A hack for getting reservations even when a campground is full
This week on the StressLess Camping RV Podcast, we welcome back our friends Scott and Alicia from The Route of it All, who tell us about a service to receive notifications when a campsite you want becomes available
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Some of our favorite buys from the Airgear store:
The high-quality RV water hoses we’ve had since late 2021 still look brand new and coil back to fit in the bag perfectly every time. We have 2, for a total of 50 ft. Brass fittings don’t wear out like plastic.
The Sand free mat comes in really handy when camping on gravelly surfaces, to help stabilize the steps and to keep us from dragging in dust on our shoes. Does not ruin grass.
GasStop adds an extra layer of protection from a serious gas leak. It also gives a rough guess of how much propane is in the tank.
Every RVer with a towable RV should have the AirGear Tire Changing kit. Tony also uses this to remove and reinstall the anode rode in our water heater.
We also love our Element Fire Extinguisher.
Our previous podcast episode with Scott & Alicia about stargazing
The website we spoke about is Wandering Labs
We spoke about our Sedona RV Travel Guide
Details about our adventures in Jerome, Arizona - a popular ghost town
We share Katie’s recipe for Pecan Pie Brownies
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.
Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 294
Peggy Barthel
This week on the Stressless Camping RV podcast, we welcome back our friend Scott and Alicia from the root of It all, who tell us about a service to receive notifications when a campsite you want becomes available.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, it's been hard to get reservations in some places, and this is a great way around that. We have this week's podcast, along with the notes and all the stories that go with this episode, along with discounts, deals, helpful tips, and more at our home on the web, at stressless camping.com.
Peggy Barthel
Don't forget to like and share, and thank you for joining us for podcast episode 2 94.
Tony Barthel
I'm Tony. I'm
Peggy Barthel
Peggy.
Tony Barthel
And we're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time in a Rockwood mini Light, looking
Peggy Barthel
To share big adventures and help you with great tips,
Tony Barthel
Tricks,
Peggy Barthel
And discounts. You, you, after, I think Tony woke me up too early, I couldn't even remember not to wear pajamas
Tony Barthel
To their Oh my gosh. Yeah. I'm like, what In the wide, wide world of sports? But that's okay. This week we've had a lot of activity over at the Stressless Campers Facebook group. Yeah. And I know some of you are saying, oh, I'm not so sure about Facebook. But look, you can actually be part of Facebook and only select only where you want to go.
Peggy Barthel
Like only go to the Stressless Campers Facebook group. Right. You can be part of discussions from listeners about, oh, I don't know, a beer map that someone posted that you can add to.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That we've been kind of updating
Peggy Barthel
And been discussion about air conditioners and locations and yeah, that was, I love that people are getting on there and interacting. You've, for a long time, you've been very good about coming in and answering my question of the week, but I'm really happy that you're asking your own questions and having your own discussions and just really interacting on that group.
Tony Barthel
Well, something that's to me is very impressive because it is social media, it's how polite people have been and also the depth of the answers. I mean, some of these kind of nerdy technical questions, we've got great people there. So if you're not one of 'em, now's the time to come and join us.
Peggy Barthel
So yesterday we just got back from our, I guess our maiden voyage on Rockwood in the Rockwood 25 0 6 fk. We went to Quartzite and back. We were gone for about a month. And gosh, you know, I realize how much I appreciate all the gear that we have from Air Gear Store
Tony Barthel
And it's air gear store, store, not.com, air gear.store. They're partners of ours and they have a vetted list of really high quality products we really like quite a bit. And in fact, we just placed another air gear order, we did our own selves.
Peggy Barthel
I was making sure that I remembered everything to put on this, this list. And I found something new, which is a kettle. So it's on order, but just in the last month, we have used the heck out of the water hoses that we've had since 2021 and still look totally brand new. They coil completely back up after, no matter how long we keep 'em stretched out, we have two of them at each 25 feet and they fit together in a bag. And that gives us 50 feet to reach any water fitting we need.
Peggy Barthel
They have brass fitting so they don't wear out like plastic can. The website says, and we haven't tested it. You can run over them, you can freeze them. They have been fantastic.
Tony Barthel
I, I think we may have frozen them, but I don't know.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, maybe
Tony Barthel
What we also have is the sand free mat, which is a, like a carpet, but it's not a carpet that you put out. Yeah, it's like
Peggy Barthel
An outdoor rug for the front door. Yeah. It comes in super handy when we're camping on gravelly surfaces and our solid steps don't wanna stabilize on the rocks. That rug kind of helps give a surface for them to stabilize on.
Tony Barthel
And it also doesn't ruin the grass, which is kind of impressive to me. Right.
Peggy Barthel
And it also kind of takes some of the dust off our shoes as we walk up to the door. So we bring less of it in the camper
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. We also have a thing called the gas stop. And basically what it is, is it prevents a leak from completely draining your propane tank. So if there's a leak, the gas stop actually stops that and you might say, wait, don't propane bottles already have that. No, they don't. So we have an interview about that. But it's another thing that I wouldn't travel without is the gas stop. And we got that from the air gear store.
Tony Barthel
Yep.
Peggy Barthel
We also got our tire changing kit. Now, fortunately we have not had to change a tire with it, but you use the torque wrench all
Tony Barthel
The time. Oh gosh. I use the torque wrench for the water heater, the anode rod. I now use it for this week's Gadget report. I used it for that. So I used that tire changing kit for quite a bit and it's just peace of mind to have it.
Peggy Barthel
One other thing that we fortunately have not had to use but always carry with us <laugh>, is our element fire extinguisher. I keep one by the bed and well, you know, in our 2205, it used to be by the bed and in the kitchen at the same time, and now it's just by the bed. But you know, you get that one in the kitchen. So if you're awake and in the kitchen, you know, you can use that weird <laugh>, that canister. But the fire, the element fire extinguisher is easier to use.
Peggy Barthel
And I just have a peace of mind going to sleep at night knowing that I could use it if I need it.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So a lot of great products that are all vetted, these are not the cheapest products you can buy, but they're actually good products. That <affirmative> last a good long time. We have links in the show notes down below. And so check it out and you know, it pays to be Stressless Camping <affirmative>.
Peggy Barthel
Well, this week we welcome back Scott and Alicia from the Root of it all to tell us about a website called Wandering Labs. And I'm gonna say website just a couple more times because Alicia accidentally calls it an app all the time. It's not an app, it's a website. But we talk about the benefits of that. And I wanna tell you that I had a little bit of trouble getting the sounds in sync. So the beginning of this recording, I, I did my very best to that. You don't hear any kind of weird sounds, but it gets better after a few minutes.
Peggy Barthel
Sorry, <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Okay, well we also talk about Jerome and there is an article at Stress us camping about Jerome as well. <affirmative> as, and the campground that we visited. So without any further ado, take it away. Scott and Alicia.
Peggy Barthel
Hey, welcome to Camp Verde. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
We are here with our friends, Scott and Alicia, from the Root of it all. It's always a good time with you guys. And you might recognize Scott and Alicia from having been here before talking about the sky as
Peggy Barthel
It were, but not here. Well,
Tony Barthel
Not here. We
Peggy Barthel
Were in Mandeville. We were just, yeah, we're in outside of New Orleans when we talked to them last time. State mind.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, boy,
Peggy Barthel
That's for sure. State. Now think of states of mind. I'm gonna warn you, Tony had two cups of coffee and we're all coming down off of a gigantic piece of peanut butter pie that we ate in Jerome last night at the Haunted Hamburger
Tony Barthel
Pie. Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
I mean it was a pie in the shape of a slice and we all four could only eat half of it. Yeah. So,
Tony Barthel
And I think that in that one slice of pie was an entire jar of peanut butter
Peggy Barthel
Probably, I think probably so. I believe so. <laugh>,
Tony Barthel
It was delicious. There was so much peanut butter in that peanut butter pie. It was the best peanut butter pie. Oh yeah. Yeah. Peggy licked the plate.
Peggy Barthel
I did lick the plate. 'cause there's chocolate on it. Tony's working on a Journey journal. Is that what you're doing? It's written about About Jerome. About Jerome. So by the time you hear this, you'll be able to read that if you haven't already. We really kicked around the idea last night of staying here, like another week just to spend more time with Scott and Alicia. But you know, home calls and we got stuff to do. Well, there's so much to see here. There is. So there really good to see here. There is.
Tony Barthel
And
Peggy Barthel
We wish we were here longer.
Tony Barthel
I think we've just scratched the surface.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. And we've been here like three times and we've still just scratched the surface, but
Tony Barthel
Right. Well we keep scratching the same surface.
Peggy Barthel
That's the thing. But today we don't wanna just talk about Camp Verde because that's also something you can read about on our, on our,
Tony Barthel
There's a review of that too.
Peggy Barthel
Review, yeah. And we don't just wanna talk about Jerome, but what we wanna talk about is something that you guys told us about while we were just sitting around chatting. That helps you know when a campsite becomes available, right? Yeah. Well,
Tony Barthel
Well that's the common thing, right? Is campsites now are so full and so people wanna make these reservations, they can't find them. But you figured out a way around that.
Alicia Faciane
I will say that we didn't figure it out. We were, we were gifted this information, okay. At a campsite, which is kind of the best way to do it, right? It's word of mouth, <affirmative> about this website that would be helpful to us. Because when we were given this information, we really liked the neighbors. We were just chitchatting with them. And of course at the campsite there's the question, where are you going next? Right? Sure. Right. So that, that's what started this whole conversation that gave us this information about this fantastic website.
Alicia Faciane
And I guess a little bit, can we just like set the stage? Yeah, of course. Okay. So Scott and I were heading up to Elkhart, Indiana.
Scott Reichel
Our RV needed some work,
Alicia Faciane
Our RV needed some attention and love. Something was wrong with it. We had what?
Tony Barthel
Wait, you had problems with an rv? An
Peggy Barthel
RV that had a problem. Well, and
Scott Reichel
The thing is, is when you're bringing it back to the factory for work, you never know how long you're gonna be there. Sure. Right. They'll say, show up on this date. You might be done in two days. You might be done in two weeks. It might be even longer than that.
Tony Barthel
You might drive back to New Mexico and then return to pick it up.
Peggy Barthel
That's later. That's, he might leave in Indiana and go home. Going home for a while isn't really an option for you because this is your home.
Alicia Faciane
Right? Right. Yeah. We've been RVing full-time. We're from Louisiana. We've been RVing full-time for the last three and a half years. So we've been in this rig for three and a half years traveling around the country. And when we needed the work done, we went up to Elkhart, Indiana, we had the great drop off date of May 5th, Cinco De Mayo. We knew things were gonna go well <laugh>, but in Tennessee, on our way up there at this campground, the neighbors said, oh, where are you going? We said, oh, we're gonna go get some work done on the rv.
Alicia Faciane
And then the question is, well where are you going after that? Well, we didn't know.
Scott Reichel
Depends on how long the RV's gonna be. How
Alicia Faciane
Long Sure,
Scott Reichel
Yeah. In the repair shop. Yeah.
Alicia Faciane
So when they heard that, they go, oh we are, we've got some helpful information for you. Because we were kind of in a pickle in a situation like that where we didn't know, and you're about to be in Michigan, which for the summer in Michigan, not to have any reservations. It's That's desperate times. Yeah. <laugh>,
Scott Reichel
Little Pop, Michigan State Parks and whatnot are a little popular in the summertime.
Alicia Faciane
Very popular in the summer. And here we are, May 5th, dropping off the RV with no reservations for the summer. And we didn't know what we were gonna do. 'cause up until that point we had been like, okay, well we'll be here for a couple of weeks and we'll be here for a couple of weeks. Sure. So they told us about this fantastic website called Wondering Labs. And it is a website, not an app. Okay. And they said there's a free version and there's a paid version. So we immediately went and looked at the free version. Right.
Alicia Faciane
Of course. Of course it's free. Yeah. So we're gonna give it a a looksie. And when we finally figured out how long it was gonna be, our RV was fixed. We had some friends that we knew we were gonna meet up in Grand Haven, <affirmative>,
Scott Reichel
But we didn't know when. We just knew we were gonna meet 'em there <laugh>. Right. Yeah.
Alicia Faciane
So we ended up working it out without wondering Labs.
Scott Reichel
Well we, we got our first campground at
Alicia Faciane
Warren Dune State
Scott Reichel
Park, Warren Dune State Park. We got that one without, we just lucked into a site there. And that was amazing. But then we started trying to schedule with our friends and we couldn't get anything
Alicia Faciane
Conflict after conflict. So
Scott Reichel
She remembered about Wandering Labs and said, check this out and open it up. And I put in our requirements of when we wanted to arrive, how long we wanted to stay. I hit submit and it was about a half hour later it went
Alicia Faciane
Ding. And we had the ability to book the site. Because what Wondering Labs is, is you put in the dates that you're interested for, you put in the,
Scott Reichel
You put, you put in the
Alicia Faciane
Location,
Scott Reichel
You <affirmative>, you put in the date you wanna arrive, you put in how long you wanna stay. You can put a range of dates if you want to arrive. Like say I wanna arrive somewhere between these three dates and I wanna stay for four days. You put all that in, you can put in extra information. Like, I need a site that's 30 feet long. I need a site that has water and electric. No I don't need sewer. And tell it search.
Alicia Faciane
And I will say the free, the free app was like, you get notifications by email. Right.
Scott Reichel
And, and it's like every five minutes they'll send out a notification
Alicia Faciane
And you can only put so many searches in. I mean it's the, sorry, the free version of the website. It's not an app. I keep saying it's not an app. But the, the free version is you can only do so many searches. It's gonna send you notifications by email. So it's a little slower than the paid version. And when that ended up like helping us and working out, there was this pivotal point where we went from this is a great free service to, we are going to pay for this service.
Alicia Faciane
And it was like that.
Scott Reichel
We were up in Grand Haven. Yep. And we decided we wanted to extend our stay. But all the sites were booked on the website
Alicia Faciane
Because it was the Kite Festival weekend. Oh.
Scott Reichel
Small event. It's a massive event. Up grand and plans were up in the air
Alicia Faciane
<laugh>, like all the beautiful kites up in the air extreme. And when you see that kind of beauty, you wanna stick around for it. Absolutely. So we were so enamored with the Kite Festival. We wanted to stay, it was big, it was beautiful, it was busy. And we're like, we're, there's no way we're gonna get to stay for this event. Yeah.
Scott Reichel
So I put in another request with Wandering Labs to extend our stay. And it was about half an hour later, again, I got a notification and I looked and there was a site that was available that was absolutely gorgeous. So I got out of the RV and I ran over to Alicia 'cause she was talking with some friends nearby.
Alicia Faciane
I was talking to the, the people who were kite flying, like the actual professional kite flyers. Oh wow. I was out on the beach with them just watching their stunt show. Wow. And chit chatting with them. So nice. So fantastic.
Scott Reichel
And I said, this site's available. And she said, what are you talking to me for? Go book it. Get any go. I went back inside and it was already gone. Oh
Peggy Barthel
No.
Alicia Faciane
And he comes back with his round on his face like, it's gone.
Scott Reichel
I should have just booked it. And she's like, yes, you should have <laugh>. Yes.
Peggy Barthel
You have my permission for next time.
Alicia Faciane
And that is when we figured out the difference between the free version of Wondering Labs and the paid version, which the free version you, it's gonna be slower. You're gonna get the emails, the the paid version, which at the time was only $10. It has jumped to currently $30.
Peggy Barthel
That's a year. That's
Alicia Faciane
A year for a year for an annual, which
Scott Reichel
Is a smoking deal.
Alicia Faciane
It's a wonderful deal if you get one site. Like it pays
Scott Reichel
For right there. So,
Alicia Faciane
So we immediately went, well this, this will not do <laugh>.
Scott Reichel
I bought the paid for version, put in the request again. And it was what, less than 10 minutes.
Alicia Faciane
Didn't get an email, got a text notification. Okay. Bing on Scott's phone.
Scott Reichel
And I immediately jumped on the site and we were there for another week in the middle of the Kite
Alicia Faciane
Festival. I got to see this amazing kite festival that we, we just, we didn't even know that it was gonna be there. We were meeting our friends, we were having a great time. And all of a sudden all these stunt kites and amazing sculptural kites start popping up on the beach. And we're like, what is this?
Scott Reichel
To send you some of the photos. It, it's
Alicia Faciane
Impress. We'll send you some photos.
Peggy Barthel
That's not completely dissimilar to this, to us meeting you here. Our friends were already here. We decided to come spend a couple days with our friends. We almost decided to stay for another week. <laugh>,
Alicia Faciane
It's an RV con, it's a conversation that happens.
Peggy Barthel
Conversation. But this was not because we couldn't find a site. This is because we can't justify spending that much more time before we get home. So Yeah.
Alicia Faciane
Well they've been on the road for a while and even though, yeah,
Peggy Barthel
We're not used to that <laugh>
Alicia Faciane
We're we're, we missed the idea. We're just grateful you guys got to stop in. We are. That was wonderful. We did to see you
Peggy Barthel
The not app, the website send now you get a text and I think that you told me instead of every five minutes, it kind of is a, it's simple constant thing. So you're, you're gonna get that text within seconds of knowing that a site comes up. But it's not interactive. Right. You can't hit the text and say Yes, book it or anything like that.
Scott Reichel
You hit the text and it takes you to the state web State Park website. It
Peggy Barthel
Takes you to the website. Oh. So it gives you the opportunity to get in there and book it right away. You don't have to go do something else.
Scott Reichel
And it tells you the site number that opened up. Okay. It tells you what loop it's in and then you hit a link and it takes you directly to that website to book that site to that state park website. Okay. Now this is, this doesn't do most private parks. It does state parks, national Parks, BLM, the the ones where it's actually an official campsite that can be read, reserved through recreation.gov. Pretty much anything that's on recreation.gov is on there. And most state parks are on there
Tony Barthel
Now. And so this worked once for you? Or did it work any more times?
Scott Reichel
<laugh>, we used it the entire summer that we were up in Michigan bouncing from Park.
Peggy Barthel
'cause you hadn't had previous plans to be there. Park
Scott Reichel
The park. Yeah. No, there was only one week for the entire summer where we actually had to get a spot at a commercial campground where we weren't able to do it at a state park. The rest of the time it was State park to State Park to State Park. And it was just,
Alicia Faciane
That was the pictured Rocks area. Right? Yeah.
Scott Reichel
That was all in
Alicia Faciane
The Peninsula. Yeah. That was the tricky thing. 'cause Pictured Rocks is like Yes. Yeah. It's way in the middle of the Upper Peninsula. It's out there. People who know that they're going there are going there. And it's one of those bucket list places that if you have something booked at Picture Rocks, you're not canceling. Right. Right. <laugh>. Right. So at that sit, at that point we ended up finding this great kind of mom and pop, locally owned campground. And you know, we didn't need it for the whole time, but there is no way we could have done Michigan during the summer plus the Upper Peninsula of Michigan without this website.
Alicia Faciane
Website <laugh>. And let me just say the website, it's like Scott was saying it's all the recreation.gov, it's all the websites that have all these little nuances and the website Wondering Labs just helps you like streamline everything and get through. 'cause
Peggy Barthel
There's a lot to those sites. Yeah. Oh
Alicia Faciane
Absolutely. Oh yeah. I mean you could deep dive into one of the National Park sites and go, wait, what's this? What's this? What's this?
Scott Reichel
Right. Can you show me, girl, can you please just show me the sites that have power? Because we, we don't do a lot of dry camping because we have a senior kitty and we need to keep her comfortable in the rv whenever we're out adventuring and whatnot.
Alicia Faciane
And all the things that we can fill in for what we want through Wondering Labs, all of the Yes, please put us in hookups. Please do this timeframe. It just helps streamline and get you through all of the other stuff that you could just get bogged down
Peggy Barthel
With. So it won't send you something that will only hold a teardrop because it knows you're that big.
Scott Reichel
Exactly. So I will say in Michigan, you do have to be careful at some of the places, because Michigan State Parks can get a little weird with the length, oh for example, they'll say okay, the site is 35 feet long but only 25 feet of it is paved. And you have to keep your trailer wheels on the pave on the very interesting. So that you do have to be aware of any particular foibles that that particular park may have. Right. <affirmative> <affirmative>. But by and large it works. Wonderful.
Peggy Barthel
And that's where, sorry, but last week or the week before when we talked to Mark Cat, right. Campground Views, that's where you can go to camp if you're still uncertain and you have a few seconds before that book's up and you know you have the Time Campground views probably because they said they have all the state parks now. Yep. Oh nice. You can look at like, like a Google Street view of every site in every park. Yeah. So you could, so if you're not a hundred percent sure you can run over to Campground View's, website, <laugh>
Alicia Faciane
<laugh>. Right. <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
But you're right there on the internet. Anyway, take a quick look, make sure that site looks good for you and go back to the other tab and book it in. Yep.
Alicia Faciane
At first we were kind of a little skeptical of wondering Labs because it was a website versus an app <affirmative> and you're like, well wouldn't an app be easier, more user interface this, that and the other? Well
Scott Reichel
You need the internet anyway. Correct.
Alicia Faciane
When you go to the Wondering Labs website, it is very simple. It is very direct. They don't have a lot of like fru stuff on there. It is all about streamlining the process and you'll see that reflected in their website design. So don't go there and think I'm gonna see a bunch of pretty pictures. No. Right. That's not their job.
Peggy Barthel
That's not their job. That's the campground's job. <laugh>.
Alicia Faciane
Yeah. Bingo. <laugh>
Scott Reichel
And their job. Or in this case campground Hughes <laugh>. Right
Alicia Faciane
Now
Peggy Barthel
I do a lot of things on my phone so I even, you know, browse Safari and look at websites and stuff. But even I admit there are things that are not fun to do. Booking recreation.gov is one of 'em because of all the layers of stuff that you need to look at. You know, using RV Trip Wizard is not something I wanna, I don't wanna plant an entire route across the country on my little tiny phone <affirmative>. So, I mean sometimes you're like, gosh, I wish there was an app. But really having this monitor for a website is the the way to go.
Peggy Barthel
Anyway, <laugh>.
Alicia Faciane
Well I think one of the reasons that, and I'm just hypothesizing here, that they went simple with their design is because when we have the paid version of Wondering Labs as we do, Scott gets the note, like he'll get the notification on his phone and he said that he just presses it and it brings you to where you need to be. Right. So it's got a service that gets you where you need to be.
Peggy Barthel
Right. If you're not, if you don't have a choice of sites anyway, it's not like you need to look at which site you're gonna like better. This site is available to you want it or don't you
Scott Reichel
Actually. Exactly. It's even better than that because with Wandering Labs you can say I'm only interested in these particular sites.
Peggy Barthel
Oh nice. Okay.
Alicia Faciane
So if you do a little bit of that work beforehand and you put in that as your like criteria, I don't,
Peggy Barthel
Then you're safe doing it on your phone. Right.
Scott Reichel
I don't want to go to park X, Y, Z unless I have these wonderful views right here because that's what I want to go there for. Yeah. And so then you can say, I want one of these sites. If it comes available, send me a notice.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. Hmm.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That's pretty darn cool.
Scott Reichel
And we, it's not just in Michigan. We've used it, we've used it in South Dakota, we've used it in Colorado, we've used it in New Mexico. It was a little harder to use it in Washington just because if, when people make it all the way up to the far corners of the country, they tend not to cancel those plans I
Peggy Barthel
Think. Right, right, right. Yeah.
Alicia Faciane
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
But
Peggy Barthel
Still, but things happen. But still,
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Things happen and things, you know. Oh absolutely.
Alicia Faciane
But it has been extraordinarily helpful almost to the point where we have to be careful with it now because we try to make plans in advance. But this makes it really easy to just be like,
Peggy Barthel
We'll find something. Let's just sit here and wait for our phone to ping and then we'll drive <laugh>. Right. <laugh>. Which,
Alicia Faciane
You know, I'm gonna be honest on occasion has happened <laugh>. But it's just, it's a good tool to have and I'm so glad that it exists and that we can use it and we really would've failed to see Beautiful Beau, we fell in love with Michigan afterwards because we got to stay there for the entire magical Michigan summer.
Scott Reichel
Before that summer if you would've told me, oh, Michigan has gorgeous beaches, I wanna be gone.
Peggy Barthel
What? Right, right. No idea.
Tony Barthel
There's that big lake thing that they have.
Peggy Barthel
There's
Alicia Faciane
A few of 'em. There's a few of em on lake.
Peggy Barthel
There's
Tony Barthel
All this water
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>
Tony Barthel
And Detroit.
Peggy Barthel
Well there's that and
Alicia Faciane
Spend the, we are actually the RVs that we're not gonna bring since this is our home. I know a lot of RVs and to each their own bring RVs to very salt water based places. Oh yeah. But that can wak haka on your rv. And so we totally loved the Great Lakes because there's no salt. So if there was a waterfront site, we were like, and we don't have to worry about rusting our rv. Right. Sign
Peggy Barthel
Up.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So in other words, you don't want your RV to be assaulted. Ah,
Alicia Faciane
No, I really, what is it? No salt.
Peggy Barthel
I really have to download that pun ping <laugh>.
Alicia Faciane
No, we do not want our RV to be assaulted. No.
Tony Barthel
So the big question, did you get to Mackinac Island?
Alicia Faciane
Absolutely.
Tony Barthel
Did you eat fudge?
Alicia Faciane
We did.
Tony Barthel
Did you have a favorite?
Scott Reichel
You know, there was, I think it was five different places. Four different places. Five different places went to, yes.
Alicia Faciane
This is a question for Scott. He is the sweet tooth man. I like savory everything. He is sweet. Everything. There
Scott Reichel
Was one of sweet and savory that was a bacon fudge. That was really good. Oh boy. That had my, that has a special place right there. There was a peanut butter fudge that was, but it was a different, different ones had their own specialties.
Peggy Barthel
Tried peanut butter fudge everywhere. There's fudge.
Scott Reichel
So that's why he went to that peanut butter pie. Oh yeah. Peanut butter every day.
Tony Barthel
All the time. Peanut butter lawn chairs. I'd eat them.
Scott Reichel
<laugh> <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
I love peanut butter. So
Scott Reichel
We'll get him a big bag every recess for Christmas. There
Alicia Faciane
Was no question last night with all the pies that the place in Jerome was telling us about. I mean, he didn't hesitate at all. It was peanut butter pie.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, well I was like, oh gosh, I've eaten all this food. 'cause first we had a pretzel, then we had those burgers or whatever we had. And then, you know, the lady comes over and she's like, do you want dessert? And I'm like, oh my gosh, there's no way. And then she's like, well we have this and that and the other and peanut butter chocolate pie. And I'm like, one please
Scott Reichel
<laugh>.
Tony Barthel
And then it shows up. What fork works on a forklift
Scott Reichel
One please. One.
Tony Barthel
Oh it's, it was huge.
Scott Reichel
Did you see the cake went? The cake case that they went over there? Oh, I didn't look,
Tony Barthel
I didn't see the case. I looked for it.
Scott Reichel
The chocolate cake was this tall,
Peggy Barthel
Like 14 layers
Scott Reichel
Of something like that. The the peanut butter pie is Yeah. Five, six inches tall.
Tony Barthel
It was nuts. It was,
Scott Reichel
I had
Alicia Faciane
To ask because it was so nuts that I didn't think that the same place that made that good of burgers made that good of cakes. And they're like, no, this is us. And
Peggy Barthel
The good of boozy milkshakes.
Scott Reichel
Milkshakes. Oh Bloody Mary
Tony Barthel
Was amazing. Bloody Mary you
Scott Reichel
Had,
Alicia Faciane
Yeah. I mean it was a work of art.
Scott Reichel
It was. It showed
Tony Barthel
Up. And I'm like, wow.
Scott Reichel
Okay. That's one course of the meal. Yeah. Right.
Tony Barthel
So this was haunted hamburger by the way. And we have that in our story about Jerome. But it was, that was your suggestion. 'cause I'd only been to that barbecue place, man. I'm drooling. I'd
Scott Reichel
Only been to that
Tony Barthel
Barbecue place in the past, which I didn't dislike. Right.
Scott Reichel
<laugh>.
Tony Barthel
But then you're like, well let's go to haunted hamburger. And normally I wouldn't have gone there 'cause I'm like, it's just a hamburger. Oh no. Oh no. It, and I had, it was her grandmother's meatloaf and I'm surprised she was able to keep it that good for that long. No, I'm, but
Scott Reichel
You know, was
Tony Barthel
Her grandmother's meat well
Scott Reichel
Preserved? Just like
Alicia Faciane
That joke? No, that recipe. I mean, everything looked so good. I,
Tony Barthel
It was.
Scott Reichel
And then the view out the window. Oh yeah.
Tony Barthel
It was
Scott Reichel
So
Peggy Barthel
Good. It was just a hundred mile view. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Jerome is built like on a mountain like that and all the buildings are just like stuck in
Scott Reichel
<laugh>. It's,
Alicia Faciane
Here's the thing, it's crazy. We're in the same area as Sedona. Everybody. And Sedona is well worth looking at. That's, it's beautiful. It's gorgeous. It's very busy. <affirmative> very busy. So I feel like Jerome is that hidden little gym like on the side of the mountain. And a lot of people end up going to Jerome like for lunch. And then they'll go do the breathtaking sunsets at Sedona to see the rocks glow. Well
Scott Reichel
It makes sense because Jerome's also much higher in elevation. <affirmative>. So it's not as hot in the middle of the sun.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. So there is no sunset because it's so high that by the time the sun is setting you can't even see it anymore.
Scott Reichel
<laugh>. Well the sun also set, the sun is also on the other side of the mountain when it's setting.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, there's that <laugh>. Well,
Alicia Faciane
Jerome, well Jerome has such a good vantage point. I don't know if you noticed it because we were so focused on the hamburgers, but the view from that restaurant, we were looking directly down into the valley where Sedona was and watching the sunset on Sedona. Sedona. Yeah. From up high. It was breathtaking on Flagstaff
Tony Barthel
Too.
Scott Reichel
And Flagstaff too.
Alicia Faciane
Yeah. In the mountains. Twin Peaks in the distance. It's
Tony Barthel
Just, it's so incredible. And then we had been in the past, you got, I think you're going back to Jerome. Oh
Alicia Faciane
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Go to that mine. And you can look down the hole. I looked it up this morning. 1200 feet down. It's, it's taller than the Empire State Building is tall. Or you know, deeper than
Peggy Barthel
That. That's tall.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's bigger than the empire staple.
Scott Reichel
They don't let you bungee jump down that hole. Right?
Tony Barthel
No, no. And nor would you want
Scott Reichel
<laugh>
Tony Barthel
Because it's not that big a hole. And you'd like be like a bell banging on the side.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>,
Alicia Faciane
What is it with Jerome and holes though? We found that incredible kaleidoscope shot. Oh
Scott Reichel
Man.
Alicia Faciane
It's like you look down something and your mind is just blown <laugh>.
Scott Reichel
Right. Completely
Alicia Faciane
Is the best it was.
Peggy Barthel
I could have spent an entire day just looking at their kaleidoscopes. They probably would kick me out eventually. But
Scott Reichel
The one thing to keep in mind is the stores do close up a little early. They're generally closing O' at five, but still. Wow.
Alicia Faciane
But then you'd go have a great dinner <laugh>
Tony Barthel
The thing also about the kaleidoscope. So you know, usually when you have stuff that's that fancy, it's like don't touch's over there but don't touch it. Yeah. But they're like bringing them out. They're like, Hey, check this out. Hey, check that out. They were so gracious about what they had that, you know, it made you think, Hmm, maybe I should buy one of these. Well they
Scott Reichel
Even have classes every year on how to make them. Yeah,
Alicia Faciane
That's, I wanna take one of those bad.
Scott Reichel
Your own kaleidoscope. Yes.
Tony Barthel
And then it benefits the, as the Humane Society. Humane Society up
Alicia Faciane
The local Humane Society. Yeah, they, that one was fantastic. They, and I asked for, I asked for details, I think it's called Nelly Bliss. Yeah. Okay. And they were talking about how it's been open for 30 something years. It kind of started off as just the owner's interest in kaleidoscopes and collections. But then they just started carrying kaleidoscopes artists from all over the world. Like we were looking at kaleidoscopes from Japan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tons from the east coast. And I just didn't, I didn't put that as like a, oh we're gonna go to Jerome, Arizona, this old mining town with this really cool history and see this world
Peggy Barthel
To look at. Kaleidoscope class.
Alicia Faciane
Kaleidoscope store. Yeah. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Now the kaleidoscope that I bought in Sedona, I think they carry the same artist. I showed you those glass ones. And Sedona is the kind of place I would expect to find a kaleidoscope door. That's true. Yeah. You know, Jerome is the kind of place I would expect to find that t-shirt shop with all the Oh yeah. Ridiculous, irreverent, silly t-shirt slogans.
Alicia Faciane
<laugh> in Jerome's defense. Those T-shirt shops are in Sedona as well. <laugh>. Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
That's true. That's true.
Alicia Faciane
But Jerome has a really cool history with the mining, like you were talking about. And not only do they have that one hole, but like there's all these ghost tours and history tours. Oh
Scott Reichel
Yeah. I think really interested in some of the history tours.
Tony Barthel
I would like to do that too. Through
Alicia Faciane
Prohibition. There's all these secret passageways that they built in the mountain to avoid like detection. So, well
Tony Barthel
They already had the hole. 'cause there was a huge copper mining area, right? Yeah. So it's like, hey, what are we gonna do with all these holes? I got an idea.
Alicia Faciane
Speak people. Let me show you. Yeah. <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
I don't know, but come on down. Have some whiskey. I hated it in my bathtub.
Alicia Faciane
<laugh>. Hey, boozy milkshakes at the haunted hamburger. So good.
Scott Reichel
Oh, I'm still dreaming about that. Bacon and the milkshake. Oh, oh yeah. Oh
Peggy Barthel
There was like three slices of bacon in the bottom of your milkshake.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That was so trippy. You're like, well look at that.
Alicia Faciane
I've honestly never seen a pairing of bacon and milkshakes and it's just, I mean it's bacon. So bacon,
Scott Reichel
Bourbon and milkshake.
Alicia Faciane
That's
Peggy Barthel
Bacon, bourbon and caramel. Right.
Scott Reichel
And caramel. Yeah. Oh
Alicia Faciane
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
I wish I could have drank yesterday. That
Tony Barthel
And it was just like the service was so good. Yeah. And they were like, you could tell that this place was just super well run because the food was fast. I mean it wa the food, you're not waiting in an inordinate amount of time. The all the servers were really positive. It was just a great experience.
Scott Reichel
My favorite thing is that it's the place that we saw a lot of locals at. Yeah. And that's almost always a good indicator of whether or not a restaurant's worth it is how many locals are there? If it's more than half locals, <affirmative>, you know, it's good. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
<affirmative> because they have a choice.
Alicia Faciane
And I will say many times with traveling, you're looking at like reviews online, right? Sure. This is a place that we heard about word of mouth in this campground. Correct. So it's, it's something people are sharing and talking about and then you go and you look at reviews and you see pictures and you start drooling and you're like, yeah, maybe this is legit. But I think I told the server like no place. Like you know, you have to wonder if somebody has this good of reviews and is talked up so much, is it gonna be as good?
Alicia Faciane
Right. Is it gonna live up to the hype and
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Well I sure did. I mean we almost extended our reservation just to go back there.
Peggy Barthel
Just to go back there.
Tony Barthel
That's how good this place was.
Scott Reichel
Not because you're hanging out in the campground with us just
Tony Barthel
Because, but I mean
Alicia Faciane
<laugh>. But
Tony Barthel
You know, that's one
Peggy Barthel
Is a bonus for the other. But I'm not sure which is what <laugh>
Tony Barthel
Always look for
Alicia Faciane
A reason. Sound logic to me. Like the burgers were that good. The burgers. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
They were. And I didn't even have one
Peggy Barthel
Had.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, it's like a, yeah, it's a hamburger and Jason.
Peggy Barthel
So it's definitely on our list to come back and actually spend many days here so that we can, I mean we've been to Sedona several times and it's always, but we have a
Tony Barthel
Sedona travel guide on
Peggy Barthel
Wander around and stuff. But we, I, we absolutely have not spent enough time with you and we have not spent enough time in your home. Well
Scott Reichel
One of the reasons why we haven't been doing as much in Sedona this time around is because they instituted the mandatory shuttle. They actually closed down five of the trail heads Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Alicia Faciane
And you have to take the Sedona shuttle. It's just gotten so busy and popular. So we've been doing it on the off days where you don't have to take the shuttle because we have a dog. And if you're on the Sedona shuttle and you have an animal, they have to be crated, they have to be muzzled like it's a hole ordeal.
Peggy Barthel
And then what are you going to hike with your crate in one hand and you're releasing.
Alicia Faciane
Right. It's just not how we wanna see
Scott Reichel
Hello airplane.
Alicia Faciane
I, it's just not how we wanna see Sedona. Right. But But wait, there's more to do in this area. So in general, we've been doing Sedona on the days that the shuttle doesn't run Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, go in, do some hiking, see some beautiful sunsets and then get to do places like Jerome. But yeah, word of mouth is still so important I think. Yeah. And that's how, I mean let's face it, that's how we found Wandering Labs and that's how we found haunted hamburger was just word of mouth.
Alicia Faciane
Yeah. And never discredit that. 'cause you can get stuck in this loop we find as RVers where it's like a show me on social media. Tell me, tell me, let me go look and and see all of this stuff.
Scott Reichel
Yeah. And if you find it on social media, that means there's probably gonna be a thousand other people there to enjoy it with you. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. That's true.
Alicia Faciane
But word of mouth is special and we tend to try to, to listen for those like little tidbits like that. So
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Don't ignore the value of your friends next door in the RV park. Oh,
Scott Reichel
Absolutely.
Alicia Faciane
No things that you chat around at the dog park that's literally <laugh>. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Thank you for helping us also cover our destination of the week. Yeah. And talk about Jerome with us. Our
Alicia Faciane
Pleasure.
Peggy Barthel
We kind of organically did that. Did we miss anything that you wanted to talk about? Wandering labs?
Scott Reichel
<laugh>? No, please use the service so it stays in business because we, we really like this service <laugh>.
Alicia Faciane
Yeah. I think the service is, I mean it provides such a valuable resource to, to get through. Like I have been on recreation.gov websites and felt like I was just treading water for hours, <affirmative>. And this really helped us. I mean we still go on the recreation.gov, we still use it, it helps with the process. But this is that little like wondering labs is that little something extra that we have as a tool in our pocket that's like a, a life preserver <laugh> when you're treading water kind of.
Scott Reichel
And, and we just, it's something that we'll take a look. If we can't find what we're looking for, just within a few minutes of search, then we'll go ahead. Okay. There's nothing available right now. Let's put in a request and wait to see if something pops up. Yeah. In the meantime we'll continue looking elsewhere. Yeah. If you've paid the fee it, you're silly not to do that. Exactly.
Alicia Faciane
And it's been really helpful with the paid version to spice things up. Like, oh wait, why can't I get any, why is nothing working for that week? And then what we'll do is we'll look and be like, oh that's because in this school district, that's when the dates are out. My bad. Let me change the dates. Shift shifted ever so slightly and then all of a sudden you get a notification it's available.
Peggy Barthel
So I'm curious, have you ever used the wandering labs and put in a request for something and just never heard anything and just had to completely shift your plans at the last second? See
Scott Reichel
Previous statements about Washington State <laugh>. Gotcha.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. Okay.
Scott Reichel
It's in places where it's incredibly popular and where people have to do a lot of work to actually get out there, we found that they're less likely to cancel their
Peggy Barthel
Plans. You're not gonna get a notification that something just became available if nothing ever just became available. <laugh>. Exactly.
Alicia Faciane
Right. And I think that we're realistic enough to, we're not going to these destinations and going help, help you'll save us. Like we're not thinking like it's, it's the only thing that we need to be doing. Sure. We've got a lot of other resources in our back pocket. Things like if we need to do like a couple of nights of boondocking somewhere or you know,
Scott Reichel
We'll find private campgrounds if we have to. Yeah. That sort of thing.
Peggy Barthel
Stick around where you are for a couple more days so that you can exactly miss that spring break at that place. <laugh>. Right. Exactly. Miss, miss. Although it would be awful but Miss the Kite Festival 'cause you can't find a site in that area.
Alicia Faciane
Well we didn't have to,
Peggy Barthel
But if you hadn't been, you wouldn't know what you miss. We
Alicia Faciane
Did it.
Scott Reichel
Yeah. The thing that I think works so well for us in Michigan is it's relatively close to so many areas that <affirmative> people are more likely to cancel, they're more likely to make reservations and then if the weather doesn't look quite right or if something that they have personally comes up, it's not as big of a deal for them to go. And I'll just let that one go.
Tony Barthel
Well, and I think there's a lot with the state, with the state parks and, and the national parks that there's not much consequence to just, eh, I'm not gonna go. Whereas some private campgrounds, there's maybe a little more. And so that's the beauty, you know, the, the bad thing about the cancellation policy is if you don't have the wandering labs then you're probably gonna miss it. But if you do then you take advantage of those last minute cancellations. So,
Alicia Faciane
And we've had, you know, there've been a few moments where we've had conversations where we're, we're fluid enough, we've let a few go that we would've really liked to have done. But we had other plans set in place because a lot of people, like you said, are letting these reservations go last minute. Yeah. <affirmative>. And so being flexible enough to accept what comes your way, but you don't have to like, this isn't a commitment. You can say yes or no.
Scott Reichel
And there's been been some of them that we've, that have popped up where it would've been, it would've been an amazing site, but we already booked something else.
Peggy Barthel
Right. I wanted to go there when I set up the alert, but since I didn't get anything, I had to make some plan and now this plan is great. So
Scott Reichel
Yeah, we try, we need that a little bit. Exactly. We try and have a spot reserved before we pull out of the site that we're currently at. Sure.
Tony Barthel
Yeah's
Scott Reichel
That's not always happened, but we try
Alicia Faciane
What happens between pulling out of your site and pulling into the next one? Yeah. Fluid sometimes. Yeah. There's been a couple of times where we got a notification and we're like, well that's only 20 minutes farther or that's only, you know, let's go for it.
Peggy Barthel
Fantastic.
Alicia Faciane
We're so grateful we got this tip in a campsite from these really cool neighbors in Tennessee.
Peggy Barthel
And then you take that alert and you go to that place and you cancel where you were gonna go. And the next guy gets an alert that this site, you're not gonna use <laugh> available now. He's
Tony Barthel
Like, Hey,
Alicia Faciane
How did this happen? It's like a pay it forward everybody. It's a little happiness. Yeah. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It's all, everybody wins. Yeah. When everybody wins, everybody wins. That's
Peggy Barthel
Right. And everybody
Alicia Faciane
Gets to camp in cool spots. Yes.
Tony Barthel
That's right.
Alicia Faciane
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Well Scott and Alicia, as always, it's such a pleasure to hang out with you guys and thanks for being our guests and all that and Oh giving with this awesome tip.
Peggy Barthel
Oh and thanks for the gumbo.
Tony Barthel
Oh, how could we
Peggy Barthel
Not mention that? 'cause how could we not mention that <laugh>
Scott Reichel
And we have a little something for your rv.
Alicia Faciane
Well you have a new rv. We
Tony Barthel
Do
Scott Reichel
Have, we hadn't seen this RV before so we got something for your sticker around,
Alicia Faciane
Well we're talking about roots, right? So find your root and the root of it all. Root of it all is stick. Thank you.
Tony Barthel
Sounds good. Thank you.
Alicia Faciane
Aren't you doing a, you're doing a sticker wall?
Scott Reichel
We do have
Tony Barthel
A
Peggy Barthel
Sticker wall. Yeah, I have a sticker wall which have to probably already has this but it doesn't, that means we can put this on the outside or something.
Alicia Faciane
Well I figured this one, the humorous thing about this one is it's appropriate for what we're talking about today. Right? For sure. Right. Is like we picked the root of it all as like our travel slogan and find your root and wondering labs helped us find our root. So there you go.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Oh man, what a great tie in. All right, very cool. Thank
Alicia Faciane
You. I I'm so happy you guys got to come through
Tony Barthel
Us too. So happy
Alicia Faciane
Guys. They're really fun to hang out with.
Peggy Barthel
You know I mentioned earlier the Facebook group and a few weeks ago we asked about electricity usage and Bill said he really likes to have his A, B, C, solar and lithium package, especially on travel days because he's able to run the refrigerator and he has the gas electric refrigerator so he can still run it using the inverter and he can use the microwave to warm up his food during lunch breaks. <laugh>. Well so did we <laugh>. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
So we have, as you know, we have a solar and lithium system that was installed by a, B, C Upfitters using all master volt components. And these are components that come out of the marine industry where there's a very, very low tolerance for failure. They have to be first class. And so we had this system, we literally towed the trailer from the dealer to A BCF fitters, had them put in the system <affirmative>. And recently last week we were driving along, we're like, oh, it's lunchtime.
Tony Barthel
Saw a rest stop pulled over and we fired up the microwave. And I know some people have used the system also to kick on the air conditioner a little bit before they get to a RV park or something when it's warm. So you, you don't walk into this hot trailer or whatever hot rv, right? You, you come in and it's already comfortable. So even if you have a full set of hookups, it's still nice to have <affirmative>.
Peggy Barthel
So give our friends at A BC Upfitters a call at (574) 333-3225.
Tony Barthel
Ah, it's 5 7, 4, 3, 3 3, 3 2, 2 5. And we also have a link in the show notes. You can see video interviews with them and, and get more information and of course go visit them. So A, B, C, upfitters, you know, it's a system that just works.
Peggy Barthel
We often talk about a destination and we already talked about the destination as Tony said, Scott and Alicia and Tony and I were talking about wandering labs and just kind of fell into talking about the great fun that we had in Jerome. So that is our destination of the week. If you weren't listening, go back up a little bit. <laugh>, <laugh>, listen to that part.
Tony Barthel
Well
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, we really, and look at that picture of pie again. Yeah. Oh
Tony Barthel
Right. Oh my gosh, that pie was so good. I also wrote a whole article about Jerome, so you can go and read that and there's a ton of pictures there.
Peggy Barthel
And speaking of pie, our recipe this week is Katie's pecan pie brownies.
Tony Barthel
Oh my gosh. They were so good. They were so
Peggy Barthel
Good. And I'm not going to tell you the recipe because it's so early in the morning and so early in the week that I haven't posted it yet. But by the time you hear this, on Thursday, February four, whatever day 13th, is it Valentine's 13? I think it's the 13th. That recipe will be on the website.
Tony Barthel
Okay. You know, our new trailer has 2 2 2 2 sewer dump ports. And I put on those clear caps that have the garden hose attachment. 'cause there are two gray tanks. Right. And because I did that, the caps kind of got difficult to take off. And I'm thinking to myself self, how do I get these caps off more easily? So I went to the auto parts store and I got a oil filter removal tool, but not just any oil filter removal tool.
Tony Barthel
This is one that's made out of like a nylon strap.
Peggy Barthel
Like a rubbing
Tony Barthel
Yeah. <affirmative>. And that way it doesn't screw up the, those caps
Peggy Barthel
'cause they're plastic caps. So yeah, a metal band might
Tony Barthel
Right. Break off the plastic. I mean there's a ton of tools for taking off oil filters. But I like this 'cause it was soft. So I actually did a whole story and video about this and it's linked also in the shoe nudes, but it's live now. And you can see our, we have a few tools that we use for our sewer system. Okay. And we actually updated our whole RV holding tanks section of our website with a whole bunch of tools and gadgets and all of that.
Tony Barthel
So I bet you are gonna be flushed with excitement after you read this. But if you spend too much time reading it, you might get drained.
Peggy Barthel
Oh my
Tony Barthel
Goodness. It's a tankless job, but somebody's gotta do it.
Peggy Barthel
He's gonna do it. <laugh>, <laugh>, you know, again, we have a question every week and I know this is gonna sound like a total cop out, but honestly you guys, I am loving that you are writing your RV stories, your, you know how you got started RVing and camping and so I'm gonna leave it up there for at least a week, maybe forever. If people keep writing
Tony Barthel
Stories. Well, we don't take them down anyway. We
Peggy Barthel
Don't take them down, but I usually, but it will be pin them to the top right. And I'm gonna leave that pin to the top. I'm not gonna ask a new question this week 'cause I just want you all to keep telling us your stories.
Tony Barthel
Okay. You can answer those questions that our fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group.
Peggy Barthel
And did you know that we have a once a week newsletter?
Tony Barthel
What?
Peggy Barthel
And did you know that it's free? What? And did you know that it links to stories and videos and podcasts and things that we find that we think will help you make the most of your RV experience.
Tony Barthel
I mean, oh, I can't say it that high. <laugh> <laugh>. So anyway, if you wanna sign up and sometimes we even give away stuff in the newsletter, you can do so pretty much on any page of the website <affirmative>. And there's usually also a place where you can sign up. Do know, of course we respect your privacy. We only send one email a week. And it's just things we hope that you have, that you find valuable.
Peggy Barthel
We don't use your email address. Oh to yeah. Sell to anybody or to do anything except send you that one email.
Tony Barthel
No, that's it. E
Peggy Barthel
That's it. So you can find the show notes for this episode number 2 94 on the podcast page at Stressless Camping, which is also where, also where you'll find the deals and discounts page for the best deals on things you'll need for your Stressless camping adventure.
Tony Barthel
Yep. And if you feel social, we are also there wherever you likely are. But you can start@stresslesscamping.com and from there, jump off to all the social places and look us up over there.
Peggy Barthel
If you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast, it's free. It's free to subscribe on any podcast catcher. And we are saving you a seat round our virtual campfire.
Tony Barthel
Yep. Leave us a review if you're listening on a podcast app or thumbs up if you're over on YouTube or you know, make comments. All, all that social stuff. It, it actually does put us in front of new viewers and or listeners. And that's how we grow the podcast. So
Peggy Barthel
It absolutely does. Thank you. Also, if you heard something you like or you read something you like on our website or you read something you like on Facebook, please share, share, share. It is so helpful to us. If you share what you find in wherever you wanna share it, social posts or your weekly email newsletter to your family and friends or somebody in line behind you at the grocery store, wherever you feel like sharing it, please do.
Tony Barthel
Oh yeah. Well with that, that's what we have for you this week. We appreciate your being with us here for almost 300 episodes. Yeah. Ooh, la la and most of all,
Peggy Barthel
Stressless Camp
Tony Barthel
Stressless camping.
Mark Ferrell
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stressless camping adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure. And we look forward to your joining us next week. Until then, happy camping.
Tony Barthel
Peggy. It's time to record. It's what? In the wide wide we, are you gonna record like that?
Peggy Barthel
Apparently I'm now.
Tony Barthel
Okay. Well, you know, pajamas all day. <laugh>.
