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Editor's Roadside Journal

The good ol’ days? How about the good ol’ stinky days!

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By Chuck Woodbury It's easier, as one gets older, to reminisce fondly about "the good old days." The problem is, the good old days weren't...

Screen shot of the forest

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By Chuck Woodbury Screen shots, to most of us, are images we capture of our whatever is on our computer screen. This is a different...

Visit Mars without leaving America

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By Chuck Woodbury If you're like me and wish you could go to Mars, well, you're in for a disappointment. It's not going to happen...

How sad, the disappearing front porch

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Passing through tiny Kennard, Ind., yesterday I came across these women on a front porch. I stopped in my lane right in the middle...

The most famous RVer of all time

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I'd like to tell you a brief story about the most famous American to travel by RV. Yet most people never knew he did....

The crook who grew up to be a shoe

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RAWLINS, Wyo— Today, at the Carbon County Museum, I checked out the display of Big Nose George Parrot, the only man in American history...

Full-timers: You never know where you’ll find them

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com People are not always what they appear to be. I'm referring here to full-time RVers. You think people are residents of...

Highway Hostesses: Cleaning gas station restrooms across America

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By Chuck Woodbury PUBLISHER, RVtravel.com Before we traveled with our RVs, most of us traveled in cars. If you are older than 65, you likely recall...

My shower is one of my top five favorite RV things

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Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com I was thinking about my RV shower today as I basked in my home shower, soaking up the warmth. A shower is...

RVers are not hoarders.

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Have you seen the TV program "Hoarders?" It's about people with a compulsion to hoard just about everything. Nothing gets...

Celebrating nearly 30 years of RVing. What’s next?

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in March, 2010 I'm 62 years old. Some people think I'm 100. The reason is that I was in my...

When people discovered the world through postcards

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  By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Go back 100 years. Just imagine: there were no RVs and only a few primitive cars with few roads to...

Why outside RV kitchens are a stupid idea

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in March, 2010 The new big thing in RVs is an outdoor kitchen. That's what the Edmonton Journal reported...

Thoughts about throwing things away

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in March, 2010 I'm now in my second week at my late-parents' home in Grass Valley, Calif., cleaning the place...

Variety stores: Going, going. . . (almost) gone

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Maybe your grandmother shopped here. Maybe you did if you grew up in rural America. You don't find many variety stores...

I like to stop at cemeteries

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When I'm on the road with time to spare, I love to stop at rural cemeteries. It's not morbid at all. There is so...

When is a person ‘elderly?’

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So when is a person elderly? Last week I asked you to tell me when you believe a person should be considered "elderly." See the...

Empty nest. It came fast

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in June, 2010 My daughter and only child Emily graduated from high school last week. Just yesterday, I believe, she...

Confused as I head out on the road

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com No doubt you have seen these telescopes at scenic overlooks. Although I have no proof, I believe these are aliens from...

Devils Tower and the Jolly Green Giant

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in August, 2010 One of the reasons I wanted to drive my daughter Emily to college in New York was...

Coffee. Shower. Okay, my day may now start

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I am writing to you now from the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. I arrived Wednesday, a bright and sunny day. Oh, my goodness: the...

Happy in my tiny house on wheels

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  I've been on the road now for more than two months with about two weeks and 1,700 miles to go. This is the longest...

The yin and yang of RVing

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Looking out the front window of my RV I see barren, brown hills of Wyoming. A month ago, out of that...

When an RVer is like a raw egg

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com Do you know how to tell the difference between a hard boiled egg and a raw egg without cracking it? It's...

The scenic, glorious Northwest

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com I'm home. It's Wednesday morning at about 10 a.m., I glanced out my living room window an hour ago and this...

Dead cars along the highway

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What do you do when you buy a new car? For one thing, you trade in your old one. But have you ever wondered...

On the road in an 18-foot (leaky) motorhome

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By Chuck Woodbury Editor, RVtravel.com That's me in the picture. I've been going through my Out West photos again, from the years I explored the West...

Taking pictures of odd things

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com When I travel, I always have a camera with me. These days it's often my iPhone, which takes remarkably good photos....

A cute chipmunk, Cheez-Its, and stupid me

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Before I became politically correct and nature-smart, I fed wild animals. I fed bears as a kid in Yellowstone. I...

Photo of old motorhome makes me happy

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com A reader sent me this photo. Being disorganized, I immediately lost his email so I cannot thank him properly. I know...

Hibernating in your RV. Others ask ‘Is anyone in there?’

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com My long time buddy Dave Williams wrote something in his blog this week that got me thinking. Dave wrote: "People in...

How times change. What’s next?

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com  Originally published in April, 2011 I watched an old Hollywood musical the other night, "Meet Me In St. Louis" starring Judy Garland....

My first motorhome in a spectacular state park

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com  As some of you know, my first motorhome was a tiny one -- a mere 18 feet long. I had...

Pioneer museums and barbed wire, ‘the Devil’s rope’

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com  One of my favorite things to do when traveling with my RV is to visit rural pioneer museums. Most are not...

U.S. 395. Stunning beauty on the western lip of America’s Outback

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com I am planning a two-week road trip for later this summer, most likely from my home in Washington to Southern California...

‘Live Rattlesnakes,’ read the sign by the lonely road. A vanishing America

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Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com I love this photo. I snapped it a long time ago somewhere in New Mexico. It was along a rural highway. Just...

Campground doesn’t furnish toilet paper: ‘The rest of the story. . .”

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in July, 2011 I received a message last week from a woman named Louise Schlosser who was horrified that a...

A visit to my father’s WWII airbase in England

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in August, 2011 I am on vacation in England. I was traveling the A11 highway this week north from Cambridge...

RVing Iceland: Gorgeous country, friendly people

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in September, 2011 In his 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne's characters descend from...

Incurable wanderlust. That’s me. You, too?

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in September, 2011 I don't want to be home. I want to be traveling again, preferably on the road with...

I accept the rain

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  By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in October, 2011 It's raining. That's what happens this time of year in the Northwest. We had a short summer, but...

Meeting ‘Sully,’ my father’s B-24 navigator

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in October, 2011 A month ago, I whined here about how I was so hopelessly afflicted with wanderlust, and how...

Why my junk drawer is a good thing

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Originally published in Oct., 2011 Today's survey question is about whether you have a junk drawer in your RV. I have one....

Why I became a writer and how things have changed

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com I decided to earn my living as a writer only a few hours after my first day in my college newspaper...

Rocky, the weird cat I was forced to adopt

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com I once traveled with a cat. His name was Rocky. Rocky was forced upon me in a campground in Grand Junction, Colorado...

Needless deaths on the RV highway

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com This was originally published in January, 2012 There was a terrible traffic accident last week. A rented motorhome with 13 people on...

I miss my darkroom!

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Written in January, 2012 The photo is of me in my first motorhome printing black and white photos in my portable darkroom....

A terrific hobby for RVers: photography

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Last week I told you about the portable darkroom I once carried with me in my motorhome. What I didn't tell...

“RVing” versus “camping”

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com Many years ago, I wrote about how the terms RVing and camping differ. RVing, I suggested, is a good term to describe...

Do campgrounds cause cancer?

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By Chuck Woodbury editor, RVtravel.com I wrote this in February, 2012 Do California campgrounds cause cancer or birth defects? Well, maybe so. No kidding! If you see the...
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