RV Podcast - Stories From The Road

John and Cindy are taking their RV across the country on Route 66, and high fuel prices are not stopping them.In this Stories from the Road edition of the RV Podcast, Mike and Jennifer Wendland talk with the couple about their trip, the cost of fuel, and why they decided to keep going. It is a firsthand look at what a Route 66 adventure means to RVers who are determined to make the miles count.Would today's fuel prices change your travel plans? Tell us in the comments.

More than 80 RVers made it to our Smoky Mountains rally despite diesel prices as high as $7.27 a gallon along the way. Mike reports what they are saying about fuel costs, RV quality, and noticeably quieter campgrounds.In this episode:What rally attendees paid for dieselHershey attendance and the outlook for ElkhartForest River's new rules for content creatorsThe legal challenge to the Patrick-Lippert mergerProposed national forest access changesWhen to see fall color in the SmokiesSources for each story are linked at the end of the episode under the transcript tab aboveJoin our End-of-Season RV Shutdown Workshop: RVLifestyle.com/WorkshopGet the large-type Complete Guide to RVing in Retirement: RVLifestyle.com/RetireSubscribe to our free daily newsletter: RVLifestyle.com/Newsletter

Mark and Barb Douyard, 72 and 77, rented out their Delaware home, packed up their fifth wheel and set off on a two-year RV adventure across North America. We talk with them in the middle of their first year about how they made it happen, what surprised them, what has been hard, and what has been the best part so far. Also this week: Jennifer answers a listener whose husband wants to go winter camping in their Class B van, and Mike explains why October mountain campsites are so hard to find and how to still get one. Plus, we head to Pigeon Forge for our fall RVCommunity.com rally.

Hershey drew its biggest opening-day crowd since 2021 while RV shipments stayed down almost 14 percent for the year. We separate the show buzz from the industry numbers and show you where the leverage is if you are shopping this fall.Also: Alliance RV opens its Elkhart Open House to the public for the first time, the BLM reviews a dozen AI data center proposals on public land, the Lippert and Patrick merger hits an antitrust delay, and Elon Musk moves into an Airstream in Memphis.Full transcript and every source link at RVPodcast.com.One note on the YouTube description. The first two lines are all anyone sees before the "more" cutoff, so I front-loaded the contradiction and left the workshop and newsletter links below it rather than burning that space on housekeeping.Click transcriot tab for source list.

We flew to Atlanta for a family wedding instead of taking the RV, and the two hour flight turned into an eight hour day. In this episode we run the real numbers on driving the rig versus flying and getting a hotel, with diesel now over six dollars a gallon, and we land on the one question that actually decides it.We cover why flying saves you almost nothing on a trip under about 500 miles, what 1,400 miles costs in a 14 mile per gallon diesel Class C now compared to a year ago, what the world's busiest airport looks like from a wheelchair and the free help most travelers never ask for, why the hotel and not the venue is the end of the trip that decides whether you bring the rig, and why you should always take the earliest flight of the day.Then two listener questions. Terry and Beth ask whether living in a park model RV counts as living the RV lifestyle, and Jennifer answers. Steve asks whether to carry a spare tire on his Class C or rely on road service, and Mike explains why that is not really an either-or.