How NOT to RV – The Book and MP3
The book, How NOT to RV is available right now through Amazon on the Kindle. How NOT to RV is a great gift for the deluded but beloved people in your life who strive – or think about striving – for adventure or personal change (shhh, don’t tell them they’re often the same thing).
Of course if you’d rather have an audio recording of these fateful lessons that you can listen to while side-swiping your first road sign, that will soon be available too, but for a little more money because it takes a really long time to read the thing into a player without coughing or sneezing.
If you are interested in getting the audiobook which I’m still recording, please leave your email address below in the comments section. I will be moderating the comments and will not publish your email address on this blog, I’ll just make a note of it to let you know when the audiobook is available. Which, as I said will be very very soon if I can just figure out how this software works …
You can also let me know if you prefer a hard copy of the book (how quaint) which would be fun to stick in someone’s Christmas stocking, or under their menorah, or tucked under their prayer rug, or just left next to their coffee cup if I can finally decide on the right format to print it in.
Dr. Jennifer
Would love a hard copy of this book (we’re new to RV-ing and having a blast). Would be something nice to read on the road. We’re not into techie stuff, so don’t have kindles, or smartphones, or anything else very fancy. But I would love to have this if it were a “real” book.
Hi Kay, thanks so much for your interest. I wish I could say a hard copy is in the offing but my priority right now is to publish more How-NOT-to-Guides digitally and in audio form. If someone walked up to me with a great deal to do the book in hardcopy such that I didn’t have to do anything, I might go for it. Unless that happens, I’m just too busy now to do it myself. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I wouldn’t put one out there, I’d like to have a copy myself! But at least for now, it will have to wait because I refuse to go find a publisher, most contracts with publishers just doesn’t make sense for most authors now, in my opinion. On the other hand, have you ever tried using one of the new ereaders? They’re wonderful! I’m in the process now of putting How NOT to RV on Barnes and Nobles’ Nook reader, Apple’s iBook platform, Kobo (big internationally) and maybe a couple of other ones. When I stopped carrying books around, I started walking taller again, no more shoulder pains!
Happy motoring, and don’t forget to send us your tales of excitement and confusion from the road!
Please let me know when you publish a hard copy.
Hi Pat –
Thanks so much for the request. I’ve had increasing interest in a hard copy of the book but haven’t published one yet because I suspect it would come in at too high a price point. There will truly be an audiobook available before too long – I got hung up on some of the technicalities but have found a new option – so maybe you’ll be interested in that. I’ll let you know when one or both are available. Happy motoring!
Question: What happens if the fresh water hose is hooked up to the black water flush system by mistake? Answer: A lot! Even on a cloudless day, water will soon cascade off the roof from the bathroom vent pipe geyser. Black water holding tank contents will over flow the commode and you will see another geyser up very close if you stomp the flush pedal at this time. Shutting off the water will gradually end this circus allowing the panic to subside.
Later, my brother-in-law discovered I had attached the hose to the wrong, but clearly labeled, connection on “HIS” trailer!
The name and e-mail address used here are not mine. I am still (forever) under the Humiliated RVer Witness Protection Program. I am the only 25 year veteran, so far.
Oh man. I propose that you emerge from the Humiliated RVer Witness Protection Program and consider yourself lucky that no one was sitting on the toilet at the time! You should also get an award for creativity. It never occurred to me that that was even possible. Thanks so much for, um, this unique mental picture.
Good morning – I am so loving your book. I finished the one I was reading about the kooky Mormon sect in Mexico and started yours this morning. I am laughing so hard my eyes are leaking. It is wonderful! Thank you indeed for a happy start to my day.
This book is hilarious – particularly for those of us who are RVers. I highly recommend it and it is definitely cheap enough. If you have a kindle or an ipad you can easily download it from Amazon. http://mostlymusing.blogspot.com
Catherine
Catherine, thanks so much for enjoying my book and letting me know.
It is especially gratifying when an experienced RVers likes it, because I knew that a newbie might find it useful but someone who’s been through it knows first-hand what really goes on. And if you can laugh at it, that’s the best. Happy happy travels!
Hello Dr Jennifer… The very first thing I have to say is how much I enjoyed your book,it made me laugh out loud ( much to my husbands chagrin lol). We live aboard full time in a wonderful resort in the San Juan Islands in beautiful Washington State. For about 6 months of the year we have virtually the place to ourselves but then the other 6 months is so so different with the tourists coming and going. We have met some wonderful people, we have helped some wonderful people as well and we have butted heads with some not so wonderful ones as well, law of averages I guess. Your book encapsulated all of that and more and you have made me a fan of Air streams and any other RV’s with character ( including ours). I will recommend your book at every opportunity I get. Once again thank you for such an entertaining read… Patricia Morgan
Thanks so much Patricia, it sounds like you have the bug too. I have to say, even now when I get in the driver’s street of my much older motyho, I still burst out laughing. Let’s hear it for rigs with character! If you accumulate any How-NOT-to stories on your RV adventures, please do leave them here in the Tell-it section. I’d love to hear from you. And stay tuned for other How-NOT-to Guides. You never know when you might need the extra boost to Conquer Fear One Failure at a Time.
Dear Dr. Jennifer,
I just finished “How Not To RV” and was fascinated from beginning to end. I was searching for books on RVing on Amazon when I came across yours. You won’t get rich at 99 cents a copy, but I’m sure you’re not doing this for the money.
I lost my job last spring, just two months shy of my 60th birthday when the bank my wife and I both worked at was sold. Fortunately, her job was retained, as were most customer contact positions, but my back office, Business Continuity/Information Security Officer position was duplicated and I was not .
My wife and I were avid campers/backpackers in our younger years but age and back surgery have left me walking with a cane due to nerve damage which makes backpacking impossible and getting up from a sleeping bag on the cold hard ground an unappetizing prospect. Nevertheless, the desire to camp and explore is still strong, so this past December, we invested in our first RV, a tiny little teardrop trailer that we can easily pull with our Subaru Forester.
Although it might seem crazy, in upstate NY, to have an unheated camper the the size of a queen bed mattress (literally!) it gives me the opportunity to make little modifications before the spring camping season is upon us. So far, we have slept in it one night out in our driveway and with an electric mattress pad, we were toasty warm. I’ve added a tiny electric heater and found that 900 watts is more than adequate even when the temperature is in the 20s. Next I have to mount a little flat panel TV and we’ll be ready to roll.
I’m sure we’ll make our share of screw-ups along the way and as we do, I’ll try to keep you posted. Thanks for the laughs and for validating our decision to embrace the RV experience, if only by baby steps for now.
Brian Miller
Brian, thanks so much for your kind words. It sounds like you’re off on a great adventure using what you’ve got to greatest advantage. Way to go! Those little teardrop trailers are delightful, I always get whiplash when I see them on the road. They have such spirit. Please be sure to let us know about anything you may learn about how NOT to do things. And of course don’t forget to have a great time anyway.