We started out by borrowing a friend's RV (Nice friend!) for a long weekend up the California coast to see if we liked it. We did... and so did the dogs. So we bought our first RV. It was a 21 ft class C. I sold that and now we're getting a 24 ft class C. We love doing long road trips, and short trips to the shore. We love having our own bathroom and refridgerator whenever we need them. And we love having the dogs with us wherever we go.
BTW, we don't have a toad. We try to camp where we can walk to anything we need, or we just pack up and drive over. It's not that big a deal with a small rig.