8 kids. 2 parents, 1 dog and her 6 puppies living in a 38 foot travel trailer. How do they do it? Today we chat with Andre and Andrea Ebert, who made the bold decision to swap their Michelin-starred restaurant careers for the RV LIFE.
In this extraordinary journey through life on wheels, we discuss everything such as: why RV Life, cooking for a family of 10 in a compact space, homeschooling, where everyone sleeps, maintaining their married life.
We don't stop there; we also delve into the challenges that come with such a unique lifestyle. We also share some of our favourite resources for easy and safe travels, like the RV Trip Wizard. They even introduce us to their new nationwide tow pass—a must-have for any RV enthusiast. It's a diverse episode, packed with practical tips, entertaining stories and plenty of food for thought for anyone with a sense of wanderlust. So, whether you're an experienced RVer or just starting to explore the idea, this episode is a must-listen!
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• Motorhome Tires: $50 discount FIND MY INSTALLER
•Thousand Trail Membership Call/Text Membership Specialist Warren & Sharon Lewis 804-366-0798
•CLEAR2O
• Open Road Fuel Card save on Diesel Fuel
•Open Roads Innovative Tolling Solutions
Toll pass, all 48 state & customer support
• Open Road Resorts Mention RV LIFE Podcast
• Harvest Hosts • Boondockers Welcome
Code: HUNT20 for 20% off
• AirSkirts
Receive $100 off any kit purchase. Use Discount Code: RVPOD
Sponsors
• National Indoor RV Centers
8 kids. 2 parents, 1 dog and her 6 puppies living in a 38 foot travel trailer. How do they do it? Today we chat with Andre and Andrea Ebert, who made the bold decision to swap their Michelin-starred restaurant careers for the RV LIFE.
In this extraordinary journey through life on wheels, we discuss everything such as: why RV Life, cooking for a family of 10 in a compact space, homeschooling, where everyone sleeps, maintaining their married life.
We don't stop there; we also delve into the challenges that come with such a unique lifestyle. We also share some of our favourite resources for easy and safe travels, like the RV Trip Wizard. They even introduce us to their new nationwide tow pass—a must-have for any RV enthusiast. It's a diverse episode, packed with practical tips, entertaining stories and plenty of food for thought for anyone with a sense of wanderlust. So, whether you're an experienced RVer or just starting to explore the idea, this episode is a must-listen!
Special Discounts Codes: Click Link & Use Code
• Motorhome Tires: $50 discount FIND MY INSTALLER
•Thousand Trail Membership Call/Text Membership Specialist Warren & Sharon Lewis 804-366-0798
•CLEAR2O
• Open Road Fuel Card save on Diesel Fuel
•Open Roads Innovative Tolling Solutions
Toll pass, all 48 state & customer support
• Open Road Resorts Mention RV LIFE Podcast
• Harvest Hosts • Boondockers Welcome
Code: HUNT20 for 20% off
• AirSkirts
Receive $100 off any kit purchase. Use Discount Code: RVPOD
Sponsors
• National Indoor RV Centers
Can you imagine moving out of your great big house and living in a travel trailer with eight kids and six puppies? This is the RV Life Podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt. She's right next to me over there. Today's guests are doing just that With this guys two adults, eight kids, a dog and a dog, six puppies in a travel trailer that's less than 500 square feet. It sounds absolutely insane to Dan, but I live by a different reality.
Speaker 2:Dan and I are very excited. As you can hear, we certainly understand the concept of a large family. We have five kids, four are married, so nine kids and nine grandkids, and all of them, including my brother, brother-in-law and sister, will be with us this week. Here in Disney. We get the large family. We have been traveling full time in our RV for almost three years and it's without any kids or any pets. I wonder what it would be like if we had gone on the road with kids or pets Very different, I'm sure.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what. I have a rule. This rule works very, very well for me, Anyway six for drinks, four for dinner and two to sleep. That's the way we have a 40-foot class RV and that's the way we live our life. I don't even like the grandkids coming in, because they start pushing buttons and next thing you know we're rolling down the road I'm going to squelch.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to have the grandkids come in and stay with us, and I think it would be awesome.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's how it means. It's time for today's Fun Fact of the Week. Fun Fact is brought to you by Open Road Resorts with four great locations. Two are in Montana, one in Idaho and one in Texas. We were just at the Texas facility absolutely incredible. It's called the Dallas Northeast Campground or Dallas NE Campground. I got to tell you just beautiful Our camping spot. We were nose into a lake and we looked out over that lake and the sunset came down. It was absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2:And that campground. They have thought of everything. It is beautifully manicured, the amenities, what it is close to. I just can't wait to get back there as well as see those other locations this summer. I can't wait to get there Now. Okay, let's get to the Fun Fact. It's a Fun Fact a recent progressivecom survey. They have a lot of great information, but what we were looking for is how many fuller part timers actually travel with kids, and that number is a whopping 77%. Wow, we're in the minority by far.
Speaker 1:By far.
Speaker 2:Not the people we have on. But you and I are in the minority, but I'm old.
Speaker 1:I don't need a bunch of kids coming around yelling and screaming and hollering.
Speaker 2:You sound like Scrooge over there. You love kids and puppies, so I don't know about that, and we are going to put pictures of the puppies up because they are adorable.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what I love these puppies. They are absolutely incredible. I want one, I want one, but they're so cute, I hear you, I hear you, buddy.
Speaker 1:Now you guys can see how cute they are over on our Instagram page. When we get that, when we get that put up, we'll get it put up. We got a great picture of the whole family the two of you, the eight kids, the six puppies and a partridge and a pear tree. It was just absolutely incredible. This is the RV Life Podcast. I'm Dan Haught with my incredible wife, patty Hunt.
Speaker 1:Our guest today's met 20 years ago while working as chefs in a Michelin-starred restaurant. Ooh la la. They're big wigs. Andre continued his career as an executive chef and Andrea stayed home to raise their oh my God football team of children. They dreamed of the RV Life and full-time travel, but it took them years to figure out how to create an online brand and income from it. But they did it and that's why they're on the RV Life Podcast today. It's been two years since Andre quit his job. They sold their house and began their full-time adventure, and what an adventure it is, with their seven now eight children and their loyal dog. I don't know how you say this. Jump in for me, andre. How do you say this dog's name, freya?
Speaker 3:Freya.
Speaker 1:Okay, patty, go ahead.
Speaker 2:So we're talking about Andre and Andrea Ebert of Freeway Tribe. That's their channel. Welcome guys to the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 4:Hey, it's so good to be here.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm so grateful. Thank you for being on with us. So we're going to jump in because I know our listeners have a lot of questions and we're going to try and get those answered today. Let's start. How did the conversation go? Full-time RV Life, you know, in this RV Life. How did that conversation start between the two of you?
Speaker 4:I think it started a long time ago because I married a man that I love with all my heart. You know it took a lot to be together because Andre's from Germany and we had to do the green card and that we were finally married and the man went to work all day long, six days a week, 12 hours a day, and I just remember thinking like there's got to be a better way to life. This isn't that fairy tale story that you get married and live happily ever after. It's like you get married and you never see your spouse. You know.
Speaker 4:And so I just remember like looking at YouTube and just watching people live in Costa Rica before the RV Life came onto our radar. Just watch people just live this life and I remember thinking, gosh, if we could just make a thousand dollars somehow, some way, you know, and just live on the beach and be together in Costa Rica like that's all I wanted. And then fast forward years later of always kind of having this in my mind, of this deep desire, but not understanding how to transition from, you know, working like we do in a restaurant, very brick and mortar, very like you must be there in person to working online and somehow being able to live remotely. I didn't understand what kind of skills we needed. I didn't understand if we needed to go to school. I didn't understand, like, if you had to be rocket scientist or what. And then Andre actually got the Andre. You kind of had the vision for RV Life.
Speaker 3:I think we both we have been talking about this before and we can't narrow down to when we decided, okay, we really want to do this. I think it took us some time and I was thinking as well, okay, how do we have the income in order to get on the road and sustain a life on the road? But the dream was there like, I think, pretty, pretty early, like traveling the United States and pretty much showing our children the United States. That was the whole idea.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's such an amazing, touching story. I mean I'm over here and for our listeners, you know there is a camera so Dan could see him. I'm over here, you know, getting chills listening to your story and I think your story is so huge for so many. That idea you said there's got to be a way, a better way. So that idea of the grind and working to spend, you know, a couple hours with the kids before you go to bed. They go to bed and then wait till you're whatever age to retire, and I know the four of us talked about this previously of that's not the way. So now you've, kind of you have the RV lifestyle, your full time. What's the? I'm going to ask now, like, what's the dream moving from here? Like you said, there's this dream and I believe, as we dream and we achieve some of those things, there's the next thing we dream of. So is there a next stop for the dream?
Speaker 4:We're constant dreamers, and I think everyone should be a dreamer. I really think so. We're so small because we limit ourselves to what we can achieve, but under and I, we always have a vision for our life now, and so the first initial vision was let's get on the road, let's be free. I under initially, before he met me, he wanted to travel the world, and then life happened and then he got sucked into work. With that being said, we've been traveling two years now.
Speaker 4:Our oldest son is 15. He'll be 16 and actually leap year He'll be 16 on leap year and we're just like okay, so we want to have stability, we want to have a home life right For the kids, but we always want to be able to leave. So what Andre and I are actually currently looking for is our eyes are open for land. We want to own at least like a hundred acres of good land and we're kind of open. So we're like it doesn't matter where it is. We're thinking Virginia, but it's honestly wherever God shows us like the best deal, where he wants us to be ultimately.
Speaker 3:There's also one reason why we started this journey we wanted to find out, we wanted to go, travel and see where we may fit in, what this where our home might be Eventually, yes.
Speaker 4:And it just actually makes it more confusing the more we travel the more confused we are because, we're like we love Arizona but we also love Florida, but we also love, like Hill Country Texas, but we also love you know. So we do want land, we want to build a barn to minion, but we want to be able to run away and be able to like leave everything behind.
Speaker 4:And again, that's the beauty of creating an online income. You can do that the world is kind of your oyster. You can kind of like design your life. So you still work, but you do it within the context of the way you want to live, like we call it lifestyle design.
Speaker 1:Well, now Patty's brother lives in. Where is it? Manassas, manassas, virginia. So you can buy a hundred acres in Manassas, virginia, put a extra pad there with a electric and some sewer service in there, and then we'll come and stay there every once in a while we visit our brother.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you what we have a hookup for Navi. We will definitely have a hookup for maybe, maybe even several but it won't be a Manassas Manassas.
Speaker 4:we probably need to have, like Bill Gates, money to buy a hundred acres in Manassas.
Speaker 4:Absolutely true, that is true, that's an expensive area. Our fears don't even. We don't want to be like I don't know what. We run into so many people who are just a different breed of people on the road. They just want to do life differently and they want to unplug from what I call the matrix out there, the world, that cookie cutter world that we all get put into, we all get sucked into. So I think that that land that we get is going to not be in Manassas, it's probably going to be in the boonies.
Speaker 1:We were at that campground in Manassas, not in Manassas in Virginia, mid Virginia. We were at a campground and there was like a 150 acre horse farm that was for sale and it was beautiful. I had a panic around the outside. I walked into this place and, you know me, I just drove right up to the place and said, wow, this is incredible. And the barn there. I just looked at it and said, wow, this would be a great restaurant. So, you know, we can get some of those stars and put them on the top of it the Texas stars, so they look like the Michelin stars. Okay, so let's get back to what you guys are doing right now. What type of rig do you guys call home? Right now, let's talk about your rig.
Speaker 3:Yes, we're traveling in a forest river a surveyor legend travel trailer. We have a bunk room for the children, where five of our children can easily sleep. We've got a dinette, we've got a kitchen, like the usual, and then we've got two bathrooms One is a full size bathroom, a small full size bathroom, and the other one is just the toilet. And then we have our bedroom a queen size bed bedroom. Queen size bed Queen size bed yes.
Speaker 2:Now I do hear children in the background.
Speaker 3:There is a baby. Yes, Bihanna just woke up.
Speaker 2:Totally okay. Somebody doesn't sound happy, but this is part of our life. How big is the RV? Is the rig?
Speaker 4:She heard there was a podcast and she wanted to be on it.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, we are happy to hear from her.
Speaker 3:Rig is 37 feet long from hitch to bumper.
Speaker 1:From hitch to bumper 37 feet.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 4:I was going to say we love those fifth wheels, Like we've seen the fifth wheels and we're like, oh man, like a toy hauler would be our creme de la creme. But then for us it's eight kids. Most people have those things and they can fit three kids, sometimes four, in a truck. And when you have eight kids you're kind of limited unless you want to bring two cars. And with the price of gas the last two years it's coming down. But we were like, okay.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about your driving scenario with ten people.
Speaker 2:Well, wait, I want to back up one second because we're hearing the baby. Can you tell us the ages? I want people to really be able to wrap their head around. So what are the ages of the eight kids? And then you can answer Dan's question.
Speaker 3:So we had one baby born on the road, which is Hannah, who just woke up. She's now six months old. Then we have Bodie, who is two, we have Romy, who is four, we have Folline, who is six. We have who's next Josephine is seven.
Speaker 4:Max is nine. Sebastian is just turn 13 and Noah is 15.
Speaker 3:15, yes.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I just like to give our listeners like a reel. So you have 15 almost down to six month old baby.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I live in a 37 foot travel trailer. So many questions here, so Dan wanted to know you wanted to know, Dan, how they do the travel part right, like what?
Speaker 1:Right Travel days and what you use as a vehicle.
Speaker 3:We are driving a Chevy Express 15-seater passenger van. It's got the 6-liter V8 engine, gas engine. There's no strong enough diesel engine around. They make it to a 2.8-liter, but that's not strong enough to pull our trailer. So we've been traveling with that. Our thing is we want to stay out of the mountains. You know, if it goes up or down to steep then the van has some problems. It's too much strain.
Speaker 4:We've been in some scary situations in the 1970s.
Speaker 3:Situations yes, well, we didn't even know whether we could turn around, you know, and we were going up windy roads, and so, yes, we've been there, we've been there, we're a 40 foot class A and we tow a Jeep, so we're about 55 feet long.
Speaker 1:If we get in a situation where we're turning around and we can't make the turn, you got to take the tow car off.
Speaker 3:We had to do that several times At least you have that opportunity. We definitely can't do that. Well, we've taken the van off.
Speaker 4:I think there's been times where we unhitched the van and we're like, okay, we're going to do this alone, back it up, try it again yeah.
Speaker 1:But with a van like that, you couldn't even do a fifth wheel, and I don't know that there's a vehicle out there that's going to hold the 10 bodies that you could do a fifth wheel, you know, unless Ford comes up with a truck that has a more seats.
Speaker 3:Well, here's the thing we are going to be. Maybe one of those semi trucks, maybe they don't work Right.
Speaker 2:We're going to be at the Tampa RV show in January and we will find this out for you. If there is a setup that works for you guys, so we'll do that you know what For what we have.
Speaker 4:I mean, we're two years into our RV life and I'll tell you what we were in an RV ever before we spent full time. We never had an RV.
Speaker 1:That's right, Patty.
Speaker 4:And the thing is we didn't have the time. I would look at people before in his old career and I would be like how do you guys have time to take vacation? How do you have time to go anywhere? So we went full into this RV life. But for what we chose we're really happy. Armie Andre, this has been a great little RV for us. Somehow it fits, somehow it works, somehow it's held up. We did an RV walkthrough tour on our YouTube channel but actually we need to update it because we made a lot of changes just since having the new baby, trying to figure out where to put her things and where she's going to be, and kind of the little shuffle that we have to do and all the little makeshift things. So we have to do an updated video on that.
Speaker 3:Plus, also, this is not going to be a permanent situation for us. We know what we want. Our next step is going to be the landfrivol, like a small homestead that we want to start, and this is not permanent. So we're going to do this maybe two more years or so, and after that we're going to settle down and then we can look at anything. Then Noah is going to be old enough that he may want to go to work and get out, and so we'll see what's going to happen.
Speaker 4:But it's funny. You think this sashes you. You think that getting on the road will like okay, we'll do that. Actually we said one year and then it was like two. Now we say three, Now we're like probably four, and then it never sashes you. You're like never going to go RV in New Zealand and then we're going to go RV in Europe and see what that's like, and then we're going to go. It's just like this wonder lost.
Speaker 2:It's always wonderful. It's the same thing for us. It's almost addictive, like when we started.
Speaker 2:I'm like, exactly like you, I had never really gone RVing. We sold everything. We said, okay, let's jump. We had no idea what we were jumping into really. We ended up getting this RV. So we're with you on that and whenever we're led to where we want to go next, that's what we'll do. So if somebody asks how long will you be on the road, I have no idea. But I mean, I'm addicted to it. And let me ask you a question first, because we do want to talk about some of the challenges that tend to come up. We're going to talk about that in a little bit. I know people are asking in a 37 foot travel trailer, where does everybody sleep?
Speaker 4:Okay, let's do it.
Speaker 4:Okay. So we have the bunkhouse. The bunkhouse is what we're really really happy with, so the bunkhouse has very wide beds. So on the one side, our 15 year old has his own bed, above him our 13 year old has his own bed, and then on the other side there's two more like very wide beds for for an RV, and so our actually our nine year old son has his own bed on the top bunk. He tends to sleep alone, and then the two girls sleep on the second bed. So our seven year old and our six year old share a bed. They're really tiny and then we have a little pullout couch where our two year old sleeps with our four year old in the in the like in the center area, and then we have the baby sleeps with us, which is an ideal.
Speaker 4:We don't sleep very well, and I'll tell you what that's been a struggle. That's been a struggle is I. I have what? Eight kids, so we've always had really good sleepers. I've always had that kind of down. I have not figured out how to get the babies on a good sleep schedule. So if anyone knows that like comment, put it up, message me. Our RV babies are the worst. I mean I'm just happy Hannah had like a 20 minute nap. Right now she's kind of up, she's kind of used to filling me because we're always close together. So I get up, you know, she, she feels that I'm not there and she wakes up really quick. And our other son, who was about six months when we went on the road, was the exact same way. So I feel like the whole first year of their life I just I'm not getting very good sleep, but it's a. It's a season in life and I'll take it. They're worth it, right.
Speaker 2:And then, and that is the thing you know, Dan and I are grandparents of nine kids and you know we have kids from separate marriages and I know for me there were kids that did not sleep and going through that process it felt like it was never going to end. And then in a blink of an eye they're off. You know they're sleeping all night. You can't get them up in the morning. They're off, they're married, they're having kids of their own. So I agree with you yes, you're not getting a whole lot of sleep, but okay, I've got to step in here.
Speaker 2:Okay, you're stepping in.
Speaker 1:You've got to jump in here and say my kids slept through the night, every single night. They went to bed at seven. They didn't get up till seven next morning, never had an issue the entire time.
Speaker 2:Remember, have your, your Nobody. Tell this man yes, here's the thing. I have his kid's mother on speed dial. I'm sure she'd be laughing hysterically so that didn't happen.
Speaker 4:But she's delusional, Like from my perspective, it was a little different, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, hilarious.
Speaker 4:I would tell, I would tell the people listening too is sometimes there's just no ideal time to start an RV life.
Speaker 4:Like ideally ideally, our youngest would be about four or five. I think that's like an ideal time, because four year olds are somewhat independent. They're not as emotional as three, maybe like five, but we have a big family and so we just we're like you know what. There'll never be a perfect time for us to go, you know. So all the kids can have the experience. So we're just going to start living the adventure now, and I want our whole life to be an adventure. I don't want it to stop. So we'll just roll with the punches and yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Thank you. You just go moment to moment. Now I will say you're saying you know, maybe waiting till they're four or five, and I, dan and I, have three four year old grandkids, three of our babies, with the months of each other, so it's like triplets. I, you know and you can. When it comes to kids, every kid is different. Parents are different. There's no one way.
Speaker 2:People that judge other people are trying to make it look like they know what they're doing. Just not the case. We're doing the best we can. I feel like kids that are raised on the road. From a very young age they learn how to adapt and be on the road. It's a whole different way. It's a whole different lifestyle and looking at our nine grandkids and nine totally different personalities, I think it would have been amazing for some of them, you know, to have grown up on the road. But I am going to put it out there for you. Anybody, any of our listeners that have some thoughts and ideas of getting a six month old to sleep and be okay and travel trailer, you know, reach out on our social media the RB Life Podcast, instagram or Facebook and I'm going to ask you guys, what's your social media if people want to reach out to you.
Speaker 4:I'm Andrea Abert on Facebook. That's, I love Facebook because there's a lot more conversation than Facebook. But we're also the Freeway tribe on Instagram, and then we have Freeway tribe YouTube channel.
Speaker 2:Okay, I will put all of that in the show notes for those listening and can't write it down right now. You can get a hold of our listeners. Could get a hold of you guys.
Speaker 1:Okay, you guys are both chefs. Now, mornings and evenings, when you're doing breakfast and dinner, it's a little different than cooking in a Michelin kitchen, because as an executive chef, you just stand in the back and yell at everybody. Everybody knows that from watching Gordon Ramsay.
Speaker 4:He's actually a really nice chef to work with, andre. He's so nice that people would be like to say how nice he was, and everyone loved working with him. I would always like I want to spend more time with him too.
Speaker 1:Said from his wife who loves him dearly.
Speaker 1:True story. Okay, how do you guys feed a really large family? Does one person take control of the kitchen? We had a guest on a couple of weeks ago that wrote a cookbook about cooking in small spaces Very, very interesting show. You might want to go back and listen to that one if you're one of our RV Life listeners, because I went to cooking school, so I have found very difficult to prep in like a six inch counter space, or my big counter space is when I put the top down over the stove, but I usually need a burner or two, so it's been an adjustment for me.
Speaker 4:I feel like we'll divide and conquer. So Andre will do a whole meal himself and I'll usually do a whole meal myself. Or there's some times where we're collaborating, where he's got a few dishes he's doing on working on something. Maybe he's grilling outside and I'm doing the side dishes inside. But we use everything. We use our stove top a ton. We cook everything from scratch. We use our oven a lot. I know a lot of people don't use their RV oven, but we use that thing a lot.
Speaker 1:Who here starts?
Speaker 6:for the first time after two years.
Speaker 4:Really every day we're using In fact we've already like warranty has already covered once. We're about ready to get our warranty to cover a second Because we use it so much. And then we have the grill outside, so usually our meals look like some kind of protein, whether it's fish or pork, or beef or chicken, a lot of chicken and then we'll do like beans and rice or we'll do any kind of vegetable. Our kids eat all the vegetables.
Speaker 3:We also have a pressure cooker that we sometimes use if we have to go out. We just put food into it like a stew or so Turn it on. We'll hold the food warm for four hours, so when we come back home we've got dinner ready.
Speaker 4:Or if we get back home, we haven't thought of dinner, he'll just put it in the pressure cooker. He'll be like let's make soup real quick. Yes, give me this, this, this, I'm chopping onions. He's doing this. We throw everything in together and you have a beautiful soup in like 30, 40 minutes. It's like you need a pressure cooker.
Speaker 1:Over on our YouTube channel. A couple of years ago we did a comparison from the Ninja Foodie to the Instapot and the Ninja Foodie won in every one of my categories, every single one of them, and it's one of our more popular videos. So a lot of people will put a link to it in the show notes down below. But we use the Ninja Foodie and I just learned how to make meatloaf in that thing and I love it. It's the best. It is the best quick type dinner. I mean from frozen hamburger ground beef, from frozen ground beef to on the table in less than 45 minutes in the Ninja Foodie. I'm like so impressed.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to jump in here because now I know our listeners are rolling their eyes. They're feeling a little jealous. You just said that you cook everything from scratch. You're cooking for 10 people, 10 humans.
Speaker 1:Don't forget the dogs. And well, they're cute. You can't forget the dogs, they're cute.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I sure they have. That's a whole nother story, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:You don't cook for the dogs.
Speaker 4:Well, they get raw food, A lot of raw food, oh, leftovers.
Speaker 2:OK, so they are getting raw food.
Speaker 1:The kids throw the stuff off the table at them, OK so that's amazing.
Speaker 2:I guess the message here one of our people to know is if you guys could do it, they could do it. Now, do you put any of these recipes or ways that you cook on your YouTube channel? Is that something that you share?
Speaker 3:We have a few dishes that we have put in there, but we haven't focused on that.
Speaker 4:Maybe we should do more, because what it realizes, for us cooking is so easy, like we go to the grocery store and we don't. We don't plan our meals for the week. We just look at like the best quality vegetables. So if the broccoli happens to be beautiful, we buy that, you know. If the asparagus happens to be in season and beautiful, we buy that, or whatever vegetable maybe this is a discount vegetable. Or you see, like a roadside stand with peaches that you get a whole, you know, big bear, whatever, full right. So our food is always like what's available, what looks best, what's the best price at the time for the best.
Speaker 2:That's a great tip and that's what we cook. That's an amazing tip, yeah, so then?
Speaker 4:we'll have our starches like rice or quinoa or potatoes. So we'll just say, OK, we'll do that vegetable and let's do rice, potato or quinoa today. Quinoa OK, let's do quinoa. Ok, let's put some seeds in there, let's throw a protein at it, you know. Or let's just do a one pot stew, or let's just do a pasta. It's kind of like we just play with what we have. But when we go grocery shopping it's just we're just looking for good ingredients.
Speaker 2:Right and that sounds so light and so easy and it is one of the big things in the groups that I'm in and comments from our listeners. This is the biggest struggle. So I am going to send people to your YouTube channel, which is Freeway Tribe, and if you don't already have a number of recipes there, I'm going to say please do it, because what you just said just sounded so easy and so you know like non, but it is a big struggle for people.
Speaker 4:Now you mentioned like we complicate, we complicate things a lot For sure. Andrzej will make focaccia bread in the oven. You've made focaccia all the time. He'll make sourdough bread in our, in our. Rv like this you know we do a lot in here, which is incredible.
Speaker 1:Do you have a residential refrigerator or do you still have the RV refrigerator?
Speaker 4:No, we don't it's. It's a pretty standard RV refrigerator. But you're shopping maybe once a week, and then a big Costco hall maybe twice a week.
Speaker 2:I go to grocery store. I just want to be clear, because that was a question I've been asking when do you go grocery shopping? So you go to the grocery store once or twice a week and Costco every couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:Well.
Speaker 1:I guess you know before we started traveling we were a Costco family. I mean, I literally sat down at a seven course Thanksgiving dinner that I made and I said, look at this, everything on this table is from Costco, including the salt. But we had space. We lived in a 5000 square foot house. We could go to Costco and $500, you know once a month and we'd be set. And Costco, believe it or not, the quality of the Costco food I have found to be very strong almost all the way through. There are a few things that are a little questionable, but all the way through the quality of Costco food I've found to be very, very good. So where do you put all this stuff? You've got this little tea refrigerator.
Speaker 4:You've got not much space. You'll see, on the tour We've done some videos where we show like, okay, here's our Costco hall, here's where we put it away. So we put it underneath the pullout couch and underneath the benches in our dinette. And I'll tell you what every time we do a Costco run, I'm like I know, we're overweight, we're so overweight.
Speaker 3:Especially after the Costco hall. We're overweight, but we eat it.
Speaker 4:We eat it really fast. That's the good part. So yeah, usually we store it in the dinette or underneath the bed.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm going to jump in and say you know, you just brought up the number one issue with our viewers is that they're overweight. You just brought that up. Now we have been teaching this and we had a guest on and he said I'll bet you're overweight. When was the last time you went to one of those cat scales? And I said I've never gone to one.
Speaker 6:He said you need to go to one now.
Speaker 1:So we went to one the next time. We were on the road and went into those cat scales and we were good. We were good. We're over $2,000 or 2,000 pounds under. But if you are out there on the road and you do not know your weight, it's only about $18 to get your rig weighed at one of those scales. Be safe out there and don't risk the fine. You don't want to be pulled over for being overweight.
Speaker 3:Okay, that's my public service announcement for the day.
Speaker 4:I will say like it is more intimidating to go on a scale with your RV than to like go on a scale after you've been over Christmas, like it's just like guilt, guilt's beyond. You just know, you're just like, oh my gosh, like yeah, but that's what we will, we will. Yeah.
Speaker 2:We were thinking, oh my goodness, we're overweight. We're overweight and we were 2,000 pounds under. So he may not be. He may be good. Okay, but I know Dan's looking to take a break, I'll let you go.
Speaker 4:Howdy was saying you know, people must look at you like this. This is crazy. And I'm like, well, they do. But then I look at them and I'm like, and it's okay because we are like, it's all right to look at us like we're crazy, because you have to be. You have to be crazy to do this and my biggest thing is like I just want to live life to the fullest, you know so, even with our puppies. You know we have this awesome, awesome champion bloodline boxer dog and she's just so beautiful.
Speaker 4:We've had puppies before because my sister has the son and we were back home in Virginia visiting family and she went into heat and we were about a week from leaving. So it was just like the timing was ideal and we were. I looked at Andre, he looked at me and we're like are we going to do this? And it's insane, but are we going to? Should we? Should we? And it's been two years since our last litter and we were just like you know what, let's do it, let's, let's do it. And they're just like the most gorgeous puppies. It's been fun, it has like they're four weeks old now. So it's like this is the insane time. This is the part where we're getting up in the middle of the night, like twice in the night for them. So right now, this is the moment where we question ourselves. But and I'm sure you guys can relate to this I found that the best memories are not always from the easiest experiences.
Speaker 4:It's not when you're on the beach. You know, in Baja, cabo San Lucas, having a pina colada, that's your best memory. Sometimes it's your best memory is like that really tough hike that you did, that you really struggled on, you know, or or all the things you know going on. I just can think of you know, having a natural childbirth, something that's not exactly the easiest thing, something that's really hard, something that you question yourself while you're in it, while you're doing it, like why am I doing this again? But truly like, your best memories come from, oftentimes, the hard things that we decide to do.
Speaker 3:I also like to say, yes, it's crazy what we're doing, but I feel we're giving our children something that a lot of people can't give their children. They're not only the memories, but they have been to places that have seen things that a lot of children will never see. Some people don't leave their county, or so you know, and our children have been around the United States.
Speaker 4:Or the people we meet. Actually that I think, even more than the places we go, it is the people we meet on the way, on the road. There's always like the God factor too, you know, like why are you in this one spot, parked at this other awesome family in this exact spot in this exact time, whether it's boondocking in the middle of nowhere, or if it's like you're in Orlando Thousand Trails and it's just your neighbor. It's amazing the people that you connect with on the road, and I just think it's almost like a faith journey, this lifestyle too. It's like you're just kind of living in slow and kind of in harmony and just kind of seeing like what's meant to be yours or what's meant to come your way. It's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Oh, and I agree with you Definitely you know the challenges and absolutely everything you said. It almost sounds like you've been listening to every podcast and you're kind of regurgitating what Dan and I have said.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know your story and talking to you is so inspiring. It really, really really makes you want to think. But we do have to take a break and after the break, we're going to come back and we're going to talk about homeschooling for that 16 year old. For that 15 year old Well, a lot of them need help. Yeah, a lot of them. Yeah, from 7, 8, 13 and 15, yeah, so homeschooling we're going to talk about how you school these kids. We're going to talk about a healthy marriage and how you guys approach a healthy marriage in 500 square feet, with a football team in there with you and your name is not Obama or Rockefeller, or you said Bill Gates. So how do you afford living on the road with a family of 10 and our six little puppies? We're going to get to all of that and more right after this.
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Speaker 2:All right, so you have it sounds like six kids at least that need schooling. So how tell our listeners what you're doing, how you're doing it?
Speaker 3:Okay, our homeschooling we take our children. So it was hard in the beginning, when we were teaching just a few of our children. We had Sebastian and Noah, and then after that Max, and they all had their own curriculum. So I put our two oldest together on one curriculum and when I'm teaching them the math, we follow. What program is that?
Speaker 4:Do you know, what I would say to just kind of backing up for the listeners is a lot of the way we choose to do life is so different from what is out there, like everything we've kind of been programmed to do. The whole concept is like putting kids in a school for eight hours a day, five days a week, putting them only in their peer group, is actually antisocial and it's actually the experiment like life and was never meant to be that way. So we have to kind of unprogram our life and so a lot of what Andre's done and Andre does a lot of the homeschooling, especially with the older boys like he'll do the algebra, he wants them to work through difficult things and have that kind of logic. So we have some core things that we do with the kids but we treated a lot like the one one room schoolroom and more and more I'm sure you know a lot of RVers. We really appreciate this concept of unschooling. So we have our formal things that we do a couple hours every day and then there's so much learning that goes on just in life, you know, in traveling and speaking to people in family conversations, family dinners, even philosophical conversations, even political conversations that just come up as a family, faith questions that come up as a family when you read from scripture or you do your prayers together. It's like it's a way of life asking questions. Andre speaks to the kids in German. We're kind of a struggling bilingual family, but there's so much learning that happens in life and sometimes sometimes we pause real life learning just because we want to make a grade or we want to check something off the list.
Speaker 4:And unschooling is also. You know, einstein said it fast. He's like if we judged a monk, every animal, by their ability to find the tree, you know, only the monkey would be the genius, where every single animal has its strength, its skill. And so what we really like to do is kind of foster that. Like our oldest son just happens to love piano. I don't know why, but he loves piano and he's got like an electric piano that folds up and he just has taught himself like piano so beautifully and but he's not the strongest reader he's got. He's struggling, like he has to work through a lot of math concepts. And then our second son hates the piano but loves reading. So we we kind of like if they're really good at something.
Speaker 4:I think there was like a famous entrepreneur was saying look, if your kid is really good at tennis and really bad at math, usually in the world we're hiring a math tutor and telling them they can't play tennis until they get the math right. He's like in in this other world. You tell them all right, let's just get basic math and let's go get a coach to teach you how to do tennis, because you're really really good at this, you know. So it's funny.
Speaker 4:We have to learn to kind of live life a different way, and that's how we approach our school, and it also takes a lot of pressure off of the parent, because there's also this concept that we have to download all this information onto the child, and then it puts a lot of pressure on you as a parent, when in reality, you can't stop a human being from learning, like all of us learning how to get on a podcast with you today. We were learning, but it's exciting and stuff we want to learn, like getting the right microphone. Okay, now we're going to do this and now we're going to get that, and you know all these things.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, always when we got on the phone together with the four of us got on the phone together because we like to talk to people before we get on the podcast and I knew there was going to be so many conversations that would come up, and this is one of them that you know we could sit and talk about just homeschooling and our philosophies for the whole hour, so we are going to bring you back on the show talk more about it. The one thing I'll say about homeschooling now I was a teacher for 20 years and you know a lot of times, people out there that are homeschooling their kids will cringe when they hear that because they think, oh, you know they're not doing it right. I find a lot of parents that I've talked to are getting flacked from other people, so there's either guilt or am I doing it right? Questioning themselves, and I will say, as a teacher, I think my opinion right wrong. I'm willing to hear anybody challenge me.
Speaker 2:I think what you're doing is amazing, because when we do the number one thing, and that is to get kids to love the idea of the learning and allow them to learn the things they love, and it deserves a plus we are doing what's best for our kids and so I applaud you guys and I think people homeschooling everybody's doing the best they can. There's no perfect way we are going to bring you guys back on. We can have a conversation just about that, but right now we do have to take that break and after the break we're going to talk more about healthy marriage, how to get along in that small space and how you afford to be on the road Ten people on the road. Let's talk about how you're affording it right after this break.
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Speaker 2:And when they talk about family Dan and I have not yet bought our next RV it is definitely conversation and my goal is to have a new RV in 2024 and National Indoor RV Centers is definitely where we're going to buy our next class A motor home, because they do treat you like family and they have integrity and they're just amazing people. We can't say enough about them.
Speaker 1:Yes, brett Davis, the owner. He sets an example from the top and I mean, this guy is one of the most amazing human beings that I have ever met. He knows how to lead, he knows how to run a company and he understands the math of running a company. I will tell you after what you said I believe personally that math is probably the most important thing that we can do, because everything is math, from cooking to measuring things out. The math of what goes in this and what goes in that to radio is all math. The radio waves are all based on math. Life is about math and I think that that is one of the most important things that we can get out there and doing it.
Speaker 2:Now let's talk relationship. I think that's the most important thing in living in an RV.
Speaker 1:Okay, we promised talking about a healthy marriage.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, so Dan and I live in a 40-foot RV and we're trying to navigate relationship living here. We actually did a podcast on how to live in a less than 40, 400 square feet of space and not kill each other. That was one of our earlier podcasts and some great advice on how to get along. What is your guy's secret to a good and healthy marriage?
Speaker 3:Get outside, don't be inside. You've got all the place in the world, all the space in the world, and that's what we try to do With our children 10 people. We would live in this RV all day. I think we would kill each other too. But we try to go on hikes, we try to be outside. A lot of the campsites have got programs for the children. We can go take the children too. We need our alone time where we all can do our work. We share that. We figure that out. But we follow the nice weather so we can be outside.
Speaker 4:I will say also I love that Andre. Andre always tells people we don't always live inside. That's why we can do this. We're outside. That's really important. But also there's grace.
Speaker 4:Every single day you go to bed and you have to do that little examination where you're like I'm going to do better tomorrow, I'm not going to snap tomorrow, I'm going to do that, I'm going to do that, I'm going to do that, I'm going to do that. So you have to kind of like deprogram from that busy world out there that we're programmed to be stressed, we're programmed to always have a problem. And you actually have to intentionally live life like I'm going to let it go. I'm going to say I'm going to say, in flow, I don't need to fight about this. Pick your battles and forgive and get on and do better the next day. And you're going to have to learn to do better Between our kids, my relationship with my kids, our relationship together, learning how to live together. It's not something that you're going to have to find your way and you're going to have a lot of grace and you're going to have a lot of learning to do. But go with it and it's beautiful.
Speaker 2:I think it's better now than it's ever been. I love that, and Dan and I actually have a coach, and I think it's really important to have a lot of advice before, and it just really resonated. If you're talking about something or arguing or disagreeing, do you want to be right or do you want to be happy. So a lot of times that's our go to saying like, all right, do I need to be right here, do we just need to be happy? And that's actually helped. So you've given a lot of great advice. Again, I'm sure we could do a whole podcast on that.
Speaker 1:But we have some more to cover. We have a lot of great stuff to cover. We have a lot of great programs to cover. We have a lot of great program to cover, and I don't have to worry about just one who doesn't. I have to. Now we've got to be proud of our family. Lots and lots of family, and I think that there's 15 total in the party?
Speaker 2:Yeah, 15 total. And we went to the frozen show the other day.
Speaker 1:And you know what we're talking about.
Speaker 2:Just reminds me Especially, yeah, especially.
Speaker 4:I gotta tell you something funny though Our girls we have a four year old, a six year old and a seven year old, so they're frozen fans. But something really cool on our travels is we went to Mount Rainier on the most glorious, most perfect day ever in late August, and so we're climbing this hike with our kids, and my daughter, my four year old, thinks that we are visiting Elsa's castle.
Speaker 6:Because you see the castle in the distance.
Speaker 4:You can't change her mind Like to her that was better than any Disney trip or anything. Like we were literally and they sang the song the whole hike. They were like looking out for Elsa. You know it was amazing.
Speaker 2:That's. That's so cool. Now, I did promise and I know people are asking this and I know we're running sort of long on the podcast not that it matters, but this is important. So I'm going to change gears here and people want to know, and I know we talked a long time about it but how do you guys afford this lifestyle? There are 10 of you. A dog and six puppies Just want people to not forget that. How do you afford to do what you're?
Speaker 1:doing. You always forget the dog, though there's six puppies.
Speaker 2:I did say a dog and six puppies, this time because there is also a dog. So can you tell, because listeners ask all the time how do people afford it? What can we do to make more money? So can you share what you guys do and how you're managing that?
Speaker 4:Well, if we share a whole story. We knew we wanted to do this. We knew we wanted a different life that involved traveling. I thought it would be Europe. Andre came up with the RV life and we went with that, especially because of 2020 and all the craziness. So, and we will travel to Europe one day. But you have to kind of pre-plan. You got to go back. Don't feel like you're going to do this tomorrow. Maybe you can do it tomorrow.
Speaker 4:For us, we weren't like that. We had to transition from brick and mortar you know, clocking into a building to work, to doing something online. So for us, the answer came with network marketing. So we aligned with a company that we are very passionate about. We're super passionate about natural health and wellness, and I built this for about three years. So took about three years for Andre to be able to quit his job and for us to sell our house, which gave us a little bit of buffer money. We bought our car for cash, put a loan on the RV because we wanted to keep sort of a cash flow, whatever credit line going. So we owe on the RV. We own the van cash. We had a little bit of buffer money but literally, we rely fully on this online business that we built and I recommend it to everybody to kind of look on this online space.
Speaker 4:We teach teams how to build a personal brand online and how to do this thing called attraction marketing, and it's truly the business of the 21st century. It's where the world is going to right now. So for someone to kind of pick up, start a little business and kind of build it up in the nooks and crannies of your life and scale it up over time and learn the skill of being online adding value to people, that's truly what we teach our teams to do and it's been beautiful. Our team has grown over the last two years, so we rely on that 100% for our that's our only paycheck as a business and then we do YouTube, but we don't monetize YouTube at all.
Speaker 4:We haven't really monetized our social media outside of this network marketing company that we belong to and the beautiful thing about that is you scale it up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do, and the best way to do that is what you just said attraction marketing. You know, Patty and I were in network marketing and we had a very large team over 100,000 people on our team Incredible and Patty was the main trainer and she tried to push people into just make friends. Stop selling, yes, and just make friends.
Speaker 2:And again, there's a whole nother conversation there. We'll have them on three times next year.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:Cover all the topics.
Speaker 1:Because it is an amazing conversation.
Speaker 2:It's an amazing way for people to make money. You guys are able to take care of 10 people on the road making money to do it. And again, I'm going to encourage people. If they want, they can reach out to you, your social media, ask questions in our social media and I will put all that information in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the ways that we can afford to do this podcast and be on the road is with the open roads fuel card Now. That has saved us so much money. We have a 40 foot Monaco, which is a diesel pusher that gets about five or six miles to the gallon.
Speaker 2:You're getting real with yourself.
Speaker 1:I'm getting very real with this. Five or six miles of the gallon is what it averages. We drive about 100,000 miles a year, which is a little silly. But we started out in Las Vegas and we drove back to Pennsylvania to visit the family. We got to Pennsylvania, got a call back in Las Vegas that we had to be there for business. So boom, we're back in Las Vegas. So it was in that first three month period that we drove across the country back again. And then what we do. We said, well, let's pick up where we left off. So we left Vegas and we went back to the East Coast.
Speaker 4:All of you people are crazy All of them.
Speaker 6:We're just a different kind of we just have any kids and six puppies and a dog.
Speaker 2:But you guys are also crazy. It's a little crazy and we've actually learned to slow down in all honesty, and I will also say we are saving money on diesel. So I want to put that out to people. It is free to sign up for the open roads.
Speaker 1:All right, Patty, Patty. The listeners on my side of the room are asking what is the open road, fuel cards, and how do you save money and how much does it cost? That's all on you.
Speaker 2:Let me get to that. So again, I'll put a link in the show notes for people. All you do is you sign up. It is absolutely free. You attach your bank card. There is an app so it'll show you the places you could go get diesel. We could take our 40 foot monocoque through these truck stops. We get diesel to show you the cost and then later you will get billed from open roads resource, open roads fuel card, different sponsor, and you'll see your savings. So it's so easy. They've done an amazing job. I'm also excited because they just came out. We just received our tow pass and this tow pass covers the whole country All 48 states.
Speaker 2:Do you guys have the tow pass or do you go through and pay cash?
Speaker 4:You know what? We had so much trouble in Florida with a sun pass and getting a sun pass like a specific pass just for Florida that we left Florida. We're like what are we going to do with this thing now? So that's something we need.
Speaker 2:We have the solution. So, again, I think it costs like $25 for the year and then you can use this pass everywhere. So we're getting rid of our easy pass and our sun pass and we'll be able to use it everywhere in the country. I'm excited.
Speaker 1:I just had a call with a director of marketing and I'll tell you what they have put together is incredible. If, for some reason, you get a notification of a ticket, you never have to call SunPass again. You don't have to go through there. Press one for this, press two for this, press four for this. They will take care of all of it for you. It's a one call solution if you have a violation or a toll or whatever. This covers our RV, it covers our tow car and we can't be happier with it. It came in just a few days and the instructions when it came were clear. They weren't like IKEA. They were clear. You could see everything. So it is.
Speaker 2:Wow. So, and again, they are sponsors. But we get excited about the people we are connected to and our sponsors. Obviously, we love these product services. We get really excited there. But I think it's time for our next break.
Speaker 1:Join the fuel card, we have saved as much as 90 cents a gallon on diesel. 90 cents a gallon on diesel.
Speaker 2:Now I'm gonna ask, before we go to our next section, if you guys could stay with us. We do have a question. I'm not sure it applies to you guys, but will you stay with us for our closing section? Absolutely.
Speaker 4:Of course.
Speaker 2:Great.
Speaker 1:Now that horn means it's time for today's question of the week, brought to you by Clear2O, your RV water solution. We all drink water.
Speaker 2:Every day.
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Speaker 2:For the freshwater tank. It's a gallon, so it's not a lot of lugging around. It's a gallon bottle. You pour it in, you leave it there for a couple hours and it cleans it naturally. We've spoken with the creator, who's also the owner, and he's just another amazing person. We only deal with amazing people. That's why we have them on our podcast today, and this product really is great, as well as our filtration system. So no more lugging bottles of water.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:We love Clear2O.
Speaker 1:We really do love Clear2O.
Speaker 2:Let me get to the question of the week, and this is from social media. Jeremiah P from Prescott it's actually pronounced Prescott Arizona and he-.
Speaker 1:I love it there.
Speaker 2:He asked this question and we keep getting this question in a lot of the group, so I thought it was time to talk about it again on the podcast. And the question is what is the best RV GPS when we travel in our large travel trailer?
Speaker 1:He asked RV safe GPS?
Speaker 2:RV safe GPS. Yeah, Because you don't want just any GPS. You wanna make sure you're safe in your RV?
Speaker 1:yes, Now, what do we do?
Speaker 2:We use RV Trip Wizard and RV Life is who owns RV Trip Wizard. Rv Life is part of the RV Life podcast, so we have been using this trip planning and RV safe GPS before we even got the RV. Dan's been playing with the different systems, the different plans that are out there. We have been using RV Trip Wizard for over three years and it's not perfect. There's no perfect system. We'll be perfectly honest, but it is the best. So we know we're gonna go on a road that can take our height, our weight, our length, our size all of that without a problem. It is absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1:We don't move one inch without first consulting RV Trip Wizard. Now I will say the same as you, Andre. We use a Garmin for my turn to turn directions. I like to have something in front of me with a 40 foot RV and a 15 foot car that I'm towing. I like to know what's coming up. So I have my turn to turn on a Garmin 4, 10, 4, 20, something like that, but it's the one that will take all the RV measurements.
Speaker 2:Right, but now we will say so we have. So I hold the Trip Wizard turn by turn while he has the Garmin in front of him. We have an older unit so we don't have the carplay. You can now use Trip Wizard on the carplay the night before. We always compare the two directions and again Dan likes a big device so he could see it More times than not. The RV Trip Wizard has been more accurate than the Garmin. So again, no device is perfect Plan and double check, but RV Trip Wizard is the best and we have a RV Life Pro Tip coming up right.
Speaker 6:By default. Rv Life Trip Wizard creates an RV safe route, keeping you clear of any low clearances. If you wanna see all of those low clearances on your map, choose the research tab, then the hazards tab, and click the low clearance icon. If you see a low clearance on the map that you think is on your route, remember to zoom in all the way. You'll find that the low clearance warning is typically on a side road or underpass that is not on your direct route. If you've properly entered your RV information, you won't be routed somewhere you shouldn't be Seeing. The low clearance warnings might be handy for routes you are considering but haven't mapped yet, or help explain why you're being routed a certain way on the map With your RV Life Pro Tip of the Week. I'm Pat Buchanan.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much Pat Buchanan, and there's the dogs. It's funny because Patrick Buchanan, when we talk to him, he has eight dogs, so we usually hear the dogs when we're talking. But thank you, pat, always great tips that help people navigate.
Speaker 1:Andre, you've been on the road almost as long as we have. Tell me, have you ever gone down a road that you say, oh shoot, I can't make it through there?
Speaker 3:We have been in situations. It's never happened that I didn't go through a road, but sometimes I've been through a couple of roads where I thought I don't wanna go through this road. I wish I hadn't gone through this road. I've been on roads that went up. They were windy and I didn't have the possibility to. I didn't know where the next turn was gonna be, and it has been a bit scary and I got wet fingers and wet hands and I was cramping on the steering wheel. We always made it safely, thankfully. But this is when we didn't use the GPS. We said, okay, we're gonna go there and we wanna see that. For example, last time was in the Great Smoky Mountains. We wanted to go hiking and we wanted to find the hiking trail, the trailhead, and it didn't say, okay, this is a small, tiny one-way road that goes steep uphill, and so we took our RV up on a huge ascent and tiny narrow roads and windy roads and it was not an awful awesome experience.
Speaker 3:It was not great, but we made it safely up and down, parked the RV somewhere else and went back to our hike.
Speaker 2:Wow, yes, and I think everybody's sort of been in that and again, safe travel is important for us and that's why we have connected with RV Life and talk about RV Trip Wizard, because it's really been the difference for so many people. But a couple more things.
Speaker 1:Let me just jump in here and say there's something that I didn't know before I started RVing that there are roads that have restrictions on length. I never knew that that. We were in Arizona, near Sonoma Arizona, and we were trying to get out of there and the RV Trip Wizard told me that there is a restriction of 35 feet going up this hill. So that is yeah. That is something that you have to be aware of. When you're an RVer, you have to know what your length is. You really have to be aware, because you can get yourself in some real sticky situations. We met a couple and the guy said if I wasn't a professional truck driver, there is no way I would have made it up this hill with our rig. So I think it's really important that you look at all of those things.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely, and again. First of all, I want to thank you guys, but, like I had said, there are so many things that I know that we could talk about just on three or four different topics. You guys have been amazing, for sure. We want to thank you for all your advice and comments and sharing the ups and the downs, and the kids in the background and the dog sharing is all part of the fun of it and we can't thank you enough and definitely we'll have to get you guys back on Now. I do want to say are you guys going to be in Tampa at the RV show?
Speaker 4:We want to. I mean, we're in Florida, so Be there. If we can get in, we'd love to be. Yes, okay, so we need to cook together, we need to have a we need to like bring Dan and all of us together and get the meal that would be amazing.
Speaker 1:I think we're doing a great stuff when we sit down.
Speaker 2:We're going to need hours and hours of time because I think I know the four of us together will just be talking nonstop. Now, dan and I will be in Tampa, so I hope you'll be there. It's the Tampa RV show, it's Tampa Super Show, it's called, and it is from January 17th to the 21st. It's five days. Dan and I will be broadcasting the podcast live, so it'll be in front of a live audience and then anybody not there will hear it. You know, over the next three, four, five Wednesdays, where are we put out?
Speaker 1:Where are we broadcasting live from?
Speaker 2:I'm getting to the most important. There's so much here.
Speaker 1:Well, they're not an advertiser. Awesome no they are not.
Speaker 2:But we love Freightliner Custom Chassis, we love the people there, the president, jeff Sather. He said he listens every single week. Jeff, thank you, and Dan and I will be. They welcomed us into their booth again and that's where we will be broadcasting the RV Life Podcast from the Freightliner booth At 12.30. At 12.30.
Speaker 1:So if you're out there at the Tampa RV show and your feet are tired because you've been walking around miles and miles looking at RVs, and in the hot sun In the hot sun. Come on in. It's in the shade. We have beautiful chairs.
Speaker 2:Yep, grab a snack.
Speaker 1:Come on in Grab a snack and sit and enjoy the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 2:If you want, you can ask a question. We'll get you on the podcast to ask a question and, andre and Andrea, if you're going to be there, let us know. It'd be great to meet you face to face.
Speaker 3:It really will be awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, you're listening to the. Rv Life Podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, Patty Hunt, saying have a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.