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Being an RVer
Can Kindle an Appreciation for History

For many years I’ve had the theory that you can’t appreciate history until you have a little history of your own. If you think about it, it explains why young people don’t care about history and really old people are always talking about it.

I’m not a history buff in the sense that I read a lot about history and remember all the dates I was taught in school so it must be because I’m getting older, but I find I am more interested in history these days. Being an RVer has also helped kindle my appreciation for history.

Being a full time RVer has allowed me to visit historical places and museums I would not have been able to see otherwise.

One of our layover stops on the way south is Boron, California. We’ve seen the Borax visitor center twice and visited the little museum in town several times. This trip we were happy to see the Aerospace museum was open. The museum concentrates on the history of Edwards Air Force base and is a good alternative to the base museum which we understand is no longer accessible to civilians since September 11th.

While we were RVing in Texas we visited the Alamo. It’s difficult to find a place west of the Mississippi river with more historical significance and being there and seeing the artifacts on display made it real. Something no history lesson alone can do.

The Pacific War Museum in Fredericksburg , Texas is a must see If you like museums. Even if you don’t usually like museums I think you’ll like this one,

History isn’t just a specific place like the Alamo or housed in museums.

Driving Route 66 from Amboy to Ludlow, California or from Oatman to Kingman Arizona brings images from the movie ‘The Grape of Wrath’ to mind. Knowing I’m seeing the same landscape as everyone who has ever traveled the route... so little has changed... connects me to a time and people I’m too young to remember.

Drive the main streets of Needles California and Kingman Airizona and you’ll see remnants of Route 66’s heydays of the 1950s and 60s . I can’t help but imagine what it must have been like to drive the route back then. It’s not that hard for me to imagine though, because I’m just old enough to remember, as a boy, traveling Highway 99 through the great valley of California.

Back then highway 99 was still mostly two lanes and was the main street of most of the towns along it’s way. Some of those main streets haven’t change much and you can get a glimpse of history by just taking the business loop through town.

Being able to experiencing history is a big part of why I love the RV lifestyle. Who knows, maybe fifty or sixty years from now we RVers will be part of history too.

This article first appeared in the Jan/Feb 2004 issue of
RV Companion Magazine as part of Steven Fletcher's Curbside column.
Used with permission.