An RV Lifestyle Thanksgiving

Welcome to the Thanksgiving 2019 episode of the RV Podcast, released on Thanksgiving Eve, one of the busiest travel days for ALL Americans - not just RVers - and a time to be with friends and family. Us, too! We just drove back to Michigan to be with family for Thanksgiving like so many this time of the year, there are more to-dos than there are hours in the day. And for that reason, this will be an abbreviated version of the podcast because we know many of you have other things to do this week than tune into our typical hour long podcast. Because after Thanksgiving is Black Friday weekend, the busiest shopping days of the year. So, this week, we’re going to respect your schedule and ours and make this a brief one. Speaking of Black Friday, just a quick mention here that we’re having a 40% off sale of our various RV Lifestyle digital guides. It is only good to Dec. 1, but if you’re listening to this episode close to its release date of Nov. 27, 2019, go to: https://shop.rvlifestyle.com/collections/digital-guides and from now until Sunday, Dec 1st, you can get 40% off any of our premium guides using the discount code: BFTAKE40. Our first stop this week when we got back to Michigan was the town of Holland, on the west side of the state where we had our RV winterized. We shot a visit of the process and we’ll release that this weekend on our RV Lifestyle Channel on YouTube. We’ve done a lot of different winterization videos over the years on the different ways various RVs we have owned are winterized but this was the first time we winterized our Leisure Travel Vans Unity FX model so we thought we’d add it to the channel as well. While the general process is pretty much the same for all RVs there are always some differences. Things are located in different parts. Plumbing knobs have to be turned just so. Filters removed. Things like that. So while I think the video will be helpful to all RV owners, we though we’d show what’s involved in winterizing our Leisure Travel Vans unit. I used to always feel bad when it was time to winterize because for so many, it means the end of camping until spring. But not us. We camp year-round on our RV, even in the snow. Besides, we’ll be back to warm temperatures down south again right after the New Year winter campout up at Tahquamenon Falls in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. So then it will be time to do another video ion how to de-winterize our RV. This part of the podcast is brought to you by Dish Outdoors, which lets RVers pay as they go and watch HD satellite television from wherever they are camped with easy to set up gear made with the RVer in mind. Just go to https://rvlifestyle.com/dish for details on the service and special deal just for listeners of this podcast. RV LIFESTYLE NEWS OF THE WEEK President Trump to send national park rangers to patrol Mexico-U.S. border after Democrats refuse to provide funding for more border agents National Park rangers will be patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border to fight illegal immigration and drug traffickers under a new order by President Donald Trump. Trump made the order after the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives refused to fund his border security plan. Trump says the extra manpower is needed to respond to a record number of illegal migrants. But Democrats criticized Trump for taking national park rangers away from national parks, which are already underfunded. New York state campgrounds set new record in visitors for 2019 A new record for campground attendance was set for New York state campgrounds in 2019. The announcement was made by Governor Andrew Cuomo last weekend, citing 680,533 campground visitors in 2019 compared to 663,953 in 2018. Jen and I were among those campground visitors New York's upstate area and found it absolutely beautiful. To see a recap of our travels, click here. Skip Black Friday shopping and have an outdoor adventure on #OptOutside Friday Have you seen the hashtag #OptOutside yet? Many state parks throughout the country are offering free admission Nov. 29, providing a Green alternative to Black Friday shopping. Sponsored by retailer REI co-op, the goal of the day is to get people outside taking a walk, cleaning up a green space, or doing some other outdoor activity versas being inside buying things. REI is closed Nov. 29, yet still paying its employees. And it is encouraging others to get outside, too. We love the idea of enjoying the fresh air and having an adventure, and saw hikes and special events at parks and locations throughout the country - too numerous to list. Here is a few of what one state has planned, and here is the REI site that has a few more spots - but not the complete list. Black Friday sales to offer discounts for some iconic national park lodges Speaking of Black Friday, for those of you who like national parks but prefer to stay in a lodge, you may be interested in a story we saw about Black Friday sales on lodge stays at Grand Canyon, Death Val