Episode 198: Top 5 must-visit RV places you never heard of

A fun and helpful podcast episode is in store for you this week as we look at Five Top Must-Visit RV Places that you have never heard of. As Jennifer and I have traveled the country this summer, we’ve been asking RVers to give us a report on their absolute favorite places. We expected them to be the standard bucketlist destinations, like Alaska, or Yellowstone or the Maritimes. Instead, they were much more obscure, places not in the major RV guidebooks, places unique and very appealing. You’ll hear them all coming up in a few minutes in our interview of the week segment. Also this week, lots of RV news you need to know, a very handy clean up tip from Jennifer, the best on the road apps in our traveling technology segment and much more. Click the player below to Listen Now or scroll down through the show note details. When you see a time code hyperlink, you can click it to jump directly to that segment of the podcast. [spp-player] Show Notes for Episode #198 June 27, 2018 of Roadtreking - The RV Podcast: WHAT MIKE AND JENNIFER ARE UP TO THIS WEEK [spp-timestamp time="2:31"] Mike and Jennifer at Glacier National Park last week MIKE Well here it is the 4th of July Holiday is almost here and June has sped right by! JENNIFER It sure has. We just pulled into our driveway for a brief stop at our sticks and bricks home in Michigan after being on the road pretty much the entire month. In all we covered 4,384.7 miles from the time we left the driveway until last night when we pulled back in. We traveled through nine states making our way to Montana and Glacier National Park, where we just finished an awesome Roadtreking gathering attended by more than 130 people from all across North America MIKE There’s a post on the roadtreking.com travel blog with a full report and lots of photos from the gathering. And we’ll also have a video on it…. Just as soon as I have time to edit it. We came back with 9 videos in the can ready to be edited. But since each one takes about 20 hours to complete, I have my work cut out for me. JENNIFER As we reported last week, we did great going out and keeping to our “330 Rule” of driving no more than 330 miles in a single day, or stopping by 3:30 pm local time so we can still be refreshed and not too tired from the road. That gives us lots of time to explore… and shoot those videos! Coming back…. Well, let’s just say it was hammer time, pedal to the metal all the way, though we did stop by 3:30 one time. MIKE Except it was 3:30 AM! That was Sunday night. We stopped on the way back in the Wisconsin Dells and did our regular 9 PM Sunday night You Tube Live report on our RV Lifestyle Channel. But then we made the tactical decision that because we didn’t want to drive through Monday morning traffic in Chicago – which even during no rush hour time is horrific – we would drive through the night and avoid the traffic jams. JENNIFER But there was still lots of traffic… even at 1 in the morning. We debated taking the ferry across Lake Michigan. They have ferry service from a couple places in Wisconsin. But we couldn’t justify spending $400 to get us and the RV across. So we drive around, spent what was left of the night in a rest area just inside the Michigan border, and then made our way home. MIKE So we’re back in our sticks and bricks house. There’s lots of laundry to do and some house and yard chores but we take off in just a few days for our next Roadtreking gathering, this one to Bryson City, North Carolina on the edge of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We’ll be camped on the Natahala River there, a beautiful white water river and we will have calm river float tours, raging rapid runs in a raft for those willing to brave it, zip line rides and, of course, lots of good socializing. JENNIFER And we still have openings. We’ll put a link on the shownotes for this episode where you can get details and sign up. But it’s July 9-13 and we’d love to see you there. We have an interview with Yan and Kiki who will be our guides for the event coming up a little later in the podcast. MIKE Hey, I am really excited about the response we have had from listeners to this podcast about the extra features we have added because of popular demand. We now have a full and detailed transcript that will accompany our interview of the week AND we also have a video version, too, which we post on our RV Lifestyle Channel on YouTube. I have found an awesome service to do the transcriptions of the interview for me and I am now recording the interviews in video as well as audio. You can see all this on the shownotes page for each episode. In the case of this episode, it is at https://rvlifestyle.com/198. JENNIFER I just noticed. Episode 198. We are almost at our 200th episode! Who would have thought we would be able to do this for 200 weeks in a row, never missing a single one. We should have a party! Figure out a way to celebrate! That really is quite an accomplishment. I’m proud of us! MIKE Yup. And in that time, besides social media and our blog, we have added a free weekly email newsletter that we send out to 24,000 people each week and our YouTube RV Lifestyle Channel, which has two or three new videos released every week. We did a tally of how many people we reach on all those platforms each week and it is a community of over 550,000 people. Who’d have thought this would take off like that? Allright, enough about us… here is the RV News you need to know about this week: JENNIFER Search and rescues up in national parks, costing millions As record numbers of people visit the national parks, apparently the number needing to be rescued is also climbing. Nearly 3,000 people needed to be rescued last year from national parks, with search and rescues costing the park system more than $3 million in 2017 alone. About 10 percent of the search and rescues were at the Grand Canyon and 8 percent at Yosemite. Utah saw a jump of 68 percent between 2014 and 2017, but the problem exists throughout the country. The story got me thinking of a podcast interview we did a year ago with a hiking safety expert. For a link to it go here - it is full of valuable tips on how to stay safe on the trails. To read some of the national stories, click here or here. MIKE Colorado launches pilot reservation program at 6 campgrounds If you're looking to stay at a Colorado State Campground this summer better check to see if it is a reservation only campground first. Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced last week that it is launching a pilot program at six campgrounds July 1 that requires reservations to stay. Reservations, however, will no longer need to be made 3 days in advance. But, if you try to stay without a reservation you could be fined $50. To read more, click here. JENNIFER Grandmother, granddaughter die when tree falls on camper Ohio police reported a grandmother and 2-year-old granddaughter died in a tragic accident last week after a tree fell on their camper while they were sleeping. Apparently a grandfather and grandmother had taken their grandchildren - twin 2-year-olds - camping outside Cincinnati when, in the middle of the night, a 70-90 foot tree fell on them. The family was stuck in the camper until rescuers arrived. The grandfather and other twin survived. To read more click here. MIKE Vermont State Parks offers free camping raffle to newbies First it was New York state, now it is Vermont, as Vermont State Parks announced last week its new program to provide free camping to families who have never camped. Those interested must enter their names in a drawing, and the winners will get use of a free campsite, firewood, tent, camp stove, lantern and sleeping pads. Guides will be available to help the chosen families all weekend with the goal of spreading the love of camping. To read more click here. JENNIFER Report examines impact of critical RV technician shortage Our friends at the RV Daily News published a special report on the RV technician shortage. We've been talking about that a lot for the past year as it's become a major issue for the industry. With about 8.9 million households RV owners, and only about 13,520 RV repair technicians to service them, the report noted there is about one technician for every 658 RVs. To read their special report, and learn more about this important, click here. This portion of the Podcast is brought to you by Campers Inn, the RVer’s trusted resource for over 50 years, the nation’s largest family-operated RV dealership with 19 locations and growing JENNIFER'S TIP OF THE WEEK [spp-timestamp time="18:40"] We have been on the road now for the past several weeks and one thing that is starting to get a little dirty is my kitchen screen. Mostly there are seeds, those fuzzy kinds, that seemed to be everywhere in certain parts of the country, but also some small bugs. Taking out the screens to clean them is too much when I'm traveling and having fun, but still I do not like to look out the dirty screens. So, that is why I was so excited to read a tip listener Connie emailed to me this week. Connie's solution for dirty screens? A lint roller - one of those round giant tape rolls on a stick that can be rolled over clothes to get lint off. Connie's email was short and sweet. She wrote: "Dear Mike and Jennifer, thank you so much for all you do. We enjoy your webpage and podcast very much. I have a tip for Jennifer. If your screens get dirty when you are out on a trip, try using a lint roller. They also come in handy getting dog hair off the cushions. Hope that helps someone. Connie from KY" Well thank you, Connie, for taking the time to send me an email to share this tip with other RVers. That is what this section of the podcast is all about - sharing little things we pick up to make the RV lifestyle all that much more enjoyable. I usually have a lint roller already with me to help control Bo's hair, but i had never thought of using one on the screens.