Escapees RV Club 2016 Travel Guide Photo by: Mark Fagan
The 2016 edition of the Escapees Travel Guide is out, and on the cover is a wonderfully vibrant Arizona sunset photo that Mark took.
The Travel Guide is a handy little book published by the Escapees RV Club for its members, and it lists nearly 1,000 RV parks across the continent (including Canada and Mexico) where Escapees members get discounts of up to 50%. It also provides state maps showing their locations for route planning.
The Escapees website also provides a map of them all here.
In addition, this listing includes the 19 RV parks that are under the Escapees umbrella. One of the neat things about Escapees RV parks — for the budget conscious — is that they always offer a few dry camping campsites in addition to their full hookup sites.
In our experience, these campsites are never full, are sometimes quite spacious, and don’t really need to be reserved in advance. Best of all, they’re just $5 a night for Escapees members.
It was roomy and had as much of a woodsy camping feel to it as is possible in an RV park. You can see pics of the campsite here.
The Escapees Travel Guide also lists members who own property and are willing to let other members park their RV on it for a night or more. We were very grateful for this unusual kind of RV parking when we got smoked out by a wildfire in Oregon a few years ago. How heartwarming it was to enjoy the special hospitality of fellow Escapees who let us stay in their yard while we got our wits together.
Escapees Magazine Jan 2016 Feature: RV Batteries By: Emily and Mark Fagan
When we first started RVing full-time, I couldn’t imagine traveling any other way and was very surprised that Escapees also offered travel tours for its members that did’t involve traveling in an RV.
Yet, now that we’ve been at it a while, I totally understand the desire to mix it up a bit and jump on a plane or a boat to go somewhere once in a while. And why not do that with friends who like to RV too?!
Escapees Magazine
Our favorite benefit of being Escapees members is the very informative Escapees Magazine that arrives in our mailbox every other month. There is a wealth of knowledge shared in its pages, and the topics that are covered touch on every imaginable aspect of life in an RV.
In the January/February 2016 issue of Escapees Magazine there is an article of ours about RV batteries.
We’ve been living on 12 volt battery power for nearly 9 years now, between our boat and our trailer, and we’ve learned a lot about what it is that batteries do, how to install them, how they get charged, what kinds of TLC they like, how and why they fail, and why certain kinds of batteries are better than others.
There is a ton of info about RV and marine batteries on this website as well, and for a more detailed study of what it is that makes RV batteries tick, the following tutorial pages get into the nitty gritty:
January 2016 – The desert RV scene around Quartzsite, Arizona, is a wild place in January, and has been compared to Burning Man in the Nevada desert and even 1969’s Woodstock in upstate New York.
The sun winks at the RVs boondocked in Quartzsite in the early morning light
But the crazy Quartzsite RV insanity lasts longer, and more people go, and you don’t have to buy a ticket to be a part of it all. Plus — the crowd is decidedly gray haired.
Even though there may be some free love going on in a few rigs in Quartzsite, I can’t say I’ve seen Jimi Hendrix performing there. And rather than one huge bonfire, there are lots of small campfires.
A typical scene around the campfire in Quartzsite
Of course, nowadays, it’s likely that a few faces in Quartzsite are the very same ones that were at Woodstock all those years ago, although they are probably a bit more wrinkled now, nearly 50 years later.
Quartzsite has its share of wacky people. Some even lug their tripod up on their trailer roof to take pics at dawn.
The fun thing is that it is open to anyone that can get there, and come they do, driving, pulling, and probably in the worst cases even pushing whatever kind of RV they can get their hands on.
Any and every kind of RV is welcome in the Quartzsite desert, from ordinary to off-the-wall.
A cool custom bus conversion we came across looked like a fabulous way to go.
Power and cargo carrying capacity to spare.
Some travelers forego the RV all together when they make their way to Quartzsite, and we were quite surprised to see a tent tucked between some RVs in the vendor area of the RV show.
If you can’t swing a rig with wheels, a tent will do the trick.
Getting up off the ground is good when it gets cold, though, and Quartzsite nights sometimes get down into the freezing zone in January. A vintage popup tent trailer we saw fit in just fine with the bigger rigs around it.
A popup can be just the ticket in Quartzsite
Some folks like to add a little class to the antique RV niche in Quartzsite, and we saw more than a few wonderful old Airstream trailers.
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Going retro is cool, but some folks are handy and would rather build from scratch than deal with fixing and repairing an antique. We saw one rig that was totally custom.
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Another one we noticed was not entirely identifiable.
Umm… what’s in the trailer?
At one point we found ourselves driving behind a Funny Car.
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Out in the desert, the love of rollling wheels includes remote control ATVs that scurry around on the hard packed gravel between the rigs.
Whaddya do all day in the desert in Quartzsite? Play!!
Others take to the sky for a bird’s eye view.
What a great way to survey the scene!
We took off on our bikes and found that just a few pedal strokes away from the RV madness are some pretty nice mountain biking trails. It can be a little soft and sandy in places, but the trails go on forever!
A little spin on the bike can take you far from the crowd.
With all the RVs in town, there’s a constant RV traffic jam on the roads, and it’s not unusual to find the local gas stations filled with RVs.
RVs fueling up at the gas station.
The Quartzsite RVing crowd is not proud. We all know what we’re made of and who we are. Wearing a t-shirt emblazoned “Trailer Trash” kinda sums up the sentiment in these parts.
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Well, maybe that’s a little harsh. “My Indian Name is ‘Runs With Beer'” may be closer to the truth for many.
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Not everyone in town is a t-shirt type of guy, though, and the owner of Oasis Books on Main Street, Paul Winer, is famous for wearing nothing more than a thong.
He is very willing to pose for photos with the ladies at his store (I’ve done it too!), and he does his laundry — what little there is of it — right alongside all the RVers down at the Main Street Laundromat.
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And it’s a good thing too because, as another sign at the laundromat says…
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The bulk of the Quartzsite crowd is old enough to have grown children, so, it’s not surprising to see a sticker on the back of a Honda CRV that says, “I love my Grandog.”
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Lots of grandmas and grandpas love their granddogs here, and a few love them to an extreme.
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Not all RV pets are quite so pampered, though, and one Kool Kat we saw in the desert was keeping a close eye on what was happening within reach of his trailer.
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No matter how you come to Quartzsite, there’s fun to be had in the desert, and we certainly had our share this year with the Hitchhiker fifth wheel gang.
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At the end of our ten day stay, our new friends from the Hitchhiker group, Steve and Jean, brought out champagne for everyone, while Christine shared a plate of homemade chocolate covered strawberries fresh from her Mobile Suites RV kitchen.
Did anyone say we were roughing it out here?
Mark shows off Christine’s truly decadent chocolate covered strawberries while Steve pours champagne. This is living!
Everyone raised their glasses in a toast to the great time we shared.
Cheers…and Happy Trails til next year!
Almost every morning and evening we were in Quartzsite, the Arizona sunrises and sunsets lit up the sky in some of the most dramatic and colorful displays we have seen anywhere.
January 2016 – The focal point of the January RV migration to Quartzsite, Arizona, is the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show. This is a wild event, attended by thousands, but the name is a little odd.
The show is geared primarily towards the lifestyle interests of the retired crowd and also has a fair bit to do with RVs. But it makes just passing references to vacations and has very little to do with sports at all!
Quartzsite and its RV Show are as quirky as the camels that greet people on the way into town!
It’s strange name aside, the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show is a total hoot, and during the eight days it is open, thousands of folks from the North America’s senior set walk through the Big Tent in town and wander around the many booths scattered around the outside. If boredom sets in, there are loads of other flea markets and outdoor selling arenas in town that have trinkets, tools and household goodies for sale too.
Walking into the Quartzsite RV Show
The RV Show is a freestyle cross between a county fair and a flea market, and vendors set up shop all over the grounds to keep show goers well fed with funnel cakes and kettle corn and ice cream.
You won’t go hungry at the RV show!
Inside, we found the Escapees RV Club booth right away and got chatting with Mark Nemeth, the magazine’s technical guru who shares his wisdom in every issue in his column, “Mark My Words.”
We met up with RV tech guru Mark Nemeth (in the blue shirt) at the Escapees RV Club booth
Nearby was the tourism board for Alaska, and we snagged a map and learned a little about how to tackle an RV roadtrip to the far north.
Curious about Alaska? This booth has the answers!
Last year, we were charmed by a brief chat we had with Amazon Camperforce representative Nancy, and we were thrilled to find she was at their booth again. She and her husband, David, have worked for Amazon as ambassadors for their unique RV workamping program for several years, and her warm smile and enthusiasm for the program were as infectious as ever.
Even better, they travel full-time in a Hitchhiker Champagne fifth wheel trailer, and although they were camped near town for an easy commute to the show every day, one evening they came out to the Plomosa Road campsite in the desert, where the Hitchhikers were gathered, and joined the group for a potluck dinner.
I was thrilled to see David and Nancy at the Amazon Camperforce booth again this year.
The RV Show is more of a Home Show and Lifestyle Show than it is specifically an RV show, and there were lots of gadgets for sale that are handy in the home whether it rolls down the road or sits on a permanent foundation.
The Sweepa Broom looked like it could be super handy for RVers. Lots of show goers were carrying these brooms, and that had been the case last year too. In fact, last year the booth was shut down by the time we got to it because they had sold out, so we were glad to be able to catch the demo this year. It was amazing how thoroughly it swept up pet hair!
Some of the hottest selling items would be handy in either a rolling or stick built home.
The Sweepa Broom folks still had plenty of stock when we stopped by, but the Chilling the Most booth was plumb out of their product. I have no idea what they were selling, but it was obvsiouly very popular!
Oops… got to this booth too late!
There’s no segmentation or grouping by product type in this show. All the vendors are jumbled together. So we got a laugh when we saw the Vitamix blender booth right next to the National Park Service booth. Well, that’s the RV life, I guess: make a smoothie and go see the Grand Canyon!
The essence of the Quartzsite RV Show: Vitamix blenders and the National Park Service side by side.
Food prep is a big deal at this show, and lots of vendors were giving demos of various kitchen gadgets. The Primo Peeler definitely put my old fashioned carrot peeler to shame. It slices, it dices…
The Quartzsite RV Show is in large part a Home Show — and why not?!
A very popular booth offered a “detox for life” foot bath. Just soak your feet in a magic forumla in a bucket for a while, and you’ll detox your whole body. Meanwhile, the liquid in the bucket turns a frightening color.
Snake oil or life saving health product? Who knows — it’s Quartzsite!
Detox for Life – just soak your feet in this bucket for a bit.
At some booths, like the detox booth, we had to stretch our imaginations a little to figure out if they were aiming their product at the Sports people, the Vacation people or RV people in the show’s audience. The mini-flipper 4 wheel drive ATV toy and Urban Rail Car and Create A Track train sets really gave us pause for thought.
A toy for the grandkids — or for the kid in all of us!
Suddenly, it hit me. Most of the folks attending the show were grandparents — and they had grandkids to buy for. What could be better for the little tyke than a toy train or ATV?! Funny thing was, when we got back out to our desert campsite, we saw a guy — a full grown guy — playing with a flipper ATV he’d picked up at the show. I guess we’re all kids at heart!
Of course, lots of people have grandkids at home, but they travel with their little pooch when they go RVing. Many of them brought their furry friends along to the show.
Puppy love…
Even though the crowds were thick in the aisles of the show, lots of little dogs made their way from booth to booth in baby strollers.
It’s easier to brave the crowds from the protection of a stroller!!
Seminars were being given on various RVing topics.
We caught up with the folks at Wholesale Warranties too. A year ago we were not so sure how useful an RV warranty could be, but this year we discovered just how important it is to have one for an older RV — our $1,904 four year policy covered $6,700 of repairs in just over a year — so it was great to put some faces with the names of the good folks at this company.
We were also fascinated to learn about their new RV repair facility rating and review website called RV Repair Direct. Since they have a vested interest in having warranty repairs done correctly the first time, they are putting together a database of RV repair facilities where people can rate and review the service providers they have used.
We met the gang at Wholesale Warranties and learned about a new service they have.
What an inventive idea this database is. Lord knows, figuring out which repair shops are good and which aren’t is really important and not easy at all! As I chatted with founder and CEO Jeff Shelton (on the right in the above photo), I was really impressed with his energy and his many creative ideas and his enthusiasm for the RV lifestyle.
RV insurance companies were at the show too, and Progressive Insurance had a long line out the door.
Whatever Progressive was giving away, it had to be good. Look at that line!
And outside we found lots of RVs for sale.
In one area there were a bunch of used Prevost motorhomes for sale. New ones go for about a mil and a half, so we jumped at the chance to peek inside some used ones and see what it would be like to live in a six year old $650k rolling home.
Mark gets a feel for how “the other half” lives.
The Prevost tours were popular, but I think the ice cream vendors were the ones that were really raking it in. This year for the RV Show the weather was sunny and warm, and everyone seemed to be licking an ice cream cone!
Ice cream was a big seller!
Of course, as the afternoon wore on, the outdoor beer and burger venues began filling up too. In the morning when we had first passed the “Happiest Place in Quartzsite” on our way into the show, the seats were all empty. But by the time we left in the afternoon they were full!
The “Happiest Place in Quartzsite” !!
At the end of the day we relaxed with our new Hitchhiker friends around the campfire.
The RV Show is fun, but I think the real draw in Quartzsite is getting together with friends.
What a fun way to spend a few days in the middle of winter!
January 2016 – Before we went to Quartzsite this year, some soon-to-be full-time RVers asked us why it is that RV travelers go there. They were native Arizonans and they knew that Quartzsite is just a truck stop of a town on I-10 between Phoenix and LA. So why would such a dumpy little town swell from less than 4,000 people in July to something like a million people in January, almost all of them living in RVs?
Quartzsite, Arizona, is a gathering place for RVers of all kinds each winter.
We tried to explain about the January RV Show in town, and the 15 mile radius of retirees boondocking all around, and the huge rallies for owners of all kinds of RVs, from Montana fifth wheels to Alpine coaches and Safari motorhomes to dozens of other RV manufacturers.
We talked about the moveable feast of pot-luck dinners, and the campfire cocktail circles at sundown, and the huge outdoor movie screens that folks set up, and the crazy flags flying from all the RV roofs, and the light shows people put on in the dark on their RVs.
Quartzsite is best known for its wild RV boondocking scene in the desert.
“So it’s a social thing?” They asked. Well, yes, we realized. In a nutshell that’s what it really is.
Quartzsite is “The Gathering Place,” and it seems that almost everyone who is living in the southwest in their RV in January swings by for a day or a week or a month. Some even spend the whole season here.
There are RV parks in town with full hookups, and some folks stay all winter — or even all year!
There are all kinds of places to park an RV and to get together with friends. There are RV parks with full hookups, and there are enclosed camping areas called Long Term Visitors Areas (LTVAs) on BLM land near town with toilets and dump stations and water where you can stay for a modest fee. And then there’s the free desert boondocking on BLM land a little further out.
RVing groups and rallies of all kinds come to Quartzsite. Even the Escapes Boondockers “Birds of a Feather” group camps together in the desert
The Sonoran Desert in this corner of the state has a hard-packed gravel surface that is easy to drive on, and there is very little vegetation. So, you can drive your rig anywhere, in almost any direction, and park and set up camp. If you’ve got friends that are coming or if you are part of an organized group, all the better.
All kinds of groups gather together in Quartzsite each January.
There are little signs all over the place pointing to where each social group has convened. The Escapees Boondockers stake out one area, the Off-Road Geezers stake out another, and the Gad Abouts and DV8’s take another. These are just a tiny few of the many dozens of groups we’ve seen.
Are you a Gad About? Park here!
The DV8’s were having a great time not too far from us
Some groups don’t have signs but just wave flags instead, and you have to walk over to the group and talk to them to find out what their group is all about.
A group of rigs flying a big yellow flag with a red crab on it really got us guessing.
Flags fly high from RVs all over the desert. American flag. Air Force flag. Crab flag??
“We’re Crabbers!” An old fellow told me. “We have small boats and trap crabs on the Oregon coast.”
And here they were in the Arizona desert doing the Quartzsite RV camping thing!!
Others just stake out a spot of their own without being part of an organized group. So it has always been for us.
We found a quiet corner and got set up.
However, this year, right after we unhitched our new truck and started leveling our trailer, a couple walked over and told us we were about 100 yards from the Hitchhiker fifth wheel gathering. They were all just beyond the next wash. Since we own a Hitchhiker fifth wheel trailer, they suggested we come on over for happy hour and meet the gang.
The Hitchhiker group was a great bunch to hang out with. And since Hitchhikers are no longer made, there was no problem joining in if you were in some other kind of RV. Two couples were in Mobile Suites!
What a fun group! They all knew each other from the very active Hitchhiker Owner’s Forum, a forum I haven’t frequented for many years since I first researched trailers before we went full-time.
No matter! When we got over there we were welcomed like family, and immediately handed paper plates and forks, and told to go grab some grub from the large table of sumptuous food. We joined the circle around the campfire and had a blast.
Over the next week we spent every afternoon and evening with this really fun crowd.
How cool to find that we were a short walk from the Hitchhiker gathering!!
Campfire storytelling is always a blast, and Lee and Christine regaled us with hilarious tales from their careers as dog trainers for Hollywood’s A-list stars. Steve, Jean and Pat shared great tips from their RV trip to Alaska last year.
Old salts Rick and Virgie told stories of their coastal and offshore sailing adventures between California and Mexico navigating with nothing more than a hand-bearing compass and a sextant back in the 80’s. We were amazed when they described entering the stunningly beautiful but dicey bay of Careyesat night, an anchorage that we loved but that’s so tricky that few sailors trouble with it.
There was a campfire and great food every night.
Our location was about 12 miles north of town on Route 95 and then east on Plomosa Road about 2.5 miles. There are a dozen turn-offs to both the north and south along a three mile stretch of Plomosa Road where you just drive out into the desert with your rig and find a place to park. There were little groups everywhere we turned.
RVers gather all over the place on the BLM land surrounding Quartzsite.
What’s fun is that the same groups claim the same trees and washes and fire rings in this part of the desert every year.
Little groups in camp chairs can be seen everywhere.
Interestingly, this is the corner where a lot of the single RVers hang out. The Solo’s and the Loners On Wheels were not too far from us, and the WINs (Wandering Individuals Network) were a really big group nearby.
The Wandering Individuals Network are a fun-loving group of single RVers.
The funny thing is that with all of these people busy socializing in the desert with their RVs, there’s a business opportunity for all kinds of RV service people. A really funky undercurrent of the Quartzsite experience is all the vendors who capitalize on repairing and upgrading the RVs that show up in the desert. They take full advantage of serving this captive audience for a few weeks.
Not only did we see them in town, but they were zipping across the desert too, fixing everything from windows to awnings to electrical systems.
No customer is too far out!
Getting it done… in the desert!
Some guys are general practitioners, while others are specialists in one area of RV repair or another.
Nothing like getting the RV awning repaired while having a beer in the desert.
This desert camping is all dry camping, of course, and you can see just about every imaginable kind of boondocking setup out in the desert. Some folks have big, elaborate solar power systems on their roofs, and others have just a solar panel or two propped up on the ground, while many many others simply run a generator for a few hours a day.
Many RV rooftops sport solar panels, and there are all different configurations.
Naturally, cocktail conversation frequently turns to electrical systems, solar power and batteries, and how to keep them charged. Mobile RV service guys that specialize in electrical systems are lept busy all day long. A few solar installers in town have lines out the door as well.
Some mobile RV techs (like Phil & Ann’s RV) specialize in electrical work. What a workshop!
Lots of folks come to Quartzsite looking to upgrade their rig too, and RV retailers set up shop for a few weeks in town with temporary lots full of new and used rigs.
There are RVs for sale on every corner.
Lots of folks come to Quartzsite with dreams of finding a new rolling home.
For us, this was a really special Quartzsite year. Not only did we meet up with a great group of people, but the weather was pretty near perfect the whole time, with warm days and almost no wind (it can be very windy and dusty there!). Best of all, the sunsets were divine!!
Some of the sunrises and sunsets this year were truly spectacular
December 2015 – Before the holidays, we had the opportunity to enjoy a wonderful week-long stay at ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort in Mesa, Arizona. Even though our typical mode of RV travel is to boondock, which is decidedly more gritty than pulling into at an upscale RV resort park, we got a huge kick out of taking a brief time-out from our solar powered lives to enjoy the sweet amenities at this resort RV and mobile home community just outside the big city of Phoenix.
Pretty sunsets like this one ended every one of our days at ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort
It was here that we made the swap from our old 2007 Dodge Ram 3500 to our new 2016 Ram 3500 dually truck. And because the RV park is close to a Valley Metro Light Rail station, we were able to zip into town to see Alice Cooper in concert without having to worry about parking our big new truck in the city.
Our new truck poses for us in our campsite at ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort
ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort is a sister park to the beautiful and action packed Monte Vista RV Resort a few miles away. And, like its sister, it is a true resort community, complete with a lovely swimming pool where a water aerobics exercise class was going on when we arrived.
What a spot for some wintertime water aerobics!
As the name implies, this is a golf oriented resort, and for visitors and residents alike there is an 18 hole golf course just steps away from your front door!
A pretty fountain welcomes golfers onto the course
We aren’t golfers, but the course was being enjoyed by many. If there is a golf heaven on this earth, it has to be in the Sonoran Desert of central Arizona where each golf course you see is more stunning than the last!
An 18 hole golf course is just steps from the RV park
There are lots of other outdoor pursuits for non-golfers in this RV park, and as we explored the community on foot and by bike, we found pickleball courts and shuffleboard courts too.
The pickleball courts were busy!
Championship shuffleboard courts.
This winter snowbird community is largely made up of park model homes, and we had fun checking out the cute houses that line the lanes.
ViewPoint is a pretty community of park model homes that is fun to explore by bike or on foot.
A spacious RV park is located at one end of the community, and the sites are big and nicely spaced out. Each has a concrete slab. Most of the RVers we met there were staying for a few months or for the whole season.
Many of the rigs were actually vacant while we were there, because their owners had flown home for the holidays. But the few who were staying for Christmas said the whole park would be buzzing with activity from January through March.
Santa welcomes us to the ballroom and theater!
This park is really well appointed with amenities of all kinds, and I was quite surprised when I poked my head in one door to find a library loaded with books. This library is very popular, and every time I passed by, I saw several people either reading at leisure or scanning the hundreds of book titles on the shelves.
The library attracts readers with walls of books and comfy chairs
The gym was terrific and outfitted with excellent equipment, including one of my favorite machines that is really hard to find even in the biggest commercial gyms: a good quality rowing machine. Just outside the gym windows there is a hot tub, and we saw people soaking in it every time we hit the gym for a workout.
I really enjoyed my workouts at this gym — a “conventional lifestyle” luxury I miss!
Along with arts and crafts groups and a photography club that produced a hallway full of truly stunning photos in the main building, ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort also offers a huge variety of excursions to nearby and not-so-nearby attractions. A bulletin board lists daytrips and overnight jaunts to all kinds of exotic places, from Rocky Point in Mexico, to Tubac, Arizona, to the Grand Canyon and Copper Canyon and even a trip on the Verde Canyon Railroad.
For those that want to see these special places but don’t want to drive their RV to each one, what a great way to do some fun traveling while using this RV resort as a home base!
Where do you want to go? This travel bulletin board is filled with inviting trips
ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort is a big community, and I was impressed that they have quite a few amenities right onsite, saving residents and visitors a car trip into Mesa. There’s no need to hunt down a hair salon somewhere in the city, because there is a hair salon located right on the resort grounds!
Walk to the beauty salon from your RV!
There’s also a really fun sports bar and restaurant next to the golf pro shop called Fat Willy’s. We wandered in late one afternoon to discover we had hit it on the best day of the week, Monday, when they offer $6 gourmet burgers and $3.50 pints of Kilt Lifter (a yummy Arizona craft beer). The place was so packed they had to set up extra tables and chairs in another room!
Fat Willy’s is a great little sports bar at the resort with delicious burgers at good prices
As one gal said to me during our stay, “If you’re bored here at ViewPoint, it’s your own fault, because there is always something going on!”
This is a popular place for snowbirds looking to get away from winter’s chill up north, and we discovered that lots of people come here along with friends and family who journey down from cold country for the winter.
When we were doing our laundry one day, we got chatting with a long-time winter resident and discovered she had purchased her park model home sight unseen with a phone call from Minnesota so she and her husband could join her sisters and their husbands who already had winter homes in the resort complex.
The community is expanding with new park model homes.
She was thrilled with her winter digs and just loved the community.
We also met several full-time RVers as well as former RVers who had purchased park model homes here either to establish a home base for their travels or because the time had come for them to hang up the keys.
While we were there, ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort was in the middle of a big expansion, with new park model homes going in and some of the common areas getting upgraded.
Having a cute little home base is a nice option for full-time RVers!
Staying at an upscale RV resort like this isn’t cheap, but we discovered the rates can be reduced significantly with a Thousand Trails Camping Pass.
The daily rates at ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort are $51/$65, in summer/winter while weekly rates are $306/$390 for the same periods with 20% off for Thousand Trails members. Monthly rates range from $1,097 in Jan-March to $806 in Oct-Dec to $519 in Apr-Sep., with Thousand Trails members receiving a 10% discount.
Sunset at ViewPoint RV & Golf Resort
For RVers who want to settle into this park for the most popular months of December to March, the Thousand Trails Camping Pass saves $409 over those four months, which nearly pays for the pass itself, making it possible to camp within the Thousand Trails network for very little during the rest of the year.
December 2015 – When we bought our Dodge Ram 3500 single rear wheel truck brand new in 2007, we purchased it to tow our lightweight full-time home, a 7,000 lb. 2007 27′ Fleetwood Lynx travel trailer. For such a big, monster truck, that little trailer was a featherweight. But within a year, we had upgraded our year-round living quarters to a 36′ 2007 Hitchhiker Fifth Wheel trailer, a beast that weighs in at 14,000 lbs. fully loaded.
Our ’07 Dodge Ram 3500 truck and 36′ Hitchhiker fifth wheel trailer — at home on the road!
This trailer was the absolute maximum size our truck could tow safely.
The truck’s GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating) is 21,000 lbs., but our truck and trailer weigh 22,150 lbs. when hitched up and fully loaded. The truck’s GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) is 10,100 lbs., but the truck weighs 10,850 lbs. when the trailer is sitting on its back.
When it comes to safety on the road, we’ve been pushing it!
Our big beautiful trailer maxed out our big beautiful one ton truck!
These upgrades helped, but even though the truck was very happy towing our trailer on flat roads, it worked awfully hard when it was put to the test on mountain grades. Frankly, the transmission and modest rear end were not really 100% up to the task in the Rockies.
We gave the truck’s engine more horsepower and torque by installing an Edge Evolution Tuner
The beauty of having a towable RV is that we could replace the RV’s engine and drivetrain independently without affecting our living quarters (and vice versa). A new truck would revolutionize our driving experience on the road but not cost nearly as much nor be nearly as chaotic as replacing our home at the same time.
We were also toying with the idea of getting a truck camper someday so we could travel to more remote places. The weight of many truck campers requires a dually truck (four rear wheels instead of two to support the weight), so we began flirting with the idea of buying a dually.
We had a lot to learn about the latest trucks, and we studied everything we could about the myriad of improvements that diesel trucks have undergone since we last paid attention in 2007.
Our ’07 Dodge Ram 3500 single rear wheel truck was great, but a stronger truck would be better.
We began test driving new trucks right away when we arrived back in San Diego after our Mexico sailing travels. 2013 models were on dealer lots at the time, and in the ensuing months, the 2014 models began to arrive at the dealerships.
Since then, we have taken Ford, Chevy and Dodge trucks on over 200 miles of test drives, and visited at least 25 dealerships across the country. Mark subscribes to Diesel Power Magazine, and he has studied the subject of diesel trucks endlessly.
When we saw that the centerfold for the 2016 Ram Trucks brochure mentioned Roads Less Traveled, we had to have a 2016!
2016 Ram Trucks Brochure centerfold — It was meant to be!!
Diesel trucks improve every year, and this new one has a whopping best-in-class GCWR of 39,000 lbs as compared to the 21,000 lbs of our old truck. And that was just the first item on a long list of eye-popping stats.
Our only question was where it would be best to buy it. Because of our mobile lifestyle, we could buy it in any state at any dealership.
By the summer of 2015, Mark had come to know more about each option on the new Ram trucks than most of the salesmen we talked to. He also knew exactly which options he wanted and which ones he didn’t want. Unfortunately, this made it nearly impossible to find “the ideal truck” just sitting around somewhere on some random Dodge dealership lot.
Throughout our 2015 travels across 24 states, we checked in at almost every Dodge dealership in almost every town we visited to see if they had “our truck.” None did. We repeatedly searched online to see if a detour of 100 miles in this direction or that would bring us to our dream truck. No dice.
We test drove Ford, Chevy and Dodge trucks all over the country for two years. In Wyoming, we even test drove a custom 2014 Dodge Ram 5500. Very cool, but very stiff!
We soon realized that we would have to place an order for our truck in order to get the combination of options we wanted, and we would have to wait 8 weeks for it to be built and shipped to a dealership.
We were in perpetual motion driving from Arizona to Nova Scotia and back in 2015. Our favorite dealership was Marshall Motors in Salina, Kansas, where diesel truck salesman Alex Thatcher was the most knowledgeable of any we’d met. But we wanted to keep moving to get back to Arizona for the winter.
Logistically, ordering a truck in Arizona made the most sense for us because we were going to be there for a few months. But which dealership would be best?
Mark LOVED our ’07 truck and worried he might not love a new one as much…
We got a tip that Airpark Dodge in Scottsdale, Arizona has an annual Christmas holiday “Buy a Car Get a Guitar” promotion where anyone that buys a new car also gets a glistening new electric guitar signed by rock star Alice Cooper as part of the deal.
When Mark heard that, he was sold — We were THERE!
Mark has been a huge Alice Cooper fan since the day the rock star exploded on the scene in 1971, and we listen to his music all the time. Mark turned 18 shortly after Alice Cooper’s clever and poignant song “I’m Eighteen” came out, and he graduated from high school the year Alice’s hit “School’s Out” soared to the top of the charts.
Alice Cooper and Mark were both born in Detroit, and both spent their adult lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Mark didn’t move across country just to be like the rock star, but he went to a ton of Alice Cooper concerts in both cities over the past four decades, and he dressed up as his idol on many a Halloween night!
Wild eyed fans love to dress up as Alice Cooper, even to this day. Mark morphed into Alice Cooper for Halloween many times!
As a kid, Mark used to have a t-shirt decorated with Alice Cooper’s early trademark mascara eyelashes, and he wore it so much he wore it right through to rags. On the occasional day he didn’t wear it, a friend would ask him, “Where’s your Cooper shirt?”
Before we started traveling full-time, back when Mark and I were avid cyclists, we rode our bikes past Alice Cooper’s house all the time. Mark would always point it out, and we would wonder what life was like behind the huge front doors that had handles shaped like snakes.
There was no doubt that now, if Mark could lay his hands on a guitar that Alice Cooper had actually touched and signed, he would be totally beside himself. We knew exactly where we would be ordering our new truck!
Here’s the TV ad for the Airpark Dodge promo — check it out:
At the end of the ad, after passing out a slew of free guitars for car buyers, Alice asks: “I wonder what you get if you buy a truck?”
OMG — We sure found out!!
To begin with, when we got to Airpark Dodge to pick up our new baby, Mark was given his signed Alice Cooper electric guitar. He was in seventh heaven!
A new electric guitar signed by Alice Cooper – Wow!! Oh…. and a new truck too.
As we admired the Alice Cooper memorabilia on the walls of the dealership, we discovered that the GM of Airpark Dodge is golf buddies with Alice Cooper. To our amazement — and dismay — we found out that the week before we got there, Alice had been hanging out at the dealership kick-starting the promotion.
Oh, man. How did we miss seeing him in person at the dealership?! We were so bummed!!
Alice Cooper hangs out at Airpark Dodge in Scottsdale Arizona so much he has his own office (well, ummm… it’s a broom closet!!)
But then we found out that “Coop,” as his friends know him, was going to be performing at Talking Stick Arena in downtown Phoenix two nights later. Concert tickets were sold out, but afterwards he was going to host a special party at his bar/restaurant across the street (called Cooperstown) to benefit his teen rock center and rock music school in Phoenix called Solid Rock.
With that tid-bit of inside scoop, we dashed downtown on the appointed night, and before we knew it, we were mingling with a crowd of other fans at Cooperstown, waiting for the official concert across the street to end and for Coop to come on over and play at his bar.
Suddenly, a crazy Alice Cooper lookalike in a straight jacket and tall leopard boots grabbed Mark by the neck. Yikes!
Ya gotta watch out for those rabid fans!
He let Mark go, and we wandered around admiring the posters and wacky stage props and guitars and other memorabilia that cover the walls of Cooperstown.
There’s all kinds of cool stuff on the walls at Cooperstown in Phoenix
Suddenly, Alice Cooper appeared. He’d removed his stage makeup from the big concert across the street at the arena and was mingling with his fans around the restaurant. He knew some of them and recognized others from previous encounters.
Alice Cooper chats with a fan who’d brought him a special gift she’d made.
His son Dash got up on stage and performed with his band Co-op (“Coop” with a Dash !!). I had to smile as he leaned over the rail to watch his son in action.
Alice Cooper watches his son perform at Cooperstown
Moments later, he turned around, and we caught him just long enough to get some photos with him. He was very obliging, and oh lordy me, we were both totally star struck!
From Mark’s lifetime bucket list of dreams – Meet Alice Cooper… Check!
Moments after Dash’s band finished, Alice was up on stage with his own band, rocking out just steps from where we stood. Holy Smokes!
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We laughed and sang along and clapped and cheered with everyone else. This was AWESOME!!
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Hot hot hot!
Between singing along, we both managed to snap some fun pics.
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Not only was Alice Cooper phenomenal, but his band was incredible too. His guitarist, Nita Strauss, is stunning in every way!
Nita Strauss is a mind blowing guitarist in Alice Cooper’s band
All of a sudden, Alice Cooper’s son jumped back on stage and began singing with his dad. How cool is that?!
Alice Cooper sings with his son Dash
What a fantastic night this was. What fabulous memories!!
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Needless to say, we were gushingly excited. And we listened to Alice Cooper songs for the next week, nonstop.
Looking down at the stage and crowd of fans in Cooperstown
Oh… and our new truck?
WE LOVE IT!!!
Here are the details explaining exactly what we ordered on our new truck and why:
Also, our new diesel truck requires the use of DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid), and we learned a bunch about where to get it cheaply and how to get it in the truck without spilling…
If you are in the market for a truck, swing by Airpark Dodge in Scottsdale and see if the Coop is in! If he isn’t, talk to our salesman, Ed Kulas.
More Alice Cooper links below…
The hit song “I’m Eighteen” that has captured the hearts of 18 year olds for over 40 years:
“School’s Out” – This song, along with the drinking age dropping from 21 to 18 in most states and the draft ending nationwide — made 1972 a very special year for an entire graduating class of high school seniors:
“Elected” — Very appropriate for the 2016 election year, or for any election year for that matter. Alice Cooper wants to be elected, and he promises the formation of a New Party, a Wild Party… a Beer Party!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i4EnjRKVQw
Nowadays, Alice cooper is a pitchman for lots of companies. Here’s a super cute TV ad he did for Staples during the Back to School sales season:
Here’s a fun ad he did for Residence Inn:
And here’s a cute one for Service Arizona, the online vehicle registration service from Arizona’s Department of Transportation:
Wonder where this wacky rock star came from? Here’s a bio of how Vincent Furnier evolved into and then away from his alter ego Alice Cooper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAXtZ21c7u8
Here’s Alice Cooper talking a bit about his stage persona, his thoughts on Lady Gaga and music today. Skip 2:17 into the interview and you’ll hear him tell the TRUE story behind the urban myth that he killed a chicken on stage (I sure remember hearing THAT rumor circulating among my teeny-bop friends…yikes!):
Here’s a wonderful interview that gives insights into the now “lovable” and truly beloved Shock Rock star:
An interesting morsel we discovered in all of this was that Alice Cooper was approached and offered tons of money to do a reality TV show about his life today. But when the producers found out he’s a sober, drug-free family man who plays golf six days a week and goes to church every Sunday, they went with Ozzie Osbourne instead.
Here’s Alice Cooper, son of a pastor/evangelist, grandson of a pastor/evangelist and son-in-law of a Baptist minister…on Christianity:
Alice Cooper talks to golfers about how an addiction to golf saved him from an addiction to alcohol:
Here’s a little more from Alice Cooper about his faith and Christianity. Skip 6:05 minutes into it to hear about his foundation for at-risk teens, Solid Rock (the website given in the video has been replaced with www.alicecoopersolidrock.com):
January 2016 – A lot of folks that have never been to Arizona think of it as a very hot and dry place. That’s true in certain parts of the state at certain times of the year, but it isn’t always so!
Snow and mist cover the mountains east of Phoenix, Arizona.
This past week the humidity level stayed above 80% for five straight days, and the rain fell relentlessly.
What a gorgeous morning on Roosevelt Lake!
The stunner of it all was that this moisture showed up as a beautiful blanket of snow in the mountains around the desert floor.
A lone saguaro cactus looks up at the snowy mountains in the distance.
This is a spectacular area at any time, but snow really sets off those mountains!
What a great reward after a soggy week in our RV. We threw open the windows, even though it was only 50 degrees out, and let the sun pour in!
Roosevelt Lake Marina – boating between snowy peaks!
This part of the desert can hit 120 degrees at the peak of summer, but the overnight lows have been flirting with the freezing point on the thermometer all this week. Nonetheless, the occasional die hard boater has cast off on Roosevelt Lake.
An enthusiastic boater takes to the water on the first day of sunshine.
A pack of coyotes lives nearby, and we’ve been hearing them a lot in the mornings and evenings. The other day we spotted one just a few feet away.
A pack of coyotes has been singing and yipping a lot around us lately.
What a gorgeous animal! I was delighted when he turned to look at me.
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And the scenery wasn’t bad either!!
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We were just loving the colors…
What a place!
We hopped in the truck to take a drive and were amused to see cars and trucks coming down from the mountains with snow on the roofs. There were winter warnings for drivers too.
When we crossed one mountain pass we could tell the snowplows had been busy the night before. Wow!
Snow doesn’t last long in these parts, so we snapped as many pics as we could.
So pretty.
This area is beautiful at any time of year, but the backdrop of the snowcapped mountains with the saguaro cactus and Roosevelt Lake was just fantastic.
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Crossing the mountains on our way to Globe, the distant rippling mountain peaks were covered with snow.
This saguaro has upright arms. When one has a droopy arm, it’s often because snow or ice weighed it down for a while!
This was a wonderful fairy dusting of winter. Just enough to give us the beauty from a distance without having to shovel!
A tiny house on a hill…
The daytime temps warmed up to the low 60’s and the snow began to vanish from the peaks in no time. But what a neat few days we had here in “hot” and “dry” Arizona!!
The snow won’t last long, but it gave us a lovely winter interlude!
If you like reading our various blog posts on-the-go on your phone or tablet, we’ve got a new and very much improved menu for you. It’s at the top of the screen in the upper right corner, and it has the same goodies in it as the menu on our desktop layout but in a slightly different configuration.
A new menu for mobile devices in the upper right corner of the screen
On mobile devices, tap the arrow to the right of each topic to open it up and see more options.
Tap the arrows to the right to open each menu topic
Please check out the phone/tablet menu and let us know if anything doesn’t work quite right (we don’t have a mobile device so we haven’t seen it “live” yet). You’ll find all of our travels grouped by destination and can even take a peak at the various rigs we’ve owned and see what our sailboat looked like.
If there’s something you remember seeing on this site but can’t find again, try using the search option in the menus to locate it easily!
As always, a huge thank you to all our loyal readers for coming back here again and again.
December 2015 – During our RV travels in central Arizona we took an outstanding volunteer-led tour of the ancient Indian “Upper Cliff Dwellings” at Tonto National Monument. We had already visited the “Lower Cliff Dwellings” on our own, as those are open to the public for exploration without a guide. But a visit to the Upper Cliff Dwellings can only be made if you take a guided tour.
The hike up to Tonto National Monument’s Upper Cliff Dwellings goes through some beautiful scenery.
The cost was just the price of admission to the National Monument ($5 per person or free with a Federal Interagency Pass or Senior Access Pass). But that low cost was deceiving — this was no ordinary tour!
The depth of knowledge and enthusiasm of our guide, Susan Treneer, as she taught us about these ancient Indian ruins was unbelievable, and our whole group was fascinated as we listened to her explain the theories behind the history of this special place.
The hike was uphill but not too strenuous.
A group of about eight of us gathered at the Visitors Center and then hiked the 3 mile round trip up the steep hillside to the ruins and back. We began by going through some lovely riparian habitat (wetlands) where sycamores and other hardwoods were still showing off their autumn color.
A sycamore tree just off the trail in a riparian area.
Periodically, Susan stopped us as we hiked to explain the different vegetation we were seeing and to talk about the people who lived in the Tonto Basin 700 years ago.
Susan pauses to tell us about the Salt River and the people who lived here centuries ago.
We climbed higher and higher on the hillside as we approached the cliff dwellings at the top, and the view of Roosevelt Lake grew more and more expansive below us.
The views of Roosevelt Lake were outstanding.
Right before we entered the Upper Cliff Dwelling ruins, Susan brought out photos of some of the astonishingly beautiful and intricate pottery that the people of this place had made all those centuries ago. They are called the Salado People by archaeologists today, named for the Rio Salado (Salt River) that they lived near and which was dammed up in 1911 to create Roosevelt Lake.
Susan showed us photos of beautiful Tonto Basin pottery made right here centuries ago.
The Salado people were extraordinary potters, and their pottery has been found as far away as the Paquimé ruins in northern Mexico, some 350 miles or so southeast of Tonto National Monument.
The people who built these ruins came down from Mesa Verde in southwestern Colorado and from other Colorado Plateau cliff dwelling communities.
Our guide, Susan, excitedly explained that no one really knows why the Salado built their homes in these caves so high up on the mountainside. She explained that the valleys were already filled with people living an agrarian lifestyle. Those old-timers had been raising cotton, beans, squash and corn in the Tonto Basin for 1,000 years already.
The adobe structures had roofs made of saguaro cactus ribs and juniper. These are original!
The cliff dwellers were the newcomers to the area. They may have been artisans who wanted to make a life selling their unique tricolor pottery. Or they may have been workers for the wealthier farmers who lived below them. No one is 100% sure!
The adobe homes, storage rooms and workshops were built right into the caves.
All that is known is that they came down from the Colorado Plateau, and traveled through the Kayenta, Arizona, area, and ultimately set up housekeeping in the Tonto Basin and stayed for about 100 years.
Susan was extraordinarily knowledgeable about the ancient southwest cultures.
Susan’s enthusiasm for the subject was infectious, and it struck me that she was absolutely loving her wintertime volunteer job with the National Park Service at this special spot.
For archaeology buffs, working at a site that is being actively studied by scientists must be a thrill.
In between describing the tools and other relics that have been found at Tonto National Monument, she also told us that archaeology has been her lifelong interest. She hadn’t studied it formally or been a professional in the field during her career, but now, as a retiree, she was able to work alongside scientists and archaeologists studying this site and stay on top of the most recent findings and theories while “on the job” with the National Park Service. How cool is that?!
Most members of our group had traipsed through ancient ruins in Mexico and Central America as well as all over the southwest.
Susan’s volunteer job requires 32 hours a week of work, and she has taken the position for a few months. In exchange, she receives an RV campsite with full hookups overlooking Roosevelt Lake. This may not sound like a very fair exchange if you multiply out the hours worked and the value of the campsite. Even if it were a resort campsite, like nearby Monte Vista RV Resort with its swimming pools, hot tubs, sports courts and art studios, the pay would equate to just $8.20/hour. However, there is a deeper meaning to doing this kind of work, and she was obviously thrilled to have the opportunity to learn about the ancient southwestern cultures in a professional setting and to share her passion with others.
The public can only see the Upper Cliff dwellings on guided tours given on weekends.
Susan told me she has volunteered for the National Park Service for several years and has held similar positions at a few of the most significant ancient cliff dwelling ruins sites across the southwest, including Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon and the Gila Cliff Dwellings.
In one job, she didn’t work with the public but spent her days cataloging and storing ancient pottery. She said that having the opportunity to hold, examine and study 700 and 800 year old pots — some of them perfectly intact — was just thrilling.
These ruins were overflowing with artifacts and debris when they were first studied 100 years ago. In those days tourists were free to take home whatever artifacts they found lying around!
I asked Susan how she got started with the National Park Service, and she explained that when she started as a volunteer, she had to undergo an intensive 40 hour training class and also do a beginner’s stint as a campground host at Big Bend National Park (not her favorite line of work). But it was clear that the personal rewards she has found since starting work at the various cliff dwelling sites have been enormous.
The Salado people weren’t all that short — 5’6″ was average for men, the same as their counterparts in Europe – but the floor of the caves has built up over time.
Her enthusiasm for all things ancient and puebloan — like the small “T” shaped window that looked out from the window onto modern day Roosevelt Lake where the free spirited Salt River once irrigated the farmlands — was truly infectious.
Lots of folks think “work camping” is simply working as a campground host checking people in and out of a campground or cleaning the bathrooms. But as I learned from Susan, if you have a passion for a particular field of study that is a focus of a particular National Park, like the puebloan culture and associated archaeological ruins, volunteering is a fabulous way to apprentice yourself to get hands on experience and learn everything you can.
Susan pointed out a “matate” grinding stone that remains on site.
When Susan started, she was given a two page reading list of books to study. She was thrilled. “I like the intellectual stimulation,” she said. She wanted to spend her retirement not just traveling but learning new things and expanding her horizons in every way.
Corn was similar but a bit smaller back then. This corn cob is 700 years old!
More than once she mentioned the names of the archaeologists who are her favorite mentors. They are pioneering new work on the origins, migrations and lives of the ancient people of the southwest, and some of their theories challenge those of the researchers of prior decades. So, their work is new, their ideas are fresh, and they are breaking new ground in understanding what the earlier people of the southwest were really all about.
A corn cob got mixed into the adobe mud during construction and ended up in a wall!
We were totally impressed by the high quality of this tour. It felt like we were on a guided field trip with a true scholar. Susan had brought materials with her to show and instruct us, and she pointed out relics that were found at the Upper Cliff Dwellings and remain onsite and that the public can’t see without a guide. Best of all, she gave us insights into the lives of the people of an earlier time.
The remains of a shovel used by archaeologist Charlie Steen during the 1930’s excavation of these ancient ruins.
Perhaps even more important, she opened our eyes to the kinds of volunteer work that are possible within the National Park Service and on public lands in general. It isn’t always just cleaning up after tourists!
Susan did say, however, that there is a lot of competition for the premium volunteer positions, and that you have to build your credentials and your resume, just as you would with a paying job. After all, they aren’t going to trust just anyone off the street with handling and cataloging priceless pottery that is centuries old! But once you get yourself established in the system, there are intriguing opportunities to learn and to share — and to get an RV campsite with a view too boot!
Looking out over Tonto Basin from the back of the cave
If you have a chance to travel to central Arizona with your RV, take a trip to Tonto National Monument in the Tonto National Forest and see these wonderful ruins.
If you are lucky enough to be able to RV seasonally or full-time as a retiree, perhaps you too will pursue a lifelong interest by taking a short term volunteer position on America’s public lands!
Volunteer.gov – The website for finding volunteer workcamping positions with the National Park Service, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and many other public land agencies
An article chock full of tips for future full-timers who dream of running off on an RV adventure! Motorhome Magazine – January 2016
The January 2016 issue of Motorhome Magazine features a fun article we put together about full-time RVing. We love this lifestyle and learn more about it every day, and this article describes some of the things we’ve learned about how to live this way and why it’s such a blast!
The publisher has posted the article online on their web page, so you can read it here:
Of course, as thrilling as this lifestyle is, it’s not all wine and roses, and least not all day every day (just mostly). There’s work that’s gotta be done too! Mark is very gifted mechanically and he keeps our show on the road with endless tweaks, upgrades, and repairs to the various systems on our RV.
Some of these projects appear on this blog. But many never make it to these pages. Such is the case with the replacement of our King Pin assembly on our fifth wheel trailer last year.
Replacing a fifth wheel king pin assembly Trailer Life Magazine – January 2016
In the January 2016 issue of Trailer Life Magazine, there is a review of several different fifth wheel king pins currently on the market, along with a step-by-step pictorial we put together showing how we upgraded the king pin assembly on our Demco Glide-Ride.
Our fiver had begun to have a bit of a wandering spirit as it traveled behind our truck, and the connection between the fifth wheel and the truck had become quite sloppy. Replacing the king pin assembly did the trick to tighten up the connection and make our buggy more obedient as it rolled along behind us.
Motorhome and Trailer Life are both excellent magazines that cover a wide variety of topics that are near and dear to the hearts of all RVers. Some of the articles that appear in their print edition also get posted to their website, as with the full-time RVing article above. However, most articles (like our king pin assembly pictorial) are available only to subscribers.
For anyone that wants to learn about RVing, a subscription to one of these magazines is a great educational tool. We have been Trailer Life subscribers for eons and find something worthwhile in every issue.
