RV Living – Share your Experience

My First RV Experience: How RVing Has Kept My Wanderlust Alive and Well
I’ve always considered myself an outdoorsy kind of a woman. The thought of “glamping”, as my daughter calls it, had never appealed to me. My husband Rowen …

Replacing Old Air Bags
Replacing Old Air Bags (No, the suspension type).

Being the proud owner of “The Ole Texas T” (1990 Southwind), and priding myself in still being mobile …

We Can Laugh About It Now
We were just starting out.. ,married 3-4 years. All we could afford is an old 1972 11 footcamper on a 1974 GMC pick up. A hand me down from a previous …

Unique US Map for your RV?
OK, this might be hard to explain, but here goes…Many years ago I saw a small brass (?) “plaque” of the United States that you could attach somewhere …

RV Winter in November
November 15. First real taste of Montana winter. It is freezing.

We have a 2004 Big Sky (Montana). Very nice trailer inside but we found out quickly …

The proverbial Winegard TV antenna destruction
Well, I literally JUST bought and brought home this past saturday, a 1988 Winnebago Elandan. Got it home and proceeded to set it up and assess everything. …

Verde Valley Arizona
V-Bar-V Petroglyphs & Beaver Creek
How to get there: OK, look at your map and find Az I-17. See where AZ rte 179 (the road to Sedona)intersects? Well, exit I-17 there but, at the bottom …

Fulltime RVing Can Be Murder
The year was 1976. Thirty three long and adventurous years ago when my husband and I made the decision to purchase our first travel trailer. With his …

Frozen RV Water Pipes
Yet another lesson learned as part of the RV lifestyle. For those who brave colder climates in the RV, take note. If you apply heat to thaw out frozen …

Who gets locked INSIDE an RV???
My Husband and I had just started living in our RV fulltime. We were traveling from Montana to Idaho in early October so it was turning cool. When we arrived …

If You See The Trailer Rockin’ It’s Probably a Train…
A favorite RV spot is located about 30 feet from active railroad tracks. We have camped here many times and are very familiar with the trains and the …

First time towing experience
We were going to take a trip to Elk County, Pa. to do some elk viewing and needed a vehicle to do it. This would be the first time we ever towed anything …

RV Vacation? Hartford Connecticut
Our first trip in our Fifth Wheel. After leaving Maine-without bicycles because they became loose and followed us dragging along the highway–they were …

Trip Shortcut ? Avoiding the Bermuda Triangle
When I moved away from home, the first order of business was to find a shortcut for the many trips I would make “back home” to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. …

Mules Days In Bishop, California

For all of you RVers who have never been to Mule Days in Bishop, California you’re missing out on quite an adventure.

First, it will test your true ability to be self-sufficient. It is dry camping –no luxuries of home. BUT the good thing is the celebration of Mule Days has so many great events to attend, great food, and very friendly people.

Our RV club, California Heartland, from the Central Valley of California attended Mule Days on our last rally. (May- 2016) The weather was hot, the wind blew like crazy, and oh yes, I forgot about the rain. This tested your true RVing ability to say the least.

But all and all with wonderful friends from the RV club everyone had a very different adventure, but some very pleasant times visiting interesting places that were nearby.

I wish you safe traveling and great memories of your adventures.

“A Great Saint Patrick’s Day Outing”
My husband, Dave, and I belong to an RV club, “California Heartland”, from the Central Valley of California. The club has a rally almost every month in …

10 Important RV Fuel Saving Tips
Vacations can be costly enough as it is, and with RV travel being regarded as relatively affordable it is proving to be more and more popular. With rising …

“Our Dream Vacation Turned Into A Nightmare”
If any of you have visited Pismo Beach, California you know what I mean when I say it’s a place where you can just forget about your troubles and enjoy …

Indiana Attractions for your RV Adventure
The Midwest gets an unfair reputation for being boring, especially on a road trip. If no one else, RV travelers know that there is always a gem hidden …

Beartooth Pass
Bear Tooth Pass, Montana is a fantastic place. stop at the rest area at the top of the pass, and listen to the wind.

We agree that Beartooth Pass …

An RVer’s birthday to remember
An RVer’s Birthday to remember

If you …

RV Camping Europe
RV Camping Europe

We can recommend a most excellent adventure: RV camping in Europe!

We traveled for three months via motorhome in western Europe, …

What Was That Noise?
by Wanda (Apache Junction, AZ)
While traveling the 101 in CA, going up a sorta steep hill, we heard a loud POP! Instantly we lost power and barely made it over the crest and luckily found a pull off. Very lucky… because a 38’motorhome towing is not easy to park.

The motorhome was still running but could barely pull itself. First thing we unhooked the car and my husband went looking for a better place to park and wait for help. Again we luckily found a better spot at the bottom of the hill, so proceeded on down there.

We’re frantically trying to get a hold of the tow insurance people who incidently don’t answer phones on Sunday. Again luckily, we were not far from a campground and were able to limp into it and wait 2 days for a repairman to tell us we had blown a hose on the turbo, easily fixed with money!

We were lucky, first breakdown in 10 years of fulltime traveling. Not lucky in that our warranty insurance claimed it was NOT a breakdown because the motorhome was still running, although unsafe to drive with lack of power and smoke pouring out the back on hilly 101 highway.

Again luckily, being broken down for awhile my husband read our warranty and discovered several minor things that needed fixed and were covered under warranty. Guess who had to pay almost $5000 to fix that stuff? Ha Ha!

My new friends from Morro Bay
My husband, Dave, drove our RV to meet some of our friends in Morro Bay for a three-day vacation.

A nice cool breeze was blowing through the window, …

Teenagers First Camping Trip
by Shirley (Modesto, CA)

On our last outing with the family in the mountains we were sitting around the campfire enjoying the evening. All of a sudden I heard this loud noise coming from the campsite next to us. I turned and saw six teenagers trying to put up their tent in the dark with only one flashlight

Picture this, two guys holding one end of the tent and two inside holding the tent up. The two guys outside kept trying to turn the tent. Soon the two guys inside fell… and down went the tent.

It was quite a show to watch. We tried not to laugh too loud so they couldn’t hear us. They did finally get the tent put up, after two hours of struggle and disagreements.

The story isn’t over. During the night we heard familiar sounds of animals of the night at the campsite next to us. Yes, it was the teenagers campsite. The next morning I looked out of the window and their campsite looked like a tornado had gone through it.

Racoons had made a visit. They told us they had looked out of the tent and saw a family of Racoons. We took pictures for our memory book.

Alternator, Generator, Gas Can:
One Fun Trip
Thanksgiving weekend in 2003 seemed like a good time for my wife and I to visit our family in North Texas. Since we live in South Texas this was a trip …

Chicken Fried Steak
Now I admit I am a Texan through and through, and I may be a little predjudiced about some things, but this needs to be told. We just got back from our …

A great discovery
Maybe it’s just us, but it seems like when we go to a doctor for a routine check-up, their first inclination for any minor issue is to prescribe a pill. …

You Can’t Bring Horses here!

We plan to go fulltime RV living when we retire in 2 or 3 years. For now we own a 4-Star 3-horse slant load with semi-living quarters. Dear Wife (DW) insisted we buy just one trailer and have dual functionality; it would be less expensive than 2 trailers. Smart girl that DW of mine!

So we use our horse trailer as a toy hauler and we like to visit campgrounds that have a nice lake. We pack our Old Town canoe and bicycles, grill, etc. in the back horse area (no horses). And the semi-living quarters work just fine.

When we were visiting Lake Anna, outside Washington D.C. we were pulling in and setting up. It’s a very nice campground, and well organized. The camp master came rushing up to our site in his golf cart and had a horrified and panicked look on his face and blurted out, “Horses aren’t allowed in here!”

I assured him that we didn’t have the horses with us and opened up the back and gave him a peek at the canoe. Boy, was he relieved and a little embarrassed. He was certain that we must have brought horses into his campground! We all had a good laugh after we were all on the same page of correct information!

Even Santa could use a gift from God.

by Jim Flaten

(Marshalltown Iowa)

About 25 years ago I was a State Park Ranger in South Carolina. I met this older man and his wife riding thru the campground on their golf cart. I can’t remember their names but everyone called him Santa and not only because he looked so very much like him with his long white beard and pot belly, but because of all the joy he gave to others.

He would pick up the kids at other campsites and treat them to ice cream at the gift shop on a daily basis. He was such a nice man that everyone liked and trusted him the moment they met him.

Santa would take care of his wife and do everything for her as she had a severe case of Alzheimer’s and was wheelchair bound. He would do anything and everything for that woman and do it always with a smile. You would see him taking her for a ride thru the park on the golf cart smiling and talking to her as if it were the first day they met. He would actually show her off to everybody they would meet along the way.

Santa and his wife would park there big, nice motorhome in the campground for about a month each year and when the local people saw them come in, they would all come to say hello and greet them and welcome them back. This went on for several years while I was there.

About one year after I’d left that State Park Ranger job and moved on I ran into a former co-Ranger of mine who asked, “Did you hear about Santa and his wife?”

Then he told me that Santa had taken his wife to her usual doctors visit and when the doctor came out of the room he told Santa that he had some fantastic news for him. Santa’s wife didn’t have Alzheimer’s at all. She had an allergy of some kind and after ten years of doing everything for her with a smile, she was finally back just as good as new. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy…

British Columbia Camping is Fantastic
British Columbia is a campers paradise. If you are a camper, be it tent camping, travel trailer or a full scale motor home, camping in BC is simply incredible. …

Land A Plane On Your RV?
Here’s a use for an RV you probably never thought of…. landing a plane on top of your RV!

Yes, you’re seeing that picture right…. in this air show …

Belleayre Mountain New York

Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, just off Route 28 in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York offers free overnight parking for RVs.

With miles of hiking trails through the Catskill Forest Preserve, bike trails, an interactive nature center, even a lake with a sand beach, Belleayre is an ideal place to stay.

Plan your trip right and you can enjoy top notch
entertainment. The Belleayre Music Conservatory www.belleayremusic.org offers up and coming artists and headliners from a wide variety of genres — jazz, pop, opera, and more.

All in a gorgeous mountainside setting throughout the summer and fall. No electric, water, or dumping — but no fees, gorgeous views and great music make Belleayre worth the visit. Ten minutes to Supermarket. Half hour to town of Woodstock.

The latitude and longitude of Highmount, New York is: 42° 8′ 39″ N / 74° 29′ 24″ W

RV Adventures
by George and Alice Bristol

RV Adventures with the Bristols:

George and Alice Bristol are first time RVers who travel from Milwaukee Wisconsin to Southern California. They trace part of the Lewis & Clark Trail.

The book, The Bristol Expedition, describes their adventures in RVing. This is also an internet sales site for the book and items of interest to RVers, including MedicTag, a USB medical information device and Solarrific solar products.

“Folks, read the book, judge for yourselves. Veteran RVers and camping people will relate to us. Wannabe RVers will learn about the personal adjustments that have to be made when in a motor home and still enjoy each other’s company and have fun together.”

A Growing Desire to Hit the Road
by L. M. O’Neal

Today we reside in a fixed residence. The idea of unloading most of our stuff is gaining ground. I like the idea of living with less and retaining the comforts and conveniences of a motor home. As a part of the decision making process, we are investigating possible purchases.

This article has greatly elevated the desire to “not cut the grass”, but rather cut and make a run for the state line in a motor home. Thank you for the additional information and perspective.

An RV trip from nightmares
We took our first RV trip on a summer day. We didn’t know which camping spot to pick and ended up picking out one near the bathrooms for convenience. All night long all we heard was people talking and discussing who needed to go and did you ask the kids if they didn’t to go and hurry up and come back because Johnny really needs to go bad and hadn’t gone all day and is really constipated. Oh, what fun to sleep near the bathroom!

My Father’s Word of Caution

by Annie Newman
(Forest Hill, LA, USA)

My husband & I had just purchased our first 5th wheel, a 2000 Coachman with one slide. When we towed it in, leveled it, we opened the slide out so my parents could see the inside.

My father (aged 85) motioned me over to the side & whispered real low: “You better make sure to drive close to the right of the highway so no one will hit that room sticking out. That looks mighty dangerous!”

I tried not to laugh but gently told him that the room slid inside & locked when we were towing it.

Watch the RV Sewer line

by Jerry McCune

(Gretna NE)

Took the camper in to dump the black and grey water… Had the cheapest hose I could find and the camper had a hard-to-reach dump valve. Well, in order to connect the hose I needed to sit on the ground and reach way under the unit.

Everything was going fine. I connected the hose and pulled the “black water” valve (of course we dump the black first so the grey can clean the hose). The second I pulled the black water valve, the hose separated from the connector and I was immediately covered with wet toilet tissue etc…

As quickly as I could (which seemed like hours!) I shut the valve off and hosed myself off. That was not really funny at the time but it gets funnier as time goes by.

We now have a new camper with easy access dump valves and a much better sewer hose:)

Elk and Cameron County: Best wildlife viewing

by Jack and Nancy Felicita

(East Smithfield, PA)

If you love looking at wildlife up close, you need to go to Elk/Cameron Counties in Pennsylvania. Elk have been reintroduced to this state in these counties and they are abundant.

You can get within several feet of these magnificent animals. The racks on the males are huge and to hear them bugle is goose-bump worthy. We even had two giants run through the campground we were at a couple of years ago and we listened to them bugle for a couple of hours after that.

Great photo ops and just when you think you have seen the biggest elk you ever saw, a bigger one comes along. The third weekend in September is the Elk Fest. Lots of interesting stuff there, too. If you go, make sure you have your camera charged up as you just might see a couple of bulls fighting for the harem!