Road Trip Catharsis

I'm still being haunted by the RV trip at the weekend and felt the need for one more bout of cathartic exorcism via this blog. I am, in fact, having to go back to the RV depot tomorrow, like a moth to the flame you might say. The reason being, we left something inside which I'd like to retrieve. Max, unfortunately, will be in preschool when Oliver and I make the trip over the Bay Bridge to Oakland. Max actually shed tears when we told him the RV had to go back to the shop on Monday. For him, to eat, sleep and play, in a vehicle, just inches from the engine and within metres of the ignition switch and all those controls around the steering wheel - that was pure heaven. I on the other hand, can't think why we thought a trip in a motor-home would hold any appeal in the first place.
Here's my hasty conclusion; Firstly I think it was a cultural thing - I'd never even heard the term RV (Recreational Vehicle, if you're still wondering) until we came to the US. And somehow an RV holiday seems so quintessentially American. Here, they embrace the roads like no other nation, cities are designed for vehicles - this is a country where a high speed rail link between San Francisco and LA is still, amazingly, only a proposal not a certainty. Also, and I may be corrected here, but there seems no stigma attached to an RV holiday like there is to say, a caravan trip in the UK - which carries with it all the nuance of class. So, and here I was caught up in Dom's energetic enthusiasm for it all, it seemed to be a way of embracing America's dream as well as a realistic way of seeing the remarkable geography that makes up this country. I'd add too, that the thought of reducing my life to the contents of a 25ft motor-home held it's appeal. No, really, I'd begun selling books on Amazon to relieve the groaning bookshelves (John Grisham anyone?) And de-cluttering can be very therapeutic. The illusion here is that I thought less space might simplify things, after all, less space is less cleaning, less clutter. But while fewer 'things' might be therapeutic, less space is NOT. That's all I can offer at the moment, but you never know, the sight of the Cruise America depot tomorrow just might get me started again....