What's New: Personal Security
Of Interest: Alaska Questions
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Just a reminder: We will be presenting our seminars, "RVing Alaska" and "Personal Security Tips For RVers" at the Western Gypsy Gathering Rally, March 8 - 12, 2010 at the Yuma County Fairgrounds in Yuma, Arizona.
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What’s New: Personal Security Tips
“Personal Security Tips for RVers” is our newest book. It is a collection of what we consider the most informative of the columns and articles we have written about personal security and RVing.
While “Personal Security Tips For RVers” emphasizes preventive security techniques for your personal safety, it also includes a segment on how to respond to a criminal confrontation and another on deciding whether to carry a firearm in your RV. A third section of the book deals with ideas for securing your home while you are on the road.
The last few pages of the book contain suggestions for creating an Emergency Notification Card to carry in your wallet, a list of important legal documents you might want to take in your RV, and advice on how to obtain medical care while traveling.
The purpose of the book is to show you some common-sense measures you can take to safeguard yourself, your home and your RV while you are on the road.
"Personal Security Tips for RVers" can be ordered either as a paperback publication or a downloaded e-book.
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Of Interest: Alaska Questions
Alaska! We are getting a lot of questions about Alaska lately. And there is a definite increase in the number of orders for our Alaska DVDs and RVing Alaska e-book.
Here are our responses to some of the inquiries:
Do we need a car? This depends upon you. We have seen a number of people traveling to Alaska in large motorhomes without a car in tow. Most (but not all) of the attractions along the entire length of the highway are accessible to big motorhomes. Vicki and I made our first trip to Alaska in a 24-foot Class C motorhome and our second trip in a 32-foot Class A motorhome without towing a car. So it is do-able. But, our experience is that it is a lot more convenient to have the availability of a car when you want to do some local sightseeing or just run errands like going to the market or the post office. Of course, you will have two vehicles getting dirty (and they will) and you will have to pay for two vehicles on the ferries.
Towing with a dolly can be inconvenient on this trip. You will run into a fair amount of rain and thus muddy campgrounds and campsites. Strapping and unstrapping a muddy car on a muddy dolly on muddy ground will not be pleasant. Many of the commercial RV parks have pull-thru sites. So you won’t have to detach your car just to spend the night. But, most government campgrounds have back-in sites. You will have to detach your car before backing your motorhome into those sites.
Alaska Ferry. The fare is determined by how many feet of deck space your vehicle covers. A motorhome connected to a towed car takes up more space than if the two vehicles were separated (due to the length of the towbar) . So most motorhome owners usually separate the two vehicles and pay a lesser amount for two separate vehicles. But, according to the Alaska Marine Highway folks, you can tow your car (even on a dolly) on and off the ferry. You might want to verify this before you make reservations (1-800-642-0066).
Here is something to think about. Extreme high or low tides can increase or decrease the angle of the ramp between the ferry and the loading dock to the point where the back end of an RV with a long overhang could drag on the ferry deck, loading ramp or loading dock. We have not experienced this problem with our 37-foot motorhome (it is 12-feet from our rear axle to our rear bumper) but the ferry literature warns about this situation (from experience, no doubt) and states they will not be responsible for any damage.
During our 2007 Alaska journey we enjoyed full hookups most nights; had Wi-Fi service in the majority of commercial RV parks and cellular service in all the populated areas except for the Yukon Territory and some areas of northern British Columbia. The size and weight of our 37-foot diesel pusher motorhome towing a mid-size SUV was never a problem. We could have stayed in less expensive government campgrounds but we wanted to demonstrate on this trip that owners of large RVs could make the journey and and have the comfort and convenience of full-service RV parks just about every night. By the way, of the 30 campgrounds we stayed in during this 44-day trip, we had 20 pull-thru campsites. We identify and describe each of them in our RVing Alaska e-book
If you are even thinking about RVing to Alaska, be sure to read about our Alaska DVDs and RVing Alaska e-book.
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