RV travel - RVing with Rex

RVers in Their 70s & 80s Are Redefining the Road

RVers in their 70s and 80s are showing that age doesn’t have to end the RV lifestyle. After decades on the road, many are changing how they travel, focusing less on miles and more on experience, comfort, curiosity, and enjoying the journey.

Editor’s Note: This article is part of The Road and the Lessons It Taught Me, a series reflecting on thirty years of RV travel and the unexpected lessons the journey has taught me. It follows Senior RVing: Why I Am Not Giving Up RV Life at 85, a reflection on why age does not mark the end of adventure and why curiosity, discovery, and the desire to keep exploring remain strong throughout life.

The journey continues by looking beyond one person’s experience to explore how a growing generation of older RVers is redefining what it means to travel, explore, and embrace life on the road.

“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
—Frank Crane

Spend time in RV parks, snowbird destinations, or campgrounds across North America and you’ll notice something encouraging. Many RVers in their 70s and 80s are still traveling extensively. They’re still planning trips, exploring new places, and looking forward to the next adventure.

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. RV travel has long been popular with retirees.

What is changing isn’t whether they travel. It’s how they travel.

Many experienced RVers are discovering that the old measures of a successful trip—covering the most miles, seeing the most places, or moving every few days—gradually become less important. Instead, the focus shifts toward traveling with greater intention, spending more time exploring along the way, and making the journey itself part of the experience.

People age differently. Some continue traveling much as they always have. Others make significant changes to how they plan their trips. There is no single roadmap for RV travel in our 70s and 80s.

What many experienced RVers share, however, is the realization that success is no longer measured by how far they travel, but by how fully they experience the road.

They aren’t giving up the RV lifestyle.

They’re redefining the road.

Bernheim Forest and Arboretum near Louisville, Kentucky, was one of those unexpected stops that reminded me how many small pleasures can be found along the way. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The road gets a little shorter

Success is measured in experiences, not miles

One of the first changes many experienced RVers make has nothing to do with age. It has to do with perspective.

For years, a successful travel day may have meant covering as many miles as possible before pulling into a campground. There was always another destination waiting somewhere down the road.

Over time, however, many RVers begin to realize that the journey itself deserves more attention.

Instead of asking, “How far can we drive today?” the question gradually becomes, “What might we discover if we slow down?”

That shift often changes everything.

Travel days become shorter, not because they have to be, but because there is less desire to rush past the very places that make RV travel so rewarding. A scenic byway, a small museum, a historic downtown, a wildlife refuge, or a quiet state park becomes reason enough to stop.

Experienced RVers often discover that some of their favorite memories come from places they never planned to visit.

The road hasn’t become shorter because their sense of adventure has diminished.

It has become richer because they have learned that the best parts of the journey are often found between where they started and where they thought they were going.

Pausing at a national wildlife refuge along a migration flyway offers a different way to travel where the journey slows down and the wildlife becomes part of the destination. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

Experience changes the way we travel

After decades on the road, priorities begin to shift

One of the greatest changes that come with years of RV travel is not simply traveling fewer miles. It is learning what makes the journey meaningful.

Early in our RV years, many of us are focused on seeing as much as possible. There are places to visit, routes to follow, and destinations waiting to be discovered. The excitement comes from covering new ground.

Over time, experienced RVers often begin to travel with a different perspective.

The question becomes less about how much ground can be covered and more about how the journey can be enjoyed. That may mean choosing a more scenic route, allowing extra time to explore an interesting area, or spending longer in a place that captures our attention.

For some, this leads to a slower style of travel. For others, it simply means making more intentional choices about where they go and how they spend their time.

The difference is not that experienced RVers have lost their sense of adventure.

It is that years on the road have taught them what they value most.

They know the places worth lingering. They know the routes worth taking. They know that some of the best travel moments are often the ones that were never part of the original plan.

After decades of RVing, many travelers discover that the greatest luxury is not more miles.

It is having the experience and confidence to decide which miles are worth taking.

Dark Sky RV park offers a way of redefining the road: waking up exactly where you want to be, beneath a sky filled with stars. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

Comfort becomes part of the adventure

Making the RV lifestyle sustainable for the years ahead

After years on the road, many RVers begin to look at comfort differently.

Earlier in their RV journey, the focus may have been on getting the most out of every trip—traveling farther, carrying more, and adapting to whatever challenges came along.

Experience often changes those priorities.

Comfort is no longer viewed as a luxury. It becomes part of what allows the adventure to continue.

For some RVers, that may mean choosing a different RV that better fits their current needs. It may mean a layout that is easier to live in, features that reduce daily effort, or technology that makes travel more convenient.

For others, it may mean being more selective about where they stay, choosing easier routes, or building more flexibility into their schedules.

These decisions are not about doing less.

They are about making sure the lifestyle remains enjoyable.

Experienced RVers often understand something that takes years to learn: the goal is not to prove how much inconvenience we can tolerate. The goal is to create a way of traveling that allows us to continue exploring.

The best RV setup is not necessarily the biggest, newest, or most expensive.

It is the one that allows us to wake up each morning ready to enjoy where we are.

Redefining the road means recognizing that adventure and comfort do not have to compete. In many ways, the right balance between the two is what keeps the journey going.

Antelope Island State Park’s annual bison roundup is a reminder that adventure doesn’t retire. There’s still something exciting about being close to the action and witnessing a tradition that draws people back year after year. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The adventure does not retire

Curiosity keeps the journey alive

One of the biggest misconceptions about aging is that adventure gradually disappears.

For many RVers in their 70s and 80s, the opposite is true. The desire to explore remains strong. What changes is the way that exploration happens.

After decades of travel, many experienced RVers know themselves better. They understand what interests them, what places inspire them, and what experiences are worth seeking out.

Adventure does not always mean traveling farther or taking on greater challenges.

Sometimes it means discovering a small town that was never part of the original plan. It means visiting a historic site, watching wildlife, exploring a scenic trail, or learning the story behind a landscape that has been there for thousands of years.

The curiosity that brings people to the road does not disappear with age.

In many ways, experience can make travel more rewarding. Years of RVing teach us to notice the details that are easy to miss—the changing light across a mountain range, the sound of birds in the morning, the history hidden in an old community, or the unexpected discovery around the next bend.

Experienced RVers are not traveling because they are trying to hold on to the past.

They are traveling because there is still more to see.

The destinations may change. The pace may change. The way the journey unfolds may change.

But the desire to explore remains.

Hiking at Catalina State Park reminds me that age is not a measure of adventure. The trail may be different from those I walked years ago, but the desire to see where it leads remains. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

Age is not the measure of adventure

Travelers are defined by what they do, not simply by the number of years behind them

One of the biggest misconceptions about aging is that there is a point when adventure naturally comes to an end.

The reality is much more complicated.

People age differently. Two people of the same age may have completely different abilities, interests, and approaches to life. One person may decide it is time to stop traveling while another may be planning the next season on the road.

Neither choice is right or wrong.

What matters is recognizing that age alone does not determine what someone is capable of doing.

Experienced RVers understand this better than most. They have learned to make adjustments, listen to themselves, and make decisions based on what works for their own circumstances.

That may mean changing the type of RV they drive, modifying their travel schedule, choosing different destinations, or simply approaching the journey with a different mindset.

Adapting is not the same as giving up.

In many ways, that is the lesson RV life teaches us. The road is always changing. The places we visit change. We change.

The goal is not to travel exactly the way we did years ago.

The goal is to continue traveling in a way that allows us to enjoy the journey today.

For many RVers in their 70s and 80s, that is exactly what they are doing.

They are not trying to prove their age does not matter.

They are simply refusing to let a number decide what their life can still be.

The road keeps changing

The journey continues, just in a different way

Every RVer eventually learns that the road is never exactly the same as it was before.

The places change. The RV changes. Our priorities change. We change.

That is not something to fear. It is part of the journey.

Over time, many RVers discover that traveling differently does not mean the adventure has ended. In fact, some of the most rewarding years on the road may come when we stop trying to recreate how we traveled decades ago and begin appreciating how we travel today.

For RVers in their 70s and 80s, the road is not about proving anything or keeping up with a younger version of themselves.

It is about continuing to explore, continuing to learn, and continuing to have something to look forward to.

The adventure may look different than it did decades ago.

But different does not mean less.

They’re still making plans for next season.

They’re just doing it at 55 mph instead of 75.

Next in the series: Learning to See: Lessons from 30 Years of RV Snowbird Living
The journey continues with a reflection on how thirty years on the road changed not only the places I visited, but the way I experience and understand the world around me.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in October 2026. Information reflects what was accurate at the time of writing. Conditions, access, and amenities may change over time, so please verify current details before planning your trip.

To maintain transparency and editorial independence, this website contains no ads, no sponsored content, and no affiliate links—just firsthand RV travel experiences and practical information for fellow travelers.

Water Writes the Story

In Arizona, water is never just water. From rushing desert washes and mountain oases to rivers, lakes, wildlife, and human history, water shapes the landscape in ways that become apparent when we slow down and look more closely.

A note on this series: Learning Arizona is a personal journey of discovery through the places, landscapes, wildlife, history and experiences that have changed how I see the Grand Canyon State.

These aren’t travel guides or lists of places to visit. They are reflections on what I’ve learned by slowing down, looking more closely and spending time in Arizona.

After The Desert Is Alive, I’ve come to understand that the desert is anything but empty. This article continues that journey, exploring how water shapes Arizona’s landscape and life. The more I learn about Arizona, the more there is to discover.

In Arizona, water is never just water.

A storm can turn a dry wash into a rushing river. A spring can create a green oasis in the desert. A river can carve a corridor of life through an otherwise arid landscape. And where water remains, plants, birds, wildlife, and people gather.

I’ve come to see water as one of the forces that shape Arizona. Sometimes its power is dramatic. More often, its influence is quieter, creating pockets of life that might otherwise seem impossible in such a dry landscape.

After decades of returning to Arizona, I’ve learned to look for what water leaves behind.

Wherever water appears, the story changes.

Heavy rains caused the Cañada del Oro wash to overflow at Catalina State Park, stranding some 300 campers. What is normally a dry desert wash became a rushing torrent, cutting off access and showing just how quickly water can change the landscape. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

When water takes over

The desert reveals another side of water

I’ve seen Catalina State Park in many moods but one of the most memorable came when water suddenly became the dominant force.

After heavy rain, the normally dry wash running through the park filled with rushing water. Campers were stranded as the wash became a barrier rather than a route through the landscape. In the desert, water doesn’t always arrive quietly.

But Catalina has another story to tell.

When winter rains are favorable, the same desert can turn green and wildflowers can spread across the landscape. Poppies add splashes of color while birds are drawn to the vegetation and water.

The contrast stayed with me.

The desert can go from waiting for water to being transformed by it.

At Catalina, I began to see that water doesn’t simply pass through the desert.

It changes what the desert becomes.

Madera Canyon in the Santa Rita Mountains is a green oasis in the desert, where water and elevation create a habitat rich in trees, plants, birds, and wildlife. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

Where water creates an oasis

Where water creates an oasis

After seeing what water could do when it arrived with force at Catalina State Park, I began to notice another side of its influence in Arizona.

In the Santa Rita Mountains, a canyon can feel like another world. It is greener, cooler, and more heavily vegetated than the desert surrounding it. Water helps create an environment where trees, plants, birds, and other wildlife can thrive.

It is one reason Madera Canyon is well known for hiking and birding. Walking its trails, I began to appreciate how much life can gather where water and elevation create the right conditions.

What struck me wasn’t simply that the canyon was green.

It was how quickly the landscape could change.

Beyond the canyon walls lay the dry Sonoran Desert. Inside, water helped create a refuge filled with vegetation and life.

In Arizona, water doesn’t have to be abundant to transform a place.

The Verde River Greenway near Cottonwood creates a ribbon of green through the surrounding desert, supporting trees, birds, wildlife, and other life along its banks. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

A river of life

Where water creates an ecosystem

In a state better known for desert than rivers, the Verde River feels almost unexpected.

At the Verde River Greenway, I found a landscape that seemed to defy the desert surrounding it. The river supports a broad ribbon of green—trees, grasses, shrubs, and other vegetation that provide habitat for an extraordinary variety of birds, animals, and insects.

The contrast is striking. Beyond the river, Arizona’s arid landscape returns. Along the water, life gathers.

The Verde is one of Arizona’s few remaining free-flowing rivers and its importance extends far beyond the water flowing between its banks. The riparian habitat it supports is among the most valuable ecosystems in an otherwise arid state.

Walking along the river, I began to understand that water doesn’t simply create isolated pockets of life.

Sometimes it creates an entire world.

The San Pedro River creates a lush riparian habitat through the surrounding desert, providing food, shelter, and water for a remarkable variety of wildlife. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

A river that connects

Where water brings life together

The San Pedro River is easy to underestimate.

In a state known for dramatic rivers and towering mountains, this narrow desert river can seem almost modest. Yet along its banks stretches a remarkable ribbon of green that supports birds, wildlife, plants, and people.

The San Pedro is one of the last undammed desert rivers in the Southwest. Its importance extends far beyond the water flowing between its banks. The surrounding riparian habitat provides refuge for an extraordinary diversity of life in an otherwise arid landscape.

I was especially struck by the river when I visited the Holy Trinity Monastery in St. David. The monastery property reaches back to the river, creating an unexpected meeting place between nature and human history. My photographs from the property capture that contrast—the quiet river flowing through a landscape where the desert and the life it supports come together.

Standing there, I began to understand that a river can be more than a source of water.

It can connect an entire landscape—wildlife, people, and history.

Bartlett Lake, formed by damming the Verde River, brings a broad expanse of water to the surrounding Sonoran Desert and has created a landscape of its own. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

When we change the water

How a river becomes a lake

We have seen the Verde River as a free-flowing ribbon of life. At Bartlett Lake, I encountered another version of that same river.

The lake exists because the Verde was dammed in 1939, changing the river’s natural flow and creating a reservoir in the Sonoran Desert. What surprised me was that this altered landscape had developed a character of its own.

Water still draws life here. Wildlife uses the surrounding habitat, vegetation flourishes along the shoreline, and in spring, wildflowers can add color to the otherwise rugged desert landscape.

Standing along Bartlett Lake, I began to appreciate the complexity of Arizona’s relationship with water. Water is something we need, something we depend upon, and sometimes something we change to meet our needs.

But once we do, the landscape changes too.

We may change the water but the water continues to shape the land.

An Airstream and canoe beside Lake Pleasant capture something I enjoy about RVing in Arizona: finding a place where water, desert, and the freedom to explore all come together. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

Where water meets adventure

The desert becomes a place to play

Lake Pleasant shows yet another side of Arizona’s relationship with water.

Here, the lake isn’t simply habitat or a source of water. It becomes part of how people experience the desert. Boats move across the water, canoes wait along the shore, and campers settle in for a few days beside a landscape that feels very different from the dry desert surrounding it.

For me, the image of an Airstream beside the lake with a canoe waiting at the water’s edge captures that connection perfectly. It brings together two things that have shaped so much of my Arizona experience—RV travel and the discovery of places where water changes the landscape.

Lake Pleasant is a place to camp, hike, boat, fish, or simply sit beside the water and enjoy the contrast between lake and desert.

Water doesn’t just sustain the Arizona experience. Sometimes, it becomes the experience.

Spring wildflowers burst into color beside an Arizona lake, a vivid reminder of how water can transform the desert and change the way we see this remarkable state. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

What water taught me

The lesson is bigger than the water itself

When I first began returning to Arizona, I thought of water mostly as something the desert lacked.

I see it differently now.

I’ve seen water arrive with enough force to transform a dry wash, create an oasis in the mountains, sustain a river and its surrounding ecosystem, connect people and places, and become part of how we experience the desert.

Water may be scarce in Arizona but its influence is everywhere.

The more I traveled, the more I realized that water doesn’t simply exist within the landscape. It helps determine what the landscape becomes.

Water doesn’t simply flow through Arizona. It writes the story of where life exists, how places change, and how we experience this remarkable state.

And like so many lessons Arizona has taught me, it was there all along.

I simply had to learn to see it.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note

The Stoics, the Road, and the Meaning of Travel

The Stoics traveled widely while reminding us that we cannot escape ourselves by changing our surroundings. Their ideas offer a different way to think about travel, curiosity, and the meaning of the journey.

We tend to think of travel as an escape—to leave the familiar behind and experience something different. Yet the Stoics, who warned us that we cannot escape ourselves simply by changing our surroundings, traveled widely.

Why did they travel? And what might their journeys teach us about our own?

Casa Grande Ruins reminds us that travel can take us beyond seeing a place to reflecting on the lives, history, and lessons it holds. Casa Grande Ruins reminds us that travel can take us beyond seeing a place to reflecting on the lives, history, and lessons it holds. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The Stoic and the road

We take ourselves wherever we go

The Stoics were not opposed to travel. What they questioned was our reason for traveling.

Seneca warned against using travel as an escape from ourselves. We may change the scenery, cross a sea, or settle in another city but our thoughts and troubles come with us. Marcus Aurelius reminded himself that he could retreat into his own mind as easily as he could to the mountains or the seashore. Epictetus likewise urged us to pay attention to what is within rather than believing that changing what is outside will somehow make us whole.

There is wisdom in that.

We can spend a lifetime searching for the perfect place, believing that somewhere else will provide what is missing here. But the Stoics understood that no landscape, city, or journey can do that work for us.

Yet there is something curious about these teachings.

The Stoics themselves traveled.

The Painted Churches of Fayette County offer a glimpse into how different communities brought their cultures, traditions, and faith to a new place, reminding us how travel can broaden our understanding of different ways of life. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

A larger world

Travel can expand the mind

The Stoics did not simply talk about travel. They lived it.

Marcus Aurelius traveled through much of the Roman Empire including Syria and Asia Minor. Seneca spent time in southern Italy and Greece and, during his exile, lived for years on Corsica. Posidonius traveled extensively, living and working in places as different as Syria, Athens, Rome, and Rhodes. Athenodorus traveled throughout the Mediterranean before becoming a teacher to the young Octavian.

Their journeys exposed them to people, cultures, landscapes, and ideas far beyond those of their birthplace.

That matters.

We understand the world partly through comparison. Until we encounter a different way of living, eating, worshiping, building, working, or understanding the world, it is easy to assume that our way is simply the way things are.

Travel disrupts that assumption.

It enlarges the world we know—and when our understanding of the world becomes larger, so can our understanding of ourselves.

Looking beyond the familiar Alabama Gulf Coast reminds us that travel can challenge our assumptions and open us to places, people, and experiences we might otherwise overlook. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Learning to travel

Seeing a place requires more than passing through it

Nearly two thousand years after the Stoics, another traveler set out to understand a world different from his own.

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville came to America. He wasn’t simply interested in seeing its famous places. He wanted to understand the country and the people who lived there. That required time on the road, conversations with ordinary people, observation, and a willingness to look beyond what was immediately familiar.

Tocqueville understood something that the Stoics had understood in a different way: travel can enlarge us when we are willing to pay attention.

He didn’t experience America from a distance. He moved through it.

That distinction matters.

There is a difference between visiting a place and experiencing it. One can be measured in destinations and photographs. The other takes curiosity, time, and attention.

More than a century and a half later, we have an extraordinary advantage Tocqueville never had. We can carry our home with us.

We call it an RV.

And perhaps the RV is one of the best vehicles ever created for meaningful travel—not because it takes us farther but because it gives us the freedom to experience what lies between where we begin and where we are going.

Discoveries along Scenic Byway 12 remind us that the journey itself can be as meaningful as the destination when we leave room for curiosity and the unexpected. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Travel with intention

The destination is only part of the journey

An RV gives us something Tocqueville could only dream of: the ability to make the journey itself part of the experience.

We can leave the interstate for a country road, stop in a town we’ve never heard of, stay another night because a place has captured our attention, or simply sit outside the RV and watch the world go by.

But having that freedom doesn’t mean we will use it.

It is easy to turn RV travel into another checklist—counting states, national parks, campgrounds, and miles while hurrying toward the next destination.

Meaning begins when we become intentional about how we travel.

That doesn’t mean every stop must be profound. It means slowing down enough to pay attention and remaining curious about what we encounter.

The question changes from Where are we going? to What might we discover along the way?

That small change can transform an RV trip from a journey between destinations into an experience worth remembering.

Connecting with the history of Charleston shows how travel can deepen our understanding of a place by encouraging us to look beyond what we see on the surface. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Connect with the place

Let the journey become more than scenery

A meaningful RV journey begins with curiosity about the places we enter.

Learn something about the town before moving on. Talk with the people who live there. Visit the local museum, walk its streets, eat its food, listen to its music. Learn why the landscape looks the way it does and what happened there before we arrived.

Nature offers the same opportunity. Instead of simply photographing a desert, forest or mountain, we can ask what makes it different, what lives there and how it came to be. A landscape becomes more interesting when we understand it.

The same is true of history. A historic building is more than an old structure when we know the stories that unfolded within it.

None of this requires a packed itinerary. Often, it requires just the opposite: enough time and curiosity to look beyond the surface.

The more we connect with a place, the less it becomes a stop on a map and the more it becomes part of our journey.

Leaving room for the unexpected can turn an ordinary moment, like a gull landing nearby, into a small discovery along the way. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Leave room for the unexpected

Some of the best moments cannot be planned

Some of the most meaningful moments in RV travel are the ones we never planned.

A road sign catches our attention and sends us down an unfamiliar road. We stop for lunch and strike up a conversation. A bird appears outside the RV. Evening light transforms an ordinary landscape. We discover a small town, trail, or view that wasn’t on the itinerary.

These moments are easy to miss when every day is scheduled.

Leaving room for the unexpected doesn’t mean abandoning plans. It means recognizing that not everything worthwhile can be planned. Sometimes the greatest value of an RV journey lies in what we didn’t set out to find.

And sometimes something even better happens.

We experience a moment of unexpected joy.

We can’t manufacture that feeling and what brings joy to one traveler may mean little to another. But when we travel with curiosity and openness, we create the possibility for it.

Perhaps that’s one of the great pleasures of the road: we never quite know what it has waiting for us.

Standing among the ancient dwellings of Mesa Verde can make the distant past feel surprisingly present, reminding us that travel can connect us with lives lived long before our own. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

When travel becomes awe

Some places leave us changed

There are moments when travel gives us something more than enjoyment.

We round a bend and suddenly see a landscape stretching beyond anything we expected. We stand beneath a night sky filled with stars. We watch thousands of birds move together across the sky. We encounter a place where history feels almost present.

For a moment, we aren’t simply looking at something beautiful. We are aware of something larger than ourselves.

That is awe.

It is one of the most powerful experiences travel can offer, but like joy, it cannot be scheduled. We can only put ourselves in places and states of mind where it might find us.

Perhaps this is where meaningful travel reaches its deepest expression. We have slowed down enough to notice, become curious enough to understand, and remained open enough to be moved.

We didn’t set out to find awe.

We simply traveled—and allowed the world to reveal itself.

RV travel can take us far from home, but the Stoics remind us that the most meaningful journey may be the one we discover within ourselves. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

What we bring home

The journey continues after we return

The Stoics were right: we cannot escape ourselves simply by changing our surroundings. Wherever we travel, we carry ourselves with us.

But perhaps they also remind us of something else. What we encounter can change the person who returns home.

Travel introduces us to people, places, histories, landscapes, and ideas beyond our familiar world. If we slow down enough to notice and remain open enough to learn, those experiences become more than memories. They become part of us.

That may be the real meaning of travel.

We travel outward but what we encounter along the way can change what we carry inward.

And perhaps that is one of the greatest gifts of RV travel: not simply that it takes us somewhere new but that it gives us the time and freedom to discover what the journey might have to teach us.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note

Snowbirds of a Different Kind

Every fall, we snowbirds head south in our RVs, following familiar roads toward warmer days. Along the way, we encounter another kind of snowbird: migratory birds making remarkable journeys of their own.

We think of ourselves as snowbirds.

Each fall, we leave the north behind and head south in our RV, following familiar roads toward warmer days. Along the way, we encounter birds doing much the same thing—only their journeys are often longer, their highways invisible, and their destinations known without maps or GPS.

In an earlier article, I looked at the remarkable phenomenon of bird migration. This time, I want to look more closely at some of the birds I’ve encountered during our own travels south.

Where did they come from? How far have they traveled? And what can their journeys tell us about our own?

The more I learn, the more I realize that these aren’t simply birds we happen to encounter along the way.

They are fellow travelers.

As the first light of day reaches the wetlands, Sandhill Cranes gather for their morning lift-off at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The Sandhill Crane

When you can see—and hear—the migration

There is something about hearing Sandhill Cranes that makes you stop and look up.

I’ve experienced it many times during our travels south but nowhere more memorably than Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. I’ve attended the Festival of the Cranes held annually in early December and spent many mornings photographing the birds as they gathered in the wetlands.

Before sunrise, the refuge can seem almost still. Then comes the calling. One crane answers another, and soon the air fills with their distinctive rolling calls. As daylight arrives, thousands rise from the water and head into the surrounding fields.

I’ve also photographed cranes at Whitewater Draw near Willcox, Arizona, and in Florida. Each encounter reminds me that these birds are part of the same seasonal movement that brings us south.

Of course, their journey is very different from ours. Some Sandhill Cranes travel thousands of miles between breeding and wintering grounds while others remain in the same region year-round.

But the connection is there.

The seasons tell both of us when it’s time to move.

Small enough to overlook, this Yellow-rumped Warbler is nevertheless part of one of nature’s great journeys, moving south with millions of other birds as winter approaches. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The Yellow-rumped Warbler

One small bird in a continent of travelers

During our snowbird travels in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I’ve photographed Yellow-rumped Warblers. They’re easy to overlook—small, active birds moving through the trees.

But there’s much more to that little bird than meets the eye.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are among the most abundant warblers in North America. Each fall, they sweep south across the continent in remarkable numbers. Some winter in the southern United States while others continue into Mexico and Central America.

Think about that the next time you see one.

The bird in my photograph may be one small traveler but it is part of a movement involving millions of birds crossing the continent.

We snowbirds can relate to that. A single RV heading south doesn’t seem like much but put us all on the road and the annual migration becomes impossible to miss.

Sometimes it takes looking closely at one traveler to appreciate how large the journey really is.

An Indigo Bunting pauses along its journey south, following a route written in the stars rather than on a map. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The Indigo Bunting

Finding the way without a map

During our snowbird travels in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, I photographed an Indigo Bunting. At first glance, it seemed like just another small bird passing through.

But Indigo Buntings have an extraordinary way of finding their way.

They migrate at night, traveling about 1,200 miles between their breeding and wintering grounds. And one of the tools they use is something we rarely think about when finding our own way—the stars.

Scientists discovered this by placing Indigo Buntings under artificial night skies. When the stars were changed, the birds changed their direction.

We snowbirds have it easier. We have highways, road signs, and GPS to guide us south.

The bunting has the night sky.

Somehow, it knows how to read it.

Looking at this Whimbrel, it’s hard to imagine that it may have crossed an entire ocean to reach the Texas coast. Some journeys are far greater than they appear. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The Whimbrel

The journey we can hardly imagine

During our snowbird travels, I photographed a Whimbrel at Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in South Texas. At the time, I was simply pleased to capture the photograph. I didn’t realize the journey that bird may have already made.

Some Whimbrels make a nonstop flight of about 2,500 miles over open ocean between North America and South America. For days, there is nowhere to land, no place to rest. One tracked female named Hope flew more than 50,000 miles over three years between her breeding and wintering grounds.

Suddenly, the bird in my photograph seemed very different.

I had driven our RV to South Texas. The Whimbrel had arrived after a journey that could span an entire ocean.

Sometimes we don’t realize how far a fellow traveler has come until we learn its story.

An Osprey takes flight from Lovers Key with an enormous fish in its talons. Watching it struggle to carry its catch made the moment all the more memorable. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The Osprey

The journey that keeps repeating

I’ve photographed Ospreys in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and along Florida’s Gulf Coast. In Florida, I caught one carrying a fish so large it seemed almost too big for the bird to fly with.

It was a great photograph. But the more I learned about Ospreys, the more I realized there was another story behind that moment.

Many Ospreys that breed in the northern United States and Canada migrate south for the winter, some all the way to Central or South America. Others remain along the Gulf Coast and in Florida where fish are available year-round.

One tracked Osprey flew 2,700 miles from Massachusetts to French Guiana in just 13 days. Over a 15- to 20-year lifetime, an Osprey may log more than 160,000 migration miles.

That gives a different meaning to seeing one perched above the Gulf or flying past with a fish in its talons.

For us snowbirds, the trip south is something we repeat every year. For the Osprey, it is part of a lifetime pattern—leave, travel, arrive, and eventually turn north again.

We may travel the same roads each year. The Osprey simply follows a different route.

After their long journey south, Snow Geese gather at Bosque del Apache, filling the wetlands with life as they settle into their winter home. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The Snow Goose

Choosing a winter destination

In late November, I’ve photographed Snow Geese at both Bosque del Apache and Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico. At first, it might seem they simply arrived because winter was approaching.

But they didn’t choose these places by accident.

Snow Geese breed in the Arctic and subarctic regions of Canada and Alaska. Each fall, they head south along established migration routes, seeking wetlands, fields, and other places where food and water are available.

At Bosque del Apache and Bitter Lake, those needs come together. Thousands of geese gather there for the winter.

We snowbirds understand something about choosing a winter destination. We look for the things that make a place comfortable and give us reasons to stay.

The Snow Goose has a simpler checklist.

Find food. Find water. Find safety. Stay until it’s time to go.

Along the Texas Gulf Coast near Rockport, American White Pelicans gather for the season, another group of fellow travelers finding their way south. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The Pelicans

Migration doesn’t follow a simple rule

Along the Texas Gulf Coast, I’ve photographed both species of pelicans—the Brown Pelican and the American White Pelican. I naturally thought of them as two versions of the same bird but seeing them in the same general region made me curious about how their lives differ.

But their migration stories are surprisingly different.

American White Pelicans breed primarily inland in the northern part of the continent and migrate south for winter, often to the Gulf Coast. Some populations, including those breeding in Texas, remain year-round.

Brown Pelicans are primarily coastal birds and their movements vary by location. Some Gulf Coast birds move farther south during the coldest months while others remain in the same general area.

It reminded me that migration isn’t simply a matter of going or staying. Even birds that share the same coastline can respond to the seasons in very different ways.

We snowbirds know that, too. Some travel thousands of miles each year. Others move only a few states south. And some never leave home at all.

There is more than one way to be a snowbird.

A Great Blue Heron patiently stalks its prey, reminding me that not every traveler is in a hurry to get somewhere. *© Rex Vogel, all rights reserved*

The Great Blue Heron

Sometimes the traveler stays

I’ve photographed Great Blue Herons in many places along our travels through the South from Texas eastward. They seem almost like permanent fixtures—standing patiently beside a pond, river or marsh, waiting for a fish to come within reach.

But not every Great Blue Heron is a permanent resident.

Northern populations migrate south for the winter while many herons farther south remain year-round. Some birds move only short distances while others travel much farther. In other words, there isn’t one migration pattern for every Great Blue Heron.

That makes the heron an interesting fellow traveler. The one standing quietly in front of me may have traveled hundreds of miles—or it may have spent its entire life nearby.

We snowbirds have our own version of that choice. Some of us make a long journey south every year. Others move only a short distance. And some are perfectly happy staying where they are.

Migration isn’t always about how far you go. Sometimes it’s simply about knowing where you belong.

A sky full of fellow travelers

What migration has taught me

Over these eight birds, I’ve come to see migration differently. It isn’t simply birds moving from one place to another. It is a collection of remarkable journeys—some short, some thousands of miles long, some guided by stars, some crossing oceans, and some barely noticeable at all.

Through our own travels, I’ve realized something else. Every fall, we snowbirds join this great seasonal movement. Our journeys are easier, our routes are mapped, and we have the luxury of turning around whenever we choose.

The birds don’t have those choices. Yet year after year, they leave when the time comes and somehow find their way.

Perhaps that’s why encountering them along our travels feels different now.

We aren’t simply passing through their world. For a little while, we’re fellow travelers.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note

Don’t Wait for Retirement to Start Living

Retirement shouldn’t be the first time you think about how you want to live. Discover why building a meaningful life beyond work can begin long before you leave your job.

We spend much of our lives preparing for the future. We work, save, build careers, and tell ourselves that someday, when we retire, we’ll finally have the time to enjoy life on our own terms.

But what if retirement shouldn’t be the beginning of the life we want to live?

A recent interview with Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay got me thinking about how easily a job can become part of our identity. His experience raises a larger question: What happens when the job is no longer there? Perhaps the answer is to begin building a life beyond our work long before retirement arrives.

There are many ways to do that. RVing was the route I chose, and for me, it turned out to be a wonderful way to live.

Life is a journey, so make it a beautiful one by finding something to look forward to along the way. © Rex Vogel, *all rights reserved*

When your job becomes your identity

There is more to who we are than what we do

There’s nothing wrong with taking pride in what you do. A career can provide purpose, accomplishment, friendships, and a sense of who we are. For some, it can become something they genuinely love.

The problem comes when the job becomes too much of who we are.

That was what caught my attention in Sean McVay’s 60 Minutes interview. After years of coaching and the pressure to win, he realized how closely his identity had become tied to the outcome of football. Winning mattered but it couldn’t provide the lasting fulfillment he had expected.

His experience made me think about how easily this can happen to any of us. We spend decades defining ourselves by what we do, measuring our days by what we accomplish, and looking toward the next goal.

Then one day, the job ends.

The question isn’t simply: What will I do with all that free time? It’s more fundamental: Who am I when the work that helped define me is no longer part of every day?

Maybe that’s something worth thinking about long before retirement arrives.

Don’t put life on hold

The best time to build a life worth living is before you retire

It’s easy to tell ourselves we’ll do the things we really want someday. We’ll travel more, spend time with family, pursue an interest, or simply slow down when we retire.

But someday isn’t guaranteed.

Years can pass while work continues to take priority. Before we realize it, retirement is approaching, and we may have spent so much time preparing to leave our jobs that we haven’t prepared for what comes next.

I’m not suggesting we abandon work or ignore our responsibilities. Work is part of life and for many people an important part. But it doesn’t have to be the only part.

There are many ways to begin building a life beyond the workplace while we’re still working. Take the trip. Develop the interest. Make time for family. Discover what makes you happy.

Retirement can give you more freedom but it shouldn’t be the first time you begin living the life you want.

Plan for life, not just retirement. Make every day an adventure and give yourself something to look forward to along the way. © Rex Vogel, *all rights reserved*

Plan for the life, not just the retirement

Money matters but so does knowing what you want to do with your time

Retirement planning often begins with a financial question: Will I have enough money?

That’s important but there’s another question worth asking: What kind of life do I want that money to support?

Retirement can give us something we rarely have during our working years: time. But having time doesn’t automatically make the days meaningful. Without something to look forward to, the freedom we worked so hard to achieve can feel surprisingly empty.

I was fortunate to find my answer in RVing. It gave me a way to travel, explore, experience new places, and keep learning. After all these years, it remains an important part of what makes my life enjoyable.

But RVing isn’t the answer for everyone. It might be travel, family, volunteering, learning, the outdoors, or simply having the freedom to pursue interests you’ve put aside.

The possibilities are endless.

The important thing is to have some idea of what you’re retiring to, not just what you’re retiring from.

Once you know what that life might look like, you can begin planning for it.

Plan for the lifestyle you want, not just for the day you retire. © Rex Vogel, *all rights reserved*

Make your money serve your life

Retirement planning is about more than replacing a paycheck

Knowing what you want retirement to look like makes financial planning more meaningful.

Instead of simply asking: How much money do I need to retire? ask, How much will I need to live the life I want after the paychecks stop?

Those aren’t necessarily the same question.

Retirement can last for decades. If you want those years to be more than simply getting by, the lifestyle you envision needs to be part of your financial plan.

RVing certainly was for me. We had to plan for the motorhome, fuel, campgrounds, maintenance, and other expenses that come with traveling. Those weren’t simply costs. They helped make the lifestyle we wanted possible.

That’s the point of financial planning. You’re not just planning to leave work. You’re planning to fund the years of life that come after it.

The sooner you know what you want those years to look like, the more time you have to make that life possible.

Balance planning for the future with living today. Tomorrow matters, but so does making the most of the life you’re living right now. © Rex Vogel, *all rights reserved*

Tomorrow isn’t promised

There’s a reason not to put all of life on hold

There’s another reality we don’t like to think about: we don’t know how much time we have.

We can spend decades planning for retirement, only to discover that life doesn’t always follow our plans. Some never reach retirement. Others arrive with less health, energy, or freedom than they expected.

That’s not a reason to stop planning for the future. It’s a reason to balance planning for tomorrow with living today.

I learned that through RVing. We didn’t wait for some distant perfect time to begin exploring. We made travel and discovery part of our lives and it has remained a source of enjoyment for decades.

You don’t have to own an RV to do that. The point is to recognize that the years you’re living now are part of your life too.

Plan for the future, but don’t postpone everything you want from life until then.

The time you have now matters.

Plan a life filled with experiences to look forward to, not just a retirement date to look forward to. © Rex Vogel, *all rights reserved*

A life needs more than a paycheck

What fills your days matters as much as what pays for them

A job can fill our days with responsibilities, goals, and accomplishments. When it ends, all that time doesn’t automatically become meaningful.

That’s why I think it’s important to have more than a career. We need things that give us reasons to get up in the morning, places to go, people to share life with, and experiences to look forward to.

For me, RVing became part of that life. It gave us somewhere to go and something to discover. Even after all these years, there is still another road, another place, and another experience waiting ahead.

That’s what I value most about this lifestyle. It isn’t simply what we do with our time. It gives us something to live for beyond our work.

Perhaps that’s the real goal: when the job ends, don’t let your life end with it. Have a life waiting for you.

I found my way of living

There are many ways to build a life worth looking forward to

There are many ways to build a fulfilling life beyond a career. What works for one person may not work for another.

For me, that path was RVing.

As we begin our 30th year of snowbirding, I realize how much this lifestyle has given me. It has kept life moving, provided endless opportunities to explore and learn, and given me something to look forward to year after year.

At 85, I’m especially grateful that I didn’t wait for some perfect time to begin living this way. We chose a lifestyle that suited us, made plans to make it possible. and kept going.

I’m not suggesting everyone should become an RVer. The important thing is to find your own route to a life you want to live.

For me, the road turned out to be a pretty good one.

A snowbird life is more than escaping winter. It’s a way of living filled with travel, discovery, new experiences, and something to look forward to each year. © Rex Vogel, *all rights reserved*

A life worth living

Retirement isn’t the destination. It’s another chapter of the journey

Sean McVay’s story reminded me how easily a career can become such a large part of our lives that we forget there is a person beyond the job. A fulfilling life is bigger than a title, a paycheck, or a list of accomplishments.

That’s why I believe we shouldn’t wait for retirement to figure out what makes life meaningful. Have a plan for the years ahead, including a financial plan to help make that life possible. But don’t put everything you want to experience on hold while waiting for some future date.

There are many ways to live a fulfilling life. RVing was the route I chose and after 30 years of snowbirding, it has been a wonderful one for me. It has given me places to go, things to discover and, most importantly, something to look forward to.

We don’t know how many years we have ahead of us. We can decide what we do with the years we have.

Don’t wait for retirement to start living. Build a life worth living now and let your work be part of that life, not the whole of it.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note

30 Years … and Counting!

Thirty years ago, we pointed our RV south to escape the Canadian winter. What began as a seasonal escape became a way of life filled with travel, discovery, friendships, and lessons that continue to shape how I see the world.

Editor’s Note: This article opens The Road and the Lessons It Taught Me, a series reflecting on thirty years of RV travel and the unexpected lessons the journey has taught me. While each article stands on its own, together they explore how the road changed not only where I traveled, but how I came to see the world differently.

The journey begins with a look back at how a simple decision to escape winter became a thirty-year adventure that continues to shape the way I experience the world.

Thirty years ago this month, we pointed our RV south and began our first snowbird journey.

We thought we were escaping winter.

We had no idea we were beginning a way of life.

Thirty years later, almost everything has changed.

Technology transformed how we travel. RVing became mainstream. The road itself became busier.

Yet the greatest changes weren’t happening around us.

They were happening within us.

What began as a way to escape Canadian winters became a journey through remarkable landscapes, small towns, historic places, and unexpected friendships. More importantly, it became a journey of discovery that continues to shape how I see travel, people, and the world around me.

Looking back, I realize the miles were only part of the story.

Feeding the friendly burros of Oatman, Arizona, was one of those unexpected encounters that turned a stop along Route 66 into a memory we still enjoy. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

A different world

When RVing meant paper maps and pay phones

It is difficult to explain to someone who wasn’t there just how different the world was thirty years ago.

The term weblog had only recently been coined. Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and smartphones didn’t exist. GPS was still a novelty and “being connected” often meant finding a pay phone.

RVing was different too.

It wasn’t trendy. Few people lived on the road full-time and the familiar bumper stickers—”We’re Spending Our Children’s Inheritance” and “Grandma and Grandpa’s Playhouse”—captured how many people viewed the lifestyle.

We didn’t think of ourselves as pioneers or trendsetters.

We were simply looking for warmer winters and a different way to travel.

None of us could have imagined how much the RV lifestyle—and the world around it—would change over the next three decades.

Looking back now, I realize we weren’t just beginning a new way to spend our winters.

We were stepping into the journey of a lifetime.

Watching bison roam freely across the grasslands, a timeless scene that made the wide-open landscape feel very much alive. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The road opened up

Discovering a country one mile at a time

Once we began traveling, we quickly discovered that RVing was about far more than escaping winter.

The miles carried us into landscapes we had only imagined and introduced us to a country far larger, more diverse, and more remarkable than we understood.

We walked the ground where Custer and the 7th Cavalry made their final stand at Little Bighorn. We watched bison roam the grasslands of South Dakota and Antelope Island State Park in Utah. We followed Utah’s magnificent Scenic Byway 12 where every turn revealed another landscape that seemed impossible to surpass.

We touched glaciers in the Canadian Rockies, stood beside the rivers explored by Lewis and Clark, marveled at California’s giant sequoias, and watched the Pacific Ocean meet the cliffs of the Oregon coast.

The road introduced us to places that became lasting memories.

We traveled Route 66 and fed the wild burros of Oatman, Arizona. We rode historic railroads through landscapes that could not be fully appreciated from the highway—the Grand Canyon Railway, the Verde Canyon Railroad, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, and the Mount Washington Cog Railway.

We came to appreciate America in ways deeper than we ever expected.

The beauty of the land was only part of the experience. We discovered history, culture, and communities that reminded us how much there was still to learn. We found ourselves welcomed by strangers, surprised by small towns, and continually reminded that there was always something new waiting around the next bend.

We have not seen it all.

But after thirty years on the road, we have seen enough to know that the journey never really ends.

There is always another road.

Another landscape.

Another story waiting to be discovered.

Enjoying the unmistakable flavor of New Mexico cuisine, where chile is more than an ingredient. It is part of the culture and character of the Southwest. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

When places became more than destinations

Learning to slow down and experience the journey

Over time, we discovered that the greatest rewards of RV travel were not always found at the places marked on a map.

They were found in the moments between destinations.

We learned to walk trails instead of simply viewing landscapes from the roadside. A short hike revealed details easily missed from behind the windshield—the sound of birds, the texture of plants, and the changing light across the landscape.

We began carrying cameras, not just to preserve memories, but because photography taught us to see with new eyes—to pay closer attention. A landscape became more than a view. A bird became more than a shape moving through the trees. A quiet moment became something worth noticing.

Birding became another way of understanding the places we traveled. Learning a bird’s name was only the beginning. Over time, we began noticing its habits, its environment, and the connection between a creature and the place that shaped it.

The same was true of the towns we visited.

Some of our favorite memories came not from famous attractions but from communities that invited us to slow down and stay awhile. We fell in love with Santa Fe, New Mexico; Shipshewana, Indiana; Fairhope, Alabama; and dozens of smaller towns whose character could never be captured in a travel brochure.

The artists of Bisbee and Jerome, Arizona, the murals of Tremonton, Utah, and the cowboy spirit of Sheridan, Wyoming, and Medora, North Dakota, reminded us that every place has a story waiting to be discovered.

Even food became part of the journey.

Every region had its own flavors and traditions. We enjoyed seafood along the Gulf Coast, barbecue and chicken-fried steak in Texas, chile in New Mexico, Royal Red Shrimp in Alabama, Hot Brown in Kentucky, and bratwurst in Wisconsin.

But the meals we remember most are not only about the food.

They are about the people, conversations, and moments surrounding the table.

Thirty years on the road taught us that travel is not simply about collecting places.

It is about creating connections.

The destinations may have been the reason we left home.

The experiences are what made the journey meaningful.

Changing light moved across the desert landscape, revealing new colors, shadows, and textures with every passing moment. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The road changed too

Thirty years of travel—and the lessons that remained

When we began our snowbird journey thirty years ago, we could not have imagined how much would change.

The RVs changed. Technology changed. The way we planned and shared our travels changed. Paper maps gave way to GPS and information that once required hours of searching became available instantly.

But the greatest changes were not in the equipment or technology.

They were in us.

For every year of travel, I kept a journal. Looking back through those pages today is like opening a window into another time. The places we visited come back to life—the people we met, the unexpected discoveries, the moments that seemed ordinary at the time but became lasting memories.

The journals remind me that travel is not only measured by miles or destinations.

It is measured by experiences.

A conversation with someone we met along the way. A small town we almost passed by. A trail that revealed something unexpected. A moment that made us stop and appreciate where we were.

Over thirty years, our reasons for traveling have changed. We have learned to slow down, pay closer attention, and appreciate the journey as much as the destination.

The road has taught us that discovery does not have an expiration date.

We are not still traveling because we have seen everything.

We are still traveling because we know we have not.

There is always another road, another story, another place waiting to reveal itself.

The journey continues.

We attended FMCA, Good Sam, and Freightliner RV rallies, where the learning, shared experiences, and friendships became an important part of our life on the road. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

More than a journey

How RVing became a way to learn, connect, and give back

When we began RVing, we were the ones asking questions.

We attended rallies to learn from those who had already traveled the road. We joined clubs, listened to experienced RVers, and discovered a community filled with people willing to share their knowledge and stories.

The RV lifestyle is built on that spirit of sharing.

Over time, we became part of that community ourselves. We became active in RV clubs, presented seminars, and began sharing what we had learned with others who were just beginning their own journeys.

The more we received from RVing, the more we wanted to give back.

Writing became another way to do that.

Over the years, I wrote for several RV publications, including Good Sam, sharing stories, information, and experiences with fellow travelers. Writing allowed me to preserve memories, but it also allowed me to help others discover the same enjoyment and confidence that RVing had brought into our lives.

Some of our closest friendships also came through RVing. We became especially close with three other couples who shared our love of hiking and exploring the Southwest and later Texas. The trails we walked and the miles we traveled together became part of the story of our lives.

Today, my website continues that same tradition.

It is simply another way of giving back to a lifestyle that has given us so much.

After thirty years, I realize that RVing was never only about the places we visited. It was about the people who shared the road, the knowledge that was passed along, and the friendships that made the journey richer.

The greatest journeys are not measured only by the miles traveled.

They are measured by what we learn, what we share, and what we leave behind.

After 30 years of the RV lifestyle, life is still good, the road is still calling, and there are still places we want to discover. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Thirty years … and still looking down the road

What the journey has taught me

Thirty years ago, we began a journey without knowing where it would lead.

We thought we were simply escaping winter and exploring new places. We had no idea that RVing would become a way of life—a journey that would introduce us to landscapes we never imagined, people we would never forget, and lessons we could never have learned any other way.

The road gave us far more than destinations.

It taught us to slow down. It taught us that places are more than locations on a map. They are stories, memories, and connections waiting to be discovered.

Over the years, RVing changed the way we experienced the world. We learned from those who traveled before us, shared what we learned with others, built friendships, and became part of a community that continues to enrich our lives.

Looking back through old journals, photographs, and stories from those years, I realize the journey was never only about where we went.

It was about who we became along the way.

We have not seen everything.

We never will.

But perhaps that is part of the gift. After thirty years, there are still roads to travel, places to discover, and stories waiting around the next bend.

The greatest reward of this lifestyle has not been the miles behind us.

It has been learning to appreciate the moments along the way.

Thirty years later, we are still looking down the road.

And we are still discovering what is waiting there.

Next in the series: Senior RVing: Why I Am Not Giving Up RV Life at 85

The journey continues with a reflection on why the road still calls, and why curiosity, adventure, and discovery do not have an expiration date.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note

Best RV Camping Destinations for October 2026

October is one of the best months for RV travel. Discover 10 personally visited RV camping destinations offering fall color, comfortable weather, scenic landscapes, and memorable experiences across the United States.

October may be one of the best months of the year to be an RVer. The heat of summer has finally loosened its grip, fall color is spreading across the northern states, and farther south, the season for comfortable outdoor living is just beginning.

It is a month of transition—and that is part of its appeal. You can follow autumn into the mountains, linger in small towns surrounded by harvest fields, explore forests dressed in color, or begin the annual migration toward warmer days. Campgrounds are often quieter than they were in summer, while the weather makes it easier to spend time outside and enjoy the places we travel so far to see.

For RVers, October also offers something increasingly valuable: choice. You don’t have to travel far to find a memorable camping experience but if you’re ready to move with the seasons, the road opens in both directions.

After 30 years exploring the highways and backroads of the United States and Western Canada, I’ve learned that memorable camping destinations are about more than where you park for the night. The locations featured here have all been personally visited and selected for the experiences they offer during October when many places are at their most enjoyable.

Shenandoah River State Park wrapped in the brilliant colors of an October afternoon, with the river winding through Virginia’s autumn landscape. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

1. Shenandoah River State Park, Bentonville, Virginia

Where the river meets the colors of autumn

Just 15 minutes from Front Royal, Shenandoah River State Park is the kind of place that reminds you why RV travel is about more than finding somewhere to spend the night. The park covers more than 1,600 acres along 5.2 miles of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River with Massanutten Mountain to the west and Shenandoah National Park to the east.

October brings fall color to the surrounding hardwood forests, adding another layer to the already beautiful river and mountain scenery. It is a wonderful time to slow down and enjoy the landscape without the heat and crowds of summer.

More than 24 miles of trails offer opportunities for hiking, biking, and horseback riding while the river invites fishing and canoeing. A riverside picnic area and shelters provide easy places to settle in for an autumn afternoon.

RV campers have several options including sites with water and electric hookups, riverfront tent sites, cabins, camping cabins, and a group campground. With its combination of river scenery, fall color, outdoor recreation, and easy access to Front Royal and the Shenandoah Valley, the park makes an excellent October basecamp.

Camping along the Little Pigeon River at Sun Outdoors Sevierville Pigeon Forge, with the autumn colors of the Smoky Mountains adding a seasonal backdrop. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

2. Sun Outdoors Sevierville Pigeon Forge, Sevierville, Tennessee

Fall color and mountain adventures at your doorstep

Formerly known as River Plantation, Sun Outdoors Sevierville Pigeon Forge sits along the Little Pigeon River in eastern Tennessee, putting RVers close to two of the region’s biggest attractions: Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the lively towns of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.

October is an especially appealing time to be here. The summer heat has eased, the Smokies begin putting on their spectacular fall display, and the cooler weather makes exploring the mountains and nearby communities much more enjoyable. It is also a good time to return to the campground and simply relax beside the river after a day of sightseeing.

The resort is big-rig friendly with spacious, full-hookup RV sites featuring concrete pads, picnic tables, and fire rings. Our back-in site was about 75 feet long and included 50/30-amp electric service, water, sewer, and centrally located cable TV.

When you’re ready to stay put, amenities include a swimming pool and hot tub, basketball court, game room, fitness center, outdoor pavilion, and a fenced Bark Park with a dog-washing station. With the Smokies nearby and plenty of attractions within easy reach, this is a convenient October basecamp for exploring one of America’s most popular mountain regions.

A spacious pull-through site at Harvest Moon RV Park in Adairsville, Georgia, offering a convenient and comfortable stop amid the changing colors of North Georgia. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

3. Harvest Moon RV Park, Adairsville, Georgia

An easy overnight stop with a taste of North Georgia

Not every October destination needs to be a destination campground. Sometimes the best RV stop is one that makes travel easier and Harvest Moon RV Park in historic Adairsville does exactly that. Located just off I-75 at Exit 306, it offers an easy-on, easy-off stop that works particularly well for big rigs and overnight travelers.

The park’s newer front section includes spacious sites and our pull-through was in the 85- to 90-foot range—long enough that we didn’t need to disconnect the toad. Sites have 50/30-amp electric service, water, sewer, and cable TV with a second sewer connection toward the rear of the site. Interior roads and sites are gravel but we found the park straightforward to navigate. Wi-Fi worked well, and satellite reception wasn’t a problem.

Adairsville also makes a convenient base for exploring northwest Georgia, especially in October when cooler temperatures and changing leaves make the region more inviting. While Harvest Moon may not offer the resort-style amenities of some larger campgrounds, that’s not really the point.

For RVers traveling south in October, it is a practical, comfortable stop that gets you off the interstate without turning your overnight stay into a production.

Camping among the rolling bluegrass hills of Kentucky at Whispering Hills RV Park, a peaceful October base for exploring Georgetown and the surrounding horse country. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

4. Whispering Hills RV Park, Georgetown, Kentucky

Bluegrass Country at its most inviting

Nestled in the heart of Kentucky horse country, Whispering Hills RV Park makes a convenient October basecamp for exploring Georgetown and nearby Lexington. Just 2.5 miles from I-75 at Exit 129, the park is easy to reach without feeling like you’re camping beside the interstate.

October is an especially appealing time to visit central Kentucky. The summer heat has faded, the countryside begins taking on its autumn colors, and the surrounding horse farms and rolling bluegrass hills become especially scenic. Georgetown’s historic downtown and Lexington’s horse-country attractions are also close enough for easy day trips.

Whispering Hills offers 230 full-service sites including nine newer premium pull-through sites ranging from 70 to 90 feet. Our pull-through was about 60 feet. Most back-in sites are considerably shorter and tend to slope downhill, so larger rigs may want to request a pull-through when making reservations.

Amenities include a swimming pool, basketball court, fishing pond, laundry, bathhouses, book exchange, and picnic tables. Most sites also have fire rings. Interior roads and sites are gravel.

It isn’t a destination resort but that’s not what makes Whispering Hills appealing. For RVers exploring Kentucky in October, it provides a practical base in beautiful horse country with easy interstate access and plenty to see nearby.

Autumn settles over Hee Hee Illahee RV Resort in Salem, Oregon, where colorful trees and the surrounding Willamette Valley make a beautiful October setting. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

5. Hee Hee Illahee RV Resort, Salem, Oregon

Autumn color in Oregon’s Willamette Valley

Hee Hee Illahee RV Resort in Salem is a comfortable big-rig-friendly base for exploring Oregon’s Willamette Valley in October. Located just a short distance from I-5 at Exit 258, the resort combines easy highway access with the quieter pace of the surrounding valley.

The campground has 24 back-in sites and 115 pull-through sites, including pull-throughs up to 75 feet long. Even large motorhomes should have little trouble finding a site that works. All sites offer electric service with 20-, 30-, and 50-amp options along with water, sewer, wired and wireless internet, coax television hookups, and a picnic table.

October is an excellent month to explore the area. Fall color begins appearing throughout the Willamette Valley while cooler temperatures make exploring Salem, nearby wineries, gardens, and the surrounding countryside much more comfortable than during the summer.

Back at the resort, amenities include a fitness room, seasonal swimming pool, year-round spa, laundry facility, secure showers and restrooms, and a book library. After a day on the road, it’s the sort of campground where you can settle in and enjoy a few quiet hours without needing to go anywhere.

For RVers traveling the Pacific Northwest in autumn, Hee Hee Illahee offers a convenient combination of spacious sites, full hookups, and easy access to the best of the Willamette Valley.

A quiet October morning at Dakota Campground in Mitchell, South Dakota, offering RV travelers a comfortable stop amid the open prairie landscape. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

6. Dakota Campground, Mitchell, South Dakota

An easy stop on the road through South Dakota

Dakota Campground in Mitchell is a pleasant, uncomplicated RV stop for travelers crossing South Dakota on I-90. Located just half a mile from Exit 330 and about two miles west of Cabela’s, the campground is particularly convenient for RVers who want an easy overnight stop without venturing far from their route.

The park has 41 mostly shaded sites, with both back-in and pull-through options for RVs up to 50 feet. Amenities are basic but useful, including a swimming pool, games room, playground, laundromat, and convenience store. It isn’t a destination campground, but it provides the essentials for a comfortable night or two.

October can be an especially good time to make this stop. The summer travel season has wound down, temperatures are generally more comfortable for exploring, and the crowds that fill South Dakota’s major attractions during summer have diminished. Mitchell’s famous Corn Palace is an easy side trip while the surrounding prairie landscape offers a very different experience from the state’s better-known Black Hills.

For RVers heading west or east along I-90, Dakota Campground is the kind of practical campground worth remembering. You can pull off the highway, settle into a shaded site, take care of laundry or supplies, and be back on the road the next morning without a lot of fuss.

An easygoing stop in Cajun Country, Frog City RV Park in Duson, Louisiana, offers a comfortable base for enjoying the region’s food, culture, and laid-back atmosphere. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

7. Frog City RV Park, Duson, Louisiana

An easygoing Cajun Country stop

Just off I-10 at Exit 92, Frog City RV Park in Duson puts RVers in the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun countryside, only about 10 miles west of Lafayette. Established in 2006, the park is a convenient stop for travelers heading across southern Louisiana but its location also makes it worth staying a few days and exploring the region.

The park has 62 spacious pull-through sites, making it particularly RV-friendly for larger rigs. Paved interior roads make getting around easy while sites include 50/30-amp electric service, water, sewer, Wi-Fi, and cable TV. A swimming pool, dog-walking areas, coin-operated laundry, and private hot showers round out the amenities.

October is a particularly attractive time to explore Cajun Country. The oppressive summer heat has eased, making it much more comfortable to wander through Lafayette, explore the surrounding countryside, enjoy local food, or simply sit outside and soak up the atmosphere.

Convenience is another advantage. Roady’s Lucky Deuces Travel Plaza is immediately adjacent with Maw’s Café inside and Lucky Deuces Casino is nearby.

What makes Frog City particularly appealing, though, is its friendly, welcoming feel. It is the kind of campground where the practical conveniences are all there but the experience feels more personal than a typical interstate overnight stop.

An autumn stay at Bellingham RV Park in Washington, with the Pacific Northwest’s changing colors and mountain landscape creating a beautiful October backdrop. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

8. Bellingham RV Park, Bellingham, Washington

An autumn stop near the Canadian border

Bellingham RV Park is an easy-on, easy-off campground just off I-5 at Exit 258, making it a convenient stop for RVers traveling between the Pacific Northwest and Canada. The park is a short drive south of the Canadian border and about two hours north of Seattle, giving it a useful location for either an overnight stay or a longer exploration of the region.

The park offers 56 long pull-through sites with many in the 70-foot range, making it well suited to larger RVs. Utilities include 50/30/20-amp electric service, water, sewer, and cable TV. Some of the interior streets are paved while individual sites are crushed gravel.

October brings cooler temperatures and the beginning of autumn color to the Pacific Northwest, making it a pleasant time to explore Bellingham and the surrounding Whatcom County countryside. The city’s waterfront, parks, trails, and historic Fairhaven district provide plenty to see while the nearby mountains and coast offer opportunities for scenic drives and outdoor adventures.

From our site, Wi-Fi worked well, and with no obstructions around us, satellite reception for TV was easy.

Bellingham RV Park isn’t trying to be a destination resort. Its appeal is convenience, spacious sites, and a strategic location—qualities that make it a particularly useful October stop for RVers moving north or south along the West Coast.

Eagles Landing RV Park in Auburn, Alabama, offers a peaceful country setting just minutes from the energy of Auburn University and its famous football tradition. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

9. Eagles Landing RV Park, Auburn, Alabama

College-town excitement with a quiet country retreat

Located about a mile from Auburn University and less than two miles from Jordan-Hare Stadium, Eagles Landing RV Park offers an appealing combination of convenience and quiet. You can be close to the action in Auburn without feeling as though you’re camping in the middle of a busy college town.

October is an especially lively month to visit when the college football season is in full swing and Auburn takes on its familiar fall energy. Even if football isn’t your main interest, the cooler weather makes this a good time to explore the university, downtown Auburn, and the surrounding Alabama countryside.

RV sites range from large concrete pull-throughs to gravel back-ins with shady sites also available. Hookup options vary from basic sites to full-service sites with 50-amp electrical service, giving RVers some flexibility depending on their needs and rig.

The campground’s location is its biggest advantage. You can spend the day exploring Auburn, attending a game, or enjoying the surrounding countryside, then return to a quieter setting at the end of the day.

For RVers looking for something a little different in October, Eagles Landing is an excellent choice. It combines the energy of one of the South’s best-known college towns with the slower pace and breathing room that make RV camping enjoyable.

An inviting October setting at Terre Haute Campground in Indiana where colorful trees and a relaxed campground atmosphere make an easygoing stop along the road. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

10. Terre Haute Campground, Terre Haute, Indiana

An easygoing Indiana stop with plenty for campers

Formerly known as Terre Haute KOA, Terre Haute Campground offers a wide range of RV sites and enough amenities to make it more than just a place to spend the night. Located in western Indiana, it is a convenient stop for RVers traveling through the Midwest and a comfortable base for exploring the surrounding area.

RV sites include 30- and 50-amp electrical service, water, sewer, Wi-Fi, and cable TV with more than 20 channels. Sites are available with concrete or gravel surfaces and some include concrete or brick patios. The variety makes it possible to find an option that works for everything from a quick overnight stay to a longer visit.

October is a good time to be traveling through Indiana. Cooler temperatures make outdoor activities more enjoyable while the changing foliage adds a touch of autumn to the countryside. After a day on the road, the campground offers plenty to keep campers occupied without having to leave.

Amenities include a swimming pool, camp store, laundry, outdoor kitchen, pedal track, playground, jump pad, dog park, gem mining, horseshoes, and even miniature donkeys and horses. The Terre Haute Express adds another bit of campground fun for families.

For RVers traveling through the Midwest in October, Terre Haute Campground combines convenient RV facilities with enough activities to make settling in for a few days worthwhile.

Concluding thoughts & reflections

October: When the road begins to turn south

October feels like a turning point in the RV year. Summer is behind us, autumn is settling across the landscape, and for many RVers, the road is beginning to point south.

But there is no need to hurry. October rewards those willing to slow down and follow the changing season. One week might find you surrounded by brilliant fall color in the mountains; the next, you’re crossing open prairie or settling into the warmer landscapes of the South. The beauty is in the transition.

These ten destinations offer very different October experiences but they share something important: they give us reasons to get outside, explore at an unhurried pace, and enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

For those heading south for the winter, October is also a reminder that snowbirding doesn’t have to be a race. There are wonderful places to stop along the way. Why not stay awhile?

Looking ahead

Looking ahead to your next season on the road? You may also enjoy my RV camping recommendations for August and September along with the October 2025 and November 2025 campground roundups for additional ideas and inspiration for future trips.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note

This article was originally published in September 2026. Information reflects what was accurate at the time of writing. Conditions, access, and amenities may change over time, so please verify current details before planning your trip.

10 Amazing Places to RV in October 2026

October is made for RV travel. Discover 10 places worth pointing the RV toward, with fall color, festivals, comfortable weather, history, wildlife, and plenty of opportunities for unexpected discoveries.

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.”

—Martin Buber

When we set out on a journey, we usually have a destination in mind. We make our plans, choose our route, and expect the road to take us where we intend to go.

But travel has a way of changing those plans.

A road we didn’t expect to take, a small town we hadn’t heard of, or a place that wasn’t even on our itinerary can sometimes become the part of the journey we remember most. The destination we planned for may be only part of the story.

October is a wonderful month for that kind of RV travel. Summer’s heat is easing, fall color is appearing across much of the country, and many popular destinations are becoming quieter. It is a month when the road itself can become part of the adventure.

An October invitation to follow the road

Sometimes the best part of a journey is the place we never planned to find

Perhaps that is what makes October such an inviting month for RV travel. The character of the road is changing. Summer’s heat is fading, fall color is beginning to appear, wildlife is becoming more active in some places, and comfortable weather opens the door to exploring without the urgency of the summer season.

We don’t need another list of places we should visit. We need destinations that leave room for curiosity, discovery, and the possibility that something unexpected will become the highlight of the journey. With Buber’s observation in mind, here are 10 places worth pointing the RV toward this October—not because they are places you have to visit but because the journey may reveal something you weren’t expecting to find.

Why October?

Cooler days, changing landscapes

October brings some of the most comfortable RVing weather of the year. Summer’s heat is fading, fall color is appearing across much of the country, and many campgrounds and attractions are becoming quieter.

It is also a month of transition. Some RVers are following autumn through the mountains and forests while others are beginning their journey south toward warmer days. Wherever the road leads, October offers a good balance of comfortable weather, changing scenery, and room to discover something unexpected.

Explore more monthly RV travel ideas

Planning an RV trip for another month? Check out my recommendations for the best places to travel in August and September or revisit my October 2025 and November 2025 recommendations for even more ideas for the road ahead.

Crowley comes alive during the International Rice Festival, celebrating the rice-growing heritage that has shaped this Louisiana community © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

1. International Rice Festival

Where rice becomes a reason to celebrate

Crowley, Louisiana, is known for its rice fields and for turning that agricultural heritage into one of southwest Louisiana’s oldest celebrations. Since 1937, the International Rice Festival has brought the community together with a carnival, parade, live music, food, rice-eating contest, and queen’s pageant.

The 89th annual festival takes place October 15–18, 2026. It is a chance to experience a genuine slice of southwest Louisiana while exploring the countryside where rice is grown.

RV tips

Reserve your campground early for festival weekend.
Expect increased traffic around festival activities.
Use your toad to explore Crowley and the surrounding countryside.

Macon’s historic streets and grand old buildings reveal a city where Southern history and October traditions come together © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

2. Macon, Georgia

Where history takes a haunting turn

Macon is known for its music heritage and historic places but come October another side of the city emerges. The Hay House offers after-dark tours while the 1904 Grand Opera House has its own ghostly reputation. The Halloween highlight may be the Witch Float when more than 100 witches take to the Ocmulgee River by paddle or float.

October gives RVers a chance to explore Macon’s history and outdoor attractions before joining in the city’s delightfully spooky side. It’s an unexpected way to experience a Georgia city better known for music.

RV tips

Check event dates and book ahead for October activities.
Allow time to explore Macon’s historic district.
Use your toad for getting around the city.

Globe comes alive during the Apache Jii Festival, celebrating the culture, history, and traditions of Arizona’s Apache people © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

3. Apache Jii Festival

Where Indigenous culture comes alive

Globe, Arizona, celebrates Indigenous culture each October at the Apache Jii Festival. Held in the historic downtown district, the free festival brings together tribal artists, performers, food, and vendors. Visitors can experience traditional crown dances and flute performances while discovering fry bread, acorn soup, turquoise jewelry, baskets, beadwork, pottery, and other handmade works.

The 43rd annual festival takes place October 17, 2026. For RVers, it offers an opportunity to experience Indigenous culture in an authentic community setting while exploring the historic mining town of Globe and the surrounding Arizona landscape.

RV tips

Check campground availability early for festival weekend.
Use your toad to explore Globe and the surrounding area.
Allow time for the festival’s performances and vendors.

Boston in October blends fall color, historic streets, and the excitement of the Head of the Charles Regatta along the Charles River © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

4. Boston, Massachusetts

Fall arrives with a citywide celebration

October brings fall foliage, mild weather, and the energy of autumn to Boston. The Head of the Charles Regatta, held October 16–18, draws rowers and spectators to the Charles River for one of the city’s signature events. Elsewhere, Boston Common’s Frog Pond hosts Fall-o-Ween while Oktoberfests, graveyard tours, and haunted pub crawls add a seasonal twist to the city.

And if Halloween is your thing, Salem is only about 20 miles north. Its month-long Haunted Happenings makes an easy day trip from Boston and adds another dimension to an October visit.

RV tips

Stay outside the city and use public transportation to explore Boston.
Expect heavy crowds during the Head of the Charles.
Plan your Salem visit for a weekday if possible.

Autumn comes alive in Parke County, where historic covered bridges, colorful foliage, local food, and small-town festival traditions fill the Indiana countryside © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

5. Parke County Covered Bridge Festival

Where fall and history meet

For 10 days each October, Parke County, Indiana, celebrates autumn with its Covered Bridge Festival. From October 9–18, 2026, the county’s 31 historic covered bridges provide the backdrop for a festival filled with arts and crafts, local food, and the brilliant colors of fall. Spread across several communities, each with its own character, the festival offers plenty of reasons to slow down and explore.

For RVers, this is as much about the journey between the festival locations as the festival itself. The back roads wind through the countryside, connecting historic bridges, small towns, and changing autumn scenery.

RV tips

Plan extra time for the narrow roads around some bridges.
Use your toad to explore the festival’s different communities.
Reserve your campground early for the busy festival period.

Fredericksburg celebrates its German heritage in October with music, dancing, food, and plenty of Oktoberfest spirit © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

6. Fredericksburg Oktoberfest

Where Texas puts a German spin on October

Fredericksburg, Texas, celebrates its German heritage with Oktoberfest, October 2–4, 2026. Five stages of live music, polka, dancing, contests, local artisans, German food, and Kinder Park create a lively celebration that feels very much at home in the Texas Hill Country.

For RVers, October is also a wonderful time to explore beyond the festival. The surrounding Hill Country offers scenic drives, small towns, wineries, and comfortable autumn weather, making Fredericksburg a good base for experiencing both the celebration and the countryside.

RV tips

Reserve your campground well ahead for Oktoberfest weekend.
Leave the RV at camp and use your toad to explore Fredericksburg.
Allow extra time for the festival crowds and parking.

Palm Springs comes alive with midcentury style during Modernism Week, when the city’s iconic architecture takes center stage © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

7. Palm Springs, California

Where desert warmth meets midcentury cool

October brings welcome relief to Palm Springs as summer’s intense heat begins to fade. The city’s famous midcentury architecture takes center stage during Modernism Week, October 15–18, 2026 while the Joshua Tree Music Festival, October 8–11, combines music, art, and family activities about an hour away.

For RVers, cooler October temperatures make it easier to explore the desert, Coachella Valley, and nearby Joshua Tree. The landscape itself becomes part of the experience from rugged mountains to the stark beauty of the high desert.

RV tip

Check campground temperatures before choosing a site.
Use your toad for exploring Palm Springs and Joshua Tree.
Carry plenty of water when exploring the desert.

Jekyll Island brings together coastal Georgia flavors, live music, and Southern hospitality during the annual Shrimp & Grits Festival © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

8. Jekyll Island Shrimp & Grits Festival

Where coastal Georgia serves up a Southern classic

Jekyll Island, Georgia, puts one of the South’s best-known dishes in the spotlight October 23–24, 2026. The Shrimp & Grits Festival brings together creative versions of the classic dish, live music, an artist market, family entertainment, and the competition to determine Georgia’s best shrimp and grits.

For RVers, the festival is a tasty reason to visit this beautiful barrier island in October when cooler weather makes exploring the coast more enjoyable. Between festival activities, there are beaches, maritime forests, and historic places to discover.

RV tips

Check island camping availability well in advance.
Use your toad to explore the island beyond the festival.
Allow time to enjoy the beaches and historic district.

Bridge Day turns New River Gorge into a spectacle of soaring views, live music, and the daring leap of BASE jumpers from the bridge © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

9. New River Gorge Bridge Day

Where the road opens to the sky

October 17, 2026, is the one day each year when pedestrians can walk across West Virginia’s 3,030-foot New River Gorge Bridge. Bridge Day, held annually since 1980, fills the bridge and surrounding gorge with thousands of visitors watching BASE jumpers, rappellers, and other activities while enjoying spectacular views of the rugged gorge and autumn foliage.

If you miss Bridge Day, the New River Gorge still offers plenty to discover. Fayette Station Road descends into the gorge on an 8-mile scenic loop while the New and Gauley rivers offer rafting adventures. October also falls within Gauley Season when dam releases create challenging whitewater.

RV tips

Arrive early and expect heavy traffic on Bridge Day.
Stay in the Fayetteville area and use your toad.
Allow extra time for the scenic roads and fall scenery.

Bisbee’s historic streets become the course for the Bisbee 1000, a challenging climb up more than 1,000 stairs through this colorful mining town © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

10. Bisbee 1000 Stair Climb

Where a quirky town becomes the course

Bisbee, Arizona, is unlike almost anywhere else in the state. Built into the Mule Mountains, this former mining town is a maze of narrow streets, colorful stairways, historic homes, galleries, and shops. On October 17, 2026, those stairways become the centerpiece of the annual Bisbee 1000 Stair Climb, a 4.5-mile course featuring nine staircases and more than 1,000 steps.

You don’t have to be a serious runner to enjoy the event. Walkers are welcome and the climb offers an unusual way to discover Old Bisbee while taking in its mountain setting. Afterward, the Copper Queen Mine, local art, and the town’s eclectic restaurants provide plenty of reasons to stay awhile.

RV tips

Reserve a campground early for event weekend.
Use your toad; Bisbee’s streets are narrow and steep.
Give yourself time to explore beyond the stair climb.

The road ahead

October invites us to follow the changing season

There is something special about the air as September gives way to October.

The landscape begins to change more dramatically. Leaves turn brilliant shades of red, orange, and gold, mornings become crisp and the shorter days bring a different rhythm to the road. Harvest continues in the fields and orchards while forests and mountains seem to put on one final display before winter arrives.

Perhaps that’s why October is such a wonderful month to travel. The summer crowds are fading, the weather is often comfortable, and every mile can reveal another glimpse of the season in transition.

Enjoy your days and love your life, because life is a journey to be savored.

Grab the keys and let’s go RVing.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note

Beyond the Photograph: The Places We Discover for Ourselves

The best RV travel experiences aren’t always the ones we see on social media. Discover why slowing down, wandering beyond the obvious, and following curiosity can lead to places and experiences that become part of our own story.

We live in a world where we can see a place thousands of miles away before ever setting out to find it. Social media shows us the famous overlook, the perfect viewpoint, and even where we’re supposed to stand for the photograph. Sometimes it seems we’ve seen a destination before we’ve experienced it.

But travel can be more than following someone else’s path. Some of the most memorable places I’ve encountered weren’t the ones I set out to discover. They were the places that revealed themselves when I slowed down, looked beyond the obvious, and followed my curiosity.

After decades of traveling by RV, I’ve come to appreciate those discoveries more and more. They may never make a bucket list or appear in a social-media feed but they become part of our own story—and sometimes leave us with something far more meaningful than a photograph.

Forsyth Fountain gets the photograph. Savannah keeps the surprises. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

When the photograph becomes the destination

Following someone else’s perfect view

An article I came across recently described crowds gathering at some of Santorini’s most photographed locations. Visitors were lining up for the same views they had seen repeatedly on social media, sometimes waiting to recreate a photograph almost exactly as it appeared online.

It made me wonder when the photograph became the destination.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to see a beautiful place or capture it with a camera. I’ve done both. But when the image we’ve seen beforehand becomes the experience we’re expecting, something can be lost. We arrive knowing where to stand, what to photograph, and perhaps even what we’re supposed to feel.

Social media can turn a handful of spectacular images into a must-see destination while everything surrounding them disappears from view.

A photograph can show us what someone else noticed. It can’t show us what we might discover if we slow down, wander a little farther, or simply turn around and look in another direction.

That’s when travel becomes more than collecting photographs. It becomes an opportunity to see a place for ourselves.

Beyond Tucson’s familiar sights, Gates Pass stopped us in our tracks. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Beyond the obvious

Leaving room for discovery

I’ve never been particularly interested in recreating someone else’s perfect travel photograph. There is something artificial about standing in a predetermined spot, posing for the expected image, and moving on because you’ve captured what you came to see.

I’d rather discover what lies beyond the photograph.

That doesn’t mean avoiding famous places. Many are popular for good reason and I’ve enjoyed plenty of them. But the obvious attraction is often only the beginning. There may be a town to explore, a trail to walk, a historic site to discover, or a landscape to experience beyond the view everyone came to photograph.

That’s what I enjoy about slow travel. It leaves room for curiosity. Instead of asking, “What am I supposed to see here?” I can ask, “What else is here?”

Over the years, I’ve found that some of the places I remember most weren’t planned destinations. They were discoveries—experiences that became meaningful because I found them for myself.

They weren’t someone else’s perfect moment repeated.

They became mine.

Canyon de Chelly was only the beginning. Hubbell Trading Post added another chapter of Navajo history. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

What I found along the way

The discoveries that weren’t on the itinerary

Some of my favorite travel experiences have come from places I never expected to find. They weren’t the destinations that initially drew me there but discoveries made because I took the time to look beyond them.

Corning, California, is one example. From Interstate 5, it would be easy to see it as simply another highway stop. But spending time there revealed a community with its own history, character, and identity.

At Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico, there was no single spectacular attraction. The reward was slowing down enough to notice the wetlands, birds, dragonflies, and changing landscape.

At Canyon de Chelly, the experience continued with a visit to Hubbell Trading Post, adding another layer of history and culture to a remarkable landscape.

None of these experiences came from searching for the perfect photograph.

They came from being there, being curious, and allowing the journey to reveal something unexpected.

Those are the discoveries I remember.

Cottonwood led us to the Verde River Greenway and an unexpected side of Arizona. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The freedom to wander

Why RV travel leaves room for discovery

One of the things I love most about RV travel is the freedom to change my plans.

I’ve experienced that freedom many times on the road. In Arizona, a drive through the Sonoran Desert can become a reason to explore Ajo or continue toward Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. Near Cottonwood, discovering the Verde River Greenway revealed an entirely different side of Arizona than I expected.

These weren’t experiences I could reduce to a single photograph. The pleasure was in the changing scenery, the unexpected stops and wondering what was around the next bend.

That’s what I enjoy about traveling by RV. We can stay another day, take a different road, or stop simply because something catches our attention.

The places we discover may never appear on a bucket list or become the photograph everyone wants.

They don’t have to. Sometimes the best discoveries are the ones we weren’t looking for.

Inside Fayette County’s painted churches, beauty, faith, and history come together in a moment of awe. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

When discovery becomes awe

The moments we could never have planned

Sometimes discovery becomes something more. You find yourself somewhere you didn’t expect to be, seeing something you hadn’t come to see, and suddenly the experience feels bigger than the moment itself.

I’ve felt that in the Caverns of Sonora where the formations seemed almost impossible and in the painted churches of Texas where beauty and history came together unexpectedly. I’ve felt it on a trail when a natural arch appeared in the landscape, or when a bird caught my attention simply because I took the time to notice it.

None of those moments could have been planned from a photograph.

They happened because I was there and paying attention.

That’s what makes awe so personal. Someone else can show us a spectacular place but they can’t give us the moment when we discover something that takes our breath away.

Sometimes, the discovery is what makes the place unforgettable.

Wandering the Sonoran Desert, we watched changing light reveal a landscape we thought we knew. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The experience is yours

No one else can tell you what you’ll find

A photograph can inspire us to visit a place but it shouldn’t determine what we see when we get there.

That’s the difference between following a destination and experiencing it. We can visit the overlook everyone recommends, take the photograph we’ve seen a hundred times, and still leave without discovering what makes the place meaningful to us.

I’ve learned to leave room for something unexpected.

It might be a quiet trail, a historic building, a bird along the roadside, or simply a landscape that looks completely different in the changing light. It doesn’t have to be spectacular. It only has to catch my attention.

The beauty of travel is that we don’t have to experience a place the way someone else did.

We get to discover it for ourselves.

The farther we wandered into the Okefenokee, the more the swamp revealed its wild and unexpected beauty. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Reflection

Finding what no photograph can show

After all these years of traveling by RV, I’ve come to realize that some of the experiences I treasure most were never on a list. They happened because I slowed down, followed a road, stopped somewhere unexpected or simply took the time to look a little longer.

I’ve taken plenty of photographs along the way and those photographs bring back wonderful memories. But the picture is only part of the story. What stays with me is the feeling of being there—the surprise of discovering something I hadn’t expected and, sometimes, the sense of awe that followed.

Maybe that’s what I’m looking for now when I travel.

Not the perfect photograph. Not another destination to check off.

Just the opportunity to discover something for myself.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note

Following the Flyway: What Birds Teach Us About Life on the Road

Birds migrate with the seasons, following food, favorable weather, and places where they can thrive. RVers often do something remarkably similar. Following the flyway explores what bird migration can teach us about slow travel, finding home on the road, and living in rhythm with the seasons.

“I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same question.”

— Harun Yahya

Most people assume birds are always flying somewhere exotic. In reality, many species spend much of their lives in a relatively small range. They know every tree, every feeding area, and every safe perch within their territory. Others undertake epic migrations spanning continents, following ancient routes guided by instinct and the changing seasons.

Humans have the same choice. We can stay rooted in one place, finding comfort and familiarity in what we know. Or we can follow the seasons, opportunities, and curiosities that call us elsewhere.

For RVers, migration isn’t merely travel—it’s a lifestyle strategy.

Many migratory birds move not because they dislike where they are but because conditions improve somewhere else. They follow food sources, favorable weather, nesting opportunities, and longer days. In a sense, they are constantly seeking the best version of life available to them at that moment.

Life on the road offers a remarkably similar opportunity. Rather than enduring months of snow and ice, RVers can head south with the geese. When spring arrives, they can drift northward once again, following blooming wildflowers, comfortable temperatures, and longer daylight hours. Like migrating birds, they are not escaping one place as much as moving toward another.

Perhaps that’s one of the greatest benefits of RV travel. It allows us to live in rhythm with the seasons rather than in defiance of them.

As birders, we often marvel at the incredible journeys made by sandhill cranes, warblers, shorebirds, and countless other migrants. Yet when viewed through the windshield of an RV, those journeys begin to feel surprisingly familiar. We may not travel by wing but many of us are following the same instinct—to keep moving when the time is right and to settle in when conditions are favorable.

Birds remind us that home does not always have to be a fixed point on a map. Sometimes home is found in movement itself, in the freedom to follow the seasons, and in the confidence that the next stop is exactly where you’re meant to be.

For RVers, migration isn’t merely travel—it’s a lifestyle strategy.

The Colima Warbler reminds us that migration can lead birds to remarkably specific places, following ancient seasonal patterns across a changing landscape. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Why birds migrate

Survival on the move—following food, weather, and seasons

At first glance, migration seems like an enormous undertaking. Some birds travel thousands of miles twice each year, crossing mountain ranges, deserts, and vast stretches of open water. The journey is fraught with challenges from storms and predators to exhaustion and dwindling food supplies.

Which raises a simple question: Why leave at all?

The answer is that migration is less about adventure and more about opportunity. Birds move because changing seasons alter the conditions they depend upon. As temperatures drop and daylight hours shorten, insects disappear, plants stop producing seeds and fruit, and wetlands may freeze over. Remaining in place can become increasingly difficult.

Migration allows birds to stay where resources are most abundant. They follow food sources, favorable weather, and suitable nesting habitat as the seasons change. For many species, moving is not simply a choice—it is the strategy that gives them the greatest chance of survival and reproductive success.

Not all birds migrate, of course. Many species remain in the same region year-round, adapting to seasonal changes as they come. Others travel only short distances, moving from higher elevations to lower ones during winter. Then there are the long-distance migrants that capture our imagination—warblers, shorebirds, hummingbirds, and waterfowl that traverse entire continents on journeys guided by instinct and generations of experience.

What all these birds have in common is that their movements are purposeful. Migration is not random wandering. It is a response to changing conditions and an ongoing search for the places where life can be lived most successfully.

In many ways, migratory birds are doing what RV travelers do every year—moving toward what they need rather than remaining where conditions are less favorable.

These sandhill cranes followed the flyway to arrive at their winter home at Whitewater Draw in southern Arizona. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Nature’s highways: Understanding flyways

Invisible routes that shape half a continent’s migration story

If migration is about opportunity, flyways are the routes that make those opportunities possible.

Birds do not simply scatter across the continent each spring and fall. Over thousands of years, many species have developed predictable migration corridors known as flyways. These aerial highways connect breeding grounds, wintering areas, and the critical stopover habitats that sustain birds during their journeys.

In North America, four major flyways guide the seasonal movement of millions of birds. The Pacific Flyway follows the western coast and inland valleys. The Central Flyway stretches through the Great Plains. The Mississippi Flyway traces one of the continent’s greatest river systems while the Atlantic Flyway follows the eastern seaboard.

These routes are not rigid pathways in the sky. Rather, they are broad corridors shaped by geography, weather patterns, food availability, and natural landmarks. Rivers, mountain ranges, coastlines, and wetlands all help guide birds on their seasonal travels.

What makes flyways remarkable is not merely their scale but their continuity. Year after year, generation after generation, birds follow these routes with astonishing precision. Some return to the same marsh, forest, or shoreline they visited the previous season. Others stop at the same resting areas their ancestors relied upon long before highways, cities, or national borders existed.

For birders, flyways offer a glimpse into one of nature’s grandest spectacles. A quiet wetland can suddenly fill with waterfowl. A grove of trees may become a temporary refuge for migrating songbirds. Places that seem ordinary one week can become vibrant hubs of activity the next.

Looking at a map of North America’s flyways, it’s hard not to notice how closely some of them resemble the travel corridors many RVers use every year. Perhaps that’s no coincidence. Both birds and travelers are responding to the same realities of geography, weather, and the changing seasons.

Like migrating birds, RV snowbirds follow a familiar flyway each year to arrive at their winter destination. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Following the flyway by RV

Tracing bird paths across real roads and changing seasons

For most birders, migration is something observed from a favorite trail, backyard feeder, or local wetland. A wave of migrants arrives, lingers briefly, and then continues on its way.

RV travelers have a unique advantage. Instead of waiting for migration to come to them, they can follow it.

A traveler moving north in spring may encounter the same species multiple times as both continue their seasonal journeys. Waterfowl gathering on southern reservoirs may reappear weeks later on northern lakes. Songbirds that first appear in desert washes can be encountered again farther north as migration progresses. Rather than witnessing a single moment in the migration story, RVers can observe entire chapters unfold across regions and seasons.

This mobility transforms birding from a local activity into a travel experience. A route through the Southwest might coincide with hummingbird migration. A journey along the Gulf Coast can reveal spectacular concentrations of shorebirds and songbirds. Following river valleys and wetland systems often leads travelers to the same places birds have relied upon for generations.

Yet the greatest reward may not be adding species to a life list. It is developing a deeper awareness of seasonal change.

Traveling slowly along a flyway allows birders to notice subtle shifts in the natural world. The first arrivals of spring migrants. The growing chorus of breeding birds. The gradual disappearance of summer residents as autumn approaches. These changes become more than observations; they become markers of the journey itself.

In a sense, RV travelers are participating in a migration of their own. While birds follow ancient instincts, travelers follow favorable weather, personal interests, and a desire to experience places at their best. The motivations may differ but the rhythm feels surprisingly familiar.

Perhaps that is why birding and RV travel complement one another so well. Both encourage us to pay attention to where we are, to notice what is changing around us, and to appreciate that every season offers something worth following.

Snowbirds who embrace slow travel don’t simply head south. They take time to explore the places and stories along the way. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

Migration and the art of slow travel

Progress measured in pauses, not just miles

When we think of migration, it is easy to focus on the destination. We marvel at a warbler that has traveled thousands of miles or a flock of geese appearing overhead on a crisp autumn morning. Yet migration is not defined by a single departure or arrival. It is a journey made up of countless stops along the way.

Birds rarely complete their migrations in one continuous flight. They pause to rest, feed, and regain the energy needed for the next leg of the journey. Wetlands, forests, grasslands, and shorelines become temporary homes where they can recover before moving on.

These stopover sites are every bit as important as the places birds eventually reach.

There is a lesson here for travelers.

Modern life often encourages us to move quickly. We hurry from one destination to the next, measuring success by how much ground we cover rather than by what we experience along the way. Even RV travel can fall into that trap when every stop becomes little more than a waypoint on the route to somewhere else.

Slow travel embraces a different philosophy. Instead of rushing onward, it encourages us to linger. To spend an extra day exploring a refuge. To return to a favorite trail at sunrise. To sit quietly beside a marsh and watch the changing activity as the light shifts across the landscape.

Like migrating birds, we gain something by pausing.

Some of my most memorable birding experiences have not occurred at famous destinations. They have happened during unplanned stops—a small pond beside a campground, a quiet stretch of river, or a patch of habitat that invited a second look. Had I been focused solely on reaching the next destination, those moments would have passed unnoticed.

Birds seem to understand something that many of us spend years learning: the journey itself has value. The places between where we start and where we finish often hold the richest experiences.

Perhaps that is why birding fits so naturally with the RV lifestyle. Both reward patience. Both encourage observation. And both remind us that life is often best experienced not at full speed but at a pace that allows us to notice what is happening around us.

Over time, certain places take on a sense of return, much like the familiar destinations migrating birds return to each season. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

What birds teach us about home

Belonging defined by return, not permanence

Home is often thought of as a fixed place. A house, a street, a familiar view out the window. Something permanent, stable, and unchanging. Yet migratory birds challenge that assumption simply by how they live.

Many species return to the same breeding grounds year after year with remarkable precision. A shoreline, a grove of trees, a stretch of marsh—places they revisit as if drawn by memory written into the landscape itself. Yet for much of the year, these same birds are far from those familiar places, living in entirely different regions under entirely different conditions.

For them, home is not a single location. It is a cycle.

It is movement tied to return.

It is familiarity stretched across distance.

This idea begins to feel familiar to anyone who spends significant time traveling in an RV. Over time, certain places start to take on a sense of return. A campground visited each winter. A desert valley that feels right in the colder months. A coastal stretch that becomes part of a seasonal rhythm. These places may not fit the traditional definition of home, yet they begin to carry a similar weight.

What emerges is a different understanding of belonging.

Instead of being anchored to one fixed point, home becomes something we move through. It becomes a pattern of places connected by timing, memory, and experience. The familiarity is not in being there all the time but in returning at the right time.

Birds seem to understand this instinctively. They do not resist their migrations or abandon their breeding grounds. They move because that movement is part of how they live fully within the changing seasons.

For RV travelers, there is something quietly freeing in this perspective. It suggests that stability does not have to mean staying still. It can also mean recognizing patterns, returning to meaningful places, and trusting that movement itself can be a form of continuity.

Home, in this sense, is not something you leave behind when you travel. It is something you carry with you—and something you return to when the seasons align.

Like this great blue heron, migrating RVers follow the seasons, moving with the changing weather and finding their way to familiar places. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved

The gift of following the seasons

Freedom found in moving with change, not against it

One of the quiet truths revealed through bird migration is that movement is not the opposite of stability. It is simply another way of living within it.

Birds do not migrate because they are unsettled. They migrate because their lives are shaped by change. Seasons shift, resources move, and conditions evolve. Rather than resisting that reality, they respond to it. Their journeys are not escapes but alignments—ways of staying connected to the best possibilities each season offers.

There is something instructive in that approach.

Modern life often encourages permanence. Stay in one place. Build in one direction. Settle into routines that remain unchanged for as long as possible. Yet nature rarely operates that way. It moves in cycles, rhythms, and returns.

RV travel offers a different perspective. It allows us to move with those cycles rather than against them. To follow comfortable weather instead of enduring extremes. To experience landscapes at their seasonal peak. To return to places not out of obligation, but out of timing and preference.

Seen this way, migration becomes less about distance and more about awareness. It is about noticing when conditions change and having the freedom to respond.

Birds do this instinctively. RV travelers do it intentionally. Both are, in their own way, following the same principle: move when it makes sense to move and stay when it makes sense to stay.

This brings us back to the original thought:

“I always wonder why birds choose to stay in the same place when they can fly anywhere on the earth, then I ask myself the same question.”

The answer, perhaps, is that most birds are not choosing to stay at all. They are choosing when to go. And in doing so, they reveal something simple but powerful about life on the road.

Whether by wing or by wheel, there is a certain wisdom in following the flyway—trusting the seasons, paying attention to change, and allowing movement to be part of how we belong in the world.

Enjoyed this article?

Share it with friends, fellow RVers, or your social network to inspire their next adventure.

Editor’s note