get to know each other in a whole different way."
The trip had a lot of potential for a comedy. "Anything that can go wrong with an RV often does," he says, including electrical and plumbing problems. "There's a big learning curve when you join the RV world."
But ultimately, his trip, and the one in the movie, was about families and friends coming together on the road.
"The idea was to take a family with all kinds of issues and problems, and let them be worked out within the intimate confines of an RV trip," he says.
Rachel Parson, spokeswoman for the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association, thinks RV is funny, and more important, true to RV life. She and other employees of the RVIA have free access to a range of RVs, and she has made good use of this company perk.
"There are things in the movie that are worrisome for all novices, like a big scene [about] trying to empty the sewage tank. And he's [Robin Williams] driving a Type A RV, a big one, and he doesn't take a lot of time to learn how to drive it," she says, laughing. But she hopes the movie shows people what RVs are really about. "It has a big family message, and a really warm ending. They're seeing America and enjoying the family."
RVs are particularly popular for young parents, she says.
"The under-35 group has been really rising, both renting and purchasing," she says. "There's a lot of flexibility with no ties to one spot. Kids can have their own beds, their own food, and toys."
But baby boomers are the ones who have driven the RV industry, she says. They are wealthier and more nomadic than any other generation.
One of the movie's stars, Jeff Daniels, drove his own RV from his home in Michigan to Vancouver, where the movie was shot. "I've been a fan of recreational vehicles forever. I really like the idea of driving them. I've owned several and I keep upgrading them every couple of years," he says.
source: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/orl-trav-motorhomes043006,0,338097.story?coll=orl-travel-headlines
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