LPGA player and Golf Channel analyst Karen Stupples shares her experiences traveling with her family in her RV during tournaments weeks on Tour.
When we would take my RV to a tournament, I would drive it from storage to my house to load it up with clothes, food and the essentials for Logan: toys, formula, a car seat and stroller for a rapidly growing boy.
The RV was brilliant in that we could load it up with clothes for any weather event and essentially move everything we needed from home into it. It was something we couldn't have done if we had been flying. It was our home away from home.
Then the journey would begin.
My husband would start the drive and my son would sit in his car seat in the passenger seat. I would sit on the sofa and my Yorkshire Terrier Emma, would sit on my lap. The journeys were always fun, sometimes a challenge, but that made it an adventure.
We would normally drive for no more than eight hours and arrive at a campground close to the tournament site or we would stop for the night before continuing the journey the next day.
Once parked at our site for the week, we both worked together to set up the RV. My husband Bobby’s job was always to hook up the sewer water and electric and my job was to put the levelers down and get the satellite TV hooked up so we could keep up with Golf Channel.
Once that was done, we would get the grill out and put it in place, get the picnic table just where we wanted it, put the awning out and set up some solar lights out around the RV.
Most of the campgrounds we stayed at had fire rings and we would get firewood and really enjoy the great outdoors. There was nothing better than sitting round the fire toasting marshmallows.
All of this sounds like a vacation and for the most part it felt like it, but I had tournaments to play. Logan would go to the LPGA daycare, Emma would patrol and sleep on the dash, keeping a close eye on the campground and Bobby would caddy for me.
It was a fun way to play a tournament, as it really felt like we were in our home but with a different view.
The tournament would finish on Sunday and normally that morning before going to the course we would close the RV down and get it ready to start the journey to our next destination. We would just leave the electric hooked up so we could leave the AC on for Emma and keep the fridge running to keep our food and drinks cold.
After my round we would finish getting the RV road ready, turn the generator on and hit the road to our next stop.
Typically, if there was not an event the next week we would just look for a nice campground with great facilities for kids and stop there rather than going all the way home. I would normally find somewhere to practice and then spend the rest of the time bouncing with Logan on the air pillow or playing putt-putt.
Traveling in the RV was awesome for us as a family; no having to find pet friendly hotels, no paying for extra luggage and no delayed flights.
I love the RV life.
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