Issue 1674
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 at Amazon.com we’d appreciate you using this link. We get an itty bitty commission if you buy something, but they add up and help us pay our bills (including our hard-working writers!).
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Today’s thought
“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” ―
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Cherry Popsicle Day!
On this day in history: 1791 – John Fitch is granted a United States patent for the steamboat.
Tip of the Day
Moisture under bed mattress not good. A solution!
By Russ and Tiña De Maris
When you think of mods and upgrades, you may think “big” or “techy.” Well, here’s one that’s less dramatic in approach, but could give you real comfort, particularly if you’re a winter RVer.
We RVers sometimes suffer an obnoxious – and health-hazardous – problem: water condensation under the bed mattress. Most often the problem crops up when the temperature under the mattress is colder than the surrounding room air, so cab-over camper owners and fifth-wheeler folks may be especially plagued with the problem, but others have reported it, too. A wet mattress can lead to mold and mildew – yuck! What’s the fix? Continue reading for a couple of easy fixes.
Yesterday’s tip of the day: Road rage and RVing: Don’t be a roarin’ rager!
DID YOU MISS THESE RECENT ARTICLES?
• RV in for service stolen from Camping World. Customers left hanging.
• Are “phantom” campers stealing your campsite?
• The case for owning a king-sized RV.
Today’s RV review…
In today’s column, industry insider Tony Barthel reviews the new Grand Design Imagine XLS 22MLE. In this special review, Tony not only looks at the Imagine XLS 22MLE, but he also tells you what goes into writing these reviews and why he does things the way he does. You’ll want to read this one.
Did you read Tony’s review yesterday of the 2022 Jayco Eagle 321RSTS? If you missed it, you can read it here.
For previous RV reviews, click here.
Is this your RV?
If it’s yours and you can prove it to us (send a photo for comparison), tell us here by 9 p.m. Pacific time today, August, 26, 2021. If it’s yours you’ll win a $25 Amazon gift certificate.
If this isn’t your RV, send us a photo of your RV here (if you haven’t already) for a chance to win in future issues.
Last week two readers claimed their $25 Amazon gift cards: Darlene Getchel of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and Betty Studzinski of Georgetown, Texas.
We’ll have another photo in tomorrow’s RV Daily Tips Newsletter (sign up to receive an email alert so you don’t miss the issue or those that follow). Some of these photos are submitted by readers while others were taken by our editors and writers on their travels around the USA.
Ask Dave
Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and author of the “RV Handbook” as well as the Managing Editor of the RV Repair Club, a one-stop go-to online resource for RV enthusiasts. He is also the owner of Passport Media Creations, which has developed several RV dealer and safety training programs.
In Dave’s column Monday-Saturday he’ll address a reader’s technical question with his expert advice. You’ll learn a lot!
Why does water leak into camper from TV antenna?
Dear Dave,
On the crank for the TV antenna inside the camper, it leaks every so often. Does it need some caulking on the roof? Or am I tightening it too tight on the inside? Thanks. —Tom
Did you miss Dave’s column yesterday where he answered the question: What’s the best water purification system for my RV?
6 books to read during the pandemic to really freak yourself out
Sure, many of us are still staying busy during these scary coronavirus times. Many of us are still working, or doing all those projects around the house or RV that we’ve been saying we’ll get to. But many of us may still be feeling pretty isolated and bored, too, and that’s where reading comes into play. Here’s a list of books to freak you out during this ongoing pandemic, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Yesterday’s featured article: Readers speak out: “The RV Life” – a poem by Janet Jackson
Reader poll
If you had the opportunity to go into outer space, would you?
Blast off! Tell us here.
Quick Tip
A video tip about dumping your holding tanks
RV technician Chris Dougherty has a 40-second tip about a device that will help make dumping your holding tanks more efficient. The two devices Chris mentions are available at most RV supply stores and at Amazon: Straight. Curved.
Website of the day
Space Weather
We have outer space on our minds today, but we think you’ll find this website pretty neat too. On it, you’ll find news and information about the weather in outer space. It’s a fun website to explore.
RVtravel.com Podcast Episode 21
Avoid low bridges and the embarrassment they can bring – with your cell phone … if you know how to use it. The RVtravel.com podcast is brought to you by SoftStartRV power management, Clear20 water filters and TearDropShop.com.
Listen to a 20-second clip of the episode.
Listen to the full episode here.
?????? MYSTERY PRODUCT OF THE DAY ??????
These are so cute! There’s no way you won’t sprout joy when you see one in action!
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:
• 47 percent of people say they enjoy hugging others
• 24 percent have ridden a bicycle within the last week
• 89 percent only speak one language (their native language)
Recent poll: Has anyone in your immediate family ever worked at McDonald’s?
Recipe of the Day
Awesome Skirt Steak With Coffee Rub & Tomatoes
by Andy Anderson from Wichita, KS
The title of this steak recipe is correct – the skirt steak is awesome. Between the steak and tomato mixture, these flavors make your taste buds come alive. The coffee rub is interesting and a really nice mix of flavors. It leans towards Southwest flavors and leaves a nice, thick crust on the outside of the meat after the cooking process. It’s easy to prepare – just make sure to use a pan that can go into the oven. The tomato mixture is acidic and spicy all at the same time. It’s a wonderful addition to the meat.
We’re drooling! Get the recipe.
See yesterday’s yummy recipe: Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad
Trivia
Have you ever noticed that Converse (you may know the popular shoes as Chuck Taylors) have a thin layer of felt on their soles? This tiny piece of felt legally classifies them as slippers, which saves the company more than 33 percent on import tariffs. Next time you see someone wearing Converse, tell them to take off their slippers!
*Why is it called Looney Tunes and not Looney Toons? We told you in yesterday’s trivia.
Readers’ Pets of the Day
“Harley is our 10-year-old Weimaraner and Sofia is our 2-year-old Westie Poo.” —Gary Holtzman
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. No blurry photos, please! Please do not submit your photo more than once. Thanks!
Pet owners: Here are a few excellent resources to find a veterinarian while on the road. Keep this handy!
Here’s everything to do if you lose your pet. This is an excellent resource!
Leave here with a laugh
This poor child eats an onion thinking it’s an apple. Now this is what you call a good sport!
Did you miss the latest RV Travel Newsletter? If so, read it here.
Oh, and if you missed the latest Sunday News for RVers, make sure to catch up here.
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Save! Today’s Deals on RV parts and accessories at Amazon.
RVtravel.com Staff
Publisher: Chuck Woodbury. Editor: Emily Woodbury. Associate editor: Diane McGovern. Senior editors: Russ and Tiña De Maris. Senior writers: Nanci Dixon, Tony Barthel, Mike Gast. Contributors: Mike Sokol, Gail Marsh, Roger Marble, Dave Solberg, Dave Helgeson, Janet Groene, Julianne Crane, Chris Guld, Machelle James, James Raia, Kate Doherty, J.R. Montigel, Clint Norrell, Darian Armer and Chris Epting. Podcast host and producer: Scott Linden. Special projects director: Jessica Sarvis. Moderators: Gary Gilmore, Linda Brady. Financial affairs director: Gail Meyring. IT wrangler: Kim Christiansen.
Honorary Correspondents: Loyal readers who regularly email us leads about news stories and other information and resources that aid our own news-gathering efforts.
Tom and Lois Speirs • Mike Sherman • George Bliss • Steve Barnes + others who we will add later.
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.
RVtravel.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Regardless of this potential revenue, unless stated otherwise, we only recommend products or services we believe provide value to our readers.
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The only thing more amusing than the child eating the onion is the collection of people complaining about it. Cute video of a child not being forced to do anything. Thanks.
I subscribed so I could see how many comments that were against this video and boy did it go viral. I guess we have a lot of people who are not of our generation when we would not even think of truth or dare. I dare you to eat a worm or tell the truth about what ever. I think we need to man and woman up and say hey the child ate an onion ew. What a viral commenting board this turned out to be.
Some children do eat onions like they are apples. Although my daughter watching her eat would make for a grand video. 23 and still picks out what she will and will not eat. Especially onions.
I’m afraid I have to join the crowd. There is nothing funny about that video. Sharing it with the idea that it is funny is in very poor taste.
I was talking with an RVer parked next to me about the TV reception where we were. He had a much newer set up than I did but I got twice as many channels as he did with the original antenna on my 44 year old motorhome. Beats me as to why.
Your antenna is probably bigger and can get a signal from more directions than some of the newer types. Some newer types have to be re-aimed to get other channels, then TV has to be rescanned. When you rescan you may have lost channels from other directions.
I sent the editor an email expressing my disgust with the video that his staff finds funny. If this is the kind of crap this newsletter has resorted to…not a dime will come from me again….maybe they enjoy this kind of child abuse…..
Hi, Engineer. I would bet that’s a Vidalia onion – very sweet, and I’ve heard of folks eating them like apples. And you’ll notice that she went back for seconds … and thirds. No one was forcing her. So it must not have been too bad. That video has been around for almost 4 years. The mom apparently told her that it’s not an apple, but she ate it, and continued to eat it, anyway. –Diane
I live in the South and there is no such thing as a very sweet onion whether it’s a Georgia Vidalia or not. A child of this age is going to do what her mother tells her…period. Bottom line, you provided the official response to my email I sent so do not expect me to be sending any future financial support your efforts.
Engineer: What the….? I have known more than one person that eats onions that way. I don’t know the names of those small onions but our family used to pull them out of the garden, wipe off the dirt and eat in one or two bites. If you don’t like onions, don’t eat them.
The small onions you’re talking about are probably pearl onions. I love them. My Dad used to eat onion sandwiches all the time. A couple slices of bread with butter and a sliced vadalia or walla walla onion. I added mayo to mine. Those onions are sweet, delicious and not hot at all.
My dad used to slice up a couple sweet onions and fry them in a frying pan with some butter until they were soft. Very delicious and again not hot at all.
And I don’t know where you live but a child that age does NOT always do what her mother says. Ask any mother with a 2 yr old.
Lighten up people.
Keep up the great work Diane.
Thanks, Greg. Have a good night. 🙂 –Diane
The little girl video is cute!
Thank you, Nancy. Isn’t she a sweetheart? And obviously she was just reacting to a different flavor than what she was expecting, even though her mom warned her that it wasn’t an apple. Have a good night. 🙂 –Diane
Time to reevaluate your thinking and perhaps take that vacation away from ALL media. The U.S. is turning into a huge land full of wimps.
Not a brilliant parent to watch their child fighting back the tears. Probably show up on the Tv video show. I presume the onion is a Vidalia (sp) from Georgia which are pretty mild – usually! However, “don’t give honey to anyone under 1 yr of age” – I wonder is there an age vs onion limit?
WHAT NUT CASE WOULD LET THERE CHILD EAT ONION, MUCH WORSE WHY SHOW IT. DISGUSTING
Wow!, I guess there are a lot of people that don’t like onions. I think most stuff posted on youtube is stupid, but being upset because someone is eating onions????? It must have been a boring morning for some folks.
KellyR, I’m on your side!
I grew up eating bean and onion sandwiches with mustard, love them still today. 1/2 in slice of Spanish onion (the size of baseballs in the 60’s), baked beans, mustard and sometimes Mayo. Excuse me , got to go to the kitchen.
Since when did an onion become a poison? First off, kids put EVERYTHING in their mouths anyway. Shoes, sticks, stuff on the floor, dirt, fingers, you name it. That’s how we USED to develop our immune system. Somehow now, onions are poison? If the kid doesn’t like it, he/she spits it out. It happens with “baby food” as well. Much ado about nothing.
With all the pop up ads in the cooking section it is hard to get a recipe without ads on it. Really wonder why I subscribed for no ads. Rethinking my contribution.
Don’t think it’s RV Travel. It’s Pinch It. Yes, annoying. Hit the “skip ad” in the lower right hand corner.
It’s an outside site, so you have to deal with THAT SITES ad policy. Get the ‘Adblock Plus’ extension for your web browser, and you’ll be able to get rid of most adverts. Mind you, some sites will block you from access unless you turn it off, but that’s easy to do.
Sorry, James. Those ads are from the cooking website itself and we don’t have any control over them. And, yes, I get annoyed having to constantly close the ads to read the recipe, too. Have a great day. 🙂 –Diane
Hi James,
I’m sure you know RVtravel.com relies in-part on ads to support our writers, staff and technology. Without those ads, we couldn’t bring all of the great news and info to you that we do. The ad-free benefit that donors enjoy is limited to the newsletter email reminders and the newsletter’s themselves. The rest of the site has ads.
As such, if you do use an ad blocker, we kindly ask you consider allowing ads on RVtravel.com. Because we all know there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
The recipe page you mentioned is provided by another company and we use it with their permission. Part of that deal is they are allowed to run ads on that page. These may be ads that we wouldn’t normally run. If a particular ads is offensive or invasive, please let us know what the ad was for and email the editor with a complaint (Contact info in the footer). We do work with them to try to limit annoying ads but we can’t guarantee we’ll get them all. But we do try!
-Kim
Poor kid. I hope he didn’t do that as punishment.
I worked with a guy that did the same thing. Big bites like an apple.
Only thing, he did it to hide the smell of alcohol. A swig of booze, a bite of onion. He never got caught or did management ignore it?
Dave Solberg wrote, “If you go this far, I suggest installing a new permanent mount Winegard antenna. It will get much better reception and you don’t have to crank it up and down.”
It has been proven ( by many knowledgable people who have run actual tests) that the best antenna is a Winegard Sensar IV with the Yagi additional direction antenna.
I really didn’t think the “Leave here with a laugh” was funny at all. Any parent that would give a baby a raw onion, then video tape it are disgusting. Why don’t you idiots eat that onion? If you editors and publishers think this crap is funny, it time for me to stop contributing money to this rag!!!
Kind of reminds me of those people who scare their cats with a zucchini. Not really funny.
Obviously you didn’t watch the video, the child thinks it’s an apple and won’t listen to his mother when she says it’s not an apple.
I wouldn’t even watch it but, regardless of what is said, they still gave the child an onion with a plan to video and share. Extremely callous self promotion.
So I guess if the child had a loaded gun and he thought it was a toy it would be ok to just play with it. You are not right.
You have a real problem
If you have a different color of shoe laces than I do, does that mean I should stop supporting you? It’s insane to stop your support because you don’t like one article. I’ll bet you like other articles without complaining. This is a great newsletter for most people who support the newsletter like me with what I can afford. I always find something new each edition. Did you quit your job when you did not like one thing?
Thank you so much for your words of support as well as your financial support, Don. We certainly appreciate them – and YOU! Have a great day. 🙂 –Diane
Big question (maybe) for the IT dept. Does your site or your network vendor (cloud whatever) refuse uploads from re-routed connections, and if so is there a workaround.
I have noticed that when connected via VPN I cannot post comments. I click ‘post’ and nothing happens. I terminate my VPN and the comment will post. Sometimes I have to refresh the connection.
Everything else is working fine. I seem to be able to do everything else.
VPN is a big thing when using mobile data or open wifi, especially for mobile workers or self employed.
Thanks!
I find it hit or miss with the VPN. Sometimes their security will flag me and other times not. When it does flag me I just switch the city to the VPN is originating from, thereby getting a different IP, and it usually will start working.
Hey Firefly,
Yup, that’s a problem caused by hackers using the same VPN as you do. These typically clear out in 24-48 hours but it’s a constant irritant.
-Kim
Hi Tim,
We don’t specifically block VPN usage. As a matter of fact, we highly recommend a VPN for remote connections over public (unsecured or minimally secured) WiFi connections.
It’s a fact of life that what makes a VPN so compelling to use also allows the bad guys to mask where they are and who they are. And some VPNs have active “security” features that interfere with cookies and javascript, which our site needs to run properly.
We also have several levels of firewall security on our site and any one of those can be tripped by a VPN connection that has been previously used by hackers. Typically these clear within a certain time frame, so that’s why sometimes it works and sometimes it does not.
First thing to check is can rvtravel.com place cookies and run javascript in your browser?
Is your security/anti-virus software, browser or VPN blocking cookies or javascript?
If all that’s OK, next time you run into this, email “it” at rvtravel.com and we can work on the problem. -Kim
I used to love my Chuck Taylors. For years I had several pair of them at the same time all different colors and patterns. I got married wearing bright red ones (to match my Zoot suit). When I walked my daughter down the aisle I was wearing flamed CT’s. Her groom and his father were wearing very formal looking black and white CT’s. At that time they cost about $12-$15 per pair. Now, like most name brands they start at about $60 a pair. More due to greed than inflation.
Child abuse with that onion! Shame on them.
Amen
Child must be hungry to keep eating the onion, parents must be of younger generations to think that’s cute. I’d like to force feed them some hot peppers to see if they thought that was cute.
Shame on the parent who could stand by and watch that, never mind video it.
Kid seems to be enjoying the onion with no one forcing him to chow down. Kind of looks like me when I’m eating my hot peppers.
Agree. I love humor, but I’m really surprised the editor found this funny.
I sent the editor an email expressing my disgust with the video that his staff finds funny. If this is the kind of crap this newsletter has resorted to…not a dime will come from me again….
Really? Do you honestly think parents would allow their child to suffer? I suspect that onion is one of the very sweet varieties and does not burn when consumed. If you notice, there were no tears on the child’s face and she did keep eating it on her own. And yes, my wife and I thought it was funny.
That was a toddler my friend listening to some sick {bleeped} adult. And then to video tape the abuse….I hope their identities will surface…
What’s the difference of a child eating an onion or an 81 year old. I eat onions, dose that mean I am abused?
Is it child abuse if you make them eat anything like broccoli or asparagus?
Survey says: • 89 percent only speak one language (their native language)
I’ve been following a gentleman on fakebook that is helping me grasp bidenese. I recently learned the phrase, my butts been wiped. Quite a few other phrases are harder to grasp but I keep studying and learning more every gaff filled day.
Macerator really makes it easy. Amazon has portable kits for about $150. No stinky slinky.
I’ve looked at these Macerators for a long time. The idea looks great but I’ve read enough negative comments about them to give me pause. The “uphill” ability and the garden hose use are both attractive points, but many people express disappointment after buying them. So, I keep using the “stinky slinky” and actually have no problem with it.
I have used the portable Macerator for many years. I always followed with clear water to flush the hose out with no problem. maybe you have a very sensitive nose compared to others. The job needs to be done no matter how you get it done.
I use a portable macerator with a 50′ hose when parked in a friends driveway. The macerator and hose are just as stinky as the slinky and a lot harder to hookup, drain, and stow.