Tuesday, February 18, 2020
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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Page Contents
Today’s thought
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” ―
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Crab Stuffed Flounder Day!
Tip of the Day
Camping versus RVing: What’s the difference?
By Chuck Woodbury
EDITOR
I think I am finally able to define the lifestyle called RVing, which some people criticize because it’s not really “camping.” What they don’t understand is that RVing and camping are not the same, although sometimes they overlap.
Only one segment of RVers are exclusively “campers” – those who “camp” for a week or two a year. These people generally camp in the summer, often on family vacations. They typically spend their days sightseeing or hiking and their evenings by the campfire. Their RVs, if they have one, are pretty basic and are often rented.
After Labor Day and before Memorial Day, the RVers you see on the road are more often “travelers” than “campers,” using their RVs for both transportation and lodging. Their rigs are larger and better equipped than the vacation campers – sort of “homes away from home.” Continue reading.
Do you have a tip? Submit it here.
Full-time RVing: Sell the house to hit the road?
One of the critical issues for those considering the full-time RV lifestyle is whether or not to sell the “landlocked” home. It’s not only a financial and physical question, it also touches deeply on the heart. In this article, Russ and Tiña De Maris weigh in on different considerations.
Yesterday’s featured article: How to blast away crud from your holding tanks
Reader poll
Adjusting the flame of an RV water heater
Gary Bunzer, the RV Doctor, shows you how to adjust the flame on your RV water heater so that it runs with maximum efficiency. Watch the video.
Quick Tip
Hold the door, will ya?
We got tired of the hook breaking on our front door and on the front cargo door on our fifth wheel. So we bought two magnetic door holders from Amazon. Last week the door stayed open in a 35 mph wind. Since the magnet is spring-loaded a push will release it. Thanks for the tip and photo, Cliff Thomson!
A thing that does all things!
This large silicone pad can be used in your microwave under hot bowls to pick them up, or on top of a dish as a splatter guard, on your table as a hot plate, a drying rack, or even as a jar opener. When it gets messy just toss it in the sink for a wash, or even put it in the dishwasher. About $10 on Amazon makes it a great deal. Talk about a great multi-tasking gadget for your RV (or home) kitchen.
Random RV Thought
A flashlight is like magic – a beam of light from your hand. There are plenty of neat devices in this world but, really, how cool is it that you can hold a small cylinder in your hand and with the flip of a switch or the push of a button, it will light up the night? If you were lost in a dark forest, what would you rather have, $1,000 in your wallet or a flashlight in your hand?
Website of the day
A well-stocked RV kitchen
Equipment and pantry staples for the well-stocked galley kitchen, tips and advice, and, of course, lots of recipes.
The best book on RV electricity, hands down!
RV Travel contributor Mike Sokol is America’s leading expert on RV electricity. Mike has taken his 40+ years of experience to write this book about RV electricity that nearly anyone can understand. Covers the basics of Voltage, Amperage, Wattage and Grounding, with additional chapters on RV Hot-Skin testing, GFCI operation, portable generator hookups and troubleshooting RV electrical systems. This should be essential reading for all RVers. Learn more or order.
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 grill over an LP gas grill outside
• 23 percent always bring a fishing pole on their RV trips
• 28 percent would like a larger RV refrigerator
Recent poll: Full-timers who sold your home, do you miss it? Let us know here.
Trivia
There are seven towns in the U.S. that are named after Santa Claus. There is a Santa Claus, Arizona, Georgia, and Indiana, and other towns named Saint Nicholas in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania.
George Washington had his own distillery for what type of alcohol? We told you in yesterday’s issue, and we also told you where you can still drink it!
Leave here with a laugh
When my wife’s sister, Patty, was very young, she was allowed to have her best friend, a boy named Rory, over to spend the night. As the children grew toward adolescence, their parents knew that someday the sleepovers would have to end. One night, when Rory and family were visiting, everyone gathered around the television to watch a beauty pageant. When Patty asked if Rory could stay over, the parents hesitated, wondering if the time had finally come to discontinue the tradition. At that moment, the pageant host announced a contestant’s measurements: 36-22-36. “Rory,” his mother asked, “what are those numbers?” The boy thought for only a moment before responding, “Ninety-four?” Rory was allowed to stay. —Thanks to Tom Hart for this joke! (The editor thinks Rory was smarter than his folks gave him credit for. 😉 )
Today’s Daily Deals at Amazon.com
Best-selling RV products and Accessories at Amazon.com. UPDATED HOURLY!
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RV Daily Tips Staff
Editor and Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Managing editor: Emily Woodbury. Senior editor: Diane McGovern. Advertising 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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If you have a death wish be a census taker. I would if I didn’t hear some people say they were scared off by a shotgun thru a door. No thank you. As for 5K? Wow. Who has 5K to burn? We are living hand to mouth here.
I worked for the census one time. I answered “never” because most people (myself included) return the forms and never see a census worker.
Great editorial Chuck!
You kinda know when you have hit that nomadic RVer lifestyle for some (and it may be a short) time, when you need to take a short vacation from your RVing.
Rving is certainly not a vacation, but a lifestyle, and after only a few weeks, one does need some “time away” occasionally.
I have lived in a motorhome full-time for five years and I linked to your “Camping vs. RVing” article on my Facebook page and added this:
Wow, this is a perfect description of my lifestyle. Not a week goes by without someone sending me a photo of a t-shirt or some other thing with a vintage trailer, and I never really understood why. I don’t live in a trailer and furthermore, I don’t camp. I do happen to live in a small condo-like home that happens to have wheels on it, but how I live has very little resemblance to camping. I love to camp, really I do! But I haven’t done it in many years and oddly enough I actually do still own the tent I went camping in last, in about 2013 or 14. Sleeping on that camping pad sure was hard on my back!
Reading further into the article, when I’m on the move I’m still not camping, I’m traveling. People keep asking me if I’m leaving my motorhome in CA when I go to FL this summer and I have no earthly idea why they think I would do that. I have dogs. It’s so much easier to travel with dogs in a motorhome than in a car. It’s so long ago that nobody remembers but the reason I even have a motorhome is that I did a cross country trip from Hawai’i to Florida in 2013 and it was just horrid because I couldn’t leave the dogs in the car to get groceries or anything else, and moving in and out of hotels every night was a hassle. My dogs are the reason I bought a motorhome. If I didn’t have dogs I probably wouldn’t have a motorhome, I think I’d just have a conversion van or maybe even a Miata with a nice tent strapped on the trunk!
I’ve had these thoughts for years now but didn’t know how to express them. This article expresses it perfectly!
So next time you think you want to send me an ad for a t-shirt with a trailer on it, resist the urge. Understand that there are as many reasons for living in a motorcoach as there are motorcoaches and mine is not for camping.
I follow Creativity RV on You Tube a lot. The gal presenting her ideas is quite smart and has some interesting presentations. She is alone in her RV and shares her experiences and recommendations. I was watching her when she brought up how she loved her “Instant Pot”. I decided to buy the 3 quart size. It takes a learning curve, but worth it. The inclosed directions that comes with the unit is minimal and not enough so I bought some kindle books and a hard back book from the grocery store. That really helped get me started.
I have to tell you I love using that unit. You can do just about everything without making a mess. You can sautés without splatter. There is only 1 pot to clean and the lid. There are so many one pot meals that are great especially for the RV. I have even baked a cake. I highly recommend it. And my little unit only uses 700 watts!
I’ve never been surveyed by a U.S. census taker but I didn’t answer “NO” as it would skew the results with me being Canadian. In Canada you can be sent to jail if you don’t complete and return your census questionnaire.
We have a Class B for traveling/sightseeing & Class A for Camping. I kinda split it up differently we Dry “Camp” a lot year round in So Cal. But if we stay in a hook up park to us that’s “ Parking” not Camping. But that being said…Do what YOU like !
Although the “Leave here with a laugh” was meant as a joke my son’s best friend is a girl. Although they never had sleep overs at the house when they were young she did and still does go camping with us. My son was adopted and started the 3rd grade when he first moved in our house. Josie was in the same grade and rode the same bus and was the first kid that made friends with him. They both are 13 now and still best friends. I never saw or had an issue with camping sleep overs as long as kids are supervised. After all you are basically in one big room so to speak. Everyone is in there separate bed and sleeping bag. She has become like a daughter to us so we keep an eye on both. I do joke with her parents about her being my future daughter-in-law. LOL
I liked today’s “leave here with a laugh”. -Thanks.
Re: “Random RV Thought”, really? $1K in the forest. Guess you could use it to start a fire, money isn’t everything, lol!
I actually WORKED for the 1980 census in Marin County, CA. Back then there were a lot of people working for the census with a LOT of footwork. I had just moved there from Chicago and needed a job. This turned out to be fun, made a lot of friends, and learned my way around the local area. I don’t think it’s fun anymore. Just sayin’ . . .
Oh, and we stopped at “Santa Claus, AZ” on our way to Quartzsite one year. I took a picture of the sign – because that was about all there was.
The RV kitchen. One day when I have a 25′ or longer RV this will be handy. With my popup, I still have the cook set I used in the Boy Scouts of nesting pots and dutch ovens.
I installed the magnetic door holders on all my interior doors and love them. Never occured to me to install on exterior doors but a great idea. I’ll add it to my list.
Rory was a fast thinking young man!
Hahaha! very good!