RVs for MDs RVers are helping front line doctors and medical personnel fighting the COVID-19 pandemic by donating their RVs to those health care workers to give them a safe place to hang out without infecting their family. In our interview of the week you’ll learn about RV4MDs, an awesome Facebook group that is helping provide RVs for those health care workers. Show Notes for Episode #289 April 8, 2020 of The RV Podcast: WHAT MIKE AND JENNIFER ARE UP TO THIS WEEK It's another week of being hunkered down for all of us. We have so much bad news it there that we want to remind everyone that this national crisis that so overshadows our lives right now will come to an end. We may not yet know when but we will be able to travel again and we choose to think of our many plans being delayed, not denied... postponed not canceled. We announced over the weekend that Bo, our Norwegian Elkhound, now has his own Instagram Page. You can follow his adventures @bothervelkhound on Instagram. Or go to his page directly at https://instagram.com/bothervelkhound. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram, too. We're sharing several times during the day and can be followed at https://instagram.com/rvlifestylemike. RV LIFESTYLE NEWS OF THE WEEK Many current and 100 new hosts at Boondockers Welcome providing a place for full-timers, snowbirds, to stay One hundred new hosts joined Boondockers Welcome in March to help full-timers and snow birds find a safe place to stay. Many of the new and current hosts in the U.S. and Canada are also extending the amount of time campers can stay on their private property to help people hunker down during the pandemic. Boondockers Welcome is a web platform that lets members arrange overnight stays with hosts for typically one to five nights.  For more information check out our special link at rvlifestyle.com/boondockerswelcome. click here.  Tucson area sheriff deputies seeing a large increase in distress calls as more people hit the trails unprepared Everyone’s anxious to get outdoors for exercise during these days of social isolation but in Pima County near Tucson, emergency officials are seeing a huge spike in distress calls from hikers hitting the trails without taking basic safety measures. Search and Rescue deputies have answered 17 such calls in the last two weeks, a time frame in which they’d normally see half a dozen or so cases. That’s roughly a 100% increase in call volume, a strain on emergency responders. The Pima County Sheriff’s Department says the increase may be due to more novice hikers venturing out at a time many are off work with limited recreation options during the COVID 19 pandemic. The best way to avoid trouble out there is to carry enough water, about one liter for each hour of hiking, bring along a fully charged cell phone. And be sure to let someone know where you’re going and when you expect to return. Bears are starting to wake from hibernation in Georgia, Maryland, elsewhere Across North America, bears are waking up, coming out of hibernation, and looking for food. BearWise is an education program developed by bear biologists from each of the 15 state wildlife agencies that make up the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. The program, anchored by the website www.bearwise.org, offers lots of tips. And we urge you if you plan to get some outdoor exercise in bear country, that you check out their advice. Most states close campgrounds, numbers constantly changing Most states have now closed their campgrounds, as COVID-19 continues to spread across the continent. Most recently this week… Texas. The Governor has closed all Texas State Parks effective April 7th. Most ocean beaches across the country are closed. Fewer and fewer national parks are open. Instead of listing every state here that may be out of date when you see it, We want to again direct you to the folks at Campendium. They have compiled a list of what RV parks and services are open that provides a good overview. It is updated daily and you can access that list HERE.  This part of the podcast is brought to you by RadPower Bikes, America's #1 e-bike brand, offering direct to consumer pricing on powerful premium electric bikes. Now with free shipping   LISTENER QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK Do you have any suggestions for how to get an RV cleaned and waxed? It seems to be very expensive. We are too old to do it ourselves. - Karen and Ron. We just had ours washed. It cost $80 at an RV dealer. Waxing would have been another $100. Last year, we had the exterior our 25 foot RV detailed and the total cost was $350. I want to do a little maintenance on the RV while home and off work. Thought I’d re-caulk my roof. What do you recommend? - Jon Good question. This is something many manufacturers recommend should be checked and, if needed, be done each season. First, don’t just apply new caulk over the old. Remove the old caulk and then apply new. The caulk that is pretty much universally recommended by both RV service techs and manufacturers is called Dicor. It costs about $12 a tube and it’s very easy to apply. It’s self-leveling so even someone as mechanically challenged as me can do it. Here’s an Amazon link - https://amzn.to/34gG96y Do you have a question you’d like us to answer or a comment on the things we’re discussing? If so, we invite you to leave us that question or comment on the special voicemail number we have for the podcast – it’s 586-372-6990.  If you are driving and can’t write it down right now, just go to the RV Lifestyle travel blog at rvlifestyle.com and scroll down the page. You’ll see that number prominently posted on the blog. This part of the RV Podcast is brought to you by Battle Born Batteries, maker of quality, safe, and reliable lithium batteries that can be installed in just about every RV. Get in touch with Battle Born to find out what lithium batteries and an upgraded energy management system can add to your RV Lifestyle. Check them out at https://rvlifestyle.com/lithium RV INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK RVs for MDs - RVers are helping frontline doctors and medical personnel fighting the COVID-19 pandemic by donating their RVs to those health care workers to give them a safe place to hang out without infecting their family. In our interview of the week, you’ll learn about RVs4MDs, an awesome Facebook group that is helping provide RVs for those health care workers. This week in our interview of the week, we meet Emily Phillips and Holly Haggard, two Texas women who have put together the Facebook Group and are providing a real service to those on the front line in the grim battle against this dangerous disease. Here’s a video version of the interview: The interview of the week is brought to you by SunshinestateRVs.com, where every new  motorhome is delivered to the customer free, anywhere in the country  OFF THE BEATEN PATH REPORT    By Tom & Patti Burkett From the Rockies to the Mississippi River, and from North Dakota to Texas, one thing you can count on seeing as you travel the blue highways is dinosaurs.  Many of us grew up fascinated by these prehistoric creatures, and had our first look at one either on the Sinclair Oil gas station sign.   If we were really lucky, the local station had an actual model sitting on the curb out front.  Sinclair chose the dinosaur as its mascot because it was believed the crude oil that formed the basis for the business was created at the time dinosaurs walked the Earth.  The company capitalized on dinosaur fascination, offering a stamp album that was distributed to four million young people, and drawing record crowds to its displays at the Chicago Wold’s Fair and the Texas Centennial Exhibition. You can see the original models—a brontosaurus, tyrannosaurus, triceratops, and several more at Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose, Texas.  If the water in the Paluxy River is low, you can actually walk in the prehistoric tracks of the creatures preserved in the stone of the ancient river bed.   Along the highways throughout the region, you’ll find prehistoric creatures of every size and description gracing city parks, playgrounds, businesses, and museums.  Some are genuine life-size replicas and some are whimsical creations painted in bright, eye-catching colors.  Among our favorites are the ones in Dinosaur Park, high on a hill overlooking Rapid City, South Dakota. The park opened in 1936 and was an effort to capitalize on the popularity of nearby Mount Rushmore and draw visitors to the city.  It was built by the Works Progress Administration and designed by Emmett Sullivan, a sculptor who worked on Mount Rushmore and also designed the Christ of the Ozarks statue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.   The seven life-size creatures here are all based on fossils found in the Black Hills and were painted green and white to mimic the Sinclair Dino.  Sullivan also designed the dinosaur at Wall Drug, down the road a bit near the entrance to the Badlands National Park.  They’re all made of concrete over iron pipe frames. The classic long-necked, tail-dragging behemoth we all think of was originally called a brontosaurus.  Later it was renamed apatosaurus and is similar to the brachiosaurus of the same time period.  Whatever its name, it stirs the imagination.  Imagine the thrill it must have been to see seven of these giant beasts floating down the Hudson River on a barge, en route to the New York World’s Fair!  After you climb the many steps to the hilltop park, you can get up close and personal with the stock, climbing the accessible parts, and taking great photos.  The nearby gift shop offers actual fossils and memorabilia. If you want to hunt fossils yourself, the Badlands is a great place to start.  Because it’s a park, you can’t keep them, but many important finds have been made by visitors and reported to the park’s fossil rangers, who investigate every discovery.