RV Travel

I am thrilled with the launching on June 21st of my second book in the Women with Wisdom Series, Following the Cycles of the Moon. I am working on the third book in the series, Gazing at the Stars, which will be published in late 2023.

         I wrote the series because I want women to remember their strengths and history of accomplishments, especially older women. I also believe it is important for women to understand the importance of communities and our relationships with each other regardless of age, race, or ethnicity. My characters represent all women as they struggle with living everyday lives but also attempt to understand the past and their connections.

         The most unique feature of this series of books often focuses on the travel in the Southwind Motor Home. I selected this mode of transportation because I wanted my main character Anna Marie to be able to take her pet family with her on her travels to leave intensive grieving behind by experiencing a new beginning in the RV. It was also to make it possible for Anna Marie to build her community to travel with her sharing their lives, stresses, and experiences. RVing was the only way my characters could reasonably do this.

         Since I had never even camped in any type of RV, I needed to research RVs to know enough to write a possible story. Dragging my husband along (not too reluctantly) we visited RV stores and went to RV shows at fairgrounds in the two different states we live in. The day we found the the 1998 ½ Southwind, the particular year and model I wrote into my book, we knew we had to buy the motor home.

         I chose this particular year, make, and model because the name Southwind is symbolic of the wind of transformation and new beginnings which is exactly what Anna Marie needed. The RV was a 1998 ½ because that was the first year that model could do a 90-degree turn, something that is important for ease of turning a vehicle as large as a tractor trailer.

         My husband and I fell immediately in love with the RV way of travel, making new friends and staying in parks we never knew existed. I will admit that my first trips on the RV I was frightened of the size and height. We decided to take a trial trip on the NYS Thruway out to Rochester and back. We hoped to become very safe drivers. Ironically, at our first gas station stop my husband underestimated the size of our vehicle and how large the open door who was parked on the side of the parking lot on a cell phone call. When I the police officer who came to ticket my husband for damaging the car, he did not find the same irony I perceived.

         The main message is women can do anything if they want to try. There are thousands of women who drive RVs on their own and travel around the US. This doesn’t have to be your choice, but please consider dreams you may have had and follow those dreams, especially if you were told it was not possible because you are a woman.

         Happy RVing for those who chose.

—Mary Kathleen McKenna a.k.a Dr. Kathie Bishop