Issue 2216
Welcome to RV Travel’s Daily Tips Newsletter, where you’ll find helpful RV-related tips from the pros, travel advice, RV videos, product reviews and more. Please tell your friends about us.
Today’s thought
“The trouble is if you don’t spend your life yourself, other people spend it for you.” ―
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Quesadilla Day!
On this day in history: 1890 – The United States Congress establishes Sequoia National Park.
Did you see the news? Click here for the latest news for RVers.
Tip of the Day
Navigating RV life as we age; tips for overcoming the obstacles
By Gail Marsh
A recent “tweak” in my back sidelined me. I took a week off from our latest construction project to recuperate. The incident reminded me that I’m no spring chicken! I’m rushing headlong into “old hen” territory. I don’t like it, but there it is. I’m getting older, and my recovery stint got me thinking about navigating RV life as we age.
Of course, the best thing an RVer can do is take good care of themselves—health-wise: Eat right. Exercise. Visit your healthcare professional once a year. We all know the drill. We need to DO it!
Once you put a checkmark beside the aforementioned basics, are there other tips for navigating RV life as we age? You bet! It’s essential to make adjustments so that your RV lifestyle remains safe, enjoyable, and comfortable even as you grow older.
Ask Dave
Dave Solberg is a leading expert in the RV industry and author of the “RV Handbook.”
The RV’s macerator pump quit, valve is leaking, black tank is full. Help!
Dear Dave,
My macerator pump motor failed and needs to be replaced. The problem now is a leaking waste valve and a full black tank. I can’t isolate the pump. How do I evacuate the black tank to replace the pump and install a new valve? —Michael, 2019 Winnebago Era
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RV Reviews
Sneak preview: Coachmen Freedom Express 298FDS – counter and storage galore
By Tony Barthel
Today’s RV review isn’t about a product that you can rush out and buy this afternoon. Instead, we’re looking at a prototype—but it is something that’s coming soon. Not to a theater near you, but potentially to an RV dealer near you. Essentially what we have is a large travel trailer with a mid kitchen and a front dinette.
This is a floor plan that I had in my 1970 Aristocrat and one I really like for a lot of reasons. Why?
In the RV Shop with Dustin
Fifth wheel pin box and front cap inspection
By Dustin Simpson
Join me in the RV shop in this video as I inspect the fifth wheel pin box on this Alliance fifth wheel. Note the telltale signs of flex in the pin box and front cap of this beautiful fifth wheel trailer. There are a lot of different types of fifth wheel pin boxes, but much of the maintenance will be the same or very similar.
Click here to read more and watch
Video of the day
Cautionary tales: Epic RV fails you just have to see to believe!
By Cheri Sicard
RVing can be great when things go well, but when things go wrong, boy, oh boy, can they ever go wrong! I find it’s a good idea to remind myself of that from time to time so I don’t get complacent or too comfortable. This compilation of epic RV fails can do just that for all of us.
The team from the Epic Trucking Fails YouTube channel turned their sights on RVs and boy, is it ever eye-opening. While the host’s presentation and voiceover commentary is a bit (OK, a lot) annoying, the clips are nonetheless enlightening.
Know Your RV: Sanitize your “new” used RV fresh water tank
In the market for a used RV? That’s how many get into the RV lifestyle. Careful shopping can yield a pre-owned RV for far less than the price of a new rig. In many cases, “new” rigs come with factory-equipped glitches that can take forever to get rid of. Buy used and, hopefully, those problems have been fixed. A thorough inspection is always in order before you buy, but even if you hire the inspection out to a pro, there’s likely one thing you’ll never see: the inside of the fresh water tank. We highly recommend you sanitize your new rig’s tank and fresh water lines! Find out why, and how, here.
Reader poll
Have you ever needed emergency medical care while RVing?
?? MYSTERY PRODUCT OF THE DAY ??
This is hilarious! Can you imagine the face of the person who opens this? If you recorded their reaction and put it on YouTube you’d go viral!
Quick Tip
Keep up with—or stay ahead of—routine maintenance?
Even better than keeping up with routine maintenance, stay ahead of it. Replace your brake pads before they’re totally gone; replace belts and hoses before they break; replace wiper blades before they become totally useless. From “RVing: Less Hassle—More Joy: Secrets of Having More Fun with Your RV—Even on a Limited Budget” Available on Amazon.
Website of the day
America’s 26 Best Food Trucks
Mmmm… food. What better way to try local food than by trying out some food trucks? The food is usually affordable and is great to grab and take to a local park or campground. Additionally, here’s the best food truck in each state.
NEW FACEBOOK GROUP: RV Camping in City and County Parks
Popular articles you may have missed at RVtravel.com
- Ghost Town Trails—Elkhorn, Montana: The cover photo of popular “Ghost Towns of the West” book
- A magical ride along North Dakota’s Enchanted Highway
- Around the Campfire: To grease or not to grease a trailer’s hitch ball?
Recipe of the Day
French Onion Meatballs
by Elaine Bovender from Wilmington, NC
Member’s Choice! These will be a welcome addition to any party table. The flavor combination makes them taste like French onion soup! This recipe is super easy, which is an added bonus.
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Trivia
New York has the most salad shops (per square root of population) in the USA, 0.2510, which is 42.5 times more than in Laredo, Texas, the city with the fewest at 0.0059. —WalletHub.com (No, we don’t know what the “square root of population” is. If someone does, please explain it to the rest of us. Thanks!)
Readers’ Pet of the Day
“Heidi, our West Highland White Terrier and Florida family member, has traveled to 22 states and five provinces in Canada. Loves to travel on the passenger dash and makes herself at home where she travels. Picture taken on Mackinac Island.” —Michael L Parks
HELP! We’re running low on photos! Send us a photo of your pet with a short description. We publish one each weekday in RV Daily Tips and in our Sunday RV Travel newsletter. No blurry photos, please! Please do not submit your photo more than once. Thanks!
The best trash can for your car or RV
Don’t let trash litter your car or RV! This small trash can is made for cars and can be attached to either a headrest or the center console with adjustable straps. When it’s not being used, it collapses flat. The trash can is leakproof and waterproof, so you don’t have to worry about anything spilling. This could also be used as a storage container for drinks, snacks or even pet toys. Learn more or order.
Leave here with a laugh
One could argue that all cemeteries are useful. But this one is especially so — in Useful, Missouri!
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Contact information
Editor: Emily Woodbury
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(No, we don’t know what the “square root of population” is. If someone does, please explain it to the rest of us. Thanks!)
It’s a misspelling. The original line, concerning New York, was: “The city also has the most salad shops (per square foot of population) than any other place in the country.” Homes.com article: “Best Cities for Vegetarians.”
The misspelled version “square root” instead of correct “square foot” comes up first in a google search presumably because of SEO of the article that misspelled the quote from the original.
That’s exactly what I thought when I read it, so thanks for doing that research Ron T and giving us the clarification. I enjoyed reading both Russ and John S’ take on it and am pleased tomorrows RVTRAVEL issue won’t include a pop quiz from the insurance actuaries handbook of probabilities, possibilities and comparable considerations.
The population of a place is a particular number, or an approximation (also a number). Every positive number has a square root. I agree it is an extremely unusual way of measuring the prevalence of something and a typographical error.
Or, possibly statistics speak…As the sample size increases, the information obtained has to be obtained with precision. The degree of precision may be measured in terms of the standard deviation of the mean. The standard deviation is inversely proportional to the square root of the sample size.
HUH?
Exactly, if I wanted to do math I would have stayed working.
Temporarily living in a RV park while my house was being built back in the late 80’s, I was working as a EMT, it seems everyone noticed as i would get a knock on my door a few times a week so it seemed a couple times in the middle of the night as well.
To say I saved a few life’s would be a stretch but a lot of ppl would say so anyway most the time it was ppl with heartburn or ppl over acting to minor stuff but to them it was an emergency and just showing up to comfort them and insure them they were not gonna die was all that was needed. however the lady that bumped the class laundry door open with her butt to have a large long piece of class intruded in her buttocks ( no one came to get me) luckily I was going to do my laundry got there just as a guy was getting ready to pull it out!!
Now here I did save her life but by doing nothing and not letting this guy do what he wanted to do let me explain not from the accident but from someone with no training the glass I was told was two feet long and up to six inches wide! Yes big enough to bleed out in minutes, I won’t say no more other than if it goes in DO NOT remove/pullout anything! Go to the ER no matter how deep and damn sure don’t take advice from someone a stranger or otherwise with no training..
Here’s a really pedantic explanation of the question the editor asked regarding the coffee shop trivia:
If you did a graphical representation of the relationship of number of salad shops to population, I would imagine the graph to show a non-linear correlation and not easily useful in making predictions. One way to improve this would be to plot the number of salad shops against the square root of the population. This would result in a more straight distribution of the data and allows a linear regression model to be used. From that model one could possibly predict the number of salad shops from a given population.
But there are many unaccounted for variables and correlation does not imply causation (as I always taught my statistics students)
🤣Love it!
Too much math for a retiree.
I hope the RVTravel crew is working night and day to find a replacement for the current comment software. AMAC has a great comment format where you can rate comments, reply to comments, and check a box to let you know what someone else thinks of your comments or responds to your comments. Kinda how it used to be here.
Just sayin’.
I kinda like the current “comments” the way they are now. Less sniping and ego massaging. I’ve always had appreciation for your comments Tommy.
I’d like to see the ability to rate comments come back. Maybe just the ability to up-vote something and not the ability to downvote comments.
I just want to read “oldest first”.
Ditto on that!
Yah… what he said!!!