The main reason I chose the RV Lifestyle was to spend as much time as I wanted in natural surroundings, in Mother Nature’s playground. RVing has enabled me to hike more trails, discover hidden Alpine lakes, track and study wildlife, enjoy the quiet and solitude of the deep forest, watch birds in their natural habitat, walk through wildflower covered meadows, and to just enjoy the natural surroundings of forests, deserts, lakes and rivers, shorelines and estuaries.
For this reason I search for little known boondocking hideaways, secluded forest service campgrounds, and the wide open desert. None of the campsites I find in these pristine spots offer amenities such as potable water supply, electrical hookup, waste tank disposal, and especially not espresso service, wireless internet access, or fresh fish market.
Often the best campsites are the most remote, several miles over a gravel or washboard dirt road, and even more miles along a two-lane asphalt connector from re-supply points. So with each trip into the back country we boondockers have devised ways to extend our stays, such as carrying extra jerry jugs of water, installing a rooftop of solar panels, a satellite dish, and a galley crammed with packaged or canned, rather than fresh, food.
We also dream of higher clearance, to avoid those muffler-extracting rocks and high crowns on the roads we travel, ability to ford small streams without shorting out the electrical system, 4WD of course, having enough storage and systems capacity to enable longer stays—extending “comfortable” living in the boondocks for weeks rather than days, and with enough convenience amenities to make the trip enjoyable and the emergency backup that would not leave us in a life-threatening situation if gear failed. This would include things like an alternate vehicle–such as an off road motorcycle, GPS, winch, air compressor, satellite phone and wireless internet dish, spare part, belt, and hose kits, huge fuel tanks, water filter system, solar as well as a large generator, and a five-star chef.
“Dream on,” you say. Sigh. Well, I expect we can’t have everything we dream of. I could eliminate the chef, for example.
Then I discovered the Unicat.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I have absolutely nothing to do with the Unicat, unfortunately. I stumbled upon it and found it to be as close to my dream vehicle as I’ve seen, including some of those German or Swiss inventions that you occasionally see around Quartzsite. But I couldn’t help putting this at the top of my dream list and letting you know about it, if nothing more than to illustrate what a perfect boondocking, nature traveling, wildland exploring, and get-a-way vehicle might look like.
For instance, they say in their video that it has a 2,000 mile range with its more than 200 gallon fuel capacity, it will ford up to a four-foot deep river, and you can stay out months at a time. But hey, since I’m giving all this free publicity to their $600,000 monster off-road motorhome, don’t you think that they ought to give me one to drive around in and promote? If you agree (which I’m sure you will), send them this email: “Hey you guys, Bob Difley is spreading the word on the Unicat, what he describes as his dream RV, and you ought to loan him one to drive around.”
If this scheme works, I promise to give all of you a free ride. But you bring the beer.