RV Owners Cling to Lifestyle Despite Gas Prices
Owners of RVs say the cost of fuel won't stop their cross-country trips.
Sept. 5, 2008— -- RVs -- guzzlers of gas, devourers of diesel, ferocious feeders of fuel.
Running one of these vehicular behemoths is anything but light on the wallet, but a group of RV enthusiasts say the cost is worth it for a vacation on wheels.
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At the recent Northeast Regional Motor Coach Association Rally in Essex Junction, Vt., Janice Dixon spoke fondly of her recent RV trip to California.
"We drove out and back, $4,562 in fuel -- was the best trip we've ever taken," she told ABC News' John Berman. "I'd do it again."
Conversations on fuel costs are par for the course.
"When you have one of these, it's inevitable you're going to spend gas, fuel," she said.
"What else are you going to do?" her husband, Richard Dixon, said. "If you don't do something like this, what are you going to do? Sit home and watch the prices go up and complain and bellyache over everything and do nothing? No, get out and live. See this country."
Fuel prices are dropping, but it's still not cheap to fill up a 40-foot vehicle that gets six to seven miles per gallon.
That's right, six or seven miles a gallon. Somewhere Al Gore is crying.
That helps explain why sales of recreational vehicles have dropped 28 percent from last year. And helps explain why the rally in Vermont is about half as big as the last time it was held here.
Donny and Beth Osterhout, or "Donny O" and "Beth O" as they are called in RV circles, say the price of fuel has changed their habits somewhat, but not enough to make them park for good.
Donny Osterhout said they "just lay over a little longer so we spend more time in one place, that way, we're not rolling the wheels quite as much, basically. "
The Osterhouts live full time in their 40-foot Monaco Dynasty and spend most of the year in upstate New York and Florida, stopping at points in between.
"It's a life without reservations," Beth Osterhout said. "You don't have to make reservations and it's relaxed without reservations."
It is a life they obviously love.
"Being able to pick up any time and move and you can be in one place today and friends call tomorrow," Donny Osterhout said, "and say we're going to be at a certain park or we're going to be in a certain city and we can just pick up and within 15 minutes we're on the road and off to meet friends again."
