Road trippin' in a hybrid RV
Family saw 17 states this summer: Space Center, alligator swamps, Tut’s treasures, stalactites
Jesse and Luke Herzog have visited 45 of the 50 states — and the brothers are only 7 and 8 years old.
Every year, the boys and their parents, Brad and Amy Herzog, spend summer on the road, traveling around America in an RV. It’s a tradition that got rolling in 1996, shortly after Brad and Amy got married.
Every year, the boys and their parents, Brad and Amy Herzog, spend summer on the road, traveling around America in an RV. It’s a tradition that got rolling in 1996, shortly after Brad and Amy got married.
“We were living in Lincoln Park,” said Brad, 40, a native of north suburban Deerfield. “I turned to her one day and said, ‘How’d you like to quit your job and we’ll buy a big old RV and travel around the country for a year? I’ll write a book about it.’
(Jean Lachat/Sun-Times)
(Photo courtesy of the Herzog family)
“We were living in Lincoln Park,” said Brad, 40, a native of north suburban Deerfield. “I turned to her one day and said, ‘How’d you like to quit your job and we’ll buy a big old RV and travel around the country for a year? I’ll write a book about it.’
“To my surprise, she said yes.”
The newlyweds journeyed through small-town America for 314 days in their 34-foot Winnebago.
“It was a magical year,” said Brad, who parlayed the experience into his first travel memoir, States of Mind (Pocket Books, $13.95).
“What we didn’t anticipate was falling in love with the RV experience,” he added. “We’ve done it 10 summers in a row.”
The Recreation Vehicle Industry Association picked the Herzogs, who now live in Pacific Grove, Calif., to serve as ambassadors of sorts for the RV lifestyle. The trade group sponsors the family’s two-month long summer road rambles, and Winnebago sets them up with a sweet set of wheels. In exchange, Brad blogs about their experiences at gorving.com/blog and talks to reporters like me when he passes through town, as he did last week.
Chicago was the scheduled starting and ending point for this summer’s tour, which began June 16.
“We pick a different section of the country every year,” Brad said. “This summer, we focused on the Southeast.”
The location wasn’t the only thing different about this year’s trip. This time, the Herzogs were testing a concept hybrid RV. Their 2009 Winnebago Adventurer uses a diesel engine and electric motor to power the 36-foot motorhome.
“This is the first of its kind; it’s never been done before,” said Winnebago Industries spokeswoman Kelli Harms. The hope, Harms said, is that the hybrid can get upwards of 13 miles to the gallon. The non-hybrid version averages about 8 to 10.
“For a house, it gets great mileage,” Brad said of his hybrid home on wheels. The trip’s green theme coincides with Brad’s recently released children’s book S Is for Save the Planet: A How-to-be-Green Alphabet (Sleeping Bear Press, $17.95).
The Herzogs’ “house” boasts lots of space, a pair of flat screen TVs, bunk beds for the kids and a king-size bed for Brad and Amy. “We only have a queen-size bed at home,” Brad said.
The non-hybrid version of their motorhome costs roughly $150,000. Winnebago Industries hasn’t set a price — or a release date — for the hybrid model.
The refrigerator door in the Herzog’s RV was covered with a big calendar showing the places the family visited this summer: 17 states and Washington, D.C.
They spent the 40th anniversary of the moon landing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. They rode an airboat through the alligator-infested swamps of the Everglades and took a tram under the stalactites of the Fantastic Caverns in Springfield, Mo.
“I like to call it education designed as entertainment,” Brad said.
They covered the entire 400-plus miles of the scenic, serene Natchez Trace Parkway, and shared an elevator ride with the famous Peabody ducks at the historic Memphis hotel. While in Memphis, they checked out the National Civil Rights Museum, which prompted Luke to say, “I sure am glad Barack Obama is president.”
They watched Chinese acrobats in Branson, Mo., and gawked at King Tut’s treasures at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.
A lot of planning goes into these summer trips, as evidenced by Brad’s phone-book-thick binder of information on sights they’d set out to see.
As for the highlights of their 7,000-mile journey, the boys loved parasailing in Key West and playing wand-waving wizards at the live-action adventure game MagiQuest in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Amy, 40, said she’ll always remember their Fourth of July, when they watched a minor league baseball game and fireworks in the tiny town of Pearl, Miss.
“There were all these families there, enjoying their time together,” she said. “It was just one of those great moments.”
Brad’s favorite stop was a mere 200 miles from Chicago: the special effects-laden Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum in Springfield, which he dubbed “the Disneyland of presidential museums.”
After 50 days on the road, the trip was supposed to end in Chicago on Aug. 4. But they decided to tack on another week and venture up to Duluth, Minn., and the Wisconsin Dells (for more MagiQuest fun at Great Wolf Lodge) before heading home to California.
“We live on the Monterey Peninsula, which is about as gorgeous as it gets,” Brad said. “But it’s still great to get away every summer.”
The free-lance writer/author was a contestant on the program in 2000. He walked away with a respectable $64,000. Better yet, host Regis Philbin gave him the chance to plug his travel memoir, States of Mind. In 24 hours, the book shot from obscurity to the seventh best-seller on Amazon.com.
Herzog’s third travel memoir, Greek to Me, is due out in June.