Wednesday, April 1, 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.
If you shop on Amazon, please visit through our affiliate site (we get a little commission that way – and you don’t pay any extra). Thank you!
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Today’s thought
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road’ll take you there.” ―
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is April Fools Day! It’s also National Sourdough Bread Day!
Coronavirus Updates for RVers
Coronavirus Updates for RVers
Because so much is happening, and so fast, we are separating our daily coronavirus news updates into its own file.
There is so much interest now on how the virus is impacting our lives as RVers, our staff is devoting more time to keeping you informed of critical matters that affect how you use and travel with your RV.
Read today’s coronavirus news updates for RVers.
New Facebook Group: How the coronavirus is impacting RVers. Learn about park closings, cancelled rallies and RV shows — and more. Your input requested.
If you are a member of an RV club or are affiliated with an RV-related event would you please let us know if its gatherings, meetings, etc., are cancelled or postponed because of the coronavirus? We’ll pass along the info to our readers. We appreciate any news related to RVing that’s being affected by the virus. Please submit it here. Thank you!
Tip of the Day
Campsite “site length” restrictions. What do they really mean?
By Russ and Tiña De Maris
Ah, those wonderful mysteries of RVing. When you’re first starting out, there must be hundreds of them to be resolved. Here’s one: “We are transitioning from tent camping to towing a travel trailer this year. We will be towing a 19.5′ travel trailer with a 19′ pickup truck, the overall length being approximately 38.5′. Does the RV length limit listed for a campground (especially national parks) include the tow vehicle and the travel trailer?” Continue reading.
Do you have a tip? Submit it here.
Camco Store on Amazon has everything you need!
There isn’t much you need for your RV that Camco doesn’t have. If you think we’re kidding, then click through to the Camco store on Amazon where you’ll find some of their best-selling products — all for your RV or for you to make your RVing better. Click here and you’ll feel like a kid in a candy store.
Stupid RVer trick? Or is this just sad?
This has to be high on the list of Stupid RVer tricks. In this case, it’s not actually a trick, but a misguided attempt by a couple of English guys to tow a travel trailer through a narrow alley. Watch the two minute video. Prepare to laugh (or maybe cry)!
Yesterday’s featured article: The rude couple in the campsite next door…
Reader poll
Readers tell us
What part of this newsletter do you look forward to the most? Is there something you’d like to see done differently? Suggestions? Advice? Read about your favorite parts, and leave a comment here.
The Most Scenic Drives in America
The updated trip planner & travel guide will steer you down the most scenic road every time. From Florida’s Road to Flamingo, to British Columbia’s Sea to Sky Highway, to Cape Cod’s Sandy Shores, each featured road trip is pictured in stunning full color and described in vivid text, keyed to an easy-to-follow map. Whether you choose a drive on a distant road or a back road in your own state, this book is your ticket to North America’s most beautiful byways. Learn more or order.
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.
Did you buy a lemon RV? Here’s more about RV lemons and lawyers who will represent you if you need help.
Here’s one of our favorite “April Fools!” day articles…
Police searching for artist who turned famous Chicago “Bean” into Airstream!
CHICAGO (WLS) — Chicago police are looking for the suspect who swapped out the famous “Bean” art installation for an Airstream travel trailer. Continue reading.
Quick Tip
Handy hints for using a gas oven
If your oven at home is electric, adjusting to a gas stove in the RV can be a trick. Gas ovens usually don’t heat as evenly and may have hot spots. Turn your items several times when baking to even out the cooking. And Mary Lowe suggests using a heat deflector. If you can’t find one at a kitchen supply store, take a cookie sheet, turn it wrong side up on the oven rack and place your baking dish/pan on top of it. This eliminates food burned to the bottom of the dish.
Action needed: Keep RV parks open
A message from the Escapees Club
RV parks across the country are closed/closing in response to state and local orders. Most states are allowing individual counties to dictate their own measures. We are hearing all kinds of mandates, some of which could force residents/guests to leave an RV park where they are currently sheltering. This puts fellow RVers in jeopardy.
We encourage you to take part in a grassroots effort to reach key leaders directly… Continue reading.
Random RV Thought
If you don’t need a pull-through campsite, choose one where you back in. You will usually save a few dollars.
It’s time to clean your CPAP machine!
One of our past surveys told us that 53% of you (or your partner) use a CPAP machine. Wow! When was the last time your machine was cleaned thoroughly? They get very dirty! This highly rated cleaning kit will get out all those yucky germs and bacteria. The extendable brush will expand to 7 feet, but folds up into a small plastic bag so as to not take up too much room in your RV. If you use a CPAP, you’ll want to order this here.
Website of the day
Longhauler-USA
“Transportation trucking resources for longhaul truck drivers.” But this website is a directory of anything truck drivers, or any drivers, could ever need: road and traffic conditions by state, truck maps and routes (including restrictions), speed limit laws by state, hospital/physician search — too much to list (mind-boggling!). Check it out!
Popular articles you may have missed at RVtravel.com
• RVer Safety: What if you protect yourself but are then arrested?
• What happens when you tear off the black tank valve? Yuck!
• Why not just inflate tires to the certification label level?
#901F
Trivia
In 1957, BBC pulled off one of the most famous April Fools pranks of all time. The report showed a family in Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the family “spaghetti tree”. Millions of viewers watched then contacted BBC asking how they could grow their own “spaghetti tree.” Decades later CNN called this broadcast “the biggest hoax that any reputable news establishment ever pulled.” You can watch the BBC report here.
Gadsby is a 50,000-word novel written without what letter? We told you in yesterday’s trivia section.
The 2020 Rand McNally Road Atlas is better than ever!
Read more about why you should always have this with you here.
Leave here with a laugh
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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This newsletter is copyright 2020 by RVtravel.com
Two tires are new, two are one year old, one is four years old, and one is seven years old. Working our way through buying new ones. When we bought the 2005 RV in 2016, five of the six tires were 2013 tires. The inside dual I didn’t check was a 2008, blew halfway across Nevada.
The tires on my motorhome are nine years old but they still look good. I’m always checking their pressure, keep them covered when parked, and they have never been overloaded so no cracks or uneven wear. Sure, I know they’re pretty much at the end of their lifespan but it would cost me more to replace them than I paid for the motorhome five years ago.
Any update on Gary Bunzer?
Andy, here’s a link to the article on Gary: https://www.rvtravel.com/gary-941/ Chuck is updating information as it comes in, so the most recent update is posted at the top. Thanks for asking. —Diane at RVtravel.com
Re: tires
My next door neighbor left for home in Alberta the other day and blew a tire 150 miles out. Tires would be 3 years old in May
LT tires. Goes to show you, no tire is invincible. Probably had about 7k on them.
Yesterday while working in my garage i had the radio on. In Lethbridge Alberta we’ve just come off a week of really nice sunny weather – the roads are dry, convertibles and motorcycles have stared to appear, and except for the reduced amount of traffic, everything appears normal.
The forecast yesterday was for increased risk of snow fall and dropping temps, with the radio announcer warning we should all prepare to stay indoors because the temp was going to be excruciatingly extreme. The urgency in his voice was convincing. Of course nothing of the sort materialized.
Media drives panic through false unverified reporting, I see this everyday – and it is one reason I do not take much I see on TV or read in the paper immediately serious.
By the way three different sources gave me three different forecasts for today April 1st, and none of them matched the other.
Re: the BBC video – with the FAKE NEWS MEDIA today, everyday is April fools!
A pizza stone or ceramic tile in the RV oven works better at evening out the heat than anything else I have tried.
The medical interpreted merely knows how to form a diagnosis into a different language. That is the equivalent of saying I play a medical doctor on TV. RV tips newsletter got a little tipsy printing this misleading essay.
Yesterday I received an email from recreation.gov informing that my May 25 to June 9 reservation at a Corps of Engineers campground in Missouri was cancelled. The reason was the campground would not open until June 1 due to the coronavirus issue. I wonder who made the decision to unilaterally cancel all reservations that start before the end of May rather than allow the option of the customer keeping the remaining days starting June 1? Maybe it was just easier for recreation.gov.
Luckily I jumped on the computer and salvaged those days but someone else might have beat me to it.
More likely the programming doesn’t allow for the adjustment. While frustrating, many folks could get confused by the partial cancellation. It should be simple to re-book with the new dates if that still works with your travel plans.
Disappointing to see rvtravel publish the bogus information from the ‘medical interpreter.’ Apparently being fluent in multiple languages automatically qualifies you as a professional in the subject you’re translating. Her approach to this virus pandemic is one more reason it keeps spreading. Penicillin treats virus? Really? Even I know that’s wrong. She probably has a cabinet full of all sorts of natural remedies that claim to cure everything from warts to halitosis and hammertoes. In reality they just produce expensive urine. Probably an anti-vaxxer, too. Shame on rvtravel for publishing that.
I’d be willing to bet penicillin cured more people than modern day synthetic drugs can.
I think you missed the point Bob…
I am a nurse, not a medical interpreter and I take issue with some of what the writer says. I would love to know what information she has been reading that says that having had flu in the past several years might provide an immunity to Covid-19 since they come from different virus families and this one is brand new.
Additionally, penicillin, “natural” or otherwise is an antibiotic which have NO effect at all on viruses, a point that we in the medical professional have been trying to impress on parents demanding them everyone their child is sick.
I’m happy the writer is not afraid. Neither am I, I worked with AIDS patients before (and after) we knew what it was, I have worked in 2 war zones, crowded refugee camp with barely any supplies, worked with TB patients and in a 40 year career as an RN done many years as a home health nurse in poverty stricken areas. I have lived through it all but many hundreds of thousands did not so I am not taking the attitude that because I am, or have been safe, that my actions will not impact others. Staying home, avoiding contact with others, hand washing and practicing good health practices will go a long way but not everyone has the privilege of being able to do all or any of them.
Thank you for your dedication!
Can’t say it any better than you did Lisa. Thank you for your past service to mankind, and continued good luck in your travels and life.
As a retired nurse, I agree with Lisa..
Lisa Cantrell: Thank you for your many years of service.