RVs: What Was "Out There"

Above, Class A and C motorhomes driving in Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

After a hiatus of 25 years, 2015 marked my return to the "RV lifestyle" with the purchase of The Beast and our trips to Las Vegas in April and, last week, to Yellowstone National Park.

While on the road, it was interesting to see what other travelers were driving. There were quite a number of travelers in fifth wheel trailers, tent trailers, travel trailers, Class A, Class B and Class C motorhomes.

There were many travelers in rental Class C motorhomes. Most dominant were rentals from CruiseAmerica and El Monte RV. I would have to give the edge (number wise) to CruiseAmerica with their distinct exterior graphics (a bit overdone, in my opinion) over El Monte RV.

As for the dominant brands of recreational vehicles, Winnebagos dominated the campgrounds and highways from what we saw. The Minnie Winnie line of Winnebago Class C motorhomes were very much the majority of Winnebagos seen. The next make of recreational vehicles that came close (but not that close) to Winnebago in numbers seen were the Coachman line of motorhomes. I also saw many RVs of brands that I am not familiar with.

At one point during one of our Yellowstone tours, we were in a huge meadow and a caravan of several rental motorhomes were approaching us from the opposite direction. Our tour driver said that they worry about rental RV drivers as their lack of RV driving experience has led to a number of minor collisions involving their side-view mirrors on opposing traffic.

It looks like the RV industry has made a big rebound in sales numbers after the Great Recession. There were many late model recreational vehicles on the road and in the campgrounds.