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RT61 An RV is More than an RV

| Updated Nov 11, 2015

You don't have to be a fulltimer or go camping for long periods of time to find lots of uses for an RV.

In this episode of the podcast, you meet Kathy and Les, two of our Roadtreking friends who use their RV in lots of different ways – from stealth camping on the streets of New York, to driveway camping at the homes of relatives to hauling her art and craft exhibit to various shows.

This couple, who live in suburban Toledo, also have a condo in Florida and use their RV for leisurely trips to ad from, for day trips around the gulf coast and, sometimes, as their second vehicle.

You'll hear their story and much more in this episode.

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Complete shownotes for Episode 61 of Roadtreking:The RV Podcast

First Things First: Mike and Jennifer check in from the Gulf Coast

This episode comes from the Gulf Cost of Florida's Emerald Coast, where Mike and Jennifer share their travels over the past week and give a preview of where they are headed.

Jennifer's Tip of the Week – Five books to inspire your RV Travel

Next to RVing, we like reading about RVing and travel almost as much as the going.

So we always seem to have some book on hand that gives us ideas on our next trip, or inspiration and understanding about what we are seeing.

So, for your off-season consideration, here are the top 5 RV-related books either Mike or I have enjoyed the most this year:  [spp-timestamp time=”6:25″]

Blue Highways – The timeless road story is a masterpiece in travel writing. Mike read it more than 25 years ago and even today, the concept of traveling those two-lane state roads — the blue highways on state maps –has inspired us to do the same. If you haven’t read this collection of road stories, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it immensely.

Rand McNally 2016 Road Atlas – This is a arge size, large scale easy to read map that we always take with us. Yes, we do use our GPS and we do use apps on our tablet. But nothing takes the place of a paper map and this book, undated every year, is one we buy every year.

The Most Scenic Drives in America – This is a coffee table book with gorgeous photographs of 128 drives every RVer needs to take at least once. We always consult it when planning our routes so that we can take in as many of these drives as possible.

The Next Exit 2015 – If you travel the Interstates, and we all have to at times, this guide is an essential. It tells you what businesses and services are at each exit. This is another book you want to buy each year because there is new information added to each edition as businesses open and close. But it’s very handy to have and well worth the price.

Undaunted Courage – This is a big book, full of details and history as it recounts the story of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark and Thomas Jefferson and the Lewis & Clark Expedition to the west.  If your RV travels take you to the west, you will undoubtedly come across some sort of Lewis and Clark museum or marker. When you read the book, you’ll undertstand the land you are traveling on much better and appreciate the incredible journey taken by these two pioneers and their Corps of Discovery.

[spp-tweet tweet=”Five Books Every RVer Should Have”]

When to Winterize

A listener calls in and shares how he lives fulltime in his Class A in Pennsylvania and never winterizes and we then discuss when you need to winterize and when not [spp-timestamp time=”9:18″]

[spp-tweet tweet=”When to winterize and when not to”]

Cool Solar Accessories

Solar accessories that make the outdoor world more efficient, including a solar charging battery system that can power your home or RV for days [spp-timestamp time=”16:07″]

[spp-tweet tweet=”Great solar accessories for RVers”]

New Heating Technology for RVs

New technology that allows RVs to have the same high end radiant heating systems as luxury homes [spp-timestamp time=”20:57″]

[spp-tweet tweet=”Heat your RV like a luxury home with a hydronic system”]

RV News of the Week

Sponsoring this part of the podcast is Van City RV in St. Louis, and their Partner Dealerships Creston RV in Kalispell, Montana, and Wagon Trail RV in Las Vegas. Bringing You the largest Inventory of class B’s from three locations.

All three have a great fly and drive program. They'll pick you up from the airport and will reimburse you $500 toward your airfare. Then, your RV will be fully prepared for travel, complete with full tanks of fuel and propane.

TRAVELING TECH – Three apps that turn your smartphone into a scanner

In many ways, smartphones like the Apple iPhone 6 or Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge have come to replace cameras, TVs, and handheld video recorders and you can add one more to that list – the scanner. That’s because a growing number of robust apps can replace your bulky scanner and increase productivity and this week, I want to tell you about about three of the best. [spp-timestamp time=”36:31″]

For iOS there’s Readdle’s Scanner Pro, capable of easily handling anything you throw its way. Take a picture of whatever you want to scan. The program then makes whatever is in the pic “look” scanned. Especially useful is the function that allows you to upload scanned images to Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, and other cloud-based storage services. Or email it to you or someone else simply by pushing the “Send” button. This one is $2.99.

Android fans will want to consider Mobile Doc Scanner 3 + OCR. Transform everything from receipts and invoices to white boards and magazine articles with the app also known as MDScan. Just take a picture, let the program do its thing, and you have a file that looks like every other scan you’ve ever made. Best of all, you can take a bunch of pictures on the fly and let the software process them later. Also allows for upload to cloud-based services. The price at the Google Play store is $4.99.

If you’re looking for a free option (iOS, Android, Windows), there’s Genius Scanfrom The Grizzly Labs. Works like the others – take a pic and the software makes whatever is in the pic look scanned. Genius Scan gives a ton of great options like fingerprint security, the ability to assign a password to a specific scan so that no one can snoop on you, and the ability to send scans to the cloud.

[spp-tweet tweet=”Traveling Tech Tips for the RVer”]

This part of the podcast is brought to you by Verizon Wireless, the nation’s largest and most reliable 4G LTE network.

A software update is now rolling out for the Verizon Cloud app, which adds two new features: Smart Albums and The Print Shop.

The Verizon Cloud app, thanks to a collaboration with RealNetworks®, can now automatically create “Smart Albums” and “Stories” to help keep you and your memories organized. The app selects your best photos and videos and organizes them into different Smart Albums based on events and locations. These albums can be easily shared and they are stored in the cloud, so you will be able to access them from anywhere.

RealTimes “Stories” are video montages set to music that are automatically created from your photo and video memories. You can also customize the Story montages as well as add your own music to really personalize them using the integrated RealTimes® app.

Some photos are meant to be framed and seen outside of a mobile device. You’ll now be able to print photos you have stored on the cloud. You can order photos, as well as canvas, metal, and framed prints from Photobucket, all within the Verizon Cloud app.

And for a limited time, Verizon Cloud users will be able to receive a 50% discount off their order by using the promo code VZNPROMO50.

For more information visit http://www.verizonwireless.com/news/article/2015/11/verizon-cloud-app-gets-smarter.html

For your Bucket List – Utah's Highway 12

A bucket list drive in Utah that passes some of the most spectacular and diverse geologic features you'll find anywhere on the continent [spp-timestamp time=”45:34″]

This part of the podcast is brought to you by Leisure Time RV, serving central Florida and the Internet from Winter Garden, Florida.

Leisure Time RV, a family-owned dealership in Winter Garden, Florida, near Orlando has been in business for 45 years and is consistently among the top Roadtrek dealers in North America. They have a full line of the Roadtrek inventory as well as travel trailers and used RVs. Jennifer and I have visited Leisure Time RV and we know the staff and we are very impressed by the honesty, integrity and first rate service we found there.

[spp-tweet tweet=”RV Bucket List Trip: Utah's Highway 12″]

Interview – Kathy and Les on How they Use their RV

Meet Kathy and Les, two of our Roadtreking friends.[spp-timestamp time=”51:00″]

Kathy and Les have a condo in Florida, a summer retreat on a lake in Michigan, a sticks and bricks home near Toledo and a 2016 Roadtrek 190. Kathy traveled a lot by airplane in her job and grew to hate hotel rooms.

She never wants to travel by air again if she can help it…or stay in a hotel.

But she loves the RV.

kathylesinNYC
Kathy and Les' Roadtrek stealth camping on the streets on New York City

They use their RV to visit family, have stealth camped in New York and they often use the RV for leisurely travel between their various homes, as well as short day and weekend trips.

Kathy is also an artist and the RV is a perfect way to travel t various art and craft shows, with lots of room for her equipment and exhibits.

The two describe how they love the RV lifestyle, even though they are not your typical RVers.

[spp-tweet tweet=”You don't have to RV to use an RV”]

Please Subscribe and Give Us a Rating and Review!

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:

How to subscribe, rate and review a podcast

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.

Mike Wendland

Published on 2015-11-11

Mike Wendland is a multiple Emmy-award-winning Journalist, Podcaster, YouTuber, and Blogger, who has traveled with his wife, Jennifer, all over North America in an RV, sharing adventures and reviewing RV, Camping, Outdoor, Travel and Tech Gear for the past 12 years. They are leading industry experts in RV living and have written 18 travel books.

One Response to “RT61 An RV is More than an RV”

November 29, 2015at5:23 pm, Bruce Grandjean said:

I’ve tried several different scanning apps for the iPhone and I like CamScanner the best. Using the camera on your phone you can scan to either jpg or pdf. You can enhance the image but I rarely do because the app does such a good job. The documents can then be emailed or uploaded to all the popular cloud storage sites, Dropbox etc. On top of everything it’s free!

Comments are closed.

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