Issue 1204
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Today’s thought
“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” —Aldous Huxley
Need an excuse to celebrate? National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day!
On this day in history: Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, orbiting the Earth once before landing safely via parachute after a planned ejection from his space capsule. That was in 1961.
Featured news
Lawsuit accuses Winnebago and Grand Design of defective frames, misleading marketing
A nationwide class action lawsuit against Winnebago Industries, Inc. and Grand Design RV, LLC has been filed on behalf of thousands of consumers across the United States. The suit alleges that numerous Grand Design RV models suffer from serious structural defects—particularly frame failures—that have significantly disrupted the lives of affected owners. Read more.
Interior Secretary orders national parks to stay open amid staffing cuts
By Russ & Tiña De Maris
National parks are being ordered to stay fully open—even as staffing drops to crisis levels. A new directive from the Interior Department demands business-as-usual service despite hiring freezes, early retirements and a reduced workforce. Superintendents are scrambling to cover public-facing roles while being warned not to cut services or hours without top-level approval. Here’s the story.
Amazon internet satellite launch doesn’t get off the ground
By Russ & Tiña De Maris
As we reported last week, billionaire Amazon chief, Jeff Bezos, has plans to take on his corporate rival, Elon Musk, and his successful Starlink internet satellite service. On Wednesday, a rocket at Cape Canaveral was ready to blast 27 of Amazon’s “Project Kuiper” satellites into orbit. However, Mother Nature had other plans… Amazon’s satellite internet system has taken a setback at the starting block.
HELP WANTED: If you know RVing inside-out, have lots of industry knowledge and contacts, a strong news writing background, and high ethical standards, RVtravel.com may have a well-paid freelance opportunity for you. Contact editor@rvtravel.com to learn more.
Campground crowding, comments & concerns
RVers discuss Wi-Fi at campgrounds and RV parks: It works or it doesn’t!
This week, Nanci Dixon shares our readers’ comments on Wi-Fi service at campgrounds and RV parks. Dave G. is tired of paying premium prices for minimal Wi-Fi. Mark W. reports that Wi-Fi is being improved at most parks. Nanci describes her experiences with Wi-Fi over many years of camping, and recommends “the answer to continually robust Wi-Fi anywhere.” Read it here.
News Briefs
The allure of Florida’s warm winters has long drawn Canadians, especially RVing snowbirds, seeking an escape from harsh northern winters. However, a wave of uncertainty driven by escalating U.S.–Canada trade tensions has many Canadian property owners and RVers rethinking their plans to invest in or maintain winter homes in the Sunshine State. Continue reading.
RVers looking for an overnight spot in the Buckeye State can find a new one in Belmont. Love’s has now opened its fourth new location of 2025, and the Ohio location should prove to be handy for RVers navigating the southeast part of the state.
If you’re planning an RV trip to northern Michigan this spring or summer, it’s important to be aware of recent developments. A severe ice storm that struck in late March 2025 has led to significant closures and cleanup efforts across the region. Many state parks will be closed indefinitely.
Have you ever wondered how bear-proof trash cans and containers are tested to see if they’re really bear-proof? Well, a zoo in Anchorage, Alaska, has a good trick. Let the bears try to break into them!
BLM officials in Utah recently shut down what was billed as “The biggest party Utah has ever seen”—before it even began. Organizers promoted the event on social media, promising music, DJs, a bonfire, and a wild light show. But they didn’t plan on BLM spotting the posts—or on needing a permit to party on public land. Here’s the story.
WEIRD NEWS: NASA is offering $3 million to anyone who proposes technology to solve an unusual problem: recycling feces and other human waste in space. The space agency’s LunaRecycle Challenge calls on members of the public to propose a technological means of recycling astronauts’ feces, urine and vomit on the moon and during long-haul space flights. There are currently 96 bags of human waste that were left behind on the moon by astronauts.
Full-time RVers Michael and Randi Kilbourne have purchased online electronics retailer TechnoRV from Eric and Tammy Johnson. The Kilbournes represented the company at more than 40 rallies in 2024.
Beginning at 8 a.m. next Friday, April 18, 2025, two select entrances and roads in Yellowstone National Park will open for the summer season, weather permitting, as part of the annual spring opening.
If you like to crunch Frito-Lay’s Tostitos Cantina-style corn chips, look out! The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced it has elevated a recall it issued last month for it to Class 1, due to an undeclared allergen, which runs the risk of a serious or life-threatening reaction.
An estimated 2,400 to 2,500 National Park Service employees, roughly 12.5 percent of the agency’s workforce, have taken Trump administration offers to resign or retire, according to the National Parks Conservation Association.
WEIRD NEWS: A New Jersey group said its 2024 beach cleanup operations resulted in 276,899 pieces of trash being cleaned up, including unusual items like a rubber foot, a full can of ravioli and a set of vampire teeth.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is implementing a full road closure and detour along the park’s corridor in Roanoke, Virginia, from milepost 95.9 at Montvale Overlook to milepost 106 beginning Monday, April 14, because of repaving and rehabilitation.
Three Arizona White Mountains-area state highways, 261, 273 and 473, are scheduled to reopen by noon Tuesday, April 15, after being closed for the winter.
Grand Canyon National Park will reopen the Bright Angel Trail and Campground for public use beginning May 15, 2025.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today released its early estimates of traffic fatalities for 2024, projecting that 39,345 people died in traffic crashes. That’s a decrease of about 3.8% from 40,901 fatalities in 2023, and is the first time since 2020 that fatalities fell below 40,000.
NATURE NEWS: Registration opened Tuesday, April 8, 2025, for the Blue Ghost Firefly Event Tour. The elusive Blue Ghost fireflies are tiny insects (only 1/4 inch in length!) that glow with a unique blue-green light. They appear for only a few weeks each year in the woodlands of Transylvania County in Western North Carolina. Learn more.
FACTOID: Nearly 6,500 individuals in Los Angeles live in about 4,000 RVs on the streets. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority noted in its 2024 annual count that the figure has surged by 40% since 2018. According to LAHSA, many of the RVs are in severe disrepair with improper waste disposal, fire hazards from external generators and pose environmental harm.
RV and RV-related recalls
• Forest River recalls some trailers: wiring could melt, cause fire
• Jayco recalls some motorhomes for fuel leak danger
• Other recent recalls
BUMPER SNICKER: My son has perfect attendance at Angola State Penitentiary
Reader poll
If you buy another RV, will it most likely be motorized or a towable?
WHAT A HOOT! We recently asked RVT readers if they were related to somebody famous, past or present. About a quarter of the nearly 1,000 respondents said yes. Read about their famous relatives in the comments section.
Latest fuel prices
The latest U.S. average prices per gallon of fuel as of April 7:
Regular unleaded gasoline: $3.24. Up 8 cents from week before.
Diesel: $3.64. Up 5 cents from week before.
Upcoming RV shows & seminars. Click here.
Brain teaser
If 3 cats can catch 3 bunnies in 3 minutes, how long will it take 100 cats to catch 100 bunnies?
(Answer in tomorrow’s Sunday RV Travel newsletter.)
Trivia
Corn always has an even number of rows on each cob. Most ears of corn have 16 rows, but you’ll never find a cob with an odd number.
Laugh of the week
The perfect scam
Romance Scam Kingpin Brought to Justice, Part 2
From Part 1: When Debbie’s mother suddenly passes away, she is not shocked to find correspondence with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and letters to a victim’s advocate that reveal her mother had been the victim of a romance scam that had robbed her of more than $400,000. A Postal Inspector investigated. Did Debbie get justice for her mom?
Today in history
Today’s weather forecast across the nation
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Headed on an unfamiliar highway? Learn if it has low bridges you might not fit under.
RVtravel.com All Star Team
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Perhaps the best way to help the rangers and save our national parks is don’t go this year!?
I like the idea of charging international visitors more than US visitors. The parks would generate more funds they need and maybe keep the numbers down. We don’t go to national parks very often because they are so crowded.
CCG –
Totally agree. And some of those visitors are very rude as well.
The parks already generate more funds than they need. The cutbacks aren’t related to profitability. The end goal is privitazation and use for mining, logging, and drilling.
“In 2023, national park visitors spent an estimated $26.4 billion in communities near national parks, supporting 415,000 jobs and contributing $55.6 billion to the U.S. economy. This was achieved on a National Park Service budget of $3.6 billion.”
Really? There are billions of dollars in deferred maintenance backlogs. “The agency [NPS] estimated its DM needs for FY2023 at $23.263 billion. Although other federal land management agencies also have DM backlogs, NPS’s backlog is the largest. Because unmet maintenance needs may damage park resources, adversely affect visitors’ enjoyment of the parks, and jeopardize safety, NPS DM has been a topic of concern for Congress and for nonfederal stakeholders.” (https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48136)
But our clowns responsible for the cuts would say. Not many people coming, we can do more cuts. Flood the national parks with people this year and complain to the politicians. Not enough park employees.
Well, this is really not the answer, and it could send the wrong message, possibly doing more harm than good.
Good point!
Great idea! I hope it catches on…I have reservations to make
I’m so glad you included links to the AARP Perfect Scam. I think everyone should listen to some of these, especially seniors who are often targets of scams. Plus they are done so well, they make perfect listening on the road.
I am appalled that NASA astronauts left 96 bags of human waste on the moon! Every good hiker and camper knows to “leave no trace” and to “bag it out”. How incredibly irresponsible of them. First we destroy the Earth, now we’re working on destroying the Moon???!
Ok. That’s hard to disagree with. What would you do instead?
How about when a resupply ship comes to the ISS, when they leave it takes a few bags of waste back with them? Just a thought…
Maybe it will be used for crop fertilizer by future moon residents?
And as a hiker/camper, did you haul all your biodegradable waste back out, or possibly bury it?
😂 fertilizer…love it!
Yeah I was wondering the same thing…
Really! We are not destroying the earth. But, we are KILLING UNBORN BABIES! Now that is destroying!
😂…You are safe mimi…the Earth has not been destroyed and it’s pretty safe to say the Moon won’t be either.
The Astronauts weight restriction for takeoff load requirement, caused them to leave everything they could, to bring back moon rock samples for research.
The National parks are always sending me letters wanting me to donate to the National parks. My come back is that they would not need to beg for donations if they would just charge the people from other countries $1,000 per family to see our wonderful National Parks. There would not be so much crowding either.
The park service just sends me another packet to get more money.
Are you sure those letters are actually coming from the National Park Service? I get letters like that periodically, but they are from a private association that supposedly “supports” national parks with the money they want you to send them.
Concerning “The Perfect Scam” Remember what President Ronald W. Reagan used to say, “Trust but verify”. Please, be ever vigilant.
Great comment!
WOW Let’s figure out what we can do.
I pick up trash when I see it. Maybe ask a Ranger if there is anything you can do.
Thank you, Emily and Diane! Have a great day and safe travels!