Yup, it is shoulder season for us as Martha recovers from shoulder replacement surgery. The operation was successful, but it limits our travels to staying home for at least 6 weeks including all of July. We expect a 100% recovery within a year. But now, we take the time to reflect on many RV topics that have been percolating in the RV Navigator inbox hopper for some time. The latest from Starlink, new AC units, towing capacities, and selected disasters make up this month itinerary. Join us for a summer RV romp in the digital domain.

Who eats gold? It is a thing, and your RV navigators had the opportunity to give gold a try during their trip to Japan. This plus the return back to Chicago via a repositioning cruise is on this months agenda.

Yes, we’ve learned alot while on tour in Japan. As a tourist, It is unlike any other country we’ve visited. Tokyo, our first stop, is one of the largest cities in the world and you’d think that one city is like another, but Tokyo is very different. Of course the language with over 2500 characters is impossible for us to use thus we have to rely on a few English signs and our phones with navigation. You’ll hear our extended impressions of this world class city as we share the our trials and tribulations while touring the city.

We’re celebrating 50 years of RVing and 20 years of podcasting in the 56 years of marriage in 2026. Yes, we started young and are going tn to old age with just as much gusto for RVing as when we started. We’ve RVed in 49 states (and I don’t mean we just drove through), most of Mexico and Canada. This in addition to extended RVing adventures in South Africa and New Zealand. With this experience, we thought that we’d share 10 essential things that we’ve learned about RVing that we hope will help others with less experience. We are not full timers, but we do travel for several months each year so our tips are focused on longer term travels - but apply to any destination. We hope that this sparks some lively conversation on our FB page. What are your favorite RV tips and tricks for making the journey more enjoyable?

A month in FL at our new seasonal home with an RV garage. However, the RV spent much of the month in the paint shop getting some body work after an incident on the Alaska trip last fall. She has been restored and it ready to travel once again. As heppens when moving into new living quarters, outfitting them is a time consuming task. Home automation is coming of age, so new home gear needs to be automation compatible and Matter makes it happen. What? Well take a listen to get a better understanding of what this is about. TAir travel in the near future? Then you’ll want to hear about our experiences at the airport on oiur return from Mexxico. And yes we had a run-in with Mark Zukerberg. All of this an lots of RV info in this episdoe of the RV Navigator.

As we complete our 20th year as podcasters, it was busy month for your RV Navigators as make our FL home ours and take a vacation from our vacation. Yes, we are traveling without the RV this month as we make our way South to Mexico. We are checking off another couple of bucket list items off the list. We travel to Mexico City to start the trip to view the Monarch butterfly migration. Every year millions of butterflies make their way south to the mountains outside of Mexico city for no apparent reason. After six days of this adventure, we headed to the Baja Sur to board an expedition ship to seek the whales. More logical than the butterflies, they migrate to this area to give birth and mate before heading back to Alaska to feed in the summer. With 14 naturalist on board we had daily lectures and presentations about the local wildlife (there was more than whales to see), flora and fauna. We have not forgotten that this is an RV podcast so we have several RV topics on the agenda for this episode. What’s on your bucket list?

A very happy New Year 2026 to all of our loyal listeners. We hope that you have a very prosperous New Year. Our new year begins in at our new house in FL as we traveled (via car) back south at Christmas. This month mostly was spent enjoying family and friends in the holiday season. Our travels consisted of heading North and then back South where we’ll spend most of the winter. This episode is our annual NYE episode that includes some champaign and noise makers - so beware of unexpected frivolity and loud sounds as we ring in the new year in style.

Your RV Navigators want to wish all of our listeners a very merry Christmas and a prosperous new year. For your favorite RVer, we’ve included some gift suggestions in case your still shopping. This month has been a busy one for us, as we travel to Churchill, Manitoba to see the polar bears in their nature environment. This was not an RV trip as we traveled by plane 1300 miles North to Hudson Bay, home to the Polar bears. Viewing is done in tundra rovers. These are large bus like vehicle that are designed for rough terrain with huge wheels and special suspension/engine. We were luck to get within feet of the bears for some great photos. This was a 6 day adventure so we were back home in IL before we knew it ready to head back to FL for a couple of weeks. Now after TG we are once again back up north ready too enjoy the holiday season in snow.

We’ve been on the road 85 days for the round trip to Alaska, but finally we returned home without incident. The final leg of the trip allowed us to visit Jasper and Banff for 6 days before making the final push to Chicago. This month we had a final exit interview with Chris and Jean from an earlier episode as they share their impressions of the trip.

We’ve ended up back in Dawson Creek where we started the RV caravan 63 days ago. After a brief introduction by your RV Navigators, we invite fellow caravaners to join in the debriefing. This is the same group that shared their hopes for the trip 2 months ago. See what they think about this buck list destination in this months episode. **The episode webpage will be slow in appearing this month due to some technical issues with the web site, sorry.