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
Exploring the US: Regardless of Budget or Travel Capabilities
This podcast episode features insights on exploring the United States affordably and accessibly, regardless of one's budget or travel capabilities. The hosts share their personal journey of RV living, starting their adventure over three years ago and the incredible experiences it provided them. Our guests Desiree and Jonathan van Welsum, share their near-death experiences that led them to change their lives and start their journey around the U.S. with their four rescue beagles. They discuss their travel insights and the books they've authored to inspire others to explore and create lasting memories. The episode also includes suggestions for exploring local areas intentionally, and the benefits of being flexible with travel plans. Furthermore, it outlines the upcoming travel agenda for the guests and introduces a new book project on U.S. Scenic Byways.
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•LITO - ...
Do you believe exploring the US has to be difficult and costly? I'm Patti Hunt with my incredible husband, dan Hunt, and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. My guests today will share their experiences to help you explore on any budget with any travel ability. Now, for most of you, you know that usually Dan is on the podcast and just to let you know that on April 10th I did a brief podcast to share some of the updates of what's going on with him. I will give updates as they come in and I want to thank everybody for their concerns, but let's get into the podcast.
Speaker 1:I am back in the Philadelphia area. This is where I was born and raised and spent most of my time, and a little over three years ago, dan and I took off on our RV adventure full-time in an RV, with some of the most incredible experiences. Now moving forward to our next chapter, we will see what that looks like as we move forward. Right now it is time for our fun fact. It's brought to you by Open Road Resorts. They have four amazing locations. Two of them are in Montana, one is in Utah and one is in Texas. The Texas location, dallas Northeast, was beautiful. Dan and I got to spend three or four days there Beautiful sunrises and sunsets and it was just an incredible campground run by an amazing owner. But as most of us look to start traveling north, if you're headed to areas like Yellowstone or National Glacier National Park or Flathead Lake, they have three options for you the Open Roads Resort. You could go to Red Rock RV Park. You could go to Poulsen, flathead Lake, koa or Poulsen Motorhome Resort. Check them out by going to openroadresortscom. If you mention the RV Life Podcast, they will give you a discount. But for a fun fact, on YouGovcom they did a poll of Americans and asked the average of how many states people had been to, and the average is 17 states. While 11% of the population never left the state they lived in, fewer than 2% visited at least 50 states, so that's a pretty small number. As the new numbers come in, as more and more people are traveling, it will be interesting to see how many states people will be or are traveling to, traveling to. So our guests today are two incredible people and I saw this quote and I just wanted to share this quote by Desiree, our guest. The Long Way Home is designed to inspire readers to embark on their own adventure. By sharing my travel insights, I hope to help others create lasting memories as they discover amazing destinations. And that's quote by Desiree.
Speaker 1:Now, before we get into our guests, I do want to talk about one of our great sponsors, clear 2.0. They have amazing water filtration system because as we travel the country, when you hook up, you're in a campground. You hook up to the water. Having clean, fresh water is so important. They also have a product called Tank Fresh. As people are starting to get their RVs ready for the travel season, cleaning your freshwater tank is so important. Tank Fresh comes in a gallon bottle. You pour it in your freshwater tank, it stays in there for about an hour and then you clean it out. The best part for me is it has no bleach in it. I love that it has no bleach. It has no strong smell, it has no harsh chemicals and it cleans your freshwater tank. But let's get into the show.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about our guest, desiree, who is Dutch, and our husband Jonathan, who is British, but they live in the US. Prior to traveling most times, desiree worked and lived in six countries In her role as a PhD trained in senior economists and economic policy advisor for the United Nations, world Bank and other organizations. After both nearly dying from serious health incidences, they drastically changed their lives. In 2021, they and their four rescue beagles yep, you heard that right. Four rescue beagles started traveling around the US as they checked off bucket list locations, national and state parks, roadside attractions, large cities, small town America. They wrote the books the Long Way Home, packed with exciting background information and beautiful illustrations and another quote that I love by Desiree travel long through the pages of this captivating series of books and be inspired to get out and explore. Welcome, desiree and Jonathan Van Welsum, to the RB Life podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much, Patty.
Speaker 1:It's so nice to be on your show you are very welcome and I know it's been a long time coming to get you guys on the show. We met at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. We did, yeah, in October and we started talking. Unfortunately it was a last day show the two of you would have been that we would have loved to hang out with and again, I love that the words inspire. That is a big word for us. Let's jump in and get people to know you. Near-death experiences definitely change a person's outlook, can you?
Speaker 3:give us the story there. Yeah, so we were both very busy professionals, slowly engrossed in the busy culture, always working. I ended up getting sick. I had a massive double-sided pulmonary embolism, was told I was one hour from death, suffered complications subsequently and not long after I was better, jonathan was diagnosed with colon cancer, had a large tumor. The surgery to remove it went completely wrong and he ended up in kidney failure and sepsis and five surgeries to try and correct it and 23 days in the hospital. And, yeah, it really brought home.
Speaker 3:People say very lightly oh, you never know how long you're going to have Guess what, you really don't. And so we decided things had to change and we decided to buy a boat and start spending our free time on the boat. And then we started spending more time on the boat and working remotely. At the same time. We'd also moved from New York City to Washington DC initially, and then, with our boating lifestyle that was becoming more important. We decided to move to Florida and just work more remotely and spend more time traveling on the boats and doing things our way more.
Speaker 1:I want to take a minute and back up and then Jonathan certainly chime in, because I think it is so important. When you say, people take it lightly. When people say short, live it be. You never know when the end is and people say it but it doesn't register. Can you go back to that time where the two of you together decided that life has to change? You were both hard working the day-to-day grind, as we call it. It sounds like so. Was there that moment where you both sat down together and said life's got to change? I want to dive into that.
Speaker 3:And I think for me, when the doctor said to me you're one hour from death. I became silent after that but it was like a big smack in the face and, okay, if I do make it, things are changing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I and we still both work very hard, but it's a question of finding balance right. I mean, I still have a full-time job, but now we balance it with the ability to be on the road to do the travels that we do. And you know, the world changed after COVID, so that's a lot easier today than it was before. But it's about balance at the end of the day. So, yeah, working hard and having a profession and having a job, but doing it at the same time as you're able to do other things and I were full-time RVers.
Speaker 3:Some people do part-time.
Speaker 1:Some people still have the nine to five type jobs. There's nothing wrong with that. I love what you said. It's finding that joy in life, I believe, really enjoying what you're doing. I think for me now I work harder than I ever did as a school teacher. I work longer hours, but I love what I do. Okay, but now let's get into it. You decided to buy the boat.
Speaker 3:I was going to say and also to live in the moment, because even now, traveling in the RV or traveling on the boat too, it's easy to get wrapped up in like the next thing or the next destination, and I really have to catch myself often and say, no, we're here now. We're enjoying this here and now and really try and be in the moment and be very intentional about it, because even in this lifestyle it's easy to get wrapped up with always looking at the next thing and looking forward to the next thing and not really taking full advantage of where you are and you know what you're doing, and really try and make a deliberate, conscious effort to be aware of that and enjoy the moment and live in the moment.
Speaker 1:And I'm glad you said that and that is a common thread through the RV Life podcast and our guests being in the moment. I call it being present when Dan and I started out and this is a repeat of a conversation that's probably on last week's podcast episode we're here in this destination thinking about the next one, or we're traveling, thinking about the destination and, as we always say, it's about the journey. What is there in and around you that's as important or as exciting as that destination you have planned? So I'm glad you said that it is a repeat theme through podcasts and I think people need to hear that. Okay, so now you buy a boat. You went from New York to Washington DC, you're in Florida and now you're boating. What happens next? What happens after the boat?
Speaker 3:So we started boating up and down the East Coast. We went to the Bahamas, the Dry Tortugas, but in the end with boating you're limited to, in our case, the East Coast and with the size of the boat you're limited to the same destination. So we did that for five years and we were ready for a change. We had a powerboat, so we thought we'd change to a sailboat and change things up and keep things interesting. So we did our sailing certificates, we learned how to sail, got our certificates and then decided to sell our powerboat to buy a sailboat. And just at that point as we sold our powerboat, covid shut everything down. We thought that's probably not the best time to buy a boat, especially in the beginning. There was so much confusion, boaters were lost, maritas were closed, nobody knew where to go. So we were staying home that year for the very first time in Florida during the summer, during hurricane season, and we had four dogs, as you season, and we had four dogs, as you mentioned, and we also had two rabbits. At the time. We needed a way to be able to evacuate in case of a hurricane and be able to be self-sufficient in case of loss of power, water, whatever, with the dogs and the rabbits, and the only way we could think of being able to do that was to buy an RV Even though never in my life had I ever thought of getting an RV like never. And so we decided to buy an RV and found out that just about everybody else in the country had also decided to buy an RV and there were no RVs available anywhere. We were phoning around frantically. There were no RVs available anywhere. We were phoning around frantically. Every time we found one online, it was already sold. And then, finally, a dealership in Jacksonville, florida, called us and he said I've got one coming in and it's not sold yet. Do you want it? And we're like, fine, we'll take it. We hadn't seen it.
Speaker 3:It turns out that it was a 17 foot travel trailer. It's quite small for two adults and four dogs and two rabbits. Yes, that is small. Yes, it sat in the driveway. And we're like okay, what now? How do you hook this up?
Speaker 3:I Googled how to hook up an RV, or RV for newbies or whatever, and KYD Keep your Daydreams video came up, and so we watched that video, and then YouTube and all its wisdom started suggesting other videos that we might like, and so we started watching it and it was nice. So we took the RV to the Florida Keys for a little shakedown trip to make sure everything worked in case. We did, but we weren't really thinking that we would use it, it was really just in case. But we started watching these, thinking that we would use it. It was really just in case. But we started watching these videos and we saw people traveling the country and seeing all these bucket list locations that we always said, oh, it'd be nice to go there sometime, or we should do that sometime. And then, with COVID, we said, why not? Let's just take this travel trailer and go and do a road trip.
Speaker 3:And before we knew it we'd done eight months on the road. We'd done all of the Eastern United States. We had stopped at the Hershey RV show and ordered another RV, a bit bigger, and so after eight months we came home and waited for the next RV, left again, did another eight months and we did that three times. So we've now done three eight-month road trips. We've been to all of the lower 48 states. We've been to over 40 national parks and a whole bunch of national monuments, lakeshore, seashore all that Seen, a bunch of roadside attractions and yeah, but the thing is so I had a long list and the more videos I watch and the more Instagram posts I see, the longer the list gets, but then, as I'm checking them off and we're visiting them, I keep adding it too. So the list of things that we want to see still keeps getting longer. So we're not done. We're not done traveling yet.
Speaker 1:So now, were you both, jonathan? Were you both on the same page when one of you said let's get an RV? And again, the RV was really an emergency type how do we get out of here? Were you both on the same page? Were you on board with this, jonathan?
Speaker 2:No, absolutely. We generally are both on the same page when it comes to those sorts of choices. I remember when we decided to buy our first boat the same thing finding houses, places to live the boat we didn't spend much time. The first boat that we walked on and saw that was available was the size that we decided to buy it there, and then that's generally our. Once we've decided to do something, we just get on and do it, we just do it, and we're generally on the same page as to what we want to do and how we want to do it.
Speaker 1:And that was right and that's good to know. I get a lot of people that'll ask or I'm very involved with listening to what's going on in the RV community and a lot of people say I'm trying to convince my husband or I'm trying to convince my wife to go RVing. How do I convince them? And it's funny because those of you that know Dan and my story, it was during COVID. We had this large house in Las Vegas. Everything was shut down and Dan called me up to the office and he sat there at his big desk with all his computer monitors and he said why don't we sell everything and buy an RV and go full-time RVing? And I started laughing. I literally started laughing, and I looked up and I said you're serious.
Speaker 1:Now, through that point I had been in an RV or, quote unquote camping for seven days. That was my experience and we started talking about it. I'm like, okay, we're sitting here. What are we going to do? How are we going to do this? There were so many questions and for us, again, the whole idea, because prior to that, dan had a near-death experience and we decided we were going to live life fully. I quit my job as a teacher of 20 years. I quit years before that and I said, okay, our mission has been to inspire people to fully live life, whatever that looks like for them. But how are we going to do that, being in an RV? So again, we looked at all the YouTube channels. Kyd was one of them. Today is Someday Changing Lanes, you name it. We were listening and I said, okay, we have a message. We could go out there and inspire people to get out.
Speaker 1:And during COVID in Las Vegas, the entire strip was shut down. It had never been before. It was a scary time. There had to be chains on the doors of the casino and security outside because the doors weren't ever meant to lock. They didn't lock because they were open 24-7. So it was a very weird, strange time.
Speaker 1:So Dan and I started going out and just exploring the area that we were in, things that we had never explored, never thought about seeing and doing, and we started doing video on the places in and around Las Vegas, and so we were doing that to inspire people to get out and live life. Don't wait for the tragic event, don't wait till the near death experience and what I connected with you guys, and this is something that stuck out and I actually had notes when we spoke and you said you believed in exploring your own neighborhood and doing it intentionally, seeing things even in your own area, and you also said it didn't matter the budget or the ability level. Because I think that for so many people they say I can't afford an RV, I can't afford to go full time. You don't have to.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit, or a lot, about getting people out there exploring their area. We explored Las Vegas in a way we had never done in the years that we had lived there. Help our listeners to know where do I start? How do I do this?
Speaker 3:I think, again, it's really about being intentional about it. It's a choice of lifestyle to have that curiosity, to want to go out and do something that you haven't done before, or go and do those things. There might be a restaurant in your neighborhood and you've always said, oh, I'd like to try that sometime. Go and try it. Just go and do it. Or order a new dish at the place where you normally go, or have a look if there's free events going on near you and just go. The thing is, you have to get yourself out there, and it has to be a conscious decision, because otherwise you're just going to continue in the same ways you were going. And so what I meant by inspiring people to go out and explore with the books, it's not just going out and see the United States or go see the world. It's really also close to home.
Speaker 3:And now, in the months that we're home, we do that very specifically. We ask ourselves the question if we were here on one of our trips, what would we be doing? Where would we go? And so we've been to see music. We've lived here since 2017. We've gone to see museums that we'd never gone to see. There's a state park nearby that we hadn't gone to Restaurants that we always said we wanted to try. We're like, okay, let's go, let's go do it, let's check off all those things that we've wanted to do. There's a few state parks.
Speaker 1:Where are you? Where are you located? Palm Beach, oh, okay, all right, where?
Speaker 3:are you looking on beach? Oh okay, all right, just our listeners. No god, yeah, sassy, well yeah. But I think the point is that you have to be deliberate about it and make the conscious choice. It's a lifestyle to have that curiosity and get that excitement from doing new things. Not everybody wants to do that, perhaps, but if you do have that joy that you get when you see something new or you experience new things or you taste new things, and then be deliberate about it and try and make those choices.
Speaker 2:And the intent with the books, very explicitly, was not to make them just for RVers, right. So they're not RV manuals, right. They are an exploration guide for anybody, whether you're a car, a van, an RV. It doesn't really matter Motorcycle, a bicycle if you're doing a bicycle tour. So the whole point about the books is just to provide us inspiration. Travel, whether it's local or whether you're crossing the country.
Speaker 3:And also for people who don't necessarily have the luxury of being able to go out and travel at all, at least to give them that opportunity to explore. It in sort of pages of the books, and you can still read about new things and find out about new things. A lot of people also write to me that it brings back memories, maybe places they visited when they were a child with their parents, or it reminded them of things, and so there's different ways in which you can have a curiosity and explore. You don't necessarily have to spend money and go out there. There's other ways of doing that. It's all about the mentality and the lifestyle choices, I think. So let's talk.
Speaker 1:The books are called the Long Way Home, an American Adventure. Let's talk specifically.
Speaker 3:So there are two of them, now, correct, and there's two more coming out this year and then another two coming out next year.
Speaker 1:Wow. So for our listeners who haven't seen them yet, explain what the books. They're absolutely beautiful. I think you are great with words. I don't have the words to describe, but they are beautiful. So explain to our listeners what these books are like, what you did, what's in the books? First of all, thank you.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that. So what I've tried to do in the books is to give the readers an experience of what it's like to visit that particular location or attend that particular event, say something like the Balloon Fiesta. It's a short travelogue on one page with our personal experience, some background information, some fun facts, some history, whatever is relevant to the experience, and then on the opposite page there are nine pictures of the location or the event, and what I try to do with the pictures is keep them as realistic as possible so they're not highly saturated. There's no Photoshop in any of my pictures. What is what I saw? I don't edit out the trash can or a light post. I don't edit out people. It's how it is when we visit it.
Speaker 3:Because I want people to have that experience, if they do go there, they're not going to find something that's completely different from what they saw in the books, and there's a lot of Instagrammable locations that when you go there they look completely different from what you saw and it could be disappointing. So I really want it to be as if you were there with us or as if you were there visiting us. And so the first two books have 240 travelogues and each illustrated with nine pictures and they cover 27 states in the Eastern United States and Washington DC, and then the next two books that are coming out this year. They cover the Midwest and the mountain States and the final two books in the series. They cover the Kentucky bourbon trail, all of route 66, which was an amazing experience the West coast and the Florida keys. So we really try and cover the all of the lower 48 with, as we were saying, interesting locations, bucket lists, roadside attractions, national parks, state parks, whatever it is, and it gives the readers really an experience as if they were there.
Speaker 1:And it's because of your real and your authentic. When we spoke at the Balloon Fiesta, it was because of that. As you were talking about the books, I felt like I was there and it was real. And we talk a lot about the Instagram pictures and the perfect life whether you're in an RV or not, so I really resonated with that. I really appreciate the beauty in these books and we have a lot more to talk about, but I am gonna take a quick. Have a lot more to talk about, but I am going to take a quick break. I do want to talk about and I know you guys use the Open Roads fuel card and, jonathan, you called it the TSD card what do you love about this diesel fuel card?
Speaker 2:First of all, that I can roll up to the commercial pumps at the gas stations and use those and that basically you're getting the biggest discount you can for the fuel that you're buying. I wish I could use the same card for my pickup truck, but it doesn't run on diesel, so it's not an option yet. But the discounts and the convenience yes, it's very convenient.
Speaker 1:So the TSD card, which is what we had and that's what it was called, is now the OpenRoads fuel card. I actually have a card now that says OpenRoads fuel card. You can get one if you want. It still works the same. It's absolutely free to sign up. You attach your bank account, you have an app that shows you where the truck stops are, so you can pull into a truck stop fuel up, and we've saved from $0.05 up to I don't know $0.80 a gallon in the best of, and now I believe every year you'll get a notice that says how much you saved that year. It's just an amazing card.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's satisfying to get.
Speaker 1:Yes, because as we travel and you guys travel probably more than we do every five cents a gallon you could save is just awesome. Now you said something and this is not a sponsor but for those people who have gas, I started using Gas Buddies and there are a couple of those out there. I'm trying some of them and that does save on regular gas. Again, they're not a sponsor or anything. I just started using it and I like to share things that can be of benefit to people. Now OpenRoads also this year came out with the innovative tolling solution. It's a toll pass that covers all 48 states. That has been. We have used it. Unfortunately, when we were in Texas, we didn't have this toll responder. We went through the Texas tolls. It says they'll mail you your toll, whatever it costs. By the time it got to our mailing address, and then I got it and I went to pay it. It was past their 25 days and I have had major fines that I have incurred. The best thing about innovative tolling solutions from Open Road is the fact that if you get a violation, their concierge service will help you through it, like you either go on the app or you call them, and I have a person that now knows who I am and will work through any violations. So it has been great. All the information's in the show notes. We just love sharing things that have made our lives easier.
Speaker 1:But I want to get back to so much that you talked about that. I want to get back to. Your books are absolutely an inspiration. I love that. They are real. It is the real thing. When people go, they're going to see what you saw and what's in these pictures.
Speaker 1:One of the things that happened is, as Dan and I got on the road, I would take video of traveling or take a picture or send my mom the videos that we did on our YouTube channel. We have a YouTube channel exploring through our lens and we also wanted to show things the way they were, not over edit the video, not do all of this stuff that then somebody goes, and it's not the same thing with the podcast, as you asked before we got on the podcast. Is this going to be edited? No, the sounds will be corrected if there's sound issues, but it's not edited because I just want it to be real, authentic in the moment.
Speaker 1:And one of the things that happened as I was traveling my mother, who was in her eighties, used to say to me you know what? I've never traveled and now I could see these places, at least through you, and they're just beautiful and I wish I had traveled. And last year she was actually in hospice and passed away. And that's one of the big things she kept saying is the regret of never getting out, never going and doing these things. And I tell this story because this is what's important Get out and do it. And one of the things cities we talk about visiting Washington DC, they're great and do them if and when you can. But let's talk a little bit and I'm putting you on the spot. I don't tell you what I'm going to ask. Let's talk a little bit. Give our listeners some ways to start exploring their area, their own backyards.
Speaker 3:One of the things I find very helpful is watch the local news, and even when we're traveling, wherever we are, I love watching the local news because they always have little features on whatever festival is happening or whatever charity event or a new restaurant that's opening. And so many times we listen to something in the morning we're like, oh, let's go check it out. And that's what we do at home a lot as well, and talking to people. So when we're on the road, we talk a lot to people in dog parks and they're mostly local, so they always have great tips. You should go do this, see that. And at home, obviously, we don't go to the dog park, but we live in a community with a lot of neighbors with dogs and we walk the dogs and we bump into people all the time, and it's a lot is from talking to other people and watching the local news.
Speaker 3:I did want to come back to one thing you said about your mom, because my father, who actually also passed away at the end of last year, just before the end of our last trip, he was one of the main reasons why I started writing the books, because he was in the Netherlands, elderly, not able to travel really anymore and I posted always.
Speaker 3:I was already doing that because I've lived away from them for so long, so I would post on Facebook pictures of where we were, what we're doing, and with the time difference, he was six hours ahead, so he would get up in the morning, look at all the pictures and comment on all the pictures that I'd posted. And that's how we kept in touch and how we communicated. And then when we started doing the road trips, more people started looking at those things that were mostly for my dad, because even American friends, they saw so many things that they'd never been to or even that they'd never heard of, even though they are American, and so that kind of grew. And then that's how people started saying, well, you should write a book. And I was like, yeah, why not? So sharing that experience initially with my father was what was the inspiration behind the books?
Speaker 2:The other thing I would say is that it really doesn't matter where you live, how small the town, the city, whatever. You go on Google and say top 10 things to do in X yes, it will come up with the top 10 things to do.
Speaker 3:With something.
Speaker 2:yes, come up with the top 10 things to do with something. Yes, so one of the one of the things we do when we're going to places go to google and say top 10 things to do in this city or this area and google will come up with a list of generally a pretty good list of places to go see and do, and it's the primary things that are on the tourist agenda for that place, so that's a great resource and that's again a very inspiring story and that's great resources.
Speaker 1:So I lived, I was born and raised in Philadelphia, not in the city but on the outskirts, and then moved outside the city and I used to sit and say there's nothing to do. What is there to do? Honestly, I'm just being totally honest? And then I had kids and it's okay, what's there to do? And I felt like I was in this rut and this hole of there's nothing to do I'm finding. Once I went out and started exploring and even going out in the RV, I started to realize that something the what is there to do is just sometimes a local part and while that might sound very oh, that's just ridiculous it's simple Sometimes just starting and getting out In Philadelphia. Right now it is April. In the Philadelphia area it's April, the trees are blooming, they're absolutely beautiful, taking in the colors and the green and the. It's just beautiful. Years ago I couldn't even see that. It wasn't there for me. I wasn't aware and I think it doesn't always have to be these big things, a big event or big thing going out and getting out.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:And even times just and I I'm the books are called the Long Way Home, sometimes just taking a different route to or from, say, your local grocery store, like just the other day. We ended up in streets and I we've never been here before. This is really nice and just seeing, just seeing something different. It takes you out of your day-to-day routine, and so I felt like I'd been out visiting somewhere and all we did was take a different route home from the grocery store. It can be really simple things, and what you said that you didn't notice the flowers before and the beauty of it. It's a mindset.
Speaker 1:You have to be open to it and make those choices, and you absolutely do, and now, like over the last several years, we would go by and see some trail or some beautiful area where you could look over the mountains or whatever it was, and there are times and luckily we've had the luxury of doing that to just stop and say let's go spend 10 minutes and look at that.
Speaker 1:People make fun, and it always seems to come up on every, almost every podcast. When Dan tried to convince me to go RVing, he said we could go to every national park and we'll film every national park. And I said, okay, I'd like to see some of the national parks, but that wasn't the biggest thing on my thinking and my agenda. And here it is three years and a month that we've been on the road and I've been to zero national parks. And some people say, hey, I get that, and some people say, well, that's a shame. And here's why A lot of times when we're planning, we're thinking, okay, we're going to be in this area, a national park, we may be heading there, and then something changes and we do something. That's just incredible. Whether it's a big city we were going to go to Nashville a year or so ago and do the touristy quote unquote touristy big bucket list type things.
Speaker 1:And on the way we stopped at a Harvest Host shout out to Harvest Host. They have incredible, unique places that you could camp for a night. You could stay for a night and we would stop at these most incredible places and then Nashville didn't seem that important Not that it's not people love it and I'm not knocking it but we would find so many incredible places along the way and I think that's the part that people overlook Sometimes. I think that's the part when we started our being and it was like let's do everything and you're not present. It's like you said, it's mindset and being present.
Speaker 1:Getting back to how do I find things in the area, I love what you said about talking to people. I, for one, don't listen to the news, but you could certainly listen to the news to find out what events are coming. You could Google it, like you said, jonathan, but really talking to people, what's something in this area that you love doing? I would go into shops. We were in Sedona and I walked into one of the shops the shopping area in Sedona is to me toward the end of looking to do, and I walked into the shop and I said are you a local? And the guy said yes, and I said what do the locals love to do instead of the typical? And we did the typical things and he said we go down here and we go down this path and we head out, hang out in the desert and at night you could see the stars. That to me, was just an incredible experience, incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had a probably one of the best examples of that serendipity right In a conversation with somebody. It was last year when we were in Phoenix and we basically were in a Tucson and we were parked next to an older couple and they were in their eighties. We'd been there for a couple of days. They popped over and said hi, one of the days we were there they took pictures of the dogs.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:And then they we started chatting and they said Pictures of the dogs, exactly. And then we started chatting and they said hey, have you ever been to Oregon? Stop Pizza. And we're like what the heck it's like, why would? Is that a highlight? And they said we used to go there all the time. They still do. And they still do. You should definitely, if you're in the area, you should go to Oregon, stop Pizza. And we're like okay, we've got a recommendation for a pizza restaurant. So we made a plan to go to Organ Stop Pizza. I will tell you, it was one of the highlights of our trip, because this place has the largest Wurlitzer Organ in the world in a pizza parlor. The pizza's not bad. Actually, the pizza's pretty good. The whole experience. It's an experience we would never have had.
Speaker 2:No, and we nearly didn't, and we nearly didn't.
Speaker 3:Because even once we decided that, okay, they made that recommendation let's go. Why not let's go? When we arrived there, we looked at the outside.
Speaker 2:It's like a strip mall.
Speaker 3:And we're like oh, I don't know, I don't think this is our place. We're here, we're doing it, and it turned out to be such a fantastic recommendation experience.
Speaker 2:We really loved it and now we recommend it everybody if you're in mesa, if you're ever in mesa, organ Highlight, but it was completely random, we nearly didn't go. But somebody recommended it.
Speaker 3:And yeah, it was amazing.
Speaker 1:I love random stops and Dan and I were in and we talked about this earlier. You said I got a side note we talked about earlier. You said you wanted to make sure the lawn people weren't going to come in and have that noise in the background. And here where I am, the lawn people are here, so there might be some background noise, but we were in Sedona. We stayed in Cottonwood, just 20 minutes from Sedona, because we is that where you say Okay, yeah, we have thousand trails membership, which has been fantastic. So we were staying in Cottonwood. It's called Ferdie Valley and we have electric bikes and it has allowed us to expand our reach of just going out and exploring. So I highly recommend electric bikes just to be able to get out and explore.
Speaker 1:So we get on our bike, then we come out. We knew we were coming out of the campground area and now we're in an area we have no idea where we are. Should we be here? And Dan said, yeah, come on, let's go. And I'm thinking, no, we should get back. And we drive up, we ride the bikes up and there's these two huge stone gate posts. It just looked like something out of nowhere, so unexpected. And we ride down this path. There is a house there and I can't even describe it. I wish I could take pictures, like you do. I can't even describe it because it just looked like the whole scenery looked like I was in Tuscany. I've never been there. I've seen pictures, but that's what it looked and the feeling there was just amazing.
Speaker 3:Seen pictures, but that's what it looked and the feeling there was just amazing so we get off our bikes and we started exploring Alcantara.
Speaker 1:Yeah, alcantara winery and vineyard and winery.
Speaker 2:To um Bisbee.
Speaker 3:No, is it what Cause we? It was like that with those, those trees called the tall, thin trees.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I think we saw the tall, yes, thin trees. Yes, yeah, I think we saw that play. Yes, this is when you're pulling into Birdie Valley. It's right to the left and it says wine tasting. And Dan and I just don't really drink. It's not something that we don't care People do, just not something we do.
Speaker 1:We spent three days there. We did an interview with the gentleman that runs the place. It's actually on our YouTube channel Exploring Through Our Lens, but it was the feel of the place. It had this patio outside and you could sit out and have a snack, you could have wine tasting. The place was just amazing, just an amazing place.
Speaker 1:And, like you said, I never if I had said okay, what are the major things in the area? Sedona, obviously, place to visit. I loved it there, but this is one of those off the beaten path. You might not know about it. That is in my top five places that you know that we, it is in top five. The kicker was he showed us the river that runs through there and they do these boat rides, they do all kinds of activities, they do star watching and they explain how there's a convergence of two rivers. They do weddings there. And he said and if you want to get a massage, you can get a massage in the vineyard if you want. It's just incredible. Anyway, there's a video of it on exploring through our lens. But again, this is where, talking to the locals, talking to people in the area, finding those hidden places just so important and I think the time to do that as well.
Speaker 3:We had another coincidence experience when we were in Clarkdale, mississippi, recently. It's on the Blues Trail and we decided to stop by on our way and there's a famous harmonica blues harmonica player there who has a little shop and Jonathan, somebody we met at the Blue Fiesta, had recommended it chanting to them there. So we decided to go there and it was this little shop, one room. It was full of memorabilia. There were a few old guys sitting there chatting and we ended up spending the entire afternoon in that little shop With the four dogs.
Speaker 3:With the four dogs. They were just hanging out and chatting to these guys, the locals, who were just sitting there while the harmonica player was working on building and converting harmonicas and just chatting, people would wander in and out and then at some point somebody walked in and the room went silent and people lowered their head a little bit. I had no idea what was going on. Charleston knew he had seen it. The guy turns out. The guy who walked in was on a lot of the posters that were on the walls but I hadn't noticed. So after a while he says, desiree, do you know who this is? And I said Wow. He says Desiree, do you know who this is? And I said no. And then he said it's Charlie Musselwhite. And it turns out he's this major blues legend and we had just seen him. There was a whole exhibit on him in the Delta Blues Museum that we had visited before walking into the shop and he just sat there and hung out with the rest of them and we just spent the whole afternoon together.
Speaker 3:Petted the dogs afternoon. Petted the dogs, he petted the dogs and yeah, completely random experience random experience, but it's nice to have a way, where you travel, where you have the ability to do that, to just spend an afternoon chatting to locals and you said and I we keep bringing this back.
Speaker 1:It's mindset, it's walking in and even a place you've been to before and feeling like what else is there that's possible? It's being open to those experiences. So now let's talk a little bit. Let's get back to your book. First of all, the website is thelongwayhometravelscom, so people who are looking for your book go to the website. They're also available on Amazon and people can reach out to you when we are not finished with this podcast.
Speaker 1:I just want to make sure our listeners know how to get in touch with you, because you are incredible people with so much exciting information to share. You're also on Instagram at RV Cruising to share. You're also on Instagram at RV Cruising, and both of those things will be in the show note. I know people are listening while they're driving and exercising and hiking and whatever else they're doing while they are listening to the podcast. So, yes, rv Cruising and the website, thelongwayhometravelscom. We'll put that in the show notes and we still have some stuff to cover here. I want to know what's next for you guys. You have these two books, two more ready to come out. You said what's next? What's after that?
Speaker 3:Actually I haven't really talked about it much on the social. So you're getting an exclusive here.
Speaker 1:I'd love that, and it's a surprise for me too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so for this year we had an entire itinerary planned to do Atlantic Canada. So we were going to do Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, a whole bunch of the towns. We had everything booked the ferries, everything. But I was offered a publishing contract by a major US publisher to do a travel book for them which will come out after my books have come out, and so we'll be traveling for that book this year and also most of next year, and it's going to be about us scenic byways. So we'll be traveling the country.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we'll be traveling all over the country again all 48 states and but travel over the us scenic byways that is amazing, congratulations, and that'll come out.
Speaker 1:So we're looking at a year That'll be in 2026. 2026.
Speaker 3:Okay, so two years that comes out in 2026.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so before that comes out, you got to be back on the RV Life podcast so we can talk about it and launch that book. That is so exciting. Your books are truly amazing. They're going to be a piece of history, even, and certainly valuable content for people that are looking to travel, as well as people. I'm so grateful. I wish we were able to have this when my mother was looking at things. This would have been great for people who can't get out to have those experiences. Okay, so again, we're not finished.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you to stay with me. I'm going to cover the question of the week. I'm going to talk about our feature campground and we're going to chat just a little bit more, so I want our listeners to stick with me. Now, before we get to those things, I do want to talk about another incredible company NIRVC National Indoor RV Centers with six locations across the country. Dan and I connected with Brett Davis. It's over two years now that we've been connected with him. I always say this because I want it out there how amazing a man he is. He is the CEO and the founder of NIRVC. He works tirelessly in the RV industry as well as we can be to make the industry better for the community. Their dealerships sell Class A, b and C RVs and they are top-notch, absolutely top-notch. They do RV sales, both new and used. They do storage and repair and so much more. You can check them out at NIRVCcom. Again, the information will be in the show notes and I cannot say enough about them Now. In June they are doing an event that is called Music City Expo and it is June 4th to the 7th. I will be there, expo, and it is June 4th to the 7th. I will be there. My plan is to be there and provide whatever information and help I can for the industry and the community as well. Just check out the website. I'll put it in the show notes. It's an incredible event. If you are looking for an A, b or C RV, the major manufacturers will be there and they will allow people to drive the brand new, fresh off the press 2025 RVs. You'll be the first to get to see them. So again, that's June 4th to the 7th and I hope to see people there.
Speaker 1:Now for our listeners, we gave on Instagram. You can talk with Desiree and Jonathan on RV Cruising. On Instagram, you can reach out to Dan and I at RV Life Podcasts on Instagram and Facebook. We want to hear from you call, send a message, post. We want to hear questions from you. Things you're thinking about, thoughts, whatever it is. Questions for Desiree and Jonathan. Now.
Speaker 1:We have the question of the week every week and it is time now for the question of the week, and it's brought to you by Open Roads, innovative Tollway, the toll pass we talked about. That covers all 48 states and it has been a time saver and money saver for us. For sure. The question of the week comes from listeners, so we go to social media, to Facebook, and we ask that you reach out with questions to us, because we'll get experts on, we'll do the research, whatever it takes to get questions answered. And this week's question is about and I'll be honest, I lost the question and again, this is real life, real time. The question that I saw on Facebook was about traveling, and so when traveling, how far in advance do I need to book a campground? And that's a big one and it's been asked before. I'm going to give my take on it and I'm sure you guys have your take on it.
Speaker 1:As we come into the camping season, it is best to try and get those campgrounds booked. Certain areas are more popular so they book up quicker. I do find a lot of people book stuff up and then cancel. So if you don't have everything booked, certainly call before time. We had on Allie Rasmussen from Spacious Skies Campgrounds. She has 15 locations up the East Coast, amazing locations, and she said some of her locations do book up. If you are trying to get in last minute, call the campground and see if there has been a cancellation. A lot of times they can get you in and I think that's the case with a lot of campgrounds. What do you guys? How would you guys answer that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think for some holidays special holidays, weekends it's and if you're specific about where you want to be at those specific times, then it would be a good idea to book in advance, because those places, if they're desirable locations or desirable campgrounds, they will book up, especially on the weekends and the holidays. But if you're more flexible, I think it's usually possible to find something somewhere. If you can be flexible about the dates or if you're willing to move sites, maybe if you're staying for a longer period of time, and there's also, for example, in Florida in the winter. Everybody was like it's impossible to get a site in Florida in the winter. It's not true. It's just some of the very desirable campgrounds, like the state parks.
Speaker 2:John Pennekamp.
Speaker 3:In the Florida Keys the state and it's actually a good example. So the state parks did book out way in advance but, like you said, you can still get cancellations, so it's definitely worth checking. But also there's a number of private campgrounds and we went there last minute in December and there was so much space. Yes, the state parks were fully booked but there was so much space we had absolutely no trouble finding campgrounds for whatever dates we wanted. If you're flexible and not too hung up on where exactly you want to be, it's not going to be very difficult. If you're very specific about where you want to be, book in advance.
Speaker 1:And that's the thing. First of all, how flexible are you? And for Dan and I, we make changes on the fly all the time. Somebody calls us to go to an event or whatever. That is so flexibility for us. We don't get set on. I have to be in this campground so it's possible. Again, bottom line, know the kind of traveler, know what feels light for whoever is in traveling, and traveling I just spoke with. Last week's episode was with a couple with two kids, three kids, and consider everybody in the group. Again, for Dan and I, flexibility. And last minute we fly by the seat of our pants. We've never been left out on the side of the road, sometimes Cracker Barrels are our best friend. So I'd love that suggestion, especially as we get into camping, full-on camping season. Call the places and say this is what I'm looking for. Can you put me on a waiting list? Some people will do waiting lists, others don't. So, if you hear, go ahead, jonathan.
Speaker 2:I was going to say if the destination is the aim of your trip, then plan ahead. Right. If you're aiming to be somewhere specifically and you want to be in that place, then plan ahead. I will tell you from experience, the three years that we've done. As Desiree said, we very rarely we do a lot of plan ahead just because we were being very intentional about the coverage that we needed for the books. So we did. Most of our itinerary was actually planned ahead for the entire trip. But I will tell you that if you, there's one place I would say that if anybody's going to you've got to plan ahead, and that's Oregon, the Oregon coast, the Oregon coast and the campsites. There are not very many private campsites and the state parks fill up within seconds of the window opening.
Speaker 3:First come, first serve.
Speaker 2:And a lot of first come, first serve. So if you are, if your intention is to explore the Oregon Coast, that's the one place I would say plan ahead, because doing that last minute or trying to find an open spot because there's so little private camping on the Oregon coast, that's a real challenge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's funny that you say that, because when Dan and I started, we were six months in and we were in Oregon, in Bend, with our kids and grandkids and the smoke from the fires were really bad and we said, all right, what do we do? And it's let's go to the beach. And that's where we called Thousand Trails. We called a membership specialist from Thousand Trails we had heard about it, one of those YouTube channels and we called and we said, listen, we don't, we want to hear about the membership. Blah, blah, blah. We got all the information.
Speaker 1:We decided to buy a camping pass on Saturday and on Sunday we were able to check into Whaler's Rest, which is on the coast of Oregon, middle of August. They were like, yeah, okay, we could accommodate you and we were able to stay for a week and then after that we bebopped around the Oregon coast, we stayed actually there's one near Bend, so we were able to stay there and then, a year later, we went up the Oregon coast and we hit the. There's 3,000 trails, other 1,000 trails up the Oregon coast. So it's funny you're saying that in the experience. Again, if all of a sudden your plans change and you decide you want to go to Oregon, keep trying. Like I said, if you're flexible, that could work. If you're more set on where you want to be more intentional, plan ahead. So this is a question that people ask all the time. I'm glad you brought up Florida too.
Speaker 2:And this year we're doing completely the opposite, which is we haven't. We know where we're going, so we know the route, but we've not booked anything because the nature of what we're doing this year with the scenic byways we don't really know exactly how long it's going to take to do each byway and we've got to shoot photography. This is a coffee table style book, so we've got to get good photography as we go along. You've got to be flexible, so we're really not booking anything for eight months and going to wing it every step of the way. So that's going to be an interesting experience like you're saying, it's a different.
Speaker 3:It's a different intent, because this time the the intent is not the destination or the event, or it's nothing specific. It literally is the road and the routes that we're traveling. Yeah, the reservations are secondary to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, secondary reservations Most people don't say, but that's really cool that you have that, can be flexible and just be in the moment of it and I'm so excited about that.
Speaker 1:I want to hear how that's going. Please stay in touch. We'll let people on social media know how that's going. Now that the exclusive here on the RV Life podcast has been announced, I'd love that. And so one final feature that the RV Life podcast has is our feature campground and the feature campground of the week. I'm going to say I actually don't have the feature campground. Let me get this whipping. So each week we will do a featured campground. With all the changing going on, new setup and everything. I did not get a featured campground, so we will post one on social media.
Speaker 1:The idea of the featured campground is, each week to talk about a campground that you can find on campgroundsrvlifecom. The RV Life Campground Reviews are the most comprehensive reviews. What I love about these reviews is that they are for RVers, by RVers. None of the reviews can be bought or paid for. They are authentic from people like you and I. We can put on there the Wi-Fi connection, ift mobile how's that connection? What it's like getting in and out, what features they have, how I felt about the campground, the people that are there.
Speaker 1:So if you want to check that out. You can go to campgroundsrvlifecom we also talked about. We all use RV life and the RV trip wizard to plan our destinations and for our RV GPS, rv safe GPS. You could check out that at RV trip wizardcom. If you put RV like podcast in the discount code, for the discount code, you get 25% off of the year, which is a great value, and on that I am going to ask people to reach out to Desiree and Jonathan at RV Cruising on Instagram. You can reach out to us on Instagram and Facebook at RV Life Podcast and I want to thank both of you so much for being on sharing this information and, most importantly, for creating these amazing, inspiring books. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having us, patti. I'm glad we finally got it together. I know we're able to have this chat and hopefully our paths will cross somewhere and we'll be actually sitting around a fire and chatting some more.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Patty.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Thank you, and I'm looking forward to that. So now I'll say I am Patty Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life podcast, and I want to remind you to have a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.