Why Camp/RV/OHV?

Why should you consider joining the community of campers/RVers/OHVers? Well, first of all, it is fun! Any of the three by itself can provide interesting weekends and even extended trips. But together camping or RVing and OHVing complement each other and they're the bomb and are really great family activities.

RVing or camping by itself is a wholesome and often economical way to spend quality time together as a family. Even though RVs are not known for great gas mileage, consider the economy of scale in traveling as a family. For example, our family of 8, traveling in a Class A motor home that averaged 6 miles per gallon, equated do 48 passenger miles/gallon. Vacationing in our motor home was a lot less expensive than traveling by air or even driving our passenger vehicle and staying in motels. RVing also gives you the flexibility to go where you want to go, stay where you want to stay -- when you want to go or stay. And you have minimal impact on the folks you're visiting when you stay in your RV instead of their guest room. When combined with boondocking, even the cost of campgrounds is reduced or even eliminated -- another of the advantages of combining RVing and OHV activities since most areas accessible to OHVs are pretty remote and even isolated.  Camping is also a good time to practice emergency preparedness and wilderness survival skills.

Most OHV locations are generally rather remote. In many cases there are no hookups or facilities of any kind, so having an RV as a base camp is highly desirable. I know OHV folks who just tent camp or sleep in their cars or trucks, but for those of you who have been tent camping and gotten caught in a storm or just wind or cold weather or needed to escape summer heat, you'll appreciate the advantages of a comfy trailer or motor home! Some of our kids wanted to sleep in the tent on one of our RV trips so we let them pitch a tent beside the RV. They came pounding on the door about 3:00 in the morning. Both kids, the tent, and their sleeping bags, were totally soaked by a sudden and unexpected rain storm. In the meantime, the rest of us were still warm and dry and able to offer them comfortable refuge from the storm. Our oldest daughter used a truck tent in the back of her Chevy S-10 pickup when she was desert racing.  With a warm sleeping back, a good set of tools, a single-burner butane stove, and an ice chest, she could handle a whole weekend of racing by herself.

On one Thanksgiving in southern California, we got caught out on the trails in a storm. As it began to sprinkle we rounded everyone up to head back to camp. Soon the sprinkles turned into a downpour, theythen the downpour turned into sleet and the sleet turned into snow. The 18-mile ride out turned into a 27-mile return trip when the dry lake we had crossed on the way out was no longer dry and we had to go around. By the time we got back to camp we were freezing. The boys and I couldn't even uncurl our fingers off the handlebars. We just slid our frozen hands off the ends and let the bikes fall over as we rushed into the motor home to get warm. Some hot chocolate and some of Mom's famous Mojave Mild Chili was ready in a jiffy thanks to the microwave and it sure went a long way toward warming everyone up. Would have been very hard to do that in a tent! I'm sure it could have been done if necessary, but not as quickly and easily. With the thermostat already set at a comfortable 70°F before we left, our RV provided immediate respite from the cold and snow and pushing the "Start" switch for the generator gave us instant 120-volt power to run the microwave and deliver hot treats in minutes. By the time the storm had passed, the boys were all warmed up and ready to ride some more.  No doubt we could have fixed chili on a camp stove or campfire if we had to, but it surely would have taken longer.  On that trip I had set up a 10x14 tent as portable shelter for our dirt bikes and was sure glad it wasn't our primary shelter!  When we got back to camp the wind and rain had combined to flatten the tent!  The tent poles were U-shaped that looped around each end of the tent and their bottoms met close together in the middle.  As the ground softened from the rain, the poles pushed past each other until the whole tent was flat as a pancake!  By the time we got there it was filled with hundreds of pounds of rain water!

We found that RVing and dirt biking were not only highly compatible activities but very good learning opportunities for our family. You would be surprised at the number of life-lessons that can be drawn from dirt-biking. For example, conquering a particularly difficult stretch of trail or hill climb or learning to do jumps or wheelies or other difficult tricks yields fantastic self-confidence for young riders -- but at the same time these situations offer the chance for team-building as they learn to help each other and fellow riders. The opportunities for learning responsibility were endless. Each trip required significant planning and preparation -- food, clothing, supplies, motorcycles, fuel, spare parts, tools, riding gear. Everyone had their own share of things to take care of, even if was only their own personal gear. Nothing quite like arriving in the desert hundreds of miles from home and discovering you've left some of your gear home to teach a lesson in responsibility! Those aren't mistakes that are often repeated. Desert camping also allowed for some incredible views of the night sky -- literally impossible in more urban environments -- and many impromptu astronomy lessons. Not to mention the campfire sing-alongs and sharing of tales of the trail. Cultural/social opportunities like these for families are rare in our electronic-centered society. There is a lot of talk about spending "quality time" with our families, but how often do we really get to do it? We found that the combination of RVing and dirt-biking gave us invaluable time together as a family. Time that was well spent in building relationships and in learning things together. Over the years we had a variety of experiences that brought us closer together. Some were triumphs over technical riding skills, some were learning bike maintenance and emergency repairs, some were sharing the thrill of victory as our daughter won trophy after trophy in desert racing. By the way, she was her own "pit crew" and did her own "wrenching" throughout her racing career.  Lest you think of her as a tough tom boy, one Saturday she raced a Grand Prix in the morning and competed favorably in a city-wide Beauty Pageant, including playing a difficult classical piano solo in the afternoon.   Some experiences were sharing the pain of disappointments, mechanical problems and even injuries. But through out all our activities we continually shared our love and caring one for another. Watching the older boys take time to each their younger siblings things we had taught them or things they had learned from fellow riders or taught themselves. Watching our younger daughter offer her bike to her older sister whose bike had temporary mechanical problems so she could ride with her friends. Watching them all interact with and earn the respect of other riders (including many adults), developing useful social skills along with their technical riding abilities. I was very amused and proud when an accomplished adult rider commented about his experience on one of our rides. "There was this kid right on my tail the whole time and I couldn't shake him. Then when we took a break after climbing Government Peak, "he" removed his helmet and it was a chick!" That was my younger daughter, who was about 12 or 13 at the time. Another couple of my favorite "life lessons" drawn from dirt biking have to do with keeping your eye on where you're going. If you look at an obstacle you are likely to run smack into it but if you focus on the path around it, that's where you'll go. That explains the "magnetic rocks" in the trail or "magnetic trees" in the woods that seem to attract your front wheel. When climbing hills, if you concentrate on the difficult outcropping or obstacle near the top, that's about as far as you're going to get. But if you maintain perspective toward your goal and look over the top of the hill: success! My teenage boys had a motto: when in doubt, gas it! Obviously this does not always apply in every situation, but it does work for getting through many difficulties you encounter on the trail -- and in life -- just make sure you are focusing on the path you want to follow and not the obstacle when you do it! Too often in life it is the obstacles that get our attention and then we fail to see the way around them to our goals.

Should you think dirt biking is mostly a boys sport, or at least a tom-boy's sport, our oldest daughter raced a Grand Prix one Saturday morning and competed favorably in a city-wide beauty pageant that evening, using our same motor home for a base of operations for both events. No one would have guessed that the beautiful young lady on stage displaying her musical talents playing a complex classical piano number had spent the morning scoring points in an off-road motorcycle race. By the way, she took home the Number One plate for Women's Motocross in AMA District 37 (Los Angeles, California area) in 2001 and claimed many desert trophies and earned sponsorship from a number of dealers and manufacturers. Now most of her racing has to do with keeping up with her 5 children!

RVs, OHVs, and families: a match made in heaven that we can all enjoy on earth!