September 1, 2008 Issue

In This Issue:

What's New With Us: Important Papers
Brief Article: RV Etiquette
Vicki's Favorite Recipes: Mexican Salad
RVing Tip: Storm Warnings

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Going to Alaska? Read the article "Alaska! The Ultimate RV Adventure" and check out our DVD "RVing Alaska: What to Expect, How to Prepare" and our E-book "RVing Alaska, Insights and Observations"

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What's New With Us

It is the eleventh hour. Do you know where your loved one's important papers are located? Do they know how to find yours?

Recently, Vicki's 93-year-old dad had to go into a skilled nursing facility. He seems to be making a slow recovery but there was a day or two when we thought we would lose him. Vicki is an only child so she had the responsibility of not only locating a good nursing facility that he could afford, but helping him with his financial affairs as well.

Fortunately, her dad is an organized and trusting person. He had already signed a "Health Care Directive", a "Power of Attorney for Health Care" and a "Durable Power of Attorney for Finance" naming Vicki as his agent. He had also authorized Vicki as a signer on his bank accounts.

All of his financial business was located in a well-organized file drawer in his desk. As a result, Vicki is able to determine what payments are due, show the bills to her dad and, with his approval, write and mail the checks to pay them. If the time comes when he is unable to direct his financial affairs, Vicki can step in with no problem.

In that same desk Vicki also found his insurance policies, retirement papers, his will and pre-paid burial arrangements.

Vicki's dad, being both pro-active and considerate, gathered, organized and made accessible all of his financial and important papers before they were needed. He not only did what he could to control his life during a difficult time, he made it as easy as he could for his daughter to assist him in his time of need and, ultimately, to deal with his passing.

Do you know where your loved one's important papers are located? Do they know how to find yours?


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RV Etiquette

Joe: Etiquette, or good manners, is simply being considerate of others.

I am one of those people who enjoys the sound of a campground in the morning. I love the rumbling of powerful engines coming to life, the groans of trailer hitches taking up their loads, and the crunch of tires rolling on gravel. To me, it is the siren call of adventure. It makes me want to go.

However, I am not too fond of folks who leave loudly before 6 o’clock in the morning. Their preparations seem to always include lots of door slamming and tossing rather than placing their leveling boards into truck beds. They run their engines interminably and suffocate the campground with exhaust fumes.

These must be the same people who arrive after 9 o’clock at night and can’t seem to position themselves in their site without a lot of yelling and maneuvering. And, of course, their RVs are the ones with the loud exhausts and nerve-wracking back up beepers.

And then there is the guy who, after parking his RV as close as possible to my rig, extends both of his slideout rooms into my campsite. This person also seems to be the one whose leaking water or sewer hose creates a small lake under my picnic table.

I get a kick out of watching the pet owners who take their dogs for a walk, pretend not to notice the animal pooping on the grass, and then immediately head back to their RVs. Who do they think they’re fooling?

These same people are the ones who don’t seem to notice that their dogs bark incessantly all day long. How do they stand living with an animal like that?

Vicki: I have no sympathy for people who abandon their clothes in campground washing machines or dryers and, when they return, find them piled in a corner. They should be there to retrieve their laundry and free up the machine as soon as the load is finished.

Cellular phones have shortened if not eliminated the lines of people at pay phones. Still, I am grateful to the considerate person who limits the number of calls or the time spent on those calls when they see others waiting.

Now, the lines seem to be forming at the place where we plug in our laptops to pick up our e-mail. Veteran RVers pre-program their computer to dial the appropriate phone numbers before they plug into the data ports. They only stay online long enough to download (not read) their incoming e-mail and to send their prepared outgoing messages. Fortunately, this inconvenience is going away as more and more RV parks offer Wi-Fi.

Joe: I appreciate the professionalism of the RVer at the disposal station who attaches his sewer hose, pulls his valves (black then gray), disconnects his hose and immediately moves his RV out of the way so the next rig can pull into place. You can bet he is also the person who moves his rig forward after he is finished fueling but before he goes inside to pay. This, by the way, is expected behavior at truck stops.

I am impressed by the master RVer who can pull into a campground late and leave early without making a sound; the thoughtful dog owners who not only clean up after their pets but care enough to teach them how to behave; the concerned parents whose children make happy sounds at the playground and pool but don’t run roughshod through my campsite. I am impressed by the majority of RVers and campers who have the good manners to be considerate of each other. It makes me want to stay.

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Vicki's Favorite Recipes (From My RV Kitchen and Favorite Recipes)

Mexican Salad
(Quick and Easy)

I made this salad on one of our first trips to Mexico. We had been told not to eat the produce without thoroughly scrubbing the outside, peeling or otherwise disinfecting. Tomatoes and avocados were plentiful, very inexpensive and, the best part - the tomatoes could be scrubbed or peeled and the avocados could be peeled.

This has become a favorite salad no matter where we are.

3 avocados, cut into bite-size pieces
3-4 tomatoes, cut into bite-size pieces
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced (optional)
Italian dressing, balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar

1. Put avocados, tomatoes and red onion (if desired) into a medium bowl.

2. Drizzle with Italian dressing, balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar.

Makes 4 side-dish servings.

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RVing Tip: (From RVing Tips, Tricks & Techniques)

Weather warnings broadcast by radio and television stations are frequently given for specific counties. Make a habit of asking what county you are in when registering at campgrounds. And don't forget to ask for the location of the nearest storm shelter.

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Next Issue, September 15, 2008: RV Show Season

Return to RV Know How

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August 15 Issue

In This Issue:

What's New With Us: Spending Our Time at Home
Brief Article: Toilet Tissue Issue
Vicki's Recipe: Bruschetta
RVing Tip: Improve Your Flush


What's New With Us

"We really need a bigger television" Vicki announced one evening. We were in our family room watching a rare interesting television program. Vicki suddenly realized she needed to wear her glasses in order to tell one character from the next. I knew this day was coming. I had been discreetly moving her chair closer and closer to the television set. But any closer and she would not have been able to put it into a reclining position. The day of reckoning had arrived.

When Vicki says "We really need …" I see dollar signs flying out the window. The last time "we really needed" something, it was window coverings for the bedroom windows. I tried to convince her that, since no one ever inspected our bedroom, their tattered condition didn't matter. But nooo, "we needed…"

Now you have to understand. It wasn't the cost of the window coverings I was dreading (it would progress from simple drapes to custom-made shutters). It was the "little extra" things that would accompany the purchase and installation of the window coverings. Like, "maybe we should install dual-pane windows first", and paint the bedroom, and paint the rest of the rooms, and "let's put up crown molding before we paint," and the kitchen cabinets "really need to be refinished, and, if we are (as it turned out) going to replace the kitchen cabinets and counter tops, shouldn’t we do the same with the kitchen (and bath and hallway) floors?"

So when Vicki announced that "we need a bigger television" my stomach churned. She immediately negotiated me from a 32-inch wide-screen TV up to a 42-inch. After a lot of head-spinning research and a number of trips to Circuit City and Best Buy, I identified the television that fit our interests, needs and (almost) our budget ($$$$$). On one of those visits I discovered that we "really needed" a combination VCR/DVD recorder/player ($$$) so I could transfer the images from our VHS video tapes (that I copied from our 8-mm home movies) to digital discs ($).

Then came "you know, a 42-inch television won't fit within the confines of our present entertainment center." Our "entertainment center" was a modestly priced, mass-produced-in-Taiwan, piece of furniture that barely accommodated our perfectly good 26-inch, 12-year old television along with a respectable VCR and a perfectly good DVD player.

We were not able to find an entertainment center that would accommodate our new television, fit into the alloted space of our family room, and match our family-room furniture. Rather than replace all the family-room furniture (it was discussed) we asked our son, Sean, the cabinet maker, to custom make an entertainment center for us. And, of course, we told Sean we would pay him what he would charge his customers ($$$$$).

We're not finished. While arranging for the delivery of the television, the salesman asked if we were set up for HD reception. If not, he suggested we have our satellite company set us up for HD first ($$ a month), have the television delivered, and then have a technician (who calls himself Firedog) properly connect and "tune" all the pieces and show us how to operate them (only $$$).

Would you be surprised if I told you that, as I was dialing the satellite company, someone suggested that, since there is not much worth watching on television these days, we really ought to upgrade to a viewing package with more movie channels ($$ a month)?

The entertainment center arrived. Essentially, it is a slightly larger version of the one it replaces. Sean did a beautiful job. The television arrives Monday. The satellite company can't get here until September 2nd. Mr Firedog will come out a day or two after that. Hopefully all will be in place and working properly just about the time we leave home to present seminars at the Sacramento RV Show. We "really need" to get back on the road; we can't afford to stay home.

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Toilet Tissue Issue

Dear Joe and Vicki: What kind of toilet paper should we use in our RV?

Joe: When we were RVing novices we never gave a thought to the toilet tissue issue. Then we heard someone say they disposed of their used toilet paper in a plastic trash bag rather than flush it down their RV's commode. Seems they were concerned the toilet paper would clog their holding tank. I haven't gone dumpster diving in a campground ever since.

When campfire conversation gets around to toilet paper (as it occasionally does), someone is bound to mention the "toilet paper test". The test is conducted by placing a couple of squares of toilet paper in a container of water to see how long it takes for them to dissolve. Generally, two or more brands or types of toilet tissue are placed in separate containers and submitted to the same treatment at the same time. One of the brands in the comparison test is usually one that is advertised as "RV safe" and has been purchased at an RV accessory store. A lot of "RV safe" toilet paper gets sold just for comparison test purposes.

There are no scientific controls or guidelines for conducting the toilet tissue test. You just put the squares in a container of water and see how long it takes them to dissolve, if ever.

Some folks will try to simulate actual RVing conditions. They put the toilet tissue in secure containers and shake them for a minute or so. These folks apparently drive over a lot of rough roads (I-10 across Louisiana, for example). Others will just let the containers sit for a given amount of time. Their RVs, I suppose, have a tendency not to go anywhere. Our RV lifestyle keeps us on the go. We placed our test containers on the shower floor of our RV and drove from one campground to another. That was as close as I wanted to come to simulating actual holding tank conditions.

The results of our toilet tissue tests (yes, we've done more than one) indicated that the relatively inexpensive toilet tissue we normally use dissolves just as quickly as the one advertised as "RV safe". So, you can imagine our joy when Scott Toilet Tissue (our single-ply tissue of choice) not only advertised itself as acceptable for RV use but put money-saving coupons in the RV magazines. Now, we take a lot of RV magazines and Vicki is an avid coupon clipper; it didn't take long before our supply of toilet tissue far exceeded the demand.

We have never had a problem with toilet paper (or anything else) clogging the outlet of
our RV's holding tank. Our habit is to leave the valve of our black-water holding tank closed until the tank is at least half full. After dumping the black-water holding tank and closing the valve, we add a few gallons of water to the tank. After flushing the toilet we frequently fill the bowl with water and flush again. My guess is that all that liquid combined with the agitation of our frequent travels has a tendency to liquify the contents of our holding tank and prevent clogs from occurring. Or maybe we have just been lucky.

In any case, we will continue to flush our toilet tissue down the commode and if the "right" toilet paper is not available, we'll use whatever is handy. But that's us.

How you handle the toilet tissue issue in your RV is a judgment call. And if you choose to dispose of your used toilet paper in the campground dumpster – well, I don't want to go there.

Vicki: Please notice that I did not contribute one word to this answer.

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Vicki"s Recipes (from "My RV Kitchen and Favorite Recipes")

Bruschetta
(Quick and Easy)

This is one of my favorite appetizers. It also makes a great snack. Leftovers make a delicious, healthy topping for baked potatoes.

French baguette
2 cups tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/4 cup onion, finely minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Slice bread into sixteen 1/2"-thick slices and lightly
toast in the broiler.

2. Mix tomatoes, basil, onion, olive oil and salt.

3. Spoon tomato mixture onto the bread.

Makes 16 appetizers.


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RVing Tip: (from RVing Tips, Tricks and Techniques)

When dumping your holding tanks, you might be able to improve the flushing action by raising the side of the RV that is oposite the holding tank valve. This can be done by using your leveling system or by driving the wheels up on leveling boards.
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Next Issue, September 1, 2008: RV Etiquette

Return to RV Know How

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