Rv Navigator

We start the month sailing in the Caribbean for a week sailing aboard the beautiful Harmony of the seas. She is todays largest cruise ship. Lots of innovation and digital enhancements. RFID wrist bands to provide access to rooms and accounts is just one thing. We beat the ships Casino for a total of $14 with a $60 investment, so we titled episode “Beat the house” This month was spent at TGO and visiting the Tampa Super show. We were spent 4 days camped on the show grounds as part of a TGO RVing group. This provided us with early access and very convenient show access - we could walk to the event. We had a new auto sat dish installed while parked. Our old auto dish was made for internet access and we had adapted it for satellite TV. Unfortunately mobile satellite internet is going away so our dish became less useful. The new satellite TV only dishes have several advantages so we made the switch. I was sad to see our 12 year old dish (costing $6000) being thrown in the trash, but it had served out it

Our annual NYE live recording of the podcast is on location at TGO in Florida. Warm weather allowed us to record outdoors and with a glass or two of champaigne. We even had an audience some podcast listeners joined us to welcome the new year.

After the family visit, we headed down to Titusville FL to stay on our lot at TGO for basically the first time. Several listeners greeted us warmly making it feel like home. However, making this purchase and staying at TGO gets us to thinking about retirement and the future. We also heard that two long time full timing couples were buying S&Bs and coming off the road. We and they are at the next stage of retirement, what happens when you no longer can be on the road. This too takes planning. How did we get to where we are and how will we handle the future. These insights will help you plan or make better use of your retirement. We’ll not be coming off the road, but our retirement has been different than either of the others that we mention. We have kept our house (even though we are on the road 8 months a year) and we don’t work. How has this happened and is it for you?

Our travel plans are a bit different this year. We are taking the RV south in the fall before the winter season. We’ll be driving the toad back & forth in the cold weather. For now, we are visiting relatives in SC on our way to TGO in Florida. For the first winter we’ll be using our lot at The Great Outdoors in Titusville, FL between January and March. On our way south in late October, we stopped to get the Air Force 1 install. After a week with the relatives in SC, we’ll head to TGO until TG in late November.

Five days at sea highlighted our 16 day crossing of the Atlantic. We did make a major stop in Iceland for some great sightseeing, but we also spent quite a few days at sea. Many listeners would find this much unplanned time to be boring, but, from our exdperience its not. Would you switch from an RV to a sailboat? RVing & sailing seemingly have much in common, but do they? We also spend some time comparing our respective digital cameras. Ken favors one choice while Martha another. This enlightening discussion will help you decide what type of camera is for you. From blowouts to new shoes we talk about what’s happing in the RV world this month.

After enduring the hot spell that invaded much of the midwest and northwest for most of August, midmonth found us on a cruise in the Fjords of Norway. But this only after stops in NYC and Iceland. This part of the trip was a typical hotel stay where we were making all of the plans ourselves (as opposed to taking a tour). After this travel experience, we realized why we like RVing (and cruising). Both offer a “unpack once” and tour benefit that hoteling doesn’t offer. The Fjords cruise is just the first of 2 that will eventually take us to Boston before flying home to Chicago in mid September. While sailing, we are still thinking of RVing as we compare cruising to driving. Cost comparisons and traveling details still are big factors for continuing to RV.

July was a month at home, but we are thinking of RV topics. We do an extended interview with our single RVer friend Mike about his adventures since our last interview. Now that his rig is more that a year old, he is considering an extended warranty. Does an extended warranty give you peace of mind? It should, but do the contracts really deliver what most RVers expect in terms of service. Hear our take on this topics (with RNR) plus bad weather horror stories, getting into VR and drones.

The final leg of our marathon 5 month travel adventure was completed just after Memorial Day with 2200 mile drive across the high planes back to Chicago. We hosted two visits from new motorhome owners while will provide interesting listening. We interview Marc & Sara who just picked up their 2016 Newmar Dutch Star at the factory. They have never RVed or driven a large motorhome before selling their house in Washington to buy this new motorhome. Their comments plus many topics of a more general nature make up the July edition of the RV Navigator.

We traveled from SF to Vancouver Island during May as the final leg of our 6 month long west coast adventure. This month we drove the PCH, and visited the Olympic NP and many places in between in Oregon and Washington. We’ll have driven 8500 miles in the motorhome by the time we return home. We travel via ferry to Vancouver island as well as had many adventures. We talk about the campgrounds, roads, weather, seasons, and tourist activities on our itinerary so join us for an interesting description of this area.

Travel this month was mostly in CA from the East where we visited Sequoia NP to the northern coast and Redwoods NP. In between we hosted our Australian friends & listeners in SF. We are now heading north on the PCH, the beautiful coastal highway. Our intention is to head to Vancouver Island later this month and then go east to Chicago.

Major travels this month to the bottom of the world in South America. We spent 22 days away from the RV in Chile & Argentina traveling to the remote Patagonia region. Follow our adventures on the sea and land as we tour the bottom of the world.

We are traveling in the desert west this month with stops in Las Vegas, Palm Springs, and Lake Havasu. Lots of photo ops as we attended the fireworks extravaganza & modernity week on our travels. We also visited Death Valley NP. Good weather made these adventures lots of fun. Death Valley which boosts the hottest temperatures in the world, was a pleasant 70 degrees at this time of year. This park is very large with several camping opportunities. The newest option are the FHU sites at Furnace Creek which we were lucky enough to find an open spot. Otherwise it is boondocking only. The month ended in Pahrump, NV just prior to our travels to South America.

We are celebrating our 10 year doing the podcast with a raffle that will take place in February, 2016. Entry details in the podcast & on the web. Our travels have taken us to many scenic places so far this winter but we are podcasting from Lake Mead Recreation Area near Las Vegas. This is just one of several very scenic camping sites that we have spent time in so far this winter. The weather has not been too kind, but we have gotten some great views and even made a snowman.

This month is our full report on our African Safari this month. We returned from 28 days on the Dark Continent with a 1000s of great animal photos and wonderful memories of a great trip. Our adventure ended mid month with a very long flight home and days of jet lag. We did manage to get some RV questions answered and interesting topics discussed on this edition of the RV Navigator.

Even a fairly new RV needs repairs so this month we visited Newmar in Indiana. Thus just before heading for Dubai, UAE & Nairobi, Kenya for our African Safari. These plus lots of good RVing and travel info make up this episode.

After returning home, we have been trouble shooting problems both in the RV and at home. We share ideas, letters, tech tips and much more in this episode done from the home studio. This is a brief pause in travel before we head to Africa early next month. We are practice packing for this trip. Unlike the RV where we bring everything, the African Safari allows only 33 lbs total - suitcase and carry-on. This actually requires more planning than the RV trips. Other topics this month includes our recent experiences with directv, upgrading your WiFi router, and new and interesting ideas from the RVing world.

Two months in northern rural Canada and we didn’t see a moose. Lots of other sites as we ferried to Newfoundland & Labrador on our journey north. We are now headed home for a short stay before heading to Africa. The Caravan turned out to be a nice way to see a lot in the shortest time possible. Overall driving miles were over 3700 plus the trip to and from. We did see lots of wildlife and eat our share of sea food. We are bringing home several pounds of lobster and crab in the freezer.

Traveling North into Canada one sees lots of trees in this country of 35 million souls (1/10 the size of the US). We start our Maritime caravan that will take us to Labrador. We are 18 rigs that camp & tour together. This is our ½ way point on the travel Northward. We have remembered many things from our trip of 20 years ago, but next month the territory is all new as we load the rig on a ferry bound for Newfoundland and Labrador. We have many observations about the trip so far so take a listen if Canada is in your future.

After several weeks at home, we began our 2 month adventure that will go as far north as Labrador. The trip out involves 1200 miles to get to the caravan starting point. Lots of topics invade this podcast so give it a listen.