I have a small RV and big dreams. Minnie Winnie Dreams.

I have this dream and I don’t know how to make it happen.  It’s all mapped out in my mind, but I can’t figure out how to connect the dots.

But that doesn’t mean I ever stop thinking about it.

First, It’s the holiday season here at the end of 2020.

You know, the year unlike any other.  Try being a newscaster in 2020.  If I have to say, “a year unlike any other” one more time, I’m going to ride my bike off a cliff. 

But I digress.

Catalogs are arriving every day now with pitches for trips to far away cycling destinations.  Slovenia, France, Montana, Utah – you name it.

All those places seem desirable but mostly unobtainable.

Don’t have the time.  Don’t have the money.

To make matters worse, the weather sucks this week.  It’s a mix of freezing rain and snow.  The sky is gray and the pictures in those catalogs are bright and sunny.

When you’re cooped-up like this, the roads and trails of distant lands start calling like a voice in the wilderness. 

I hear it.  But damn if I can figure out how to answer.

My Minnie Winnie Dream

Luckily, I don’t need to be jetting to far off places to find new places to ride.  There are plenty of good ones within driving distance and I have just the vehicle to get there.

Early in 2020 Mary and I bought a 1994 Minnie Winnie.  At 21 feet it is the shortest Winnebago.  We paid a tick above its book value but well below what I saw as a reasonable cost of entry into the RV hobby (and my dream), where even small motorhomes go for north of eighty-grand.

The vehicle is in fantastic shape, and we have enjoyed numerous weekend outings in nearby Virginia State Parks.

But I want more.

I have a vision.

I want to bike the world from my roving base on the Minnie Winnie.

Dogs. Drones. Bikes. Wife. Minnie Winnie.

In my dream, Mary and I depart from home with dogs Dougal (Boxer) and Pippa (small terrier mix) in the vehicle with a Mini Cooper S in tow.  We have bikes, kayaks, and laptops capable of editing quality videos.  For good measure, I have my camera gear with a fine assortment of lenses.  There’s a drone.   In fact, the drone captures our departure from suburbia from the air before landing gracefully in my outstretched hand extended through the driver’s window.

It shows a fine collection of gear, with mountain bikes attached to the RV’s roof next to the kayaks.  Road and gravel bikes are in the picture somewhere.  The Mini Cooper is British racing green with White Stripes on the hood.  It looks great from the drone’s aerial view.

Mary, the dogs and I leave our cul de sac life behind for weeks at a time as we Minnie Winnie our way around the country stopping at one cycling destination after another. 

We ride during the best part of the day, finding all the best spots, which of course I capture through the lens of the camera, the Go Pro and the drone. 

Some days it’s a road ride. Other days gravel or trail. But it’s always beautiful.

We roll back into camp happily where the dogs are wagging their tails, having enjoyed some downtime in the air-conditioned comfort of the RV. They are always happy, and they never chew up the couch or get into the cupboards.

And of course, they always wait for our return before they potty.

In the mornings the coffee is hot, and the home fries and pancakes are perfect on the grill.

Evenings are spent around a campfire or at a nearby brewery or winery accessed over fun mountain roads in the Mini Cooper after a day of riding.

During downtime, I write cycling blogs and stories for magazines.  That of course is when I am not editing video for the YouTube channel which has so many viewers that its ad revenue supports our travels. For good measure, I record a cycling podcast for baby boomers who want to dream of living the life I am actually living.

While I work on my creations, Mary reads comfortably on the couch or in the shade with the dogs curled up at her feet.

Man cannot live by bike alone.

I know there will be times Mary wants to take a nap or maybe go into town shopping.  During these times I sneak away for a couple of hours with my fly rod and the camera gear.  I catch some trout or bass or whatever the local flavor is and augment our income with more writing and videos about my “single line research.”

Occasionally we stow the bikes and replace a day on two wheels with some time on the local water in the kayaks.  I might even catch a fish or two while Mary catches some rays.

Then there are the trails. Mary loves hiking while I merely like it, and nothing will do for her but some epic trek to the top of the highest surrounding ridge. 

On hiking days, I begrudgingly go along, while Dougal, the young boxer wags his tail so hard in anticipation that I’m afraid he’ll break something.

We finish the hike and it’s my turn to nap with the dogs after a cold beer from the local craft brewery – ice cold from the Minnie Winnie refrigerator.

Minnie Winnie journeys and destinations.

As we travel the country with our toys and production gear in tow, we pass through small towns and major cities, always taking in the local flavor and eating barbecue as often as we can.  We visit bike shops and take in all the regional nuances in cycling. 

Pinarello contacts me and wants me to try their new gravel bike.  Santa Cruz thinks I should write about their newest long-travel 29er.  Shimano is convinced my audience needs to see their newest and lightest components.  SRAM does too. They tell me boomers are the ones buying such high-end gear. 

Home again

We return home occasionally to re-charge and see the kids and grandkids.  I work in the yard and monkey around with some of the landscaping. 

The mail comes and I use the travel catalogs to find ideas for the next journey which is only a few weeks away. Because we are our own tour guides.   Because viewers of the YouTube channel want more videos, more travels, more dreams come true.

Reality Check.

Yeah – I get it.  Dreams are dreams. 

All of that sounds so fun and just on the outside edge of doable. 

Well, maybe not the part about the dogs not eating the couch.

The RV has just under 100,000 miles on it and even though it runs great – I’m still not sure I’d take off for Yellowstone in it.  Yet.

We still have a mortgage, and jobs.  I don’t have a Mini-Cooper.  (But I did a few years ago.)  There’s no drone.  

Mary doesn’t have a kayak.

There are so many boxes to check before we could ever head out.

So I’ll settle for a few road trips over the next couple of years.  We’ll see more of Virginia, West Virginia, and maybe North Carolina. 

Maybe Dougal will grow out of the puppy stage and we can leave him behind for a few hours and not worry about shredded Minnie Winnie parts.

I doubt I’ll ever start a bicycling YouTube channel, but the blog is already here and the podcast might just happen.

Hey, I can dream can’t I?

We have already managed to do a good bit of bike travel without the aid of the Minnie Winnie. Click here to see where we have traveled.

I should also mention that this dream continues even though I have sarcoidosis — which limits my mobility somewhat. I host the Sarc Fighter podcast and have dedicated a series of blogs to cycling with sarcoidosis. If you suffer from sarc or another auto-immune disease, you might want to check out some of my other posts. — Keep fighting!