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HITCH HINTS THE COOKING LADIES CAMPING WITH THE COLES RV ANGLING AND MUCH MORE! CANADA’S #1 RV MAGAZINE - YOUR KEY TO RV ADVENTURES! www.rvlifemag.com $9.95 268 - 44 Crawford Crescent., Campbellville, ON L0P 1B0 Publications Mail Agreement #43638025 Vol. 55 No.1 CELBRATING OF MAGAZINE 55 YEARS ROAD TESTS: Prolite Lounge Towed by a Tesla Model 3 Plus DISCOVERING THE SPRINGS AT BORREGO RV RESORTBORREGO RV RESORT The Volthium Revolution TM TM TM TM DESTINATION USA 250 55-1 NEW.indd 155-1 NEW.indd 12026-04-15 2:27 PM2026-04-15 2:27 PMWhether you’re chasing sunsets, planning cross-country road trips, or fi nding the perfect weekend getaway rig — your dream RV is just a few clicks away. RVC Navigator is your go-to RV search platform, connecting you with real-time listings from trusted dealers across the country. • Browse travel trailers, fi fth wheels, tent-trailers, motorhomes and more… • Filter by location, brand, type, or budget • Share your favourites with friends and family. YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE BEGINS HERE. rvc-navigator.com Power by Imagine by Find the RV that fi ts your lifestyle — and hit the road with confi dence.Find the RV that fi ts your lifestyle — and hit the road with confi dence.Find the RV that fi ts your lifestyle — and hit the road with confi dence. marketing marketing MARKETING RV Care CG.indd 1RV Care CG.indd 12025-12-15 4:30 PM2025-12-15 4:30 PM3 DEPARTMENTS 6 HITCH HINTS by Andy Thomson Understanding the Equalizing Hitch. 12 CAMPING WITH THE COLES – by Ben and Cheryl Coles No time for camping? Try a Conservation Area 16 THE COOKING LADIES – Phyllis Hinz and Lamont Mackay Cherry Cream Supreme - A Taste of Clewiston, Florida 18 DRIVING TIPS Spicy foods can help you stay alert on the road. ROAD TEST 20 PROLITE LOUNGE 17 by Norm Rosen Canadian quality in a lightweight travel trailer. SPECIAL FEATURES 24 CELEBRATING 55 YEARS OF RV LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE! Serving the RV community since 1971 44 RV ANGLING – By Patrick Campeau The art of “stealth fishing”. DESTINATIONS 28 CANADIAN DESTINATIONS – By James Stoness Plan your trip now to discover Canada in 2026 34 RV DESTINATIONS – DESERT OASIS – By Gordon Cruise McBride Discovering The Springs at Borrego RV Resort NEW PRODUCTS 40 VOLTHIUM REVOLUTION – By Patrick Campeau New technology in the Lithium battery universe… Contents 12 VOLUME 55 NUMBER 1 | RV LIFESTYLE RV Lifestyle Magazine archives are open for your viewing pleasure – check them out at www.rvlifemag.com Click on MAGAZINES, and use the password RVLFREE2017. Watch our road test videos at our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube. com/rvlifestylemagazine ON THE COVER Road testing the Prolite Lounge travel trailer. Cover photo by Norm Rosen. HITCH HINTS THE COOKING LADIES CAMPING WITH THE COLES RV ANGLING AND MUCH MORE! CANADA’S #1 RV MAGAZINE - YOUR KEY TO RV ADVENTURES! www.rvlifemag.com$9.95 268 - 44 Crawford Crescent., Campbellville, ON L0P 1B0 Publications Mail Agreement #43638025 Vol. 55 No.1 CELBRATING OF MAGAZINE 55 YEARS ROAD TESTS: Prolite Lounge Towed by a Tesla Model 3 Plus DISCOVERING THE SPRINGS AT BORREGO RV RESORTBORREGO RV RESORT The Volthium Revolution TM TM TM TM DESTINATION USA250 55-1 NEW.indd 155-1 NEW.indd 12026-04-15 11:17 AM2026-04-15 11:17 AM SUBSCRIBERS: e-mail editor@rvlifemag.com for FREE access to the latest digital edition! RV55-1.indd 3RV55-1.indd 32026-04-15 11:22 AM2026-04-15 11:22 AM4 RV LIFESTYLE | VOLUME 55 NUMBER 1 For more than half a century, RV Lifestyle Magazine has delivered the thrill of outdoor adventures to audiences across Canada, through our print issues, and for more than 30 years across North America through our digital editions, websites, and social media platforms. As we begin our 55th year our team of RV enthusiasts gathered a few thoughts and selected some of our favourite articles from the magazine archives. We recently concluded a series of RV show exhibits, where we had the opportunity to talk with tens of thousands of families, many of whom are just embarking on their RV adventures. It is always a pleasure to reach out to our readers in person at these events, and we are looking forward to the next wave of RV shows. Today, our RV Lifestyle Magazine website www.rvlifemag.com reaches the full North American camping and RV enthusiast audience with more than 1,000 articles on a vast array of outdoor tourism topics. Through a conscientious program of search engine optimization, we averaged more than 2- million page views per month over the past five years, and we continue to enjoy very active website activity. We like to think of our websites as portals to the RV, camping, and outdoor recreation audiences, through our e-newsletters, social media, and live event exposure. There is a new era of outdoor adventure marketing just over the horizon… ride with us as we explore new designs, new technologies, and new ways to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle. 55 YEARS ON THE RV ROADS TO ADVENTURE! TMTM TM TM VOLUME 55 NUMBER 1 Publisher: WILLIAM E. TAYLOR bill@rvlifemag.com Group Publisher: MELANIE TAYLOR-WALLIS melanie@rvlifemag.com Editorial Director: NORM ROSEN nrosen@rvlifemag.com Art/Production Manager: GISELLE BANSAL Design: TAMARA TAYLOR Contributing Writers: PHYLLIS HINZ JAMES STONESS ANDY THOMSON Advertising Sales: info@rvlifemag.com 1-800-354-9145 EXECUTIVE OFFICES: TORONTO: 268 - 44 Crawford Crescent, Campbellville, Ontario L0P 1B0 Tel: 905-844-8218 Fax: 905-844-5032 MONTREAL: Tel: 514-856-0788 Fax: 514-856-0790 VANCOUVER: Bob and Carole Taylor, 1745 Rufus Drive North Vancouver, BC V7J 3L8 ADMINISTRATION: President/CEO: WILLIAM E. TAYLOR Group Publisher: MELANIE TAYLOR-WALLIS VP/Special Projects: NORM ROSEN Advertising Sales: TODD TAYLOR Accounting: NANCY MUELLER Camping Canada’s RV Lifestyle Magazine is published seven times a year by Camping Canada Magazine Ltd. Reproduction of any material appearing in this magazine in any form is forbidden without prior consent of the publisher. Subscription rates: Canada 1 year (6 issues) $35+tax: 2 years (12 issues) $50+tax. U.S. subscrip- tions:1 year (6 issues) $50 US. Single copies are $9.95 for regular issues, and $14.95 for the annual RV Buyer’s Guide and the annual Campground Directory issues. Subscription inquiries 1-800-354-9145 Advertising rates available on request. Editorial contributions must be accompanied by return postage and will be handled with reasonable care. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return of safety of artwork, photographs, or manuscripts. Camping Canada Magazine reserves the right to refuse any and all advertising and disclaims all respon- sibilities for claims or statements of facts made by its advertisers or independent columnists. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT #43638025 Undeliverables to: 268 - 44 Crawford Crescent, Campbellville, Ontario L0P 1B0 MONTREAL, QUEBEC © 2026 CAMPING CANADA MAGAZINE PRINTED IN CANADA Publisher’s MESSAGE William E. Taylor, Publisher @ RVLifestyleMagazine @rvlifestylemagazine FOLLOW RV LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE: RV55-1.indd 4RV55-1.indd 42026-04-28 11:25 AM2026-04-28 11:25 AMPleasure way.indd 1Pleasure way.indd 12026-04-08 2:07 PM2026-04-08 2:07 PMRV LIFESTYLE | VOLUME 55 NUMBER 1 www.rvlifemag.com 6 Many of our customers enjoy travelling with their children, and it is increasingly common to see them travel with grandchildren. I have seen this lifestyle from two perspectives. My parents purchased our first trailer when I was a year old so I grew up travelling in an RV. My own children started travelling with us when they were only a few months old. Not that this is unusual, it is pretty common for kids to follow their parents’ penchant for RV travel. My kids will tell you that what they remember most from their childhood is the trips we took and all that they learned on our travels. There is something about driving across a continent that puts the world into perspective. We sometimes hear from young parents who think they should wait until their children are a bit older to travel, but with an RV travel with very young children is possible and relatively easy. When you take your home with you, it is never a problem to find a clean bathroom and change area. You can prepare bottles or food any time you need it. I think it’s an ideal way to travel with young children - certainly much easier than trying to get everything onto an airplane or trucking everything in and out of hotel rooms. On long travel days, we would stop for lunch at a quiet park, a school yard, or pay the daily use fee at a provincial/ state park or conservation area. This let the kids get out, run around or play on a playground. This is where it is good to stay flexible because sometimes you stumble upon some really great places. A few years ago we were travelling along the north shore of Lake Michigan and we pulled off the highway into a small town on a Peninsula. There on the shore was a beautiful park with a huge wooden fort called “Kids Kingdome” equipped with every climbing and swinging apparatus you could imagine. We spent the whole afternoon there. The girls had a blast! When our kids were young, electronics were not nearly as common as they are now. If you wanted video in the car it meant putting a TV on the console and hooking it up with a DVD player powered by an inverter. While I could have done that, I never wanted the distraction in the car. I felt the kids had enough “screen time” at home and at school, so vacation time was time without screens in the vehicle or trailer. There is something about a car trip that gets kids to open up and talk about things they never talk about at home. Maybe there just isn’t time anywhere else. There are always interesting things to see as you travel that the kids would not notice if they were glued to a screen all the time. We stopped at most historical markers and scenic lookouts, which are often good for a conversation afterwards. Being a bit of a history junkie, I could often dig up some facts about the spot we were looking at. Sometimes we would pass a book around, and read it aloud as HITCH HINTS BY ANDY THOMSON ARE WE THERE YET? TIME TESTED TIPS FOR TRAVELLING WITH TOTS PHOTO COURTESY GO RVING Hitch Hints 55-1.indd 6Hitch Hints 55-1.indd 62026-04-15 11:39 AM2026-04-15 11:39 AM R R RV SURGE PROTECTOR hughesautoformers.com FREE BLUETOOTH APP PATENTED Bluetooth connectiv- ity allows an RV owner to monitor live campground power condi- tions on their smartphone using the free easy-to-use mobile app. ALL-IN-ONE SOLUTION! OF POWER SURGES © 2023 Hughes Autoformers, LLC ALWAYS WATCHING. ALWAYS ALERT. RV Owners never know when trouble may spike. Unpredictable lightning and/or poorly wired campgrounds are always a risk. The best way to protect your assets is with a Power Watchdog. It’s the least expensive security investment you will ever make, and it will be your RV’s best friend! • Surge/spike protection, voltage booster, and line circuit analyzer functions. Plug it in, read the LED lights – all green means you are good, and your Power Watchdog is protecting your family and your valuable RV electronics. • No other surge protector offers a combination of a replaceable surge module and a wireless app/data function. • Power Watchdogs have an industry high Joule rating. • ETL Certified to Canadian and UL Standards. • Limited Lifetime Warranty applies to Canada and USA. • All Power Watchdog surge protectors are RV WHISPER compatible (also exclusive) and allows a customer to remotely monitor their RV’s power (from miles away). It’s perfect for pet owners or people with RVs in storage. • PWD units are less expensive than direct competitors but come with more features. 8.125x10.875_Hughes_RVDealerNews-CAN_NOV2022_AD#1.indd 18.125x10.875_Hughes_RVLifestyle-CAN_JAN 2023_AD#1.indd 111/10/22 4:04 PM11/10/22 4:04 PMRV LIFESTYLE | VOLUME 55 NUMBER 1 www.rvlifemag.com 8 we traveled, on one trip to BC we went through two volumes of Harry Potter. On a trip to California it was a Sherlock Holmes adventure from start to finish. As soon as the kids were old enough I taught them to read the Rand McNally road atlas and how to relate city, province and national maps to each other. This was before GPS, so pretty soon I had two very good navigators. If the kids asked the proverbial “are we there yet”? I would hand them the map and suggest that they figure it out (this is not an effective technique with their mother). Today, a GPS in theory makes that somewhat obsolete but I still like the paper road atlas - maybe it is my age, but it still makes it easier to know where you are, I think mainly because you can see the overall area and the detail view on the same page. One of the great things we stumbled upon as the kids got older was that they started to plan our trips. This kept them very involved and excited about where we were going, and we never went through the “I don’t want to go on the family vacation stage”. In fact, one or both of our girls were coming on some trips with us well into their 20’s. Now they bring their own RV if they come on our family excursions. By planning the trip, we found that a flexible schedule was best - not a rigid schedule with split second timing. This frees you to check out unexpected opportunities. Certainly you can make reservations in high demand areas that HITCH HINTS BY ANDY THOMSON SETTING UP YOUR WEIGHT DISTRIBUTING HITCH During the pandemic, while we sheltered in place and waited for the “all clear” to get back on the road, our Hitch Hints expert, Andy Thomson, from CanAm RV Centre in London, Ontario, took the time to record what we feel is the best video describing the process of setting up a weight distributing hitch system. Andy’s long-term efforts on behalf of the RV community, the RV Dealers Association of Ontario, the RVDA of Canada, and the community at large, contributed to his selection as the 2021 Canadian RV Dealer of the Year. Here is the link to the 2021 Canadian RV Dealer of the Year profile feature on Andy Thomson: https:// rvldealernews.com/andy- thomson-2021-canadian-rv- dealer-of-the-year/ Watch Andy’s video on “Setting up your weight distributing hitch” – click on the QR code, or visit the RV Lifestyle Magazine website at: https://www.rvlifemag. com/how-to-set-up-a- weight-distributing-hitch- system/ SCAN QR CODE SCAN QR CODE There are so many different activies you can do to keep the children busy while travelling. Hitch Hints 55-1.indd 8Hitch Hints 55-1.indd 82026-04-15 11:39 AM2026-04-15 11:39 AMLife® Aviva Lifestyle® Insurance RV CS-25-12424_RV Magazine Ad_outline.indd 1CS-25-12424_RV Magazine Ad_outline.indd 12025-12-01 4:58 PM2025-12-01 4:58 PMNext >