Rv Navigator

After over a year of being stationary, we finally are ready to cruise again in July. We’ll be traveling to Malta (off the coast of Italy, but an independent country) for a round trip sail aboard the Viking Venus doing a Croatian itinerary for 11 days. This is the first sailing of this itinerary so we are a bit apprehensive about all of the arrangements. We are Covid free and ready to travel again, so we’ll head out mid month for 2 weeks. I am please to report that we have recovered some lost episodes from the early days of the podcast. It was fun to listen to many outdated topics and remember what RVing was like in the days of our 5th wheel. Plus we found the lost episodes from 2008 on Martha's laptop. What's new in streaming services, surge pricing at campgrounds, new websites and much more in this episode. I have transitioned to a mirrorless SLR (its predecessor was purchased during the missing episodes above) from my Canon system. This new Olympus micro 4/3rds camera is much more capable and much lighte

Our world is opening up after 15 months of living under Covid restrictions, the summer seems to be back to pre-covid levels of activity. This is a very good sign for our future travels both by RV and overseas trips. Along with a birthday this month (turned 75), Ken found that he had to renew/upgrade his driving license and take a driving test. Many states, including IL, have an RV driving test. Links on the website provide info about such states, but after some miscommunications, he passed the driving test in the MH so we're good for four more years of MH travel. Also this month, we purchased new ebikes that more easily fit our traveling lifestyle. These are full folding bikes with 20 inch tires. Although our old bikes folded in half, they were still too big to manage on day trips. The new bikes fit into storage bins which can be lifted into the hatch back of either of our cars. A great option and one that will keep both the car and bike from damage. Are you thinking of becoming a full time RVer. W

Back to IL and normal travel is our mantra this month. We left FL to head north and a more typical summer experience after 6 months being stationary. We share ideas about RV buying, tank management, campgrounds, boondocking and many other current topics.

We traveled from East to West to East across Florida this month. Although, traveling coast to coast is only a 3 hr drive in this part of the country, it still is a different world from our home base. This month we had the Diamond Shield removed from the MH and it looks great. Diamond Shield is one of those options that sound good, but don't work as designed. After 10 years of exposure to the elements, the front of our MH was looking bad due to deterioration of the product that is supposed to protect it. Fortunately, the original paint underweight was in great condition so now we are back to looking smart in the front. We now stayed in many FL state parks with great success. Unlike other states, their policies are MH friendly and the camping spots are very nice. We've now stayed within a short distance of the ocean on both coasts and in the middle with great success. Reservations are necessary, but we've been able to reserve spots about 6 weeks out, in most cases. We also share some ideas about the future

Although we are still in FL, we have gotten the second Covid vaccine shot so we should be good to go for travel when the industry opening up later in the year.

As the pandemic roars on, we look down the road to when it is history - exactly when we don't know but we can see the end (we think). We've gotten our first shot so we hope to be able to travel this year but have no solid plans until 2022. We are focused on our RV and living our stationary life in FL. There is lots of news in the RV world to share like the new adventure RVs that are popping up everywhere. What happened at the Tampa RV SuperShow? What is Diamond Shield? What is your states license plate motto? What's new with Swamp buggy tours? All of these important questions are discussed in this episode of the RV Navigator. Be sure to visit our episode website at RVNavigator.com.

At our FL home, we spent the month of December in isolation living in our motorhome. The warm weather makes doing outdoor activities fun and safe. We join the many listeners in saying a farewell to 2020, it could not leave fast enough. Join us for our NYE celebration, a little different this year due to our isolation. The year has been one of waiting and watching as news reports detail the dire consequences of this virus. We hope that all of our listeners are safe and ready for a much better 2021.

As the pandemic rages, we headed to FL just after the election. Our usual TG & Xmas family celebrations have been canceled, so we may as well be at least warm for the holidays. Lots of RV topics to cover in this episode so give it a listen.

We’ve been home since April but we still manage to keep busy with “important” projects. With the expectation that the winter will see an increase in Covid cases, we plan to head south to our usual winter home during November. At least it will be warm so we can be outside during the dark months. This is the earliest that we have headed south and skipped the usual family gatherings at TG and Xmas. Covid it impacting our lives in a big way. However, we hope to remain safe and wait out the pandemic regardless of how it progresses. This month we share our top 5 places to visit with your RV when we can again travel. We did these lists independently so they are slightly different, but we both chose Alaska as the number 1 destination. We have RVed to Alaska twice (1988 and 2012) to enjoy its many scenic wonders. We share some ideas about our virtual travel experiences as a means of getting your travel fix. We share several helpful hints on RV shows and buying tips especially for new comers. Virtual RV shows

The north woods of Wisconsin is our destination this month as we travel the back roads in search of fall colors and cranberry harvesting. We spent time boondocking for several nights using various tools. Boondocking is camping without services, something our motorhome is well adapted to do. We can live comfortably for several days without outside connections. This has become very popular in this time of the pandemic. Social distancing is easy when boondocking. Many RVers think boondocking and Walmart camping are synonomous, but there are a wide variety of resources for those interested in boondocking. For the first time we used Boondockers Welcome website to fine and contact a private party who was willing to let us stay on their property as boondocks. We talk about this and other similar services. Photography was also on our minds as we drove the back roads looking for fall foliage. Software tips and trick are on the agenda this month. Listen for the details as well as photo tips. Alaska in 2021? Lis

You’re part of the podcast revolution that is taking place in the media world. You listen to the RV Navigator! We are navigating the world of RVs with your help. We give our best travel tips for the RV life as well as suggest new lifestyle technologies. During this travel down time, I have been tracking podcasting news. Podcasts are becoming a major player in the media world earning thousands via ads. We of course have buck this trend, no sponsorship or interruptions during our show. This is unusual as most podcasters are expecting to become rich via this new medium. We’ll continue as we are until the audience is gone. We appreciate your feedback and suggestions, so keep them coming. We do recommend several apps for this episode. Martha has been recovering from shoulder surgery which has interrupted her sleep pattern. We share our impressions of AutoSleep as a tool for tracking sleep issues. It works. Does the RV size have a major impact on the places you can camp? Always the question from new RVers.

With the covid virus still with us, we have remained at home, with no firm travel plans. Martha is still recovering from shoulder surgery (9 weeks out now), so we are using the time to bring her back up to normal. Should the pandemic subside, we’ll be ready to travel. Ken is still the main cook and has found an app to help manage his many recipes which you’ll want to hear about. Should you want to listen to previous episodes of the RV Navigator, more are now available for downloading. I have spent several hours reconnecting broken links to old episodes. It is amazing that we have been doing this podcast for over 15 years so there are alot of episodes to engage your ear. We do feel that RVing is one of the safest travel options. There are still those RVing and enjoying the outdoors in one of the few travel modes still available. From our reading, we find that camp grounds are for the most part open and accepting guests. The summer season has not gone to waste for many of our listeners. We share apps for do

The Covid-19 induced vacation form travel continues as the summer progresses. There is no let up in sight so no travel plans for us. As we record the podcast, our original schedule called for us to be on the road with a 2 month long RV caravan to Canada on the west coast. This was shutdown and cancelled - the Canadians shut our boarder until at least the end of July and the Eastern entrance to Glacier NP (where we were had reservation to spend the 4th of July) has been closed. Even the famous Going to the Sun roaThe Covid-19 induced vacation form travel continues as the summer progresses. There is no let up in sight so no travel plans for us. As we record the podcast, our original schedule called for us to be on the road with a 2 month long RV caravan to Canada on the west coast. This was shutdown and cancelled - the Canadians shut our boarder until at least the end of July and the Eastern entrance to Glacier NP (where we were had reservation to spend the 4th of July) has been closed. Even the famous Go

Another month of quarantine, what will our world look like once this is over? After 3 months of Quarantine, all of the days at home seem to be the same. The Ground Hog day movie takes this idea to the extreme. Bill Murray relives "grand hog day" for weeks before he is brought back to reality. What will our RVing future be. According to reports, RVing may be very popular and on the cutting edge of the new travel. Here at the beginning of June, 2020 it is hard to see our way to the future however We are thinking about the future as we see RVing as the ideal way to travel. We share a bunch of ideas about now and the future as well as our usual problem solving tips and tricks. Interesting new Apps, a few jokes, and thoughts about the sun wrap up this months episode.

The post South Africa caravan report plus information on buying a GPS Navigation system for your RV.

We’ve moved - but safely from FL to IL (both bubbles of safety in gated communities) via our mobile bubble (the MH). Owning a lot in FL allows us to be flexible about moving. Even through our park was closed to outsiders renting, we could stay or leave as we chose. We understand that many full timers didn't have this option as states closed RV parks. We definitely feel their pain. Although we were supposed to be traveling overseas at this month, We had no definite departure plans but as the weather gets hot in FL, we knew that it was time to head north. How long will the economic shutdown last, we don’t know, but we're ready for and extended stay in place. Our 1200 mile trip home was uneventful - little traffic, low fuel prices, and open camp grounds made the trip one of the smoothest ever. This month we make some suggestions for activities like geocaching as well as streaming lots of video. On more serious topics, we learned about toilet paper and masks. Two months ago we would not have even mentioned eith

It was just a month ago we were joking that the virus would never impact our lives here in the US. Naive as that sounds today, we didn't see this coming so quickly. As of this date (4/1/20) our lives are in disarray - not sick (yet) but everything on hold. Plans cancelled or significantly change, family out of touch, local business interrupted and travel out of the picture. Although our lives and schedules are up in the air, we are still optimistic and secure. Our lifestyle while on the road, is hermit like. Staying away from people is easy and familiar to RVers. For the time being, we have decided to stay at our property in FL. Our community is isolated and the weather has been good. We stay away from people, but we can still enjoy nature and warm weather. However, we don't know what our government will do to curtail our travel further. Now we can do grocery shopping but that's about it. This month we share a few little known coronavirus facts as well as an interview with Patrick from RV Life. We

Stationary in FL for another month. We are all about sharing our RVing experiences with our listeners. In January we attended the Tampa RV Supershow with the idea of learning what's new in the industry. We toured the lots and talked with vendors. This month and next we'll have some interviews vendors that have new products that we feel are of general interest to our listeners. Today, we welcome Keith with a new water filtering product as well as David sharing his fleet tire program we described briefly last month. We look at new water filtration products, replacing our 4 yr old batteries & a tire buying service you should know about. Our 8 new T105 67lbs each batteries were purchased on a discount offered at the show. Is the Tampa Supershow worth attending? Based on this months topics, absolutely yes - or listen to our podcast to learn what you should know. We leave FL later this month to head north - a bit early this year as i will have to winterize again (April is just too early in IL) but we

Winter is time for RV Shows & we attended the Tampa SuperShow. We had several questions to get answered by the factory reps at this show. We also visited hundreds of vendors selling all types of RV products. We hope to have some follow-up with selected venders in the coming months. We mention fleet in the title because we have joined two fleet services as a way to save a few $$s on RV products. We are now getting discounts on diesel purchases at truck stops and a fleet discount on tires for our motorhome. Lots to look & buy at such a big event. We talk about some trends that we noticed as well as some of the RVs we toured. We are not selling anything, so these are just casual observations from the field. We had fun buying new tires and plan to buy a new set of batteries, but what type is still up in the air. Many tips and tricks in this months episode as we spend the winter in FL.

The annual end of the year celebration with our listeners takes place on 12/31/2019. We open the bubbly and talk about the year in review. What will the next decade bring - we hope lots of RVing and travel. RVing and many other topics are on our agenda