Hidden camping destinations with Alyssa Ravasio from Hipcamp
StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 221 - hidden camping destination with Alyssa Ravasio from Hipcamp
With 5 million acres of land and about a hundred thousand places to camp, Hip Camp is a surprising way to find some incredible RV destinations from very affordable spots to incredibly scenic destinations. We speak with Alyssa Ravasio to learn more about what kind of camping you can find with Hip Camp. We also venture to a historic colony in Iowa, try out a nifty new gadget and talk about bunkhouse travel trailers.
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Mentioned on this episode
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Amana Colonies: https://www.stresslesscamping.com/campgroundstory/amana-colonies
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Automated transcript of StressLess Campiing RV podcast episode 221
Mark Ferrell
Welcome to the weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into Stressless 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 Stressless camping.
Peggy Barthel
Welcome to the Long Distance Campfire, <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
I'm Tony.
Peggy Barthel
I'm Peggy.
Tony Barthel
And we're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time
Peggy Barthel
Most of the time in a small trailer.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips,
Peggy Barthel
Chicks
Tony Barthel
And discounts and yeah. Peggy traveled. I'm traveling. So right now we are in two different places.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. I am in India, California with my family, my sister and my mother and I drove here and with my sister's two year old nephew, uh, grandson. We are celebrating the memory of my grandmother. Some of you have been following a long time and know that she was very close to 101. She passed away a couple weeks ago and so I rode with my sister and my mom and our two year old grandson slash nephew and we are here gathering with the rest of the family.
Tony Barthel
We thought she was gonna make it, but unfortunately not. So, yeah. Um,
Peggy Barthel
And next week and next week it'll be a similar situation. I'll get home the same day that Tony leaves and we will talk more about that next week about our other Methods of Travel
Tony Barthel
Next week's podcast will be interesting too. <laugh>, uh, I have been working on the railroad. No, wait, I've been working on the website. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And something I've heard some people do is selling kind of travel guides to different areas and Peggy did a really super job of chronicling our trip through Michigan. So what I've done is put together just one page on our website that's all about all the links to that trip. So there's a camping section, food section, things we saw that were real highlights sections. So if you're going to Michigan's Upper Peninsula or Michigan in general, take a look at that.
Tony Barthel
Let me know what you think it was. It was a lot of work to, and I even had to learn some new coding and all that, but that's okay. I like doing that <laugh>, in fact, I enjoyed it so much. By the time you hear this. There may also be a similar page about Route 66 Oh. And the way you can find those at the moment is under the hamburger menu, either on your confuser or on your smartphone. And it will say, what will it say?
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>?
Tony Barthel
It'll say something, that's for sure. It'll say travel guides
Alyssa Ravasio
That's at the
Peggy Barthel
Bottom. Oh,
Alyssa Ravasio
That's a good
Tony Barthel
One. Okay. Yeah, so if you click on that plus then you can see the Michigan one for sure. 'cause it's already there. And maybe Route 66 2. And I may even have another one that I'm working on. But right now, that's, uh, what I have. We had a really interesting guest this week and you know, we just like all of you, I assume mm-hmm. <affirmative> are learning more and more as we go down the road of life. <laugh> and Alyssa from hip camp reached out to us and ultimately after lots of rescheduling, we got to talk to her and learned a lot about Hipc Camp.
Tony Barthel
And so that's what we have for you this week. It is a way of finding some really unusual places that we hadn't really heard of. Without any further ado, let's hear from Alyssa from Hipc Camp
Peggy Barthel
Today. We are so pleased to be able to welcome Alyssa CIO with Hipc Camp Alyssa, thank you so much for spending some time with us. We are, you know, always on the road it seems, and always finding new and interesting ways to stay in places overnight. And we'd like for you to introduce us to Hipc Camp.
Alyssa Ravasio
Yeah, well thanks for having me. Um, HIPC Camp focuses mostly on opening access to beautiful private land for camping in RVs as well as tents. Um, and to date we've opened up access to just about 5 million acres of land. Wow. And, and hundreds of thousands of new campsites. Now, 90% of these are only on hip camp. And we've done this, we've been working really hard on this for many years because we know we need more good campsites in the world. It's too hard to find a good campsite. So that's really what we focus on doing.
Peggy Barthel
That's fantastic.
Alyssa Ravasio
Hip camp has been around for almost 10 years now. For the first few years of the company's life, we focused exclusively on public land and we kept getting the same feedback. You know, our public parks are amazing. We love our public land, but there aren't enough good places to camp. And so about five or six years ago, we made the decision to start reaching out to people with private land, often right outside these gorgeous national parks and creating new places for people to camp an rv.
Tony Barthel
I read that this was born out of a weekend where you were not able to find a cool place to camp.
Alyssa Ravasio
Yeah. So I, uh, was lucky to grow up camping and mostly very lucky to have other people making the reservation for me. My dad really gets most of the credit there, but also friends. And when I started booking camping for myself, I just couldn't believe how tricky it was, how booked up everything was, you know, six, 12 months in advance. And in particular did have a weekend trip where after many hours of research showed up, only to find that despite lots of research and lots of reading, I hadn't learned that this campsite had a great surf break. And I'd left my surfboard at home and oh, it was still a good trip, but just had this moment of, you know, I tried so hard and put in so much work to finding somewhere good to camp and, and somehow still miss the main point of this campground, at least for me.
Alyssa Ravasio
So that was how the idea for hip camp was born.
Tony Barthel
Hip camp is unusual in that you allow tent, campers, or RVs, which is not typical. What are the requirements from the camper for being a participant in Hipc Camp?
Alyssa Ravasio
Well, I think one of the best things about Hipc Camp is we really have a huge diversity of different places to stay. So you can filter for, you know, hookups if you need to have electrical or water hookup, no problem. We just added a map layer for dump stations. So you can also see that and see what might be close to, you know, different dump stations. And so whether you are, you know, a tent camper and you need a bathroom and a kitchen or you're in a fully self-contained RV and you can be off the grid for, you know, a few weeks, um, there is a HIPC camp for you and our app or our website both offer really helpful set of features to, to connect you with the right place for you.
Peggy Barthel
So you just said your app. I think that's something new to me. I don't think I realized there was an app. So Will, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go update my phone. <laugh>
Alyssa Ravasio
<laugh>. Yeah, please do it. Actually, uh, recently won Apple's app of the day. Oh yeah. It is an award-winning app and really works great on both iPhone and Android. I think it's the best product that we build.
Tony Barthel
So what are the costs of being a part of Hipc Camp?
Alyssa Ravasio
Hipc camp is free to join. Um, you can download the app, it's a free app, no membership fees, nothing like that. And then you only pay when you find somewhere you wanna camp, at which point you'll pay, you know, whatever price the host has set. And that can start as low as $5. We see the average being closer to the 25 to $50 range, but again, there's a big diversity, so, and you can really find what's right for you. Um, we also have filters for pricing. So if you're looking for more affordable sites, really suggests the under $25 a night filter. Mm-hmm. Or the under $50 a night filter.
Tony Barthel
Okay. Are there hosts that allow longer stays more than a, a few days or are some, you know, just one night or any length of stay criteria
Alyssa Ravasio
So you can stay at a hip camp in general, this is our policy up to 29 days <laugh>, at which point you need to make a new booking,
Peggy Barthel
But not all the hosts allow that whole time. Is that, or do they all are, is that kind of a requirement for being a host? Is it you have to allow someone to stay 29 days?
Alyssa Ravasio
You know, it's a good question and we might need to fact check me on this, but I believe that all hosts do support a 29 up to a 29 day stay. Now the reality is what happens is some of our hosts have it set, so you do have to submit a booking request. And so if you were gonna stay for a length of time they didn't feel comfortable with, you guys might chat it out at that point. But yeah, the, the vast majority of our hosts are pretty open to that. Okay.
Tony Barthel
So it's completely free to, to look around, which is pretty awesome. And is that also true of the dump station component of the app? So I can just download the app?
Alyssa Ravasio
Yes. Yeah. Not only do we have free dump stations, but also free map layers for all of our public lands. So if you're looking for free camping on national forests or B L M, you can actually add that map layer as well and see where you might have a free site. We know, especially for people like yourself that are on the road for a while, you know, having free camping's great, but then, you know, every once in a while you might wanna go somewhere with a, you know, nice outdoor bathtub or somewhere with a really special amenity or something. So that, that's really what we're designing for is, is to support you across whatever way you wanna camp.
Peggy Barthel
And do you find that a lot of hosts visit with their guests or is it more of a just like, hey, there's a space and we'll leave each other alone? Or is it mixed?
Alyssa Ravasio
Yeah, it's more, there's a space and we'll leave you alone. Okay. Um, that tends to be the typical experience. We do have some hosts that, you know, I think our very good at this and, and distinguishing if people want to connect or not. But we definitely do have hosts that really enjoy connecting with their campers, campers love connecting with them, and we hear lots of fun stories about, you know, a shared bottle of wine around a campfire as well. Great.
Tony Barthel
That's pretty awesome. It sounds like we really need to take better advantage of Hipc Camp. I mean, it, it sounds like a great tool for RVers and it's interesting that you have places that are unique to Hipc camp,
Peggy Barthel
Right?
Alyssa Ravasio
Yeah. So 90% of the sites that you can book through Hipc Camp are only on Hipc camp. You're not gonna find those on any other website. Okay. Um, and that's really important to us because, you know, we, again, we really do the hard work I think of, you know, reaching out to landowners who are in areas where we've got lots of data. Now we can see where people wanna camp. And if we see that there's more people that wanna camp in an area, then there are campsites, we start making calls. We'll call all the farmers or ranchers or or nature preserves in an area and see if they might be open to, you know, hosting campers and earning some income to, you know, offset the cost of land stewardship or land maintenance or, or different dreams they might have for their land.
Alyssa Ravasio
So
Peggy Barthel
As a camper yourself, are you still camping or have you changed to, I was gonna say graduated up, but that's not necessarily right. <laugh>, have you changed to any other kind of camping?
Alyssa Ravasio
Yes, uh, we did recently get a van and I love the van but I'm, I'm looking at changing how I camp yet again. We're looking at some different trailers right now. We recently had a two year old. Oh well we recently had a baby who recently turned two <laugh> looking for a little more space and a little more convenience. So open to good ideas as well.
Tony Barthel
That's funny because we are travel trailer owners and we are looking at Van so <laugh> we
Alyssa Ravasio
Should just trade. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
There you go.
Alyssa Ravasio
You want a 1985 West Flia? Oh man. You should be good at working on cars if you are <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Oh
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. We're not really planning to adjust Van Camp. We're planning to get a van that we can camp in for a couple of days, but more importantly that can tow our trailer for these long trips.
Tony Barthel
Yeah,
Alyssa Ravasio
Yeah. Cool.
Tony Barthel
We have so much camping stuff that I write reviews of that I can literally outfit a van with just what's in the garage. That's
Alyssa Ravasio
Great.
Peggy Barthel
Anything else that we haven't thought to ask you about Hipc Camp?
Alyssa Ravasio
You know, something that really makes our app I think, unique is that almost all of the sites are bookable and you can book like for tonight. And so it's just a really high utility app where you can put in your dates, put in whatever other filters matter to you and get a really great list right away of what can I book, where can I stay? I love using it on road trips where I'm like using the map to be like, ah, we'll probably go another, you know, 50 miles tonight, but where's gonna be nearby? Okay, I can go a little further if I can stay at this really cool spot. So really recommend the mobile app for that and again, being able to combine the different filters around price and the dates.
Alyssa Ravasio
And then again, any special needs you have for hookups or potentially you're interested in. I love our outdoor, um, hot tub slash bathtub filter. That's one of my favorites to look for. Yeah. We have hosts who create just amazing, you know, really incredible experiences for so many of our hostess is their dream for their land and it's a dream to get to share it with people. So it's fun to step into someone's dream for a night or two.
Tony Barthel
I would love that outdoor hot tub. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Outdoor bathtub
Tony Barthel
Component that, that alone would make me like check hipc camp first, let alone all the other things you've created there. But me too, I dig that. Like I could just see being in the forest in a hot tub or something like that. Yeah, that would be great.
Alyssa Ravasio
Me too. I'm a big fan of that. And then, you know, we talked about it already, but again, I would just say, you know, 90% of what you can book on hip camp is only on hip camp. And so it is a really, you know, unique set of beautiful private campsites, um, that I think are a really good, a good thing for people to know about and to check out and, and to get outside on.
Tony Barthel
The fact that you can potentially book tonight for something really could change the way you plan a trip, right. Instead of it's like, oh, I gotta rush to be here, I gotta rush to be there. You just break out that you just
Peggy Barthel
Wait until you know you're ready to stop.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And you're like, alright, don't, I'm getting tired, I'm gonna see what I can do. Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Alyssa Ravasio
Totally. And that, that's so much of the like spirit of what we wanna create for, you know, the camping community is going camping should be simple. You should be able to be spontaneous. There shouldn't be all this stress. And I know the name of your, your organization <laugh>, your podcast here is Stressless. So yeah, I think having, you know, that ability to really take the stress outta camping and, and stay spontaneous, keep it simple. That's what it's all about. So
Peggy Barthel
We can find you@hipcamp.com and of course we will put that in our show notes. Also, there's an app, so it's called Hip Camp, I'm guessing. Yep.
Alyssa Ravasio
<laugh>. Yes it is in both Android and iOS stores.
Peggy Barthel
So by the the time this is done recording, I'm gonna have it downloaded on my <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I'm surprised I didn't realize how many advantages you had. Yeah. You know how you, there's so many apps out there and the way you've structured it really sets you apart. And I'm very glad that we had a chance to speak with you about this. Absolutely. Because it sounds pretty much like how we enjoy camping, right. But just don't, because of all the 'cause we're always
Peggy Barthel
Afraid of not finding a place. <laugh>. Yeah,
Alyssa Ravasio
<laugh>. Well I'm really glad to hear that. And yeah, thanks for, thanks for having me. We've been, you know, we've been working very hard. We've got a small passionate, committed team that's been working really hard to open up access again to, you know, nearly 5 million acres and over a hundred thousand new campsites that you can only find through the app. So really encourage everyone to get out there and enjoy it because that's, that's why we do this.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, absolutely.
Peggy Barthel
That's fantastic. So Alyssa, we like to do a little pop quiz at the end, interviewing our guests all.
Alyssa Ravasio
Can you tell
Peggy Barthel
Us about your best camping memory?
Alyssa Ravasio
There's so many,
Tony Barthel
So many, right?
Peggy Barthel
This is why we talk to people by video even though we don't release it. 'cause I love to see your face when you go, oh boy, <laugh>.
Alyssa Ravasio
Yeah. Okay, I'll give you two. So one is just from this weekend, so major recency bias, but it was amazing this past weekend I was camping at Big Bees Orchard in Paonia, Colorado. It is a beautiful 30 acre peach orchard with amazing camping throughout the peachtrees, which it, in peach season, which it is, it's just, it's u pick so you can just like get outta your tent and pick a peach and it's just the best. Nice. Um, and they also have an incredible music venue there where they bring in amazing bands.
Alyssa Ravasio
And so you can like, so we got, we had a bunch of friends there. It's actually a friend's wedding. They actually found this small town in Colorado because of this hip camp and now live there. So it's just this beautiful culmination for me of all these people I love great music and peaches and camping all at once.
Alyssa Ravasio
Um, so that was just a really, really beautiful weekend. And anyone who's going through the Colorado area could not recommend Big B's more. They're just, it's just an amazing place to visit. So that's one. And then I'll share another one that there's lots of moments that are like this, but I got, like I said, I got to grow up camping a lot. Was very fortunate. I have two little sisters and our primary activity while camping was inner tubing down rivers. And I do mean a real inner tube. Like my mom would stop at a gas station and get the inner tubes that you put in truck tires and inflate them at the gas station.
Alyssa Ravasio
And then we'd have to all like, sit weird in the backseat with inner tubes in our faces. Um, but then man, did we, did we run the river on those inner tubes? So I think, you know, just those moments with my sisters getting to go down the river and, and try new rapids and pick out lines and, and just, you know, have fun and be on an adventure. Those are, those are some of my favorite memories of my life, let alone just, just camping. That's
Tony Barthel
Fantastic. That's pretty awesome. So conversely, we, we also ask what is your worst camping memory?
Alyssa Ravasio
I also have a really quick answer for that one. So I was going with some friends to Lake Aloha, which is in the Desolation Wilderness in Tahoe. And it was, it was hot like, I think it was, I think it was June, it could have been May. But I had this idea in my head, Aloha sounds warm and it's this lake. And so I decided to hammock camp and I just brought a hammock, no sleeping pad, no tent, you know, just a nice sleeping bag and a, and a hammock. And I also brought a paddleboard because I brought an inflatable paddleboard, which is a lot to carry on.
Alyssa Ravasio
I believe the, you know, 10 12 mile hike in with multi-thousand foot elevation gain. Oh course cut to that evening, I didn't know I had only 10, I had only hammock camped in tropical zones. I didn't realize that if you hammock camp without a sleeping pad, you might as well not have a sleeping bag at all because of how down works when it gets compressed. And so we're talking, there's snow on the ground, which we didn't know was gonna happen. <laugh>, I'm absolutely freezing. All I have with me is this paddle board, which is completely useless because the lake is frozen over.
Alyssa Ravasio
But actually became very helpful because around three or 4:00 AM after not being able to sleep, I inflated the paddleboard and ended up sleeping on it. And, um, again, still had a great adventure, but, uh, learned a lot about gear and snow camping and how to be more, more prepared in the future. Wow.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. They're all lessons aren't they? Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen, we, we sincerely appreciate your making time for us and what you've created with Hipc Camp. So thank you so much and of course we'll share with our audience and wish you a continued success and finding these incredible spots and sharing them with all of us. Yes, for
Alyssa Ravasio
Sure. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for having me. And I'll also share, we do have a $10 or 10% actually even better than 10, 10% discount code for anyone who wants to try out using hip camp. But yeah, thank you so much for, for having me. It's been really fun to meet you and best of luck on your, all of your camping and journeys as well. And I'll share, you know, we, we really view hip camp as something we're building in collaboration with our community. So if you or any listeners have ideas or feedback or good camping spots we should know about, we're all ears and love getting those ideas from our community.
Alyssa Ravasio
So. Excellent.
Tony Barthel
Sounds perfect. Thank you so much.
Alyssa Ravasio
Yeah, great to meet you.
Tony Barthel
Oh, it's great meeting you too. And I, I'm really looking forward to using the app.
Peggy Barthel
So Alyssa mentioned a discount and we do have a code on our website now on our deals and discountsPage@stresslesscamping.com for a $10 off code that you can use to try out, try out hip camp.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, so check it out. We were pretty impressed talking to Alyssa and obviously we're gonna keep testing it out, but kind of cool deal.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
One of the things that you could do at one of the hip camp locations is utilize a solar and lithium power package like we would do. You sure could. And you would be saying, I don't have that. Well, we know a guy <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>
Tony Barthel
And that is our friends at A B C Upfitters. And over the past week we've seen them put a monster system into a monster fifth wheel, but we also saw them put a really huge system into a van. Yeah. And so the neat thing about them is they will work with you and ask a lot of questions and learn what it is that you want from your system and then they build it with masterful components.
Tony Barthel
And the good thing about that is there's not one person pointing to the other person if there's some question or things don't work the way they're supposed to. No. They, they just work and they work well and they work together. And so all of the headaches that you might have with a solar system are just taken care of.
Peggy Barthel
Absolutely.
Tony Barthel
So if you would like that peace of mind off the grid, give the people at a b c Upfitters a call at (574) 293-9399. It's 5 7 4 2 9 3 9 3 9 9. Or of course we have more information in the show notes@stresslesscamping.com and this is episode 2, 2, 1. So let's go somewhere, Peggy, even though we're,
Peggy Barthel
Well, yeah, I am somewhere <laugh> <laugh>, but, but I don't have a lot to report about some this. All I can really report about Indio is they have a nice timeshare and a couple of casinos, <laugh> and that's all we ever do when we're here. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I think that's end the date form.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Well there's that. But a few weeks ago, a couple weeks ago, I don't know, I have really lost track of ability to tell what day it is, but, uh, on our way home from our Michigan trip, we stopped in Iowa at Amana Colonies. And that is really, it's, it's really cool. It's, it's, I guess it's not as, uh, it's not what I was expecting. How's that? There are seven colonies, Amana colonies, a man of colonies is built up of seven colonies.
Peggy Barthel
Now what I would equate these to, to try and make people understand what they are is seven neighborhoods. Right. So each of the colonies is separated by a, you know, a couple miles of, of just the road and the, the highway. And so each one is its own little cluster, but really the only one that has a whole lot of tourism stuff going on is the actual town called Amana, or the Colony called Amana.
Peggy Barthel
And that's where you can go to wineries and brewery and restaurants and shopping and tours and visitor center and all those kind of things. Like you can spend a good couple days there probably. But the other colonies, we made a point of driving through all of them. Most of them are just literally just a neighborhood. They don't really have anything. Now in middle Amana, there is an opportunity to take a tour of the kitchen. These colonies, when they were first, when they first came out, when they were first colonized, they were a group of houses with a single community kitchen.
Peggy Barthel
And most of them have been, you know, shut down and repurposed and everything. All the history was lost. But in middle of manana, they actually, the woman who closed that kitchen just closed it down and now they've turned it into something that you can tour and they tell you about life during that time.
Peggy Barthel
And nobody had kitchens in their houses. They all just went to this community kitchen also in middle of man. And next to the kitchen you can tour the blacksmith shop in the church and then in the colony called Hi Amana, there's an old mercantile and you can go there and shop and buy things, but you can also see a lot of the things that are on the shelves that were on the shelves back in the day when they opened it, when it was a, you know, the only place to do the shopping. So it's kind of a cool, just little cluster of communities and like I said, there's one that you're gonna spend much time on and then there's the other six that are just kind of, you drive through and see the houses and there you go.
Tony Barthel
I was fascinated by that general store because I asked the lady behind the counter, is this a recreation or what's the deal? Yeah. And she said no, the family just eventually was said, well, you know, we'll just keep going and just leave it as it is and add maybe a couple new items. But I, there's a whole bunch of paint that looked like, you know, like cans paint that looked like from the sixties. Yeah. And I said, is there still paint in there? And she goes, oh yeah, those are still unopened. Wow.
Tony Barthel
So it's kind of trippy. It was like the local, you know, five and dime or whatever. Right. And or hardware store. There's a lot of candies and stuff you could buy that's fresher than 50 year old paint <laugh>. But uh, yeah, that was neat to me. And the another thing at, uh, mana Colonies, there is a brewery there and I did the flight big surprise there. And there was not one even like okay beer in the whole flight.
Tony Barthel
They were all exceptional. They
Peggy Barthel
Were
Tony Barthel
Fantastic. So we've got this fridge full of the Mill Creek beer from a Amana Colonies 'cause gosh, it was good. And we stayed at the Amana, what was the RV park called?
Peggy Barthel
We stayed at the Amana, uh, RV park and, and Event Center, I think it's called.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, something like that. It's basically a giant open field with hookups and
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. But it's terrific because they have so many sites and they've got a, you know, like a community room, a building there. So if you have a group event, you have a place indoors that you can gather if the weather gets bad and they have a couple of outdoor, you know, kind of picnic areas. And so it's not bad. We, and, and some of those sites, even though there's not much to look at from a distance, there's actual hookups and full hookups. And so they have a, you know, choice of, of what hookups you want.
Tony Barthel
But it was also very clean and very flat. And Starlink and solar would work absolutely great there. <laugh>, I mean, gosh, starlink was singing there. Yeah. And then we had our e-bikes and Amana, at least the, that middle colony where the brewery is, is very bicycle friendly.
Peggy Barthel
Oh yeah.
Tony Barthel
So if you bring
Peggy Barthel
Your, and you can even ride, you can even ride from, there's a great bike path between Amana and Middle Amana. After that you have to get on the highway. So it's a little more sketchy, but the, you could ride that two miles back and forth to middle Amana for a nice ride.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, it's a good bike friendly place. So Amanda Colonies, uh, I forgot what state that was that Iowa?
Peggy Barthel
That was in Iowa, yeah.
Tony Barthel
Okay. Whew. Man, that trip
Peggy Barthel
Was a whirlwind. <laugh> <laugh>. That was where we got our, our Iowa sticker <laugh>. There you go. So, uh, are you playing with any gadgets while I'm gone? I thought you might be <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Well, since I am unsupervised, I happen to go to the Home Depot,
Peggy Barthel
Uh
Tony Barthel
Oh. And went down the Ryobi aisle.
Peggy Barthel
I was gonna say, how much new Ryobi do we have now? <laugh>?
Tony Barthel
Well, we have, we have the Ryobi one plus job site hand vacuum. And what this is, we have that
Peggy Barthel
Already.
Tony Barthel
No, we didn't. No. We have a
Peggy Barthel
Brand new one. Oh, this is new. A new vacuum. Yes. Okay. Yes. Alright,
Tony Barthel
Well we have been talking about, we have a Rabi stick vac and honestly it's completely underwhelming.
Peggy Barthel
Yes, it is.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. It just, it doesn't That's
Peggy Barthel
Right. <laugh>. I was gonna say, a lot of times when things don't work well you say it sucks. Well, in a vacuum's case, you have to say it doesn't suck <laugh>. Right.
Tony Barthel
And it doesn't, it's, and it, it's just not a great vacuum. So I saw a YouTube video about this thing and I'm like, Ooh, that because we have a ton of those Rabi OnePlus batteries. Sure. And so more stuff that works on that is makes me happier. Uh, and this thing works on those OnePlus batteries, but according to the dude in the video, this thing has got some suction power galore, but it's also handheld. So it's compact and it comes with, uh, like a stick accessory, like a big tube.
Tony Barthel
So you can stand up vacuum, uh, it sits on its little rubber feet and it has like an elephant's trunk hose that you can vacuum in. Small spaces comes with like a, you know, typical vacuum head and a crevice tool and all that stuff. I have to tell you, this thing has some suction power. I mean, you can, when you're standing and using it as like a proper house vacuum, you can hear it like going down, you know, on the floor.
Tony Barthel
So they have got their suction down. Cleaning it is really easy too. So, uh, you just kind of pop off the front of the canister and dump out the stuff. Um, great. It's a nice small size. And with the attachments it's really convenient. So it's gonna be something that continuously fills our path through
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Tony Barthel
But I'm, I vacuum the truck with it. Well we have a video, so there will be a video link in the show notes. Um, but I give the Rabi one plus job site vacuum three thumbs up, two of mine and one of the little plastic hand.
Peggy Barthel
Oh good. I was afraid you wanted one of mine and I didn't leave any there. <laugh> <laugh>,
Tony Barthel
Nope.
Peggy Barthel
Well that's awesome. I can't wait to get home and clean something <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, well you'll see I've been doing a bunch of that around here.
Peggy Barthel
So will you use that in your RV of the week?
Tony Barthel
Well, I could. Um, we have been,
Peggy Barthel
I guess unless your RV of the week has that automatic built in vacuum system.
Tony Barthel
Oh right. No, it doesn't. <laugh>. I've been exchanging emails with somebody from the podcast, a listener, and we've been talking about bunkhouse trailers and they, they kind of told me, well, we want this and that and, and all of that. And I still, I'm gonna reiterate, I love that Ember rv, the Ember overland one 90 M S L or missile. It has a bunk bed in the front, but the back where the bunks are, you can configure as two bunks as no bunks.
Tony Barthel
And it has two big cargo doors. It can be a desk, it could just be a sitting area. Ember has Ember at this point, makes my favorite bunk models in those one 90 MSLs. Anyway, I'm just a, a big fan of what Ember's doing, uh, in so many ways. And that one 90 Ms. L, they also do make a larger one, the 2 21, but that one 90, I mean it's got a couch, a jackknife sofa, it does have a Murphy bed.
Tony Barthel
So we may lose some of you on that. Yeah. But no slide, which hallelujah and <laugh>, just that re can figure a bunk area. It, it's fantastic. I love it. Love it, love it. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Well another thing that Tony did this week while I was out of town was something that we can add to the maintenance reminders section of the podcast. And that is that you had the wheel bearings and the brakes checked this week, right?
Tony Barthel
I did indeed. Now that's something when we were at the Frog rally, I spoke with the folks at Dexter and we have Dexter Turex axles on our, uh, Rockwood Mini Light. And they have a thing called the Easy Lube. And basically what that is, is you jack up the trailer, you attach your grease gun and you can just add grease as you spin the wheel. And that works, that's fine. But I asked the Dexter guy, I said, Hey, so what is the best advantage of just taking the wheel apart and hand greasing it?
Tony Barthel
And he goes, well you can inspect the rakes, right? That's important. So being lazy, I said, well, if you were in the Albuquerque area, where would you take a trailer to have all that done? And they said, action rv. And they go there regularly. So I went to Action RV and they were terrific.
Tony Barthel
I was so impressed with the facility, with the people, with the service. So, um, I noticed our truck tracks how many miles are on the trailer and we have like 12,000 miles on that trailer already since December <laugh>. And so yeah, it was time and they, they got all that done and uh, we're ready to go again. And just routine maintenance, that's really important on travel trailers. If you don't, there's a time interval if you don't put a lot of miles.
Tony Barthel
But definitely something to do. And again, you can double check the work with your air gear tire changing kit, which I've already done. And the lug nuts on the trailer were torqued perfectly. So a good experience overall.
Peggy Barthel
Great.
Tony Barthel
So another thing at Action rv, there has been a issue with some late model trucks when towing trailers that have a lot of solar or high performance batteries. And this is particularly true of General Motors products, Chevy and G M C. And what happens is the truck reports that the trailer is no longer connected and so you can't use the trailer brakes. And that's kind of a bummer. Uh, Mike Sol is actually working on a solution for this. Again, the people at Action rv, uh, have a solution that they've come up with.
Tony Barthel
So there's a link to action RV in our show notes, but essentially it's just put a diode in the system in the right spot and the problem goes away.
Peggy Barthel
So good. I'm glad that all that stuff is done now. So when I get home, we can go camping. Well, when you get home, we can go camping again, <laugh> <laugh> in a couple of weeks and we literally will, and we'll talk more about that. But for this week, let's, uh, move on to the question of the week. Last week I wanted to know, did you camp more or did you camp less than you had planned on this summer? Now, unfortunately, the lesses were a little bit more than the mores, but those were a little bit more than the same. So <laugh>, we had some people who retired and got to go more.
Peggy Barthel
We had some people who had some problems and, you know, unfortunately had to go less and nobody said they camped too much. 'cause how, how could you say that <laugh>, that couldn't be an answer. But we did have oh, quite a few answers and I appreciate that. But sadly, a lot of you camp less than you wanted. And luckily some of you said, you know, the year's not over. You're still in camping season, so that's good. You can go ahead and tack those numbers onto your summer numbers. <laugh> be better off.
Tony Barthel
Sounds good. And what is our question this week?
Peggy Barthel
This week I was wondering what's your favorite method of finding camping sites after talking to Alyssa and then thinking about, you know, some of the ways that we use and harvest hosts and all those kind of things. It got me wondering how do you find your campsite?
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And do you have any secrets that you're willing to share with us and right
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>,
Tony Barthel
You know, where you can answer that
Peggy Barthel
At our fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group?
Tony Barthel
Yep. Again, name has changed to protect the Innocent <laugh> <laugh>. And you can find that, uh, from the links, which is under the hamburger menu on our website@stressescamping.com. That's also where you can sign up for our once a week free email newsletter.
Peggy Barthel
We have links to the stories and videos and podcasts that will help you get the most out of your RV experience.
Tony Barthel
Yep. And all you gotta do is visit our website@stresslesscamping.com, check out under the hamburger menu at the Contact Us and, and fill out the form and note, of course, that we never share your information or sell your information. It's just there for once a week. And we still have a few more days left in our contest to win an air gear tire changing kit for all the new members of our newsletter family in August or September of 2023.
Peggy Barthel
All right. And that's coming up soon. So get in there and sign up. And also, while you're on the website, you know, you can look at all the show notes and find all those links for this episode number 2 2 1 on the podcastPage@stresslesscamping.com. What
Tony Barthel
Else could I find@stresslesscamping.com? While
Peggy Barthel
You might find all the deals and discounts for all the places that we work with to help you get, you know, the best out of your Stressless adventure and get some discounts in the process. And then when you're all done@stresslesscamping.com, you can use those links at the top right of any page and you can jump off to all the social places that we are.
Tony Barthel
Yep. And one of the ways that you can help us, if you'd like to, is to leave a review, uh, at wherever you're listening to this podcast or just share with your friends. We have a, we even have a link in our newsletter of how you can more easily share things you find@stresscamping.com. So that's right. With that being said, it's been a pleasure to be here with you, Peggy. It's great seeing you again, <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
It's great to see you too, <laugh>. I look forward to when we're in the same place together, but that'll be a little bit longer. But in the meantime,
Mark Ferrell
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
Tony Barthel
Camp Camping. Happy camping. And it will say, what will it say?
Speaker 6
<laugh>?
Tony Barthel
It'll say something that's for sure. It'll say travel guides.