Sedona, Arizona - a great place for RVing and why?
This week we’re coming to you from Sedona, Arizona. Is this a town where you can come with an RV and see some incredible things? We have (11) tips for venturing into Sedona with an RV. It’s actually a pretty great place to be so join us as we adventure into this incredibly scenic town.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Rancho Sedona RV Park - depending on how athletic you are its walking distance to Tlaquepaque and even downtown
Artist galleries and high-end stores
There are a tremendous number of bronze statues all over town
Live music
Great overview of the whole area. We like to start with these then decide what to revisit on our own
Downtown walking - it’s like an open-air shopping mall
Food
Black Cow Cafe - they make their own pies and ice cream every day
Coffee Pot Restaurant. There are all these rock formations that have different names and the Coffee Pot restaurant sits in the shadow of the coffee pot rock formation.
Oak Creek Brewery. My gosh it has grown - now it’s a restaurant in Tlaquepaque.
Jeep tours
Yesterday my family took a lot longer walk than planned and they were lucky that Cowboy Bob stopped and offered them a ride in his jeep tour. To thank him, we booked a tour with Cowboy Bob at Arizona Safari Jeep Tours. We learned history about the town, the native, and the outlaws. We got to experience a vortex with dousing rods
Vortexes - because there are so many of these that’s why it’s so artistic in Sedona. Sedona vortexes (the proper grammatical form ‘vortices’ is rarely used) are thought to be swirling centers of energy that are conducive to healing, meditation and self-exploration. These are places where the earth seems especially alive with energy. Many people feel inspired, recharged or uplifted after visiting a vortex.
Slide Rock State Park but it was stupidly crowded
Sedona Heritage Museum - this used to be apple and peach growing country
Airport sunset
Peggy’s article on the Geology of Sedona
Do you shop on Amazon? If you click our link first, we do get a tiny credit. Our Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3XO2UfI
III.Tony’s review of the AEONrv Rev2
The surprisingly good (and actually healthy) Solely organic fruit jerky
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 262
Peggy Barthel
This week we're coming to you from Sedona, Arizona.
Tony Barthel
Is this a town where you can come with an RV and see some incredible things? We
Peggy Barthel
Have 11 tips for venturing into Sedona with an rv.
Tony Barthel
It's actually a pretty great place to be. So join us as we adventure into this incredibly scenic town. Oh, I'm Tony.
Peggy Barthel
Oh yeah, I'm Peggy. That's what's next. <laugh>,
Tony Barthel
As you can tell, we've changed the format. Just a wee it. We're
Peggy Barthel
Still messing around with it, trying to figure out. We're still screwing it
Tony Barthel
Up. Yeah. Bit. That's what we do.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>
Tony Barthel
Five years of doing this. That right. And there's a
Peggy Barthel
Bird. There's some great birds. 'cause we're outside, so why not? Yeah. Birds belong outside. Okay. But we are two RV industry veterans. We are.
Tony Barthel
Who traveled part-time? Well, not right now, but we do. And sometimes own. Own
Peggy Barthel
Trailer. A small trailer. Small trailer. Right now we're traveling in just our Ram truck and hanging out with family in Sedona, Arizona. In a timeshare. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And we are off our game, but that's okay. <laugh> those birds.
Peggy Barthel
So let's go back. We are two RV industry veterans who travel part-time. Usually in a small trailer.
Tony Barthel
Right. And looking to share big adventures and tips. Tricks and ideas and destinations. And discounts too.
Peggy Barthel
And discounts too.
Tony Barthel
Those birds are throwing me off. Have
Peggy Barthel
We ever done this before?
Tony Barthel
Five years worth?
Peggy Barthel
So about five years ago. Yes. Or nine weeks Minus my nine weeks from five years ago we did an episode on boondocking and we did talk a little bit about things to do in Sedona. 'cause we had just visited. But this week we're going to talk a lot more about Sedona. But you said you were listening to that old episode about boondocking.
Tony Barthel
It was interesting. I mean, so what we used to do when we had our first Rockwood mini light is we had an 80 watt go Power Dura light solar panel. And it was one of those folding panels. And that was all, we had that in two golf cart batteries effectively. And we thought we were hot potatoes because we could run the heater at night and we could, you know, it was the propane electric fridge <affirmative>. And it, it worked out okay.
Tony Barthel
Sure. But on cloudy days, those portable panels had to be brought in. Yeah. So then it was like, oh, now what?
Peggy Barthel
And we were pretty limited in our amount of battery that we even had.
Tony Barthel
Oh boy. Were we ever But, well, two basically golf cart batteries. Yeah. Yeah. Now what we have, if you don't know, is the power package that was put together with A BC Outfitters and Rockwood slash Flagstaff. Hey, we're in Arizona, Flagstaff. Oh,
Peggy Barthel
Like Flagstaff. Yeah. <laugh>. But
Tony Barthel
Anyway. And it's a system that has, ours has 400 amp hour lithium battery, a thousand watts of solar. A 2000 watt, no, 3000 watt inverter. And we can run the air conditioner in the, now we have a 12 volt fridge. It compensates for that. We don't really worry about power so much anymore. No, never. And it's, it's incredible how good these systems have become. And we're very fortunate, as you longtime listeners would know that we have partnered with A B, C Upfitters because they're the ones who actually designed this power package for Rockwood.
Tony Barthel
Right. And they actually design a number of these complete systems for RV manufacturers. 'cause the RV manufacturers recognize that A BC Upfitters uses master volt systems, which means that the charge controller and the battery and the inverter and all of that work together seamlessly. And if there ever is a problem, and I actually don't know anybody who's had one, but if there is one, it's not finger pointing, right?
Tony Barthel
It's basically one company that manufactures all the pieces. And then the way a BC upfitters works is they step in and then they ask a bunch of questions. Do you spend a lot of time off the grid? Are you just looking to have a system that keeps the fridge running? What is your objective? And then they can choose from the size of components to make that happen without having to worry about it. 'cause one of the things I like about this system is it just one, there's everything from drop in battery placements to complete systems where you can run multiple air condition.
Tony Barthel
I mean, you, you tell them what you want and they'll make it happen. And they have actual engineers on staff that will design these systems so that they work properly and fit properly in your rv. And they're, they're just good people who speak
Peggy Barthel
Plain English, plain
Tony Barthel
English
Peggy Barthel
Things even is awesome. I can understand <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
So if that's the way you want this to work, give them a call at (574) 333-3225.
Peggy Barthel
That's 5 7 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 5. And it will be in those show notes. I still don't know where you put them, but <laugh>
Tony Barthel
<laugh>, it depends on the
Peggy Barthel
Platform. Wherever show notes show up on the screen or in the show notes on our website,
Tony Barthel
They also now have a brand new shiny website. Oh, that's right. So we'll put a link to that too. And it answers a bunch of your questions. But the best way is to just talk to Scott and Ben and, and all the people, Stacy, all the people there. They're just good people. Yeah. So Sedona.
Peggy Barthel
Yes. Sedona. We have brought our travel trailer here before. We have RV here. There are some things we're gonna talk about RV specific, but also, you know, when you're here and you're in an RV park and you can go see the whole rest of Sedona, that's kind of what we're gonna talk about. All the things you can do while you're RVing in Sedona. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
We have stayed at the Rancho Sedona RV park and it's a really pleasant place. Right on a creek there. You can walk down into the creek <affirmative>. The sites are nice. I believe they have full hookups. It's just a nice little RV park that we have enjoyed in the past and we anticipate coming back. We've been to Sedona a number of times.
Peggy Barthel
A number of times. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And just really we, we like it here. There's something about this place that Yeah. Keeps bringing us back. Maybe
Peggy Barthel
It's the Vortexes, <laugh> or
Tony Barthel
Vortices
Peggy Barthel
And we'll talk about those in a minute. But yeah, the, so that park is a little bit off the main drag, which is nice. It's nice and quiet. You could probably walk to that main drag where, you know, not really long.
Tony Barthel
Well, I mean Walker, so, or if you brought your e-bike, I'm
Peggy Barthel
Sure, or e-bikes would probably be a great way to get into town. And then you don't have to worry so much about parking.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I think that might even be the best solution. Well, depending on, on you obviously. Right. But you know, you camp at Rancho Sedona RV Park and then hop on your e-bike. Yeah. And the main stuff is close enough that that would actually be a really good solution. Even if you're lazy like me,
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. So one of the places you can visit is called P <laugh>. So apparently it's named after a, like a city in Mexico. So
Tony Barthel
It's actually near Guadalajara.
Peggy Barthel
Guadalajara. Okay. So anyway, it's not a, it's not a Sedona made up name, <laugh>. It is pretty much a, a shopping center slash village. But it's very high end. It's very artsy. It's beautiful, beautiful gallery work and lots of really artistic things that you can buy. We just like to look at all the art that we'll never probably buy <laugh>. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I mean we, well we don't really have room for, we don't
Peggy Barthel
Really have room for
Tony Barthel
Bronze tigers,
Peggy Barthel
Any kind of Oh, and the bronze. Yeah. Even the, I mean there's paintings, there's crafts, there's a lot of statuary, bronze statues and things like that.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. All over town. There's, in this ak there are places you can buy fancy bronze statues and other things. I mean there's paintings and Native American crafts. And so this, apparently the history of this place is 50 years ago this dude built this place kind of with the nod toward AK in Guadalajara or outside of Guadalajara. It's very authentic looking in how it was designed. There's a church in there and there's restaurants and there's, you
Peggy Barthel
Said he hired people to do the construction that weren't necessarily in construction.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It was more kind of meant to look rustic or rural like you'd see in an old Mexican village. Okay. You know, like near Uck, it's
Peggy Barthel
Really cool to walk around. It's a kind of a two story. A lot of it's two stories and you know, shops up and down and a lot of galleries like you said. And then there's like a toy store and there's some clothing stores and eateries and coffee and you know, just all kinds of things. Really fun to just wander around. And
Tony Barthel
There's live music. And truly from that Rancho Sedona RV park, you could, you could easily walk that. Sure. It's not that far. By the way, another thing about Rancho Sedona really quickly, it's up this road and you're driving and you're like, there's no way there's an RV park up here, but way it's up there.
Peggy Barthel
Don't get too discouraged. 'cause it is a kind of a small road. It doesn't, it's not off the freeway. No. Right. It's off a little road. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So another way to see town, which we've done before, is the Red Rock Magic Trolley. Oh,
Peggy Barthel
I
Tony Barthel
Love, you'll have trouble saying that
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. That's a lot of words. We love those red trolleys or trolleys or red buses or whatever will get you around all over town in any new city that we go to. Big city that has something like that. We like to get on there the first day and like ride around and get shown all the different parts of what's interesting around the towns. And then we can kind of take notes and say, okay, tomorrow we're gonna get in the truck and we're gonna go visit this. This is more, see these more in depth. Yeah. But those trolleys and buses and stuff are so informative and so great.
Peggy Barthel
And when we took, that was a whole bunch of my family was there. Yeah. That was, we practically filled the bus up. So <laugh>, that was a lot of fun to also be like hanging out with our family and have all those inside jokes and <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
But it Yeah, like, like when we went to New Orleans, we took the red bus. Yeah. Or the double decker bus and the, I don't know, I think that's a neat intro to the city. And then you're like, Ooh, I want to see that. Or I wanna see that.
Peggy Barthel
That's my recommendation whenever you're in a new city is to see if they have some kind of a tour bus around town.
Tony Barthel
Pak is its own area, but then there's the downtown <affirmative> and it's, I don't know what, four, six blocks long,
Peggy Barthel
Whatever. Something like that. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And it's, it truly is an open air shopping center. Sure. I mean, Sedona has developed to the point where it's a lot of tourism focused <affirmative> stuff and you could either come here for the natural beauty and nobody would ever blame you for that. Yeah. Or you could come here for the touristy stuff or a mixture of both. Sure. But it's become very popular because of that. But anyway, downtown is like this whole walking area with, again, more those shops a little bit not as high-end as.
Tony Barthel
Sure.
Peggy Barthel
I mean, it's still very touristy area. So you're not finding bargain basements here?
Tony Barthel
No, no, no <laugh>. But you can get shirts dyed. So the geology here is a lot of Red Rock and there's shirts dyed with that red rock. And so if you want a souvenir, there's, there's plenty of that. Certainly more statues.
Peggy Barthel
More statues. More ice cream and coffee and pie and
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah. Let's talk. So unfortunately for food, we could talk a little bit about that. But because of the way Peggy's family travels Yeah. They make a lot of the food. Right. And so we haven't gone out as much, although we've gone out some, we've
Peggy Barthel
Gone out some and we've gone out in the past when we've just been the two of us or whatever. And we've gone to a few different places. And even when we're always together at home for dinner, there's still lunch, there's still breakfast, there's still coffee, there's still breweries, ice cream, there's still breweries, there's still lu, you know. So we still get a chance to get out there and see what the city has to offer. And one of our favorites is the Black Cow Cafe. Yeah. Mm. They make their own pies and they've been famous for pies forever. And they make their own ice cream.
Peggy Barthel
And so I don't, we got so entranced with the ice cream I think last time we were there. Yeah. We've
Tony Barthel
Never eaten pie there.
Peggy Barthel
We didn't eat pie because we were like, let's go for the pie. And they were like, oh, ice cream and we forgot to get pie. So maybe that's what we'll do this afternoon. Who knows?
Tony Barthel
Ooh, I'm all on that. Oh yeah. Yeah. So something I, I wanna say about the food recommendations, I listened to our previous podcast. It was like episode seven. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Seven. That was a long time ago.
Tony Barthel
Places that we liked. Then I've found a lot of the places that were here the last time we were here and the previous time are just gone. It seems there's a fair amount of turnover. But not black cow, cafe <affirmative> that's been here. I don't know. It's been here. One of those, it's one of those landmark businesses. And then the next one, the coffee pot.
Peggy Barthel
The coffee pot restaurant. That's right. So they are the home of 101 omelets. I almost said waffles. 101 omelets. And so we went there yesterday, my sister Kathy and Tony and I went to the coffee pot for breakfast. And we each had a different omelet.
Tony Barthel
I had a corn beef hash
Peggy Barthel
Omelet turn, corn beef hash I
Tony Barthel
Had with grits.
Peggy Barthel
I had Hammond avocado and Kathy had crab in avocado. Yeah. We had grits for our side dish, which isn't that common really. So it's great when they have, when we find a place with grits, I love it.
Tony Barthel
The interesting thing, they have the 101 omelets and then a bunch of other stuff. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Full breakfast menu.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Oh yeah. It's called Coffee Pot because there's all these incredible rock formations here in Sedona. And a lot of them have names like Coffee Pot, which you can see from the Coffee Pot restaurant. Right.
Peggy Barthel
Or my mom's timeshare.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that's true. So it kind of is in the shadow of that. So that's why it's called that. And you drive around and look at these incredible rock formations and that's pretty
Peggy Barthel
Cool. Yeah. The rocks are, I mean, just to like have a map that says this rock looks like Snoopy laying on his back. This rock looks like a lizard's head. And this one looks like a coffee pot. Even just to like wander around and look at those rock formations with interesting shapes or find your own.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And then there's so fun. There's a lot of hiking and walking and Yes. And going to see that. So as we said, if you're not into the downtown shopping touristy stuff, that's fine. There's Yeah. A lot of pure outdoor nature here in Sedona.
Peggy Barthel
But to finish off the food segment,
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So we've been coming here for a few years. Yeah. And there's a little teeny hole in the wall brewery called Oak Creek Brewery that we had gone to two or three times
Peggy Barthel
Several years ago. Yeah. Like we went in 2000, I think four be the first time. Okay. So for 20 years.
Tony Barthel
20 years we've been here. Yeah. Wow. We've been coming here for a long time. Yeah. Well now we're in And they have a full, yeah, second story restaurant now.
Peggy Barthel
Oak Creek Brewery and Cafe Or Grill, I think it's called Grill. Grill some. Yeah, I think it's called Grill. Anyway, it's a, you know, a restaurant and brewery. And while we were in Slacky, pki kind of like we wanted to see Slacky pki, but also we were like, Hmm, it's gonna be lunchtime, we can go to brewery for lunch.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's gonna be beer time. And I have to tell you, as a beer aficionado, they had a flight of seven of their regular. Yeah. So, you know, like many breweries, they have seasonals or beers that are only there for a short time. And then they have their core, which there are seven of those. And honestly, of all the seven, I liked all but one of them. Yeah. I would, my measurement is what I bring this home in a growler or a six pack, whatever they happen to have. And I could load a cooler from that brew.
Tony Barthel
I was really impressed. And that's probably why they've grown so much. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And they did a full, you know, like they weren't all really hoppy. They weren't all not hoppy. They were very, there were a couple hoppy ones and a couple very smooth ones and multi ones and lights and darks and really ran the range of what you can run in seven different beers. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It was all really good. But one really hit the mark and, and were a good example of their type like the hees. And it was a very traditional Bavarian but with a twist. And so I, I just, I would go back and drink their beers as I have. I've been drinking their beers for 20 years.
Peggy Barthel
20 years. And also by the way, we had some food.
Tony Barthel
Oh
Peggy Barthel
That's right. And we couldn't decide what we wanted and we didn't wanna overeat. We did overeat. But because we couldn't choose, we ended up ordering soft pretzels, which is a small, was kind of three small soft pretzels and a quesadilla and chicken wings. And we ate 'em almost all. Yeah. We have a little bit of chicken wings left, but we shouldn't have eaten so much. But everything was really tasty.
Tony Barthel
And there was beer and
Peggy Barthel
There was beer. The
Tony Barthel
Pretzels weren't the greatest but they weren't bad. So pretzels should have a kind of a crusty crust.
Peggy Barthel
Well, yeah. Yeah. They were the wrong texture. But yeah,
Tony Barthel
That's okay. So you went and did something that we have, we have both done in the past. Yeah. And Peggy went with some of the members of her, her family today.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. So I didn't realize it's like National Cousin's Day or something. Really. Really. Yeah. And so my cousin Jim, my cousin Julie and my sister Kathy and I and another friend Missy, went on a Jeep tour. Now I have to tell you why we chose this specific Jeep tour. There are at least three major companies in Sedona that will take you out on tours. And each one of them offers from mild to wild. They'll take you on really nice dirt roads or they'll take you on pretty medium or they'll take you on the really intense fun like back road or back knot road or whatever.
Peggy Barthel
Last time we were on the pink Jeeps and we got to climb the rocks and everything.
Tony Barthel
I so love that. It
Peggy Barthel
Was super fun. Well, so yesterday, my cousin Jim Cousins, Jim and Julia, Missy and my uncle Russ went on a hike and they thought it was a couple of miles while it turned out it was like five miles. They didn't take enough water. They didn't anticipate that much time and that much heat. And they were really not feeling so great. And Jim said they had about a half a mile left to go and they weren't sure how they were gonna make it. And this Jeep tour leader pulled up and said, are you guys okay?
Peggy Barthel
Can you make it back? And they said, we're not sure. And they, he said, well, do you need some water? And so, yes. So they, he gave them water. He put them in the Jeep with the tour that he was already carrying around and he got them back safely to their car. So how do you choose a tour company? Well obviously
Tony Barthel
If they're that cool that they'll,
Peggy Barthel
If if Cowboy Bob is gonna stop and pick you up when you're dying from a hike, you wanna see Cowboy Bob again? Yes. So Cowboy Bob works for Arizona Safari Jeep Tours in Sedona. And we booked a tour with him this morning and he was so gracious and so wonderful. He is such a good tour guard. He is from four, I believe four generations. Like he's fourth generation native, Sedona, Sedona, Sedona,
Tony Barthel
Sedona resident,
Peggy Barthel
Sedona resident. He knows the whole area and he knows the, the vegetation and the history and the animals. And it was very, very informative, very cool experience. We took the mild ones. So we did go on dirt roads, but not really off-roading 'cause we're all getting a little older and we didn't think we needed to be jostled around very much.
Tony Barthel
So some of the things you did, you went to a vortex.
Peggy Barthel
We did. We got to go to where there's a vortex and he had divining rods or dowsing rods and we got to hold the dowsing rods and he showed us where to walk. And if you've never experienced this and you think it's kind of a bunch of hooey, <laugh>, I'm telling you like you hold these rods loosely in your hands and as you walk, the rods were twisting and turning. And once they got parallel he said, okay, you're right there in the middle of it, so stop and feel it for a second and then walk out.
Peggy Barthel
And the rods would open themselves back up. And we, so we each took a turn doing that and it was really cool. And I, I mean, yeah, the rods moved for no apparent reason. Huh. Now people use, a lot of people use these actually for finding water. And Bob said he thinks water's probably about 15 feet. And I think that's from just experience and knowing the whole area. I don't think he divines that from <laugh> how the rods move. But we definitely got to experience a vortex. His philosophy, I don't know if I can really explain it, but it's because of the movement of water and the quartz and the dirt.
Peggy Barthel
There really is a field of power.
Tony Barthel
Hmm. Okay. So since we're talking about the vortex vor, okay, there's some people who say vortexes and to me, correct. English is vortices
Peggy Barthel
Correct. English is vortices. But I think because a vortex is a phenomenon, an experience or something, something, it, it, they each, I don't know. I, I don't really know why they do it, but I know a lot of people say vortexes instead because maybe each one people
Tony Barthel
Say Ws
Peggy Barthel
Now stop it.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. There's no R in Ws. A hot water heater is not a hot water heater, it's a water heater. You already have water, you just need it to be hot.
Peggy Barthel
You're a non-believer.
Tony Barthel
<laugh> in
Peggy Barthel
Wars in vortexes. That's
Tony Barthel
True. I like what I can touch, but <laugh> anyway, but the vortices or vortexes,
Peggy Barthel
Right. So they are thought to be energy centers and there are, I think there are supposed to be seven of them in the Sedona area and there really aren't that many in the world. Like there's one in Mexico and one in Spain and one in, I don't remember Egypt or something. So they're not, you know, it's not like there's a vortex on every street corner. But there happened to be a lot of them concentrated here in Sedona one at the airport. And so anyway, a lot of people come here specifically just to experience the vortexes.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah. And supposedly there's like, people come and meditate and they Yeah. Feel inspired and recharged. Right. And, and all of that. Well, Jimmy dropped his phone on a vortex and he said that it got, he
Peggy Barthel
No, while he was walking with the dowsing rods. Oh, okay. And then he said later, I think it charged my phone <laugh>. I'm not sure if he even looked honestly.
Tony Barthel
But you, I mean it's, it's something we've had friends who are very into the vortexes and all of that. Yeah, I'm, I'm a little, you know what, everybody has what they like. That's right. That's right. That's why there's 31 flavors at the ice cream store.
Peggy Barthel
Yes, exactly.
Tony Barthel
Something there's no denying. Oh yes, slide rock state park,
Peggy Barthel
Slide Rock State Park is a actual, it's in the creek Oak Creek. I don't know if the water itself has caused a slide or if so many people thinking hey, that looks like a slide. And then all their behinds rubbing on the rock. But there's like a slide, so it's in the creek. So you wait in line nowadays. Oh. And you get in line and you wait at the top of the slide and then you take your turn going down the slide in the creek. Lots of fun. I've again been here, you know, for 20 years and it didn't used to be that crowded, but yesterday we thought, oh we'll go check that out.
Peggy Barthel
And as we drove up to the entrance to the park, there were like three park rangers directing traffic and there was a big line to get in and there was a big crowd at the slide and Oh it was,
Tony Barthel
We
Peggy Barthel
Didn't go in. Maybe looking at the slide was something for us, but waiting in that line was not so
Tony Barthel
Something for us. So once the parking lot was full, traffic was overflowing onto the street, then as we drove by, you could see into the slide rock. Yeah. And there was a line up the hill like these people were, you know, giving away free gold bars. So <laugh>, we did not go in. We didn't realize that. And I mean that, I guess I'm gonna take the opportunity to say Sedona. Well it is the 4th of July weekend.
Peggy Barthel
It's summer. It's definitely summer and weekend and
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And so this place has really expanded from tourism. Yeah. There is so much tourism here for good reason. It's a nifty place. Yeah. But it can get crowded <affirmative>, like that slide rock. I mean there's no like, oh I'm just gonna go on slide rock. Not if you're not willing to wait in a long line. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So yeah, if you ever have the opportunity, maybe it's off season, you just wanna go see it or you really like cold water and you wanna experience in the off season, go for it. You'd probably be able to get right in and yeah, it's something to see. It's very interesting. I wanted,
Tony Barthel
Wanted to try it. I was really looking forward to it, but oh
Peggy Barthel
Well. Yeah. Well maybe next time. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So oddly enough, Sedona used to be an apple growing region. So you learn some,
Peggy Barthel
I learned today that cowboy Bob said apples and peaches Interesting. Plus cattle. There's some, not huge cattle, but enough cattle for the locals. Little baby cows. Yeah. Little baby cows. Enough. Enough cattle for the locals to, you know, take advantage of the beef local locally.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that makes sense. But anyway, Sedona Heritage Museum is kind of an old apple farm and it's got the barn and a bunch of old farm vehicles and stuff. That's, that's pretty cool <affirmative>. And we learned about that on that Red Rock holiday
Peggy Barthel
When we went on the Red Rock trolley. That's right. The other night we walked, went up, walked. We did not walk, we drove up to the airport to experience the sunset. There is a great, I mean the sunset is great because it's right over one of these beautiful rock formations and the airport's kind of at the top of the hill. So you have, you have a great kind of viewpoint. You can stand and it, you know, the airport's there and there's a big parking lot, but then there's also like a viewpoint. And so we were, you know, you park in the parking lot, we walk back over to the viewpoint and we all stood there with thousands of people waiting for the sunset to get our Instagram shots and <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. And it was really pretty, it was fun. But there was a, a decent cloud cover. It wasn't over cloudy, but up high there were clouds. So you know, when the sun goes down it was reflecting off all the clouds and really pretty and really nice. Also, maybe we were standing on a vortex, I'm not sure. Oh, there's supposed to be one somewhere. Was your phone charged up there? My phone. My phone came back charged. I don't know, <laugh>. So that is something to put on your list when it's not a cloudy day <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Well, I mean, it's just cool to go up there. Yeah. When we, when I was at the airport last, there was some dude up there with a dig. Yeah, yeah. So I really liked that. Yeah. It kind
Peggy Barthel
Of as a little party. But when we were there it was just, you know, just people looking. But sometimes it's people playing instruments or busking or whatever, you know, and just hanging out up there. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Because this is such an artist community. And some come for the vortices or vortexes, some come just 'cause it's flippant beautiful here. Yeah. For whatever reason, there are a lot of, not just visual artists like painters and sculptors and that, but musicians up here too. And because of that, there's a lot of times you, there's just somebody playing on the side of the street. I mean, very talented <affirmative> or unusual like did you de at that black pocket?
Tony Barthel
There was a dude with a 12 string guitar up. Well I'm not sure if there was a
Peggy Barthel
Guitar. I don't know what that was. It was so interesting. It was like a guitar and it had 12 strings, but there was like an upper neck, but it wasn't a straight neck. It was like a swoop.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It was really interesting
Peggy Barthel
Being loose neck looking thing. So I don't know.
Tony Barthel
And he was really good at it. So yeah, the last thing that we can say is the geology here is really, really, really unusual. Yeah. And Peggy being a geologist, I, that's one of the reasons she digs it, I assume. Yeah. Yeah. And so the goal, by the time you watch or, or
Peggy Barthel
Read this by the time or hear this by the, yeah. By the time you see or hear this, there should be a new entry in the RV geologist and it'll be the R the, no, not the rv. It'll be the geology of Sedona. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It's pretty interesting. Yeah. So look for that at our home on the web@stresslesscamping.com. And have you been here? What, what do you like about this area? If you have, what do you not like? You can share that. So moving on, I want to just thank, A lot of people have been buying things on Amazon lately through Stressless camping. And the way you do that, if you're watching the podcast on YouTube, I'll put a link down below to our Amazon store. If you are looking through our website, which we encourage you to do.
Tony Barthel
There's a product that we like, we put a link to Amazon. Right. And if you buy through any of those links, we get a teeny, teeny tiny piece of Thank you. Change from Mr. Bezos himself. Right? Well maybe not
Peggy Barthel
TOS is a penny in our hat. <laugh>. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
Yeah. We're busing for,
Peggy Barthel
We're busking
Tony Barthel
Busken. So if you shop on Amazon, if you click on our website on our link first, then it says, Hey, these people sent us to Amazon and good old Jeff, man, he, he throws us a penny or two. He's a good guy. But you know what, it's like raindrops, every little penny adds up. That's, and this has been a very solid month of pennies. And
Peggy Barthel
It also makes us happy that we feel like if you are, if you are buying the things that we recommend through Amazon, we feel really good. Because if we don't like them or don't trust them or use them ourselves, we're not recommending them. So when we say, you know, everybody should have a good set of wheel chocks, not those plastic garbage wheel chocks. And we, we know that you bought wheel chocks on Amazon. We know you're safer, we're happy. We're not only happy 'cause we got that penny in our hat.
Peggy Barthel
We're happy 'cause we know you're safer now.
Tony Barthel
Right. And yeah, we don't ever recommend anything or share anything that we wouldn't buy ourselves or haven't bought ourselves. <affirmative>. That's our way of doing things. It's not everybody does it that way, but we feel that's how ultimately our service is to you, is to you the people who watch or listen to or read the things that we produce. So we try to have good service to you. And based on last month, I guess we must, I guess
Peggy Barthel
We must,
Tony Barthel
Ooh man, I need some broccoli salad.
Peggy Barthel
I also haven't made every recipe that's on our website, but this week's recipe does not start with someone else's name because <laugh>, it's actually my own recipe. Well, technically I should thank my sister Kathy 'cause she and I kind of collaborated on what I should get. But anyway, we made broccoli salad at one of our family dinners. And I shared that recipe with you. I mean, yeah, this is gonna be Thursday, so I will have shared it. <laugh> <laugh>. I'm gonna do that immediately when we're done
Tony Barthel
Recording. I ate a lot. It was, it was quite good. It
Peggy Barthel
Was really good. Broccoli salad. And you know, broccoli salad is good. It's crisp and it's cool and refreshing and it's healthy and,
Tony Barthel
And it has bacon and
Peggy Barthel
So it has bacon in it. How could you go
Tony Barthel
Wrong? And this was something, you know, if you as an rvr, you don't wanna mess up the kitchen all the time. Yeah. Especially in summer cooking. So honestly, the bacon we brought was bacon. We had made it home. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
We had already cooked it and put it in a thing in the refrigerator. Actually we froze it kind of on accident, but Oh
Tony Barthel
Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Anyway, just, you know, you can pre-do the broccoli and I mean, sorry, you can pre-cook the bacon and you can also, to make it easier when you're RV-ing, you can buy like packages of bacon, broccoli.
Tony Barthel
We're focused on bacon
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. You can precook the bacon and you can buy packages prepackaged broccoli that you don't have to cut up and clean and all that if you buy a whole head. So anyway, I put all those kind of tips into the recipe. So if you're making the home, you got all the room and time and space you need, you can do it the hard way. Or if you're in the rv, you can do it the shortcut way.
Tony Barthel
I, I would say this is a crowd pleaser, but I don't know if everyone likes broccoli, but I know I do. Oh,
Peggy Barthel
I'm gonna tell you that I thought we didn't have enough.
Tony Barthel
I, yeah, we made a pretty big amount.
Peggy Barthel
Everybody that has been, and it was, yeah, everybody that has been making dishes has had tons of leftovers. And we somehow, I honestly thought if you don't have leftovers, that means there wasn't too much. And that means someone might have not gotten enough. But everybody seemed to get enough. We kind of talked my dad into eating the last of the salad right out of the bowl. And so it got eaten. And so it seemed to please the crowd just fine. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Oh yeah. Yeah. <laugh>, speaking of being in an RV and potentially space constrained this week I looked at an RV called the Aeon. It's A EON, it sta, it's an acronym rv. And this is an unusual all-wheel drive designed by a guy who was renting RVs to go off gridding. And he's like, these things all have issues. So he designed his own, they only make like 50 or 60 of these things a year, but they're very differently built and really well thought through.
Tony Barthel
So these are overlanding rigs. It's a small class B or B plus that has no slides and it's got a huge storage bay in the back. So if you're familiar with the Winnebago Echo, this would be a competitor to that. Okay. But I like this even better 'cause it's even better thought out than the echo. And part of the reason is the bathroom. And you have to see the article. I'll put a link in the show notes, but the bathroom is in the entryway, which sounds like a terrible idea.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Weird. Until
Peggy Barthel
You look at, it sounds so weird
Tony Barthel
To me. Like I'm telling Peggy, I'm like, if I were to buy a class B, I'd buy this one. And I'm trying to explain, but without seeing it, it doesn't make sense. But it's nice because I guess the guy who designed it likes to ski and do a lot of that kind of thing. So you could put your boots and such in the bathroom. Sure. So they drain and it's like a teak floor as you walk in. And then there's a compost. Oh, somebody wrote as a comment, $200,000 in a composting toilet. No way. If I built an rv, I would absolutely want composting.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Toilet. Lots of different ways of thinking with this thing, but really I think very well thought through. Put a link in the show notes and you can check it out. I suspect you're either gonna really like it or really not.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh> no middle ground on that one. Nope. Hey, also, there's no middle ground on this one. Nope. We have said it before. We will say it again. We're saying it right now. Your awning does not belong out when there's a breeze. Your awning does not belong out if you're not sitting under it.
Tony Barthel
What prompted this is there were people who were talking about staking their awning down and you have to think it's basically a giant sail, just like on a sailboat, <affirmative>. And if the wind comes, it's gonna pull it and it's gonna look for the path of least resistance. Right? Right. And if that path of least resistance is the screws in the side of your plastic rv, guess what's gonna happen? Right?
Peggy Barthel
So if you stake it down really, really well, then what's gonna break is it's gonna tear off of your rv. Right. Instead of tearing out of the ground.
Tony Barthel
So as we all, as we've said, often if you're not under it should be closed. Yeah. Gosh. You know, we would get people at the dealership who were like, oh, I need to file a warranty claim. No, you need to file an insurance claim.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Yeah. That's not a warranty item. They didn't make it to be. Right.
Tony Barthel
So this week we have a question of the week.
Peggy Barthel
Do you have a question of the week? And it was, it's one of those things I couldn't really summarize. Right, because the question was, that's not the question. There it is. The question was, what are your favorite snacks or food that you like to eat when you're on the road with a subheading? Gee, your snacks look like an unsupervised 9-year-old with set loose in the store. I love seeing those with a hundred bill means or with a hundred dollars bill. I forgot to write that. So I'm just gonna look for answers real fast. M and ms coffee. Caramel cold brew m and ms. <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
Oh <laugh>. Beef jerky potato chips that way, by the way, you have a meat and potatoes meal. Oh, well
Tony Barthel
Yeah, yeah, yeah. <laugh> that. That's a balanced meal fruit
Peggy Barthel
Until you notice the Cheetos and then it's Cheetos and Diet Dr. Pepper. Bugles. Ugh. I love Bugles Donuts, Doritos and Dr. Pepper. That's the three D's. That's Bill's three D's way too much junk food, chicken salad sandwich. Oh, Brenda, that's so healthy. <laugh>, sunflower seeds, but not in bear country. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Wendy, I think. Didn't Wendy post that?
Peggy Barthel
That was Diane actually. Diane. Diane. Okay. <affirmative>. Let's see. We like to eat healthy like apples and nuts so we don't get sleepy. My sister likes beef jerky, starburst and something crunchy. Wendy eats spice drops, Tom eats cheese puffs and Mountain Dew. <laugh>. <laugh>. Gary had to go and remind me about dots, honey, mustard, pretzels. Oh yeah. And also by the way, cinnamon sugar pretzels. Oh, those are good. Which, and Sydnee have given us both of those and we can't buy those. That's not really good for us to do.
Peggy Barthel
Let's see, if you go to Bucky's, of course you have to get beaver nuggets. Nuggets and jerky. Let's see, a six pack of Oreos and 12 ounce can of Dr. Pepper. And she said it's kind of hard to small find those small things. And I wondered if she's only driving for like three miles, that's all longer. That would last me trail mix with raisins, peanuts, cashews, and m and ms. Texas heat from HEB hmm. Texas Heat Trail mix. I guess it must be spicy. Right? Chex Mix, jelly Bellies, soft boiled eggs, chips or popcorn beef sticks, jerky, they all sound really good.
Peggy Barthel
Cinnamon bears and cheddar filled pretzel combos and mini Oreos.
Tony Barthel
So I'm so proud of all of you for the volume of junk food that Yeah. You our people. I have to tell you, I mean
Peggy Barthel
One of the, one of the great things about being with this family on these trips is they two, at least two people always bring those peanut butter filled pretzels. Oh my gosh. And I eat my weight in peanut butter filled pretzels.
Tony Barthel
I, in fact, earlier when you were on the Jeep Tour, I brought laundry soap to your mom. Yep. And I grabbed a handful as my payment. So we were at Costco the other day. I was had to wait in line for something and it's over by the health food section. Oh
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
I found this basically kind of fruit. Fruit, freeze dried fruit.
Peggy Barthel
Is it even freeze dried? I just thought it was like,
Tony Barthel
I don't know,
Peggy Barthel
Squeezed,
Tony Barthel
Maybe it's compressed and it's compressed. It's compressed. Yeah. Fruit jerky. So I was like, Ooh, that sounds like a good thing to have with beef jerky and cheese. Right. You have meat, cheese, and dessert. And they claim in the package that this thing here is half an entire pineapple. So however they're compressing it, whatever steamroller they're using to make these, they're solely organic fruit jerky. Not something you would ever expect for me to recommend, but just one ingredient.
Tony Barthel
But truthfully, they're really good.
Peggy Barthel
They're really good. And they're not like gummy, like a fruit rollup and they're not Yeah,
Tony Barthel
They're a little bit chewy.
Peggy Barthel
They're not as dry as beef jerky, but they're chewy and kind of, you know the word beefy. Yeah. Right. I don't mean they taste like beef. I mean they have that, that nice chewiness to them. Nice
Tony Barthel
Them. Yeah. So there's mango and pineapple in the package and I, I like them. Yeah. So I'm going to eat one as soon as we're done Recording. All right. I picked a mango, so we're gonna leave that snacks question
Peggy Barthel
Of the week. Yeah, they're gonna leave that up there. 'cause I want more ideas
Tony Barthel
And maybe I'll, I'll review my, there you go.
Peggy Barthel
My put your fruit jerky snack up there. Fruit jerky. So yeah, keep on answering that question of the week at our Fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group.
Tony Barthel
Yep. And did you know we do a once a week newsletter, which is absolutely free and it has links to the stories, videos, podcasts, and all of that to help you get the most out of your RV adventure.
Peggy Barthel
Just visit the website and you can sign up for the newsletter. It'll pop up the first time you're there if you haven't been there before. And then it's at the bottom of every page to make it really super easy for you. You
Tony Barthel
And know that we are lazy. So we only send one email Yeah. Per
Peggy Barthel
Week. We don't share your information, we don't give it away. We just use it to contact you once a week.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. You'll also find the show notes for this episode 2 62
Peggy Barthel
Woo. 2 62, right?
Tony Barthel
Yeah. <laugh> on the podcastPage@stresslesscamping.com. I didn't fill that out.
Peggy Barthel
That's okay. also@stresslesscamping.com, you can find our deals and discounts page and our Amazon link. Yep. And we really appreciate when you use those links because again, we're happy that you get some good quality stuff. We're happy that you get some discounts. And we're also happy that people let us know that you're listening and doing what we doing, what we recommend.
Tony Barthel
Of course, we're in all those social places. start@stresslesscamping.com and once you're bored there, which I hope takes a while, you can visit, you know, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, threads X, Reddit.
Peggy Barthel
Are you almost out <laugh>? I don't even know. I think
Tony Barthel
So. <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
But if you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast,
Tony Barthel
We're saving you a seat round our
Peggy Barthel
It's free. Oh, you need me <laugh>. Wait.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Well it is. It's
Peggy Barthel
Free. It's free. Subscribe off my my on any podcast catcher and we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
Tony Barthel
And don't forget that a review will let others know about the Stressless Camping podcast. And that always helps us to get better deals and discounts for you and just helps our little podcast grow. It's been almost five years
Peggy Barthel
Now. Almost five years. We surely appreciate the reviews and we also appreciate the shares and we really love it that we see people sharing our posts and our articles. And if you see a question on Facebook and you say, Stressless Camping, wrote an article about that, go ahead, get a link and share it with whoever asked the question and help them try find out about the answers as well.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. Well, with that, we wanna thank you for being here with us in Sedona, even though it was virtual for you, but it was real for us. Or maybe you were here and you're like they were
Peggy Barthel
There.
Tony Barthel
But anyway, thank you so much once again for joining us and Stressless 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
Tony Barthel
Kind of fruit.
