No matter where or how you roll, the one thing all RVers have in common is the way the RV lifestyle seems to bring people together – literally and figuratively. For snowbirds, full-timers, near full-timers like Jennifer and me or weekend campers, it's the sheer joy of getting out and meeting new people or simply spending quality time with your spouse or friends.
For families with younger children or grandchildren, it means bonding time away from the distractions of day-to-day living, TV, video games, and iPods.
Take Stephanie and Jeremy Puglisi, for example. Together with their three children, the Puglisis spend almost 50 nights a year RVing with their children and say they have it down to a science by now. They document their adventures on the RV Family Travel Atlas blog and podcast and join us for episode 23 of the Roadtreking RV Lifestyle podcast with great lessons for parents and grandchildren who RV with childern.
In this conversation we learn:
- How to have a balance between scheduled activities and “down time”
- Kids never get bored once they are out there, just introduce them to the outdoors
- Families/grandparents should splurge for kid-friendly campsites, with swimming pools, playgrounds and games
- Take your kids/grandkids on hikes, challenge them, use it to teach them about the nature and geography
- You are building amazing memories for your kids and grandkids that they will treasure their entire lives
- Have a campfire every night. It’s a great family bonding time
- Kids naturally will gravitate to outdoor activities over screen time in front of a TV or computer
- Recognize that things will go wrong but “we will get through this.” Learning that when things go wrong, we will solve the problem and then we’ll have great stories to tell makes for a well-adjusted kid.
- Each night at an RV park, a neighborhood springs up and kids need all of about five minutes to make friends with a pack of kids.
Besides the interview with the Puglisis, we take questions and comments from listeners about:
- Recommended RV-related audiobooks
- The Roadtreking Song of the Week submitted by the band Swift Creek
- Talk about getting all of that salt – regardless of source – off of your RV
Plus we have tech tips, a bucket list destination of the week and a whole lot more.
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First Things First: Prayers for Living the RV Dream's Kathy Huggins
We kick off the show with a special call to action – pray for Kathy Huggins from Living the RV Dream. Kathy and John Huggins were on the show last week.
Kathy began complaining about severe abdominal pain Friday night, and she was transported to Thomas Hospital in Fairhope, Ala. Doctors there discovered a hernia which impeded blood flow to her upper intestines. Surgeons removed 95 percent of her small intestines.
John Huggins told our friend Greg Gerber of RV Daily Report that Kathy is in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Thomas Hospital, and on ventilator support. When she is awake, she can recognize those around her and squeeze their hands, which he said is encouraging. Although she is expected to recover, the road ahead will require major adjustment on her part, John explained.
“I don’t think either Kathy or I realized just how many lives we have touched,” said John. “The outpouring of support has been humbling and highly encouraging. We really, really appreciate everyone’s prayers and concern.”
Check-in of the Week: Roadtreking Fan Jose from Spain
A listener named Jose calls from Spain to check-in and let us that our fans definitely are not limited to the United States and Canada. Any other international fans out there? Record a quick message by clicking the tab on the right. We would love to hear from you!
Roadtreking Song of the Week: “Wake Me Up to Drive” by Swift Creek
Listener and Musician Kevin Brown, of Raleigh, N.C., leaves us a message in response to our recent and ongoing discussion over best songs to listen to while RVing. You can hear it on the podcast.
He sent us a solo acoustic version of the song “Wake Me Up To Drive,” which is performed by Kevin and the rest of his band, Swift Creek, in live shows. More information about Swift Creek can be found at http://www.swiftcreekmusic.com
Question: How to Remove Salt from My RV?
David asks about keeping salt off rigs when camping on oceanfront – or driving in the northern parts of the country where salt seems to be extremely common these days. We have some suggestions.
Listener Comment: I Love the Roadtrek CS Adventurous XL!
Listener Wendy calls in to show some love for our new Roadtrek CS Adventurous XL and asks how – and if – we are doing any kind of modifications to our new ride. Jennifer and I give an update.
Book Recommendations: Great RV Books
We've been talking a lot about audibooks lately. A listener calls in to suggest the following books for RVers:
Living the Simple RV Life – by Sunny Skye about her adventures as a campground host
Blue Highways – By William Least Heat-Moon about a journey into America along the blue two lane highways
A Walk for Sunshine by Jeff Alt is about a 2,100-mile walk along the Appalchian Trail
We also have news on how you can get a FREE audiobook download and 30-day free trial at www.audibletrial.com/roadtreking. Audible offers over 150,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player. For listeners of the Roadtreking podcast, Audible is offering a free audiobook download with a free 30-day trial to give you the opportunity to check out their service. To download your free audiobook today, go to audibletrial.com/roadtreking.
RV News of the Week: Trucker Rescues Girl in RV
Trucker rescues girl in RV from sex slavery (Read more)
Park Model Camping in Arizona –Roadtreking Reporter JG Van’s tells us about park model RV resort living (Read more)
RV Tech Tip of the Week: How to Get to Inbox Zero
E-mail is the bane of our existence. We all get too much and it is too easy to get too bogged down in it. That’s where we can help. Let me show you a couple of helpful ways to cut through the clutter and make your inbox an efficient thing of beauty.
A service called Sanebox does some pretty amazing things with your email. It filters it and arranges it in folders making it easy to unsubscribe to unwanted mail and even easier to organize, defer and categorize your mail based on how important it is. It works on all platforms and devices and gives you a free two week trial. After that, it’s $59 a year.
If too many subscription emails and updates and group mailings are clogging your inbox, try Unroll, a really handy tool for any email account that lets you unsubscribe from all of that group mail with a single click. Or you can combine all your favorite subscriptions into one single email sent weekly or monthly. I was amazed at how many junk mailing I got and Unroll helped me zap dozens of them. It’s free, but they make you share on social media after five unsubscribes.
You can learn about other cool ways to use mobile tech at https://rvlifestyle.com/vzw
RV Bucket Destination List: Lake Superior Shoreline
I talk about one of my favorite destinations – the Lake Superior Shoreline (Read more)
Interview: Stephanie and Jeremy Puglisi from RV Travel Family Atlas
Our conversation with Stephanie and Jeremy Puglisi, who publish the RV Travel Family Atlas blog and podcast that deals with traveling with children.
Please Subscribe and Give Us a Rating and Review
And, of course, many listeners are asking how they can subscribe, review and rate the Roadtreking Podcast on iTunes. With a new podcast like this, those reviews and ratings are really important to be able to show well in the iTunes listings. So if you can, I’d sure appreciate it if you’d subscribe and leave me your review.
Here’s how:
First, open up the iTunes app on your computer or mobile device. Click on Podcasts up on the top
> From the iTunes Podcasts page, use the “Search Store” field up at the top right corner of the page. Type in Mike Wendland or Roadtreking RV Podcast.
> Click on the logo image of the Roadtreking RV Podcast on the search return page
> From there (see photo above), you can…
1) Subscribe
2) Choose and Click on a star (1-5) that reflects your rating. Five stars means you really like it, one star not so much.
3) Leave a written review.
Thanks to all for the kind reviews we’ve received so far. That got us noticed by Apple/iTunes as “New and Noteworthy.” I appreciate every review!
And remember, you can appear in future episodes. Ask a question or voice your comments about RV topics by clicking the Leave Voicemail tab on the right side of this page here at Roadtreking.com. You can then use the microphone on your computer to record your words.
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