Put Alaska on your map with Traveling Robert
Have you thought of taking your RV to Alaska? Is this a bucket list item for you but you thought it might be too daunting? We speak with Robert Morales, aka Traveling Robert, about his adventure in Alaska. Then we talk to a guide who takes RVers to the Last Frontier. If you haven’t wanted to go in the past, this episode of the StressLess Camping RV podcast might just change your mind.
After that adventure we peer into the future at one of the most groundbreaking new RV concepts we’ve seen. This new RV breaks the mold and could spell the future of towable RVs.
The StressLess Camping podcast is a weekly RV podcast with information, tips and tricks to help every RVer and camper enjoy some StressLess Camping.
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Mentioned on this episode
Robert Morales - aka Traveling Robert. Find his outstanding videos on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TravelingRobert
Traveling Robert’s website: https://travelingrobert.com/
Caravan to Alaska - affordable guided journeys to Alaska - https://www.caravantoalaska.com/
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Automated transcript of episode 227 - Put Alaska on your map with Traveling Robert
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 Campfire.
Tony Barthel
I'm Tony. I'm
Peggy Barthel
Peggy.
Tony Barthel
And we are two RV industry veterans who travel part time
Peggy Barthel
In the small trailer,
Tony Barthel
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips,
Peggy Barthel
Tricks,
Tony Barthel
And discounts.
Peggy Barthel
No tricks today, even though it's Halloween <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Well, yeah, we're recording this on Halloween. Hope you enjoyed last week's creepy campfire stories episode. We hope
Peggy Barthel
So. Yep. Hey, this week we have two terrific guests and it's kind of a long podcast, so I think we should get right to it. Alright.
Tony Barthel
We're gonna be talking Alaska,
Peggy Barthel
But first I think that we should let you know that, well, this sounds a little bit Halloweenish, Wolverine, Wolverine Tough Bags, and also RV Sauna have become new affiliates for us. Yeah. So we have added those two pages to our deals and discounts page. And you remember the tough bags from just a few weeks ago we talked about that you can carry water around and the RV sauna. It's been maybe a couple of years, but man, it is time for me to bring that sauna out, <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
'cause that is how I stay warm in the winter time. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
It's a, it's a pretty nifty device. It's actually portable, so that's cool. And then of course, if you like boondocking, we really like those Wolverine tough bags. Those things have now become an absolute part of our camping gear.
Peggy Barthel
And you could do quite a bit of boondocking in Alaska. As we are just about to hear,
Tony Barthel
We have the privilege of having our friend Robert Morales, that you probably know as traveling Robert with us. He just went on a three month adventure to Alaska. Yes. But if you don't know Robert, he is got a tremendous number of followers on YouTube with his travel log videos and they're outstanding. And he also does a podcast and a website and all of that. So, without any further ado, Robert, welcome.
Peggy Barthel
Thank you for joining us this morning. Well,
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
No, thank you. It is great to be able to talk to you guys again. I, I mean, I've, I, your audience may not know it, but we've known each other for a while and we That's right. We've shared, um, one or two ails here and there. <laugh> one or two, one or two <laugh>. So it's, it's my pleasure. Thank you for having me. We
Tony Barthel
Have a fun quart site story. Last was last year. We were in quart site and we were at Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> Beer Bellies. Beer Bellies. And Robert had, unbeknownst to him, broken his ankle. Yeah. And still was, was going and getting beers and stuff, just with a little hitching there.
Peggy Barthel
His on, well, it hurts a little, but I'll just walk over and pick up the food and I'm like, there's eight people. Someone else can pick up the food <laugh>.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
No. That, that's a funny story. I, I know we wanna talk about Alaska later in the show, but that's a funny story because a couple of days later we went to, to the urgent care, you know, because my wife, she had also cut a finger, you know, like, oh, pretty bad cut. I think she, she cut a half a tendon or something. And, uh, we went to the, to the urgent care and hers was not, uh, like an urgent thing, but they wanted to put me in a cast right there. Like, you cannot walk. Absolutely not. Not driving, you know, um, I've been walking for five days like this, you know, <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
And then of course, uh, I, I I was in a, in a boot for, for a few more than a few, couple of months.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And that was from tripping on the steps of your trailer, if I remember right.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
No, actually, uh, it's, uh, you know, I, I'm the guy who, who did Angels Landing in Winter. You know, I've done some crazy hikes that I wouldn't do again, this wasn't the Q Mountain, you know, it's, it's like a hill.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, yeah.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
And I wanted to climb to the top, you know, see the view, uh, you know, get some shots and on the way down, you know, it's all gravel. And I just slipped and fell. Oh. And, um, managed to walk back to the truck and then drive all the way back to <laugh> across the south. But yeah. Not
Tony Barthel
Fun. I think you said you had like 160,000 miles on your, what is it, a two year old truck now?
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
My old Colorado, I, um, was way above a hundred. No, I don't have a hundred. And my, my new truck is, uh, is a barely a year old that have 50,000 on it.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. Oh, okay.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Okay. That's two cross country trips and Alaska
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Nice.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So there's no shortage. And, and I mean, your videos are so beautifully edited and shot. And then you also write all your own music. Yeah. Do all your own narration, all your own editing
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Yeah. I, I, I enjoy the process. I, I mean, it's sometimes it is a lot of work, as you probably know, but, but I enjoy the process of putting it together and, you know, so sometimes when I'm like this downtime that I am right now at home, down in quote, in quotes. Right. Yeah. That's when I have the time to, to write some music and put a little more effort into the editing. I'm doing little maps showing the, the route and all that. Great. Which is kind of hard when, when you are, especially, you know, my trailer, I, I, I live about a, a very small quarters when we're on the road,
Tony Barthel
You and I both share that we have smaller trailers that have Monster Solars, <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
<laugh> systems
Tony Barthel
In them. Yeah. Robert's the brand ambassador for Winnebago's Mini line. Correct.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Micro Mini Micro, micro mini. The micro, the micro mini line is actually different. See, different from the mini. They're, uh, actually narrower. There's only seven feet wide. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. They actually fit on, on containers and they actually ship them to Brazil too. Really? Or used to. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So did that small size help when you were going to Alaska? Or could you have had a bigger rig and been fine? Yes,
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
It did in a sense. You know, it's, it's a simpler rig, you know, no, no slides, less things to break. And we took, I mean, you, you can go on Alaska and be on nice paved roads the whole time if you want to. I mean, some, some of the roads are very nice. But, uh, where's the adventure in that, you know, we took <laugh>, we took, uh, mini Tinney four as, as we call that, all the way to the, almost to the Arctic Ocean. You know, you have to do the Dalton Highway and that. I wouldn't have been able to do the Dalton Highway in any other type of rig.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
The, the only larger rig that was on that road was, uh, an old Earth Stream Argosy Oh man. From like the seventies. And, you know, those are proving on destructible at this point. But, uh, the way to do it is with a truck camper. But, you know, I decided to, to take our trailer. And, uh, we only broke a couple of things really. <laugh>, we survived for the most part. But
Tony Barthel
That's normal RVing. Right. I mean,
Peggy Barthel
Things, things are gonna break.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Hey, I broken things in the roads of Indiana in the interstate. Yeah. You know, some interstates are, are worse than, than, than some of these dirt roads up north.
Peggy Barthel
Did you have to do anything special to your trailer in preparation or just go and fix things as they broke <laugh>?
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Yeah. Not, not really. Uh, the, the fact that it is a, it was a new trailer and, uh, it's got like these beefy tires, you know, it's, it's got torsion axles. So it's, uh, it, it, um, it performed well, of course, a couple of things that, that broke, for example, and this is just, the trailer is really not designed to, for this vibration. I mean, it's that, that road is washboard. And that, that's the good part. <laugh>. Um, there's a, there's a bracket that holds the sewer hose that bracket, uh, according to the tech was metal fatigue.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
It broke, ah, luckily the, the actual pipe stayed in place and didn't, you know, <laugh>, I, I didn't leave it up there in the middle of nowhere that broke. And then, you know, a, a screw here and there inside the rv, that, that also, oh, the, the table, one of the, you know, the, the pedestals for, for the dinette. And I have a lot of weight on that dinette, because we do have, we, we have four monitors on that day net, which we take out, we, we remove for, for travel, but still, it has the two brackets, and one of the bases of the dinette actually cracked probably from, from all that vibration.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Yeah. Oh, gosh.
Peggy Barthel
Wow. So I know that it seems like you're going to, you know, you're going to Alaska in the middle of nowhere, so you have to be completely ready to be off the grid. I know that you have great solar, but if somebody wanted to do this trip without that, is there enough, you know, like places with hookups and things that you could get away with not having so much preparation?
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Absolutely. Definitely not. Not everywhere, of course. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. But like everybody says on the, on the Alaska Highway, you know, which is actually in Canada. Oh, it's, that road is terrible to have extra gas. Not really. As long as you've, I mean, you gotta be able to fill up, uh, uh, every, I don't know, half a tank. Okay. And the, the Alaska Highway, actually, except for the last 300 miles, is in great condition. Good. So, um, I mean, I did take 10 extra gallons of gas, mostly for the generator <laugh>. I, I mean, I, I only used them for the generator, even on the, on the delta on highway.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
That's the longest stretch without a gas station. It was 240 miles without a gas station. Okay. We were able to make it, you know, running on fumes, but we were, we were able to make
Tony Barthel
It <laugh>. Yeah.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
And the good thing about the delta highways that you have to go slow. So you, you actually, your fuel economies is better. Oh,
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Oh, well see, there's that. Yeah. We even, we had a situation right here in New Mexico where we were coming back from a campground, and it was really windy, and we actually had thought, well, I'll drop the trailer and keep going because we were so low on gas. So it <laugh> it's not just the last, the,
Peggy Barthel
The truck stopped telling us what our range was when it got to six. Yeah. <laugh>, it just gave up <laugh>.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
That range is totally unreliable. Well, sir, I have noticed, you know, so it tells me you have a a a hundred miles left, and by the time you do 50 miles, it already tells you no, you're, you are, you, you are almost empty. And it all depends on the wind, really. I mean, you Yeah. You can go down to six miles per gallon. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So you had talked about three Alaskas. Yeah. Tell us about that.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
That's what I thought, because, um, you know, I, I spent six weeks in Alaska, so, I mean, we didn't get to see everything, but we got to see a lot. You get to see a lot. And, uh, to me there's the first Alaska is the actual, the last frontier. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. We're talking the north, you know, this, this area that has very few roads far between. And, uh, and some towns like, like, uh, they changed the name recently, which doesn't really roll up the tongue. It's Vic, which is the northernmost, uh, town in, in the United States.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
And, uh, it doesn't really, it really feels frontier up there. Mm-Hmm. You know, it's, it's still undeveloped. Even, even in Fairbanks, which is the largest city in this area, you don't have as, as many, like, I usually, you know, if if you have like one of these non-com fast food restaurants Yeah.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Than you are like in the United States. Yeah. They'll have, they have a McDonald's on a bk and this and that, but it's, it still feels like life is tough there in the winter, you know? Sure. All, all the cars have a power plug in the front, so if they park anywhere, they can plug it in <laugh> to, to hit the, the engine, um, block. So you can start the car again in a couple of hours, because it really does get down to negative 40 sometimes in this area. Wow. And that's the north, you know, you have China Hot Springs and Fairbanks. Then once I got to Denali National Park, and the same thing happened to me in the south, in the Kenai Peninsula.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
This is what I call the touristy part of Alaska.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Every other vehicle is gonna be a tour bus from Princess Cruise Line or the other one. You know, it, they even have their own rail cars. You, you'll see the, the, yeah. The Alaska Railroad. And then the last two cars, two of them will be princess, one of them will be Holland, America and <laugh>, you know, all the cruise ships, they, they dock in Seward or in Anchorage in that area. And, you know, they all have this all infrastructure and the, they have, you know, in, in Denali Village, they have all the nice hotels, which by the way, great saloon there.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
If, if you ever sa, oh, I'll give you the scoop. The scoop. And the same thing happened in the South in Seward, Homer, you know, e every, the whole downtown is tour companies that are gonna take you to, to see the bears, or to see whales, or to see, uh, uh, glaciers. I mean, I lost count of how many glaciers I
Peggy Barthel
Saw <laugh>.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
And then there's Anchorage, and I'm including like, the whole metropolitan area. There's a, a town called Palmer, which is the agricultural capital of, uh, Alaska. There's a, was still, uh, that whole area that's for lack of a better word, let's call it the civilized part of Alaska. Right. <laugh>, the, the RV tech. Actually, the guy who, who fixed my rv, he's from Anchor from Fairbanks. He told me Anchorage is the city where you, you can see Alaska from there, you can see
Peggy Barthel
Alaska. Oh, that's interesting.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
But as soon as you start getting the metropolitan area, you see all the chain restaurants. I mean, they, they, they have like, stuff that you don't have in every state. Like, um, what's the one from Louisiana? Like, oh, Popeye's, pink Kings, chick fil Oh, rein Kings. I think they even have an inn out Burger <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
And it's, it's feels like you, you're entering any other, you know, suburb, uh, uh, in the lower 48.
Peggy Barthel
Huh. Which
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
It's a, it's, well, it's a welcome change sometimes when, when you've been a month, you know, out there in the, in the frontier.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah,
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Sure. Having, being able to get an Uber or order food, all those kinds of things. You know, it's, it's, it's the amenities of the big city.
Peggy Barthel
It's the kind of thing you escape from. And then, like you said, after a few weeks, it's, it's kind of an escape too. Like, you're like, yay, I see neon lights and mall. The good
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Malls. The good thing about Anchorage, you drive half an hour in any direction, and you are, you're in Alaska, you're back in the mountains with the snow and the, and you can see whales, you can see a bide, which is a very, very interesting phenomenon that I, that I had never seen.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. We just watched your bide video this morning. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. That's fascinating. I mean, just the, the wildlife. And, and you saw like all of the different things. I saw that you caught a wolf and, or not caught a wolf, but you saw, was it a wolf or
Peggy Barthel
A fox? No, it was a fox.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Especially along the way on the, on the Alaska highway, you get to see a lot of wildlife on the side of the road. Lots of black bear. I didn't see, see a grizzly, but I saw lots of black bear. I saw a fox, actually, that fox snuck up on me. <laugh>. I was, I was trying to get some dirt off the windshield there in the, uh, and they came out of the brush. I'm like, beep, let me get back inside the park. <laugh>. Yeah. You never know. Yeah. We saw a lot of wildlife. And, and then in Alaska you also have the, the experiences, right? 'cause then you can go see wildlife, like when you take the tour of Denali National Park, and, you know, they have the, the, the guy who drives the bus, your guide, you know, he's been, he's done that a hundred times.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
So he knows more or less sure you can see, uh, caribou or bear. But that, the best experience of them all. I think it was, we took a tour from Homer. They take you on a sea plane on a, on a float plane to Kamai National Park, which is the only way to get there. And, uh, there's this famous river, Brooks Falls where you get to see all the grizzly bears, uh, fishing for salmon. Oh. And that, that was one of those unique experiences that if you go to Alaska, you have to splurge and, and do it.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
So
Tony Barthel
The tours tend to be, are, would you say they're very worth doing the, you know, the sort of like the side trip tours?
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
For the most part? I mean, uh, we did several. We did two, uh, cruises. And that's the thing, if you really want to see the wildlife, you have to take one of these tours because you could, they take you away from the city. Like, like the one we did one in, in Kenai fjords, which is, uh, um, it's, it goes out from Seward right there on the Resurrection Bay. And they take you to a place where you can see the puffins and the sea lions. And then they highlight these, uh, humpback whales. And, and I mean, it's not guaranteed that you're gonna be able to see 'em.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
But yeah. All of a sudden you have humpback whales, like, I don't know, 5, 6, 7 of them, you know, doing their thing, you know, going out of the water and the spraying. And then you, you see the, the fins, you know, going back into the water.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
That, that was very special. Wow. And then at that same tour, we got to, went to a glacier. I aic glacier. And you, you get to see the glacier cabin. And it's super hard to, to catch on video because you, you don't know where it's, that's when the, the big chunks of ice Oh, yeah. Fall of the glacier, the, the toe of the glacier right there. And, and the, and the, the water is full of little icebergs. Oh. So it's, it's, it's a very interesting experience. You hear the noise, but by the time you hear the noise, the cabin already almost happened. You know, you, you, you get that delay because of the, the speed of south.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
That was one great tour. Even, even though the weather, the, the weather in Alaska, by the way, unpredictable. It's not always sunny and beautiful. It's, we got a lot of rain during our stay in Seward.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
And during our stay in Ta tna, which was the one tour that we couldn't do, 'cause we wanted to take a, a, a plane that goes around Denali the mountain, and then it lands on a glacier, but it rained the whole time. So they canceled the flight on us every time. And the other tour that we did was, um, uh, was we did a 26 glacier tour. That, that goes out from another town. Very interesting town. It's called Whittier. And the other way to get to that town is by one lane, uh, tunnel. But that tunnel is used by the railroad, by vehicles.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
By trucks.
Peggy Barthel
Oh.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
So it, you, you have to re you don't have to reserve it, but there's a certain time that, that it goes one way. There's a certain time where the train goes, and there's a certain time where you go the other way. Huh. From that time we took a, a, a cruise that it's, um, it's the 26 glacier cruise. Totally recommended. Especially because we had great weather. So, um, it, it was, uh, it was really something to see.
Peggy Barthel
So you were there in July, and during that is that, that's the time of the year when there's like a whole lot of sunlight, right? Well, yes, in fact, in addition to the clouds and rain. But I mean,
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Yes, we were there for six weeks and I timed it. So we actually went and, uh, I haven't really talked, spoken all that much about the delta on highway, which is the northernmost road in America, and, um, the most isolated one. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And that's where the one we did. And we timed it all just a few days after the, the solstice.
Peggy Barthel
Oh. Oh,
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Okay. 'cause on that road, you cross north of the Arctic Circle. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and north of the Arctic Circle. It never gets dark. Hmm. And we got to see the midnight sun, which is, uh, another one of those phenomena that you can only experience, uh, at a, at a certain place. Like the sun comes from the, from the west. Right. It's, it's gonna try to set on the west, but it never sets, it keeps going and it goes north. And the north, it's like the lowest point. And it's like a, it's like a sunset that will last probably for an hour or two.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Wow. 'cause the sun, you know, skirting across the horizon on the north, and then it starts going back up on the east. Huh. That's something that another YouTuber who was in Alaska told me, you know, in every state, you know, you wanna see mountains, go to Colorado, you wanna see Lake, go to Minnesota, you wanna see rivers. You know, it's, but just the fact that you are in this place where it, in, in, in summer, it doesn't get dark. And then in winter you have the, the polar night, which
Peggy Barthel
It's
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Dark for several, for a couple of months, or you get like two hour daylight. Um, it's the fact that you are in, in geographically in such a, a unique place, you know? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, you look at it on, on the, on, I have a, for those of you, you, you don't see my video, but I have a, a, a globe behind me. If on a map you don't really get it, but if you look at it on a globe, and you, you, I am in Florida and you are up there, we're almost perpendicular to each other on the planet. You know, it's, it's such a great distance far north, you know, we're closer to Russia than the lower 48 at this.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's, it, you can, you could walk
Peggy Barthel
There on a map. Sometimes it looks like Alaska's with Hawaii <laugh>.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
It is actually, actually, I think there's only one time zone difference between Alaska and Hawaii. But
Peggy Barthel
I mean, mean Latitudinally, they, if like on my sticker map that I put on the door of the rv Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yes. You know, the Alaska and the Hawaii are down in the bottom left corner, like as if they're together. <laugh> off Baja <laugh>. Yeah.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Yeah. I know. Yeah. On the map. I Wait, I, I, I'm, I have the same map. I'm thinking of cutting Alaska and putting it where it belongs.
Peggy Barthel
Putting it belongs. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
That's a good idea. <laugh>.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Yeah. 'cause I also got a, a, a Canadian map for this trip, so we did it Oh,
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Yeah. Of Canadian provinces.
Tony Barthel
That's somewhere we haven't been yet. Nope. As to Canada. Nope. You also found good beer, because that's something you and I share. Oh,
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Yes. Alaska has a little known secret. Alaska has some of the best breweries I've seen in the whole country. Mm-Hmm. I mean, Alaska Brewing Company, there's one in Fairbanks called Hudu, which, uh, you know, it was full of locals. Yeah. Yeah. We, and the 49 states is really good also in, in Anchorage.
Tony Barthel
That's some you and I both enjoy, is a good beer on the road. Yes. Yes. Right. So any advice you would give someone thinking of, well, other than of course, watch your videos <laugh>, but any advice you'd give someone considering that kind of trip?
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
I mean, it takes time. We, we did it in three months in total. We probably could have done it in a, in a little less, but it just takes time to get there. You know, it's, it's, it's far away. You have to drive about a week through Canada. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> at least. But don't be intimidated by, by what you hear. Just to, you know, have the tools, have provisions, you know, if you, God forbid, get stranded, you, you can survive for a couple of days, you know? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And it know your vehicle. Know if, uh, if your vehicle, you know, if, if you are not familiar with dirt roads, then don't go into Dalton.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Don't go on the Denali Highway. And there's another one, the McCarthy Highway. Those are the three highways that car rental companies don't allow you to, to take their, their cars.
Peggy Barthel
So
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
The Yeah. Or RV rentals for that matter. Some of those.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
And enjoy, I mean, en en enjoy the fact that you are, uh, uh, in such a far away re some, some parts very remote. Uh, and be, be aware that the weather is not gonna cooperate every day, you know? Sure, sure. It's gonna be raining for three days in a row sometimes, and, uh, if you wait, the sun will come out and you'll get a couple of beautiful blue sky days.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>, we found that even in Michigan. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Yeah. The farther south you go in Alaska, the weather it is the more rains. The, the, yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, okay.
Tony Barthel
Interesting. Yeah.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
The north is an Arctic desert.
Peggy Barthel
Huh. Huh. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Well, I think those are our questions. Any last words of wisdom?
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Do it if you can. I mean, it's, uh, it's, it's not like to check Mark, you know, like we've been to all the states or we're, it's a, it's a very unique place. The, uh, the people are very nice. And you'll see so much wildlife and so much beauty. I mean, and, uh, we, we haven't, haven't talked about Denali or, or the Wrangle mountains. And these are mountains that are completely covering snow. They are so high, so, so tall. You know, Denali is the tallest, uh, peak in North America. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, uh, I mean, we did six weeks. We could have done three months and, uh, we, we still wouldn't see everything.
Peggy Barthel
It's, so, it's not like, you know, I say we don't put a sticker on our map until we spend a night in a state, which doesn't mean we've seen the state really at all. And Alaska is a little bit of a commitment to just go to spend one night and put a sticker on <laugh>
Tony Barthel
<laugh>.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
I mean, you can fly there. Of course. And I'm, I have this crazy idea of flying this coming winter just to complete the whole trip, because the one thing that we didn't get to see was the Northern Lights. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, right.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Because it never got dark
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I've thought of taking a cruise up there because there's so much Yeah. Infrastructure for those cruise ship people.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
Absolutely. And of course, princess and Holland, America, all these, uh, companies, they have hotels in Denali. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So you, you, you don't, it is not a day trip. You know, it's a, the train takes, what, four, six hours to get from, from Anchorage to Denali. So you get to spend the night or two in Denali, you see the park and then come back south.
Peggy Barthel
In fact, earlier when we were in court site in January and we talked to a lot of work campers, one of the work camping jobs that we talked to was with one of the cruise lines. And you could, you would be there and you'd be like, the land support for people who are waiting to get on the cruise. And one of the jobs is a bus driver, like a tour driver. And now suddenly Tony is, that's his dream job. Well, it's just, he wants <laugh>, he wants to go up there because hey, he said, am I allowed to tell dad jokes? And they said, oh, we encourage that.
Peggy Barthel
So now he is like, all ready to go up there and drive a tour bus in Alaska.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>, I wouldn't mind doing that for a summer driving a big old tour bus because they, they will get you your bus driver's license. Yeah. And then you spend the summer doing that, then you get a free cruise out of it. Right. And paid. So <laugh>,
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
That seems like a fun job. Yeah. Yeah. And you get to see all that. You get to see everything, you know, you, you are guaranteed to become part of the, of the 30% club that, uh, gets to see the, the Denali Mountain. Only 30% of people who go to Alaska get, or Wow. Visit Denali, get to see it, because it's always covered in clouds, <laugh>. So, I mean, you have, your chances are a lot better. Let's put it
Peggy Barthel
Back a lot better if you have three months in one place, <laugh>. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. And driving a big old bus in Alaska, <laugh>. Yeah.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
And that's probably one of those mandatory stops, you know, there's a pull off or you can get to see the mountain from,
Peggy Barthel
From
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
The, the highway, the park's highway it's called.
Peggy Barthel
Well, Robert, we sure do appreciate you spending some time and telling us about Alaska and getting us excited about it. Yes. Thank you so much for your time and your videos. And we'll certainly put links to your videos and we hope that we run into you sometime. Very not run in physically <laugh>. That's a,
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
That's a bad run.
Peggy Barthel
After we got rear-ended. That's kind of a bad term for us. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
We hope that we're able to have a beer with you somewhere very soon.
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
I hope so too. Either I'll drive West or You are, you'll drive east or we'll meet some, somewhere in the middle.
Peggy Barthel
Somewhere in the middle. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank
Robert Morales - Traveling Robert
You. Well, thank you for having me. Thank you.
Peggy Barthel
Absolutely. We are so honored to be joined today by Kim Riles from Caravan to Alaska. And if you are thinking about going to Alaska, but you're just not sure that you feel comfortable getting there, Kim is going to help you out.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>, welcome.
Kim Riles
Hi. Thank you guys.
Tony Barthel
You help guide people to Alaska. What is that experience like and what do you do to get them there?
Kim Riles
Yeah, sure. So, um, I'm a former resident of Alaska. I lived up there for a number of years, and the last couple of handful of years I've decided to come out. As they say, that's when you move out of Alaska and come back down to the lower 48. But I didn't wanna lose my connection to Alaska. Okay. So I started another business up in the summer in Alaska where I take people out in the back country in the trails of Alaska. And that maintains my connection to Alaska in the summer. So I'm basically commuting to my work every summer, going to Alaska and back.
Kim Riles
Okay. I had people through word of mouth and social networks and whatnot, begin to ask me, can I go with you one of these years and how much would you charge? And so it became kind of a, I formed a business to lead people up there in a caravan in response to people requesting to go. So every summer in mid-May to June, I gather around my little campers and we take off from the state of Washington and we take about 10 days to drive up to our end point is Palmer, Alaska, which is about 45 miles an hour north of Anchorage.
Kim Riles
Okay.
Tony Barthel
And then do you also help them with things to do when they're there? Or is it predominantly getting there? Yeah,
Kim Riles
It's both of those things. So my target audience, you know, there's, there's RV caravans out there that do, that do all the planning for you and the leading and the entertaining. Right. And that's one model. Those tend to be bigger rigs, more rigs. I think I've seen caravans up to a hundred rigs. Wow. Per route. Yeah. Wow.
Peggy Barthel
That's a lot of corralling <laugh>.
Kim Riles
That is a lot of corralling. And people are paying top dollar for that. I'm not, I don't know if you're familiar with that model, but people are paying 10 to $15,000 per person. Mm.
Kim Riles
Wow. And going in their own rigs and of course paying for the gas and everything. Those companies put together meals for the caravan, they reserve all the campsites, they put together all of your Alaska entertainment. Right. Is kind of turnkey package. All you have to do is a show up. I'm looking for some people who are a little more experienced or a little bit more independent in their travels. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> to join me up. And I'm limiting the rigs to 10 to 15 per trip. So I make three of our reservations over the 10 day period of travel.
Kim Riles
There are strategic points. I'm used to stopping, uh, right across the Canadian border to outfit myself for my travels about halfway up the trip. And then right before I get to where I'm going in Alaska is kind of my, my drop off point for the, the caravan.
Kim Riles
Once people are up there, I have provided them with a little self-published brochure based on my living up in Alaska that are, I call, call it Kim's picks. And the things and places that I like to go and I like to do as a former resident in the state. Okay. So when the caravan crosses the border from Canada into Alaska and we, our last night is, uh, coming into Palmer, Alaska, people are armed with this information and they spread out and began enjoying the ca the rest of the summer or the month, either on their own or in smaller subgroups of new friends they've met through the caravan.
Kim Riles
They might stay a few weeks or they might stay two or three months. They may decide to come back down in small groups that they've met throughout the caravan or they might be coming back down on their own. I feel strongly that once you ride up in the company and safety and fun of this smaller group to Alaska, that the people that I'm interested in traveling with will feel comfortable about coming back down on their own. Okay.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And then having been a resident and doing these tours, I would imagine you have all the hints and tips on, for example, companies that might help with tires or maintenance or any of that sort of thing Right. Along the way.
Kim Riles
Yes. You know, I've been doing this long enough now that I kind of have my own risk management plan <laugh> and I know the community <laugh>. I know the communities with which I would want to connect with if something went wrong on the road. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Right. I have a safety plan. So you know, you're gonna want the basics like your passport to get through the country. You're gonna want some credit cards and a little bit of cash. I only take enough cash to pay for the campgrounds on the way. Okay. And I have a membership with AAA that will pick you up in Canada. The puzzle piece there is you're out of cell phone service for a quite a bit of travel.
Kim Riles
So I carry a Garmin inReach, which is a satellite device that can send and receive texts from anywhere. Oh, okay. Yeah.
Kim Riles
And then the Garmin inReach also produces a web link that you can share with people who aren't on the journey who can track your, if they pull up the web link, they can see where you are on the map. Okay. So I, I have, for instance, I'm kind of middle aged moving into the, the far end of middle age <laugh>. So I have my <laugh>, I have my 88 year old dad who is an experienced RV traveler as well. I give him the web link when he pulls up my web link in Florida.
Kim Riles
He can see the little pen where I'm located in my travels in real time. That's great. That's
Peggy Barthel
Great. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It's pretty darn cool. I might have been mistaken in how I heard this. So do you arrange all the nights between Washington and Palmer?
Kim Riles
The, it's about 40 hours worth of active travel time. I like to spread that out over 10 days to average. Four hours of travel every day. Great. I provide three reservations for the group, beginning, middle, and end. The parts that we don't reserve, I'm familiar enough with the route that if I am ready to get off the road at three hours or five hours or what have you, I know where the next best campground is going down the road.
Kim Riles
Okay. Before I started doing Caravan to Alaska, I never made a reservation in my travels for myself. Right. I have never made a reservation. And there's reasons for that. I'd like to be a little bit iterative on the journey if I get a little tired or I get really jazzed for instance. Yeah. When I get to Whitehorse and Yukon is the capital and then you've been on the road for a long time and it's a real city and you're like, whoa, you know, I can get a shower, <laugh> and some laundry and I can go downtown and get some half price oysters at happy hour by the Yukon River.
Kim Riles
And I might talk myself into staying there two nights. And so not doing every single night with a reservation gives me the flexibility for myself. Sure. And that has worked well with other people too. And you can do that when you're familiar with what you're gonna find along the way.
Peggy Barthel
Right. We do it on occasion, but in like new places where we're going, well let's just go and see how far we wanna get. But then we have to accept what the internet chose us to tell us if we're gonna be able to find a good spot where we're tired or ready to stop.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, exactly. Let's say you have your 10 people with you. Are there challenges in finding reservation? 'cause we all hear about the crowded campgrounds, blah, blah blah, which we really haven't found too much. But anyway, how readily available are reservations?
Kim Riles
I make the reservations at the three places out of 10 nights that I know that we're going to stay. I make them far in advance. So for Right. For the 2024 trip, I already have those reservations in the works. Okay. Now, for the ones that I'm just kind of winging it, they are smaller provincial campgrounds. They are typically $20 a night Canadian, which makes 'em about $15 a night American. And the ones that I like the most are in remote places. They may have 15, 20, 25 sites.
Kim Riles
A lot of them are larger sites. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And because I have familiarity with them, for instance, I know that some of the places have sites that can accommodate two or three vehicles.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, okay.
Kim Riles
Okay. And see if I'm limiting it to 12 or 15 rigs, then a lot of times when we decide to come off the road and we pull into Provincial Park, we can possibly spit into four or five spots. Okay. Got it. And then the other, the second kind of supportive element of that mo for, for doing this trip this way is I leave sometime between the middle of May and the beginning of June. So I'm out ahead of the annual migration of RVs to Alaska. Oh sure. Okay. If you can get your journey started, say before school gets out, or before people start to group up and go together mid-June or so, you're ahead of the crowd.
Kim Riles
And I've never had an issue finding a camp site even for multiple vehicles. Great. That's
Tony Barthel
Wonderful. In my opinion, going like this takes away some of the concerns people might have about that trip because I think we've all heard, oh, the roads are terrible, or you're gonna get lost or, you know, that kind of thing. And having someone in the know seems like that would eliminate a lot of that concern.
Kim Riles
Yeah. I feel the same way. It's been a while, but I remember the first time that I did the drive and as a woman who typically travels by myself, I felt intimidated by the length of it. I felt intimidated by the fact that a lot of it was incredibly remote. Didn't know what the roads were like. I actually engaged with my little big brother who's younger than me, but about six foot four <laugh> and a <laugh> and a boat captain, and also a mechanic to ride shotgun with me when I did my first journey up there to move to Alaska.
Kim Riles
Nice. That's good. So I had, that was my way of jumping over that barrier to figure out whether or not I was gonna be comfortable doing this on my own. And I ended up very comfortable. I, I'd say half the times up until the last several years, a lot of times I come south on my own, so, okay. I'm familiar with it and there is a barrier, but I also, at the same time when I was thinking about putting together small caravans to go up there for support community and fun, I feel that $15,000 a person is a barrier as well.
Kim Riles
Sure. <laugh>. Yeah. Yeah. When you join larger RV caravan. So I decided to do something for the more independent traveler, maybe some smaller rigs and definitely not 10 or $15,000 a piece. So make it accessible. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
That's awesome. Do you only lead one caravan per year? Or is it several? Yeah,
Kim Riles
So in 2024 it's, it's actually going to be currently, I have one planned. I'm not yet taking registration for it. I'm not sure when we're going to be connecting with our audience on this podcast. I will be opening registration for that in early to mid-November. If that fills up and there's a lot of interest for having a second caravan, I may open a second date. Okay. In 2025, I probably will have two dates going up.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Tony Barthel
And how much is it to go with you?
Kim Riles
Yeah, so it's $849 to join in the caravan. And if you go to caravan to alaska.com, you'll see everything that's included in that. I set up three. Everyone we kind of generically referred to online meetings now as Zoom meetings. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, we did three video meetings going for participant introductions, preparation and packing and general organizing. I host a meetup in the state of Washington the night before three of the campground reservations are included.
Kim Riles
And I provide a nightly campfire and a bit of an outdoor kitchen every night in the form of a propane griddle to have people, they're, they're gonna be bringing their own food, but it's something that they can cook on together outside.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Okay. And is that 8 49 per person or per rig?
Kim Riles
Per rig.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Tony Barthel
I mean, honestly as you're talking about this and you're, you know, we're talking, we know what the big caravan companies are that are 10 to 15,000. Right, right. <laugh>. And I'm thinking, well maybe 5,000 might be kind of reasonable. And then you hit us with 8 49. Eight nine. I'm like, okay, where do I send my money? We
Peggy Barthel
Can afford not to do this. I know
Tony Barthel
It's, I mean honestly I have been a little hesitant about going to Alaska. I would go with you in a
Peggy Barthel
Heartbeat because that's one of the reasons is getting to Alaska, going through all the customs and going through Canada and you know, like you said, knowing the roads, knowing where to stop on the way. And once we've, once we've got guidance from past those barriers and as you said, make friends on that 10 day trip that we start hanging out with and travel around with, that seems like the, just the perfect solution. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Well
Kim Riles
I appreciate your thinking of it that way. If you break it down over 10 days, it's kind of like $85 per day and I am saving you. A lot of people plan for this trip a year or two in advance. Uhhuh <affirmative>, they'll get on the internet Google a year or two in advance and they'll need to sort through 13,000 pages of hits of Arny traveling to Alaska. Yeah. And then with my caravan, you'll learn things like I, people also will pack like they're going to the Sub-Saharan Desert, <laugh> <laugh>.
Kim Riles
And you know, I'll tell everybody that Canada is a lovely country and Canadians eat food and drink water too and <laugh> as soon as we go across. I what? It's insane. Most of the Canadians live within an hour or two of the US border. So for instance, this is a hot tip and no charge for this one.
Kim Riles
I go across the border with almost nothing, like nothing in the coolers because, and this I think feeds well into your Stressless camping <laugh>. I don't want the stress of keeping up with border regulations. Yeah. I don't wanna be searched. I don't wanna say yes I have lettuce, but no, I don't have eggs. Right. I don't have anything and there's nothing to sort through from the border agent's perspective. So I sail right through and then I avail myself to a cool Canadian market farm marketer stuff to load up on my cooler.
Kim Riles
I feel great about supporting the small communities that I'm driving through. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> on my way to Alaska for this summer. So I just do my best to make it easy peasy.
Peggy Barthel
That's a really great idea. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And I bet they even sell beer in Canada.
Peggy Barthel
I bet they do. <laugh>, they
Kim Riles
Sell so many things that you might want. Beer, wine, cake, eggs to me,
Tony Barthel
Veggie fruit
Kim Riles
<laugh>. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
This sounds like a great solution. So I'm really excited to share this with our audience. And one more time, how would somebody find you? Google
Kim Riles
Hasn't found me yet, so you might have to type in the full address. So it's www.caravantoalaska.com.
Tony Barthel
And we will also put a link to that in our show notes. Yes. And in our newsletter. Yes. Now I'm kind of, my wheels are turning <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
And this will go out probably during the first week of November, but if middle-ish of November is when you might start signing people up, this is a great time right now, listeners to go and bookmark that website so you can keep an eye on it. So if you wanna do this, you're ready to sign up when she opens it up.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>, Stressless, camping caravan, <laugh> what <laugh> Yes.
Kim Riles
Be Stressless about it. I appreciate that. Definitely drop in and, and check it out. I've got a fairly loaded FAQ section so you can learn exactly what's happening and how we're going to approach it. I do expect 2020 fours caravan to sell out pretty quickly just because the spots are so limited. I would like, you know, it'd be great to take more people, but like you said, that's a lot of corralling. Yeah. And I want this to remain high level Stressless, high connectivity, Stressless <laugh>. Yeah. I want it to be unique, boutique and easy to manage for everybody.
Peggy Barthel
That's terrific.
Tony Barthel
That sounds really, really good. I'm very glad you reached out to us and as I said, you have my wheels turning.
Kim Riles
Are you thinking about joining us yourself there?
Tony Barthel
I am <laugh>.
Kim Riles
Okay. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
But I think what might be uh, um, maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse, but perhaps seeing if some of our listeners might wanna go as a group.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. As a group. That would be fun in
Tony Barthel
2024.
Kim Riles
Oh, okay. Well
Tony Barthel
Our 2025 it would, yeah. It would have to be 20.
Peggy Barthel
Our 2024 is already so booked. That's
Tony Barthel
True. Right, right.
Kim Riles
Well we should talk about that and I'll tell you why. Um, there's, obviously, I would love for you guys to come along, but here's what I've discovered with my, my other tourism business in Alaska. It's fine to announce dates out there and have a group of like-minded people come together to do this trip. It's next level when you have people who are already having an affinity for each other. Right. So if they're already kind of in a, a group or a club together, then you kind of hit the ground running as, as far as community feeling is concerned. Sure. So yeah, we should talk about 2025.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, that's
Tony Barthel
An idea. I think that would be a good thing to work on. So, okay. Yes. Let's do that. Okay.
Peggy Barthel
On a little bit of a more personal note, Kim, have you been RVing for like forever or just since you started making these trips back and forth to Alaska? I
Kim Riles
Grew up in a RVing, camping, boating family. Okay. I am not shy about telling people that I am 58, I call that level 58 <laugh>. I hit level 58 and I grew up in a family that we placed a high level of importance on outdoor recreation. So I've been doing the outdoors thing for a long time and you know, that led to my other business. Taking people on trails in the back country of Alaska, being savvy about getting outside and enjoying this outside in a safe and fun manner has been something that I've been doing all my life.
Peggy Barthel
And that probably also played a factor in who you are and how you were raised in deciding to move to Alaska. Like I, yes, absolutely don't know that I would've decided to move to Alaska. 'cause although I've camped a lot, I'm not hiker. I'm not an adventurer and <laugh>, I think that just kind of guides who you are in life. That's super terrific. Well
Kim Riles
Thanks. Like you've noticed my personal makeup is that I do enjoy my time outside the fishing, the getting on trails, going on mountain hikes and and whatnot. My soul feels really warm in massage when I see some of these landscapes and connect with wildlife and wild places. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. But there's a price to that. You know, you can be out in places you get used to not having all of the choices that we have in the lower 48 for your, your stuff, what you want and what you need.
Kim Riles
You know, and my first experience living in Alaska was in a bush community that was off the road system. You could only get there by boat or plane. Wow. You become accustomed to walking into your, your grocery store and not having a list because you don't have a lot of choices. <laugh>, you are like, oh, I'm so thankful to have two brands of dog food here today. It's not without its trade-offs and its sacrifices. But I guess my own personal makeup, like you observed, is I just wanna be out there and enjoying that. So you, I do give up some of that stuff.
Kim Riles
I like to come into town, like I mentioned, you know, on the way in the caravan stop in places that are, I know where for instance, you can re-up on your really tasty, high quality charcuterie in British Columbia,
Tony Barthel
<laugh>
Kim Riles
<laugh>. But yeah, everything in life, you know, sometimes you can't get everything you want and fell swoop and Sure. I definitely prioritize being outside and being in backcountry places.
Peggy Barthel
That's fantastic. Kim, thank you so much for spending time with us today. I know that you're in a fun place and it's time for you to get out there and have some fun with your friends. So thank you for giving us some time and we'll definitely keep in touch with you about maybe a 2025 Stressless camping caravan rally to Alaska.
Kim Riles
That sounds so much fun. And I think we should take it on as our yours mines, Tony's personal challenge to see how little stress we can invoke on driving to Alaska. I love
Peggy Barthel
That. I love it.
Kim Riles
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Well thank you for your time and we will keep in touch.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Kim Riles
Okay. Sounds good. You guys have a good weekend. You too. You
Tony Barthel
As well. Thank you. Well thanks for the time. Okay,
Kim Riles
You too.
Peggy Barthel
I think if you go to those wilder parts of Alaska, like Robert talked about one of the three Alaskas. I love how he defined that, that
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that was cool.
Peggy Barthel
You're gonna probably want solar to get you through the parts where there is no electricity
Tony Barthel
<laugh>, that's for sure. And there is a lot of boondocking opportunity in Alaska and everywhere. Actually. It's amazing how many great spots there are. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> that are off the grid. And you can take advantage of those great spots with our friends from a, B, C Upfitters who can configure a solar and lithium power system that fits the way you like to rv. Whether that be extended trips, short trips, weekends, full-time. And they really do a good job of listening and working with you to determine what your needs are and what type of system fits you.
Tony Barthel
And the way to find out what they know is to give 'em a ring at 5 7 4 2 9 3 9 3 9 9. Again, 5 7 4 2 9 3 9 3 9 9. Or as always, there's a link in the show notes at stressless camping.com/podcast/
Peggy Barthel
0 2 2 7 or on our deals and discounts page.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. So this week I wanna talk about an RV that's kind of making the rounds. And I got to take a deep dive into this thing and look at it. What it is is it's a forthcoming towable rv, so a travel trailer of sorts by a company called Pebble. And if you haven't seen their stuff all over the internet, what this is, what they are pitching it as is sort of the EV of towables and it kind of is that it's got a large battery and you can get a model that actually has powered wheels.
Tony Barthel
And so why would you want that? Whoa. Well this thing can, you can use an app to back it into a campsite, literally turn it 180. It can actually assist in the towing such that let's say, you know, we all know if you have a travel trailer and you tow the darn thing, your mileage goes right down the black tank.
Tony Barthel
Right? Hmm. Well this will compensate for that. It's a very aerodynamic shape that also can provide assistance in towing such that you will no longer lose either fuel economy or EV range if you're towing with an ev. Other things, it's got a thing called the magic hitch. And what you do is you get the tow vehicle and the trailer within a specified distance from each other, which is kind of close, push a button and the thing will actually drive up to your tow vehicle and lock itself on the ball.
Tony Barthel
It will raise and lower the tongue to to snap on the ball. So all those people who hate towing because of hitching. Well this solves that. And the, the way this came about is the founder of the company during the pandemic, like so many of us found the only vacation he could go on was an RV vacation.
Tony Barthel
And he said there were so many pain points to that experience that he quit his job at Apple Computer and he started this company. And there's so much different design in this thing, but it makes so much sense. For example, there are no curtains in the window and you might think, oh, I'm putting on a show for everybody. No <laugh>. You hit a button and the glass goes from being transparent to opaque. Bam. Instant. Wow. And that's true in the bathroom too, right? Huh? I mean, you push a button and all of a sudden the clear glass walls go, boom.
Tony Barthel
And you can't see through them. Do they have
Peggy Barthel
A bathroom door like that too? <laugh>? Yes.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, there's a Murphy bed, but when the bed is up, there's a long desk there and you can leave like laptops and such on the desk when you fold the bed down.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, that's a clever design. I like that. There's
Tony Barthel
So much about this that is different that even if you ignore the EV factor of this, it's really a better design and so much So I wrote over 2000 words in the article, which is a long RV review and you can find that at Stressless camping in the honest RV review section. There's videos there, there's pictures. This, this thing is really quite game changing and I'm, I'm pretty impressed with it. Hopefully they can bring it to market 'cause it's a new company and I, I think it's going to eliminate a lot of what we don't like about towing.
Tony Barthel
You don't need sway bars for example because again, like your vehicle, it knows wind conditions and it knows how it's tracking down the road. Hmm. And it uses its own smarts to counter sway and that sort of thing. It's just a game changing rig. So that's the pebble flow as it's called. And uh, there's a very long article for you to read with plenty of pictures and even a video. So check it out, stress camping.com on the Honest RV review section
Peggy Barthel
As a little bit of a maintenance reminder, which we do sometimes <laugh>, you probably have noticed it's gotten cold. I think that's true universally throughout the United States. All of a sudden, like literally yesterday. <laugh>, if you haven't winterized or you haven't fully winterized and you are looking for some tips for that, we actually interviewed our friend Adam in podcast episode 71 and Adam had tips and insights for how to winterize And there's also on the show notes for episode 71, there's a link to Adam's Winterizing guide.
Peggy Barthel
So if you are unsure or maybe it's your first time or you just like to have a guide, go check that out in episode 71.
Tony Barthel
Adam knows winter, he lives in Michigan.
Peggy Barthel
Yes. <laugh>. So we haven't had a really a question of the week for a couple of weeks because of Halloween. So we're just gonna pop right into this week's question of the week.
Tony Barthel
Would you be interested in a group trip to Alaska in 2025? And you can answer that question in our fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>, there's no whew behind it anymore since we changed the name. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
I know it's a lot
Peggy Barthel
Shorter. <laugh> also, you know that we do a once a week newsletter that's really absolutely free. We have links to stories, videos, and podcasts and things that we think will help you get the most out of your RVing experience. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
All you gotta do is visit stressless camping.com where you can sign up under the hamburger menu in the upper left corner and know that we always respect your privacy and only send one email per week period.
Peggy Barthel
We do not share it with anyone. We do not publish it publicly. <laugh> <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
We don't sell it on the dark web web,
Peggy Barthel
None of those things. You'll also find the show notes@stresslesscamping.com for episode 2, 2 7 on the podcast page.
Tony Barthel
And of course our discounts and deals, including two brand new ones for the best deals on things you'll need for your Stressless Camping Adventure and a like Wolverine and Thomas with RV Sauna. If you have a great deal for our audience, just let us know. We're always looking for something that's worth having and saving some money.
Peggy Barthel
Absolutely. We're in all the social places. So when you're done looking at all those pages on stressless camping.com, you can use those links in the top right to jump off to all the social places where we are.
Tony Barthel
Yep. And don't forget a review will help others find this podcast. And the more listeners we have, the better our deals discounts and guests will be. And we'd like to thank an anonymous user <laugh> Yes. For the five star review. Uh, we really appreciate that.
Peggy Barthel
We do appreciate it. And if you've already written a review like our new anonymous reviewer <laugh>, feel free to continue to share anything that you find on our website or on our socials that you think is something great that other people your friends would like to read about. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Like the Winter Racing Guide or the Review of the Pebble or whatever you find value of on stresses camping.com. Well, that's what we have for you this week. We sincerely appreciate your being back. Hopefully you enjoyed our virtual trip to Alaska and maybe you'll want to join us on the real one. Yeah. In a year or so. Anyway, with all that, thank you so much and Stressless Camping, camping.
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 camping.
Tony Barthel
Doggone it. We forgot to tell them about our new tow vehicle. Oh, man. All right. I'll put it down for next week. Okay.