Internet Experts

There is absolutely no question you can ask on an Internet forum that won’t get you a dozen immediate replies, and another 20 or so by the next day. Some of that information may prove useful, but a lot of it is coming from Internet experts who will convince you they know everything there is to know about any topic in the world. And quite often these keyboard commandos are putting out erroneous information that could get somebody in trouble, or even killed.

Case in point is a thread in the Living The RV Dream Facebook group about traveling with firearms in your RV. Every time one of these threads come up myself and the other admins shudder because we know it’s only a matter of time before we have to shut it down. They always go south in a hurry. In the thread that was posted yesterday, some answers were that you can go anywhere you want with a firearm in your RV, because it’s your permanent or temporary home; or that if a policeman stops you for anything and asks if you have a weapon in your RV, all you have to do is hand him a printed copy of the Second Amendment and smile and drive away and he has no authority to stop you from doing so; and the old tried-and-true “I’ll give up my gun when they pry it from my cold dead fingers.” No you won’t. The first time a cop points his weapon at you and tells you to drop it, that thing will be out of your hand and hitting the concrete in a nanosecond. Because if you don’t, you may be what’s hitting the concrete. I did a blog post not long ago in which I listed some information about traveling with a firearm. Read it before you make any decisions about what’s legal and not legal based upon what some fool on the Internet tells you.

Another example is someone who is running the cheap factory installed Chinese tires on his travel trailer and was concerned because of all the reports he has heard about blowouts. Two different people told him that all tires are the same, they’re all made in China, and no matter whose name is branded on them there is no difference at all in quality, just the price. I know a whole bunch of people around Akron, Ohio who work in the tire industry who would disagree with that.

And finally, there’s the fellow who contacted me the other day telling me that he had always heard that you need to make campground reservations in Florida well in advance if you want to spend the winter there. But recently not one, but two Internet experts told him that by law campgrounds have to keep 10% of their sites open for drive-up customers at all times. I’ve heard this myth before. Now think about this for a minute. Even if that BS story was true, what would you do if you owned a campground and you had the mandatory vacant sites that you are required to keep open “by law” and people pulled in and wanted to rent them? How do you do that? Do you practice the first in, first out rule and go hunt up whoever has been there longest and make them leave so you can maintain those same 10% vacant sites? Because if people come and rent two or three of those sites, you’re under 10%, right? But the law says you have to keep 10% open. What to do? What to do?

Here’s what you do. If you have a question, you Google it. If it’s a legal question like having a gun in your RV, you look at the websites of the states where you’re going to be traveling and find out what’s legal and not legal, or you use a research tool like Traveler’s Guide to the Firearm Laws of the Fifty States, or another book called Gun Laws By State, or an app like Legal Heat. But even then, it’s best to check for any changes that may have been made that are not yet reflected in the guides mentioned above. For questions about tires, I rely on Roger Marble at the RV Tire Safety Blog. He is the recognized expert when it comes to RV tires. And as for those campgrounds in Florida? Unless you like parking at Walmart and moving every day or two, make your reservations in advance.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an audiobook of Big Lake Blizzard, the fourth book in my Big Lake mystery series. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

Thought For The Day – No matter how big a hammer you use, you can’t pound common sense into a fool.