Go RVing Helps Others Experience The Adventures Of RVing

The Go RVing team has worked with more than 100 media outlets this year, sharing the RV story with millions. Love That Max is just one of those outlets.

Love That Max, created by Ellen Seidman, is a blog for parents of kids with cerebral palsy, autism, Down syndrome & other special needs who kick butt. Ellen is a magazine editor who's held senior positions at SELF, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, Child, Teen People and Glamour, where she spent eight years as deputy editor and helped relaunch Glamour.com. She is also mom to Max, who has cerebral palsy.

Ellen launched Love That Max in October 2008 as an inspirational, informational, occasionally irreverent blog. Over the years, it's evolved to help people better see the ability in disability. The blog has been featured on Time.com, Upworthy, The Huffington Post, CNN.com, Mashable, Today.com, Yahoo, The New York Times' blog The Motherlode, AOL, MSN.com, MTV.com and The Daily Mail, as well as in Redbook, Real Simple, Parents, Good Housekeeping, Woman's Day, Family Circle and All You magazines.

After hearing their story, the Go RVing team was more than happy to help Ellen and her family with their first experience renting and traveling in an RV to some great family friendly campgrounds. 

Learn about their experience from these three posts they documented on their blog:

ESCAPE BY RV

(August 17) We headed out this weekend on our big adventure of the year, an RV trip. It was our first time renting one and we were a little nervous but also amazingly excited. We have not gone much of anywhere this summer (or basically since March), and we were all thrilled to be out of the house and in our own traveling home.

Max had been trying to get us to drive to Los Angeles, where he still wishes he could live. Visiting Yellowstone National Park has long been on my bucket list. We both finally acknowledged that for our debut RV journey, staying a bit closer to home was a good idea. Planning a trip is pretty easy, and sure beats dealing with airline travel. When I browsed Go RVing for links to local RV rentals and campsites, I found good availability. (You can read reviews about campsites at sites like The Dyrt and the Campendium app.) The hour and a half drive to our first stop, Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park: Lazy River, was uneventful although Dave discovered that my habit of being a backseat drier is even more annoying when you're driving an RV. 

The campground is large and we got a golf cart, which is one of Max's all-time favorite activities and also helps him not get tired from walking around. We brought the kids' scooters and outdoor games. [...] One sign of a great vacation: when Max asks if he can come back next year. Within a few hours of being there, he was asking if we could return next year. 

For the full blog post, click here.

KEEPING THE FAMILY ENTERTAINED WHEN YOU’RE RVING

(August 19) I wasn't sure how we'd pass the time at the campgrounds we were staying at during our nine-day RV trip, especially Max. His entire life, I've tried my best to make sure he's entertained and occupied. Except this trip, Max is showing us that he knows how to take care of himself. 

Our second campground stop: Watkins Glen/Corning KOA in Corning, New York. It bills itself as "resort luxury" so we weren't exactly going to be roughing it. Like the other two on our trip, this is a full-hookup site meaning you connect your RV to water, sewer, electric and cable and there's WiFi, too. All the comforts of home! Although, actually, we don't have a gazebo or a stamped-concrete patio.

[…]

When Max gets fixated on something he talks about it repeatedly, and our topic of conversation has been his dream of going to a camp in California next summer. He's been looking up photos and videos. 

For the full blog post, click here.

WHAT WE LEARNED AS FIRST-TIME RV-ERS: AN FAQ 

(August 31) It's been a week since we got back from our RV trip, and I'm missing our little home on wheels. Friends have been asking questions about our experiences, so I figured I'd share some more info. 

How do you plan an RV trip?
We started with Go RVing, a great resource to explore when you're thinking of renting an RV, buying an RV (we were fantasizing about this by the end of our trip), or figuring out ways to enjoy the RV camping lifestyle. 

Do you need a special driver's license to drive an RV?
Nope. 

Is an RV hard to drive?
Dave did a couple of practice runs before we took off for our trip. He was a little nervous at first, especially about making the wide turns, but felt more comfortable as our trip progressed and even had no issues backing the RV into spots at the places we stayed. We visited three different campgrounds a few hours apart from each other—we wanted an easy inaugural RV trip. In general, it's not recommended to drive an RV for more than six hours at a stretch. Really, the thing we worried most about was whether we'd lock the keys to the RV in the RV (we didn't).  

For the full blog post, click here.

Photo courtesy: Love That Max blog.