RV Caravan Travel: Is it a Good Fit for You?

0:00 This week on the Rv podcast. Traveling to Scenic Rv destinations caravan style. Just how does that work? The Escape Rv club has been bought out by harvest host. What will that mean to the membership of both organizations. How? We came, Jennifer and I to adopt the 03:30 rule of Rv travel. How that all works, and what it means to our ears. All that and much more coming up on episode 05:07 of the Rv pipeline.

0:43 Hello, everybody. I'm Mike Qui, and this is my lifelong traveling companion and my bride, Jennifer. How's this for a location? Oh, this is absolutely gorgeous. Yeah. Quick reminder you can watch the video version of this podcast on our Rv lifestyle Youtube channel. Just go to Youtube dot com slash rv lifestyle. And, of course, if you listen to us on audio, we're on all your favorite podcast apps and we ask that you give us, a review on the podcast app. So those reviews help us get noticed And, if you're watching us on Youtube, hit the light button that helps us as well as like, so you Goo Google will then show this to to more folks. Well, we are on the road today, and you wanna to tell everybody where we are.

1:26 We are on the road to bar Harbor Maine. Let's just right there. And we are really using this as kind of the staging, lift off for our coming tour of the Canadian Maritime, sponsored by fantasy Rv tours actually not sponsoring it. They're running it. We are just attending with long about, 40 or 50 of our friends and followers, and we cannot wait to tour the, maritime times where... As we record this, we're about ready to take off, and we will be in new brunswick sw, and we will be in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and we'll try and update you guys as much as we can.

2:09 This has been an awesome trip so far. 1200 miles from Michigan to hear. Right. And we took our time getting here, and we've had good weather. The whole time that we've been traveling? We followed our own advice coming out here this time. Yeah. The 03:30 rule. We just decided that we were gonna take a little bit longer and not wear ourselves out before we get started. Now if you don't know what the 03:30 rule is stick around to the end of the podcast, we will have an update from our Mike and Jen story we'll tell you all about it how we came to adapt it and how it all works. And we're gonna be sharing our maritime adventures as often as we can with video and feedbacks and photos and social media updates.

2:56 And the best way to follow this is through Rv lifestyle community. And you can find that at community dot rv lifestyle dot com, and we'll also do updates you regularly on, Facebook and Instagram and and wherever else we can do it. Hey, before we start, I wanna ask you a question, if you're a mush docker or a boom docker, And in these hot weather days of summer, you're having trouble keeping your Rv cool, we have a way to help you out a little bit. If you have a small generator, or if you're much stocking on somebody's 20 amp service in their driveway, you need soft start, soft start up is a device that plugs into the pedestal or the electric outlet, and it will allow you to run your amp, your, air condition or unless than, 30 amp connections works right out of the box, you really need to check all the. You know when your air conditioner starts off it goes home, big spike in power needs, and then it levels off. Well suck startup up levels that spike so that you don't need quite as much power to start your air conditioning and then keep it running. It's a great way to keep clothes keep it keep it running and keep your place cool. You don't have to climb up in your roof to put it in. You don't have to open your Ac units as of those soft start units do.

4:17 This 1 is really easy. You don't have to know any wiring connections, you literally just plug it into the pedestal or the outlet and then plug that, your your regular, power cord into your Rv. Go to soft start up dot com slash Rv lifestyle. Soft start up dot com slash rv lifestyle. You can save a whole bunch of money if you follow that link. Keep cool. With a soft start up. Well, we, are gonna show you a little bit where we irate over shoulders is a Aca National park. And I think that's Mount Cadillac. That big big 1 if you can see it them. What happened to the idea of getting up and watching, sunrise. Well, you'd have to get up about 03:34 o'clock. Mh Make your way there.

5:01 We were gonna do that. And we're actually gonna do that today. The day we recorded and kinda do a little segment from up there, but you need a permit from the national Park service. There's a bunch of red tape you have to go to get through, and we just couldn't get 1 on a day's notice. So so we slept in, but it's up there. And it... It's it's pretty. If you get a chance, if you're coming to this part of the country do it. As of course, is Aca National Park. We really enjoy that. Alright. We're gonna take a quick break and when we come back, we have the social media buzz with Wendy Boy coming right up. After countless nights on the road, we have finally found the ultimate comfort solution for our home away from home. Our Rv mattress from Rv mattress dot com slash rv lifestyle. Now let me tell you. This is a game changer.

5:49 Everybody knows that the stock mattresses that come in an Rv are not great. And whether you are a weekend warrior or a full timer, You deserve better sleep. Rv mattress dot com has 22 plus size options. 5 hide options, and 3 firm options. So you are bound to find something that fits. Jennifer and I got the signature hybrid mattress in queen with the cooling cover, and we love it. It truly has sleeping just as good in the Rv as our house. In fact, so good, we actually got another Rv mattress for our sticks and Bricks House. Now swapping out the uncomfortable old stock mattress for our new Rv mattress was easy. It shipped from Arizona for free in a box.

6:37 We brought it into the Rv and never looked back. This Rv mattress is plush comfort. The best sleep we've ever had in an Rv. Every night feels like a luxury retreat. And we highly recommend upgrading your mattress at rv mattress dot com. Trust us you will not regret it. And if you use the promo code rv lifestyle, you'll get a really nice discount. Again, go to Rv mattress dot com. Slash rv lifestyle. Welcome back and now it's time for Wendy Boy report on the hot issues most talked about this past week on social media and our Rv lifestyle community group. So go wendy.

7:19 Here's is the social media buzz. Hi, everybody. Over in our Rv lifestyle community's plumbing space. We had a recent post from Mary. Now, Mary was having trouble attaching her stinky, s to her sewer. So she wrote that the black tank pull in the gray tank pull were too close together, and she just couldn't get to them. So she asked if anyone had a tool that would help her, un unhook her hose. She added that she had tried a rubber hammer, screwdriver just wasn't work So she was looking for some ideas and ideas. She got. Some recommended she try oil filter pliers. Someone else recommended a strap wrench. And then both Chris and Robert suggested she add an extender to make that, you know, pipe go out a little bit more, and all of which Mary said she appreciated, and we're looking forward to hearing what she tries and how it works.

8:10 Also in our community under m and Diy tweak space. We had a post not that long ago from deck stir. That was really a helpful tip. He was looking for a solution to see his stairs at night. He said he was... Didn't wanna deal with solar or changing out the batteries And so what he did was he hooked up his a light in his stairs to his porch light. So when he turns on his porch light, his stairs light up, like a little bit there at nighttime, so he can see his steps. Look like a great idea. He even had a plug so he could unplug them. When he's traveling, so there weren't any extra cords on the outside of his rig. He shared some pictures. People loved it. And Thanks for sharing that tip, dexter. We'll have to put a picture in the show notes. So you guys can see it too.

8:53 And then over in our Rv lifestyle Facebook group, we, of course, have all types of conversations going on all the time. And 1 that really got people talking recently was from Bridget. Now Bridget was buying an Rv. She lived in the state of wash, and when she looked at her final bill from the dealer, there was a 5000 dollar prep fee. 5000 dollars. And she looked at this thing. She had never heard of it before. So she put a post up on the Facebook group, and she said is this the new norm? This sounds crazy, ridiculous. Tell me ain't so, well, lots of people said this is crazy and ridiculous. A couple people said, that they had heard of prep fees that were maybe 300 to 500 dollars, but never 5000.

9:39 John, he's heard about this and he told her leave, leave now, you negotiated a price, and now the steelers adding 5 k after the fact. Just walk away from the deal. Many people said that they had just never heard of this thing of a pre? What was it even supposed to include? So Bridget answered it was her understanding. It included washing the rig, detailing it, inspecting, looking at over for 5000 dollars. So lots of people, pretty much just about everybody in the hundreds and hundreds of replies told to leave this deal and find a new dealer and it sounds like she did. So good for you, Bridget. And that was quite the the story to read. And that's it for me this week. I'm Wendy Boy, and I'll see you over at our Rv lifestyle community or Facebook girl.

10:23 Boy, you know that preparation fee, 5000 dollars. You know, I we don't have the details and all of that, But we've heard of variations around that. I I think the advice that that poster got is absolutely right. Just walk away from anybody who's gonna charge that to you. That's absolutely ridiculous. There are still a lot of Rv dealers out there. Who are just anything for a prophet. They will, nickel and da to death, watch out for those. Because there's now more and more very reputable, Rv dealers who really wanna service people. You don't have to take the offer from somebody like that. Whatever Rv you're looking at, you can find a better 1 probably had a better price I guarantee it than those people trying to charge your 5000 dollars per.

11:13 Preparation fee. That's why we invite you to be a part of our Rv lifestyle community. Go to community dot rv lifestyle dot com, and you'll get great advice from real rv ears, not somebody trying to sell you something. Alright. Our conversation of the week comes back. And we're gonna talk about what's involved in a Caravan style Rv tour like we're about to embark on. Stay with us. Jennifer and I took a trip to los Vegas and Arizona to look at wind mail acres, a brand new Rv property being offered by Western Land and ranches. They're selling off 1 and 2 acre parcels, starting at only 14900 dollars. Now these are big. And an acre is a size of a football feel. The properties are on a plateau with big Valley views, and the location is amazing. Next to lake mead national recreation area.

12:04 We had a blast. There are so many places to explore near the property, the Grand Canyon. We took a boat ride on the Colorado River below Hoover dam. Boulder city was a fun little town. That's right off route 66, and, of course, we had to enjoy some nightlife in Las Vegas. It's a lifetime supply of fun things to do when you own a camp at wind acres. The properties are now available. This is 100 percent ownership. So there's no reservations needed when you wanna hang out, time limits or crowded parks that you have to go through, you can share your property, you can rent it.

12:44 Whatever you wanna do. For more information. Visit Arizona ranch sales dot com, or call 822232 land. Welcome back time now for our Rv conversation of the week. Yep. More and more rv viewers are Caravan. Caravan are are traveling in groups as part of our guided tour. Now, if you've ever wondered what it's like, our ever Rv conversation in the week is gonna give you a great overview. We're gonna talk the operations director Fantasy Rv tours are the people organizing the tour that we are on. We should tell you when you hear care about a kind of picture, like, you know, everybody 1234 in the line. Well, you don't travel like that. We, basically, can leave anytime we want from 08:30 till You gotta get out of whatever campground round you're in by 11 usually.

13:35 So people just leave when they're comfortable and arrive at the destination when they're comfortable as well. Stacy Ra is the operations director, and this is kind of a replay of a of a conversation we had with her earlier this year, but it's very appropriate now is so many people are starting to think about next year's travel because you wanna book these big tours like this in advance. They sell out. Our tour. This 1 right here, we're just regular members attending it. But Arthur tour, we opened opened it up to our membership, and we sold it out in 1 day. So you wanna get your reservations earlier. But if you really wonder what it's like, the closest I can come is like kind of an all inclusive resort stay except you're in your Rv because they take care of almost all the details, many of your room, many of your meals, all your reservations, here's a Stacy to talk it out with you. Well, Stacy joins us right now, and, Stacy, it is great to have you on the program. Thank very much. I'm excited to be with you.

14:37 Still, let's start off by talking about what an Rv touring company does. Okay. Well, for us, we are pretty much the world's largest Rv provider of guided Rv tours or guided Rv vacations. So in a nutshell, we do all the work and you show up and let us take care of you on your Rv vacation. So we are... We book all the reservations. Take care of everything for you. Everything is included for you, maybe an exception of a meal, a few meals that might be on your own, but, g 2, trip planning, all of the... All of that is taken care of for you. And that's what Our tour Caravan companies do.

15:30 Now, we've seen tours that you can take, you know, to exotic locations where you get on a bus and they take you everywhere. You're kind of the same thing except we're driving in our Rv and camping in our rv. Right? Exactly. Kind of, like think what you're talking about, maybe a fly in and fly out kind of location. We do the same things, except you are driving your own Rv to that location, and then we bring a bus in and take you out to all of the different places and the things to see, the restaurants and bucket list locations. Is there any particular type of Rv that you are limited to? Can do everything from tow to motor homes or are they all motor homes? As long as self contained, we we'll, accept that we have a lot of tow that go along. We even have a few truck campers that have, joined us. On some of our tours. So anything from a, truck camper all the way up to a 45 foot diesel push.

16:34 How many our veer are on a typical tour. I've seen you before? I think I saw 1 of yours in Oh, gosh. I wanna say think it was at a campground in Natchez Mississippi across from there a few years ago. And I was really impressed at all. Came in, and they all had a good time and we ran into them in town. But how many do do you normally have? Typically on a moving caravan, we have 22 guest rigs and 2 ambassador rigs. So we'll have a wagon master and a tail gunner. And, of course, the Wagon masters, the leader, the tail gunner runs behind everybody else in case somebody has an issue, while they're on the road. And so it's typically 24 total rigs handing those 2 ambassadors?

17:20 Now, how how are some of your... Trip audience. Where's your most popular locations, give us an idea of what you would do on a on a tour and an Rv tour like this? Well, it's important to, designate that a Caravan moves. A Caravan is different from a rally because the rally stays. 1 location. But a Caravan of will move, and our most popular location is Alaska, without a doubt, we are running 13 different Caravan vans to Alaska this summer. In fact, we just got 3 on the road this past week. So we have 3 tours out, 10 more to go this summer.

18:01 And, you will arrive at your location, usually, we stay at the rally point, which is your riding location. You're responsible for getting to that spot. Once you get there, Wagon master will take care of the rest and give you all your information. You'll have an itinerary, before you go, that'll be emailed to you. And you'll get a book with driving directions. And, usually, we'll stay a couple of days. Have a welcomed dinner, get to know each other. Then then then we take off, and we head off to say we're going to Alaska. We head off across the border. Our Wagon master goes first tail gun goes last, and we wait till everybody gets across the border and then take off to our first care.

18:46 So how many miles do you typically go in a day? We try extremely hard never to drop more than 300 miles in a day. In Alaska, sometimes 300 miles is a little longer than it would be in the United States. So we typically keep everything under 300 miles unless it's just impossible, in some of the remote areas of Alaska. I think there's 1 driving day on our 60 day Alaska that's. 350 miles. Wow. I I was gonna ask is is how long is the alaska tour, but you have other tours. Tell us about some of your other locations that you go to? We another popular location is obviously, the Canadian Maritime times.

19:27 We do all, about 10 of tours... Through the maritime, some just do the lower provinces and some go all the way up to Newfoundland. So, kinda depends on how much time you have and what you wanna see. Another great 1 like you mentioned, you saw our group, at Natchez, that is our Mississippi River run tour. Starts up in, at the top of the Mississippi River and drives all the way down to the bottom of Mississippi River in new Orleans, and, it follows the river, that there's a road called the Great River Road and Follows is so it follows that road all the way down. That's another variant. And that's a 34 day caravan.

20:08 And and I... How long are your typical caravan events? What do they range from in time like? We have... Any... We have our shortest Caravan is, our 13 day, made an American music tour, which just just 3 locations. And our longest Caravan is a 62 day el. Now, do they start? Typically, in 1 location? And then do they return to that location? Can people join it at different points? How does that wall work? That's a good question. Sometimes we start in the... In 1 location and we end and... Well, we almost always end in another location.

20:50 Maybe if we're talking about Alaska, we have some different, some that start in the United States and end in the United States. Some of them starting the United States and end in Prince George, British, Columbia and the... And you get yourself back to wherever you wanna go. So do we... We don't ever end up at the same exact campground that was started at. Obviously, on something like the Mississippi River run, you're gonna start up in Minnesota, and you're gonna end in New Orleans, So we're not going to go back to Minnesota. Now, does This is... The image I used to have it, and I don't think it's accurate. But does have to travel, you know, like, nose to trail along the whole route? Can you stop at your will?

21:37 You just have to get to the campground at a certain time. How how does that work? Completely not. We do not go... We don't want everybody to travel nose to tail because then the person in the front of it is the only 1 seize anything. So we have it structured, but this is your vacation. We... We're gonna tell you that our Wagon gonna leave at 7AM to get to the next campground to get everything ready. You are welcome to leave anytime between 8AM or 7AM, and when the campground checkout is, which is usually noon, 11:00 or noon. So people can't get up and move at their own leisure and the tail center gonna stay in that campground until last rig has left.

22:17 And so and if there's something, we'll give you suggested things to stop and see along the way, the especially, I hate to keep going back to Alaska, but in Alaska, there's a lots of, places where you wanna pull off to the side and take a picture. You wanna see... You wanna stop and you good world's largest cinnamon role. You we're gonna tell you all those places to stop and do those things. And you know, maybe we even have people who want to, go see of brother laurel or a family member that lives in an area nearby. They can go do that. It's their vacation. They see to let the Wagon master Know hey. I'm not gonna be until late tonight the town center doesn't need to watch for me. I'm gonna be doing this instead or maybe they wanna go hiking or biking on a trail, and they wanna take a break between and and and go do that. That's perfectly fine and encouraged...

23:12 Now. You mentioned, many of the meals are provided. Talk about that for us. Right. On our itinerary, you'll see how many meals are provided on on a Caravan or rally either 1. And, so we booked those for you. It's almost always gonna be 1 meal. I don't wanna say Per day, but it... At least 1 or 2 meals per stop wherever we are. Sometimes it's a campground meal because there's no in a remote location. There's no rest restaurant that we might be able to go to. So the Wagon masters will provide a campground meal. It's not a pot. We don't have the guest do that. The... The Wagon masters and the tail banner will prepare a really nice meal, not just not just hamburgers and hot dogs every time either. So...

23:59 So the meals are, mostly provided. Obviously, if you have special dietary needs or something like that, you would need to make arrangements for certain restrictions. We do our best to help alleviate those, but we can't always guarantee that there'll be a a restaurant meal that will be completely 100 percent, what everybody makes eats. Alright. Here's the big question that everybody is assisting They're all going. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds great. Then how much does this cost? Well, give us some. Which tour you're looking at? Obviously Obviously. Yep? The great thing that I'm just gonna say up. Front is that we like to make our tours affordable for everybody. So we do offer a monthly payment plan that is a no interest monthly payment plan, no credit check.

24:47 So if it's something somebody really wants to do, we encourage them to take a look at, paying it monthly. Most of our tours book out about 2 years in advance. So that really does make it kind of affordable if you wanna go on a 60 day alaska tour, you can do payments for the next 24 months on that, which makes it much more affordable. If you're looking at something like our made America music tour, we're talking about, you know, around 5000 dollars for that caravan for 2 people. If you are looking at a 60 day el tour for 20 25, we're looking at about 15000 dollars for 2 people in an Rv. Again.

25:27 Yeah. But it's a long cup... We're on the road a lot that's your meals and it's your camp fees camping reservation. It's all the excursions. It's like, if you think about a cruise, you go on a cruise and you go on these excursions. Those are all extra charges, you have to pay an fee ago on that. These are all included for you. We're gonna take you to the most iconic things that you've ever heard about going to alaska we're gonna take you on the white pass train. We're gonna take you down into Sc and let you see let you see the gold roast, and we're gonna take a chicken Alaska where you can, you know, actually pam for gold on your own. And, all the iconic things that you wanna do, you wanna see wildlife we're gonna take won multiple boat cruises, and those are all gonna be included. And annuities for those vendors are included also. So you're not expected to tip white water rafting captain or any of those things?

26:24 Now, this a get wind down here, I I've interviewed people before who have become, junkie keys of these tours. They do them year after year after year. And and that's how we're actually decided hey. Let's let's get them on the program. We talked to, a, a woman just couple of weeks ago, who... It does 2 of them a year she says. So I'm curious do people do them always with friends? Do they do them, what about solo? Do... I've... Would imagine you become good friends with people camping, you know, off them. But who normally goes at it? They but go with friends? You 1 of the big things everybody always tells us that they love about the Rv Caravan lifestyle is that they make friends that become family.

27:10 And they have reunion later, wherever they all are. They... The whole group might end up in Florida for the winter, and they'll have a little reunion they get together. So, a lot of people come along the first time on their own. And then they make friends on the tour and they booked something else while they're all on the tour, and they all book it together. They're all like, okay. But let's go to the Maritime next year. Let's go to Mexico. Next year. So... And they all book it together, and then they travel together, and they become traveling partners and they start traveling together. Sometimes at a show or, like, what you've said, you've mentioned you've seen us at conventions, and there'll be a group of people that are there together, and they'll come up in this and, we all wanna go on this tour together, but generally speaking, most people book on their own the first time, and then they find people they like to travel with.

28:01 That's great. Last question, you you a typical data you usually, you get into a campground How long do usually stay at a wherever you're camping? You... I think you said a couple of days, but do you have time to, you know, you have time to unwind and see the area? Depending on the location, if there's something to see. Sometimes we're driving just to get to a location, and it might be a 2 day drive, so we might just stay 1 night and just, you know, a hun or down for 1 night feed everybody and have his campground social and then move on the next morning. Normally, we're in a location or at least 2 to 4 days. And if it's a bigger location, like, when we get to, denali, we may be there 5 days, or so everybody can explore and do what they wanna do, plus... We we try to give everybody a free day.

28:51 In a location so that they can do... After we've shown them the sitting here the town, and then they can do what they would like to do on their own if they, because we have different people at different ability levels. Some people wanna bike and hike. Some people wanna go see museums. So we try to vary it up for everybody. I I actually do have 1 more question, and III... For all the worry war out there, you mentioned you have a tail gunner who kind of, kinda we... And biking, we used to call them side wagon, but people who are there in case you had to breakdown this stuff. Do do they have, like, a list and they say, oh, well, we've been through this area. We know here are records that can help here are garages. Here's where you know need to go to get something fixed.

29:37 What kind of help do they have for that? We have... The the benefit of going with an Rv care company is that we've been there before. And we passed this... We've been going to Alaska for over 20 years. So we passed this information down amongst the Wagon masters every year and the tail center. So if you breakdown, we're gonna have information for you to help you, a reputable company that can come and help you. And our tail centers even gonna stay with you until we know help is on the way. Sometimes the tail gunner is able to fix it. It kinda depends. They're not mechanically inclined and they're not going a rig if not, if they don't want it to be touched obviously, but they can advise and they can help and make use sometimes they can get it back together and get on the road too... You can get to the campground and get and get service available there. So, yes, we do have that information. Available. And you're and you're now alone, which is really good. Take part is that somebody... You know somebody's watching out for you and especially in remote locations, there might not be great cell phone service, there might not be, you know, and it's great that even if the tail gun can't, get service. They can drive. They can unhook their tow vehicle and go find, get help you So Gotcha.

30:52 Alright, Stacy. Thank you very much, and can tell anybody where they can learn more about fantasy tours and and get all the information they need. We have a website, fantasy rv tours dot com. And of course, we have a Youtube channel if you would like to go there, Just search for Fantasy art be tours, and we will find all kinds of videos and informational, seminars and presentations that we've done. Be Thank you so. You. Well, we're looking forward to our tour, which is about to start. Since we finished recording this. And you know, I think there is the... Comfort of traveling in your own Rv. You're... Yes. You're going from spot to spot to spot, but you've got your own bed, your own everything.

31:36 Clean with you. You know that. Yep. Yeah. And then you you develop really good friendships with all the people on the tour with you with is what is amazing us so far. We've only... We came a little early as did many others, and, already has been a lot of fun hanging with everybody. And it's kinda luck of the draw because then you go to the different campground rounds, they assign you a spot. And so, you know, you never know who your neighbors... Gonna be in that way it's easier to get to know more people. Yep. And it it's great. They handle everything. Alright. Well, there's stay with this because we... As we get going on this thing. We are going to update you on social media and we'll have our ask us anything. Sunday night, and we'll probably have some blog posts as well, and we'll make videos of it. Because I know a lot of you would love to go, but you can't. And so you're traveling through us and we consider that a big privilege to be able to share what we're doing.

32:27 Saturday, on our, Rv lifestyle channel on Youtube, we'll have... Our road trip out here. The 1200 miles we took would give you lots of tips, and you get to see what what it's like when you plan that kind of a trip. Rv news of the week is next. Stay with us. Jennifer and I bought some land near Nashville, Tennessee a while back. We got tired, crowded, expensive campground and worrying about reservations. Tennessee is a gorgeous state with friendly people, and it has been such a pleasure. The same developer has some new property near us close to the Natchez trace and Buffalo River, called the reserve at High forest. Big properties, 5 to 41 acres, you can build a house, a cabin or Rv year round. Prices started at only 89900 dollars.

33:16 Your property, your way, 100 percent ownership. The scenery in this part of Tennessee is breathtaking. And the property is gorgeous, garden, landscape. Bring your pants, build what you want. There's high speed fiber optic Internet, and it is so private. A great place to make your home base ready whenever you want it. 5 to 41 acre properties from 89900 dollars. There's even great financing. Check out the site and a video tour at rv lands dot net That's rv lands dot net. Welcome back time for the Rv news of the week. And we're gonna give you kind of an abbreviated version of it but in the news, of course, weather, besides this hot weather flooding last week. Yeah.

34:05 Heavy rains but of campground bronze and damage roads in Arkansas in Missouri last week, leading to some viral footage from 1 campground, Yeah. Yeah. Lots of of pictures people were posting and I'm not gonna be able to dig those up for you because we're posting this and recording this online on on the road, and I I don't have, you know, all that access that I'd like for the video we normally will put in for those of you watch on Youtube. But our viewers and campground around lake 10 Como had to evacuate these rains we're just horrendous. And it's just an idea that we that we want you to think about, and that is always having a weather radio with you. Yes. You can turn into Tv and all that stuff, and and you can use the Internet, but have a weather radio which gives you alert particularly in things like flash flooding. That's important.

35:02 So what else we got? Oh, how about the missing shoes. That's a good 1. That's a good story. Yeah. The missing shoes. It's all flip flops and just cracks and just random shoes we're, missing in river mouth campground in Michigan. And we've camped there many times in the Upper province by to falls State park and the big question was who's stealing the shoes, and apparently it was a fox. A ring of fox thieves were caught. They were busted by park officials. They found 4 pairs of shoes, 8 single shoes outside of the Fox den, and they all had marks. Some of them had their straps yeah. They they chewed off.

35:43 Not on some of them. So the Michigan Dnr put it on their Facebook page. You mic your shoes, take them inside it don't leave your shoes outside. And if you traveling out west where there's creepy crawl things like scorpions and fire ants and snakes. Yes. Snakes. We heard of people who who've put their boots outside the Rv and open them up and there's a snake in there. Don't leave your shoes out over anywhere. Well, we won't have to worry about that because we just wear shoes fits right through. Right? Oh I hear about that all the time. I mess up the Rv. Oh, I do too. Hey, If you're a camper in Washington State, and you like the camp there like many other places know that they're making some changes this year.

36:23 Now you can only stay 10 nights in any 01:30 day period starts in on August nineteenth, I think. It's august. And the the cost to camp in Washington's it's gonna go up in 20 25. Their rates will range from 23 dollars to 56 dollars a night depending on the season and the desi durability of the campsite and access to utilities. So it's it's gonna be there. I think that's logical because they're... That's a state park. So you know 10 days, I don't know if it used to be 14 days like in Michigan. And 10 days within a 30 day period that really does give more people an opportunity to use a state park. And you're gonna have to work harder to find other parks. Yeah. That you can go to ask to your 10 days.

37:10 I I think that's a logical thing to do. Well, 1 of the ways, a lot of people have been working harder to find other parks to go to is using a service like harvest host, you know, which has just grown phenomenally. We're big friends and followers of Harvest host and Joel Holland and his crew there are excellent. They made big news this week because harvest sos, you know, which helps you facilitate overnight stays free overnight stays and you know, in breweries and farms and wine and stuff like that. They just bought the escape Rv club, and that surprised everybody. Now the Escape is as a membership discount program and lots of other things, which harvest hosts now owns, and and the question is what does that mean to people? I don't know. But, Escape has been around for a long time.

38:04 I think it started 46 years ago. Sure. We had, Joe and K Peterson. We interviewed them. They founded it Literally, that's almost half half a century ago. Mh. And it's been in the Peterson family for 3 generations, branching into Now a full membership community, now it's the Peters daughter and her husband, and then the grandson of, and his wife running it, So this was a big surprise to to the whole industry. Now there are a couple of things that Escape, like their mail service, a lot of people use and they have 8 different Rv parks around the country. Those are gonna be run by current Escape management.

38:44 So how that's gonna work And what exactly Harvest hosts and Escape, what synergy they're gonna have, We don't know yet. We... I think it's gonna probably be a good development for all. We know Joel and Joel has a great organization of Harvest host, and we've been a member of Escape our sells, and we like the Peterson. So, 2 good people getting together and sharing all that stuff. So we'll see where that goes. But I guess, congratulations to in order to all of them, the Peterson and, Joel and the Harvest host organizations. Alright. We're gonna be 1 more story, I think that we have to share.

39:25 You know, everybody likes to take their pets pack pat pants camping. As we did, Bo was with us. I know. Yeah. And, you know, you hear about people taking pet pigs camping, pet chickens, exotic birds, but a pet monkey? I'm a leash. On leash. Last week in Southern Indiana, woman took her pet monkey camping and had to call the fire department after the little guy got stuck in a tree he up, you know, like, 35 feet off the ground or something. And he had his leash on, but he escaped somehow and the leash got tangled in a tree at the Pat Lake campground. Can you mention had is a monkey in Indiana.

40:05 Then a called the fire department? And this was just after midnight, they were able to rescue the little guy by cutting some branches and and and getting them down. And the fire department even posted a picture monkey. Yeah. I would reunited it was it's own fire department never knows what situations are gonna handle. Neither do we, when we get an Rv question, and that's what we're gonna answer coming up right after this. And we're asked what's the most important modification we made to our Rv. It's an easy answer. Battle borne batteries. Battle borne batteries are quality safe, reliable lithium batteries that allow us to stay out there off the grid longer.

40:48 Lithium batteries charge faster. They charge fuller they're longer lasting their maintenance free, and battle borne batteries are per protected by a 10 year guarantee. Now in our case, they just dropped into the existing Ag g batteries that we have. And they'll probably be the same on your rig too. Valve battery experts can get those in your rig just like they did with ours. They can also match you up with the right cabling, the inverter, the charger the solar controller everything. Jennifer I swear by our battle born batteries. They allow us to boo doc off the grid, check out. Go to rv lifestyle dot com slash lithium.

41:28 Rb lifestyle dot com. Slash lithium. Welcome back to time now for the Rv question of the week. I like this question from Sharon. Dear cracker barrels Walmart and gas stations count as boo. If so then, yes, I can say, Ib boone docs. I think that's a good question. Okay. What do you think the answer is? Yes. At first, I was kind of legal as I, oh, I'm not sure that counts because you're not out in the middle of nowhere. There are a lot illegal out there. We're gonna... Yeah. Then I side. It's boo doc. And I'm not plugged in. We're not. I agree with you. That's boo doc. Boo docking. Has, you know, the phrase implies that you're out in the Boom docs someplace. Far away from civilization and you're dry camping, And, you know, that's that's where... How it certainly was originally and it still is for many of the purest out there. We like to do that kind of camping.

42:21 But when you are without any sort of, hook up, water and stuff, you are a dry camping. You're on your own. So whether it's a parking lot or somebody's driveway, and you don't have the full comforts of full hook ups. I think Sharon can count that. Alright? Go for it Sharon. Alright. Time now for our story time, Mike and Jen story time. And as we mentioned at the top of the program, we follow something called the Rv 03:30 rule. We heard about that, and I like a dozen years ago. A long time ago. And I said that makes sense to me because he 506 hundred mile days are just too hard on us. My record was 728 miles.

43:04 And I vowed the end of that, that I wouldn't do it again, but then the next trip, I think I did 600, and we still have been known even in the last year or so to go 550 miles in it day. That's too much. Really is too much. So let's... Why don't you tell them what the 03:30 rule is and why we think that works so good. Well, the 03:30 rule is you stop when you've driven 330 miles or else you stop at 03:30 in the afternoon. And the idea is to get someplace place while it's still early enough to... You can explore. You can relax a little bit, enjoy the place where your camping is spending night. You're not so exhausted that you just go.

43:46 There is nothing worse than pulling into a campsite after dark and that is actually bad camping additive as you can control whether you arrive after dark, and you know that if you're in a campground brown, and it's too late. You're gonna disturb your neighbors, so plan accordingly. We did so well on this 1200 mile trip. A couple of our days, we're 360 miles, but we ended every time by 03:30 in the afternoon, and that worked out really well. Mh. And then, I'm, a couple of days, we were even earlier than that. And We enjoyed all 3 of those camp rooms. We did We did And we did. We'll have a video that you can see. It's a private jet coming out of how airport. And there's a lot of real...

44:38 You know wealthy people here who do use out the airport. You they like it. Alright. So that's the 03:30 rule. Just don't push yourself. I mean, driving too you get dr, and they say that dr z... Dr z driving is as dangerous as drunk driving. Yeah. I don't think people realize that that your ability to make decisions and to react quickly and just playing fall asleep. Yeah. So, avoid driving long distance is that's our suggestion to too. And arrive with some energy, and it's a great way to start a camping trip. You have common your question. And just reach us out. We're Mike and Jen at rv lifestyle dot com.

45:20 We would love to hear from you. Thanks for watching the podcast. Be sure and follow all of our social media challenges channels, and we will have updates on our travel as we hit the Canadian Maritime and when we'll come back to you next week will be somewhere north in Canada. Thank you guys so much for watching. Happy trail.