Only in America

Some enterprising folks have taken the scourge of the American highways, and turned it into the bane of America's waterways.

The Terra Wind is an amphibious motor home. It can do 80 mph on the highway and about six knots on water.

It was created by Jim and Julie Giljam, of South Carolina, who showed off the vehicle at a recent RV show in the Washington area.

The amphibious RV is more like a luxury liner, with everything from a full-size Jacuzzi whirlpool bath to a big screen TV.

While the motor home is at home on the water, the Giljams say it's not for ocean cruises. It can only take waves up to about four feet high.

One of my dreams is RV-ownership, but I harbor (no pun intended) no illusions about the type of person who generally drives these giant testaments to discretionary income. I look forward to the first news story about a retiree who, unwilling to accept his wife's increasingly frantic suggestions, takes one of these things across a swollen river, or better yet, into the ocean itself ("don't worry honey, she can take it"). Imagine the look on the locals' faces when the driver, distracted by the barking of his toy poodle, puts his RV broadside to an unexpected swell.