Podcast 298 - the road trip without any planned stays
Can you still travel in an RV without reservations?
Have you ever boon-barreled? Or cracker-docked? This week on the StressLess Camping RV Podcast, we take you on our journey from New Mexico to Georgia for the FRVA convention. We share the new overnighting experiences that we tried out. And we share some apps that help us find those unique places. And we did it with zero advanced plans!
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Our story about our favorite apps for planning and enjoying RV travel
Our first night was in Amarillo at the Cracker Barrel restaurant
We spent the night at one of Love’s Travel Stops
Thanks to our Harvest Hosts membership our third and fourth nights were exceptional
The third night we truly enjoy the BB King Museum
Our fourth night was at Siluria Brewing Company
Our final two nights were at High Falls State Park in Georgia
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 298
Peggy Barthel
Have you ever boon barreled
Tony Barthel
Our cracker docked?
Peggy Barthel
This week on the Stressless Camping RV podcast, we are gonna take you along our journey from New Mexico to Georgia and experience some new kinds of overnighting that we haven't tried before.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Basically we share apps and tips that have helped us to not plan this adventure across several states.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. Every day at the middle of the day. That's when we made our plans for that night.
Tony Barthel
Yep. We have this week's podcast along with the notes, tips on the apps we used, discounts, deals, and so much more at our home on the web at Stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy Barthel
Don't forget to like and share. And thank you for joining us for episode 2 98. Who am I? He's Tony.
Tony Barthel
She's Peggy.
Peggy Barthel
It's raining.
Tony Barthel
Oh, it sure is. And we are two RV industry veterans who travel part-time
Peggy Barthel
In a Rockwood Mini light,
Tony Barthel
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips,
Peggy Barthel
Tricks
Tony Barthel
And discounts.
Peggy Barthel
We have notes that I can't see very well. We, we are doing things a little bit differently today.
Tony Barthel
A lot differently.
Peggy Barthel
A lot differently. We're not gonna have some of the kind of weekly features that we have because we're probably gonna talk a lot, but we're gonna take you on a little journey across the country. We started in New Mexico on Wednesday. Today is Monday. And we didn't plan ahead. You know, I also, I often use the TripWizard and have a, like a reservation for every night and then that's kind of what we're beholden to do. And this time I said, look, we have four days to get to this place.
Peggy Barthel
Let's drive till we're don't wanna drive anymore and figure out where to stop.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And that is not like, well
Peggy Barthel
Until you don't wanna drive anymore. 'cause he's the one
Tony Barthel
Yeah, I don't wanna go. Don't wanna get to do much of the driving just 'cause I like to drive.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
But typically we will have our plans planned and this time we had no plans and that was our plan. So anyway, we'll share with you some of the adventures we came upon and how we got there. And one of the things we, we kind of wanted to do this 'cause we keep hearing all crowded campgrounds and everything's full and blah, blah, blah, blah.
Peggy Barthel
Well, and we don't really need a campground when we're just stopping for one night and we have all the power we could need and you know, we can carry our water. There's no need to pay for a campground, just to have somewhere to sleep overnight. So I don't think we said we're on our way to Perry, Georgia. We're going to the FRVA hundred and 10th convention. Yes. Lafite. It's pirate themed. Anyway.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So we're pretty excited about that 'cause we're kind of piratey.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And by the time you join us for this, we will have been there already. Yeah. So keep up with our socials and Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And
Tony Barthel
All of that. But it is the day before we arrive.
Peggy Barthel
So you might have already seen, by the time you see this, you might have already seen our pirate costumes.
Tony Barthel
It is dumping buckets. We kept waiting to, oh, we better stop you better not record when it's raining and it's just not, not raining. So
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, we've been waiting six we hours. So we're the wait is over 'cause otherwise we can't get done on time.
Tony Barthel
Oh man.
Peggy Barthel
So anyway, we are, we traveled across the country. We typically will drive about 300 miles and that's good if you're setting up in a campground and you need time to set up and everything. But it's not really the longest day you can do. And so when it got to be about 200, 250 miles in the day, I asked Tony how he felt. You know, is he ready to stop in an hour or two hours or three hours? And from there I decided, or I looked at the apps.
Peggy Barthel
I used the RV Parky app a lot this trip. And you know, we talk about a lot of different apps and there, frankly, there are probably a dozen apps that show places you can sleep overnight. Places that you can find dump stations and rest areas. And so I really did some deep digging this week to figure out which one did the best for us. And RV Parky turned out to RV parkey turned out to be the app that gave me the most bang for no buck
Speaker 1
Or
Peggy Barthel
Maybe a little buck. I forget if we paid for it or not. But anyway, it was already paid for. So we're using it. And so anyway, it shows where there are cracker barrels that you can spend the night. It shows gas stops like loves, which we also have the Loves app. So as we kind of go through this, we'll talk a little bit about how we found places, but just know that, you know, I've been refining my apps Also, I updated the apps
Tony Barthel
Story
Peggy Barthel
Story on our website
Tony Barthel
And our, if you're planning to see our, our favorite apps presentation in Perry, then that's been updated as well. Or
Peggy Barthel
If you've ever seen our favorite app's presentation. Yeah. Just know that that website is updated now.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Well the first night we went from, we usually stop in Amarillo coming outta New Mexico anyway. And that started with us going to the big Texan Steakhouse. We did not go to the big Texan Steakhouse.
Peggy Barthel
This is the first time we've stopped in Amarillo and not eaten at the big Texan. We have blown through Amarillo a couple times and not stopped, but this time we actually stopped. But instead of staying at the big Texan or eating at the big Texan Steak Ranch, we tried something different.
Tony Barthel
You know, a lot of people have shared that you overnight at Cracker Barrels and some of the Cracker Barrel restaurants are really well suited to overnight stays. Well we, at the recommendation of Bill and Brian and Patrick, we stayed at the Cracker Barrel in Amarillo and it was, it's Cracker Barrel. Right. But they have good RV parking in the back.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. So that's pretty much what I expected. Cracker Barrels tend to be very easy on the highway, which is a good thing if you're, you know, driving, towing a travel trailer. Especially, it's maybe not the best thing if you're trying to get a good night's sleep. 'cause you know it's a lit up parking lot. It's close to
Tony Barthel
The highway on the highway.
Peggy Barthel
So we had to kind of talk ourselves into going to sleep under those circumstances. But it was a free stay.
Tony Barthel
Well, no it wasn't. So I, I
Peggy Barthel
Mean, we didn't have to pay the camp there.
Tony Barthel
I am working on a spreadsheet to go along with this and I, hopefully it'll be done by the time I, we post this. But you know, you're at Cracker Barrel, right? And it's like, ooh, there's Cracker Barrel. So the first night Peggy's like, well, I'm hungry. I want just a salad.
Peggy Barthel
I was really craving a salad and we didn't have salad with us. So I talked Tony into going inside for dinner. That was not the plan.
Tony Barthel
No. The
Peggy Barthel
Plan was to go inside for breakfast. Right. We ended up doing both.
Tony Barthel
Right.
Peggy Barthel
So,
Tony Barthel
So it was probably more than like, it's more than this campground, that's for sure.
Peggy Barthel
Probably. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
But we got two Cracker Barrel meals out of it. So
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, it was really good. The people were really friendly when we asked the young lady at the front counter, if we had to do anything special, like a dance or something in order to park there, she almost made us dance. She really played along. That was fun.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, she was very cool. Yeah. Actually everybody there was really cool.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, everybody was very cool. Very nice. Really super attentive Wait staff. We, you know, we really, we like Cracker Barrel and so the, like, literally the only downside was we spent more money than we planned to spend because we were only gonna buy one meat.
Tony Barthel
Well, but we got food from Cracker Barrel. Sure. Now, one of the things, as Peggy said, it was very bright and very noisy and you know it, it's right off the highway, so you hear all the trucks and such. And I'm very grateful Rockwood has these blackout shades on all the windows.
Peggy Barthel
Oh yeah. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
These things are fantastic and they really do block out the light.
Peggy Barthel
However, that really made the light not so bad.
Tony Barthel
What does not block out the light is the skylight over the shower.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
That is, was like a beacon of brightness over there. So,
Peggy Barthel
So you know that we have the 25 0 6 fk, and one of the reasons we chose this is that the bathroom separates the living space from the bedroom. So there's a doorway from the bedroom to the bathroom, which we usually leave open because why wouldn't we? Well that night, actually, a couple nights in a row, we closed the bathroom door just to keep the skylight light out of our eyes on bed.
Tony Barthel
And our bathroom, the door from the bedroom to the bathroom is like a sliding, it's two sliding doors so you can go tada, but it's got a magnet that holds it closed when it's, you know, just not in travel mode. This thing is like super powerful. So we tried to keep it not completely closed. Yeah. 'cause otherwise it's the middle of the night. You gotta go potty and you're wrestling with this
Peggy Barthel
Door. It's like five minutes of trying to get that magnet separated. Right.
Tony Barthel
I get it separated. The other thing, the trailer. So when we had our trailer up fitted by ABC, we of course got our master volt battery and the inverter and, and we have 1200 watts of solar on our rig. And another thing we got was a thing called a DC to DC charger where basically the truck's alternator charges the batteries. So even on a day like this, that's lousy, it's still at the end of a a drive.
Tony Barthel
You have a full battery
Peggy Barthel
Right now. At the beginning of the drive in Amarillo and in through Texas and Oklahoma, it was very, very sunny. We didn't have
Tony Barthel
A Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
It was, it was nice. We didn't have a question about solar at all. It was also very, very windy. Oh
Tony Barthel
Yeah, it was, boy, I was wrestling the truck. Yeah. It was it, in fact, at one point it detached one side of the flated camper shell and it kind of flipped over on the highway and we're out there on the highway wrestling this doggone thing. Yeah. It was really windy.
Peggy Barthel
Fortunately we had some ratchet straps in the pass through of the camper. So Tony held the camper shell down while I ran and found the ratchet straps. And we crawled up there and tightened it down. It was fine after that. It was
Tony Barthel
Just, yeah, the ratchet, the straps that come with the flated, they
Peggy Barthel
Come loose. They're,
Tony Barthel
They're lousy. Weird. So we used, we replaced them. We got at love's just real ratchet straps the way the world is intended to be.
Tony Barthel
But anyway, back to the, the power system. So after any length of time, the combination of the solar and the battery and the DC to DC charging system, it was full. So overnight we, if you don't know, our system also has an inverter, which takes battery power and translates it into household current. So the plugs work in the trailer basically. Right. And those inverters do consume power. I mean, there's no doubt about it.
Tony Barthel
So when we're truly off the grid, I will shut the inverter off overnight, which also disables the Starlink, which is a pig.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
And so in this case, we had so much power when we got to Cracker Barrel and I'm like, well, we're gonna be driving again the next day. I never shut off the inverter. And we still ended up with 72% stated charge in the battery in the morning. So
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Now we did unplug the starlink because we had no use for it. But I really like when we're able to leave the inverter on overnight because then we can plug our regular phone chargers into the, we have towers of power next to the bed. I know. Tower of Power baby. And so I like to be able to plug in that way. If not, then we have 12 volt options. We have portable power options and things like that that we can use, but it's kind of nice to just keep the inverter on.
Peggy Barthel
But we don't wanna use the inverter, we don't wanna use the power to power the inverter and power the starlink that we're not even using when we sleep. Which
Tony Barthel
By the way, this is not in the script, but starlink is on the potential chopping block for us. So, well,
Peggy Barthel
We'll
Tony Barthel
See. We'll
Peggy Barthel
See. That's gonna be its own topic.
Tony Barthel
Right? It really will. But anyway, so that was our first night in a Cracker Barrel. So then the next night I think we had planned to go to a Cracker Barrel. Right.
Peggy Barthel
Well I, we, I kind of thought, hey, this is okay, yeah, food, we can live with this. We can do four nights in a row of Cracker Barrel. So the next Cracker Barrel I found we were getting close to it and Tony said, nah, I'm not
Tony Barthel
Not done driving. I got lots of driving left in my box,
Peggy Barthel
Done driving. So I looked at, you know, whatever he said, a couple of more hours and I couldn't find another Cracker Barrel. But we decided to try something else that we haven't tried. And that is staying at a Love's RV stop.
Tony Barthel
Now, Love's is a gas station chain and it, it's more than a gas station. It's like a truck stop, right?
Peggy Barthel
Like travel centers.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that's what they call 'em. And they're big gas station. So they're easy for RVs to get into and out of. And they're big Diesel stations because a lot of semis go there. So it's it's a truck stop, right.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
But the thing we like about them is they're all really clean. The bathrooms are always clean. They have great snacks, they have really good coffee,
Peggy Barthel
Really good coffee.
Tony Barthel
And it's just something. And then with an app that you can get for free, you get 10 cents off per gallon of gas, or you get 15 cents off per gallon of diesel. But you have to use the auto side. So you know, semi truck drivers Oh. Aren't showing the app and getting a hundred gallons of diesel at 15.
Peggy Barthel
Only the diesel in the auto lanes.
Tony Barthel
Right. So we, but something that loves has been adding are what they call RV stops, I think. And essentially they're RV overnight spots with full hookups. And so you go on the app and you can reserve these RV spots and everything is fully automated. There's a door in the ground that's got a magnet. So once you check in, which is done on the phone, it releases the magnets. You can get to the sewer and it turns on the electric, the power and, and water and all that.
Tony Barthel
So it's pretty neat how this is done. You don't ever have to go inside the loves, but
Peggy Barthel
Except remember that coffee thing we talked about.
Tony Barthel
Well, and if you have, let's say a teardrop
Peggy Barthel
Sure.
Tony Barthel
And you wanna take a shower, right? Well, they have truck stop showers in the loves. Yeah. So there's a lot of services there and Yeah, it's a, it's a, ours was a full hookup. I think that's what all of these are. They're even some of the newer, larger ones that are pull through sites
Peggy Barthel
Now. Some of the, some of the loves and I think, you know, it's gonna depend on whether they have or can access bigger pieces of property. We were just five sites side by side, back in spots, kind of in the corner of the loves. There are loves RV stops that are being built that are like their own Campground sort of across, not across the highway, but across that little side street over there. And there might be, I don't know, 30 spaces and a dog spot
Tony Barthel
Laundry. Yeah. They, I think they all have dog
Peggy Barthel
Runs. I think all loves have dog runs. And that's another reason why people like them. But we, we, the place we happen to stop is basically full hookup spots in the corner of a Love's. We were right by the exit for semis. So it was a little noisy because of that. Although honestly, the semis didn't bother me as much as there were a couple of times that someone with a truck bigger than their physical extremities had to, had to make up for, for lacking things.
Peggy Barthel
And it was not, I mean, I could hear 'em a mile away on the highway, you know, and it was just, I don't know. That's just whatever. Yeah. Whatever. It's bad enough during the day, but when you're trying to sleep again, the light Yeah.
Speaker 1
Very,
Peggy Barthel
You know, the skylight is very bright. It was very safe. You know, and
Tony Barthel
So that's good. Yeah. That's the thing, you know, if you're traveling and you're like, Ooh, I want, I want a place that's not sketchy to overnight, these places might be that solution. Sure.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So, you know, it it, it serves a purpose. It's not cheap. Ours was 50 bucks.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. It was $50
Tony Barthel
With tax and you know, you get a little discount with the app, but then there's taxes. So it was 50 bucks full hookups. It was flat and clean. And
Peggy Barthel
I don't even like to pay that for a campsite.
Tony Barthel
I know, right. Well, it is what, I mean, we wanted to try it and we tried it.
Peggy Barthel
Right. And we've tried it. We can talk about it.
Tony Barthel
You know, it's a, it's a good last Resort type of
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And then I got free coffee in the morning, so, well, it wasn't free 'cause I paid 50 bucks for our site, but I got coffee in the morning and they didn't charge
Peggy Barthel
Me. So, and they didn't charge. Okay. So after two nights of kind of bright, noisy nights, we were ready to try something different.
Tony Barthel
Well, yeah. Among the tools you've been using are that RV Parky. Right. And the Loves, but also Harvest Hosts.
Peggy Barthel
Harvest Hosts, love Harvest hosts. A lot of times when, when we're doing it differently, when we're actually planning every night, I will go ahead of time and find a Harvest host and request a stay and get approval and know that we're going to that Harvest host that night. Well, again, we didn't want to plan that much. And frankly, if we had, we would've only driven 50 miles the next day because if we were stuck at a place that I reserved because we were making better time than we anticipated.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. We were rocking and rolling.
Peggy Barthel
So we got on the road. We also wanted to avoid Memphis. Just the whole,
Tony Barthel
Well just any big city. The busy also avoided Atlanta.
Peggy Barthel
Sure. And so when we got as far east as Little Rock, Arkansas, we went south and then I looked at, if we wanna stop around two, you know, 3, 3 30, we, there's this little campground that is also a harvest host. If we wanna keep going, we can go into Mississippi. And there is, oh my goodness, a BB King museum.
Tony Barthel
That was such, this is why this serendipity is so awesome. Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Because I really love BB King and his music. And here I had no idea there was a BB King museum and it was so well done. And they let us stay and it was so quiet and nice.
Peggy Barthel
I didn't know what to expect. So when, you know, sometimes you stay at a museum and it's like an old garage with dusty floors and a couple of, you know, his cousin's brother's ex-girlfriend's neighbor hat donated this musty old, no, this was a, this was, it was a really good museum.
Tony Barthel
It was a beautiful tribute to BB King <affirmative>. And it was, you like meander through and there's all these displays. There's interactive displays they even have where you can write your own song and email it to yourself. There were all these signs and pictures and artifacts. And it was just a beautiful tribute to BB King who really, if you think about his life, the duration from 1927 to 2005, I think maybe dug on it.
Peggy Barthel
I know, I forget it.
Tony Barthel
Anyway, you think about that time in America and what they went through, what, you know, what the country went through. But also people like BB King who had a really good amount of celebrity, but were still really oppressed in certain parts of the country. And it was an honest look at, of course the music, but the reality and just a great tribute to the man. And then at the end, that's where he's buried.
Tony Barthel
So he's there,
Peggy Barthel
He's actually buried on that property. So there's a memorial garden. The, the memorial garden I thought was beautiful. The walls are like big sheets of metal with cut out in different fonts, the titles of all his songs. So it's just a, just a really,
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
I don't know. Really beautiful feeling place. I think it was 2015. I think he was 89 years old. You're right. Yeah. I was born 25. Yeah. So anyway, 27.
Tony Barthel
Anyway,
Peggy Barthel
Anyway, he, he is buried there. There's a couple of bronze statues. One of him That's really lovely. And it was just like, we wouldn't have gone through that area. No. That was not, we wouldn't have, I wouldn't have said, you know, three weeks ago when I was planning a trip, I wouldn't have said, well we have to go to BB King music. Well now I will now
Tony Barthel
Oh yeah. Travel now we've been there. I would absolutely go back. In fact, no matter how much time you go there, I think you're gonna miss
Peggy Barthel
It Doesn't feel like enough time. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's one of those, it's so deep and so well done that you could spend days there and, you know, see all the different stuff. And it was just good.
Peggy Barthel
So when we got parked, we actually looked across the street or happened to notice across the street a little, they call it juke joint as an old grocery store. A little, you know, roadside restaurant called the Blue Biscuit. And we're like, well, well, I actually looked on, on the maps to make sure that it had some kind of decent ratings. Right. Because again, like off off the highway, middle of a neighborhood, sort of, you know, tiny, it's, it's
Tony Barthel
A place that neighbors will go. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Itty bitty town. Like, so it had great ratings and we went, we walked across the street. We had dinner and a beer. And the server there, he said he doesn't work there. His mom owns it. And he was so friendly and so
Tony Barthel
Yeah, he was terrific. Well, the food was good.
Peggy Barthel
He actually invited us to come back for breakfast in the morning, even though they're not open for breakfast. We didn't do
Tony Barthel
That. That we had pulled pork nachos originally. It was supposed to be pulled pork sandwich, but we got nachos, which is fine. And we got shrimp nachos. Yeah. So a tribute to Brian. Right,
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
But
Peggy Barthel
The food was fantastic.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
It was just super nice place. Also jam packed with memorabilia
Tony Barthel
Be Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then there was a, a musician coming in a little bit later and just a, a neat, a neat, neat place. That whole thing. That's why we enjoy traveling. We found a really great museum. We found the little local restaurant that had, you know, just such a memorable experience. And that's why we like to travel.
Peggy Barthel
Yep.
Tony Barthel
So this was a absolute home run was 30 bucks to go to the, for the two of us, 15 bucks each for the BB King Museum. For the museum. Which
Peggy Barthel
Worth every penny
Tony Barthel
Worth. Every penny.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, absolutely. So I'm surprised we're back. How'd you get on
Tony Barthel
That side?
Peggy Barthel
The heater came on. We had to take a slight break.
Tony Barthel
And as you know, in an RV, a heater, the
Peggy Barthel
Furnace Yes. Is like
Tony Barthel
The blast furnace
Peggy Barthel
Really loud. So anyway, we're back. Nice. Not that you had to notice that we were gone, but we're, but as I was saying, now that we have a experienced a Love's RV stop, we wanted to, you know, if we're gonna talk about it and tell people it's an option, we need to know something about it. We have experienced a Cracker Barrel would do it again. Sure. Why not? Oh,
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It depends on the, on the circumstances. Right. But,
Peggy Barthel
But then we did the Harvest Host and stayed in a nice quiet neighborhood and saw a fantastic museum. So Harvest Host is back on the, you know, back on our radar, which is kind of our usual radar in
Tony Barthel
Yeah. We usually like Harvest was quite a bit.
Peggy Barthel
And so the next day we drove until we needed to figure out a place, I have a friend who lives in Birmingham area, and so I said, Hey, I'm thinking about the Cracker Barrel in this nearby town is at a great place. And he is like, yeah, that'd be a great place. But then I looked on the heart, you know, so that was my kind of a plan. And then I looked on the Harvest Host app and I found a brewery. And, you know, brew docking is one of our favorite ways to spend the night somewhere.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Buddy. So
Peggy Barthel
And so we, we had to wait until they, you know, there was a certain time period that they, they said we could call because it was kind of late, you know, it was already that afternoon. So I called and she found a spot for me. And they had
Tony Barthel
A lot of RVs there.
Peggy Barthel
They did, I think there were like seven of us boondocking beer, Bert, what do I call it? Brew docking that night. She said, well go wherever you think you'll fit, and then come in and have a beer. So that's what we did. We got parked, we got leveled, and we went in and we had, Tony actually tried four.
Tony Barthel
I've tried four IPAs, four
Peggy Barthel
Different IPAs. And they were all great.
Tony Barthel
Right. Yeah. I thought they were all good. But the one I liked the best was their 1111. And I liked it enough. I got a Crowler to take home.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
So it was a Crowler is a big can. I should have, I should have brought it.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Like a big can.
Tony Barthel
It's a big can. It's what, 32 on whatever it is.
Peggy Barthel
It's
Tony Barthel
A, it's a big can.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. I am not, I'm not a fan of IPAs. I'm sure I could have found a beer I liked, but they also have cider. And so they had a caramel apple cider. And I'm like, well of course that's for me. Yeah.
Speaker 1
So
Peggy Barthel
I ordered the caramel apple cider, and while she was pouring it, the man in line behind me said, oh, you really need to try the pear cider. So if you know me very well, you know, one's kind of my woman, she's
Tony Barthel
A one. Yeah. Wonder
Peggy Barthel
Two is fine. Because we were just walking to the camper. No one had to drive anywhere. Right. And so I waited until I was done with the caramel apple. I got the pear cider. It was remarkably dark.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Like, I was surprised for a cider. You know, you expect it to be pretty pale. It was a amazingly perry It was so pear-ish was so good. I'm really glad that that man recommended it. And I'm glad that I decided.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And then he disappeared. Decided to drink.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. I, I went to thank him. And it's so weird. He was gone. I couldn't find him anywhere.
Tony Barthel
But yeah, that was, and again, so at the BB King Museum, at the brewery and at Cracker Barrel, it was all using our master Volt power system from ABC Upfitters. And it just performed outstandingly well. Right. So we were, we were very pleased with that. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And,
Tony Barthel
And also, well, we'll talk about it at the end. Yeah. We're, we're saving some of our tips for the end. But at this brewery, there was also a sushi truck.
Peggy Barthel
Well, it was a food truck and it was a sushi Mexican fusion. So they actually made sushi style burritos.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And I can't, I still can't think of the, the wrapping that they were in. It wasn't like a regular tortilla. It was, it was very reminiscent of sushi and you know, that kind of Asian food. And, but it was like he, Tony had the Thai version, so it had shrimp and peanut sauce and, and rice in the wrapper. I'm not, and the wrapper is the kind with like the sesame seeds on the outside. Like, we will show you pictures. But it was, gosh, it was really tasty.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, it was very good. It was really good. Yeah. I was a little nervous when I saw sushi. I thought, oh, if they only have sushi, then we're in trouble. 'cause we don't really eat sushi.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I'm not really, I mean, if I wanted bait, I'd go to the bait
Peggy Barthel
Store, but they actually have very several choices of raw burrito where they, they used the, like raw fish or raw, you know, whatever, that they would put in a sushi roll and they made a burrito out of it. So luckily they also had, I'm
Tony Barthel
Sure there are people who like it.
Peggy Barthel
They luckily also had a good cooked selection. So Tony had the shrimp.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Otherwise I'd be ordering pizza. But
Peggy Barthel
I had the shrimp and steak with an unagi sauce. It was also really good. So it was a, a very different but very
Tony Barthel
Happy.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I was, I was very pleased and very full. So it was all good. And there was beers. Right. And the people were really nice. There's a line, it says, don't go past this line because that's where all the brew kettles are. I just go strolling back there. This was after three IPAs. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And
Tony Barthel
I took a picture with the lady who helped us check in and all that stuff. And so I, I had a pretty good time. I'm sure they remember me. I'm sure there was also a dude there playing guitar. And he was really
Peggy Barthel
Good. Yeah, he was really good. They're, they're, they're, they really, really like having Harvest host members there. I think
Tony Barthel
There were a lot of us.
Peggy Barthel
There were seven of us. And there was, there's also a sign that shows a picture of a wheelbarrow and it says like, Harvest host transportation or something. How we'll get you back to your RV if you need it. Yeah. And I really wanted to try to take 'em up on it to see if they'd do it. But <laugh>,
Tony Barthel
I, I'd take a couple of them to get my myself back to the rig. So anyway, so again, that was more serendipity. That just turned out terrifically. I mean, fun night, good food, good beer, obviously. Always, always good company. So it was just, it was just a good situation overall.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And now we're at High Falls State Park in Georgia. We we're,
Peggy Barthel
I think, I think officially it's called Jackson, Georgia. But anyway, yeah. We're in Georgia. We are got
Tony Barthel
Georgia on our minds.
Peggy Barthel
We got Georgia on our maps. Yeah. And on our minds, we are staying at a state park. It's only gonna be about an hour when we drive from here to the, where the convention is. And that was by design. I wanted to get kind of close so that we don't get in late in the day to the convention because the Parkers already have, you know, a big enough job dealing with everyone coming in on the same couple of days. And I didn't wanna be exhausted and, you know, I wanted to, especially in this rain, like it's good that we'll have some time.
Peggy Barthel
So if we get there and it's raining really hard, we'll just not set up until the rain cuts back Yeah. Or something. Anyway. So it's gonna be just about an hour. Well,
Tony Barthel
And and another reason we chose this state park is obviously we could fill our, our freshwater tank, dump our holding tanks.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
And all of that. So it's, it's all about the tanks. It's a tankless job, but somebody's gotta
Peggy Barthel
Do, we normally at FMCA FRVA conventions get the parking that's, you know, complete boondocking. They, it took 'em a while really to kind of embrace the idea of no generator at all. They would put us in the limited use generator area and stuff. But we finally, I think we finally convinced them. And there's usually only half.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. There's like two or three of those,
Peggy Barthel
But half of you two or three five of us that want, like, don't be near generators. So,
Tony Barthel
Well the, I'm, I'm gonna say that FRVA and the FMCA are a diesel pusher motorhome club. Sure.
Peggy Barthel
Now
Tony Barthel
They are working to change that. We shall see how Perry is, and if you follow our socials, you'll know too. But typically it's people with big diesel pushers who have these monster generators and, and they're all happy with that. And we more and more of us are getting these systems that just let us be off the grid without hearing.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Yeah. So we will be reporting on that, obviously. But as Tony said, we're here at the state park so that we have the hookups. We can get some water, we can make sure we show up with, with full water and empty tanks.
Tony Barthel
Yep. That's
Peggy Barthel
The go empty waste tanks. And so
Tony Barthel
That's, that's, yeah.
Peggy Barthel
It's, yeah. And I was hoping that we would spend today kind of exploring High Falls State Park, but what we're gonna do is spend the day dry inside
Tony Barthel
Yeah. With,
Peggy Barthel
Instead with the
Tony Barthel
Furnace. And it's funny because the bathhouse is just right behind us. I mean, literally.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
I could hit it with a, with a paper. And there's also laundry in there. So we might take advantage of that too. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
We might do a little laundry.
Tony Barthel
Would you do this non planning, planning again?
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Tony Barthel
I,
Peggy Barthel
I think that we did fine. I, it took, I think we've told this before. It took, it took a long time for Tony to convince me that boondocking was a thing that we should do. And once I finally realized that, that's what I called camping growing up, and that's what I've done my whole life. It was just a new word. I was fine with it. It's taken him a little bit of time to say, why don't we just drive until we're done driving and then find a place to stay. I'm glad that we finally had that experience and did that method and Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Now that we've done it, I would, I'm not scared anymore. We can do it.
Tony Barthel
I would do this.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It was so much better than, you know, oh, you have to be here by this time, or you have to drive this far. And you're like, well what if my hind end is tired? Yeah.
Speaker 1
Or
Tony Barthel
What if I'm like, no, I got the energy to, to go, go, go. Let's,
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, you check into a campground at three o'clock and then you sit around till bedtime with nothing to do.
Tony Barthel
Right. So I like this. No planning. Planning. And you know, all the people who are like, oh, there's everything so overcrowded and blah. Well, first of all, we tend to avoid the national parks, not because we have anything against 'em. They're a wonderful thing, but they're usually crowded.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So like this is a state park. I'm looking around and there is very, very few people here.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Three or four rigs that we can see
Tony Barthel
The Harvest Hosts, the, at BB King. I'm surprised at BB King. Such a beautiful place. And we're the only ones there. Now, the brewery, that place had lots of RVs and that was, but there's still plenty of room more could have come.
Peggy Barthel
Oh yeah.
Tony Barthel
It's an old post office. But the bottom line is it's a great experience and we like this. No planning, planning, serendipitous planning.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. Stressless serendipity. Now we do have to admit or recognize that what we're doing is kind of different from what a lot of people do. Some, a lot of people, you know, they have Yeah. A weekend or they have a week and they go to a place and they go to a campground and they spend that week seeing all the things that they can see in that place. Right.
Peggy Barthel
And what we are doing is completely different. We're driving across the country to go to an event and everything is one night. One night. One night. Yeah. Except this place. And so admittedly it's a little different. Would I, would I cracker dock on vacation for three days in the same place? No. Would I, would I stay at a love's for three days? You can, but no, not really interested. If you're going for a weekend or you're going for a week of vacation, that's a completely different thing.
Peggy Barthel
If you need to get across the country in a most expedient way, these are some ideas of things that you can, ways that you can spend the night and keep moving in there. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Or let's say you didn't sleep well or you're tired or whatever, and you're like, dude, I just need to crash out
Peggy Barthel
Right
Tony Barthel
Before I crash out. Those loves are great for that. I mean, they're, you know, they have all the services and they have plenty of coffee and showers and so it, it's, it's good that there are more options. I like options. Yeah. Options are good. Options is good. And go.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. That's the first time I've heard him say that ever.
Tony Barthel
The
Peggy Barthel
Options are good.
Tony Barthel
So anyway, just to recap the systems and things that we used, we used our master volt power system from our friends at ABC Upfitters, who we talk about all the time. In fact, we have two other friends we'd like to welcome to the ABC Upfitter family.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Jason and Abby from RV Miles. They, which is a podcast we have enjoyed since before our podcast
Peggy Barthel
Even. Yeah. They just got a new Sabre fifth wheel and they, what we did,
Tony Barthel
They did, but we
Peggy Barthel
Did, they picked it up at the dealership and drove it straight to ABC Upfitters
Tony Barthel
And got an outfit. And they have a really good podcast episode about that. And so if you, we'll put a link to that episode. They, they did a super job interviewing the team there and, and, and Jason, who has a lot of experience in like lighting design and that sort of thing said, I was very impressed with the caliber of the workmanship. And then also Patrick and Wendy from Real Trailer Life, they have a Brinkley fifth wheel and they have a
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Power master volt power system, maybe
Peggy Barthel
Huge system. Yeah. They have put in,
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Both the Epersons, Jason and Abby and Patrick and Wendy have these really big systems, but they have really big fifth wheels.
Peggy Barthel
They have really big fifth wheels and they have the kind of lifestyle we where they will use this. Even Jason said, you know, if you're, if you go to campgrounds with hookups, I mean even ABC Upfitter says, if all you ever do is go to campgrounds with hookups, you don't need a big system that like what we have to spend a week in the desert.
Tony Barthel
Right, right, right. You just, so the, well, the good thing is they will interact with you beforehand and figure out how you like to camp and where you like to go and what you need to power and build a system based on that rather than, well here's what we have.
Speaker 1
Right.
Tony Barthel
So they're really good. And you can reach them as always at 5, 7, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2 5.
Peggy Barthel
That's (574) 333-3225. Give 'em a call or check 'em out at Abcupfitters.com
Tony Barthel
And
Peggy Barthel
See what they can do for you.
Tony Barthel
Yep. And then the other service we really liked was Harvest Hosts. And we have a discount to that too. We have a interview with Joel Harland from Harvest Hosts have several, and that's also at our home on the web at Stresslesscamping.com. And we'll put links down below in the show notes.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. What else?
Tony Barthel
Well, our question of the week, what is your go-to first meal when you get to camp? And this was, this is a fun one.
Peggy Barthel
It was fun. We had, I'm not gonna read them, but you know, people like just have cheese and crackers or stop and pick something up on the way. My sister, I think said, gets a bucket of chicken and some side salad so there's no cooking involved. Some people might take something outta the freezer and throw it in the microwave when they get to camp. Tony actually talked about making chili dog wraps, which is kind of involved. So I mean it's Okay.
Tony Barthel
So my thought was there's a recipe on our website for my award-winning peanut butter and jelly chili. Oh sure. So you just, we have this often in those freezy bags in the freezer. And so you just, okay, well I'm going to camp. I'll take one freezy bag out and put it in the fridge. By the time you get to camp, it's thawed out. And then you have hot dogs and tortillas and cheese and pickles. It's,
Speaker 1
Yeah,
Tony Barthel
I mean, if you're gonna have a campfire, you
Peggy Barthel
Have mustard.
Tony Barthel
Oh yeah. You have all the fire firepower you
Peggy Barthel
Need to make. Well that's true. Make this meal happen wells. True. That's true. You can, everyone can roast their own hot dog while you're warming up the chili and
Tony Barthel
It's a no no. Plates and forks meal. If you want it to be you wrap.
Speaker 1
Yeah. A
Tony Barthel
Hot dog, chili pickle and mustard and cheese in a tortilla.
Peggy Barthel
That's
Tony Barthel
Right. And it's a carry around eaten meal.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. No dishes. So
Tony Barthel
No dishes.
Peggy Barthel
Last week I shared Brian's recipe for French onion meat loaf.
Tony Barthel
That was
Peggy Barthel
So fun. And I got, ugh, I'm so sad that I missed that out. Anyway, that he, he actually cooked in the crock pot with the inverter in the, in the camp kitchen while they were driving to camp. So
Tony Barthel
He put it in the kitchen sink and it was just going, going, going.
Peggy Barthel
So once they got to Camp Meatloaf was ready. Yeah. So he had a hot home cooked meal that they really didn't, you know, he didn't do a lot to get ready. Well he, I mean he did ahead of time dance. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
But advance. But once we got to camp, it was like he busted that out. It was good.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So, yeah, that was good. And then this week we are curious about something where do you listen to podcasts? Especially of course the Stressless Camping podcast, but do you listen, what app do you use? Where do you like to listen to podcasts? For example? For us, we use Apple Podcast and listen in the truck when we're driving,
Peggy Barthel
We know a lot of people watch the YouTube version. That's why we're here.
Speaker 1
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And I am not, I'm not a really a YouTube watcher, but I know that a lot of people do. We, but like Tony said, we listen while we're in the truck with our Apple podcast in order not to get confused. I have some podcasts I listen to and he doesn't, so I use a different podcast catcher that I can't think of the name of right now. Now,
Tony Barthel
Probably Spotify.
Peggy Barthel
No, it's a, it's like a nothing you've ever heard of.
Tony Barthel
Okay.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, a secret. A a secret one. Anyway, but we are curious, who are we reaching? Are we, are you using Apple Podcasts? Are you using Spotify? Are you watching only on YouTube? I know some people don't watch, they only listen.
Tony Barthel
Gosh, some of you listen to the audio podcast and watch us. And I'm thinking, man, that's a lot.
Peggy Barthel
And then I assume that you also read the, the transcript too. I'm just kidding.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So, however, if you are interested in reading a written version of today's podcast, not only will there almost always be a transcript, almost always, it's pretty much this week's journey journal as well.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that's
Peggy Barthel
True. It's kind of the same, kind of the same story.
Tony Barthel
Yep. We ask those questions at our fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group. And we got a few comments this past week about, you know, I don't really like Facebook that much, but this group has been so beneficial. And that's the goal, right? I mean, take Facebook however you like it, but as a, as a group it, it's a pretty good resource. So yeah, also know that every week
Peggy Barthel
On
Tony Barthel
A Thursday morning in the middle of the night, we do our once a week <crosstalk>.
Peggy Barthel
We get up,
Tony Barthel
We get
Peggy Barthel
Up one 30 in the morning, rank
Tony Barthel
The this
Peggy Barthel
Right in newsletter and send it out at price. Precisely. Just kidding. Somewhere around three A.M. But we don't really do it live. No we don't. We schedule that ahead of time.
Tony Barthel
But it's got the list of the stories and videos and podcasts that we think will help you have the most out of your Stressless camping experience.
Peggy Barthel
We also, I don't know why I, I don't know why I need notes for this. You also can go to our website and look at the podcast page and this is episode 2 98 and you can see the links and the pictures and the transcript and all that stuff for this episode or any episode that you wanna get caught up on.
Tony Barthel
Yep. And that's also where you'll find discounts deals and our favorite vendors to get the most out of your Stressless camping experience. It pays to be a Stressless camper.
Peggy Barthel
We are also, of course, on all the social media places. So when you're done with the website, you can use the, the links, the jump off links, and you can go and see what we're doing over in the socials
Tony Barthel
Y. Yep. And of course, if you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping podcast,
Peggy Barthel
It is free, free to subscribe on any podcast catcher. And we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
Tony Barthel
In fact, this week, I, you know, you look at all these podcast ads and it's like, oh, there's a lot of people listening on Spotify. So I go in there, there's an a management side of this stuff. Oh, there's a lot of comments I never responded to, so apologies,
Peggy Barthel
I'll use
Tony Barthel
Spotify.
Peggy Barthel
If you waited three months for a Spotify comment, it finally came. Sorry.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. It's like Christmas or something. Of course, speaking of Spotify or Apple Podcasts or YouTube or any of those or review will help others find this podcast. And so like, and share and post your reviews and interact down below, it actually makes a big difference. It really does in who sees this.
Peggy Barthel
So thank you so much for joining us again this week. We hope that you enjoyed our little journey. We hope that we gave you some inspiration for ways to spend nights on the road. And until next week, we wish you Stressless camping.
Tony Barthel
Gosh, I wish I could say. Alright, BB, play us out.
Speaker 4
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.
Peggy Barthel
Wah wah. It's weird being on this side.
