If you've got it, flaunt it!

[jhetley]

Little amusing oddity noticed on today's bike ride -- a flock of those big-ass motor homes (tour bus size) pulled in at an Irving Quick-Stop along the road.  And each one had a shiny big-ass SUV on the tow bar at the back, Hummer or equivalent.  Gas and diesel prices do not seem to be an issue.

Like the guy said about yachts, "If you have to ask, you can't afford it."

Comments

[trilca.livejournal.com]

We just got back from our annual family camping trip in northern Maine and lemme tell ya, there are a LOT of those big shiny motor homes with the obligatory big shiny SUV/Jeep/Truck-thing attached to the back end out there! The campground we stayed in, just outside of Bangor, was chock full of campers and machinery of all kinds... I just have to ask... what in heck is 'camping' when you are in the big shiny motor home with cable, running water, a shower, bathroom and electricity? At least we sort of roughed it with the tents and camp stove, though in my advancing age, I told my husband flat out that I WOULD have an air mattress or I would NOT attend. And that IS my final answer! He caved in, and I think he secretly was happy to have it too, we're in our mid 40's and that hard ground seems to get harder every year!

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Way out in the wilds of East Texas there are a number of "motor home parks" whose sole purpose up to now has been providing a permanent residence address for people (mostly retirees) who have chosen to live in one of those fancy tour-bus RVs -- often selling their homes to do so. These days when you drive past one of them, you see a lot of occupied spaces; those are the folks who can no longer afford the gas to drive their Great White Whale around the country, and can't sell it for enough to get back into a house, and have been forced back to the only permanent settling-spot they have available.

Sometimes I feel sorry for them, suddenly constrained to one tiny backwoods town when they thought the whole country was theirs to see. But more often I remember that they almost certainly voted for the people who have brought us to this pass, and are no more than reaping the fruits of their own planting.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I think your voting demographic on those retirees may be harsh. A lot of the true nomads don't vote.

Which means you can damn them for letting this happen, but not for actively encouraging it...

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

For the true nomads, sure... for the retirees, in east Texas, she might be right.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Not sure how Texas voter registration laws treat "no fixed address." A lot of those people may still be registered in their original home states, and skip the hassle of applying for absentee ballots.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Well, if it's a flock of them, they're probably being driven to dealerships. Also, if both vehicles have to be somewhere, then one towing the other saves gas (assuming you have the tow capacity).

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I don't think this was a dealership thing -- those usually involve some kind of subcompact on the hitch. Also, not much market for 6-figure motor homes off in that direction. Places to visit, yes. Places to sell, not so much.

Your second item is true, of course. And it costs less to drive even a Hummer to the grocery store, versus one of the Moby Dick class.