This week on Episode 551 of the RV Podcast: 

We introduce you to our friend Tom McAlister, who is an avid RVer with a profitable hobby: He flips RVs. You'll learn how he does it and tour his latest. Plus, the RV News of the Week, the Social Media Buzz, Your RV questions and Mike and Jen’s RV Storytime.

You can watch the video version from our RV Lifestyle YouTube Channel by clicking the player below.

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RV NEWS OF THE WEEK

​Indiana Governor Applauds Halt to CA Emissions Rules That Threatened New Motor Home Sales​

This shouldn’t come as a big surprise but Indiana's governor is praising the end to the Biden Administration's Clean Air Act Waiver that gave California the ability to force new sales of heavy-duty vehicles, like trucks and RVs, to be zero emission this year. Many in the RV industry felt this would effectively ban the sale of new motor homes in California and other states that followed their standards. With Indiana producing 90 percent of America's RVs, the Hoosier state had much at stake had it remained in place.

​License Plate Snapped, Ticket Mailed: Colorado’s New Radar System Goes Live Soon​

Just because you don’t see a cop in Colorado, it doesn't mean that you can’t be ticketed! The Colorado Department of Transportation recently installed its first photo radar cameras, which it will use to ticket those who speed in high-risk work zones. The camera snaps a picture of a vehicle's license at one place and again at a second place and analyzes whether the person is speeding. If the vehicle is going more than 10 miles per hour above the designated speed, a speeding ticket will be issued. The program will soon start on Hwy 119 near Boulder.

​He Got Too Close: Another Tourist Gored by Bison in Yellowstone National Park​

The tourons just keep a comin’… This time it was a New Jersey tourist got too close to a bison at Yellowstone National Park last week and was gored. This is the second person injured by a bison this year, and it comes after Yellowstone reported last month as the busiest month of May EVER on record. 

​Two Campers Found Dead on Isolated Isle Royale National Park​

There’s quite the mystery up in the middle of ake Siperior surrounding two campers were found dead at Michigan's Isle Royale National Park. The bodies were found at South Lake Desor campground, and the NPS is not providing any details about the cause of death on the remote island park, which has wolves and moose. Some suspect foul play is involved, however, as the FBI was called in. Others speculate it was a murder suicide. But why the unusual secrecy?  Almost a week after the bodies were found, the government isn't saying a thing. Maybe this will change by the time this podcast releases on June 18, but something unusual has happened on the remote island and all the secrecy is causing a lot of wild speculation.

​What Do Senior RVers Really Want in a Campground?​

Finally, speaking of Michigan, we saw an interesting story about what senior RVers in Michigan want, and one of their main sources of information was the owner of Indigo Bluffs RV Park & Resort, in northwest Michigan, where Jen and I just camped at our summer rally. So what do seniors want? Full hookups, paved roads, a friendly staff, clean park, quiet spots with shade. Sound right?

RV CONVERSATION OF THE WEEK

This week, we introduce you to our friend Tom McAlister. We’ve known Tom and his wife Kathy for over 10 years now and have camped with them all across the country. As a member of our RVCommunty.com, Tom and Kathy were with us last week at our rally up in Northwest Michigan, and we noticed Tom was in a different RV…  an older model Regency Class C instead of their normal Winnebago Navion.

Turns out that Tom just bought the Regency, which he plans to flip. He and Kathy were testing it out to make sure everything was in tip-top shape. 

Tom’s hobby is flipping RVs. And as we toured the Regency, we asked Tom to tell us how he does it. Watch the video above to see the interview.

SOCIAL MEDIA BUZZ – Wendy Bowyer

Wendy Bowyer reports on the hot issues most talked about this past week on social media and our RV Lifestyle Community group.

In our RVLifestyle Facebook Group, one question that took off had to do with drinking water.

Krista asked:

“Hey everyone! I'm a water snob, I will not drink water that tastes bad, so my question is: What do you do for water in your RV? Do you find that the water filter hooked up to the hose is good enough? Do you buy drinking water and only use tap water for washing/cooking? Do you use a second filter on the tap inside?”

Krista is going to be moving into her camper full-time later this year and is trying to think ahead. In the times she has gone camping so far, she always brings bottled water, but clearly if you're in your camper full time, and hooked up to city water most of the time, that can get old.

So what to do if you don't want to keep buying bottled water by the caseload?

There are three water pitcher filters that many RVers raved about. They are:

1. The Brita filters. Can get a pitcher, fill it with water from your kitchen sink, and keep it in the fridge or on the counter.

2. Next, many recommended the ZeroWater pitcher, which is a 5-Stage Ion Exchange Filter. One person wrote that their house is on a well with high iron and sulfur, and the Zero pitcher leaves them crystal clear, great tasting, colorless water – no trace of iron or sulfur.

and

3. The third was the Berkey. Several said it is the best water they have ever had. These are big, stainless steel containers with filters inside, but by far, this had the most enthusiastic supporters.

So there are options to always carrying around bottled water by the case, and I hope this can help one of you!

RV QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

QUESTION: Hi Mike and Jen. We watch your channel and could use help with an RV trip from the Fl panhandle ( Panama City) to the UP. We would like to be in the UP in Sept 2026. How are the bugs? Are stores still open? Are there events going on that time of year? – Ann

ANSWER: That’s the best time to go. Warm days. Comfortably cool evenings and no bugs. And yes, things are usually  open up there until mid-October,

A video question that came in from Brad Olson, asking us what’s the best option for maintaining the battery… leaving it connected to shore power, letting solar trickle charge the batteries or using the battery disconnect?

ANSWER: If in the driveway between trips, we’d just leave it connected to shore power. If those trips are a few weeks before, you can let the solar trickle charge. If storing for a long time or for the season, disconnect the battery.

We opt almost exclusively to keep our RVs plugged into shore power, just for convenience.  Even when disconnected or being trickle-charged by solar, there is always some parasitic drain of the battery. If you have lithium batteries, the solar will keep them charged up enough.

MIKE & JEN’S STORYTIME

Lost in Tennessee: A GPS Cautionary Tale

MIKE: You know how they say technology will make life easier? Well, let me tell you about the time Jennifer and I learned that lesson the hard way, somewhere in the middle of rural Tennessee with our thirty-foot fifth wheel in tow.

JEN: We'd been RVing for many years by then, feeling pretty confident about our setup. We were using a GPS app on Mike’s phone – I don't remember whether it was Apple Maps or Google Maps – but on dozens of previous trips it had worked just fine. So we were admittedly a little complacent.

MIKE: Famous last words, right? We had been camping deep in the boonies in Middle Tennessee. We had vectored ourselves in through the app, starting in a city some distance away. The day we left, I opened the app and… I couldn't connect. There was no cell service.

JEN: We started out on the road we came in on, hoping to connect as we tried to remember how we got there from a main highway.  

MIKE: We're suddenly on these narrow gravel roads that barely fit our truck, let alone our fifth wheel. No shoulders, just steep drop-offs on one side and rock faces on the other. The road was like a washboard – bump, bump, bump – with potholes that could swallow a small car. 

JEN: Our poor rig was bouncing around like a ping pong ball, and I'm white-knuckling it in the passenger seat, trying not to look at the side mirrors showing how close we were to the edge. Mike slowed way down.

MIKE: Our GPS app just sat there spinning. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

JEN: “What do you mean there's no signal?” Mike asked the phone, like it was going to answer back. That's when we learned something important: sure, GPS satellites are always up there doing their thing, but these apps need cell service to download the actual maps. Without that connection, you're basically holding a very expensive paperweight.

MIKE: We were stuck in this maze of gravel roads that all looked exactly the same. Every turn seemed to lead to another identical stretch of washboard torture. It was like we've entered the Bermuda Triangle of cell towers.

JEN: Our trusty state highway map – you know, the paper kind your parents used – was completely useless. These little back roads didn't even exist on that thing. So there we were, using our truck's compass like we were Lewis and Clark, trying to head generally east and hoping for the best.

MIKE: For over an hour, we drove around in circles. Well, not literally circles – the roads were way too twisty for that – but you get the idea. We'd think we were making progress, then end up going a direction we didn't want.

MIKE: Finally, FINALLY, we got enough signal for the app to download the map data. Turns out we'd been about two miles from a proper highway the whole time, but those two miles felt like crossing the Sahara Desert.

JEN: Later, after getting to our next destination and enjoying good Internet, we did some research and realized we could have avoided the whole adventure if we had forgotten about the app and used a dedicated GPS unit – you know, those Garmin or Magellan devices that have all their maps stored right on the device. No cell service required.

MIKE: Now, a few years later, we have a better solution: Starlink. With Starlink, we now have a direct Internet connection via Wi-Fi and thus could have downloaded those maps the app needed to work. 

JEN: The Moral of the Story: Don't put all your navigation eggs in one smartphone basket. When you're hauling thousands of pounds of your home behind you, redundancy is your friend. Get a dedicated GPS unit, download your maps beforehand, or invest in a Starkink system…

MIKE:  Because sometimes the scenic route is only scenic if you actually know where you're going.