We love to road trip.

We’ve also commented when we see one of those gigantic motor homes rolling down the interstate, “wonder what it would be like in one of those?”

I read a book (submitted for my review) Live Your Road Trip Dream that does a great job of giving insight into that very question.

Except the question needs two revisions

“I wonder what it would be like to live in one of these for a year?”

I’ve had the book for a while. It’s a standard 6 x 9″ book of 288 pages.  I am not a book reader, but couldn’t resist saying “OK” when the publicist asked if I was interested in reading it. When the book came and I saw the number of pages, I balked. Finally guilt did me in and I barged ahead.

What the publicist should have said was, “would you read the first 150 pages and see what you think?” The first 150 pages, give or take, is the “meat and potatoes,” the rest is a trip report.

Right from the introduction, I waivered between “we could do this” and “are they nuts? we could never do that!”

I’m still undecided, but this book (the first 150 pages) does a wonderful job of laying out all the questions that arise and the possible solutions. The solutions are well thought out and reasonable and affordable.

Phil and Carol White are retired boomers. He ran a clothing store, she worked for Lucent Technologies. He’s a salesman, she’s a geek. Pretty good combination when you are road-tripping for a year.

Here’s the only bogus claim in the book: The Whites say you don’t have to be retired to do this. *ahem* OK, not retired, but IMHO you have to be unemployed. (When this book was first written gas was $1.75/gallon.) So things have changed. The Whites refer to employers giving “sabatticals.” The other option was working a job on the road. Both really stretch credibility.

This is a book for the unemployed who want to take a year and go on the road living in the back of a van.

I enjoyed that this book cuts right to the chase. On page seventeen is the White’s budget vs. actual comparison. (All of their worksheets are available online too.) On page 25, they suggest solutions for those who depend on you – like your no good brother-in-law or your kids who mooch on you to be baby-sitters a couple times a week or the folks at the Home for Unwed Geezers.

Those are some fundamental concerns in many people’s lives and Phil and Carol White offer their advice for making it work – if that’s what you really want.

Here are some other concerns they faced and how they addressed each one:

• Where will the money come from?
• What about our house?
• What about cars?
• We have family responsibilities.
• What about pets?
• Won’t he/she drive me insane?

If you follow the path of “Yes, We Can” then the Whites have a veritable “how-to” guide that covers every possible scenario. They have done it – broken shock to broken ankle – and this book and their website is a real-life look at life in a van, on the road, for a whole year. Details? Fully explored eg: where to get your nails done or haircut?

It’s pretty cool. I’m glad they did it. I wonder if we could!