Mark’s RV Garage Internet RV How-To Show

Mark’s RV Garage Preview RV Education 101 is scheduled to launch the first episode of the  “Mark’s RV Garage”, an Internet based RV how-to show, on 7 February 2011. Mark’s RV Garage will feature RV product reviews, RV product installations, easy RV upgrade projects, a vintage trailer restoration project, RV destination spots and much more as the show progresses. Mark Polk explained it like this, “We understand the RV consumer wants information on specific RV topics and that they want it now. With today’s technology the most effective method for delivering what the RV consumer wants is through an RV how-to Internet based show. On average, I get asked 15 or more questions per week on RV how-to topics. For years I have responded to these questions by e-mail. We plan to use “Mark’s RV Garage” as the new venue for answering these RV consumer questions, and to provide quality how-to content RV consumers are interested in learning more about.” Right now the show will be made available for viewing through our RV consumer site at www.rvconsumer.com while we work on additional distribution channels to increase viewing options for the audience. Mark’s RV Garage is designed to provide RV consumers with the RV training and education they want, when they want it. The episodes will be archived for easy retrieval and viewing at their leisure. RV Education 101 is proud to offer RV consumers this new Internet based RV how-to show in addition to our other... Read more

AROUND THE GROUNDS IN QUARTZSITE

 By Barry & Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers  We returned to the Quartzsite show area Friday, where we took in dozens of booths that we hadn’t seen in our first three days.  Hard to imagine, but that’s how big it is.    There's Somthing for Everybody at the Flea Market © All photos by Barry Zander. All rights reserved In case the thought of all that humanity and products to look at overwhelms you, don’t be put off by it.  You really don’t need to see it all, but we’ve got the time, so we’re doing lots of hiking right here. First, responding to a question from yesterday. The RV portion of the show ends its 9-day run this Sunday.  There are several other shows that run either concurrently or before or after the RV show, which is one of the reasons to check out the website, http://www.quartzsitervshow.com/.  It’ll tell you lots more and probably give you next year’s dates. – I’ll respond to the other question at the end of today’s blog.   Is It Dog-Friendly? Lots of Folks Would Say 'Yes' We started the day Friday by revisiting inside and outside exhibitors at the big tent, mainly to chat with vendors who had become friends or for more information about what we looked at or had already bought.  Need a Bead -- They Have 'em Here Then we headed back to the flea market, since we had only looked at booths on six or seven aisles, roughly half.  The vendors were there to interest us in RV-related items, jewelry, Native American... Read more

Just do it: The active RV Lifestyle

By Bob Difley You’ve been working hard all your life and now as retirement approaches, so do the day dreams of RVing around the country, wandering two-lane back roads, visiting small town America, exploring our national parks, boondocking in the forests and deserts, and snoozing in a camp chair by a babbling brook full of rainbow trout. Relaxation. You deserve it after all those stressful years. Kick back, enjoy doing nothing. And then all of a sudden you look in the mirror and find that 20 extra pounds of softness has accumulated around your middle. What is happening? What has taken its toll is the frantic activity of work, raising a family, mowing the lawn, all those activities not associated with an RV lifestyle have vanished, leaving an activity–and calorie burning–vacuum. Just setting up your camp chairs is not enough exercise. That’s the bad news. The good news is, that once you’ve gotten the relaxation-means-doing-nothing out of the way, a whole new world of calorie-burning physical activity opens up enabling you to stay active, keep in physical condition, and feeling good without all the stresses you once felt. The RV Lifestyle offers myriad opportunities for physical play, of which only a small smattering follows: HIKING – Hiking is a wonderful way to see the surrounding area, places you can’t get by vehicle, hidden canyons, following mountain streams, wildlife watching, finding hidden Alpine lakes. The beauty of it is that all... Read more

Rare bird sighting: Black-vented Oriole

Have you seen the Black-vented Oriole? The Black-vented Oriole has made its home a short distance from our RV site at Bentsen Palm Village. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved Little did we know when we made our reservation for Bentsen Palm Village RV Resort that we’d be entertained by a rare bird feeding in the coral bean trees. Upon arriving at Bentsen Palm on Monday (January 24), we were informed that a very rare bird—the Black-vented Oriole—had recently made its home in the RV Park less than 100 feet from our site. Bentsen Palm Village is located adjacent to Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park/World Birding Center in South Texas. The black-vented oriole was first sighted at the state park on December 13 (2010) and has been observed daily at the RV Park since December 31 where it flies back and forth between coral bean trees, a small to medium-sized, deciduous tree with a spreading crown and brilliant red flowers. The coral bean is also known as ‘Fireman’s Hat’ because of its beautiful panicles of bright red tubular flowers that resemble the hats of firemen. The distinguishing feature of the Black-vented Oriole is the vent, which is all black. It’s a large oriole with black hood, upper back, wings, and tail, including vent. Under parts and lower back are bright yellow-orange. Black bill is long and slender. The song of the Black-vented Oriole is a bold, squeaky, gurgling warble. Call is a weak, nasal “nyeh” or “nur”, insect-like and often... Read more

THE “PERFECT STORM” IN PERFECT WEATHER

By Monique & Barry Zander,  the Never-Bored RVers Our first two parts of this brief continuing saga were posted Wednesday.  Time to share more experiences at the awesome Quartzsite show:  PART III – SPENDING TIME AND $$$ Yesterday morning  our neighbor Dean from Sun City, who I had only exchanged about 20 words with Tuesday, knocked on our door to invite us to take a few bags of succulent oranges and grapefruits he had brought from home.  That camaraderie is one of the things we like best about being here in Quartzsite, Arizona. When we left you last, we were wandering the aisles of the Quartzsite RV expo, plus gem & mineral booths, plus the acres of flea market.  After busting the budget Tuesday on items that were on our list of things we More Than Just Gizmos for Sale -- Hundreds of New & Used RVs Are on the Grounds © All photos by Barry Zander. All rights reserved knew we need for our travels over the next two years, on Wednesday we took a very careful approach.  We had listed more items that we wanted to consider – and once again, ohmygod, we made 10 purchases which sent our credit card into shock. But they are items we consider necessary, like a very good water filtration system, collapsible buckets and a plate the grinds garlic into a paste.  Hundreds of dollars rolled off our plastic.  Oh, well.  We’ll worry about it when the bill arrives. The best entertainment of the day is the young man hawking window-cleaning squeegees.  We didn’t buy... Read more

WE’RE IN QUARTZSITE, ARIZONA

 By Monique & Barry Zander, the Never-Bored RVers  Monday we reset our old analog clock to Mountain Standard Time as we crossed into Arizona on our way to the craziest gathering of RVers on the planet.  We are here to visit the big tent filled with everything RV, plus the never-ending booths displaying gems and minerals.  And, we remember from our last visit that the swapmeet is an adventure all its own. To capture what we experience, I’m going to do this as a journal rather than an article, so you can see what we are seeing through our eyes.  NOTE:  Internet service is bad.  We found the library today and got online.  We’ll have another report tomorrow … I hope!   PART I – ARRIVAL Let’s start with Monday driving in from the west.  The first two days of the RV show had ended, and we passed dozens of RVs of every size and condition heading in the opposite direction.   As we neared the town, we began seeing rigs parked in the desert, scattered at random in proximity to hard roads that come to life each year in January for the RV invasion. Then we began seeing huge RV parks, crowded with rigs parked side-by-side, more densely populated as we approached town.  We were amazed, given all those rigs that we had just passed on their way out of town. On suggestion of veteran show exhibitors Ken and Carole Adams we passed the town, turned back westward and then north and drove five miles to a free BLM miles-long camping area.  We pulled in on a narrow path cleared... Read more

Gr8LakesCamper: What started us down the RV road

The following post tells the story of how my family and I got into RVing. I tell this story in the hope you also might care to share what, or who, first got you into RVing. As for me, my extended family have been RVers for years, and growing up I always envied the tales of their camping trips. Little did I know that the RVing bug had bit me way back then, but it turned out to be an infection itching at me for many, many years before I was able to apply the ointment. It only took about 10 or so years of me whining like a hungry dog every time we passed an RV dealership before my wife finally uttered those three wonderful words … “Oh, all right.” The first of my family to start us all down the RVing road were my grandparents, Art and Curley Brighton. That’s them in the picture, with two of my uncles sticking their heads out the window of the 1971 25-foot Superior. I love that photo, especially how proud my grandpa looks holding a bucket of KFC! My grandparents were prolific RVers; they traveled from Alaska to the Panama Canal and all parts in between during their five decades of travel in their various motor homes. Actually, they first started by car-camping, sleeping in the back of their ridiculously huge Town & Country station wagon. Their first motor home was the brand new Superior. They enjoyed that big green motor home for over a dozen years until they bought a new 35-foot Holiday Rambler in 1984. Then in 1987 they bought a 33-foot Foretravel, and... Read more

Listen to RV Radio Shows via Podcasts

If you haven’t discovered podcasts about RVing, you’re in for a treat!  Think of them like Blogs that you can listen to, rather than read.  I know of two personally, and I’m sure there are more.  RV Navigator is a show by Ken and Martha Wiseman.  They have been extended RV travelers since 2005.  Their home is in Chicago.  They also travel by cruise ship.  Ken is a gadget king and you will hear a lot about Macintosh computers, iPhones, iPads and all things Apple from Ken in addition to RV and Travel topics.  RV Navigator podcasts are produced once or twice each month when they are traveling. Each podcast is about an hour long. Living the RV Dream is a show by John and Kathy Huggins.  They have been fulltime RVers since 2005.  Their goal is to visit all the US National Parks.  They also do a lot of volunteer work since hitting the road including working at the Escapees CARE center in Livingston, Texas. Living the RV Dream podcasts are produced weekly.  Make sure to check out the Jan 19, 2011 episode where they interview Geeks on Tour – the author of this article! What is a Podcast? The term ‘Podcast’ originated with the popular iPod device from Apple.  The iPod is a dedicated device for playing audio files.  However, you do not need an iPod to play podcasts.  Any computer will do, and most smart phones, as well as dozens of makes and models of ‘.mp3’ players. A podcast is a computer file, usually in the .mp3 format.  What I’m talking about in this... Read more

Got a Kindle, Nook, or iPad? Check out Sean’s novel!

Reading and camping go hand-in-hand. There are few things in life more satisfying than an engaging story, well told, after dark. One of my wife’s favorite evening pastimes is to settle down with a good book. (That’s usually when I’m working on our website.) This year, one of her marquee Christmas gifts was a Nook e-reader — a gift from my mother, who is herself also a voracious reader. I’ll always remember the first time I read Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls. I was a summer kitchen employee at Yellowstone National Park. In those days I was employed by Hamilton Stores, an organization staffed mostly by retirees. The retirees liked to take long afternoon breaks (we’re talking 3-hour siestas from 1 until 4) so I often found myself with a few hours to kill in the middle of the day. My companion was Hemingway. I loved that book, and will always pair it with the experience of being in Yellowstone at that time. CLICK THE BOOK to visit the author's website. For most of my adult career, I have been classified as “writer.” Even when designing websites or short films, the ultimate job description is to write. And so I have finally tackled the Mount Everest of writing tasks, and produced my first novel. It’s called “The Lost Spyder,” and is available now on Amazon KINDLE (CLICK HERE FOR AMAZON KINDLE) and Barnes & Noble NOOK (CLICK HERE FOR NOOK). It’s priced to sell — only $4.99! Electronic readers like Kindle and Nook are a godsend... Read more

Lest You Forget Where You’ve Been

ByBarry & Monique Zander,   the Never-Bored RVers   Question:  When does a picture-taker qualify as a photographer?   Pick the right answer: 1)  When he/she spends over $2,000 for equipment.  2)  When photographs are in focus and have an artistic quality. 3)  When he/she is willing to carry tripods, lights baffles and other equipment and then wait for hours for the perfect moment to take 200 shots of the same scene. 4)  When he/she wins a blue ribbon in a photography contest.  5)  It doesn’t matter. I have never seen a definitive answer, so #5 is probably the closest to correct. You already have a camera, no doubt, whether it’s a point-and-shoot, a cellphone, Dad’s old Leica or a digital version with interchangeable lenses.  Any of them can capture a scene, and nowadays, the picture they capture will be adequate for most uses. Taken with my Point & Shoot Canon © All photos by Barry Zander. All rights reserved    And that’s the key issue.  Far more important than the camera is the reason you are taking pictures.  Recently we sat through a presentation by a very successful professional, who lectured us about taking photos.  His slant on the subject was about taking magazine-quality photographs … until I interrupted to suggest that not everyone was on the same page.  When members of the audience seemed to agree that they weren’t expecting to be pros, he changed his emphasis to basic rules for good pictures.  We travel full-time in our RV,... Read more

Next Page »