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Mice do not wait for winter to move into your RV. As nights turn cold, a parked RV can look like the perfect place to nest. And it takes only a tiny opening for a mouse to get inside. This week, Mike and Jennifer talk about where mice get in, how to find the gaps, and what actually helps keep them out. They also discuss the products and folk remedies that may not be worth your money. Plus, our new guide, The Ultimate Canadian Maritimes RV Road Trip, is now available in print and digital. And we answer your questions about crossing into Canada with dogs and food, and whether to leave your RV plugged in between trips. In this episodeWhy mice head for RVs in the fallHow small an opening a mouse can squeeze throughWhere to look for entry pointsWays to seal gaps and discourage miceWhat to know about mothballs and cleanupTaking dogs and food across the Canada-U.S. borderRV battery care during storageLinks and resourcesThe Ultimate Canadian Maritimes RV Road Trip Print and digital editions: https://shop.rvlifestyle.com/products/the-ultimate-canadian-maritimes-rv-road-trip Mechanic's wheeled creepers (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/47wFteE Keeping mice out of your RV Victor: How mice fit through small spaces: https://www.victorpest.com/articles/how-do-mice-fit-in-such-small-spacesVictor: How to keep mice out of your RV: https://www.victorpest.com/articles/how-to-keep-mice-out-of-your-rvUniversity of California IPM: House mouse pest notes: https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7483.htmlOrkin: Steel wool and copper mesh for rodent control: https://www.orkin.com/ask-orkin/steel-wool-rodent-controlUniversity of Florida IFAS: The facts about mothballs: https://ask.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/PI289CDC: About hantavirus: https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/about/index.htmlNational Park Service: Hantavirus facts and cleanup guidance: https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/upload/Hantavirus-fact-sheet-and-light-infestation-cleaning-guidanceJune2025-508c.pdfCrossing the border with dogs and food Canada: Traveling with pets, food or plants: https://inspection.canada.ca/en/travelling-pets-food-plantsCanada: Bringing animals and pets to Canada: https://inspection.canada.ca/en/importing-food-plants-animals/petsCanada: Bringing food into Canada for personal use: https://inspection.canada.ca/en/food-safety-consumers/bring-food-personal-useCDC: Bringing a dog into the United States: https://www.cdc.gov/importation/dogs/index.htmlCDC: Dogs entering from rabies-free or low-risk countries, including Canada: https://www.cdc.gov/importation/dogs/rabies-free-low-risk-countries.htmlUSDA APHIS: Traveling from the United States to Canada with pets: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel/us-to-another-country-export/pet-travel-us-canadaMore from RV Lifestyle RV Podcast show notes: https://RVPodcast.comRVOvernights: https://rvlifestyle.com/rvovernightsUse promo code RVLDEAL for 40% off.Wholesale Warranties: https://www.wholesalewarranties.com/rvlifestyleOr call 800-939-2806.RV Lifestyle newsletter: https://rvlifestyle.com/newsletterRules and recommendations can change. Check current government guidance and your RV and battery manufacturers' instructions before your trip or storage period.

Diesel prices have soared past $6 a gallon, but are RVers canceling their trips and parking their rigs? Not according to our latest RV Lifestyle survey. In this week's RV Podcast News Edition, Mike Wendland reports on what hundreds of real RVers are saying about record-high diesel prices. We received 372 comments, and among roughly 300 people who directly answered our question, an overwhelming majority said they're either continuing to travel as planned or making adjustments to keep their RV adventures alive. But that's just the beginning of this week's RV news. ALSO IN THIS EPISODE: RV Dealer Scandal: A major RV dealership chain disappears, leaving families with more than $2 million in court judgments and serious questions about RV quality, dealer accountability, and consumer protection. We examine the investigation into Lazydays and what every RV buyer should know before signing a purchase agreement. Massive Class B Recall: More than 265,000 Ram ProMaster vans are being recalled because of a potential power steering failure. If you own a camper van built on a ProMaster chassis, including certain Winnebago models, you'll want to hear this warning. Lithium Battery Fire Warning: The National Park Service is warning about lithium-ion battery fires after incidents at national parks. What RVers need to know about safely charging e-bikes, portable power stations, and other battery-powered equipment. Animals Get Their Own Overpass: We finish with some encouraging news from Colorado and California, where massive wildlife crossings are helping elk, deer, mountain lions, and other animals cross busy highways safely. One Colorado project has already been credited with reducing wildlife collisions by more than 90%. IN THIS EPISODE: Why high diesel prices aren't stopping most RV travelersHow RVers are adapting to higher fuel costsThe ProMaster recall affecting Class B motorhomesThe Lazydays investigation and RV consumer protectionsLithium battery fire preventionNew wildlife overpasses making highways saferHELPFUL LINKS: RV Podcast show notes, transcript, and complete news sources: https://RVPodcast.com Check your RV or camper van for recalls: https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls Our newly updated RV Trip Dashboard: https://RVLifestyle.com/TripDashboard Join our RV Lifestyle Community: https://RVCommunity.com Get our FREE daily RV Lifestyle newsletter: https://RVLifestyle.com/Newsletter ABOUT THE RV PODCAST Hosted by veteran journalist Mike Wendland, the RV Podcast brings you two episodes every week. Mondays: The RV Podcast News Edition, the latest news and developments affecting RV owners and the RV lifestyle. Wednesdays: Stories from the Road with Mike and Jennifer Wendland, featuring RV travel adventures, interviews, practical tips, and answers to listener questions. Subscribe and join us as we explore the RV lifestyle, the people who live it, and the stories that matter.

They grew up camping together. Then life took them in different directions. Decades later, two sisters are finding their way back to each other, and back to the campground. In this week's RV Podcast, meet Joyce and Susan. One sister kept camping throughout her life. The other returned after losing her husband. Now she travels with caravans, takes solo trips, and shares camping adventures with her sister. We sat down with them outside their rigs at our RVCommunity Fall Rally in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Their story is about family, friendship, starting over, and finding the confidence to get back on the road. Also in this episode: Jennifer shares her experience with knee replacement recovery and what to consider before recovering in an RV.How late can you camp before winterizing? Mike explains how temperature, time, and your rig's heating affect that decision.Planning a Florida winter getaway with our Florida Adventure Guide Bundle.Have you returned to camping after years away, or started traveling again after losing someone? Share your story in the comments. LINKS Complete show notes: https://RVPodcast.com Join our camping community: https://RVCommunity.com Florida Adventure Guide Bundle: https://RVLifestyle.com/allflorida Our daily newsletter: https://RVLifestyle.com/newsletter RVOvernights: https://RVLifestyle.com/rvovernights Use promo code RVLDEAL for 40% off. Wholesale Warranties: https://WholesaleWarranties.com/RVLifestyle

The Federal Reserve says another interest rate hike is likely this year, and the RV industry is already hurting. Camping World sold 16 percent fewer new RVs and says it is "not satisfied with the result." Here is what higher rates mean if you are thinking about financing an RV. Also this week: Hurricane Isaias and Tropical Storm Rachel close campgrounds on the Gulf Coast and in Southern California Trump's red diesel order: why the White House pitch and the fine print don't match, and the latest diesel prices Thor Industries flags the Patrick-Lippert merger as a business risk Arizona's Chiricahua is about to become America's 64th national park, and what RVers need to know about the 29-foot limit Free daily newsletter: https://rvlifestyle.com/newsletter Show notes and full transcript: https://rvpodcast.com Our community: https://rvcommunity.com RV Trip Budget Buddy: https://rvlifestyle.com/budgetbuddy Mike's free short story, THE SECOND SOURCE: https://lastreporterpress.com/free

Three RVCommunity members wrote a song about life on the road and the feeling of finally pulling into your own driveway. They first played it at a campfire at our Smoky Mountains rally. Hear how it came together, the love story behind it, and the whole song, which you can download free. Also: an End-of-Season RV Shutdown Workshop reminder, why coming home after a long trip can feel like a letdown, and why your furnace drains your batteries on cold nights. Links: Download the song: https://rvlifestyle.com/song https://RVLifestyle.com/Workshop https://RVCommunity.com https://WholesaleWarranties.com/RVLifestyle https://RVLifestyle.com/rvovernights (code RVLDEAL)

Is Harvest Hosts getting too big? Choice Hotels is buying the RV overnight membership company, and members are asking what comes next for prices, reservations and the small-business experience that made it popular. In the October 5, 2026 RV Podcast News Edition, Mike Wendland examines the deal, the membership growth and the questions RVers should ask before renewing. Also this week: Class B camper van makers are changing hands. We examine the ownership changes at Midwest Automotive Designs and Roadtrek, plus a preliminary report about Outside Van.A quieter Elkhart RV Open House offers clues about the market for 2027 models and your bargaining power.Hungry bears are moving through campgrounds. Mike shares encounters from our Pigeon Forge rally and practical steps to protect your campsite, pets and the bears.Meet Backpack, the winner of Fat Bear Week.JOIN OUR OCTOBER 8 WORKSHOP Our live End-of-Season RV Shutdown Workshop walks you through preparing your rig for storage, with special attention to protecting the plumbing. Admission is $10, with replay access for several days. RVCommunity members attend free and receive unlimited replay access. https://rvlifestyle.com/workshop Free daily RV Lifestyle newsletter: https://rvlifestyle.com/newsletter Join our private RV community: https://rvcommunity.com

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 above Join our End-of-Season RV Shutdown Workshop: RVLifestyle.com/Workshop Get the large-type Complete Guide to RVing in Retirement: RVLifestyle.com/Retire Subscribe 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.

Diesel hit $6.05 a gallon Friday. That has never happened before. Not in 2008. Not in 2022. Never. I paid $6.29 in Michigan the morning I recorded this. California stations are posting $9.99. Then Thor Industries dropped a leadership shakeup Thursday night and never mentioned the man who has run Keystone for a decade. Sources close to the company tell me Jeff Runels is out, effective that day, and that big changes are coming to Keystone. All of it lands the same week America's Largest RV Show opens in Hershey with 1,500 RVs on the lot and dealers who need to move them. Here is what is in this episode: Record diesel, why it is not coming back down with oil prices, and six things that cut what you spend on fuel this fall. America's Largest RV Show opens Wednesday. Dealer lots are not overflowing the way you have been told, and the real reason you have the upper hand this week is something else entirely. Five questions to ask before you sign anything. Thor reorganizes its own reorganization seven months later. What the announcement said, what it did not say, and what centralizing a decentralized company usually means for the rig you own. Jason Lippert ran the biggest parts supplier in the business for 32 years. Leigh Tiffin had his family's name on the coach. Both went to work for dealers this year. I think they are seeing the same thing you and I see from the campsite. And 23 million Americans are going RVing this fall anyway, at $6 diesel, most of them staying within a tank of home.

After years of traveling almost entirely in fifth wheels, Mike and Jennifer added a second rig: a new-to-us 2026 Winnebago View, 25 feet long. They took it to Michigan's Upper Peninsula last week, and it changed how they traveled. The Brinkley isn't going anywhere. But somewhere in those years of towing 35 feet, they quietly stopped wandering, and never noticed they'd stopped. In this conversation they walk through the five things the small motorhome gave back, from pulling over anywhere to nap, to parking at Kitch-iti-kipi on a busy day, to taking the turn when you see a sign and wonder what's down there. Plus two listener questions: needing an hour to yourself when a spouse retires, and how to tell when RV tires are too old even though the tread looks fine. LINKS Michigan Upper Peninsula and Lower Peninsula guides, both for $29.99: https://rvlifestyle.com/uplp Free daily newsletter: https://rvlifestyle.com/newsletter Show notes and full transcript: https://rvpodcast.com RV Overnights, 40% off with code RVLDEAL: https://rvlifestyle.com/rvovernights The RV Lifestyle Community: https://rvcommunity.com

Judy Feigel was already an RVer before her husband died. Short trips, sometimes with her granddaughter, sometimes with a group of women friends. A small thing that was hers. When her huband died four years ago, the question wasn't what to do about the RV. It was what to do with the rest of her life. Four years and four RVs later, she's in a rig with a music studio and a quilting studio built into it, traveling with a 100-pound Bernese mountain dog named Winston, and surrounded by a community she built one campground at a time. In this conversation she talks about what it meant to already have something of her own, what she wants couples to hear, and how a solo traveler finds people on the road. Plus: Mike and Jennifer are back from their first trip since Jennifer's summer of cataract surgery and knee replacement, and two listener questions, on learning to back a trailer at 68, and on leaving a big dog in the RV safely. Full transcript, chapter markers and every link are at RVPodcast.com

RV parks are quietly turning into industrial worker housing. A $100 billion SpaceX spaceport in Louisiana and a wave of data center construction in Texas and the Midwest are filling campgrounds with long-term crews, and recreational campers are the ones getting squeezed out. In this week's Monday News Edition: RVs as work camps. SpaceX announces a $100 billion spaceport in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, new RV parks are expected to house the construction crews, a Texas park near Abilene advertises 2,300 monthly sites for data center workers, and eastern Iowa campgrounds are already running full year-round. Monsoon season is doing real damage. Eleven hikers are rescued with hypothermia at Bryce Canyon in August, and about 50 people are airlifted out of the Grand Canyon on Saturday after flash flooding tore through Bright Angel Canyon. Phantom Ranch and the North Kaibab Trail are closed until further notice. Why all the rockfalls? A large rockfall closes the Zion Canyon scenic drive, a Glacier National Park visitor is killed by a rock that came through his car roof, and researchers explain the link between heat and falling rock. A Colorado startup wants to cut camper van prices in half. Hunker's removable pod drops into a Ram ProMaster and starts at $55,000, but there is a catch worth knowing about. Twelve years later, a microchip brings Flor home. A chihuahua missing for 12 years is reunited with her Evanston family after a shelter in Indiana scans her chip, plus what every RVer traveling with a pet should check this week. LINKS Free daily RV Lifestyle newsletter: https://rvlifestyle.com/newsletter Show notes and full transcript: https://rvpodcast.com RV Community: https://rvcommunity.com The Complete Guide to RVing in Retirement: https://rvlifestyle.com/retirementguide