Issue 2649
Today’s thought
“Your story is the greatest legacy that you will leave to your friends.” —Steve Saint
Need an excuse to celebrate? Today is National Solitaire Day!
On this day in history: 1804 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition officially begins as the Corps of Discovery departs from St. Charles, Missouri. (If you’d like to learn more about Lewis and Clark, we highly recommend this book.)
Tip of the day
How to budget, and budgeting tips, for RVers
By Gail Marsh
My husband and I often take work camping jobs that allow us to live in our RV for several months at a time. I’m not going to lie. It took a while to figure out how to budget for us RVers.
Yesterday, I published an article about budgeting for unexpected fun. Things like special events, activities, festivals or fairs, museums… things you might not have planned to stumble across on your travels.
Today, I’ll focus on some more general budgeting tips. Continue reading.
Ask Dave
Post-hike surprise: No RV power, battery dead
Dear Dave,
I went out for a long hike today. When I returned to the camper, which is connected to shore power, all my electricity, both 12v and 110v, had failed. I checked the shore power connections and verified that power was coming from the pedestal to the camper. Then I was going to check the battery with my battery tester, but when the tester was attached it wouldn’t even bring up it’s electronic menu to test. … Read the rest of Erin’s question and Dave’s answer.
Article and video
Incredible and fun racetrack camping: Rev up your RV!
By Cheri Sicard
Ever thought about camping at a racetrack? Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama, might just change your mind about what a campground can be. It’s not just about the roar of engines; it’s a unique place that blends motorsports with art and nature. In today’s video, the team from the Long Long Honeymoon gives us a tour of this unique racetrack camping experience. Learn more about it here.
Featured article
Highways by the numbers: What do they really mean?
By Gail Marsh
I know some RVers prefer to travel on state or county highways, while other folks like to take the direct routes that our Interstate Highway System provides. No matter your preference, it’s important to understand highways by the numbers. Learn all about them here.
RANDOM RV THOUGHT: On those occasions when you’re traveling by car and not with an RV, and you pull into a rest area, you can get a little bit depressed. It happens when you see happy RVers walking in and out of their RVs, or maybe you see them inside having a snack. You stare at them and realize that all you have is a car, which is totally boring compared to an RV.
Reader poll
Have you ever attended Burning Man?
PREVIOUS POLL
How important to you are online ratings of an RV park when making a reservation? Check out the results. Very interesting!
Quick tip
Full-timers and health insurance
[Insurance] affordability is in the eye of the beholder, but there are many companies that will provide varying levels of health insurance for a monthly or semi-annual fee. Even a short hospitalization can produce tens of thousands of dollars in costs and an office or urgent care visit with the attending tests can run into several thousands. If you set out on the full-time lifestyle without health insurance, you are betting everything you have that neither of you will become seriously ill. It’s a crapshoot, my friends. I cannot in good conscience recommend this lifestyle to you without your having adequate health insurance coverage. —From “So, You Want To Be an RVer? And Enjoy the RV Lifestyle? [Revised]” Available on Amazon.
Also, check out this informative post and video on Full-time RV health insurance options.
On this day last year…
- Ask Dave: Is there a 120-volt-only water heater that will replace my LP-only Suburban?
- RV review: Keystone Springdale 256RD travel trailer—a familiar floor plan but different
- In the RV shop with Dustin: Why RV refrigerator service is so important
- Video: RV cat litter box mod—Add a cat door for litter box access
- Featured article: The history of a camper’s favorite dining seat: The picnic table
Website of the day
PlugShare
As electric vehicles become more popular, so do charging stations. PlugShare shows you every charging location around the country—there are a lot more than you think!
? MYSTERY PRODUCT OF THE DAY ?
If you gave this as a gift to someone, we’re guessing it may be their favorite gift they receive all year! You could put their RV on it! Or their dog!
And the survey says…
We’ve polled RVtravel.com readers close to 5,000 times in recent years. Here are a few things we’ve learned about them:
• When asked to pick an international destination, the highest percentage of voters said they’d most like to RV around Canada. Next on the list was New Zealand, followed by France, Iceland and, finally, Mexico.
• 15 percent had a campfire at their campsite within the previous week.
• 71 percent say they can never envision owning an RV with two bathrooms.
Recent poll: If you’re making RV payments, how much are they per month?
Trivia
Today, 400 million tons of plastic waste are produced globally every year. Of that, 19 to 23 million tons (about 2,000 garbage trucks’ worth) seep into aquatic ecosystems, where much of it is colonized by microorganisms or eaten by animals. Plastics take anywhere from several decades to centuries to fully break down. —SOURCE: BBC
Readers’ pet of the day
“Lily Mae (age 6) likes traveling in our motorhome because she gets so much attention and daily walks. Shih Tzu means ‘Little Lion.'” —Linda Rogers
Send us a photo of your pet with a short description. No blurry photos and please do not submit your photo more than once. Thanks!
• RVing with Dogs group on Facebook. You’ll love it.
Leave here with a laugh
Today’s weather forecast across the nation
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Visit Current National Radar Weather Map
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Interesting article by Gail on the highway numbering system. Seems that California has its own highway and Interstate numbering system. Here in Oregon, we can always tell a Cali transplant when they start putting a “the” in front of the highway or Interstate number (I.e. the 5, the 10, the 15). Drives me crazy. It would be just as easy to just say I-5 instead of “the 5”. Sounds dumb.
Calis are weird anyway…we live in Oregon also and if it’s not Calis it’s Idahoans we have to deal with…constantly.
If a small regional peculiarity drives you crazy, you must otherwise live a very fortunate stress-free life. But use of “the” is a SoCal thing, rarely used much north of LA. In California, there were freeways before there were interstates, and they had names, not numbers, such as the Santa Monica Freeway. It doesn’t sound so “dumb” to say “Take the Santa Monica Freeway to exit 5…” Then the Santa Monica became Interstate 10, along with others, but the nomenclature remained the same. Was “the Santa Monica Freeway” then became “the I-10 or, more commonly, “the 10.” BTW, some might find “dumb” the Oregon reference to being able to see Mt. Hood when/if the fog lifts as “the mountain is out”.
“‘The Mountain is out’ is used in Seattle too!”
Yep, for Mount Rainier. Heading south on I-5 from way north of Seattle there’s a good view of it, and that’s a frequent comment. Beautiful! Have a great day, DPJ. 😀 –Diane aka Mountain Mama at RVtravel.com
We started it. MT. Rainier!….And the Beer….Rrrrrrrrainier!
Interesting, J Godwin. You can always tell on a TV program or even movie, when a character calls a highway “the 5 or the 30 or the ???,” that the the script writer was from the L.A. area. A movie I saw recently had the bad guys leaving town on U.S. Highway 2. One cop said to another something like “they’re headed east on the 2.” Nobody up here in the Puget Sound area would ever refer to a highway that way.
Hi, Chuck. My gorgeous mountain property is “on the 2”.🤣 –Diane aka Mountain Mama
Hi, Ron. I listen to Northwest News Radio/KOMO on my little vintage portable radio when I’m in the bathroom. It provides “traffic on the 4’s”, and I can always tell when someone is from out of the area when they talk about traffic conditions on “the 5” or “the 405”.🤔🤣 Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Gail’s budgeting article is linked to Dave’s no power article
Thank you, Roger. It’s been corrected. Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Lily Mae is a peach! Thank you for sharing Linda
I was going to say the same thing. Our dogs also love the extra walks they get when we are RVing.
Looks to me like “are we there yet??”
RE:Casino parking- For several years we have spent 2 nights a year during our semi-annual migration at Ho-Chunk Gaming in Nekoosa, WI.There are a limited number of sites with 30A power. No charge – although I would have been happy to pay for the site. There are very few places to overnight in this area between mid-October and Memorial Day. We arrived on Friday 5/16 and found the RV sites marked as closed until Memorial Day. Checking with casino security, nobody allowed to park when the casino is closed. Luckily, the casino operates 24 hours on Fridays.
Word to the wise. Always check ahead. Things change. (and I hope they revert to what they were doing, even if no longer free)
Although I love reading Dave’s contributions, here’s the correct link for Gail’s continuing budget article.
https://www.rvtravel.com/budget-tips-rving-2126/
Yep, I kept getting directed to Dave’s column as well. Thanks for the link Vince.
Sorry, Bill and Vince (and others). The link has been corrected. Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Check the link in Gail’s budget article.
Sorry, Betty. The link has been corrected. Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
The Great Accessories email didn’t come through.
Sorry, Pamela. It’s been corrected, and the email alert has been sent out again with the link. Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Hi, I’m trying to get into the Budgeting article by Gail Marsh and it keeps popping up Ask Dave’s article. I’d love to be able to read her suggestions for budgeting as an RVer. Thanks! Love all your articles and have learned so much from everyone’s articles.
Judy
See Vince’s reply with a link to the article.
Thank you, Judy. Sorry for the inconvenience. The link as been corrected. Have a great day! 😀 –Diane at RVtravel.com
Re:Trivia/plastics. https://www.cpchem.com/sites/default/files/2020-03/Value%20of%20Plastics%20Handout.pdf
Since plastics originate from the ground (oil) and we burn wood, oil, gas and coal etc to heat and produce electricity why are we not burning plastic waste?
Burning it produces btu’s and shrinks its volume to nil. I note that California has no water bottle return system!! What’s with that?
Agree. Some chemist figured out how to take this black goo and turn it into fuel and plastics. I don’t understand why we don’t take all plastics and compress them and store them in old mines that we have around the nation, until the chemists figure out how to turn the plastics back into oil, fuel, or what may be more valuable. Power plants and incinerators have figured out how to scrub their emissions so as not to harm the atmosphere, so, you are right, why don’t we burn the plastic. This must be a “follow the money” thing.
Lilly Mae is a SUPER PRECIOUS fur baby. So glad to see her photo.
I thought that breed was called tasty-treat, or Yakkitty-yack, where are the earplugs?
My wife and I laughed and laughed at the excited German Shepherd, wanting to get to the park with his head on the driver! So funny 😂🐶
Thank you, Emily and Diane! Today’s laugh takes “backseat driver” to a whole new level. 😉 Have a great day and safe travels!
The funny is not funny- dangerous for the driver, the dog and other people on the road.
I think it was staged, Jesse. Otherwise, yes, it would be very bad (and probably illegal). Have a good evening/night. 😀 –Diane