Over the Next Hill: An Ethnography of RVing Seniors in North America

Marcia Sweet, formerly head of the Douglas Library’s
Information/Reference Unit at Queen’s University and editor of the
Queen’s Quarterly, is currently an information consultant and
freelance editor.

This thorough treatment of the subculture of retirement in a
“recreational vehicle” (RV) explores the various issues facing
seniors who take up RVing as a full-time lifestyle. It deals with their
concerns (e.g., independence, budget, crime, and health) and such
practicalities as mail delivery. For those Canadians who wish to become
full-time RVers in the United States, it discusses residency
requirements, health costs, and tax implications. And it examines the
“life cycle” of an RVer and the rituals of the life: “sharing
substance and labour, and ... building shared history, however short.”

While RVing affords seniors the opportunity to exercise “control over
their own lives and environment,” one of the unstated implications of
this study is that it also affords them an opportunity for disengagement
from family and friends. Further, the authors point out that many RV
pensioners soon tire of the constant travel and begin to use their home
bases for increasingly longer periods. “Driving a tow vehicle-RV
combination of sixty feet or longer,” they note, “requires a level
of skill and alertness seldom found among ordinary automobile
drivers.”

Over the Next Hill, which includes appendices and a useful glossary, is
essential reading for pensioners considering RVing as a retirement
option.