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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

Alaska tops the RVer bucket list every year, and most people never go, because the logistics look like too much. Jim and Marcia Badhorn skipped the caravan and planned their own 90 day Alaska trip, and they just got back. They tell us how they planned it, what had to be booked ahead, what they would change, and what it is actually like out there on your own. Also this week: we are camping for the first time all summer after Jennifer's knee replacement, we are heading to an RVCommunity mini meetup in Michigan, and we explain why we are suddenly a two RV household without giving up the Brinkley. In our Questions of the Week, Jennifer answers a listener who is nervous about her first boondocking trip, and Mike answers whether towing a heavy fifth wheel really burns through more DEF. Full show notes and links at RVPodcast.com.

California has charged 14 people over the Montana LLC scheme, the same sales tax strategy being sold to RV buyers at shows across the country. Montana law says it is legal. The state where you park may disagree, and investigators are now checking RV storage lots for those plates. Also this week: Roadtrek's new owners announce two new Ford Transit Class B models and a major service partner. What the US-Canada tariff fight is doing to Canadian RV builders, and why the uncertainty costs you money even when the tariff never lands. The National Park Service turns 110 and National Park Week runs through August 30. And an invasive spider the size of your hand is spreading through the Great Smoky Mountains, which sounds worse than it is. We source every story we report. The full transcript, with links to every source used in this episode, is at RVPodcast.com. Look for the Transcript tab and scroll to the bottom. Free daily newsletter: RVLifestyle.com/Newsletter

What should you expect when you call for RV roadside assistance? Mike and Jennifer go behind the scenes with Jerry Aldridge, founder and former president and CEO of Coach-Net, to learn how an emergency call is handled, how the right service provider is found, and why help can sometimes take longer than RVers expect. Jerry also shares the story behind Coach-Net and his new book, The Road to Coach-Net. Also in this episode, Jennifer reports on her progress six weeks after knee-replacement surgery, Mike and Jennifer tease the used small motorhome they just purchased, and they answer listener questions about avoiding overpacking groceries and protecting yourself when wildfire smoke threatens your camping trip. Resources: The Road To Coach Net book can be found at https://amzn.to/3SeIfBk Keep your RV service and repair records organized with the RV Maintenance Tracker: https://RVLifestyle.com/Maintenance Save 40% on a year of unique RV overnight stays with promo code RVLDEAL: https://RVLifestyle.com/RVOvernights

Winnebago Industries is closing two RV manufacturing plants and moving production into other facilities with unused capacity. The company calls it a "strategic manufacturing alignment." We call it what it is: contraction in an RV industry that is deep in the woods. Also in this RV Podcast News Edition: Used RV values are up 11 percent from a year ago, and we took our own advice. We just bought a used small motorhome as a second RV. We are keeping our Brinkley fifth wheel for longer trips, while the motorhome will be used for quicker travel and more boondocking. We will share more details later this week.Even the ultra-rich need a break. A Florida dealer is offering fractional ownership in luxury motorcoaches, including a 25 percent share of a 2027 Millennium for $679,999, plus an estimated $1,500 monthly management fee.The FCC says Starlink had more than 7 million U.S. subscribers, but that number does not match other figures supplied by SpaceX. Who is doing the math?Acadia National Park stewards are dismantling hundreds of unauthorized rock piles. Mike explains why these piles are not harmless decorations and why visitors should stop building them.We source every story. Links to all the original reports are available in the transcript at RVPodcast.com. The RV Podcast publishes twice each week: Monday at 6 a.m.: The biggest news stories affecting the RV lifestyle. Wednesday: Jennifer joins Mike for Stories from the Road, featuring interviews, RV tips, travel ideas and answers to your questions. Get our free daily RV Lifestyle newsletter: https://rvlifestyle.com/newsletter Try our RV Lifestyle Packing List App: https://rvlifestyle.com/PackingListApp If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and leave us a rating or review. It helps other RVers discover the program. Click the Transcript tab above for sources and the written script for this episode.

Fall may be the best RV camping season of the year, but it is no longer a well-kept secret. October campsites are filling quickly as Halloween weekends, fall foliage trips and seasonal festivals turn autumn into one of camping's busiest seasons. In Episode 634 of the RV Podcast, Stories from the Road, Mike and Jennifer explain why RVers should make the pivot from summer to fall camping right now. They share strategies for finding campsites after popular weekends appear sold out, including booking Sunday through Thursday, calling campgrounds directly about cancellations and using fall foliage prediction maps to better time your trip. You will also hear about memorable fall destinations and events across the country, from Tawas Point State Park and the Great Smoky Mountains to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, cranberry harvests, giant pumpkin competitions and even racing woolly worms. Fall camping brings cooler nights, fewer bugs, beautiful scenery and some of the year's most enjoyable RV travel. But if you want a good campsite, the time to make your reservation is today. Find all the dates, destinations and helpful links by the transcript tab above:

It is officially an RV buyer's market. New RV sales are falling, dealer inventories remain high, and manufacturers are cutting forecasts. For RV shoppers, that means something we have not seen in quite a while: real negotiating leverage. But a buyer's market does not automatically mean every RV is a good deal. In this week's RV Podcast News Edition, we dig into what is happening at RV dealerships, why so many 2026 models remain unsold, what buyers should be paying attention to with financing, and how to make sure a huge advertised discount really is a bargain. We also look at why the arrival of the new 2027 models could put even more pressure on dealers to move older inventory. Also this week: America's Largest RV Show is coming to Hershey, with the new 2027 RVs arriving while dealers are still trying to clear unsold 2026 inventory.Wildfire danger is growing across the West, bringing campground closures, campfire bans and some important evacuation lessons for RV travelers.The Farmers' Almanac has issued its 2026-27 winter forecast. We take a somewhat skeptical look at just how much RV travelers should trust it.Quicksand in a National Park? A 22-year-old hiker sank shoulder-deep into glacial mud at Glacier National Park and needed four friends to pull her out.If you are shopping for an RV, traveling through wildfire country, planning a trip to Hershey, or just trying to stay on top of what's happening in the RV lifestyle, we've got a lot to talk about this week. And remember: We source our news stories. You'll find links to the original reporting and additional information on the show notes page at RVPodcast.com. Look for the Transcript tab and scroll to the bottom. Subscribe and join us every Monday for the RV Podcast News Edition, and every Wednesday when Jennifer joins me for Stories from the Road, with RV tips, questions, advice and conversations about the RV lifestyle. REMINDER: There are just two days left to save 20% on our new ebook, The Complete Guide to RVing in Retirement. The early-bird discount ends Wednesday, August 12. Get it at https://RVLifestyle.com/RetirementGuide