When traveling through Elkhart, Indiana, do not miss the RV Motor Home Hall of Fame, a one-of-a-kind camping collection (rvmhhalloffame.org/).
The museum features camping curiosities sucy as the 1913 Earl Trailer and Model T Ford, believed to be the oldest trailer camper in existence. There's a 1915 Model T with Telescoping Apartment (earliest known example of a “slide out”).
It was interesting to peer inside the 1931 Chevrolet House Car owned by Mae West. Built for Paramount Studios, it was used as a chauffeur driven lounge car and featured a rocking chair on the back porch!
One of my favorites: the 1935 Bowlus Road Chief Trailer. This shiny silver predecessor to today's Airstream has the shape of an inverted boat.
Impossible to miss: the 1954 Spartan Imperial Mansion. At eight feet wide and a whopping 42 feet long, this trailer is immense.
Tromping through 100 years of RV and motor home history—many models featuring original flooring, bedding and furniture–I was struck by one unifying reality. From the primitive Model T Ford campers to the technology laden RV's of today, they are all designed only for temporary living: vacation housing, not permanent dwellings.
So nobody expects even the fanciest recreational vehicle to be as big or as nice as a real home. It's just intended to keep you comfortable for a short time.
Which is exactly the same attitude we should have toward this thing called life on earth. It's only temporary. Our sights are to be set on a better—and ultimate—destination: heaven.
Maybe, like me, you need to dial back your expectations for this life which Michael Easley reminds us is “at best a clean bus station.”
Philippians 3:20, “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Here's to loosening our grip on this dying world—and fixing our eyes on the world to come.
Happy travels!