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
Navigating Health Challenges While Exploring America
Have you ever found yourself held back by fear when pursuing your dreams?
Meet Josh and Cassie Bailey, the Wild Thornbailey's, who join us for a heartfelt discussion about transforming tragedy into an intentional way of living. After a near-tragic event involving their son, they made the bold decision to embrace full-time RV life, exploring 48 states and enriching their lives with experiences over possessions. Through their story, we see the power of prioritizing memories and experiences, even amidst financial and emotional challenges, and how this lifestyle can inspire anyone to live more fully.
Managing type 1 diabetes and celiac disease on the road is no small feat, and we delve into the emotional and practical aspects of this journey. We provide a roadmap for those curious about RV living, drawing from our new book filled with tips on road schooling, RV maintenance, and creating a sense of privacy. From the cost-saving benefits of memberships like Thousand Trails to the vibrant community of fellow travelers, our stories and advice highlight the importance of living life resiliently, savoring each moment, and making memories that last a lifetime.
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What are the fears that keep you from living the life of your dreams? Today, my expert guests and I hope to provide insight to help you live your life without regrets. I'm Patti Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. Over the last three years, it has been a whirlwind for sure. During the pandemic, my husband, dan and I decided that we were going to sell everything, buy an RV and travel the country. We knew we weren't living life fully and we decided that sitting around waiting for things to happen was just not what we were looking to do. Now. When we started out, we took about three months to make the decision buy the RV and hit the road. It wasn't necessarily a lot of time, didn't do a lot of preparing. Luckily, it worked out super well. While we were thinking about this, there were a ton of questions, a lot of concerns and a lot of fears around this decision. Today I can say I am so very happy we got through most of that because I don't think you ever get through all of it and that we jumped in and did it. The RV Life podcast was created to educate, entertain and explore the RV lifestyle, with the mission to inspire you to live life to the fullest. You don't want to miss all the wisdom and expertise my guests will share with you. Their lives have been anything but easy. They had to be resilient in the face of major hurdles and, while we will share stories that are difficult to hear, this episode promises to be inspiring and uplifting this week.
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Speaker 1:So, as I am enjoying the spectacular colors of the fall leaves here in Pennsylvania, winter weather is just behind us. A lot of the questions that I've been getting is from RVers as to how to prepare for those cold weather days. My research shows that people camping during the winter months has increased In 2023, it was 31.2% camp during winter and some of those people are camping in the cold weather and the questions that they're asking is how to keep warmer and a lot of the conversation is about skirting around the RV. Now I met the inventor of air skirt, which revolutionizes RV living, and this man created air skirts. Now, just to give you a visual and it's really better, if you go to their website, look at what these things look like, because they're great, big, gray, torpedo looking things. They inflate easily and you deflate them. They're nice and compact so you can easily store them. But their design helps. It has a thermal barrier technology, durable material, aerodynamic design, extreme weather resistance and will keep you warmer in the cold air. You can visit them at airskirtscom and they're also offering my RV listeners discount code and that code is RVPOT. Check them out at airskirtscom.
Speaker 1:But now I'm so excited to jump in and talk about my guest today. This episode of the RV Life podcast is personally important to me. The two people that I'm going to have on are called the Wild Thornberries. They are a family of six who've been living full-time in an RV for over five years. After almost losing their son when he was just five years old, they decided to live life more intentionally. Since then, they have traveled to 48, seven states, countless national parks gone, parasailing, explored lava tubes, caves, hiked high mountains and snorkeled the deep sea. Documenting and sharing their nomadic lifestyle, they inspire others to live life more intentionally. Josh and Cassie Bailey welcome to the RV Life Podcast.
Speaker 2:Hey, how are you?
Speaker 1:Life podcast. Hey, how are you Good? I'm so glad to have you on. We met a couple months ago at the largest RV show in Hershey and we heard each other's stories. There was an instant connection. We had the opportunity to have a long conversation the other day and I knew you guys had to be shared with my listeners. So let's jump in Tell my listeners how you made that leap from working your regular sort of nine to five jobs to full-time RV life.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. We were working the regular nine to five jobs. My husband was a contractor, Josh here was a contractor and I was a photographer. So he was working sunup to sundown. I was working nights and weekends.
Speaker 3:And then our son started having some weird symptoms, some things going on. I thought he was just getting sick, mono making him weak, and in February we decided to take him into the hospital. We weren't sure what was going on with him. I thought he was just going to get antibiotics, and we were told that he likely wasn't going to wake up the next morning if we hadn't taken him in that day. And so, after getting the news that we had just almost lost our son and he was just dying right in front of us, basically we sat in the hospital with so many regrets. All we could think of was, oh my gosh, like he has barely been out of the state, he hasn't seen anything, he hasn't done anything. And while we were in the hospital, my husband actually lost his job even.
Speaker 3:And with that we just decided OK, we need to change something. Something has to change. We need to live more intentionally, we need to spend more time with our kids. I don't want to ever be brought to this scenario again and have all of these regrets running through my head. And so we decided to just sell everything and get an RV. We were going to just go on an adventure for a year, try to figure out where we wanted to settle, but we fell in love with it. So we have been living in an RV for over five years now and absolutely love it. We have, like you said, we've traveled all around the country. We've made so many memories and if we were sitting in a hospital room again because of any of us in the family I know 100% certain, I would be able to say I have zero regrets. I have lived a thousand lifetimes. My kids have a million memories with me and I have a million memories with them.
Speaker 1:And that in itself could be the beginning in the end of the show, because, if nothing else, if people could hear that, and just did you want to add to that, not to put you on the spot, but I was no, no, she.
Speaker 2:She says things so eloquently and beautifully and this was 2019.
Speaker 1:this was five years ago. Your son was five years old. It seems like a common theme when I get people on the podcast that there's somebody close to them that has either a near death experience or their parents pass away, which gets them to say you've got to live life fully. My story is very similar. 12 years ago my husband Dan got ill and almost didn't make it, and that's where my decision to live life fully came. And I'm hoping that with your story, my story, the stories people hear on the podcast, that people don't have to wait for those moments that they can figure out how to live their life fully.
Speaker 1:And none of us are trying to convince anybody to go full-time RV. It is not for everybody, right, but today we are going to work through some of the questions people have, the fears that hold people back from living their life fully. We're going to give some great you guys have so much great information after five years to help people make those decisions Do I want to go RVing? Do I want to go full time? So we're going to cover all of that today. And, like you said, you were a construction worker, josh, and Cassie, you were working as a photographer. You told me how you never really saw each other and I guess in those two careers you had a ton of money to get started the RV lifestyle right.
Speaker 4:No, not at all.
Speaker 3:We were really trying to build our careers, we wanted to build something, but we were honestly living paycheck to paycheck and being business owners and if there's any business owners listening, you understand. Some months are great, like summer months for photographers and construction workers it's great. Winter months it's if you were not storing up for the winter. You're in trouble because it's a lot harder. Either jobs are just not paying as well or you're just taking scraps kind of thing. It's just. It's so unpredictable. So that specific winter it was.
Speaker 3:It was a very difficult winter for us. We were counting quarters just for the parking garage at the hospital for our son. It was really hard. So we did not have the funds to just jump in and buy the nicest, newest RV. We ended up getting a used RV for $4,000 off of Facebook marketplace, which is crazy, right, but there's still. I still see deals. I mean there was some water damage we had to fix in the RV and we had to gut the whole thing and make it look nice and pretty for us. But it was ours, like. We owned. This RV and it was 4,000 was a lot more affordable for us than trying to go and get a loan which our credit wasn't even good to do that.
Speaker 1:And I wanted to bring that out because I know that when people look at what other people are doing and I did it myself there's this idea that they have it all together. These people have money. Success has been easy, I think, over time. That's just the belief system. And so, like you, dan and I, when we started out, dan's career had been shut down. He was in the entertainment industry. We were in Las Vegas, he was opening a show on the strip. That shut down. No money coming in, money flowing out. I don't know what we were thinking of, how we were going to make it, but that's what we want to talk about today, right? It's resilience and, you know, being able to step up even when there's all these fears and concerns. Right, I mean, that's what we talked about yesterday.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It's one word that explains probably every RVer can relate to it's resiliency. Like you have to be resilient If you want it bad enough. We wanted it as bad as we wanted to be able to breathe. We needed a change. We needed to have more time with our kids, and we were able to be. We're scrappy. Rvers are scrappy. We go out and we fight our way for what we want, and it may be a more challenging route, but nothing is more challenging than sitting in one place and living with regret and possibly never getting to know what life could have been. I would much rather deal with the challenges RV life brings than having those regrets sit on my shoulders for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:And exactly the reason that I, you know, throw in the towel. I mean three months to make this decision sold everything, sold the house, had a little storage unit, and said, okay, I had only been in an RV seven total nights to that point. So there I was saying, okay, whatever. Now there were a lot of things I didn't know, I didn't know and a lot of mistakes and things like that. But it's like you said, you find a way. So you and I the three of us talked about how you get past those fears. What got you up in the morning? And we talked about our like why get up out of bed and say, okay, I got to go do this. This is going to be tough? You said how much money did you say you had in your bank account when you started RVing?
Speaker 2:I think I remember it being around like $1,500 when we ended up finally leaving New York and I say finally leaving New York, because there was, there was a one week delay before we could even leave.
Speaker 2:We got away from home and had an issue, and so we, we started and, like she said, we, we basically had to own. We owned the life. I mean, it was, it was our life, it became our life. We didn't have, we didn't give ourselves any other options. So when things went wrong, or when things do go wrong, it's we have to take care of it. I mean, this is our life. There's no, we're not going back. We didn't give ourselves that option. So so we, we left and we didn't know what we were doing there.
Speaker 3:We'd never been in an RV beforehand either. We picked up the RV and had never towed an RV and never stayed the night in an RV in our entire lives, and we're like this is the one we're going, we just owned it because our why was? We either do this lifestyle where we get more time with our kids, we figure it out as a family unit, or we continue on the path we were continuing on, which was high speed to destruction, of constantly burnout, constantly working, never seeing each other, trying to scrape and claw at building something that may or may not work out, and it just wasn't what we didn't want it.
Speaker 1:We did not want a life where we didn't even have time for travel, let alone money for travel, and RV life made that affordable for us money for travel and RV life made that affordable for us and there's controversy around that like is living the RV life less expensive or more expensive than living in the house? It is one of those great debates because it depends on where you lived. But again, the whole messaging here is we, dan and I made it work, you guys made it work. Now let's go back. You have four kids. Actually, we talked about the one, so now how old are your kids? Talk about your kids because four of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we actually have a teenager in the RV. Our oldest is 13, and we started when she was nine Wow, or eight, she was almost nine, and then our son is 11. Our other two are daughters and they are nine and seven seven next week, but she tells everybody she's seven.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, happy birthday to her. Yeah, they like let's give her the whole month of cell phone. Let me help. So, four kids. So for people, my listeners I have listeners that are full-time RVers, part-time RVers, sometime RVers, and I have those listeners that are dreaming about the RV life, whether it is full-time, part-time or sometime that they're dreaming. Those fears get in the way. I have kids or I don't have kids. Is there enough money? How am I going to do this? And the whole point is to show people that you can make it work. And, like you said, josh, there wasn't an option. You weren't turning back. You burned the bridges, so to speak. You were making this happen for your kids, and that is just incredible to be able to do that, given that you didn't have it all you know, given to you and handed to you in the best of RV and all the money. That's pretty incredible. So, when you made this decision, how did your family react? What did you tell them and what was their reaction?
Speaker 2:So we announced to our families that we were going to be moving into the RV and we didn't get the greatest reaction at first. I mean, I think that's common. There's a lot of fear that surrounds, that kind of there's. I mean, you're just going to go and what are you going to do for work? What are you, what are your kids going to do for friends? What are? There's a lot of fear, a lot of questions that go into the initial oh my gosh, somebody I care about in love is going to do this thing. That is so off the wall crazy and I'm I'm afraid for them. And sometimes fear makes people act differently and and there was a lot of that in the first year specifically surrounding our life and not everybody. I mean, we had a lot of support from from friends, from some family. So it was, there was a lot of mixed reaction there.
Speaker 1:And I see it with people all the time, and I think, people that are trying to make a change in their life especially if it's a major change, there's always that what are people going to say, being judged, I think. For me, I don't know how much I told people. I had a couple of friends that I told, because when Dan first presented it to me, we were sitting in our house and he called me up to the office and he said, hey, let's just sell everything, buy an RV and just travel the country. And I laughed. I thought he was joking. I literally started laughing and I looked up and said you're serious, what is this going to look like? What are we going to do? How are we going to make money? How are we going to afford it? What are we going to buy? All the questions that come flooding in. And so I had a few close friends that were in Las Vegas and the one friend I sat down with, her, dan, and I sat down with her and I thought she was going to say you're crazy, don't do this, you're crazy, don't do this. That was what I was looking for her to say. Like this is insane. And she said you know, we told her Dan's idea and she's like that sounds like a great idea. You could do this and that. How cool would that be? And I'm like are you nuts? Like so it was. It was hard for me to wrap my head around it and I think that the reason I want to bring this out is because the judgment that I've heard over the years that people have gotten either the judgment that their family or friends has damn right said or what they think you know their family's thinking, and I think that was the case for me. Just do it Now. As most people know, the podcast is not scripted. We all had this amazing conversation and I just want that conversation to be shared with my listeners because I believe they're going to get incredible value.
Speaker 1:One of the things that we talked about that has come up three times for me in the last week is not having regrets, and you mentioned it when we spoke. You mentioned it today. One of the things that I realized when I started RVing my mother was in her eighties, her health was starting to fail and she I would go on these adventures and send her pictures and she said, oh, it's so nice to see these places you're going to. I never got the opportunity and now I feel like I'm traveling along with you, I'm along for the ride and, as some of my listeners know, last year she became ill and went into hospice and, because of the RV lifestyle, I was able to go be with her at my brother's for the six months that she was in hospice, stay with her, take care of her, and what I had a lot of because there was a lot of conversation was about all the regrets she had.
Speaker 1:She was 87 years old. She was grateful for the three kids she raised, her three grandkids, seeing two of them get married, and five great grandkids. She was very grateful, but had a ton of regrets never seeing anything, never going places. She didn't fully enjoy life. And so this is, you know, the messaging that we talked about, that I want to share. We have in common. I want to share with our listeners.
Speaker 3:So we have two stories to point on that. But Josh just went to go take care of Josiah's levels. His levels are going off, just so you know. He stepped out real quick to help. His levels are going off, just so you know.
Speaker 4:He stepped out real quick to help with Josiah.
Speaker 1:Let's address that. That was like an alarm from his phone. Yes, josiah has type 1 diabetes. Yes, and he's your son that was ill and your gut said take him to the hospital. It was a very touching story. You took him to the hospital, where the doctor then stands there and tells you if you hadn't brought him, he would not have made it through the night the worst possible scenario for any parent. Luckily, it worked out very well.
Speaker 3:He was five years old and leading up to that, he had a whole slew of symptoms that didn't seem like they related to each other. He was drinking a lot of water, which I figured, oh, he's a growing boy, he's active, he's probably just thirsty. Then he was peeing a lot and started peeing the bed and I'm like, well, that happens with five year olds, sometimes Growing boy, he's drinking more. Of course he's going to pee more. He was having weird pains by his belly button. I thought his jeans were like digging into his stomach, like I had an excuse for every single one of his symptoms until the day he came down the stairs. It was February of 2019. It was February 12th. I remember the day like it's a birthday. He came down the stairs and he says to me mommy, something's wrong inside my body, which is not something a typical five-year-old would say. But if you've met Josiah, he's so articulate and he's very in tune with his body and everything. And I was like, okay, buddy, just rest, lay down, maybe you're sick. You got to get it off of you. So I thought maybe he had mono.
Speaker 3:I remember my husband having mono and he was just weak the whole time and I was like this is probably mono. It's winter, kids get that. And, um, he slept all day long on the floor in front of the little space heater with, like his blanket. And by the end of the night Josh came home, you know, after dark, with construction, cause that was the life we were living and he's like okay, buddy, go upstairs and brush your teeth and get ready for bed. He gets up from the space heater and walks over to the bottom of the stairs and just collapsed, he's whispered. He goes daddy, I can't, can you carry me? I'm too weak, okay, and in my gut I knew, right then I'm like something's that's he's not fighting this mono. Well, he's not, his little body's not fighting this. So Josh carried him up the stairs and we kind of had a conversation.
Speaker 3:I was telling anybody who would listen I'm like something's wrong with my son. Like, as a mom, you want to be told you're not crazy, just take him in, you're fine, you got it, just take him in in. Like you need somebody to give you that validation, because you feel like you're always overreacting with everything and always overthinking things. And I actually had a friend who was like um, my husband has type one diabetes. I don't mean to scare you, but maybe you should just take him in because those symptoms kind of seem like they align. And it was that moment that Josh took him in Cause.
Speaker 3:I had a nursing baby home. My youngest was six months. Josh took him in and I was like bring up type one diabetes, but I think it's mono, he probably just needs antibiotics. And then Josh calls me from the hospital and says we're taking an ambulance. Josiah has type one diabetes, it's likely DKA. He's not responding very well and I thought he was joking with me. I'm like there's no way they're taking my baby in an ambulance like to a bigger hospital. What's going on?
Speaker 3:And I got to the hospital with Josh and the doctor comes in behind me and she says you guys are so lucky because if you did not bring him in tonight he was not waking up the next morning. And no mom wants to hear that. I can't imagine the amount of times that doctor has had to say I'm sorry, I can't do anything for you and I'm glad that we weren't one of those cases. But you make excuses. I made so many excuses like he's fine. He's fine, he's just a growing boy. He lost all this weight because he's a growing boy. He's losing his baby face.
Speaker 4:And in reality my son was dying before my eyes and we were so busy with our careers. That's a real big regret. We were so busy that I didn't even see my kid dying in front of me and like you, sit in the hospital room and you're looking at your frail little boy, hooked up to the machines and in and out of it, like barely able to talk, and you think but I wanted to see him get married someday. I wanted to see him come alive on the top of a mountain. I wanted to see him kick balls around and have sleepovers, and there was a lot of regret in that room. A lot.
Speaker 3:And then my husband gets told oh, because you can't come into work while you're in the hospital with your son, we're giving your job to someone else.
Speaker 4:What? This is the American dream, right? You work your butt off for a company for years to get told you're replaceable. You work and you work, and you work. You think that's what you're supposed to do to pay for the house. You leave the house to work, to pay for the house and the car that you're working to pay for.
Speaker 3:And it's a rat race. You're on a mousetrap. There's no good ending to that. And then, when push comes to shove, and your kid is on his deathbed. You realize all the regrets. Every moment I spent at work, I wish I was with my kids and seeing them grow up Like. How oblivious was I to not see my kid just wasting away. And even as kids they were told to push through. He didn't know anything. Was that serious? He pushes through. Oh, I'm just thirsty, and it's just. It was hard.
Speaker 1:And I can't even imagine having had three kids and can't even imagine. And I wanted this story to be told so that people don't have to get to where you are, People don't have to lose that kid, that job, that house, whatever it is, before you know, they decide and we're all kind of crying right now decide. And we're all kind of crying right now. Whether somebody's a parent or not, I'm sure they're feeling for what could only imagine what that was like. I have three kids, grandkids, and could only imagine there's no really saying oh, I get what you went through, no, I don't. So you know, this is why I do the podcast. This is exactly why, week after week, regardless of what's going on in my life, that I do the podcast, so that I hope.
Speaker 1:I used to say I hope to inspire one person to get out there and truly live their life and be happy. And I want more than one. I want it to be viral. I want it to go viral. And you know the, the, the, the. You took something that some people would have just curled up and said, no, I can't do anymore, and you said just, there was no option. You weren't, there was no option. You were moving forward, living life fully, and there was no turning back, and that's the resilience you spoke about. And moving forward wasn't easy, right?
Speaker 3:Absolutely Moving forward. There was a lot of challenges coming with that. We had to learn how to be our son's pancreas. So he is on continuous glucose monitor. He gets insulin all day, every day. He doesn't get to just grab a bag of chips and watch a movie. He has to count. Okay, I'm going to have 21 chips, which is 36 grams of carbs. I have to get insulin for it, get the insulin, wait at least 15 minutes for it to start activating and then I can start eating and I have to eat slow because I don't want to eat faster than my insulin hits or I'm going to go really high and if my levels are really high I feel sick. It's an entire process.
Speaker 3:So we had to really learn how to manage his type one diabetes and I honestly think looking forward to the adventures and being together with our family got us through that, because I didn't want to. After that I was like how am I supposed to be his mom? Because this little boy would hide under tables and closets and beg me not to hurt him, because I would have to prick him with needles and give him insulin pens and I had to look at, we had to hold him down at some points and that's like hard. How am I supposed to look at my son, who I would protect with everything inside me? I'd take every single bit of pain away from him and I have to be the one to cause it. And it's either causing pain or he dies, and that's all. That's all we were given. Those were our options. You don't get to choose to be strong, you have to be strong, like there is no choice in it. And I think keeping my mind just focused on okay, sell the house, sell the things, get to the adventure. It gave me something to look forward in a time that was absolutely hopeless and dark for us.
Speaker 3:And at one point I was wondering. We were on the road for a year and I was wondering are we doing the right thing by our kids? Because we were getting all the comments. Everybody's saying this isn't stable for kids. How are they going to have friends which they have lots of friends how are they going to do this, how are they going to do that? And all those voices get into your head and you start to wonder am I doing the right thing?
Speaker 3:And at this time when I was wondering, that there was this gentleman parked next door to us and he was a single guy, he was elderly and he was standing outside just watching the kids play and he went and talked to us and he was like, hey, I just want to say you're doing a real good thing by your kids.
Speaker 3:And we're like, oh, thank you. You know, we told him a little bit of our story, almost losing our son and he just lost it. He said my wife and I had the retirement plan we were going to travel the country as soon as I retired from my job that I gave my whole life to, and she didn't make it, she died to cancer. And he said I'd give anything to go back and do this instead of give my life to that job. And he was just, he was a mess. And to see a grown man crying like that and to say how blessed and lucky and awesome this is that you guys get to do that, it really reminded me like you have to remind yourself of your why I'm doing this? Because I refuse to be on my deathbed saying, man, I wish I saw my kids grow up.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of there's a lot of other issues that came along with the type one diagnosis as well, cause Josiah was diagnosed celiac also and we were always a very big pasta bread family and American family. So we went home and and once we got that diagnosis, we pretty much emptied out every food item we had because it was no longer safe to have in the RV.
Speaker 3:We had to relearn how to live completely, so might as well just move into an RV and figure it all out.
Speaker 2:We had to do all the equations count carbs, take his blood sugar levels, figure out like it was. It was a big, big learning curve, and it was.
Speaker 3:It was tough for a lot of reasons and celiac is you cannot have gluten, you can't touch it, you can't smell it. So having the rv made it a lot easier to travel with having celiac, because now we can cook and travel, because you can't have cross-contamination. So a lot of times we can't eat at restaurants and we can't eat out, so it would be impossible to travel and go and stay in hotels that have stoves that have been using gluten and things like that without harming our son. So RV life gives us life.
Speaker 1:And you figured out how to make it work. Again, not simple and easy. There are people who get out on the road and say, well, I'm going to stop and eat this meal at this restaurant and grab something and heat it up in the microwave. You find a way to make it work and, to your point, giving questions that I get asked a lot how do you handle healthcare on the road? So, how do you handle medicines? Because it is a question I get asked a lot how are you managing medicines and those kinds of things while you travel the country?
Speaker 3:So we domicile in Texas. That's where our address is. They have one of the best endocrinologists in the whole country, so we visit Texas once a year and they also allow us to do a virtual appointment once a year. So he has two endocrinologist appointments because we keep his level so well and we'll visit Texas. They have a program for children who have life-threatening diseases, incurable diseases, where they're automatically insured through the state basically, so they don't ask for your income it's not like anything like that but they automatically enroll him so he's able to get all of his supplies covered through this program Texas offers, which is amazing for us because it is not cheap and then, when we're not in state, you can share how you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean Josiah needs insulin all all the time. So of course we try to stock up when we're traveling, especially further away from texas. But when, when we do need a refill, um, it's a little bit of a process, but calling in the insurance explaining your situation, you're traveling you do an override, he has to do an insurance override. You have to ask for an out-of-state override if it's a state insurance, or just ask your insurance to call in to whatever pharmacy you choose or Walmart.
Speaker 3:We like to use Walmart, just because they're all over the country.
Speaker 2:Walmart is easy for us because they're everywhere. But whatever pharmacy that you choose, just to have the insurance company call it in, have the doctor call in the prescription of that pharmacy in that state and it's a little bit of a process but it's actually pretty simple.
Speaker 3:You do have to plan ahead and make sure that you're staying up with getting the insulin, because you never want to run out and the insurance companies can give you a really hard time. It can be challenging but, it's possible. It is still possible to live full-time in an RV and have health concerns.
Speaker 2:There are some times where I have to get on the phone with them and explain a little bit deeper about what I'm asking, because they're unfamiliar with the process. But sometimes I have to call a couple of times. There are some hiccups in the process, but all in all it's better than the alternative.
Speaker 1:Right. And so to both of your point you figure out a way to make it work. So if people could make it work in the situation you're in questions I get all the time. How do I deal with medicines and this and that you know. Again, you're talking about insulin, some people about their medicines. There are ways to work around it and you know you have the will to do it. There's going to be an answer.
Speaker 1:I do need to take a quick break. This has been an incredible conversation and we're going to come back with more resources, talking about more, talking more about how to not have those regrets. So much more to cover with you guys. But before I do, I want to talk about RVing and having clean, fresh, safe water. That is incredibly important to us RVers.
Speaker 1:Before you store your RV for the season, there's also one critical step you don't want to miss, and that's sanitizing your freshwater tank. Whether you've been venturing across the country or enjoying a few weekends at a campsite, your freshwater system accumulates bacteria, sediment and other contaminants and you want to make sure that's clean. Clear 2.0 tank, fresh water tank and system cleaning is the way to go. I've used it myself on my RV. It was so easy, took less than an hour. There's no bleach smells. There's none of that chemical smell. You pour it into your system. It cleans the water system, ensuring that your next trip you are clean, safe.
Speaker 1:Whether we're full timers like Dan and I were, we were able to use this to make sure that the freshwater tank is clean. Now, because you guys are my RV podcast listeners, clear 2.0 is offering 15% off with coupon code RVLifePodcast. Just go to Clear2ocom. They have amazing products that have really made a difference for Dan and I. The other thing we talked about again, I'm shifting, you know people might have had to get up and get some tissues and take a breath. So let's talk a little bit about ways that we both have saved money Open Roads Fuel Card. We have diesel trucks. You have a diesel truck, I had a diesel RV. Open Roads Fuel Card is free to get the card and we save money every time we stop for diesel. You guys use that card as well, right?
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, our long, long trips. We take long trips sometimes and it's definitely, it's definitely a money saver absolutely.
Speaker 1:They have saved. I wouldn't say anywhere from five cents a gallon up to a dollar a gallon. There was a day with dad josh. You're surprised yeah.
Speaker 2:No, I've actually been surprised at how much savings there can be sometimes. I mean it's significant enough to to make it worth getting the free card to do it.
Speaker 3:Yeah rv needs open roads. If you're an rv or if you full-time, you need the open roads card app, all the things. It has been a huge saver for us, especially if you travel a lot.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, and I find, even if you're going those short distances, hey, a few dollars is a few dollars saving, why not? It's so easy to use and people could check out OpenRoads Fuel Card by going to myopenroadscom. The link will be in the show notes. There's your testimonial for it. But let's get back to what we were talking about, and again there's so much here.
Speaker 1:We've been talking about regrets and I read a book that called Top Five Regrets of the Dying. You know people who are sitting there thinking well, when I retire, I'll do this, or when my kids are grown, I'll do this, or when this happens, when I get more money, that's when I'll do this, that or the other. It's always when, and that's where the regrets come in, because nobody knows when that last day is going to happen. So the book that I read, the Top Five Regrets of the Dying, I read this while I was with my mom listening to these regrets that she had. And you know the point is let's not get to your deathbed and feel regrets. I'm with you. I love when you said something happened.
Speaker 1:Now you've lived your life, you've done everything you can, and you guys are young. Not many people at your age can say that. So let's talk a little bit. You also live this full-time RV lifestyle and you know the ins and outs, some of the difficulties of it, the things that when we started out, when you started out full time, it's the I didn't know what I didn't know, so you didn't even know to ask the questions because you didn't know. But you guys wrote a book and the book is called Wow, I had it in front of me. The book is called Road to RV Living yes, Roadmap to RV Living.
Speaker 1:Okay, so tell us about the book it's getting ready to launch. You have a copy of it in your hand.
Speaker 3:Yes, I have it in my hand. I have the copy. It just launched. It should be shipping out any day now, so it should be available to everyone and there is everything you need in here. It talks about you know, rv living as a family, how to road school, how to get your kids to socialize teens in an RV. Josh did a couple of chapters with RV maintenance, how to DIY your RV because we had our very first RV. We gutted and DIY'd everything. It talks about the black tank apps you want to get for RV living, must-haves in an RV. How to get alone time and privacy in an RV, date nights all the things you can think of that maybe you don't even know to ask. Like you were saying, I, chuck, filled with it Okay big book.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is, and it's also full of inspirational photos. So it shows you the different adventures, the opportunities. So it's a nice book to have like on your coffee table just to look through and remind you of all the adventures you could be going on with your family and things. It's almost like a vision board put into a book and any questions you have you can open up to that chapter and kind of just go through it there and be like, okay, the wild thorn Bailey's have gone through this and done it.
Speaker 3:Let's, let's go see how they did it, how to get mail, all of the things that we get asked all the time.
Speaker 1:And that's great and so coming up after this podcast goes live. I also have an episode that talked about the controversial questions, like questions that everybody just isn't sure what the answer is. Do I put toilet paper in my septic system? What kind of toilet paper? You know people ask those questions. They're sort of a little bit more minor questions. But while I went through my questions, one of the questions I get asked all the time, or see, you know, I'm on social media. People ask me questions how do people have their alone time as a couple with kids? And I brought this up in that episode and I said I have no idea because I didn't travel with kids so I can't imagine. So do you guys get to answer that question? Absolutely yes.
Speaker 3:So our biggest tips would be one have a washer and dryer in your rig, because it shakes the whole RV, and make sure you announce to the entire RV we're doing laundry, laundry's getting done, mom and dad are going to go fold clothes. That's a big one we're going to go take a nap while laundry's going. Yeah, go with the rig, not against. The flow of the rig helps it.
Speaker 2:It's north to south.
Speaker 3:Make sure you drop little hints man. The weather says it's going to be windy today.
Speaker 1:Make sure you drop little hints, man, the weather says it's going to be windy today. Okay, we will do a follow-up episode as your older child gets older. He's 13, right, so we'll see how that works. And here's where I want to share your social media. I want people to comment on the podcast that have had kids. I want to hear what they've done and their comments and how well your suggestions they've tried them have worked. What works, what doesn't, because I think this would be great. So comment here on any podcast platform people are listening on. My social media is RV Life Podcast at Instagram and Facebook. They could comment there. How do people tell people your social media where to find you guys?
Speaker 3:Ours is Wild Thorn Bailey's. We're on everything TikTok, instagram, facebook, youtube. We've got all the channels, so any one of them, you'll find all of our content. We share a lot of information on how to RV. We also share humor and real life, authentic moments. We just recently shared how our kitchen door got knocked off while driving because it popped open and we hit a toll booth. You got to go see that video. So we share all the things are very real on our page.
Speaker 2:We're very like you get what you get with us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we don't hide anything. So you get a real look at what RV life could look like with four crazy children.
Speaker 1:Wow, and again, I love the authentic, the real. That's why we connected. Okay, so now you know, one of the things that came up that's in the book is socializing. This question comes up all the time. You know how to you just have so much covered in this book. People just have to go find it. Where can they get the book?
Speaker 3:So we have it linked on our website wildthornbaileyscom. It is not available on Amazon, but it is right on our website and they'll be able to purchase it right there. There is a digital copy too.
Speaker 1:Okay, great Because some of us who are in tight spaces. The book looks beautiful, it is a hardback book, it has beautiful pictures and I loved I missed that being in an RV like having a book in my hand. So for people of space there that there's that option. So wild born valleys with an scom and they can find everything about you. Okay, one of the things that as you got on the road, you didn't really have a plan for what you were going to do for a job and again my sarcasm is going to come in You've just started a YouTube channel and you made a fortune, right?
Speaker 3:No, we actually didn't start our social medias until three years into being on the road, so we dabbled in everything trying to figure out ways to make money. I think almost every RVer we've met kind of have their entrepreneurs. They have their hand everywhere, anywhere they can bring in money. You want to share some of the things you did on the road when we started.
Speaker 2:One of the things I really tried to get into is RV maintenance. Rv technician is something that is very common RV maintenance. I fell into RV roofing so I actually did a lot of manual work. Still, we traveled the company I connected with. We were able to get projects throughout the country. But there's other options to to get work also.
Speaker 3:I did my photography business right on the road, so I would do photography for RV families. I would do edits online if somebody wanted magical Christmas edits, because I was a fine art photographer beforehand. Um, I ended up working as an email specialist for a podcast, actually, um, and started doing their social media management. And then I kind of one day decided I'm quitting that job, gave my two week notice after, so he came back and wasn't doing RV roofing anymore. He was doing the homeschool, stay at home dad thing.
Speaker 3:I walk out of the RV, I go, I quit my remote job. This is just as bad as living in a house. I walk out of the RV, I go, I quit my remote job. This is just as bad as living in a house. I don't want to be stuck to a computer all day. And he's like oh well, do you need me to go find a job? Like what are we doing? You can't just quit. And I said I'm going to be a social media guru, like I'm going to share all of our stuff on social media. I'm going to be a content creator. And just give me one month. I promise you in one month I'll get all of our pages monetized. And he's like he knows me. I'm crazy. If I have an idea in my head and it's set, I will go for it.
Speaker 3:So I treated social media as if it was a full-time job. I poured into it. We shared funny videos, skits, how to's, homeschooling, emotional stories. I shared everything. If you can make content and you want to be a content creator, definitely sharing something educational and making people laugh those are the two things people are really drawn to. So I was going for. I was posting six to 12 videos a day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was hard, but it laid that foundation. I did it for 30 days. I told myself, 30 days straight. I will be completely glued to this to build it and then after that, I'll be able to post what I want, how I want. That was my goal. Within 30 days I got the Facebook bonus reels. All of my pages went from 1000 to 50 to 100,000 followers and it just kept growing and I fell in love with it. And now that's our full time job. Now we just share our knowledge with people, we make people laugh, we inspire as many people as we can, just to live intentionally, like you were saying, you don't have to live in an RV, but just get out there and just live. Don't ever don't, don't be like us, don't sit in the hospital room with regrets, like just get out there because you're going to be as ready as you were to have children, or as you're never fully ready for anything until you just get out there and do it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and that's a great, you know, a great piece of advice for people. You're never going to be totally ready. Somebody said that recently. She said you know, I'm thinking about having a baby. I'm not sure how much money I need or if I'm ready. You're never going to be ready, ever, ever, ever. And yet many of us do it once, twice. Three kids, four kids for you, we just keep doing it.
Speaker 1:Now I do want a little bit of caution here. While you took your social media in a month and made it successful that's not usually the case Now the dedication, the commitment to it certainly is going to speed things up. When I got on the road, we did our YouTube channel. We were creating video content took a year and a half, two years before it made money. The podcast happened a little more quickly, but again, not the usual. So people need to, you know, not look at others and say, well, I'm going to do it that way and they're going to just make money and I just because people say that all the time. Well, you have a YouTube channel, it's, you know, making money, that's how you're on the road or whatever that is, and it's yeah. No, it took years and years of planning. You obviously had some background, some ideas of what to do and how to do it. So just caution. But there are a lot of ways, and I do believe your book talks a little bit about making money on the road, right oh?
Speaker 3:yeah, a whole chapter.
Speaker 1:Okay, a whole chapter on it. We also you and I also talked about the saving money, so we talked about the fuel card. So I'm always looking for companies to talk about on the podcast to save people money, and I'm looking at my calendar. The episode on October 30th is good friends of ours, sharon and Warren Lewis, and they are the membership specialist at Thousand Trails and we love the Thousand Trails membership and, again, a way that people are starting out, whether it's full-time or part-time, to save money on the road. When did you decide to go with the Thousand Trails membership?
Speaker 3:So I did a lot of research when we started RVing and I found Thousand Trails before we even started. So from the get-go we did our deposit. I said I want Thousand Trails, I want to be able to find our RV community. And so we've had Thousand Trails for over five years and I want to say we've saved $60,000 minimum. If we were to pay on average, $900 a month for campgrounds and that's a low average, because we also go to the Keys, we go to Orlando, we go to touristy areas we would be spending so much and we only spend $320 a month.
Speaker 3:And we have their biggest membership. We have the adventure and every campground we go to there's a ton of other full-time family kids. We travel with other full-time families who do this because it is so cost efficient. There's a lot of families who use this membership. So this would be a great membership if you're hoping to connect with other families and make sure your kids have friends, because a lot of these parks especially the one, the big ones, like in Orlando or Conroe in Texas um, they have a lot of activities for the kids. So it's really, it's a, it's a win-win we save money and we make sure our kids socialize, and it's just been amazing for us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we. We've saved thousands upon thousands of dollars over the past five years.
Speaker 1:It's paid for itself yeah, yeah, and then some yeah you guys need to do a spreadsheet of it because people you know some people can see visually because when, like I, wasn't as up on it, unfortunately for dan and I, before we started out we watched videos and the negative of thousand trails people were showing. And so three, four months in I'm like we're not going to be able to afford this. You know, we stayed for 30 days in a campground that was $10 a night. That was a state park, but you know there was no electricity, no amenities, no, nothing Beautiful. But as I got out I'm like, gosh, you're lucky, lucky if you could find a campground for $30, they're 40, 50, 60 and higher. And so I don't know how we're going to afford this. And then we ended up finding thousand trails and then upgrading and it has saved us a fortune of money. It really has. So that's both sides of it. You know there's ways to make money, which you talk about in your book, and there's ways to save money and again, that episode went out October 30th. I'll put a link in the show notes so people could hear from Sharon and Warren and hear a little bit about Thousand Trails to help with saving money. You talked about no regrets, living life fully being resilient. That is so important. I'm going to get to the question of the week for you guys before we do.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, there are people who are now looking to store their RVs those people who are not full time and my friends at National Indoor RV Centers have motorhome storage facilities. They have six locations. Five of them have indoor storage facilities, and it keeps your RV safe from the intense summer heat, as well as climate controlled, and you don't even have to winterize your coach, which is great. They take care of everything. They are a secure, gated facility with state-of-the-art security system and well-lit grounds that allow them to monitor the RV and the facility 24-7. Their employees are all background checked, drug tested, uniformed. Your RV is truly safe at National Endure RV Centers. I've had the opportunity to visit three of their six locations and it is a well-oiled machine. What has been created there so you can visit them at NIRVCcom? It's now time for the question of the week and it's brought to you by OpenRoads Innovative Toll Solutions, and this toll pass covers all 48 states. What toll pass do you?
Speaker 1:guys use, and you've been oh my gosh, we have the easy pass I think we have. That's the fun pass and the easy pass okay, that's just for those of people who don't know. That's the east coast. What do you do when you get out to texas and the west coast?
Speaker 3:Pay by plate and pay at the things right. Yeah, oh my gosh. For everywhere, though this works for everywhere.
Speaker 1:Everywhere 48 states, so everywhere in the US that you're going to drive, this whole pass costs $24 for the year. I have people say this is the reaction.
Speaker 4:I get.
Speaker 1:Shut up. This is the reaction I get and this is why I love connecting with the companies and the products and services that are shared with me, so I can share it with my listeners and hopefully my editor producer is capturing this, because they're going, oh my God, to each other.
Speaker 4:That's insane. We could have used that five years ago.
Speaker 1:Right, right, exactly. And they've concierge service. So if you're like me and you've gotten a toll fine with my easy pass, I've gotten a fine. Didn't get to it soon enough, so it's fines and interest and all this stuff. They'll take care of it. They will handle it with their concierge service. Yeah, that's $24 a year.
Speaker 4:That's so much. I cannot wait to get this.
Speaker 2:For someone like me that has some brain farts, sometimes forgets to make that phone call. Right, that's important.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, you could go on your app if you have a problem or call the company. It's great, it's going to be in the show notes. It's also under myopenroadscom and there's a pull down menu for innovative toll solutions and it is EDC to sign up for and get Guys what is a top place that you have been to or that's on your bucket list that you could recommend to the RV Life podcast listeners.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's such a hard question.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 3:So much and it's so hard because it's like, ok, if you absolutely love hiking, you need to go to Utah and go to all the national parks in Utah. But if you want something that's tropical it makes you feel like you're not even in this country get down to the Florida Keys. We absolutely love Sunshine Key. Down there it feels like we're on a tropical vacation with our RV and it's part of Thousand Trails.
Speaker 2:Part of Thousand Trails.
Speaker 3:Yes, oh, what's your favorite?
Speaker 2:That's so hard Again that's really hard because, like, we've been to so many amazing places like the keys or or acadia national park or the pacific northwest was really amazing. So we're we're from the northeast, so a lot of like seeing all these new places and redwoods, the redwoods the sequoia national national forest. It's just there's too many places to really pick one.
Speaker 3:This is why we live in an RV. This is why Because we can't choose one place, that's why we're in. An lot of the kids agree Florida the Keys.
Speaker 2:I love the ocean, I love the water, we all love the heat, we all love the sun. So the Florida Keys is. We love being on the island, time too, I mean it's just time. Really does slow down down there and we can still get. You know, pump out all the work, but just feels it, just feels yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that's the answer to that okay and this is one thing I do not tell my guests ahead of time because I want this reaction and for people who have been across the country and seen and done so much, yeah, so they looked at each other with okay, how do we answer this? And I love that the Florida Keys is on my bucket list. I was supposed to go last year and didn't get there. This winter I will absolutely be at Sunshine Keys Come with us.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, I'm going to get a cabin. So now I'm traveling and staying in cabins. I cannot wait. I'll wait till it gets cold here in Pennsylvania, where I am, and then I'll take a break by going down there. It sounds amazing, so that's definitely on my bucket list. Okay, it is now time for the Featured Campground of the Week, and it's brought to you by RV Life. This week's Featured Campground is Lake George Escape Campground in Diamond Point, new York, and it is a Thousand Trials Campground, and you guys are from New York and you said this was one of the campgrounds you wanted to go to. You haven't had the opportunity yet.
Speaker 3:We haven't. We usually stay at the Brennan Beach Campground here in New York because it's the closest to family. So when we're in New York it's like, oh, we just want to be close to family because we are from here. But we all of our friends say the Lake George one is amazing and we've been like it's literally been on our list, we want to go there. We keep saying we're going to, but then we get trapped with family and we're like, oh, but that's like two and a half hours from everybody, and so we need to make that plan. I think next summer we'll have to do that.
Speaker 2:That would be our vacation spot when we come up next time.
Speaker 1:There you go Now for my listeners. There's 578 sites Lake Georgia escape campground, rv resort. It's just beauty. The whole place is surrounded by beauty. I love, personally, that there's a river that surrounds it. I love the water. They have full hookups and pull-in sites, dog park cottages and cabin rentals, so I could even go there and get a cabin next summer. That sounds like a great idea. We'll have to meet up.
Speaker 3:We'll meet you there.
Speaker 1:Yes, we'll meet there. Lake George Campground has. Lake George Escape Campground has a solid 7.5 rating on the RV Life Campground site with 129 reviews. What's really nice is you could go to campgroundsrvlifecom, just type in Lake George Escape Campground and, once you get there, all the information's there and there's a great big red book. Now button so you could book right from the campgroundsrvlifecom site. If you're not an RV Life member, you could get 25% off. The link is in the show notes and by being a member you can see all the photos, the tips, all the amenities of this property, as well as all the parks and properties across the country. Rv Life Pro is the most comprehensive source of campgrounds, whether it's city, state, national. I could go on and on. Campgroundsrvlifecom is definitely the place to look for your next campgrounds. You guys are RV Life members as well, right?
Speaker 3:Yes, we love RV Life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is the first thing we got before we ever bought the RV. We started planning. So RV Life for those people who don't know has a trip planning tool. And then the RV, safe, gps and the campgrounds and so much.
Speaker 3:So many reasons to be able to use it. It has made our trips a lot easier too, so we can type in there all the places we're going and it kind of gives you the route you're going to take. And it's just really great for planning the entire route out, especially for someone who needs to see it all like put together instead of just in my notes.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that's me. I'm very visual, so I'd like seeing the whole plan. What I discovered this year something new, and I've got to do a video on this. So, as people know, dan is now in the hospital and has been, and I, as an entrepreneur, had to handle my tax return from last year by myself. So when the accountant asked for the mileage on the RV, I was like I don't know.
Speaker 1:Well, I went to the RV Life trip planning and there it all is. Every trip shows the miles. So I said to him look, I have this app that shows where we went to and from and the mileage, and he said that's perfect. So there is another use for the RV life, I mean. And if nothing else, $65 a year and there's a 25% discount. If nothing else, keeping track, as an entrepreneur, of the miles, to be able to write them off was well worth it. It was well worth every penny I spent. Them off was was well worth it. It was well worth every penny I spent. So, as we wrap up you guys I can't thank you enough Tell people again how they can reach you.
Speaker 3:Yes, you can find us wild thorn Bailey's. It's almost like wild thorn berries, the show from the 90s. But wild thorn Bailey's on TikTok, instagram, youtube and Facebook. But Wild Thorn Bailey's on TikTok, instagram, youtube and Facebook.
Speaker 1:There you go. Thank you so much for being on and providing so much incredible inspiration. I truly hope that this kicks somebody in the butt so they could say, hey, got to go out and live life fully. Thank you both.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Patti.
Speaker 1:You have been listening to the RV Life Podcast. I'm Patty Hunt, wishing you a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow. Thank you.