GOOD SAM RALLY … ROCKS

By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers We have returned from the Good Sam Rally in Phoenix with a story to tell.  We were compelled to leave early for a family concern and because we were heading for our cabin in the mountains.  We realized that if we waited until the rally ended, we would be delayed an extra day or two to get up the mountain until the snow Lots to see and buy inside the Big Tent with plenty more outside Good Sam Top Man Bob Livingston Answers Questions at the first seminar. stopped and the roads were re-opened.  The alternative was that I would have to dig tire chains out of the back of our truck – a daunting ordeal – and then install them, which I had never done before.  I don’t even know if it would be safe pulling the 10,000-pound trailer on the winding ascending roads. There we were, in the RV parking area of the Phoenix International Raceway, squeezed in among more than 3,000 RVs – it felt closer to 10,000.  We envisioned at least a day of waiting anxiously while rigs peeled away row by row, space by space.  I decided to go for it early to snake our way, literarily, out of the spot we were in. At this point, I want to say that several Good Sam members proved once again they are good Samaritans ready to go above and beyond to help a fellow RVer. We would still be there today without the help of everyone who volunteered or who we asked for assistance in extricating our rig. I’ll continue with that story in a moment,... Read more

Free RV Video Training Site – RV101.TV

Mark Polk with RV Education 101 recently launched a new RV video site called RV101.tv where RV owners & enthusiasts can learn more about their RVs. Polk explained, “For more than a decade we have been helping educate RV consumers with our RV instructional DVDs, books, online TV series and free video clips. Our you tube channel alone has had over 1.1 million video views. Recently I realized that we had over 100 RV related videos uploaded to our You Tube channel, but if you were searching for information on a particular RV topic it was difficult to locate.” To fix the problem Polk decided to launch a new RV101.tv video training site. The new video site is easy to navigate and find exactly what you are looking for. At RV101.TV you will find a large selection of RV how-to training videos organized into over 20 specific RV categories. When you are searching for a particular RV topic you just click on the RV video training category and a listing of all available video titles within that category will come up. The RV101.TV site is a great place to learn more about your RV and you can subscribe to be notified by email every time a new video post is added. Polk added, “We also offer a free monthly online magazine titled RV Consumer E-magazine that is packed with great articles and RV how to information. To subscribe to the E-magazine visit http://rv101.tv/or www.RVconsumer.com. When it comes to learning about your RV the easy way RV Education 101 has you covered.” Happy... Read more

A Different Kind of RV Rally: Learning Computers, Cameras, and Smartphones

by Chris Guld, of GeeksOnTour.TV If you are a typical RVer, you use a lot of technology.  How would you like to spend a week, with other RVers learning how to really use all those toys?  From GPS and mapping software for planning your travels, to digital cameras and software for keeping photos organized, to using the Internet with laptops, tablets, and smartphones for keeping in touch with friends, family, and the world. I’ve been writing tech-related articles in this RV.net Blog for several years now, and with my husband Jim, as Geeks on Tour, we’ve presented computer seminars to thousands of RVers at various Rallies across the country. Then we met Phil, Tracey, and family from TechnoRV.  They also teach technology topics at RV Rallies.  We are both full-time RVers.  So we got together and planned the first ever Technology Learning Rally for RVers.  This will be more like a week-long immersion school and tech-toy playground than a rally.  Each registration receives a 3-ring binder of materials, including instructional handouts, hands-on worksheets, and tutorial videos on disk.  It will be a small group with lots of opportunity for personal attention using your own computer/tablet/camera/smartphone. In addition to all our normal seminars, we will have hands-on sessions for beginners, lots of open Q&A, Show &Tell sessions, as well as projects, contests, and games like Geek Jeopardy. If you’re interested and you’ll be in Florida at the end of April,... Read more

Does a bad boondocking trip kill the concept for new RVers?

By Bob Difley In last week’s post,  A boondocker’s bag of tricks, among the many responses was one that got me thinking about how RVers view boondocking–especially those that don’t.  ”Bobbie” wrote: I don’t know why everyone raves about how great boondocking is. We went to Quartzsite, AZ to boondock with some friends who have gone there the last 4 years in January. The RVs were almost bumper to bumper, or side to side, just as close or closer than many campgrounds I have stayed in. The nights were cold, and we had to use our propane heater. We used about two- one lb. propane tanks per day. We were told we could not run our generators after a certain hour at night or until a certain hour in the morning out of respect for our neighbors. We got no tv service, even with the antenna. We took full showers every other day, with wash ups on alternate days. I like my long hot showers and missed not being able to have one. My friends went into town daily to Mesa RV for the free lunch, which would be great if it was close by but, it was about 8 to 10 miles into town and the same back to the rv. I figure it was at least 1/2 to 1 gallon of gas per day into town not counting all the gas we spent in getting the rig and tow car down to AZ from our town in central CA. For the $1000 or more the trip cost us, to my way of thinking was not worth it at all. Give me full hook ups and long showers, and electricity, and WIFI, and cable tv any day. I will gladly... Read more

A boondocker’s bag of tricks

By Bob Difley Camping overnight in a Walmart parking lot, a rest stop, or a forest service campground where there are no hookups is not difficult and most RVers once they get a little familiar with their rig have done it. But the real trick to successful boondocking is knowing how to get that third, fourth, or fifth day–or even a week or more out of a boondocking campsite–and be completely comfortable and confident doing it. The trick is in managing your resources–water, electricity, and waste. Familiarize yourself with these resources–electricity and how fast you deplete it from your batteries, drinking water and how much you waste (and the resultant waste water filling up your gray water tank), and filling the black, or sewer, tank–and how fast you deplete them or fill your tanks, then practice ways to stretch out their use. Getting as many days in the boonies as you can squeeze in between having to pack up camp and drive off to replenish electricity (charging your batteries), fill your water tank, and dump your waste tanks, is what makes boondocking successful, and staying out longer, and doing it comfortably, is what makes a boondocker happy. It also takes experience. Every time you boondock, you learn a new trick or two to extend your stay. Simple, common sense acts–that with experience become second nature–like not letting your faucets run, taking Navy showers, re-using the water you run when waiting for hot water to come, reducing... Read more

RUMI-NATION … OR BOWLING FOR SOUP

Down & Around -- A spiderweb of touring By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers Don’t expect to reach your destination, for then you will stop traveling.  That’s not a thought about RVing; it’s a theme espoused by Persian poet and mystic Rumi.  I have just been reacquainted with the depth of Rumi through a beautiful program on public radio’s “Onbeing” [www.onbeing.org]. That fits well with what Monique and I have experienced over the past three weeks, always staying within a skipping-stone’s throw from the Gulf of Mexico.  Since leaving our Mardi Gras rally in New Orleans, we put 1,400 miles on our GMC, burning more diesel than we are comfortable with while having the opportunity to ingest more scenery and knowledge than we can ever retain. I’ll get to a synopsis of our experiences in a moment, but first, I’ll list where we have paused since February 22:  in Louisiana, the Jean Lafitte National Park Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center in Thibodaux and on westward to Lake Charles, then circling back to New Iberia.  We met my sons and their families at Palmetto Island State Park, and drove down, down, down La. Hwy. 1 to Grand Isle State Park in the Gulf of Mexico.  It was then down Hwy. 23 to Belle Chasse to meet Mississippi-based son Gary with his tribe and again down, down, down to Empire at the mouth of the Mississippi River. We hitched up after three days, crossed two state lines and went back down to the seaside at Gulf... Read more

RV Consumer E-Magazine March Issue

The March issue of RV Consumer e-Magazine was just released by RV Education 101. In this issue the theme is “Getting Ready to Roll in 2012″ Mark Polk with RV Education tells you every thing you need to do to get your RV ready for another great camping seaon. This issue also includes aftermarket RV products, an interview with KOA’s Mike Gast, RV tire information and a look at some new RVs. All of this RV information and more is just a click away. If you haven’t heard of this new RV magazine it is a digital magazine, in a flip-book style format, delivered online by subscription. It is free of charge and your e-mail address will never be sold or used for anything other than delivering our RV e-newsletter and RV Consumer e-Magazine. For up to the minute RV news and information take a minute to subscribe and start receiving this information packed e-publication right now. RV Consumer e-Magazine is loaded with useful RV information on RV products, RV how-to topics, RV reviews, RV destinations, RV videos and other general RV information. Our goal is to be your premier provider for RV information and assistance through various RV educational outlets. RV101.TV We would also like to announce a brand new site of ours called RV101.TV. This site provides over 50 Free RV how-to videos to help educate RV owners on how-to use and maintain their RVs. Take a minute to visit this brand new site and just click on the video category you are interested in. If you are experience... Read more

Forest Service’s new Travel Management Plans restrict driving in national forests

By Bob Difley After five years of work with local authorities and recreational providers, the supervisors of the various national forests are finishing off their mandated Travel Management Plans (TMP) that will designate where you can drive in their forest. Many of the forests have already published and implemented their TMP and others are being added as their work is completed. Former Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth had named unregulated motor vehicle use as one of the four biggest threats to the national forest system and directed all forest supervisors to write new plans that lay out–in detail–where motor vehicles are permitted. The Wallowa-Whitman National forest in northeastern Oregon is one of the latest to announce the completion of their long-anticipated TMP which will be released to the public in the next couple of weeks. Forest supervisor, Monica Schwalbach, wrote in a letter to the Baker City Herald that the plan “creates a balance between providing motor vehicle-based recreation opportunities and reducing damaging effects to natural resources.” In most forests–including the Wallowa-Whitman–driving motor vehicles and boondocking was previously allowed on all forest roads. The TMP, however, will designate those roads where driving and boondocking is permitted. If it is not permitted, it will not be allowed and a fine could result. The TMR will also outline specific areas where boondocking (dispersed camping) is permitted. If not... Read more

MARDI GRAS 2012 WRAP-UP

By Barry Zander, edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers. Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans was perfect.  The weather was warm, mostly sunny, and revelers in the Downtown area and French Quarter were in good spirits – some drinking those spirits, but we saw no evidence of rowdiness during our eight hours of being part of the crowds. Monique was relieved. She, like many who have never been to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, feared the crush of people to be suffocating, despite the assurances by acquaintances and me.  We walked down legendary Bourbon Street in the Quarter, looking at costumes and catching beads thrown from wrought –iron-framed balconies.  When the easy flow of costumed bodies began to get thicker, we veered off and found a corner restaurant which Monique Gets Ready for Her Share of Our Muffaletta provided us with 1) an excellent muffaleta (a New Orleans specialty – one sandwich is enough for a couple; 2) a tasty Bloody Mary; 3) reasonable prices, and 4) a table along the sidewalk where we could continue to ogle the passing parade of costumes. I haven’t heard of anyone in our group of 90 who was dissatisfied with their stay, and keep in mind that our rally was made up of folks primarily of retirement age.  Most elected to participate in French Quarter walks at every opportunity. You Never Know What You'll See on Mardi Gras Day in New Orleans Now for a few random thoughts. First, lots of people — I among them — hoped the RV rally would include... Read more

Save effort and a back ache with a portable water pump

By Bob Difley Experienced Boondockers know that the efficient handling of waste water, electricity, and fresh water can determine how long they can camp without having to dump waste tanks, re-charge batteries, and refill the water tank. Adding  a portable water pump to your rig’s boondocking gear  can help save you effort, time, and hassle–and maybe a wrenched back. A portable pump can come in handy for chores you might not have thought of, such as transferring water from portable water containers–such as Jerry jugs or a water bladder–to your RV’s water tank. No more lifting heavy water jugs to pour into your tank, just back your pickup or dinghy up to your rig, attach a hose from the pump to the water container and another from the pump into your water fill opening and pump away while you enjoy doing something else. You can also use a pump to: Pump water from a mountain stream or lake into jugs for transfer into your rig. Use this only if you use bottled or purified water for drinking, washing dishes, and brushing teeth and your water tank just for showers. Empty the water from your fishing boat, kayak, or canoe after a sudden rainstorm. Put a shower head on the outlet hose and use it to wash off sandy feet or muddy shoes–pumped directly from a bucket outside so debris doesn’t enter your gray waste tank–or move it to any area outside your rig that needs washing off. A good, inexpensive pump would be one similar to the Attwood... Read more

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