Every place has a story

Our guests this week are Tom and Patti Burkett, who share with us how they find all those fascinating off-the-beaten-path stories Show Notes for Episode #276 Jan. 15, 2019 of The RV Podcast: WHAT MIKE AND JENNIFER ARE UP TO THIS WEEK We’re recording this podcast at Tahquamenon Falls State Park in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We’re here for our annual winter camping trip, a gathering we've been doing now for seven years. Over 30 RVers from across the country joined us to hike, snowshoe, take photos and explore the beauty of the northwoods in winter. When this podcast is released, we should be in Tampa, Fl, where we'll be attending the Tampa RV Supershow. Every day from 2-3 PM, we'll be doing Meet and Greets at the Leisure Travel Vans display at the show. And on Thursday, Jan 16, from 5-9 PM, we'll be attending a big After Show party with other YouTube influencers and bloggers at the Wing House right near the fairgrounds. Please come by and say Hi. We'll have an invitation to the party to hand you, so look for us. When not at the LTV display, we'll be roaming the show shooting videos and reporting on what's new. This part of the podcast is brought to you by Dish Outdoors, which lets RVers pay as they go and watch HD satellite television from wherever they are camped with easy to set up gear made with the RVer in mind. Just go to https://rvlifestyle.com/dish for details on the service and special deal just for listeners of this podcast. RV NEWS OF THE WEEK Glacier National Park is replacing signs that predicted its glaciers would be gone by 2020 The signs at Glacier National Park warning that its signature glaciers would be gone by 2020 are being changed. The signs in the Montana park were added more than a decade ago to reflect climate change forecasts at the time by the US Geological Survey. In 2017, the park was told by the agency that the complete melting off of the glaciers was no longer expected to take place so quickly due to changes in the forecast model. But tight maintenance budgets made it impossible for the park to immediately change the signs. The most prominent placards, at St. Mary Visitor Center, were changed last year. The park is still waiting for budget authorization to update signs at two other locations. But the glacier warning isn't being removed entirely. Instead, the new signs will say: "When they will completely disappear depends on how and when we act. One thing is consistent: the glaciers in the park are shrinking. 5 free days you can visit a national park in 2020 One of the terrific things about the National Park Service — aside from its duty to serve as the caretaker of America’s greatest outdoor spaces — is the annual designation of five days during the course of the year that are free to the public. Those five days have been announced for 2020: 20:Martin Luther King Jr. Day April 18:First day of National Park Week (a weeklong celebration of all parks) 25:National Park Service birthday 26:National Public Lands Day 11:Veterans Day On these dates, you can visit any national park across the country without paying an entrance fee. NFL quarterback off to see the world in an RV While the rest of his NFL compatriots are off to Turks & Caicos to drink cocktails out of coconuts, Jaguars rookie Quarterback Gardner Minshew has found a different way to blow off steam this offseason. He’s on the open road traveling from Florida to California in a Class A Ace motorhome. He said the trip is to relax and recenter himself after a wildly successful rookie year that earned him enthusiastic fans all over the world. He’s asked those fans to send him places to visit, things to see using the hashtag #MilesWithMinshew on his Twitter account. She was wading through water at Everglades National Park. Then an alligator bit her An 18-year-old college student was bitten by an alligator while on a university nature hike in the Everglades.The teen’s professor led her and about 15 other students on a w very popular wet trail often used by hikers. As the party waded through the water, a gator bit the young woman’s lower right leg. She suffered a couple of puncture wounds and did not require hospitalization. Everglades National Park biologists have temporarily closed the trail as they evaluate the situation. There’s currently no set date for it to reopen. Visitors have about a one in 3.1 million chance of being significantly injured in an unprovoked gator attack, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In other words, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning, fatally wounded by fireworks or killed by a bee. Still, it’s a reminder to be alert when hiking anywhere in gator country. Stomach illness outbreak hits Yosemite National Park In Yosemite National Park, people are reportedly falling ill left and right with stomach flu-like symptoms. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, at least a dozen people have reported gastrointestinal symptoms, launching an investigation by The National Park Service and the U.S. Public Health Service into the origin of the illness. Federal officials said it was too early to identify the illness or where it might have come from. Federal officials were working with the operator of Yosemite’s many restaurants, snack shops and hotels to carry out an “extensive clean-up and disinfection” of food service areas in the area. No dining facilities have been closed. This part of the podcast is brought to you by RadPower Bikes, America's #1 e-bike brand, offering direct to consumer pricing on powerful premium electric bikes. Now with free shipping LISTENER QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK Here’s a question that came via our RV Lifestyle Facebook Group: What’s the best cellphone coverage for those that RV a lot – Vicky Jo Here are a bunch of reviews from out group members - https://www.facebook.com/groups/roadtreking/permalink/1471871836305124/ And here’s a tip sent in by a listener named Joyce: Reference the Hot Hands hand warmers: They can be reused. When they cool off, put them in a ziplock bag and squeeze the air out. Snack size bags are great! I use a straw in a small area not completely closed to suck as much air as possible out, then pull the straw out and finish closing the bag. When you are ready to use it again, just remove it & shake again to reactivate. Great money saver. Do you have a question you’d like us to answer, or a comment on the things we’re discussing. If so, we invite you to leave us that question or comment on the special voicemail number we have for the podcast – it’s 586-372-6990. If you are driving and can’t write it down right now, just go to the RV Lifestyle travel blog at rvlifestyle.com and scroll down the page. You’ll see that number prominently posted on the blog. This part of the RV Podcast is brought to you by Battle Born Batteries, maker of quality, safe and reliable lithium batteries that can be installed in just about every RV. Get in touch with Battle Born to find out what lithium batteries and an upgraded energy management system can add to your RV Lifestyle. Check them out at https://rvlifestyle.com/lithium RV INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK Our guests this week are Tom and Patti Burkett, who share with us how they find all those fascinating off-the-beaten-path stories. Here's a video version of the interview: Here's a transcript of the interview: Mike Wendland: Well, if you've been following our podcast for a number of years, you know who our guests are this week. Tom and Patti Burkett. They've been doing the Off the Beaten Path with us for the past four years and have a huge following in and of their own, and we are going to make them our interview of the week this week. We're going to learn a little bit about them, how they travel and how you can find your own off the beaten path reports as well. Join us now as we welcome Tom and Patti. Introducer: Time now for the RV podcast interview of the week. Interesting, entertaining and helpful information about the RV lifestyle. Here's Mike with this week's interview. Mike Wendland: Tom and Patti, we got you for our interview of the week this week. Wow. Does that mean I don't have an Off the Beaten Path report? Patti Burkett: We might. Tom Burkett: We'll have one ready to go about Trenary. You can use it or save it. Mike Wendland: Okay, well- Patti Burkett: We can talk about Trenary now. Mike Wendland: Yeah, she just brought it up. People have no idea what you're talking about. We're at our winter camp out and Trenary is a small little town that you just found. You went out yesterday for, you said an hour or two and you came back just before dark, but you found a report, right? Tom Burkett: Yes. We went to a, we went into town to the grocery store to pick up something we'd forgotten and a Patti found on the shelf there Trenary toast and you can- Patti Burkett: well we knew about it from having been in the UP once before and it's, I don't know that we remembered exactly about it, but we saw the little bag, we bought some. It's kind of, it's sort of like biscotti, but it's made with toast and so it's twice baked and then that it's got cinnamon or cardamom or sometimes chocolate chips. Anyways, we said that made us pull out the map and figure out where Trenary was and we're not positive, whether it's Trenary or Trinary. Mike Wendland: I think it's Ternary. Patti Burkett: Trenary, okay. And so that we pulled out the map and it was like, "Well, it's only 76 miles from here." Tom Burkett: And we had been there once before, but we thought, "Well we never did a report on that. If we go back, maybe we'll, we can have a little bit more conversation with the folks there and find out a little bit more about it." It's a Scandinavian thing. This toast from,