A vintage camping and art experience we can’t wait to try
On this week’s StressLess Camping RV and travel podcast we speak with Sora Blu about a beautiful spot in the Pacific Northwest that has a collection of vintage RVs that surround a historic lodge and you can stay there whether you have an RV or not. This incredible space celebrates the local culture and is somewhere we want to go.
We also have a collection of great father’s day gifts, a no-bake dessert and even a trailer that’s ready when the world comes to an end.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on podcast episode 207 of the StressLess Camping podcast
The Sou’Wester - https://www.souwesterlodge.com/
Our collection of 13 great father’s day gifts for the RVing dad in 2023
Our AirGear water hose review - the best RV water hose on the market?
Our podcast episodes with magazine publishers:
Talking with several publishers about RV magazines on podcast episode 123
Speaking with Rich Luhr of Airstream Life magazine
Our podcast with Paul and Caroline Lacitinola from Vintage Camper Trailer magazine
Join our weekly email family for more tips, tricks, articles, hints and hacks.
If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.
We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
Some images from Sora Blu of the Sou’Wester lodge property
Our trusted partners - RV Discounts and Deals
Automated transcription of episode 207 of the StressLess Camping RV podcast:
Welcome to the Weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into stress less camping. Each week we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some stress less camping.
Welcome to the Campfire.
I'm Tony.
I'm Peggy.
And it's her birthday. And we are two RV industry veterans who travel part-time
In a small trailer
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips,
Tricks
And discounts.
Yep. It's my birthday.
Yeah, we're recording on Peggy's birthday. So by the time you hear this shoes
I'll be old. Yeah. Old <laugh>.
She was on the committee to design Dirt.
Hey now. Hey,
Now
You're older than me. Don't <laugh>. That's
Right. Yes, that's true.
We also happen to be recording on a Tuesday, which which is Taco Tuesday. Taco Tuesday. So hopefully we can find a place to go have tacos for my birthday before we dig into that carrot cake that you bought me <laugh>. Yeah.
Since we, yeah. We made a special trip. Peggy's favorite cake is carrot cake. And we made a special trip this morning to where we found our favorite carrot cake here in New Mexico. Yeah. And since it's Taco Tuesday and we're in brand new shiny Mexico
<laugh>,
We should have no problems finding tacos cause that's right. You know New Mexico, they got the tacos going on.
That's right.
So this past weekend, Peggy went on a journey with a whole lot of ladies. I did. And no dudes, in other words, I sat home, <laugh> crying, looking at my soup.
He was being sad. You were soup <laugh>. He was crying because the car rental fell through and he didn't get to go anywhere all weekend. He was just stuck at home. So of course, naturally the minute I got home he said, do you wanna go somewhere? Yeah. And I said, no, I've been somewhere. I wanna stay home now. <laugh>.
Yeah. But a point about that is I like to drive a lot. I could be a long haul truck driver. And so as a result I tend to hog the driving when we tow the trailer. And for any couple who has an rv, it's really a good idea for both of you to be able to drive that RV because if something bad happens, or you know, like this weekend Peggy went and took the trailer by herself to the all woman camp out.
Right. That she went to. Right. And it's just good for everybody to be able to do all the tasks. And even if you specialize or focus on a specific set of those tasks, it's still good to know the whole procedure.
I think maybe in a week or two when we are looking for something to talk about, we might go through <laugh>,
We're looking for something to talk about.
We might go through those tasks and talk about what you do and what I do. And do you know I, I think I know everything that you do. Otherwise it didn't get done this weekend. <laugh>, maybe that will be a whole topic of discussion is what you know, what are all the steps and who does what and do we know what the other one does?
I think that's a great idea.
So stay tuned for that. Yeah,
Absolutely. And if you have input you can always weigh in on our fun and friendly stresses. Camping podcast, Facebook group. There's been some good discussions there. You're always welcome to contact us through stresses camping.com. So whatever works. But we are here listening to you as much as Versey Vicey. Yeah. One of the neat things as we are here, our refrigerator is running. You
Better go catch it. <laugh>. Actually, with our ABC Outfitters power package and our 12 volt refrigerator, it's pretty much always running, which comes in really handy to store extra food or prepare for a party or something.
Yeah. It's nice to have that outside fridge that's running purely on the energy from the sun. Right. And that's just one of the benefits of having a reliable, dependable system from our friends at ABC Upfitters who do solar and lithium that are tailored and specifically engineered for your needs and your rv. Right. In fact, if you're solar curious or thinking of going solar, ABC Outfitters are very happy to answer your questions and they will be with us there at the Frog rally coming up in August
That's coming up.
And they are even having a sale for people interested in getting an upfit and who are participating in or just gonna be in Indiana during the frog rally. Do give them a call. We have their phone number in the show notes if you have questions. They are very good about answering 'em and and just patient and forthcoming with the answers. So ABC Upfitters, we are very pleased with our power package that was designed and engineered by them and we know several people now who have gotten systems through ABC Upfitters and have been very, very pleased.
So Right. If you don't want to fiddle around with a solar system and you want it to just work, well ABC Outfitters is a great company to work with.
Yeah, it just works. We are gonna go on a little trip to Washington now and virtually, virtually and speak with our guest from the Southwestern Lodge, which is man a dream vacation <laugh> in its own right.
To have us talking about a lodge or a place to stay other than a campground is unusual.
Well this is a campground.
Yeah, it is. But well you just gotta hear
So much else what's
Going on there. So without any further ado,
Today we get to talk to Sora Blue and Sora is with Sal Wester Lodge. And make sure you leave those letters out that don't belong <laugh> and we will of course put a link so that it's easier to spell. So this place has everything <laugh>. It's not just a campground. Yeah, yeah,
Absolutely. It's like a world within worlds. That's how I like to explain it.
Oh yeah,
Yeah. Tell us a little like a helicopter overview of what you have and then we're gonna get into what I'm drooling on on your
Website
Here, <laugh>. Yeah, so the Southwestern, the heart of it is the lodge. It's a three story historic lodge and sort of around it has been built later on some beach cottages that are there. There's four of them to rent. And then over 30 renovated travel trailers all from the forties, fifties and sixties. And it's three acres, the grounds and everything's sort of nestled and tucked within a very lush climate being on the Washington coast. And so it's pretty dreamy. Yeah.
And how long has it been there?
As far as exact dates, I would have to look back and reflect those because you know, it's branched out over time. But the lodge itself is 102 years old. Okay. And was originally built as Senator Corbett's home, I believe it's pronounced Corbett, which is on the website under Lodge Suites or stay with us. Okay. The information there. And then I think it was in the fifties the cottages were brought on and then when it was acquired as a hotel, I believe the original owners brought in a, a small fleet in the center trailer court of some really lovely rare trailers, especially our African queen, which looks like something off a train track <laugh>.
And then when Tandi, the current owner Rosenbaum acquired it, she began adding more fleets of trailers and building out other little trailer courts. Everything from tiny rustic trailers of about 14 feet to over 40 feet. So little bit of everything.
Something for everyone. Yeah.
You have some Spartans that I see. You have something there for just about every passion within that that Yeah. Field.
Yeah. You know, it's been interesting because before I was hired there I was living in my own trailer sort of rurally. And I had only ever heard of Airstreams. And that's kind of the word you hear floating around is people really wanna rent Airstreams or experience Airstreams. And while Airstreams are so amazing, the Southwestern sort of opened up my eyes to the architecture in immaculate design of like forties and fifties trailers from Yeah. So many other companies. And I actually ended up purchasing a vintage Bulls arrow for myself. Oh.
Oh.
Just obsessed with that look. And it's just so fascinating. You'll see people just walking through to just take in the time capsule that is that space. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and realizing what's beyond Airstreams <laugh>
<laugh>.
Yeah. Yeah. And there's a lady who restarted the Bolus arrow company and now you can get 'em, I think they're like a quarter of a million bucks <laugh> I think maybe.
Yeah.
Yeah. They're not cheap. Yeah.
Hold on to the one you've got <laugh>. You're
Right.
Yeah. I actually, it lives on the southwestern grounds now and is a lovely employee housing sort of space. But it plans, you know, right in it was a 37 foot beauty that I found I was so excited about. Great. Yeah.
Okay. Do you just have the trailers, well you don't just have trailers. I see you have buses mm-hmm. <affirmative> and things. Do you just have those available or can you also bring your own RV there?
Right. Absolutely. Yeah. So we still have um, nine RV or camping sites available for people to bring in their own, I believe it's up to 28 feet with the tongue included. So not anything massive. The trailer park used to be fully open and a lot of people would bring in their big boys, but as we've just collected more <laugh> vintage trailers, we've taken up more of that space. Yeah. But it's definitely still really popular for people that own, especially like Shasta Trailers to come in and pop up, do small trailer rally type feels. And then of course like my folks have just a newer like 2019 rv they'll, they'll bring in there.
So it's really popular for and Vanks as well. People with converted vans or mini buses, they love to pop up there cuz the other thing we offer is artist residencies, which is like a discounted weekly stay. So a lot of traveling artists, oh. Or retirees that are passionate about getting back in touch with their art will come and bring their own space or rent one of ours for a discounted weekly rate. So it's this sort of fluid community where some people will come and really make home and then there's just the weekenders as well. So it's really unique that dichotomy. So you
Mentioned some specific groups. Do you host or do you organize gatherings for those groups? Or you just, they all book all the sites and bam, it's a rally <laugh>.
Yeah. Yeah. So it's typically people come up with their own events and then inquire with us of how we can help make that happen for them. And so in the past there's been anything from people that are just truly vintage, passionate and will come and have vintage parties and bring their own trailers. And then we do like full wedding buyouts for people that love to do a vintage inspired wedding. Nice. And then this summer we have someone doing um, a pretty large event with Indigo dying. And so there's everything from the arts to the vacationers and one that comes every year is a magazine rally where it's just people, I believe it's L G B T, QIA, a zine inspired art retreat.
And so it's like you never know what's gonna come through there Cool. Kind of thing, but it's, it calls to so many people, which is cool and we always try to make it happen. Help make it happen. Yeah.
And then you have a lot of art on the property as it is as well, including the vintage trailers, but
Right. With the arts. So we have Southwestern Arts nonprofit, which is our nonprofit branch. That's the part that facilitates the artist residencies. And by nature of that, a lot of artists will leave tokens behind. And so there's been some really amazing sort of interactive art pieces placed throughout the grounds, including like interactive phone booth games, there's a cool little fort and then within every space is original art from different artists and residents Wow. That we either purchased or they've left behind.
And so again, it's just such a unique thing to just, there's so much to look at and take it. You can never see it all. And we'll have people come in that sort of look at it like a bingo card like Oh I stayed in the old Spartan but I can't wait to stay in the Spartan manner. I wanna stay in the fireball next time. And just sort of like see what they're all like kind of thing. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. Tell me about that phone booth experience, that interactive phone booth.
Yeah. I'm not gonna know the top of my head, uh, the artist, but there's two phone booths on the ground and when you pick up the phone it's basically like choose your own mystery game. Huh. I've never actually completed it myself, but it's so amazing to walk by and see people just like one, they're very surprised when they pick it up and a voice is there. But two, the photo op opportunities too, cuz it's sort of nestled in a bunch of salal bushes and right behind it is a vintage trailer in the lodge. And so it's just this really interesting scene.
You wouldn't expect to find a phone booth in the middle of the woods. <laugh>. Right. <laugh>. Yeah.
It sounds like not just a place that's cool but actually a destination. I'd imagine you get people from all over that have sought out your place there.
Yeah, absolutely. The biggest soul and heart are our Portland artists and people that come back time and time again and, and of course Seattle as well. But we see license plates from all over, especially in peak season. And with the nature of social media, you know, people from Europe and Canada have also made their way down the Pacific Northwest is desirable in itself and gets enough attention, <laugh>. And then you have this very niche experience you can have on the Washington coast. And so it's really amazing to chat with people and ask where they're from.
Yeah.
In the area itself, what type of things are there around there? Or do people come and they're just so overwhelmed by your place? They're like, forget it, I'm just, I'm not
Leaving till I'm leaving. Right, right. Yeah. You know, I've witnessed by living on the grounds, I was really able to take in that it's both, there's people that come and really seek solitude and rest and they will just mean under the grounds. They'll take saunas and we have a tea trailer and a yoga trailer. So we have these small facilities that sort of allow you to really stay in place and have a big experience. And then we're only five, a five minute walk from the beach. And so a lot of people will stay centralized. But then we have the people that are family oriented.
So we have, we're very kid friendly and pet friendly as well. And so we have people that will come and they're really excited to do crabbing and clamming and looking for oysters. And then we're neighboring Long Beach, Washington, that tiny, adorable tourist hub. I call it like a miniature seaside. So it's got your arcades and shopping and really good seafood. And so it's both, I'll see just people having campfires every night and then I'll see people that don't even really wanna say hello cause they're really in their zone <laugh>, whether artistically or just taking like a wellness retreat.
And so it's really cool that it can become whatever you need it to be and that it can host like, hold space for all sorts of energies and desires. <laugh> Yeah. And hobbies.
That's cool. Yeah. And then in the trailers, you know, since originally a lot of 'em had kitchens and or bathrooms. Are there kitchens and or bathrooms in the trailers where they have them originally or?
Yeah, everything is very close to original I would say. Especially like the cooktops and stuff. We, we work really hard to keep those fully functioning and in place. They're such a a centerpiece, <laugh>, <laugh> of the trailers. But we have the rustic versions, so that's usually just like water, heat, electricity, and then we have our full bathroom shower, full kitchen sort of thing. And so it's sort of like choose your glamping experience from fully self-contained <laugh> to a little bit more glamping.
Rustic because
Some of those vintage trailers, they didn't even have bathrooms or they didn't have showers Yeah. Or whatever, so
Right. Yeah. The smaller ones definitely are the, the ones that just never had a bathroom. So we have a little rustic series of trailers that are so adorable and so cozy and then you can use the communal showers which are tucked right by the saunas in private and everything, which is nice. So the experience is still very cozy and safe. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But there are trailers that have full shower, even little adorable miniature bathtubs. <laugh> <laugh> and full kitchen functionality, which is so great. Yeah. But we do have a shared outdoor kitchen too for people who wanna have maybe like group dinners or a full barbecue Okay.
With a refrigerator and everything. So you're not, without being able to keep your food cold or being able to cook your food no matter which space you rent.
So even if you're in the main lodge, does that have probably Shirley bathrooms, but kitchen facilities too? Yeah.
All of our suites are fully self-contained. Okay. Everything you need right there, they all look a little different. They all have a very apartment feel, which is really sweet and full balcony access as well. Oh. So you can go out and take, take it all in. And then the cabins, same thing that they each have a kitchen in a, in a full bathroom. Okay. I
Would imagine we used to own a bed and breakfast where each of the rooms had a theme and we had some people who kept coming back over and over specifically to stay in whatever room captured their imagination.
Some people had a favorite room they always wanted to stay in and some had, I wanna stay in all of them. Yeah. So where haven't I, where have I not been yet? <laugh>.
Yes. Yes. I love that. There's definitely people who find their favorite and they'll call the front desk and say, I am looking to stay in the African Queen. When is the next availability? Yeah. Or people are just like, have their need of, I require a queen bed or a king bed. You know, so it's really cool that we <laugh> have a little bit of a filtering system there. Yeah. But like the bluebird bus has a clawfoot tub in it. And I would say that's one of the ones where people are like, I want that. Yeah. Kind of thing. You know, they each have character but there's definitely some that stand out with some really unique offering.
Yeah.
I just funny when, when you said that, I was literally just looking
At the picture, looking at the picture picture of the clock foot tub <laugh>. That's
Cause I'm scrolling through the pictures of the vintage. Well just all of the trailers and they're so cool. Yeah.
I've had the pleasure of staying in a couple of them and I never get tired of it. Right.
<laugh>,
I can, I can imagine keeping these maintained has to be a very particular challenge.
Very particular and precious. And with the nature of it being a hotel, you know, turnover is tight. And so we have a very passionate maintenance team and that they understand the nature of vintage. It's not just glue something, tape something on. That's
Great. It
Takes expertise, it takes research, but it also takes that passion. And that's something I really enjoy about our team is like everyone loves these, sees these trailers as these precious things. We want to keep in their best condition.
<laugh>. That's fantastic. Mm-hmm
<affirmative>.
So it sounds like it would be really neat to organize some sort of a gathering up there and bring some people and they could, if they had vintage RVs they could bring them or Yeah. Other ones. I assume there's also other campgrounds nearby because of the nature of the area
<laugh>. Yes.
Yes.
So for those people with the giant modern trailers, they can camp nearby and come for daytime activities.
Yeah, absolutely. We get the call just every day about people like, I'm just over the limit, can you squeeze me in? And sometimes we can make it work, but otherwise yes, there's so many neighboring lovely little RV parks
Or we just leave our big trailers at home and we come stay in the lodge or a cabin or one of the vintage trailers <laugh>.
Yeah, absolutely. But it's so great when you were mentioning like having a gathering is something I always think about and try to communicate to people who are like, where is it that you work? What is this place?
<laugh>?
It's such a great place to try out either slow living, tiny living or RV living because so many people are talking about it these days. Yeah. I see more and more people my age, especially pursuing it. I've lived that way for about six years. I love it. And I think it's such a great way, I'll tell people like do an artist residency or you know, book an extended stay and see how it feels to your heart and body. Because there's people that will find they really thrive in the simplicity. Yeah. And then there's people who will say, you know, I actually require a little bit more space <laugh>,
I require
Da, da da. And I think it's so great cuz then, you know, it's non-committal. You can cove and have that, that experience still without having your own trailer. Right. To look around, you know, kind of thing. That's
Really a good idea because I see a lot of people who say, oh, I'm gonna sell all my stuff and live in an RV and
I've never been in an RV before in my life. Yeah. <laugh>, I'm gonna change my life right now. Yeah.
It's gonna be quite this surprise. I mean for some people obviously it's like, wow, this was the best decision I ever made. Right. And sometimes we see people who are like, where do I sell this thing?
<laugh>. Yeah. What did I do? I'm like, uhoh.
Yes.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we'll get emails a couple times a year where they're like, I just bought this thing and I don't want it. Will you guys use it? Kind of thing.
<laugh>,
You don't know till you try. Right. And I think it's amazing when people take the leap, but I always tell friends, I'm like, they're like, how do you like it? I'm thinking about doing it. I'm like, come stay, come see how your body feels. Twirl around in the space. Cook a couple meals in it, stay in the winter, stay in the summer, stay in the spring. Because it
Doesn't matter how much I like it cause you're a different person. <laugh>.
Yeah. I could like chocolate cake and you could like lemon cake, <laugh>. I mean
If
Both of 'em are fine, people look
Great. Yeah. Yep. <laugh>. But
You know, to eat their own as it were.
Absolutely. Yeah. It's one of my favorite things to see people do. It's just give it a go. And you know, people say I need cabins, I have a big dog or with my kids, you know, they're, they're gonna bon their head too much. And so having bigger spaces is really great too because it opens up, it's not just an a vintage RV park. Yeah. There's a lot of options there.
Yeah. Yeah.
One of the things that I love feels like its own entity, but I think what makes us stand out other than just face value is that our arts programming also offers free live music every weekend. Hmm. As well as Saturday art workshops, everything from like screen printing to wild foraging, um, dye making, ceramics and pottery. Anything for all ages. And so it's really neat because you can come and just have vacation your way and do whatever you want to do.
Or you can kind of plan out like, Hmm, I'm gonna take home my own souvenir. I'm gonna make a vase out of like locally sourced clay
<laugh> kind of
Thing. It's a really beautiful bonding experience. We'll see a lot of couples book sort of romantic treats and they'll do like a wellness package. They'll book a sauna and then that night you'll see them out in the lawn watching an amazing acoustic live show. And so that's something I think not a lot of people are aware of when they just see the face value of like, oh, I wanna stay in a vintage West Craft that's so cool. Is like, you can also sort of fill up your itinerary with free and or very easily access accessible immersive activities and memories as well, which is very cool.
<laugh>.
Yeah.
So it seems like the biggest mistake you could make is, oh, I'm just gonna book one night.
Right? <laugh>. Yes, <laugh>.
Absolutely. We, we get so often people asking for late checkouts because you just, there isn't enough time to see it all. Because once you do leave the southwestern grounds, you'll find like the funkiest museums, the coolest thrift stores. And then we have historic, very ghostly towns as well. And then all the lighthouses, like you really do have to spend a week or more to just brush the surface of all of the historic, natural and or southwestern offerings. So are
You open all year round?
Yeah, all year round. And we're busy all year round. I think just the nature of having the sauna is huge. A lot of people come to get warm and they'll book sauna after sauna and it has this outdoor garden scape, which is amazing. But also the nature of like through the pandemic, for example, these self-contained spaces, we were busy, busy, busy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> because people felt really safe that they could come and retreat and share, uh, and not share air. So they had open air in their own space. And that's stayed true even in today is a lot of people who are still remaining extremely cautious.
Like myself being immunocompromised, I can go there and feel so safe and just have all my things in my space. And if I feel like venturing out and communicating at the little coffee kiosk or going into the lodge and playing some records, we sort of, again went back to that like choose your comfort, choose your level. Right. And that I think will continue to stay a really important factor in the nature of our hotel as well. Sure.
Something just came to mind too that I realized we didn't chat about is the lodge has this amazing surrounding porch, like not quite wraparound, but both entrances. You walk into this porch with amazing windows and you'll find like a small maker's market with a, with amazing art and pottery and stuff. And then there's food and libations, and then there's a V H S and vinyl lending library. So there's hundreds of VHS movies, several hundred vinyl records.
Wow. And you can pick up a small VCR TV and a turntable and just take it back to your space with all of the records or movies that you want. Wow. And so it is so amazing to see what people choose, whether it's like a nostalgic flick that they haven't watched since they were a kid or something they've never seen before and or they're experimenting with like fifties music or like world music and you can just plug it in right. In your space, which is so cool. And then go swap it
Off. That's awesome. Yeah.
It really enriches the sort of vintage experience and that it's very, it feels very analog. It feels very true to itself. Yeah. And I appreciate that so much. And you'll even find in some of the records and videotape sleeves, little notes people have left, like with their name or their date or like a sweet message like whoever you are reading this. And then people will add onto that. And so it's become this like,
Ah, that's
So cool. It's very special. Little Easter egg experience. And there's like your typical Disney Channel movies and then like all of the Lord of the Rings, <laugh>
<laugh>. Then you do have to stay for a week to do <laugh>. Oh yeah. To watch, watch all that <laugh>. Yeah.
Yeah. But that's a highlight that I think people are just like, I haven't seen these since, you know, whatever reason. Yeah. And we have about 10 VCR TVs. Some spaces have them in the bigger spaces at all times. They're just ready to go. But for the smaller spaces, you can put up a little miniature VCR TV and hit rewind, be kind rewind. It's just,
That's awesome. Great.
So I was gonna say that's something like if you didn't grow up with VHS tapes, you may not realize that proper etiquette is when you're done with it, rewind it. Because <laugh>, you don't have to do that Absolutely. With, you know, Netflix or, or whatever
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Bad karma, <laugh>. Yeah.
Right. Return unwound videos. Yeah. That's
Good. So people are not only nostalgic for the spaces, but for the experiences of rewinding tapes and Yeah. Playing records and <laugh>.
Yeah. You can really feel it in your body by doing these, you know, subtle things of like hitting that static of a TV and like the, the aging of a, the case of a of vhs. There's just something really, maybe it's your inner child or something, but something really potent and sweet and tender about that experience
And vinyl has made a gigantic true comeback. So true. Yes. We have a friend in LA who has this ridiculous thousands vinyl store and they get, they're near Hollywood so they get a lot of, you know, people we've all heard of coming in and buying vinyl. It's, it's a big thing. So yeah,
It really is. You'll see people of all ages younger than me who are just like so excited for the, I mean there's nothing, nothing sounds like it. It's really, it makes you present. I've noticed like anytime I listen to music on a digital device, I usually get distracted. But with final it's like, you gotta be there, you gotta sit down or you gotta dance. And it's really sweet. That's an interesting, and it fills up the space.
Yeah. That's like an interesting great perspective. And the whole, I love
It. The whole experience, like the art on a record sleeve is usually pretty great. And then you've got Oh, absolutely. You know, it's just a whole different experience.
It is. And we have a lot of artists that will come and perform for our Saturday free live music and leave vinyl behind, leave a a copy of their records. So we have a whole crate that's dedicated to our visiting musicians, which is really sweet. And it's so cool to see these modern musicians still printing in that way and Wow. And selling in that way, which is so cool.
If my memory is working properly, which it usually, usually isn't. I think there's an, uh, plant that used to press vinyl that they had to bring back because of demand. Yeah. For
That's amazing. Vinyl. Well, we're so happy to hear it. <laugh>. Yeah. There's also a trailer at the corner of the Grounds. We have a geodesic dome and right by it is this converted Ford, I believe. Um, it's called The Champion and it's an analog recording studio. Oh. And so you walk inside and there's a piano, a very small bed, and then recording analog recording equipment. And so musicians will come and do their artist residencies and they can rent it out and stay in there or they can rent it out nightly. And so we've had so many musicians come and record and then they'll send a tape or a CD or a file of the songs or albums that they recorded.
And I think if you go under the art tab to the Champion, you can look at some of the YouTube videos of artists who have either filmed music videos there or recorded music there. Wow. I could talk all day about the little <laugh> things of, but it really just calls all sorts of people from all around, you know, which is so really cool. That
Is, that is so cool. Super cool. Yeah. All right. Well we were kind of planning a trip to the coast later this year. We were only gonna go as far as Oregon, but I might have to rethink that <laugh>. Yeah. I think we're <laugh>.
Yeah. Have you ever been to Astoria, Oregon? No. Okay. Well, we're only 15 miles from Oregon. Okay. We're just over this big bridge called the Midler Bridge. We're only about 30 minutes from Cannon Beach, Oregon. We're right there. And it's really easy to do both. A lot of people that are staying in Astoria will come and experience the Southwest offerings, whether it's live music or the sauna or workshops and vice versa. And so it's really easy to do like an organ day. People will go to Cannon Beach for the day, or Gearhart or Astoria. And those are amazing.
The sort of northwest corner of the Oregon coast is a huge gem. If you ever watched the Goonies Astoria was made famous by the Goonies. Yeah. Which is the Goonie house is there. And then Cannon Beach, of course has the rock from the Goonies. And it's another nostalgic, you know, nugget to include in your steak kind of thing.
But
It's really not far, which I love. You don't have to go too far into Washington to get to us, which is super nice. Yeah. Well,
And plus you guys have great coffee and great beer up there, so
<laugh>. Yes.
Some things we really
Like. Yes. The coffee kiosk is one of our newest little, we always had coffee, but it was in a lodge and we created this little centralized coffee stand. And it's been this amazing little like hummingbird hub of people where they're, they'll meet and they'll all be in their robes in the morning. That'ss so adorable. And the coffee is delicious, but the picture, like when you stand back, you're like, this is a little coffee stand in the middle of the rainforest. The type of rainforest. Like just another one of those moments where you're like, Hm, this is good.
That's awesome. Huh.
That's so cool. Yeah. Well it sounds like a neat place to, to stay. I mean it to not just a place to spend the night, but a whole different sort of complete experience.
Right.
Absolutely. I mean, it's like people that love RVs or talk about wanting to do it again, I'll just be like, well, you don't have to own an RV to be an RV lifer. There are a lot of places that offer these RV rentals, whether at Airbnbs or resorts like us, where you can live that life and hop around the US Yeah. And have that tiny living experience or that slow living lifestyle country chic, I guess <laugh>,
You
Know, without having to tow your own or own your own. So it's really cool.
Yeah. You'd better like it before you realize how many repairs there are in keeping anything running New world. I
Know, especially in the Pacific Northwest, you know, with our beautiful, beautiful weather and stuff. It, it takes a lot of work or proper storage, you know. And so it's a great way to say, Hey, the maintenance is not for me, but I still wanna taste the lifestyle
<laugh>. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Exactly. Yeah. Leaks are no joke up there. Yeah,
Absolutely.
Yeah. So Sarah, do you consider yourself a camper or more of a, uh, what do they call tiny home or small living?
Yeah. Um, I would say tiny living for sure. I bought my first tiny camper. It was an 18 foot, tiny, tiny 1990 trailer. That was my first trial. I was like, can I do this? Was this for me? And I fell in love. I was living on some land and just sort of realized it was something I had dreamed of. But once I had actually tried it, I was like, this is amazing. This is perfect for me where I am in my life right now. And then when I found the Southwestern, I found my people mm-hmm. <affirmative>, whether they were people that came and tried it for the weekend, or people who also were super passionate about that lifestyle.
It was just like, I'm home and I've never looked back. And I, I probably will continue to pursue tiny living. It might change shape a little bit, whether it's a micro cottage and stuff like that, you know, if I, um, choose to have a family or a small farm animals. But I feel the safest and the most productive and efficient in cozy spaces. Right. I find that I keep smaller spaces much cleaner than larger spaces.
<laugh>, <laugh>,
I collect too many things when I have more space. Right.
Yeah, right. Boy, we know
All about that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we usually ask this question of our guests, and if you don't consider yourself a camper, more of a tiny homer, then it might not really translate well, but Sure. We, we ask people, what is your favorite camping memory?
Hmm. My goodness. I've been camping my whole life, but I think it'll go back to, I was renting about a half acre lot for a month in my 18 foot rv. And it was just me and my dog. And it was in a part of the peninsula that is mostly retirement and or summering homes. So very quiet, lots of bears, lots of deer, lots of critters. And one morning I laid out a mat and brought out my coffee and me and my dog were just laying there.
And a whole family of deer, including this four point buck, just walked 10 feet in front of us. Oh. And I was getting ready for Finley, my dog to bark, or the deer to be spooked. And so I did some subtle movements just to make my aware, my presence known. And they just stopped. And then they came over to me. Oh. And I have my, my smarts of like, never, never feed deer, you know, you don't know, whatever. But I had my camera next to me and so I whipped it out really quick and just held it towards my chest and put my palm like this. And this buck just sniffed me and licked my hand and steamed up my camera lens and af and then just walked on by.
And after that I just sobbed. I just was like, I feel like a Disney princess right now. <laugh>. Yeah.
They didn't just come close. They were, you could touch
Them. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And I was trying to, you know, make, have him make the first move. I didn't wanna take advantage of the situation. And after that they came through every day and sometimes I would come home from grocery shopping or whatever and they would be sleeping right there, rain or shine. Oh. And so it just felt like this, like this was your space first. Am I welcome here. And it just made me feel like it was a time in my life where it was good to be quiet and good to be soft and good, to be gentle. And I think I've had a lot of those moments in camping, but that was one that has stood out the most.
And I look back very fondly on those photos. Cause I'm like, there's no words that can describe the moment. Exactly. Because my heart was racing for sure. Yeah. Wow. But it just felt like this nod of like, you're the right energy around here. Thank you for not disrupting this space <laugh>. That's fantastic. Yeah.
And then conversely, do you have a worst camping memory? Mm
Sure. Yes. <laugh>, yes. Right to mind. I was, this was before I was doing RV life, I was just doing a solo sort of camping trip where I wanted to see as many organ waterfalls as I could by myself. And it was just me and my small Honda Accord and a tiny little tent. And I did my research in that. I had the idea of which campgrounds I would stay and what waterfalls I would see. But it was very loosely planned. And one night I drove up to this pretty remote campground after seeing some waterfalls in southern Oregon. And it was just me and one other camper and my intuition just sort of fired up.
There was some red flags. This person had been there a while. This was a very remote campground in that there was no people maintaining it. It was pretty rough, but, but beautiful.
I fell asleep. But I woke up in the middle of the night with the worst out of the worst nightmare I had ever had. And something just told me to get in my car and lock the doors. And not 20 minutes later this person was circling my campground. Oh gosh. And I've waited for the sun to rise just a little bit so I could find my way down the mountain cuz it was logging road type stuff. Yeah. But ever since then, like, you know, solo camping as a woman can be very frightening. But it's also the safest I've ever felt too.
So it was like, it's one experience out of a hundred camping experiences that I've had by myself that are fantastic. And my dad raised me camping from the start and raised me smart. But there was just something about that experience where it really brought me into my body and I was like, okay, I'm going to stick to spaces where people can see me Yeah. And witness me before falling asleep, um, kind of thing. So it made me feel scared in the right way. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but scared enough that I never, I've never camped solo again in a space where I don't have cell service or that another family or someone doesn't know my presence.
Yeah,
Yeah. Situational awareness is always
Right. Absolutely right. Mm-hmm.
<affirmative>. Wow.
Well this was so fascinating and so wonderful to get to talk to you and Yeah, seriously, I'm gonna add this to our <laugh> Oh yeah. To our round. We'd
Be crazy not to
Please reach out whenever you do. Yeah. Cause I would love to help tailor your experience to the right space or That sounds great. Whatever you wanna have going up, pick out your favorite trailer kind of thing.
<laugh>. Yeah.
But yeah, we also have Arts Week every March where that's our biggest event of the year, where on the weekend you can come and witness all the performances and installations and open studios of the week before where it's just a full artist residency takeover. And that's a really fun time to sort of see like the distillation of Southwestern Arts and like at its peak as far as expression and then the week after come and stay and, and have a more mellow experience kind of thing. Yeah. So if you're ever into like a spring trip, that would be a great time to go.
Good. Before the summer
Crowds. Sounds good. Yeah. <laugh>. Yeah. All right. Sounds
Good. Well thank you so much for your time and what a cool place. So we can't wait to share it with our audience. Yeah.
Thank you so much for having me on. It's so lovely to talk about it. Yeah,
It was a real pleasure. Great meeting you. And uh, now we're really looking forward to coming and staying.
Yes, for sure.
I look forward to meeting you <laugh>, likewise in person. Yeah.
Thank you.
Thank you Again. Happy camping.
Thank you.
I, we are scheduling our visit to the Southwestern <laugh>. Yeah. We,
I actually are.
Yeah, we really are. We were planning to go to the coast anyway, and so we'll just go a little farther north than we originally planned.
By the way, for those of you, since there's people all over the country, we're talking about the left coast, not the right coast.
That's right. <laugh>. We're
Gonna go Washington, Oregon, Northern California
On our way to Courtside, Arizona <laugh>. Correct.
Yeah, we're, we're planning the rest of our year in travel.
That's right. Last week, if you haven't had a chance to listen, we got to talk to Joel Holland from Harvest Host, but we talked about their new program, which is called Camp Scanner. Yeah. And that program helps you, if you are looking for a site like a, especially through recreation.gov Camp Scanner is a program that will do the refreshing for you. Yeah.
So if you haven't tried to book something through recreation.gov or a number of the other public camping reservation systems, you will be quite surprised at how busy camping has become. It's just some, these places, it seems impossible to find a campground. Yeah. Sometimes. And so with Camp Scanner, basically what it does is it keeps refreshing, refreshing, looking at whatever criteria you put in dates, times, length of Barbie, all that stuff, and finds the cancellations because a lot of people, since there's such a low barrier to book and cancel, people just book stuff and then they're like, eh, I'm not going after all.
Or they might book several camps, whatever. Anyway, camp Scanner is a tool that lets you find those openings and take advantage of them. And it's sort of the perfect tool if you're a last minute planner as we can
Be <laugh>. Right.
So we'll put links to last week's episode in our show notes. But Camp Scanners a really neat tool if you're trying to find reservations at public campgrounds and things like that through recreation com. They also have like trips and tours, that kind of thing as well. So it's kind of neat. Try out Camp Scanner. As I said last week, Peggy went somewhere
I did. I got to go with a group of women sisters on the fly to nearby Ruidoso. We actually stayed in the Bonito Hollow campground on Bonito Creek. What a great campground that was. They were so nice. And they, this is like the sixth I think year. This group has gone there. And the campground loves the women and the women love the campground. They were so nice and helpful. It was only my first time backing into a campsite with this trailer.
Now I did test it out the day before <laugh> and, and parked in the driveway a couple of times just to make sure I could figure out how to back up. But I had one gentleman that came over and showed me my site and asked how much help I needed. I said, just, you know, make sure I don't hit anything. And he was very patient and very helpful. You know, wasn't overbearing, but really got me into the space really easily. We had a really good time. There was a day of geocaching, people went kayaking, we went to a winery and tasted wine and had charcuterie boards and it was just a really, really nice weekend.
Ruidoso is a cute little town, kind of a little bit in the mountains, which also I handled like a champion <laugh>.
Oh, I was not aware of the mountains. Yeah, it
Wasn't horrible mountains, but it's a little bit hilly getting there. But I've already signed up to go next year. I had a really good time there. The site I had was actually right above the creek, so I was able to just kind of look out the window and see the creek and just really, really nice place.
Wow. Sounds like fun.
It was.
Another thing that happened on this last weekend was where we got our recipe from.
That's right. So during this camp out we had potlucks for dinnertime and my new friend Stella brought a no bake eclair cake. And my goodness, that was worth all the carbs. <laugh>. I did consume a heck of a lot of carbs over the weekend. But that was one of the best and such an easy recipe because you don't have to bake anything with Stella's permission. I wrote the recipe up and put it on the website and so we'll put a link to that.
It's a great recipe for camping and it's, I guess you could kind of call it a samos alternative because there are graham crackers and chocolate involved, but wow. Yum. Yum. Delicious. No bakey Claire cake.
I saw the pictures and I'm like, oh
Man. Now if we have to make one for Tony <laugh>. Yes, we do.
I don't know when you're listening to this, but if it's before Father's Day, we have an article on stresses camping.com about camping gifts for Father's Day. And it's 13 lucky items for dad.
Dad would be lucky to receive these. Yeah.
And we go from mild to wild, right? I mean, there's things that are 10 bucks and things that are
More <laugh>.
Yeah. So you can go nuts. But a few of the things, you know, we have some of the stuff that we have talked about in the past, like the night ice gear ties dump buddy lip RV propane tank monitors. We've got the Dometic Go Hydration jug, the portable Cuisinart Blender gas stop, the RV scissor nut locks, which are a really inexpensive way to keep your stabilizer Jax from backing down an infrared thermometer, some RhinoFLEX tools.
One of the things that I really like a Gerber multi-tool. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but of course at the, the top of the list, if you really wanna spend some money on Dad <laugh>, you can get a rec tech portable pellet smoker in this.
There you go.
It's the one that I have. And they've made it even more portable now. Yeah,
We
Have, we made some ribs last week. Woo doggies. They were good man. Hey, so anyway, there's an article on Stressless camping about 13 lucky gifts for Dad. And even if you know it's, even if it's past Father's Day, who doesn't love a gift, right?
So what if you have like a whole bunch of money and dad needs an rv? Can you recommend one?
Well, I'm gonna say this is, I almost wonder how common the love of this trailer is gonna be, but this company, I have to take my hat off to them because they certainly got their PR out of this. It's the mammoth overland extreme level event trailer. And essentially it's a tear drop. But get this, it's got bear spray built in. What? I know there's two sprayers of this.
Bear spray has a dual band ham radio built in. There are spotlights, there's a camera on a boom arm. So you could literally be inside this teardrop and kind of raise the camera and look around. There is a medical grade air filtration system. There are bulletproof windows and you can get as an option, you can get this thing like completely bullet proofed. I'm not sure where you're camping, but
If you have bears and bullets, right?
<laugh>. Yeah, you bears and bullets won't be a problem. They say it's an extreme level event, I'm assuming, you know, like the end of the world type of stuff. Now the funny thing, I've talked about this before. I've got this Jones to build a custom trailer out of a cargo trailer. Right? Here we go again. I know, and I also have the idea of when we get a new truck, which, you know, we're always shopping, right? But if we get a new truck, I want to put a Project M camper on the back, which basically has nothing in it.
So we've got all this stuff, we've got power stations and Sure coolers and water systems, all this stuff for camping. But I think because I tend to look at this stuff a lot, the internet thinks that I'm a prepper, like I'm preparing for doomsday.
And so hence I got shared this, uh, this mammoth extinction level event trailer. And it's interesting. I think, like I say, I think it's more about getting publicity than anything. It's a legitimate product, but, but the interesting thing is, okay, so you can go in the cabin of this thing, there's a hatch you could pop up and look around. It's got this medical grade air filtration system. It's got a compartment where you can launch a drone from the compartment.
Wow. That stands, I mean it's, it's really like all this, but the kitchen's outside. So <laugh>, I mean, you know, it's still a teardrop or a square drop as they say. Oh, one of the things I do, like they have a case specifically for a starlink antenna, and then the whole exterior of this, or a lot of the exterior is covered in Molly Rack, which is sort of like a grid that you can attach things to. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, there's an attachment point for the starlink antenna so that, you know, there's some stuff on this thing that's really, really cool.
It's got a king size mattress and it's built by a company called Vasin Aircraft who builds airplanes. They're still an America small plane manufacturer, which is pretty unusual. And this whole thing is made out of aluminum and it's, it's exceptionally well made. Oh, I forgot it all says a Geiger counter.
Okay. <laugh>.
I'm telling you these people that, oh wow. Wherever they're camping, it it, I'm not saying <laugh>,
They're
Prepping for something. Anyway, it's kind of a neat thing. We have the review@stressuscamping.com in our honest RV review section.
Wow. All right. And now for something completely different, <laugh>
And now for something completely
Different in our question of the week, last week I wanted to know, do you read magazines? And apparently no one does. We only got two answers. One answer was no <laugh> and Deanne said the only one she reads now is Girl Camper. Now if you're gonna read a magazine, that is a good choice. I have to
Say it has nothing to do with the fact that we do provide articles
For That's right. Nothing to do with that. It is a beautifully produced magazine.
Yes. I mean they have won some awards with it for good reason. We'll put a link. But there were several episodes of the Stresses Camping podcast where we talked to magazine publishers. Right. And we get a number of RV related magazines and they're really good. They
Really are good. And so if you're gonna be camping without internet or whatever and you want something to read and you don't like to read books, magazines are a great thing because you can start and stop as whenever you want. So if you didn't answer and you do read, go ahead and continue to answer. If you think you don't like magazines, but I just talked you into it, check out our list of <laugh> of Kemp. One of
The nice things about magazines is you can stop, you can earmark pages, that kind of thing. One thing you can't do pension zoom, don't, you know, like
This is very true.
Take a picture and you're like, Ooh, I want to zoom in. Nope, that
Ain't happening buddy. Yeah, that's very true. I've actually tried it on more than one occasion. <laugh> <laugh>. I forget that. I can't zoom in that way. <laugh>. Oh well. So today hopefully we get more answers. I wanted to know, you know, we were talking a little bit earlier about all the tasks that need to be done and do you know what the other person does? What is your favorite and what is your least favorite camp task?
Oh yeah, you can answer that over at our Fun and Friendly Stresses Camping podcast, Facebook. Woo. Whew. Man, what a name. Why'd we pick one that was that long?
<laugh>, who knows? But it's fun to say it is and it's fun to join and it's fun to monitor because they are questions of the week. We do get great answers on most of our questions, <laugh>, but also other people ask questions and it's a fun and friendly and helpful place to be.
Yeah. If you're tired of kind of the malarkey that goes on in Facebook where you know, you get like one good answer and 10 snide comments and that, that that doesn't happen over there. We, we honestly keep on top of that. So it's a small group, but it's a bunch of really great people and some people who are very, very knowledgeable.
Absolutely. So we also have a weekly newsletter if you didn't know and it's absolutely positively and totally free.
Yeah. Well, and here's the thing. If you are not in our weekly newsletter list, if you don't get the Stresses Camping Weekly newsletter and you sign up in June, we are giving away one of the best RV water hoses out there. It's the air gear water hose. Yeah. I mean it's a, it's a terrific item. I put a review on stressless camping.com. It's the water hose that we have we did a video about it this week and wrote a story about it. It's a great hose.
And we are gonna do one recipient in June, all of June, who signs up for our newsletter list. So if you haven't, there's another reason too, but more reasons we never share the list. We never spam you. We never send out a bunch of junk. We just try to have tips, tricks, deals and hacks, as well as discounts on the things that we use we love, and the stories we've written. So that's what you get.
That's right. Also, while you're on the website to sign up for the newsletter, you can check out the show notes for this episode number 2 0 7 on the podcastPage@stresslesscamping.com.
Right? And that's also where you'll find our discounts and deals on the best things you'll need for your Stressless camping adventure. Oh, when, if you've got a great deal for our audience, let us know. We're always looking for good things to share.
Indeed. And of course we are in all the social places. So after you've read all the articles and signed up for the newsletter and checked out all the discounts, and you still want some more Stressless camping, check out those links to the social places on the top right of the webpage. And you can jump off to, you know, Facebook and Instagram and all those places where we are. Yeah.
We're saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
And of course, if you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping Podcast, it's free to subscribe on your favorite podcast catcher. And we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire. Yep.
And a review will help others find the Stressless Camping podcast. So if you're like, well, these, these guys, they're okay in our books. How can we kind of help 'em out? Well, a review really does tell Apple and all those podcast platforms that people are listening and that you like what we're doing. Well, unless you leave a one star review <laugh>. Anyway, thank you to those of you who've left a review and, and if you haven't, you can do just that.
And if you have, you can still share anything you see, anything you like, anything that you think your friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, people in, people in the grocery store, people you don't even like, <laugh>, we don't care. Let 'em know about something great you found on stressless camping.com.
Yeah. Thank you so much. Well, we really appreciate you as always. We appreciate your being here and most of all,
Happy camping.
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stressless Camping Adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure. And we look forward to your joining us next week. Until then, happy camping.
That's just nuts.
Oh, it totally is.
