How important is education before you start your RV journey? I (Patti) talked to Tom and Cait from Mortons on the Move. They admit to starting out and not having any education about RVing, except the the YouTube videos they watched.
Today's conversations is a treasury of resources for both newbies and veterans of the RV lifestyle. None of us were shy about the bumps we've hit or the mistakes we've made because they've become valuable teaching moments, and we're excited to share those insights. Tom and Cait took it a step further and offer their lesson in a Masterclass as well as other resources.
All the resources Tom and Cait share to help you on your RV journey go to Mortons on The Move
We shared about how to handle the unplanned and unpleasant parts of RV living. Check out this episode with expert Jennifer Davis
Embracing the Unplanned: The Real Story Behind RVing and What Health Really Means
Looking to purchase an RV? "there is no better time than right now" according to Founder, CEO and President of National Indoor RV Centers, Brett Davis
listen to Brett Talk:Has the RV Industry Hit Rock Bottom, or Will it Get Worse
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
How important is education before you start your RV journey? I (Patti) talked to Tom and Cait from Mortons on the Move. They admit to starting out and not having any education about RVing, except the the YouTube videos they watched.
Today's conversations is a treasury of resources for both newbies and veterans of the RV lifestyle. None of us were shy about the bumps we've hit or the mistakes we've made because they've become valuable teaching moments, and we're excited to share those insights. Tom and Cait took it a step further and offer their lesson in a Masterclass as well as other resources.
All the resources Tom and Cait share to help you on your RV journey go to Mortons on The Move
We shared about how to handle the unplanned and unpleasant parts of RV living. Check out this episode with expert Jennifer Davis
Embracing the Unplanned: The Real Story Behind RVing and What Health Really Means
Looking to purchase an RV? "there is no better time than right now" according to Founder, CEO and President of National Indoor RV Centers, Brett Davis
listen to Brett Talk:Has the RV Industry Hit Rock Bottom, or Will it Get Worse
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
Before you hit the road in your RV, how much knowledge do you think you need? I'm Tati Hunt with my incredible husband, dan Hunt, and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. Our guests today said they knew nothing when they started full-time RVing and when Dan and I decided to live full-time in an RV over three years ago, we felt like we were educated. But I guess our education came from watching one YouTube video after another. But we thought we had it all down. We thought we knew most of it, but as we got on the road we realized we really didn't know what we didn't know, and so we made a lot of mistakes along the way, and we hope that those mistakes have helped our RV community. And you know, I think we're still making some mistakes, but our guests today have become experts and they are here to help, whether you're thinking about going on the road or you're a seasoned traveler looking for more information. Now again, as you could hear, dan is still under the weather. So just to give you a little update, at the time of the posting of this podcast we should be in Pennsylvania. That's where we're heading from Florida, and we're just going to take about a month off, get Dan's health back and find that newer RV that we've been talking about and get back on the road. So no worries, dan is getting better and better. But, as you know and as I just talked to my guests, sometimes we just keep pushing and pushing and sometimes it's better to just take some time out. So that's what we're doing. We appreciate all the love and support we've gotten, but just know that he is doing okay, getting better every day, but just needs a break, as we all do sometimes. Right Now, that sound means it's time for today's fun fact and that's brought to you by Open Roads Resorts, and they have four amazing locations two in Montana, one in Idaho and one in Texas. If you know us, you know if you've listened to the podcast. We visited the Texas location and it was amazing location and it was amazing. So I highly recommend going to openroadsresortscom and checking out these four amazing locations.
Speaker 1:Now the fun fact for today I got to share. Brett Davis from National Indoor RV Center said that this right now is a buyer's market. He said this is the best time to buy an RV Now. He did a comprehensive video like detailed video. My guests are shaking their head. Did you listen to that video. Yes, he did a comprehensive video explaining in detail, with numbers and statistics, why this is the best time to buy an RV, and I'm going to leave all those details in to Brett and I'm going to put the video in the show notes, because I can't even begin to explain all of that Now.
Speaker 1:Let me just say Open Road Resorts. It's spring and we're getting ready to go north because it's getting warmer and you can visit Red Rock RV Park, which is right outside Yellowstone, if you want to go to Glacier National Park and Flathead Lake. They have two locations Poulsen, flathead Lake, koa Holiday, it's called, and that is for all RVs. Koa holiday, it's called, and that is for all RVs. But they have Poulsen Motor Coach Resort, which is Class A's only and it is in the top 10 motor coach resorts in the country. We are looking forward to get up in that Montana, idaho area and visiting those places. Now our guests and usually I wait to invite them in they're shaking their head. You heard Brett's video. I guess let's go off the format and talk a little bit about that. It was a very detailed video, right?
Speaker 3:Well, I was actually nodding my head. I hadn't actually seen the video, but we've met Brett Davis and we know what a numbers guy he was. So when you mentioned that, I just had to smile and nod my head like oh yeah.
Speaker 1:I believe it.
Speaker 3:That would be, brett, like absolutely crunching the numbers and going through the spreadsheets for sure.
Speaker 2:I think we've talked to them just kind of about, yeah, statistics before.
Speaker 3:And if you get into statistics with him, boy, he, he will blow your mind Absolutely, so I'm definitely going to be watching that video as soon as we get off this interview.
Speaker 1:What I love is Dan's the numbers guy so he could sit and listen to the statistics. His brain can handle all the numbers For me. Just get to the point, just get to the bottom line. What do the numbers mean? And the nice thing in that video he did just get okay. Here's the summary Now I'm listening.
Speaker 1:So, whether you're a numbers person or you need it, just to the point, that is the video for you. And again, it is a buyer's market right now, which is great for those people looking to get out on the road or get that new RV. Now, if you're looking to get out on the road, clean, fresh water is incredibly important. Our friends at Clear 2.0, we have used their three-stage water filter system and it has made all the difference in the world Not lugging bottles of water and, you know, just worrying about using the water. This three-stage water filter has been incredible. If you want to find out more about all their different water filtration products and their product called Clean Tank, which cleans your fresh water tank without bleach, go to clear20.com. Okay, so we're ready to get into our guests. Let me see if I could do this edification the way Dan does it. Let's see how this goes.
Speaker 1:Our guests today worked conventional jobs in Michigan before they decided to sell everything and travel in an RV full-time. They have been on the road for 10 years and they admit when they first started they knew nothing Well, except for some YouTube videos. Over the years they've learned so much they are committed to educating others. They filmed a travel blog for YouTube, published a full-length documentary series on Amazon Prime, co-hosted and filmed a TV show on the Discovery Channel and PBS, and they now have over 120,000 subscribers on YouTube. So people want to hear what they have to say. Today's guests Tom and Kate Morton, also known as Morton's on the move. Welcome to the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Patty. We're so excited to be here.
Speaker 1:And I am so excited to have you guys here. We got on a call several months ago and I do a pre-interview getting to know people, and it's usually I like to do a 30 minute call. I think it was an hour and a half.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just couldn't stop talking, could we?
Speaker 1:No, we could not stop talking. So today's show we really want to dive into educating RVers. But I'd like people to know the story of how you got started. So for Dan and I it was during COVID. We were stuck, we weren't working. Dan called me up to his office. He said let's sell everything, get an RV and go full time. And I laughed. And I laughed hysterically because I thought he was joking. So once I looked up and saw this man was not kidding, I was baffled. Like what are we going to do? I had only been in an RV for seven days total. That was my RV experience. So once we talked, two months later we're looking for an rv. We're watching every youtube channel out there, every video we could find, and a month or so after that we took off. So that's our crazy story. Now I know you guys have a wild story, so will you share with our listeners how this all started, this whole rv thing?
Speaker 3:sure.
Speaker 3:Well, it did take us quite a bit longer to actually make the plan work, but our stroke of genius, as it were, happened in a similar short time frame of just like.
Speaker 3:There's the idea and then here we go.
Speaker 3:But the inspiration behind ours is we were living in Michigan and it was the middle of winter and we took a trip down to Florida for a couple of weeks in the middle of winter and it was so lovely, we both felt so good, you know, getting that vitamin D, that when it came to go home we flew back to Detroit and landed in a blizzard and we had to drive two hours home in the blizzard and the roads were a mess.
Speaker 3:It was so cold and dark and dreary and we were like why, oh why, did we come back? Like there's got to be a way that we could, you know, be in Michigan, you know, in the summertime, when it's nice, and then go to Florida in the wintertime, when it's nice, there in the Florida in the winter. And we happened to drive by an RV dealership right about at that time and this was before we knew anything really about like there were people out there doing this and Tom turns to me really about like there were people out there doing this and Tom turns to me Do you want to say it?
Speaker 2:I think my exact words were aren't those things like homes on wheels that you could drive south? We had already been. We were planning to make a change. We wanted to make a change. We wanted to do something different, but we were thinking, oh well, you know, pull up roots and move Our hearts kind of are out West. So we were thinking, well, maybe we'll just buy something out West. We were looking for jobs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but we didn't really know where. It was all kind of like, oh, we've heard Oregon's nice, you know maybe Colorado's nice, but like we had never actually been to either of those places. So we drove by that dealership and Tom said that to me it was like a light bulb went off and we were like, oh my gosh, we could buy an RV and we could just drive around wherever we wanted to and work from the RV.
Speaker 2:It was probably about 45 minutes from there to home, and in those 45 minutes we had decided we were going to sell everything and hit the road in an RV. And this was in 2000. Gosh, that's probably 2013, 12. I forget. It was a long time ago and there just there wasn't the social media presence of full-time RVers.
Speaker 3:So this was like Almost 10 years ago. It was a different landscape.
Speaker 2:So there were just a handful of blogs out there.
Speaker 3:And you probably all know them. You know Gone with the Winds. Technomadia, the RV Geeks. You know wheeling it.
Speaker 2:So we did read and kind of watch what was out there and we were like huh, this is possible. I guess we could do this.
Speaker 3:Okay, I know how to use a spreadsheet, I can make up a budget, I can plan this out. And then Tom's like I'm an engineer, I could fix things, we could figure it out. And then Tom's like I'm an engineer, I could fix things, we could figure it out. And even though, yeah, we really didn't have any RV experience, we we had like RV with our parents when we were young and we had like some friends who had RVs, but like we were.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it didn't really count.
Speaker 3:We, we like had a tent that we would you know, go car tent camping, you know, but we, we weren't RV people and yeah, A year and a half later. A year and a half later.
Speaker 3:Cause, you know, we, I was I was a planner and I was very anxious about it and I had to make sure all of our ducks were in a row before we were ready to like fly the coop. But we, uh, we eventually sold our house and we we hit the road in September 2015. So you said 10 years earlier, we're getting close to it, we're at nine right now.
Speaker 1:We're in our 10th year. Yeah, we all always round up.
Speaker 3:Round up yeah.
Speaker 1:We tend to round up after 9, 10.
Speaker 3:It's easier yeah.
Speaker 1:So now conventional jobs. But you did wait a year and a half to plan, which is about a year longer than Dan and I, A year and two months longer than Dan and I. We had nothing, we just did it. Wow, that's an incredible story. Michigan is not someplace I want to go in the winter, not at all, I've come to hate the cold.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely. I mean, we're in Florida right now, same as you, enjoying the nice winter weather, spring weather, I guess.
Speaker 2:The plan worked. We have been living that snowbird lifestyle and we do absolutely love it. It's not always Florida, sometimes it's the southwest. Last winter we were even down in Baja Mexico.
Speaker 1:We've gone as far as new zealand in rvs.
Speaker 2:So we go, we've been, uh, we definitely.
Speaker 3:We just take advantage of the weather um as time permits yeah, we're gonna be well, I was just gonna say we're gonna be heading up north, uh, back to michigan sooner this year than we um than we usually do, and we're dreading getting into the colder temperatures.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, as I said, I'm at the posting of this podcast and we're just recording it a couple of days before we're heading to the Philadelphia area and I'm looking at the temperatures it's still chilly. Interesting, I got to gotta say, because it's been hot here like over the last month it's really been hot, so shorts and tank tops kind of thing, and so I was pulling clothes out to pack them up and I'm like, oh, sweaters, I haven't worn them in a while, so I guess I'll enjoy that for about a week?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah it. Yeah, it's a change. But let's jump in First of all. What kind of RV did you buy? Let's start with that.
Speaker 3:I know there's been a number of different ones, since then, right, yeah, over about 10 years you go through a couple of different RVs sometimes and our first RV that we bought because we did some research and then we found the perfect RV, right. Um it was a 41 foot cyclone toy hauler.
Speaker 3:It was about the biggest RV that we'd ever seen in our lives and we were thinking we need it to be big because we're going to be living in it, we're bringing all of our stuff, so it needs to have all this space and it needs to have a garage, because tom needs to bring all of his tools and uh, I was as a as a hobby.
Speaker 2:I was flying uh paramotors at the time, so I needed to bring that collapsible airplane, if you will.
Speaker 3:So I was bringing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was bringing uh flying equipment. Uh, we had a motorcycle, so we were bringing motorcycle because we needed an extra vehicle.
Speaker 3:And then we loaded everything up into this poor toy hauler and we put it on a scale and, wouldn't you know it, we were way, way, way overweight.
Speaker 2:There is something to.
Speaker 3:Imagine that.
Speaker 2:There's also something to RVs have gotten, I think, stronger as people have really moved into them more full-time.
Speaker 3:Well, and the trucks have gotten so much more capable too.
Speaker 2:So 2010 really was when we were like those were the era of both the truck and fifth wheel, I think at the time and you just couldn't get the payloads that we have now. You could not tow and be within limitations, so we only had I know it sounds like quite a bit we only had an 18,000 pound capacity on this triple axle toy hauler and we were overweight on everything.
Speaker 3:So our first RV we couldn't even you know take off with it.
Speaker 2:So this was our first big learning. We did and the truck did okay, like I mean it didn't feel dangerous necessarily, but when we put it on the scale, I mean it didn't feel dangerous necessarily, but when we put it on the scale, I mean we were over on all the axles or and we immediately I'm definitely, I'm a huge safety guy Like if it's not within specifications and we're pushing the limits, you shouldn't be on the road with it. And this was my first big learning.
Speaker 1:That's not right, yeah, and that's it. I was a teacher, a high school teacher, for 20 years and I knew there'd be a lot of teachable moments here. So let's you know again our listeners some of them are just starting out, haven't even gotten the RV yet. They're thinking about a, maybe thinking about a fifth wheel and a truck. Some are on the road, didn't bother to weigh their vehicle. So let's make this a teachable moment. Let's talk about you know, so years ago the payload was different than it is today. The pickup trucks now are probably I'll let you, the expert, go through that.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, and you know, as you said at the beginning, Patty, like we were all RV newbies at one point, and we, I mean, we still make mistakes every now and then. There's so much to learn with RVs and they change all the time too. So we, I mean maybe that's like our humbling point of this is like we were newbies too and we met. We have made all of the mistakes. So, yeah, the RV weight was the first big one.
Speaker 2:RV weight as a whole. We say that newer RVs are stronger. We can't blanket statement that you can still easily be overweight in an RV, and weight is definitely something that is absolutely critical. Um, because there's there's multiple factors with RV weight. It's the frame, it's the axles, it's the tires with regard to the, the tow vehicle, it's the engine and drive train, and then it's axles and tires, and everything needs to be within specifications, because if you're overloaded on anything, it's going to increase the likelihood of failure, increase the likelihood of damage and, most dangerously, increase the likelihood of an accident. We've heard just horror stories about tire blowouts in vehicles and so many times those tires are near their limit or overloaded even. It's like that's going to increase your likelihood of having a tire failure. But beyond that, we've seen brake failures, brakes not being able to stop the vehicle.
Speaker 2:Basically when you're looking at buying an RV, you really need to kind of have an idea of what am I going to use it for and what is its cargo carrying capacity, what is its axle weight ratings and how do I make sure that what I'm planning to do with it doesn't overload this and create a dangerous situation.
Speaker 3:And the weights can be very deceiving, because a lot of times what you see on the sticker is the dry weight and so that's not adding in. Okay, you're probably going to fill this up with fresh water, right? You have a fresh water tank and, hey, water weighs like eight pounds per gallon.
Speaker 1:A hundred gallon tank is 800 pounds I did not know that, I didn't know that was the weight.
Speaker 2:So we had believe it or not this giant toy hauler had 2000 of cargo carrying capacity, not including the water.
Speaker 2:So if you fill the water, there's half your cargo carrying capacity gone it might not seem like it, but when you go full time in an RV, you can easily load 1,000 pounds of stuff into the RV.
Speaker 2:You can easily load 1,500 to 2,000 pounds of stuff in the RV, then add 900 pounds of water boom, you can be overweight so fast. And that's basically what happened to us in that first RV and we learned that lesson and we took that learning and we stepped into an older RV that did have huge weight carrying capacities. We moved into a 32 foot DRV mobile suite so the smallest mobile suites but it had 8,000 pound axles under it and that increased its cargo carrying capacity. It still had the same cargo carrying capacity that we had in this large toy hauler. It had heavier duty tires, that G rated tires, and the axles were heavier, the brakes were bigger and we were able to go full time, still carry a full load of water and be within all of our specifications and that really worked out for us. We never had a problem with the bearings, with the tires, with anything in the entire time we traveled in that.
Speaker 1:Then you called it a mobile. What did you call that? You said mobile suites. What exactly is that? I don't think I've ever heard that term.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so DRV is a brand under Thor. Thor bought it.
Speaker 2:They were kind of always known for building a coach that was a full-time coach. Yeah, okay, got it.
Speaker 3:As you start kind of thinking about the math and stuff of these carrying capacities, you start kind of seeing a differentiation between the DRVs and the Luxes and you know the more full-time geared RVs versus, you know, the weekend warriors and you see that in the builds and stuff. So the DRVs is kind of the they were-.
Speaker 2:At the time. At the time, they were trying to build a full-time rig so. We have a lot more options out there, and we're talking fifth wheels here. Right, right right.
Speaker 1:We're talking fifth wheels and I do know we have, like, this is a lot of great information and I want to get into some other topics, but great information for people because this is a big, huge problem and causes major accidents, sometimes catastrophic. So very important we are going to lead for our listeners, we are going to lead people to a lot of great resources so they can get the information from you guys so that they can make a more informed decision. I want to ask, though you both were working full-time conventional jobs. I've got my air quotes up. You know your nine to five type jobs. So what did you do? Were you able to do that? Once you got on the road? How did you make money? I guess is the question.
Speaker 3:That's a fantastic question, because now we're nine years down the road. We kind of tend to forget that we had. We actually hit the road with no jobs we had. We didn't think we were going to be doing this for 10 years. We had the plan of hey, we're going to take a year or two sabbatical travel around.
Speaker 2:We really did think of it as a sabbatical something that it was an opportunity to educate ourselves in a realm that we'd never really experienced before.
Speaker 3:And we. So we took a year to prepare. So that year and a half of when we were planning and stuff, we were stashing away cash of like, okay, we're not going on any vacations, we're not doing any big spending projects or anything on the house and we basically just socked it away in savings so that we could have this year maybe, to you know, draw down our savings, find the place that we wanted to settle down and then we would just, you know, start over. Well, after a year on the road, we're like, oh my gosh, we want to keep doing this, so we should probably start making some money. Keep doing this, so we should probably start making some money. So so, way back when, we did have this like blissful year of just traveling the country and having a good old time. But then we did start working, we started a YouTube channel. But that, you know, that's no way to make money fast.
Speaker 3:So, we picked up some little remote jobs online. Tom would do handyman stuff.
Speaker 2:We did odd jobs. Yeah, we did odd jobs RV repairs and then I eventually started an e-commerce retailer where I was actually selling RV hitches and RV products specific to one niche. I've since moved on from that. Caitlin was working as a consultant, a sales student yeah, I was like I've since moved on from that. Caitlin was working as a consultant. Yeah, it was like a.
Speaker 3:B2B sales call rep.
Speaker 2:We basically found remote jobs and we, we, we made it work for ourselves.
Speaker 3:Um, and then at all that time the YouTube channel started growing and then we were able to kind of turn our business into Morton's on the move, which it is still today Morton's on the movecom, the YouTube channel, the different content sponsorships that we we get to work with some awesome companies and products we believe in addition, caitlin has business management background and I'm an electrical engineer by, I guess, education, and I worked in electrical engineering for a while.
Speaker 2:So we've worked with companies as consultants, if you will as well Actually a lot of them in the RV space or RV adjacent space, because we've garnered such experience in this space.
Speaker 1:So this is a great segue into a topic and again I'm just going to, for people who are new to the RV Life podcast, this is inscripted. I got on and you know Tom and Kate and I had a conversation and then I got on and said, hey, this like sitting around a campfire, let's go whichever direction it's going to go in. So now we're talking about sponsorships and affiliates, and people call it different things, whatever we want to call it, and I know we have a lot in common in that, because you know, the goal for all of us the four of us was never go out and just make money. The YouTube channel for those people who say I'm going to start one it's a long haul. It could take a long, long time. You know, if, if you love it, do it, but if you're looking just to make money, you may want to rethink that. We could probably have a whole conversation on that. But let's talk a little bit about sponsorships. We're going to call them sponsorships and why and how you choose those sponsorships.
Speaker 3:Sure, yeah, so I think from a very high level. You know there's there. There are a lot of sponsorship opportunities out there and, honestly, there's a lot more nowadays than there were about 10 years ago, quite frankly because social media was not as a valuable way to get their name out there.
Speaker 2:really, I'm glad they do now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been a very interesting thing to watch over the last decade or so, but I think with— it's been a challenge for us too, though in actually selecting sponsors now that it's so much more prevalent that you almost have to be more discerning about who or we are at least, about who we work with, because I mean, we could get a dozen emails a day asking us to review a product or, you know, do this, that and the other thing.
Speaker 3:But at this point, with you know, our audience, we feel that we have the obligation to protect our audience and only share things that we think are going to be value add to them. So we do a lot of vetting, and I'm sure you do that as well, patty of like. Hey, I'm not going to just throw any name out there, because you know, as we've talked about RV, there's a huge safety component to RV. So if you're promoting a product or a, you know, a water filter that doesn't work or a tire pressure monitoring system that doesn't work, or you can't like vouch for on your own, like you could be putting people in a little bit of danger, and so you know you gotta be careful about it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and that's how you know we feel and you said it when we were talking. You said, oh, I know that company. You know we were talking about companies that we're both familiar with because, again, you're saying it, dan and I, the people we have on the show, even our guests, the companies that sponsor, you know, whether it's the show or an event, we're doing an event in Hershey. We have sponsors there. No matter what it is our name's on it. So for Dan and I, the RV Life podcast name's on it. We have the YouTube channel exploring through our lens. We should have had all one name, like you guys did, but your name is on it and it means so much to me and I want you know.
Speaker 1:People are looking how do I make money while we're on the road? Again, a whole conversation that we could spend a long time on, but I think you know, as we're talking, the most important thing is integrity, authenticity. Those are very important. Now, one of the companies and I'm going to it's a great way to take a little bit of a break one of the companies and I'm going to. It's a great way to take a little bit of a break, because one of the companies we both know is Open Roads. We both have diesel and we want to save money on diesel, because there's one side of making money, but you also have to figure out how to save money as well, and Open Roads is one of those companies.
Speaker 1:We were off the road last year for about seven months because I was with my mother who was in hospice, and even with the amount of travel we did, we saved something like $387 using the Open Roads fuel card. So for people who don't know, this is a fuel card, it is free to get the card. You have an app, you find a location to get gas and you could save anywhere from 5 cents to 90 cents a gallon probably. So it's great savings. It's so easy Just use the card. You guys also are connected with the company as well.
Speaker 2:So we've actually been using it for longer than I think you guys have even been on the card. You guys also are connected with the company as well, so we've actually been using it for longer than I think you guys have even been on the road. There was kind of this interesting thing when we first hit the road we were looking at truck stops primarily. You look at the price at the road at truck stops and you're like gosh, why are truckers paying such a high price? It's so much higher than if I got off the road. You know four miles and you got to. Well, they don't actually pay that price.
Speaker 2:They're basically at truck stops there are negotiated rates for large fill-ups and these are typically called like an EFS program, and this company it's actually called TSD Logistics came out with this program for Open roads program.
Speaker 2:It was called yeah, it was just a TSD RVers at the time and we basically got a card that was for truckers and we then were able to get that trucker rate and it was like oh, now it makes sense. It's actually cheaper than even getting off the highway to fill up at one of these, and it's easier and faster at the big lanes.
Speaker 3:I would say even like. Probably even better than the fuel savings, I mean. But that's really great too is just the ease of getting a big rig into a gas station. Like before we like now we always stop at Love's and Flying J and whoever is on our path, just because that is such an easy gas stop for us, instead of trying to squeeze into some Walmart Murphy USA thing and try to navigate through it. I mean, it's just so much anxiety. But in a truck stop it is designed for big rigs.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, absolutely Game changer. Now there's something else Open Roads just came out with a couple months ago that we were talking about. It's called innovative tolling and this is a toll pass that covers 48 states. And not only that if you happen to get some kind of violation you go through and something didn't work, they have a concierge service that you just call them or you go on your app and you let them know and they help you fix it. I spent this year $256 in fines, something like that, because we have a mailing service, which you know people on the road. We have a mailing service. So by the time they sent the fine the mail you know cost by the they sent it to the mailing service and I got it and I, you know, looked at it and I dealt with. They give you 25 days. The 25 days was up. Now I'm paying the fines, the fee, the this.
Speaker 2:We have had that exact situation before. Yes, the Illinois tollway has penalized us hugely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is going to be fantastic, but let's get back in Now I want to talk about because, again, this is about learning on the road. Dan and I have made so many mistakes. We, you know, do a video or we talk about it on the podcast to help people to not make the same mistakes. We got our Jeep, we hooked it up to the RV wrong, we towed it for God knows how long, burned out all four tires. We're going to talk about a couple of things on that $1,300 later. So we did a video and again, the point for I think, the four of us is to help people learn from our mistakes. You don't have to make all the mistakes yourself, but I want to talk about this wealth of information let's talk about.
Speaker 1:You did a documentary. You pick the place you want to start with that and talk about because I have here. You did a documentary on Amazon Prime. I'm going to be watching that tonight. I didn't get a chance to. You co-hosted a TV show on Discovery Channel and PBS. Let's talk about some of that. What was the goal? Tell us about that.
Speaker 3:Sure Well, so I think to first start with the docu-series that we created and documentary that we created about our trip to Alaska was something that we always wanted to do. But as we felt, and as a lot of other people feel, it's like Alaska is a very far away place and it's kind of—.
Speaker 2:An undertaking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a huge undertaking.
Speaker 2:To do by army.
Speaker 3:And so we—I mean we did a lot of research ahead of time. But even researching stuff, it's just kind of like a mystery and there's something a little nerve wracking about it. So we documented our entire trip in a truck camper up through Alaska and all the way to the Arctic Ocean and that's in a series called Go North which is available on our YouTube channel and on Amazon video. And then we took that 20 episode series and Tom edited it into a one and a half hour documentary film which is kind of like a glorified highlight reel of the entire trip. But, um, available on our website. Yes, that's available for free on our website. And that was probably our biggest project, our biggest accomplishment. What people probably know us best for is the Go North series, because Alaska is such a captivating place. People want to know how to get there and what to do there, and are the roads okay? Is the wildlife dangerous, like there's so many questions, and it was an amazing, life-changing experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so our goal, our tagline that we don't really share, but it's kind of like personal to ourselves you know, our goal is to, with everything we do is to entertain, educate and inspire, and this series really kind of does all of those things. There's a lot of education in it, both about Alaska and RVing, and then there's also a lot of inspiration for those who are looking for an adventure. So it's kind of both travel series and little piece of education in there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the education part is like you know, okay, what happens if porcupines chew the wires under your truck out in the middle of nowhere. You know if you're traveling the road to Tuktuk and you have a flat tire, like, what do you need to do to be prepared for that type of thing? So it's educating people on how to do this for yourselves, because, I mean, we knew we couldn't be the only ones dreaming of going to Alaska. And it's like one of the best things when people come up to us and say like oh, you inspired us to go to Alaska, we're going this year, or we went last year and it was amazing, and like that's really what it's all about for us, and like that's, that's really what it's all about for us.
Speaker 1:That's awesome and and this is where the podcast is great. I love it. I love that people like to listen, you know, on the way to work or working out walking around a campground. But you guys just lit up as you were talking about it, and so this is where I wish there was some video. You can see that it's truly from the heart, the fact that you educate, entertain and inspire.
Speaker 1:Those were my buzzwords. We changed them, honestly, a little bit for the podcast because we had people that believed. Well, I don't know, we changed one of the words and that's why the connection here too, because that's our goal. It doesn. It doesn't matter how many you know YouTube subscribers. That just tells me that there's more people that are benefiting and that's the hope that they're benefiting from what we're doing and the and the podcast as well. So that is super cool that you use those words, words because that has been the mission.
Speaker 1:So when Dan and I, when he said let's go in an RV and, you know, live full time on the road and after I left, I said what are we going to do? Because that was our mission to inspire people, because that's you know, you got to get out there and live life there's. You know it was during COVID. People were locked down but there were still things to be done and you know to see and hear people that have done it and your documentary, your TV show, all of the things you've done, it will be in mortonsonthemovecom. It's all on your website, right?
Speaker 3:Absolutely Everything is there.
Speaker 1:Everything is in one place. That makes it so much easier and I'll put that in the show notes for people who are driving in the car so you can remember it. But let's talk about that, let's segue into you know, again, this is Dan and I decided this became a dream of ours. We've wanted to inspire people and I think a lot of times it almost seems like a cliche. Oh, I want to inspire people, go out, live life full time. You know, live your life fully, live the dream, all of those things.
Speaker 1:People throw those words around a lot but don't always do it. They don't always find a way. They think it's just something. You know, maybe someday For Dan and I, that was. Our goal was to go out and inspire people, get out, and you know we wanted to show them things there were to do. Now a lot of people dream about either getting on the road, part-time, full-time, living this life, living the dream. In your newsletter, I think just a couple of days ago, you said people fail to do the travel dream because of overwhelm. Let's talk about some of that, because if we can add this in and encourage people maybe take baby steps. So you know, if you could just talk a little bit about that for our listeners.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, cause I I do a hundred percent believe that. You know, we've changed our travel style so much in the last nine years and it definitely doesn't look anything today like it did when we first hit the road. And I think starting off with an idea of what it's going to look like is a great way to start, but I think also having the grace for yourself to make big adjustments once you start down that path, once you hit the road and find out, oh my gosh, this is overwhelming, or oh, we need to slow down, or this isn't really hitting the inspiration buttons that I need it to hit right now. And you know, also keeping in mind that you're living in an RV, right, so I think that was a big thing for us is that you have to separate the travel vacation mindset with the living aspect. And you still have to. You know, practice self-care and do the grocery shopping and the. You know the mundane things that are in life. Those don't go away when you hit the road in an RV.
Speaker 2:Well, let's just step back a little bit. So we're talking full-time RV life here, but the RV lifestyle it doesn't even have to be full-time. I mean, it can be overwhelming even just to get into RVing for a part-time, for a weekend, for for everything there. There's so many parts and pieces to to to RVing, but. But all of that comes with so much, so much learning, even even if there are mistakes along the way, like it's an adventure regardless and that can be challenging. But I think sometimes stepping back and taking it in like okay, like okay, yeah, our axle failed and we had to replace it, like that is, let's think of it as a learning. You know, this is something new and exciting For us.
Speaker 2:Personally, we have experienced so many things and learned so much from this life, though, that we do hope that people could open their minds to try it, even if it's hard. But have an exit strategy, I suppose, have kind of a way that you can step back from it, because there are times where it can be overwhelming. But throwing it all out because of one challenge I don't think is always, is always the right way. So many people, they they don't get the opportunity to just, you know, cross that border and step into even the next place over, but when you do that, there is so much to learn and experience and it's just incredible what, um, what you can, can experience from it.
Speaker 2:For us personally, being on on the road as long as we have, without having roots, without having a home base, that got really challenging for us eventually, always being on the move and never having kind of anywhere to go back to. So we figured out a way to develop that we have property. We don't have homes. We have property that we own, that we can go back to, and it's far less expensive than owning a home and we just park. We can go and park, but we call that home, if you will.
Speaker 2:And it allows us to still use the RV as a home. But that's kind of how we have dealt with a lot of this overwhelm that we, that we've we've gotten. Sometimes we're just on the road for, you know, a year and a half we're just like, oh my gosh, I'm burned out, I don't know where to go next. I not know what to do. Maybe we just need to take a break.
Speaker 3:You go plunk down for a month or two and then the the travel itch comes back so hard and so fast and you're like, okay, now we got to hit the road, where are we going next? And you get rejuvenated to just enjoy it so much more. If you burn the candle at both ends and you burn out, then travel isn't fun. But as soon as you give yourself a minute to like, relax and stabilize, then it all, the inspiration, all comes, comes back and you want to get back on on the bike.
Speaker 1:And that's, and again, a wealth of information that we could spend a lot of time on a lot of things that you talked about. But just going back through, you know it's so fitting what you just said, because the idea of Dan and I taking a break whether it becomes a month or two, whatever that looks like it was almost overwhelming for us to think about taking a break, because this is our life. So you know why? What's that look like? Because we love traveling, we love the RV lifestyle, but it did, it became overwhelming and now we need that little bit of a time out, a little bit of a break. Get ourselves, you know, regenerative, reacclimated, healthy, whatever those things look like, and I think sometimes taking that time and taking that step back helps you to move forward.
Speaker 1:You guys also talked about having an exit plan. I'm sure there's a lot there we could talk about. I do want to get into again a lot of things and I hope you know this is a good place for our listeners to. You know, leave us questions. You have social media. They can leave questions right. Absolutely. Tell them where on social media they can reach you guys.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we're on pretty much all the big platforms except for TikTok pretty much all the big platforms except for TikTok. So we're on Facebook Instagram are our primaries and then, of course, youtube. So, yeah, you can reach us there. We're also on Discord.
Speaker 3:There's a link to our own chat forum there if you want to ask us questions, that get kind of a little bit more detailed than maybe a Facebook comment or something like that. So there's a lot of places. And then obviously our newsletter. To sign up for that and get that right into your inbox we send daily newsletters.
Speaker 1:Okay, and again, all of this is on your website so everybody can find everything you just said in that one place. I'd love that. Anybody that wants to reach out to us, the RV Life Podcast we just do Instagram and Facebook. I don't do the others, so people can reach out. Certainly I could pass questions along to you and we're not done yet. I really want to talk and you know I want to make sure we get in. You also created master classes because you know your goal being educating, entertaining and inspiring people master classes, so talk a little bit about that. Where can people find them? What are some of the topics they can find there?
Speaker 3:Yes. So the way we got into doing courses is kind of interesting. We had partnered with our friends from Driving and Vibing Kyle and Olivia and Jason and Ray of the Getaway Couple to create an RV buyer's boot camp Because between our three channels we just had so many questions about the buying process and we were seeing so many people getting stuck hitting the RV life by like that what RV do I buy? What's the right RV for me? And people would get stuck on this question for years. How do I not make?
Speaker 3:these mistakes this question for years how do I not make these mistakes? And so we basically combined or compiled a in-person course that we did at the Florida Super Show one year, and it was 2020, january of 2020. And right before COVID.
Speaker 3:And we held this at the Leedsy Days dealership. We had a great turnout, it was very well received and we were like, all right, we're going to, we're going to do this, we're going to go to shows, we're going to have this course, we're going to host it. And then COVID hit and so then it was like, well, maybe in-person course stuff isn't you know the future. So we basically moved it online.
Speaker 3:And we happened to have recorded it all. Yeah, we had recorded it all, so we put it online. And then we were like, well, you know, we have all this other information, let's make some other courses. And so we started to build out RV Masterclass, which then we ultimately ended up RV Masterclass, which then we ultimately ended up. Rv Life came on board as part of the RV Masterclass and now it is as an offering of the RV Life Pro Suite and we're still course instructors on several of those. So there's a full-time RV course where we are instructors, along with Riven and Viven and Getaway Couple, as well, as there's another course that they did about boondocking. So kind of those really big.
Speaker 2:Internet on the road, we dive into really a lot of the almost everything that we've talked about in detail in a lot of these courses. As part of that and it really is for somebody interested in going full-time or buying an RV really talking about a lot of these big challenges that you will face and what can you do to mitigate them or avoid them.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's great, and so, wow again, all of this will be on your website. I do want to lead people and talk about RV Life, the pro suite of products, which is where they could also find masterclasses. Obviously, this is the RV Life podcast. All of us all the four of us are very much connected with RV Life. We love Patrick and the owner, Andy, and, again, an amazing company to be connected with. They also do RV Trip Wizard, which helps you plan your trips, as well as RV Safe GPS. So we'll give them a plug, too, because we love sharing. You know and again it's all in the show notes but we love sharing those companies that have really made a difference for us in our travels.
Speaker 3:Wow, we were so excited about just final note on that so excited to have those kind of be part of that suite of product because the RV Life products reach so many people and it was a great way to get more of that information to more people and so it's really exciting to know that it's part of that suite of products.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, absolutely, because it's all about getting information out there, obviously. So I'm going to ask do you have anything? What's next for you guys? Do you have? And again, I'm putting you on the spot we don't, you know, pre-do this. So if it's something, that's secret, don't pre-do this.
Speaker 2:So if it's something that's secret, sure, sure.
Speaker 1:No big secrets with us, so one thing that we did.
Speaker 2:Darn I like secrets.
Speaker 3:Well, it is sort of a secret. We haven't, like, really publicized what we're doing this year.
Speaker 2:I wasn't going to talk about that. I was going to talk about what happened four years ago. Oh, oh, oh. So there's a secret.
Speaker 1:So there's a secret To their secret that you're not going to share yet.
Speaker 2:We'll share this. So four years ago right at the start of COVID. We went to New Zealand. Shortly after we got back from Alaska, we hopped on a plane and we went to New Zealand. We rented RVs and we traveled across New Zealand in RVs. We really started kind of expanding our RV experience and it was an amazing experience. However, it was in January. It was.
Speaker 3:We got on the plane February 28th of 2020. And two weeks later, in New Zealand, the world locked down. The world locked down due to COVID. So we were abroad when that all happened.
Speaker 2:Which was a little bit challenging and terrifying. And we never really shared that story we were there to film for the RVers. We didn't really get into that, but this television show that we've been part of for five seasons, that is again educational inspirational, educational, inspiring all the things, and we were there to film for that and an episode about New Zealand did make it into the show, even though we were there.
Speaker 2:But of course everything was shifted around and changed and we had planned to make a travel series about traveling in New Zealand by RV. But we just didn't feel like it was right during COVID and we didn't want another COVID story out there. And it's not a COVID story, particularly it's education.
Speaker 2:We wanted it to be about RVing in New Zealand Anyway we're finally getting around to finalizing the production on that series and that will be coming out in the next. In May, in May on our channel, and that's going to be a four episode web series following our adventures in New Zealand. So we're really excited to finally share that.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. So it is a little bit of a secret here, yay.
Speaker 2:It is Wow, that's so great. No one's seen that yet and we actually haven't even told anybody here, the first that we've been told that that's coming out.
Speaker 1:So here an exclusive on the RV Life podcast.
Speaker 2:And of course.
Speaker 1:I love the fact that everything is on the website. It makes talking on a podcast so much easier for our listeners because they don't have paper and pencil in front of them. Well, I use paper and pencil, but they can't write this stuff down. So everything is in the one place. I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so since then we actually have traveled in Europe as well. We did not document that in a video series, but we absolutely love this RV lifestyle and we're taking it everywhere we can, but for this summer. Our big scoop is that we are—so our friends tell us that we have an RV problem. We're currently in a 45-foot motorhome. So we told you that we started out in a 32-foot fifth wheel and we were in that for seven years and then we just kind of needed a change. Talk about a little bit of burnout, right, we just like we wanted.
Speaker 3:We wanted a dishwasher, we wanted a washer and dryer.
Speaker 2:We yeah, we wanted some things that we were looking for a different RV and we thought well, you know, let's try the Class A lifestyle. So we're now in a 45-foot motorhome as our primary home.
Speaker 3:But we didn't get rid of the fifth wheel. So we still have the fifth wheel. It's parked up in Michigan on one of our home base lots. And we also, after the Go North series, we were like, well, we need our own truck camper. The rig we took there was a loan vehicle from Lance Campers and so we were like we need our own truck camper. This is the way to really travel off-road. And so we got our own truck camper and so we've got the three RVs. This summer we're taking the truck camper to the Canadian Maritimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay. Well, that sounds cool, but it sounds like you do have an RV problem. It definitely sounds like this we own three RVs and no house. Okay, and it's working. I love that it's working for you it is.
Speaker 2:I think I think high level to just kind of touch on our RV problem. We love this lifestyle.
Speaker 1:Your RV problem. At least admitting it is the first step, right? At least admitting it is the first step, right. Yeah, right, I am an RV-aholic.
Speaker 2:So we high level like, if you're looking for to get into the RV lifestyle, I can tell you right here, right now, that there is no perfect RV. You cannot do everything in one type of RV and that's a lot of the reason that we have been through so many different RVs.
Speaker 3:And why so many other people also change.
Speaker 2:RV types.
Speaker 3:You get into it and you go oh, you know, I want something a little smaller.
Speaker 1:But most people don't keep three of them. Let's just get rid of the problem that you have. Okay, most people try.
Speaker 3:Patty, we're trying to justify it.
Speaker 1:Okay, We'll work on this in our counseling session in a couple of days.
Speaker 2:So for us it just enables us to have those different travel styles the fifth wheel really has become, I guess. For us it's like a tiny house, if you will. It's more permanent now but it didn't make sense for us to sell it for a number of reasons. It's not registered a license anymore. But the RV lifestyle for us, basically, between this 45-foot motorhome and this truck camper, we kind of have the extremes. The truck campers there's an entire web series or video series about that. It's built as an off-road adventure vehicle and then this Class A motorhome is-.
Speaker 2:On road strictly Luxury home on wheels.
Speaker 1:Yes, there you go, and I could totally relate to this, because we have a 40-foot Monaco Diplomat old. We're looking to get you know, to sell it to anybody out there that's looking for a Monaco 40-foot old somebody who could work on it, make a great park model. I gotta put a plug out there. It's been fantastic for us. But now that you know Dan realizes I like this lifestyle, we're looking at a newer unit After we take a little bit of a break. We will stick with at least a 40 foot Class A. We just like the Class A for our lifestyle. But and I can't release the details I am looking at that whole idea of doing the van life for a short period of time. I'm just going to borrow one, though I don't think I'm going to buy it, because you're right, I think you can go and do things and they're just fun. Now I do have to.
Speaker 1:I want to go back and talk a little bit more about NIRVC National Indoor RV Center, because we love, love, love these people, so people who are looking for a Class A, b or C, national Indoors the place. There's actually an event in June. I didn't ask you guys. It's called the Motor City Expo. It's an RV event that Brett Davis and all the Class A, b, c big manufacturers will be at. Are you guys going to be in Tennessee in June? Do you know about that event?
Speaker 3:We will not be in Tennessee in June. We'll be gearing up for heading north, but it sounds like an incredible event.
Speaker 1:It is. So it's the first time ever when Brett does something, he does it right. So he is bringing together all the big and I'm not even going to be able to, you know, spout them all out, but Numar will be there, tiffin will be there, integra, gretch and a ton of others, and this event will be all the 2025 brand new units that people will be able to drive. I'm going to put that in the show notes because, again, it's about passing information. Dan and I will be at that event. It's just going going to be incredible.
Speaker 1:But now that sound means it's time for today's question of the week, and it's brought to you by open roads, innovative tolling. We love this idea of this toll pass and we are going to um. We are going to put a link in the show notes, okay, but the question that I keep getting from people is still about education, and I really think we covered it. So this is from Dave from Wisconsin and so many other people. The way I get the question of the week is through walking around and talking to people, through social media, that kind of thing and people. It's all about education. So we've covered so much of that already, but is there anything you'd like to add? Somebody thinking about starting out or who's gotten on the road and they're still unsure. Where should they start in educating themselves? I would say, go to Morton's on the Move website because it is so comprehensive and I truly mean that. But what suggestions can you give? Go ahead.
Speaker 2:So we do have kind of like an email newsletter for newbies that we've got on our site and we just have, I mean, immense amount. We've kind of written thousands of articles about RVing and everything, but if you're really looking to get into it, I do recommend those masterclasses that we've done. We cover a lot of things in a lot of detail in a really rapid succession. They are amazing. That might be a little bit overwhelming if you're not like really kind of committed to it, though. So, like, for what we do is we write new articles and release them almost every single day and as part of our newsletter, we just kind of send that out. It's sort of just sort of a drip feed of like information and education about this lifestyle, and we definitely would love to have have you subscribe to the newsletter.
Speaker 3:But we, and we have an entire section of our website dedicated for RV newbies because it is, you know, when you're starting out, you don't even know what you don't know, and we we always try, whenever we meet somebody new and they ask questions, we try to like make sure that, okay, yes, this is something that we've written about, this is something that we've added to that newbie area, because you don't even know what you don't know. So it's like, if you don't even—.
Speaker 2:You don't know where to start. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you don't know that, oh hey, I should understand how my plumbing is run in my RV, because water leaks are common. You know you, you need to, you almost kind of naturally work backwards from the problem, and so it's very common that people wait till a problem happens before then they become experts on that issue, so that I think I joke that that's why we know so much is because we've had all of those issues right and probably same for you, and you know, you just can't anticipate what you don't know if you don't even know where to start Some of these resources really do help you start, if you will.
Speaker 2:Kind of, okay, let's, from the highest point of view, like what type of rig do we want, drivable or towable? Even know where to start. Some of these resources really do help you start, if you will, from the highest point of view what type of rig do we want, drivable or towable? Okay, now let's subset it again. Do we want a class B or a class A or a class C? Or do we want a travel trailer versus fifth wheel? There's so many things that you can narrow in on, but at some point you do get to a point where we can't even assist you with the specifics of, like, your RV, and this is where things like Facebook groups can really come in handy. If you are looking for a specific brand or model, like okay, I'm really interested in the um, I don't know the Landau.
Speaker 3:No, that's a little a little looking out the window to get inspiration.
Speaker 2:But a certain brand. There are like-.
Speaker 3:You know, the Tiffin Allegro bus, you know, and then there is a owner's group specifically for that RV. And you know they're owners and they're going back decades, you know, so they have a very deep well of knowledge that would be able to help you if you have a very-.
Speaker 2:The RV Life forums.
Speaker 1:That really cover a lot of RV Life forums are fantastic for those details and things like that.
Speaker 2:You know, sometimes it is just sort of getting into this whole online community and realizing like, okay, where are the pieces that I'm specifically looking for. This is where I need to be.
Speaker 1:And let me just say it could all get a little overwhelming. And again, you know we're going on over an hour for the podcast, which is great. We could have gone two and three hours and, you know, deep dive into all of these topics. While you're talking about these things, I could hear when I talk to people who are new, they're stressed, they're overwhelmed. As you said, one of the things and we also talked about, there's so many unexpected, so you could get out like you did and get in a fifth wheel and then say, eh, maybe a class A is more for me. There's always the unexpected we did have, and I just want to give a shout out because I think it's so appropriate here. Two weeks ago on the podcast and I'll put it in the show notes Jennifer Davis talked about being on the road and what to you know?
Speaker 1:Just the unexpected. How do you deal with it? There's the you know the beauty that people show on Instagram. There's the Instagram picture of being by the lake every day in the sunset, but the reality is we have to dump the tank, we have to get ready for travel days. How do you mentally handle those things? And she just gave a wealth of knowledge as well as a workbook she just created and these things have truly helped me. As we talked about today things, unexpected medical issues. You know, really working on you know your mindset is a huge thing because this is new to so many people and it's not like you could usually call your mom or dad and say you know what I'm on the road and I'm really stressed Like my parents had no idea. So, again, so much great knowledge. The website mortensonthemovecom it is all there. Please reach out and ask questions if you have them.
Speaker 1:I do want to talk about a gentleman, jeff Bound. He is the owner of Motorhome Tires and I just he was on the show a couple of weeks ago as well, talking about how to protect your tires and talking about tire essentials. The episode was called how your Rubber Meets the Road and that was from March 13th. Now our executive producer of the RV Life podcast, patrick Buchanan, who also works with RV Life he has used motorhome tires had his tires replaced at his home. They came out, they replaced the tires for him. They make sure the tires are right, they educate him, they show him everything he needs to know. This company is incredible and when I spoke to Jeff the other day. He said he's going to offer our listeners $50 off the website price if they just mentioned the RV Life podcast. I love when our sponsors give discounts. It's always awesome, right, absolutely. It's a lot of information we're throwing at people here.
Speaker 1:Your tires and again, I'm sure you guys could talk about that forever, how important your tires are. You don't want to take a chance with them, but right now we're going to go to the horn, which means that sound is our feature campground of the week, and this is a new feature for us. Each week we pick a featured campground, and this week is Indigo Bluffs RV Park and Resort in Erie, michigan, and I picked it because that's where you're going, that's where you're from. I've never been there. You're shaking your head, is it not the right place?
Speaker 2:Oh, you've never been there.
Speaker 1:Okay, I thought maybe I had the wrong place, but that's okay. So this campground has 216 sites. They've got full hookups, easy in and easy out, pull through sites, a dog park, cabins, onsite rentals, group camping and more. The campground has an 8.8 rating with 157 reviews. As we start camping season, we want to bring campgrounds that have, you know, just great reviews. You could find all of these campgrounds, this campground and all the campgrounds. Again, rv Life has campground reviews. I'm going to put RV Life Pro in the show notes where you could see campground reviews masterclasses, rv Trip Wizard, the whole nine yards. But the campground reviews are amazing. Do you guys use these campground reviews?
Speaker 3:Campground reviews are critical and I was just going to say I absolutely love. We travel with two dogs and I absolutely love it when campgrounds have dog parks. It's a game changer. Just some time for them to get out and run off leash is just such a blessing.
Speaker 1:Yes, but yeah, knowing that ahead of time, yeah, knowing that ahead of time and knowing what to expect.
Speaker 3:I mean there's only so much that a satellite view can tell you or like pictures on the website can tell you, and you know when somebody else has a good experience. That just speaks volumes.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and these are real reviews from our viewers. None of them are paid for. But again, I wish these are the times. I wish the podcast had two hours and three hours, because we could certainly talk four hours and give all of our listeners.
Speaker 3:We've only scratched the surface we have.
Speaker 1:So this is definitely we will definitely do a repeat of you know with you guys, and I can't wait to meet you in person. I just want to thank you so much.
Speaker 3:This has been so much fun talking to you guys. It's so natural and it's so interesting to me. Like you're in a Monaco diplomat, we're in a Monaco dynasty. We just have so many like things in common that we could literally gab for hours. This has been really really fun. Yes.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you. And you know again, I'm going to let our RV Life podcast listeners know they can reach out to you on Morton's on the move on most social media mortonsonthemovecom. They can reach out to us on RV Life Podcast, instagram or Facebook. And on that note I am going to end the show for today. I'm Patti Hunt, with my incredible husband, dan Hunt, saying have a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.