Building a new overlanding camper with our Flated air topper
This week’s StressLess Camping RV and travel podcast has us talking the founder of Flated, a company that makes air toppers for pickups. These unique air toppers take the place of a traditional fiberglass pickup cap and utilize the same technology as a stand-up paddle board to make an easy-to-install and very affordable solid pickup cap.
We also share our plans for this new gadget and how we’re going to use it for some new and exciting adventures.
Other places to hear the podcast
Our review of the Flated 6’ 4” air topper
Get a 10% Discount on Flated products
After hearing our podcast and review Flated has offered up a 10% discount. Make any purchase and use the code StressLessCamp10 at check out and you’ll get 10% off!!
Mentioned on this episode
We are outfitting a “day camper” for short trips. With the 4 wheel drive truck we can go anywhere, and with the Flated and our other camping gear we can “survive" a night or two without the Mini Lite
Cartridge toilet and SylvanSport Privy Bivvy
Lippert Picnic Popup Gazebo screen tent
Venture Wipes
Cots and air mattresses
Charging phones, etc
We also shared how much we like our Ghost Bed RV mattress
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 237
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 Home Fires <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. I'm Tony. I'm Peggy. And we're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time
Peggy Barthel
In a small enough trailer to fit in our aunt's driveway <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
That's where we're coming to you from now. And we're looking to share big adventures in little driveways and help you with great tips, tricks, and discounts. Actually, it's not that small a driveway, but
Peggy Barthel
It's not that small of a driveway.
Tony Barthel
In fact, the past four nights, five nights, whatever it's been driveways. That's
Peggy Barthel
Right. We've mooch docked with our friend Byron <laugh> and Gilroy, and now we're mooch docking with my aunt and uncle in Chino, California.
Tony Barthel
Chino California. Where my gosh, I have to say, every time I come here I look at Zillow at like, so how much would it cost to live here? Because the
Peggy Barthel
Weather here is perfect.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>, it's, yeah, it's January, as you all know, because I'm sure you all have calendars and it's 65%.
Peggy Barthel
Well, it says it's only 50, but if you get out there in the sun, it is easily 65 in the sun.
Tony Barthel
Oh yeah. And of course our, you know, our power package is just digging
Peggy Barthel
It. It's smoking
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Well, it's not
Peggy Barthel
Smoking. Well, not smoking that would be bad,
Tony Barthel
But it's just, it's like woohoo.
Peggy Barthel
It's keeping us nice in charge so we can use the inverter on occasion when we're mooch stocking and we don't have power, we don't use the inverter. But today we've got so much power, I'm trying to waste it. <laugh>. Whoa.
Tony Barthel
Waste not
Peggy Barthel
One. I'm making sure that everything is charged up and like we normally do when we're hooked up, I plug everything in and get it all topped off. Wow. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Wow. Well, there you go. We'll get into that in a minute. But we wanted to share with you that Apple, who, you know, rates various apps. They rated the All Trails app, the app of the year.
Peggy Barthel
Congratulations to all trails. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Boy, that's a, that's a big honor. And I bet you they're selling a lot of those apps now because Apple still has a strong voice in the buying apps world.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah,
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. Lots of folks have iPhones and iPads and I, I, I,
Peggy Barthel
I, I, I, so all trails is known as the trail guides and maps for hiking, camping, adventures, things like that. They show a lot of, actually of curated trails and fellow explorers, 60 million explorers. And so it's a good app if you're looking to get out there off the driving roads and onto the hiking roads. <laugh>, there you go.
Tony Barthel
All trails is the app of the year. Pretty cool. Well
Peggy Barthel
Thanks. Congratulations.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. As mentioned, we are Mooch docking at Peggy's Aunt Kathy's house. Well, I guess my aunt too, since we're married and all, not my, not Peggy's aunt, but you know, me and Peggy, Peggy and I
Peggy Barthel
So confused.
Tony Barthel
She's the, we <laugh>. So we're on our way to the court site, sports vacation and our show that we
Peggy Barthel
Are,
Tony Barthel
And we have been doing quite a bit of mooch stocking because we did do a campground review, which we'll get to a little later, but campgrounds here in local Cal 80 bucks a night for Yeah. And this is the off season. Yeah. So you figure, we spent, what, three nights at Byron's?
Peggy Barthel
We spent two nights at Byron's. We spent spent, and we'll spend three nights here.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So what is that? Five, five times days. Four, five nights in a row. Four we saved just in this block of time, over $400. Right. So having a good solar and lithium system really can ultimately save money. In fact, we figured, okay, well we are a little unusual in many ways, but one of which is we use the heck out of our Rockwood mini light. Sure. So we can figure that we literally could have paid for the power package in about two years of use by Mooch docking and boondocking.
Tony Barthel
But if you don't look at it just from a financial standpoint, you look at it from a freedom standpoint. Like we call our buddies like Byron or your aunt or whatever, and say, Hey, you know, can we come and hang out for a couple of days? And it's like, sure. And those easy decisions on where to camp is another reason that these advanced solar and lithium power systems are just such a great thing to have.
Tony Barthel
It's just a, it just makes such a difference in your camping experience. And if you've been kind of thinking about, gosh, you know, is this something for me? Should I look into this? The people at A B, C Upfitters, they use Master Bowl components which come outta the marine industry. And they're so trusted that RV companies like Rockwood Flagstaff, iex R Pod, several others, higher end companies like Columbus have been using their systems 'cause they just work.
Tony Barthel
And that's something we found. The system just works. And that peace of mind is magical in an RV component. So if that's something that interests you in our show notes, we have a link to the A BC Outfitters and you can see our interview with them there. Or you could just give them a call on the good old fashioned phone at (574) 293-9399 good people. They know how to translate from nerd to normal. And they have engineers that can help you put together a system that works for the way you like to camp.
Tony Barthel
Whether that's simple couple batteries dropped in or a whole system like we have. So again, give 'em a call 5 7 4 2 9 3 9 3 9 9 Or just check 'em out from our link@stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy Barthel
So we are camping the way we like to camp, and that is with enough power in our mini light <laugh> <laugh>. But we have been kind of slowly gathering supplies to camp a little bit different way. And now we're not suggesting that we're gonna change our lifestyle Right. By any means. But every once in a while we think it would be kind of cool to just hop in the four wheel drive truck drive somewhere that we've heard about that the trailer can't get to and spend the night.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Or you know, let's say we are going somewhere with the trailer and you know, someone who says, oh, well up that road, there's the coolest thing. Well we have written so many reviews about so much RV and camping gear that we now have enough gear to make sort of a day use or overnighting camper using our pickup truck. And that's one of the reasons we wanted the new four-wheel drive pickup truck. One of the variables is, well you're gonna need a cap or camper shell or whatever the heck you call it
Peggy Barthel
For sleeping in. Yeah, yeah. 'cause what we, what we don't have, the one thing we don't have is a tent. Now we do have the screen gazebo. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
We have the Lippert screen gazebo,
Peggy Barthel
But we don't actually have a tent. We used to have one. And the last time I used it, the wind blew so hard it broke the tent. So I haven't replaced it. And that's okay because we can sleep in the truck and be up off the ground. Yeah. And still have all the other quote unquote tent camping amenities that we have filling up our garage right now.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah. And, and believe me, we have got a ton of RV and camping related stuff. So after we bought the ram, we started shopping for camper shells or caps or whatever you want to call it. Well, one of the things that we found is that they're bloody expensive <laugh>. I mean, a high quality cap is between four and $6,000. And then if you want one color match to your truck, it's six to 10 weeks if they don't have it in stock. I thought, well, I mean that, you know, it is what it is.
Tony Barthel
I don't wanna spend that money. But we may have to as usual, you know, the way social media works, I was using my confuser to shop for pickup caps and all that. Well, I started getting ads on Facebook for a company called Flad, like Inflated, but without the in <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
And they are inflatable camper shells or caps. And I was intrigued and skeptical. Sure. But the stuff that we have that, that's sitting in our garage right now, and some people call it over landing, whatever, we could easily go several nights without our mini light. And that also opens the door to like Jason and Abby from RV Miles said, Hey, go to the National Parks late in the afternoon. 'cause that's when people leave.
Tony Barthel
And you can make your own dinners out there. Well, right. We've got our 12 volt cooler and we've got our portable power station and we've got our induction cooktop. We've got cots, we've got an air mattress, we've got our Lippert gazebo 10 as Peggy said, we have 12 volt cooler for every size and season from Bodega and Dometic. Right. We have our starlink, all kinds of stuff that we have.
Tony Barthel
We could literally build a camper. And so we're gonna <laugh>, we're gonna use this pickup cap to make a camper essentially. We'll show you that further. But the variable was the pickup cap. And so after watching a bunch of videos, I'm like, well, I guess they have a good return policy. I bought the Flad truck cap. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And we put it together. Now we do have a video review of the truck cap, but we were fortunate enough to get Ryan Gay from Flighted to join us and talk about why would you invent something like this and how good is it?
Tony Barthel
And the video kind of explains what we feel about it. But without any further ado, let's hear from Ryan and learn more about the Flad truck cap.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. There is a slight further ado. I need to tell you that we had a little bit of signal problems the day we talk to Ryan. And normally that works itself out, but there are a couple spots where without either Tony or i's voice kind of adding to Ryan <laugh>. It's not gonna make sense what he said. So while we're listening to this interview, there's gonna be a couple times where Ryan sounds oddly like one of us <laugh>
Tony Barthel
And then that
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. And, but I just wanted you to, I just wanted to make sure that you knew what he said because it was important. So yeah, just a warning that Ryan's voice is gonna change very briefly two times during this interview.
Tony Barthel
We are with Ryan Gay from Flad campers. Ryan is the founder and creator of something that we discovered thanks to a Facebook ad and bought, and it's very impressive. So Ryan, welcome.
Peggy Barthel
Thank you for joining us today.
Ryan Guay
Thank you for having me. And happy, uh, Monday morning. It's cold and snowy up here in Missoula, Montana. Oh boy. <laugh>. We've needed the snow. So it's, uh, it's welcomed. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
For our audience who may not know what the heck we're talking about, what is flad and what things do you make?
Ryan Guay
So Flighted was a crazy idea that myself and three colleagues kind of came up with years ago. And we were at the surf and the paddleboard industry, so we were very familiar and, and helped to actually introduce inflatable paddleboards to the, to the market. Ah, using inflatable drop stitch technology. So that market got a little saturated. Unfortunately, the, the prices sort of dropped out, had nice little resurgence during the pandemic, but you know, we were just after a trade show one night having some beverages and discussing what was next.
Ryan Guay
And, you know, we all had a vision of one day starting our own brand and, and breaking off on our own to, to do something together. And we had the idea of using inflatable technology to make an inflatable truck topper <laugh>. Okay. And, uh, so it was, it was pretty wild. Uh, when we first told, uh, some of our friends and family what we were thinking about, they all thought we were nuts <laugh>.
Ryan Guay
But we were pretty confident that with, uh, the team that we have, we could probably get it figured out. And so March of 2020 during the pandemic, um, we all found ourselves with a little bit of extra time and we actually got to work on it. Yeah. So the, our first product was the air topper. So that is, you know, similar to, you know, fiberglass or an aluminum topper. Um, but it installs without tools only weighs about 40 to 60 pounds depending on the size. And when you don't need it, you just, you know, unhook six cam straps you throw in your yard, deflate it, and it'll store on a shelf in your garage.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. I like that lightweight because I did, you know, what I keep seeing in the ads, like I lifted it up over my head and <laugh>,
Tony Barthel
A lot of times you see stuff advertised and you're like, Hmm, I'm not so sure. So then I dug deeper as I tend to do, and basically looked at a few YouTube videos and, and what was being said. And I ordered one and we put it on our truck and it's really impressive. And so to people who may not realize how firm these things are and how solid they are, what can you tell us?
Tony Barthel
Because I've seen people standing on these. Yeah.
Ryan Guay
Well, we get a lot of skepticism online. Um, we're pretty aggressive with our, our videos and our digital content, and people see it in a video or a photo of it, and they just can't comprehend how something inflatable can be that rigid <laugh> until we start to remind them that, you know, if people have seen an inflatable paddleboard or have been in a, a premium whitewater raft with a drop stitch floor, people kind of understand it. But unfortunately, a lot of times people think about the inflatables that we've all had bad ex bad experiences with <laugh>, which are like the Walmart air mattresses that never have air in the morning.
Ryan Guay
Yeah. And some of those things. So, you know, we get a lot of skepticism online. People saying, what is this? There's no way it's gonna blow off. It's gonna pop. It's still too expensive.
Ryan Guay
And the funny thing is, those are all the same exact comments we got when we launched Inflatable Paddleboards in 2010. So we're pretty familiar with the argument. But yeah, it makes a big difference when you actually see it in person, you know, touch it, feel how rigid it is. Um, when we do in-person trade shows and events, I have to stand by the back of the truck and actually be like, Hey, have you ever seen an inflatable topper before? Because they look at it and they, they just don't even realize that it's actually, you know, something that's filled with air on the top of that truck. Right. So yeah, the, the magic I guess is, you know, not a new material, but, um, drop stitch inflatable PVC.
Ryan Guay
So it's very thick, abrasion resistant PVC fabric connected by thousands and thousands of nylon strands that essentially makes it so we can make a panel.
Ryan Guay
And that's how we can make the sides the roof and everything else. So yeah, you can, we've had a 900 pound, four wheeler parked on it, <laugh>. Wow. Um, we do a lot of videos on our, on our, not on top of the truck, but <laugh> with the topper in the grass. Yeah. You know, we launched with a product that had never ever been made before. So yeah, we had a little bit of a learning curve when we came out with our first toppers. Yeah. There was a couple areas, the front corners and a few places that, you know, there you could see some air gaps and it required a little bit of extra, you know, foam insulation or some things to make it more watertight.
Ryan Guay
Currently we're on about our sixth edition, I would say. We really listened to our customers. We've made improvements to the fit, um, the details, um, the new little rain skirt that keeps the water out. And yeah, as of right now it's, you know, I, I tell most people it's, you know, 98% waterproof, but, um, with a little extra work you can really make it pretty much completely watertight. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It's on a pickup. So if you are going camping, you can, uh, go where the weather suits your clothes. As Jimmy Buffett used to say, <laugh> having had pickup toppers in the past, they're typically just an empty shell. It's just a fiberglass box that you put on top of your pickup. And this, the way you've done this, there are hooks to put things on top, little pockets inside. So there's a lot of attention to detail on this.
Tony Barthel
I assume you actually are, are going camping and using these yourselves.
Ryan Guay
Yeah, so one of my co-founders, Ken Hovey, um, he's a former professional whitewater kayaker. Um, myself, we, I'm, I'm into hunting, rafting, fishing, all of those things. And we've been sleeping in the back of our trucks for years. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> before there was ever a term called over landing or truck bed living or all the things that now are so popular on, on social media and, you know, owning a big truck and just the ability to be able to pull off and actually sleep back there in a pretty covert way is super handy.
Ryan Guay
So yeah, everything built in there is, is because we've figured out where to put stuff. 'cause we sleep in it a lot. I think I did about 30 nights in the back of my truck this past summer, probably way more. We also have Hannah, who's our head customer service who I think you guys have spoken to.
Ryan Guay
Her and her boyfriend did a six week trip, um, just recently and slept in the truck every night. They traveled all the way to California, um, down in a northern Baja and you know, they just have a six foot Tacoma, so Wow. Even a smaller truck. But we try to, we try to build in the right stuff. Um, not put too much stuff in there, but, uh, everything that we can use. And, and we also listen to our customers and we've added some things due to basically customer feedback. And so we're always listening and always trying to make stuff better
Tony Barthel
To insulate things. Well, you usually want an air gap, right? Like you buy the fancy windows for your house and there's an air gap, I would imagine. Yeah. That inflated topper has much better insulation than most as well.
Ryan Guay
Yeah. It's, I mean, it's four inches of encapsulated air. So we get the question all the time. People ask us what our R value is. And I haven't been able to, you know, do a, a, a full real test to tell you what the R value is. But what I can say is based on having a fiberglass topper forever, my new inflated topper is definitely cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter than my fiberglass one was. So <laugh> Yeah. Outta my experience of sleeping in, it
Tony Barthel
Seems legit. And how much weight are you allowed to put on top? 'cause you have like, uh, rings to attach things like a kayak or whatnot.
Ryan Guay
Yeah, I usually tell people stuff that they can lift up there themselves. You know, a kayak or, or a, a paddleboard or two <laugh>. It's not so much about the weight pushing down on it as much as the bounce. You know, the more you put up there, it does create a significant amount of lift when you're on the highway. So, oh yeah. Um, more more about that than it is actually the, the, the parked weight. I do have some people that are testing a rooftop 10 on one now. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and we'll, we'll report back on how that's worked. <laugh> fun.
Peggy Barthel
When we were putting it on, I was like standing on the tailgate, ticking the foam things out of the rings. 'cause we weren't smart enough to do that before we put it on top. And, and I said, oh, there's all these rings and everything. Hey, why don't you hand me a bicycle? I'll throw it up here. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I don't know. We would find the most poppies part of that bicycle <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. No, I can't lift that bike that high. Right. So,
Tony Barthel
Well, yeah, there are electric bikes. One of the big advantages to me is that you can take this flad topper off in just a few moments. It's, as you said, it's just basically a ratchet strap type mechanism. You take it off, deflate it, and there's a bag that comes with it. And now you have your open bed pickup
Peggy Barthel
So you can help your friends move
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. No, you can't <laugh>.
Ryan Guay
I know. That was my, that was my excuse forever. I always had a fiberglass topper on my truck previously and I'd be like, ah, you know, I have a topper. I can't really fit that much stuff in there. So, sorry. <laugh>
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Right. And the other thing, these are extremely well made, but having, when we got this new truck, we shopped for fiberglass toppers and they're now four and 5,000 bucks now. Yeah. For even something fairly sparse,
Ryan Guay
You know, you can get all the way up to seven, eight, $9,000 on some of the new modern ones. The other aspect is there's long lead time for a color match topper for your new truck. Last year, I think I heard, on average it was about eight to 12 week order time to get a topper made for your truck. So, you know, our goal is to have 'em in stock and you can order 'em and install 'em the day you get 'em. Right.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That was, that was the thing we did just that. I saw it, looked around, decided to buy one, reached out, bought one, and came the next day. We inflated it and it was, it was a quick process. We caught the whole thing on video and it, it was maybe 15 minutes. Yeah. And in addition to the toppers, you make a number of other products as well that are intriguing, including a bed that fits in your truck bed.
Ryan Guay
Yeah. So another kind of funny founder story is during the pandemic we were working on the topper and I was actually building custom build outs for pickup trucks in my backyard, um, for people outta plywood and, and carpeting and, you know, just like I had always had in the back of my truck and it only took about three hot 98 degree days before, I was like, wait a minute, we can also make this build out inflatable <laugh> <laugh>. So that was our, uh, second product. That's the air deck. Um, we have that in about six different sizes right now.
Ryan Guay
And I say it's more of an inflatable box spring. 'cause you still wanna put a little bit of a pad on top, but the joy of it is you still have all the room underneath for storage so you can have all your gear organized underneath, have your bed completely made up and ready to go.
Ryan Guay
Um, actually this past year I was able to get my wife to go on a hunting trip with me because I put the down comforter back there, these pillows and made it look all cozy. And she's like, okay, I'll go <laugh> <laugh>. But yeah, the, the air deck's a great product. And then probably about six, seven months into the design process, Monique, who's one of our co-founders and, and CFO, she's like, Hey, hey guys, guys, guys, I'm the only one without a truck. Can we make something for my SUV? And so the idea came about for the air carrier, which is essentially, you know, well it is a inflatable rooftop cargo box Yeah.
Ryan Guay
Versus a, you know, traditional plastic rooftop box that a lot of people end up just leaving on their car full time because they're kind of a pain to take on and off. Right. With ours, it's really simple, just two cam straps and it's locked on the top of your car and you can load up all your extra gear and hit the road.
Tony Barthel
We all have too much stuff in the world, <laugh>. And the fact that you can deflate that when you're not using it and using it as a daily driver is also, there's a lot of value there. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.
Ryan Guay
Yeah. Our, our hashtag that we have fun with is, uh, we're trying to eliminate yard art
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. I like it. After you started this, you were on Shark Tank. What was that experience like?
Ryan Guay
Shark Tank. Wow. It was, it was wild. You know, a big process to, to get accepted and approved to be on the show just as far as, you know, auditioning, I would say. But really good experience. Um, dial dialed staff over there on how they, how they produced that show is, is just amazing. But then, you know, you film the show, um, you know what happened and they remind you before you leave that you are not allowed to talk about it until it airs <laugh>. Right. So, so we had about six months to, to be really quiet. We couldn't tell anybody why we were out in California those few days.
Ryan Guay
And, and you still don't even know if you're gonna actually air. So, uh, we got a call last February and uh, they gave us our airing date. And so we had about three weeks notice to promote it, start talking about it.
Ryan Guay
Obviously we couldn't tell the details of what was gonna happen, but yeah, our episode, I think aired on March 19th, I believe. And immediately our website went from our normal traffic to about 80,000 people on the site. Right. Then <laugh> <laugh>. And within about five days we had sold out of all of our inventory and we had to go on pre-order and uh, yeah. Got all the product in, delivered everything by about June. And, you know, one thing about our product is it, it's, it's kind of a driving billboard 'cause they're out driving 'em around, showing 'em off.
Ryan Guay
And um, and you know, that's the best testimonial and we really appreciate all of our early adopter customers. 'cause you know, they've really been probably our best marketing tool out there.
Tony Barthel
I can imagine. But then further, you won several awards at cma.
Ryan Guay
Yeah, so we went to the past two years we went to SEMA just as kind of spectators. We never had our own booth there. Couldn't afford it last year, this year we threw down and we bought our booth. And as part of our
Tony Barthel
Ryan said booth space, all of our furniture
Ryan Guay
In the booth was all, all made out of our inflatable technology. So cut a lot of eyes and, uh, yeah, we,
Peggy Barthel
Ryan said, look forward to
Ryan Guay
Big things happening in 2024.
Peggy Barthel
Now explain for listeners what SEMA
Ryan Guay
Is. Yeah, SEMA is a specialty Equipment manufacturers association. Okay. So essentially it's the largest, uh, auto parts accessory show in the world. Okay. Four days in Vegas. All, all the big players are there and it's, it's a intimidating, large, large show. Everything from Lowriders to race cars to trucks to RVs to retro cars. It's, it's, it's awesome. It
Tony Barthel
Is. Okay. It's insane. <laugh>. Well I think those are the questions we have. Of course, you can see pictures of how we've installed our flighted topper. And anytime you're, uh, seeing us on the road, we'll probably have it with us inflated or not. Yeah. One of the things that I'm going to try is taking the truck down the road without the topper and then repeating that with, 'cause people always say, you know, oh, it improves mileage or it hurts mileage.
Tony Barthel
I'm just curious 'cause I'm a nerd. How does it affect fuel economy, if at all?
Ryan Guay
We had one guy down in Texas that tried to do his own, you know, DIY test on it and traveled the same road mul multiple days in a row and then did the same thing without the topper. And he was claiming he was getting, you know, three to four miles better per gallon gas mileage with his top on. Wow. But, so I'm not sure, you know, I, it, it's definitely something that, uh, if you make that test, I would love to see it
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah. I well that'll be something I do down the road, <laugh>, pun intended.
Peggy Barthel
Well, I mean, we know even what we've done this year, well know we had a, this truck, this is a new truck. Yeah. We haven't done a long trip with this
Tony Barthel
Truck yet. Yeah. This truck is, this truck loves gas <laugh>. My
Peggy Barthel
Gosh.
Tony Barthel
And the other thing is, how does the topper, 'cause you know, ours is the higher top one. How does that affect towing? And I suspect it's gonna help it because you kind of lift the air as it hits the front of the trailer. So that'll be interesting to see. Oh yeah. I'm a nerd. These things run
Peggy Barthel
Through my head. <laugh>, I do have another question. Oh,
Tony Barthel
You do? Yep.
Peggy Barthel
Ryan, and we don't always ask this, but <laugh>, knowing that you're a camper, can you tell us your best favoritest most awesome camping experience ever?
Ryan Guay
I thought you were gonna ask for the secret locations and I wasn't gonna share those, but <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>,
Ryan Guay
Um, my best camping experiences usually involve a raft. I grew up rafting and going on multi-day raft trips with my father and my grandfather. And now I've been able to do that living in Montana with my own kids. Nice. And so, you know, floating to do for four or five days is, is my ultimate, you know, trip kind of that we try to do almost every year. Um, favorite river is, is definitely the middle fork of the salmon in Idaho, but even just local overnighters up here in Montana, we do quite a bit. And so yeah, we just have it all loaded up and get the raft on gourmet meals.
Ryan Guay
That's the best thing about rafting is you can carry a lot of gears so you can bring the right food and we don't, we don't skimp on it. Right.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Camping food is always awesome
Peggy Barthel
Food. Yeah. We, I've gone rafting a lot of times, but with guided tours, so the guides did the cooking so we not only ate well, we didn't have to do the work. <laugh>
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. And then conversely, do you have any camping, not horror stories, but funny stories from
Peggy Barthel
Off the road, kind of your worst experience maybe <laugh>?
Ryan Guay
You know, it's, it's hard to really have anything that I can say bad about any camping experiences if, actually I have one. Um, I made the hor horrible mistake to go up with a bunch of buddies my senior year in high school. And our idea was we were gonna go up on Loveland Pass in Colorado and <laugh> build a snow cave to sleep in for the night. Oh. And, uh, I forgot my sleeping pad. Oh. So a sleeping bag on directly on snow turns out to be not so insulating.
Ryan Guay
And I bet. So I froze my butt off. And <laugh>, we all got extremely dehydrated just in the process of being at altitude and digging a snow cave for six hours. And I don't think any of us slept that night. And we woke up in the morning and then the roof of the cave had sunk down to about six inches above our face, <laugh>. So we were outta there pretty quick. And, uh, I don't think I'll ever be going snow caving again. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That, that seems fair.
Peggy Barthel
The lessons we learn and the way we learn them. <laugh> <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Well Ryan, thank you so much for your time and really a terrific product that we look forward to sharing with people. And we wish you nothing but tremendous success. So thank you.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Ryan Guay
I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you being part of the Flad family and um, yeah, look forward to seeing you guys on the road sometime this summer. For
Tony Barthel
Sure. That would be awesome. All right. Happy camping.
Peggy Barthel
All right. Have a great day.
Ryan Guay
Thank you.
Peggy Barthel
If you happen to have made your New Year's resolution to get more better sleep, we have an idea that might help with that. Whether you're talking about in your house or in your rv. We have found that the mattress by ghost bed that we have in our RV is the best sleep, the best mattress we've had. We like it even better than the very, very expensive mattress we bought for our house. We wish we had been able to get a ghost bed. Unfortunately in our house we needed a split queen and that's not very common.
Peggy Barthel
But we do have the ghost bed mattress in our RV and we absolutely love
Tony Barthel
It. It is a great mattress. And we have an article about ghost bed and some more information. We'll put a link in our show notes. But if you're looking for a good night's sleep, we, we are very enthusiastic about the ghost bed.
Peggy Barthel
And of course they offer us a discount for our listeners. Oh yeah. And so in the link in the show notes that has the article, you'll also find a link to the ghost bed website with a discount for you.
Tony Barthel
Pretty darn Cool. I'm getting hungry. What's for breakfast? Oh
Peggy Barthel
Boy. <laugh>, I don't know how many times we've talked about this, but breakfast really is, I think for both of us, kind of our favorite meal of the
Tony Barthel
Day. Yeah. Well that made sense since we used to own a
Peggy Barthel
Bed and breakfast. It made a lot of sense when we owned a bed and breakfast. Still though, I just, I love a good breakfast. I'll eat breakfast anytime of day. Our friend Sandra, who used to work with us at the b and b reminded me and asked me for the recipe for a recipe that we used to make a lot the bed and breakfast. It was I think our most popular breakfast and it was the baked potato breakfast casserole. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> or quiche depending on what pan we cooked it in. <laugh>. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Well we didn't like to say quiche. 'cause literally some guys would go, well I don't eat
Peggy Barthel
Cheese. Um, some men don't eat cheese. Like, wait,
Tony Barthel
It's cheese
Peggy Barthel
Pie. Right.
Tony Barthel
Who doesn't like cheese or pie?
Peggy Barthel
Exactly. So we have shared that baked potato breakfast casserole recipe on our website this week and we hope that you will go check it out and love it. It really is. It's so good and hearty and hot and filling and comforty food that it's a good thing to eat. You know, any time of day. It doesn't necessarily have to be breakfast. There's something else when we started eating less carbs and I belong to a group and they say, well what, what can I eat for breakfast if I can't have my oatmeal or my cereal?
Peggy Barthel
Well here's the thing, breakfast can be whatever food you want to eat. Yeah. Right. You don't have to eat eggs and ham for breakfast. You don't have to eat green eggs and ham on a boat or with a goat. Right. But <laugh>,
Tony Barthel
I don't like it Sam. I am.
Peggy Barthel
But really any food could be breakfast and breakfast could be any meal. So check out that recipe, give it a try. And the good thing about this recipe is you can put it in your RV oven, you can use a pie pan, a cake pan, an iron skillet, and a cast iron, anything. You can put it over the campfire in your dutch oven. There's just so many ways to cook this. You just can't go wrong.
Tony Barthel
And it's one of those things you can successfully make in the lousy 17 inch army oven that so many of you are suffering with. Boy, not that I'm opinionated about those by any stretch of the imagination. <laugh>, we did spend one night at a campground along the way and it was the Valencia Travel Village in Castaic, California. It's one of those newer RV quote unquote resorts, which means it's got a bunch of pools in a jacuzzi, which were closed while we were there.
Peggy Barthel
They were open, it was just too darn cold to go to them.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>? No, it's had pool, maybe it was just 'cause it was, they were cleaning it when I walked by. Oh, okay. But they did say pool closed when I went and took pictures. Anyway, they've got just under 400 sites plus 500 spaces to just store stuff for the winter or whatever. Oh wow. That was interesting. But it's a nice place. As I said, it was over 80 bucks a night. However, you know, we've talked about Passport America and Peggy found them because of the Passport America Links. So we got it for half price. And you can too with your Passport America membership for sure.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It had, you know, a bunch of pools. Everything was immaculate. Like the sites, the laundry room, they had a game room, they had an adult gathering space, not like adult as in hey nobody bring your upside down pineapples in your
Peggy Barthel
Of
Tony Barthel
Pink Flamingos <laugh>. But like, you know, people over 18, they had a camp store which was almost every bit as big as like a small convenience store. But something that really struck me. Well also the people were really nice so we arrived after hours. They did. And there was a dude in the guard shack couldn't have been nicer. And so it was nice that he was there than the guy at the registration desk that I talked to the next day. And also the lady in the camp store, the nicest people. Really, really nice.
Tony Barthel
But something about the camp store, they had hundreds and hundreds of CDs and DVDs for sale.
Peggy Barthel
That's so funny.
Tony Barthel
A big section of the camp store was devoted to these CDs and DVDs. <laugh>
Peggy Barthel
Camp Store and record Store <laugh>. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And they were, the CDs were 10 cents in the DVDs were 50. So it was a super great deal. A a good experience. Now why you might wanna go to this area is Lake Castaic, which is a big reservoir that has all kinds of, you know, boating and fishing and all, all that kind of stuff you'd expect with a whole lot of water. Right.
Peggy Barthel
The other place, the other thing that you might wanna do while you're in the area is go to Six Flags, which I almost always still call Magic Mountain 'cause that's what it was when I was growing up.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, it's Magic Mountain.
Peggy Barthel
I think it's still Six Flags Magic Mountain. But anyway, now it's a Six Flags. A real quick story about that, when we were growing up, we used to go there a lot and they had a lot of rides that were good for kids. And we had kids in our h in our house, you know, with 11 year age range. So we had some youngsters and it was their favorite park. And then as the kids grew older and it became a Six Flags and it got to be big, scary, fast, big roller coasters. The kids grew up and liked big, scary, fast roller coasters.
Peggy Barthel
So it was still their favorite park. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah. So some of the reasons to go there, a nice place. We have a full review@stresscamping.com in our campground reviews section and lots of pictures so you can see what it looks like.
Peggy Barthel
Last week, our question of the week kind of requires visual answers. <laugh>, I asked because I am kind of wishing I had one, but I asked you to show me your favorite camping craft or hobby. We don't really have, well I mean, you know, the laptops I guess are our hobby <laugh>. Yeah. And so because I said show me and people showed me you need to go in and look at some of these pictures. Meredith showed us a spinning wheel that she uses to make yarn, which is fantastic.
Peggy Barthel
A couple people showed us paintings. Kathy said that last year at Trailer Fest, someone brought all the supplies including I guess the sewing machines to make tote bags. So they got to make tote bags. Kristen said she doesn't really have a camping one, but she showed a picture of her adorable camper. And I kind of wonder if she didn't make that awning that's on her camper. 'cause it's so cute. Bill's craft is draft. Draft and he collects and drinks beer.
Tony Barthel
You know what? That's my hobby too. Which
Peggy Barthel
Is a great hobby. I know. <laugh>, we really like to enjoy that hobby with Bill. Yeah. Emily Crochets and Marilyn knits socks. And I happen to know that because I have a pair of socks that Marilyn gave me. And oh boy are they wonderful <laugh>. I love them. Eric and Melissa posted pictures of the rocks that Melissa paints and she leaves them in places that they go like on walking trails and campsites and beaches. And Brian said that he loves when he finds those rocks.
Peggy Barthel
He said it's kind of like the world goes away for a few minutes while he wonders who, what, why of that rock. So he really enjoys finding them. And I do too. I love when I see those painted rocks, especially the ones like, you know, a little camp trailer and things like that. So super fun. Thank you all for showing your pictures. Please be encouraged to continue to do so. I haven't found anything yet that I think is, well other than the beer drinking that I uh, have the talent for <laugh>. So I'm still looking for one of you to post something that I think I could pick up and try to do myself this week.
Peggy Barthel
I was starting to think about New Year's resolutions and I was wondering, did you make a New Year's resolution? Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And have you blown it yet? Right.
Peggy Barthel
I kind of don't make them anymore. I do. I like the the concept. Some people say just choose a word and like let that be your word of the year.
Tony Barthel
Well the bird is the word.
Peggy Barthel
Bird is the word. If that's what you want for Steve Comstock, that's probably the word. Yeah. Hess probably likes to take pictures of birds. Yeah. But although I love the concept, it's already the ninth of the month and I haven't really come up with my word of the year, so. Well
Tony Barthel
Everybody knows about the bird.
Peggy Barthel
Oh stop <laugh>. So that is my question for this week. Did you make a New Year's resolution? And part B Tony's question, are you still on it? Yeah. <laugh>, have you already messed it up
Tony Barthel
Already? I promised to lose weight. Step on the scale <laugh>, where can I answer that question of the week?
Peggy Barthel
You can answer that in any question of the week and ask any questions that you would like. Also at our Fun and friendly stresses campers Facebook group. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Like is the Bird the word? And didn't, you know, we did a once a week newsletter and it's free
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. We have links to stories and videos and podcasts that will help you get the most out of your RV experience.
Tony Barthel
That's pretty cool. You just gotta visit our website@stresscamping.com where you can sign up. And of course we would never share your information because
Peggy Barthel
That would be for the Birds <laugh>. Oh,
Tony Barthel
I see. Peggy's winging it. <laugh>,
Peggy Barthel
We do only send one email per week period. That is it.
Tony Barthel
And that's when the podcast went off the Rails <laugh>, you'll find the show notes for this episode, episode 2 37 on the podcastPage@stresslesscamping.com, which is also by the way, where you will find our video review of Deflated Topper.
Peggy Barthel
Also, what you'll find there is our deals and discounts page for the best deals on things you need to make your Stressless camping adventure. Oh.
Tony Barthel
And if you've got a great deal for our audience, let us know. We're always interested in finding more great, awesome deals.
Peggy Barthel
And when you've seen everything you wanna see on the website, you know you can jump off with those little links on the top right corner to all the social places we are that I try to name. But since everybody's changed their names, I'm not very successful anymore. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Well, you know, Twitter used to be about the bird.
Speaker 6
<laugh> <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
That's why we put a big X over it. That's
Tony Barthel
Right. <laugh>. If you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast, 'cause that would be for the Birds <laugh>. It's free
Tony Barthel
Podcast app Oh man.
Peggy Barthel
We are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire
Tony Barthel
And of course, a review will help others find this podcast. And the more listeners that we have, the more great deals and discounts we can get for you. So if you haven't left a review yet, well please do
Peggy Barthel
Make that your New Year's resolution.
Tony Barthel
Oh, there you go. Don't fly off without doing. So.
Peggy Barthel
Another thing that is really, really helpful to us is if you see something that we post on Facebook or Twitter or X or wherever those places are and you like it and you think that other people would like it, please share it. Yeah. Feel free to share anything that you see either in our socials or even on our website you can share socially.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, absolutely. And it's always free. We will never send you a bill. Oh,
Peggy Barthel
Now you're stretching I think we better go before they turn us off forever.
Tony Barthel
Oh, they probably already did. Thank you so much for being here with us again this week. Gosh, we sure hope. Maybe we'll see you in Quartzite in a couple of weeks. That's right. Somewhere out there on the road. Somewhere
Peggy Barthel
Out there on the road.
Tony Barthel
We really appreciate being in your ears every week. So thank you so much and most of all,
Peggy Barthel
Stressless Camping. <laugh>.
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 in us next week. Until then, happy camping.