RV Podcast 306: How to find a campsite despite the crowds

A lot of RVers are asking these days: How to find a campsite despite the crowds? The national news media has been filled with stories in recent weeks claiming that campgrounds are bursting at the seams across the country as people are taking up camping and RVing because they are afraid to take traditional vacations or stay in hotels, fly airplanes or deal with crowds in amusement parks and resorts. Believe it! This week in Episode 306 of the RV Podcast, we hear from real campers who tell us whether those gloom and doom stories are true. Yes, it’s summer, and campgrounds are always a bit crowded, especially on weekends and holidays. But this year, it’s way worse. That’s coming up in this week’s episode of the Podcast, as well as your RV questions and comments, RV News of the week, and a great off the beaten path report from the Burketts. Show Notes for Episode #306 August 5, 2020 of The RV Podcast: RV PODCAST NEWS OF THE WEEK Fewer Walmart stores permitting RVers to overnight in parking lot If you have been a RV fellow traveler for long, chances are you spent the night at a Walmart parking lot at least once. But finding a Walmart that allows RVers to sleep in their parking lot is getting harder.. Currently only 58 percent of the nation's Walmart stores allow campers to stay compared to 78 percent in 2010. Spending the night in a parking lot has been super popular with many RVers over the years. They get a free, easy place to overnight when they are on a road trip and do not need a full campground experience. Typically overnighters buy something from the Walmart and are gone first thing in the morning, so the store benefits, too. But the problem is more and more campers are not practicing basic etiquette. They are staying for more than one night, they are leaving their trash even sometimes human waste or dirty water behind. Homeless people are also using lots. The result is more and more Walmarts are banning the practice, often forced to do so by new zoning rules enacted by local governments. It’s another example on how a bad apple can spoil the whole bunch. Rangers at Zion National Park ask for help finding vandals who painted rocks blue Speaking of bad apples. I have a story about a really rotten apple. This is the type of story that makes my blood boil. Vandals at Zion National Park painted a large section of the sandstones in the northeast section of the park blue. Rangers are now asking the public's help in finding who did this. Bold blue squares and miscellaneous shapes - some three feet by three feet in size - are on the rock formations south of Wildcat Trailhead in the Kolob Terrace area. The area is believed to have painted around July 8. Officials say they are not sure they can remove the paint, and doing so will be costly. Family decides to move in an RV and homeschool from the road because of COVID-19 We've been reporting for years about road schooling (click here or  here), and for months about the rise in RV newbies and some challenges out there because of COVID-19 (click here). So, when we saw this story of a family that combines both, we had to share. The Tennessee family apparently decided to cope with the in-person schooling challenges COVID-19 caused by buying a large RV bus built on a Greyhound chassis, selling their possessions, and hitting the road. The family of seven plans to homeschool their five children while traveling the country, all while self-containing as best as possible and working remotely from the road. Man shoots himself in the leg at Rocky Mountain National Park after gun in his backpack accidentally fires A man visiting Rocky Mountain National Park accidentally shot himself in the leg with his own gun. The man had put a loaded gun into his backpack. When he took off his backpack and put it on a rock at Emerald Lake, the gun accidentally fired a round with the bullet lodging in his leg. Other visitors helped, providing first aid, and a rescue crew then took the man by ambulance t...