RV Podcast #200 – How to stay safe from lightning while camping

On this 200th episode of the podcast we talk about a very serious issue – lightning and the particular dangers it poses to campers and RVers this time of the year. Lightning is nothing to take for granted as is all too evident by simply following the news. Campers are injured or killed by lighting much more frequently that the general population and this week in our interview of the week, we talk with a top expert Plus your RV questions, comments, Tips and an off the beaten path report. 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 #200 July 11, 2018 of Roadtreking - The RV Podcast: WHAT MIKE AND JENNIFER ARE UP TO THIS WEEK [spp-timestamp time="2:03"] MIKE This episode of the podcast comes to you from the heart of the Smoky Mountains in Bryson City, NC. We are recording this very special episode - number 200 – from the picnic table outside our RV at our Roadtreking Whitewater River Gathering near the banks of the beautiful Nantahala River. JENNIFER And what a special gathering it is. We were surprised by a beautiful 200th episode cake, complete with our logo, by our fellow Roadtrekers at our social hour get together last night. What a great way to celebrate. Thanks to everyone for making us feel so special. Tom McAllister, who says he has listened to every episode, orchestrated it all and it was as delicious as it looked. The gathering surprised us with this awesome cake MIKE We have people here from across the country and again, as always, our gatherings are for people in every sort of RV. Roadtreking is built around a lifestyle, a state of mind, not a particular brand. We have people in Airstreams and other travel trailer brands, an Itasca Navion Class C, a Coachmen on the Ford Transit chassis and of course lots of Roadtreks. JENNIFER That's Rick, the videographer from the Erwin Hymer Grouo of North America, shooting us cutting the cake. Rick is here making a documentary on the gathering. Our people will be spending the week whitewater rafting down the Nantahala and a couple of other rivers nearby, doing a mountaintop to mountaintop mega zip line ride and sightseeing on a train that takes us into the Natahala National Forest gorge. The weather has been great and the scenery is terrific, unbeatable. MIKE We have had a great time and we had a great time getting here. Our GPS directed us on US Highway 129 after we left I75 near Knoxville, TN. And the two lane road took us into North Carolina. It started out like any other two lane road but after a couple miles as it climbed from the foothills into the Smoky Mountains, we noticed it seemed to have a lot of curves. Then we noticed how many motorcycles there were on the road with us. JENNIFER Turned out the road is one of the most famous in the world for motocyclists. It’s called the Dragon and one particular stretch if it – 11 miles in length - is known as the Tail of the Dragon. It has 318 curves in those 11 miles. And we did it in our RV! We were so impressed by it we shot a video on it that you’ll be able to see in a couple of weeks. MIKE Speaking of videos, we have posted a special video about our 200th episode. We’ll embed it with the shownotes for this episode at Roadtreking-dot-com-slash-200. JENNIFER And tomorrow on our RV Lifestyle Channel on YouTube, we will post our video of the week, which takes you on a boat ride in Lake Superior to visit the spectacularly beautiful Apostle Islands. Please check it out and be sure to subscribe to our videos there on YouTube. A new video is released every Thursday morning. Of course, Sunday night at 7PM eastern is our Ask Us Anything Live You Tube broadcast and on Wednesdays with the podcast, we try to do a video version of our interview of the week. MIKE Here’s the RV news for this week… JENNIFER Spending time in nature is officially good for your health A story about research out of England last week made official what many of us long suspected - being outdoors not only makes us feel better, it is literally good for our health. A University study in England examined global data from 290 million people in 20 countries, included the US, and found living close to nature, and spending time outdoors reduces the risk of type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease, premature death, preterm birth, stress, and high blood pressure. To read more, click here. MIKE Rocky Mountain National Park bans all fires as 11 wildfires burn throughout Colorado Extreme dry conditions led officials to ban all fires from Rocky Mountain National Park last Friday until further notice. That includes a ban on using charcoal grills, though propane grills are allowed if there is an on/off switch on the grill. This is the first time since 2012 such a ban was in place, according to a press release from the National Park Service (click here for more information). Colorado firefighters were battling 11 forest fires of 100 acres or more last weekend throughout the state, affecting more than 200,000 acres according to one story. To learn more about fires in Colorado, and how they may affect your camping plans, click here. JENNIFER Tragedies powerful reminder to be careful & stay on trails National Park officials in the U.S. and Canada were urging visitors to be careful and stay on the designated trails and walkways after a number of tragic accidents last week. At the Grand Canyon National Park last week a visitor climbed over a railing at Mather Point, lost his footing and fell 500 feet to his death. At Canada's Shannon Falls, one of British Columbia's tallest waterfalls, three YouTube daredevil travel stars died after one slipped while walking along the waterfall and fell, and two others jumped in to save her. The same three were fined and banned from American national parks after going off trail two years ago walking on a delicate area of a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, among other things. To learn more about their tragic accident click here. For safety tips and more on the Grand Canyon accident click here. MIKE Class B stolen at Alamo, recovered hours later with thousands stolen A North Carolina couple's brand new Class B Mercedes chassis was stolen when they made a stop at San Antonio to view the Alamo and eat on the Riverwalk. It was recovered later that day eight miles away. The couple was on a cross country trip, when they returned from exploring to discover the RV was gone. A security camera caught the theft on camera. The couple was grateful when police found their RV, but the inside was trashed and thousands of dollars in electronics and valuables missing. The couple told reporters who interviewed them that they were going to continue on their road trip, and not let the thieves win. Click here to see the story. Thieves entered their vehicle by jamming their lock, something similar of which happened to us several years ago outside St. Louis, though thieves just took our valuables, not the whole RV. Click here to see that report JENNIFER Dispersed camping rules to change around Grand Teton If you are planning to do any boondocking on federal land near Grand Teton National Park or the National Elk Refuge anytime soon, be sure you're up on the latest camping changes. A story out last week stated the U.S Forest Service is concerned that the large number of dispersed campers in the area is damaging wildlife and vegetation. The Forest Service will be updating its Motor Vehicle Use map and changing some dispersed camping rules to protect the area. Officials are also concerned about the amount of trash dispersed campers are leaving behind. To read more, click here. This part of the program is brought to you by AllStays Pro, the best tool for RVers looking for places to camp, boondock or stay free overnight. Go to https://rvlifestyle.com/allstays for more info. JENNIFER'S RV TIP OF THE WEEK [spp-timestamp time="17:43"] Lately, people have been asking Mike about the dry erase board we keep on our RV’s refrigerator. It was a great reminder that some things we do and take for granted may be a new thought for others, so I thought I would tell everyone about it this week on the tip of the week section, in case it could help you. On our refrigerator we keep have a small dry erase board attached by double-sided sticky tape. On the board we always write down the name of the place we are camping, and if we're in a campground, our site number. Why do this? In case of an emergency. Mike's dry erase whiteboard Long ago when we were newbies we were taught to do this in case we ever had an emergency, maybe someone was injured and we needed to call for help in the middle of the night. If something like this were to happen, in such a time of stress it could be hard to remember our site number, or even the official name of the campground. So by always writing down the name of the campground and our site number on this board, we know where to look if an emergency were to happen. But it has become very help for jotting down a campground’s wifi access code, and we use it to jot down things we need to pick up when we go in for supplies, the lot numbers of fellow campers, the schedule of activities we want to take in and reminders about the things we need to do that day. Small dry erase boards do not take up much space and are quite inexpensive. We found ours in a local hardware store in a little town in Minnesota earlier this year. While I could not find the exact one Mike and I have, I did find one on Amazon, sized 11 x 17 for $5.99. https://amzn.to/2KKPXz6 And be sure to send me your tips and suggestions for the RV lifestyle. You can use the “Leave Voicemail” link at Roadtreking.com. Just click it and then use the built-in microphone on your computer or mobile devise to record a message to me.