Dressing Up a Hiking Stick

The Never-Bored RVers’ regular Wednesday article (depending on availability of Internet connection)   “Do you ever get tired of your RV life?” is a question that we are frequently asked by non-travelers.  Your answer to that question probably isn’t exactly the same as ours; however, we all are likely to say something like, “We enjoy our life on the road.  If we didn’t, we’d quit.” To earn our appellation of “the Never-Bored RVers,” we find lots of normal chores to focus on when we’re not visiting new places and discovering new attractions.  And as “camper-RVers,” we gravitate to sites outside urban areas in natural settings, where we partake of our favorite diversion, hiking.  From time to time in future articles we will recall for you some of our most interesting hikes — like “The Miracle of Romero Ponds” and “Saved By Cow Dung” — but before getting to those, we’d like to acquaint you with Monique’s Collection: European hikers have for many years attached medallions to their hiking sticks.  About a decade ago, a few gift shops in and around national parks began carrying their own medallions to commemorate hikes on area trails.  As veteran hikers, we began buying and attaching medallions to Monique’s hiking stick about seven years ago.  But first, the tale of the sticks:  Mine is a seasoned REI expandable aluminum pole, beat up from years on narrow paths through often-savage terrain.  Monique’s, on the other hand,... Read more

rvSearch.com Daily Deal: 2011 Heartland Big Country

2011 Heartland Big Country Previously $45,999 – Now $39,999 38 foot fifth wheel is everything you could want for your next vacation. Includes many features such as washer/dryer prep, wood blinds, wood grain beau flooring, 2nd A/C in bedroom w/thermostat, flat screen in bedroom, and much more. Offered from RV Service & Sales in LaVergne, TN. Email seller for details on this 2011 Heartland Big Country! Find more great RVs on  Read More →

Gr8LakesCamper: Michigan touting new Recreation Passport via whirlwind RV tour

The State of Michigan is betting the future of its state parks on the willingness of its residents to fork out $10 a year. The $10 will buy each resident a Recreation Passport, and the program is Michigan’s solution for funding our favorite recreation destinations. It begins October 1, 2010. Instead of spending $24 for an annual motor vehicle permit or boating access permit, Michigan residents will now be asked to support the Recreation Passport with an optional $10 fee when renewing their vehicle registration with the Secretary of State. The license plate renewal sticker received from the Secretary of State will have a designation that indicates the Recreation Passport payment. If an individual purchases their Recreation Passport fee at the park, the park will provide an identifying sticker. Camping fees will remain the same. Also, out-of-state visitors will still pay the $8 daily, or $29 annual fee for park and/or boating access site entrance. Michigan residents entering a park without the Recreation Passport designation could face a $100 fine. The current system brings in $11 million. But state officials estimate that if just 25 percent of state residents pay the $10 Recreation Passport, $18 million is generated. If there’s 50 percent participation, $36 million is generated; $55 million for 75 percent participation and $72 million if every resident motorist buys the Recreation Passport. But, for the plan to work, people have to choose to pay the $10. So the state... Read more

Shoulder season pleasures

By Bob Difley Labor Day marks the unofficial end of summer. When all the school age among us, from pre-kindergarten through graduate school, have returned or are about to return to the hallowed halls of academe. What makes this season a time to pop the Champagne cork for RVers is that suddenly the two-lane roads winding along the coastlines no longer resemble commute hours on Los Angeles freeways. Campground Full signs normally found in summer at state parks across the country have disappeared. Reservations for popular RV resorts and beach campgrounds need no longer be arranged three months in advance. Yippee!! I love school. Well, at least for us retiree fulltimers, anyway. Probably not the same elation for moms filling backpacks with ever-increasing quantities of school supplies that schools don’t provide any more.  But for those still on the road, we can now do all those neat things we haven’t been able to do for the last three months, i.e.: set the cruise control, drive at the speed limit, find parking spaces, find campsites without reservations, fine even good campsites without reservations, find campsites without neighbors on each side (week days, any way), enjoy peace and quiet after 10 o’clock at night, hear fewer barking dogs, and we notice a decrease in campfire size from the burning-of-Rome model surrounded by tipsy twenty-somethings shouting in LOUDER THAN NECESSARY voices. I’m sure you can think of a lot more perks of the shoulder season,... Read more

How Costly is Full-Timing?

Our regular Wednesday article (depending on availability of Internet connection) Early in our RV blogging, we received several requests for information about the cost of living in an RV full-time or for extended travels.  Other than saying we recommend living within your resources, that’s tough to answer, and we can speak only from experience, not as financial advisors. Keep in mind that a three-day weekend in DisneyWorld can cost more than a month in a nice RV park.  The obvious rule here is that you have to decide how you want to spend your money, i.e., setting a budget and staying true to what you decide.   That said, let’s begin with the most obvious expense:  With our four-wheel drive diesel we get about 10.5 miles per gallon.  If I decide to drive to the nearest grocery store for the Sunday paper (cost $1.75 or more) and the grocery is 2.5 miles away or 5 miles round-trip, I’ve spent about $3.25 for the newspaper, which I try to justify by saying coupons in the paper will defray the cost.  If I buy coffee while I’m at the convenience store, well, the price goes up from there.  If you know how much money you have to spend on fuel each month and you know your mpg and the cost of a gallon of fuel, you can figure out how many miles you can drive in a month to stay within the budget.  Don’t forget to include in your fuel budget visits to town for supplies, groceries, entertainment, etc. Are you willing to stay at BLM sites, which are probably the least expensive... Read more

The search continues for the ideal DP

Several of you have asked about the list I am using to review the various motorhomes in this series.  We discussed this list in earlier articles, but some of you may have missed those, so I am reprinting my list here, before we get into the top five coaches.  1. hydraulic vs. electric slides I was totally unable to determine which of these systems is used on any particular coach, so nobody got any points for either. 2. three point vs. four point leveling Again, I was unable to determine which, if either is used, so no points were awarded. 3. electric vs. hydraulic vs. air leveling Another area where there is no information available from any of the manufacturers. 4. single piece vs. split windshield. All coaches reviewed had single piece windshield, so no advantage for anyone here. 5. rubber roof vs. fiberglass All coaches reviewed had fiberglass roofs, so no advantage for anyone here 6. king size vs. queen size bed We awarded 1 point for a queen standard, and zero for king standard. 7. 2 vs. 3 vs 4 vs full wall slide We awarded 2 points for 3 slides, 1 for four slides, and did not review any full wall slide units. 8. freightliner vs. Spartan chassis We awarded 2 points for Spartan, 1 for Freightliner, and 0 for a proprietary chassis. 9. solid axle vs. independent front suspension We awarded 1 point for IFS, 0 for solid axle. 10. battery charger that charges both battery sets. We awarded 1 point for a good charging system.  Only one motorhome manufacturer mentioned anything... Read more

The gray water dilemma

By Bob Difley Containment of gray water from the shower and sink is the weak link in the chain of methods we boondockers use to lengthen our stay between trips to replenish resources or discharge waste. These trips, where we have to pack up, put all the stuff that has accumulated on counter tops and outside, back in their storage places and drive–often several miles–to a dump or water filling station, are a disagreeable disruption to our camping trip, often taking half a day or more to accomplish. Read more  Read More →

Gr8LakesCamper: Cheeseburger in Caseville

Once again, our recent Cheeseburger in Caseville camping trip did not disappoint! The festival, now in its 12th year, is basically a 10-day tribute to Jimmy Buffett and the laid-back beachcomber lifestyle for which he’s known. Featuring music, cheeseburgers, beach volleyball, cardboard boat races, sand castles, the Parade of Fools and much more, the festival is annually voted among the best in Michigan. For 50 weeks out of the year, Caseville is a quiet community of about 2,700 people on the shores of Saginaw Bay in Michigan’s “thumb.” But during the festival, Caseville becomes a colorful city with tens of thousands of Parrotheads. Downtown Caseville goes all out for the festival. Huge pink flamingos hang from the light posts. Store awnings are covered in grass skirting. Parking lots are taken over by civic organizations grilling and selling cheeseburgers and the aroma of grilled meat hangs in the humid air like a blanket of cheesy goodness. On the first Friday of the festival, the local newspaper reported that 28,000 cheeseburgers were sold that day alone (not a typo; twenty-eight thousand cheeseburgers!). It is a great event, and we’re happy to have camped there, if only for a weekend, for the last three years. We stay at Albert E. Sleeper State Park, about 4-5 miles north of both Caseville and the County Park that serves as Ground Zero for most festival events. One reason we stay here instead of the County Park is because we can “escape”... Read more

North Dakota on the Map – Bully!

With the addition of North Dakota – we now have filled our RV’s visited states map with all of the lower 48.  We were actually in North Dakota in 2005, but we flew here – so that doesn’t count!  This state has been the one gaping hole in our map for a couple years now, so we made a point to route our travels this way so we could finish the map. Read more  Read More →

Tips to Increase Engine Life

Today we’re going to talk about some easy ways to increase the life of your tow vehicle or motorhome’s engine. Actually there are many ways to to increase engine life in a vehicle, but I want to narrow the list to what I consider the most important. When all you hear every day is how poorly the economy is doing, it only makes sense to buckle down and take better care of what you already own. Read more  Read More →

Next Page »