Guest Author - Evanne Schmarder

One of the absolute joys of RVing is to explore your passions on the road. There are a plethora of hobbies that work for an RVer and chances are there’s an RV club dedicated to your interests. That’s one of the many things I love about snowbird RV resorts – the multitudes of groups and classes that allow me to try lots of new RV hobbies. But I digress…in this article I’ll share with you 3 hot hobbies that are just perfect for your RV traveling style. By no means is this even near an all-inclusive list…in fact, it barely skims the surface but I hope it inspires you to seek out your RV own hobby.

* Digital Photography – Used to be a digital camera was a spendy proposition as well as the computer needed to download, store and share your photographs. Today affordable technology has reached the masses. Digital photography allows you to shoot photos that are temporarily stored on a “card” – reviewing and deleting pictures you’re not happy with on the spot - and download them onto your computer – clearing the card for reuse. This could lead to another fun RV hobby – digital scrapbooking…more on that in another column. A good digital camera can run less than $300 and almost everyone has some type of computer – be it a laptop you travel with or a desktop at home. What might your photo focus be – children? landscapes? sunsets? animals? sports? the list is endless – get shooting!!

* Birdwatching – Grab a good pair of binoculars, a decent field guide (bird book) and a pad/pencil and you’re ready to birdwatch. Observing birds in their wild habitat can be well, thrilling actually. You can seek out specific species of birds, look and listen for songbirds, search for the most colorful species or the rarest. RVers are fortunate – campgrounds are frequently in natural settings. Hang a bird feeder near your RV each time you travel and you’ll see the “locals”. Visit a park. Walk along the shoreline. The US boasts four national flyways – or paths that birds use when migrating – the Atlantic, the Mississippi, the Central and the Pacific flyways. Within each flyway are numerous individual paths – typically north/south that birds just instinctively know to use. Very cool.

* Geocaching – A modern day treasure hunt is the perfect way to describe this excellent RV hobby. Using a handheld GPS unit and posted “cache” coordinates, players hunt for a waterproof box – the cache – that typically contains a logbook for successful hunters to sign and a treasure (of usually little value to anyone except you). This hobby allows you to explore places - nooks and crannies – that you might not ever visit aside from geocaching. According to the official geocaching website there are nearly 480,000 caches stashed worldwide.

A most intriguing idea is the travel bug cache. And this bug only has legs if you find it and move it. These items can be anything from a toy tractor to a teddy bear. Geocachers list their bugs – co-ordinates and stories – on the Groundspeak Travel Bug website. Some bugs have tasks such as seeing the sunrise on the Atlantic and the sunset on the Pacific. Others just want a good time. The “user” posts information online when a bug is found or dropped off. There are some great travel bug stories out there. I’ve included the link below.

We’ll talk about more hobbies that are excellent and exiting for RVers in an upcoming BellaOnline RV article. Until then…stay busy!!