Monday, September 23, 2019
Welcome to another edition of RV Travel’s Daily Tips newsletter. Here you’ll find helpful RV-related and living tips from the pros, travel advice, a handy website of the day, tips on our favorite RVing-related products and, of course, a good laugh. Thanks for joining us. We appreciate you. Please tell your friends about us.
Page Contents
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Today’s thought
“One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals.” –Michelle Obama
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is the Autumn Equinox!
Tip of the Day
Boondocking: Practice makes perfect
The best way to become comfortable with boondocking and become an expert at it is to do it often. Keep a log of how many days you can boondock without having to dump or replenish your on-board systems, and what measures — such as carrying extra water, watching less TV, or using the shower warm-up water to flush the toilet — have contributed to extending your boondocking days. Soon you will be practicing these conservation habits automatically. These skills open up millions of square miles of forest land and open desert for boondocking and exploring. —Bob Difley
RV Electricity – This week’s J.A.M. (Just Ask Mike) Session:
What is an RVelectricity™ Master Class?
• Sign up for Mike’s monthly RV Electricity Newsletter.
• While you’re at it, be sure to join his popular Facebook group, RV Electricity.
• Read more of Mike’s articles here.
Should you electrically insulate (“ground”) your levelers?
Many RVers have concerns about electrical safety in their rigs, and we get occasional letters on the subject. One reader expressed concern about the use of leveling boards/blocks and the grounding of a trailer. We asked RV electrical expert Mike Sokol for his thoughts on putting down levelers or stabilizers with or without adding “insulation” between the foot and the ground. Here’s what Mike said.
Reader poll
What did we learn about you last week from our reader polls? Find out here.
California Camping: Moon Handbook guide profiles 1,400 campgrounds. Updated 2019.
Arizona & The Grand Canyon: Plan your perfect Arizona trip. Click here.
Southwest Road Trip: explore the beauty of the Southwest with the 2019 Moon guide.
Helpful resources
• NATIONAL TRAFFIC AND ROAD CLOSURE INFORMATION.
• ROAD AND TRAFFIC CONDITIONS ACROSS THE NATION.
• WEATHER ALERTS FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.
• CURRENT WILDFIRE REPORT.
• LATEST RV RECALLS.
Tiny LED button lamp perfect for RV’s small, dark spaces
This 6-pack of tiny, battery-powered LED “Button Lamps” is just what you need for your RV’s closets and storage spaces. The tiny lamp is ultra-bright and has all the power of a normal-sized lamp. Backed with a strong adhesive, these little lamps will stick to any surface. They’re waterproof and good to have in case of an emergency. Learn more or order.
Quick Tip
Keep all your manuals handy
Piles of appliance and other RV manuals driving you batty? An inexpensive plastic “magazine file” will keep all them together. A couple of screws will hold it in place in a cabinet or closet.
Random RV Thought
Winter is coming soon, and that means rain. If you will be using your RV in the winter or storing it outside, be sure to have its roof inspected for leaks. A leak can severely damage your RV’s structure, an often very costly repair.
Going full-time? Need a home base? This is the best.
New and interesting finds at Amazon.com. Wow! It’s fun exploring here.
Website of the day
The 100 best burgers in America
Fill your stomach before visiting this site, ’cause if you don’t, you will be crazy with desire for one of these mouth-watering creations. We bet you can’t even get your mouth around the Jucy Lucy from Matt’s Bar in Minneapolis. But we’d also bet you’d try if given the opportunity.
Our favorite tire pressure gauge. Used by the RV Travel staff. Click
Popular articles you may have missed at RVtravel.com
• Will “booting” of trucks in Georgia Walmart raise concerns among RVers?
• Popularity growing for high-end gated RV parks for fulltimers.
• RVer makes a living finding the dead.
#856-F
Less than $10! Mini waffle (and more!) maker is a crowd-pleaser.
Trivia
The Baby Ruth candy bar was not named for baseball great Babe Ruth. Its manufacturer claimed it was named after President Grover Cleveland’s daughter Ruth Cleveland. The Baby Ruth bar is featured in a scene in the 1980 movie Caddyshack, where it’s accidentally knocked into the country club’s swimming pool, where it resembles a human feces. Later, when Carl Spackler (Bill Murray) is cleaning the pool and recognizes it’s a candy bar, he takes a bite, disgusting the country club’s co-founder and his wife who are watching.
Leave here with a laugh
What do you call an imaginary color? A pigment of your imagination.
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RV Daily Tips Staff
Editor and Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Managing editor: Diane McGovern. Senior editor: Emily Woodbury. Marketing director: Jessica Sarvis. Financial affairs director: Gail Meyring. IT wrangler: Kim Christiansen.
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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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This newsletter is copyright 2019 by RVtravel.com
I prefer pro sports, Football and Basketball, fewer teams to keep up with and less controversy. The NCAA has too many rules, the colleges make way too much money and will banish a kid (player) for selling his jersey or accepting airfare to go home in an emergency….
I love football and basketball, but watching the college games is much more entertaining (for me) because of the college rivalry, spirit and intensity of play. Watching a bunch of millionaire pros play the game isn’t quite as satisfying.
Computers fail sometimes and all storage can be lost, however, typically you can download just about any manual you wish… really no need to keep a record of it. That said, I did take all of mine, added other missing documents for other items concerning my motorhome, separated by item and/or category, alphabetized them, and then filed them in my built-in file cabinet drawer.
We have all our manuals in a 3″ binder, using document protectors to hold them. Before I put them away I cut off any unnecessary pages ( i.e.other languages). They’re alphabetical and handy to find when needed.
We downloaded all our RV manuals, etc and put them on the computers. Now I have easy access to the manuals too. I would never root through all the piles of RV books and papers. Just too daunting. Now I have the menus on my own computer screen. We just update when we get something new. Soooo easy!!
The question for today was (football fans, do you prefer ____
Then the answers are last one I’m don’t watch football
Fans ????
No sense to me anyway.
I understand your point, but I’m glad they added the last choice so that those of us who are interested can see how many respondents take the survey and not just how many respondents like football.
I’m a fan of NOT watching football. Never figured out why use so much time by those interested when they could see the parts where something happened on the late news.
My brother who drives truck for Walmart called to warn me about parking at Walmart. He is based in TX and was talking about trucks being booted all over the country. He said by all means go in an talk to the manager and get his permission. Most Walmart’s don’t own the property, they lease it, so the parking rules are not necessarily Walmart’s. If there is a campground close by they probably “greased the palm” of a city councilman to get a no parking law passed even though they may be at capacity.
I use to watch the green bay packers, but when the spoiled, over paid brats decided to “protest” by disrespecting our National Anthem and our Flag by taking a knee, that was it for me. I haven’t watched a game in 3 years and I won’t
Thank you! If we don’t love our country and what it stands for we lose everything.
Well, that’ll show them! I’m sure the NFL really misses you.
Bobp’s response is what we expect from a good American, unlike the UnAmerican side who will attempt to destroy any thought other than their own. Like the many businesses and personalities who these haters attempt to destroy, Bobp just changed the channel. As for the NFL missing viewers, maybe, maybe not. but Americans tuning out is not a business model most CEO’s would seek . Tom, I’m not sure what your point is, but I hope you don’t put the NFL (a sport) above America and its flag.
It is not the individual, instead it is the mass that are turned off by some athletes actions. That is what the NFL is missing and believe me it is hurting and scaring the Commissioner and owners. I still watch but am not the fan I once was.
Yes, the NFL of course misses the millions who have permanently checked out. Stands are half empty, TV viewership is down. Thus revenue is down.
Understand how business works? More “customers” is better, fewer is bad news.
Their protest is no worse than the flags I have seen taken on to the field at pro games that are cut into the shape of a map of the United States. Desecrating the flag is worse than not saluting it, in my opinion.
Howdy folks. I have personally never understood how peaceful protest disrespects anything. Back in the day people claimed MLK was disrespectful, but that was not his intent. The ability to peacefully protest is what makes this country free and great. Non-violent protest is an attempt to improve our country peacefully and thus honors our flag, while violence disrespects it. I have multiple vets in my family, from different wars, and I have talked to them about this. None of those individual vets understood why people are so upset about athletes taking a knee. Since I have never viewed taking a knee as an affront to our country’s flag, it has never offended me. Obviously, if someone views such protest as disrespecting our flag, taking a knee would be upsetting. However, I think the athletes taking a knee are focusing on the protest aspect, not the flag aspect.
Best wishes to all in our great country.
Regarding so called “high end gated communities” for full timers.This is exactly why RV parks across the country have gotten so greedy it has pushed many us “little folks” out of the competition for a wintertime spot.So much that I actually have given up the RV altogether,and many others I know are doing the same.America has a greed problem.
Boondock…its cheap.
Not all can boondock.
There are many imaginary colors… it’s a scientific term for impossible wavelengths that the brain synthesizes.
Way to spoil a joke, nerd. 🙂