Mode Noovo

I see a lot of RVs in our neighborhood, and I see a lot of RVs parked in driveways in our neighborhood for months on end. To me, that’s a reality check worth thinking about before you buy your own RV.

The questions that you need to carefully consider before putting down tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars: How exactly are you going to use your RV? How can it be used?

We chose a Noovo, a van-based RV, primarily because it was the best RV at answering these questions. It has, if you will, different modes. We don’t have the Noovo yet (soon!), but these are the ways, the modes, in which we plan to use it.

Mode vacation

This is why everyone buys every RV, more or less. You take the RV on vacation both as your means of travel and as your lodging. From weekends to weeks, to months, the RV is the companion to the trip, allowing you not so much to go places you couldn’t already go in your car, but to go in a very different style. The RV makes the trip a different trip.

Mode beach picnic

We live on the California coast, but everyone lives near something: a beautiful forest, a lake, a park. Here, the RV is a wonderfully convenient super-tent, maybe not any sort of centerpiece to the day’s activities (which might take place nearby but not at or in the RV), but serves as a nearby refrigerator, cooking area, bathroom (if not otherwise available), and water for rinsing off sandy feet. You go, you picnic, you come home, and the RV makes it all more fun.

Mode coffee shop/office

I have an office at home, but I do most of my writing and photoshopping at a local coffee shop. I like getting out of the house, away from the distractions, into the fresh air to clear my head. An RV, especially a van and especially a Noovo Plus with its amazing lounge area, can serve as a daily office-on-wheels, parking at whatever scenic overlook strikes one’s fancy, work and walks in the sun serving to drive your productivity. And for two people, like with us, one might work, and the other person can go do something else nearby, a great mix for “regular” life. 

Mode power outage

Where we live its a little bit of the Wild West as far as electrical infrastructure goes. Last year, we had power outages lasting four days in December (including Christmas) and a few more days in a row this January, not to mention back in 2023, when we were out for a week in January, a week in February, and another week in March. That was unusual but not that unusual. Sure, we have a little Honda inverter generator, but having a battery-based RV like the Noovo sitting in our drive will give us another option.

Mode pandemic

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, we drove across the country to take my oldest daughter to graduate school in Pennsylvania. We brought sanitizer for the rooms, we were careful about contact with others, avoiding certain places, and using alcohol gel on our hands at every opportunity. It took a great deal of discipline and attention to maintain a high level of rigor in our attention to avoiding exposure, especially when traveling as a small group. While on the road, we met many people who, when the pandemic hit, just hit the road in their RV, just went fully mobile. Though the small town where I live is a low-risk area for any future pandemic (which are no doubt coming), having an RV gives us a safer way to travel during one, away from hotel rooms, away from restaurants with their sometimes poor sanitation and ventilation. 

Mode guest room

How many guest rooms do you have for visitors in your house? Now you have one more. And, depending on the person, it might be the most desirable room. I know my daughters might very well put staying in the Noovo at number one on their list, above their own childhood bedroom. Taking this thinking a step further, many homeowners will reserve a room for guests, even two, because even if you don’t get guests regularly, you want to offer them a room when they do come. So the guest room spends most of its time in limbo, maybe used for other purposes around the edges, but primarily a dormant space. An expensive dormant space. Perhaps, with a desirable RV in the drive, you no longer need that permanent guest room, perhaps you can reclaim that space.

Mode driveway party

If the weather is good, why not have a driveway party? This works especially well in a Noovo. You can park the van with the rear door open, facing the road, and invite friends and anyone else who happens by. That Noovo lounge table is the perfect gathering place for friends, for game night, and for making a novel evening get-together. And while you’ll want to offer your friends the use of your house restroom and rope off the RV one, the preparation for a driveway party (or, as we are calling the idea, a Noovo party) might make you want to do it on the spur of the moment.

Mode mobile hangout

Take your driveway party on the road. Call those same friends and tell them to meet you at some cool location, maybe even reserve a campsite for the day with no intention of spending the night. The RV is the gathering space, the shelter, the place with the food and drink and fun—and now the view.

Mode base camp

Sometimes I make photographs in places away from services. Many times, after hiking and shooting for hours, I think to myself, boy, I sure could use a half-hour nap to clear my head. Or maybe I want to download the photos off the camera and have a quick look at what I’ve done in the morning in order to make better choices about the images I will be making later that day. With the RV nearby, I can pop back in, take a break from the sun or the cold, look over my work, and plan my next course of action with ease. This same “format” works even if you aren’t a photographer. The RV as base camp would be wonderful at a dark-sky site star-party, visiting an urban area, exploring an area by e-bike, and on and on. It gives you somewhere to be when you are not particularly anywhere, even if you are staying at a hotel that night or heading home.

Our Noovo will be a vacation RV, sure, but it will be so much more.