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Editor's Roadside Journal

Hard to believe an RV park hookup could be so stupid!

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury Here's the water-hookup situation at my campsite at an RV park in Springfield, Illinois. I just found this photo. I took it...

The wordiest parking lot sign in America

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL In days of old, a parking lot sign might say that unauthorized cars would be towed, then offer a phone number...

If only life were like it’s portrayed in commercials

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL When you think about it, you realize that if life were like how it's portrayed in advertisements and commercials, it would...

Small town newspapers – ya gotta love ’em

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL You can always tell you are in a town without a local Craigslist website because the local newspapers still have good-sized...

A semi-off-color joke with a great punchline

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I came across this joke the other day and cannot resist passing it along. If you are a fuddy-duddy and are...

Where Harry Potter was born and the man with the 10-minute memory

Chuck Woodbury -
The other day, at the bookstore/coffee house where we hold our regular RVtravel.com staff meetings, I overheard a woman asking a clerk if a...

For a quick laugh, some “upbeat” news

Chuck Woodbury -
Ya gotta love the Internet and what passes off as news. This cracked me up. Read the headline and then the caption. . . ....

Guilt about my dog, Archie

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I have been an RVer for a long time but have never traveled alone with a dog. Until now. My little...

My experience Friday at Ground Zero of an earthquake

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Little did I know when I went to bed Thursday night in a campground near Snohomish, Washington, that a few hours...

Do you read RV Travel on your phone? Darn!

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL More of you now read this website and its newsletters on your smartphone than on a computer. I know how it...

Meet my little pal Archie

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL This is Archie, my favorite little furry buddy. He's 20 pounds of terrier, mostly Border Terrier. He hardly ever barks. His...

Farewell, Mad Magazine

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I am sad. Mad Magazine is shutting down after 67 years. I grew up reading Mad. My mother, sister and I...

My jury duty: “Get it right or an innocent guy goes to jail”

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I spent four days last week serving on a jury in Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. It was the...

My job as a television anchor

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Many of you have read my articles for 10, 20, even 30 years or more. But I bet none of you...

A girl tosses ashes from the ferry boat

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL If you live in the Seattle area, you likely ride a ferry from time to time. I love riding the ferry....

On Memorial Day, how lucky I am to be alive

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I was talking to my daughter, Emily, the other day about my father, her grandfather. And now, as Memorial Day approaches,...

Laugh of the day: Peekaboo parrot

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL If you don't laugh when watching this 23-second video, then you have no sense of humor. Watch as this parrot plays...

My dream of joining the circus

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I came across a book recently about "Running Away With the Circus." But what it was really about was running away from one's...

Did we save another RVer’s life?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury We write a lot on RVtravel.com about RV electrical safety. Our resident expert Mike Sokol is the nation's authority on the subject....

What this disfigured face can tell you

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury This photo is difficult to view. It's a woman, Jacqui Saburido, who died last month at the age of 40. In 1999, at...

Evidence of cell phone usage from long ago

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I took the photo one year ago at a cemetery near Kuntztown, Pennsylvania. As you can plainly see, the statue is...

Spend a night in a potato!

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury FOOD EDITOR Yes, you read that headline right. First, let's level with each other. Sometimes we get tired of staying night after night in...

An American military hero dies at 103

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury Have you heard the name Dick Cole? He died last Tuesday at age 103. He lived in the little Texas Hill Country...

What do you think? Glow in the dark cars, even RVs?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury I took the photo below in a Seattle-area parking lot. The first thing I thought when I saw the lime green car...

Drunken online shopping a billion dollar industry

Chuck Woodbury -
The Seattle Times reported today, April 5, that drunken online shopping is a multi-billion dollar industry. In Washington, residents spend an estimated average of...

At what age is a person ‘elderly’?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury I recently came across a survey we conducted where we asked RVtravel.com readers to tell us at what age a person should...

My grandfather and me: both authors!

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury I was surprised, no, make that shocked, when I learned just recently that my grandfather, James Ralph Montigel, who died when I...

RV industry media does lousy job of reporting

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury Something is on my mind that I must get off my chest. It's about a major incident in the RV industry that...

Is this the world’s longest travel trailer?

Chuck Woodbury -
This amazing travel trailer was built by the man posing by it, Albert R. Beglar, in his back yard using surplus airplane wings, a...

My new space age boxer shorts

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Bless her heart, my significant other's kindness. I'm only an hour away from wrapping up this week's RVtravel.com newsletter but I...

Oh, I am humbled. I meet my “look-a-likes”

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Many times I've heard that somewhere in the world there is someone who looks just like you. My brother once ran...

Why I suddenly feel smaller than ever

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I suddenly feel smaller. A lot smaller. A new "sky map" as measured by a low frequency radio telescope has revealed...

Mail Pouch barns a reminder of another time

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I found this Mail Pouch Tobacco barn along Highway 322 in Brickerville, Pennsylvania. You don’t see these signs much anymore. At...

Me and an ugly tent trailer a long time ago

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL This is me camped at Death Valley in the 1950s. I'm the little speck of kid in the middle of the...

The fish that should have kept its big mouth shut!

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I snapped this photo a few years ago at Glimmerglass State Park on Otsego Lake near Cooperstown, NY. The bass had...

What happened to the blue mailboxes?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Have you noticed that mailboxes like the one below have disappeared from most street corners? They were once all over the...

Who is this old man?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I photographed this old man in Quartzsite, Ariz. But as you have probably figured out, he's not real. He's a weathered...

How a pig nearly sent the U.S. and Britain to war

Chuck Woodbury -
One of the America's most unusual wars involved only one casualty – a pig – and yet it could have changed the course of...

I am a snoop, but it’s okay

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I sometimes eavesdrop on other people's conversations. It's not that I intentionally snoop, it's just that sometimes people talk so loud...

The night I met Fats Domino

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL For some reason, a few minutes ago I started humming "Blueberry Hill." The song reminded me of the night I met...

Meet the real Siri, the voice of your iPhone

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL If you own an iPhone, you know Siri. She's the female voice that you consult with to ask questions. You might ask,...

How “Oyster Money” and “Salmon Currency” saved the day

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL South Bend, Washington, the Oyster Capital of the World, is also the county seat of Pacific County. It wasn’t always so....

Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon. Your ship awaits!

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL When I finally depart my earthly existence I will have one major regret: that I did not get to travel to...

Are you a right chewer or a left chewer?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL I read something yesterday that said that right-handed people chew their food on the right side of their mouths. Left-handed people...

Teddy Roosevelt slept here. Yeah, right!

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Something is fishy about the stories I hear from operators of historic hotels. It seems that Teddy Roosevelt spent the night...

Dinosaurs in the claw machine at the supermarket

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Some photographers specialize in portraits, others in sports or fashion. Still others spend their time in the great outdoors and capture...

It’s easy to confuse reality with pretend

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Sometimes I catch myself comparing real life to imitation life. I see places in my travels and I think, "Gee, that...

Don’t call me Pal

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Calm down, Chuck, just calm down! That is what I am telling myself at this very moment. The reason is because...

A change in how we camp not always easy for old folks

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury EDITOR Sooner or later you show your age whether you want to or not. I just watched the video below that was produced...

How do you eat artichokes and bananas?

Chuck Woodbury -
By Chuck Woodbury ROADSIDE JOURNAL Some friends and I were sitting around a campfire gabbing about random stuff when the subject of food came up. For...
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