Rv People Dream Of Life Out On The Road

Self-image is a funny thing.

For instance, there are people - there’s no need to mention names - who believe they would be conspicuous at an RV show. You know, obviously out of place.

They suspect others would rush up to them and say, “What are you doing here - you’re obviously not an RV kind of person.”

Well, here’s a news flash. That doesn’t happen. At least it didn’t Sunday at the big recreational vehicles show at the Spokane Interstate Fairgrounds.

For one thing, RV people aren’t all alike. And secondly, you didn’t have to be a bona fide RV shopper to have low-key fun at the show. You could view the event as a tailgate party without the hot dogs and beer.

Sitting up high behind the steering wheel of some of those comfy behemoths, it was possible to survey the cockpit-like dashboard and convince yourself that the motor home in question could do everything but dock with the Mir.

“I’m ready to move in,” said a fortysomething woman in a windbreaker touring a 34-foot model called the Encounter.

Priced at $128,677, it was far from the most expensive RV on display.

For fans of the 1985 Albert Brooks movie, “Lost in America,” the chance to check out high-end motor homes offered a different kind of kick.

But the show was not designed for people attending as a lark. A loud voice over the public address system said it all. “Make an offer and get that RV today!”

One guy was scoping out a motor home engine that looked like it could power an aircraft carrier. He put the money issue in perspective for his wife. “I’d have to ask for a raise,” he said. “And I don’t think five bucks an hour will do it.”

Every time you turned around, someone else was saying he could swing it if he won the lottery.

Three guys who looked to be about 60 chuckled as they compared the worth of their houses to some of the top-of-the-line RVs.

A teenage girl touring one of the RVs with her parents wasn’t all that impressed. “It’s like a bus,” she said. “A really big bus.”

Others, however, didn’t look at the rigs and think about parking problems and fuel consumption. They pictured a lifestyle.

“We could go anywhere,” cooed a woman in a University of Idaho sweatshirt as she looked at the nifty kitchen in one of the luxury RVs.

Her smile seemed to stretch from here to Arizona.

, DataTimes MEMO: Being There is a weekly feature that visits Inland Northwest gatherings.