RV Travel when you are all alone

Welcome to another edition of the RV Podcast - Your Guide to Freedom and Fun through RV Travel. This week we meet a remarkable woman, Carolyn Rose of the YouTube Channel Carolyn’s RV Life. Carolyn left a big corporate job in the city for a life mostly spent in the boonies, traveling alone in her RV, to follow her dreams. Carolyn is our Interview of the Week on this 274th episode of the RV podcast, being released on Jan 1, 2020, the first day of a new year and a new decade. So Happy New Year Fellow Travelers and welcome to our New Year’s Day edition of the podcast. Besides the interview, we have RV News, your questions, and much more. But right now, my lifelong traveling companion and my bride…Jennifer. WHAT MIKE AND JENNIFER ARE UP TO THIS WEEK We took last week off for Christmas and have had a great Holiday season with family. Yesterday we traveled to Frankenmuth, MI, home of Bronner’s famous Christmas Wonderland. It was surprisingly crowded even though Christmas was last week and they don’t discount their decorations because they are open 361 days a year, closed only on Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Easter. We’re getting ready for our annual winter campout in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula next week, where we’ll gather with several dozen RV Lifestyle Fellow Travelers. And the day after we get back from the UP, we head to Tampa, FL to spend a week at the Tampa RV Supershow. We’ll be doing Meet and Greets every day during the show from 2-3PM Eastern Time at the Leisure Travel Vans display. On Thursday Jan. 16, we’ll be at a big party that everyone is invited to that is held at the Wing House right near the Fairgrounds. We’ll put info in the shownotes for this episode at rvlifestyle.com/274 On Friday we’ll be at the Islamorada Restaurant at Bass World in nearby Brandon to meet with a group of Leisure Travel Van owners. They call their club the Flamingoes. And every day during the show we’ll be roaming the fairgrounds doing stories. If you see be sure to introduce yourself! This part of the podcast is brought to you by Dish Outdoors, which lets RVers pay as they go and watch HD satellite television from wherever they are camped with easy to set up gear made with the RVer in mind. Just go to https://rvlifestyle.com/dish for details on the service and special deal just for listeners of this podcast RV LIFESTYLE NEWS OF THE WEEK People breaking rules and getting close to Yellowstone wolf pups being blamed their deathSad news out of Yellowstone National Park last week for all wolf lovers. Two wolf pups died after being struck by a car back in November. Officials said the pups’ death was tied to them losing their fear of humans. Park officials did their best to keep people away from the wolves - closing off the area around their den, requiring people stay 100 yards away when they left their den, hazing them to scare them of roads and people, and so on. But people kept breaking the rules and getting close for pictures. After losing their fear of humans, the pups kept getting too close to roads, which ultimately, park officials said, led to them being hit by a vehicle and dying. New Mexico's White Sands National Monument is now White Sands National Park It's now official: America has a new national park. Last Friday New Mexico's White Sands National Monument became White Sands National Park. This brings the number of national parks to 62. White Sands became a national monument in 1933 and plans were underway for years to turn the unique spot, home to the world's largest gypsum dune field, into a national park for some time. Officials hope the designation will help the local economy. French paper runs feature on Roadtrek After driving a Roadtrek for years, we have promised to keep our readers informed as best we can when we see or hear any news on the brand. Well, last week a French publication ran a story saying 70 employees were hired by Rapido are currently producing camper vans. Roadtrek is now owned by a French company called Rapido, which bought the brand and an Ontario, Canada, factory earlier this year when the company was in bankruptcy court. The entire article was in French, and seemed to be more a feature on how Rapido is now the only European RV company on North American soil. It said Rapido plans to produce 400-500 Roadtreks next year on Fiat Ducato, Mercedes Sprinter and soon the Ford chassis. If you want to check it out, click here. The original male wolf on Michigan's Isle Royale National Park killed by new wolves brought to park We have shared here the National Parks work to increase the wolf population at Michigan's Isle Royale National Park by taking wolves from neighboring states and Ontario and moving them to the remote island. The process has been difficult. Some wolves died in the transport. One escaped the island when Lake Superior froze and went to Minnesota. And now, just out this week, the lone, 12-year-old male wolf born on the island was killed by the new wolves. Where