Gas prices may be skyrocketing, but Americans still love their RVs despite the fact that they often get 10 mpg — or less.

RV popularity boomed during the pandemic as travelers looked for safe ways to travel while maintaining social distance. Americans continue to turn to RVs even as they've grown increasingly comfortable flying and staying in hotels.

RV production in North America hit an all-time high in 2021, with more than 600,000 vehicles produced, according to RV Industry Association spokeswoman Monika Geraci. The association expects 2022 will be its second-best year of production ever. RVs are especially popular in the South and West.

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Thor Industries, which owns popular RV brands Airstream and Jayco, said this month that its sales were up 34.6% in the latest three months, compared with the same period last year. Thor Industries says it still has a backlog of RV orders worth $13.88 billion.

RV experts say consumers are adjusting to high gas prices by taking shorter trips.

"If you live in Phoenix and were thinking of Yosemite in California, you might do the Grand Canyon instead," said Randall Smalley, who leads marketing and business development at Cruise America, which rents RVs.

Dane Lee and his wife Jenna sold their Dallas home in 2020 and bought an RV as their jobs became remote during the pandemic.

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They've crossed the country twice in their RV, but will be staying closer to family in Birmingham, Alabama this year. Lee said their 150-gallon diesel tank can cost close to $900 to fill from empty. But they don't plan to go back to a traditional house.

"We had the house in the suburbs with a pool and a fence and that stuff. It got a little monotonous going to the office and going back home," Lee said. "The flexibility of having a new view every week is awesome. We've found where we want to be."

Jon Gray, CEO of RV Share, an online marketplace for renting RVs, told CNN Business that customers' average trip in May was slightly less than 350 miles, 9% shorter than in May of last year.

RV Share will be giving away $500,000 in gift cards to customers this year to compensate for increased gas prices on trips. Even with the high gas prices, last week RV Share had its biggest day of bookings this year, Gray said.

Jennifer Young, co-founder of the RV marketplace Outdoorsy, said that "near-cations" are a big trend, as many people stay within 100 miles of home. Young said the average nightly cost of an Outdoorsy rental has increased $5 from last year. Outdoorsy's rentals for the 4th of July are up 4% from last year, Young said.

The increased fuel costs of RVs may be more acceptable to travelers due to inflation across the economy, including more expensive airfare. RV costs may not look as daunting when compared to alternatives. RV travelers often bring their own food and cook, helping to manage costs. Many RV travelers drive exclusively on the first and last day of the trip and leave the RV parked the rest of the trip.

"RVs are not gas-powered vacations," Young said. "They look like they are because they have a steering wheel and four wheels."

RV experts say a growing industry trend is having an RV delivered to an RV site for a vacationing family to use.

Gray, the RV Share CEO, said 20% of his rentals involve the RV's owner driving the vehicle to a campground or destination and leaving it there for the renters. That way travelers can drive their own fuel-efficient vehicle to the RV's location. Then they can enjoy the benefits of vacationing in an RV — which can feel like having a hotel room whose door opens to some of the country's most beautiful places, like national parks — without ever having to fuel up the vehicle to drive it long distances. RV Share started offering the service early in the pandemic.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — The sun barely rises when John Hayes gets behind the wheel of a 27-foot-long RV and starts to rev up the engine.

Hayes sits on the edge of a mostly empty parking lot in Providence, Rhode Island, right outside of a methadone treatment clinic where, even at 5 a.m., patients start lining up.

But Hayes is not there to help people inside the brick-and-mortar clinic. Instead, he's taking the converted RV about 30 minutes north— to Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It's a community with some of the highest opioid use rates in the state.

"They’re just nice people that hit a bump," Hayes said.

It does not take long for patients to arrive.

One of the first people to arrive is Raul Rodriquez. Addicted to drugs for more than 20 years, Rodriquez use to have to travel 30 minutes to Providence to receive the methadone treatment he needs to get better.

But now, this first-in-the-nation mobile methadone clinic is bringing the medicine to him.

"It's wonderful. I live around the corner, you don't have to drive. It's right here," he said.

Methadone is a medication used to help people reduce or quit their use of heroin or other drugs. By increasing ease and access, the mobile medical unit hopes to keep patients on the right path.

"Substance use disorder is just a disease of the brain," said Linda Hurley, president of CODAC Behavioral Health, which owns and operates the mobile unit.

Last month, CODAC received approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to dispense methadone at mobile treatment sites. Aside from the convenience, it's a more cost-effective way for treatment centers to operate. Instead of $4 million for a new building, CODAC can spend closer to $400,000 to renovate an RV.

"This is a highly effective, efficient and kind way to provide care to individuals that are dying," Hurley said.

This type of innovative methadone treatment couldn't come at a more critical American juncture. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 107,000 people died of drug overdoses in the U.S. in 2021. An estimated 75 percent of those deaths involved an opioid but only 18 percent of people with an opioid use disorder received medication as treatment.

"With a mobile unit, we go to individuals and see them when they can be seen, and that’s really important," Hurley noted.

There's another layer to all of this. It's keeping patients from having to go to a traditional doctor's office setting, which comes with its own set of stigmas.

As a physician specializing in addiction medicine, the mobile medical unit is a new frontier for Dr. Cara Zimmerman.

"This is definitely meeting someone where they're at," Dr. Zimmerman said.

Not only can she offer patients methadone treatment, but she can also help with wound care or write a prescription.

"This is more we're here; we're coming to you on your schedule and whatever, as much or as little as you need," she added.

Communities across the country are visiting the mobile clinic to see what's working as more treatment centers apply for DEA approval to get other mobile methadone clinics rolling nationwide.

"Most of them are just regular people who are coming in early to go to work. They're coming in before their day starts, so they can get their methadone and live a life," Hayes said.

The RV industry has seen a significant increase in rentals and sales over the summer. One company, RVshare, reported more than a 1,000% increase in rentals.

Now, the trend seems to be moving beyond just a summer vacation alternative. Some are turning to it as a new way to home-school and work during this pandemic.

Some families are turning these RVs into their primary or secondary homes.

"I think it is difficult for families to be cooped up," said Julie Partridge.

Partridge was already considering making the switch to RV life before the pandemic, but after five months of social distancing and quarantining in her home, she decided to finally do it.

She sold the family home and hit the road to live, home-school her kids and work from an RV.

"Obviously our camper is much smaller than our house,” said Partridge. “Substantially smaller, but you have this vast open world available to you. You feel less cooped up in this camper than you do in this 3,000 square foot house."

She also feels the move to full-time RV life this fall will also give her kids a unique educational opportunity.

"We really want to see the national parks,” said Partridge. “I want my kids to do the park ranger program. I want to use that as their science and social studies curriculum from the road. So, we are really excited about those parts."

The Partridge family is just one of many either committing to or newly considering RV life in the fall, according to a survey done by the RV rental company RVshare.

"We have, from our survey, seen that over 30% of people are considering homeschooling from the road and over 40% of people are considering working from the road and that is something that is new to the industry," RVshare Jon Gray.

"You have school not opening on time, you have a lot of employers turning to work from anywhere models for the extended future and those things have made it to where RVs are appealing deep into the fall," said Gray.

The pandemic has changed so much in our lives. Many people are looking to get away from the uncertainty and continued concern with it. This seems to be one way for some to do that.

"It is saving us money, it is teaching them lessons, it has really been kind of refreshing," said Partridge.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Bars and restaurants in one Kentucky city are planning a do-over of New Year’s Eve after a bomb scare caused police to evacuate a chunk of the downtown business district just as revelers were settling in.

Debbie Long, who owns the restaurant Dudley’s on Short, told the Lexington Herald-Leader that her place was fully booked Thursday night, and she had just texted someone to say they were going to be able to make rent and be on good footing for the new year when the call came to evacuate, shortly after 8 p.m.

Lexington police later said they had spotted a suspicious RV in a parking lot on the next block, and an explosives-sniffing police dog signaled an alert. Although it eventually turned out to be a false alarm, police weren’t taking any chances after the Christmas Day bombing by a man in an RV in downtown Nashville.

People poured out of bars and restaurants, hotels and apartments as police blocked off a 24-block area in the heart of downtown for about two hours.

“We left food on the table. Candles burning. Coats hanging,” Long said. They helped one couple, in their 80s, call someone to come get them because they couldn’t move their car.

Between pandemic shutdowns and capacity limits, restaurants and bars struggled to stay in business throughout 2020. But New Year’s Eve, with a vaccine finally at hand, had looked a like a bright spot. Now restaurant and bar owners are hoping a “do-over” will make up for some of that lost revenue.

At ELIXIR Downtown, owner Stephen Scaldaferri said seating for a special meal was sold out and people were enjoying themselves.

“This would have truly been the first night since COVID that we would not have lost money,” he said.

Scaldaferri said he planned a “New Year’s Eve do-over” Friday night to celebrate making it into 2021. And by 10 a.m. on New Year’s Day he’d already had about 30 tables committed to coming back.

Other Lexington restaurants, including Distilled on Jefferson, also were planning to offer repeats on Friday and Saturday of special dinners that got cut short, and bars were leaving holiday decorations up so the party could go on through the weekend. Bluegrass Tavern planned to offer beer and champagne specials on Saturday night.

Long said she plans to offer her special New Year’s Eve dinner on Saturday. “We’ve still got all the food,” she said. The dinner will include the same three-course gourmet meal, at a slightly reduced rate, $65.

She said at least one customer had called wanting to pay for the meal that was cut short.

“So sweet,” Long said. “In times like this, you really see the best in people.”

A Florida family took schooling — and living — during the pandemic into their own hands. The Clemons family has been living out of an RV and traveling the country.

They've has been on the road for almost a year, turning their passion into a lifestyle. Like so many of us, they were stuck at home last year working and studying while wishing they were traveling. So they decided to make their dream a reality.

"I lost my mom at the beginning of 2020 after being a caregiver for many years," Jenn Clemons said.

Her husband, Mark, lost his father a month later. And then the pandemic hit.

"So we were like, why not just sell everything, and I'll homeschool the kids. And we'll just travel," Jenn said.

Clemons said he was not only on board, he could not wait to get their three kids on the road.

The Clemons sold their house of nearly 20 years and moved into their new home on wheels.

"We moved in on Oct. 1, and we’re coming up on our year and it's been fantastic," Mark said.

This week, they are in Montana. But they are constantly changing locations. So far, they’ve visited 17 states and 18 national parks.

Jenn and Mark are college sweethearts who met at the University of Central Florida and have three kids. Now, they are on their next great adventure and are not looking back.

"The American dream doesn’t have to be overbooking your kids and working 60 hours a week," Jenn said. "It can mean taking the kids and showing them the world because reading it in the book is just not the same as seeing it in person."

The Clemons plan to stay on the road indefinitely. Their original plan was actually to sail around the world. But since there was a run on catamarans last year, they ended up in an RV. So taking to the water is the next adventure.

Watch the video above for the full story.

When firefighters are called upon to face dangerous wildfires, they sacrifice everything for the good of others. It is with that in mind that Woody Faircloth moved to start his own nonprofit, EmergencyRV.org.

"A lot of people have RVs, but they just have them in storage and don’t use them as much as they use to, so if you donate them to our nonprofit, we can give you the full appraised value as a tax deduction," said Faircloth.

Over the years, he’s donated 90 RVs and trailers to firefighters.

"Some of these firefighters we helped just last year, they drove by their homes as they were being engulfed in flames because they were evacuating the town," said Faircloth.

Come Friday, and he’ll be on the road to the Dixie Fire in California to deliver an RV and a trailer.

"We got called two days ago from the California Fire Foundation, and they told us that, 'Hey, we’ve got 10 firefighters who lost their homes, and we really could use your help,'" said Faircloth.

Some of the firefighters still don’t know they lost their homes. Making it even more meaningful when Faircloth provides a place for them to take shelter.

"Some of those firefighters have young families, and they don’t have anywhere to go. They’ve lost everything they own, and we want to give them a place to call home until they can get up on their feet again," said Faircloth.

It’s a need Faircloth only sees increasing as wildfires continue to destroy so much and leave by behind little to nothing.

"We still have a home to come home to. We’re still blessed with everything we have, and there is no adversity," said Faircloth.

A small act of kindness that could mean a world of a difference to a firefighter in need.

Ivan Rodriguez at KMGH first reported this story.