Pros and cons of renting an RV from Cruise America

We just got back two days ago from a long RV trip - almost 3 weeks - in which we rented a 25 foot class C RV from Cruise America. I'm not going to go into the details of the trip, but I do want to jot down a few notes on how the actual RV rental worked out. Also, since the trip was also meant to help us decide if we should buy an RV, I'd like to jot down a few notes on that as well.

In Canyon Creek campground, close to Bend

Overall, I was happy with the trip. We had great experiences, the weather was outstanding almost all the time (baring a forest fire here and there!), and we saw some really beautiful sights. Now, for a more pro/con way of looking at things.

Pros

• It's good to have everything with you, there's not the dislocation of moving from one hotel to another, and hauling luggage around. Over a longer trip, this makes a big difference.
• You can cook food in the RV. We did eat some meals in restaurants, but mostly we ate very simple meals (think spaghetti noodles with spaghetti sauce, with a can of fruit) in the RV.
• You stay in campgrounds, which are generally very friendly places. We had great talks with people just walking around the campground, and striking up conversations. If you're staying in a hotel, that just doesn't happen.
• You can also stay in campgrounds with a tent, but putting up and taking down a tent as for as many different places as we stayed at - that would have ended up being a huge hassle, and a trip like that wouldn't have worked.
• You don't need to plan as much as you would if you were staying in hotels. Mostly we just showed up at campgrounds, and were able to stay there. A couple times (usually Friday and Saturday nights, which, as summer weekends, were much more booked than other nights), we just pulled off the side of the road, or at a trailhead, and spent the night there. This kind of flexibility wouldn't have been possible if we'd stayed in hotels.

Cons

• Driving this big, very rattly RV was exhausting. Eric did all the driving, and even though we kept the hours of driving very low (some days we didn't drive at all, some we drove 1 or 2 hours, only the first and last day did we drive more than 3), it was a strain, much more so than driving a car would have been.
• You don't have a small car with you, to do little trips. No matter where you want to go, you're taking the big rig with you.
• Renting an RV like this is expensive! It would have been quite a bit cheaper to take our car, and stay in hotels.
• The actual RV that we rented was a disappointment. Everything worked, more or less (except the cold water faucet handle on the shower came off, we had to use a pair of pliers!), but the RV was VERY old, rattly, like I mentioned above, and not very clean. Every time I sat down on the upholstery, I shuddered a bit because it was really just grungy. A rental car is much, much cleaner in comparison.