Thursday, October 17, 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.
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Today’s thought
It is not the length of life, but depth of life. —Ralph Waldo Emerson
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Pasta Day!
Tip of the Day
Be courteous when arriving late at campsite
When pulling into a campground after quiet hours remember that you may be the only one awake. Be considerate of those already sleeping.
- Turn off your lights (if roadway well-lit) or switch to your parking lights.
- Park in your site as quietly as possible.
- Leave the tweaking and setting up of your camp gear until the next day.
- Keep conversations to a minimum — both in number and noise level, and don’t shout parking instructions.
- Avoid slamming doors and any other unnecessary noises. It may not bother you — since you’re awake — but it will your neighbors.
- Turn off your engine immediately after you are parked.
If you get a lot of dirty looks the next day, you probably need to work on your late-night arrival courtesy.
Do you have a tip? Submit it here.
TODAY’S DEALS on RV parts and accessories! Click.
When roads were made of wood
Early in the 20th century, when auto travel was all the rage, Yuma, Ariz., was at a crossroads but with a big obstacle to the west — vast sand dunes. Throughout history, travel of any kind was severely inhibited by this great barrier. With the building of Yuma’s Ocean to Ocean Highway in 1915, a way had to be found for autos to cross. A wooden plank road seemed the answer. Read more.
Reader poll
Quick Tip
Turn off the lights
While you may like lighting up your campsite at night, your neighbors may not appreciate it. Your porch light might be so bright that your neighbors need to close their blinds to sleep. So, be sensitive to your fellow campers. Don’t feel it’s your job to illuminate the campground.
Random RV Thought
Avoid campsites where a tree branch touches your RV. If the wind comes up at night, the grating noise will annoy you and the branch might even scratch your rig.
Pocket-sized Goo Gone is a must-have
Who doesn’t have a bottle of handy Goo Gone in their home and RV? We have several bottles in both. Now you can get this lifesaving liquid in pocket-sized pen form, so you can keep it in your purse or in the glove compartment for easy reach. Goo Gone works to get rid of anything sticky like adhesive residue, gum, stickers (like price tags) and even stains! You’ll definitely want to buy one here.
Website of the day
7 easy hikes at the Grand Canyon
Have they invented the instant travel button yet? We’d love to be standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon right now. If the canyon is in your future, check out these seven easy hikes (plus three more that will get you below the rim).
Folks, it’s less than a month until Daylight Savings Time ends. It will start getting dark earlier, which is why you need these adorable trailer lights for your RV!
And the Survey Says…
We’ve polled RVtravel.com readers more than 1,500 times in recent years. Here are a few things we’ve learned about them:
• 70 percent always or almost always wave or blink their lights to a motorist who pulled over to let them pass.
• On a cold day, 57 percent often use a space heater to warm their RV.
• 15 percent have traveled with an RV outside of Canada, Mexico or the USA.
8 things to keep in your RV in case of an emergency
• Lifestraw • Flashlight • First Aid Kit • Fire Extinguishing Aerosol Spray • LED Road Flares • Solar-Powered Phone Charger • Fire Starter • Freeze-Dried Food
Trivia
Our dogs are our family. In fact, more than 94% of pet parents consider their dog a member of the family. And the way we name them follows suit: 36% of all dog names are decidedly human. —SOURCE: Rover.com
Don’t buy an RV before joining The RV Advisor.
Leave here with a laugh
Q: Why does the Norway Navy have barcodes on the sides of their ships?
A: So when they come back to port they can Scandinavian.
Today’s Daily Deals at Amazon.com
Best-selling RV products and Accessories at Amazon.com. UPDATED HOURLY.
Did you miss the latest RV Travel Newsletter? If so, read it here.
RV Daily Tips Staff
Editor and Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Managing editor: Emily Woodbury. Senior editor: Diane McGovern. Marketing director: Jessica Sarvis. Financial affairs director: Gail Meyring. IT wrangler: Kim Christiansen.
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
Oops! rechecked to make sure I did not mislead
need to click on “each” rather than “adhesive remover” then it will be $7 on Prime, no delivery charge
RE Goo Gone on AMZ, charging $17 for shipping on $5 product
Never got into the Hardy Boys, but read all of my sister’s Nancy Drew collection.
Bobbsie Twins and Boxcar Children also great books.
We paid for a tour guide of the Grand Canyon. I loved it. To see the Grand Canyon is more or less to actually have someone do a tour of it. Can’t remember who did ours but it was grand indeed. Plus we don’t hike nor do we do boat tours. Which looked like fun from the top rim but know I don’t do water.
Took a Grand Canyon river trip in 1976 for 21 days and 282 miles and there was lots of water and it was the best trip that I have ever been on in my life and I’ve been on a few!!
We travel with our dog (and 3 cats) . The dog goes out only as necessary and only as long as it takes !
As for the light thing I also enjoy viewing the stars at campgrounds because at home most of the stars are not visible . We use a multi LED motion sensing light attached with velcro next to the door and aimed DOWN! This light is quite bright, am considering a possible red lens to dim the light!
Scare lights should only be used for emergencies , I guess some people are scared all the time because they have them on all the time!
Be courteous !
Scandinavian….that’s good!
I have friends who do a lot of sky watching. There are large groups of people who camp out and watch the stars through telescopes. The one big rule – RED LIGHTS ONLY. Red lights don’t negatively affect your night vision.
Those terrible blue/white LEDs though, fuggetaboutit.
Thanks for the mention of the Red lights, had forgot about it, will try that . ( See my post above.)
I love to read, but I did not read either of those two series. I read Reader’s Digest, Highlights for Children, and comic books, along with classics like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
I wish every RV-er would read the tip about turning off the lights. I could not see the night sky and stars that I love because the neighbor camper insisted on leaving the “porch” light on all night, every night!
Loved Nancy Drew as a young girl. I credit her with my love for reading… well, that and the back of cereal boxes.
Read all of the Hardy Boys’ series and then “graduated” to Ian Fleming’s James Bond stuff. Books are great places for adventure.
I read the Zane Gray serifs of books as a kid. Does that count.
Enjoyed Grand Canyon segment – thank you.
I read them all. My real treat was finding “Tom Swift”, hidden in a closet in our town library. These really expanded my interest in mechanics, electronics, etc.
My choice, too.
I have no problem with folks bringing their dogs camping. I have critters myself. But what do you do when dogs are barking at everything all day long in the camp site next to you. I have neighbors that have dogs and they bark constantly, so when I go camping, I’m hoping to get some peace and quiet. Please don’t take this as being rude. I like dogs but don’t agree that they need to bark constantly at nothing while your at a campground.
Right on George not only the barking but the litter they leave & no one picks up.👎😟🐾
What someone gets out of their dam fur friend barking incessantly at everything that moves is beyond me. Like George I do not leave home, and rent a site by the stream lake or river to listen to someone’s fur pal yapping. I find with most folks with animals in tow when they travel, it is all about them.
On the Oregon coast this summer we went into a Mo’s Seafood restaurant, where the table next to us became occupied with an elderly man his woman and their beautiful little whatever – the talk of the place. Although this place had a no dogs policy, the woman was able to convince the kids manning the place, the dog was her emotional support animal, and they allowed the trio to stay.
No consideration for those around them if someone had some dam dog allergy, NOOOOOO. It’s all about them.
That’s the last Mo’s will see of us, there’s other clam chowder joints around that haven’t gone to (with) the dogs.
Re: tree branches, I always travel with a pole saw to assist the campground with maintenance. Ask permission if possible, but the stated clearances are going to be true either way.
Re: solar phone chargers of the cute little pocket kind, be aware that even a 3×4″ solar panel would take several days in full sun to charge a phone — less than “realtime” drain, and many use more power running the charging led than they are receiving from the sun (literally *draining* any onboard battery while solar “charging” itself) . In other words, total scam scientifically. The 10W briefcase-size foldable panels should work.
Thanks for the Quick tip today on turning off your outside lights. It can’t be stressed enough on how irritating it is! Thank You!
It’s a good tip but most of the people who do that probably don’t read this newsletter. They are so full of themselves they can’t think about someone else.
Turn off lights
I have a 16ft pole that mounts on my ladder with the U S FLag and a light on top for night time. I leave it up all the time and have had no problems. I do tell my neighbors that if it bothers them let me know and I will take it down at night.
Bob, you got it right. People generally haven’t the slightest concern for much around them these days. How did we get to this pace? Garage door openers, TV, and credit cards! They all facilitate people not talking to or giving a dam about each other.
One point on the light thing though. most modern vehicles have the lighting circuit on a automatic system, that turns the lights on and off. The off part can be set to shut off quick, but ones I’m familiar with cannot be manually shut off. Maybe I’m wrong if so correct me.
My favorite books in the early years: The Bobbsey Twins series – and I think The Bobbsey Twins on a Houseboat may have laid the groundwork for my love of RVing.
I also read all the Bobbsey Twins series! I will have to introduce my granddaughter to them.
I was going to say The Bobbsey Twins, too! My grandmother gave me a new book, with a little note inside, every birthday and Christmas. I still have them on my bookshelf. She gave my brother the Hardy Boys books.