RV LIFE Podcast
The RV LIFE Podcast, created by one of the premier companies in the RV industry, is for the RV Community with a mission to Educate, Entertain and Explore the RV Lifestyle. The Podcast will explore all things RV Life: living, working, exploring, learning. With hosts Dan & Patti Hunt, full time RVers, content creators, educators and explorers.
RV LIFE Podcast
Turning Dreams into RV Reality: Time is Our Most Valuable Asset
Time is Our Most Valuable Asset, Jim Rohn. What if you could master the art of turning dreams into reality? In our RV Life Podcast we take you through how we transformed our aspiration of full-time RVing into actuality. As two individuals who believe in the power of dreams and the magic of imagination, we embrace the challenge of making the impossible possible, just like Walt Disney. By sharing our enchanting journey from a simple thought to living full-time in an RV, we aim to inspire and empower you to pursue your dreams.
We all have dreams, today we discuss the steps to make those dreams a reality. How to take action to live your dreams. Dan & I are dreaming of our new RV to continue our travels across the country and inspire others to live life fully. We loved our 3 week stay at Thousand Trails Orlando, next year our dream is to stay at Disney's Fort Wilderness Lodge Resort.
Our question of the week is about the complexity surrounding the Thousand Trails memberships, shedding light on pricing, stay durations, and the importance of consulting a membership specialist.
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Will you be in Tampa at the 2024 Florida SuperShow? We will be there from January 17 to 21, and will broadcast live at 12:30 in the Freightliner Booth, Interviewing: Leigh Tiffin, the CEO & president of Tiffin Motorhomes, Keith Bernard inventor of Clear2O products, Tire Minder, Michael Pescitelli, Open Roads Fuel Card, Ryan Berry & Gina Leeper, save on diesel fuel & a new Toll Pass, and podcast with RV Destinations Magazine Randy & Caly Behymer.
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Time is our most valuable asset. You're listening to the RV Life podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt. She's sitting right next to me and we're going to have a great show Now. That quote that I started out with Times our most valuable asset is from Jim Rohn, and that's a quote that Patty and I have lived our life by, at least so far.
Speaker 2:Yes, I'm realizing that time is our most valuable asset is what prompted Dan and I to go full-time RVing almost three years ago. The whole thought was to get out and really experience things that this country has to offer. In that time, oh my goodness, we've had incredible experiences.
Speaker 1:We really have had some incredible experiences. Now that horn means it's time for today's fun fact brought to you by Open Road Resorts, with four great locations one in Montana, one in Idaho, two in Montana, two in Montana, one in Idaho and one in Texas. Now Patty and I had the opportunity to be at the Texas facility last month and we just loved it there. We were parked nose into that beautiful lake and the sunset there was incredible.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's an amazing campground. They've really thought of it all. There's lots to do in the area, lots to do at the campground, beautifully manicured. But there's another campground I have to say in our fun fact that I want to visit. That is the Disney's Fort Wilderness Lodge Resort. Now, the prices here are very different than the Open Road Resorts locations. Their prices, the fun fact is their prices are between $96 a day.
Speaker 1:Their prices. You mean Fort Wilderness prices.
Speaker 2:Fort Wilderness prices sorry about that are between $96 and $305 a night. Now, the big range in price has many different factors. Number one they have sites that are everything from 10 sites to your big premium sites for your bigger RVs. They could accommodate just about anybody. But the time of year, the type of site, really varies on price, so you really have to do your research if you're thinking of going to Disney's Fort Wilderness Lodge.
Speaker 1:Now I will say most definitely, disney's Fort Wilderness Lodge Resort is our next stay when we come back to this area. Now, the last time we were here, you and I took a boat from the Magic Kingdom over and we checked this place out. It is gorgeous. I mean so well manicured. All the employees are Disney employees. They're the nicest people. They're the happiest people on earth. It is really someplace that you want to go there. Check-in process is like a machine. The sites were just absolutely incredible. They've got horses back riding over there. They've got boats over there. It is beautiful. I can't tell you how nice this place was.
Speaker 2:Well, you're really liking that now I love it. We just spent three weeks in the Disney area and we stayed a thousand trails or a landow and for us that three weeks stay was free to us. We don't pay for the three weeks.
Speaker 1:With our membership.
Speaker 2:With our membership. I was going to explain that we do pay, so people don't get their feathers in a ruffle. We do pay our membership fee and even with our membership fee our overall camping cost overall is about $9 a night. Yes, you heard that right About $9 a night. Now, the thousand trails or the landow campground is about 25 minutes from the Disney parks. It's not bad. I mean, there were a number of nights we went back and forth. It's not bad. We do love it here at thousand trails or landow, but next time we are definitely going to be on Disney property.
Speaker 1:We really are next time. Now I do have to say that Disney's property here it's about the size of Manhattan.
Speaker 2:The whole Disney property. You're talking about all the different, the whole Disney world down here.
Speaker 1:The four parks, the parks and all Disney Springs and all the other stuff and all their property.
Speaker 2:And we walked pretty much all of that over the last three weeks. But we are in our, so we're here at Disney world. We spent two weeks going to Disney world and they are in their 100 year anniversary right now, and that means that 100 years ago, walt Disney had this idea to build Disney world. Now, I don't know if he imagined the four different parks, so, for those of you who don't know, there's Disney world, there's Epcot, there's Hollywood studios and Animal Kingdom and Disney Springs, which is great, big shopping dining area, very Disney like. I don't know that he imagined all that, but we are here celebrating the 100 year anniversary of Walt Disney first imagining these things being built. I just can't. I can't imagine.
Speaker 1:I can't either. You know, 100 years ago think about this for a second there were no cell phones, there were no Teslas, there were no anything new and cool that's out there. None of that stuff even existed yet. And Disney imagined this entire property. They told us on the tram the other day, over 40 square miles. It's just beautiful. Here. They have transportation with buses everywhere. They take you from your car into the park that you're parking in. They tell you all about what's going on. It is really, really amazing.
Speaker 1:But what's really amazing and what we're going to talk about today is your imagination and your dreams. Walt Disney dreamed that he could build this place and at the same time, he was dreaming about Disney world and this great big thing here. He was also dreaming about Disneyland and building Disneyland at the same time Out in California. The man's imagination just never stopped and his drive and determination never stopped. But the way to make dreams come into reality, there's a process to that and that's something that you and I study and we speak on and we're with people, talking to people all the time about this stuff, and that's a lot of what we're going to do today is talk about all of those things. So we're going to get back to the RV live podcast right after this.
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Speaker 1:You're listening to the RV live podcast. I'm Dan Hunt, your host, along with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, and I always say she's right over there because she sits next to me while we do this show. Now, today's show is about making time for yourself and what's important to you. Our number one priority this is Dan and Patty's number one priority is to spend time with family, and the RV lifestyle has allowed us to do just that Not just taking two weeks at Disney, like we are right now, but taking time to spend six months with Patty's mother when she was on hospice. Spending quality time with all nine not one, not two, not three all nine of our grandchildren all over this country, from the East Coast to the West Coast, over the last three years. We are so grateful for the time that we have.
Speaker 2:Today, dan and I are talking about time and we're doing things different today. So, if you've listened to the show before, we often have a guest on and we ask questions and we have conversation. But today what we're doing different is asking you, the listeners, the questions. And, yes, we want you to not only think about your answers but we want you to write them down. Stay with us, play along and really think about what you want in these questions and get them written down somewhere. Now question one if you could go anywhere, where would you go?
Speaker 1:We know some of you just said or thought I don't have time for that, I don't have the money for that, I'm not sure where I want to go, I just want to go everywhere. I don't know how to make that happen. But guess what? It all starts with a thought and a belief that you can.
Speaker 2:Yes. So not only just writing down your answer and thinking about it and believing it. These are the. This is really the very first step in making what you want a reality. As Dan said, time's our most valuable asset. So what are we going to do with the time we have? If we don't start planning Well, time gets away from us Now. Question two how do you make your dream a reality? So we heard about Walt Disney. He imagined Disney World. How many of you have been to Disney World, seen videos of it, looked at pictures of it, dreamed of someday going? I know, maybe for some of you it's not your place.
Speaker 1:Now I'll tell you what. I watched a documentary while I was in the park about Walt Disney. I saw him walking through this mope area out here that is Disney World Mote, mote there's water everywhere.
Speaker 2:Okay, there's water everywhere, got it.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's a swap Walking through with 1940s rubber boots on and he could see it. He would sit and tell his team Main Street's going to be right here and there'll be this and there'll be that. There'll be cars, there'll be fire trucks, there'll be people, there'll be guys selling balloons and you know what? It's all there. Yes, he saw it in his head, and that's what you have to do is you have to write those dreams down. Talk about them with others that will support you. Patty's going to talk a little bit about that in a second. Even if these dreams sound crazy, you don't think that half the people at the Walt Disney talk to thought he was nuts.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Well, they did but guess what? They did. It's here. It's here and it is working.
Speaker 2:And it grows bigger and better and something more is created all the time. Now we're talking about Disney this week. Dan and I are in Disney World and we're here with a total, including Dan and I, 15 people. So let me explain it's Dan and I, my brothers, my sister, two of my kids that are married, so four kids and my other daughters, so five total kids and five grandkids. Now some of you are already saying 15 people. I'm out. That sounds crazy. Yeah, maybe a little crazy, but to 15 people together here in Disney.
Speaker 2:Now it started with a thought a year ago. We knew my mother was coming near her and Disney has always been a family vacation place for my family. We love Disney World. We have all things Disney, many mouses hanging in our RV, that's our decorations, and so when we first started talking about it, how do you arrange 15 people? And it's really five different families, five different locations arranging that. So it took time, it took planning, it took some imagination and we started that, like I said, a year ago, and I'm sure for some of us we're like, oh, I don't know how this had happened, or it's never going to happen, or whatever that looked like. But here it is. We are literally at the end of our two weeks day a week with the whole family and we made it work. And it probably worked out better than I could have even imagined with that many people.
Speaker 1:But that's because we all sat down at Michael's house and we imagined it. We could close our eyes and see all of these people, and I got to tell you there is not a better feeling in the world than watching a four-year-old, a five-year-old, walk up to something and see it for the very first time. The smile on their face is just unimaginable, and I think all of that is just so important.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, to have a couple. The one youngest kid and two of the older kids hadn't been here, so, just to paint the picture, there was a 15-year-old, a 12-year-old, a seven-year-old and two four-year-olds. For the kids and, like Dan said, just to watch that and that was my goal is to see these kids really enjoy this time. You know, we made it happen together. Everybody made this happen.
Speaker 1:We really did and it was great. It was really really great. Now, for our loyal listeners out there, we're doing things a little different today. We do not have a guest, so Patty and I are going to fill in all the guest parts ourselves, but we don't have a guest. But we still have to take breaks and we're going to talk about what are your dreams after the break and how do you get started realizing your dreams. We'll talk about that after the break and we're going to talk about taking action. So for those loyal listeners out there, bob and Jeff chill, you're going to have a great show anyway, but I'm telling you you'll want to stick around for this one. Get a pencil, get a piece of paper, write some of this stuff down, because you are going to want to talk about it.
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Speaker 2:I am so happy we are part of the National indoor National indoor RV centers family. We always call them NIRVC because one of Dan and my dreams now is to purchase our next RV. That is how we're going to do it. Blah, blah, blah. All of that. One thing we know is National indoor RV centers is where we will purchase it, because these people have integrity. Brett Davis is the owner From the time. We met him, as well as the people at his locations that we have met. They are just real and authentic people. I can honestly say I trust them. That is where we'll be purchasing our next RV.
Speaker 1:We are at Disney World and we've spent the last 7, 14 days, 15 days. It just feels like we've been here forever and we've been doing 10,000 steps a day. I'm tired and it's been a long, long week and a half, two weeks. We're talking about dreams today. We talk about Walt Disney because we're at Walt Disney World. But Brett Davis yes, I'm going to compare Brett Davis to Walt Disney because he had a dream. He had a vision to do it better, to reinvent the RV industry and do it better. He has service as one of his top priorities in his dealerships.
Speaker 1:If you go to any of their six facilities across the country. You got to be so impressed. We went into Dallas, their home store, their number one store. It was as close to going to Disneyland as you can. Possibly. It was Disneyland for RVers. I'll tell you that it was beautiful. They have a campground there, they have a paint shop there, they have all kinds of stuff. Brett Davis, you are my hero. I've got to tell you you have done this exactly the way that it should be done and it is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2:Now. So we're talking about dreams and we're talking about imagining things, and I guess we have to go back. We are going to talk to Brett Davis next month. We're going to see him. We're going to speak to him. I want to ask him how it all started. What did the dream look like? Because, again, he had a thought and a dream and then it became six locations. One of them is currently getting ready to open up right, the one outside of DC. They're looking to expand. When you look at big people or people who have success, they've gone through these same processes.
Speaker 2:As Dan said, what's the dream? I want you to? If you're in the car right now I know Jeff Sather from Freightliner listens every week in the car you don't have time to pull over and write it down, but promise you'll do it when you get your paper and pencil. We would love you guys to share what are your dreams. Share it with us on social media. I know a lot of people send me private messages. Social media is RV Life, podcasts, instagram or Facebook. Private message me, send me a text message. Love to hear from you. What are some of your dreams. If you say I don't know, I don't have them. Get the paper. I use paper and pencil. I journal every day. I do use paper and a pencil literally, if you want to use it electronically, if you want to put it on a board and put it up, whatever you want to do, but it's got to somehow be written so that you have your dreams.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to give you an inside picture of our dreams.
Speaker 1:Our dreams were to well. My dreams were to RV full time. Even before I met Patty, I always had this dream of RVing full time. And I remember one Saturday afternoon we were just out and about and we drove down 202, and we pulled into an RV dealership and Patty's like what are you doing? I'm like well, it's an RV dealership, they're having a sale today, so they have free hot dogs. So we go into the RV dealership and I start showing her these great big half-million dollar RVs. But this has always been one of my dreams. It's always been one of the things and the way I dream, or the way that I realize my dreams, is I like to visualize. So for me getting in that RV and visualizing myself sitting in that front seat writing down the street, visualizing Patty and I sitting on the captain's chairs that we have right behind me here. It's how I make things happen. So I started doing that right at the beginning when I sold this to Patty. This is the idea we're gonna see the whole country. We're gonna visit every national park.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna interrupt you for a second because a lot of our listeners don't know how it went down, so I think we should tell this story. So Dan had this dream a full-time RVing before he met me. I didn't know this, so didn't think about it, didn't know this wasn't on our radar.
Speaker 1:Just remember I had a dream.
Speaker 2:Yes, as a lot of you may or may not know, Dan and I have five kids between us. The four of them are now married, but when we met five kids, none of them were married. So now, fast forward to three years ago. Let's tell the story of how we ended up in an RV, because it was never my thought or dream at all.
Speaker 1:Well, me, I'm sitting here on my computer during the day, where I would always look at RVs.
Speaker 2:At the house, At the house I do In Las Vegas. Okay, I'm looking at.
Speaker 1:RVs. I'm looking for votes for sale, I'm looking how much are they cost, and I'm not even worried about how I'm gonna finance them. I'm worried about what are we gonna do and where are we gonna find one. So we started looking for RVs during COVID. Right, we started looking for RVs during COVID.
Speaker 2:I just wanna be real clear with our listeners. Dan started looking for RVs during COVID.
Speaker 1:You went with me.
Speaker 2:Wait, wait, wait. I'm talking about before, so let's backtrack. Here we are in COVID. It was 2020, it's COVID. Business has shut down. Dan and I can't work. Money's not coming in, but money kept going out. So Dan is up in his office I'm being known to me looking at RVs. So that's the setup. Now Dan calls me up to his office and says hey, let's go RVing full time. My response was just to start laughing.
Speaker 1:Can you believe it? She was laughing at me.
Speaker 2:I was laughing. I was laughing at him, not with him at him. And I look up and I see this man is serious. I couldn't even picture, think about what is he even talking about? So when I realized he was serious, I was like what wait, huh? And then over another couple of days, I think I walked away at that point just shaking my head, and then we talked a little more about it. How are we gonna do this? Why are we? Why I hadn't even been RVing.
Speaker 2:I had been in an RV for seven nights maybe prior to this conversation. I tend camp once for a weekend wear a torrential downpour and I got soaked. That was my experience with this whole RVing camping type thing. I'm doing air quotes right now, and so I couldn't even picture, imagine or dream of this. And then he started talking about it. And then we started watching people's YouTube videos the big RVers and I started to be able to picture a life of living on the road. Now I will say I never expected it to be what it is now. It's better, but that's how it all got started. So Dan had this dream and I kind of came along for the ride. And now you know, my dream is to see the rest of the country.
Speaker 1:She still won't drive the RV though.
Speaker 2:I have not driven the RV. It is 20 years old. We need a new one. My dream now is that next RV, now that I know exactly what I want. I want the kitchen on the driver's side. If anybody knows why it should be on the driver's side, read it out. I want the kitchen on the driver's side. So, again, like we said, what's the dream? And sometimes when there's two people talking about dreams together and figuring out how do you do that together? So that's step one and we're telling our listeners get that written down.
Speaker 1:What are your dreams? Identify your dreams. Let's get them written down. We put them on a vision board, but a lot you know. All you need to do is just write them down on a piece of paper. It makes it real when you write them down.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's part of it, and they don't have to be about RVing.
Speaker 1:We're using the example of us as RVing, but they could be about anything we have here to full-time RV to see the country, and we have seen so many incredible things in this country. We have met so many incredible people in this country.
Speaker 2:And so how do you get started? Dan said that was the next question. While writing it down is the first thing, it makes it real. I will say that, wherever you write it down, don't just put it aside, don't just stuff it in a book. Make it so you can see it. I pin things to the mirror sometimes.
Speaker 2:You know being in an RV is a little different, but you want to see it. And again, it could be about health, it could be about relationships, things you want and places you want to see, experiences you want to have. There's no limit, I guess to the point. But once you write it down, share it with people. Now, be careful of that, because sometimes, sharing with people, you know there are a lot of people out there that don't have dreams and so they want to knock yours, not to be negative, but we know those people. So share with the people that are willing to support you. And here's the thing. There was Walt Disney standing in a swamp. This was swamp land. Here at Disney is built, and he said I'm going to build. Well, 100 years ago they really didn't have the technology to build on swamp land, and so there were people who laughed at him. There were people who said no. He made sure he surrounded himself with people that were going to support him.
Speaker 1:People that could see his idea, that could believe in his concept and his imagination. And his imagination was just incredible. Now, you know, for me, when I first started thinking about going full time, well before we even left Philadelphia to go live in Las Vegas, I told all of our friends, and one friend, rich, who is a very forward-thinking, positive-minded person, always said to me did you get your tiffin? Yet Did you get your tiffin? Yet Did you get your tiffin? Yet he didn't understand or necessarily believe in our vision, but he knew it was our vision and he supported whatever we wanted to do. And that's the kind of people that you need to have around you there's people that will support you even if they can't really see it.
Speaker 2:And we had a lot of supportive friends, because when we said we were thinking about going full time RVing, there are people that were I can't even imagine what that looks like, they had no frame of reference, they had never been, they had no experience, but they supported us still. So that's the same thing. There were people who surrounded Disney, or any of these people who created something incredible that maybe couldn't fathom exactly how it was going to get worked out, but knew it would. And taking it down on a smaller level being at Disney, five different families coming together at the same place at the same time, whether it was driving a car, flying, we came through with an RV and being in the same place. While I didn't know how it was all going to work out, I just trusted that it would, and different people kind of manage different things. So my brother is great at being the organizer, managing it all, and I could let go and let him do that. So part of creating a dream is creating those people around you that help and support the overall mission, and I think just to say I think that's the same thing with the RV Life Podcast For a lot of you that listened the week before last or two weeks ago, we celebrated our one year anniversary of the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 2:Now Dan and I had come to me a year and a half ago and said, hey, let's do a podcast. And I just couldn't even think about it, fathom figure it out how it was going to work and just believing that it could happen and putting it down on paper and allowing things to move into place. Patrick from RV Life came to us and said, hey, we're thinking about a podcast. And Dan and I said, hey, we're thinking about a podcast. And the podcast was created and within months, was in the top 10% of all podcasts. It just blew me away like beyond my wildest dreams. And then, two weeks ago, we celebrated our one year anniversary and we are in the top 5% of all podcasts.
Speaker 2:The point is not to brag at all. The point is to go for your dream. Imagine it it doesn't always work out perfect, it doesn't always work smoothly. There were ups and downs, there were challenges. But having a dream and going for it and then being able to look back and realize the success and sometimes success is just getting through the challenges I think that's a big thing. The people out there listening to our listeners. You might not be the next Disney, but maybe you are.
Speaker 1:Well, I know Brett Davis is just right there with Disney. I mean, what he has created is to me as amazing as Disney World and Disneyland, because I walk in that place and I'm like, oh my God, this is incredible. Wow, that's pretty, and he's still going. I mean, he's got ideas all the time. So let's go back through that process of realizing your dreams.
Speaker 1:The first thing you have to do is identify those dreams and once you identify them, you want to write them down. There's something about writing something down that makes it real, as opposed to just a thing out there. How do you get started? Well, you write the dreams down, you talk to others and you imagine yourself being successful in those dreams. When you close your eyes, you can see yourself. When I close my eyes, I can see myself driving a new RV. I know what I want, I know how it's gonna feel, we know what we want. And when I lay down on the bed at night, I close my eyes very gently and I picture myself in that new RV. I picture myself fighting to get all of our stuff into the new RV, Fighting, Fighting with myself to get all of our stuff in.
Speaker 2:And so we're talking and this is like visualization, I guess and it's happened and it's worked for us. It's not necessarily a breeze. It takes time and I want our new RV, I hope by the end of January of 2024 or sooner, but sometimes things don't happen in the exact timing. Don't let that get you discouraged, but let's just be. I just wanna be really honest and transparent here. Do we have all the ways to finance it and get it done and make it all happen? No, dan and I are looking at you know little bit of challenges, but-.
Speaker 2:A lot of bit of challenges, a lot of bit of challenges. Okay, and again it's gonna be a new to us RV not necessarily a brand new RV off of the line, but we know that, even though it's not a breeze and we can't just write a check right now for a full new RV, the things fall into place and I think that's the thing for people to remember. I see a lot of people that have a dream. It didn't turn out. They get discouraged and I think that's an important message here to make sure to keep going that things sometimes work out differently and sometimes the way they work out, I gotta say here's a good example.
Speaker 2:There were two times recently in less six months, that we were driving on the road, okay, and somebody took a wrong turn twice.
Speaker 2:I'm getting faces over here, dan's making faces at me because you can't see, I have to tell you but there were two times that Dan made a wrong turn, since I'm not the one that drives and there was like a panic, obviously because you're in an RV, it's 40 foot, we are towing a Jeep, it's a lot of.
Speaker 2:You know a lot and you don't wanna have to turn around. But actually both of those times that we took a wrong turn and there were some words said they both worked out better than staying on the road we were on, miraculously, one of the times we didn't go through a tunnel that we didn't wanna go through anyway. Another time it would have taken us like by a city that we did not wanna go through, so we went a little bit out of the way, but it was better. So it's sometimes the same thing with a dream. You have a dream, we have a couple different manufacturers we're looking at, but sometimes being open to something that might come along that turns out better, just wanna let people know that sometimes there's detours or those supposed mistakes turn out better. So that's how. And taking action you wanna talk a little bit about action taking.
Speaker 1:Well, taking action in my world. Okay, this is the way that I do. It is going to an RV show. Now we are very busy at the RV show. We're going to do the RV Life podcast in front of a live audience every day of the show, except maybe the last day.
Speaker 2:Well, we said, yeah, we might be doing it Sunday too. So every day of the Tampa RV Super Show you're talking about Every day of the Tampa RV show.
Speaker 1:We're doing the podcast during the day. But I am going to take time every day and identify the units that are on my hit list and then I wanna go sit in those units and just visualize myself living in that unit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and this is part of it. And, like Dan said, sometimes he'll go in and he'll just sit down and he wants to sit there for 10 and 15 minutes and talk about anybody else that comes into the RV. And honestly, I would get kinda like when Dan would do this before we even thought about going RVing. I was like this is nuts. But I do agree, now you've gotta be in it, you've gotta live it. If you're looking at your next house or you're looking to buy a car, go to the car dealership, sit in it, look at it, be with it. That's a thing and I think that does help in creating your dreams. I really think that's a big step.
Speaker 2:Now we do go into dealerships. We have sit in a lot of RVs and I know I could rule out, like you were saying, a Class C. I've gotta ruled out now I don't want a Class C. You said let's look at a gas unit. I don't want a gas unit. So there's going into things and doing things and looking at things. That also help. Knowing what you don't want helps you solidify what you do want. So steps to creating your dream.
Speaker 1:Well, it's the same thing with buying a house. Effectively, for us, it's buying a house because and it's even more important because this 500 square feet or less that we live in, there's two of us living in this all the time, so you gotta make sure that you are comfortable with what you have. Absolutely, it's really, really important. And since next week at the Tampa RV show, we're going to be at the Freightliner booth doing the podcast at 1230, is it 1230 every day?
Speaker 2:It's 1230 and it'll be two or three weeks from this episode.
Speaker 1:Two or three weeks from this episode comes out. But you also want to take into account, when you're looking at RVs, what is the chassis? Because the chassis the foundation of your house is probably one of the most important decisions that you have to make when you're buying a new RV.
Speaker 2:I think it's the most important decision.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let me ask you that question. Six months ago, you don't even know what a chassis was, and I'm willing to admit that it's actually been almost a year.
Speaker 2:So again, let's tell the story. Dan was in Tampa at the show last year, so just short of a year now can't believe the whole year's gone by and he said that he's gonna interview Jeff Sather, the president of Freightliner. I'm like, okay, that's cool, but what are you gonna talk about? That's gonna mean something to our listeners, or to me even, like I'm the same as our listeners, because I didn't understand. He said Freightliner's the chassis. Okay, now I'm gonna be very honest. I thought the chassis was just the metal frame. Okay, big deal, but not that big a deal.
Speaker 2:So, dan, I had to fly back to be with my mom. Dan does the interview. Jeff Sather is one of the kindest, most amazing men like that I've met. He's the president, yes, he's the president of Freightliner, and he is just a real human being and just incredible, anyway. So I'd listened to this podcast. I'm like, wait a minute, they're not just talking about a metal frame here. So then I did have the opportunity to talk to and finally meet Jeff and Hershey to find out that the chassis is literally everything except your living room area.
Speaker 2:Like your living room, bedroom, kitchen. So your kitchen, your kitchen sink, that's not the chassis, but everything else your engine, everything, your heater, your airbag, your things that I don't even know that's under there, your fuel pump that cost us $8,000 to have replaced a couple of months ago. Everything is on the chassis. So I know I'm going off track here, but we'd like to let our listeners know how important these things are, and the chassis is important. So we are gonna be in Tampa. Jeff is so kind as to have us come in to the Freightliner booth and do our podcast live, and we're gonna have a lot of fun with it. Dan does some crazy things during these live podcasts. You never know what to expect.
Speaker 1:And we're gonna do something groundbreaking. We're gonna have two podcasts there, one from RV Destinations Magazine and ours. And we're the four of us, two couples we're gonna sit down together and we're gonna do both of our podcasts at the same time together.
Speaker 2:And we have never done that, nor have they.
Speaker 1:So wish us luck. Nor have many people at all ever yes now.
Speaker 2:many people haven't Wish us luck and if you're gonna be there, come join us. Be in the audience. Ask questions.
Speaker 1:I have a wireless mic setup that I'm gonna go out into the audience and ask all kinds of questions.
Speaker 2:We're still debating whether I'm gonna let you up out of the seat. Jeff was there the last time you got up out of your seat and saw-.
Speaker 1:So that was the winds fault.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So again, if you didn't hear about that, go back and listen to the podcast Air skirts, air skirts. It is hilarious. If you weren't there, you missed it. There's a couple of pictures on our Instagram and Facebook pages of what happened when I left Dan out of his seat.
Speaker 2:But now back to the whole purpose of the show is time is our most valuable asset. So if time is your most valuable asset, then dreaming and living your dreams is so very important. And I just wanna add here being with my mom for six months while she was in hospice and being able to talk to her. She was 87 years old. She went peacefully, which I'm very grateful, but the one thing that she shared with me over and over again was the regrets that she had through her life because she didn't do the things she wanted.
Speaker 2:One of her greatest joys was her three kids, her kids that were married, her grandkids. She's got three amazing grandkids and she's got five great grandkids that she just they were her joy. And she also regretted not getting out and not having experiences, always being afraid, never, you know, sharing what her dreams were. So she didn't dream, she didn't share, she didn't accomplish. And you know, if anything, if I can pass on something that an 87-year-old said that would be you know, don't waste your life. Use the time you have, and none of us know how long that time is. So there's my message for this podcast.
Speaker 1:Well, I do know a thing or two about time, so I'm going to push this button right here. And that sound means it's time for this week's question of the week, brought to you by Clear2O, your RV water solution. Now you know what we all want need fresh, clean water. Clear2o has invented a way for RVers to have fresh, clean water all the time, from the water that's in your refrigerator that you drink, to the water that you shower with, to the water that you wash your dishes with. So Clear2O a great company. You can see all of their information in the show notes below. But you want to have clean, fresh water.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the ways to have clean, fresh water is to clean your fresh water tank every once in a while, and they have a product called Tank Fresh right, Tank Fresh, and it's just amazing. It's just amazing. When we were learning about cleaning our fresh water tank, this company came out and they said yeah, we put bleach in it, we leave it for a couple of days and then we come back out and we rinse it out and Patty's like there is no way that I'm going to be able to drink water once that thing has been bleached. So Tank Fresh has no bleach in it at all and it only has to stay in the tank for about two hours. So it's a great, great product that every RVer should be using, and you could do it any weekend, any day, wherever you are. Just come get a bottle of Tank Fresh, put it in, let it sit in there for a couple hours, drain it out and then put fresh water back in your tank. That's all there is to it.
Speaker 2:Right, and they will be in Tampa and we will be interviewing the inventor, keith, who's also one of the owners, but he invented these products, so you could ask him questions. I'm really excited to ask him more questions because you know he again, he envisioned something, he created something. Just an amazing person. He and his wife run the company amazing people. You could visit them in Tampa, you could get the product, you could ask questions.
Speaker 1:Keith is going to be on the RV Life podcast one of the days from the Tampa show and I will tell you, hearing his story of why he did this is really, really interesting. We're going to get really deep into that when we do that show, absolutely, so come on out and be a part of our studio audience.
Speaker 1:You know there's these really nice camp chairs in the freight liner booth. There's probably about 50 or 60 chairs in there and you know you're going to be walking around for days. Don't do what I did and after the third day here at Disney World, be so tired I can't even go out the next day. Take your time, sit, relax a little bit, get a drink. It's in the shade over there and there's some fans going. It's nice and cool. It is a great, great time to just come and listen to some interesting stuff about your RV life.
Speaker 2:Okay, so now for the question of the week, and, like the rest of this show, it's not exactly what we usually do. We usually have a question from a listener. This is a question that I have been getting, I have been seeing and people have been trying to answer it and there's just more confusion than there is light being added to the topic, so I have to put this out there. And the question is about 1000 Trails, memberships, and people are asking what's the membership prices? How many days can I stay in this system? How many days do I have to leave? How many holidays can I stay? Where do I go? There's so many questions around it.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 2:Where are all these questions? All of these questions are in social media groups. I get private questions. I talk to people. I'm always out talking to people.
Speaker 2:So there has just been, over the last month, a blast of 1000 Trails membership questions. And look, I'm a teacher and I'd like to make sure people have facts. And the problem with it is, I'm going to tell you, the problem that people are, you know, in the best of intentions, trying to answer questions, like on social media or just standing in a group and somebody answers a question, but the thing is it doesn't necessarily apply. So let me explain. The thing is the 1000 Trails has probably been around for over 30 years, right? I'm thinking like 30 plus years they've been around. They started with like one or two campgrounds and they've grown. Now what happened is, over those years, the type of membership, the price of membership, the kinds of memberships, the levels of all of these things have changed over time and they will continue to change over time. So the easiest, quickest answer go to a membership specialist to get your answers. Now one of the questions I got was what's the difference between a membership specialist and a 1000 Trails salesperson?
Speaker 1:That was my question. You can't use that question on our own show, I know, but there are.
Speaker 2:Other people are asking this question. So I'm going to say from my experience and I do not like to say negative, but this is a little negative what my experience is from a lot of other people gathering a lot of information the sales people for 1000 Trails memberships are just that. They are salespeople. They sell the membership and that's it. They're done. There's no follow through, there's no, nothing. You buy your membership, you don't know if you could even call them back. You're done. I've heard a lot of people talk about misinformation from them and again, this isn't one or two people, this isn't gossip, this isn't hearsay. I've heard this over the last two plus years. I'm sure there are really good 1000 Trails salespeople, but I recommend membership specialists because they are there to give you the information. Find one that's not salesy. Find one that's not up If you have questions later, one that's not going to keep calling you and saying are you ready to buy? You're ready to buy. So Dan and I, when we got our membership, we used a membership specialist. It's a team, a couple.
Speaker 2:Husband wife team Husband, wife team that were just fantastic. They gave us the information. They said, hey, do what works for you. We met the people that they were also working with. Since then, our membership specialists have retired, but we have been working with this other couple and their name is Joe, and Pat, joanna and Patrick Peirzu Peirzu, okay, it's how you say their name, peirzu and they are fantastic. They answer your questions. There's absolutely no pressure. They're good people, they're kind people, they're honest people. They have, they're authentic people.
Speaker 1:These are the people. If they don't know the answer, they'll get it. They're not going to lie to you. They're going to say you know what, let me get back to you on that, and then they're going to go find out the answer.
Speaker 2:Right. So it is really important to go to a membership specialist that you, like, you trust. Look, it's like going in and buying a car. You have, quote unquote car salesman type people that are pressured, they're trying to get you in, they're trying to get you to buy it. You know they're trying to talk you up on price. Or you could go to somebody that you trust they're giving you the information. So, again, we're doing everything different on this show today.
Speaker 2:And because there's so much talk about 1000 trials membership, I had to go on a rant. I guess I've gone on a rant about this for a little while now Dan shaking his head, but it is that important. So, a membership specialist I'm putting the name and her phone number in the show notes. Reach out, tell them, dan and Patty sent you and they'll even try and get you some extra perks with your membership. So they have the ability to do that. So 1000 trails has allowed us to be on the road full time. We would not be able to afford to be on the road full time. And here we are three weeks at 1000 trails, orlando, 25 minutes from Disney World. So I'm excited.
Speaker 1:Well, traveling the US roads just got a lot easier because our sponsor, openroads fuel card, now have partnered with innovative poll solutions. So not only can we buy our diesel fuel cheaper than the rest of you, we're getting from 50 cents to a dollar a gallon less on fuel, and there's an app that can tell you where it is where to go. It's just great. But now let me just say this with this innovative toll solutions toll pass. We used to use EasyPass and I have to say that EasyPass was great in the Northeast, but once you get out of the Northeast and you go out to Nevada and you go out to California, it's useless. You come down here to Florida. It works down here in most areas, but not all areas. We have got so many tickets in the last three years from going through toll areas where our toll pass didn't work.
Speaker 2:Some of that are fault of no, I mean some of it is. You know, the toll thing wasn't in the window or the quarter that's your department, am I? Yeah, there's not this on it that I do love that if you get that it's called a violation and you ask for that notice.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Innovative, open roads will handle it for you. You just go to them and they handle it. You don't have to be on the phone with these different states. I would have to call each different state to figure it out.
Speaker 1:I spoke with the operations director of Innovative Toll Solutions last week and I have to tell you he said you will never, ever get on the phone and try to talk to a state again. He said remember those times you tried to do that. You have to hit one, then you have to hit four, then you have to hit seven.
Speaker 2:Yes, I know it well.
Speaker 1:If you're not off for a second, you got to start all the way at the top, so you'll never, ever have to do that again.
Speaker 2:Now Innovative Toll Solutions. Just to give all the details, it does cost $25, which is what our easy pass costs. So they're the same price. The $25 is worth it never to have to call a state again and there's no way. Probably with this new toll pass it won't be a problem. So that in itself is worth it. That's about what they all cost, so I'm glad they kept it at the same price. Now Open Roads, as you talked about. That is free to sign up for. Free, free, free, free. It is free. You sign up for it, you attach your bank card to it and you go in and you use their system and we've got sometimes even just 10 cents a gallon off, and you know what? 10 cents a gallon, or 100 gallon tank, and we drive God knows how many miles a month. It pays off. So Open Roads definitely the way to go, and now that they have these Innovative Toll Solutions, oh, it's a win.
Speaker 1:It covers you, it covers your tow car, covers everything. It is absolutely incredible. Okay, now that sound means it's time for this week's RV Life Pro Tip of the Week with our producer, patrick Buchanan.
Speaker 3:We're back this week with another. Did you know for our RV Life Pro Tip of the Week, Did you know that in RV Life TripWizard you can check fuel prices when, on the TripWizard map, simply zoom in to the area you are looking to fuel up, right click on the map and choose check fuel prices, You'll be taken to a new page that has both a map and a list of local fuel stations with their brand, prices, address and more. The list is filterable by fuel type, fuel grade and search radius. You can add that fuel station to your trip by copying the address, dropping it into the search bar on your TripWizard map and adding it as a custom stop. You can even download that fuel station list to an Excel spreadsheet For RV Life. I'm Pat Buchanan with your pro tip of the week.
Speaker 1:Now, Patrick, I got to tell you I didn't know that. I really didn't know that the RV Life, RV TripWizard program did that. That's something that's very useful information. I get to put Patty to work. I'm driving five, six, seven hours down the road. She's just sitting there yipping on her phone and doing stuff. She can start looking this stuff up to see what the best prices are, if we should be stopping at this one or the next one or the next one. When you have a tank as big as this, with 100 gallons, a 10 cent difference is significant.
Speaker 1:It's really really significant, my wife Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Thank you, patrick. We learned something new, even for ourselves each week, because RV TripWizard really does.
Speaker 1:It does so much, you could just never learn it all.
Speaker 2:Right Now. I'm really excited about what's to come next month, as we already talked about the Tampa RV Super Show, which is January 17th to the 21st. It's five days, wednesday to Sunday. We will be there all week. If you see us, if you're out, come say hi. We'd see so many people talk to so many people that said I saw you, I didn't want to bother you. No, come up to us Say hi. I may not be able to stop and have a whole conversation, but we really try and make time to talk to people as we meet them. As we said, we'll be in the Freightliner booth, which is outside the main door. We will be there recording live every day at 12.30. We do want to thank Freightliner for having us in their booth. Again, we greatly appreciate it. As Dan said, we're going to do a dueling podcast with RV Destinations Magazine. They're an amazing couple.
Speaker 1:You've coined this phrase dueling podcast. Is that like dueling piano? Yeah, we talked about that we're going to have to have a conversation or competition with them.
Speaker 2:I don't know if we'll be competing, but let's see how that goes. Open Roads Fuel Cards we have the head of the company there, gina, who we met in Hershey. There They'll be able to answer questions. They'll be there explaining the program, tell them how the program got started. This is relatively new. It's been about two years. Open Roads it's fantastic. We're going to talk to the inventor of TireMinder, which is a pressure monitoring type system that we're really excited about. Talking to Michael and Jamie. We're going to talk to Lee Tiffin. He's the grandson of Bob Tiffin. Bob Tiffin was the owner or is the owner. Lee is the CEO and president.
Speaker 2:President, ceo, yeah, I'm sorry, I'm trying to keep everybody straight. I can't wait to talk to him and just hear his backstory. They have a lot of story like family story within Tiffin. Why did it skip to the grandson, I don't know? Some great questions. We really want to get to know them. He will be there, I know already. On Wednesday, the 17th at 12.30 is when we'll interview Lee Tiffin. We have so many exciting podcasts scheduled for January. If you're not going to be in Tampa, all of these episodes will come out on the RV Life Podcast each week on Wednesday at 5 am. They go live on all podcast platforms.
Speaker 1:Every single one of them. But I have to say, and I always say this we like Apple the best because they give us the best matrix.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they show us where we're at.
Speaker 1:They show us all the information that we need to know for advertisers and all that kind of stuff. So listen to us on RV Life Podcast on Apple, you can listen on Google, you can listen on Spotify, you can listen on all the things. So we would love for you to just tune in and listen to the RV Life Podcast. This is the RV Life Podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, reminding you to have a great rest of your day and an even better day tomorrow.