Off to Mexico via Colorado & Texas

On the morning I was to leave Bryce at the end of September, I did my usual inspection of the RV to make sure it was road-worthy after being parked for a few months.  Engine fluid levels good? check!  Tire pressure good? check!  No critter nests or chewed wires anywhere? check!  Under-chassis looks normal? uh, not quite!  Why is half of my transmission pan wet with drippy transmission fluid?  YIKES!

Scenic Byways of Iowa and Nebraska

With every cross-country crossing, I'm always eager to find new routes to explore.  In early July on my way towards Colorado, I decided to bypass the familiar I-80 route from Chicago and explore U.S. Highway 20 across northern Iowa, and the Scenic Byways of northern Nebraska.

It was a beautiful summer day in Chicago, so I took time out before getting on the road to give the Winnie its first wash.  She cleaned up so good, I made this my new blog header photo!

OOOOk-lahoma!!!

Am I the only one who likes to crank up and sing along to old Rodgers & Hammerstein show tunes when crossing the Great Plains? (perhaps this explains why no brave man has settled into my RV's co-pilot seat!)

But who could resist belting out a few bars of "Oooook-la-homa" when seeing such bright yellow fields of canola (after so many months of just looking at desert brown)?

My April journey from the southwest to Chicago took me across the Sooner state on a couple of warm and sunny days-- carefully planned to avoid their notorious springtime thunderstorms and tornadoes.  On the agenda: a visit to a National Wildlife Refuge and a re-visit to a town closely tied to my family history.

My New Winnie View!

I've still got some posts to write about my travels from Arizona to Illinois this past spring, but wanted to jump ahead to real-time today and introduce you to my new Winnie View!

No, I haven't cashed in my retirement savings or gone into debt for a new model.  But, for only about 5% of the cost of a new 2017, I took my tired-looking 2007 View to the master craftsmen at Mike's Custom Painting (in Bremen, IN near Elkhart), and 4 weeks later, this shiny new-looking RV was ready to roll!

Before I show you all the cool before & after photos, let me step back and explain what lead up to this decision.

Top 10 RV Road Trip Apps

It's Memorial Day Weekend! The official start of yet another summer RVing season. Us full-time RVers, dare I say, might be considered the "old pros" of the classic American RV road trip, as we are continuously doing them all year long.

Recently, I completed a 2,000-mile cross-country journey, skillfully skirting around severe springtime weather, low bridges, and traffic jams, while discovering some great sights, nature, and food along the way.    

Each year, the logistics for these long trips have gotten a little easier thanks to my ever-improving collection of awesome mobile travel apps.  So, if you're preparing to head out for your own big RV road trip this summer, take these apps along with you, and have a great ride!

Fiery Farewell to Arizona

After our month of Baja beaches, in late March, Hans, Ursula, and I pointed our Winnies back to Yuma to take care of some dental and business activities before heading our separate ways.  Since Yuma has become so familiar, it seemed the easiest place to get all our tasks accomplished quickly.

We weren't back to our familiar old RV park more than a day or two before tragedy struck one of our neighbors.  We were sitting in the clubhouse one afternoon when suddenly a women ran in saying a nearby travel trailer had just burst into flames...

Beach Paradise At Last!

All good things come to those who wait!

After 4 noisy, dusty nights parked next to the sand dune of racing ATVs and dune buggies, the hoard of race fans went home.  We were finally rewarded with our pick of the best of the 2 best beachfront campsites in all of San Felipe!  It didn't take more than a few minutes for Hans, Ursula, and I to decide to extend our stay here an extra week.

Now, we'd finally get to discover some real San Felipe living!

5 Tips for a Cozy Winter RV Home (plus the conclusion of my electrical saga!)

As darkness descends on the Chihuahuan desert at our 4500-foot elevation, it can get pretty cold here on a winter night in central New Mexico…especially if the winds are blowing. 

Sunny mornings are now starting to show the evidence—frost on my skylight!

Even though I’ve experienced a couple cold nights while traveling (rapidly) from Chicago to warmer destinations in previous years, I’ve never spent an entire winter season in a location that gets below freezing nearly every night.  So, I’ve recently had a lot to learn about making my RV comfortable for winter living. Fortunately, fellow volunteers here at the Refuge have provided some excellent tips!

If you might be RVing in some cold and remote places this winter, here are 5 ways to keep your RV home comfy and cozy:

Busy Days on the Refuge & a New Job

Since the 18 new volunteers arrived 2 weeks ago, it’s been a flurry of activity here at Bosque del Apache NWR.  Between training sessions, pot lucks, and preparing for the big Festival of the Cranes (that starts this Tuesday), it’s been an exceptionally busy time.  Add to that, a new job for me here on the Refuge, lots of new major personal legal/financial changes to plan (as a result of the new 2016 ACA Healthcare plans), and a little episode of nearly burning down my RV last week….and I’ve felt rather scattered in 101 directions this month!

Sorta like these snow geese.  One day they’re enjoying a nice relaxing sunny afternoon resting in one of the ponds…

and the next day they’re buzzing over the tourists’ cars fleeing for their lives!

Some RVing updates

After researching and posting the depressing, infuriating GYN cancer statistics yesterday, I think it’s time for a day off from #GynCAN to get back to happier stuff we’d much rather post and read about…pretty pictures and RV mods!

I’m preparing to shove off today from my summertime roost in Chicago and start my journey West.  When fog starts covering the prairie at night, it’s a sure sign that cooler temperatures are on their way.

Home, Sweeter Home

As much as I enjoyed the comforts of my sister and brother-in-law’s house for nearly the past 2 months (and Holley’s delicious dinners), it felt really good to get behind the wheel of the Winnie and head back out to the local campground yesterday.  The prairie sure has grown taller with all the rains we’ve had in Chicago this summer!

Holley and Mike didn’t send me away to the same old Winnebago, though.  I’ve been the lucky beneficiary of their considerable carpentry and sewing skills for a few desperately desired upgrades to my rolling home—a new bed and new dinette cushions.  First up, the new bed!

MO Refuges & a Secret Highway

I was born in Missouri, and went to college there too.  Growing up, we had countless family trips to the “Show Me” state to visit my grandparents.  So, I’ve always felt like I’ve had a pretty good familiarity with the state.  But there was still a large swath of northern Missouri I’d never explored, so I took the opportunity with my end of April trip to quickly do so.

Passing through St. Joseph, MO with the highway towering over the Missouri river to the left and historic downtown to the right, I really wished I had allocated more time to explore this storied city, once the last bastion of civilization before pioneer wagon trains and Pony Express riders headed out into the great Wild West. 

But the focus of today’s trip was to check out 2 of Missouri’s National Wildlife Refuges – Squaw Creek and Swan Lake.  So, St. Joe had to settle for a few quick “windshield shots” and a promise that I’ll explore it more next time.

How to Set Your RV Shower Temp Perfectly Every Time

You’d think I would have figured this out sooner after taking showers in an RV for over 5 years now!  After hundreds and hundreds of gallons of water wasted, and subjecting my toes to either frigid cold or scalding hot waters when “testing” the first water out of the shower head (and then routinely spouting dozens of expletives during such testing!), I think I’ve finally figured out how to get my RV shower just right!

Of course, I’ve read the RVing forums of guys “MacGyver-ing” a wide variety of contraptions to install onto their RV plumbing systems (like expensive mixing valves), and others who have desperately marked up their faucets with a black Sharpie or nail polish to know how far to turn a handle.  Fortunately, this solution requires none of that!

I’m not sure if this works on every RV, or if it’s just specific to mine (or Winnie View-Navions), but give this a try next time and let me know in the comments below if it works for you too!

First, a few assumptions—1. that you have a basic two-handle hot & cold RV shower faucet,  2. that you have some kind of “dribbling” water shut-off switch (either on the showerhead itself or near the faucet handles like mine), and 3. that you’ve turned on your RV’s Hot Water Heater at least 10 minutes beforehand (ask me how many times I’ve forgotten this critical step!!!).

Rock Creek Revisited

If it’s June, it must be time to head back out to Iowa to reunite with my old camping buddies at the Midwest T@B Rally at Rock Creek State Park near Grinnell, IA.  Since selling my T@B in 2011, I think I’ve brought a different RV every time I’ve attended!

7 Ways To Lower Your RV Fuel Costs

I’m getting ready to hit the road tomorrow to attend a camping rally.  Even though diesel prices are finally (delightfully) lower than gas, fuel is perhaps the largest item of any full-time RVer’s budget.  Now that I’m a retired penny-pincher, finding the best deal on fuel is increasingly important to me, so I thought I’d share some ways I’ve discovered to lower my fuel costs.

What I Like About My New View

As long-time readers know, a couple of years ago I started a very popular series of posts called “A Girl’s Guide to RVing”.  Many of those posts have continued to be the most-visited posts on this blog, (such as the How To Dump Your Tanks, and How To Hitch Up Your Toad).  But surprisingly, the most popular post (with almost twice as many hits as the rest) is the one I did on my thought-process of selecting a motorhome called:  What I Like About My View (and What I Wish I Had) 

Now that I’ve had my 2007 J-model View for 8 months, have spent a Winter snowbird season in it, and am now preparing to go full-time RVing in it, I thought it’d be a good time to update my most-popular post with my thoughts on this current model View.

Lots of folks are out buying or trading RVs this time of year, so I hope my detailed comparisons might provide some food for thought on the myriad of little things to consider when selecting an RV.  Like I said in my original post, the common refrain is still quite true—there is no perfect RV!  There will always be compromises to consider!

Overall Size:

I will be starting to full-time RV later this summer, and for the longest time I assumed I would move up to a larger RV when I did that.  But I just can’t seem to pry myself loose from these short Sprinter-based RVs!  I love driving them, love the way they can go just about anywhere, and I feel most “at home” and cozy when I’m living in one.  

But that said, if I were traveling as a couple rather than solo, I’d be looking at bigger Class A’s or Fifth-Wheels pronto (two people have more stuff and really often do need more space)!  One of these bigger rigs still might be in my future someday too when I slow down travels and wish to stay “parked” for longer time periods.  For now though (with plans to visit the far corners of the Americas in my first few years of full-timing), nothing beats the fuel economy-to-comfort-ratio of the View!  The narrow width, and short wheelbase will be perfect for navigating mountain curves and ferry rides to Alaska, Newfoundland, Baja, and beyond!

Engine/Chassis:

When I bought my 2005 Sprinter Cargo Van last year, I was immediately impressed by the first generation Sprinter T1N chassis compared to my 2008 View’s 2nd generation NCV3 chassis.  Yes, the older T1N is an odd 5-cylinder rather than a V6, and has less overall cargo capacity, but it’s still a winner for my needs:

• The 5 cyl gets slightly better fuel efficiency (1 to 3 MPG), whereas the newer Sprinters have more HP and torque.  When I drive the RV, I’m in no hurry, so I’m fine trading the extra HP for more MPGs!
• The T1N has no ULSD requirement and fewer emissions sensors, filters, and parts to worry about.  While there’s still some debate as to whether the newer US Sprinters (or any newer US diesel vehicle) is o.k. using the non-ultra low sulfur diesel in Mexico, it’s a moot point with the T1N.
• While I miss the extra storage cubbies around the dash and visors and extra cupholders of the newer Views, I love the older version’s bigger analog gauges on the dash (including a nice big water temperature gauge—so critical when towing a toad up mountain passes!). 
• The T1N has a fixed, non-tilt steering wheel and very Euro (non-intuitive at first) seat adjustments.  I always thought these would be big negatives until I actually began driving one.  For my 5’7” body, this combo fits me better and is more comfortable for long-distance driving.
• I love the protruding carpeted floor box on the Winnebago T1N.  It’s a perfect place to hide small valuables and travel documents when traveling in Mexico, and the electrical compartment (containing the solenoid and wiring to connect the RV house to the cab chassis) is much easier to access (in newer Views, the passenger seat and swivel must be removed to get to this).
• Speaking of seats—the deluxe soft leatherette seats in this J are much more comfortable than my previous H, and the swivels are much more robust as well.  When combined with my super-duper folding ottoman, I’m more comfortable than with a living room recliner at home!
• All these benefits do come with a couple of big negatives though—the T1N chassis has about 500 lbs less gross weight rating than the newer Sprinters.  With variations in RV options, the real weight difference for my ‘07 vs ‘08 View is only about 200-300 pounds, but that’s still a considerable 25% loss of capacity (especially critical for full-timing).  My rig has some suspension upgrades and new Michelin tires, so that will help being overloaded a bit, but limited cargo capacity will likely be the biggest reason for trading this RV in the future.
• The newer Sprinters have a 5,000 lb towing capacity whereas this one is  just 3,500.  This too may be a reason I’ll need trade this RV someday, as there are currently no lightweight 4WD vehicles (like my Chevy Tracker) being sold in the US that are flat-towable.
  

Exterior:

I’m loving the much larger external cargo bay of the J model!  This winter, I carried my (3) 60-watt solar panels, a few bag chairs, an awning mat, patio lights, LP grill, and a few plastic tubs of miscellaneous gear in this space.

While this model featured a split mattress where the outer half could be slid on top of the inner half to accommodate taller items in the bay (such as a bike or golf clubs),  the reality is that those bigger, heavier items are more wisely carried in the toad to conserve the View’s precious cargo capacity for more living essentials. 

Living Area:

I love still having a skylight in this View.  That was one of my most-favorite features of the last one!  It’s great on a colder day to let the sunshine warm up the rig.

I’m also loving the front cabinets (rather than an overhead bed).  I’m able to stow large plastic tubs to keep all kinds of miscellaneous gear well-organized and easily accessible.  While I could have still done this with a bed, it just seems a bit more secure (and visually pleasing) to have these things behind solid wood doors.

I thought I would dearly miss the H-model’s sofa (where I now have a dinette), but it was so uncomfortable to sit or lay on, that I’ve really not missed that sofa at all!  When I want to sit, the 2 swivel reclining cab seats are more comfortable.  If I want to stretch out and read, either propping up in the rear bed, or sitting width-wise on one of the dinette benches works just great.

 

Now that I’ve decided to use an arm-mounted monitor for TV watching (rather than the J’s TV over the door), the J will be just as comfortable as the H in that regard.

Kitchen:

For a long time, I praised the virtues of having an RV pantry and swore I’d never buy an RV without one…that was, until I bought this RV without one!  But, I’ve discovered that the J’s dinette storage has proven to be bigger and more usable than the H’s tall/narrow/deep pantry. 

Beneath each dinette bench are doors that flip down.  The dinette storage bays are carpeted, so I keep a plastic “under the bed” storage tub in each bin.  These easily slide in and out, and are great for storing larger items (like Millie’s dog food, or bulk foods).

In the overhead dinette cabinets, I store everyday cooking items—spices, grains, cans and bags of prepared foods, etc.

While the J’s kitchen cabinets are a bit smaller than the H’s, I’ve found that most of my kitchen stuff continues to fit into it just fine.

Bath:

I do miss having the nice rear window of the H’s bath and also really miss the “disappearing” pocket door (the J’s curved door can get in the way at times), but otherwise, the slightly smaller shower of the J has worked out just fine and I like the soap tray and shampoo bottle trays being together and above the faucet (rather than on opposite ends of the H’s shower).  I also love, love, LOVE my Oxygenics showerhead with it’s separate on/off switch (mounted right below the faucet knobs).

 

I never really liked the clothes closet of the H being in the bathroom (and half of it being difficult to access in a corner space).  The J’s closet is taller and very accessible across from the fridge. 

Some folks might initially think to use the J’s closet as a pantry and store their hanging clothes on the removable pole in the shower.  But I would caution this approach!  My used J came with a sizeable U-shaped crack in the shower wall around one of the pole holders (it’s currently caulked, but it’s a very visual reminder that the shower pole is not meant to be as “load-bearing” as the closet pole!).   I currently have a lightweight hanging organizer on my shower pole that carries only my super-lightweight stuff (like spare rolls of TP and paper towels, extra bath towels, etc).

Bed:

Perhaps my biggest complaint about my H-model View was the lack of a permanent bed (that didn’t require climbing a ladder to get to!).   So it’s little wonder that the bed is my favorite feature of my new J-model View!

I always used to think that a permanent bed was such a space-waster in an RV.  You only use it at night, so why have it taking up so much space during the day?  Well, now that I have one—it gets used day and night!

On one long driving day this past winter, it was cold, sunny, and extremely windy.  By mid-afternoon, I was getting tired of wrestling the steering wheel and squinting into the sun ahead of me on the road.  When I stopped at a little rest area, I noticed the sun was now bathing the rear bed with comforting warmth, so what the heck, I just jumped up there and took a lovely little nap for 20 minutes!   No bed-making, or slide-outs to fool with—everything was just ready and instantly waiting for me!  Millie takes full advantage of this feature too and is never without a nice place to rest her lazy bones as we drive.

Another benefit of this bed is the very large hidden internal storage (beneath a flip-up top hatch at the front curve portion of the bed).  I stored a Winter’s worth of Millie’s dog food in here, as well as other big bulky stuff for our Mexico travels.  The RV was inspected 4 times by Customs agents and not once did any of them check (or know of) this space!   In the US, I can use it to hide camera and computer gear if parking somewhere where the potential for theft might be an issue (i.e. at a popular tourist attraction).

Other Comforts of Home:

In my original post, besides the bed, I had wished for an onboard washer/dryer.  That problem is now solved with my handy-dandy portable system! 

I also wished for more comfortable dinette seats.  That’s not totally solved, but it’s been improved greatly with the J’s wider seats, and also my cool little Backjoy if I’m needing to sit at the dinette and work on the computer for a while.

I still don’t have an internal fireplace in this new J, nor do I have a piano.  So I guess those are a few things to still wish for.  But those are rather minor in the whole scheme of thing.

Now that I’m preparing to full-time in the J, I really do wish that my clothes closet were bigger than a postage stamp, and that I had some giant big basement storage areas on this rig (rather than having to carry so many of the big items in the toad such as kayak and bike).  But for now, I’m happy to make those sacrifices in order to get the improved mobility and fuel economy for my long-distance travels.

Will I ever yearn again for real furniture, a real bathtub, and a living space larger than 200 square feet?  I’m sure I will at some point.  But for now, I’m extremely happy with my little J home and am looking forward to the next few years of travel and adventure!

 

Check out 300 of our most-favorite things!

What a surprise in my mailbox today!

A little over a month ago, as I was going through all of my Big Bend National Park photos, I happened to get a promo email from RVParking.com to enter their Favorite Places contest.  All you had to do was submit a campground review and attach a few photos to it, and boom, you were entered!

I enjoyed and used RVParking.com a few years ago when the site first launched, but admittedly, I had gotten rather lazy about continuing to post campground reviews there (or even on their competitor’s site, the old-school, mobile app-less RVParkReviews.com).

But I was immediately impressed when I logged back in to RVParking.com.  They’ve made a number of website and iOS mobile app improvements lately, and the site is much more engaging and fun to use.  Best of all, it allows users to add photos to their reviews, and provides this outstanding user profile view to easily see all of a reviewer’s past photos and reviews on a neat map view.  Cool!

So, I uploaded a few of my photos from my visit to Big Bend’s Rio Grande Village campground, and didn’t give it a further thought.

To my complete amazement, two weeks ago,  I got an email from RVParking.com saying that one of my photos had been chosen as the Runner Up winner to their Favorite Places contest!  Wow, I never win anything!!!  There had not been any prizes announced for the runners up (that I was aware of), but they mentioned an America The Beautiful one-year National Parks Pass, and that sounded like an absolutely fabulous gift for this photo-bug RVer!

Today, I received my prize package, and was delightfully surprised at the extra goodies they included-- besides the Parks pass, they also included a $50 Shell gift card and a “Top Reviewer” magnetic bumper sticker!   I was also really touched and impressed by the care and personalized way in which it was presented.  Thanks Beth, and thanks RVParking.com!

 

Browsing reviews on the RVParking.com site is available to anyone, and they also have free mobile iPhone and iPad apps for iOS that you can download from the Apple AppStore as well.

But joining the site (it’s free) allows you to go one step further and create your own profile to publish reviews and photos. Beth mentioned that they’ll be running periodic contests like this in the future, so I encourage you all to sign up and start adding your reviews and photos!  

What a fun way for us all to share useful campground information and inspirational photos with each other!

 

 

 

Check out 300 of our most-favorite things!

A few of my favorite things!

Wow, it’s May already.  For most working “weekend warriors” in the northern states, May signals the start of a new camping season!   Time to pull the RV out of storage, or maybe even head on over to the nearby RV dealer to trade-in or buy a first RV for the new camping season!

Around this time of year, I start getting more frequent requests from readers who are looking to get started into RVing and wanting suggestions on how to outfit their new rigs.

But, lets face it, they’re not the only ones!  Around this time of year, us old-timers are usually looking for something fun and new to add to our camping enjoyment too!

With that in mind, I decided to organize a collection of 300 of my most-favorite things for RV travel.  Some of these “finds” are things I’ve blogged about in the past and/or have featured on my RV Gadget Favs or Mobile Tech Favs pages.   But lots more items have never been featured before—even though I love and use them often!

So, today, that changes! 

I’d like to introduce you to the WinnieViews Gear We Love website! 

Here, I’ve gathered 300 of our favorite RVing, Travel, Reading, Tech, Entertainment, Photo, Hiking, Biking, Paddling, 4-wheel drive, and Camping items into (hopefully) a single, easy-to-navigate website.

Not to be left out, Millie has also contributed a collection of her favorite doggie stuff as well!

We’re using Amazon storefront technology to showcase these items, so you’ll not only see our own comments about each item, but Amazon’s customer reviews and pricing as well.

The site also features an Amazon Shopping Cart to facilitate any purchases you might want to make from them (WinnieViews is not at all involved— it’s all “normal Amazon” once you begin the check-out process and you’ll see Amazon’s familiar full website and shopping cart to complete your transaction).

The only thing I’ve not found very intuitive with this new site is how to add items to your Amazon Wishlist (if you want to save something for the future).  The best work-around I can suggest is when you’re on one of Gear We Love item pages (like the screenshot above), click the “customer reviews” link.  That will take you to the full Amazon site, and you can add it to your Wishlist from there.

In the coming days, I’ll be reorganizing my previous RV Gadget Favs page to just show the remaining favorites we could not include on this new website (i.e. the non-Amazon things like my recent discovery of Elgato Software’s EyeTV 3, and others).

You can get to the Gear We Love website via the link below, or from it’s tab along the header of our blog page.

Hope you find these “favorite things” helpful, and I really hope you might find a little gem in there that delights you as much as it’s delighted me (and Millie)!!!   If you have questions or want further feedback about anything, just contact me via comments below or email me at winnieviews@gmail.com.

Happy camping!

 

Check out 300 of our most-favorite things!

G = Great Grapevine Hills Trail & a few updates

Thursday morning was “moving day” for Millie and me.  We were moving to our second reserved site for the week at Big Bend National Park’s Rio Grande Village—this one right next to Suzanne’s site.   It was also perfect timing to go refill our fresh water tank at the dump station (since none of the sites here have hookups).

With that task completed and now all moved in, it was now time to play!  Yesterday’s winds were now gone and we could go do the hike we had planned to the Grapevine Hills Trail.  It was rated as an easy 2 1/4 mile desert hike in the park brochures, so right up my alley (but likely a bit of a bore for Suzanne’s more adventurous hiking legs).

After a 30-mile drive along the park highway, and an additional 6-mile drive down a gravel road, we arrived to the trailhead to pull into the last parking space left in the lot…whew!   Most of the trail was a flat, straight walk along a sandy wash surrounded by mountains of laccolith boulder rocks that reminded me a bit of the giant Jumbo Rocks I’d seen at Joshua Tree National Park a few years ago.

It was an easy, pleasant walk punctuated with a few photo stops to photograph the blooming yucca.

Soon, the trail began to steeply climb into the boulder hills providing a magnificent view of the valley below!

Higher and higher we climbed!

Now stopping for a few photo ops of each other so we could catch our breath!

Incredibly, the boulders got larger the higher we climbed!

After scrambling the summit and carefully making our way around the cliff edge of one final set of big boulders, we saw the trail’s final highlight—Balanced Rock!  Wow, what a thrill!

Suzanne scrambled down the other side and found a large flat rock where we could sit and admire the view…and what a spectacular view it was!

We hiked a bit further along the ridgeline to get a few more shots of Balanced Rock (being ever so careful to watch for any snakes sunning themselves on the rocks as the park brochure had warned!)

This had been my most challenging hike of the week so far, and I (err…Ethel) was feeling absolutely elated and invincible!  Where was all this newfound strength and confidence coming from?

I could just about lift and throw this large boulder with my own two hands!   But alas, I decided to leave it for the next middle-aged woman to claim her victory pose .  I’d be content to just sing the old Helen Reddy song “I am Woman” all the way down the mountain and back to the car!

==========================================

And now for a few miscellaneous blog updates--

If you read these posts from an RSS reader (like the excellent, free Feedly reader I use!), you might want to click on over to the main WinnieViews blog page to take a look at our new header photo!  As much as I loved the old one, it needed updating to show our newer J-model View, so a quick snap of our new rig at Big Bend did the trick!

While you’re at the blog’s homepage, scroll down and take a look at the “We Recommend” sidebar (as well as my RV Gadget Favs page) for some new items I’ve found and am totally in love with, including these:

BackJoy Relief Seat: Sitting in my straight 90-degree RV dinette bench seat used to be very uncomfortable on my tailbone (especially when starting to stand up again!), but this lightweight, easy-to-store Backjoy seat has now eliminated that pain and, amazingly, makes sitting in the bench seat now a pleasure! 

Unsure if it was just a fluke, I had Suzanne also try it out on her tailbone, and she’s now a believer too in this space-aged, featherweight little seat!

Travasak Lives Again!: Speaking of RV comforts, I recently discovered that CampingWorld has brought my beloved Travasak bedding system back to life! The original company went bankrupt in 2009, and I was recently lamenting that my old Travasak sheets were starting to look pretty raggedy.  But it now appears CW might be riding to the rescue!  If anyone buys some of the new stuff, let me know what you think!  I’ll probably be in the market real soon to update mine!

Amazon Link:  Finally, while we’re on the subject of shopping, you may have noticed the Amazon link that’s been appearing at the bottom of my posts lately.  Many bloggers have now become Amazon affiliates.  It lets you help out your favorite blog while doing your regular Amazon shopping.  No additional cost to you, and a few extra pennies to us bloggers trying to keep up with the high cost of cellular bandwidth and diesel fuel to share these posts with our dear readers!  

Well, recently one very thoughtful reader emailed to tell me she’d be making a major $1000+ purchase from Amazon and wanted to be sure I got the affiliate credit for it.  After our email exchange, she clicked my Amazon link to finish up her purchases and buy all the stuff she had been holding in her Amazon Wishlist.  The next day, she excitedly wrote me back “did you get it? did you get it?” (referring to the affiliate credit).

Unfortunately, I did not

It turns out that even if you click the link below and see the “winni0b-20” tag at the end of the URL in your web browser’s address bar, Amazon will only credit us for the new items you might add to your shopping cart or wishlist during that session.  Any existing wishlist items that you might be purchasing won’t count (Amazon won’t consider these as being referred by WinnieViews since you had already had them on your Wishlist before using our link). 

So, a slight refinement request for the link text below-- please start your Amazon dreaming and Wishlist-ing from the link!  Amazon will then send a few pennies back to WinnieViews for any of those items you might ultimately purchase from them.  Sincere thanks from Lynne and Millie!