I have been robbed blind while boondocking for the past three years. It has cost me thousands and untold energy to replace what I lost*. This thief is silent, relentless and resides in about half of the RVs built in this country!  What is it? It is a heat strip contained in the majority of Dometic RV refrigerators. It is intended to reduce the formation of condensation and wetness of the door seal, however, the resistive heat strip draws 1 amp (12 watts) of power from your precious battery bank when the refrigerator is turned on. That equates to 24 amps per day or about 1/4 the reserve of most deep cycle RV batteries. That's ginormous ! To give you an idea on how huge this is, 24 amps would run your furnace nonstop for approximately 4 hours (a night’s worth of heat), a LED light bulb for 10 days and would run your water pump for a week's worth of showers! In addition, it takes the average RV converter/charger 8 hours to replace those amps. So how do you know if this thief resides in your refrigerator? Open the exterior vent to your refrigerator located on the outside of your RV. There you will see a schematic like the one shown. If you see a little squiggly emblem which designates resistance, you have this parasitic thief and must exorcise it as 12 volt resistance is the nemesis of freedom-loving boondockers everywhere.  

Like many mining boomtowns gone bust, Calico, California quickly sprang to life in 1881 when silver was first discovered, and met its demise when silver lost its value about 15 years later. Calico is anything but a ghost town today. Thousands visit every year to wander through the western-themed town, tour an underground mine, ride the narrow-gauge train, pan for gold, and attend special events. Gunfighters are known to appear from time to time, and RV camping is available if you want to stay a while.

In its heyday, about 30 miles of tunnels honeycombed the Calico Mountains. Mines, in and around Calico, including the famous Silver King Mine that started the silver strike, produced silver ore worth millions and millions of dollars. But around 1896, down on their luck miners began loading their mules and moving on. An attempt to revive the town was made around 1915 when a cyanide plant was built to recover silver from the unprocessed Silver King Mine's deposits, but Calico largely remained a ghost town.

If you think full-time RVing is for Dads and Moms whose kids have already left the nest, think again. Joe and Kay Peterson, founders of Escapees RV Club, blazed a trail for full-timing families when they hit the road in 1972 with their two school-age children. Despite dire warnings from their friends and family who feared the kids would go astray with such a non-traditional lifestyle, the Peterson's kids grew up to be responsible adults who now lead the biggest RV club in the world, Escapees. 

Decades have passed since the Petersons made a bold move to travel with kids, but today's families still catch a lot of flack from well-intentioned people who are unfamiliar with the lifestyle. As a result, the Internet has sprouted thriving support groups to help families get on the road and stay on it for as long as they want to be. 

The Furnace Creek Resort in California’s Death Valley National Park, home to the world’s lowest golf course, will host the third annual “Heatstroke Open” Golf Tournament June 21-23.

Located on the floor of Death Valley in a section that is quite green and lush Furnace Creek Resort is an oasis where water from the Funeral Mountains flows. This mountain run-off takes hundreds of years to make its way to Furnace Creek where it is used by resort for a variety of reasons, including irrigation.

May 2013 turned into a series of one-time family events—two high school graduations and the wedding of our great-niece. We traveled first in our motorhome to Northwest Arkansas to witness the graduation of our great-niece Skyler Warren from Gravette (Arkansas) High School. On a weather-perfect May morning, Skyler and 101 of her friends marched onto the field at Lion Stadium. The students took charge of the ceremony, different ones offering the invocation, leading the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag, dedicating the podium flowers, and closing with the benediction. Three academically-distinguished graduate candidates spoke of their early and middle years of schooling, leading up to the climatic moment—receiving of their diplomas. Skyler was among the speakers. A Barbie-doll-sized young woman, she stood on tippy toes to reach the microphone. The newly graduated young adults clustered in the middle of the stadium field to toss their hats high in the air in a display of victory. 

The following weekend, we packed our motorhome and traveled to Jackson, Tennessee, for the wedding of Lee’s great-niece Reagan Pennel to Evan Kucera. We found a quiet and pleasant mobile home park less than eight miles from The Wildflower Farm, the designated site of a pre-wedding barbecue on Saturday evening, and the wedding on Sunday afternoon. The old farmhouse circa 1891, shaded by oaks with thick green canopies, welcomed us to the property. Swings with thick board seats hung from trees next to the house. White rockers and a porch swing accented the wrap-around porch. A large white tent, set up in the adjoining field created the perfect dining room for both the Saturday night barbeque and the wedding reception and dinner on Sunday evening. 

If you have a big trip planned, the excitement starts building early. You start thinking about the supplies you need to take, the destination you will explore and the sights you will take in along the way. This is also the best time to start thinking about ways to make the drive easier. With the right information by your side, your trip will go smoothly and you will avoid unnecessary hassle.

The Next Exit

Traveling with your RV is more comfortable in several ways, but it’s not without some challenges. You cannot pull into the first gas station you see because it may not have enough clearance. You require extra space for turns, and backing up in a trailer is particularly challenging if you are a new RV owner. With a book like The Next Exit, you will know which exits are RV friendly and which ones you should avoid. It tells you whether there are truck stops that are easier to navigate, shopping facilities with plenty of parking and if there are dumping stations nearby. It also gives you vital information regarding campgrounds, so you can plan your trip and know exactly where you are stopping along the way.

RV GPS 

I bought into North Ranch when it was first available in the early 1990's but later moved to this current lot near the desert’s edge and backed up against Saguaro Park.  All the 50’x70’ RV lots came with a 10’x12’ shed.  After acquiring a new park model in 2005 and having a sunroom added in 2006, I spent less time traveling and more time on this tiny bit of desert heaven overlooking the Bradshaw Mountains.

The previous owners had fixed up the shed into a nice room so I made a few changes to make it mine and turned it into a living, breathing office.   A small back window was removed and planted on the south side of the building and a 3’x9’ window grew over my built-in desk.  I could watch each season as it came into view.  Big back cutout letters around the top of the door proclaimed to all who might enter, “Welcome to the Writer’s Pad.” 

Passing through Salt Lake City my wife and I decided to visit the Mormon Temple. Not wanting to tow the travel trailer through downtown Salt Lake City, let alone  try to find a 50ft. parking space for the truck and trailer, we needed to find a place to park the trailer for a few hours. A quick search on the internet showed a Walmart conveniently located near an exit ramp just off the freeway. Zooming in on said Walmart via Google, I could see a large parking area adjacent to the store. Logging the coordinates obtained from Google Earth into my GPS receiver, we were on our way.

Upon arrival we discovered that the large parking area seen via satellite from high above was actually roof top parking on a two story parking garage. Height restrictions precluded us from parking the trailer on either level of the garage. Luckily there was plenty of free curb parking on the street with no time restrictions. Had I used the Google Earth street view option, I would have clearly seen that what looked like a parking lot was clearly a parking garage. Unexpected surprises, just another adventure in RVing!

Where can you find Leyden jars, Volta canisters, an original Theremin, the first dial telephone, thousands of vintage radios, and hundreds of other unique artifacts  associated with electricity? No, not at the Smithsonian Institution (although they might have a few).  Stop at the Spark Museum of Electrical Invention in Bellingham, Washington. Whether you’re interested in history or just want to see weird but world-changing devices, this modest museum has it all. And if you visit on weekends, you can also experience the power of four million volts of electricity demonstrated by the nine-foot tall "MegaZapper” — one of Nikola Tesla’s largest coils found in North America! 

If you don’t consider yourself the geeky, science type, you’ll still enjoy Spark. The Museum literally gives you an easy introduction to the world of electricity and radio, beginning with Sir William Gilbert’s revolutionary book from 1600, De Magnete. From there, the displays make it easy to follow the discoveries of Isaac Newton, Galileo Galilei, Benjamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta, Heinrich Hertz, Guglielmo Marconi, and others. Even if you don’t recognize all those names, their work is displayed alongside early telephones, radios, and gramophones you can relate to. The museum signage doesn’t just label objects, it provides an interesting background story as well.

Many aspiring full-time RVers with pets wonder how they'll deal with veterinary care on the road. Lots of people assume that finding good vet care on the road is tough, but in this blog post I'll show you why it's even easier to take care of your pet's health needs once your wheels are turning. 

From routine yearly health exams to seeking specialty care, finding veterinary care on the road is easy because of the infinite amount of locations where your pet can see a doctor. When you're mobile, you can go anywhere to get the type of care your animal needs (the same concept holds true if you ever need medical care, but that's another blog post for another day).