Are high gas prices forcing you to cut your spending for nonessential items? Answer here.

Last week's survey question:
How many slideouts does your RV have? Read the results.

Past reader surveys and results

New to RVing? This article is for you!
It doesn't cover everything a newbie might want to know, but it provides a bucket-full of helpful suggestions about how to get started and where to find more information. Read the article.

Just bought an RV? Take a shakedown cruise
Before you take off on a two-week or longer trip in your new RV, it's a good idea to start a little closer to home with a shakedown trip. Find problems when you're close to home, so you can get them fixed conveniently. Read all about it.

Pooch's potty habits have RVer perplexed
A new RVer discovers that when she takes a break from the RV, her dog takes that as a clue to use the carpet for potty-time. What should she do? Our RVingWithDogs.com editor has suggestions.

The Keys to RVing
Keep track of your keys. Don't get locked out. And you might save yourself some big bucks. This is good advice.

Campground directory for owners of big RVs!
Do you drive a long motorhome or trailer/tow vehicle combination? Then you know that not every RV park can accommodate you! Learn which ones can and even which campsites are best! The editors of the 2006 Big Rigs Best Bets Campground Directory have visited every campground in their best-selling directory. Plus: extensive WiFi location directory. Learn more or order.

--Are gloves really necessary when dumping holding tanks? Lots of opinions, for sure.

--A reader suggests "brace bars" for keeping contents of a fridge in place. Others weigh in.

--A "wrinkling rubber roof" is this RVers problem. What should he do?

-"Why won't my RV refrigerator cool?" a forum member asks. She gets plenty of theories.

--A beginning RVer plans to rent an RV and travel the USA this summer. He's looking for advice.

-And in the FreeCampgrounds.com forum:
A member asks. Where would you NEVER boondock again? This discussion is just getting going. So where won't you return to?

2006 Next Exit Directory
Don't get lost! Never take a wrong exit off an Interstate highway again. The 2006 Next Exit lists every exit along every Interstate and what's at each: campgrounds, fuel, truck stops, casinos, malls, rest areas, hospitals and more. Learn more or order.

Guide to Dump Stations: So, where ya goin' to lighten your load? Get THE guide at a discount price.

Visit Camping World
When you need something for your RV, big or small, make Camping World your first stop. Click here.

Fractional RV Ownership
CoachShare is a better way to own a luxury motorcoach!
Do you dream of owning a luxurious motorcoach, but don't want the year-round expense and hassles of private ownership? Why not "share" a luxury coach with CoachShare? Pay only for the time you need and save up to 80 percent over full-time ownership. Learn more.

Planning to see the movie "RV?"
Of the more than 800 RV Travel readers who answered our recent survey about what they thought of the Robin Williams comedy "RV," more than half thought it was "hilarious." Only about five percent did not like it or thought it was a waste of their time. The film will be released on DVD in July. Did you see "RV," but didn't answer our five-second survey yet? What did you think?

Don't pay high prices for campsites
With Passport America you pay half-price at more than 1,350 campgrounds. No contracts. Just $44 a year. Learn more.

. . . Also, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources has temporarily closed the South Manistique Lake State Forest Campground so it can address severe infestation of beech bark disease and the hazards caused from dead and dying trees. The campground is located in Mackinac County, six miles southwest of Curtis.

Dear Chuck,
Why don't you put a picture of yourself in the newsletter? -- Sue in Pueblo, Colorado

Sue,
People ask me that all the time. I just say, "I'm handsome and I don't want to make other guys feel bad." That's a lie, of course. Actually, I quit publishing my photo after I got my last driver's license. Yipes, who is that old guy in the picture? I used to walk into bars and women would look at me. Still, sometimes they wave like they want me to join them. I wave back and get excited. If I were a dog, my tail would be knocking over chairs. Then I realize they're waving to the guy behind me who looks like I did back in the third quarter of the 20th century. How embarrassing! Geez! Anyway, I am publishing a photo of myself in our new RV Travel Magazine coming out June 1. It's really great how many years you can shave off yourself with Photoshop. . . .Okay. . . what the heck, here's a photo of me. It was taken a few years ago. It's me with my girlfriend at the time.

Federal lands may go on auction block
The Bush administration has announced two new proposals that would liquidate federal lands to raise cash to cover budget shortfalls. The first would auction off 300,000 acres of land in national forests spanning 35 different states. Some of the lands are within the Alaskan rainforest, the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem, the Greater Cumberland Plateau region and California's Sierra Nevada. A separate proposal would reverse a long-standing law to allow an estimated half-million acres of public wildlands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to go on the auction block with 70 percent of the proceeds to cover the government's budget shortfall. All together, 1,250 square miles could be auctioned off.

Rig size and bringing a pet to Mexico
A reader planning to travel to the Baja wants to know the right size rig and another Mexico-bound traveler wants to know if she can bring her dog along. Our Mexico RV experts have answers.

Guidebooks and DVDs about RVing in Mexico.

Cell phone won't work in out-of-the-way places?
Smoothtalker can help. Talk or get online in places you could never get online before. Learn more.

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Trivia
Listerine was invented in the 19th century as a powerful surgical antiseptic. It was later sold, in distilled form, as a floor cleaner and cure for gonorrhea. But it wasn't a big success until the 1920s, when it was pitched as a solution for "chronic halitosis," -- a then-obscure medical term for bad breath. In the next seven years, its annual sales jumped from $115,000 to more than $8 million. --SOURCE: Freakonomics

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This issue's
Knowledge Quiz

TWO
QUIZZES SUNDAY

The prizes:
--A box of prickly pear cactus candy (yummy!)
--A set of four Dale Evans cowgirl cork-backed beverage coasters. Really cool!

Answer the Quizzes here on Sunday, May 21. Start times: 11:10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. (Pacific Time)

Knowledge Quiz official rules

(Learn about Mark Polk's RV "How-to" DVDs and eBooks.)

Visit the RV Travel Reader Forum to discuss everything to do with RVing with other RVers.

Why We Need English Teachers (as witnessed along the highways of America)

Upcoming RV Shows

RV-Links
Loads of links to great websites about RVing.

RVing With Dogs: Got a pooch onboard? You'll love this website.

Life On Wheels
"Go to school" to learn about RVing. Five annual conferences. Next one: July 9 to 14, Moscow, Idaho.

RV Travel is rated PG** by the St. Louis Organization of Better Businesses Engaged in Retailing (SLOBBER)

Of all the known websites only approximately 1.043 percent are more popular than RVtravel.com.

At RVbookstore.com we strive for excellence in all we do and that's the honest truth (as opposed to the dishonest truth). Our customers receive really, really fast service. We move so fast in sending out a customer's order that sometimes we pass through the sound barrier, which really upsets our neighbors. Our motto is "You need it so we speed it," and no truer words were ever spoken!

RVbookstore.com and RVtravel.com are members of the Better Business Bureau. We are proud commercial members of the Escapees, the Family Motor Coaching Association, and a sponsor of the 2006 Life On Wheels Conferences. We are also darn good people.

RV Travel is copyright 2006 by RVbookstore.com. Our International Headquarters: RVbookstore.com, 170 W. Dayton Street, Suite 103, Edmonds WA 98020, USA, Earth, Milky Way, Known Universe, Unknown Universe.

*By its staff and their families
**Pretty good