HomeEditorials & Opinion

Editorials & Opinion

Is the FMCA RV club in trouble?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury PUBLISHER I have been a member of FMCA, the Family Motor Coach Association, for more than half its 61 years. For the past...

Why RV parks are no longer as safe as they once were

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER I have been RVing as a writer, editor and publisher for more than 4 decades. For 10 years, in 1980s...

What do you think about this questionable RV park?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury Watch the news segment below from Los Angeles ABC TV affiliate. It's about a new RV park in Torrance, California, that is...

Our non-human writer, Johnny Robot, advises best RV for full-timing

Johnny Robot -
By Johnny Robot NON-HUMAN STAFF WRITER EDITOR'S NOTE: Johnny Robot is not real. He's our staff non-human writer. This article by "Johnny" was written in about...

Easily cut your RVing expenses in half

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury To start, here's a very quick bit of fiction: John just bought a new car to travel to and from work. He...

This really makes my blood boil

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury PUBLISHER AND HEAD CURMUDGEON Please excuse my language, but I'm pissed. I received an invitation on LinkedIn from another online publisher with a...

Robot and human RVer fall in love at campground. Alas, relationship doomed

Johnny Robot -
By Johnny Robot ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE REPORTER Nobody on the RVtravel.com staff wrote the article below. It was written using artificial intelligence in about 40 seconds by...

Sad to say, but printed RV magazines are dead or dying

Steve Blume -
By Steve Blume Remember the days when printed magazines filled your mailbox? Those thick, colorful publications arrived daily—some wanted, some not. Have you noticed recently...

Own a dog? Sicko on the loose with sabotaged doggie treats

Chuck Woodbury -
My dog Archie will eat just about anything. His nose is always to the ground, sniffing and eating anything that smells edible. Most of...

This truck camper’s position on pickup scares us

RV Travel -
This photo came to us via our Facebook Group RV Crashes and Disasters. We cringed when we first saw it (and we still do)....

Man approaches bison in Yellowstone: Bad decision!

RV Travel -
A 40-year-old man from Idaho Falls, Idaho, approached too close to a bison in Yellowstone National Park on the afternoon of April 21, and...

Good Sam fading as RV club

RV Travel -
By RV Travel Staff The Good Sam Club was for decades THE club for RVers. It held huge annual rallies, encouraged and supported local chapters,...

Reader asks for clarification on subscription donations

Chuck Woodbury -
Dear Readers, This comment from a reader named Jake recently appeared in our comments section. I have edited his comments lightly for clarity. --Chuck Woodbury/publisher Could...

Why are so many tourists stupid?

Andy Zipser -
OPINION There’s an undeniably smug pleasure many of us take in observing others’ failings or stupid behavior, and indeed, it’s hard not to feel superior...

Is staying overnight at Walmart in an RV “camping”?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER A mong our many groups at Facebook is one called “Walmart RV Camping.” It’s about staying overnight in a Walmart parking lot to...

RV industry’s grand kickoff: RV shows are off to the races!

Dave Solberg -
OPINION It’s like the Daytona 500 for the RV industry!  As every NASCAR fan knows, the Daytona 500 is the granddaddy of racing. Every year it...

Amazon Prime joins the herd and puts advertisements into your viewing

Russ and Tiña De Maris -
OPINION If one of the reasons that caused you to sign up for Amazon’s “Prime” membership was because you could get their “free” video streaming...

A haunting encounter and a personal journey to confronting homelessness

RV Travel -
By Nanci Dixon Today, as we were driving in the Phoenix area, I noticed a young woman who, at first glance, appeared out of place...

Tesla recalls 2 million cars. An example of Elon Musk braggadocio?

Russ and Tiña De Maris -
EDITORIAL It’s a big item on the news this week—the Tesla recalls. It’s hard to ignore that some two million cars from a single automaker...

RV industry’s rosy predictions for 2024 are ‘wishful thinking’

Andy Zipser -
OPINION Easing into various seasonal celebrations, and from there into year’s end, various RV industry representatives have been spewing predictions for 2024 that are short...

With such poor RV quality, maybe we need Japanese manufacturers to take the lead?

Dave Solberg -
OPINION Dear Dave, On the matter of RVs and their poor quality maybe we need Japanese manufacturers to take the lead and show North Amwrican RV...

Questionable RV design: Fancy dinette makes no sense

Chuck Woodbury -
This is a Liberty Coach, a big, long, luxury motorcoach. A motorcoach is like a motorhome on steroids. It's like a tricked-out Greyhound bus,...

RV industry insider sees tough times for RV dealers. What’s ahead for RVers?

Russ and Tiña De Maris -
This week, an RV industry insider with decades of experience floated his opinion on what 2024 holds. He sees tough times for RV dealers....

Why in the heck are some people so mean-spirited?

RV Travel -
By Nanci Dixon Why in the world are some people so mean-spirited? We have always found the RVing community generally kind, courteous, and friendly. What...

Fake Dr. Seuss writes about RV breakdowns

Johnny Robot -
EDITOR'S NOTE: We asked ChatGPT to write a poem in the voice of children's author Dr. Seuss. Here is how we outlined our poem to...

Should homeless RVers observe the same rules as other RVers?

RV Travel -
By Dave Helgeson EDITORIAL As RVers who prefer boondocking on public land, my wife and I sometimes find ourselves camping in the vicinity of those who...

Girl Scout rescues older woman camper from bear attack (A.I.)

Johnny Robot -
INTRODUCTION BY Chuck Woodbury I asked ChatGPT (artificial intelligence tool) to write a fictionalized article of about 1,000 words about "a married couple, Mary and...

Johnny Robot writes about friendships on the road

Johnny Robot -
Every word of the story below was written by artificial intelligence (A.I.) using ChatGPT. Not a word was changed. We put the byline of...

Chapter One. Written in less than 30 seconds

Chuck Woodbury -
To understand this, you must first read the opening essay in the September 30, 2023, RVtravel.com newsletter. Again, here is what I asked ChatGPT to...

How to easily get rich using artificial intelligence

Chuck Woodbury -
Here is how you can earn some of the easiest money you will ever make. Ihave a special secret for you. It's a way for...

Is this my fate? I hope not!

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Please let me know if you are one of the children above. I have no clue who they are. I found...

A.I. Poem of the Week: Johnny Robot writes about his love of RVing

Johnny Robot -
By Johnny Robot I am not real. I'm a made-up person from ChatGPT. The beautiful poem below (I think it's beautiful anyway, but then I'm...

A funny, amazing story that scared the pants off me

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury Continued from the RVtravel.com newsletter of Sept. 17, 2023. Read that first before reading this. As I said in my essay, here is...

Word-diarrhea is epidemic, and I question why I even write anymore

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury PUBLISHER W hy do I write? Why have I spent the better part of 50 years putting my words on paper and now on...

Camping World and Eddie Bauer join forces. Two peas in a pod?

Russ and Tiña De Maris -
In a seeming larger-than-life promotion, Camping World and Eddie Bauer – well, largely Camping World – tout a new collaboration. You might wonder what...

My desperate battle with ‘Below the Belt’ Journalism

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER In men’s professional boxing the competitors must play by the rules. Perhaps the most consequential is “do not hit below...

On RV quality, our readers say, “Older is better”

Russ and Tiña De Maris -
We polled RVtravel.com readers: “How would you describe the quality of workmanship on your RV?” After hearing countless complaints about the kinds of issues...

New Winegard app promises big features, but customer service ‘Know Nothings’ don’t know a thing about it

Russ and Tiña De Maris -
We’d originally planned to write about a new gewgaw “app” from Winegard called the “RV Halo.” Most of us have a Winegard antenna up...

FMCA president candidate Curtis Coleman explains plans if elected

RV Travel -
Curtis Coleman, the founder of social media platform RVillage, which he sold last year, is running for National President of FMCA, the Family Motor...

Quartzsite heat. Aren’t you glad you’re somewhere else?

Russ and Tiña De Maris -
Quartzsite clings tenaciously to its claim of being the "Snowbird Capital of the West." With the Big Tent RV Show, hundreds of miles of...

Does anyone believe RVers living on the “streets” are going away?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury Does anyone who studies the RV lifestyle believe that the legions of America’s poor and disadvantaged who live in dilapidated RVs on...

RV park industry comes up short in disaster planning

Andy Zipser -
Just ahead of hurricane season, which officially kicked off June 1, the National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds held a webinar/campfire session for...

Will the Camping World acquisition spree spell an end to local RV shows?

Dave Helgeson -
Camping World continues to acquire more and more RV dealers on its “march on to world dominance.” Just a few of the RV dealers...

RV industry again falsely claims RVing is cheapest way to travel

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury T he RV Industry Association (RVIA) issued its annual press release recently that claims, again, that yet another study confirms traveling by RV...

The RV industry scrambles for survival: Are camping’s glory days over?

Andy Zipser -
Heading into the Memorial Day weekend, camping and RV industry cheerleaders were cranking out comparisons and forecasts to support their contention that the industry’s...

Is Massachusetts ripping off out-of-state visitors?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury I just returned from three weeks on the East Coast, most of the time in Massachusetts. Gail and I left our motorhome...

I have become too comfortable in my sticks-and-bricks home

Nanci Dixon -
I am afraid that I have become too comfortable in my new house without wheels. As some of you may remember, my husband and...

Is KOA abandoning RVers in favor of glampers?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury What's good for business is not necessarily good for consumers. Or RVers. For example, selling a ton of hamburgers is good for McDonald's,...

Letter to the editor: Nothing to love about staying at Love’s

RV Travel -
Reader Matt D. sent us this message this week in response to our recent story about Love's travel stops. By the end of this...

Are campgrounds and subdivisions becoming one and the same?

Andy Zipser -
OPINION I t’s gotten to the point where the notion of a “campground” is becoming indistinguishable from that of a subdivision. True, the housing units at...
123...12Page 2 of 12