American Nomads Page #3

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'It's cocktail hour

and it has the feel

'of a suburban garden party

transplanted into the desert.

'These people come squarely out of

the mainstream of American society.

'They worked hard, paid their taxes

and raised their families.

'Then they reached retirement

and they did something radical

'and unprecedented -

they sold their houses,

'sunk the money into the most

luxurious RVs they could afford,

'said goodbye to their families

and hit the road.

'Doug and Sharon Henry are intending

to spend everything

'they have on a wonderful,

freewheeling retirement

'and they joke about leaving zero

to their children.

'Their RV cost

a quarter of a million dollars. '

Wow. Recessed lighting.

What is this?

That's like a granite counter-top.

It's a faux-granite counter-top.

And it extends out

so you can seat four people.

Got your comfortable chairs. Very

comfortable. This makes into a bed.

Four slides, two in the front

and two in the bedroom.

It slides out into about

400 square feet in here.

You've got the refrigerator with the

freezer below with icemaker. Oh, wow.

All runs off of battery

if you want it to.

Got an 8000W generator in it

to keep the batteries up,

so it's just like home.

It certainly is. Very nice.

Four televisions in it -

three inside and one outside.

Got a nice queen-sized bed

and I have an option for a king

if you want to.

Big wardrobe, closet, washer-dryer.

Wow. Closets. The bed lifts up.

For storage,

a huge storage area down here.

That was to be the wine cellar

at the moment but...

Got central air conditioning,

two zones - one for the bedroom,

one for the living area.

It's got hydronic heating

so it's continuous hot water.

It's roughing it.

Roughing it out here in the desert.

Quartzsite style.

'Nomads are always hard to count

'but the best estimate is that

3 million Americans are now

'roaming around permanently in RVs

'and that 90% of them

are over the age of 55.

'These RVs are parked in a big circle

around the campfire in the same way

'that the pioneers crossing the plains

would circle their wagons at night.'

We just wanted to go adventuring.

We can't explain it.

What happened to the house

you lived in? We sold it.

We wanted to start RV-ing and

we kept our house for about a year

and a half just to make sure

we liked the lifestyle.

After about a year and a half,

we decided we would like

to continue doing this.

It was convenient to sell

the house at that time.

So that freed us of that connection.

It's been really good for us.

It's made us a lot closer.

We spend 24 hours a day together

and we still like each other.

'The RV-ers are also

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