RV Podcast #269: Freedom! That’s why we RV!

This week finds us camped just a few dozen feet from the Atlantic Ocean, where the waves right now are pounding in with that delicious sound of the surf. Best sound in the world to fall asleep to! That's our campsite in the featured image above. We were extremely lucky to snag a beachside camping spot at the beautiful Gamble Rogers Memorial Recreation Area, about half way between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. Their highly desirable beachfront sites are usually booked a year in advance. But cancellations and early departures sometimes free up a spot and that's what we were lucky to grab for a few days. We've been traveling up and down both coasts of Florida these past few weeks, researching and taking photos for our next two 7-Day Adventure Guide ebooks. We will have two of them on Florida, one for the Gulf Coast and one for the Atlantic Coast. And we hope to get them both out in time for the tens of thousands of winter snowbird RVers who will be making their way the Sunshine State after the holidays. TO SEE OUR FIVE PUBLISHED 7-DAY RV ADVENTURE GUIDES, CLICK HERE! Meantime, we're posting updates and photos of our travels on Instagram. TO FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM CLICK HERE! 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 LIFESTYLE NEWS OF THE WEEK Committee that recommended bringing food trucks to national parks, ending some senior discounts disbanded Remember how we told you about a federal advisory committee to the Department of Interior that recommended bringing food trucks to national parks, privatizing campgrounds, adding extensive WiFi, cutting senior discounts and more? Well, that committee has been disbanded. The committee was heavily criticized for its recommendations and for being stacked with members of the recreation industry that could potentially stand to profit. What will happen with those recommendations, however, is still not clear. Mexican cartels growing marijuana illegally in national forests causing severe damage to environment NPR in California had an interesting story last week on Mexican cartels using federal owned land in national forests to illegally grow marijuana - in huge quantities - using powerful insecticides and other chemicals, causing significant damage to the environment. One campsite recently discovered in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest had 3,000 pounds of trash that included discarded propane tanks, plastic irrigation pipes and an incredibly potent rodent poison. A law enforcement group is now forming to tackle this problem. Couple facing jail time and fines for temporarily living in an RV in their driveway after a house fire A Mississippi couple could be facing fines and jail time for living in their driveway in an RV while fighting with their insurance company over a claim. The couple had an electrical fire last Christmas eve in their home, and were going back and forth with their insurance company to get funding to make repairs. The couple temporarily moved into an RV in their own driveway since their house wasn't ready for them to live in. But the couple's neighborhood association apparently does not permit RVs, and after someone complained, the couple is now facing jail time and fines if they don't move the RV. Woman buys old trailers and gives them a facelift worthy of the HGTV series "Fixer Upper" Have you ever seen those do-it-yourself camper rehabs on YouTube or Pinterest? A story out last week featured a woman who buys old camping trailers, guts, refurbishes and then sells them for a profit. The woman shares her secrets, and says she saves her profits for her kids future college costs or family trips. It is an interesting way to earn a little money, and Jennifer says the fresh look she puts on the camper renovations reminds her of Joanna Gaines from Waco, TX. (To see a video of a trip we made to Waco, click here.) Wealthy entrepreneur buying up land to create new, privately funded national park in Montana There was an interesting story out of Montana last week about a super wealthy ex-Silicon Valley entrepreneur who is creating a 3.2 MILLION acre privately-funded wildlife reserve called American Prairie Reserve in eastern Montana. The park will be free to the public and has the goal of rebuilding the Great Plains to the way it was before white settlers arrived. To do this the entrepreneur and other rich donors are buying up ranches and replacing cattle with bison, bringing the land back to the way it once was. The whole project has its fans and detractors. Many ranch owners, who have ranched the land for generations, see the preserve as a threat to their way of life. EDIT EDIT. EDIT EDIT 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 . Surprise! The holidays are coming even earlier this year and RAD POWER BIKES IS starting THEIR Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale NOW, and goes until every 2019 ebike is gone. Visit RadPowerBikes.com LISTENER QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK Via our Voicemail number at 586-372-6990: QUESTION: Hi, Mike, and Jennifer. We've been our RVing for a couple of years. We camped in a pop up when the kids were young, but we have never winter camped and I hear you talking about it a lot, but I've learned about camping and winterizing the RV in the winter and camping, but I wondered what kind of activities you do while you're camping in the winter. I'm more of an indoor person in the winter, but I'm open to new ideas, especially since we've been RVing and would love to hear some ideas about winter camping. Thanks. ANSWER: We hike, explore, take photos, snowshoe, cross country ski and have raging campfires. We love winter camping. Want to try? Come join our annual winter campground this January in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where there’s usually two and a half feet of snow on the ground. Don’t worry, there’s electric hookups at each site. You can get details from our special Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1697339513886451/ Via e-mail: Our friends travel with their fresh water tank full and we never do.. I want to fill our tank but am leery of what it will do to our mileage. Plus I worry about roadside water sources or even campground water sources even though we currently use campground sources for water for showers only we don't even like our own household water. ANSWER: We take bottled drinking water/ Fir the fresh water fill, we use a filter for the water. Bring your own drinking water. Remember, a gallon of water weighs 8>34 pounds. So, say you have a 30 gallon fresh water tank. That means traveling with a full tank of water adds 250 pounds to your Grpss Vehicle Weight rating, or the actual weight of the fully loaded vehicle or trailer, including all cargo, fluids, passengers, and optional equipment 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 RVers share the lifestyle benefits… RVer: My name is Arielle and a lot of it is just seeing the country and we've I've cross country in a car and it's not the same as actually seeing it and experiencing it. We've got so many beautiful national parks throughout this country that I want to see it in person. Mike Wendland: And why an RV? RVer: You can go into the park and spend several days as opposed to staying at a Marriott or a Hilton outside of the park and having to go in and fight the crowds for parking when you're already inside the national parks. It's actually experiencing it when people, I've already gone home and going into the park and experiencing the evening and early hours in the morning when the animals are coming out and possibly a bear or a deer coming through the campground. That would be fascinating to see. Jen Wendland: You spend the night there like you say, and you wake up in the morning with the first light and the fog and the animals and everything or the evening. That's I think when the animals, cause you haven't done this yet. RVer: I haven't done this yet. Jen Wendland: In the evening. That's when you're more apt to have the bison come to your campground and that is so much fun. That is so exciting. RVer: See that's what I want to experience because right now I'm in a car. I go in, I go in with the crowds and then I have to leave before sunset with the crowds and I don't get to stay in the park and experience what it's really like inside the park. Jen Wendland: You're going to love it. RVer: I certainly hope so. Jen Wendland: You will. RVer Barbara Ken and Barbara Longeway can visit relatives that are located all over the country and not have to be in a camp ground because several of them live in places that are nowhere near a camp ground.