How do you avoid breakdowns and travel more StessLess? What can you do to prevent trouble with travel? This week on the StressLess Camping RV podcast we share some tips to keep on trucking without tribulations and enjoy the journey more.

We also have an easy recipe that is a crowd pleaser and one of the most unusual RVs we’ve ever seen.

Other places to hear the podcast

Mentioned on this episode

RV Weight and your safety: https://www.stresslesscamping.com/podcast/0125

Tire pressure monitoring systems: https://technorv.com/collections/tire-safety-tpms?Click=11963

AirGear tire changing kit - https://www.stresslesscamping.com/blog/tire-changing-kit

SylvanSport - Tom Dempsey interview - https://www.stresslesscamping.com/podcast/0116

Patty’s Wild Rice Omnia Oven recipe: https://www.stresslesscamping.com/blog/2024/5/21-patty-wildrice-chicken-sausage-hotdish

Tony’s review of the SylvanSport Vast travel trailer: https://www.rvtravel.com/sylvansport-vast-most-unique-travel-trailer/

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 256

Mark Ferrell

Welcome to the weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into Stressless camping. Each week we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some Stressless camping.

Peggy Barthel

Welcome to the Campfire.

Tony Barthel

I'm Tony. I'm Peggy. And we're two RV industry veterans who travel part-Time in

Peggy Barthel

This small trailer,

Tony Barthel

Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips, tricks, and discounts.

Peggy Barthel

We are on the move again.

Tony Barthel

Yep. We are at the Springfield. KOA

Peggy Barthel

We are today. By the time you hear this, we will be in Blue Springs visiting my cousin Julie.

Tony Barthel

Oh, there we go.

Peggy Barthel

Her family. So we're just on the move. On the move. We have been, we were for four days, we were in Arkansas and you at, at Hot Springs, at a campground with Camp Carpe Diem, which we will link our interview with them. And also this week I've been writing kind of a daily recap of what's been going on at Camp Carpe Diem.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. And it, I have to say, I don't know how they found all these people, but there were, I don't know what, 30 people or whatever, whatever the number was, and what an incredibly great group of people. Fantastic group people. We had such a good time and they had planned this so well. There were outdoor activities, there was photography lessons, <affirmative>. There were brewery trips. Distillery trips, beer sharing.

Tony Barthel

Beer sharing. We found, or well, we didn't find them. They had this couple performing and they were just incredible.

Peggy Barthel

The status crows, check them out. They are fantastic. Yeah. They not only sound really terrific, but they had the best selection of music.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. It was, well it was nice because it was such a variety of, of music. Yeah. And it was well performed and they're so joyful. Yeah. It was just a pleasure to spend time with them and then to hear them perform. They're just great. So if you have a opportunity to listen to the status crows, do it. Don't, don't miss it. Yeah. Yeah. Don't miss it. Yeah. They're, they're really fantastic.

Peggy Barthel

So we will be staying at my cousin's for a couple of days.

Tony Barthel

Yes, we will.

Peggy Barthel

And so we will not have a hookup.

Tony Barthel

We got the hookups and

Peggy Barthel

No hookup. Yeah. No <laugh> normally that's not a problem. We have a whole bunch of power. Right. But it is hot and humid in Missouri. So hopefully this system will keep up. I think it will. I think we'll be fine because we have a thousand watts of solar up there, soaking up all the sun and a 460 amp hour battery. Right. 400, no, 400 amp hour battery. We did not get the four 60 <laugh>.

Peggy Barthel

Right. But it's all from our friends at A BC Outfitters. Well,

Tony Barthel

Peggy worries about the, you know, like, oh, can we pull it off? And I'm like, are you kidding? This system is fantastic. It has performed well. It just works very, very well. It's reliable. It's been a great system. And then we saw someone who had a very similar trailer this week, and a BC Outfitters added a second. So the way our system is, it's a single 400 amp hour battery. Right. It's a big battery. They added, now they're doing four sixties <affirmative> and they added a second one.

Tony Barthel

They had 920 amp hours of battery. Yeah. And I was so jealous.

Peggy Barthel

I'm normally not worried. I'm normally not worried at all, except in this humidity. We have had the air conditioner on 24 7

Tony Barthel

Since we left. Oh, it, it's, yeah. So,

Peggy Barthel

So that is my concern is yes, we can get four or five hours of air conditioning, but can we get 24 hours of air conditioning

Tony Barthel

<laugh>? No, I, I, the truth is we can't, so we just, so we just want mitigate it and Yeah. You know, I mean the solution is you call a B, C Upfitters and you just add more battery or more solar, or there is a chance of a more efficient air conditioner. More about that coming in the future.

Peggy Barthel

Hopefully. So

Tony Barthel

<laugh>, that's the big thing. I mean, oh, here I go on a tangent, is how inefficient RV air conditioners are compared to home units. But anyway, but anyway, if you want your questions answered, you want a great system that just works as reliable and professionally installed, call our friends at A BC upfitters. They're at 5, 7, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 5, 5, 7, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2 5. They will answer your questions honestly and clearly.

Tony Barthel

And they do exceptional job of putting these systems in and they're just good people. So that's why we're really honored that they partner with us and it's something that we truly believe works very well and that we use ourselves.

Peggy Barthel

So that's good for our battery in our trailer. But we wanted, we've been hearing a few of our friends actually with some car trouble. Yeah. Some vehicle problems. And so what we thought we might talk about is ways to make sure that your vehicle and your, I guess your rig, your rig is travel ready. So, we'll we wanna talk mostly about your, well, what we know the tow vehicle. Right. But also if you're driving a, a motorized rv, then a lot of these things are gonna relate to you as well.

Peggy Barthel

And we'll talk a little bit about some of the things to keep an eye on on your towable, if that's what you have. Yeah. We'll try not to just talk as if there's a pickup and towable in everybody's life, but that's what we know the best. So. Right.

Tony Barthel

And the first thing with that is, no matter what you are traveling with, it's so important to know the weights and capacities. So for example, you know a lot of people with travel trailers, the dealers will say, oh yeah, your truck can pull so much. Yeah. And we have a whole podcast about towing with, you know, whatever. And so the first thing to do is to understand the weights and capacities of your RV and of your tow vehicle, however you are traveling, know your weights.

Tony Barthel

We went on a rig tour and I looked in the door of a class C over the weekend and I, I know, I know. It was way overloaded. Yeah. And those kind of things cause pieces to wear out more quickly and that's,

Peggy Barthel

And break. And that, and that rig was not towing. Right. That was just such a low capacity for stuff.

Tony Barthel

Ah, yeah, it

Peggy Barthel

Was. And that they just, they obviously had too much stuff. Yeah,

Tony Barthel

Well it was just in some of these Class Cs, especially the sprinter based ones, there's very little cargo carrying capacity remaining <affirmative>. So know what your numbers are and know what your rig weighs. And you can get it weighed at like a cat scale. Or if you go to an escapees rally or an FMCA rally, they have a way person there. Please, please, please know how much your rig weighs and how close you are to capacity because that can cause breakdowns if you are overweight.

Tony Barthel

<affirmative>, just like the doctor tells me

Peggy Barthel

<laugh> same is on your body.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Funny. So the next thing is know what fuel you need. So if you're buying gasoline octane, you know, you see the numbers there on the pump. <affirmative> Octane is simply a measure of how resistant the fuel is to exploding. You know, it takes,

Peggy Barthel

Well that's important <laugh>,

Tony Barthel

But it takes a certain, an explosion has to happen essentially. It's a contained explosion. Sure. For the engine to run. Right. So a lot of people think, oh, I'm gonna do my vehicle a favor and put in premium and you may be just wasting money. A lot of times it just doesn't make a difference. So look at the vehicle's owner's manual and see what fuel it recommends. And also if there's a difference when it's loaded or towing, don't overbuy gas but don't undery.

Tony Barthel

Right. Or fuel, I should say diesel is, is diesel. Right? There's

Peggy Barthel

Only one kind of diesel, right? Well, I mean essentially there's only one

Tony Barthel

Kind. Yeah. There's basically number two diesel. But gasoline, there's several grades. And I mean you can buy some biodiesel, things like that, but for the most part, but gas don't buy more than you, you know, higher grade than you really have to because

Peggy Barthel

You're just throwing money away.

Tony Barthel

You're literally just one of the things though, you can get or can prefer top tier, which is a desi, it's an industry designation and it just has more detergents and other things to keep the engine running. Well,

Peggy Barthel

Okay, so the next thing is to just kinda keep an eye on your gauges, right? While you're driving, there's all those dials or numbers or whatever and it's your temperature and your, I don't even know what else. <laugh>. Right? So I mean obviously I know there's a lot, I can't think of them off the top of my head, but I know that, you know, like in not our vehicle because it's got all that electronics, but a lot of vehicles, if they just have a gauge, the gauge will be like, this is the green zone and this is the red zone.

Peggy Barthel

Well that's

Tony Barthel

The thing.

Peggy Barthel

So, and if you get anything in that red zone, that's not a good

Tony Barthel

Thing. Right. But set a benchmark. You if you know when you're driving that the vehicle tends to run at this temperature. Like our truck will show not only the engine temperature but the oil temperature, transmission temperature, all that stuff. So I have a baseline of how it's working normally. And I do keep an eye on it. And if I see one of those numbers starting to rise, then I know, hmm, something's not right here. Right. And so it's better to catch it as the problem is developing then to wait for you to get the red light, which indicates a failure and failure and expensive are the same term Y.

Tony Barthel

So if your car has any indicators of how the engine is performing, you know, some cars, it's just a fuel gauge and a and a speedometer, because

Peggy Barthel

They're so computerized, they don't want you to know what's happening. Well

Tony Barthel

It's not that

Peggy Barthel

It's, they're like, well look it, we got this

Tony Barthel

<laugh>. No, but, but usually on trucks, and this is why I prefer pickup trucks for towing, they usually have an ability to know what's going on. And it's good to have a benchmark and keep an eye on those things. <affirmative>, especially if you're getting to more extreme conditions like hills, heat, that sort of stuff. Know the benchmarks and if it starts to get outside the norms than it's better to stop it before it goes too far.

Peggy Barthel

Stop figure out what's going on. And by the same token tires, we have tire pressure monitoring system built into our ram and tire pressure monitoring system built into our tires in our travel trailer. Yeah. So we have a baseline and a monitor that will flash and scream and freak out if one or more of the tires isn't the right temperature or the right air, I can't think of the word. Right. Inflation or temperature that you're supposed to be,

Tony Barthel

Well again, if you have these tire pressure monitors and you look at the tires whenever you stop, like let's say you stop for fuel or snacks or whatever it happens to be, we always walk around the entire rig and check all the connections, <affirmative>, look at the tires, see if anything's coming loose. I had to put a, there's a fender, plastic fender skirt on our trailer and I had to put a bolt to hold that on recently. 'cause you just be aware of this stuff, <affirmative> and catch it before it becomes a problem.

Tony Barthel

And that's why I can't be more emphatic about recommending a tire pressure monitoring system because it doesn't just say, Hey, you popped a tire. It will warn you if a tire is hot or if a tire is starting to have lower air pressure. And a hot tire could be low air pressure, it could be a wheel bearing that's failing. So it's, again, it's better to know that these systems are failing before they do fail.

Tony Barthel

Right. And then if you have a towable rv, know how to change the tire and you might say, oh yeah, yeah, I know I have a jack in my truck. Some travel trailers you have to jack very specifically. For example, we have torsion axles on ours. Right. You don't jack 'em by the axle jack the

Peggy Barthel

Axles or you'll jack the axles. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

You'll jack the axle <laugh>. So know how to jack the trailer and how you know if you have the right wrench. And we have the air gear tire changing kit, which has the torque wrench because the aluminum wheels on travel trailers, it's good to check those now. And then <affirmative> the lug nuts because they do wiggle loose. Right. Which is really weird, but it's a fact.

Peggy Barthel

So you need to know what torque is supposed to be. How, how tight they're supposed to be. And then just not every stop. Not every day. Not every week maybe, but maybe every trip. Yeah. You know, long trip. Maybe you know, after the road trip or before a road trip or something.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. I check the torque on the lug nuts before a big trip. I check the air pressure before I leave and then we look at the air pressure monitor or the tire pressure monitor to make sure that that isn't suddenly changing. Right. The next thing is fluids in general. I'm gonna combine those. We have notes,

Peggy Barthel

Bob, we have notes and he is going all out of order. I'm like, okay

Tony Barthel

Well because these are all kind of

Peggy Barthel

One No it's okay because these are they, you're going in the flow. That makes sense. Right. I was just taking notes as we thought of things.

Tony Barthel

So I'm gonna go back to trucks again. Any vehicle has transmission fluid. Radiator. Well not every vehicle <laugh>. If you have a Tesla cyber truck, it does not have transmission fluid.

Peggy Barthel

But if you have a Volkswagen bug,

Tony Barthel

It doesn't have a radiator.

Peggy Barthel

You're probably not towing though. <laugh>?

Tony Barthel

No, I hope not. My

Peggy Barthel

Word, I've only known one person that used a Volkswagen bug as an rv. Oh gosh. I really did. <laugh>

Tony Barthel

Man takes all kinds. But anyway, making sure, and this will be in your manual, how frequently to change the radiator fluid and the differential fluid and the transmission fluid and all of these vital fluids. Of course the oil, coolant, even washer fluid. The brake fluid. Oh yeah. Some vehicles you have to, well all vehicles, there's an interval for changing the brake fluid. But these vital fluids, if you don't maintain them, that's an easy point of failure.

Tony Barthel

<affirmative>. And there you are stuck on the side of the road. You might have a radiator that's overflowed or you may have a differential that's begun to fail 'cause it's run dry. Or transmissions. Especially some of these transmissions are so complicated now they'll have an interval for how frequently to change it. And one of the things you're, if you're, again, I'm gonna go back to the truck thing. They have a normal service and a severe service. And sometimes the severe service, it says like an ambulance.

Tony Barthel

Well you could use that severe service interval for towing too. 'cause that is severe service. You're working your truck.

Peggy Barthel

Oh, so it's not, the service is severe, it's the service on a severe used vehicle.

Tony Barthel

Right. It's the, the, the circumstances that you're putting it through are severe. Gotcha. And then this is something that just got a friend of ours, one of their, well we used to all call 'em fan belt. Yeah. But now they're usually serpentine belts. The belt began to fail and stuff just doesn't work. Well if the belt completely fails, stuff won't work

Peggy Barthel

At all. Doesn't work at all.

Tony Barthel

So check your belts and belts typically. Okay. First of all, do these things with the engine turned off and

Peggy Barthel

It'll be sticking your hand in there when things are moving around.

Tony Barthel

Oh gosh, please don't. And again, in some vehicles there's an electric fan that can come on, so know if that's the case. So don't be sticking your hand in there when that fan comes on. 'cause that'll be a very sad day. <affirmative>, check the underside of the belts to make sure, because that's usually where they start to wear. Okay. And the hoses give them a a we squeeze because hoses wear out from the inside out.

Peggy Barthel

Oh. So they don't look worn out.

Tony Barthel

Right. They may look great and they're completely rotten on the inside,

Peggy Barthel

But if you squeeze 'em, you can feel like the kind of crunchy or something. Yeah. Well, which is not gonna, well it's supposed to feel well it's gonna be too

Tony Barthel

Flexible. Yeah. It's supposed to feel pliable. Yeah. And like soft rubber basically. Now know that typically the upper radiator hose has a spring in it because it's sucking and you don't want it to compress. Oh. But if it does compress and it's not supposed to, then that spring has rotted.

Peggy Barthel

Right.

Tony Barthel

Okay. So all of the fluids just keep an eye on them. And that goes for the battery too. Yeah. All batteries have a date code when you put them in. And batteries last two to five years. Five if you're really lucky, if your battery, it should be clean. There shouldn't be a bunch of, you know, build up like corrosion and stuff. Corrosion and yeah. On the outside. So make sure the battery is clean. Make sure that it's attached solidly.

Tony Barthel

'cause sometimes those connectors wear loose if you can. And in many cases you can check the, the water in the battery. First of all, do so with eye protection, <affirmative>, pop the lids off. And there's usually a way to like a place where the water should go up to. And it's usually at the bottom of the plastic that you'll see when you open the cap. And that's distilled water only.

Peggy Barthel

Right. And you do that with your car battery. And you also do that if you have still a flooded battery and not a lithium battery in your rv.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. If you haven't gone to see a b, C Outfitters yet and you're still using an old fashioned flooded battery as they call it, then do check that frequently too. So

Peggy Barthel

How far are we away from vehicles having lithium batteries?

Tony Barthel

Here's something that blows my mind. Electric vehicles still use a 12 volt flooded battery for like keeping the computer running and all. That's, that's just what I know. I don't,

Peggy Barthel

That's interesting. Okay. Yeah. I don't Good to know.

Tony Barthel

Our, our friend Brian just had, remember his, he has the Chevy's bolt, right? Yeah. And he got stuck because the regular battery, the 12 volt battery failed.

Peggy Barthel

Not the engine battery. Just the Right. Like we talk about the systems in your rv, even though you have a refrigerator maybe that runs on propane and electricity, there's still a 12 volt system in there that tells <affirmative> the bad, that tells the refrigerator it needs to run on one of the most powers. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

So yeah. I guess the whole world runs on a 12 volt flooded battery.

Peggy Barthel

Eventually. It all goes back to that 12 volt flooded battery. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Dang it. I know. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do <laugh>? The last thing I think we have is, you know, we all have roadside assistance or I think most of us have, make sure you know how to contact them. 'cause some prefer an app. I like that because it has your GPS coordinates in it. So if you put help on your app, it knows where you are. Or at least some of them do. Some want a phone call. So have in your address book on your phone, on your smartphone, the number for your roadside assistance and your membership number.

Tony Barthel

Know how to contact them. And also now might be a great time to evaluate the policy that you have <affirmative> and make sure that, let's say you are towing a travel trailer. Make sure that the roadside assistance not only will cover your tow vehicle Yes. But also the towed Yes. Vehicle.

Peggy Barthel

Yes. That can be a huge problem. We've had friends, we had a friend had a travel trailer stolen off the side of the highway because when the roadside assistance came, they only took the tow vehicle and they wouldn't take the trailer. No. And then they just left the trailer on the side of the road. Yeah. And then someone, and we've stolen, had someone else who lived in their travel trailer on the side of the road, I think it was a fifth wheel. Oh yeah. For three days. Yeah. Waiting for someone to bring their truck back. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. That's crazy. So

Peggy Barthel

Yeah, know that you have the right assistance and know how to get in touch with them. And if you care if it's a card, if you need to carry a card, make sure you know where that card is. Like we are finally really getting pretty good at having all those cards in one place. And then remembering that we have those cards all in one place. Because a year ago when we had that dead battery Oh. We were like, oh, who should we call? How should we find the number? Yeah. We don't know our member number.

Peggy Barthel

And then like the next day I am like, well, remember we have this wallet and all these cards and their numbers are in it, but we forgot we had the wallet. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

<laugh>. Well, I mean, it's not something you think about Right. Until you don't think of them very often. The fan stops spinning. Yeah. And then it's like, oh, nuts. I need to know how to contact our roadside assistance. Yeah. Yep. And again, know how to change the tires in your vehicle because sometimes it could be hours before all roadside assistance is contracted. Service <affirmative>, in other words, AAA or FMCA or Escapees or whatever roadside assistance you have. Good Sam. They don't own a bunch of tow trucks.

Tony Barthel

Right. They contract with local tow truck providers. Like

Peggy Barthel

I said last week, someone from FMCA is not gonna go get in the tow truck and come and find you. Right. You're gonna call FMCA or whoever and they're gonna call the local provider <affirmative>. And if that person's busy, you know, if we, you're in an area where there's only one tow truck in the whole 50 mile radius.

Tony Barthel

No. Or all of a sudden there's been a major a accident and all the tow trucks are busy hauling away stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if you know how to change your tire safely, that's a, that could be a plus of

Peggy Barthel

My might keep from sitting on the side of the road for

Tony Barthel

Hours. For hours and hours or even over a day. So

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. Now I did have one other tip and it's kind of not, it's not really like preventative things so much, but in a way it is. But when you are leaving, especially a campsite, but anytime that you've stopped, if you've stopped for fuel, if you've stopped for a rest area, whatever, went grocery shopping, anytime that you have stopped, first of all, walk around and look and make sure everything's hooked up and ready to go. Which, if you're getting ready to leave camp, hopefully you've followed your checklist and you know, it's all plugged in.

Tony Barthel

Checklist. And we have a link to our checklist. Checklist.

Peggy Barthel

Yes. But then as you're getting behind the wheel and pulling away from wherever you're parked, have your windows down, have your radio off, listen, listen for things. Tony literally ran across a campground because a Class A was towing their car.

Tony Barthel

It was a Jeep with the, and it was in park,

Peggy Barthel

It was parked, it was in park. So it was just skidding all four tires of the Jeep along the ground. Because they weren't, they weren't listening. No. They didn't bother to look in their mirrors and see Tony running like a maniac waving

Tony Barthel

His, his arms at him. They had their windows all closed. I would imagine they had the radio on. I mean, listen for clunks and clanks and screeches and other people yelling at you. And Yeah. At least for a few minutes. And then you can go back to listening to the stresses. <laugh>. No, the stresses camping part. Oh, the camping Podcast.

Peggy Barthel

Podcast. That's it. <laugh>. Yeah. Whatever it is you're listening to. Don't do it for the first couple seconds, <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. At least drive out of the campground with the windows open and listening to the rig. And it's good to, again, have a baseline of how does this thing sound? And if it sounds funny, it's not trying to make a joke. It means something

Peggy Barthel

Could be wrong. Yeah. And if you've never listened to it before and you don't know it sounds funny, maybe you think that skid sound is supposed to be happening on your toe being

Tony Barthel

Yeah. The

Peggy Barthel

Skid going <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

Oh my. Well that's our tips for staying out of trouble on the road. You know, you can always weigh in. If you have other tips, please join us over at the Stressless Camping Facebook group. It's Stressless Campers. Campers. That's our official Facebook group. Your tips are always so welcome and yes and so encouraged. And it's a fun group. So even if you're not a big fan of Facebook, it's a good reason to be there.

Peggy Barthel

And if you don't have a tip, but you have some great camping pictures or you know, pictures of your pets, whatever. Yeah. It's there for fun. It's there to share. And like either get help with RVing or camping or show off that you're doing it. Yep. Whatever the case may be.

Tony Barthel

Or if you're a dreamer, we're there to answer questions. Yeah. So for sure. Come on back. The coffee's hot and the campfire's warm

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>

Tony Barthel

And the beer is cold.

Peggy Barthel

So we said that we are on the road, we're in Springfield tonight and on the way north we're

Tony Barthel

Looking for Homer Simpson.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. On the way north from Arkansas today, fortunately only about 20 miles back we saw Lambert's Cafe where it's the home of the throat rolls. Yeah. We weren't ready to eat just yet. So we went ahead and got to camp and set up and then turned around and went back to Lamberts and had a great dinner and watched Rolls being thrown all over the place.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. So the, the hook of this place is that they have these guys, well they have these team members coming with this cart and it is full of freshly baked rolls. So they're nice and hot out of the oven and they're known for the rolls. But then you people see this cart out there and everyone's like, yeah, yeah. Me. And they, they will literally throw rolls across, across the re restaurant restaurant. There are these big beautiful rolls and it's just fun, you know, the team there was really, really good.

Tony Barthel

And our waiter said, Hey, you want me to throw one from across the restaurant? Really falling

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>.

Tony Barthel

Heck

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. So we had our video camera all set up. Yeah. So he did that. And so what he explained to us is, everyone is a roll maker slash thrower. Like certain days of the week, like they take their regular shift, they take this serving shift five times and then one time every week they are the roll person and they ri they, you know, wait for them to rise and they get 'em in the oven, they get 'em outta the oven and then they go up and down the aisles with these carts of rolls that are piping hot. Yeah. And throw 'em at you <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

But yeah, it's so funny. Everyone's like, whoa, whoa. And then they, another neat thing about this place is, you know, they have their menu with the normal meals on it. Right. But then they have these people walking around with these side dishes and there's like potatoes, okra, what was it? Tomatoes and tomatoes

Peggy Barthel

And Macaroni. Macaroni, yeah. They have like five or six different, they call 'em pass arounds. Pass arounds. And I thought they were gonna bring, I thought that they were gonna like serve it family style to every table. And I thought, well we're not gonna eat all that. But they don't, they come to your table like, would you like some fried okra? Would you like some potatoes? And they just keep walking and serving, you know? Yeah. And so they, it's not wasteful, you know, I thought if they have served all that stuff at our table with just two of us, it would've, some of it wouldn't have got eaten. But this was a really cool way to do it.

Tony Barthel

The funniest thing is, you know, we ate a couple of rolls 'cause Hello? Yeah.

Peggy Barthel

'cause they kept

Tony Barthel

Throwing

Peggy Barthel

Them

Tony Barthel

At us and then we're full. Yeah. Our food's there were already kind of full by the time it shows up, which it's pretty quick and it's a good amount of food. So then I ate some of, I got meatloaf, I ate some of my dinner, then planned to put the rest away and here comes those people with the pass arounds. So like my plate kept getting fuller and

Peggy Barthel

Fuller. He finished with a fuller plate, then he started

Tony Barthel

With <laugh>. Yeah. I had to get like a little side bowl for the, I think I had black eye peas. And it's just funny how, you know, it was 18 bucks for meatloaf, which you might go, that's a little pricey, but boy, when you see how much food and just the positive vibe in here, it just a grand experience and the entertainment value. Yeah. Yeah. It was, I'm so glad we happened to spot the place right around dinnertime. 'cause it was good and it was fun.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. And we've been wanting to go there ever since we knew that somebody would throw rolls at us.

Tony Barthel

Well I heard, I heard about it from John and Kathy on living in the RV dream. Oh yeah. Yeah. So that's how long ago it was. Yeah. Well now that we're almost completely full from dinner. Right. What are we making this week?

Peggy Barthel

Well, this week I have a recipe that I'm sharing from Patty. And this came from our mini light slash microlight rally that we were at at Texas a couple few weeks ago. And Patty made a, a hot dish that was long green and wild rice and oh boy, I thought I knew <laugh>. Oh chicken, chicken sausage, like, you know, bulk sausage. It was

Tony Barthel

Italian

Peggy Barthel

Sausage. Well it was supposed to be

Tony Barthel

Sage,

Peggy Barthel

It was like breakfast sausage. Sausage. It was supposed to be sage sausage and we couldn't find it at the store. So we used it. We

Tony Barthel

Couldn't find a sausage that was a sage. We

Peggy Barthel

Used Italian sausage, the wild rice, and then a can of mushrooms, a little can of mushrooms and a can of mushroom soup. And you just mix it all together and it's already all cooked. So you bake it, but you're baking it mostly just to kind of mesh everything together.

Tony Barthel

And then Peggy baked it in the Omnia.

Peggy Barthel

Right. So that's our gadget of the week. <laugh> is, we have talked about the omnia oven before, but I mixed all that stuff up and I had precooked the meats because we knew that we were gonna have this recipe. So it was a lot easier to do in the camper, put it in the omnia oven, put it on the stove top and baked it until it was hot all the way through. And it made a lot because it was like two pounds, it started with like two pounds of meat. Right. So it was a lot of food. And so it took us a few days to eat it all, but it was worth it.

Peggy Barthel

It was so good.

Tony Barthel

<laugh>. Yeah, it was. And, and we're gonna play more with that Omnia oven. I think. I really like that thing. Yeah.

Peggy Barthel

So it's, so I'll have Patty recipe posted by the time you hear this. We will also have some pictures with using the omnia oven. So that's my two for one this week. Wow. A recipe and a gadget.

Tony Barthel

Oh man.

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>. So I'll let you take care of the RV of

Tony Barthel

The week. Well the RV of the week is something we have talked to the folks from Sylvan Sport in the past and the travel trailer that I had looked at, I've looked at this before and I've seen some updates to it. And it's the Sylvan Sport vast. And it's basically a cube, but it's so clever. I think the keynote feature of this is the kitchen. And when you're inside there's a two burner stove and a sink and a 12 volt cooler fridge. Which makes sense.

Tony Barthel

But then that you open it and it slides down and out. So now your indoor kitchen is your outdoor kitchen.

Peggy Barthel

It's like all on a kind of a drawer.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Like on a down sliding drawer type deal. So when you open the kitchen, that exposes the whole front of the trailer from the inside. And now you have a full size shower, but it's not a wet path. Oh. It's a, a proper shower. Okay. There's two beds in this. There's an L-shaped lounge at the back and that lounge can slide front to back. And if you slide it forward, there's a big hatchback on the back of this thing.

Tony Barthel

You could put gear back there. Okay. Then there's also a full queen bed on a lift that normally sits at the ceiling and then you could just bring it down that

Peggy Barthel

Elevator bed thing. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Or happy jack,

Peggy Barthel

Like they put in toy haulers a

Tony Barthel

Lot. Right. So then there's that. So you have this L-shaped dinette, which can also become a queen bed. Then there's two giant windows in this thing that can completely open up for air or,

Peggy Barthel

Or serving snowboards.

Tony Barthel

<laugh>. Yeah. I mean, right. Exactly. You could use it to serve dinner out the window or whatever. <laugh> also on the front, there's a compartment that flips up for just, you know, the stuff that we put in trailers. But then that compartment slides open and that's where you find the propane tanks and the spare tire, which are protected normally. Mm. So there's so many. Oh, and there's racks outside. So you could hang a bike or kayaks, things like that from the side of the trailer. Yeah. So there's so much ingenuity that goes into this thing.

Tony Barthel

We'll put a link to our interview with Tom Dempsey from Sylvan Sport. This thing is just neat. It, I, I love seeing outside the box things, although this is shaped like a box

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>. So last week's question of the week. I asked you and I told you you'd get bonus credit and you all did. Thank you. Except the couple people that said they don't travel with pets. The, well, I mean, you know, so our question was what pets do you travel with? And we got like 60 answers and most of them were pictures of dogs. Yeah. Which is the common, right. The most common. But a lot of you travel with cats. Yeah. And that was fun to see. And you know, especially the, as in the Ghostbusters said, dogs and cats living together.

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>. So some of you have dogs and cats. Yeah. And so thank you for sharing. I'm not gonna talk a lot about it because I want you to go in and look those adorable pets.

Tony Barthel

Everybody. Or, and you can weigh in with your own pet pictures. That's right. Especially if you have something, we have traveled with a desert tortoise.

Peggy Barthel

We have traveled with a desert tortoise because we got evacuated from our home. Yeah. And, and so, and he was, it wasn't like we were just going on a road trip and took

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Hey let's take our turtle. Took

Peggy Barthel

Pipping for a ride and we have a friend who traveled with a bird for a long time. Yeah. And so we know that not all pets are dogs <laugh>. Right. And so thank you for sharing your pets and please continue to do so. 'cause I sure love those pictures. <laugh>,

Tony Barthel

There was a lady who traveled in a van with a snake.

Peggy Barthel

Yes, that's right. You used to watch her on

Tony Barthel

Yeah. I used to like her videos YouTube

Peggy Barthel

Or something. Yep. And so this week's question of the week is,

Tony Barthel

What memberships do you have? What of these various membership programs, RV clubs, service, you know, roadside assistance, that kind of stuff, have you found that offers you value and why? And you can answer that

Peggy Barthel

At our fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group.

Tony Barthel

Yep. And did you know we did a once a week newsletter that's free.

Peggy Barthel

We have links to stories, videos, and podcasts that will help you get the most of your RV experience. All you

Tony Barthel

Gotta do is visit our website@stresslesscamping.com and you can sign up there. It's completely free. And know that we will never share your information. We take it very seriously that you've entrusted us with it.

Peggy Barthel

All we do is use that to send you one email per week. And that's it. You're not getting any more out of us than that <laugh>. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Because we're too lazy.

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>. And so also, when you're at the website, stressless camping.com, you'll find the shows, the show notes, <laugh>. You'll find the shows Well find, you'll find the shows,

Tony Barthel

The shows too.

Peggy Barthel

But you'll also find the notes of those shows. And this is episode number 2 5 5, right.

Tony Barthel

Oh 2 56 0 2 5 6.

Peggy Barthel

This is episode number two. Five six on

Tony Barthel

It. Yeah. We're, we're progressing here.

Peggy Barthel

That's right. And that'll be on the podcastPage@stresslesscamping.com.

Tony Barthel

Did you know we also have discounts and deals for the best deals on the things you'll need for your stresses camping adventure. And that is also@stresslesscamping.com and we're

Peggy Barthel

Working with some new ideas. So we are, if you've looked before, look again. Yep. Keep looking. You might find something new. Ooh. You never know.

Tony Barthel

You never know. And of course you'll find us in all the social places as well. But it's a good place to start@stresscamping.com. 'cause you can then jump off to all the social places we are <laugh> and share stuff from stressless camping.com. Yes, please. On those social places

Peggy Barthel

That is so helpful to us. We really do mean that. And you know, if you don't wanna miss a future episode of this very fine Stressless Camping RV podcast, it

Tony Barthel

Is free.

Peggy Barthel

It is free to subscribe on any podcast catcher. And we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.

Tony Barthel

Yep. And of course, don't forget that a review will help others find this podcast. And that helps us to share about, you know, about the podcast with advertisers and all of that. And these podcast distributors, you know, apple and Spotify, they really do put value in the reviews and we put value in the reviews. So thank you for your reviews.

Peggy Barthel

So if you want to write a review or share and you're not really sure how there are instructions, we put them in the newsletter and we put them on the website because we wanna make it as easy for you to help us.

Tony Barthel

Well, and it helps you to as easy as possible because then we get better guests.

Peggy Barthel

Oh, I know. We wanna help you. Help us. I knew there was something in there, <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

No, it's all about you. It's all about you. It, it really is. <laugh>. I mean, you know, it, it's, we're very careful who we will accept as advertisers. Yes. And who we talk to, because really our goal is to serve you as best as we can. It's like a old fashioned fireproofing. As we do asbestos, we can asbestos,

Peggy Barthel

We can can. Oh boy. Well, and with that <laugh>, he have a great week and Stressless. Camping.

Tony Barthel

Camping.

Mark Ferrell

We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stressless camping adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure. And we look forward to your joining in us next week. Until then, happy camping.

Tony Barthel

Wow. That's yeah. <laugh>.