"Here come my two-tone loafers"
"Hello, Hello Jeff Goldblum here"
"Things catch my eye, you know and I get little fascinated"
May I, tantalize you with a bit of a...
an adventure, proposition?
Here I am in a, motorhome
I think, all-told over the years, you know
if you add it up, it's been a couple of years of my life in these things
You know, on movie sets
And many things have happened to me in them
Mmm, all sorts of backstage experiences
"You know, I've had alarming phone calls in them"
"I've been, been horrified in them"
"I've rejoiced in them"
"I've, been sick in them"
"I've, fallen in love in them"
"I've been stimulated in them"
But I've never been on a real road trip
And I've never thought about the vehicle itself
Until this moment... now
"to shares of Winnebago not trending higher, jumping"
"New numbers from the RV industry show Americans"
"have rediscovered the great outdoors"
"It's a perfect storm right now for the RV industry"
"What is it about RVs?"
"Why do we love them so darn much?"
Come with me as we think and as we travel on the road again
"Let's get back on the road for the first time"
"Now, you know if you're like me"
"you may assume that your typical RV owners are..."
"are retired folk but times have changed"
"The industry traditionally of course"
"relied on retirees for growth"
"but now, millennials are getting behind the wheel"
"Okay, well, if I'm gonna understand this RV boom"
"I guess I need to talk to these..."
"these types who seem to be in full flush of their vigor"
"but where do you find these saplings?"
"That's the question Younger than springtime!"
Here we are at the Hollywood RV Park
I never knew of such a place but here we are
And look there's some RVs here
One thing I do see I think you can probably see it
over my shoulder is a green Marilyn Monroe
It's the worst rendition of Marilyn Monroe's face
I've ever seen
Anyway, that's my humble opinion That's, the...
the world according to me
I'm Jayne Jayne Morgan
I'm Jeff Goldblum
- Nice to meet you - Nice to meet you
- Are you a painter? - I am
You live here?
For how long have you been doing that?
Well, I came out here last August thinking I'd stay, like, a month
So what happened? You were gonna stay for a month
and now you're here for a year? What happened?
I just came out to do a couple art shows
and, decided it was too nice go back
If I lived in an apartment I would never go outside
Hey, do you see this big locust or something?
- Yes - What's that big bumblebee locu...
half locust, half bumblebee? Get away from Jayne Morgan!
Get away! Get away!
Holy cats Do you see that?
Are you sure you like the outdoor life now?
- maybe - Yeah, that's what I think
We were interested in full-timing So, living in one full-time
because it seems kind of a shame to us that...
you know, you work for so long your whole life
and then you never get to actually see the country you're from
and, you know find out who you are
Am I just hallucinating or is there a large pig behind me?
- Marco, come get some snacks - Hey, Marco
Marco, you want a peanut?
Marco, Marco
Ah, Marco!
Ah! Marc... Marco
- Gee - Okay
You have to be a little careful, huh?
Yeah, you definitely don't wanna put your hands in an animal's mouth
Okay
- We like the people here - Yeah
I liked the company I ended up getting in for work
So, everything just kind of worked out really easy
And if we decide we wanna go then we can go again
- So the world is your oyster - Yeah
We can literally pack up our house and take it with us
- Isn't that nice? - It's lucky
"I got a feeling deep in my chest"
"to ditch New York and head out west"
- "I know I got to hit the road" - "Got to hit the road"
"Going where the weather suits my soul"
- "Suits my soul" - "I said, ooh..."
- "California, I'm..." - "California..."
- "I'm coming home" - "I'm coming home"
"Yeah, make beknown Make beknown"
"Going where the weather suits my soul"
"Going where the weather suits my soul"!
Is that your... Is that your credo for how you wound up in RVs?
Home on the road
Wherever you go, it's safe It's sacred, the energy's there
And it's always yours no matter where you are
"This new generation of RV fans seems pretty smitten"
"but how did our love affair begin?"
"Elkhart, Indiana"
"Green fields, lots of corn"
"Lots of corn"
"And it's the RV capital of the entire world"
"Where better to continue on my path towards enlightenment"
"than right here in a temple to all things RV?"
Ryan, Mr. Goldblum's here for you
"Okey-doke"
Okey-doke?
- Hello, sir - Look at you, I'm already enrolled
This is the RV hall of fame museum where they have RVs
and I wanna see them How many RVs are here?
About 65
- Lead the way - Okay, here we go
You're my witness, Ryan And I have not come...
This is the first time I'm here I have not looked around
but I just... I just took a peek over my shoulder
and I see that this is a room with lots of RVs
Exactly right, yeah
This is me seeing it for the first time
We're starting with the 1913
I cannot believe what I'm seeing
I cannot believe what I'm seeing!
That's the reaction we're going for!
This one is actually in the records as the oldest RV
- This was actually in 1913? - Yup, this is the first one
And it's being pulled by a Model T there
- What? - Here's a fun fact about Elkhart
Eighty percent of all the RVs are manufactured
within a fifty-mile radius of the center of Elkhart
It seems quiet now How many people do you get?
A good day is about a hundred and fifty guests
I'm already overstimulated by the whole thing, can you tell?
The Tennessee Traveler over here is another one that's iconic
When you look inside 'em it's amazing
that this is how it started
And then when you look at the new ones
- Right - what you're used to being in...
- you can see where it evolved from - Sure
- Look at these two little children! - That's Phil and Lisa
- Why do they have names? - I named them
I have an affinity for this place And I, I need to...
put a name to the people that I'm seeing every day
- Okay, so this is an Airstream - This is a German one, 1958
Der kleine Prinz!
- Do you ever stay after hours? - I do
One of my favorite things to do is rearrange all of these decorations
- to set up the displays - How often do you do that?
Very often I think that that tree right there
I probably moved eight times in the last two months
Alrighty, I need to show you the Mae West unit
Paramount Studios actually built this for her as an incentive
to come and do movies for them
"I see a man in your life"
What? Only one?
Hi there I'm Mae West
I think Mae West might have been a little shorter than you are
Hi, this is my motorhome And I'm in a parade
This is one of the units that the guests just absolutely love
- What the heck is this? - This is a crank-up tent trailer
This is sort of a... It's a kind of a variation on camping
If you're in these things are you camping?
yeah, people who have an affinity for this, kind of thing
they like to go camping for long periods of time
Can I confess something to you though?
What's that?
- I've never been camping in my life - Oh, no
"I mean, when I was a kid our families take vacations"
"you know"
"But, we never went camping I never went camping with them"
"I've never been camping since"
"But we used to go a bunch to Atlantic City, New Jersey"
"to the Boardwalk"
"There we are with my two older brothers, Rick and Lee"
"And I don't know what my hand's doing in my, jacket there"
"Unlike me, most, RV enthusiasts use their vehicles"
"to head out into the wilderness"
"But where did the whole idea of a portable home away from home"
"come from?"
"Well, camping is nothing new but for a long time"
"it wasn't something that we necessarily enjoyed"
"Sleeping in a tent meant you know"
"fighting a war or braving a new frontier"
"Not unlike the... the American pioneers"
"when they were heading out west"
"Even Genghis Khan found camping tedious"
"Legend says that he insisted that his yurt be kept permanently erect"
"on the back of a giant wagon"
"But everything changed in 1869"
"when William H. H. Murray published a guidebook
"teaching us about the joy of camping"
"and suddenly everybody wanted to pitch a tent"
"Then several decades later the motorcar was invented"
"and it gave some enterprising outdoorsy types a great idea"
"tents on wheels"
"But some people still wanted more comfort, so RVs began evolving"
"Until..."
"imitates fanfare a veritable cornucopia of vehicles of a..."
"a recreational kind"
You know, my brain is full of 65, different RVs
"They're so beautiful, you know many of them so intricately crafted"
"and thoughtfully constructed they're like little time capsules"
"Wouldn't it be interesting to find out who makes them?"
"Elkhart residence have been building trailers for almost a century"
"I've been offered a sneak peek"
"inside one of the biggest manufacturers in town"
"Jayco have made more than a million RVs"
"Isn't that something?"
"On the production line today is one of the grandest RVs in their fleet"
"which sounds like the perfect opportunity for me"
"to get my hands dirty"
"That's what I wanna do"
How much would one of these run you?
Is this the top of the line? Is this the biggest one there is?
This is our not-quite-top-of-the-line...
- Yeah - but just under it
- Little less than a million - Holy cats
- Seven hundred and forty, roughly - Seven forty?
We're actually ready to get this guy over here and load her up
Well, let me help
Okay
Yeah
- I'm doing most of the work here - Yes, you are
- Yeah, here we go - Going first?
Okay, next time try to push a little yourself
- What are we doing now? Oh, boy - So now we got to run...
We got to run lags all the way down this thing
- I really want you to do that - Lags? What's a lag?
Pretty simple Straight up
- Simple but powerful - Support the bottom...
- Yeah, watch this - pull the trigger
Whoa!
- Lots of pressure up - Pressure up?
You said support the bottom You didn't say pressure up
Yeah, that's a key factor I left out
"Now, I... I'm an observant kind of fellow, I think"
"and I've noticed that there's something interesting"
"about quite a few of the workers at Jayco"
"I'm told that over a third of the employees here are"
"Amish which may help to explain"
"the beautiful homespun craftsman ship that's going into these vehicles"
"And I'm about to get a little tutorial with Amish carpenter"
"Marcus, who's been building RVs for the last seven years"
- Hi - Okay
Can I take a look at what you're doing by any chance?
- Sure, go ahead - What... What is this?
this is the bed that goes into the slide out
I have to put the back panel on here
And I'll let you staple it on if you want to
- I can? Yeah, yeah, yeah! - Yeah
- I... I like a staple - I'll get the panel
Just the trigger right here You know, hold it against and...
You ever have any accidents with this?
- Yeah - Really?
- Yeah - Holy cats!
I'm the guy with the stapler Maybe they'll call me Staple Man
Hey, that's a good idea!
Should I do a movie where I'm Staple Man?
Sure, go ahead
Would you be my, you know Robin to my Batman?
If I was Staple Man you'd be...
- I don't know - Maybe Marcus
- Yeah, just Marcus - Staple Man and Marcus
Okay, here
Do you spend much time in these RVs yourself? I mean...
- Not really - Would you ever go on a trip?
No, probably... Not... Not an RV, no
- Wait What... Why... - we build them but I don't really...
I don't really use them
"okay, quick, quick moment for a theology lesson"
"The Amish religion governs every phase of life"
"Outside of work"
"the Amish follow a set of rules to help preserve their community"
"and that means no driving cars or owning electronics or computers"
"And no, absolutely no RVs, of course"
"But inside the workplace"
"the guidelines can be a little more relaxed"
"And I am so curious to meet a fellow named Eli"
"who's trained as an electrician"
We're gonna go see a brand-new Cornerstone
- This is the top of the top? - This is basically the top of the top
- Wait a minute - This is very, very roomy in here
- Roomy? - Right
I could live in here, look
Would you like to live in a place like this?
I would love to live in a place like this
What's your house now now like?
nothing like this
This has got everything that you can imagine
This is our touchpad where we can operate everything
- Ooh, why is that called stool? - This is the stool room
That's by this door right here So this...
That would be the bathroom in this coach
So they call it a stool room because it's got a stool
Oh, I thought because you made stools
- No - It's got a stool?
- It's got a stool, yeah - Upon you can produce stools
Correct, a little slide-out here
Press on the button that says "out" on it
Okay
There it goes Wait a minute
Everything's moving
I like it
Is being a Amish a big part of your l... life, would you say?
- It's kind of where I grew up, so... - Yeah
the way we are taught the way our parents raised us is...
the way that we're supposed to keep going
Isn't it interesting that your life is centered around electronics here
- and then nothing at home? - Nothing at all when I get home
Do you feel like you're two separate sides?
I kind of feel like it's my... That's my work
My job, so I wanna do the best I can for the customer
And I... I love it
While we were in the delightful trailer...
- Okay - you said that, at some point
you'd like to make a trip in a place like that, what do you think?
That was always my dream after I started working here
I thought I'd be very fun to you know
take it out to the East Coast or something
Especially these coaches you know, everything's there
- It's like your home - Yeah
And it's almost better than people's homes, it's amazing
"Eli and I are, taking one of these guys out for a spin"
"But Amish rules mean..."
"that I'm gonna be the one in the driver's seat"
There you go
Oh, baby Wait a minute
Oh, that's a... Look how... Wow! Look at that
We got out of... We just got out of there!
- Yeah - We just got out of there
We're like a long train
You know that song
"Roll out on the highway"
"looking for a camp trailer"
"with whatever comes our way"
"Born to be wild"
"Eli and I we're born to be wild"
- Do you know that one? - No, I've never heard that one
- You never saw Easy Rider? - No
Jayco's recreational vehicles It's not J Lo's recreational cuticles
That would be another kind of business
This is Jayco recreational vehicles
And many of them are made by the Amish, the lovely Amish
They have a kind of lifestyle that's kinda...
They... They've taken a... a road less traveled
and they've made a vehicle for people
who take a roadless traveled
Am I thinking something interesting?
It is interesting
It's very interesting
"You know, I'm starting to realize that it's not about the vehicle"
"It's all about a lifestyle"
"And if I'm gonna understand this so-called van life"
"I gotta talk to people who are actually behind the wheel"
"Let me introduce the... the Beaty Family"
- Hello, Jeff Goldblum - Yeah, hello
"The Beatys' four-wheeled home has already clocked"
"over 10,000 miles traveling across 16 states"
"And Stephanie, the mom works as a freelance photographer"
"and shares every interesting moment of their adventure"
"with their 10,000 Instagram followers"
Well, I'm very interested in you and you, and you, and you
- And we're talking about RVs - I'm gonna say hi to you, too!
- This is my wife, Stephanie - I'm Stephanie
- Stephanie where have you been? - Nice to meet you
So you've been going all around?
- We're on a year-long trip - You are
- We call it the family field trip - What a year!
- Yeah - I've never been anywhere in a RV
- RVs are made for travel - RVs are made for traveling
We're taking the family over to Paradise Cove
to go check out the tide pools We'd love to invite you with us
Okay, here we go
"The rules of the Beaty Family include no kids riding in the back"
"while the RV is moving"
"So with Stephanie and the rest of the ducklings following"
"behind in a car I got a little chance to have a talk with Mike"
So being in an RV how has it really changed your...
- relationship with the kids? - As a father?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah - Oh, it's been amazing
This was an opportunity to be a part of their lives
and be present, to just being present in the household
that I would love to try to do it again
say, seven or ten years in the future or whatnot
You get another wife
Just start it again with another three or four children
- is what you mean? No? Oh, really? - No! No, no
Should I would be the one to break it to Stephanie?
That's right
If you can suit me up a suit of armor before that... that notification
Hey, look at this Where the heck are we?
This is pretty nice
Smell that ocean breeze
"What I've really been wanting to do is to hop in the back"
"to see how a family of six can cohabit in such a little space"
It's like a college dorm refrigerator
- Right? For six people! - Does somebody say
"Hey, this is mine I write my name on that yogurt"
- "Don't touch it" you know? - Pretty much and so it's like Tetris
This turns around This folds into a bed for this guy
He gets the couch for a year Three kids get on the top shelf
- up there, the... the overhang - That must... Wow!
This is everywhere we've been This is the Grand Canyon
It's made out of wood so they love that
Would like to serve up some pancakes here in a second?
I guess I would Hey, pancake breakfast
that... those are my two favorite words in the English language
Do you ever feel cramped in here, like...
I do sometimes And then I send them all outside
and I have my room back there We can close the door and I get to...
- kind of hang out by myself - Well, that's fantastic
Hey, look, I think I'm doing a pretty good job of these pancakes
You guys need more whipped cream?
- Well, whipped cream - That's right
Look at that! Oh, my gosh! Look at those things
I used to have that when I was a kid, and just...
I used to put that right in my mouth and go like that, you know?
Well, let's head down to the beach
Hey, guys, let's set some of our things down over here
Oh, there's a good spot Let's throw our stuff over here
Even though I joined... Like some of those cheaters
on those marathon runs, joined in the last you know, 10 minutes
I feel like I've come across the whole of America
What were you saying? The American dream, right
and people think "What is that about?"
It's about happiness, right? And contentment
We have more than we need even though it's in this small space
And who would have ever fathomed that?
They seem free as... as a flock of birds, don't they? You know
I'll bet they found all the freedom they were looking for, you know?
Seeing the world through their eyes is a blast
I would like to go places now
I'd like to see the Grand Canyon and the Redwood Forest
I should be, you know shoehorned out of my house and...
and... and get on the road
I think it's the human experience to go on a journey
"Hey, maybe that's the power of the RV"
"You know, for hundreds of thousands of years"
"mankind has been on the move"
"exploring new lands in search of our next meal"
"But everything changed when we came up with the idea"
"of growing our own food and started to put down roots"
"But even when there was no longer a need to keep moving"
"we seemed to have a desire to seek out our next adventure"
"I think that's... that's maybe what the RV taps into"
"Jeez, maybe we're all still nomads at heart"
"I have a newfound respect for the, humble RV"
"As we reach the end of our odyssey"
"this place could offer a fitting tribute, I think, to these..."
"souped-up wagons"
"I got two words for you demolition derby"
- My name is Karlie - Hi, Karlie, I'm Jeff
- And this is my... my rig for tonight - Your rig?
Wait a minute, you mean you're gonna drive this
- and wreck it? - Yes, sir
I have an appointment with Greg Is he any relation to you?
- That's my dad - Wait a minute
- You're competing against each other? - My dad, my uncle, and my sister
This is the Maverick Man This is Greg
- How you doing? - Tell me this
is there such a thing as a sad end or a good end
if we're putting these babies to bed?
So, this rig right here could have just gone down to the scrap yard
- Yes, sir - Or we bring it out here
and it gets to go up in one big blast of plywood
This one came out of the streets of Modesto
- Abandoned in the streets of Modesto - It was abandoned?
- Yup - You're a rescuer
This is their last bit of glory right here
You know, I think RVs trigger so many emotions
I think there's hope and there's joy
And there's ecstasy
"Hey, you know before I started this journey"
"I'd taken the RV kind of for granted"
"If anything, I... I probably thought they were dull in some way"
"but now I have a notion that you know where they deserve to be?"
"Center stage"
Boy, oh, boy It's getting exciting now
Listen to that crowd Jeez, they're going crazy
I think there's gonna be a lot of... It's very emotional
"In tonight's family head-to-head matchup"
"Greg is driving the black RV number 14"
"while Karlie is behind the wheel of the black one, number 34
"Three, two, one"
"Motorhome action final heat of the night!"
Pretty soon they're gonna start to crash into each other
Did you see that?
"Checkered flag!"
- "Checkered flag!" - Checkered flag?
"What do you say, Turlock California motorhome?"
"What happened? Who won?"
"34, Karlie Matthews"
"Amazing!"
This is the best thing I ever saw in my life
Wow!
I'm a spent force
You won the whole thing? You won?
It's only taken 13 years
Karlie! Karlie! You haven't won in 13 years?
Never gotten first place He's always beaten me
Karlie, I was rooting for you I was hoping you'd win
Maybe that's why
You know I think I get the idea
"RVs give us the chance to break free from our shackles"
"to explore the world and to be the people we wanna be"
"But, more importantly"
"RVs mean that we can share those experiences"
"with the people who matter most"
"Our... Our family"
This is a... a last hurrah for a whole bunch of RVs
that have given their owners I imagine
no small amount of pleasure Sometimes, a lifetime-full
And it's a fitting send-off just like the... the... ancient
Viking funeral pyres blazing
Subtitled by: Image Production House