Top Tips for Your RV Life Adventures

Imagine uprooting your entire life and hitting the open road with no prior RV experience. Patti Hunt takes you on her inspirational journey from a casual suggestion during the pandemic to selling everything and embracing full-time RV living. Through heartfelt stories and practical insights, Patti and her husband Dan's transition was far from smooth sailing but has led to incredible experiences and a successful YouTube channel, "Exploring Through Our Lens." You'll also hear a touching update on Dan's health, reinforcing the importance of living life to the fullest.

*RVing With Clean Water: Our water Tank Sanitization and Filtration Journey                  
          #66 Jan 31, 2024

*Living in Less Than 400 Square Feet… And Not Killing Each Other #15 Feb 8, 2023 

*RV Life with Your Dog #22 Mar 29, 2023

*A Family of Ten, Six Dogs and One RV: An Extraordinary Tale of RV LIFE                            
          #59 Dec 13, 2023

*Tire Safety: How You Can Avoid a Tire Blowout  #67 Feb 7 2024

*Tire Essentials: How your rubber meets the road  #72 Mar 13,2024

*First Aid Kit in your RV #7 Jan 11, 2023

*Exploring the US: Regardless of Budget or Travel Capabilities  #78 April 24, 2024

*RVing On a Budget #29   May 17, 2023

*Diesel Fuel savings and The Toll Pass That Covers 48 States #68 Feb 14, 2024

*Campgrounds TT  Unveiling Thousand Trails: A Deep dive into RV  Membership,     
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*NIRVC RV Sales, Service, Storage and So Much More: National Indoor RV Centers
#13 Jan 27, 2023
*RettroBand  wheel enhancement to protect you from a blow out 

*RV Campgrounds: They Are Not All Created Equal #69 Feb 21, 2024

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Top tips. I learned from RVing. I'm Patty Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life podcast. I've been on the road full-time for three years, back and forth across the country three times and I have learned so much about RVing. And today I wanna pass what I've learned on to you Now. For those of you who don't know and you've not heard my story before, I just want to tell you what the story is. So let's imagine living in Las Vegas. I was there with my husband and the pandemic hit Now. At the time, dan was working in the entertainment industry. Actually, he's been in the entertainment industry literally his entire life. He was born and raised in Hollywood and I think, like a lot of people, they're in the industry in some way.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Now, after the shutdown it was about I don't know seven or eight months Dan called me up to his very large office in our large house and said hey, let's sell it all and go RVing full-time. Well, I started to laugh, thinking he was joking, and when I looked up and I could see he was serious, I was just stunned. What would that look like? How would we do it? So many questions came to mind. So to understand my background as a kid, I never went camping. I never went RVing. That was not something I ever did as a grown-up. I had been RVing about seven total days and tank camping about two weekends. That was my experience. So when he said, let's sell it all, sell the house, sell it all and go full-time RVing, this idea was kind of crazy. Now move forward. Over the next couple of months, we had a lot of discussion on what this would look like.

Speaker 1: 2:16

Understanding prior to this, my goal had been to be able to inspire people to fully live their lives. I had this, you know, feeling like life was short and we fully need to live our lives. I have traveled and spoken to large audience trying to inspire, working to inspire people. So that was something I wanted to make sure that we'd be able to do while on the road. So we decided, like a lot of people, to start a YouTube channel. Our YouTube channel is exploring through our lens, where we wanted to show people the beauty of the country, campground reviews, people places, things that we saw along the way, that we could help teach others and as well as inspire others. So that's how we started our RV, our RV life. Now, for me, the best part of travel is the people we meet, and I've met so many amazing people that I've learned so much from and I'm talking about people like CEOs and presidents of companies to just your, you know, the camper and the campground. There's so much to be learned from each other.

Speaker 1: 3:39

Now, for those of you who could tell Dan is not here and the question I keep getting is where is Dan? And for those of you that don't know, I'm going to give a quick update. He actually, several months ago, had a number of strokes and that has left him cognitively impaired and he is needing nursing care at this time. That is the quick update on it. I want to thank all of you for your help and support and your love. I truly appreciate it. And, as we talk about and you know, maybe a great part of the show is, life is short and you know we got to get out there and live it.

Speaker 1: 4:23

It may not be full-time RVing for anybody. I was full-time for three years. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to convince anybody to go full-time. Well, as they say in show business, the show must go on and I, for the last several months, have been doing the podcast solo with the help and support of truly, truly amazing guests. And, as I said, today's going to be different because I am solo. Solo, so just me, no guest, and I am hoping that I can educate, entertain and inspire you to live your life fully, one of the things what I'm planning on doing with this show. It's going to be a little different here, not having a guest. What I want to do is share with you the tips, the information, the encouragement, all the things. Well, I can't share all the things I've learned, but some of the top things I've learned that I want to pass along. So sit back, relax, enjoy the show. A lot of information I'm going to give. Don't worry about trying to take notes. I'll have the details in the show notes below the podcast. So just sit back, relax and enjoy.

Speaker 1: 5:42

It is now time for this week's fun fact, and the fun fact is brought to you by Open Road Resorts. They now have five incredible locations two in Montana, one in Idaho, one in Texas and now one in Nebraska. And that new campground is called West Omaha KOA, and you know, as guests travel back and forth from the east to the west coast. If you're looking to go to Nebraska, honestly I've never been there it's a great place to stay. The campground is highly amenitized. But if you're in an area like I am right now, I'm outside of Philadelphia, pennsylvania, and it is getting hot and which worse is the humidity. So for those of you who are thinking of going north and I highly recommend going north you can stop at in Montana or Idaho. They have three great locations in the area, one of them Red Rock RV Park, and it's just outside the western gate of Yellowstone National Park, so you can visit Yellowstone. You can go to Glacier National Park, flathead Lakes. I highly recommend you check out openroadresortscom for all information if you're planning on going north.

Speaker 1: 7:06

So the fun fact that I came up with, summer lasts about 93 days and that's somewhere around 13 weeks and this is a pretty obvious fact it's from June to September. I'm bringing this up and I'm sharing this because for a lot of people, summer is when they think about vacations and going camping, going RVing, taking time out. So that precious time of 93 days, I'm just hoping you get out there and enjoy it. And today I'm going to give you some tips and tricks and ugly stories and things that I've learned the hard way to help you along your way. Let's jump in. One of the things when we are RVing or camping that is something we have to think about is clean, fresh water, and if you've listened to the podcast, you know that I am a big, big fan of Clear 2.0. The owners of the company, barb and Keith, are just great people. Keith designed all of their products. He is an incredible guy who really knows what he's doing.

Speaker 1: 8:21

The Clear 2.0 filter is designed with a solid carbon block block and it traps things like chlorine, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals and for me, so important it eliminates bad taste and odors in the water. Many of the competitors claim carbon, but in reality, they consist of layers of activated carbon wrapped around a core, often combined with our filtering materials like paper or fabric. As for which one is more effective, the solid carbon block filters smaller particles and a wide range of contaminants. So, as you can imagine, with a solid carbon block, being able to filter out their smaller particles is so much more important To tell which you know if you're holding the filter. To tell which one is that solid carbon block, you don't have to read. You can tell that the other brand is lighter weight. The Clear 2.0 solid carbon blocks are heavier. When you hold that.

Speaker 1: 9:30

There's so much information on this and you could go to their YouTube channel. You could go to clear2ocom for more information, because clean, fresh water is so important to me and I know it's important to my friends out there. Now, for my RV Life Podcast listeners, Barb and Keith are giving you a 15% discount by using RV Life Podcast as the code to get 15% off your entire purchase. If you want to learn more about clean water, and again as we travel, this is just so important and you know, again going into a campground and smelling water, that is terrible. It just smells bad, so you certainly don't want to drink it. You could go to a podcast episode we did and it's called Our Water Tank Sanitation and Filtration Journey. It's episode 66, and it was January 31st. Don't worry about remembering, because it'll all be in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 10:38

Now, today's episode, as I said, is helping people with what I've learned. As I said, is helping people with what I've learned. I want to pass this along what I've learned in the year and a half of doing the podcast three years on the road, full time, having the opportunity to meet everyone from the people in the campground, really talk to people, listen to people on social media. I try and get to know what are people asking, what are the questions that they're interested in knowing. And in doing all of that you know, going around the country to a lot of the big events and just taking in and learning and sharing what I've learned with you, the listeners, and in being able to meet people company owners, ceos, presidents it also gives me the opportunity to pass along great products and services and get my RV podcast listeners discounts, so I love being able to do that.

Speaker 1: 11:45

If you are new to the RV Life podcast, the people who are sponsors, the guests on the show, are people I know, like and trust. I've used the products or services or people on the team have used the products and services and we can honestly say you know these are products and services we use and really enjoy. So let's jump in. There have been some people that I've met and talked to. When we travel we travel with sometimes solo, we travel with 23.

Speaker 1: 12:21

And it was called Living in Less Than 400 Square Feet and Not Killing Each Other, and this was a fun episode. We talked to Jim and Carmen of Living in Beauty and they've really talked a lot about how to survive. Some of the things they shared and that I also shared is whether you live with one person, like I do, or you have kids or pets or whatever that looks like making sure you take time for yourself, understanding what it is that each person needs. So, for example, there are times I need my space, I need my alone time. Now, for those of you don't know, dan and I lived in a 40-foot Monaco Diplomat. It was 2002, and space was rather tight. There's not a lot of places in that RV that you could go and it'd be quiet. So if Dan was editing or sitting at his desk and I was back in the bedroom, you could definitely hear each other.

Speaker 1: 13:39

So what can you do for somebody like me that needs some space, some alone time from time to time? I had to find things that I could do to make sure that I did that, that I got that alone time For me, taking time, getting up, waking up in the morning before Dan did, sitting in the living room with my cappuccino yes, I had a cappuccino on board. I have a cappuccino every morning, for those of you who don't know, and I like to have my cappuccino journal. So I have been journaling probably since I'm 14. I like to journal, I like to read, I like to meditate, just have that time and space. And for Dan, he doesn't necessarily need that quiet and that time.

Speaker 1: 14:30

So, each person kind of discussing, finding what it is that they need to survive in 400 square feet of space. I highly recommend you know, sitting down, discussing it, deciding what you need and how to make that happen. Being an RVer going outside and being in nature. Being an RVer going outside and being in nature, that is a great way if you need that separate time. So some tips on how to survive when you live in 400 square feet of space or less. A lot of us, a lot of people living in less than that.

Speaker 1: 15:07

So now, what's it like RVing with your dog or any animal? And we did an episode on RV life with dogs and that was with Jim Renaud and he has a Facebook group called RV with Dogs Club. And I do not have any pets in my RV. I've always had pets. I love animals. When I go into a campground, I will always find a dog that I can, you know, pet. I've even babysat dogs while in the campground. People wanted to go away and I said, hey, leave the dog with me so I can get my fix. You know being with an animal, but there are a lot of things you need to consider when RVing with an animal and a lot of the things that I've learned is, first of all, when you have that pet that is a little older, you have to gauge whether they're going to be okay traveling in an RV.

Speaker 1: 16:08

The dog that I had years ago she was a beautiful New Finland German Shepherd. She loved going for rides. As a matter of fact this is a funny story my mother was babysitting the dog. My kids were little. This was many years ago. This dog loved to travel. The neighbor had a white minivan pulled up to a neighbor's house and that's what I had a white minivan. The dog actually got into the back of the van and traveled with this family to their house. So they get to their house and the dog is literally in the back of the van. So my mother got a call that, hey, the dog's here. So that's a great dog probably to take in an RV.

Speaker 1: 16:58

If you have an older dog and you're not sure, take them in a car, take them on trips. There have been people that have recommended. If you have that RV. Whatever you're going to be traveling in, park it, take them in it, let them stay in it, see if they'll be okay. And sometimes, honestly, the answer is that you need to leave the pet home If you're starting with the puppy. Obviously, getting them acclimated quickly to travel and being in a car, a van, an RV, whatever that is, is a great way to go, and Jim has a great group that is very supportive for people traveling with dogs. A lot of great cute pictures there and a lot of great tips. There's also things like how do you monitor if you're leaving your pet in the RV? How do you monitor if you're leaving your pet in the RV? How do you monitor that it's not getting too hot or too cold? There's a lot of I want to say gadgets, things out there that you can monitor the temperature inside Highly recommend making sure of that. You never know when the power is going to go out and now in Philadelphia area, if the power went out in an RV, you want to get back to that RV quickly because the temperature is going to get very high very quickly.

Speaker 1: 18:25

So let's talk a little bit about what it might be like to travel with children I don't know how many people know, but Dan and I have five kids. Four of them are married and we have nine grandkids and we have traveled some with some of the kids, some of the grandkids and you know short periods of time. It's been very interesting. I interviewed a family that has and it was called Family of 10, six Dogs, one RV An Extraordinary Tale of RV Life.

Speaker 1: 19:07

Andre and Andrea Eppert talked about how they lived in a travel trailer with their eight kids. They had a dog that had five puppies and they lived in, I believe, a 37-foot travel trailer and people went wow, how do you do that? How does that happen? Personally, I'm not sure I could do that. I will tell you, I see them on social media all the time. This is one of the most amazing, loving, incredible families of people I have ever met. Andrea and I have become very good friends. We don't see each other all that much, but you know what you can develop friendships with calling each other, and we talked on that episode about where everybody sleeps. We talked about homeschooling and, again, married life living in such a close space. They provided so many incredible tips and, again, if you're going to travel with children, having had a lot of children myself. You want to make sure the communication's open. You want to make sure you're really sharing. You know and asking kids. You know how they're feeling, what's going on.

Speaker 1: 20:26

I had someone tell a story. They went out on the road with their kids, or three kids. They went out on the road and the following there were three kids. They went out on the road and the following year, christmas, they're at a whole big family get-together and at Christmas each person shares something about the year and one of their kids shared with the entire family. I hate RV and this family was full-time and it was very interesting.

Speaker 1: 20:57

And that episode the mom and dad pulled the kid aside, you know, not very calmly, and said what is it you don't like? And it was all about making sure the kids maintain their friendships. And so they said well, what if we did FaceTime? What if we planned, you know, to get together more? And so they were able to communicate, find out where the issue was and help that kid through where the problems were. So communication is always the answer for everything. Living in, you know, a small space with your spouse, partner, living with kids, communication here is always the answer Clear, open communication, so a lot of great episodes there.

Speaker 1: 21:45

When traveling, whether it's part-time, full-time, sometime and this podcast is for all of those, as well as the person dreaming about RVing we want to talk, we want to. We all think about safety and if we're not thinking about safety then we should. We did a number of episodes on the podcast around safety. Let me talk first about GPS navigation systems. Okay, that is the question that is being asked all the time on social media. So I work really hard to be on social media, find out what people are asking, where the concerns are, so I could try and either have a guest on, try to answer those. Whatever I can do to support and help people through that type of question.

Speaker 1: 22:35

And a big thing is GPS. You know, rv, safe GPS. A lot of people are asking about free, rv, safe GPS. In all honesty, my response is and this is my thought, my opinion and facts as I've seen it and this is my thought, my opinion and facts as I've seen it when you are traveling in something bigger than, say, a minivan and I'm talking about a minivan with no air conditioner on top, none of that. If you're traveling in a minivan or smaller, free GPS, use Google Maps, use a paper map, whatever. It's not that big a deal If you're traveling with something bigger like a conversion van. I was at a show this past week a couple weeks ago now and I saw a lot of the conversion vans. Some of those are 11, 12 foot high. I'm saying that because there are bridges that you can't go under. They're heavier, they're a little longer, there's a lot to it and you need an RV safe GPS.

Speaker 1: 23:41

Now, this is the RV Life podcast, and RV Life Pro is the company that Dan and I have been using for over three years. We check them all out, have been using for over three years. We check them all out. We love the RV Life Pros Trip Wizard is what it's called so you can do your planning, you have your RV safe GPS and we highly recommend this.

Speaker 1: 24:06

Now, no system is perfect Absolutely no system is perfect. So, whatever you are using, there's no perfect system. You want to check the directions and verify your direction, especially if you're in a big unit. Our unit was 40 foot long. It was over 12 foot high. It had propane on board. You know the weight of it. So there are bridges that we shouldn't go over because of the weight. I could enter all that into the Trip Wizard app and it will tell me where I can go, where I can't go and you know, again, while not perfect, it's not steered me wrong in three years. Now that is not an episode yet. I am going to have Patrick Buchanan from RV Life on the podcast within the next couple of weeks to discuss all things RV safety, trip planning, maintenance, all kinds of things that'll help you to navigate more safely. That leads to tire safety tire blowout.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Dan and I had an HHR when we first started traveling. That was our toad. The people that set up the HHR for towing had everything set up. They showed us how to do it. We knew exactly how to set up the HHR before we took our trip. We then got a 2007 Jeep Wrangler and read and researched how to set that up behind the RV Again RVing there's nothing perfect about it. So we traveled with the Jeep set up, thought it was all great, everything was working just fine and when we got to our destination, all four of our tires were down to the steel. I mean literally the steel of the tire. That's how we dragged it for however long, and the tires were ruined.

Speaker 1: 26:16

A couple things on this. When you are traveling with a toad, or you have your truck and your trailer or your fifth wheel, anytime you stop. You stop at the gas station, you stop and you need to run in and get a snack. You check your tires, you check your connections, check that everything looks fine. Your slides are in your awnings in your awnings didn't come loose. Always check so the tires. We may have noticed that something was wrong.

Speaker 1: 26:45

But even better is you know a tire safety. So a tire pressure monitoring system, tpms, tire pressure monitoring system. There are a lot of different systems out there. Dan and I chose TireMinder. We did an episode on it. Michael and Jamie talked all things tire safety. So whatever system you're looking for, this was a great episode and it's called Tire Safety how you Could Avoid a Tire Blowout, because for us we ruined the tires. A blowout would have been so much worse. A blowout on an RV I've seen video of it. It looks like the scariest thing ever. So what the tire monitoring system is? It's a small, maybe bigger than an iPhone, smaller than an iPad. Shows me the pressure and the temperatures of all tires. So all tires the tow vehicle, the RV, the fifth wheel, whatever it is, it shows everything and there were a number of things that we liked better about the tire minder system, and again, this will all be in the show notes. You don't have to try and remember it all Now.

Speaker 1: 28:07

Staying on tires Tire Essential, how your Rubber Meets the Road was an episode we did and we talked all things about tire safety. And I'm staying on this topic because think about being in a 40-foot RV, even if you don't have one 40-foot and a tire blows. This can be, and has been, catastrophic. So I'm emphasizing this because it's not like, okay, I wore all my tires out that cost $1,300. At least it wasn't a catastrophic event. Motorhome Tires is one of our sponsors. Jeff Bound is an amazing, amazing person and his company has done it right. They come out to you, whether you're at a campground, whether you're at a house, and they install the tires for you.

Speaker 1: 29:02

What was great about this episode is people really learned a lot about tires. I know Dan and I learned about tires, about tire safety, about what to look for, about how to protect your tire, how to make them last longer. Look, tires on an RV like I have, I don't know, they're about $1,000 each. You want to make sure they last as long as possible, they're as safe as possible. I have Jeff Sather, who was the president of Freightliner at the time, and he texted me and said, hey, I learned something today. So Jeff Sather, the president of Freightliner at the time, and he texted me and said, hey, I learned something today. So Jeff Sather, the president of Freightliner, learned from this episode. I'm sure people could learn from this.

Speaker 1: 29:41

And again, tire safety one of the most important, one of the things I want to mention when it comes to tire safety National Indoor RV Centers. They are, again, an amazing company. They do sales, service, storage and so much more. But I want to point out that they have a product called Retro Band and that goes inside the front tires. I'm not even going to pretend it's like a. I want to say it's like metal and it goes inside the tire and if you have a blowout, the retro band makes it so you can still the tire stays up so you can get to safety and I'm using hand signals here. You just you can go and watch the video on retro band. Again, one of the biggest safety issues is tires tire blowouts when you're traveling down the road. So I'm spending some time on that.

Speaker 1: 30:43

Let's move on to. You know first aid kits and you know what do you need to have on board to, you know, be safe. So again, dan and I were full-time so anything we had that was first aid we had there and available, also making sure you have it in your other vehicle. So if you're we're leaving the RV, we're taking the toad. What do I need If I'm going hiking in the woods for three, four, five miles? What do I need? So, first aid kits.

Speaker 1: 31:15

And when Dan and I looked for a first aid kit and we looked at all the different things, first aid kit ranges in price from $12 to hundreds of dollars. What do we need? So we had expert Bob Batchelor from Flying Angels. He is a critical care nurse, so if anybody knows what kind of first aid equipment you need, it would be him. He's also been an RVer, you know, done the hiking and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 31:45

So in that episode he shared the different types of first aid that you need. Obviously, you need the basic bandages, you need something to clean a wound with, having things like those stitch band-aids I forget what they're called now, but you know, if you have a big wound. It's like a stitch, but it's a Band-Aid type thing. Again, you can check out that episode to find out all about that. He gave two different recommendations about first aid kits. So a less expensive recommendation and a more expensive, and the only difference is what the kits contain. So if you're somebody that's going to go out on the hikes, you're going to be out in the wilderness, so to speak. There are more things that you're going to want in your first aid kit.

Speaker 1: 32:41

The thing to consider that I'm going to add here and we talked about it on this episode is making sure. So some people will have that first aid kit somewhere stuffed in their RV If an emergency happens. You're scrambling to find it, as Bob explained, and Bob's company is flight nurses, so certified nurses that fly all over the country transporting non-emergency medical patients. For instance, if somebody's in Florida and they need to get to Romania, where my producer editor is, he has a nurse sometimes two that will fly them to that location and it is a certified nurse. The one thing that they are taught and that they know is when you have a first aid kit, you set it up, you make sure you know where everything is and how to use everything in that kit. So that's an important thing. I highly recommend everybody get a first aid kit and figure out you know what kind of travel, where they're going to be and what they might need. As far as you know, a first aid kit is Also knowing that that first aid kit can easily be grabbed if you're running out the door. So we've heard of people that have been in their RVs and a tornado is coming, high winds, something else is going on and they need to get out quickly. Having your medications in one place, your emergency information that you might need Usually it's on our phones, but having that printed is also going to be helpful and being able to grab a bag like a backpack type bag that's kind of bag I like with the first aid stuff in it and be able to get out the door quickly if need be.

Speaker 1: 34:30

Okay, let's talk about something a little more fun here. Let's talk about campgrounds. Let's talk a little bit about campgrounds and I've learned a lot from so many people. First of all, they're all different types of campgrounds. They are not all created equally and we had a guest on, allie Rasmussen from Spacious Skies who has 15 campgrounds going up the East Coast Beautiful campgrounds I've had the opportunity to stay at some of them, can't wait to stay at others, and this episode is RV campgrounds. They are not all created equal and she just a great person as always, we only have great people on the podcast Just a wealth of information about campgrounds, about the differences and I think the message here that I've learned and again, the people that I've spoken to, the Facebook groups and interactions just figuring out what kind of campground is right for you.

Speaker 1: 35:40

What are you looking for, don't you know? It's not necessarily what the person wants. There's a campground in Florida. It's called Thousand Trails Orlando in Florida. It literally has everything from the cement pad, the manicured grass, everything is brand new, clean, neat, a few trees. To the other part of the campground, that is rustic, a little muddy, it's gravel, it's got a lot of trees, it's more, as I said, rustic and people all the time will say, well, this is the campground, this is the right camping site, this is it. Decide what you want, decide what works for you. For Dan and I, as we traveled, different things worked for us at different times. I like the gravel campsite that's right up against the lake, that I can walk out my door, have my coffee, watch the lake as it flows by, and that is one thing that I like. So you know. Again, it's about communication, talking about it.

Speaker 1: 36:45

Let's talk about another big, big topic here, and that is about money, affordability of living on the road. There's two sides to that. There's a couple sides to that. First of all, there are ways to save money on the road and how do you make money on the road? And you know savings could be. Let's talk a little bit about savings and those programs that can save you money. Again, not all of these programs are good for everyone. Pick and choose. One thing I suggest to people. I highly suggest when you get out there and you're asking questions on social media or you're asking people questions, pick and choose what things you're going to sign up for or purchase. You probably don't need all of them. A lot of people make the mistake of buying so many different programs, memberships, and then find that they don't use that.

Speaker 1: 37:42

So let's talk a little bit about something that those people who use diesel fuel if you use diesel fuel, the Open Roads fuel card at myopenroadscom the link is in the show notes it is a fuel card that, like it says it saves you money on diesel fuel. The card is absolutely free to sign up for Free. The card is free. Let me emphasize the freeness, so why not get it? Try it. If you never use it, no big deal. What happens with this card is you sign up, you attach your bank, you go on an app on your phone, you decide which station, gas station. These are truck stops, so for those of us with big RVs, you get in line with the trucks so you're going to have plenty of room, you're not going to have to worry about the height and things like that, and you save money every time you use diesel fuel.

Speaker 1: 38:44

The other thing that's part of my Open Ro roads, which is innovative tolling, is a toll pass that covers all 48 states. Now I have this as part of money saving because, if you're like me and I hear a lot of people tell the same story as I've traveled across the country I've gotten the pay by you know license plate, so they send you the toll amount in the mail. There have been times it took too long, it's too late, and now I'm paying fines. I paid $250 in toll fines last year alone because of that very problem. It went to my mailing service. I didn't deal with it in time and I had to pay all these fines. The toll pass covers all 48 states. It only costs $24 for the year and I think not only is it great that it covers all 48 states, I don't have to worry about what transponder I have in the window, what tolls are going to be sent to me by mail, but what's even better about them is they have a concierge service, so if you have an issue, they will handle it. They will help you through it. You just go on the app or you call your person. You have a dedicated person that will help you through it. There's a lot of savings there, making travel way easier with these products, and I did interview the people within the company and that's called Diesel Fuel Savings and the toll pass that covers 48 states, and I will tell you this particular episode has twice as many downloads as any other episode, so I guess it's a hot topic, so I wanted to make sure I shared that one with you.

Speaker 1: 40:37

On the note of saving money, I'm just going to quickly mention a couple of campgrounds. I do have episodes where I've covered these, but just quickly. There are memberships such as Harvest Host Boondockers, welcome, coast to Coast, spacious Skies, as I've said, and it has 15 locations and they do a membership. There are a lot of membership type. You know, memberships that will save you money on campgrounds. Koa has a program. I'm not familiar with it. Do the research If you're going to be part-time and you're thinking of how much money you want to save or spend on campgrounds. You know, think it through, do the research, see if some of these programs memberships would be beneficial to you as a full-timer.

Speaker 1: 41:37

I will tell you, when Dan and I started out, we didn't do well with budgeting. We didn't do well with what we thought things would cost and you know, admitting it's a little embarrassing, but I've heard it a lot from a lot of people what we did after the first four or six months. We talked to somebody from Thousand Trails. I know Thousand Trails is a hugely controversial. Some people love it, some people hate it. People go on social media. They're asking questions, hate it. People go on social media, they're asking questions.

Speaker 1: 42:10

I highly recommend using talking to a membership specialist Totally free. I have a great membership specialist. There's no, you know, pushing to make the sale For Dan and I. The Thousand Trails membership has saved us so much money. It allowed us to camp for under $10 a night, literally all fees, all expenses. Thousand Trails has allowed us to camp for under $10 a night and then I could save money and say, okay, I want to go to Disney's Wilderness RV Resort, whatever it's called. People have been there, know, and it's expensive there. So I can save money and then go to the other places that I truly want to go to. And you know, budgeting campgrounds is going to be one of your biggest expense, next to the fuel. Fuel could also be one of those big expenses. Okay, so much information here I did share about National Indoor RV Centers.

Speaker 1: 43:15

They have sales service storage. They are a dealership. They do Class A, b and Cs. Finding a great dealership is super important. Some of you will buy from a used you know, something used from somebody you know. Buy it from a person. If you're not going down that road, finding a great dealership what I love about NIRVC is their integrity. Their authenticity is their integrity, their authenticity. Brett Davis is the owner. He is all about making the industry better for people like you and I, the end user.

Speaker 1: 43:55

There is an episode that the name of the episode is NIRVC, oh, rv Sales, service, storage and so much more National Indoor RV Center. So if you're interested in purchasing a newer, used A, b or C class RV, that is the episode to check out. He also gave a lot of great information on you know what to look for, what to look for in a dealership. So much great information in that. Okay, there's a lot, a lot here. I want to cover a couple more and let me just check out my notes. Okay, one of the things is the ability to travel and make money, or you know, travel being more affordable, and that's the big. Another big, big part of this that people ask all the time.

Speaker 1: 44:54

We did an episode called Exploring the US, regardless of budget or travel capabilities. So let's back up a second here. I did, on this episode, talk to Desiree and Jonathan Van Welsen of RV Cruising is their social media channel, and they talked about exploring. I'm going to say in a slightly different way. So, to go back to the original story, when Dan said let's go full time in an RV, after I stopped laughing I said what does that look like? And he said, well, we'll go to every national park in the country, and that sounded just sort of appealing to me. I wasn't sure that that was what I was looking to do, and what I love about this episode in our conversation with Desiree and Jonathan was talking about visiting the local areas.

Speaker 1: 45:51

There are so many little towns and local places, and this is one of the reasons Dan and I did not get to one single national park in the three years of travel. It was intentional. We just found these beautiful little towns. So I lived outside of Philadelphia my entire life. This area has so many little towns, so many little areas. Yes, philadelphia has the historical areas. There's Valley Forge Historical Park. I've been there. Historical park I've been there, but just last weekend, for Father's Day, I walked up and down Doylestown. It's a cute little town with coffee shops and popcorn. Of course, I love the coffee shops. There's Candy Shop, which is something else I love, but there's so many little shops and things to do and this to me, I have found this one of the exciting things about traveling in an RV is finding those places, and then we jump over to RVing on a budget because, let's face it, at the end of the day, how do we budget?

Speaker 1: 47:01

How do we make this work? When Dan and I started out, I'll be honest, we didn't have a great financial plan. We didn't have a great financial plan. We didn't have a great budget. You think you know what the costs are and then something happens like four tires are destroyed and $1,300 later. There are ways to get a better gauge for what things are going to cost. There are ways to budget better.

Speaker 1: 47:25

And Beth and Court of Life. With Beth and Court, they're on social media and they use a program called you Need a Budget. They talk about budgeting. They did a great job. It was a great conversation because they were so much fun and so lively. There was a lot of great information there for money and budgeting. Wow, that was a lot, a lot of stuff here.

Speaker 1: 47:54

I hope that you know this is helping I think about again the travel and the things. I've learned a lot of it the hard way, for instance, learning how to not get your RV stuck in the mud and, if you do, what is the right way to get you out of it. So we've talked about that episode. There's also a video on that, as well as the burnt out tires, on my YouTube channel, exploring Through Our Lens, so you could check all that out Again. Everything will be in the show notes. I will, you know, do as much as I can in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 48:34

What I'd love is for people to share their questions, share their thoughts, give feedback. I have social media, instagram and Facebook and it's RV Life Podcast. If you send a private message or you comment, I am looking at and answering every question. You happen to send me a question I haven't got back to you, please, you know, just remind me. Obviously, as things get really busy and they have, things start to get lost.

Speaker 1: 49:04

So, for those of you new to the show, as we wind down, you know that it is time for the question of the week and what we do is each week I get a question from social media, from people I meet at campground, from you know, wherever I find questions. So if you see me out at a campground, if you want to message me, I would love to hear from you. Message me on social media, ask the question. I do not always have the answers. I often don't have the answers, but I have people, so I will go to my people and get your question asked, answered, as best I can. So the question of the week each week is brought to you by OpenRoads, innovative Toll Solutions and, as we talked about 40, it covers all 48 states and you don't ever have to worry about a fine again. Now for these questions. Like I said, sometimes I get them from social media, you know, from talking to people.

Speaker 1: 50:08

What I've also liked doing lately is asking my guests what's on their bucket list, and I've had people that have shared what's on their bucket list that guests share, and then I've had responses from people that said, wow, you know, I hadn't thought about that. That sounds like such a cool place. Would love to do that, see that, experience that. So today I'm going to ask myself this question. I'm going to share what's on my bucket list and my bucket list is big. It's a huge bucket list and I'm constantly seeing things and places that I want to go. The one thing that is near the top of the bucket list that I have always wanted to do is to go see the Northern Lights. So I'm asking you, the listener, to reach out, post on social media. What if you've seen the Northern Lights? Do you have suggestions? Where's the best place to go? What are the campgrounds in the area? Just any suggestions you have. I would love to hear that and share that with my listeners. That is definitely on my bucket list, as well as other things, and I'll share more of those as we go along.

Speaker 1: 51:25

It's now time for the featured campground of the week and that's brought to you by RV Life Pro Campground Reviews. This week's featured campground is Yukon Trails RV and Camping Resort. It's in Linden Station, wisconsin. Now, I've never been to Wisconsin. Certainly on the bucket list you can find this campground on campgroundrvlife. All of the campgrounds are here.

Speaker 1: 51:56

Rv Life has the most comprehensive campground reviews out there and what I love is truly authentic. These campground reviews are by other RVers for RVers. They are truly authentic reviews and you can look at those by going to campgroundsrvlife. Did I get that? Did I say that right? I'm starting to lose my voice. This doing a whole podcast myself is a little more taxing. So this campground is 8,000 Trails Campground. It has 214 sites, full hookup, pull-in sites, the dog park. You can rent a cabin if you want the family to come or if you don't have an RV and you want to try out this whole idea of quote-unquote camping. That's a great way to do it is by doing a rental. Yukon Trails RV and Camping Resort has a solid 4.4 rating at RV Life Campgrounds Reviews, with 17 reviews, and again, those reviews are often very comprehensive. Again, those reviews are often very comprehensive.

Speaker 1: 53:12

Visit campgroundsrvlifecom and when you go there, you can hit the book now button so you can book this campground right from that website. When you go on, you could also see pictures of Yukon Trails RV and Camping Resort. You could see more photos, you could see tips, the full list of amenities. Rv Life Campgrounds is part of the RV Life suite of products and, as I said, it's the most comprehensive source. So you're going to find RV parks, campgrounds, resorts, as well as city, state and national parks. You're going to find all kinds of different properties and so much more. You just need to visit campgroundsrvlifecom.

Speaker 1: 53:54

Wow, that was a lot. So we've done solos before and that was a big one. I enjoyed that. I hope you guys did too. I hope that you learned something, at least something, from today. I hope my experience helps and inspires you and you have been listening and reach out on social media Instagram, facebook, rv Life Podcast. If you have questions, if you'd like to be a guest on the show, if you have a great topic, if you know somebody who wants to be a guest on the show, reach out on social media, post it in the comments, send me a private message. As I said, I will answer every question comment that you make. You've been listening to the RV Life Podcast. I'm Patti Hunt, wishing you a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.