Campgrounds across North America are getting ready to open as we’re seeing many places in the US adopting a three-phased process to ease mandatory stay at home orders and travel prohibitions.

The question is… when?

Some campgrounds in a handful of states are planning to book new campers starting in May. Others have tentatively set reopening dates to a little later. Still, others say they have no idea.

But whenever they do open, as we learn in our Interview of the Week segment, camping as we know it will be different, sometimes vastly different, with new procedures and policies that may be with us long into the future.

We update the current open and closed list of campgrounds and hear from two industry experts, both of whom are voicing cautious optimism that the 2020 camping year will soon be starting – in one form or another.

Plus, we have RV News of the week, your questions, and an off the beaten path report. But first, my lifelong traveling companion and my bride… Jennifer.

Show Notes for Episode #291 of The RV Podcast:

WHAT MIKE AND JENNIFER ARE UP TO THIS WEEK

Like you, Jen and I have pretty much been staying at home during this pandemic and while we are not in as strict of a lockdown as other places, we are starting to feel the strain of no travel and closed businesses.

While there is a strong glimmer of hope that things are starting to improve and some of those restrictions will be lifted, I think we all have at least a couple more weeks yet where unnecessary travel will be prohibited by health and governmental authorities. But I am very optimistic now that, come summer, we will all be able to get back on the road.

To that end, while we're all hunkered down, we now are doing two YouTube live streams. Our regular Sunday evening "Ask Us Anything" show on our RV Lifestyle YouTube Channel has been joined with a Friday night Virtual Campfire. Both start at 7 PM Eastern time and are a great way to stay connected and interact with the online RV Lifestyle community. Join us at https://youtube.com/rvlifestyle

We invite you to pull up a chair and join us for the live streams! Here’s hoping that soon we'll be able to have real campfires again!

We’ve been watching the Super B RV Show online this past week Like all in person RV shows, this year’s annual Super B Show I Phoenix was canceled. So the event organizers – LaMesa RV -moved it online and have been featuring video tours of various small motorhome models, along with live Q&A on their Facebook Page and YouTube Channel.

The online Super B Show will continue all week. Here are the ones we’ve watched so far.

The Pleasureway Ascent TS  - https://youtu.be/_pOmtyH0sDI

The Pleasureway Tofino - https://youtu.be/MFqmsBWZqE8

The Leisure Travel Unity - https://youtu.be/iye_CPe0Dqw

LaMesa is doing a live broadcast each day of different Class B units at 10 AM PT at https://www.facebook.com/lamesarv

RV LIFESTYLE NEWS OF THE WEEK

Homeowners association refuses request by COVID-19 treating physician's assistant to live in RV in her driveway

A New Jersey physician's assistant treating COVID-19 patients was denied the right to live in an RV in her driveway by her neighborhood homeowners association in Burlington County. The physician's assistant and her husband have a 6-year-old daughter, so the couple thought if she lived in an RV in the driveway she could see her daughter and husband and be close, but have the separation needed to protect their child. But apparently the homeowners association still denied the request. 

Gary Bunzer, widely known as the RV doctor, dies after four-week fight against COVID-19

Last weekend we shared over our RV Lifestyle Facebook group, the very sad news that Gary Bunzer, known far and wide in the RV Community as "the RV Doctor," died in a Washington hospital after a four week battle with COVID-19. Gary was a frequent guest on our podcast and he made appearances in several of our videos. We last saw Gary in October in Elkhart,