RVing Creates Unique Opportunities for Portable Hobbies

I enjoy seeing the country through the windows of our RV and I especially like wildlife sightings. I enjoy the antelope in Wyoming, the moose in Maine, gators in Florida, eagles in Oregon, sea otters in California and roadrunners in the deserts of the great Southwest. One of our hobbies is bird watching. Well, not that kind of bird watching, no, we’re out in the field with binoculars and a bird book. Two days ago I saw a roadrunner cross the street in front of me (actually he was walking). I started thinking about the fact that RVing allows us to travel all over North America enjoying a hobby that would not be practical otherwise. In order to see birds of many different species you either have to wait for them to come to you or you have to go to where they are. If you’re stuck in one geographical area, then you’ll be limited on how many types of birds you’ll see. We photograph as many birds as possible and print them out and put them in a binder along with information about the places we saw them. It acts as a kind of a RV travel log. After we spend some time in Arizona where I’ll be reporting on the happenings in Quartzsite, we’ll be headed across to Texas and down to the Rio Grand Valley to photograph the birds of that region. Many RVers enjoy hobbies on the road like photography, geocaching, biking, painting, boating, off-roading, fishing, needlepoint, golf, scuba, racquet sports, astronomy, history, writing, and genealogy studies to name a few. Some hobbies aren’t very portable and not well suited for the RV lifestyle, but for rock-hounds, history buffs, artists and golfers RVing opens up a whole new world of possibilities. An RV allows you to bring your transportation, hotel, luggage, hobby gear and dining facilities with you wherever you go at a fraction of the cost. If both husband and wife have portable hobbies they take along in the RV they’ll be more satisfied with the RV lifestyle. Hobbies add to your overall quality of life, so next time you go RVing, bring them along. With a birds-eye view on portable hobbies - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing

Fishermen, Keep Your Poles Safe in Your RV

On more than one occasion I’ve had my fishing rods damaged or broken because another piece of cargo crushed them. I stored them in a canvas bag in my 5th wheel, but it wasn't sufficient. Here's a solution for protecting your valuable fishing poles. The “AirLiner 4588” is a telescoping fishing rod case that looks more like it holds a bazooka.The three piece design extends from 48 to 88 inches (the next model up will extend out to 112 inches). It has a molded handle for easy carrying and is lockable. Constructed from heavy duty blown plastic this unit is tough and ready for the rigors of RV travel. With a five inch diameter it’ll hold eight fishing rods (without the reels) up to seven feet long. It costs around $40.00 dollars. This unit is well worth the price since it will save them from being crushed while stored in your RV compartments. Made by Plano (famous for tackle boxes) it’ll protect your expensive poles and help you stay organized. You can purchase these at Cabela’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Wal-Mart.com, and the Sport Chalet. Read more about it at Plano. Covering all the angles - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing

RVers Head Out WIth a GPS and a Treasure Map

The geocaching craze has taken off in the last few years since the advent of the personal GPS system. These handheld navigation systems make it possible for people to hide “treasure” in a “cache” for others to find. Many geocaching enthusiasts are calling this a “sport” because it requires hiking in the great outdoors. But geocaching is also done using bicycles, motorcycles, ATV’s and off-road 4 wheel drive vehicles. Here is an example of containers you might find holding a cache. There are only three rules, first you must take something (like a Groundspeak Travel Bug) and move it to another cache. Second you must leave something there and thrid, you must make entries in the log book. You could leave a joke in the log book or a riddle or the coordinates to another cache. You could also drop off a Travel Bug. A Groundspeak Travel Bug is a trackable tag that you attach to an item like a keychain. This tag is registered with the official geocaching website Geocaching.com and you can track it on the internet. Many of these tags have traveled all over the world. Dawn and Tony Denyer have been geocaching for five years and have found over 600 caches. School teacher, Val Boggs has found 106 caches on here summer breaks and tells me she does it, “Just for the exercise.” You'd be surprised at the number of RVers who do this for a hobby. If you think about it, it's the perfect RV hobby because it gives you a “reason” to go hiking and it provides a lot of enjoyment along the way. Because you RV, you travel and are able to move tags all over the country. You probably don't know it, but there are several hundred caches withing 10 miles of you right now and over 423 thousand world-wide. Helping you find the hidden treasure in the universe of RVing - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing, Dr. of RVology and ROAD Scholar

RVer Displays His Travel Collection in a Unique Way

RVers love to collect things. The problem is that some collectables are too large, or heavy to carry along with you in the confines of your rig. This RVer loves to collect stickers from the places and events he’s attended. As you can see, he can enjoy them as he lounges outside under his awning enjoying a NASCAR race. The stickers are mounted on Plexiglas so that he can transfer them to his next RV without much effort. In fact, he’s already transferred them from his old rig. He may need to buy a longer rig with more storage bays if he keeps this up. Jim

RVers Retaining Air Because of Slime

RVers have a love affair going on with bikes. Many RVers carry them around even though they never ride them. They just like knowing they’re there because you never know when they might come in handy. For those of you who are serious riders here is a tip – stay away from goat heads and nails!

If you can’t do that then you need to fill your tubes with Slime! That’s right, Slime! Read more about it at their website: Slime

You can purchase Slime at hardware stores, WalMart, Kmart and most sporting goods stores.
Slime repairs punctures to the bike inner-tube by filling the hole with a sealant automatically as you ride. You won’t even notice you had a puncture. It works repeatedly, so you can accidentally ride through a patch of stickers and not have to push your bike home. It's non-toxic and lasts two years.

Remove the valve stem with the valve stem remover that is part of the cap that comes on the bottle of Slime. Insert and twist counterclockwise to remove.Attach the plastic tube (that comes with the bottle) to the Slime bottle and the tube stem. Squeeze the bottle and fill with the recommended amount of Slime and replace the valve stem. Inflate the tube to the recommended air pressure and take her for a ride or just put it back on the carrier rack. Slime isn’t just for bicycles anymore. Off road enthusiasts use it in their quads and motorcycles. It’s also useful in lawn and garden equipment, but I don’t see much of that kind of stuff strapped to RV ladders. Jim

Receiver Hitch Can Crusher

Recycling is good for the planet and the pocketbook. The price of aluminum keeps going up and many folk’s cash in on the soda can redemption deposit by turning un-crushed cans, but sometimes (and in some states) it’s just easier to crush your cans and turn them in by bulk weight.I ran across a guy using a can crusher in his receiver hitch and tossing the cans in a bag hanging on the ladder of his class C motorhome. As a money making hobby he takes a walk, collects cans and the nickels and dimes add up. When he gets back to his motorhome he runs the cans through the receiver hitch can crusher. Just don't get your fingers caught in it! Jim

RV Hobby Rocks!

RV camp hosts Chuck and Gloria Hill enjoy their Montana 5th Wheel in the Arizona desert.

When you walk around to the other side of their rig you see a hobby in progress. They are busy cutting and grinding stones. You might say this hobby rocks! This couple enjoys collecting rocks and making them into beautiful jewelry quality stones. What better place than Gilla Bend, Arizona to collect rocks. We have more rocks here than rabbits, so it’s the perfect hobby for these RVers. Rock hounds enjoy Quartzsite Hobby, Craft and Gem show that starts Wednesday and goes through Frbruary 4th. If you happen to be in the area, check it out.

The nice thing about this hobby is that the equipment is small and therefore portable. The rocks are usually small so you can avoid the problem Lucy had in the 1954 movie "The Long Long Trailer" where she kept a heavy rock as a souvenir of every place they visited. Eventually the trailer became overloaded and well, you know the rest of the story. This shouldn’t happen with this hobby.

Gloria wants to say “Hi” to her granddaughter Samantha who is serving with our fabulous armed forces in Iraq. Can you believe this Sam, your grandma is now famous, a rock star if you will. From all of us here stateside I just want to give you a great big salute and a hearty “Thank You” for serving our country!