- This week on the RV podcast, - Are you ready for the great cicada apocalypse? We'll talk to one of North America's top experts about what you may encounter soon on your camping trips. - And can creditors seize your RV if you go bankrupt, even if it's your full-time home? They did for an Arizona couple, and we'll tell you about it.
- National Park Week is almost here, and that means free entry and lots of festivities at national parks starting this Saturday, April 20th, - All this plus the RV News of the week. - And your questions coming up in episode 4 93 of the RV podcast. Hello everybody. I'm Mike. We, and this is my lifelong traveling companion and my bride Jennifer. And yes, we still are under the weather. - We keep sharing germs. They go back and forth, so, oh my gosh. Forgive me if I cough.
- , I should say up. - So now you cough. - Yeah, now I cough. Um, yeah, we've been swapping this drum for two weeks now, and, uh, it got so bad for me. I had, this is the first time I've not been able to do, uh, an ask us anything. I was just too much under the weather, so we missed it. This, uh, this past, uh, uh, Sunday. Hopefully we'll be back next Sunday with more. Um, but it's been a bugger getting rid of this, isn't it? - Yeah. I think it's more like three weeks. Yeah.
- Oh, well, but - Who's counting - And who's gonna complain? But we did see a bumper sticker coming outta the doctor's appointment today that kinda, uh, helped us to realize we don't wanna complain. It - Said, keep up your complaining and - God will let you live longer. . So, I get it. I get it. Okay. Uh, hey, just a quick reminder that our video version of the podcast is available for you to watch, uh, at, uh, YouTube, uh, on our YouTube channel, youtube.com/rv lifestyle.
And of course, you can listen to the audio version on all of your favorite podcast apps, and we would love to get your reviews. If you like this podcast, um, boy, we just love those four, those five star, four star, five star reviews, whatever you feel appropriate. Um, if you like it, please let us know. If you don't like it, just don't tell anybody. Please . And here's our feelings, . So, but we hope you do like it.
The, the more reviews we get, the, uh, the more the podcast is shown, uh, uh, and, uh, featured on the various podcast apps. So that's why we ask for 'em. So, uh, we hope that you have been watching our ongoing five part series on class B RVs that we started over the weekend. Uh, we have, uh, let's see, the fifth one, uh, was released, uh, this morning as this podcast is being released on, uh, April 17th.
And, uh, the, the sixth one, which will be kind of the best of the best, what we like, the best, that will be on our podcast channel on Saturday. So we hope you can check it out. - And then what are we gonna do? Well, - I don't know. There's a lot of different RVs out there, but, uh, true. We wanna go camping in ours. Uh, we brought our fifth wheel home from Tennessee last week, and it's, uh, sitting out there calling me. So I'm ready if you're ready. - I can't believe - You've been home a week.
And what did you say today? I'd like - To go someplace even - Though we're sick. Yeah. Uh, and, and this we may not be our normal bulent chit chatters in this podcast today because, uh, we, we tend to both cough and our voices are a little - Strange. I'm trying not to cough. - Yep. And it's, it's hard. Um, but hey, um, uh, check out that podcast thing and if you haven't subscribed to our YouTube channel, please do so. Uh, we're at youtube.com/rv lifestyle.
And by the way, we love to get your comments and your questions. Our private email is Mike and jen@rvlifestyle.com. When we, when we come right back here, the, uh, RV Social Media Buzz with Wendy Boyer. Stay with us. For campers in our viewers. Access to pure drinking water on the road is vitally important, and that's why Jennifer and I use and highly recommend KACO's new and improved taste. Pure water filter, KACO's taste.
Pure water filter offers an advanced six step filtration technology that goes way beyond just basic water filtration. With patented technology and top industry standard certifications, taste pure leaves, no question to the quality of your drinking water on the road. The taste pure water filter reduces unpleasant tastes, odors, lead chlorine, bacteria, sediment, and heavy metals, and also controls bacteria and mold growth.
Our viewers should start the season with a new filter and then replace it every 90 days or so. Now, we can't emphasize enough that waiting longer than three months can lead to bad taste, order and reduced water flow, and it may also affect the removal of lead. So replace it after about three months, the CAM code Taste Pure Water filter is available at most camping stores and through Amazon. Use our affiliate link at rv lifestyle.com/taste Pure. That's RV lifestyle.com/taste pure.
The one thing that can ruin a perfect RV trip is a bad mattress. And believe us, we know over the years we've tried many and we have found them all wanting until now. - Now we sleep on the RV mattress by Brooklyn Bedding. Quite simply, it's the best we've ever slept on. - We chose a queen size Aurora luxe medium firm mattress that arrived tightly rolled in a box. All we did was put it on the bed, unroll it, and wait for it to recover from the compression.
Then we put on the sheets and the bed covers and found we slept so well that we ordered another one for our home. - That's how comfortable it is. Our sleep is now so luxurious and deep that we can't imagine using a different mattress. - Shipping is free. If you're disappointed with the current mattress in your rv, you owe it to yourselves to try the RV mattress by Brooklyn Bedding. - Brooklyn Bedding sends out all of their RV mattresses from their own factory in Arizona.
This means they're able to use premium materials at a reasonable price for you, with no middleman bringing up the cost. - Make sure to check out their Black Friday sale at the end of this month. It'll be their biggest deal of the year. Don't miss out on the best sleep of your life. Visit rv mattress.com/rv lifestyle. Welcome back time now for the social media buzz.
You know, we get, I think, more comments these days on how much everybody's enjoying these social media recaps that Wendy Boyer, our, uh, social media community head there over on Facebook that she puts together for us. So she has does a great job - And there's much wisdom to be gained from listening to this. - Alright, so here's Wendy on the hot issues. Most talked about this past week. - Hi everybody over in our RV lifestyle, community cooking exchange space.
We had a question from James recently, and he asked, what do you do with seasonings to keep them fresh? You know, you're out there in the rig. There's all these different temperature fluctuations, and he was concerned about this. So lots of people chimed in. Doreen was one of many who said, during the camping season, she just leaves it all out there in her rig, doesn't worry about it, but brings it inside off season to keep the freshness. Uh, despina, I love what she wrote.
She sounds like she's very serious about her spices, making her own blends. And then when she's cooking with them, she, uh, takes a pan. She kinda does a dry heat to kind of bring that flavor out when she's cooking. And she says, you know, she uses an airtight container and it's fine, but she also brings them in off season. And Brenda said she did once have some spice a spice go bad when she was out RVing.
Um, and so she suggested that James put some rice in his spice, um, container depending on what type of shaker lid it has, and that should help with the freshness. So some ideas there for our RV chefs. Um, also in our RV lifestyle community, we had a post by Paul in our travel planning and trip space. And I love this post and it really got people talking. So Paul is planning a big epic bucket list trip this summer. We're talking 6,000 miles.
He's starting in North Carolina, going all the way up that East Coast. He's gonna be hitting Maine, new Brunswick, Nova Scotia, prince Edward Island. He's even going to Newfoundland and he's going to be there for the Iceberg Festival. How exciting is that? So he was just sharing this with, um, the group. And many people were excited for him to be able to make a trip like this. Um, Ken send, make sure you eat lots of lobster for him.
And many people, including Tina, Sheila, and others, said, please share your pictures with us. And Paul said he will. And that's one thing I love about the community, is just there's true friendships being formed there, and people really do wanna see pictures of his adventure. So I can't wait to see those. Paul. And then meanwhile over in our Facebook group, we had a post from Amber and she said, how firm is the 10 year rule in RV parks?
And what she's talking about is a rule that some campgrounds have prohibiting RVs that are more than 10 years old from camping there. And Amber has an older rig and she's, she's concerned. So this sparked a big discussion. We're talking more than 300 comments. And the bottom line is enforcement really varies. Bob said he experienced this at a campground in Las Vegas. They wouldn't even let him. They wouldn't even consider letting him stay there 'cause his rigs more than 10 years old.
And Diana, she camps a lot in resorts. And she said that in 10 years of camping, only two times has she run into a place that did not have this rule. And Mark said, you know, if the park's advertising a 10 year enforcement rule, then you better believe they're going to, you know, put that into action. But the good news is, most campgrounds don't have this rule. If you're camping in a state or federal campground, no problem.
Private campgrounds, they might have, um, they might ask you for a picture of your rig. If your rigs more than 10 years old, you show them the picture that your rigs nice, well maintained, cared for, then no problem staying there. So, um, good question from Amber and, uh, hopefully her mind is at ease. So that's it for me this week. I'm Wendy Boyer, and I'll see you over at the RV Lifestyle Community or Facebook group. - Well, thank you very much, Wendy Boyer.
As always, we appreciate your, uh, keeping tabs of all those fun conversations over there on social media. And it - Really is nice when people share pictures, especially they go on these big trips or even a trip, that's not epic because not all of us can go there. And it's fun to look at everything. It's like being there. - Yeah, I love to see people share their mm-Hmm, their experiences like that.
And that's what there, um, check out if you haven't joined by the way, check out our, uh, community dot rv lifestyle.com. Um, this is a great, uh, source for all questions and comments and relationships, uh, relating to the RV lifestyle. You'll find a very welcoming community there. We invite you to come over, click over and joins absolutely free community dot rv lifestyle.com. When we come back, we're gonna talk about the great cicada apocalypse coming soon.
We just heard about a land offering out west for our RVs in Arizona. They're selling five acre RV ranches, starting at only $49,900. The company offering it is affiliated with the people Jennifer and I bought our Tennessee property from. They do a great job. It looks amazing. It is at high elevation, so you'll get cooler temperatures, big mountain views, juniper trees, and green grasses. And it is near everything. The Grand Canyon Lake Havasu, Kingman, Flagstaff, and Sedona.
It's a perfect place to have a home base to explore the west. And it is right off famous Route 66. It's called Greenwood Ranches. And this is the second and final section of the community. We met the sales manager, really nice guy. He bought a property for his rv and he's building a container home on it. Check out their website for a video tour and showing availability. It's pretty incredible. Visit the website to get details and set up a showing Arizona RV land.net. That's Arizona RV land.net.
Welcome back everybody. Time now for the RV interview of the week. - And for the first time in 221 years, two different brews of cicadas are emerging this spring that could leave as many of those one and a half million cicadas per acre in some areas. Now, - How do they know that? Does somebody count 'em? Well, yes. As a matter of fact, our guest counts 'em. He, he's a cicada counter.
Now for our viewers who will be out camping, what should you expect out there in what the media is calling the cicada apocalypse? To help us prepare and learn more, we have a very special guest on our show today, Dr. Jean Ksky. He is an entomologist and a cicada expert from Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio. And Dr. Kresky says, this is a big deal. - Well, Dr. Kresky, it's a pleasure to have you with us on the - Podcast today.
- Let's, let's just sort of start with, we've heard so much about this, uh, basic questions and back. What is a cicada? Uh, what do they look like and what's their lifecycle? We'll start with that. - Well, uh, periodical cicadas belong to the insect order hempter, and that's as technical, let's get with that, that type of material. Uh, but they are closely related to things like, uh, aphids, bed bugs, stink bugs. They're sucking insects. Uh, and, uh, they're on 3,400 species worldwide.
And there are seven species of periodical cicadas that live only in the eastern half of the United States. Uh, we, in addition to the periodical scs, many of the states have annual cicadas that will be merging in, in, uh, oh, probably around the 1st of July to mid-July through, uh, September. But the periodical SCADAs will coming out in May, late April or early May, depending where, where, where we're seeing the expecting the population to emerge.
And, um, uh, what makes these insects somewhat special is that they have these incredible life cycles. It's the longest life cycle of an insect species for everyone in the, in the species. For example, some termites, uh, termite queens can live up to 50 years, but not the workers . They don't get the pleasure that long life. But, uh, uh, we have, uh, two life cycles, 17 year cicadas, which are more northern in their distribution compared to the 13 year cicadas.
And, uh, why this year is getting all the attention is that we have two different broods. And a brood is a year class. It's like, uh, uh, all the cicadas that come out in a particular year that designates a brood. And it's almost like the graduating class of 2024. They'll have a reunion in, in 17 years, if you will, . And so, uh, uh, we have two broods emerging brooded, uh, 13, which is a 17 year cicada that'll be merging in northern Illinois. And, and, uh, uh, northwestern Indiana.
Southern was extreme, Southern Wisconsin and northeastern Iowa. And then brewed 19, which is a 13 year cicada, goes all the way from central Illinois, almost all of Missouri, a swath through the southern states, uh, uh, Arkansas, Kentucky, Western Kentucky, middle of Tennessee, northern Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Georgia, and into South Carolina, North Carolina. Just a few, a few spots in Virginia, uh, and one county in Maryland.
And, uh, why this is exciting is, um, number one, the last time these two broods came out together was in 1803. We had Thomas Jefferson as president of the United States at that time. And, uh, second unlike other times when these dual broods come out, which happens about 30, a 30 or more times over the course of a 200 year period, uh, uh, they actually have an area where there'll be a slight overlap. And that's creating a lot of excitement for people.
- Lemme just back it up when we talk about, you know, 13 years, 17 years, what are they doing during that time? They're just in the soil. Uh, where are they? And they're still alive, but we don't see 'em. Uh, where do they go? - That's right. Uh, uh, during, later in the summer when the eggs hatch, the egg, the nymphs, uh, which are about, uh, oh, about three millimeters in ville, drop to the ground and immediately go underground.
Uh, they're very susceptible to spiders, ants and beetles, uh, when they come out as, as immatures. And they, for the first few weeks, they'll be feeding on grassroots, just below the surface. And then by New Year's day, they'll be eight to 12 inches below the surface, sucking on a tree root. Uh, they're not hibernating, they're not sleeping. They're, they're slow, they're not very active because it's cooler down there.
But they'll be down there, uh, uh, tunneling, feeding on a tree root, moving to another tree root. And then, uh, they'll be molting four times shedding their skin underground and turning to the next immature stage. And then as they get older, they'll move a little closer. So right now they're probably between, oh, I'd say four and eight inches below the surface, the ones that are coming out this year.
And, uh, uh, just, uh, what, what really seems like there's going on right now, because it's still spring, even though the temperature's been warm, our trees haven't leaked out yet. And they count the numbers of years by monitoring the fluid flow in the tree. And so they still think it's 16 years. It's not until later in the spring when the leaves, uh, start to form and the trees produce their flowers that they'll realize, ah, it's 17 years, we gotta get going.
- It's amazing, though, that their clock, whatever clock that is, that insects have is that precise that we know. Mm-Hmm, . So they emerge from the soil, and then that's when we'll see them and I suppose, hear them. What do they do? They obviously go eat the leaves or they, what do they do? - Well, they, they, they have, uh, uh, they have sucking mouth parts.
So they don't, they don't chew the leaves, but they do eat, uh, they literally are able to puncture with their, with their sucking mouth parts. They can puncture just below the bark and get, and remain hydrated. That's very important for them. But what they wanna do is as soon as they come out of the ground, they'll find a vertical surface, they'll crawl up that surface, they'll split open their immature skin, if you will, their, uh, exoskeleton.
And the adult gets pulled out, pulls themselves out, I should say. They'll hang nearly upside down, uh, before they grab, do a sit up, grab, hold, pull their, their, their abdo in free. And then they pump their wings full of fluid to stretch them out. And then they take another hour or two, uh, to actually darken their exoskeleton, harden it, and they have the, they're these beautiful red-eyed black bodied orange, uh, winged in, or, uh, orange tin wing veins, uh, uh, of insects.
But they're still not ready to do their thing yet. They will then climb up to the very tops of trees for five days because they have to continue their maturation process. And then they'll start singing. - They start, what, after five days? Oh, start making their noise. Yeah, - They start making the noise. And what then only the males have the, the, the, the, the sound producing structures, the timbers. And, uh, they'll, uh, they'll start, as I said, five days after they emerge.
And during this time, more and more cicadas are emerging. They don't all emerge in one day. It'll take anywhere from, uh, a week to two weeks for all of them to come out of the ground. But after five days, you'll start hearing some weak choruses. After 10 days, it's louder, still, after, after, uh, the three, two, the two weeks, three weeks going into three weeks, it reaches its cacophony as, as more and more adults are screaming in the trees. And the, uh, the sound is quite large.
Uh, I should say a large, large and sound, uh, is at loud. Uh, I have measured cicadas singing at 96 decibels. - Really - Put that in perspective at the university. There's the, the Sisters of Charity, uh, cemetery across the street from Mount Angeles University is on the flight path into CVG Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky International Airport. And during the Cicada emergency, you don't hear the jets flying in. - No. And they do, they, do they do the singing as you call it?
Do they do that all day long, uh, or in the evening, or this is gonna be 24 hour, uh, cacophony for us for a while? - No, it basically, uh, they'll start singing about 10 in the morning, and then as it gets warmer and the day gets hotter, about two o'clock, they're reaching their loudest. And they'll continue doing that until, uh, the, it gets to be, uh, uh, towards sundown. And then the, a few more will stop singing.
And they may go maybe a few minutes after sundown, but no, they'll be quiet at night because when they're, when they're singing, they're ad males are advertising, I'm a cicada, I could be eaten . And so they, they stay quiet at night as a means of, uh, keeping predators, nocturnal predators from finding them easily. - Now, I was, we're in, I'm in Florida, and the other morning I took my dog for a walk at a, at a local park, about 10 o'clock in the morning.
And I thought I heard cicadas, then I heard a loud noise in the woods, and it sounded like, like insects. Would those be cicadas, or is, or is that a different time? - That's probably tho those are probably some of the tree crickets or some of the, uh, uh, Orrin insects that also sing. Um, the, uh, uh, periodical, SCS used to be known from the panhandle in Florida. There are historical records, but they have not been seen for many decades.
Uh, and a number of my colleagues and I have gone down there looking for them. Uh, right now, the farthest south, they gets probably the Macon, Georgia area, uh, okay. Towards Florida. And there was something to get down into the, uh, uh, lo uh, uh, north of, uh, of New Orleans and Louisiana. But, uh, - Now we're gonna see how, guess how many, when we talk about, I've heard billions, trillions give us a sense of sense, particularly in those areas where there's gonna be the double hatch.
Uh mm-Hmm. , what are we going to see? How many are we gonna see? - Well, nationwide, uh, I've, the, the, the, I've been in a number of estimates. Uh, uh, some of the more readily, I think the more, you know, general estimate was around like 256 billion over the entire distribution. Um, and the area of, uh, and, and that, that's based on a census that was done in the, in the fifties by Hank Dus from the Field Museum. And he went out and put down quadrants and counted all the holes.
The emergence holes were the, the cicadas came out and they live under the, these are holes that are under trees. 'cause they come up from the, where the, where the tree roots are. And based on the estimates he was getting for one acreage of, of ground under trees would be about 1.8 million. Wow. - In an acre. - I did the same process, uh, here in, in the suburbs of Cincinnati. And we don't have that many in Cincinnati 'cause of all the clear cutting and what have you.
But, uh, but we were getting about three quarters of a million. But either way, that's still still a lot of bugs - , what it is, a lot of what, what, uh, areas will have the most, is there a state that's gonna be cicada central, so to speak? - Well, the, what's what's interesting as I mentioned earlier, is that this year we have these two different broods coming out, a 13 year cicada, uh, and a 17 year cicada brood.
And, uh, uh, there is a small area of overlap, but those areas are right at the most southern extreme of brood 13 and the most northern extreme of brood 19. So we're not expecting massive numbers at that little spot. Okay. But, uh, uh, the census, uh, information that was done, uh, by, uh, d back in the, uh, fifties, those areas are gonna be getting cicadas this year.
And so the, the some of the, I'm expecting some of the biggest and loudest numbers to be in the, uh, uh, out outside the suburb out suburbs and north, just outside of Chicago, uh, where they'll have incredible numbers. Uh, parts of southern Illinois and rural Missouri should have really good numbers as well, and be loud. - Now, do these pose any hazard to people? They don't bite it. You say they just suck, uh, tree the tree leaves or whatever it is, but - Tree roots, yeah.
- Yeah. Do, do they cause any, they they - Don't bite. Well, they don't, cause they don't bite, they don't sting. Uh, they some, if you, if people have said that there were reports like in the 19th century of them stinging people, but when those were investigated, they all turned out to be related to cicada killer wasps, which come out later, not during the periodical sc and people getting stung by wasps in many cases.
But, uh, uh, the only damage they can do, and it's not a real damage per se, they're not like the, they're not like grasshoppers that chew things up or what have you, uh, is when the female lays her eggs in the trees, uh, that sometimes causes the branch, the tip of the branch to break and leaves with her and turn brown and sort of dangle there. And that we call that flagging. And, uh, that it looks like they've been hit by a big hailstorm, uh, all the brown leaves.
But it turns out that overall is, is actually beneficial because even though it doesn't look nice right now in the tree, it results in a, like a natural pruning. It results in a larger leaf set and flower set this next year. - Now there, how big are they? I've seen what, an inch and a half or so? - An inch and a half, uh, to two inches depending on the, there's three species that'll be coming out with the 17 year cicadas. And four species are the 13 year scs.
Uh, the, the large species is about, uh, two, uh, uh, about up to two inches. And the smaller two species are about an inch and a half with, from head to the tip of the wing. - And so, uh, now one of the things I I, I read a story someplace about, uh, one effect of all this is we're going to have a lot of gorged wildlife, the animals that feed on cicadas. Is that, is that true? - Well, these, they, they are gonna be, that's part of their, uh, whole defensive mechanism.
Uh, the cicadas come out, uh, in large numbers to satiate their predators. Those to give their predators so many cicadas to eat that they get tired of eating them.
And then the end result is when they, when they, as they tired of eating cicadas, there's still millions more to reproduce, uh, the illustration, I'd like to con that, that people can't necessarily get their mind around it, but I always say, imagine if you walk outside today and you found the world swarming with flying Hershey's kisses - . Yeah, - I know Ivy a few, but that's a few.
Yes. Sometimes, sometimes, uh, it could be too much of a good thing and you will get, i I won't eat them for a while. Uh, so, uh, uh, the, uh, uh, the survival strategy, periodic call cicadas is come up, these big numbers overwhelm the predators with all the prey they can eat. And they're still millions to go. The annual cicadas, which you have in Florida, and we have here in the Midwest as well, they're gonna, they will, they'll start emerging in July after the periodical scales are done.
They are, they come out in small numbers. They're cryptically colored. They look like they're covered in camouflage green, brown, and khaki and, and black and what have you. And they're up in a tree and you hear 'em calling and you're staring. The that's, it's, it's backlit. So you can't see 'em easily. That's their maid of, of, uh, method of avoiding being eaten. They just can't be found easily. Yeah. Uh, whereas the periodics, they're, they're clumsy flyers.
I've seen birds pick 'em off in the air - Now they they do fly. - Oh, yes. They can fly up two about a mile over the course of, uh, the, the most they'll fly would be probably about a month, about a mile. But many fly only just a few hundred yards, uh, mostly to find a tree to sing in, and then a tree to lay the female layer eggs in. - Now, the, uh, our audience, of course, is gonna be out there camping.
They're in RVs to do, will we be seeing them splattering against windshields or covering our RVs and wooded areas? - Well, the, you they're talking about the only things, they're only gonna be present in the eastern half of the us. Uh, you can fly into them and they can, they can splatter the car if you'll, but not, they're not gonna be like the love bugs you get in northern Florida or central Florida.
Yeah. Uh, there'll be, there'll be a few, uh, the, uh, uh, most likely people will hear 'em if they're lucky, if they're lucky enough to be in the middle of this thing. It's like, it's like a David Attenborough special in your backyard. Uh, you know, and these things emerge. It's just amazing. Uh, they come, they, they, the NIMS crawl out of these holes in the ground and they find a vertical surface. And I've seen 'em do this on trees, on brick walls, on fences, on tires.
And they slowly climb up, and then they'll go through the process of shedding their skin, just getting outta the shell, takes an hour and a half, and then they're, so, they're all white, but their wings, look, they look like normal skate, but just all white, and then takes another hour and a half for them to turn dark as they darken their exoskeleton. And so it's a slow, gradual process.
And, uh, uh, it, it's, uh, you know, if you're lucky to be there and your, and you got your grandkids or your kids, get out there, get a flashlight, watch this, you got the limited peripheral vision. And it's, it's, it's engrossing. Uh, I've often said periodical scada are the gateway drugs to natural history for kids . And so if they're, if they're lucky to, to enjoy this and see this, they will never forget it.
- Uh, that's awesome. - I've had conversations with, with people who, uh, remembered the 1936 emergence, and they talk about what happened to this as a kid. And then 17 years later, they're married, they got a daughter of their own, this woman that was telling me the story. And then 34 years later, she had granddaughter. She's showing the cicadas too.
I don't think she's still with us, but I'll bet dollars to donuts that that family, every time brewed 10 emerges in sense, they tell a story about great grandma and grandma and their great uncle. - Oh, well, I'm sure many of us will be doing this, and we will have a whole new appreciation of this Dr. Christie, because of your enthusiasm and your expertise.
Well, I wanna thank you so much. Certainly, - And I hope your, I hope your list, I hope your listeners will get Cicada Safari and help us map 'em, map, map where they are when they encounter 'em. That'd be very helpful. Yeah. - Is a place they should go to report all of this stuff. And we'll put a link. - Cicada Safari is a free app. Uh, we don't tell, give any data to anything else. We just ask people to download the app.
Uh, find cicada, periodical, cicadas, take their turn out their locations, services or GPS on their phone, and they submit, it goes right to the app. And if it's verified as a cicada goes live on the app. So you can, if, if people wanna see where they are, just get Cicada Sari. There's a live map of where people have been reporting cicadas on there, and it's, - And the link is set. It, - Uh, that's the, uh, cicada safari.org is the website.
Okay. And the Cicada Safari app is available at the app, at the Apple App Store or Google Play. - We will, we will. I, I will get it on mine before, uh, before I, uh, process the interview. So thank you, Dr. Kisky. You've been a delight to interview. Thank, happy cicada hunting. . Thank you. Well, - Do you think we're gonna need, uh, boots to navigate those cicadas?
- I don't know, but it sounds like there's gonna be some mighty good eat out there For critters that like to eat cicadas, - Snakes, skunks, possums, raccoons, uh, they're all gonna be gorged, and cicadas. They say. All right, when we come back, we've got the RV News of the week, so stay with us. Jennifer and I bought some land near Nashville, Tennessee a while back. We got tired, crowded, expensive campgrounds and worrying about reservations.
Tennessee is a gorgeous state with friendly people, and it has been such a pleasure. The same developer has some new property near us, close to the Natchez Trace and Buffalo River called the Reserve. At High Forest. Big properties, five to 41 acres. You can build a house, a cabin or rv. Year round prices start at only $89,900. Your property, your way 100% ownership. The scenery in this part of Tennessee is breathtaking, and the property is gorgeous.
Garden landscape, bring your pets, build what you want. There's high speed fiber optic internet, and it is so private, A great place to make your home base ready whenever you want it. Five to 41 acre properties from $89,900. There's even great financing. Check out the site and a video tour@rvlands.net. That's RV lands.net. Welcome back time now for the RV News of the week.
- And in Nevada Park officials are searching for two men caught on video topping topping ancient rock formations that Nevada's Lake Mead and, uh, lake Mead National Recreation Area officials are seeking. The publix's help in finding the two men who were caught on camera destroying breathtakingly beautiful ancient rock formations. And - They did this apparently in front of their kids. Um, there, there's a viral video.
The men can be seen standing on the side of a cliff pushing rocks out of this federally protected area, setting them tumbling below. And as they push and shove a panic sounding little girl watches and screams, daddy don't fall. - And the appalling vandalism happened the evening of April 7th along Redstone Dunes Trail. Lake Meads National Recreation Area is a massive one and a half million acre park in Nevada
with about 6 million visitors each year. Let's - Hope these guys are caught and, um, we'll be glad to tell you about that when that happens. - And our next story, a full-time, Arizona Couple are left homeless after filing for bankruptcy because the court says the RV homes are not protected under homestead exemptions. - Now, this Arizona couple were full-timers, and they ended up homeless because, um, they filed for bankruptcy and their RV did not count as a home.
The couple, Steven and Mary Drummond lived in a 2017 Tiffin. Uh, they moved into it in 2018 when they bought it, and, uh, when they filed for bankruptcy in 2022. - Now, under Arizona's homestead exemption, when a person files for bankruptcy, there home is exempt from seizure up to a certain dollar amount to protect the filers from becoming homeless.
- When the Drummonds filed for bankruptcy, they had a 2012 car, and they're tiffin because they had sold everything to travel, but both the car and the RV were seized by creditors. And that's left them now without a place to - Live. And if they had kept their sticks and bricks, creditors would not have been permitted to take their home under the state's home, home Homestead exemption and the couple's story certainly gives everybody consideration about selling everything and hitting the road.
You know, it gives you something to think about - Because as wonderful as full-time travel can be, things do happen. And um, man, that's, that's pretty sad. Very sad. Lots of things to think about in, uh, before you become a full timer. Uh, alright. Plan now for free entry to all national parks this Saturday. - And if you're near a National park this Saturday, April 20th, you can enter for free to kick off National Park Week.
- National Park Week is a nine day celebration of all things parks and national parks throughout the country. It'll be free on Saturday, and there'll be special activities through April 28th. The every day will have a theme. Uh, you can find all those different themes, uh, uh, when you get to the park, they'll tell you what they're out there.
But from Junior Rangers to volunteer appreciation to Arts in the Parks, um, we'll put a link in the show notes for this episode, uh, RV lifestyle.com/podcast. And you can see all the things happening. - Now, there are six free National Park admission days this year with the next one being June 19th. So circle that on your calendar. And if you're looking for a national park that made our list as a favorite for our viewers, we'll let you know. - Just look into the description below.
We'll put a link to it and, uh, you'll find it in, uh, RV lifestyle.com/podcast. - Now, Washington State is considering a plan to raise all campsite fees for 2025. Camping at a state park in Washington is likely to cost more in 2025. As the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission is considering a price increase to keep up with inflation - Under that proposal.
The cost of a basic standard campsite in season and a basic site is no water, no electric or sewer would go from $32 to $37 a night. - And a full utility campsite at a popular spot in season would rise from $50 a night to $56 a night. And when it's off season, it'll be less. But, uh, the most, the prices would increase whatever season is $6 per night. - Washington has about 6,400 campsites prices were last updated in 2020, and they're part of a growing trend.
We're seeing this all around the country, different state parks and the different states up in their camping rates. When we return, we have the RV questions of the week. So stay with us when we're asked. What's the most important modification we made to our rv? It's an easy answer. Battle borne batteries. Battle borne batteries are quality, safe, reliable lithium batteries that allow us to stay out there off the grid longer. Lithium batteries charge faster.
They charge fuller, they're longer lasting, they're maintenance free. And battle borne batteries are protected by a 10 year guarantee. Now in our case, they just dropped into the existing a GM batteries that we have, and they'll probably be the same on your rig too. Battle borne battery experts can get those in your rig, just like they did with ours. They can also match you up with the right cabling, the inverter, the charger, the solar controller, everything.
Jennifer and I swear by our battle borne batteries, they allow us to boondock off the grid. Check 'em out. Go to rv lifestyle.com/lithium rv lifestyle.com/lithium. Welcome back, everybody. Time now for the RV questions of the week. And before we take, uh, the two questions we're gonna answer this week, I wanna remind you that we love to get your comments and your questions, and you can reach us through our private email. And that is Mike and jen@rvlifestyle.com.
- Question number one, generally when I book a site, I book the night before and the night after my length of stay. What I'm saying is, if I'm going to stay nine nights, beginning on a Friday, I'll book Thursday night so that the site is mine. That way I can get into, into the campground early on Friday. Then on the tail end of the stay, I book an extra night so I don't have to get caught up in the rush of people checking out. I do a later checkout. I pay for those nights.
The site is just empty. I do let the campground know that I won't be there the final night, but they've told me that they can't book it because it's mine. Ultimately. Is that wrong if I'm not there on those two nights, even though I paid for them? Also, it should be noted that most of my camping is on private campgrounds, and this is from Brad. - Well, I I don't think that there's a gonna be a clear consensus on this, Brad, that, uh, I understand your reasoning.
I think a lot of people will agree with you, but I think a lot of 'em will not. And I'm one of those who do think that this is wrong, um, that that borders on being selfish because you're tying up spots that others could use and enjoy, even though you know you're not gonna be on that campsite. I mean, you said to yourself that you tell the park, yeah, I'm not gonna be there.
Uh, the, the, the last night that you book and pay for, well, and they explained to you that because you have technically leased that site, they can't rent it out to somebody who could use it. So it, it's hard to get a campsite, Brad. And some people only have limited times when they can get away. Oftentimes you'll find them making, uh, different arrangements. Maybe they, they can get one for, uh, Friday and Saturday, but, uh, to get one on Thursday, they gotta go book a different night.
And if you've got that tied up on Friday, on Thursday, they can't get in and there goes their whole plan for that weekend. So I just don't think it's a very considerate practice for others. It's very convenient for you, but I don't think it's very con considerate. - Now, something that I see going on here is that this isn't a national park or a state park or a county park, I would say absolutely no, - Don't do it on. No, sure, - Don't do. Sure don't. But you're saying it's a private campground.
So it seems to me like at a private campground, if somebody came in late at night, they could rent out that spot. But I don't know, it, it's, uh, it's thin ice. - Well, anyway, I don't think it's, it's a good practice and it's not very considerate of others. But, um, you ask, don't be mad at me. That's my answer. We are all entitled to different opinions here, right? Okay.
I hope , I hate to make anybody mad and, you know, but, um, I do understand your reasoning, but I just don't think that's a good practice. - Now the second question is when I've thought about bar of soap or shower gel, and this question is, my husband and I sold our house in October and moved into our fifth wheel as a stop gag while we plan and build a new home a few hours away. We've been in the fifth wheel for almost six months.
And tonight he asked me to find a bar of soap that he can use in the shower he hates. That's a double hate liquid body wash. I read somewhere that bar soap is bad in RVs, but can't find any information. I prefer liquid body wash, but wanted to see if there's a bar soap he can use here. Any advice is so appreciated. And this is from Linda. - Well, I'm with your husband Linda. I hate liquid soap too, and I always use bar soap.
And, um, I don't know if there's a real right or wrong answer, but it seems to stack up that a bar soap is probably a little better. Uh, a quick internet search says that as far as cleaning action goes, uh, it really doesn't make any difference between a bar and liquid, but from an environmental point of view, and we're coming on to Earth Day next week, but from an environmental point of view, bar soap winds, uh, the liquid version requires a plastic bottle.
And that takes more energy to produce than the wrapping of a bar of soap. Plus a bar of soap on average lasts six times longer than its liquid counterpart. So that's my opinion. And again, I don't know, what does Jennifer say? Well, - I don't know if this is true or not, but I heard this, that liquid soap is good to use 'cause it doesn't clinging to the walls of the shower, whereas a bar of soap makes more scum. - Yeah, a soap scum. - Yeah. That, uh, it's more work to get off.
It clings to everything. Coats it. You know what that's like, like when everything gets covered with that scum, and I heard that, but I don't know if it's the truth. - Um, uh, it, it probably is. So bottom line is, it's a toss up. You let your husband use the bar soap and you can use the liquid soap. And we got two happy campers. Hey. - And he can clean the shower - . Yes. He can clean the shower. There you go. All right.
Again, don't forget, we wanna get your questions, Mike and jen@rvlifestyle.com. Hey, we're usually a lot more talkative and more fun, but, um, believe it or not, just tired or so, so we're gonna, we're gonna go. I, I feel - Like I'm fun, . - All right. Hey, we will be back next week and, uh, we can't wait to, uh, to have you with us. So stay with us, uh, on the blog, on the podcast, on our RV Lifestyle community. And don't forget, uh, our YouTube channel, RV Lifestyle, the YouTube channel.
Would love to see you there as well. Thanks for watching and listening to the podcast. - Happy trails.