It sure beats flying
The million-dollar-plus market is dominated by Newell, which makes 44 custom-built RVs annually, and Prevost (pronounced "pray-vo") conversions, made by 20 or so companies using the shells of European-style tour buses from Quebec's Prevost Car, a Volvo unit. Celebrities who use RVs on tour tend to prefer Prevosts, which have the mechanical guts and suspension of intercity buses and can last a million miles or more.

Private owners have typically been well-heeled retirees. Partial to country music, boating, horse shows, and NASCAR races, "most of 'em made it the hard way," says Liberty owner Sonny Erp, a home developer from Ocala, Fla. That owner profile is changing, though, as RVs get fancier and luxury RV resorts become more prevalent. One exec who's sold on RVs is Liberty Media's Malone, 64. He's usually at the wheel of his Newell when he and his wife, Leslie, 63, travel between their Colorado home and their ranch in New Mexico. "People are intimidated by the size of the things, but they really aren't hard to run," Malone says. The Malones prefer the RV to flying partly because it's easy to travel with their pets — five pugs and a Boston bull terrier.

Making friends is part of the appeal. Companies sponsor owners' clubs that organize tours and rallies, as does an umbrella group with more than 1,000 members called Prevost Prouds. As a result of attending Newell rallies, "many of my best friends are other Newell owners," says Neely. Recently the Luttrells went to a three-day gathering in Kentucky horse country that attracted three dozen Liberty RVs. Their owners took a distillery tour, motorcycled together, and went to a concert by country star Randy Travis, who tours in a Liberty.

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The pastime's other big lure is flexibility. "When I was young, my parents had a seaside house, and I hated going to the same place all the time," says Ken Dunsire, 73, a retired Lincoln National executive vice-president. He and his wife, Stephanie, 62, put 20,000 miles a year on their custom-built Featherlite coach. Some people keep their coaches packed with clothes and food so they can take off any time. Wayne and Rebecca Battle, both 71, who own a sawmill in Wadley, Ga., often decide where they're going as they're heading out the driveway. They've ended up as far away as Maine and Las Vegas. "We also have a condo in Daytona [Beach, Fla.]," says Wayne, who drives a Liberty, his fifth. "If I had to give up one, I'd keep the coach." A lot of his fellow luxury RVers would say amen to that.

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