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
How to Keep Your RV Cool in Summer: Boost AC Efficiency by 44%
How do you keep your RV cool in the scorching summer heat? In this episode of the RV Life Podcast, host Patti Hunt talks with Don Rohacek and Deanna Monet, the innovative minds behind Kool RV. After a chance accident revealed a major flaw in RV air conditioning systems, Don and Deanna developed a game-changing solution to improve cooling efficiency by 40-60% while also reducing noise. Tune in as they share their inspiring journey, and how their product is making a difference for RVers everywhere.
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Did you know there is a way to keep your RV cooler, even in those hot days of summer? I'm Patti Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. How much can your invention improve cooling performance of someone's RV air conditioner? Don?
Speaker 1:Typically 40 to 60 percent improvement in cooling efficiency 40 to 60 percent, and I cannot wait to dive in and find out all about cooling our RVs. I've spent a lot of time in those hot places and this would have been a great device. Great invention for me. Now, for those of you who don't know, would have been a great device. Great invention for me. Now, for those of you don't know, I have been traveling full-time over three years and have spent many days, like I said, in the extreme heat. I've traveled back and forth across the country three and a half times. Right now, I'm coming to you from a house and I'm living outside of Philadelphia, and my next chapter is being created as we go along, and you guys will hear more about that.
Speaker 1:As it happens, the RV Life podcast was created to entertain, educate and explore the RV lifestyle, with the mission to inspire you to live life to the fullest. This week, what you need to know is brought to you by Open Road Resorts, and they have locations in Idaho, nebraska, new Mexico and two in Texas. A lot of people. What you need to know right now is the time to start planning for those spring and summer months, and if you're looking to head to Yellowstone National Park, you can look at Red Rock RV Park in Idaho. It's 22 miles from the western entrance of Yellowstone, two hours from Jackson Hole, wyoming and Boisman, montana, and it's one of the highest rated parks in the area. This, what you Need to Know, is brought to you by Open Road Resorts, and you can check them out at openroadresortscom.
Speaker 1:But I want to jump in and talk about my guests today. Don and Deanna each embarked on their own adventure of a lifetime embracing the full-time RV living and the freedom of the open road. A year later, fate brought them together and they quickly bonded over their shared love for travel. But an unexpected accident would soon change their journey and the RV industry forever. Welcome to the show, don and Deanna. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1:You are welcome Now, Don, how do you say your last name?
Speaker 2:Rohacek.
Speaker 1:Rohacek and Deanna Monette is that right Monet. Monet. Okay, so I tend to screw up names, but there they are. So what an incredible story. I spoke with you, don, for a while, and your story is incredible. But first, before we dive into all things keeping our RV cooler, let's talk about you guys. You both, separately, without knowing each other, before you knew each other, decided to go full-time in your RV. So tell us your stories of why you did that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so for me. I was living in New York for 15 years and it changed a lot after COVID. So I decided I wanted to move somewhere. I didn't know where to go and I grew up in Arizona. So I came back to Arizona, got a truck and a trailer and decided to hit the road and figure it out as I went. So what background? But before what? Yeah, now I'm curious Did you have any background in a trailer? And decided to hit the road and figure it out as I went. So what?
Speaker 1:background. But before what? Yeah, now I'm curious did you have any background in the RV life?
Speaker 3:I grew up with my family camping and we had various RVs. We had a Class C at one time, we had a truck camper, van. So yeah, various camping we would do as a kid, but never solo, okay. So yeah, it was just going to be me and my Yorkie on the road there you go.
Speaker 1:So a little bit of background for you. How about you Don?
Speaker 2:So I'm from Alaska, so being in the outdoors is normal, and doing things that are kind of out there to a lot of people is normal for those of us from Alaska.
Speaker 2:I was in Denver I'd moved to Denver in 2015, and I got sick when I got there, Couldn't figure out what was going on. After about eight months, my doctors came back and said you have a massive birth defect in your heart and you need open-heart surgery immediately. I ended up having a total of seven heart procedures two of them open hearts, a couple of strokes and a whole lot of just really bad things over a period of several years there in Denver, and my doctors and my kids both came to me and said you have to get out of the altitude, and I couldn't figure out where I could move that could fit what my heart was dealing with and what I wanted for myself. And then one day it dawned on me well, I don't actually have to move anywhere. I can sell the house, buy an RV and hit the road and when I get there, I'll know and I'll stop when I get there, and that was almost four years ago.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a cool story and a lot that had happened that led you to where you are now, which brings us forward. I said in the introduction, in the edification, that an accident actually led you to where you created what's called Cool RV. So let's talk about the two of you meet. Let's backtrack a little bit. Let's not miss out on how did the two of you meet. Let's talk about that first. Let's not miss out on how did the two of you meet.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about that first. So I was, my son was living in Phoenix, arizona, and it was getting to winter and I decided I was going to winter in Phoenix. I've got a lot of friends here, and so I get to spend a lot of time with my son and my friends. And the week before I got here, my son called to inform me that he had his work, had transferred him to Kansas City and he wasn't going to be here anymore. And so I was. I do a lot, we do a lot of boondocking. At the time I was out boondocking in the middle of the desert and I was a little bit bored and thought well, you know, maybe I should get on a dating app and just meet some people so I can have, you know, do something during the winter. And so I hopped on a dating app In the meantime.
Speaker 3:And so I kept prolonging my trip because that winter was so cold and I had a friend who had met someone on Facebook dating. So I thought well, while I'm waiting around, might as well to meet some people, and that's how we ended up meeting.
Speaker 1:Wow, and you said you were living, if I remember it right, don, in a 40-foot Class A I had a fifth wheel.
Speaker 2:A fifth wheel, I was a 45-foot.
Speaker 1:Fifth, wheel. Dan and you were in a travel trailer.
Speaker 3:I had a little 15-foot pole behind, pole behind Okay.
Speaker 2:Her trailer could fit in my garage.
Speaker 1:Okay, so clearly the 45-foot fifth wheel won out and you both moved into that. What a story. That's an incredible story in itself. That's awesome. I love it. So now you're traveling around together and I didn't ask before this, so we'll have to have my editor edit it out if I'm not allowed to share, but I understand you're getting married next?
Speaker 3:Yes, in the next couple months. Yeah, so edited out if I'm not allowed to share, but I understand you're getting married next. Yes, okay, yeah, so I don't have to have it edited. Yeah, yeah, we actually got engaged at Arches National Park.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's amazing. Yeah, and you're going to be married in Alaska.
Speaker 3:In the end of July, in the end of July.
Speaker 1:Okay, it was close, very close, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, that's amazing Married on a mountaintop in Alaska.
Speaker 1:Married on a mountaintop that sounds. You will have to send us pictures. We will post them on social media. Congratulations to both of you. Okay, so now you're traveling around Great story and you have an accident. But before we get to that accident, and which led to figuring out how to cool off RVs, I want to talk about my sponsor.
Speaker 1:For those people who are still in the cold weather, air skirts is an incredible invention by another amazing person that, because of need, invented air skirts, and it is RV skirting that goes around the perimeter of the RV to prevent warm out from escaping, and it protects pipes from freezing and causing damage. It saves on heating costs and what it does is it traps the air in and it creates a natural insulator. It's made of a heavy duty, military grade PVC coated canvas and the best part is it sets up in minutes, you can take it down in minutes and it's really compact, so it's great for storage. That is Airskirts and people can find out more about it at airskirtscom. The best part is there's $200 off using code RVPOD. That's R-V-P-O-D. You go to airskirtscom. But now we're talking about being in warm weather, we're going to talk about how people can survive the warm, but this all happened literally from an accident, so I want you guys to tell that story.
Speaker 2:Well, so I'm that guy, I'm the guy from all the YouTube videos that runs his RV into a low overhang.
Speaker 3:But to back up for one second, I have my own business and I rely on Wi-Fi. So we were camping at a place in Montana and there was no Wi-Fi and I was getting a little stressed out and so I said we have to find a place that has Wi-Fi. So we moved and we each put in this campground in our apps. He had one map, I had a different map and it led us to-.
Speaker 2:The same place and it said there's an overpass, but don't worry, big rigs can fit through that overpass. And we pulled up to it and I'm looking at it thinking, boy, that looks, that looks too low. And but we're both looking at both of our separate apps that both say you know reviews from people saying, nope, you can get to this campground that way with the big rig. And so I started inching forward and crunch. And so, you know, I was at. Fortunately we weren't driving at speed, I was inching forward, but it it crunched our front air conditioner and that was the. That was the end of that one okay so your air conditioner gets destroyed.
Speaker 1:And here's a great teaching moment, because I'm thinking those apps you were using were like ways or google maps yes, we did not have rb life at the time. Okay, let's talk about that so, while it turned out to be an amazing accident for you guys, let this be a teaching moment and you now use RV Life Absolutely. Talk about that for our listeners that don't know about it. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, going around, if you put addresses in Google Maps, apple Maps, any of these other programs, they don't know anything. They don't know that you're driving a big rig, and so they don't they're. They're looking at it two dimensionally. They're not looking at the height as another dimension, uh, of the equation. And so, after the fact, after having gone through the crunching, the air conditioner is when we found out about RV life pro, which would have saved us all of those hassles but would have cost us an entire company in the process.
Speaker 1:So yes, but.
Speaker 2:I don't recommend our approach to starting a company.
Speaker 1:Good, I'm glad you said that I'm glad, and I have been using the RV Life Pro suite of Products the trip planning and RV Safety Press GPS before we started, before we ever bought the RV because of stories like this. So okay, For those people who want to know more, there's a link in the show notes, but now your air conditioner crunch. So tell us, tell us a story. How did this progress from here?
Speaker 2:So I had to take some pictures for our insurance company. They wanted pictures from the roof, where you could see the exterior damage, but they also wanted pictures from the interior, and I had never taken the cover off of our ACs from the inside. And so when I pulled it off, I looked up and there's this big box with a little foam divider down the middle of it, and you could see where the warm air was coming up on one side, the cold air comes out on the other, and the duct openings were on the sides of this box. They weren't attached and I thought, well, that's odd, but it was a 2021 rig built during COVID. And I thought, well, so they just missed the part that connects the cold air to the ducting.
Speaker 2:No wonder I'm not getting very much air out of my ducting. And so I called my dealer and said, hey, they forgot the part. And my dealer just started laughing at me and they said no, that's how they're built. And I said, well, when you say they, are you talking about my rig or all rigs? And they said all rigs. And immediately the light bulb went off in my head. I mean, I'm not an engineer, but it doesn't take one to figure out that that's a wretchedly inefficient way to get air into your ducting.
Speaker 1:Right, and just to jump in for a second, you're painting this picture for people. But anybody that's visual, like I am, and if somebody hasn't actually seen what the inside of their air conditioner looks like, I just want to let people know. Stay with us. You're painting the picture, you're doing a great job, but there's also videos that people can see. So I know, for people like me, I'm like wait, what's he talking about? So I just wanted to put that in there. Okay, so you now learned that there's a totally inefficient system, yeah, and so we got hot.
Speaker 2:It was mid-90s, low to mid-90s in Montana. We were cooling in the 80s with both of our ACs running in our unit, and I'm from Alaska, I don't do heat, and so I was miserable. And so I started thinking through how to attach the two and I literally grabbed some cardboard, some duct tape and some HVAC ducting and made an Alaska redneck version of the AC Connect, made two of them, I popped them in, the temperature dropped to 75 degrees and the air conditioners turned off because they reached the temperature I'd set them to.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And I looked at Deanna and I said, hey, honey, I think I'm on to something here.
Speaker 1:Now, you have no engineering background. I mean, I've read some things about you, your background's, in economics and finance, but it was pretty logical for you, okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it just kind of. And again this goes back to growing up in Alaska. My dad always bought old, used cars. I learned to drive on a 1967 Toyota Land Cruiser and you know we rebuilt engines. So you know I'm by no means a genius, but I can handle a tool or two here and there, as needed to. And this was just something to me that just made common sense and it proved out in the numbers. I since went back and I went and bought a textbook on fluid mechanics and read that, which was, you know, great bedtime reading if you want to go to sleep.
Speaker 2:But I needed to figure out the science as to why this worked so well. And that was able to prove it out. But you know, in the meantime, so we've got this, now it's working, but it's cardboard. So you know, you're not going to leave cardboard in your ducting. But I, you know, we just looked at each other and said you know, we're onto something here. If we can figure out a way to make this commercially, this could really be a big benefit to the community, particularly if we can make it at a very reasonable price point. And so Deanna, with her background she had some relative that that that that she enlisted the help of and kind of helped get all of it going. Yeah, doing the CAD design, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I have a background in operations. I have a business that I help small businesses and entrepreneurs with their systems and processes and logistics. So you know, getting everything off the ground was really my forte and we were able to do that.
Speaker 2:And with my heart condition I can't. I can't do that. I can't run the company. I can't. I'm just not physically capable of that after everything that I had to go through. And so you know, if I'd been on the road by myself I would have continued on with cardboard and duct tape for quite some time at that point. But with Deanna and and and and her background and experience, that just opened up the door to to the company.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right, yeah. So we launched our business in June of 23 was when we opened the doors.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I understand that there's now something created that's not cardboard, and what I want people to hear is you were at 90 degrees, the RV was sitting at, cooling at 80, air conditioner running nonstop, and with this you know cardboard prototype, let's call it you got it down to 75 degrees, which in 90 degree weather, 75 is way more bearable, and you did that with this cardboard duct tape. Duct tape really is great, isn't it? And so now these are being sort of mass produced, right?
Speaker 2:Correct and that you know, again, I have no background in that. Indiana, you know, had some connections and and utilized those, and she had a relative that did cad design, and then they were able to take that to, uh, another person that was able to convert that into a manufacturing design, uh, and then those were able to be to be taken out to commercial shops, uh, to see what they could do to manufacture those for us. And so our initial products were actually made by commercial 3D printers which allowed us to take those parts and, to you know, customers would give feedback. They'd send emails, phone calls, whatever to give feedback, and so then the designers were able to take that feedback and redesign those parts into what exists today in terms of putting it out there.
Speaker 2:So there was the going through the processes of how do you actually make it and where do you get it from, where do you get the different parts from, and then the other big challenge we faced was how do you put them together, how do you get people to be able to put them together? Because, you know, the initial batch was, I think, a hundred and we just didn't know what people's response would be, and those just were gone in a matter of days. From literally opening the website to sold out was a matter of a few days. And then it was ordering more systems and that whole first summer with friends and family and anyone that could help put those things together. Everything was done on a pre-order because they couldn't be made fast enough.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were really relying on the customer's feedback as well, because, you know, as you may know, there are so many different variations of plenums and how things are put together and the different brands of air conditioning. So, you know, really listening to what our customers were saying and what their needs were helped us create, you know, create additional products that we now have and we're still learning from our customers on tweaking here and tweaking there and to make it even that much more efficient.
Speaker 1:And I want to talk about more of the benefits of having this. Now, what do you call it? It's called Cool RV, right?
Speaker 2:It's technically called the AC Connect, but everybody just calls it Cool RV.
Speaker 1:It's because it's a cool name. It really is a great name. But I want to talk more about that, and there's also another huge benefit that I know RVers would appreciate. Before we get to that, I want to talk about OpenRoad roads fuel card. So, as we travel back and forth across the country or just in our neighborhood, if you have diesel whether it's a truck or an RV that has diesel the open roads fuel card is the best way to save money. On February 5th, I did an episode with people from the company that explained the open roads fuel card, as well as the new toll pass that I'll talk about. But not only did they explain it, I had 12 people on that I interviewed and how much money they saved with this fuel card. So I'll put that link in the show notes, check it out, and it's really an amazing card. So, okay, let's get back.
Speaker 3:We love ours.
Speaker 2:We use OpenRoads, we actually use the card and we use the transponder as well.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's talk about the card.
Speaker 2:Absolutely love it.
Speaker 1:I never planned these things. So again, the Fuel Card it's easy to get. It's free. Sign up for free, it doesn't cost anything. You go to the major gas stations some smaller gas stations are all truck stops and there's an app that shows you where they're located and you save money. And I mean people can listen to the interviews. People have saved anywhere from three, four, $500, because they didn't travel that much to somebody who saved over $1,500 last year. So it is amazing. The toll pass we'll talk about in a little bit. Let's get back to that other benefit. When we sit in our RV, the big thing is so much noise, and so this RV cool RV has really helped with that as well.
Speaker 2:Right, it does so. As the air comes out of the air conditioner from the bottom, it blows down into this box and it essentially has to pressurize. And so there are three benefits from our system. One is we eliminate that need to pressurize, which directs the air straight to the ducts and allows better airflow. Two, when you put air under pressure, it starts to warm, and so we actually get three to four degrees cooler temperatures at the vents on average, because we've eliminated the need to pressurize within that box.
Speaker 2:But a big part of the noise from your air conditioner comes from all of that air bouncing around in that box trying to pressurize to push its way through. Our system eliminates all of that air noise, that buffeting that occurs and turbulence that's occurring up there. And so for our initial rig, when we initially installed these, we didn't have a lot of noise. The way our plenum was built, it really wasn't that noisy, and so when we put these in it was a little quieter and that was nice, but it really wasn't a focus for us. I in particular needed to be cooler.
Speaker 2:But I had a good friend from my days in my finance career who had an RV that was really loud, and she knew that we'd started the company, and so we sent her one of these units and she sent us this email back about how she and her husband could finally have a conversation together in the main living space of their RV. They could finally watch television without going deaf trying to turn the volume up, because it had improved that. And so we started to focus on that a bit more as we looked through and we see customers that report six to eight decibel decreases in volume, which six to eight doesn't necessarily sound like much, but the way the decibels work it's actually fairly substantial.
Speaker 1:Okay, so thanks for clarifying, because I didn't know what that meant.
Speaker 1:And again when you're in an RV there is a lot of things. You're in a closed space and that noise it really makes a difference. So let's talk about. I was in Las Vegas during the summer months, july and August. Don't ask why I do not recommend it. My husband and I were there for a job. Do not recommend it at all. It hit 120 times Sure, and where I'm going to be honest. People say this all the time.
Speaker 1:I live, born and raised on the East Coast. I'm back on the East Coast. I'm back on the East Coast. When you get to 90 and the humidity is at 95, it's miserable. Even at 100 in Vegas, without the humidity, for me it's not as bad, but 120, it's getting bad. When you're in an RV, You're saying you could get that temperature cooled. Now I know there's only so much somebody could do. First of all, don't be in Las Vegas in July and August, but give people you know real types of scenarios and I would imagine each RV and air conditioning unit is going to give a little bit of a difference.
Speaker 2:It is. So if you take our rig, our 45-foot rig, two air conditioners in it. A lot of 45 foot rigs will have three air conditioners in them, but you can run into some electrical issues depending on which air conditioners you're using. And I should say when we tested ours before we put our systems in, we would typically cool about 16 degrees cooler than the outside temperature on any given day, relative to where the temperatures were when we put our system in that rig. We've since acquired a new one, but in that rig we went from 16 degrees cooler than the outside temperature to 23 degrees cooler than the outside temperature just with that system.
Speaker 1:That's huge.
Speaker 2:Before you take other steps, for instance using your awnings to cover your windows, or a little tip that I learned we have black doors on our rigs and turning one of our vents to blow on the door to keep that heat from coming through those black doors was another little thing that we did. Trying to park under shaded areas there are a number of things.
Speaker 3:The reflectics in the windows.
Speaker 2:Reflectics in the windows on really hot days. Yeah, there are lots of things that people can do, but our system just really. A lot of folks will complain that, oh, this air conditioner isn't a very good air conditioner. It's not the air conditioner, it's the lack of a connection between the air conditioner and their ducting. Now, for folks that don't have ducting, we don't have a solution for them. This is specifically for ducted systems. But there's that again, that pressurization chamber, which it comes from the commercial and residential space it's typically used. If you have 8, 10, 12 ducts running around your house coming off of your furnace and your air conditioner, you want to get equal airflow through your home, and so it makes sense to have a plenum that the air blows into, pressurizes and then pushes out from there. But in an RV with ducts, there's only two ducts, there's. No, you don't need that pressurization, and that's the part that our system overcomes.
Speaker 1:You don't need that pressurization, and that's the part that our system overcomes. Okay, so now for those people who are visual and some of this isn't making sense from a visual standpoint there are videos, so stay with us. Are there certain air conditioner units that this works for? You said they have to have ducts. Are there certain brands, certain air conditionersers?
Speaker 3:let's talk a little bit about that so we cover all the major brands, so coleman, demetic, ge, virion, and then there's different models associated with with each of those brands. Um, which we have the mach, which is the low profile. For the Coleman, we have the Coleman Series, which is the 1, 5, 10, 15q, the Dometic Brisk and Fresh Jet NXT. We have the Penguin, which is a low profile. So, as you can see, there's a variety of air conditioning models. There's also some new ones on the market that we don't have quite yet, but as the demand increases for those, then we work with the manufacturer to create something.
Speaker 1:And as we're talking, I'm sure people are saying, hey, I need to check this out. Yes, I'm going to direct people to your website, CoolRV, and that's K-O-O-L-R-Vcom, just so people can check out videos and check out which types of air conditioners. Let's talk a little bit about the installation. Is it a DIY or does it have to be? Oh, you're shaking your head, Okay?
Speaker 3:let's talk about that. Even he can do it.
Speaker 1:Even he can do it.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow. So when I was designing my cardboard version, I needed something that was easy to install and wouldn't take a lot of time. And so when Deanna and team they were working on how do we build this out on a commercialized basis, one of my things that I insisted on was look. This has to be completely simple. The Coleman base pan, the bottom of the air conditioner, is actually designed so that it's a snap fit, and so you literally take the center piece and snap it in and there's a little silicone gasket that creates an airtight seal. So there's no taping or anything of that piece adapter that can turn in different directions depending on where the duct is situated, and in certain situations it's angled so that if there's a tight fit, like on the Furion, or on a north-south, like in a Fleetwood RV.
Speaker 2:So the team's done just an excellent job of designing things. That's a do-it-yourself solution. You take the cover off. On the majority of the systems we sell they're snap-to-fit or, in terms of the gross number, coleman is a snap-to-fit. They're over half the market. The other ones may have some self-tapping screws that will hold those up in place and then the vent adapters just tape into place on the sides.
Speaker 3:And we include all of that in the package with the kit, so the voile tape. And we include all of that in the package with the kit, so the voile tape.
Speaker 1:No, running back and forth to Home Depot to figure out how to attack it.
Speaker 3:Now again, there are situations that do require a little bit more because of the setup, and we just never know what the manufacturer is going to put in or how they're going to design it.
Speaker 1:So there can be.
Speaker 3:you know a little tweaks here and there, but you know it's pretty simple.
Speaker 2:Most customers can expect on the snap to fit. It should take them about 15 minutes start to finish.
Speaker 1:And half of that's probably finding their screwdriver.
Speaker 2:I always knew where my screwdriver was you need to On the Dometics Furions, they do require that there are four bolts that are taken out so that the bottom plate can drop down. So those customers I'd say plan on about 30 minutes on average for those to get those in Again, because you've got to drill little self-tapping screws up in to hold those into place.
Speaker 3:And we also discovered, thanks to our customers, that Jayco and Winnebago's are a little bit different, so their vent openings are smaller than what the manufacturer typically requires.
Speaker 2:Might recommend, but the team just came up with a new adapter to help accommodate for that it in 2023.
Speaker 1:I know the demand in 2024 has been incredible and hopefully it sounds like the demand for 2025 is going to skyrocket. You have a unique way of having these produced. Can you talk about that? Is that?
Speaker 2:something you can talk about. Yeah, so one, we moved from 3D printing Once we got things squared away with our designs and everything, then the team moved to injection molding and they were able to use the same manufacturers. And so now all of those parts, we have a handful of parts that are low usage, parts that are still 3D printed but again done commercially. But there was no way to keep up with the demand and the staffing, the staffing and everything else. At the end it would have needed to to get the systems made. And with my heart condition, you know, I, I'm, I'm disabled, I just I physically can't meet the demands needed.
Speaker 2:And so, uh, as, as the team was looking around for manufacturing partners, I happened to stumble across a company in Tucson and it's a company called the Beacon Group, very special company. They were started 70 years ago by a couple of mothers who had disabled children and they wanted their kids to have something productive to be able to do as they matured and grew. And so, again, it just, you know, they were going door to door to businesses. And is there anything our children can do to help here? Our adult children can do to help and work, and over the last 70 years. They've evolved that from a couple of mothers and their children to a company that now employs over 2200 disabled people in the state of Arizona, and so I stumbled across and brought them to Deanna's attention.
Speaker 2:We scheduled a meeting with them and went down and they put together a team of folks, and these are folks that may have developmental disabilities, they may have physical disabilities, they may be recovering from addiction, but they are are disabled, but they're looking for something that they can do. And so, you know, we have a young man with autism who is fantastic at counting four screws and putting them a little baggie for it. It gives him meaning and purpose and he, he just does a fantastic job. We have people that can't stand, but they can sit at a table and they can put these systems together. We have recovering addicts who are well down their road to recovery, and this is giving them an opportunity to get back in the workforce. And so we're very, very proud of our affiliation with the Beacon Group and the incredible work that they do for the company, and they not only put our systems together, but they package them and they fulfill them, so as the orders come in, they ship them directly to our customers out of their Tucson warehouse.
Speaker 1:That's incredible and when you told that story I was very moved by it. I was a teacher for 20 years and worked a lot with different types of disabilities and to have something that you know, like you said, gives purpose and meaning, it's just so touching. That's amazing. And you said there are other areas around the country that you're looking at the Beacon Group so you'll be shipping, fulfilling, having them put together and then fulfilled from different areas.
Speaker 2:There are other companies similar. So the Beacon Group is just here in Arizona, okay, but there are other companies that are out there helping people with disabilities of varying levels and varying abilities that those organizations have. But there are some other organizations that will be as we grow as a company. That it's again with my disability. It's a passion for me to support those folks, regardless of cost or anything else that we, we, we, we, we may have to deal with, and it's just been a wonderful, a wonderful experience for us and I'm certain it will continue to be able to do that to support people like me.
Speaker 1:That's. That's just incredible. Again, I'm going to lead people to coolrvcom, K-O-O-L-R-Vcom. They can find out all about it. Just as people are traveling, we're thinking about this summer.
Speaker 1:I am planning on going to an event in Lebanon, Tennessee. Last year I was there in June and it was hot. Now I was in an air conditioned hotel room for when I went home to bed, but it was hot there, so this would have been very helpful for people. It is the Music City Motorhome Expo. It's May 31st to June 4th and this gives people the opportunity to be the first to see the 2026 model year coaches from all the major manufacturers. The attendance is kept very small so you could test drive as much as you want and you could talk to the manufacturers, the product developers, engineers. There will be seminars. They give you three meals a day an incredible entertainment and, like I said last year, it was great but it was hot, and it was just the beginning of June in Tennessee it was really hot. I guess maybe it gets hot there that time of year, I don't know. So I highly recommend that event and people can check that out at Music City Motorhome Expo.
Speaker 1:Now do you guys go around to? I know you were in Hershey last year and you were sponsors of the RV Life, the Hershey RV Life After Party, and we appreciate that. So you were there in Hershey. Did you actually have a booth? We did Okay, so will. You were there in Hershey. Did you actually have a booth?
Speaker 3:We did Okay, so will you be back in Hershey this year? Yes, we definitely plan on it. We loved that show. It was great. So we had some of our team was at the Tampa show in January and then I was at the Quartzite show as well with some of our team. So, yeah, we try to do the bigger ones around the States. I was at the Quartzite show as well with some of our team. So, yeah, we try to do the bigger ones around the states.
Speaker 1:That's great. Yes, I saw somebody from Cool RV at the Tampa show. I was there, so I actually saw somebody and we'll see each other then at the Hershey show. So we'll have to talk about that For those listeners. I know it's only February so you might not be thinking about the Hershey RV show in September, but as you're making plans, it is a great event and RV Life fourth year will be doing the Hershey after party and that sells out very quickly. So listeners stay tuned for that and people that are going to be in Hershey can come Now. Will you guys be at the show or you take a team of people? Will they get to meet you?
Speaker 3:um, we, we might be there. It just depends, yeah, on this year. We have a lot going on, so right, I'll keep people up to date on that.
Speaker 1:Um, but again, people, you know I'm going to say it again cool rvcom. K K-O-O-L-R-Vcom. It's now time for the question of the week and what I'm going to do is ask you guys this question. You could think of your own answers and then I'll give you a few minutes while I talk about that innovative toll solution we were talking about earlier. The question for you guys is what is on your bucket list? So a place, an experience person to meet that you either have done and people should put on their bucket list, or you're looking forward to putting on your bucket list. And I'm going to give you a minute while I talk about innovative toll solutions.
Speaker 1:And this is that toll pass that both of you said you use. It covers all 48 states, costs $24 a year. It covers all 48 states. One toll transponder. If there should be any problem, you get a fine. It didn't work. You didn't have it in your window that day. Innovative Toll Solutions the people there will take care of any issue you have. They will resolve it for you. You just contact them. I highly recommend this toll pass and people could go to the link in the show notes to find out all about that. Okay, do you guys? You didn't really have to think much, there weren't much faces. Okay, deanna is ready.
Speaker 3:So we've actually covered quite a few things on our bucket list, and this last year we hit all 50 states, so that was a huge accomplishment for us. Now, we didn't necessarily do them all together or in the RV, but we finished our last 50 states together in the RV, um, which was um, uh, mississippi was our last.
Speaker 2:Mississippi, excuse me.
Speaker 3:So uh that's so cool, yeah. And then we, we did go to Hawaii, but not again, not in the RV.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right. So I had something we did this last year that's been on my bucket list forever, which is a place called Brooks Falls at Katmai National Park in Alaska. Grew up in Alaska, grew up fishing, grew up on my folks, had a boat out of Whittier, out on Prince William Sound, did all of that. But Brooks Falls is where all the grizzly bears in Katmai National Park congregate to catch salmon as they're jumping up and leaping through the falls and I've always wanted to do that and Deanna had never been to Alaska. We went up there, we spent the summer up there.
Speaker 3:We drove the RV Okay. The old one we don't recommend driving a 45 footer.
Speaker 2:We had to buy a new RV in Hershey because our old one got totaled Wow.
Speaker 1:Oh no, okay, so Hershey is a good place to buy an.
Speaker 2:RV. Hershey is a good place to buy an RV and the lesson here is don't travel to Alaska. And let Don drive.
Speaker 1:Okay, there you go, I'd let you.
Speaker 3:Okay, yeah, take something smaller.
Speaker 2:Okay, but we took a float plane out of Homer Alaska, flew over, landed on a lake there by Brooks Falls and went in and got to just sit there and watch. There are literally hundreds of grizzlies all around you. Probably not a great idea for a guy with a heart issue, but they have no interest in you. We were taking pictures of a whole bunch of grizzlies that were right in front of us in the water and I heard a noise behind me and I'd looked over my shoulder and there was a grizzly walking right behind us.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Just completely ignoring us. So, from a bucket list perspective, that was something that's been on my list for a long, long time and it was absolutely incredible. Been on my list for a long long time and it was absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1:That sounds amazing. Alaska is one of those places on my list, as well as Hawaii, very much on my list of places to go, but that sounds incredible.
Speaker 1:I'm not sure that I'm feeling the whole idea of having grizzlies all around me. I'm not sure about that one, but you have to get out of your comfort zone. That might be a little too far out. I'll have to think about that one. And for our listeners, anybody who's done something like this gone to Alaska, been there with the Grizzlies let us know. We're always looking for comments and questions. You can put it in the review section of the podcast or social media RV Life Podcast. Do you guys have social media channels?
Speaker 3:We do. We're on Facebook and Instagram are the two big ones.
Speaker 1:At Cool RV K-O-O-L RV Okay great, and I'm also on Instagram and Facebook at RV Life Podcast RV Okay great, and I'm also on Instagram and Facebook at RV Life Podcast. We are not done yet. I'm going to talk about the campground of the week. I did want to, just I hope people were okay. I am so congested but I knew I had to have you guys on Like. I did not want to wait. We have had this scheduled. I want people to be prepared this summer to cool off their RV and if people are looking to go to Florida, I don't recommend that in the middle of the summer, but certainly if they're there in the summer they have a way to stay cooler.
Speaker 1:The Featured Campground is brought to you by RV Life and it is Live Oak Landing in Freeport, florida, and this is actually in the panhandle of Florida. I heard they got snow While I was in Tampa in January. They had snow. It's right near Destin, florida. It is a beautiful area. It's right on the Gulf. They do have full hookups. They have pull-in sites. They are dog-friendly. You could do cabin and campground rentals. They have a solid 8.8 rating on the RV Life Campgrounds website with 92 reviews, and it is so easy to book. All you have to do is go to campgroundsrvlifecom and search for Live Oak Landing and once you get there, you could see a ton of photos. Like I said, this place is beautiful. They have all the tips, all the amenities about this property, as well as what's in the area. And what's nice is, once you're on the campgrounds website, you can go and book right from the website.
Speaker 1:Rv Life Campgrounds is part of the RV Life Pro Suite of products which we talked about. You would not have had the accident if you had it. Something great came out of it, but that's usually not the case. So anybody looking for the RV Life Pro suite of products there is a discount in the show notes. You can click that link when you check out. It'll give you 25% off, and it is the most comprehensive source of RV parks, campgrounds, resorts, city, state and national parks, corps of Engineers, as well as a ton of points of interest. There's so much there. Well, guys, I want to thank you so much for being on and thank you for having this accident that led to this amazing product.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we turned lemons into lemonade you sure did, and that is a great lesson for people. Thank you for spending time with us today. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:And thank you to my listeners and remember life is a journey. Live each day to the fullest, without regrets. I'm Patty Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. You