RV Explorer Shares his Passion at Ohio RV Supershow
Wed Jan 6, 2010
Author: Chuck Yarborough
Source: The Plain Dealer
Brian Brawdy insists that he's not an extremist, and maybe he's right.
"I don't bungee jump," said the former New York City police officer. And according to his press materials, his home features "a complete kitchen, a queen-sized bed, a full bath, an entertainment center and button-controlled sliding walls."
Hey, just because you like to set up temporary housekeeping at Yosemite National Park when the temperature is minus 40 degrees, or like to trek across Death Valley in the dead of summer right after you've had skin-cancer surgery, doesn't mean you're an extremist, at least in Brawdy's world. Neither does it mean you have to be uncomfortable doing those things.
Brawdy considers himself a modern-day explorer. Lewis and Clark had their canoes, Columbus had those three ships, and the Donner Party had those Conestoga wagons.
Well, let's leave the doomed Donners out of this, shall we?
Brawdy's Conestoga wagon is something billed as the "Green RV." He'll bring it and his advice on how to see the world while remaining green to the Ohio RV Supershow, which opens Wednesday at the International Exposition Center in Cleveland.
The Ford F350 4x4, which is powered by a V-8 diesel engine, also has 11 solar panels and three wind turbines, Brawdy said when reached by cell phone in Elkhart, Ind., the so-called home of the recreational vehicle. He was having some adjustments made to his rig, which also includes a trailer, and had to return to Elkhart, which is a sort of Mecca for RVers.
The decision to hit the road wasn't actually a decision; it was a mandate from a voice inside.
His father had committed suicide, and Brawdy had to deal with the guilt of that on top of his confrontation with mortality after he was diagnosed with skin cancer. After successful surgery, he basically ran from the world.
"The only solace that came was out in the middle of nowhere," said Brawdy, an upbeat man despite the subject matter.
"I loved being a cop," Brawdy said. "I felt like I was making a difference, and it was so hard to walk away from it. But I couldn't carry a gun anymore."
But Brawdy still wants to make a difference. And it came to him that he could do that by being what the New York Times called "an environmental pioneer."
His travels, which segued from backpacking to bicycling to the RV he now calls home, have taken Brawdy to 48 states, logging more than 100,000 miles on the RV. And in the meantime, he learned how to survive, much like those guys on reality TV.
He also developed a love for the country that you can't get just flying over the Tetons or driving the Interstate.
Brawdy will share his experiences via a pair of seminars offered during the RV show.
"Today's Explorer" will deal with his belief that today's RVers are modern-day explorers. "Conservation through Exploration" will focus on the lessons he's learned in his travels about how RV enthusiasts can help preserve and protect the land they explore.
Seminars will be at 2, 4 and 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 1, 4 and 7 p.m. Friday; noon, 3, 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1, 3 and 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10.
Brawdy will be the first to admit that the lifestyle he's chosen has its drawbacks.
"It's cost me some stuff," he acknowledged, laughing. "Friends and family are mad because I'm never around when they want me, and you're never home for the holidays."
"But when you hear that voice, it's an intuitive feeling that you're doing what you were put here on this planet to do," he said.
Yes, he's exploring the country, but RVing is also a way "to explore what's inside each and every one of us," Brawdy said. "There's nothing terribly special about me. I just keep moving."
But not bungee jumping.
