Is Robert Morales the Rick Steves of American travel?

Friends,

Most of you, my Travel Board brethren, I understand are quite keen on Rick Steves, and understandably so. Steves has made European travel accessible in ways never previously so for Americans. Steves avuncular style of befriending locals and making the show as much about them and their customs as the location's landmarks and land has served us well and made for an incredible show spanning several decades.

Now that international travel is essentially over, and likely will be for the near future, I have turned my gaze toward tourism within America. We have an amazing nation of natural geography, not to mention some of the world's best cities. Smaller towns can also be interesting for day or weekend trips, as I learned during my travels to Auburn, AL and Elberta, AL, making sure that I will never again detour at dreadful Buc-ee's.

As I have tried to find resources for American travel, I pondered, Who is the Steves equivalent for American travel? I tried reading several travel magazines and watching travel shows and could find nothing. Then, while searching Amazon Prime for "Places of religious pilgrimage in the United States," I came across Robert Morales and his show, Free in my RV.

Whereas Steves is extroverted and depends on people to bring flavor to the show, Morales is the friendly loner who spends less than a minute a day interacting with others, at least on camera. Morales' show sacrifices the human story with the story of the road and the scenes from that road. I thought I would become bored by the camera's vantage of an RV makes its way along interstates and highways, but there is something ataractic about each scene, which is helped with the editor's use of fast forward.

The host's voice is rich, tranquilizing yet not sedative. It is the sort of voice you hope to hear while sitting in an airline cabin, the voice of your pilot. He is a natural storyteller gifted by God with the perfect storyteller's voice. He is never pompous or objectionable. His brief history lessons are succinct and waste no words.

Morales is a one man show, but it's really not about him, unlike Rick's eponymous show, which is just as much about Rick's love as it is about travel. Morales is writer, director, producer, and editor. He even wrote, performed, and produced his theme song. His camera work is remarkably good as well as varied, occasionally bringing out his dirigible camera, mounted on some sort of flying device. It produces some of the most breathtaking footage on Prime. The production value in Season 2 is a significant improvement over Season 1, not that Season 1's is poor.

In a world of endless junk on Youtube and Amazon, Robert Morales' Free in my RV is finally something in which we can sink our teeth and find nourishment.

See for yourself: Amazon Season 1, Amazon Season 2, YouTube Season 1

Yours,
TulaneLSU