RV Navigator

After 8 months on the road we spend time at home.

Experiencing Alaska's scenic beauty through many miles of driving.

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Our long awaited trip to Alaska begins this month with the long drive across the US to the Canadian Rockies. Follows us for the next few months as we explore our 49th state. Of course, we have lots more topics in the show, so take a listen.

Another podcast from the high seas without an RV. This months episode features an interview with some fellow RVers (Caravaners in their eyes) from Great Britain. They travel in their rig for months at a time by heading south to Spain.

Home once again for a month while we get ready for the next adventure. Your navigators share some tech tips,updates, and gadgets as well as full timing surprises. These along with the usual banter make this an interesting episode.

A flood caused detour found us at the end of the road - How to proceed was our dilemma. This plus many other observations and adventures are shared by your Hosts in this episode from upstate NY Wine country. News, also, for work campers, blogers, & apps.

We ended the episode with the wind howling outside our RV's window. We are glad to report that all is well in Irene's aftermath although it was a close call for us in Vermont. We are reporting from coastal Maine this month and many adventures to share.

A final thanks for those who voted for us. We have been cruising this month on the Carnival Glory out of NYC. Despite this time away, we have many RV topics on the agenda for this month. Emails have prompted some interesting discussion about RVing.

Big Thanks to all who voted for us in the recent Best Cruiser award - we won. We have been busy updating the RV in Elkhart for the past couple of weeks. New floor, fridge update and engine repair. These interesting topics plus our usual banter & topics.

After a fire safety demonstration we realized how much we didn't know about RV fires & emergency procedures, so we share with you what we learned. We answer listener emails, new web sites, and great products for RVers as part of this episode.

This month we have camping ideas from around the globe as we talk with a listener in the MIddle East about camping. This plus the usual Rving new and events will round out an exciting show. We appreciate those who have voted for us at budgettravel.com.

After more than 4 months on the road, we arrived back in our stationary house late in April. We took a couple of extra days driving from SC to skirt the constant heavy storms that have plagued the southeast this spring. Without a fixed schedule we were able to avoid the storms with a few extra days in the warm. The Chicago area has been very rainy and cold both before and since our arrival. You ask why did we come home so early - that’s my question, too. We can now enjoy the hight gas prices of the Chicago area with all of our neighbors. Lots of interesting technology in this episode. How about rooting a B&N NOOK? Easily done. How did our Sensar work out? How about an extra lens for your phone camera? These plus lots of RV tips and ideas are in this episode. When you are finished, send us a comment, or write podcast review in iTunes about your friendly RV Navigators. [email protected] is our email.

We do see signs of Spring, but it is still too cold to be at home so we continue to travel the mid south. Lots of new RV topics are discussed in this episode including the most popular RVs, Trucker GPSs, digital TV meter, and new websites.

A few miles from New Orleans is the Cajun country noted for seafood & music. We spent a nice couple of weeks enjoying both before heading to Natchez to travel the Trace north. We share tips and some new gadgets during this episode for our listeners.

Twelve days in New Orleans gave us a chance to really have the full Mardi Gras experience. Ending on Fat Tuesday, it was an extravaganza unlike anything we have experienced before. We bring you all of the details and our impressions of this event.

Leaving warm Sarasota we headed north to what turned out to be more great weather in the Florida panhandle. This area combines the best of old & new Florida with great camping and reasonable prices. We also share several email comments from listeners.

After a month in place, we start the engine to head northwest on the trip to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. This episode features an interview with Bob & Linda full timers who are making some big changes after several years on the road.

Our report on the differences between winter RVing in Florida compared with wintering in Texas. We have been in the RV bubble in Florida for over 2 weeks, so we have some interesting comparisons to make. This plus the latest RVing news.

After spending a week on the Atlantic coast we head to the Tampa Super show. Listeners, show highlights, and repairs have dominated our time at the show. What's happening and what are the trends in RVing is our main topic.

We begin our usual trip south for the winter as we celebrate episode 60, our 5th year of doing the podcast. This year takes us to Florida and several adventures in the southland this winter. Class A or 5th Wheel? What's with megapixels? Topics for #60.

We have yielded to listener request by adding a mid month version of the RV Navigator. We never thought this podcast would generate such interest, but if you want to hear our rantings, you'll now get them more often. The RVers Xmas list is our topic.

We always find it hard to believe that we have so many loyal listeners, but we hear from them regularly each month so it must be true. Based on the number of downloads the RV Navigator is reaching quite a large number of interested RVers and others hungry for information. With this in mind, we are going to succumb to listener suggestions that we take the podcast to a new level of frequency - bi monthly. Is this vanity or are we really filling a niche? The iTunes comments are great and your email feedback has been very positive so I can only assume that our RV experiences are valuable beyond our lives. We are glad to share and are rewarded by your listenership. However, a second month episode comes with the caveat that listeners help provide content and feedback for the mid-month edition. Our trial mid-month episode will feature Christmas presents appropriate for RVers (or Techies) so send us your suggestions and comments. This episode starts with our getting the RV Fridge repaired under the Norcold recall. Norcold has recalled several models of RV fridges, but ours has always been outside the range of models recalled. This month they issued a recall for nearly all of their fridges between 1999-2010. Ours of course fell in this range. We recommend that you get yours updated, it is free and takes only 1/2 hour for a technician to complete. You’ll find links to several interesting stories that we talk about in the links section of this web page. Today’s feature is my take on cutting the cable. Is the internet ready to handle all of your programming needs. What does it take to get cable like programming via the internet and is it viable for RVers. Should you buy an Apple TV, Google TV, Roku, por Boxee Box? These are all questions that, if you have not considered the internet option for TV by now, you will in the near future.

This months RVing adventure was a short 4 days in Parke County Indiana home of 32 covered bridges. Covered bridge may conjure up images of New England but Indiana's Parke County has more in a compact space than anywhere else. They have 5 driving routes of about 35 miles each that take visitors to all of the bridges. Some are still in use while others are just along the road side as tourist stops. Many are from the 1800s with other from the early 1900s and all are in fairly good shape. Visitors can at least walk over them all as well as photograph them in the rural settings. Each fall they have a huge outdoor festival that draws thousands of tourists. Our visit was a week after the festival so things were quite. It is worth a visit if you are in the vicinity with your RV. Turkey Run SP offers great camping for all types of RVs. Other topics this month include numerous topics presented by listeners via email including reports from Australia. This months feature is about the changing landscape of wireless internet. Data access is important to most RVers these days for at least email and usually much more. With the vast increase in the demand for data (anything beside voice communication) by cell phone users (all of those Apps), cell companies are struggling to keep up. How does this effect you, what types of service is and will be available, which carriers are best, and alternative to cell phone are all discussed in this feature. Finally, we would like to invite listeners to follow us on Digg.com. Digg is news source with a difference. I regularly find interesting articles about RVing that I would like to share with listeners. The once per month format is not conducive to sharing breaking news so I have been looking at Digg as our option. I am sure that you don't want to get Tweets or Facebook updates from us, but by using Digg, listeners can get the latest RVing info in a very non-intrusive way. I regularly "Digg" stories that I find interesting. You visit the Digg website and become a "rvnavigator" follower. From then on, the stories that I find interesting will be on your opening screen (along with any others that have been dug by people you follow). This is a very nice way to see what someone else is reading without being obtrusive. No emails or other notifications, just links to interesting web based content that you can choose to read/view/listen. There is no personal information shared. You’ll never have to read that I am at a Starbucks for breakfast or how I dressed for Halloween.

Our cruise continued into September as we enjoyed the Crown Princess for almost a month of cruising on our way to New York City. After some difficulty uploading last months changes, we are back with good internet and easily able to make this months deadline. Sorry to those who were looking for the Rv Navigator on September 1, but although finished, it was just not possible to get it uploaded. This month we are back home ready to focus on the RVing lifesyle that we love so much. As regular listeners know, we purchased an iPad at its introduction on April 3, 2010. At this point, it has been part of our family for a little over 6 months. It has become a useful tool which we use almost daily. It has now traveled the world by RV and ship, so we have some interesting comments to make on its use. We also explore the competition as well as update its use for RVers. Finally, this episode is capped with a interesting interview with RV author, Ron Jones from the AboutRving.com website and several RVing books that he has published. He has presented at many RV rallies and shares his take on full time RVing with us.

We come to your this month from the oceans around the British Isles several thousand miles from home. Once again we are doing "RVing on Steroids" on a cruise ship - no navigating, no cooking, no cleaning. Join us for some RV news at sea.