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Chatting with Chuck
RVtravel.com founder and writer Chuck Woodbury is away right this moment and is not going to conduct his Chatting with Chuck stay video chat. He’ll return subsequent Saturday.
November 5, 2022
Non-Members (advertising-supported) version
Cowl story
The curse of my cellular phone
By Chuck Woodbury
Tlisted below are occasions I want cell telephones have been by no means invented.
A couple of weeks in the past, my cellphone rang. I reached to my again pocket to seize it. However no, I all of a sudden realized, it was not my cellular phone. The “ring” was the jingle of an ice cream truck approaching within the distance.
I’ve reached for my cellphone on the sound of microwaves, washing machines, vehicles backing up, and, in fact, the ring of different individuals’s telephones. A buddy of mine had a parrot that would replicate a cellphone ring nearly completely. That will be an actual drawback, I’d guess.
Yesterday whereas having fun with my espresso at a restaurant, a cellphone alarm went off. I reached for my again pocket, then realized it was from the man’s cellphone on the subsequent desk.
Oh, I really like my cellular phone. I do. Nevertheless it’s a love-hate factor. I really feel misplaced with out it. However earlier than I had a cellular phone I didn’t really feel misplaced with out it as a result of I didn’t even know what “it” was. Once I started RVing again within the Stone Age earlier than the Web and transportable telephones, after I camped, the thought of “being linked” meant tenting inside strolling distance of a cellphone sales space.
Again then, with a really primary RV with no bells and whistles, my life moved at a slower tempo. No person “bugged” me with interruptions. No spam calls. No textual content messages. Life was extra peaceable.
I consider I used to be “tenting” in a more true sense than right this moment, a minimum of by my definition which was fashioned when tenting with my dad and mom as a bit boy.
I’m so confused about this topic that I can’t sum up my emotions in just a few hundred phrases. However I guess a minimum of some readers have related ideas.
Once more, I’m not complaining, simply saying…
WE NEED YOUR HELP! Chuck’s Aunt Linda (who’s on trip with Chuck and Gail proper now!) had her home damaged into earlier this week. Amongst many different issues, her 1999 white Ford F-250 prolonged cab diesel truck was stolen from her house in Lindsay, California (south of Fresno). The truck was stolen between October thirtieth and November 1st. California plates: 6B56087. If seen, please name Officer Sanchez at 1-559-733-6218.
Photograph contest
Right here is right this moment’s version of our picture contest. Please vote to your favourite. When you’ve voted, please submit your personal picture for consideration. Winners obtain a $50 Amazon present card. Good luck!
Please observe: We’ve modified the foundations round a bit bit. Please learn the up to date guidelines right here. And don’t neglect to submit a photograph!
Psssst: Bear in mind, you possibly can vote by way of subsequent Friday! In case your picture is chosen, share it along with your family and friends. Everybody can vote as soon as per day.
We wish to know…
What’s the finest metropolis or county campground you’ve ever stayed in and why?
Featured article
Do idyllic campsites exist? Sure, and so they’re not laborious to seek out
By Dave Helgeson (veteran boondocker)
Previous RVtravel.com articles query if the idyllic campsites pictured in RV business advertisements actually exist. Writer Chuck Woodbury suggests they’re staged the place you aren’t allowed to camp. Others I see are photoshopped, usually fairly poorly, in a scenic location. … What’s lacking from the above definitions [of idyllic campsites]? The phrases RV park, campground, or Walmart. Subsequently, it solely stands to cause if you wish to discover idyllic campsites, like these pictured within the advertisements, you might wish to look exterior the confines of a standard RV park or campground. Discover ways to simply discover them right here.
At the moment’s RV assessment…
2023 Keystone Montana Excessive Nation 385BR fifth wheel
Tony writes, “At the moment’s RV assessment is of the Keystone Montana Excessive Nation 385BR, a big, mid-bunk fifth wheel that could possibly be an amazing selection even should you don’t have littles that journey with you. In reality, if I have been searching for a bigger fifth wheel to suit my very own way of life, I’d not be capable of rule this one out. … There’s loads I actually appreciated concerning the predecessor to this and it’s now much more up my alley. What’s extra, there have been different modifications to this rig, together with an improve to a 16-gallon water heater. Actually, this rig is so nicely thought by way of I couldn’t discover any nits to select.”
Click on right here for extra critiques.
RV engineer spills the soiled fact about RV cargo capability
By Ross Regis
Within the alphabet soup of RV towing capacities, Cargo Carrying Capability (CCC) is normally overshadowed by Gross Car Weight Score (GVWR), Gross Mixed Weight Score (GCWR), Gross Axle Weight Score (GAWR) … “However, Ross,” you interrupt, “that’s techno-talk. That’s for RV nerds (no offense). I’m simply purchasing round!” Then you’re EXACTLY who must be studying this publish! Most consumers don’t take note of that little black-and-yellow sticker till AFTER their buy, and by then it’s $75,000 too late. Learn this essential info.
The final Airstream constructed earlier than WWII
By Paul Lacitinola
When this 1941 Airstream Clipper got here up on the market, the Gulleys have been extraordinarily excited and jumped on the probability to personal one other piece of trailer historical past! Pondering it could be a uncommon piece, they didn’t hesitate to seal the deal and take possession. Seems it wasn’t the trailer they have been instructed it was; nevertheless, it did have an much more fascinating provenance! Study extra.
Readers converse out: Scary occasions at unsafe and creepy campsites
By Cheri Sicard
Final week we requested RVtravel.com readers about creepy campsites with this query: Have you ever ever left a campsite or campground since you felt unsafe or in any other case simply creeped out? If that’s the case, why? As traditional, our readers had loads to say. Nevertheless, we have been proud of the big variety of respondents that had by no means had this unlucky expertise. Learn what lots of your fellow RVers stated right here. (Tip: Hearken to your intestine.)
RV Service Facilities and Repairs Report: “RVs are rolling fiberglass dumpsters!”
By Nanci Dixon
On this column, we summarize a few of your emails and feedback relating to RV service facilities and repairs. We’ll let you know all: the very best, the great, the unhealthy and the ugly. This week our readers inform extra horror tales about so-called repairs achieved to their RVs, together with issues a producer has had for a minimum of 13 years. The producer received sued by the proprietor of an RV rental firm 13 years in the past and he gained, however the issue persists. One other buyer had a number of objects stolen from the RV whereas it was in for repairs—greater than as soon as! Heaps extra right here.
Highlights from this week’s RV Each day Ideas E-newsletter
Across the Campfire: RVers share their “RV envy.” Is greater extra fascinating?
By Gail Marsh
What a dialogue across the campfire a number of nights in the past! A gal with a small RV admitted she generally experiences “RV envy.” From there, the dialogue exploded. Learn extra, then share your ideas within the feedback.
Greatest demonstration of journey trailer sway hazard
Trailer sway is harmful and may finally show lethal when it ends in a crash. Right here, we consider, is the finest video demonstration of how trailer sway happens and the right way to forestall it.
The the reason why RVing retains you younger
By Gail Marsh
Sixteenth-century Ponce de Leon looked for the Fountain of Youth. If solely RVs had been invented again then! Why? As a result of I consider RVing will help maintain you younger! Learn on to find my reasoning.
Reader Ballot
Did you’ve a Kool-Help or lemonade stand as a child?
Please tell us. After you click on your response, you’ll see how others have responded. Be happy to depart a remark. (And do now we have to let you know to maintain politics out of it? Please? That is strictly about having a refreshment stand as a child. Interval.)
Reader asks: Fuse is popping. How do I discover the quick?
By Dustin Simpson
Not too long ago, our RV restore store acquired the under electronic mail from Lee, an RVtravel.com reader, relating to the 30-amp fuse that retains popping: “We now have a 2021 F-350 towing a 2018 Reflection 337RLS. The issue is that someplace there’s a quick. I don’t know if it’s within the trailer or the truck. …” Learn the remainder of the query and watch the video right here.
Sleep in a human-sized chicken’s nest, or a hearth lookout, or in a wine barrel!
By Gail Marsh
Have you ever ever puzzled the way you would possibly journey or camp should you didn’t have an RV? With excessive gasoline costs, it’s a query increasingly more RVers appear to be asking. … For these of you who crave the exhilaration of the acute, uncommon, and even bizarre experiences, this text will whet your urge for food! For the remainder of us (non-adventurous and mildly adventurous ones), it’s entertaining and mind-blowing to find the weird methods some people “camp” with out an RV! Examine these out!
Biking for RVers: What bike ought to I purchase? Half 1, Highway bikes
By Keith Ward
There’s little doubt about it: RVing and biking go collectively like milk and chocolate syrup. Many RVers see bicycles as one other kind of RV: the two-wheeled leisure car. If you’re contemplating shopping for a motorbike, there’s a dizzying array of selections. Once more, very like RVs. I’m right here that can assist you type out these selections, and discover the very best bike for you. That is the primary article in a multi-part sequence on kinds of bicycles. I’ll give recommendation on the finish of every on whether or not every kind is an efficient selection for RVers, and why or why not. Study all the pieces you needed to learn about highway bikes, and extra, right here.
The lengthy, lengthy RV journey
Week 22: Riverfront tenting in Portland, OR; Hood River Fruit Loop
By Cheri Sicard
Those that have been following alongside on this journey already know that every time doable, I keep away from business RV parks in my travels. However generally it’s needed, relying on the place I wish to go and the way lengthy I wish to keep there. Such was the case with Portland, Oregon. Little did I do know after I began trying to find tenting in Portland, that I’d discover certainly one of my all-time FAVORITE campgrounds. Learn all about it and far more of Cheri’s persevering with adventures right here.
CONTEST
Is that this your RV?
Win a $25 Amazon present certificates if right this moment’s RV picture exhibits your rig
Day-after-day we publish a photograph of an RV both submitted by its proprietor or by our editors as they transfer concerning the nation.
Click on right here to see in case your RV made it into right this moment’s subject.
Saturday Giveaway!
How would you wish to win a Moveable Vacuum Cleaner?
win
We’ll choose a winner at random out of all entries we obtain right this moment (November 5, 2022) by 7 p.m. Pacific time. Bear in mind, you possibly can solely enter as soon as and after we notify you by electronic mail by way of [email protected] that you just gained, you’ve 24 hours to reply or we’ll give the prize to another person.
Click on right here to enter or see final week’s winner!
?? MYSTERY PRODUCT OF THE DAY ??
We all know you like these (we do, too!) and this one is very enjoyable! Get cozy and prepare…
Ask Dave
Dave Solberg is a number one professional within the RV business and creator of the “RV Handbook”.
This previous week’s questions that Dave answered:
Click on right here to see extra questions for Dave.
Go to Dave’s discussion board on RVtravel.com. Ask him a query or assist reply one from one other reader. Click on right here.
By RV Journey writer Chuck Woodbury
E book for amateur RVers a must have!
If you’re planning to purchase your first RV or are simply getting began along with your first rig, this guide by RVtravel.com writer Chuck Woodbury must be a must-read. The ABCs of RVing solutions essential questions that beginner RVers don’t even know sufficient to ask! Learn this, and also you’ll save numerous hours of analysis and keep away from making pricey rookie errors. It’s obtainable in each printed and free Kindle Limitless editions.
Video of the day
Take a tour of 15 superb superstar motorhomes and RVs
Shock! Celebrities like RVs simply as a lot as the remainder of us. Certain, a few of the superstar motorhomes and trailers profiled within the video under may be a tad extra luxurious than what MOST of us are used to, however it’s RV life nonetheless.
This video offers a fast overview of 15 superstar motorhomes. Except for Matthew McConaughey’s Airstream, which is good however humble by comparability, these are some over-the-top and mega-expensive RVs. However they certain are enjoyable to have a look at!
Click on right here to look at
RV Tire Security
Six blowouts! Assist! “I’m at my wit’s finish”
By Roger Marble
Here’s a sequence of posts from an RV discussion board. I’m inclined to assume that the experiences are usually not that uncommon. It is a lengthy publish, however I assumed that giving the background, and my suggestions, would possibly assist others which have tire issues to know that they aren’t alone. Proceed studying.
Ask Roger something about RV tires on his RV Tires Discussion board.
Don’t take a break in your brakes!
Each RVer wants certainly one of these!
Surprise what it might be wish to have your brakes exit when you’re taking place an extended, steep grade? You would possibly discover out in case your brake fluid is moisture-contaminated. Water in brake fluid boils and may wipe out your braking capability! Purchase your self a brake-fluid tester for about $10 that warns you if there’s an excessive amount of water in your fluid. Merely dip the tester into your rig’s brake fluid and also you’ll be capable of see the place you stand. Study extra or order.
Recipe of the Day
Cathy’s Buffalo Hen Pasta
by Cathy LaFay from Cape Coral, FL
All the flavour of Buffalo wings with out the mess! A scrumptious dinner throughout soccer season when your favourite workforce is taking part in late. This hen pasta may be very filling. We added further hen breast and it was an amazing pasta-to-chicken ratio. The Buffalo sauce is creamy and scrumptious. Serve with a facet of celery and ranch, and cheer in your favourite workforce whereas having fun with a comforting dinner.
Readers’ Pet of the Day
“Our Mini Aussie, Pink, is just a bit over two months outdated and is a whole bundle of pleasure! We introduced him house at 6 weeks and it’s been like he’s lived right here eternally. We needed to discover a pet to go tenting and mountaineering with and together with his full sibling at 20 lbs. he match the invoice. We’re on the point of take him on his first tenting journey throughout the week. They are saying cash can’t purchase love however they haven’t met Pink!” —Lorene Accurso
Mind Teaser
Two cops walked right into a room with no home windows and located a lifeless man who clearly hung himself from the ceiling, although they couldn’t determine how. There was no chair or desk beneath him that he might need jumped off. Only a puddle of water. How did he do it?
(Reply in tomorrow’s Sunday information publication. And please don’t spoil it for different readers by posting the reply within the feedback.)
Right here’s an concept for you: file your historical past
File your loved ones historical past in your iPhone or video digicam. If you need some inspiration, we advocate you get the guide To Our Youngsters’s Youngsters. It’s going to immediate many concepts of what to speak about. Your kids and grandchildren will recognize this when you find yourself gone. Give it some thought – wouldn’t you adore it in case your dad and mom had achieved this for you?
Trivia
A well-liked tongue-twister, “She Sells Seashells by the Seashore,” was doubtless written a few feminine paleontologist who bought dinosaur bones within the 1800s. It’s thought that Mary Anning, a girl who ran a small fossil stand on Dorset Seaside in England (an space that’s recognized for a plentiful quantity of dinosaur bones), impressed the rhyme. Anning was liable for discovering a few of the first dinosaur fossils in Britain.
Chortle of the Week
Assets
Present Wildfire Report. (Contains map and particulars of fires!)
Present smoke and fireplace report for the place you reside or the place you’re touring.
“RVs: Who Makes What” – It is a new free listing from RVtravel.com which lists each U.S. RV producer and their makes and fashions. Study extra and/or obtain a free PDF copy.
RV Present Listing: See if a present is coming quickly to your space.
Stolen RVs — Assist us recuperate these stolen RVs. The extra eyes now we have trying to find them, the higher probability of getting them again to their rightful homeowners, and perhaps placing the crooks who stole them within the slammer! See the stolen RVs.
Nice web sites. Take a look at our favourite web sites of the day! We compiled an inventory of (nearly) all of the web sites we’ve ever posted, and we replace it weekly.
The place to complain about unhealthy RVs, sellers, service, RV parks. That is an ever-expanding record of assets the place you possibly can report, share or talk about your issues with RV producers or sellers.
Greatest Membership for RVers: Escapees. Click on right here to be taught extra or be a part of. Endorsed by RVtravel.com.
Listing of RV parks with storm shelters
In case you’re on the highway along with your RV and the climate report is displaying a twister headed your approach, have this record helpful.
RV Golf equipment
Take a look at our Listing of RV Golf equipment and Organizations.
What does financing an RV for 20 years REALLY imply?
In case you missed this text the primary time round, right here it’s once more. Vital! Click on right here.
Caught with a lemon RV? Contact Ron Burdge, America’s premier RV lemon regulation lawyer.
The Greatest RV Journey Planner Apps and Instruments. The whole lot it’s essential assist plan your journey is right here.
Dustin Simpson RV Restore and Upkeep Articles: Extremely useful!
Did you miss final week’s RV Journey?
Learn it right here | Again points
Roadskills
Meet Earl and Burl Squirrel, from the thoughts of RVtravel.com buddy R.L. Crabb.
RVtravel.com All-Star Workforce
Writer: Chuck Woodbury. Editor: Emily Woodbury. Affiliate editor: Diane McGovern. Senior editors: Russ and Tiña De Maris. Senior writers: Nanci Dixon, Gail Marsh, Dave Solberg. Contributors: Roger Marble, Dave Helgeson, Mike Gast, Julianne Crane, Machelle James, J.R. Montigel, Randall Brink, Karel Carnohan DVM, Cheri Sicard, Dustin and Ashley Simpson, Dale Wade, Paul Lacitinola, Jeff Clemishaw, Mike Sokol, Tony Barthel and Johnny Robotic. Particular tasks director: Jessica Sarvis. Moderators: Gary Gilmore, Linda Brady. Monetary affairs director: Gail Meyring. Particular Stories: Bradford Geer. IT wrangler: Kim Christiansen. Mascots: Archie and Astor (the Catastrophe)
The whole lot on this publication is true to the very best of our data. However we sometimes get one thing flawed. We’re simply human! So don’t go spending $10,000 on one thing we stated was good just because we stated so, or fixing one thing based on what we instructed (test with your personal technician first). Perhaps we made a mistake. Ideas and/or feedback on this publication are these of the authors and will not mirror the views of RVtravel.com or this text.
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