Duane and Lynda Pilson

Duane and Linda Pilson’s love of the RV lifestyle came about after a weekend experience in a tent. The couple started RVing in May 1972 when they bought their first trailer. They have taken an RV to every province in Canada except Newfoundland and Labrador and to 17 states. They enjoyed RVing with their children, teaching them about the areas and communities they travelled through. During their 41 years of RVing they have owned and used every type of RV except a fifth wheel, B-class motorhome or tent trailer.

The RV lifestyle has taken the Pilsons not only travelling, but also writing and teaching RV lifestyle seminars across Western Canada. In addition, they have developed and taught courses covering all aspects of RVing through adult education programs and RV rallies, developed and organized an RV safety check program that operated for 17 years in Alberta, worked with more than 1000 RV volunteers, and written articles for RV West since its first issue in 2001. In their spare time they have organized and hosted the RV West rallies for the past eight years, and the 2013 Fairmont Hot Springs Rally will be the ninth.

During a trip to Alaska in 1996, using an eight-foot stubby camper, the Pilsons were bitten by the North Bug, which is something you cannot see, taste, hear or feel, but does exist for many travellers. Once they had experienced what Alaska and the Yukon had to offer, they wanted to share their experience with other RVers by providing them with best experience and giving them a trip of a lifetime. Prior to retiring in 1999, they started an RV caravan company called Rec-Vee Holiday Adventures in 1998 to take RVers to Alaska, Yukon and the Northwest Territories as well as Branson, Missouri.

After retiring in 1999, they were able to commit their full time to their passions: travelling and promoting the RV lifestyle. They jokingly tell people that the RV caravans gave them the best of both worlds, being paid to take their customers where they wanted to be anyway (three times to Branson, 11 times to Alaska and three times to the Northwest Territories).

After having their trailer written off after a hail storm in Southern Alberta last year, the Pilsons are
without an RV at present, but are excitedly waiting for their new a 36-foot Sprinter to be delivered this spring. If you want to know what’s it like to go to Alaska and the Yukon, follow them and their new trailer on their northern journey this summer