‘City People’ Get New Appreciation of Ag While RVing

A program that gives RVers, often urban-oriented, a chance to experience farms and rural businesses is just the ticket for Lynn Crafts and Dan Dougherty.

They pay a membership fee of about $85 annually to belong to Harvest Hosts, which provides an interactive map and information about more than 5,000 host farms, wineries and other businesses to help plan their trips. In return for staying free at some spots they might not find otherwise, they shop at the host's business.

"We are kind of city people," said Crafts, an animal lover. Some of their favorite stops included interacting with "gentle and curious alpacas" at Heartland "Criations" Alpacas LLC in Knox County, Illinois; visiting "adorable doll sheep" in Shelbyville, Illinois; meeting regal, 18-hand-high draught horses in Kentucky and watching "Oreo cows" (Belted Galloway) frolicking in Kansas.

"We didn't have farms in our lives. This gives us exposure to a lifestyle we haven't experienced," Dougherty said.

In the last two years, the couple has visited 18 Harvest Host sites in Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Wisconsin and several in Illinois, now their home state.

"We're batting 1,000. We've never had a mediocre experience," Dougherty said.

We didn't have farms in our lives. This gives us exposure to a lifestyle we haven't experienced.

"Along the way, we discovered we enjoy wine," Dougherty said of looking for more wineries to stay at as they travel north to get out of the heat. With no air conditioning this time of year, they avoid 90-degree weather and note many people are using generators for cooling.

"It's not for everyone," he said. Some people can't downsize enough to enjoy an RV life. The couple lives in a small home when they aren't on the road exploring or visiting relatives.

"Social media is part of it," he said. They use it to discover some of the best places to visit and share stories on their YouTube channel.

Some RVers are also relatively new to Harvest Hosts including Rosemarie Barnes of Peterborough, Ontario, who has children to visit on the west coast in Whitehorse, Yukon, and has found the hosts along the way really make the trip.

The Grey Mill, a working mill on a farm in Montana, and Kathy Albert's alpaca farm in Rio were among her favorites. "It was a really nice experience. We'd definitely go back," said Barnes, who bought her granddaughter alpaca socks.

Bob Roat and Holly Grote left their home in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Memorial Day, driving to the Pacific Northwest and are out adventuring all summer.

"We use Harvest Hosts as our overnight stops on the way to our general destination," Roat said.

"We keep coming back, not just for the experiences. It's the people we meet," said Roat of 30 Harvest Hosts stops they visited so far. They liked some so much, they stayed three times.

The couple usually travels six to eight weeks, three times a year, then returns home to Ohio to connect with their kids and grandkids.

They map their routes carefully. "Deciding factors for us are convenience to our main route, and ease of parking our rig for the night," said Roat. "We support the local economies. Probably we support them a little too much sometimes," he added with a chuckle.

Phyllis Coulter is a general assignment editor with FarmWeek and FarmWeekNow.com at the Illinois Farm Bureau, which published the original version of this column.