Podcast 284: RVers share why they chose the RV Lifestyle

We’ve had  many fun conversations with RVers as we’ve met up with them in our travels over the past few weeks. In our interview of the week segment coming up, you’ll meet and hear from a bunch of them as they share just why they have chosen the RV Lifestyle. Plus we have RV News, tips, Q&A and an Off the Beaten Path report from the Burketts. WHAT MIKE AND JENNIFER ARE UP TO THIS WEEK Mike and Jen at the back of their campsite at Boyd's campground in Key West, FL Mike and Jennifer share their travels and their current location – Key West, FL! Note: Our next meetup will be this coming Sunday, March 8, in Naples, FL. We'll  meet from 3-5pm on Sunday March 8th at Bone Hook Brewing Company, 1514 Immokalee Rd, Naples, FL 34110.   Mike, Jen and Bo on their golf cart touring Key West Our campsite at Boyds Campground in Key West with our rented golf cart for exploring This part of the podcast is brought to you by the Nimble Pet Monitor 4G, the surest way we know of to have peace of mind that the temperature for your pets back in the RV is not too high. More information and a big discount for listeners ft the RV Podcast is available at https://rvlifestyle.com/nimble RV LIFESTYLE NEWS OF THE WEEK Drivers who stay in the left lane instead of using it to pass can now be ticketed in Arizona JENNIFER If you are planning on driving through Arizona on any interstate anytime soon, be sure to only use the passing line for, well, passing. A new state law that went into effect in January permits police to ticket drivers who stay in the fast lane instead of using it to pass. Increasingly states are enacting laws permitting police to ticket those who stay in the left lane since it not only is poor driving, but it can be dangerous, putting other drivers at risk. To read more about Arizona's law click here. Great Smoky Mountains National Park leads country with most visitors in 2019 MIKE Ever wonder which American national parks get the most visitors? The Great Smoky Mountains National park received the most visitors with 12.5 million in 2019, followed by the Grand Canyon National Park at 5.97 million and the Rocky Mountains National Park at 4.7 million. The figures were released last week and showed 327.5 million visitors to all of the national parks in 2019, up by 2.9 percent from 2018. Also, the 2019 visitors number was the third highest recorded since 1904. Volunteer RVers help repair Florida's Caverns State Park campground so site can soon reopen from Hurricane Michael JENNIFER A team of RVers descended on Florida's Caverns State Park to help officials restore the campground devastated by Hurricane Michael in October 2018. Contractors did some repairs but much still needed to be done, and Florida state park staff were limited in how much time they could spend restoring the campground. So, the team of volunteers descended and completed almost all of the jobs, leaving just one - involving the campground's well- to be done before the site can reopen. Click here to see our visit to the state park before Hurricane Michael hit. Space heater, extension cords blamed for fire in Florida RV park that claimed two lives MIKE A very sad story out of Florida last week highlighted a couple, snowbirds, who died in their RV because of a fire at the Highbanks Marina Camp and resort on West Highbanks Road near the Central Florida town of Debary. While fire officials were still investigating, it appeared to be caused by a space heater. Apparently multiple space heaters, extension cords and power strips were in use in the RV. In a report on fire safety we did a few years back, we learned there are about 1,000 RV fires each year, and space heaters are a common cause. Our heart goes out to the loved ones of this RVing couple, and we thought it could be helpful to share this post, to remind us all on what we can do to reduce the likelihood of accidentally starting a fire while we camp. Article examines the true costs of RVing fulltime JENNIFER