Issue 1378
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
“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” ―
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Strawberry Sundae Day!
On this day in history: 1928 – Sliced bread is sold for the first time (on the inventor’s 48th birthday) by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri.
Breaking News: If you will be driving through New Mexico anytime soon, you must read this news.
The first issue of our Monday through Friday newsletter Beginners Guide to RVing debuts today. To receive that issue and those to follow, sign up here.
Tip of the Day
How sewer backflow can get into your fresh water system
Dear Go-Go Gurus:
My husband is a neat-freak. He can’t stand to think about the stuff that lives in our motorhome holding tanks, and thinks that he needs to flush the tanks clean as a whistle every time we get home from an RV trip. I say he’s nuts. How can I get him into therapy? —Bea Leegered
Read Russ and Tiña De Maris’ sometimes tongue-in-cheek response, and how to prevent dangerous sewer backflow here.
Do you have a tip? Submit it here.
Car can’t make up its mind!
Driving forward or backward doesn’t make any difference with this 1952 Citroen Cogolin, which was operated by the rescue service in Cogolin, France. Two front sections were welded together. The two parts function independently, each with its own engine. Read more.
(And did you see the truck that drives upside-down? We showed it to you a couple of weeks ago. Check out this wacky thing here.)
Yesterday’s featured article: Stupid RV design: Another example
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Quick Tip
Help for emptying tanks on a slope
Pull into a dump station with a slope away from the dump? Getting the tanks empty can be difficult — until you crank up your leveling jacks on the far side of the rig to give your sewage a little lift.
Random RV thought
If something goes wrong or breaks in or on your RV, try and look up the issue or how to fix it on YouTube before you call someone. YouTube is a great resource for fixing things, and maybe it’s something you can do yourself.
Now is a perfect time to get rid of that goop!
For less than $10, you can extend your water heater’s life! Have you ever seen the sediment that collects in your water heater? Camco’s water tank rinser is an easy-to-use gadget that is a must-have for any RVer. The tank rinser will get out all the yucky sediment that’s been sitting at the bottom of your water heater and, most importantly, will extend the life of it too. Read the many positive reviews, and get one for yourself here.
Website of the day
How to fend off bugs… naturally!
Here’s an article about ways to fend off bugs using natural ingredients. It’s good information, and you’ll keep toxic chemicals away from your skin and body.
SECRET PHRASE: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?
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:
• 10 percent would not stay in a campground that did not have cell service
• 37 percent have satellite TV service in their RV
• 20 percent say it is hard to find a place to do timely work on their RV
Recent poll: Do you insure your RV on a separate policy from your other vehicles? Please respond here and see how others voted too.
Trivia
Iceland does not have a railway system.
*Yesterday we told you a fun fact about spaghetti. We won’t give it away, so read it here.
Sta-Bil Rust Stopper stops rust and corrosion
Of the many gremlins that attack your RV, like mold, mildew, leaks and black streaks, rust is the gremlin that will attack your hand tools, spare parts, door hinges and other vulnerable metal surfaces and moving parts over time. STA-BIL® Rust Stopper prevents rust and corrosion by protecting metal surfaces with a long-lasting barrier while lubricating parts and tools to stop squeaks and sticking. Learn more in this article.
Readers’ Pet of the Day
Send us a photo of your pet with a short description. We publish one each weekday in RV Daily Tips and in our Saturday RV Travel newsletter.
Leave here with a laugh
A man walks into a bar with a pork pie on his head. The barman asks, “Why are you wearing a pork pie on your head?” The man replies, “It’s a family tradition. We always wear pork pies on our heads on Tuesday.” The barman remarks, “But it’s Wednesday.” Sheepishly, the man says, “Man, I must look like a real fool.”
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
Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Editor: Emily Woodbury. Senior editor: Diane McGovern. Social media 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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Natural bug repellent? We use a oscillating stand fan. Works great.
Regarding today’s “Help for emptying tanks on a slope,” does anyone else wonder why, when someone is constructing a dump station, they would *ever* slope the ground/pavement AWAY from the dump? That just guarantees a less than complete dumping experience. At a minimum, I want my unit to be level. If I can get the left side lower than the right, it’s a bonus.
I know it sounds elementary to us, but I bet those dumps were designed by folks who barely know what a RV is….
There is only one problem with VOIP, if you lose power during or after a storm you lose your phone system, landlines do not go down like the internet does when you lose power at home. Florida flicker
Jim, you are correct if your landline is on copper wire. The phone company provides the power to that line. If your landline is on fiber optics your house power powers the phone line. If the back-up battery on the outside of your house is bad or after a long outage, goes dead, you are without phone. If the battery is good, you will still have phone AND internet. This is where new technology takes a step backwards.
I went through 4 hurricanes in south Florida. For the last one, we lost power for 9 days (98% of the town I lived in lost power). We also lost landline phones, so it can happen. Shortly after the 4th hurricane, I moved back to Texas.
I grew up in Chillicothe in the 60’s and early 70’s. At that time the city (town?) was known for high school football, Churchill Truck Lines and being the crossroad point of US 36 and US 65. Some also say it is the geographical center of the US. Now it is the home to sliced bread. Go Chill-ville.
The supposed quotation from Mark Twain in your “Today’s Thought” department is misattributed. Twain scholars say there is no evidence that he ever wrote or said it. The quotation is from a speech given in New York by Robert J. Burdette in 1883. Based on my own observation, about half of the online “quotes” attributed to Twain are spurious. Most, like this one, are very good, but mis-attributed.