Have you heard of the giant roadside attractions called Muffler Men? These huge fiberglass statues have been bringing people into businesses for 60 years and now there’s a museum celebrating them. On this week’s StressLess Camping RV and travel podcast we come to you from the American Giants Museum in Atlanta, Illinois where we meet several of these giants as well as the museum’s curator and learn more about this roadside Americana.

Other places to hear the podcast

Mentioned on this episode

Joel Baker’s American Giants YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@AmericanGiants

More information about Atlanta, Illinois: https://atlantaillinoistourism.com/

Read our full review of the Ryobi One+ Verse clamp speaker

We’ve got a sneak peek review the new Grand Design Lineage Class C motorhome.

Our daily blog can be found here: https://www.stresslesscamping.com/adventureblog

StressLess Camping podcast group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/StressLessPodcast

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.

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The video version of this week’s StressLess Camping RV podcast

Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 261

Peggy Barthel

On this week's Stressless Camping RV podcast, we're going to Atlanta, Illinois to check out the American Giants Museum. A new attraction on Route 66. That's

Tony Barthel

A special place built just to celebrate the American giants or muffler men. Something We're, well, I'm kind of obsessed with

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>. Well, anyway, welcome to the campfire.

Tony Barthel

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

Peggy Barthel

Without a small trailer. <laugh>. Yeah,

Tony Barthel

Not right now. Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips, tricks and discounts.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. So if you don't know, our trailer is in Indiana for some repairs and we are home in New Mexico for four days. <laugh> enjoying our beautiful weather for a few days. We are doing a couple of small trips without the trailer, which we of course will be talking about when they're happening. But for right now, we're home and loving it.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. There's a story on Peggy's daily blog. Peggy's been knocking it out of the park, in my opinion. <laugh> with a daily recap of our adventures when we have them, which is still happening. Sure. In fact, we're leaving in a couple of, well, while you listen to this, we'll be listening to ourselves right as we drive to Sedona. That's

Peggy Barthel

Right. We're gonna be on our way to Sedona. So

Tony Barthel

Something I wanted to share, obviously for those of you who watched these on video, when we did the portable power station, portable power station, our solar generator episode, someone pointed out they saw a coyote in the background. Yeah. Now we were filming that outside on our deck.

Peggy Barthel

We were facing the same direction, but we were sitting right over there. Right.

Tony Barthel

And now we're in a screen porch because that

Peggy Barthel

Is way too sunny right now. Now <laugh>, it's too hot to sit in

Tony Barthel

The sun. But yeah, there was a coyote that ran by and we do have last night, boy, they were going nuts. So we do have roadrunners, coyotes and rabbits and we, because of

Peggy Barthel

That, just like the cartoon.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. We don't order anything from Acme, but what we do like are the power systems from a B, C Upfitters who has a brand new website to share their information. That just went live a few days ago. And if you're looking for anything from a drop in battery replacement to a complete solar and lithium system for any size rv, they, I've seen 'em do Class Bs. Class A a few weeks ago we talked about a big fifth wheel man with a monster system in it.

Tony Barthel

Right. The nice thing is, when you call them, they listen to you, they answer your questions honestly, and they're just really good people to deal with. So if you're solar curious or lithium curious, a B, C Outfitters are good people to deal with and they use all master vote products. <affirmative>, the good thing about that is it's one company that does all the components, and that way there's no finger point. I went through this thing with finger pointing this

Peggy Barthel

Week. He dealt with something else this week. Completely unrelated.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Not solar or lithium,

Peggy Barthel

But they have to help you with that. Okay. I called they and they said them have to help you with that. Who's supposed to help me with that? But

Tony Barthel

Not anything from a, B, c Upfitters. A totally different experience. And that's one of the things I like about 'em. So you can visit their new website@abcupfitters.com

Peggy Barthel

Or give them a call at (574) 333-3225. That's 5 7 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 5. I hope you didn't try to write it down while you were driving. We'll put it in the show notes wherever those end up <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

So they'll be down below or up above or somewhere to the side or as always, you can find our show notes, links to ABC Outfitters, all of that at our home on the web@stresslesscamping.com. So this week we were coming home from Indiana and we did, we sort of revisited some of our Route 66 adventures. Yeah. But we came across a brand new place. Yeah. And I am a big fan of Joel Baker. And Joel Baker has really brought out the muffler man, or American Giants.

Tony Barthel

Really made people more aware of them. <affirmative> and made them more popular, I guess.

Peggy Barthel

And he has rescued a lot of

Tony Barthel

Them. Oh gosh.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. Right. He, he'll find them behind someone's barn that's been laying there for 20 years, getting rusty and moldy. Not rusty. Not

Tony Barthel

Rusty. They're

Peggy Barthel

Fiberglass. Fiberglass getting moldy and faded and he will rehabilitate them and then put them standing back up somewhere so everyone can enjoy them again. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

And I think partially because of his YouTube channel, they have become more popular. There's collector interest. There's also a gen named Mark Klein who has a lot of the molds from the company that originally made these American giants or muffler men in the sixties. And he's recreating them like Buck Adam, who is on my shirt today.

Peggy Barthel

In Tulsa.

Tony Barthel

In Tulsa. Or the mayor of Uranus, Missouri.

Peggy Barthel

Uranus,

Tony Barthel

<laugh> of Uranus.

Peggy Barthel

Where the best fudge comes from. That's

Tony Barthel

The fact, Jack.

Peggy Barthel

And don't forget about Buck's. New girlfriend.

Tony Barthel

Oh, Buck's getting a girlfriend.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Stella. That will be going up in the next week or so.

Peggy Barthel

Very shortly. So yeah, so, so you

Tony Barthel

Know, to go see her soon. There's all this renewed interest in these giants that were popular in the sixties and are becoming popular again. But there's a museum in Illinois, Atlanta, Atlanta,

Peggy Barthel

Illinois,

Tony Barthel

That is a replica of an old Texaco station. And they have space for, I believe, five of these giants outside, including one of only a few remaining Texaco big friends, which was, anyway, we have an interview with Bill Thomas who's the curator of this museum. And so without any further ado, let's roll tape on our interview with Bill Thomas. I have the privilege of being here with Bill Thomas. Tell us a little bit about the town we're in, but more importantly, what are all these big people doing around here?

Bill Thomas

These big people are having a really good time in Atlanta, Illinois, and they're bringing all kinds of folks to come see them. Atlanta. Atlanta, Illinois is a very small town. 1,649 people. We are right on Route 66, halfway between Chicago and St. Louis here in Illinois.

Tony Barthel

Oh, okay. And we've been here. You are a Harvest host, which is relevant to RVing.

Bill Thomas

Right. We host a lot of Harvest Host RV self-contained campers during the summer.

Tony Barthel

So is the whole town a Harvest host location or

Bill Thomas

No, we have multiple sites here in town. I think we're up to four right now and we're planning one on the driveway right behind this museum. Oh

Tony Barthel

Man.

Bill Thomas

So you can come here and stay next to the land of the Giants West. Stop <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

And speaking of Giants, we are in a replica of a Texaco station. Yes.

Bill Thomas

Way back early 19 hundreds through the, like the 1930s, there was a service station on this lot, but it got torn down many years ago. And when we found out one of the giants we were going to have here was going to be a Texaco big friend from that advertising campaign, we decided to model the museum building after a mid 1960s Texaco service station.

Tony Barthel

And that is quite significant. So outside, we, right now we have two of the international fiberglass giants. Some people call them muffler men, and that's a common search term. And one of those is, well, they're both very rare.

Bill Thomas

They are very rare. The nerd giant that reminds everyone of Alfredy Newman from Mad Magazine is on the grounds of the museum.

Tony Barthel

What me worried.

Bill Thomas

Right, right. He is. He's very rare. There are hardly any of those left.

Tony Barthel

I've hunted these for a while and I've never seen one. Right, right. In person.

Bill Thomas

No, no. And then probably even, well I know it's rare, or even still back in the mid 1960s when Texaco ran a special nationwide advertising campaign, they had international fiberglass build 324 foot tall muffler men that looked like their service station attendants. Long story short, the campaign was a disaster. <laugh>, they, they kept falling over. The gas station owners really didn't like to have to move them around. So Texaco said, destroy all 306, managed to survive.

Bill Thomas

And we have the only one of those original six that's been fully restored.

Tony Barthel

That's pretty cool. So these things have really, they started as an advertising gimmick, really, right? Yes. The first Paul Bunion, I guess had a customer who fell through. And so the head of international fiberglass in the sixties basically was trying to pedal this guy and finally did. Yeah. He

Bill Thomas

Loaded him up on a trailer in California because the, like you say, the original sale fell through. So he put him on a trailer, headed off on Route 66, and when he got to Flagstaff, Arizona, he found a buyer. Wow. And that was the very first

Tony Barthel

One? Yes. And that was a Paul bunion?

Bill Thomas

That was a Paul bunion, yes. And

Tony Barthel

Is that still there? I don't that, I don't know.

Bill Thomas

I believe it is still there. I believe it's at the university in Flagstaff. Yes.

Tony Barthel

Yep. We've seen them then. Yes. <laugh>, we've chased the Giants up and down Route six six. Oh, okay. Which is why we've been here before. 'cause you're hotdog guy? Yes.

Bill Thomas

Our bunion giant, the guy, 19 foot tall statue of a giant holding a hot dog. He's been with us for 20 years now. Wow.

Tony Barthel

And how did that come to pass?

Bill Thomas

He stood for 40 years in front of a hot dog stand up in Cicero, Illinois. On Route 66 when the owner retired and decided to sell off the business, he was actually going to sell the Giant and the Illinois Route 66 Association reached out to the family and said, oh, please don't sell him. If we can find a town that will host him, will you let him stay in Illinois? <laugh>. So that's how he ended up here in Atlanta.

Tony Barthel

And you've had the wiener Meyer Wienermobile there. Oh.

Bill Thomas

Oh, I didn't know you knew about that <laugh>. That was one of the I, I like

Tony Barthel

These things. Oh,

Bill Thomas

Oh. Talk about a thrill in my life. My office is just across the street from the bunion giant and I mean, what more could you ask for to look out your window and see the wienermobile pull out? Yeah. That was a wonderful stop. And they did not know he was here. Oh really? No, they did not know he was here. They happened to get off of Interstate 55 and decided to check out downtown Atlanta and there he is.

Tony Barthel

Wow. So in addition to the American Giants Museum, which is what this is officially called, correct, yes. <affirmative>, in addition to the American Giants Museum, there's a bunch of other neat stuff here in Atlanta

Bill Thomas

We think. So we've been really working hard to develop tourist experiences and opportunities for folks to see some things. Probably one of the most unusual things, I don't know if there's another one. All along 66, we had a coal mine here in town. I believe it started in like the late 1870s. And for 40 years they tried to mine coal out of it. They were never successful <laugh>, it kept filling up with water. But one of the original shafts remained. And two years ago we cleaned out the shaft, put in viewing lights and made a platform.

Bill Thomas

So now you can go over and learn the story of the coal mine and

Tony Barthel

Look down the shaft. You can get the whole story.

Bill Thomas

The whole story. Yes. <laugh>, yes.

Tony Barthel

Peggy just groaned <laugh>.

Bill Thomas

In addition to that, we have a very interesting agricultural attraction. You can come and see. And that's our JH Haws Grain Elevator Museum. You know what? A grain elevator. And this is

Tony Barthel

The last wooden one,

Bill Thomas

Right? Well, it's one of only three in the nation that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And ours is the only one of those that's been restored and is operable. Hmm.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. And then you have some neat shop. We just, were at the museum <affirmative>. There's neat curio shops and yeah, it's a, it's just a cute little town.

Bill Thomas

Well we appreciate that and lot. We have lots of international visitors that come every year. And it's great when they say, oh, I wanted to see the Real America and I think I'm seeing it. And I said, yeah, you are. Yeah,

Tony Barthel

Yeah, you are. Absolutely. Well, anything else we should, I know that the giants that are here are belong to Joel Baker, correct?

Bill Thomas

Yes. All of the artifacts here at the American Giants Museum are on loan from Joel. The only other thing I'd share with you is between now and the Route 66 centennial and 2026, we'll be getting four more. Yeah, yeah. So we'll have a contingent of six here on this little

Tony Barthel

Block downtown. So you have the super rare Texaco big friend. You have a nerd. I know you're getting a Viking.

Bill Thomas

The list may include. Okay.

Tony Barthel

Okay.

Bill Thomas

We're pretty certain we're going to get a Viking. We think we might get an original Phillips 66. Oh, okay. Cowboy. A regular bunion giant holding an ax. 'cause we don't have one of those. And then who knows what else might show

Tony Barthel

Up? <laugh> maybe A Uniroyal girl. You have her? You have her

Bill Thomas

Head? We have her head. But no, we are getting a Uniroyal gal but not associated with the museum. Oh, this is a wonderful story. There's a wonderful family restaurant out by the Route 66 bypass and Interstate 55. And when they saw what was happening here, the restaurant owner that I've known for 25 years said, bill, we want a waitress giant. So it's being built by the same people that built Buck Adams companion. Right. And she's in the process of being painted. We'll get her in July.

Bill Thomas

Oh,

Tony Barthel

That's fantastic. Yeah. So for those of you who may have followed my obsession with these giants, I often stop in Tulsa, Oklahoma at Buck Adams Atomic Curios, which is what the shirt that I'm wearing is from. And he's getting a woman. Yes.

Bill Thomas

He's going to get a friend, a mate.

Tony Barthel

And there's the interesting thing is international. So I think my interest in these started, I grew up in Inglewood, California, which is right adjacent to Venice. Oh yeah. And these things were not uncommon and I was just fascinated by them as a kid.

Bill Thomas

Me too. There was a Uniroyal Giant in Peoria, Illinois. And every Sunday of my life when we'd go see the grandparents, we'd drive by the <laugh>. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Oh yeah. And of course in winter she's wearing a skirt and a blouse.

Bill Thomas

Yes. In the summer

Tony Barthel

She's

Bill Thomas

Got a bii bikini. Yes. And they still do that. She's still there on Washington Street in

Tony Barthel

Peoria. Oh, that's true. It's bikini season.

Bill Thomas

Yes, it's bikini season.

Tony Barthel

I go check out a giant woman in a bikini. Yeah,

Bill Thomas

You might need to get order Peoria <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

And the history of these is that, you know, we had talked about the bunion and all of a sudden international fiberglass, a company that was in Venice, California, got like, oh, these things are selling. So they made the bunion, they made the Native American guy, they made the UN Gal, they made the Texaco big friend. They made quite a few of these. And they would tailor them based on the business. Right, right. So if you, I mean, not everybody has a lumber mill in their backyard, but Right. You might have a restaurant.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Right. So anyway, that's where we are today in Atlanta, Illinois. Bill, I sure appreciate your

Bill Thomas

Time. Well we sure appreciate you stopping by

Tony Barthel

Very much. Yeah. It's not our first time and it definitely won't be our last

Bill Thomas

Good. Good. Come back anytime.

Tony Barthel

Absolutely. Will do. Thank you. Alright,

Bill Thomas

Thank you.

Tony Barthel

Hopefully you enjoy that interview with Bill. We have a whole article at stresses camping about the history of the American Giants or muffler men and links to Joel's YouTube channel and so much more. So if you're nutty like me <laugh>, and you like these giant plastic people, we're a good place to turn to learn more.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. So we talked about being in Atlanta and all we've mentioned so far is the American Giants Museum. But we found out, well, so three years ago when we did our first Route 66 trip, we discovered Atlanta, their Harvest host and Oh yeah. Un unfortunately we didn't, we the, the communication was not great and we couldn't really figure out where the Harvest Host exactly was in Atlanta. Well it turns out it's pretty much the whole town.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. They keep adding spots in the town that are harvest host locations, so.

Peggy Barthel

Right. So now it's easier to figure it out, but, and also we got to spend a day kind of almost a whole day in Atlanta finding our way around. So now we know where the parking lots are big, we know where the spaces are, but we also got to see a lot of other things that, so Atlanta is on original Route 66 and

Tony Barthel

It's a small town.

Peggy Barthel

It's a small town, but it has a quarter mile, I believe of like original Pavement road and a kind of a replica billboard from back in the day over 66. No, that's, and we had seen that. And then there's also another kind of corner of town where you can visit a, I have to look <laugh>, I'm trying not to look at the notes. Well,

Tony Barthel

There's a coal mine. Yeah. That was never successful. But they've pumped the water out of it, shown some lights down. You can look down the hole

Peggy Barthel

On the mine shaft. So there's a whole, it's like a whole museum of like the history of the coal mining there. And then there's a historic carriage house with a replica of a, you know, a horse and carriage in there. And

Tony Barthel

Yeah, they're not horsing around in

Peggy Barthel

Atlanta. And there's also an Allwood grain elevator. So those are all kind of one parking, looking around at things. There's the downtown kind of walking area where there's a lot of shops and fun things. There's also a museum that has the history of Atlanta and there's also a quirky, I think they call it Quirky Route 66 Museum.

Tony Barthel

Yeah, I would, that fits,

Peggy Barthel

That's called Memories. I wrote too many notes and I can't see it.

Tony Barthel

Yeah, the Memory Museum Memories.

Peggy Barthel

Yep. Memory museum. And that was kind of fun. And then we wandered through the shops and there's a lot of souvenir shops and stuff. There is a sweet shop, but we were there actually on a holiday, which we didn't realize. So the Sweet Shop was closed unfortunately. And there was, there's a coffee shop that was highly recommended, but we weren't there in the right time for coffee either. So that's why we have to go back <laugh>. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

And stay through Harvest Hosts.

Peggy Barthel

Right. And Bill told us that behind the museum, they're trying to get that as an another harvest host parking spot. So that makes I think five parking spaces throughout town.

Tony Barthel

That would be so cool. Yeah.

Peggy Barthel

And also, speaking of American Giants, a new giant is coming to town, not at the museum, but at the country Air restaurant.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Which we really enjoyed because the trailer is being worked on. We stayed at this motel that was completely automated. It was the Trippiest thing. Yeah. There's a story about it in Peggy's daily blog. It was trippy because it's completely automated. It's

Peggy Barthel

Called the Trails. Yeah. And you just go in and there's a code that they texted you and a little door pops open, like those Amazon pickup things. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

It's a door pops

Peggy Barthel

Open and there's your room keys. But

Tony Barthel

Said you get a room <laugh>.

Peggy Barthel

And then we went to Breakfast at the Country Air, which is famous for its pies. And so, oh

Tony Barthel

My gosh. Yeah.

Peggy Barthel

Rumor has it that their American giant will be a waitress holding a pie.

Tony Barthel

Yes. So they're gonna get one of the Uniroyal girls. The original design for these fiberglass women was from Uniroyal Tire. The interesting thing is it's the only one where you can actually just display it in a bikini or you can display it with an outfit with, with clothes on. So you can take the clothes on and off at Will. So Oh,

Peggy Barthel

So they're like fabric clothes?

Tony Barthel

No, they're fiberglass. Oh, they're still fiber. Yeah, they're still fiberglass.

Peggy Barthel

Interesting. Okay.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. In fact, there's a tire shop apparently that still has one of the original Uniroyal gals. That's what they called them, by the way. Gals. Yeah. Uniroyal gals. And as the seasons change, they take her shirt and skirt off and there she has stood in a bikini, but the bikini, which elicited a lot of negative comments from some people back when these were new.

Peggy Barthel

So other things that we didn't mention were, there is a muffler man that's been in town for a long time and that's how, was it Joel or

Tony Barthel

Yeah, that's how Joel found,

Peggy Barthel

That's how Joel found Atlanta. Right. It's a Paul bunion, but he's holding a big old hot dog.

Tony Barthel

And it was from a hot dog stand.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. From a hot dog stand. And then got moved to Atlanta. And there's also a library that's eight sided, like brick building. Yeah. Very cool looking. And a nice little small park that has a lot of shade trees and, and

Tony Barthel

A

Peggy Barthel

Bubbler. And a bubbler. And we sat in the park and just looked at the library for a while to rest our feet. <laugh>. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Hey, speaking of pie,

Peggy Barthel

Are you hungry?

Tony Barthel

Well, I'm not hungry, but I see what our recipe of the week is. Oh. And I'm thinking,

Peggy Barthel

Yes,

Tony Barthel

That looks good.

Peggy Barthel

We're traveling all the way back in that way back machine to January when we were in Quartzite and we had a potluck and Christine made,

Tony Barthel

Oh yeah, that was so good.

Peggy Barthel

A dark rum pecan pie. And it was so good. And that will be our recipe this week. Now I will have to admit that I haven't memorized the recipe, so I can't tell you what's in it, but I can tell you there's pecans and dark rum. Yeah. And loads of sugar <laugh>

Tony Barthel

Probably.

Peggy Barthel

And so that recipe will be on our recipesPage@stresslesscamping.com. And you'll just have to believe me that it's there and you'll have to go look at it. It'll be by there because I can, by, I can't tell you how to make it right now. <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

Right. Well we have a new gadget that we, I do. But so as we head towards quartzite, which you know is January, we are thinking through some ideas. And what you may not know is our trailer, our Rockwood has no speakers whatsoever because it originally came with a boy in my brain, a 12 volt smart

Peggy Barthel

Tv.

Tony Barthel

Smart. Well, it wasn't that smart. Yeah. And it wasn't smart enough to stay, wasn't smart

Peggy Barthel

Enough to stay on the wall

Tony Barthel

<laugh>. So we, it not only is a TV, as you would imply by the name Smart tv, but it was also the Bluetooth speaker that we used in the, the trailer

Peggy Barthel

That they put, that's what Rockwood provides as a speaker

Tony Barthel

In the trailer. Right. It's, it's the, it's now, you know what's standard and as we mentioned in the episode about what's coming in the RV industry, we've seen this same tv, but now it is a smart TV as opposed to what we had, which is fine because we don't really watch tv. Yeah. So all that goes to say we don't have speakers in our travel trailer at all at the moment. Right. And I've been itching, as you may know, I'm kind of a big fan of Rabi one plus stuff.

Peggy Barthel

Every time Rabi says there's something new, Tony's like, I gotta go to the store right now. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

I'm, I've, I've got an addiction. So

Peggy Barthel

I think it was just last week, right? That we talked about the fans. Yeah, the

Tony Barthel

Clamp

Peggy Barthel

Fan. The clamp on fan. And so you can clamp this onto, hopefully not just your fingers. I think I mentioned I was gonna clamp it to my shirt just so I'd have hair right in my face and oh, I can't get it off <laugh>. And then it's got, you know, two liables of fan and we talked about this last week. Now from afar you might get confused between this and

Tony Barthel

This verse 18 volt clamp speaker. So it's got the same clamp situation to hurt your fingers, <laugh> since you did it. But it's a Bluetooth speaker. And so some of the neat thing, and that it shares with the fan is that the head moves all around, it's got the clamp, so you can clamp it to stuff, you can hook up one Bluetooth speaker obviously, but you can also hook up to

Peggy Barthel

A hundred, 100 speakers,

Tony Barthel

Speakers, hundred of these speakers together. And it's really easy to do. We did, I bought two of these. So you just power it up and you sync it to whatever Bluetooth thing you want to get sound from phone or tablet, whatever. And then if you wanna sink more, you push this button, the second button. And it's really easy to keep adding these devices. And I mean, I could imagine having a hundred of these all over the yard, the

Peggy Barthel

Way that it was advertised is the first one will reach 250 feet from your source. Right. So 250 feet and then every additional speaker can go a hundred feet. So that's a hundred, a hundred feet, 10,000 feet. That's two miles that you could stand here and have your speaker saying the same thing two miles away. Yeah. I don't know that we'll ever get to the point where we're testing a hundred of them at a time. But

Tony Barthel

Goals <laugh>. No, I'm just kidding. We also have a JBL clip Bluetooth speaker that we had been using. And truthfully that sounds better than these do, but these don't sound bad. It's a little like one and a half inch driver. It's a small driver. I was surprised when I synced the second one. It does sound significantly better with two. Oh. So I can imagine what it's like with a hundred.

Peggy Barthel

With a hundred instead of a two miles. Can we just put 'em all around? Right. A hundred locations around our one acre and blast 'em all toward us.

Tony Barthel

Hey, there we go. I have a whole written review of these and a video review of these. They're not bad little speakers. And if you already have this Rabi battery, then maybe 60 bucks for a Bluetooth speaker is not a bad investment. It's totally up to you. Obviously I am reasonably pleased with this. It'll be traveling with us now along with those bands and drills and lights and all manner of other Rabi stuff.

Peggy Barthel

I think you started to say quartzite and I Oh, I did. So, so our goal is not to have a hundred of these, but our goal is to have maybe four of them. Because as you know, we manage the seminar tent or you may not know, but anyway, it's a, I forget what size 20 it, it's 10 by 2040. Or our goal is to put a speaker in each of the corners so that there is kind of surround sound. Yeah. For the speakers to be able to hear.

Tony Barthel

So yeah, that's the idea. So that it sounds good in that tent. We have been bringing a professional, what they call line array. It's A-J-B-L-E on one with us. And it's big and bulky. It's very bulky and you know, the sound is all in one hot spot and then blast backwards. So I'm hoping with four or maybe six of these, we'll be able to do a good job covering that tent. So we'll see if you're in court site, you'll know. And then if we're at a camp site and we're there, we could put some music on and have

Peggy Barthel

A dance party. Have

Tony Barthel

A dance party or not whatever.

Peggy Barthel

Bring a disco ball.

Tony Barthel

Ooh,

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>. All right. Well are there Bluetooth speakers in your RV of the week?

Tony Barthel

I would imagine that there are, but I didn't specifically look, so if you don't know grand design, which heretofore has made only towables fifth wheels and travel trailers made a big announcement that they are now going to be building a class C. And the very first of these is on the ATU Sprinter chassis. So it'll be powered by their little four cylinder diesel. There's a whole review and I'll put a link to that, that it's not a review, sorry. It's a video that our friend Mac Foxcroft put out interviewing the guy who's behind this thing.

Tony Barthel

I am pretty impressed with a lot of what I saw in that video and we'll have a full review of that motor home. But if you're interested, check out the video. Matt, did few things really stand out to me? Well, yeah. One, it's on the four 50 or 45, I don't remember what Mercedes calls it, but it's on a more capable chassis than most classy. So that's good. The way they built the edges and corners is really very different. It's like aluminum channels all around and they said they could run wires through it.

Tony Barthel

That looks really good. They are using some unusual windows that I really liked the way they did. The electrical system is just brilliant. They under the step, they have two lithium batteries standard. Ooh. And there's not a fuse box. Well there is a fuse box. Instead of using fuses, they're using relays. So even the 12 volt, huh? Or breakers rather, not relays. Oh,

Peggy Barthel

12 volt breakers. Yeah.

Tony Barthel

Really different. Interesting. But the thing that was most exciting to me is they're using shark bite, plumbing fix. Whoa. Fixtures. A lot of things about this look like they are really doing a great job. And I'm eager to see one of these in person. You know, it's a Class C. It's the same layout I've seen from a number of people. It does have a king bed, although it's a foldy bed. Okay. But I mean, that's the only way you're getting a king bed in a class C.

Tony Barthel

Sure, yeah.

Peggy Barthel

But does the bathroom door open?

Tony Barthel

Well I saw Matt go in and out. Okay,

Peggy Barthel

Fair

Tony Barthel

Enough. So it's that same layout as that one we saw. Okay. Where I,

Peggy Barthel

There's no, couldn't get in the bathroom door.

Tony Barthel

This one Matt got in and out. So it looks like they've done a better job there. Looks like grand design really did a great job with this thing. So we'll see obviously. But I'm kind of excited to look at this. At first I'm like, why do they need to do a class C? And then the more I saw about this, the more I'm thinking boy and and the, the guy who was behind it was so excited. You could just tell <laugh> and a lot of little details. So it looks like they've done an exceptional job. We'll see. Great. But if you're looking for a class CI, I would probably hold out to at least touch one of these in person.

Tony Barthel

Okay. Maybe there'll be one at a meetup.

Peggy Barthel

Maybe there will be one at a meetup. Meetup. Meetup, meetup. Oh, last week's question of the week was, would you be interested in attending a Stressless camping meetup? And I felt a little bit weird asking this question because we already have a meetup in court site. Yeah. It's gonna be an annual thing. This is only the second annual coming up in January. But still, so that means

Tony Barthel

This last year was the inaugural,

Peggy Barthel

The inaugural. Anyway, we were thinking about maybe doing something a little closer to home for us and a little more kind of central United States. A little bit more central. Not not the dead center, but it's a little more in the center of the United States, which is one of the reasons we're here in New Mexico. So we were thinking, and we, we haven't fleshed this out at all, but we were thinking maybe something, well yeah,

Tony Barthel

Why? Why would we do something that, something

Peggy Barthel

Like that do that maybe something in New Mexico or Colorado area. And I'm thinking we, again, we haven't really talked about this, but I'm thinking next fall because fall is pretty great temperatures and I used to love spring, but spring here is pretty windy. So I'm thinking maybe fall, maybe late October or something. But anyway, we got a lot of answers and that was great. And thank goodness nobody said are you kidding? No way. Because some get

Tony Barthel

On. Yeah. Right. With you guys.

Peggy Barthel

A couple of the notable notes were that some, somebody said only if Cindy does the bonfires. And I think if we got Cindy and Mana together,

Tony Barthel

Oh we would probably, we probably

Peggy Barthel

The whole state would be a fire.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. I don't know if that's so it might not be good. So good. Yes. Getting Cindy and Mana together on fires. But

Peggy Barthel

They don't make bad fires, they make big fires.

Tony Barthel

No, no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah. They just are really good at campfires. Several

Peggy Barthel

People said they would come if there were potlucks. And my response is why would we not have a potluck? Right? Like that's the whole point is to eat other people's food. Right. <laugh>,

Tony Barthel

We're here to eat your

Peggy Barthel

Bro court is happening. So someone said something about quartzite and that is happening. I'm pretty sure it'll be January 27th to February two ish. Right In that like last week of January, beginning of February, someone asked for Ohio and that maybe is a little bit too far east to be the center of the United States, but maybe someday we'll plan something in Ohio. Yeah. Who knows? Also Northern California, which we did go back to Northern California last year, but we didn't really plan a big meetup. So that gives us, you know, a lot of options.

Peggy Barthel

And so we will kind of think about getting to those parts of the country. But for the most part, really roughly speaking, maybe October-ish, 2025 probably New Mexico, Colorado. That's as far as we've gotten.

Tony Barthel

I have some wheels turning already.

Peggy Barthel

Okay. But thank you for your responses. Yes. And that helps us kind of know that the bonfires and the potlucks are the important part. So <laugh>, we'll make sure we get those planned in this week. We have a question and our question is, what is your favorite road food or guilty pleasure when you're on the road? I keep seeing this meme all over the place in like a lot of, especially in a lot of like RV groups and stuff on Facebook that says road snacks should look like an unsupervised 9-year-old was let loose with a hundred dollars bill.

Tony Barthel

That was us. We went to Wally's. Yeah, I'm sure you've heard of Bucky's. Sure. But we stopped at one of two.

Peggy Barthel

One of two Wally's

Tony Barthel

Wally's, which is kind of a Bucky's like

Peggy Barthel

Product. It looks like it wants to be a Bucky's competition. Yeah. Maybe you know kind of different parts of the state. These were in Missouri and Illinois. Okay. We ended up at the one in Missouri.

Tony Barthel

Very similar to Bucky's and Yeah, very similar and design. Except more friendly to RVers in my opinion. Yeah. And different snack, bigger parking spaces. But they had brisket sandwiches and they talked about how clean their restrooms were. And I have to say they were not as clean as Bucky's, but they were not bad either,

Peggy Barthel

But mine were so, okay. I think timing was off maybe because someone was just leaving the women's bathroom from cleaning. So maybe they were headed to the men's bathroom to

Tony Barthel

<laugh> perhaps. And that's in your daily blog too?

Peggy Barthel

That is in my daily blog. Yeah, we talked about that. Tell us about your crazy snacks. 'cause you know we're always looking for better ideas. <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. Especially after I stepped on the scale this week and it cried. Yeah.

Peggy Barthel

Maybe give us snacks that are from like calorie free perhaps.

Tony Barthel

No way. No way. That's not the idea. It's supposed to look like a 9-year-old got let loose with a hundred dollars

Peggy Barthel

Bill that nine year old's not gonna buy anything that's healthy. <laugh>. No.

Tony Barthel

And where would I answer? Said questions?

Peggy Barthel

So answer said question all the questions. Ask your questions. Show us pictures of yourself. Camping at our fun and friendly. I suddenly almost said the old one. The fun and friendly Stressless Camping podcast. Facebook. Oh, that's the old one. No, that's the, these are old notes. Yeah. At our fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group. <laugh>.

Tony Barthel

I'm not gonna pull up that file anymore. And did you know, of course you did that we do a once a week newsletter.

Peggy Barthel

Of course they know that. And it's co

Tony Barthel

Free. And it is unlike our pantry. It is spam free <laugh>. Well actually right now our pantry is, right now

Peggy Barthel

Our pantry is spam free.

Tony Barthel

By the way, we went to the spam museum as you know, and got Maple spam. I'm obsessed.

Peggy Barthel

Obsessed.

Tony Barthel

It's so

Peggy Barthel

Good. And he couldn't find it locally, so now he's ordering it online.

Tony Barthel

Yeah, I ordered it on those

Peggy Barthel

<laugh>.

Tony Barthel

It is good

Peggy Barthel

Because you gotta have Maple spam.

Tony Barthel

Yeah. But anyway, that newsletter is spam free. Our pantry won't be for much longer. And also you can find the show notes for this episode on the podcastPage@stresslesscamping.com.

Peggy Barthel

And this is episode number 2 6 1.

Tony Barthel

Absolutely.

Peggy Barthel

Don't also forget, while you're on the stressless camping.com website about our deals and discounts page, we are kind of constantly moving and changing and adding and updating that page. And things change a lot. So if you haven't looked lately, go check out the deals and discounts page. Maybe there's something there that you're thinking about buying and you'll buy it now 'cause you find a discount. Yeah, right.

Tony Barthel

And of course we are all, we're all, we're all <laugh>, we're all in the social places. All the places that, you know, you like to waste time when the boss ain't looking. And if you would like to join us in the social world, you can do so. We're probably wherever you are. And you can start@stresslesscamping.com and from there, jump off to all the places that you, and we like to be social.

Peggy Barthel

We have told you before, we will tell you again. But reviews are our lifeblood <laugh> and we really appreciate the reviews that we get. And we really would love if you would take a moment and whatever, whatever you're using to listen to. This podcast has a place where you can write a review of the podcast and we would sure appreciate it if you would write a review. It really helps us. It helps.

Tony Barthel

It introduces new listeners to the podcast. Yeah. And then, you know, it expands the audience and the more people, the better the deals and discounts. That's right. People reach out. That's right to us. To yeah. To have. So thank you to all of those who have reviewed us. Thank you to you who are about to That's right. And if you have already done so, you know, we have on our website a lot of answers to the questions people ask on social media. So if you see someone ask a question and you want a actual reliable answer that's been vetted, maybe find it on the Stresses camping website and share that page that I, I can't tell you how that's also

Peggy Barthel

Very, very helpful.

Tony Barthel

Yeah, there you go. That's what we have for you this week. Maybe you're gonna go and check out the muffler, man. Maybe there's a muffler man in your front yard.

Peggy Barthel

Yeah. And if you know that there is one and we haven't seen it yet, please let us know. 'cause we will plan that trip.

Tony Barthel

Yes, we will. <laugh>. So with that, thank you so much for being here again this week and most of all, stress

Peggy Barthel

Stressless

Tony Barthel

Camping.

Mark Ferrell

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

Peggy Barthel

Road snacks should look like an unsupervised 9-year-old was let loose with a hundred dollars bill.