Last summer, Sheri Lynch, from our morning show Bob & Sheri took a family cross country vacation in an RV. Loaded up with her husband, her kids, his kids, and a couple of extended family members, they toured the US and documented through social media all of their adventures. Although this was not a work related trip, her fans from all over the country logged onto facebook and twitter and followed her throughout her journey.
Upon their return, we began discussing the idea of having them hit the road again but this time, for work. We would document the travels. We would visit affiliate located along the way. We would broadcast from all across the country. We would create an opportunity for marketing the show in a unique way that we have not done before. When they said yes, RV Crazy was born.
In order to properly build the concept, we needed to have a second RV that would hold a few people from the station and a chaser van to transport us to our early morning broadcasts without waking the rest of the families. And this brought us to “who” would go on the trip.
I have never been on an RV trip. I don’t really look at myself as someone who would enjoy an RV trip. My vision of RV travel reaches as far as “Clark, shitter’s full” from the movie Vacation. But there was something intriguing about it. Mostly, my interest in visiting all of the 50 states as kind of a bucket list type thing. And as with most things, there is a tie to Lori.
I have documented many times, about the gifts Lori has bought for me over the years. Some of them great, like the watch in a previous post, and some of them not as great. But one of the gifts that Lori gave me was a homerun. A giant framed map of the world, mounted on cork and labeled at the top “World Travels of the DuBois Family”. At the bottom, another engraving “Travel in not about the destination, it is the Journey one takes to get there”.
Along with this gift were three boxes of colored pins. One labeled “Lori”, the second labeled “Matt” and the third “DuBois Family”. The idea was for us to use the pins to identify all of the places we have gone in the world, either independently or as a family. The map is hanging in the hallway at the house, but I have yet to push in the pins. Mostly because the little tags require me to write a label for each pin with the dates of when we went, but my handwriting isn’t quite up to the challenge.
As we began working on the route for the tour and mapping the distances between each stop, I recall a conversation that I had with Sheri one morning in the studio. I was explaining how we could more efficiently get from one location to another and she looked at me, flipped her head back and said something to this effect, “Oh boy Matt, You are the Get There Guy!” “The problem is, an RV trip is not about getting there, it is about the journey”. The reality is, she was right. I pride myself on my ability to travel from here to there in the most efficient manner possible. I used to argue with Lori on our trips about timing bathroom stops with gas fill ups. One time, after pulling out of a rest stop, Lori proudly announced that we only stopped for 7 minutes. I laughed and explained to her that it’s not about how much time she was actually out of the car, because we began losing time the moment I had to hit the breaks to begin our exit. Total time lost was closer to 15 minutes, not just 7.
Knowing this is my personality, I struggled with the idea of going on this RV trip. There was know doubt I wanted to go. I wanted to visit states, cities and towns that I have never thought I would. I wanted to get there, but did I want the other part of RV traveling? We were going to going to RV campgrounds. That doesn’t sound like me. Another conversation with Jenn Jackson, our Affiliate Manager, helps paint the picture. Jenn and her son Tucker were already slated to go on the tour and when discussing the idea of me going, we talked about the use of the bathroom on the RV.
This is paraphrased.
Matt: “Jenn, there is no reason for us to have to use the bathroom on the RV. We have 3 vehicles going and we are going to need to stop for gas, sightseeing, etc. We can just use the bathrooms when we stop”
Jenn: “Matt, you are crazy, you are not going to get all of these kids and adults onto a schedule to go to the bathroom at the same time and we can not stop every 30 minutes when one of the eighteen people need to go. This is why they have bathrooms on RV’s”
Matt: “When Lilly and I travel ten plus hours to Buffalo, we stop one time, we get gas, we go to the bathroom, we grab food. 20 minutes tops and we are back on the road.”
Jenn: “I’m telling you that is not my son or any other normal person. They will be eating and drinking on the RV and they will just need to go when they need to go.”
Once again, I ask myself, why I would want to do this. This just doesn’t sound like me. Now I need to empty the shitter at the campgrounds. In the end, I justified it to myself like this, I may never have the chance to take an RV trip across the country again. If I like it, there are lots of years to do it again. If I don’t like it, just cross it off the bucket list. What’s 10 days? Okay Lilly, we are going on an RV trip across the country. Lilly’s first question “Daddy, can I go to the bathroom in the RV?”
On July 5, 2014 we pulled out of Charlotte, NC and headed to Muncie, Indiana where we would meet up with the rest of the team to begin our experience. (we made it in record time with only one stop) From there, we camped, we drove, we stopped, we ate, we drove, we stopped and we emptied the shitter. The trip was highlighted on our station website with pictures, video’s and blogs. We communicated through social media and kept our listeners, family and friends up to date. Since many of you followed us throughout, I won’t go back through the whole trip, but I will highlight a couple of things.
Our trip took us from Muncie, IN where we saw the country’s largest tree stump, to LaCrosse, WI where we rode a river boat down the Mississippi and later stopped to see the world’s largest six pack of beer. Lilly and the kids went to a Pizza joint where they made their own giant pizza cookies with the toppings of their choice. We broadcasted next from Cedar Rapids, IA and then took an incredibly scenic journey to Great Bend, KS where we saw one of the most beautiful sun rises across the flat lands. We saw tons of wind turbines and stopped to see a field of Buffalo (they weren’t real but it was cool).
The ride from Great Bend to Grand Junction, CO, was gorgeous. It was at this time, that I found myself driving alone in the chaser van, following the RV convoy. The weather was cool and clear. The land stretched for miles around me and ahead of me, in the distance, you could see the Rocky Mountains, looking so close but in reality, hours away. I took out the ipod and plugged in my headphones and listened to the music in Lori’s playlist. It was amazing. The combination of songs ranging from spiritual to rock, was the perfect mix for the drive. I kept it loud and let the power of the songs along with the scenery and the memories of Lori just run through me. My emotions were high just thinking about how much she would have enjoyed this trip. I was happy and smiled a lot just experiencing it for her. And then realized, that I likely wasn’t alone. Nothing surreal here, just me believing that she was right there with me. It was wonderful.
From Grand Junction to Albuquerque, NM, driving through the mountains was by far the most incredible views I have ever seen up close. Several people had told me about this portion of the trip and I think that the best way to describe it is to say that it is indescribable. You just have to take this drive one time to believe it for yourself.
The ride home took us from NM through Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee before arriving back in North Carolina. The trip was at times a lot of work trying to balance the work with the drive and the lack of sleep. Fortunately, the adrenaline rush more than made up for the sleep deprivation.
Would I take an RV trip again? Yes. Yes I would. Why? Because somewhere between Muncie, Indiana and Grand Rapids, Co, while the kids were probably using the shitter, I discovered that although I will always be “The Get There Guy”, when you travel across the country and get to see some of the most amazing sights it has to offer, you can turn up your music and block out the rest of the world and in that moment you will realize that “Travel is not about the destination, but the journey you take to get there”.