Over-The-Road Survey Limon CO to Topeka KS

LJWorld.com weblogs Linda's Backroad Musings

Posted by Linda Hanney September 9, 2010 at 6:24 p.m.

GO Magazine recently published an article about the history of RVing featuring several couples and their RV lifestyle. Dudley Crow called his spacious and comfortable motorhome "martini camping." It would seem he isn't the only one who enjoys this type of RVing as we found recently with our informal survey.

On August 28, 2010, we were returning from a vacation trip to Colorado. It seemed we were seeing a lot of Rvs so we decided to count, starting at Limon, Colorado and ending at Topeka, Kansas. During that time, we counted a total of 182 recreational vehicles. This included those we met traveling west and passed on the road plus any we could see from the road, such as rest stops. We pretty much drove straight through and were careful not to count one twice when we stopped. Here is a graph breakdown.

by Linda Hanney

Not surprising, Class A Motorhomes and Fifth Wheels were most prevalent with pull campers not far behind. The date should be noted. In the Midwest, schools were underway. My guess is young families would more likely have the pop-up pull and retirees might have the bigger rigs. Also, I 70 might have more big rigs than backroads. Our choice is the pickup camper, pop up style. If we would have conducted this survey on the mountain roads of Colorado, our pickup camper choice would have a much better showing.

Speaking of backroads, it should be noted that many, if not most, of the big motorhomes were pulling another vehicle. So, these larger vehicles are able to park and then go exploring.

Just for fun, this graph shows self propelled such as buses versus pulled rigs such as 5th wheels and pull campers.

by Linda Hanney

Of course, we had no way of knowing how many had a tent packed in the back of the car. Or, the way we started, a van with an air mattress in the back. I applaud those “mobile backpackers” as I like to call them

This little informal survey makes me think the RV industry is alive and well. It shows there are all kinds of ways to sleep besides in a motel room.

We'll say, “Goodnight. The bed bugs can't bite.” to that.

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Did_I_say_that 2 years, 8 months ago

I recall looking out the front window in the top bed of the truck camper as we went down the highway. We would count most anything to pass the time: License plates, cars by color, road signs, Visit Jesse James Hideout signs, etc. Sometimes we got the folks involved; we had a fancy wired intercom that went between the cab and the camper. How times have changed things.

Linda Hanney 2 years, 8 months ago

DIST, when we were first married we had a PU camper with one of those wired intercoms. We thought we had the latest in electronics. Thanks for your help on the blog, also.

Did_I_say_that 2 years, 8 months ago

You are welcome.

I am not sure that we have not done our children a disservice by removing this kind of simple - attention required - activity from their life. We used to ride straight through on 400 to 600 mile trips with nothing more complicated than a book to occupy our time. Road games filled in a lot of that time; and, remain a large part of memory.

Today's child has an electronic hand held Nintendo DS, MP3 player, DVD player, Cell Phone, and a book to pretend to read. All that just to drive them a half mile to school. ;-P

riverdrifter 2 years, 8 months ago

If you want to see even more campers, wait about a week and do your survey again: elk season in Colorado. Interesting article and thanks.

Linda Hanney 2 years, 8 months ago

Riverdrifter, our son lives in Monument CO & we've been on I70 during hunting season. You definitely have a point. We laugh at some of the rigs. It appears a bunch of hunters go together and buy an old RV for the trip and then pull a trailer with expensive ATVs behind. We've even seen trailers with deep freezers..