Rv Navigator

The post South Africa caravan report plus information on buying a GPS Navigation system for your RV.

We’ve moved - but safely from FL to IL (both bubbles of safety in gated communities) via our mobile bubble (the MH). Owning a lot in FL allows us to be flexible about moving. Even through our park was closed to outsiders renting, we could stay or leave as we chose. We understand that many full timers didn't have this option as states closed RV parks. We definitely feel their pain. Although we were supposed to be traveling overseas at this month, We had no definite departure plans but as the weather gets hot in FL, we knew that it was time to head north. How long will the economic shutdown last, we don’t know, but we're ready for and extended stay in place. Our 1200 mile trip home was uneventful - little traffic, low fuel prices, and open camp grounds made the trip one of the smoothest ever. This month we make some suggestions for activities like geocaching as well as streaming lots of video. On more serious topics, we learned about toilet paper and masks. Two months ago we would not have even mentioned eith

It was just a month ago we were joking that the virus would never impact our lives here in the US. Naive as that sounds today, we didn't see this coming so quickly. As of this date (4/1/20) our lives are in disarray - not sick (yet) but everything on hold. Plans cancelled or significantly change, family out of touch, local business interrupted and travel out of the picture. Although our lives and schedules are up in the air, we are still optimistic and secure. Our lifestyle while on the road, is hermit like. Staying away from people is easy and familiar to RVers. For the time being, we have decided to stay at our property in FL. Our community is isolated and the weather has been good. We stay away from people, but we can still enjoy nature and warm weather. However, we don't know what our government will do to curtail our travel further. Now we can do grocery shopping but that's about it. This month we share a few little known coronavirus facts as well as an interview with Patrick from RV Life. We

Stationary in FL for another month. We are all about sharing our RVing experiences with our listeners. In January we attended the Tampa RV Supershow with the idea of learning what's new in the industry. We toured the lots and talked with vendors. This month and next we'll have some interviews vendors that have new products that we feel are of general interest to our listeners. Today, we welcome Keith with a new water filtering product as well as David sharing his fleet tire program we described briefly last month. We look at new water filtration products, replacing our 4 yr old batteries & a tire buying service you should know about. Our 8 new T105 67lbs each batteries were purchased on a discount offered at the show. Is the Tampa Supershow worth attending? Based on this months topics, absolutely yes - or listen to our podcast to learn what you should know. We leave FL later this month to head north - a bit early this year as i will have to winterize again (April is just too early in IL) but we

Winter is time for RV Shows & we attended the Tampa SuperShow. We had several questions to get answered by the factory reps at this show. We also visited hundreds of vendors selling all types of RV products. We hope to have some follow-up with selected venders in the coming months. We mention fleet in the title because we have joined two fleet services as a way to save a few $$s on RV products. We are now getting discounts on diesel purchases at truck stops and a fleet discount on tires for our motorhome. Lots to look & buy at such a big event. We talk about some trends that we noticed as well as some of the RVs we toured. We are not selling anything, so these are just casual observations from the field. We had fun buying new tires and plan to buy a new set of batteries, but what type is still up in the air. Many tips and tricks in this months episode as we spend the winter in FL.

The annual end of the year celebration with our listeners takes place on 12/31/2019. We open the bubbly and talk about the year in review. What will the next decade bring - we hope lots of RVing and travel. RVing and many other topics are on our agenda

Your RV Navigators are on tour in the Middle East for about a month. Leaving in the middle of the month, we are on target to visit Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and Egypt on this month long adventure. So far we have learn much about this volatile part of the world. We have specifically taken a none domonational tour of the holy land. We have seen many religious sights, but looked at them from their historical perspective. But of course this area is more than just religious sites so this podcast was made from the Dead Sea which is 1400 feet below sea level. The lowest land on earth. Swimming is not really possible in the Dead Sea - ones body floats on the surface and putting ones face in the water is a bad idea. The extreme amount of salt (6 times that of the ocean) makes the water unpleasant should it get in your eyes or mouth. So floating is the only option. We have also visit the famous Petra in Jordan. This is both a world class historic and scenic site. We were able to spend the entire day hi

A month of highs & lows. We attended the Newmar Rally in Syracuse NY along with 450 other Newmar motorhomes. This 8 day event provided us with a chance to see the latest product and get some repairs-updates done to our coach. Newmar brought 55 techs to the event to provide service and repairs for coach owners. We took advantage of this service. Also this month we spent a week using our Harvest Host membership at a variety of different types of HH boondocking experiences. Overall it was a great experience and we’ll continue to use them when available. The month ended in Niagara Falls for a couple of days at this iconic tourist attraction. The final leg of the trip - back to Chicago - turnout to be an adventure of the negative sort. Our almost new alternator (new in January) failed again in Ohio causing a 2 day delay, purchasing 2 new batteries and plenty of waisted time. We share it all and explain it all, and answer questions in this episode.

After a couple of months off, we are again on the road to Upstate NY & the Newmar Rally in Syracuse. We have enjoyed a night at a vineyard near Erie, PA courtesy of Harvest Hosts. Topics discussed range from poop to power so take a listen.

Twenty-seven days in Ecuador gave us a chance to explore diverse areas of this small country. These 3+ weeks in Ecuador allowed us to visit the Amazon rain forest, Galapagos islands, and Andes mountains all within a country that is the size of Nevada. Small but diverse with rural-urban, hot-cold, and wet,-dry regions all on the Equator. For a small country in South American, Ecuador has a lot to offer. Our first stop was Quito, the capital. At 9000 ft and surrounded by volcanoes (some active) it is a scenically beautiful city. The hot jungle of the Amazon is what you would expect. Hot, humid and full of animals, bug and other critters. We toured on foot and canoe to see both land and water life. We then boarded a plane to fly 2 hrs off the coast to the chain of islands know as the Galapagos. They are part of Ecuador's national park system. As such they are protected and have strict rules for visitors. This control does maintain a good visitor experience (as long as the rules are followed). Getting clo

Every RV needs to be repaired from time to time. Newmar has opened a very modern service center with campground for its owners. How you'll get your RV fixed might be a factor when you come to buy an RV either new or old. Newmar pride itself on fixing any RV that it has manufactured regardless of age. Not every manufacturer will stand behind its entire line of products this way. We were in the service center campground to have our captains chair ((driver and passenger) recovered with new fabric. Not something we anticipated deteriorating, but we are able to get it fixed. Although we have not done any camping this month, we still have lots of RV topics to share- many of them the result of emails or facebook comments. Four season RVing, taking care of older RVers, and many other topics are covered in this episode. Be sure to visit our episode website for lots more info.

With Memorial Day behind us, we are ready for summer and the warm weather to begin. But, spring is still bringing rain and cold. We were worried about frost and the motorhome so we had to leave the heat on for a couple of nights this month. With June’s arrival, we are looking for long days and warm nights but of course we’ll be a home. We let our camping families have the campgrounds in the summer. Their season is short and we can visit any part of the year, so we’ll head out again in the fall. However, we will taking a short trip to Wisconsin just to exercise the MH systems during the summer down time. Of interest this month is the new VR system from Oculus, the Quest. This system is the first to be stand alone - no extra wires or hardware needed. This is a major step forward for VR systems. I have enjoyed the games and 360 videos. It takes us to places we’d never get to via conventional travel. This month we share ideas about RV generators, Harvest Hosts (which we just jointed, but have not use

A quiet month for us. In summer we fall in to routine activities centered around home in Chicago. We did do our yearly “exercise the motorhome” trip to Lake Geneva, Wis. (about 2 hrs from home) for 3 nights at a state park. We focus on photography topics this month - our camera choices, new photo options, and thoughtful ideas about photography and RVing are our main focus this month. On our short trip, we were attacked by birds - literally. Why would a cardinal keep flying into the motorhome for days? We don't know, but it happened on our short trip.

April 1st we fired up the RV for the trip back to Chicago. This was to be a meandering journey that would up the month. We planned to visit Savannah, Washington DC, Charlotte SC, and the Laurel Highlands of SE PA. All went well on this journey as we explain in this months podcast. We had several new systems to test out on this 1200 mile trip. Although we had not been to these destinations in quite a few years, it was nice to relive earlier experiences. We enjoyed Washington DC because of the welcome it provides to tourists. Many attractions are free and the transportation is easy and inexpensive. Of course we always have to consider weather on our travels. Spring storms can cause major damage, but we were not effect until we arrive home. Then the snow arrived. Up until the trips end, the weather had been good - mostly warm and just a little rain. Then the cold and snow arrived in Chicago. In this episode we share experiences about using a towed, the new engine monitor called Bluefire, as well as ne

In this episode we are focused on our recent trip to Antartica. At the end of February, we headed South - way south. In the land of ice, snow and rock that makes up the 7th continent. This land mass has no native animals, insects or plants (aside from a few liken). So why visit such a desolate place? The landscapes are bleak but beautiful with black rocky peaks and crisp white snow. The marine life is abundant with penguins, seals, whales, birds and many smaller lifeforms. Cruising is the only way to visit, as there are no public airstrips or outposts for visitors. Even the cruises only have landings at remote beaches or rock outcrops where the penguins or seals congregate. Cruise ships must bring everything their passengers will need for their stay. So we were provided with jackets and knee length insulated boots to put over our layers of cold weather clothing. Daily we suited up for our zodiac trip to the landing area for the day. Once there we “toured” on foot to see the penguin colony or snowy

February is always short, but because we are leaving for Antartica in late February, we are getting ready early. This maybe a time when we’ll be totally out of touch at the beginning of the month and thus not able to do the podcast, so we did it early. Our 17 day sailing will take us further south than we've ever been at the end of their summer. However we are expecting cold - in the 20s. This is a big change from February in FL. This month has been very warm while the rest of the country is mired in cold winter weather. After getting our alternator fixed for the second time, we headed off to do a bit of boondocking. For those who are new to RVing, boondocking is camping without hookups. In this case we were at the mouth of Port Canaveral with a great view of the ships (many cruise ships) sailing in and out of the second busiest port in FL. Our motorhome is nicely set up for boondocking - and we discuss this issue on this episode.

CBS News came a calling to check out our podcast this month. This took the form of a 4 man crew coming to our RV site in FL to set-up and record your RV Navigator being interviewed by CBS Correspondent David Pogue. This took place on January 4th with the final product airing on January 20th CBS Sunday Morning program. Our segment (1 minute & 11 seconds) was part of a longer segment (5 minutes) called “The Golden Age of Podcasting” with more info on podcasting in general. This was all quite exciting for us and totally out of the blue. It was a result of a cold call from the producer to us asking for an interview. We were also pleased that David sat down for a brief interview that will be part of this months RV Navigator episode. He turned out to be congenial interviewer and a good interviewee although he has no RVing experience. Since the Sunday airing, our podcast downloads have gone through the roof (at our expense). A usual months worth of downloads happened on that single Sunday after the br

We begin our 13th year of the RV Navigator in the warmth of Florida. This episode is our annual NYE edition which features champaign and fun as the new year begins. Lots of RV tech topics to cover as your hosts share their adventures of the past year.

Once again we are on the road away from our motorhome so we don't have alot of RVing news. Back from our 3 cruise itinerary to Spain with a sail back to Miami. We sailed on a small 100 passenger ship within Spain and Portugal, then a super cruiser with 5500 passengers for 12 days to Miami and finally a 3100 passenger ship to Bahamas. We share our impressions of these very different cruising experiences in this episode. We’ve now driven to Chicago to be at home for family time during holidays. Oh, yes, the cold has hit us hard with snow and cold in our northern home. We have cruising/travel ideas to share plus our annual holiday RV gift guide. What new gizmos should you buy your RVer? Ken knows!

We’re off on a 39 day trip to Portugal, Spain and a transAtlantic sailing to Miami. Leaving from our winter home in Florida, first flying to Lisbon for an 11 day small ship cruise to Barcelona. This itinerary would have easily been done via a bus tour - so why would you do it by cruise ship? The world of cruising is quickly changing and we note many of those as we explain how a small ship experience is different from a large ship cruise. We had a chance to try out various ebikes on this trip - have you given them a try? We also tried cell phone service in Europe, and it worked for phone and data. The world is shrinking with digital media keeping everyone connected. We have lots of comments about this experience and even some RVing ideas and tips.