Full-time RVers are also full-time beekeepers - and travel with their bees
This week’s StressLess Camping RV and travel podcast comes to you from the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation, and RV Show. We speak with Scott and Karen Keene, of Keene’s Raw Honey. Scott and Karen travel full time - and so do their bees!
We also share a recipe that we learned from our friend Cindy while we were in Quartzsite, for a crowd-pleasing biscuit and gravy breakfast.
Other places to hear the podcast
The Keene Raw Honey family at their booth at the Quartzsite Sports, Vacation and RV Show.
Mentioned on this episode
We got to spend time with the Keenes from Keene Raw Honey
Cindy’s very easy Omnia Oven biscuit and gravy recipe
Tony’s written and video review of the B&W Continuum weight distribution hitch
Tony’s RV review of the Renegade Classic 45CBF Super C motorhome
We often talk about the partners whose products or services we love - here they are.
Our podcast episode with the people from Leave No Trace.
One RV essentials is the Airgear travel trailer tire changing kit
A review of New Mexico’s Bottomless Lakes State Park
A review of New Mexico’s Rockhound State Park
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 243
Mark Ferrell
Welcome to the weekly podcast all about turning the great American RV adventure into stress less camping. Each week we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some stress less camping.
Karen Keene
Hi, honey. Hi.
Peggy Barthel
I'm Peggy.
Tony Barthel
And I'm Tony.
Peggy Barthel
And we're 2 RV industry veterans who travel part time
Tony Barthel
In a small trailer.
Peggy Barthel
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips
Tony Barthel
Tricks.
Peggy Barthel
And discounts.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Honey of a discount.
Peggy Barthel
A honey of a discount.
Tony Barthel
This week's topic, we actually got to speak with people who are professional beekeepers. And full time RVers.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Exactly. And we even have some of their honey right here.
Peggy Barthel
That's right.
Tony Barthel
But before we get into that, I wanted to, uh, this is this this is a little bit difficult because one of the things I've noticed is the RV industry loves to be on LinkedIn. If you wanna get in touch with all the decision makers in the RV space, that's the place That's
Peggy Barthel
where they are. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I mean, without a doubt. There was recently an ad by the RV Industry Association, which is the association for the RV Industry, about this. Come join us at RVs Move America week. And it's a whole week in business suits, in hotels, in Washington DC. And the most exciting part is it kicks off with 2 days of committee meetings.
Tony Barthel
Woo hoo. Oh, where do I sign up?
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. I mean, I'm sure there are people who need to wear suits once in a while to make decisions, but No.
Tony Barthel
They don't.
Peggy Barthel
Really, RVs move America? That says to me they should be at a campground sitting around a campfire. Okay. They can have meetings during the day, but hotels in Washington, DC, this doesn't tell me that they're really thinking about the RVer.
Tony Barthel
No. Exactly. What they're thinking about truthfully is legislation the kind of stuff that they do. I mean, they also have the RV Technical Institute, which is a fantastic thing. And we've talked to
Peggy Barthel
Sure.
Tony Barthel
Curtis Hemler in the past about how they're training people. They do have a bunch of or they had a bunch of free certifications available for people. So they do do good things, but it just seemed I saw that, and it honestly made me mad. And I'm like, you know, you guys, if you would spend some time in RVs around a campfire, I bet you could do some pretty cool stuff and, you know, camp. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So what would you like to tell the RV Industry Association? And and remember what words your mama told you not to say, so not those words. Maybe those words. Anyway, you know, as always, you can weigh in at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group. Another HoneyEve system is our solar and lithium system from ABC Upfitters, and I say that as our trailer sits outside using the the solar and lithium that we have to keep the refrigerator and tank heaters running.
Tony Barthel
We also have the furnace because I didn't want to winterize because we're going camping again this weekend with friends. Yay. And we're going off grid, and all 3 of our campers, maybe 4 of our campers, have good solar and lithium systems. But I I still favor ours the best because of the integration of all the master volt components that are put in by ABC upfitters. And it's nice when it's all one company doing the work because there's no finger pointing.
Tony Barthel
It's not like, oh, this charge controller and that shunt and that bit didn't talk right to the other one. No. It's it's all one person responsible for the whole enchilada or the whole colony, as
Karen Keene
it were.
Tony Barthel
And this week, somebody emailed me, and they said, Tony, you know, you talk about that system.
Peggy Barthel
That they called you Tony.
Tony Barthel
I know. Right? They should've called me honey while they didn't know what we're gonna talk about this week.
Karen Keene
Know. But anyway, they're like,
Tony Barthel
so I know you talk about the systems from ABC Outfitters on the podcast. We listen to the podcast. So tell me the truth. Is it really as good as you say? And, yes, the the system truly has been bulletproof.
Tony Barthel
I mean, it's it's a fantastic system. I love the integration. I like that it just works. I don't even think about it. Though I do I go look at the monitor panel all the time because I'm a nerd.
Peggy Barthel
You do think about it. How much power might
Tony Barthel
it get?
Peggy Barthel
But you don't have to think about it. Right.
Tony Barthel
Exactly. It can be a, you know, just leave it alone type of thing. Or there's a lot of options. For example, let's say we go somewhere and we plug into your sister's house, for example.
Peggy Barthel
For example.
Tony Barthel
I can dial down how much incoming power I draw from an outlet so that I can be on the same outlet as the beer fridge. Right. Or whatever. Whatever. So there's also a lot of flexibility with the unit.
Tony Barthel
So if you're a fiddly person, you can fiddle with it. And if you're not
Peggy Barthel
You don't have to.
Tony Barthel
So if you would like a reliable solar and lithium power system or just wanna get questions answered, call our friends at ABC Outfitters at 574-333-3225. Again, 574 333-3225, or we have a video with them on our website. There's more information. They have a website. So you can start at stressiscamping.com and all the podcast pages have links to the video interview and and more information and links to go directly to ABC Outfitters.
Tony Barthel
Good people doing good work. I can't speak more highly of them, and that's the truth.
Peggy Barthel
So this week, we're going back to quartzite. Well, not physically. We're not going back to quartzite, but
Karen Keene
we Paul
Tony Barthel
and Cindy are still there.
Scott Keene
They're Right?
Tony Barthel
They're lighting campfires still.
Peggy Barthel
We, you know, met so many great people and got to talk to a lot of great people. And so we have another interview from when we were in Quartzsite. This is just such a fascinating topic.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I was excited by this. These people are both full time RVers and also beekeepers. And they had their honey there at the show, which we we got a jar of. Uh, it was fantastic.
Peggy Barthel
Again, since we were still in Quartzsite, it's kind of noisy. Apologize for the sound quality, but it was real live information. So let's hear from Scott and Karen King. Okay. Well, we are here at the Quartzsite Sports Vacation and RV Show.
Peggy Barthel
I didn't say it right the first time, but I'm gonna cut out the part I messed up. And we are with Scott and Karen Keen from Keen Raw Honey, and we are so intrigued by how honey and beekeepers can be full time RVers and travel around the country. So thank you for hanging out with us.
Karen Keene
Well, it's good to be here. Yeah. Thank you.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So you have been full time RVers for a very long time.
Karen Keene
Mhmm. Yeah. Since about 1988. Okay.
Tony Barthel
And you've raised your kids. They're now grown adults. Mhmm. Yep.
Scott Keene
We have 3 boys and, uh, with all of our traveling, we've had different RVs and just, you know
Karen Keene
Yeah. We just kinda made do with what we had, and we pretty much raised them when we were in North Dakota. They would start the school year in North Dakota in the fall and then when we would move all the bees to Oregon and winter them in the they would start, they would basically ship to school in Oregon, and then when they got a little older, we pulled them out and pretty much homeschooled them from then on. They were all 3 years apart, 26, 29, and 32. Wow.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And so you were doing what a lot of families now are doing before those families were doing what they're doing.
Scott Keene
Yeah. We were laughing about that. We were like, hey, look, now it's popular. Yeah.
Karen Keene
Yeah. We we said, you know, it's it's kind of amazing that we've have talked to a lot of great people at this show, and and they've they've kinda told us their stories and what's been going on, and and they walk away and we look at each other, and we just smile because because we know that, you know, when we've been doing it for so long, and it's been great. It's it's been different.
Scott Keene
We started it with my mom and dad. They started doing the beekeeping over 30 years ago and
Karen Keene
40 years ago? 40.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Oh, boy.
Tony Barthel
Wow.
Scott Keene
So they taught us and we've worked with them for many years, traveling with them. So it's been a family affair. My kids learning how to do it, and we travel from Oregon to, um, California and then over to North Dakota, and we do this over and over again. We pollinate in California, we pollinate in Oregon, and we pollinate in, um, North Dakota.
Peggy Barthel
So you have bees in each of those three states. Oh.
Scott Keene
We have bees that we take with us.
Peggy Barthel
You actually do travel with bees. I was gonna ask that question, and I was gonna be joking.
Karen Keene
No. No. We do some of our own trucking, but we do have some some truck as well, with specialty V haulers. They do all of a lot of our trucking. Basically, kind of to give you kind of an insight how it starts, so when we're in North Dakota in the summertime, we come out of Oregon out of the spring build up, and so the bees get on a lot of brush, a lot of tree stuff, and they make honey off of like manzanita, vetch, madrone, and blackberry honey.
Scott Keene
And we,
Karen Keene
of course, we don't take that away from the bees, we let the bees have that and let so because they're in the building process of spring, and then we ship everything to North Dakota in May, so we go back to North bloom pretty much starts
Tony Barthel
around the end of May, 1st part
Karen Keene
of June, and bloom pretty much starts around the end of May, 1st part of June, and we run there all the way pretty much until August, September, And then we basically pull all the bees down, we extract all the honey, we make sure the bees have enough honey on them to make it through the winter, and we ship them to Oregon, and they go to Oregon and stay in Oregon pretty much kind of dormant through the fall and winter, and then we ship them to California before the almond pollination, and then we ship them back to Oregon for the spring build up, and we go back to Oregon, and then back to North Dakota again in May, so and it's been that cycle for, well, since 1998. It's about the last 25 years.
Tony Barthel
Wow. That's Wow. That's
Karen Keene
It it if as long as they're handled properly, um, a lot of it has to in the springtime when it gets pretty hot. You have to be real careful with them when you're moving them. But generally in the fall and winter time, they do really well Mhmm. On a truck.
Tony Barthel
And is that common that bees get moved around?
Karen Keene
Yes. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Interesting.
Scott Keene
We we kinda like snowbirds follow the warm season.
Karen Keene
Follow the bloom.
Scott Keene
We follow the bloom and the warmer temperatures with the bees because it is harder on them with the colder temperatures. And then if they can't get anything, um, we move them to where they can, so it's actually good to have them in the bloom. It's not eating them syrup or anything, so that's a good thing. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Natural diet's always the best. Yeah.
Karen Keene
Yeah. Yep. I mean,
Tony Barthel
what what stopped me in my tracks at the show was I walked by your booth, and you're handing out honey samples, and I had a taste. And it's like, oh my gosh. And I love honey.
Scott Keene
Yes.
Tony Barthel
And yours was just so exceptional. It was it was so good.
Scott Keene
We do our extraction, and we keep our temperatures very low to keep it flowing, but we don't want to damage it. And then when we get it into the holding tank, we don't heat it in the holding tank, and we bottle in our glass jars right from the holding tank by hand.
Karen Keene
So Oh. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
You have a lot of jars there.
Peggy Barthel
Yes. Yes.
Karen Keene
Wow. So we we take it through a kind of a really low heat process, so we only heat it one time, and that's for the extraction, and we never go above 98 degrees. Generally, most of the time when we start, we're only running our heat exchanger in the low nineties.
Tony Barthel
Mhmm.
Karen Keene
And for that reason, it doesn't damage any of the active enzymes that are alive in the honey, which makes it solidify. We also don't do a micron filtration, so we don't pasteurize, and then we do basically, we call it a clarification, but when we run our main honey through a spin flow, it separates all the heavy waxes and all the bee particles, but then there is still some left and some will get through, but when it goes into the holding tank all that separates to the top. Oh. So it all floats above the honey because the honey is really heavy. Honey's £12 to a gallon.
Karen Keene
So once that floats to the top, then basically we pull off the bottom Sure. And and that's what you get. Okay.
Tony Barthel
So as we're driving around in our RVs, is the you know, sometimes it can get pretty hot. Is that not the best for the you know, it can get pretty hot or pretty cold. Is that less optimal?
Karen Keene
The temperature swing really doesn't affect it that much. It's just when you overheat it. So, I mean, if you take that jar of honey and you directly heat it in water on the stove or you microwave it, you get it up past a 100, 110 degrees, it will start killing the active enzymes, but generally when you're like traveling in a motor home, your motor home really never gets that hot for most of the people.
Scott Keene
Ours, I mean, if ours is sitting, we always have our vents going and Yeah. Particularly in here.
Tony Barthel
Okay. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Now is raw the same as unpasteurized or is is that that's
Tony Barthel
Yes.
Peggy Barthel
Because it's not heated. Yes. Okay.
Scott Keene
Yeah. They're not heating it. We're trying to keep everything as natural and live because there's live enzymes in in the honey. It has, you know, attributes that are people are using for health. Also, we don't filter it and that's because the pollens are really helpful also.
Scott Keene
Right. And when we extract, um, sometimes we'll have broken frames. Our extraction system is a cold grind, so it's, uh, a it it grinds everything while we're, um, uncapping it and it runs up to the spinner and so there's a grinder and then if we have broken frame instead of just throwing it away or just putting it in the wax melter we actually pull everything off of that frame and put it in the grinder and that way we're getting all the pollen, all the royal jelly. You've got beeswax going through there, sometimes you get some propolis, And then we have our spinner that that separates the wax from the honey, and then that goes into the tank. So we've got a lot of goodness going into our honey.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Scott Keene
I always say it's like taking a bite out of the hive, but we've done a lot of research on how people are studying honey and royal jelly and the different things that they're using to do for health and the the royal jelly and the the enzymes in the honey for injuries internally and externally. They've been finding some really amazing studies on that.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. So you do you also then not process? Because you're kind of not processing. Yes. Do you use or sell or use the royal jelly also?
Karen Keene
Well, the so what royal jelly pretty much is is that when the bees when the queen lays the egg in the cell Mhmm. The bees basically mix the pollen and the honey together and they create royal jelly and that's what they feed the young larva with. Oh. So a lot of times when we'll have we'll have frames come in like she said a lot of times and there'll be small patches of of eggs that when you pull it, so it's not all honey, there might be eggs and larvae and that's the royal jelly and the proteins. So that basically kinda gets ran through the extraction process.
Karen Keene
So there so there's trace amounts of it in there. We don't try and do the royal jelly because if you do the royal jelly, then basically you're killing all the larvae and the hive by doing it. So but sometimes in in our last extraction, when the bees come in, you can't control that because the queen is up in that box and she lays it full, and there'll be eggs and larva and stuff, but there'll be a ring of honey around it. And we have to get that out of that to store that super for the wintertime because it doesn't stay on the bees.
Scott Keene
Yeah. Wintertime.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. So And
Scott Keene
we just were reading some some information on some on a government site that had some studies that they were doing. It was science. Yeah. We're talking about royal jelly and how it actually was really helping with closure of wounds. That open wounds were closing faster with the royal jelly.
Tony Barthel
Oh.
Scott Keene
And there's just so much information that they're that they're coming out with, and it's like we learn new stuff every year.
Karen Keene
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So is there any truth to eating local honey can help reduce allergies?
Karen Keene
Yeah. There is. As long as you get with a local beekeeper that does low heat extraction, and it's actually raw. There are several different kind of honeys out there that won't granulate as fast as others, and it's because of the sugar concentrations. So like your sage, like a lot of your sage honey and your sagebrush honey, it takes a little bit longer to crystallize, and that's because it's not so high concentration of sugars in it.
Karen Keene
Unlike your other flowers like your alfalfa, and like your apple trees, and orange trees, and stuff like that, the sugar levels are a lot higher, so it tends to granulate a lot faster. But the main thing is is not getting that honey above a 100 to a 110 degrees and holding it there for any length of time. Because once you do that, you start damaging the actual enzymes. Right. You can take raw honey to a 100, a 110 degrees.
Karen Keene
You can hold it there for an hour or so, and you can you can filter it and put it in a jar, and it will eventually start to crystallize, but it takes an a long time. Okay. We do it as a personal preference because that's the way it it it's been a long haul to get it right Yeah. For us
Tony Barthel
Right.
Karen Keene
And for what our consumers like, and what what a lot of people have asked us for. We're at that point now where we kinda have the process pretty much down.
Tony Barthel
Like I say, I mean, the honey was so good. It stopped me in my tracks. So Yeah. Because, you know, you're, like, blazing through the show and, uh, here, try some honey. I'm, okay.
Tony Barthel
You know, thinking it's honey. Mhmm. And then it's like, oh my gosh. It's so good.
Scott Keene
Yeah. It's funny. We we watch people's expressions. You know, they're like, like, oh, okay. I'll try it.
Scott Keene
And then they're like,
Tony Barthel
oh, there
Scott Keene
it is. It is.
Peggy Barthel
This is good.
Scott Keene
It is.
Karen Keene
Yeah. And we've had beekeepers come through the show so far. You know, it's kind of funny because in the industry, there's a saying that getting beekeepers together is like herding cats. It's it's really tough to do because a lot of bee keepers hold their cards real close to them. Right.
Karen Keene
Oh. And, you know, I think a lot of the beekeepers out there now are really beginning to realize, you know, the benefits and what's really going on, um, with people's health and I think that, you know, they're really trying to do a good job and do what's right and get, you know, and get raw really raw honey out there Yeah. For people because, you know, that's just the healthiest way to eat it.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. So what is the life expectancy of a bee?
Karen Keene
In the springtime, when the bees are really in honey production and they're gone, it's about 4 to 6 weeks.
Tony Barthel
Oh, okay. Yeah.
Scott Keene
And the queen is always laying.
Karen Keene
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
He's always laying.
Tony Barthel
She's laying.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, so there's always new babies.
Karen Keene
Yeah. A good queen will lay 12 to 1400 eggs a day Wow. In the hive.
Tony Barthel
Man, too bad she's not a chicken. Yeah. And does she only live 6 weeks?
Karen Keene
No. No. No. A really good queen, a good stable queen generally lasts a couple years. If she does start to fail in the springtime, the bees will sense that and they'll try and supersede her.
Karen Keene
So they'll actually try and raise another one. Mhmm. There's a lot of variables there. The bees on a good flow in the springtime generally last 4 to 6 weeks. They just burn they just fly their wings off because they just travel so much.
Karen Keene
Wow.
Peggy Barthel
So you travel and you go from site to site. So one bee might not necessarily make the trip from Oregon to California to
Karen Keene
Yeah. Sometimes you'll lose them, um, you know, because we net them. But, you know, it's it's really the only way to move them. So it's kinda nonconventional, really. I mean
Peggy Barthel
But I mean, not in terms of, like, stress, but just in terms of they just don't live that long. Yeah. They're gonna do their job in Oregon, and by the time you go to California, you have, like, a whole
Tony Barthel
Oh, a whole
Peggy Barthel
new new set of babies. Yeah.
Karen Keene
Yeah. Yeah. They the queen, from the time the queen lays the egg, it's about 3 days for the egg to hatch to a larva.
Tony Barthel
Wow.
Karen Keene
And from the larva stage, it's about 21 to 22 days before the bee emerges out of the cell.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Karen Keene
So in the springtime, you've got bees constantly, you've got baby bees constantly hatching. So how it works kind of is the baby bees when they hatch, their main job at that point is to take care of the hive. Their job is to clean the hive, feed the queen, and to take care of the hive. And as they get older, the new babies come off, those bees that were babies, they leave the hive and start to forage. So they'll be the bees that'll forage.
Karen Keene
And then when those bees basically start to die off, you got the new hatch that comes off Right. Inside. Those bees move from being the keepers of the hive to the foragers of the hive. And it's just kind of a.
Tony Barthel
That's amazing. Yeah.
Karen Keene
It's it's it it is. It's an amazing cycle. And then in the winter time, when the bees know that they know winter's coming. Mhmm. They just know.
Karen Keene
They tell you before you know because they'll kick all the drones out of the hive and drones are the only male bees in the hive and their only purpose is for breeding the queen. That's it. So all the bees in the hive are female except for the drones, and the drone population is usually about 10 to 25% of the whole population of the hive. Okay.
Tony Barthel
But
Karen Keene
in the fall, they'll kick all the drones out of the hive because they don't wanna have to feed them all winter.
Tony Barthel
Poor job. Right?
Peggy Barthel
And then,
Karen Keene
Yeah. And they don't raise anymore.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Karen Keene
And then they'll raise a different bee for the winter. Really? They feed it differently. They feed it a little heavier, royal jelly, because they want that bee to be a little bit stronger. They want it to last through the wintertime.
Karen Keene
Mhmm. So when they they get into that spring mode, those bees will be able to go out and forage, and they won't die off so fast before the next set of bees come off. So it's it's Wow. Pretty amazing.
Tony Barthel
That is amazing. That's amazing.
Peggy Barthel
I'm sure there's more to know about bees, but we wanna make sure we know about you. Mhmm. Oh, yeah. And about buying honey. So do you have, like, a a storefront somewhere, or do you only sell in, like, this kind of fair
Karen Keene
Well, this is our first venue that we've done like this. This is large. We've done some market venues and stuff locally around our area. Um, we have an online store.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Okay.
Karen Keene
Um, and our online store is keen, k e e n e, honey.com. Okay. And we ship all over the United States. That's pretty much how we have to do it because we travel so much. I'd love to have a storefront sauna.
Karen Keene
I really would, but
Tony Barthel
But you'd
Peggy Barthel
have to pick a state.
Karen Keene
Right? Yeah. And and and for us, it's just not a feasible thing to do.
Scott Keene
Sure. Sure. But we do put honey in we started with a lot of the stores that were local to us in Oregon.
Tony Barthel
Oh, sure.
Scott Keene
So we have, um, a lot of stores in Oregon that we supply and and also on the coast on Oregon, and now we're in the, um, natural grocers.
Tony Barthel
Yep.
Scott Keene
And then Oh. Also the natural grocers
Karen Keene
in Colorado. We're regional for the Colorado area. We're natural grocery stores.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Karen Keene
And then we're also in natural grocery stores in Oregon. We're doing our best to expand our market and bring our product out there and get it a lot more visible.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Tony Barthel
Scott and I had talked about the honey in the store not really being all that great.
Karen Keene
Well, you have to understand it's I really don't blame anybody or or or so the issue is is that, you know, the the American consumer consumes about 680,000,000 pounds of honey a year. Wow. And the American beekeeper only produces about a 110,000,000 to £130,000,000 a year. So all that honey has to come from an outside source. It's just the nature of the beast, and it's just the way the market is, because so many people out there, you know, they want it, they they would rather have honey than anything else.
Tony Barthel
Mhmm.
Karen Keene
So in order for our honey to be blended with the foreign subsidy honey that comes into the United States, it has to be pasteurized because it's the only way to blend it. So, you know, they blend it and they pasteurize, and and, you know, the packers, they do the best job they possibly can to get the product to the shelf. It's just at a point where a lot more people are becoming more and more health conscious about what they put in their body.
Peggy Barthel
Sure.
Karen Keene
It's just one of those areas and one of those things that it's like with anything else. Your processed foods and so we're we're really more on the lines of health for people. Yeah. We're just a tiny speck. I mean, really, we are.
Karen Keene
We are just a a tiny, tiny speck of this industry that it's just a major multifaceted industry of consumer consumption, but for us, we want to stay more on the health side. Mhmm. So we're never going to change our product Sure. From what it is. I mean, because I've had
Scott Keene
we can make it better in some way.
Karen Keene
Yeah. Well Yeah. And I just and at this point, we just don't know how to do that. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Well, I don't like I say, it was so good.
Peggy Barthel
And so I've always been under the understanding that honey is, like, shelf life is infinity?
Scott Keene
If it's raw.
Karen Keene
If it's raw.
Peggy Barthel
If it's raw. Okay.
Scott Keene
Yeah. Which there isn't a mandate on on the label. So if you know if you know your beekeeper and they're doing that process, that is the best way to get it is from your local beekeeper.
Peggy Barthel
And it's okay. It doesn't have to be refrigerating. No. No. In fact, refrigerating it makes it, like, very hard and hard to do.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Okay. So we know how to find you. Mhmm. Keenhoney.
Peggy Barthel
Keenhoney.com. Keenhoney.com. What can we, as RVers or human beings in general, do? Because I also hear a lot of times, like, the bees are dying off and bees are so so vital to life.
Scott Keene
Bees are always looking for water in the summertime. Um, people, they'll come to their homes and they're very annoying when they're looking for water. They'll be looking everywhere or places to live. But, um, if you put out containers that have rocks that you put water out
Peggy Barthel
So it's very, very shallow,
Scott Keene
so they get they need water.
Tony Barthel
Okay. Yeah.
Scott Keene
Yeah. And that is very helpful to bees. But don't put it where you don't want them to be. Right.
Karen Keene
And also, you know, just plant bee friendly flowers around your place. We encourage people all the time to be more aggressive about what they plant and be more aggressive about what they use for sprays.
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm.
Karen Keene
They're great for pollinating gardens.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Karen Keene
Being in the Southern Oregon area, we sit around a lot of farms in the springtime that are self sufficient farms that grow organic vegetables.
Scott Keene
Mhmm.
Karen Keene
And, they really love the bees. So, you know, we sit next to an organic berry farmer, and he basically gets free pollination from us because our bees are, you know, there in that area. And and every year, he always calls me on the phone. Hey. When are the bees gonna be here?
Tony Barthel
When are the bees gonna be here? That's awesome. Yeah.
Karen Keene
But, yeah, it's just you gotta understand that they can be a nuisance, um, to people, and we do understand that when wild swarms come into to people's houses or places. The best thing you can do is if if you don't want the bees there, call call local beekeeper. Yes. Have them come out and rescue them. I mean, that's, you know, they're very vital.
Peggy Barthel
Tony watches a YouTube channel, like, every night he watches a video of of a lady that got sent out
Tony Barthel
to rescue. She goes and rescues the bees. It's interesting the way she says she goes, I rescued the bee. Interesting, but she goes and she just, like, is grabbing handfuls of bees and always looking for the queen. It's interesting to me.
Karen Keene
Yeah. And another thing you can do is, you know, support your local beekeepers. It's very important.
Tony Barthel
Mhmm.
Karen Keene
Yeah. You know, we have a tough time out there. I mean, a lot of people really don't understand it. You They they look at us as, oh, you know, you're a beekeeper and, you know, you're making good money doing the pollination
Tony Barthel
and you're, you know, you make a lot of honey.
Karen Keene
But, you know, what a lot of people don't understand is is that it's it's a substantial investment to do this. I mean, it it really is. We were fortunate enough to get into it 25, 26 years ago, you know, when our economy was in a lot better and stable shape, and and bee equipment and bees were reasonably priced then. And, you know, all I can say is for younger people now really to get into the bees, it's it's a major investment. And you have to be so careful about where you put them because so many people, you know, you have farmers that spray certain things and they spray and he's spraying pesticides and it just what it basically just wiped out your bee colonies.
Karen Keene
So Wow.
Scott Keene
We have, um, agreements that if they have to spray, they have to let us know 24 hours before so we can move our bees.
Karen Keene
Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So the foragers will go out several miles.
Karen Keene
Oh, yeah. They'll do they'll do it really kinda depends on the area. It's a mountainous area, but they'll they'll do 3 to 4 miles pretty easy out of the hive.
Peggy Barthel
So for a little tiny critter like that, that is a lot. That has beaten their wings.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That's amazing.
Karen Keene
The really cool thing about it that I've always thought about was that when you go out in a really good nice heavy honey flow and you could put an empty box on them and, you know, an empty box is like a we call them deeps. So it's a deep box. It's got 9 frames in it, and there's no honey in it. And you can go out there and you can put that on those bees, and you can go back 9 days later, and that box weighs 65, £70.
Tony Barthel
Wow. Wow.
Karen Keene
And you wonder, I mean, you just you think about that and you go, how many bees did it take to do that?
Tony Barthel
Right.
Karen Keene
And, you know, and in that amount of time and the thing about bees is is that when they're on a honey flow, they're working 247. They never stop.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Karen Keene
Oh, man. Yeah. They don't take a break. They bring the honey in, and they put it in the bottom of the hive, and they run right back out the door and go for another round. Right back in.
Tony Barthel
Right back in. Wow. And that's miles of could be miles per trip.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. It's a lot of podcasts to listen to. I
Tony Barthel
know. Yeah.
Karen Keene
And it's every day, and and it's all day long from the time they can fly to the time they can't fly anymore, that's what they do. And then you can walk out to that hive in the middle of the night, and you can hear it. It's humming, and all the bees are at the front door fanning. We call it a bucket brigade. Mhmm.
Karen Keene
They take all that honey that they brought into the hive in the bottom, and they form a line of bees from the bottom to the top, and they move all that honey into those top boxes. Oh. And then they dehydrate it. So the honey has to be dehydrated. They take it down to 16%, pretty much moisture level, before they cap it.
Karen Keene
Because if they cap it any higher than that, it has a possibility of fermenting. Oh. And how do they know this?
Peggy Barthel
Then we get mead.
Scott Keene
Yeah. Yeah.
Karen Keene
But I mean but I mean, think about it.
Peggy Barthel
How do they how do they Yeah. How do they know?
Karen Keene
How do they
Tony Barthel
know what the moisture content is?
Karen Keene
Exactly. It's it's amazing.
Tony Barthel
It really is.
Karen Keene
It really is.
Peggy Barthel
And to dry it, they just beat their
Karen Keene
wick and then fan it. Yeah. They just fan from the top to the bottom and out the door.
Peggy Barthel
Wow. And
Karen Keene
they that's how they pull the moisture out of it.
Peggy Barthel
That's amazing.
Scott Keene
They do the the same thing when they're controlling the hot or cold in their, um, hive. Oh, okay. If it's too hot, they'll actually make their own air conditioner, and they have some that fan the air out, some that fan the air air in.
Karen Keene
And if they get too cold Cold. The bees are They shake. If they get too cold, they cluster really tight when they're cold, and what happens is Mhmm. Is they keep the hive at a constant 98 degrees no matter what. Wow.
Karen Keene
So the bees on the outside of the cluster, they get really cold and the bees on the inside are warm so they rotate. So the bees that are warm, they'll rotate to the outside and move the cold bees into the inside, rotate to the
Peggy Barthel
outside. Bees are amazing.
Karen Keene
And they do it by eating honey. So that's how they regulate their body temperature. Well, no shake too. They'll vibrate, but that's what they do. And and it is.
Karen Keene
It's, you know, so many people take it for granted, what they do. Yeah. And they just you know, it's just a bee or, you know, hey, I'm gonna swat at that bee because it's bothering me. And
Scott Keene
The honey, it's just so amazing that people are having really good success with using it for, uh, medicinal.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Scott Keene
Yeah. And that's, you know, internally and externally. And, of course, you have to be careful. You know, you can't say certain things about natural
Tony Barthel
Right. Yeah.
Scott Keene
But they're finding really amazing results.
Tony Barthel
And the trippy thing is, you know, usually something that's good for you tastes terrible, but this doesn't it taste good?
Peggy Barthel
This is the only thing that's good for you
Tony Barthel
and the
Peggy Barthel
most delicious.
Scott Keene
Yeah. We've gotten spoiled. We go and get, you know, something that is processed, and we'll taste and be like, ugh. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Is it? We've gotten this as well. Sugar taste is so disgusting.
Karen Keene
The the but the bad thing about it is that some of it, you you go buy and it's you're like it's like you you crave it.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Karen Keene
And you go buy it, and you start eating it. And you're like, oh, that is so good. That is so good. A few minutes later, like, when
Tony Barthel
did I
Karen Keene
do that?
Tony Barthel
Eat that? Yeah.
Karen Keene
Yeah. Yeah. No. And I've never felt that way eating raw honey.
Tony Barthel
No. I eat my fair share. I keep the bees in business.
Karen Keene
Yeah. There you go.
Tony Barthel
There's never an end to, like, what we can learn.
Scott Keene
Yeah. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Take us 29 years to let No. Drink what you eat. And we're
Karen Keene
still and, you know, we we're still learning stuff. Yeah. We learn a lot, and and, you know, if you can if you can honestly say that you know everything there is to know about a honeybee, I would really like to shake your hand and meet you because we still don't know.
Tony Barthel
I think that we as humans are learning. So
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
But how cool that you get to travel and 10 bees, and you have this fantastic honey, and just so glad that you're here at the show, and that we're really lucky that we get to share this with our audience.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Thank you very much. It's been a little noisy. You guys probably have noticed because we're still at the courtside
Tony Barthel
in the courtside. Vacation and RV show. People are moving around, and that's okay Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Because that just makes it real. But thank you, both of you, Scott and Karen, for spending some time after hours with us and telling us about the bees and about your honey. Uh, I'm gonna go have a snack.
Karen Keene
Yeah. Well, we appreciate it. Thanks for having us.
Tony Barthel
Oh, it's a real pleasure. Thank you. Thank you.
Peggy Barthel
Thank you. Thank you, guys.
Tony Barthel
Well, we're back. Wasn't that a honey of a discussion?
Peggy Barthel
Right?
Tony Barthel
It was the bee's knees.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, boy.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I'm sure Are you running
Peggy Barthel
out? Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I think I might
Peggy Barthel
be. Okay.
Tony Barthel
Although, you know, I'm just winging it. So
Peggy Barthel
Oh, boy. I can't I can't think of all.
Tony Barthel
I can't do it. I love puns. You know, a podcast isn't a podcast without a pun or 2. Oh, right. What is a pun or 2?
Peggy Barthel
Alright. So let's get back to business.
Tony Barthel
So, you know, we have partnered with a few companies. Obviously, ABC Upfitters is here with us every week. But another company that we have partnered with is Air Gear.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Tony Barthel
They started out as the Airstream Life store, and now they are Air Gear. One of the things I really like about Air Gear is the quality of the things that they sell. For example, we have their water hose, and it's been fantastic.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Tony Barthel
We have their tire changing kit. Uh-huh. Again, something I think everybody who has an RV should have.
Peggy Barthel
We bought our sand free mat from them.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Oh, I forgot about that. But yeah. And we had that out at Quartzsite.
Peggy Barthel
Right. So the point being, you don't have to have an air Stream to buy RV supplies from Air Gear. If you have an Air Stream, there are some things that are very specific Air Stream things like teak mats for the showers, and Airstream has, you know, specific sized showers. But there are also things like tire changing kits and sand free mats and water hoses and things that any RVer could use and needs, and these are, like, great quality things.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. They vet their products and that's something that I think has a lot of value. So we will put a link to the Air Gear store. Sometimes we have discounts to some of their products. We have articles to kind of guide you as to, you know, why we like these products, and we use them.
Tony Barthel
So if you're ever around us and you're like, hey, so what is that hose like or what is that tire changing kit or can I see this sand free mat or any of those things, yeah, we bring them with us?
Peggy Barthel
So Tony mentioned earlier that we were gonna go camping with our local friends, and we're going to a New Mexico State Park, I think. I might be wrong. There is a state park in the area, but that one might currently be closed for weather. But, anyway, I just wanted to mention, and I don't remember if we talked about this last week, we stayed at Rockhound State Park. And as we have experienced so far, state parks in New Mexico are awesome.
Tony Barthel
Well, the ones we've stayed at so far have these little shelters. The spaces are big. They're just immaculate, and they're set in places that are just beautiful. I have been very impressed with the places we've stayed here in New Mexico. It's just been universally top notch.
Peggy Barthel
Absolutely.
Tony Barthel
So we'll put a link to the Rockhound State Park that we stayed in. We wrote an article about that. I think we have a couple other stories that we can link in the show notes.
Peggy Barthel
Mhmm. Bottomless Lakes, we stayed last year.
Tony Barthel
Oh, yeah. Mhmm. So I keep referring to the show notes and those are at stressless camping.com and there's a tile for podcasts and this is episode 243. And so there'll be those links, the links to the Air Gear store, all that stuff there on our website.
Peggy Barthel
Another super great outcome of our quartzite time and our quartzite meetup
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I was
Peggy Barthel
was finding out new recipes from the Pollocks that we had. And I've shared a couple of recipes in the last couple weeks from Daniel and Jennifer and from Marilyn. And this week, I wanna share Cindy's biscuits and gravy recipe. We've told you before, we love breakfast.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Well, it makes sense since we used to own a bed and breakfast.
Peggy Barthel
Well, we did used to own a bed and breakfast, and we still love breakfast. Yeah. It's one of my favorite meals. It really is. And Cindy
Tony Barthel
It's in the top 3.
Peggy Barthel
Well, he's good. Cindy has a little twist on biscuits and gravy where she starts with a biscuit, but then she turns it into something amazing and then puts gravy on it. It's basically a biscuit and some egg and some sausage. So kind of like a bread casserole type of thing, but using that as the biscuit and starting with biscuits. So it's very, very easy because you don't have to make bread or mix a dough or anything.
Peggy Barthel
You just use those Grands biscuits in a can that you pop open and it scares you. Then add sausage and egg and cheese to those and bake them, and then put gravy on top. Super delicious, super simple, and one can of grams will make 16 muffins. So you can feed a pretty good sized crowd.
Tony Barthel
And Cindy got one of those Omnia stovetop ovens Yeah. While she was there. She was just cooking up a storm with us, including she brought us biscuits and gravy cooked in that thing. And that thing was neat. So we'll put a link in the show notes to our review of that too.
Tony Barthel
It was a nifty gadget and, of course, the biscuit. Cindy's a heck of a cook. Right. I mean, even more so as you said, these potlucks, we had these impromptu potlucks at our quartzite gathering.
Peggy Barthel
Sometimes we weren't planning, and then all of a sudden, like, hey, do you want the next meal to be a potluck? And everybody kind of got big eyed and then said, sure. Why not? It was
Tony Barthel
really impressive. The the volume and quality of the meals that showed up out of people's RVs was just really impressive. I really was Yeah. Rather taken aback.
Peggy Barthel
For sure. So that recipe is on the website as are others, and thankfully, I have a few more coming. I don't know what I'm gonna do when I run out. I'm we might have to have more potlucks. Well, we are going camping this weekend.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I may actually bring the smoker this weekend and go get a Well,
Peggy Barthel
finally. I
Tony Barthel
know. I I bought that darn smoker specifically to to take with me, and I might actually bring it this weekend.
Peggy Barthel
Yippee. Okay. So last week, during the gadget report, I told you we had a backup camera that I could not figure out how to get a second camera paired to the monitor. This morning, I got an email explaining a tip for doing that. So I don't have an update yet, but maybe by next week, I'll have an update and tell you how wonderful that thing is even with 2 cameras.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. We'll update the review if there's any new information. And the review was there at stressescamping.com, which is where you'll also find a review of this week's gadget. Sometime in November, B and W Hitches sent me the new continuum weight distribution hitch. And typical Tony, I waited, I think, till 2 days before we left on our California, Arizona, New Mexico road trip that was, like, 34 100 miles.
Tony Barthel
So I waited till, like, 2 days before to install the hitch because, you know, why would you plan ahead for anything? So this BMW Continuum Hitch is really different from how any other bumper pull, as you call it, hitch works. Essentially, it uses a set of composite springs and a hydraulic ram to affect the weight distribution on this hitch. There's a full review, and I also did a video about it at stresslesscamping.com, so you can look there if you're curious. But the bottom line, this thing is fantastic.
Tony Barthel
I was just truly impressed with how well it performs, but even more so how easy it is to hitch and unhitch. So many of these weight distribution hitches have these bars, and you have to figure out what to do with them, and then you have to lift the heck out of the truck to attach them, and and they're really fiddly. This thing, you back up, drop the trailer on the ball, push the carrier into the receiver, and boom, you are done, son. It's a it's a one person, one hand type operation. Now, it it's not, you know, like it weighs 5 pounds, but like little carrier with the springs is probably 20, £30, whatever.
Tony Barthel
But it's really a different pitch experience. The one thing we talk about in the video that unfortunately, we bought the Ram 25100, the heavier duty truck and the hitch, And so
Peggy Barthel
At the same time, basically.
Tony Barthel
And so I can't tell you, is this thing so much better because of the hitch? Is it so much better because of the truck?
Peggy Barthel
But our experience is so much better. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I mean, it's so much more controlled and relaxing to tow. I feel I could go on longer tow days because I'm not
Peggy Barthel
Now we can go more places.
Karen Keene
Yeah. Well, I'm not
Tony Barthel
fighting with that truck. It's not even when cattle trucks go the other way. And cattle trucks, man, I think they have 2 speeds, stop and full out.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
And even when they go the other way on a 2 lane road, it did not feel like it was not gonna soft the road as it did in the old truck and trailer.
Peggy Barthel
One thing I like about it is everything is there. You don't have to un you know, like before we had those bars and we had to take them out and figure out what to do with them and how to store them. This one, everything is attached all the time. And it has like a cradle that that hitch sets in while it's not being used. So it's easier to lift, and it's a lot better experience from my behind the truck while Tony's in the driver's seat.
Tony Barthel
Well and the other thing is because it's a hydraulic ram, there's like a pump that it comes with so you can change how much pressure there is there. And so if you travel with let's say you have a toy hauler and sometimes you have heavy toys Yeah. And sometimes you have no toys. Or let's say you have a trailer with a 100 gallon water tank, and then sometimes it's full and sometimes it's not. You can actually vary the amount of weight distribution very easily just by how much pressure you put into the system.
Peggy Barthel
Then you have to do that each time. So it's not like you're going to adjust it only when you need adjustment. You're going to adjust your brain every time you set it up.
Tony Barthel
On the old hitch, which we liked, we really liked our old hitch, we needed to upgrade the weight distribution bars, and that was 2 months of the most ludicrous
Peggy Barthel
shipping Yes. It was a mess.
Tony Barthel
Silliness that you could I mean, they shipped 2 bars. Well, only 1 showed up. Then they shipped them again.
Peggy Barthel
And an empty box showed up.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Then finally, they shipped 2 bars and one showed up. So at least this time, we had 2 bars. Yeah. There's no separate pieces.
Tony Barthel
It's just all built in and can adjust. I'm gonna say this is the best hitch I've ever used on a travel trailer, and I fully recommend it. I really like it.
Peggy Barthel
Well, are you going to use that hitch on your RV of the week?
Tony Barthel
No. Because this week, I'm actually actually talking about a motor home. Oh. And it's the Renegade Classic 45 CBF. It is based on a Freightliner Cascadia, which is Oh.
Tony Barthel
If you've ever been driving, you know, cross country and you see semis, that's this. This thing is really intended for things like race car cruise or carnival people or that kind of stuff. It is gigantic. Mhmm. It has a tow hitch on the back that has a 6,000 pound weight capacity and can tow £32,000.
Tony Barthel
The diesel in this, of course, it's a diesel because it's a big truck, The one in the Ram is 6.7 liters. That's that's a pretty big diesel for, you know, pickup truck. This thing is 15 liters. It is literally almost 3 times the size of a pickup truck diesel engine. It's just enormous.
Tony Barthel
But the thing is, the cabinetry and the build quality are exceptional. I mean, the one I saw had heated tile floors.
Peggy Barthel
I guess you can carry those when you've got that much truck,
Tony Barthel
Well, and the frame doesn't you know, when you have that much of a chassis, you don't have to worry so much about frame flex. Or in a travel trailer, obviously, weight is is very critical. In this thing, all the cabinets are built out of solid hardwood. They're all dovetail. They're all soft close.
Tony Barthel
It's just a quality thing because it can be. Right? I mean, if you don't care that the RV weighs £22,000 or whatever, you can do a lot of So they're sold with, drum roll, please, no stickers, no swishy swirls. What? None of that tacky nonsense on the outside.
Tony Barthel
They're just plain white is what I saw. And, oh, gosh, that alone just loved it. So this thing I mean, it's okay. Well, also, it's $640,000 for the base price. You know, it's it's it's a whole different class of RV.
Tony Barthel
I mean, it's got 2 bathrooms and it can sleep 8, so your crew can come. And it's just a different way to look at RVs. Now, the one thing, it's still the RV industry, so there's gotta be something in there that's just like disco tacky. All the lighting around the edges of the counter can be set to strobe different colors? Come on.
Tony Barthel
I mean, it was like, okay. This thing is so nice and so classy, but we got disco lights. So, anyway, I have a full review at rvtravel.com, and we'll put a link in the show notes at stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy Barthel
Well, it would seem that I came up with a good topic again last week for the question of the week, which was tell us your favorite RVing or camping slogan and what fun this was to read. I wanna go make a bunch of t shirts now. Let's see. I'm just gonna read them, I guess. I am sorry for what I said when we were backing in the camper.
Peggy Barthel
You're not going to find it or see it from the couch. My husband kisses me and says, off on another adventure. Something bad when she says, that was the exit. Leave no trace. We have actually talked to the leave no trace people, and we will put a link to that in the show notes because that is a great one, leave no trace.
Peggy Barthel
My trailer has a sticker, I go where I'm towed. I love that one. Home is where you park it. I hate pulling out.
Tony Barthel
I know who put that one. Yeah. And they have a, uh, spare tire cover on their travel trailer with that.
Peggy Barthel
That on it. Yep. Of all the paths you take in life, make sure if you are dirt. I love that. Grace's needs a little bit of story story.
Peggy Barthel
She said, I kind of struggle on travel days and I find it very overwhelming and stressful. I know our next stop will be somewhere new that may or may not offer something neat to see or do. As my mom told me when I was 16 and left home, bloom where you're planted. I've traveled most of my life, and mom's words, travel with me. Happy camping, everyone.
Peggy Barthel
And I said to Grace, that explains why there are so many beautiful places because she was there and she left her seeds from her bloom. Grace is such a neat lady.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. She is. And, boy, can she make scones. Oh, boy.
Peggy Barthel
Let's see. Not all who wander are lost, but some of us are. Keep wandering. I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list. I go where I am toad, spelled t o a d because it's on an r pod that uses frog decals.
Peggy Barthel
Oh. RV there yet? I think I have pajamas with that. Well, I have a lot of pajamas. So
Tony Barthel
Yes. You do.
Peggy Barthel
We sleep around. I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list. I already said that. I know.
Tony Barthel
2 people said that.
Peggy Barthel
Whenever we've seen something incredible and we're about to leave, my husband will say, okay. Onto the biggest ball of twine. I love that. That's one of my favorites. I love this one.
Peggy Barthel
Everywhere to go, nowhere to be.
Tony Barthel
Oh, that's fantastic.
Peggy Barthel
Off to see the lizard?
Tony Barthel
Wait.
Peggy Barthel
I can't remember what that's from, but it's so familiar and I know it's from something. So tell me what that was. It's all part of the adventure, which is good to say when you find yourselves in construction or traffic or weather or anything that disrupts your smooth travels
Tony Barthel
Or get rear ended.
Peggy Barthel
Or that. I wonder what's down that road. Where's your playground? Don't follow me. I do stupid stuff.
Peggy Barthel
I've also seen don't follow me. I'm lost. I love that one.
Tony Barthel
Both are good, but the stupid stuff one suits me.
Peggy Barthel
Take only memories, leave only footprints. That's another trace. Another leave no trace. So as I said, we'll put a leave no trace link from when we interviewed people from there. And thank you all because as I said, I just you know, these are just fun.
Peggy Barthel
I love reading them. I love to see what people say every time they get out on a trip or something like that. So thank you for playing along. This week, I was kinda wondering, and I think this is the same question I asked about this time last year, when and where is your first camping trip planned for 2024?
Tony Barthel
Oh. Ours changed.
Peggy Barthel
Ours? Well, maybe not our first camping
Tony Barthel
trip. You're right. What am I thinking? We've been camping
Peggy Barthel
for, like, a month. Since the since before the New Year. Ours did change a little bit a couple weeks ago, and we had to make some adjustments. And I needed to look up one of those sayings about don't panic. It's all a great adventure.
Tony Barthel
We plan our life in Jell O.
Peggy Barthel
Set your plans in Jell O.
Tony Barthel
Yep. Thank you, John and Kathy Huggins.
Peggy Barthel
Yes. So if you haven't already been camping this year, where and when are you going on your first trip in 2024?
Tony Barthel
And you can answer that at our fun and friendly, spam free, except for at breakfast, Stressless Campers Facebook group, which is linked at stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy Barthel
While you're at stresslesscamping.com, you know that you can sign up for our once a week newsletter that's absolutely free. We don't use spam. We eat all the spam. We don't serve it out to you.
Karen Keene
Yeah. Spam is good.
Peggy Barthel
We just add your name.
Tony Barthel
Days we gotta go to the Spam Museum.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, we do. We just put your name on our list, and once a week, we send out a newsletter that gives tips and tricks and links and videos and all that kind of stuff to help you get a better experience out of RV ing.
Tony Barthel
And did you know that you can find the show notes for this episode?
Peggy Barthel
Which is number 243.
Tony Barthel
On the podcast page at stressless camping.com.
Peggy Barthel
That's where you'll also find our deals and discounts page for the best deals on things you'll need for your stressless camping adventure.
Tony Barthel
Something that I'd like to remind everybody, the only time we put things on deals and discounts are if it's something that we truly believe in and we use ourselves in our own stressless camping adventure. So Yes. We don't just put stuff on there to put stuff on there. It's companies and products that we really believe in.
Peggy Barthel
So we do ask you to let us know if you know of any great deals or discounts. Know that if you send something that we don't think will work for us or our listeners, we probably won't pursue it. Yep. But if you send something great, we sure will.
Tony Barthel
Yes, indeed. Of course, we are in all the social places like Instagram, Facebook, threads, TikTok X. All of that x.
Peggy Barthel
Hey, I'm starting to learn the new names
Karen Keene
instead of building.
Tony Barthel
Well, I'm impressed, but you can start at stressless camping.com, and under the hamburger menu is a place you can jump off and find us out there in this social sphere.
Peggy Barthel
If you don't wanna miss a future episode of The Stress Less Camping podcast
Tony Barthel
it's free. It's free to subscribe on any podcast app and we are saving you a seat deals and discounts and the better the podcast topics and all of that, the better the guests that we can get for you. So thank you for all of your reviews. And if you've already left a review
Peggy Barthel
You can also help us by sharing things that you see. If you see a post we put on Facebook or Twitter or X or all those places or even on our website, you can share that with your friends, share it by email, share it on Facebook, whatever you like. Really, it helps us a lot if more people know about us.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Sharing is
Karen Keene
caring. Well, that's
Tony Barthel
what we've got for you this week. It was truly a honey of an episode. Oh. Yeah. I know.
Tony Barthel
I've used that now, I think, 3 times. Sorry, everybody. It's pun repeat. Thank you for letting us join you in your ears on your adventures and wherever you happen to be doing the laundry, whatever it happens to me. Thank you.
Tony Barthel
We hope you have a great week and
Peggy Barthel
Stressless 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.
