I'll Take My Own RV Bed Please
One of the best things about an RV is the bed. As a Navy Chaplain Recruiter my area of responsibility covered all the states west of the Mississippi including Alaska, Hawaii and Guam. This job required me to spend many nights in hotel rooms across the country. I can tell you that I sleep far better in my own bed than any hotel or motel bed I've ever encountered. Who knows what unpleasantness the hotel mattress and bedspread have endured. I can't even bear to walk barefoot across the carpet. I prefer to take along my own mattress in my RV. I have a nice foam topper with fitted sheets and a down blanket.
When I fall into my RV bed it embraces me with comfort. I close my eyes and am consumed with sleep is a matter of minutes. Not so with a hotel bed. Sometimes I was tempted to sleep on the floor thinking it would be softer. So for me, one of the outstanding features of an RV is the luxury of your own bed. Even when I backpack I take along a Slumberjack self inflating mattress. My RV hotel room follows me wherever I go exactly the way I like it. So be thankful and sleep well my RV friends as you think of the thousands of unfortunate hotel guests who will lie awake tonight desperately trying to get comfortable. Jim Twamley, Professor of RVingLabels: RV Lifestyle




7 Comments:
Jim, I love your comments about your RV bed! My husband and I talk about this very thing quite often. We travel six months of the year and I think we sleep better in our RV than we do at our condo. A couple of years ago, we bought an aerobed topper with separate air chambers for our RV bed. Now we have our own version of a "sleep number" bed! Our cozy bedroom and very comfortable bed make RV'ing even more of an ultimate lifestyle!
By
Linda Leach, at March 6, 2008 7:25:00 PM PST
Oh I agree. We budgeted for motel stays on our sabbatical, but we've only stayed away from our rig for a week, at a B&B, while we were in Toronto. Other than that, staying in a hotel is such a hassle and so much less comfortable, we prefer our nice rig's bed with our down comforter and mattress topper, any day!
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LiveWorkDream.com, at March 6, 2008 10:47:00 PM PST
I also am "icked out" by hotel rooms in general. In my RV, at least I know the germs are mine!
In the two RVs we've owned, my husband has removed the RV mattress right away and replaced it with a queen-sized pillowtop mattress - for instant sleeping comfort guaranteed.
I do not like the "stranger/foreigner" feeling of hotels or motels. I don't like the rush at the end of the day and again the next morning, packing up and lugging things in and out of a hotel.
But I don't mind packing my RV for a trip. It pays dividends to be able to control the supplies available at my fingertips. I pack many essential supples at the beginning of the RV season so I only have to upload the specific extras needed for whatever we're doing. Plus, when we stop for the night, we are "home" right away. If it's a quick overnight pit stop en route to somewhere, we often park, lock the doors, and crawl into bed - our bed. Done deal!
Also, and RV enables us to go to things like national motocross races where we're "home" in fields shared by oodles of other enthusiasts - literally in the middle of the action. If we did not have the RV, we'd have to stay in a tent to be there, or be forced to stay in a distant hotel away from the venue. We would hate that.
In our RV in a field at a national track, for days we enjoy the activities during the day and then get to sleep in our RV on a pillowtop mattress at night. Not exactly "roughing" it, and we love it this way!
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Anonymous, at March 22, 2008 6:36:00 AM PDT
We started camping with a pop-up. Got a waffle pad and extra-heavy cotton mattress pad for the thin foam mattress. Slept in a sleeping bag. Then we traded up to a hard top trailer. Kept our sleeping bag under the waffle pad and mattress pad. We "burrow-down" into our ultra-soft "cave" and it's wonderful - even on a hard mattress. Healthy firm base with super-soft top.
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Anonymous, at March 22, 2008 7:20:00 AM PDT
Amen to that!! My husband and I were forced off the road in Fort Hall, Idaho this winter due to high winds and drifting snow. As it turned out, this is a truck stop/casino and very shortly after we pulled in, the highway was closed to high profile vehicles. Sure enough, the truck stop began to fill up! There we were, parked in the middle of all these trucks, but comfortable, warm and when we pulled the curtains and crawled into bed, it just didn't matter! Our 38' Holiday Rambler was home!
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Anonymous, at March 22, 2008 8:02:00 AM PDT
Though we have a wonderful mattress in our condo, the one in our coach wasn't that comfortable. Pretty dumb that we put up with it because we live about ten months a year on our coach! So last fall we had a mattress company in Eugene, Oregon custom build a mattress for us. Incredible!. But not just more comfortable, but less pain. A shoulder injury requires a cortisone shot every three months. Guess what? It's been over four months since my last shot and I still have no shoulder pain. Usually, I am counting the days to the next shot after about two months. Best coach modification ever!
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Anonymous, at March 22, 2008 10:21:00 AM PDT
First of all, let me make it clear we own an RV. RVs can be useful and appropriate when used in an outdoor environment, to camp several days in one spot.
When we want to camp in the outdoors, we use our RV. When we want to travel far and fast, or stay in a large city, we stay in motels or hotels. With gas costing what it does, it doesn’t make any sense to use an 8 mile-per-gallon vehicle for a multi-thousand mile trip. We spend about an equal number of days each year doing our RV and motels.
True, there are some pretty skuzzy motels out there. Ask to see the room first, and don’t be afraid to hurt the owner’s feelings by leaving, if things don’t feel right. If you know where you’ll be staying, research motel reviews on the web before going. (Some of the reviews are hilarious; either because the motels truly WERE awful, or the people writing the reviews got upset about very minor flaws.) Even some of the lower-priced motels are perfectly comfortable. A lot of the comments about “Bad Motels” seem to reflect “Multi-Phobia”, a fear of everything. It seems some people are afraid of coming out of the restricted cocoon of their RV, and interacting with society.
What about dumping black water? How many of you have had an “accident” where you spilled black water all over your pants leg, or something similarly unpleasant? I don’t think many would just dismiss it by saying: “Oh, but it’s OUR OWN human waste!”; and not want to change your clothes and take a shower. Even a 2-inch puddle can be unpleasant and embarrassing. Even the worst “Bad Motel” legends don’t involve spilling previously-stored human waste all over oneself. (Yes, I know black water is a part of RVing, and a task that we undertake to live the lifestyle). But if you told these stories to people who stay exclusively at motels and hotels, they’d be horrified. Most of them wouldn’t ever want to buy an RV. They’d probably cross the street to avoid walking by one, for fear it would suddenly spew its stored contents all over them.
My point isn’t that we should all give up RVing and stay exclusively at motels, because of the risk of spilling black water. My point is that anything, including Rving OR STAYING IN A MOTEL, can be made to sound terrible by repeating stories that emphasize the more negative experiences, when in reality most experiences are routine and pleasant enough.
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Anonymous, at March 26, 2008 1:42:00 PM PDT
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