The King Aire is set up for both indoor and outdoor movie-watching, wherever you park.
Glamping, in my book, means tossing the bigger tent and an extra sleeping mat into the car when I go camping. Stepping into a million-dollar motor home earlier this week made me seriously reconsider how I’ve defined glamorous camping.
The boasts heated floors throughout and granite countertops in the kitchen. The one I looked at had a Sleep Number bed and double sinks in the bathroom.
A Sleep Number bed? Yeah, that beats my double Thermarests.
Jeff Mullins of , in Frederick, gave me a preview of the King Aire at the dealership on Monday, but you can see this $1 million motor home in Denver at the , which opens today and runs through Saturday at the Colorado Convention Center. ($10 for adults, kids 12 and under get in for free, $5 for members.)
While I was pausing before that Sleep Number bed, considering how much easier it would be to get up early to hike if I had a good night’s sleep in a real bed, right there at the trailhead, Mullins was probably most excited about showing me the steering feature.
The King Aire’s full bathroom (there’s also a half bath) has two sinks. Because why not.
It must be tough to drive a 45-foot RV, I said. (Technically, the King Aire is 44 feet and 11 inches — 45 feet is the legal limit, Mullins told me. It weighs about 46,000 pounds.)
“It’s easy,” he said.
Mullins and I stepped into a different motor coach in their garage, one that was $1.8 million new, but that they were now selling used…still for more than $1 million. Like the King Aire, this coach had Comfort Drive steering technology, which will correct the steering for crosswinds (“Imagine driving a billboard in the wind,” Mullins said) and smooth out those back roads with grooves from truck (or huge RV?) tires. He fired it up and spun the wheel around like he was making a big turn, then let go. The steering corrected back to center automatically.
I plopped into the passenger seat to observe. “That’s a massage chair,” Mullins said.
It wasn’t the first time I raised my eyebrows as Mullins showed me around the King Aire, which, as I noted, isn’t even the most expensive RV Transwest sells, and two other coaches. Between the gorgeous chocolate-hued cabinets, the lovely faucet fixtures and copious large televisions, both inside and out, this home away from home felt much nicer than my stationary, one-and-only home. But I’m not quite in the right demographic. Mullins said typical buyers for the King Aire (not that there are many — the manufacturer only makes 50 King Aires a year) are small business owners, entrepreneurs, self-employed folks, and they’re not necessarily retirees. More younger families seem to have discretionary income for a beautiful motor home, he said.
Whether you’re in the market or not, it’s fun to check out. Meanwhile, ahead of my next camping trip, I’ll be looking for Sleep Number’s version of a camping mat — one I can cram into the back of my Subaru.
The post appeared first on .
