JEFF: Here come my two-tone loafers. Hello, hello. Jeff Goldblum here.
Things catch my eye, you know, and I get a little fascinated.
May I tantalize you with a bit of an adventure proposition?
Here I am in a motor home. I think all told over the years, you know,
if you add it up, I spent like a couple of years of my life in these things,
you know, on movie sets.
And many things have happened to me in them.
All sorts of backstage experiences.
You know, I've had alarming phone calls in them, I've 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.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
To shares of Winnebago not trending higher, jumping!
FEMALE VOICE: New numbers from the RV industry
show Americans have rediscovered the great outdoors.
MALE VOICE: It's a perfect storm right now for the RV industry.
JEFF: What is it about RVs? Why do we love them so darn much?
Come with me as we think and as we travel...
(SINGING)
(ENGINE REVVING)
(QUIET PIANO PLAYING)
JEFF: Now, you know, if you're like me,
you may assume that your typical RV owners are retired folk,
but times have changed.
(HIP HOP MUSIC PLAYING)
FEMALE VOICE: The industry has traditionally, of course,
relied on retirees for growth,
but now, millennials are getting behind the wheel.
JEFF: Okay, well, if I'm going to understand this RV boom,
I guess I need to talk to these...
these types who seem to be in full flush of their vigor.
Uh, but, where do you find these saplings? That's the question.
(SINGING)
Here we are at the Hollywood RV Park.
I never knew of such a place, but here we are and, uh...
look, there's some RVs here. One thing I do see,
I think you 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...
uh, the world according to me.
-I'm Jayne. Jayne Morgan. -Jayne Morgan. I'm Jeff Goldblum.
-Nice to meet you. -It's nice to meet you.
-Are you a painter? -I am.
-You live here? -JAYNE: Mm-hmm.
For how long have you done 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 of art shows, and, uh...
decided it was too nice to go back.
If I lived in apartment, I would never go outside.
Hey, do you see this big locust
-or something? What's that big... -Yes.
...bumble bee locu... half locust, half bumble bee.
Get away from Jayne Morgan. Get away! Get away!
-(JAYNE CHUCKLES) -Holy cats, did 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.
-JEFF: Am I just hallucinating... -(MARCO SNORTS)
...or is there a large...
pig behind me?
CAITLIN: Marco, come get some snacks.
Hey, Marco. Marco, you want a peanut?
-(CAITLIN CHUCKLES) -Marco. Marco. Marco!
-Marc... Marco! -(MARCO GRUNTS)
-Gee. -CAITLIN: Okay.
-You have to be a little careful, huh? -Yeah.
You definitely don't wanna put your hands in an animal's mouth.
-Okay. -(MARCO SNORTS)
-We like the people here. -JESSICA: Yeah.
I liked the company I ended up getting in for work.
So everything just kinda worked out really easy.
If we decide we wanna go, then we can go again.
-The world is your oyster. -JESSICA: Yeah.
We can literally pack up our house and take it with us.
-JEFF: Isn't that nice? -It's lucky.
WOMAN: (SINGING)
(CONTINUES SINGING)
(SINGING ENDS)
"Goin' 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. (CHUCKLING)
JEFF: This new generation of, uh, RV fans seems pretty smitten,
but how did our love affair begin?
(SOFT MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: 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. -RYAN: Okey-doke!
JEFF: "Okey-doke"?
-Hello, sir. (LAUGHS) -Look at you. I'm already enrolled.
This is the RV Hall of Fame Museum, where they have RVs, and I wanna see 'em.
-How many RVs are here? -About 65.
-JEFF: 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.
-RYAN: Uh-huh! -I have not looked around,
but I just took a peek over my shoulder, and I see that this is the 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.
-That's the reaction we're going for.
This one is actually in the records as the oldest RV.
-This was actually in 1913? -Yep. 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 50-mile radius of the center of Elkhart.
It seems quiet, now. How many people do you get on a...
A good day is about a hundred and fifty guests.
I'm already over-stimulated
-by the whole thing. Can you tell? -(RYAN LAUGHS)
The Tennessee Traveler over here is another one that's iconic.
When you look inside them, it's amazing that this is how it started,
and then when you look at the new ones, what you're used to being in...
-JEFF: Right. -...you can see where it evolved from.
Sure! Oh, look at these two little children!
RYAN: That's Phil and Lisa.
-Why do they have names? -I named them.
I have an affinity for this place
-and I need to put a name... -JEFF: You do?
...to the people that I'm seeing every day.
Okay, so this is an Airstream.
Oh, this is a German one. 1958. (SPEAKS GERMAN)
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.
JEFF: How often do you do that?
Very often, I think that that tree right there, I've probably moved
eight times in the last two months.
All righty, 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.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
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.
-(LAUGHING) -Hi, this is my motor home,
and I'm in a parade.
This is one of the units that the guests just absolutely love.
-JEFF: What the heck is this? -RYAN: This is a crank-up tent trailer.
JEFF: This is sort of... It's kind of a variation on camping.
If you're in these things, are you camping?
Oh, 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.
JEFF: I mean, when I was a kid, our family used to 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.
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?
-(EAGLE SCREECHES) -JEFF: 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 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 motor car 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...
(HUMS IN SING-SONG TONE)
...the veritable cornucopia of vehicles of 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. You know, they're like little time capsules.
Wouldn't it be interesting to find out... who makes them?
Elkhart residents 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 want to 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. A little less than a million.
-JEFF: Holy cats. -Seven hundred and forty roughly.
JEFF: 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.
-Yeah, you are. -JEFF: Yeah.
Hurry up. Okay. Next time try to push a little yourself.
-What are we doing now? -So, now...
-we gotta run lags... -JEFF: Oh, boy.
...all the way down this thing
-and we're gonna let you do that. -Lags? What's a lag?
(LAG WHIRS)
-Pretty simple. Straight up. -Simple, but powerful.
-Support the bottom. Pull the trigger. -JEFF: Yeah. Watch this.
-(WHIRS) -JEFF: Oh!
-MALE VOICE: Lots of pressure up. -Pressure up.
You said, "support the bottom", you didn't say pressure up.
Yeah, that was a key factor I left out.
JEFF: Now, I'm an observant kind of fella, 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 craftsmanship
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. Can I take a look at what you're doing by any chance?
-Sure, go ahead. -What is this?
Uh, this is the bed that goes into the slide out.
I have to put the back panel on here.
-I'll let you staple it on if you want to. -I can? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I like a staple.
Just the trigger right here. You hold it against, and...
You ever have any accidents with this?
-Yeah. Yeah. -Really?
-(STAPLE CLICKS) -Holy cats!
I'm the guy with the stapler. Maybe they call me Stapleman.
Hey, that's a good idea, should I do a movie where I'm Stapleman?
-Sure, go ahead. -Would you be my,
you know, Robin to my Batman. If I was Stapleman, you'd be...
-MARCUS: I don't know. -Maybe Marcus.
-Yeah, just Marcus. -Stapleman and Marcus.
-Okay, here. -(STAPLE CLICKS)
Do you spend much time in these RVs, yourself? I mean...
-Not really. -Would you ever go on a trip?
-No, prob... not in an RV, you know. -(STAPLE CLICKS)
-Where... What would you... -So, you know, we build them but...
I don't really... I don't really use them.
JEFF: Okay, quick moment for a Theology lesson.
(COUNTRY MUSIC PLAYING)
MALE VOICE: The Amish religion governs every phase of life.
JEFF: 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'm so curious to meet a fellow named Eli,
who's trained as an electrician.
ELIAS: We're gonna go see a brand-new Cornerstone.
JEFF: This is the top of the top?
ELIAS: This is basically the top of the top.
Wow, wait a minute.
ELIAS: This is very, very roomy in here.
-JEFF: Roomy? -ELIAS: Right.
I could live in here. Look, would you like to live in a place like that?
I would love to live in a place like this.
-What's your house now... now like? -Uh, nothing like this.
This has got everything that you can imagine.
This is our touchpad,
-where we can operate everything. -JEFF: Why is that called "stool"?
This is the stool room, that's by this door right here.
-JEFF: Mm-hmm -So that... that would be
the bathroom in this coach.
So they call it stoolroom, 'cause it's got a stool.
-Oh! I thought because you made stools. -No. (CHUCKLES)
-It's got a stool. -It's got a stool, yeah.
-Upon which you can produce stools. -Correct.
There's a slide out here. Press the button that says "out" on it.
Okay. There it goes. Wait a minute. Everything's moving!
Oh!
Oh! I like it.
I like it.
Is being Amish a big part of your 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...
-Yeah. -...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 all. -Nothing at all when I get home.
Do you feel like you're two separate sides?
I kinda feel like it's my... that's my work,
-my job. -Yeah.
So, I wanna do the best I can for the customer.
And I... I love it.
While we were in the delightful trailer...
-Yeah. -...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 it'd be very fun to...
you know, take it out to the East Coast of 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.
JEFF: 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.
-(HORN HONKS) -ELIAS: There you go!
(JEFF LAUGHS)
JEFF: Oh, baby, wait a minute.
Oh, that's a...
Wow, look at that! We got out of... we just got out of there.
-ELIAS: Yep. -We just got out of there.
We're like a long train.
(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)
You know that song...
(CONTINUES SINGING)
-You know that one? -ELIAS: No, I've never heard that one.
-You never saw Easy Rider? -No.
Hmm.
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 kind of a lifestyle that's kinda...
They've taken a road less traveled.
And they've made a vehicle...
for people who take a road less 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.
JEFF: The Beaty's four-wheeled home has already clocked over 10,000 miles,
-traveling across 16 states. -(BEEPING)
And Stephanie, the mom, works as a freelance photographer
and shares every interesting moment of their adventure
-with their 10,000 Instagram followers. -(VAN HORN HONKS)
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.
-MIKE: 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! -STEPHANIE: Yeah.
-JEFF: I've never been anywhere in an RV. -RVs are made for travelling.
RVs are made for travelling.
We're taking the family over to Paradise Cove
to go check out the tide pools, we'd love to invite you with us.
JEFF: 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 get a little chance to have a talk with Mike.
Being in an RV, how has it really changed your relationship with the kids?
-As a father? -JEFF: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Oh, it's been amazing.
This was an opportunity to be a part of their lives
uh, and be present, just being present in a 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, you start it again with another
-three or four children is what you mean? -(MIKE LAUGHS)
-No? -No, no.
Should I be the one to break it to Stephanie?
That's right. That's right.
If you could suit me up in a suit of armor before that notification.
JEFF: Wow. 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.
-Really? -So it's like Tetris.
This turns around, this folds into a bed for this guy,
he gets a couch for a year.
Three kids get on the top shelf up there, the overhang.
-JEFF: Wow. -This is everywhere we've been.
This is the Grand Canyon, it's made out of wood, so they love that.
Would you like to serve up some pancakes
-here in a second? All right. -Yes, I would.
"Pancake breakfast," those are my two favorite words
-in the English language. -STEPHANIE: All right.
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 off the door,
-and I get to kind of hang out by myself. -JEFF: Oh.
Well, that's fantastic. Hey, look, I think I'm doing
-a pretty good job with these pancakes. -STEPHANIE: You are!
You guys need more whipped cream?
-JEFF: Well, whipped cream, look at that. -STEPHANIE: That's right.
Oh, my gosh, look at those things, I used to have that when I was a kid
-and just used to put that right... -STEPHANIE: Right.
...in my mouth and go like that, you know.
(STEPHANIE LAUGHING)
Well let's head down to the beach.
All right. Hey guys, let's set some of our things down over here.
Ah! This is 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, ten minutes,
I feel like I've come across the whole of America.
STEPHANIE: 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 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, shoe-horned out of my house and get on the road.
Now I think it's the human experience to go on a journey.
Hey, maybe that's the power of the RV.
(MUSIC CRESCENDO)
JEFF: 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,
you know, we seem to have a desire to seek out our next adventure.
I think that’s... that's maybe what the RV taps in to.
Jeez, maybe we're all still nomads at heart.
I have a new-found 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.
-(ENGINE REVS) -(OPERA MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: I got two words for ya, "demolition derby."
-My name is Karlie, and this is my... -Hi Karlie, I'm Jeff.
-...my rig for tonight. -Your rig? Wait a minute,
you mean you're gonna drive this, and um, wreck it?
-Yes, sir. -I have an appointment with Greg,
-is he of 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. -GREG: How you doin'?
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've just gone down to the scrapyard.
-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? You're a rescuer. -Yep.
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 kinda for granted.
If anything, 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 going to be a lot of... It's very emotional.
(ENGINE REVS)
JEFF: In tonight's family head-to-head match-up,
Greg is driving the black RV, number 14,
while Karlie is behind the wheel of the black one, number 34.
MALE VOICE: Three, two, one! Motorhome action, final heat of the night!
(ENGINES REVVING)
Pretty soon, they're gonna start to crash into each other.
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING)
-(THUD) -Wow, did you see that?
(CROWD CHEERING)
(AIR HORN BLOWS)
MALE VOICE: Checkered flag,
-checkered flag. -Checkered flag?
MALE VOICE: What do you say, Turlock, California motorhome!
JEFF: What happened, who won?
-MALE VOICE: Thirty-four, Karlie Mathews. -JEFF: Amazing.
That was 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. -Oh, Karlie. Karlie.
-You haven't won in 13 years? -Never gotten first place.
-He's always beaten me. -(GREG CHEERS)
Karlie, I was rooting for you. I was hoping you'd win.
Oh! 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 we can share those experiences
with the people who matter most, 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.
(MUSIC PLAYING)