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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. 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 http://roadtreking.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. 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 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.

Dolly Towing With Our Roadtrek We had no problems driving our 2015 Roadtrek CS Adventurous E-Trek while towing our Prius 1,900 miles to Arizona. End of story, right? Well, not exactly. Getting to that decision... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

The Making of a Roadtrek: The Movie If any of you have been to the Roadtrek factory in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada for a tour, you would have an idea of what it takes to build a Roadtrek,... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Another reason to RV: It saves money I knew RVing made a lot of sense for us as we travel about North America. It gives us freedom, mobility and we get to bring most of the comforts... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

006 RV Podcast: The Migration of the Snowbirds It’s underway – the annual migration of the Snowbirds , with an estimated 2-5 million RVers heading to the South and Southwest. That’s the featured topic in Episode 006 of... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Travels with the eTrek: A photo montage Like a lot of RVers, I’ve been reviewing memories and photographs over the past couple of years. That’s what we do during the down time: Go back and look at... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Protecting your digital assets In this information age, gathering up and securing the most important information – the critical passwords, user names, insurance, savings and important documents we have – is a vital task... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

My RV as a Sag Wagon After my massage on Tuesday I drove out of San Diego in my cute little Roadtrek, due east towards Yuma, Arizona. It was a beautiful afternoon drive through the mountains... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Climbing Pikes Peak in an RV I’m often asked about the favorite things we’ve done in our Roadtrek eTrek. At the top of my list is mountain climbing. We used it to drive to the top of Pikes Peak, some... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

I Hate it when RVers use construction generators Now I have to admit that I’ve been one of the main encouragers as far as this boondocking movement goes – I have been telling folks to get out of... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Roadtreking RV Podcast 005 – Boondocking and Satellite Internet If you like getting away from it all, this episode of Roadtreking – The RV Podcast is going to be especially interesting to you. Along with a bunch of RV... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Getting Ready to Roll-Grand Canyon Country Here I Come This past week has been a busy one for me. I have been sorting out, packing up and checking that all systems are go in my cute little RV. I... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Why we boondock It sounds like it’s raining. But it’s not. It’s the sound of acorns dropping from the oak trees all around us as we boondock in the middle of the woods... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

RV Minnesota Side Excursions The Minnesota wind was howling as we drove along I-90. After more than three hours of white-knuckle driving it was time to find a place to hunker down to wait... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

8 Simple & Easy Ideas to Make Small RV Life More Comfortable If you’re the new owner of a new or experienced Class B you are probably figuring out how to outfit it for travel. The tendency is to bring too much.... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

RV Recipes: Crock pot Tangy Barbecued Chicken Sandwich My favorite season is fall. Here in Michigan, the temps are crisp and comfortable for walking trails through the woods filled with an array of amber and scarlet foliage. Seeing... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Episode 4 of the Roadtreking Podcast – How and when to winterize This is a jam-packed podcast with lots of very practical news and information. In it we talk about another anti-RV town… how and when to winterize along with lots of... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

RV Restorations One of the really, really awesome things about going to trade shows is finding the small, out of the way corner where the restoration people live. Some of these are... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Halloween RV Campouts The month of October has surprisingly become huge for RV campgrounds, resorts and parks around the U.S. thanks to Halloween. Maybe because for many in the northern states, its a... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

My Giant Permanent RV Bed One thing about full timing is that you have ample opportunities to evaluate the comfort of your RV’s sleeping arrangements. In our 2003 190 Popular with the dinette setup, we... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

A Visit to the RV Museum: When did Class Bs Start? Recently we spent nearly an entire day at the RV/MH Museum in Elkhart, IN, soaking up history of our favorite travel vehicle. They have on display over 35 recreational vehicles... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

The highs and the lows of the RV market While at the recent Pomona, CA show, I decided to explore the limits of the RV market. Specifically, to find the most expensive and the cheapest trailer and coach. Elite... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Cool things seen at the Pomona RV show The 2014 Pomona RV show in California has lots to see. Here – in reverse order – are five things I thought were really cool when I visited last weekend. ... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Episode 3 of Roadtreking the RV Podcast It’s time for a new edition of Roadtreking- The RV Podcast. I continue to be overwhelmed by the positive response we’ve had to the first two episodes. I hope you... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source

Latest in Class B RVs on display at Pomona All the major Class B manufacturers are here at Pomona: Roadtrek, Pleasureway, Leisure Travel, Airstream, Sportsmobile, Winnebago. I walked through and sampled the models on display. Every manufacturer offers something... Roadtreking : The RV Lifestyle Blog - Traveling North America in a small motorhome Source