You Can Avoid an RV Disaster

Despite high fuel prices, more Americans are planning to hit the highways and byways this summer. A recreational vehicle sits crashed into a garage in Gaston, North Carolina. Firefighters were dispatched to the incident that sent one man to Gaston Memorial Hospital with non life threatening injuries. (Credit: Gaston Gazette) Whether you are a rookie or a veteran when it comes to the pleasures of traveling in a recreational vehicle, a review of the basics can help to keep you on the road to safety. Realize your size. Many road mishaps occur because of an RV’s additional size and weight. For instance, operators accidentally drive under an overpass without enough clearance because they forget about the additional height. Know your RV’s height (remember to include the AC unit), width, and length and have them posted in the cockpit clearly visible to the driver. Also know the clearances of the bridges, underpasses, and tunnels along your route, especially on back roads. A road atlas specifically for RVers or semi drivers can help. Having your recreational vehicle road-ready and smart planning often helps the RVer to avoid a disaster as the following four incidents illustrate. RV trapped in mall parking lot Santa Maria, California: On May 7 (2011), a driver found out the hard way that it’s important to know the height of your recreational vehicle and pay attention to the clearance signs in parking lots. A mini Toyota camper truck wedged itself in the south parking structure of... Read more

Looking for Work? Become a Woodall’s Rep Team

Woodall’s Campground Directory is seeking applications for couples who would like to work from their RV. As an independent contractor, you will be asked to sell advertising to RV parks and campgrounds as well as RV dealers and attractions in your preassigned territory. Although many territories work primarily in spring and summer months, some followup is required through the end of the year. In order to be eligible, you must travel in an RV, have sales experience, own a computer and be able to work full time during your peak selling period. Experience with the Internet and smart phones such as the iPhone, Android or Blackberry is a plus. Come join the fun Woodall’s team of evaluators and sales people, and help finance your RV travels! To find out more visit Become a Woodall’s Rep Team.  Read More →

RV Cooking Show Kicks Off Great Outdoors Month with Santa Maria Tri-Tip BBQ

Taste of Flying Flags first episode in Food, Fun & Friends at Flying Flags RV Resort series California’s Central Coast is a magical place attracting celebrities, foodies, tourists and outdoor lovers alike. Nestled in the beautiful Santa Ynez/Santa Barbara Wine Country is a perfect stop for RVers - Flying Flags RV Resort in Buellton. They asked the RV Cooking Show to come out and produce a series highlighting the area’s bounty. At first we thought wine but when we arrived we found so much more and look forward to sharing these discoveries with you in the seven sensational episodes in the Food, Fun & Friends at Flying Flags series. This time around we’ve got some rockin’ regional BBQ to kick off Great Outdoors Month. Known as California’s BBQ, Santa Maria Tri-Tip is nearly as easy as it is delicious. The RV Cooking Show is tickled to bring you this “Live at Flying Flags RV Resort” episode called Taste of Flying Flags with a bonus insider look at Enjoy Cupcakes. Take a look and see what you think… With the help of local merchants and Flying Flags guests and staff we held a raffle benefiting the Santa Barbara County Food Bank (yes, there are hungry souls everywhere) and raised enough cash to provide 3,150 meals. Wow! Learn more about the area and print a couple copies of this tri-tip technique/recipe  - one for the stick kitchen and one for the camper – on my website. I hope you are planning some super RV/camping getaways this... Read more

Keep your water tank free of creepy critters

By Bob Difley When was the last time you thought about water? We Americans and Canadians are so used to hooking up the hose to any available tap and filling our water tanks with pure, clean water that we don’t let bugs like typhoid, diarrhea, pathogenic microorganisms, and intestinal parasites to even enter our consciousness. And that sometimes causes us to become careless. You may not drink plain, un-enhanced water, preferring wine, beer, coffee, sodas, or tea for your liquid intake. As explorer Owen Lattimore noted while traveling the ancient Asian Silk Road in camel caravans, “Water alone, unboiled, is never drunk. There is a superstition that it causes blisters on the feet.” But if water for any use–ice cubes, washing vegetables, brushing teeth–comes in contact with your insides, you might want to consider these extra firewall protections between you and the microscopic creepy crawlies. • Fill your water tank only from water supplies that are confirmed “potable” (drinking)  sources, such as from municipal, campground, and tested well water supplies. • Every six months sanitize your tank by pouring in one-quarter cup of bleach for every 15 gallons of water in a full tank. Let stand overnight. Drain, fill, and rinse at least twice, or until chlorine odor is gone. Better yet, fill with water and bleach when leaving your last campground and let it slosh around in the tank as you head home. • Be especially careful to keep the ends of... Read more

GRAND CIRCLE TOUR PART IV — LET’S TALK QUAINT

By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers I’m pretty sure lots of you RV.net readers are wondering why our travel articles for the past year have been mostly about the wonders of the West.  Our plans are to remedy that situation later this year when we head eastward for a few months. I want to address this blog to RVers no matter where you roam and whether you’re on the road full-time or for a weekend.  It should also be of interest if you enjoy the journey or the destination.  I will end up with an update on our travels around the Grand Circle. SMALL-TOWN DESTINATIONS We’ve been to or through thousands of small towns across North America over the past 4½ years of RVing and over many years before.  Two things we have learned:  1) we can usually sense the pride of the locals in their community just by looking around, and 2) there have been very few that we didn’t find interesting. The Mountain Village of Ouray, Colorado -- About as Quaint as They Get Looking for something different to do one weekend out of every month?  Take off in a different direction (SW, NW, NE, NW) for each excursion.  If there’s some place you’ve thought about visiting but never have had the time, put that high on your list.  Or just fire up the rig, fill the tanks and take off. Tucked into the Neighborhood on a Backstreet in Astoria, Oregon © All photos by Barry Zander. All rights reserved When you get there (wherever there is), you’ll want to walk into... Read more

Should EVs Pay to Play?

Don’t you just love it when a prediction comes true? Getting juiced up! (Photo credit: inhabitat.com) Over three months ago a writer for Politics and Cars mused that if special electric meters are installed specifically for the purpose of charging an electric vehicle (EV), someone in government would figure out how to tax that electricity in the same way gasoline is taxed. Gasoline taxes are supposed to go for repairs and improvement of roads. The gas tax is simply a user tax. You use the roads. You pay for them. That’s only fair. Right? However, if EVs use the roads without paying for their use, that is unfair. The issue is contentious because gasoline taxes generate $45 billion annually to pay for highway repairs. Let’s say you live in California, and purchased a Nissan Leaf. The car’s $32,000 bottom line would have taken a huge bite out of your budget, but the feds rewarded you with a $7,500 tax credit and the state kicked in a $5,000 cash payout. At $20,000, the Leaf is now affordable, and the three cents a mile operating costs are good news, too. But now they want to hit you with a new tax? The rest of us say it’s not fair that we pay a premium of 18.4 cents per gallon (24.4 cents for diesel) to maintain the nation’s roads, help to eradicate potholes, and keep overpasses from falling down while EV drivers pay nothing. That’s harsh, you think, being a crusader for clean air. After all, you’re saving the planet by decreasing your carbon footprint. Nissan... Read more

Give Dad an Atlas for Father’s Day! (He Doesn’t Have to Know You Got it For Free!)

Don’t worry! We won’t tell dad that the brand new Woodall’s Atlas you got him was actually FREE with your purchase of a Woodall’s North American Directory. It will be our little secret. Plus, we’ll even discount the North American Directory to only $14.95 -that’s way below the cover price of $25.95, to make the deal really sweet! Visit Woodall’s Website to Order Now! 2011 marks Woodall’s 75th year in print! Order the commemorative edition for Dad today – packed with over 310,003 updates from the 2010 edition. Plus… with the purchase of the 2011 North American Campground Directory you can find out how to enter to win a 7-day Hawaiian Cruise in our 75th Anniversary Sweepstakes. Plus, dad will feel safe on the road with Woodall’s North American Atlas. With extensive coverage of the United States plus Mexico & Canada including highway types, exit numbers, U.S. National Parks Guide, drive times & distances and so much more. It will become the travel essential dad will want to keep in the RV at all times. Or geez – this is such a deal, just buy it for yourself! (Again, we won’t tell dad, we promise!) Visit Woodall’s Website to Order Now! Happy Fathers Day, from Woodall’s!  Read More →

30 Tips to Cut Your RV Travel Expenses

The Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kickoff to the summer travel season, with many families either hitting the road or planning to do so within the following summer months. Try local wineries for wine tasting and tours. Pictured avbove Gehringer Brothers Estate Winery in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. © Rex Vogel, all rights reserved Following are 30 tips that will help you save money while still enjoying all the fun, freedom, and flexibility that RVing has to offer: Buy a local newspaper when checking into a campground or RV park and check it for coupons, bargains, and savings before going out to shop for groceries. Don’t buy all of your groceries at supermarkets. Buy food and other necessities at thrift bakeries, discount stores, dollar stores, church and charity bazaars, flea markets, roadside fruit and veggie stands, canning plants, and u-pick orchards. Shop at a local farmer’s market and chat with the folks selling the fruits and veggies. Pick up something “new to you” and ask them how to prepare it—then go back to your RV and try it. When in a campground connect to “shore power” and use THEIR electricity, not YOUR propane, to heat your water and run your refrigerator. Water heaters in particular consume considerable amounts of propane. If you’re staying in a metered park and paying for the electricity, you can determine which energy source is most economical—paying for the electricity or using your propane. Multiply the kilowatt rate being... Read more

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