Use Blogger to Keep Your Journals

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our E-mail Digest or RSS Feed. We will then send you the stories that are posted each day in an e-mail digest. We use a service called Feedburner for delivery of these emails. You will receive an e-mail from Feedburner after you subscribe and you must click on that email to activate your subscription. Thanks for visiting and enjoy all the information! RV.Net Blog AdminDid you keep a diary when you were a kid?  I did.  I love being able to go back in time and find words that express exactly what was going on.  Many of my paper journals have been lost or destroyed over the years.  I wanted something better for our travel logs.  When we started thinking about traveling in an RV back in 2003 – I found Blogger.com and decided to keep my journals there.  Tioga and George were my inspiration.  A solo, fulltime RVer, George used Blogger and wrote every day!  Because of reading his blog, we met up with George on the road a few times.   We credit Blogger with making us many friends over the years. Most everyone we meet who travels wants some way to record and share their travels.  Some keep a paper notebook just for themselves, some send an email blast to their list of friends.  We think Blogger is the easiest way to keep your journals.  It’s free, and it’s certainly simple to share with your friends – just tell them the link.  They can even subscribe... Read more

A FEW SITUATIONS OF OUR OWN

By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers Dear Lug_Nut, We cringed during yesterday’s posting, wondering how we get ourselves into these no-going-back & no-going–forward situations.  We had a few, but, honestly, none that I can remember as harrowing as your knuckle-whitener.  Good writing, Lug! Since “Comments” aren’t active these days, a victim of spammers (who sent me over 400 messages at one time), I’ll relate a few of our experiences in this blog.  I wrote this same type column about a year ago, but Monique urged me not to run it.  I must have erased it, because it has disappeared from my files. First incident happened about the fifth day of our RVing experience, so naturally I was still nervous.  We approached a long, narrow bridge pulling our 22-foot Starcraft Antigua travel trailer.  As we moved on forward, I realized there was a truck with a wide load heading toward us !!! at a high rate of speed !!! and weaving a bit.  I truly white-knuckled it, hanging onto the steering wheel for dear life. We must have made it across, because we’re still RVing.  I may have blacked out as we almost scraped past. Not long afterward, we pulled into a shopping center … only it wasn’t the entrance to the center’s parking lot.  It was the entrance to a small Starbuck’s – no way to back up or turn around, only the narrow drive-thru driveway.  We didn’t order a Frappuccino:  we were just happy with our escape. Still new to the... Read more

Printing Pictures with Picasa

I don’t print.  We live in an RV – there’s no place to put printed photo albums!  I love being able to share my pictures by uploading them to Picasa Web Albums / Google+.  (see Member Tutorial Video: Intro to Web Albums)  But that’s me.  I know that some people still like to have prints.  And, I have been known to print some pictures for my Mom to have.    Printing to Your Own Printer Just select the picture (or pictures) you want to print and click the Print button at the bottom of Picasa’s screen (see Member Tutorial Video Printing).  You will have options for print size, Shrink to Fit, printing captions on borders, printer setup options, and number of copies.  For a quick way to get something printed, this works great, but keep reading and I’ll tell you a much better way to print your pictures. Let the Pros do the Printing You will get much better results if you use commercially available photo-printing services like Walgreens, Walmart, Shutterfly, or CVS.  Many people know that already and they export their photos to a USB thumb drive and take them to the store for processing.  Oh no!  It’s so much easier than that!  Picasa will upload your pictures (the edited version) directly to Walgreens, Walmart, Shutterfly, and more.  Then you can go pick up the finished prints in an hour!  Or you can have them mailed to you – or whoever you want to get them. Here’s how:  Just... Read more

A FLY CAUGHT IN MY WEB.SITE

By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers Man, this computer stuff is another “can of worms”! After several days of frustration, I have two new announcements … and a smattering of advice at the end of this blog. ANNOUNCEMENT 1 – I have switched the website to another new name:  ontopoftheworld.bz (replaces ontopoftheworld.cc), which we think is a pretty cool name. ANNOUNCEMENT 2 – The problem in accessing the site, as many of you have reported, is ‘site visibility,’ at least as far as search engines (Bing, Yahoo, Google, etc.) go.  I’ve learned that it’s more complicated than I ever thought it would be.    Good news is that the problem is being corrected. The best way to reach the Alaska blogs, photographs and a bit more on ontopoftheworld.bz is by typing or pasting it into the bar at the top of your Internet page that starts out http://  . From what I can tell, you can access it through Google, but it’s tougher with Yahoo and Bing – the better, quicker way is in the space at the top of the page. If you’re wondering if it’s worth the effort, apparently lots of people who have unraveled the knot tying up access are finding it valuable … or at least enjoyable.  Once the glitches are worked out, I will upload (that’s computer talk, of course) much more onto the site.  Please bear (maybe “moose” is more appropriate) with me. Whetting your appetite for a visit to the Alaskan pages on ontopoftheworld.bz NOW FOR... Read more

WE GET LETTERS … & ‘A CAN OF WORMS’

By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers “WE GET LETTERS” is a line from the 1950s era Perry Como Show, where a bevy of beauties would come out singing the lyrics to “Letters, we get letters, we get stacks and stacks of letters.”  Then Perry sang requested songs from the home audience.  Well, enough trivia for this evening.  Just consider yourself lucky that I won’t sing, but here’s some of the mail received in the past week at neverboredrvers@gmail.com [each letter begins in bold]: You asked for “wrong route” stories.  We’ve found that traveling in our 38-foot motorhome is always an adventure. As we were driving home to Jacksonville, Fla., from a cross-country to Yuma, Ariz., we needed to buy fuel. When I checked GasBuddy, I found that diesel was several cents cheaper at a Chevron station near the Louisiana border just before crossing into Mississippi. We saw the gas station’s sign and pulled off. Jim slowly pulled in front of the station to see if we could access the pumps. By the time he decided we could, it was too late to pull into the station. He said he would turn around up ahead.  We kept following it, until it turned into a Y and climbed a rise. The road narrowed, and we found ourselves on top of a levee, on a narrow one-lane dirt/gravel road, with no turnaround in site. “Garmina” (our GPS) actually knew about this road … sort of. She told us it went straight for a couple of miles, then turned back... Read more

THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT!

By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers A few days ago, I received a comment via email from Diane Lamirande of Quebec, Canada, that begins:  “I know you are seasoned travellers and you probably have this info already, but I am submitting just in case.  My husband and I travelled from our home city in the province of Quebec, to the Yukon and Alaska.  Our best piece of advice … buy the thick directory ‘The Milepost.’  INDISPENSABLE.” Yes, Diane and all RVers interested in traveling to Alaska, we too strongly recommend having “Milepost” handy when you plan and travel on your trip of a lifetime. BUT, NOW THERE’S ANOTHER INDISPENSABLE REFERENCE!! My website is officially launched, and, while still in the formative stages, it includes all the blogs I did while traveling to Alaska, complete with comments from readers. The site is ontopoftheworld.cc [cc is the new extension for “Cross-Country”] While more items will be added on a weekly basis, the primary entries are photographs taken on our journeys across North America in our recreational vehicle and articles published on the RV.net website that fostered hundreds of comments. ▪.  Richard Gregorie on August 20th, 2010 8:22 am  
Wow! We have just started RVing and your series was terrific. It will be a while before we will make such a venture, but you have given us something to look forward to. Thanks so much for taking the time to bring your great adventure into the homes of... Read more

YOUR COMMENTS ABOUT RECENT BLOGS AND MORE

By Barry Zander’s blog readers The mailbags are being emptied into our email Inbox, so it’s time to catch up with some of your comments sent to our email address, neverboredrvers@gmail.com. Three notes:  I have responded to a few of  your comments; Each new comment starts with the first few words in BOLD CAPS; and I’m saving a very informative note from Diane Lamirande of Quebec for an upcoming blog.  Now for the your input: THANK YOU.  WE ARE NEWBIES to RVing having spent last year with a 5th wheel and now graduated to a Class A. This year will be our first real long distance trip up the East Coast into New England. Reading your post it as if you were standing over our shoulders during the planning process! Admittedly, my husband did the majority of the mapping, locating campgrounds, etc., but it has been an arduous task for both of us. We aren’t comfortable enough yet to “wing it” as many of our experienced friends so we want the security of knowing where we will stay, get fuel and all that goes with these adventures. At least we know we are not alone pouring over maps, guides and endless searching on the Internet. I did find your comment about working with reservation schedules for locations in the north eastern states amusingly familiar. (We too are currently on hold waiting for a park in New Hampshire.) A safe & wonderful trip to you! Thanks for sharing your experiences! Susan Fucci, Tampa, Fl P.S.  We will also be in the DC area during our trek.  It... Read more

THE ROAD THROUGH ENON

By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers Back in about 1952, with my sister Linda and me in the backseat, our family left New Orleans, our hometown, for a drive up to Chicago, where my father had a convention scheduled.  Somewhere around mile 25 of the trip, we were diverted from U.S. Hwy. 61 because of a tanker truck on fire. About an hour later, as my father drove our blue Cadillac through the underbelly of Louisiana, near the four or five houses that comprised the Village of Enon, he admitted we were lost.  That’s when my mother told him to stop the car., which he did.  She rolled down the window, and as a grazing cow looked up at her, she asked, “How do we get to Chicago?” Thus began the legend of Enon in our family.  A fond memory, which Linda and I still refer to as a memorial to my mother’s often-unintentional wittiness. This blog is written for two main reasons:  1) to get you thinking and responding, and, 2) as a platform to pass along responses from our last article about planning. A few years ago as Monique and I were zooming eastward down Interstate 70 into Kansas City, I apparently wasn’t paying close enough attention to the lane signs and suddenly we found ourselves hauling our trailer on the Interstate 435 Loop around K.C..  Monique made sure I knew the error of my ways* as we kept driving … and driving, not exactly sure where we were going to come out (it was in the days before GPSes). * we know that our stress level... Read more

RVers Learn About Technology

Marion Kerns was not happy when her husband, Karl, said he signed them up for a computer learning rally.  She told him that she would just stay in the RV and do her quilting while he went to class.  But no, that wasn’t Karl’s plan!  He made her come to class along with him.  By the end of the week, Marion was seen carrying her iPad with her everywhere.  With a little extra encouragement in a one-on-one session, Marion had learned enough to open her eyes to new uses for her tablet computer, but what she liked most about the rally was the small size.  With only 20 couples who shared breakfast and dinner each day of the rally, she said it felt like family by the end of the week and she truly enjoyed herself.  Good job Karl! TechnoGeek Learning Rally is for RV Travelers It’s called the TechnoGeek Learning Rally and it is co-hosted by Geeks on Tour and TechnoRV.  RV travelers actually use technology more than average seniors because it is just so useful to our lifestyle.  Whether it’s GPS technology for getting us where we want to go, or cellphone/smartphone technology for keeping us in touch wherever we are, RVers are quick to adopt.  And then there’s the photos!  We like to have good cameras and take lots of photos of our travels.  Learning about the different settings on our cameras help make those pictures better, and then using Picasa afterwards can improve them even more. Some people came... Read more

If You Travel and Don’t Blog About it, Did it Ever Really Happen?

I Love travel blogs!  Want to know what it’s really like to RV in Alaska?  Check out Gundyville’s Blog or Dennis and Carol’s Blog.   How about staying in an RV in Mexico for months, even years?  Just take a look at George and Tioga’s Blog.  Do you keep a blog (an online journal) as you travel?  If so, you might be listed in HitchItch.com along with nearly 200 others.  If you want to learn all about life as a non-retired fulltime RVer, and get a laugh in the process, then follow the daily blog of Nick Russell and the Gypsy Journal. Our Blog is Our Memory We’ve been fulltime RVers since 2003, and I simply cannot imagine being without our blog!  So many times we have a question like “Where did we spend our anniversary in 2004?” or “I want to see the pictures from our day on Mackinac Island”  or “How many Presidential Libraries have we visited?”   All these questions can be so easily answered by our blog. Where did we spend our anniversary in 2004? This is the easiest question to answer with a blog because every entry is automatically archived by date, so as long as I know that our anniversary is in July, I can view the Blog Archive (see the image at right), expand 2004 then expand July and I can see the entry I wrote about our anniversary. I want to see the pictures from our day on Mackinac Island. To handle that, I use the Search feature and typed in “Mackinac.” It searches every word of all 1,500 posts and, in a fraction of a second, it comes... Read more

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