Full Time RVer

Imagine your RV smashed from the rear by a semi-truck with such force that you don’t even recall the accident. Sad to say, highway accidents involving RVs do happen, but what makes Bob Skelding’s run-in (or was it a run-down?) with the semi unusual is that his coach was running on limited horsepower: Four to be precise.

Bob’s kind of an unusual sort. He wanted to set out to see the country and meet Americans, only he wanted an RV drawn by his four pals, Joyce, Deedee, Dolly, and Doc, all of them Percheron draft horses. When he started looking at available horse drawn coaches, Bob found what he really wanted was an RV that horses could pull–and since nobody produced one commercially, well, he’d have to do the job himself. So he designed and constructed a 16 1/2′ coach complete with what most of us would expect in an RV: Galley with stove and fridge, a bathroom with a shower, a comfortable bedroom, and electrical support–both 12-volt and shore power.

Last August Bob started out from New Hampshire to visit the countryside and its people. By September he’d made it through Vermont and well into New York. Winter found Bob and the team in Indiana–and so the road goes. When February finally rolled around the intrepid equestrian-RVer was plodding along in Mississippi when the disaster struck. Bob doesn’t recall the accident, nor apparently his time on a respirator. Sadly, he lost “the old gray mares,” Deedee and Dolly in the accident that completely wiped out his RV.

Now recovering at the home of his sister in North Carolina, Bob hasn’t given up his dream trip. Contributors have sent funds to Bob and the two remaining team mates. With a characteristic forward looking statement, Bob writes, “I’m doing great and have a good positive attitude (negative thoughts are just wasted brain waves).” As soon as he’s able, Bob Skelding says he’ll rebuild his four horsepower RV, rebuild his pulling team, and head out on the road again.

You can’t keep a good RVer down.

Visit Bob’s website at www.wagonteamster.com