Most folks spend winter holidays curled up at home, warm and surrounded by family and friends. The truth is that with an RV at your beck and call, you can have the same feelings of comfort and enjoy the company of loved ones while gaining the perks of traveling during the holidays!

The fact is, Santa could load his sleigh with all the benefits of spending winter’s holidays on the road, so load up your RV and enjoy the season in these new ways!

Stunning winter landscapes

Not all of us have the good fortune of a breathtaking snow-capped view of the world from their brick-and-mortar residence. By spending your winter vacation away from home, you can see amazing landscapes that act as the backdrop for your holiday adventures!

Avoid the holiday shopping hullabaloo

While some may thrive in the throngs of half-crazed bargain hunters, others get their shopping done early or find less commercial ways to delight our friends and family – like a holiday trip to escape the shopping madness! Use your time instead to focus on what matters: life, love, and liberty.

Steer clear of the holiday exodus

If escaping the nutty shoppers is good, escaping the traffic is great. By taking your RV on the road for the holidays, you can leave a few days early to be free and clear of the congested holiday travel and camp right on through until the holiday return rush is over.

Give yourself the gift of novelty

If you’ve never spent the holidays on the road, you need no better reason to give it a shot. Most traditions are entirely portable and easily maintained when RV camping. From a shared meal with close family to gift exchanges, from building a roaring fire (in approved camp fire pits, please!) to baking cookies with the kids, all the best traditions can be packed up and enjoyed in a new and exciting environment.

Surround yourself in trees

Last but not least, Christmas tree lovers can get a special treat by parking your RV someplace surrounded by winter greens – and still set up one of your own in the warmth of your RV to pack presents under. If you choose to go this route this year, be sure to bring some extra tinsel and lights to make your camp spot festive by decorating the living trees, too!

Having a happy holiday on the road is entirely achievable from behind the wheel of your RV. The beloved holiday traditions we cherish can come with you as well as the people whose company it wouldn’t be a holiday without.

We encourage everyone to give it a try – whether you’re interested in shaking things up, preserving your favorite festivities while in a new location, or simply making your escape from the stress that clings to major holidays. This year, enjoy all the benefits of holiday travel!

For more RV travel guides and trip ideas, please visit our blog. If you want to be sure that your home away from home is safe and secure for a holiday adventure, be sure to take some time to see our RV insurance products or get a quote online today!

This RV travel guide is as valuable for young families as it is for the young at heart. Exploring the country in an RV is about what you see and where you stop, so for the science-minded in your touring group, visit any or all of these great southern science centers!

The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, FL

Known as MOSI (MOH-zee), The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa, Florida has over 400,000 square feet of education and entertainment ranging from meteorology to physics with weather exhibits in Disasterville and a 98-foot long high-wire bicycle ride 30 feet in the air!

MOSI also has an amateur radio club for the “hams” in your family, and their “Kids in Charge!” section is the largest children’s science center in the country for learning through play.

The North Carolina Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC

This wonderfully diverse science center in Durham, NC boasts its very own Dinosaur Trail, live animals with motorized cameras to see deeper into the wildlife exhibits, and a uniquely entertaining outdoor chain of interactive exhibits called “Catch the Wind” that explores how humans, animals, and the earth adapt to and use the natural phenomenon of wind.

Their indoor exhibits are also a blast including SoundSpace, a room that you play like a musical instrument by moving throughout the room at different speeds and moving in different ways. Their “Magic Wings Butterfly House” is one of the largest in the world with more than 1000 tropical butterflies to walk among!

The Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, GA

The aptly named Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia is a “gem” of a science center that includes the Weinman Mineral Gallery that delights visitors with a seven foot high copper boulder (can you guess how many pennies it can be made into?) and 50 cases filled with hundreds of gems and minerals along with a fluorescent mineral room that helps you see rocks in a whole new way!

The Tellus Observatory houses a seismograph used to detect earthquakes all over the planet and a 20’ telescope to explore the night sky. One of its highly unique exhibits is the Solar Decathlon House built by Georgia Tech to compete in an international competition to be “green” and entirely self-sufficient!

Sci-Port: Louisiana’s Science Center in Shreveport, LA

For those transfixed with the beauty and grandeur of space, no RV travel tour is complete without a visit to Sci-Port in Shreveport, Louisiana! They have a dome planetarium with astronomy shows, live presentations, and the ability to maneuver it so you can see the stars in the sky on your birthday! They’ve also got an IMAX theatre to sit back and feel awed by the power of nature in their changing line-up of science films.

With over 290 exhibits in 9 galleries, including a floor piano to dance on and the ability to try on a space suit and land on the moon in a simulator, this science center is not to be missed while RVing in the south!

For more fun and awe-inspiring RV vacation ideas, we invite you to further explore the Gilbert RV Insurance blog! We offer RV Travel Guides as well as resources such as gas price finders and RV insurance quotes to make sure your trip is safe and productive. Go with Gilbert and have a stellar vacation!

Images by kwalk628 and Louisiana Travel. The photographers do not endorse Gilbert RV Insurance, Inc.

There are special considerations to make when preparing for a long RV trip and RV travel safety is an important topic to us here at Gilbert RV Insurance. Please take the time to review these tips on how to make a long journey safe and successful!

Plan Your Trip Thoroughly

Sure, surprise side roads can spice things up, but have an itinerary laid out ahead of time to outline your approximate location on any given day. The key here is that once your itinerary is planned, leave a copy with someone you trust and contact them on a regular basis so they know everything is going according to plan. If you change plans, be sure to let your contact know what’s different so that if something goes wrong, they know where to find you or where to send help.

Stock Up on Essentials

Namely, medications. Plan to visit your doctor before you leave on your big RV adventure to get enough medications to last for the duration of your trip. The last thing you want to do is needlessly pay for a consultation with a doctor you don’t know in a city you’re not familiar with to get the medication you need to finish your trip. Take it with you from the outset and keep it (and yourself) safe.

“When in Doubt, Know Your Way Out”

And by this we mean, don’t rely entirely on electronic devices to do your navigating. Pre-load your maps into these handy gadgets in case you cannot get reception on-site and always have an atlas or maps of your routes and destinations should the batteries die or your coffee get spilled on it, rendering it useless.

Don’t Take Your Chariot For Granted

Every day that you drive your RV, take a good hard look at it before you get behind the wheel. Check the fluids. Check that everything that should be is connected (or disconnected and properly stowed). Secure loose items in the RV in case of sudden stops. Look at your tires for signs of wear or under inflation, check your break lights and turn signals.

When you take an extended trip, it’s just like taking several smaller trips. Before a smaller trip you’d still do your pre-road checklist, right? We hope so! You’ll need to do it several times on a long trip as well to take the necessary precautions to achieve the highest level of RV travel safety you possibly can.

Drive Defensively

A long trip means that much more time on the road to find the nutcases out there who put their safety and yours in jeopardy with foolish driving. Drive defensively. Give them plenty of room to be inattentive without affecting you, your family, your cargo, your investments. Keep a cool head, keep an eye on your mirrors, and be safe from sea to shining sea!

For more great information about RV travel safety as well as RV travel guides and fun ideas for the road, we encourage you to dig deeper into our blog! To protect your RV and passengers on long trips and short ones alike, be sure to take a look at our insurance products and get a quote today. Go safely and go with Gilbert!

These cold weather motorcycle riding tips can help you extend the riding season safely and enjoyably. Be sure to take a look at this list before you embark on a wintry journey!

There are two main aspects to keeping yourself safe on your bike when the temperature plummets: looking out for #1, and watching the road.

Looking Out for #1

You’ve got to take care of your body properly when exposing yourself to high speeds (hard wind) when the air is cold (hard arctic wind).

• Avoid frostbite. This can’t be stressed enough. Keep your mid-mass thoroughly warm to enable better blood flow to your extremities, which are most vulnerable to frostbite.
• Once your torso is nice and toasty, the next step is to find high quality gloves and boots to keep your hands and feet dry, warm, and well-insulated. Try Thinsulate gloves to provide maximum protection without losing agility to a bulky glove so you can drive properly.
• Insulation is key everywhere – wind is sneaky and will find its way under your clothes so be sure to wear scarves, tuck in your shirts, and don’t allow the cold air in with your skin.
• Wind-proof your ensemble. There’s not point covering your skin if the wind can blow right through the fabric, so be sure to choose pants and jackets that will block the wind whipping over you.
• Keep your head and face covered. Wear a full-coverage helmet with a face shield and pull your scarf up over your nose and mouth so you don’t fog it up when you breath.
• Lastly, consider adding a wind shield to the front of your bike, if you can. A wind buffer will certainly help protect you from the chilly onslaught!

Watching the Road

• Try to find routes to wherever you’re headed that aren’t shaded, as these areas can develop and harbor ice patches. Since recovering from skidding on ice while turning is nearly impossible, choose straight routes whenever you can.
• If you find yourself caught in snow, drive slowly, use smooth movements and give yourself much more room to brake. Be especially wary of the drivers behind you as they may not understand the situation for a motorcyclist. Pull over somewhere warm until the snow stops falling or find another way home.
• Avoid patches of leaves that are shedding from trees in the fall. They retain moisture and can reduce traction on the road. If you find yourself slipping, look for sand on the road to try to correct it.
• Some bridges have signs and other don’t – always be aware that they ice over first. Without soil below it to help insulate the surface, bridges ice over faster than roads do.

Driving your motorcycle in cold weather can definitely be a unique and beautiful experience but don’t underestimate the elements and don’t overestimate your body. Ice can be hard to see on pavement and lowered body temperatures cause sluggishness and a lack of dexterity that can be deadly on wheels. Take these winter motorcycle safety tips to heart and enjoy the season!

If you want additional motorcycle safety tips and travel ideas, be sure to spend some time looking through the Gilbert RV Insurance blog. For the ultimate in motorcycle safety, get a quote for Gilbert’s motorcycle insurance to protect your bike whatever the weather conditions.

Image by Chuck Coker. The photographer does not endorse Gilbert RV Insurance, Inc.

Winter RVing is a real treat for those of you who have never tried it, especially in the south where we can enjoy cool weather without ice and snow longer than the rest of the country! It does have its differences, though, so here are some things to keep in mind for cold weather RVing!

The arch nemesis of the winter RV enthusiast? Water. The ace up your sleeve? Warmth! Be sure to address the following moisture issues to keep your RV kicking until spring:

Check the ground under your RV as well as any wet spots around the ceiling. If your RV is leaking anywhere it must be stopped before the cold comes. Frozen water expands and can ruin any area it’s crept into should it get cold enough to freeze.

Protect the pipes. Any pipes with liquid that do not contain the antifreeze specified in your owners’ manual must be kept warm or have antifreeze added if applicable and so directed in your manual.

Avoid condensation. This means that when you use the cooktop, when you take a shower, or when you find your windows beginning to fog up for any reason, crack the windows until the condensation dissipates. If it gets trapped and frozen, you’ll be dealing with more damage, particularly around windows. Another great option is to use a dehumidifier or a product like ‘No Damp’ crystals to keep the windows closed and preserve warmth.

If there are floor-level pipes in your RV that are not well insulated, you’ll want to leave doors and cabinets that expose them open so that the heater running in the RV can reach them and help keep them warm to avoid bursting.

To block cold wind from cooling the undercarriage, you can add skirting to the bottom edge of the RV.

Keep your RV sheltered whenever possible. If you’re visiting a relative, this could mean their garage, or if you’re visiting an RV park, a spot that is near a building to shelter it from cold winds that is preferably in the sun. Attempt to keep your RV and water tank warm!

Also, fill the water tank fully then disconnect it. Keeping it hooked up to a ground water source may continually make it colder. Refill only as needed.

If you know you want to do cold weather RVing from the start, find a unit that has two furnaces, one for the interior and one specifically to keep water tanks and components warm. Don’t forget to have thermal windows added to fight that condensation!

We hope these tips serve as a starting point. By reading your owner’s manual and getting to know the build and layout of your RV, you will be able to pinpoint what your RV needs and how to protect its components as the temperatures start cooling down. Have fun and stay warm while winter RVing!

For more information and advice on RV trip planning as well as helpful tools like our gas price finder, be sure to explore the Gilbert RV Insurance blog and resources!