RV Navigator

Winter in the North means we are in the warm - this year in Tucson, AZ. After a brief encounter with winter in IL, we flew back to LV for a week before heading down to Tucson via Quartzsite and Pheonix. Then on to Tucson for a couple of months in the sun. Tucson is always sunny but often cool in January. This year turned out to be the warmest January in their history with 14 days above 75 degrees (very pleasant) and only a couple of freezing mornings. We enjoy the outdoor activities provided by this area of country. This campground offers alot of actives for us seniors all under the warm sun. Plus Tucson offers great bike trails and hiking in the mountains. We are content to be stationary for 2 months when winter travel is just not reliable in other parts of the country. We took the time to upgrade several kitchen components while here in Tucson. We've wanted replace or electric cooktop with an induction model. Induction are more boondocking friendly and are excellent heat source. We've also started air trying and using the instant for many meals in the RV. Both of these make for easier and quicker meals on the road. This month we also share several articles about various aspects of RVing that you'll want to read.

2018 begins in Las Vegas where we celebrate on Freemont St. After flying back to our motorhome which was parked in LV for 5 weeks, we’ll be on the road again soon. We are cleaning up the RVNavigator mail box of topics this month with a bit bubbly added.

The holiday season finds us at home with the RV parked in LV for the month. We are flying round trip to LV to continue our winter in the good weather. Family and friends keep us coming back to Chicago for the holidays. Since last month, we drove on many miles of open range highway with visits to more NPs including Cedar Breaks & Zion. A week plus was spent at Sand Lake SP in UT. This was camping at its finest, a huge scenic site with full hookups for only $28/night (and no reservation). We extended our stay in this scenic area. It is near St Georges UT, the winter warm spot in UT. Final stop was LV before flying home. We picked LV due to the inexpensive camping (a surprise) and good facilities.

Rt 50 is considered to be the loneliest highway and we traveled much of it this month as we traversed several deserts and vast planes of CA and NV. We also visited several NPs including Crater Lake, Lassen, Great Basin, & Yosemite. Spending just a few few nights in each, we have had a block buster month of RVing ending in Cedar City UT (Cedar Breaks NM). We have driven across hundreds of miles of desolate landscape on RT 50. One sign indicated that the next service (fuel) was 167 miles ahead. In that time we saw one car going in our direction and 3 in the opposite direction. This is impossible to happen in our part of the country - as probably yours but here in the western high plains. This meant that driving the large RV on a 2 lane black top was no challenge. The scenery was interesting despite the isolation. We crossed several 7500+foot passes which did challenge the RVs 450 hp diesel but we did fine in the end.

On the road from Washington State near Mt. St. Helens & Mt. Rainer. We left home in early Sept headed to some of the NPs that we had visited 30 years ago and missed (due to snow) on our trip 2 years ago. Back again to visit these spectacular locations. Excellent weather made our photos worthy of the locations. After meeting several podcast listeners in Rocky National Pk including Mark and Marisa Newhouse, David Grossman,Karen Bigelow, Greg and Cathy Taylor. Thanks for contacting us for a meet up. From there we slowly headed to Washington for the end of the month. We spend some time in the Columbia River gorge near Portland. Fires had kept us away, but the local reports from listener Doreen let us know when it was safe to visit the area. She and Nick gave us a nice tour of the area - short due to many attractions that were closed due to fire damage, but the area is still beautiful. I hope that the area can recover and become the visitor attraction that it has been for years. To the casual visitor, the fire damage is not too obvious, but much of local infrastructure is damage and may take some time to rebuild. Good weather blessed our visit to Mt, Hood, Rainer, and St. Helens at the end of the month. We have avoided the fires to visited OR & WA before heading south but next month see us headed to more National Parks in Oregon, Utah and California. These two month see us moving every couple of days as we do the sightseeing thing. Please let us know if you’ll be in a campground near us in the future.

Summer is nearly over but our travel are just beginning. We’re on our way west to Rocky Mt, NP earlier than expected after Martha’s surgery so we’re starting new. We had carved out until the first of the year for her recovery, but it is a bonus to be able to leave in September. Our plan is to pick up some of the NPs that we missed on our last trip west. We'll be headed South to Tucson for a couple of the winter months after the first of the year. Last months eclipse was an event to be remembered. A 5 hour drive home turned in to 13 hrs due to heavy traffic as everyone headed north after the total eclipse. For the last few years I have enjoyed flying my DJI drone, but its large size made it difficult to transport. I was able to buy a DJI Spark drone was put to good use. Ir is very small (7x7 inches) so is easily transportable in one hand. It is about the size of the old drones controller. The new one is controlled by the iPhone so no controller needed. These topics plus lots of good RV stuff about boondocking and buying an RV are included in this episode - 54 minutes of entertaining banter about our favorite activity.

Another month at home enjoying the summer in Chicago. A great place to be in the warm months. Martha continues to progress and recover from her foot surgery in May. We are looking forward to hitting the road in the RV in September. So this month we decided to focus on Apps for RVers. After asking the Google plus group, friends and our own top selections, we’ve come up with quite a list. If you feel that we’ve neglected your favorites, please feel free to post them on the Google plus page (link on the right).

After a month of PT and careful walking, Martha is recovering from her foot surgery. She no longer has a cast or needs walking aids (we've had a knee scooter, walker, and cane this month) so we see major improvement from the original days after surgery in May. With Martha on the road to recovery, we are again making travel plans but we are still at home in IL. This month we feature a return interview with Marc & Sara from a year ago. When we saw them last, they were driving their new motorhome from the factory in Indiana to Washington state. They were embarking on a totally new full timing lifestyle as RVers. After removing our roof mounted internet satellite dish, we have been looking for an alternative solution for internet on the road for several months. I have been trying to get an ATT Mobley for some time. Finally I found it on Amazon and made the purchase. The local ATT store set up my account without a hassle and it has worked well since. The $20 a month charge for unlimited internet is a very good deal at this time. We were going to get the FMCA Verizon offer as a backup but Verizon pulled out of the deal at the last minute so our phones will be the backup until something better comes along.

At home again for several months as Martha recovers from foot surgery. Her inability to climb stairs & walk freely will keep us at home. We have lots of interesting RV topics to share. Many new RVers are getting on the road so we’re answering questions

Land (air) travel to Singapore where we boarded a 30 day cruise that ends in Rome, Italy after visiting ports in India, UAE, Greece and other countries. We spent a few days in Singapore enjoying its many sites. We spent some time in S’pore in the 70s so this trip gave a chance to reconnect with a favorite city. But it has changed so much of the charm that we remember has been replaced with new modern buildings built on land fill. Singapore is a small island and needs land but it completely changed the S’pore that we remember. Hotels that were on the beach are no longer even close to the beach. Instead there is a barrier of skyscrapers that leads to the distant shore lines. The cruise has been very smooth so those of you who worry about ship motion need worry no more. This is our first visit to the Arabian sea, Indian ocean, Red Sea and several more. We sailed through the perennial hot spot, the Strait of Hormuz. Nearly all of the oil coming from the Gulf states travels through this narrow stretch of water. We also did a transit of the Suez Canal. This is a very different experience from the Panama Canal transit. No locks to pass through, just a “river” of water. Flying home from Rome will complete a trip around the world. No RVing this month but we do share RV topics but we have tried to keep up with what’s happening in the RV world as Spring blossoms in the US and RVers hit the road. Our motorhome is still winterized and will probably remain so for the next few months. Martha is going in for foot surgery in May and will be immobile for a few months. This will limit our travels for the foreseeable future. As always we enjoy hearing from our listeners so feel free to contact with your questions and stories.

The beginning of April finds us traveling again. We are currently sailing the high seas on our way from Singapore to Rome for a total of 30 days. However we began March in Cuba so we spend some time debriefing our Cuba adventure. It was not your usual Caribbean island adventure. Our tour involved several intense cultural experiences - as required by our visa. We traveled about t1500 miles from rural Cuba to Havana. Most roads (even the 6 lane expressway) have almost no traffic. Private cars and even motorcycles are not in common use so the roads are empty most of the time. The flights to and from Cuba are short so we were able to drive to and from Miami without any extra nights stay. TGO is only 3 hrs from Miami. After a short stay at TGO during which we had our washing machine replaced, we headed the motorhome to Chicago. We arrived after a couple of nights, to find cold weather. Enough so that I decided to winterize it even though the calendar said spring. We are also looking at the many new "unlimited" cellular data plans. A new one using the ATT Mobly we'll be trying our first unlimited data plan in the near future. March 28th takes us on a 16 hour flight half way around the world. More details next month.

A quick flight from Miami brought us to Cuba for a long planned 12 day tour of this forbidden island. We started in the East with our trip heading to Havana in the next week. I have been worried about the viability of the internet (Wifi) in Cuba, but have been pleasantly surprised. Not free, but fairly fast so it was worth the cost. As I write this, the actually podcast has been successfully uploaded, so only this linking file (XML) is necessary to make it active. This should not be a problem. We'll be sharing details of the trip over the next two episodes. It is different than we expected - and how? Well listen to this episode! and we'll tell you all about it. We have had fun with our resident owl and the excellent photo opts provided. When we left you last, our owl was just hatching into a chick. Now after hundreds of photos, our owl is all most ready to fly. Cuba may have caused us to miss this big event. I have learned alot about wild bird photography in the last few weeks. One of the new essential tools is a flash extender. An inexpensive tool to give your flash more range. Another happening this month was the first RV Navigator Potluck at TGO. Not only did we have TGO residence but listeners from other campgrounds joined in the fun. An evening of good fun and food. Thanks to everyone who planned and attended the event. We did have a RV Navigator Trivia contest with big prizes and 3 winners who know much more about our lives than we do! If you'd like to try your hand at the trivia questions, follow the link in the show notes. On top of these topics we share some RV news stories and other topics of interest. Next month we'll be on the road once again this time in Singapore. I assume that the internet will not be a problem, so the upload should be on time.

We start the month sailing in the Caribbean for a week sailing aboard the beautiful Harmony of the seas. She is todays largest cruise ship. Lots of innovation and digital enhancements. RFID wrist bands to provide access to rooms and accounts is just one thing. We beat the ships Casino for a total of $14 with a $60 investment, so we titled episode “Beat the house” This month was spent at TGO and visiting the Tampa Super show. We were spent 4 days camped on the show grounds as part of a TGO RVing group. This provided us with early access and very convenient show access - we could walk to the event. We had a new auto sat dish installed while parked. Our old auto dish was made for internet access and we had adapted it for satellite TV. Unfortunately mobile satellite internet is going away so our dish became less useful. The new satellite TV only dishes have several advantages so we made the switch. I was sad to see our 12 year old dish (costing $6000) being thrown in the trash, but it had served out it useful life. The Florida weather continued to impress as the rest of the country suffered major storms and precipitation. Our weather continued to be above average temps (near 80 most days) and sunny skies. We’re hoping that this podcast gets mounted on Feb 1, but with ships internet, one never knows. This ship has improved internet and full time access (for a fee) but it is not fast by any land based standard. Wish us luck.

Our annual NYE live recording of the podcast is on location at TGO in Florida. Warm weather allowed us to record outdoors and with a glass or two of champaigne. We even had an audience some podcast listeners joined us to welcome the new year.

After the family visit, we headed down to Titusville FL to stay on our lot at TGO for basically the first time. Several listeners greeted us warmly making it feel like home. However, making this purchase and staying at TGO gets us to thinking about retirement and the future. We also heard that two long time full timing couples were buying S&Bs and coming off the road. We and they are at the next stage of retirement, what happens when you no longer can be on the road. This too takes planning. How did we get to where we are and how will we handle the future. These insights will help you plan or make better use of your retirement. We’ll not be coming off the road, but our retirement has been different than either of the others that we mention. We have kept our house (even though we are on the road 8 months a year) and we don’t work. How has this happened and is it for you?

Our travel plans are a bit different this year. We are taking the RV south in the fall before the winter season. We’ll be driving the toad back & forth in the cold weather. For now, we are visiting relatives in SC on our way to TGO in Florida. For the first winter we’ll be using our lot at The Great Outdoors in Titusville, FL between January and March. On our way south in late October, we stopped to get the Air Force 1 install. After a week with the relatives in SC, we’ll head to TGO until TG in late November.

Five days at sea highlighted our 16 day crossing of the Atlantic. We did make a major stop in Iceland for some great sightseeing, but we also spent quite a few days at sea. Many listeners would find this much unplanned time to be boring, but, from our exdperience its not. Would you switch from an RV to a sailboat? RVing & sailing seemingly have much in common, but do they? We also spend some time comparing our respective digital cameras. Ken favors one choice while Martha another. This enlightening discussion will help you decide what type of camera is for you. From blowouts to new shoes we talk about what’s happing in the RV world this month.

After enduring the hot spell that invaded much of the midwest and northwest for most of August, midmonth found us on a cruise in the Fjords of Norway. But this only after stops in NYC and Iceland. This part of the trip was a typical hotel stay where we were making all of the plans ourselves (as opposed to taking a tour). After this travel experience, we realized why we like RVing (and cruising). Both offer a “unpack once” and tour benefit that hoteling doesn’t offer. The Fjords cruise is just the first of 2 that will eventually take us to Boston before flying home to Chicago in mid September. While sailing, we are still thinking of RVing as we compare cruising to driving. Cost comparisons and traveling details still are big factors for continuing to RV.

July was a month at home, but we are thinking of RV topics. We do an extended interview with our single RVer friend Mike about his adventures since our last interview. Now that his rig is more that a year old, he is considering an extended warranty. Does an extended warranty give you peace of mind? It should, but do the contracts really deliver what most RVers expect in terms of service. Hear our take on this topics (with RNR) plus bad weather horror stories, getting into VR and drones.

The final leg of our marathon 5 month travel adventure was completed just after Memorial Day with 2200 mile drive across the high planes back to Chicago. We hosted two visits from new motorhome owners while will provide interesting listening. We interview Marc & Sara who just picked up their 2016 Newmar Dutch Star at the factory. They have never RVed or driven a large motorhome before selling their house in Washington to buy this new motorhome. Their comments plus many topics of a more general nature make up the July edition of the RV Navigator.

We traveled from SF to Vancouver Island during May as the final leg of our 6 month long west coast adventure. This month we drove the PCH, and visited the Olympic NP and many places in between in Oregon and Washington. We’ll have driven 8500 miles in the motorhome by the time we return home. We travel via ferry to Vancouver island as well as had many adventures. We talk about the campgrounds, roads, weather, seasons, and tourist activities on our itinerary so join us for an interesting description of this area.

Travel this month was mostly in CA from the East where we visited Sequoia NP to the northern coast and Redwoods NP. In between we hosted our Australian friends & listeners in SF. We are now heading north on the PCH, the beautiful coastal highway. Our intention is to head to Vancouver Island later this month and then go east to Chicago.

Major travels this month to the bottom of the world in South America. We spent 22 days away from the RV in Chile & Argentina traveling to the remote Patagonia region. Follow our adventures on the sea and land as we tour the bottom of the world.

We are traveling in the desert west this month with stops in Las Vegas, Palm Springs, and Lake Havasu. Lots of photo ops as we attended the fireworks extravaganza & modernity week on our travels. We also visited Death Valley NP. Good weather made these adventures lots of fun. Death Valley which boosts the hottest temperatures in the world, was a pleasant 70 degrees at this time of year. This park is very large with several camping opportunities. The newest option are the FHU sites at Furnace Creek which we were lucky enough to find an open spot. Otherwise it is boondocking only. The month ended in Pahrump, NV just prior to our travels to South America.

We are celebrating our 10 year doing the podcast with a raffle that will take place in February, 2016. Entry details in the podcast & on the web. Our travels have taken us to many scenic places so far this winter but we are podcasting from Lake Mead Recreation Area near Las Vegas. This is just one of several very scenic camping sites that we have spent time in so far this winter. The weather has not been too kind, but we have gotten some great views and even made a snowman.

This month is our full report on our African Safari this month. We returned from 28 days on the Dark Continent with a 1000s of great animal photos and wonderful memories of a great trip. Our adventure ended mid month with a very long flight home and days of jet lag. We did manage to get some RV questions answered and interesting topics discussed on this edition of the RV Navigator.

Even a fairly new RV needs repairs so this month we visited Newmar in Indiana. Thus just before heading for Dubai, UAE & Nairobi, Kenya for our African Safari. These plus lots of good RVing and travel info make up this episode.

After returning home, we have been trouble shooting problems both in the RV and at home. We share ideas, letters, tech tips and much more in this episode done from the home studio. This is a brief pause in travel before we head to Africa early next month. We are practice packing for this trip. Unlike the RV where we bring everything, the African Safari allows only 33 lbs total - suitcase and carry-on. This actually requires more planning than the RV trips. Other topics this month includes our recent experiences with directv, upgrading your WiFi router, and new and interesting ideas from the RVing world.

Two months in northern rural Canada and we didn’t see a moose. Lots of other sites as we ferried to Newfoundland & Labrador on our journey north. We are now headed home for a short stay before heading to Africa. The Caravan turned out to be a nice way to see a lot in the shortest time possible. Overall driving miles were over 3700 plus the trip to and from. We did see lots of wildlife and eat our share of sea food. We are bringing home several pounds of lobster and crab in the freezer.

Traveling North into Canada one sees lots of trees in this country of 35 million souls (1/10 the size of the US). We start our Maritime caravan that will take us to Labrador. We are 18 rigs that camp & tour together. This is our ½ way point on the travel Northward. We have remembered many things from our trip of 20 years ago, but next month the territory is all new as we load the rig on a ferry bound for Newfoundland and Labrador. We have many observations about the trip so far so take a listen if Canada is in your future.

After several weeks at home, we began our 2 month adventure that will go as far north as Labrador. The trip out involves 1200 miles to get to the caravan starting point. Lots of topics invade this podcast so give it a listen.

June fines us home with plans to leave at the end of the month for the Canadian Maritimes for the rest of the summer. Lots of tech talk today as Ken has been using his Apple Watch for most of the month, plus serval other tech topics make up this episode.

After purchasing our RV lot at The Great Outdoors in Titusville, FL on April 1st, we drove home to the cold of Chicago in the Spring. We feature an interview with fulltimers, Dan and Jonell who workcamp at Amazon for several weeks during the holiday season. Ken has also been busy updating his technology so you’ll want to hear the latest. Based on a listener email, we talk about boondocking tips for the novice. How do you manage that ever elusive resource, electricity?

March was spent traveling in SC. We started with the Freigthliner Wkshp in Gaffney & ended with our nieces wedding in Charleston with stops in Jekyll Island and Myrtle Beach thrown in. We had visits from listeners, old friends and family along the way. This month we share many ideas about RVing in an interview with our single RVing friend, Mike. He had taken his first RVing trip with his Winnebago Via. We post the episode links on our web page at RVNavigator.com.

February turned out to be busy month for your RV Navigators. After a quick change of sites within the Great Outdoors, we met several listeners who tracked us down because they were in a campground near us. Of course we are always doing the tourist thing as we are new to the Titusville (space coast) area of Florida. This involved the Kennedy Space Center, rocket launches, and the Daytona speedway. A couple of installs a microwave & a CB radio also took a few days. And, yes, we became campsite owners within TGO. As of April 1, 2015, we’ll be driving in as property owners - and we have a golf cart for transportation.

Having escaped the winter cold, we headed to the Tampa RV show early in Jan for a great time meeting many listeners. After 5 days park on the fairgrounds grass, we drove over to Titusville to find our site on the golf course at the Great Outdoors RV resort where we’ll stay until the end of February. This RV resort has it all and is one of the most inclusive and extensive “campgrounds” that we have every encountered. Expensive, yes but it has the amenities to warrant the expense. It is a place where “being in the bubble” takes on new meaning. We hope that by the end of Feb, the weather will be warm enough for travel elsewhere in the country.

The beginning of 2015 see us traveling south to Florida. With old motorhome sold, we are unburdened and financially strapped so we can enjoy the winter travels. Champaign was flowing on NYE, so this podcast have different character. Enjoy 2015. We’ll be at the Tampa Super show in mid January at a campsite near you? If so let us know. We cover lots of other RV topics this episode, so give us a listen and then give us a review on iTunes.

After a quick 2 weeks in the USVI (St Thomas and St John), we made it home for TG & Xmas. This month we focus on gifts for RVers. See the episode web page for all of the links and pictures. Many listeners contributed to the list via the Google Plus page. Thanks & happy holidays to all of our listeners.

Finally

This is the story of transition from the old RV to the 2012 Dutch Star motorhome. Will our stuff fit? How will it drive? Will be like all electric? What modifications will we make? All questions on the agenda.

We return home to winter after months of sun in AZ. I re-winterized the RV & prepared for some summer weather, only to be disappointed. New ideas & new topics are on our agenda this month as we dissect the winter travels. Next month we’ll be in Japan.