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Saturday, April 22, 2023
Members edition
Featured articles
Proposed changes mean California State Park campsites could be easier to reserve
A new state bill, AB 618, introduced by Democratic Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, aims to make it easier to secure campsite reservations in California state parks. The proposed amendments include incentives for early cancellations and penalties for no-shows, as well as the implementation of a lottery system for popular campsites. Additionally, the bill proposes providing a discount to low-income visitors with a Golden Bear pass. The changes are aimed at addressing the high demand for campsites and improving the reservation process for frequent campers. Continue reading.
Hydrogen-powered RV concept—A zero-emission camper with a reasonable range
By Randall Brink
First Hydrogen Corp., based in Vancouver, British Columbia, is making waves in the RV industry by developing a zero-emission hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered RV. As the world shifts towards cleaner, greener energy solutions, hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are gaining attention. The practical science of FCEVs, their advantages over battery-powered electric vehicles (EVs), and the differences in the range between the two technologies represent a clear advantage to the hydrogen-powered vehicle. Learn more.
Man loses part of leg in alligator attack at RV park
By Russ and Tiña De Maris
A 72-year-old man, presumably an RVer, lost the lower part of his leg in an alligator attack on Friday, April 14. Brevard County, Florida, rescue officials were called to the Great Outdoors RV Nature & Golf Resort in Titusville after an emergency call reported a gator attack near a park retention pond. Dispatch recordings spell out the terrible details: “Per the caller, we have confirmed amputation.” Continue reading.
Ford F-150 Lightning electric trucks catch fire in video
Oh, this is not pretty. This short video shows smoke emanating from three tightly packed Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickups in February in a holding lot owned by Ford Motor in Dearborn, Michigan. CNBC obtained the previously unreleased footage from the Dearborn Police Department in Michigan through the state’s Freedom of Information Act. Watch the video.
Spend the night camping in a can of beans. No kidney… er… kidding!
By Dave Solberg
Spend the night in a can of beans? Well, sort of. It’s a can-shaped trailer painted to look like a giant can of Bush’s Beans. But it’s not filled with beans. Inside, it looks very much like a very nice camping trailer, although in this case it’s called a “canper.” Yes, a can-per! Continue reading about this uncanny contest.
Campground Crowding
Why aren’t there more RV parks? Good luck getting a new one approved!
By Nanci Dixon
RV sales have slowed and fewer people are buying RVs than has been the recent trend. Has that changed campground crowding? This week readers continue to express their concerns, including rethinking RVing snowbird plans for Florida winters due to crowding and increased costs at campgrounds, and difficulty getting reservations even with a camping membership, including in Canada. Also, “fear of the government [red tape]” is holding back property owners from building a small RV park on their beautiful 20 acres in Florida.
NEW! RV Video Tour
Look for Cheri’s new RV Video Reviews every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Not signed up for our RV Daily Tips newsletter? You’re missing out!
Awesome entry-level Class A—Tour the 2022 Forest River FR3 30DS
By Cheri Sicard
Matt of Matt’s RV Reviews (one of our readers’ Best of RV YouTube channels) is here to give us a tour of the Forest River FR3 30DS. Matt says this makes a perfect entry-level Class A. Why? Well, he goes over that in today’s video (and what he doesn’t like about it, too).
That was the RV week that was
April 15–21, 2023
Recent coverage on RV YouTube channels has been dominated by the scandal surrounding the demise of Nomad Internet. Touted as the nation’s largest wireless internet provider for RVers, Nomad Internet promised unlimited and untethered bandwidth on the road, akin to home internet. However, the company’s meltdown has left RVers in a lurch, with many disgruntled customers sharing their experiences online. The surge of content on this controversy has caught the attention of the RV community. Watch a video update on what’s going on.
National Park Week begins today and continues for another 8 days. But today, in honor of Earth Day, admission is free at all parks. So when you have finished reading this newsletter, head on out to your favorite close-by park. Hey, free is good.
Private campground owners and operators have cause for celebration this Memorial Day weekend, as the latest KOA Monthly Research Report for April 2023 reveals that camping sentiment is at an all-time high. The report shows that a staggering 22.6 million households have expressed interest in spending the May holiday weekend in the great outdoors, marking a significant increase from the previous year and the highest number of camping households since October 2022.
The North Beach RV Resort has opened in North Beach, Texas, just north of Corpus Christi, with space for 53 RVs. The RV park is for anyone looking to visit North Beach and downtown Corpus Christi, as well as any refinery workers who travel to the area for work. Summer fees are between $79 and $89 a night.
Attorneys general in more than a dozen states and D.C. are calling on federal authorities to order a massive recall of Hyundai and Kia vehicles, saying their easily-bypassed ignition switches and vulnerability to being stolen have created a safety crisis on the roads. “Due to this vulnerability in their starting systems, the vehicles can be hot-wired and stolen in a matter of minutes, presenting a serious safety issue nationwide,” officials wrote.
With springtime and warmer weather here, two White Mountains-area state highways reopened Thursday, April 20, after being closed for the winter, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation. State Route 261 runs from State Route 260 near Eagar to Big Lake, while State Route 273 goes from SR 260 to Sunrise Park and Big Lake. State Route 473, running south from SR 260 on the White Mountain Apache Reservation, was scheduled to reopen on Friday, April 21.
Each year, visitors to Yosemite leave behind approximately 24,000 camp fuel cylinders, which qualify as hazardous waste and are costly to recycle. Yosemite Conservancy’s Zero Landfill Initiative is instigating a refillable fuel cylinder exchange program to help. When you next camp in Yosemite, consider participating in the project.
Forbes reports that 17 million Americans identified themselves as digital nomads last year, up 131% from 2019. Some of those are working from RVs.
Snow will delay openings of some Colorado campgrounds. While many campgrounds are opening along Colorado’s front range and eastern plains, winter conditions continue to hold on in parts of the northwest. Significant snow amounts in many of the high country state parks in the Northwest Region have made it impossible to access campgrounds. Learn which campgrounds are affected here.
Many of Yellowstone’s facilities are still closed for the season. But some have opened or are opening soon. For a list of what’s closed, open or opening soon, click here.
Speaking of Yellowstone, its resident grizzly bears don’t limit themselves to living in the back country. This mama and yearling are pictured walking on a boardwalk near Old Faithful.
A 17-year-old male fell approximately 25 feet to his death near the Otter Cliff area in Acadia National Park, Maine, on Friday, April 14. The individual was hiking with friends when he fell.
Lake Mead is projected to see a substantial rise this summer, as near-record snowpack melts off and finds its way into the Colorado River. After dropping more than 50 feet since 2020, the lake behind Hoover Dam is now expected to rise by roughly 22 feet by the end of the year, according to the latest forecasts from the Bureau of Reclamation.
There is still time to volunteer as a campground host at a National Park. A minimum commitment of two months is required. To learn more or sign up, visit www.volunteer.gov.
KOA has debuted a new full-service expert roadside assistance program called RV RoadHelp. It offers roadside assistance in the U.S. and Canada for $124.99 a year. Working closely with Drive America, the new roadside program RV RoadHelp offers RVers peace of mind with full-service roadside rescues and repairs across the U.S. and Canada.
Spacious Skies Campgrounds has acquired the Savannah Oaks RV Resort in Savannah, Georgia, and renamed it Spacious Skies Savannah Oaks. It’s the company’s 15th campground and its first in Georgia. It has 115 RV sites and is located steps from the Ogeechee River.
Daytona Beach, FL, gives the green light to a major RV resort development project by Blue Coral Properties, Inc. The ambitious $75-$90 million project will span 353 acres of land on the city’s western edge, featuring a 1,200-lot facility with amenities such as nature trails, activity centers, and 58 acres of lakes. With 61% of the land to be preserved as undeveloped natural vegetation buffers, the resort aims to become a premier destination for RVers.
The government of British Columbia, Canada, has announced a $26 million plan to build 250 new public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations across the province. This move comes as B.C. maintains its lead in Canada for EV adoption, with 18.1% of new passenger vehicle sales in 2022 being electric or hybrid. The new charging stations will contribute to the government’s “Electric Highway” program, which aims to install 10,000 public EV charging stations along B.C. highways by 2030.
Officials from Great Smoky Mountains National Park have not yet released the identity or cause of death of a person who was reported missing and found dead on April 16 near Low Gap Trail in the Cosby, Tennessee, area of the national park. Park Service rangers initiated a search for the missing person on April 13 after discovering a vehicle with a license plate registered to a person reported missing parked at the Cosby Campground Amphitheater.
And, lastly, some more sound advice from the National Park Service Twitter account:
WOW! The world population is 8 billion, of which more than 6 billion have access to a mobile phone. Alas, only 4.5 billion have a working toilet.
Saturday Giveaway!
How would you like to win a set of Trailer Party Lights?
How to win
We’ll select a winner at random out of all entries we receive today (April 22, 2023) by 7 p.m. Pacific time. Remember, you can only enter once and after we notify you by email via RVcontests@gmail.com that you won, you have 24 hours to respond or we’ll give the prize to someone else.
Click here to enter or see last week’s winner!
Reader poll
For couples: Are you or your partner a better driver?
HAVE YOU SEEN THESE STOLEN RVs?
Determined crooks made off with this 2020 Salem Hemisphere travel trailer. The unit was behind a fence in a locked-up yard in Conroe, Texas, off FM1314, and vanished April 20. The rig was last seen wearing Texas plate B442135. Know something? Contact the Montgomery County Sheriff at (936) 760-5800.
Crooks in Las Cruces, New Mexico, filched this Forest River Surveyor on April 15 at 5 a.m. The early-bird thief was seen pulling the 32-foot 2006 model travel trailer away with a light-colored pickup truck. Contact the Las Cruces police with information at (575) 526-0795.
Did someone rip off your ride? Let us post information on your stolen RV. Email Russ (at) rvtravel.com.
Latest fuel prices
Here are the latest U.S. average prices per gallon of gasoline and diesel fuel as of April 17, 2023:
Regular unleaded gasoline: $3.66
Change from week before: Up 7 cents; Change from year before: Down 40 cents.
Diesel: $4.12
Change from week before: Up 2 cents; Change from year before: Down 99 cents.
Brain Teaser
A ship is docked. Over the side of the ship is a rope ladder. The rungs are made of steel and don’t float. The bottom rung is 2 feet above the water. If the tide comes in at the rate of one foot per hour, how many rungs up the ladder will the water be after 4 hours?
(Answer in tomorrow’s Sunday RV Travel newsletter. And please don’t spoil it for other readers by posting the answer in the comments.)
Upcoming RV shows
Click here for a directory of upcoming shows.
Recipe of the Day
Lemon Vegetable Pasta Salad
by Meryl Hausner from Wood-Ridge, NJ
This pasta salad recipe is different than other types we’ve had. Blanched snap peas and asparagus add tons of fresh flavor, but their harsh crispness is taken away in the blanching process. Yellow bell pepper adds a touch of sweetness and crunch. We liked the slight lemon and tarragon flavor in the creamy dressing. In warmer months, this could be part of a light dinner served with a piece of grilled fish or chicken.
The Perfect Scam Podcast
Every Saturday we present a podcast from AARP about scams and how crooks are stealing your money, often via telemarketing. Their efforts are often most successful with people 65 years and older who fall victim to the scammers’ sophisticated techniques. Here is this week’s episode.
Trivia
Netflix announced last week that it has discontinued delivering DVDs to subscribers. That marks the end of an era for the company that shipped its first of 5.2 million DVDs, a copy of Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice,” back in 1998.
Laugh of the Week
Crime Report: Scary Arnold!
Today in History
RVtravel.com All Star Team
Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Editor: Emily Woodbury. Associate editor: Diane McGovern. Senior editors: Russ and Tiña De Maris. Senior writers: Nanci Dixon, Gail Marsh, Dave Solberg. Contributors: Roger Marble, Dave Helgeson, Janet Groene, J.R. Montigel, Randall Brink, Karel Carnohan DVM, Cheri Sicard, Dustin and Ashley Simpson, Dale Wade, Paul Lacitinola and Jeff Clemishaw. Special projects director: Jessica Sarvis. Moderators: Gary Gilmore. Financial affairs director: Gail Meyring. Special Reports: Bradford Geer. IT wrangler: Kim Christiansen. Artificial (AI) contributors: Johnny Robot and Milly MacWilly. Canine Mascots: Archie and Astor “the Disaster”
Everything in this newsletter is true to the best of our knowledge. But we occasionally get something wrong. We’re just human! So don’t go spending $10,000 on something we said was good simply because we said so, or fixing something according to what we suggested (check with your own technician first). Maybe we made a mistake. Tips and/or comments in this newsletter are those of the authors and may not reflect the views of RVtravel.com or this newsletter.
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Seven cent rise. One could only wish. Fuel prices rose a lot faster this week here in Washington, at least in our neck of the woods. Twenty cent rise on unleaded ($4.28) and 32 cent rise in diesel ($4.89) prices. Second highest fuel taxes in the USA.
Na na na na na! We have higher taxes! 🙂
One of California’s “first’s”.
That could be .. But lower fuel prices than Oregon .. Go figure..
And an exit tax for people fleeing those taxes. Pretty sure that is a hostage for ransom thing. Wanna leave Ca.? Just pay the ransom. 🤣😆😂🤣😆😂 So freakin funny.
just pay the newsom
You missed a na…lol
It’s spelled with 6 na’s
Laughing out loud..immediately went to that childhood taunt.
Wow. Pennsylvania held that dubious “honor” for years…
They are still at the top.
That’s what I thought too.
Are you sure? I could have sworn reading somewhere that PA had the highest state gas tax in the country.
What I don’t like is State sales taxes on fuel. It is like a tax penalty when the refined fuel prices go up, so does the sales tax on the fuel. A double fuel cost burden.
Welcome to my California world… 😞
Speaking of which, I wish you would go back to listing California’s average gas prices, what with so many people making campground reservations in the state.
(costs are usally a consideration when travelling)
Maybe next week y’all can complain about the poor condition of the roads. The pothole fairies just aren’t working hard enough.
Pa holds that record on potholes also as well as high turnpike fees.
We live in SE Pa. and the only roads in Pa. that the state is in charge of that are well maintained are the Turnpike.” You get what you pay for”.
The trivia doesn’t specify the spacing on the rungs so an important fact is omitted.
no, you have all the info you need. Once you see the answer it will be obvious.
Spacing could be important if not for other facts.
You mean Brain Teaser, not trivia
I think I actually know the answer to the trivia question, 1st time ever for me. We’ll see tomorrow!
You mean Brain Teaser, not trivia
Happy Earth Day to all the staff and thanks for a great edition of RVTRAVEL. Tonight, the Proofs will celebrate the earth with Medium Rare Tomahawk ribeye, a chopped quail meat salad for an appetizer and a silky pinot noir. Go earth go.
Recipe Of The Week really looks tasty. definitely have to try that out.