Camp with your tribe - finding fellowship, fun and folly
How do you find your tribe on the road? Where are the like-minded people who love adventure, travel and beer? This week we speak with April and Debra from Camp Carpe Diem about just this and how their RV gatherings promote friends, fun and folly.
And don’t forget the collaborative brew that’s a part of this for our friends who appreciate beer.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
We speak with April and Debra from Camp Carpe Diem, a somewhat casual gathering of RVers that incorporates day trips and other activities to create long-lasting friendships.
We plan to attend the Camp Carpe Diem in Hot Springs, Arkansas from May 16-20 ourselves. We’d love if you would join us.
If you do choose to join us you can use the coupon code NOSTRESS to get $20 off the ticket price.
More items
Living a Stout Life - traveling with a nod for beer adventure.
The Virtual Campground - a digital look at our real life tips and experiences
Tony wrote a very long article about the 2025 Ramcharger pickup. You can also participate in a live video conference tonight with RV electricity expert Mike Sokol and learn more about this groundbreaking new truck.
Automated transcript for StressLess Camping RV Podcast episode 229
If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.
We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
Our trusted partners - RV Discounts and Deals
Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV Podcast episode 229
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.
Peggy Barthel
I'm Peggy.
Tony Barthel
And we're two RV industry veterans who travel part-Time
Peggy Barthel
In a small trailer,
Tony Barthel
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips, tricks and discounts.
Peggy Barthel
You know, RV Show season is approaching, there's gonna be a lot of RV shows, especially in January, I noticed. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I think it's gonna
Peggy Barthel
Be all over the country. Quite
Tony Barthel
Popular this year and Peggy is adding new shows regularly. We have an article that we wrote a little while ago, 23 Tips on How to Get the most out of an RV show. And if you're a subscriber to our weekly newsletter, you will get a link to that. It will be in the show notes for this episode of the Stresses camping podcast. Stresses camping.com. Or your buddy Google can just find it for you.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>, what a nice guy. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Well how do we know Google's a guy? Could be
Peggy Barthel
A lady. Oh, good question. That's a very good question.
Tony Barthel
Oh, we never know.
Peggy Barthel
Speaking of seasons this season, we have had a lot of Boondockers. Boy have
Tony Barthel
We ever come
Peggy Barthel
To our property. We are a Boondockers welcome host and we've met some of the greatest people and just had the most awesome guests. We have two coming up this coming weekend. And by the same token, we love when we are traveling and we get to be guests of Boondockers welcome sites and harvest host sites. We
Tony Barthel
Have had some of the neatest experiences. The rat rod car might be my favorite. <laugh>. Yeah. But
Peggy Barthel
Train
Tony Barthel
Museums and just all kinds of crazy places that we've stayed. People's houses, of course it was the first time we ever used starlink was at a Boondockers welcome house. That's right. So if you are looking to travel and save a whole lot of money, we have a discount to Boondocker is welcome. And effectively what that is, is you take your fully contained rv, doesn't matter what configuration, motor home, travel trailer, fifth wheel, whatever. And you can stay on people's property.
Tony Barthel
And sometimes for multiple days, we've had some guests stay three or four days or sometimes just as you're getting where you're getting. And you could use that as a free overnight stay. The way it works is you pay an annual fee to Boondockers welcome, and then you can see all of the thousands and thousands of people that have signed up to be hosts and work out to stay with them. It's a great system and it just speaks to the generosity of our viewers and people.
Tony Barthel
And we have a discount.
Peggy Barthel
We do indeed. Speaking of cool people. Yes man. Oh man. We have some great guests this week, <laugh>. And we are, you know what always happens when we talk to guests about going places is we decide we wanna go to those places. Yes. So let's talk to April and Deborah about Camp Carpe Diem. Today we're very excited to have not one but two guests, <laugh>, April Pishna and her husband Ken have a website called Living A Stout Life.
Peggy Barthel
And Deborah and Barry Benton have a website called The Virtual Campground. And together they have come up with a fabulous idea called Camp Carpe. And we're going to learn all about them and their sites and their events. Welcome.
Tony Barthel
We're
April Pishna
Excited to be here. Um, my name's Ken. Just kidding. Ken's not here. I'm April <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
April Pishna
I think I'm funny <laugh>. I'm one half, well, one quarter of the group that created Camp Car Stadium
Debra Benton
And I am another quarter Deborah Benton and half I guess, of the virtual campground, though. I think I'm at least three quarters <laugh>, I think.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Well, you know, you could be whatever you like. That's right. Since you don't have, they're not
Peggy Barthel
Here, neither
Tony Barthel
Of you have the other halves to
April Pishna
Complain. We just wanted to make sure all your listeners guys can do some math, you know, before we get started. So we're just playing with fractions. Right. Wake everybody up.
Peggy Barthel
What's one third of one half <laugh>. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Well, and, and here's something interesting. So the people listening wherever you're listening, and we appreciate you of course, don't realize that Deborah and April are in different places. And so that brings up my question, how did you get together to work as a partnership? Because I believe you're both full-timers, correct? Correct.
April Pishna
Correct. I mean, I guess I'm gonna say our, my version 'cause my memory is so different and everybody has different perspectives. It's hilarious. But, and then maybe Deborah, you can correct me if I'm wrong or add in whatever I missed out. You're never wrong. <laugh>. Oh, I love you. I'm always right. Okay.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh> <laugh>,
April Pishna
My husband and I have been full timing for five years. So, and we started living a stout life, which is basically kind of traveling around, um, telling people about craft beer guides and adventuring and how to live a life of excitement and being a full-bodied life. And Debra Barry, we met them on the road at the RV Entrepreneurs. I'm sure that conference, I'm sure a lot of your listeners have heard of that and that podcast as well. But we met Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> on the Road, became pretty good friends and started traveling together. And what, three, four years ago we were sitting around a campfire as we usually do, hanging out, traveling together, drinking beer.
April Pishna
Drinking beer. Of course,
Tony Barthel
I was gonna ask if there was beer
Peggy Barthel
Involved. <laugh>,
April Pishna
All great ideas come from drinking beer and never does a great idea start from eating a salad, but it comes from
Tony Barthel
Drinking beer. No, gosh, no.
April Pishna
Right. Yeah. So we are sitting around just, you know, having fun, making up things and saying, what if we did this and we could do this and we could do this. And having all these grandiose ideas. And somewhere along the way, was it Barry maybe, who said something like, we could have this event where everybody comes together and we just have fun. And we're like, sure, sure, why not? And then lo and behold, a year later we actually started the thing and we're like, uhoh, we really did this.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Debra Benton
Yeah. I think it was one of those times where you have an idea around a campfire and how many of those ideas really ever end up happening. But we got started, I don't really remember who started the ball of just activating on it and, uh, and said, no, we wanna have some fun and we wanna get together because, you know, I know you guys when you're traveling have traveled with people. Yes. Met up with people. And that's kind of the most fun when you have other people hanging out. I mean, there's a lot of times when it's full-timers we're by ourselves, but when we can meet up with friends, you know, it's, it just makes it more special.
Debra Benton
So we thought, well, we have found a group of people that we love, so let's help some other people, find people that they love and do activities that they enjoy. Not go to a conference where you have to listen to talking heads, just have fun.
Tony Barthel
That sounds like a lot of fun. And you're right, I mean, traveling with others brings another dimension to this whole experience, whether you're full-time or part-time or, or whatever. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>,
Debra Benton
Absolutely.
April Pishna
One of the things that we also like to do with Camp Carp, ADM, and we fondly call it CCD, so if you hear us talking about CCD
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>
April Pishna
Very quickly become to, to make part of our event is that we host it in different locations every year. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So, because the purpose of traveling is to be able to get out there and enjoy the different beautiful areas that are available to us. So we wanna host it and have access to so many travelers too. So we host it in a different location every year and then get people out there into those locations, into the, the companies that make the businesses that make the area really great too. The trails that make the area great. The beautiful spots that make it great.
April Pishna
So for us, we've met a lot of people who really know how to work well on the road. Like they, they've nailed down their companies or their, whatever they're doing, whether they're retired or not, they've nailed down that section of staying busy. But people are still struggling and finding that spot of like, dude, we're in this great spot. We have to enjoy this area. And so that's what we like to do too, is get people out there to enjoy it and to enjoy it together.
Peggy Barthel
That's good. Because we fall into that category way too often. Yeah. We go somewhere new and fabulous and fantastic and we sit in the campground work. Yeah. Through that whole experience, <laugh>
Tony Barthel
It's happened more than I think I'm even willing admit to admit. Yeah. Is, you know, it's like you fly your Starling dish or whatever and then your friends say, Hey, did you see, you know, the Magical Falls or whatever. And you're like, N no, but I wrote an article, <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Debra Benton
Oh dear <laugh>. Yeah. Well, we, we also try, I mean, not only do we wanna help people connect to each other, but also to new activities. So to that end, to get out and uh, do some something maybe they haven't tried before. I know the piers are huge mountain bikers and so there have been several people that, you know, wanted to try mountain biking, but uh, that's a hard thing just to start by yourself. So, um, yeah, that they've enabled some of the folks during our weekend to connect with other mountain bikers and get out on a trail and do some mountain biking.
Debra Benton
So that's been fun or hikes to those magical falls that you know, you didn't know were there. <laugh>. And then Barry, my husband is a professional photographer, so he, he loves helping people go find the magical falls or the beautiful thing and take really great images from that. And he is a fantastic teacher of photography. So he really helps people, whether it's with their iPhone or a real deal. Is it DL Cell you'd think? I'd know Married to a person?
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
It's his passion. Not yours,
Debra Benton
<laugh>, but you'd think after this many years. <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>,
Debra Benton
Yeah. He helps them take great pictures of these beautiful places that we go to with Camp Corp by
April Pishna
Dmm. And I would even say that even if you don't have an interest in mountain biking or hiking or photography or any of those things or whatever we end up doing, there's, it's so much more centered around just being together with other people that we've had plenty of people that show up that just love being at the campfires that we host or just love being at the community dinners that we have. 'cause again, it's just more about the connection. We just happen to have those activities in addition to like the more important part of just making friends while on the road. Because so many, we don't wanna hear someone saying that they don't like traveling because they're lonely.
April Pishna
Like That's right. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Right. Yeah. Well, and we don't want people to be discouraged from going to a camp Carpe Diem because they think they're gonna get forced into mountain biking. Right. <laugh>?
Debra Benton
No, I don't ever mountain bike. So no
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Tony Barthel
But I mean, it goes back to that RV Entrepreneur Summit spawned a lot of businesses, collaborations, friendships. I mean, we've met a bunch of people through,
Peggy Barthel
We've only got to go to one.
Tony Barthel
We've only gone to the one in Colorado. Ah, which was smaller. And even then we've made friendships and these gatherings. I mean, that's why we advocate, join something like Escapees or FMCA or whatever. If there's a certain passion that you have, like, hmm, maybe traveling for beer <laugh>, find your tribe and go from that.
April Pishna
One of the biggest things, and one of the coolest things that we've done is we do a collabor, a collaborative brew with the local breweries everywhere we go. So the first year when we did this in 2021 is in your way. And we did it kind of separate. That was a, we did a collab brew with Strange Craft in Denver and we did the whole, like everybody, the partners show up and we brew a beer with them like a month beforehand. And then the brewery hosts basically our opening night social, and then we get crawlers for all of our attendees.
April Pishna
So this is becoming kind of a standard isn't like a guarantee that it's gonna happen every time, but it's becoming a standard <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
That's fantastic. Yeah.
April Pishna
The second annual one, we were so excited. We were brewing with Oscar Blues in Brevard, North Carolina, outside of Asheville. And so that was fantastic. And they hosted our opening night social. And then last year we, where were we last year? Oh my gosh, last year on Montana we did it with Sacred Waters Brewing Company in Kalispell. And it was amazing. And then this year we're super stoked because we're gonna be in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and we're doing it with Superior Bathhouse Brewery and the same thing. Great opening night Social and Superior is, just to give them a shout out is one of the only breweries, maybe the only brewery that's literally located in a national park.
April Pishna
Yeah. And it's Hot Springs water that's potable. So it comes out of the ground at 140 degrees and they pretty much brew with that water. So it's so unique to come there and like, do these breweries like that. I love that. That's a piece of it. And even if you don't drink, I
Peggy Barthel
Love that.
April Pishna
Which we have several attendees that don't drink at all. There's so many different options to just come and hang out. And what we've learned about beer is beer just brings people together. And so that's why, that's kind of a piece of it.
Tony Barthel
Beer is very approachable and I mean, I like wine too, but beer is just, it's almost like a drinkable campfire. <laugh>.
April Pishna
I like
Peggy Barthel
That. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Oh man. All right. Who's gonna trademark that first? Right? <laugh>. This should
Debra Benton
Be a T-shirt. <laugh>. This,
April Pishna
This should be a T-shirt. Yeah. There
Peggy Barthel
You go. <laugh>.
April Pishna
But we go out to like, we try to bring it out to local restaurants and local breweries, or if there's distilleries or they just think local wineries, vineyards. We try to do everything local. We wanna support the local businesses around there too. Sure. The whole purpose of that.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. The hard thing right now for me, now all I want to talk about is breweries, <laugh>, but we can't because there's other stuff to talk about. So
April Pishna
That just means you have to buy a ticket and come to CCD. And that's all we can talk about if you'd like. Or we other
Peggy Barthel
Might need to. I know.
Tony Barthel
And we've been there to that brewery in Hot Springs. Yes. And it's a neat place to visit. If you haven't been to Hot Springs, Arkansas. It's, it's very unusual and beautiful. Yeah.
April Pishna
So we're excited.
Peggy Barthel
Okay, so we're talking about Kem Carpe dmm. We're talking about it, we're talking it up. Everybody's excited, they wanna go. How do we find out? How do we go, how do we learn?
April Pishna
Actually this CCD 2024 is going to be held in the spring and it's going to be in Hot Springs, Arkansas, May 16th through the 20th, 2024. So it's a very long weekend of a lot of fun, a lot of, also a little bit of relaxation in with the fun. A ton of connection, let's
Debra Benton
Say. A lot of relaxation. But
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>,
Debra Benton
You get to pick your level of relaxation. Yeah,
April Pishna
Yeah. You can choose your level of how much fun you want or how much relaxation you want or how much whatever. Anyhow. Yes. And it's at Hot Springs, off Road Park. So it's a great campground. Amazing people. We're super excited for this one.
Debra Benton
And the great thing about this campground, it's Hot springs, um, off-Road, is that there's a variety of choices People can boondock if they like. They don't have full hookups yet, but they have electrical water, they have tent sites and a cabin. So people can, we've had people come that actually weren't even in their rv, stay in a cabin and join us. So there's quite a few choices.
Tony Barthel
You said this will be your third camp carpet diem. Fourth. Fourth, fourth. And then are you finding a lot of repeat people or
Debra Benton
Absolutely newer,
Tony Barthel
Definitely
Debra Benton
The majority seem to be repeats. We have a very strong group of people that, um, in fact, I, one of 'em in particular that comes to mind, she's bound to determined to come to Hot Springs. 'cause she's like, I'm, I've won a roll. I've been here three times. I'm not gonna just miss the fourth one. You know, even her right. <laugh>, I think she's supposed to leave for Italy like the next week. She's like, no, no, I'm, oh gosh.
Peggy Barthel
Like I don't care. I'm going anyway. Right.
April Pishna
Exactly. But it's funny because we do have a group of core people that have been coming since the beginning, but there's also like so many people that we get that we don't know where they came from or who they are. And then when we meet them at CCD, they just become kind of great friends or they've connected with somebody else who becomes great friends. So it's really cool to see that connection built up afterwards. So through our, um, via our communications that we do through the event, there's just this conversation that continues months after the event when people are continually meeting up. And that's what really makes us smile because that's the whole goal of it, is to bring that connection.
Tony Barthel
Typically, what type of rigs show up? Is it everything from tents to Classs or
April Pishna
Anybody? Everybody. We have people who have like Class C Super. It's like super CS
Debra Benton
Truck campers all the way up to very large class a's, I mean, Barry and I are a 36 foot class A. You guys are AC 24 feet. We've even had people that had just the tents above the cars or tent. Oh, fun. So we, we get vans, we get the, the whole variety.
April Pishna
Oh, we also even do like rig tours too. So at that, 'cause people are always
Peggy Barthel
Interested in rigs.
April Pishna
So it's really cool to like see everybody's rigs. Yep.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That's always fun. Especially because I don't know if anybody ever buys an RV and doesn't immediately make changes. Right,
Debra Benton
<laugh>. Exactly. Well, and plus you just wanna see how they've stored things. We had this last year, we had several people that were in Vans and to see how van people that are full-timers can put, I mean, 'cause I might have gone from a house to a 37 foot and that was a huge difference. But I can't imagine now taking what I've got in my RV and putting it into a van. And those people are, they're pretty amazing how, how clever they are, where they put things. So that was a fun tour. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Is it a family friendly event or is it very much geared toward adults only and how many people come? Yeah,
April Pishna
It is an adults only camp. Okay. 'cause we wanna just get out there and have fun. And it's kind of funny last year how much much we were saying like, this is why this is an adult because I don't wanna deal with the kids.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>, <laugh>, we love kids.
April Pishna
We have kids and many of us have grandkids and they have kids too. So, but this one is just more for the adults to get out there and feel like a kid again,
Debra Benton
One of our taglines is this is an adult camp, you know, so it's essentially, it's a weekend for you to get to let loose and, and have fun and not, not worry. Because the great thing is we've already got it planned. You don't have to even make plan. You show up and get yourself hooked up. And then once you're there, we're gonna take care of you from there. And it's just a lovely weekend for people to come and not have to worry about things and just have fun. Right.
Tony Barthel
I like
Peggy Barthel
It. So are people making their own reservations at this campground or do they just get in touch with you and you handle even the reservation part? How does that part work?
Debra Benton
No, we do have them, um, make the, the reservation with the campground themselves because a lot of people do come in early or stay longer. And so Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, we don't wanna mess with that. And, you know, plans change. So we find Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> it easier to let them go directly to the campground and then they go to camp car by dmm.com to register and buy tickets to the actual event
April Pishna
You were asking earlier, um, about how many rigs or things like that. But Oh yeah. We like to cap it at around 50 attendees or 50 campers. We call 'em campers, but because we want 'em to be more of an intimate event where you can get to know each other and hang out and not have, you know, three, 400 people where you can't meet people. This is more to yeah. To meet community and find your tribe on the road.
Tony Barthel
And that's something about like a big FMCA convention. There's a thousand, 1200 rigs or whatever.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. It's too much.
Tony Barthel
It's a lot of people, but we've still made friends, so Oh, sure.
Debra Benton
You can find your tribe among a bunch of people, but this way it's a little bit closer. The campfires are very inclusive of everyone and you really make some deep connections. I mean, to what April was saying earlier, that people have stayed in contact with one another. Afterwards. We saw the other day on the, we use WhatsApp to communicate back and forth and on that somebody was having some issues with her trailer and somebody that, a couple of the other people were telling her, okay, go do this and help and, you know, helping one another. And that's, we've love that. That's one of our favorite things.
Debra Benton
Or they'll meet up with, we'll see them that they met up in Sedona together, you know, separate from all of us, but just, Hey, I'm in this area. Yeah. And they'll meet up and that that is what we want.
Peggy Barthel
Yes. For sure.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And, and we've had that with some of the gatherings we've been to where we've, I mean, I can't advocate it more. It's, it's kind of cool to have this group of people who, for example, we just were at Balloon Fiesta with friends, we had met at A-F-M-C-A convention. Right. And we went to New Orleans and we hung out with friends. We had,
Peggy Barthel
We met them at the RV Entrepreneur. That's
Debra Benton
Right. It just makes the travel so much more fun to me. Yeah, you just, that added because it does get you out of your rig. You won't sit there and on starlink when you go
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Right. <laugh> people pounding on your door, get out here and drink a beer. <laugh>
Tony Barthel
Oh, ask me twice.
Debra Benton
<laugh>. And it also sometimes exposes you to things. Maybe, you know, they have an interest in something you don't. And so it gets you out to see something unique and new that you wouldn't have probably done if left here.
Peggy Barthel
Right. That's true.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And sometimes you meet up with people who are very familiar with where you are and can be great tour guides. Oh, absolutely. So that, that too. Yeah. Backstory, Deborah, how did you get into the, your full-time rvr? How did that come about? And, and you have a website with some really great tips, so thank
Debra Benton
You. How
Tony Barthel
Did that happen?
Debra Benton
So the short story <laugh> is, 'cause there's a much longer, if my husband was here, he, I would put, throw him under the bus, but I won't. But the short story is basically, I had left corporate America and my husband was already a remote worker and our children were in college as a photographer. He liked to go out and take pictures of pretty places and he was doing it in our Jeep and sleeping in the Jeep. So he is like, well what if we got a rig and we went around, would you go with me? And I said, sure. And then that suddenly became three months later that we were selling our house and moving into an RV
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Oops.
Debra Benton
No, I'm not, I'm not really surprised. Yeah, I know. Well it kind of was in the first year we rushed around because he thought, any day now I'm gonna tell him no, I'm gonna go home. And um, of course I don't know where he thought I was gonna go. Since we sold the house and everything that went in it,
Peggy Barthel
We
Debra Benton
Finally, I said, this is okay. I'm okay. We can do this <laugh>. And so yeah, we've now just had our five year anniversary, which is shocking to me. It goes very quickly. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah.
Debra Benton
We started the virtual campground about, uh, four years ago. We, we actually bought it from someone that had it and have been keeping it up. And it's our, it was our way initially of connecting with people and building community because that was the thing that first year that I really missed. I felt lonely and and disconnected from people. Yeah. So we started the virtual campground to give people information to help connect with people. We had a, um, we have a YouTube channel that we loved getting on 'cause then people would chat with us.
Debra Benton
<laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
It was <laugh>. We talk to
Debra Benton
People and we did interviews similar to what you were doing today. We just had fun. And then we already had met the pnas and like we said, that story, we just, it all snowballed.
Tony Barthel
You've done a really nice job of kind of fancying it up, for lack of a better description. I
Debra Benton
Attribute a lot of that to my husband because the photographs are so awesome. <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
Oh sure, sure.
Debra Benton
Yeah. I think that that helps it quite a bit.
Tony Barthel
Since we got to talk to Deborah about this. April, how did you get into this lifestyle and have you always loved beer?
April Pishna
Beer <laugh>? It's funny 'cause our stories are actually quite similar. When Kenny and I were thinking about it, I was a teacher. And so basically our initial plan, we lived in Denver, the Denver suburbs. And our initial plan was when our kids, our boys were going to move out and kind of start getting their own lives going. We were gonna move to the mountains. And that just didn't quite work out. I couldn't find a job that I really wanted. So I heard a podcast on my 60 minute commute to work teaching one day called the RV Entrepreneur and people living in an rv. And we were not RVs, we were tent campers and what car campers.
April Pishna
And I was just like, wait, you can live in an rv. What? Huh? <laugh>. And so I brought that idea back home one one day and told Kenny, I was like, what?
April Pishna
Why don't we, instead of moving to the mountains and having another house and another mortgage and another thing that keeps us down, we've always loved traveling. So why don't we live in an RV and travel around in an rv? And so we started planning for that and I quit my teaching job. Ken had already had, already had an online, like he could work from anywhere, position the boys. We kept our house actually for a while. So the boys, um, had a couple of roommates move in. Our youngest was in college at the time, so he didn't pay rent or anything. So we kept the house for a while and we took off.
April Pishna
So we joked that we left our kids
Peggy Barthel
<laugh> <laugh>.
April Pishna
And we were trying to figure out like, okay, everybody kept telling me I can teach English on the road or teach on the road. And I'm like, it's not the same and I don't wanna teach on the road. So we were like, what are we gonna do for our business? Like how are we gonna create this? And your question was, do I always did I always like beer? Beer became a really big part to us after Apre ski. We were like always on the mountain snowboarding. And so after a snowboard, after like a day of snowboarding, we would sit down at the bar and like these dark beers came into play years ago. And we're like, what is this?
April Pishna
And they were just this such a good like cozy after a day on the mountains, this dark beer that had so much flavor. And so with that came this adventure side. It like beer has always been connected to this adventure piece for us. And um, a community piece. So we are thinking living a stout life stout, it's a full bodied life. It's a double end. Yeah. And so let's, we're like, let's travel around the country and create guides and get other people to the beer because the beer is what's about the community.
April Pishna
And we've always said that like beer is about more than just the beer. It's about the people you meet around it.
Tony Barthel
This big uptick in small local breweries really makes me happy. <laugh>. Because you can go places and, and there's so many different styles. And again, I could talk for hours about it. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> <laugh> it. It's pretty amazing. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Well if you wanna talk for or listen for hours about it, then you go and listen to April and Ken's podcast.
Tony Barthel
That's correct. <laugh>. And another thing on your website we have a podcast. I I love the beer map.
April Pishna
Well that's another thing. I'm glad you brought that up because we spent, I swear we probably, whenever we're traveling somewhere, we're terrible at planning. We do not plan nothing. 'cause we have a small 24 foot RV so we can pretty much park in almost one parking space. Yeah. And the first few years of traveling we only had the RV and the mountain bikes. We didn't have a car or anything with us. So we would always just pull in and, and, but it would take us hours to try to figure out where's the mountain biking trails. It's close enough to a camp, to a camping area, disperse camp site. 'cause we rarely ever did campgrounds or anything like that. And then where's the brewery?
April Pishna
So we're like spending time and time trying to match up this app with this app, with this app, with this app. I'm like, ugh. If we were to start or had, you know, all the time in the world and all the money in the world, there'd be this fabulous app right now. But we put together that map on our website that has, at least we're trying to update it where there's mountain biking trails right next to Brews.
Tony Barthel
That's brilliant. Yeah. I love it. I love it. Yeah. And where do people find your podcast?
April Pishna
It's called the Craft Beer Travel and Adventure Podcast. And you can find it anywhere you listen to podcasts or you can just go to living a stout life.com and it's on there as well. And can I say that they should come listen because we're gonna talk to you guys on live on Cafe Travel Adventure. Yeah, well we can talk all about beer if you'd like <laugh>. Yeah, yeah,
Tony Barthel
Yeah. If I could just go from brewery to brewery and then go to the local train museum, I'd be a happy Ladd. There you go.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. So we don't really need the mountain bike trail, we need the electric bike trail. Right. To get from brewery to brewery. <laugh>, I
April Pishna
Don't know if that's more dangerous or less dangerous. <laugh>,
Peggy Barthel
Right?
April Pishna
Yeah. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
I may or may not have fallen off my bike once after a night of fun, but I'm not going
Peggy Barthel
May or may not have
Debra Benton
No reason. May or
Tony Barthel
May not have
Debra Benton
No, no, no.
Peggy Barthel
That goes in the other podcast <laugh>.
April Pishna
That's funny. Absolutely. And then when you make those friends like you guys who have a stationary home and if you have space then there's Mooch stocking.
Peggy Barthel
That's why we bought this property so that we'd have room for that.
Tony Barthel
Boondockers welcome. Loves this. Yeah, there are quite a few great places you can stay that are
Peggy Barthel
Yes. That's kind of how we, I plan our travels is like from Harvest Host Brewery to harvest Host Brewery. Yep. <laugh> to get from one side of the country to the other.
April Pishna
It's funny 'cause we actually even wrote five or six guides that are literally like harvest host breweries that match up with mountain biking trails within 50 miles. So it has like the Harvest host brewery and then here are the mountain biking trails and then here are like closer breweries with closer mountain biking trails. And so we linked up and did some teamwork with Harvest Host on that.
Peggy Barthel
Great.
Tony Barthel
I'm gonna have to dig more into your site, Debra. Predominantly your content is written form blogs and that's sort of where we focus as well. So tell us a little more about that because not, you know, there's so many people like, oh you need a YouTube channel to be whatever. And I disagree.
Debra Benton
I do too. We do have great, I think great blogs in that we try to share a lot about our travels and, and to what April was saying. Talk about places, great places to go. Campgrounds. We do have a YouTube channel and do some short videos about campgrounds as well so people get a feel for what they look like. Those two things feed each other. That helps us because sometimes we're very visual. I think it's the photography part of it. And so that gives us an opportunity to really showcase it. So that's probably why we don't have a podcast.
Debra Benton
'cause I can't figure out how to show pictures in a podcast. Right.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. <laugh>
Debra Benton
We do a lot. So a lot of times if somebody really wants to see a place, you know the virtual cramp ground is a great place to go visit to find what it looks like because we'll have some photographs from it that Barry has taken or it'll connect to the video that has a lot of photographs. I never have to carry my camera. <laugh>. Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Debra Benton
The only reason I take a, I do take a camera though, or my phone at least, is to get pictures of people. 'cause my husband's horrible about taking pictures of people he likes to,
Peggy Barthel
He's all in the scenery. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
And more and more a phone is a, oh my gosh, not horrible camera. No,
Debra Benton
They're really getting really, really smart and good. Yeah. In fact he actually does photography workshops as well. He just had one in Arkansas and I think several folks, you know, will have their cameras and take nearly as good of pictures as they are with their point and shoots.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah,
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And it's the camera you always have with you. Absolutely.
Debra Benton
Absolutely. And that's the, he will even tell you that's the most important thing is carry your camera all the time. Even if it's your iPhone then at least you know you have it. And, and just take lots of photos and then you play with them and you'll
Peggy Barthel
Get better. It's not like in the days when you had to have rolls of film stuffed in your pockets and then you had to develop it all and then, and then you go,
Debra Benton
Oh and I didn't get it.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Oh I took seven pictures of this thing and I wasted a whole roll of film and I didn't even get what I wanted. Everything's blurry.
Tony Barthel
One more time, if you would tell us how do you find Camp Carpet DMM and when it's gonna be, and do you know how much space is still available?
April Pishna
Yes. Okay. So first of all, you can find all the information@campcarpetadm.com, which is C-A-M-P-C-A-R-P-E-D-I-E m.com. It's May 16th through the 20th, 2024 and Hot Springs, Arkansas that our base camp is at Hot Springs off-Road Park. But everything else we like travel around the area to explore the entire area and region. And um, right now we are lucky enough to have a fairly decent amount of spots open so get going. But we can tell you this, it's early bird pricing right now up until midnight December 24th.
April Pishna
So this is a great little, you know, holiday gift.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
April Pishna
Um, and for all you listeners, if you use the code, no stress, so all caps N-O-S-T-R-E-S-S, you get $15 off.
Peggy Barthel
Fantastic. Yeah.
April Pishna
And then also if you want to get the best camp sites next to your lovely host, which is myself and my husband Ken and Deborah and Barry from us, because you know, people love us. Just kidding. But anyhow, right.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh> <laugh>,
April Pishna
If you wanna get the best sites, um, we do have a block of RV sites and tent sites reserved through November 19th. That's, but it's still open to the public afterwards. You can still make your reservations at the campground as well. There's
Debra Benton
A promise to be in that block. I
April Pishna
Hope to see you there. We love to get just new people on anybody. It can be full-time travelers, part-time travelers, wannabe travelers, locals because I mean everybody there is just welcome. It's just building a community.
Peggy Barthel
I think we actually are gonna be able to do it. We're gonna be on our way to teach some classes in Illinois and Minnesota, but I think that it will be right on the route.
Tony Barthel
That would be awesome. That would be helpful. And we could go back and sit in the hot, I could get in hot water without getting yelled at <laugh>. So there's always that.
Debra Benton
Absolutely. And if anybody has any questions they can certainly email April and I at deborah@campcarpedmm.com or april@campcarpedmm.com <laugh>. Great.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Debra Benton
See you today. Come and join us.
April Pishna
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Yes, that's
April Pishna
Carpe dmm. We are also actively seeking sponsors too. So if you wanna get your names out there because we wanna promote local businesses or local RV or any kind of RV companies or travel companies, we wanna promote them too and help give them unique marketing thing, marketing opportunities. So we are actively seeking sponsors as well as affiliate partners. So if anybody wants to help spread the word, we just really wanna build that community all across the country. So maybe even the world. That sounds
Tony Barthel
Awesome.
Peggy Barthel
Yes. Well April and Deborah, thank you so much for spending this time with us, telling us about this, get us excited for yet another thing to add to our 2024 calendar. We can't wait to come and camp with you at Camp Carpe diem but also come back and talk with you about beer. So yeah, we will put links to your websites and then also we'll put a link to the podcast that we're guests with you. Yay.
Tony Barthel
It's been a pleasure.
April Pishna
Yeah, we are honored to be on it and thank you very much.
Debra Benton
This has been fun and and hope that we can see you out on the road not only in Hot Springs but other times as well. For
Peggy Barthel
Sure.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely.
Peggy Barthel
You know, April or Deborah I forget, said that there are sites with various, you know, hookup levels at the campground where Camp Carpe diem is being held. So if you wanted to book a dry site, that would be okay if you were like us and had a power package from ABC upfitters.
Tony Barthel
We are looking to book our site with no hookups 'cause we don't need them for a lot of this days, including I had mentioned Boondockers welcome earlier and for staying here at Camp Carpet Diem. So you have the opportunity to save a little money and use the system in your RV. And if you don't have the system in your RV to be able to really camp off the grid, well gosh, you could give our friends at ABC Upfitters a call and they can answer your questions about solar and lithium and RV power systems.
Tony Barthel
You could call them at (574) 293-9399 or just find them through the link on our show notes@stresslesscamping.com. They're just really good people to work with. They use master vault components which have been tested in the marine industry where there's a very low tolerance for failure being out on the ocean and good stuff, good people. And they are happy to talk to you and answer your questions at 5 7 4 2 9 3 9 3 9 9.
Peggy Barthel
So Tony, do you have a gadget or an RV for us this week?
Tony Barthel
Well, unbeknownst to Peggy, I spent some money.
Peggy Barthel
What?
Tony Barthel
Uh, yeah, well Mike SoCal, the RV electricity expert and I are going to be doing a live feed tonight. If you're listening to this on Thursday, November 16th, we will be doing a live feed at 5:00 PM Mountain Time and however the heck that works out to your own <laugh> time because I don't get time zones. But anyway, what we are going to be talking about is the new RAM charger pickup that Solanis announced. And it is I think the most game changing new pickup out there because it's got great cargo hauling capacity, 2,600 pounds.
Tony Barthel
It's got 14,000 pounds of towing capacity. It's got 690 miles of range. So it's both an electric vehicle and a gasoline vehicle and it works kinda like a railroad locomotive. It's just neat. And I think it is literally the most game changing new truck that has been announced thus far. And I put a deposit on one,
Peggy Barthel
Excuse me, while I picked myself up off the floor. <laugh>, I knew all the words except those last few.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. <laugh>. So anyway, if you wanna learn more about this and from the standpoint of the electrical aspect of it, Mike Soel is gonna have some great insight on it. And I used to write a syndicated car column so I know my way around engines and such. So live feed tonight, there'll be a link in the show notes. You'll get a link in the email newsletter or we're gonna put it on our various social media places so you can find us and tune in. Love to have you there.
Peggy Barthel
Good thing we didn't take a lot of time to put stuff in our new truck so we could, well put it in the new truck <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
It's not coming until 2025 so.
Peggy Barthel
Oh okay. We got time. I'm
Tony Barthel
Gonna basically be there with my dark glasses and tin cup saving up my Ducketts <laugh> for this new rig.
Peggy Barthel
Remember the old days when you just used to go wait in line outside the store for three days? Yeah, <laugh>,
Tony Barthel
Now you put a hundred dollars deposit down and you get a place in line.
Peggy Barthel
Alright, well maybe I'll go console myself by eating dessert <laugh>. Ooh. You know, in the past we have had Thanksgiving food episodes on Thanksgiving, which <laugh> every year we realize is kind of silly 'cause now Thanksgiving's over.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, you hear the episode the day after Thanksgiving and you're like, well I wish I had known that before.
Peggy Barthel
And I think that maybe we've covered all the different aspects of Thanksgiving dinner, how to, to cook a turkeys favorite side dishes, things like that. This year, this week I just wanted to just kind of throw out some dessert ideas in case you are not sure what dessert you like for Thanksgiving.
Tony Barthel
And I will put those previous episodes in the email newsletter. Okay,
Peggy Barthel
Great. Actually, kind of our new favorite because it's, you know, it follows our low carb diet is pumpkin whip. And there is a recipe on the website, we'll put a link to that. We really, really like it. It's our version of pumpkin pie but without the well crust and everything and
Tony Barthel
It's super easy and it tastes really good. Yeah. So easy and delicious are always two thumbs ups.
Peggy Barthel
If you wanted to fancy it up maybe and stay pretty low carb, low, you know, gluten-free, maybe put a layer of cool whip on top, maybe add a
Peggy Barthel
Pecan crust on the bottom. Ooh. 'cause that would be, you know, no flour. But anyway, <laugh> <laugh>. Now that I'm done drooling all over my microphone about pumpkin whip and pecan crust. We've talked to mana a couple of different times, but she has pie irons and we love when we go camping with her and we take the pie irons and make, you know, like cherry pies or use whatever kind of pie filling and biscuits or whatever and make pies over the fire. So that is, if you're camping and you think you don't have time or space to make a dessert.
Peggy Barthel
Bam. Pie irons. Yeah. Baal Lamb. Of course there's always the option of buying a pre-made pie if you're going camping. But let's not forget, a lot of us do have RV ovens, even if they're small and lousy. If you wanted to buy a frozen pie and take it to the campground and bake it in your oven, imagine how warm and delicious your camper would feel
Tony Barthel
And smell
Peggy Barthel
And smell. Right?
Tony Barthel
I think that those RV ovens, that might be one of the few things you can actually successfully cook in the darn
Peggy Barthel
Thing. Right. <laugh>. Anyway. What's your favorite dessert? I am curious to hear, it's not gonna be the question of the week, that's just like a bonus question. Go ahead and Oh, go ahead and write in and answer it anyway. <laugh> <laugh> speaking of questions of the week last week. Someone had written in and asked us to ask this question, I'm sorry again that I don't remember who, but how do you feel about site locking fees?
Tony Barthel
Yeah, people were pretty specific about it.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. So a lot of people don't bother. A lot of people haven't been to a campground that has that kind of a fee. Some people are just completely against it, they won't do it. They think it's the campground trying to steal their money. <laugh>. But you know, think about this. If you go to a concert, don't you like when you get to choose where your own, where your seat is? Right? So a lot of people did answer in that manner. Like they're willing to pay the fee if they know that there's a specific site.
Peggy Barthel
And that's kind of my thought too. Like a lot of times we're going to a new place that we haven't been before, we don't know which site is which,
Tony Barthel
As long as there's no dug on trees
Peggy Barthel
Overhead, right? I try to look at an aerial view and find one that has a good northern exposure and then go from there. But I don't think we've done a site locking fee ever. But you know, I can see why you might as uh, somebody else pointed out that if you're going as a group Yep. And you specifically want two or three sites together, you might wanna lock in the sites anyway. So you know, it was a good, good conversations, good combination of answers. And we appreciate that you wrote in and responded and took some time to think about that.
Tony Barthel
You know, the Stressless Campers Facebook group is a good place to basically ask questions without feeling like somebody's gonna jump on you or state your opinion again without that. And it's been a really positive, upbeat and informative group and continues to be so.
Peggy Barthel
And even to a certain extent we like when you share camping memes, <laugh>. Oh
Tony Barthel
Heck yeah,
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. I mean I don't want it to only be that, but those are fun. And I know sometimes in groups about specific things, you know, those groups don't like you to share things that aren't specific to the group. Well if it's a camping meme that's specific to Stressless campers, come on over and share your memes. <laugh>
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Now don't go nuts with that, but just, yeah, right. Come on down. Right
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. So
Tony Barthel
Our question for this week is, do you have a go-to meal for your first night at camp? Is it something that's quick and easy? Do you kind of plan this all day?
Peggy Barthel
And this time I actually paid attention. And Wendy, thank you for asking that question. <laugh>, what is your first night at camp Go-to meal. You
Tony Barthel
Can share your ideas and tips at our fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group.
Peggy Barthel
And did you know that once a week Tony writes a newsletter, he tells you all the things that are going on in the world with stories and videos and podcasts and reminds them up trucks you about our own podcast and pick up trucks. And we hope that that newsletter helps you get the most out of your RV experience. And to get on that newsletter list, all you have to do is visit our website and sign up. And please know we don't share your information. We don't give it away, we don't sell it. We just use it to send you one email per week.
Peggy Barthel
And that is it,
Tony Barthel
Abdi. That's it folks. And you'll find the notes for this episode, including the things we talked about, episode 2 29 on the podcastPage@stresslesscamping.com, which happens to be where you'll find art discounts and deals for the best deals on the things you'll need, your Stressless Camping adventure.
Peggy Barthel
And you know, if you have a great deal that you don't see on our page, please let us know about it. We would love to share it with our audience and get as many people discounts and deals as we can. Yep.
Tony Barthel
And you know, we're in all the social places, but you can start@stresslesscamping.com and from there, jump off to all the various places that you already are. 'cause we're there too.
Peggy Barthel
And you know that you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast. And did you know it is free to subscribe on any podcast catcher? How
Tony Barthel
Do they do
Peggy Barthel
That? I don't know,
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. And we're saving you a seed around our virtual campfire.
Peggy Barthel
As always, we wanna remind you a review will help others find our podcast. And when we have more listeners, we can continue to get such great guests like we had today. If you haven't left a review, we would really appreciate it if you would do that. If you don't know how there are instructions on the website.
Tony Barthel
There are, there are <laugh>. We appreciate that. Of course, you can also share any stories, articles, RV shows, whatever you find on the website and that helps too. So with that, we really appreciate your being here and maybe we'll see you at Camp Carpet Diem and Stressless
Peggy Barthel
Stressless
Tony Barthel
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.
April Pishna
We're never wrong. Oh, I love you. I'm always right. Okay.
