Podcast 301: lessons we learned in RV Basic Training
Lessons we learned from our RV basic training students
This week on the StressLess Camping RV Podcast, we we share lessons we have learned while helping others gain confidence and learn to be Stressless Campers. If it’s time to dewinterzie your RV we have some tips, and we share how we’ve been choosing stops on this leg of our journey.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
More information about our RV Basic Training beginners RV class
Our review of the Four Wheel Campers CampOut
Our article Checklists Make for StressLess Camping
The Red Cross’ Vial of Life program
One of the safety tips we learned - the R.A.D. self-defense classes
Is it time to dewinterize? Handy tips:
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 301
Peggy Barthel
This week on the Stressless Camping RV Podcast, we are going to share the lessons that we have learned while helping others gain confidence and learn to be stressless campers.
Tony Barthel
If it's time to de winterize your RV, we also have some tips and we share how we've been choosing stops on this leg of the journey.
Peggy Barthel
We have this week's podcast along with notes and all the stories that go with this episode, along with deals, discounts, helpful tips and more at our home on the web stresslesscamping.com hey, don't forget.
Tony Barthel
To like share and subscribe.
Peggy Barthel
And thank you for joining us for podcast episode 301.
Tony Barthel
Hey, I'm Tony.
Peggy Barthel
I'm Peggy.
Tony Barthel
We're two RV industry veterans who travel.
Peggy Barthel
Part time in this travel trailer looking.
Tony Barthel
To share big adventures and help you with great tips, tricks and discounts.
Peggy Barthel
We are on the road, still heading to Indiana. We will be for a while. We're on our way to Indiana now. We've been zigzagging. Not to steal Abby's term, but we're zigzagging across the country.
Peggy Barthel
Not completely intentionally, but we are now going from Texas back to Indiana to do some work there. And so you will see us sitting right here probably for the next couple of weeks.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, we are actually in Peggy's cousin's yard, front yard.
Peggy Barthel
Thank you camping. Thank you, Dan and Kim for letting us mooch dock in your driveway.
Peggy Barthel
And we hope that we hope you can see the great view that we have out our window.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, we're waiting for the deer to show up, but we didn't see them. Whether they showed up or not, their footprints showed up.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
We are back in an area of the country where last time we came through here we were staying at a harvest host and we show up.
Tony Barthel
It's a distillery and they had no power. Now they still had hooch, they still.
Peggy Barthel
Had tastes until the sun went down. As long as there was sun coming in the windows and enough light to work with, we got to do some tasting and we bought some moonshine and then we came here to where we are now and my cousin also had no power.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, there was a big storm basically.
Peggy Barthel
And so we, they said, oh, we don't know, we're so sorry, we, we don't have any power. We can't make dinner. And we said, look it, we have all the power we need. We'll make dinner.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So thanks to our master volt power system installed by ABC Upfitters, we had all the power we needed and we camped on and it was Great. We had all the power we needed at the distillery, so it works out pret. And we're pretty pleased with this system. We've been putting it to the test on this road trip with Serendipity, and it's just been performing very, very well. In fact, a lot of people are like, hey, can we see that?
Tony Barthel
Oh, yeah, we'll be happy to show it to you. Hey, if we're camping with you, we'll be happy to show it to you.
Peggy Barthel
Absolutely.
Tony Barthel
Or ABC Outfitters can custom tailor a system for your RV and then you can show it off to other people.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So if you're looking for anything from a simple system that'll add some weekending getaway time to a system like ours that lets you camp off the grid basically indefinitely, ABC Upfitters are the people to call. They install high quality master Volt components. So one provider, no finger pointing. And how would I get hold of ABC Upfitters?
Peggy Barthel
Well, I mean, you could look at their website, ABC outfitters.com or you can call them at 5743-3322-5574-3333-3225.
Peggy Barthel
I wonder how many people out there repeat the number with us.
Tony Barthel
I know, right?
Peggy Barthel
I've said it so many times.
Tony Barthel
Or you can look in the links below or the podcast notes, and there are links to an ABC Upfitters page with a bunch of videos on our.
Peggy Barthel
Website@Stresslesscamping.Com so, week or so, we've kind of lost track of time, to be honest.
Peggy Barthel
A week or two ago, we were teaching our RV basic training, and we were teaching it to girl campers. I know that we have talked about this. They call it camper college. And we realized as we, you know, sometimes a lot of times when we're driving, we just sit and listen to podcasts. But a lot of times that podcast will remind us of a conversation.
Peggy Barthel
And we have a lot of conversations. And one of the conversations we had this week was, it's cool that pretty much every time we teach a seminar session or a basic training, we learned something from the people that we're supposed to be teaching.
Tony Barthel
Well, yeah. I mean, the good thing is the way we do our RV basic training is it's sort of a conversation rather than a lecture, because who the heck wants to sit and listen to anyone talk for an hour? Oh, wait a minute.
Peggy Barthel
You all do it every week, don't you?
Tony Barthel
Okay, it's a good thing to listen to something. But seriously, a conversation is even better. And that's how Those RV basic training.
Peggy Barthel
Workshops are now, when we do seminars, kind of the expectation really is that you're going to sit and listen for 45 minutes and have 15 minutes to ask questions.
Peggy Barthel
Okay, that's great. But when we do these basic training camps, it's like 12 of those sessions back to back to back to back. And that's a lot of listening to us.
Tony Barthel
Listen to us, Babylon.
Peggy Barthel
And so we.
Peggy Barthel
That's kind of the way we formatted the, the classes in the very beginning. But as time has gone on. Gone on, I think that we have gotten better at kind of making it more of a hands on experience.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Kind of making it more conversation.
Peggy Barthel
Conversation. Yeah. We don't do any of the things on your rv. What we do is tell you how and why and what they do, and then we watch you do them.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that's true.
Peggy Barthel
So that you have that confidence. Really, it's about building the confidence. It's not so much teaching you any. You could read it or watch it on YouTube or whatever. You could learn things from a lot of places.
Peggy Barthel
But the goal here is for you to do those things so that you feel more confident when you're out camping without us.
Tony Barthel
I'm doing those things.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And something. I've gone to a lot of conventions and workshops and all that stuff.
Tony Barthel
And sometimes you're sitting in whatever they're teaching and it's like something you already know, but then hearing it or seeing it again kind of brings it to the forefront. There's times where you're like, oh, I'd forgotten about that. So that's another reason we like doing this. And sometimes, you know, there's no one person who knows everything, although some people on Facebook think they do and they're insistent about. But anyway, so people bring things to the class that it's like, oh, that's a great idea, or just different perspectives.
Peggy Barthel
Right. Because some things, there's not only one way to do things. And we try to make that clear. Like this is the way we do it and we know it, we understand it, and we can teach you. But that's one of those instances where someone says, oh, well, I learned to do it this way, and you get the same result in the same safe manner, then fine.
Peggy Barthel
We just learned a new way to tell people about it.
Tony Barthel
Like backing up a trailer. There's not one right answer except, don't hit stuff.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
So anyway, the, the first thing that we learned from our students is about the railroad crossing phone number.
Tony Barthel
And we've talked about this before, and all Railroad crossings in the US have what they call grade crossing is what it is. It's where the railroad crosses the grade train always has the right of way. And it takes a good mile for a freight train to stop. So all those railroad crossings have a telephone number on them. There's a sign there and it'll have an indicating number like the, this is railroad crossing number 500, whatever things are all numbered.
Tony Barthel
And you call that number and say, I just high centered my trailer on the tracks.
Peggy Barthel
Can you stop the trains?
Tony Barthel
So, and it's better to call the number before you hear the bells ringing, because once you see or hear that train coming, you might as well make a video for YouTube because that train is gonna make a mess of whatever's across the track anyway. That's one of the first things we learned.
Peggy Barthel
We also learned about the Vial of Life and we will put links to that vialoflife.com basically.
Peggy Barthel
And what it is, is a little kit and it comes with a questionnaire and you answer all the questions about your health and your medications and stuff on the, on the form. Then you place that in the refrigerator, sealed or the freezer. And then you put a little sticker, a little decal on the outside of that fridge or freezer, kind of eye level. So emergency personnel that come in, maybe you're all alone, but you know someone. No, I don't.
Peggy Barthel
Whatever. However it happens anyway, someone can come in, see that sticker on the outside, and they know where to look for information about your health and medications. So they don't accidentally give you something they're gonna think they're gonna help you with and giving you something you're allergic to. So we learned about that from one of the people in one of our classes.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that's a good thing.
Tony Barthel
Another thing is the rad systems self defense class. And apparently it's rad, right? And it must stand for something.
Peggy Barthel
It's like, it's like rape, assault defense, I think it is.
Tony Barthel
Okay, yeah, that makes sense.
Tony Barthel
And it's a self defense class that is very consistent from one police agency to the next and helps you defend yourself, you know.
Peggy Barthel
So as I understand it, it's a course that you go and you take. They teach it all over the country and it's the same exact curriculum no matter where you take it. So you're not just relying on whatever the local police force knows or thinks they know or decides to tell you. They have to follow a certain curriculum.
Peggy Barthel
And then you have that it's, you know, self defense class so that you have just, you're better able. And this is really not even anything to do with RVing necessarily. You want that when you're in a dark alley at the grocery store in the middle of the night or some.
Tony Barthel
Of the Walmarts I've been to. So in other words, not taking this class would be a cop out.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, no. Oh, boy.
Tony Barthel
Hey, we have some arresting information here.
Peggy Barthel
Are you done?
Tony Barthel
Maybe. I can't make any guarantees.
Peggy Barthel
Okay, so what is something else, something that we have learned is that a lot of people, I hate to use the word afraid, but they say they're afraid, they're afraid of propane.
Peggy Barthel
And so I'm, you know, afraid of intimidated by, you know, just inexperienced with using propane. And so they don't want to turn on their stove, they don't want to use their furnace. You know, they don't use propane for hot water. But really, it's not that scary. And so when we find, when we have a student, my goal is when a student comes in and the first thing they say is, I'm not using the propane because I'm afraid of it.
Peggy Barthel
They immediately get walked to their trailer, turn on their propane, and we, you know, it's kind of a one on one. When we have the opportunity, it's a one on one. Like just I'll stand there with them to help them build their confidence, help them, you know, try how to turn it on, how to light their stove and make sure everything's running right. We had, I had a lady in the last class that her furnace wouldn't heat up. And so we tried a couple different things.
Peggy Barthel
And rather than stand there with her for 20 minutes to see what happened, I said, try this, try this, try this. And then text me and let me know if you're getting warm.
Tony Barthel
And she did.
Peggy Barthel
She did. And it worked out.
Peggy Barthel
And she went away saying, I'm not afraid anymore. And that is what really floats my boat. I don't know what I really love.
Tony Barthel
Well, and as you may know, we're friends with Mike Sokol, the RV electricity expert. And something that I think more people should be concerned about is the use of electric space heaters in RVs.
Tony Barthel
If you ever watch how they wire an RV, it is, let's say, suboptimal.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, let's say that.
Tony Barthel
And those plugs are often not designed for that continuous high use. Draw that a space heater takes, right? It takes a lot of energy to change temperature.
Tony Barthel
And a lot of those plugs aren't really intended for that. And I've seen more fires from electrical issues than I have from propane system.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
I mean, the propane system is checked and double checked and there is backup or not backups, there's safeguards and all that built into it. But the electrical system, I was just in a group and there was a air fryer that caught their RV on fire.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
These systems aren't really designed for these heavy loads. So I would be more afraid of a space heater, electric space heater, than the propane furnace. Now, I think the RV industry could do something about the sound of a jet that's built into a lot of these space furnaces.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
I'm not afraid of it. I'm just annoyed by how loud it is. But you know, it is safe. And that is something that I love. That a student will come in saying, I'm never using my propane and go away saying, I had a gas.
Peggy Barthel
I had a gas. Okay, you are not done.
Tony Barthel
Nope, I'm never done. Another thing that we think is important is knowing the proper procedure to change the tire in your RV and having the tools to do so.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And we advocate having the RV tire changing kit from Airgear. It's something that we have. In fact, I used it yesterday not to change a tire, but to check the torque on our lug nuts. And I found two of them were not completely seated properly.
Peggy Barthel
So that you don't have to change a tire when it falls off and rolls down the highway without you.
Tony Barthel
We talked to Rich a while back here on the podcast. We'll put a link to it that happened to him.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Tony Barthel
But anyway, knowing the proper procedure to change the tire on your. Any RV really.
Tony Barthel
But travel trailers in particular, towables, a lot of them have very specific ways that they're supposed to be jacked up.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Tony Barthel
Just because of the suspension design. And a tire shop unknowingly could just bring in a floor jack and actually damage the suspension. So there's a good number of reasons to know the proper procedure.
Tony Barthel
But on a lot of two axle trailers, you can either buy a ramp, like Camco sells this ramp, or just use your leveling blocks and drive the good tire up on the leveling blocks and it'll raise the bad tire.
Peggy Barthel
The bad tire will just be kind of dangling there.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Makes it easy to change.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Makes it easier. And you don't even need a jack.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And you don't have to go to the like physical work of putting a jack. Just drive up.
Tony Barthel
It's surprisingly easy to change a Tire on a two axle or three axle towable rv.
Peggy Barthel
So I remember last year, I think it was, there was a student that had some problems with their. We couldn't figure out how the water heater worked. The buttons weren't that intuitive. And we were pushing all the different buttons and nothing.
Tony Barthel
Well, it didn't make any sense.
Peggy Barthel
It didn't make any sense. And so Tony said, well, I'm gonna take. Oh. And that was the one that the water heater was like buried under the bed.
Peggy Barthel
So we couldn't really get to the. To the backside or the front side or whatever you call it.
Tony Barthel
The inside could not get in there without disassembling the bed. It was to de. Winterize the thing.
Peggy Barthel
So. Right. So Tony said, well, I'm gonna go to the outside of the trailer and look from that side and see, you know, what I can see from there. And he started to take the anode rod out and everything was hot.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And we found out that everything was actually working. There's a button on the outside of that particular water heater. That's not always true. We had never had one where the button was on the outside.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
But some of them, you have to turn it on outside before you can turn it on inside. So if you have an RV and you've never got the water heater to work, this might be a tip for you.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, well, here's. Here's a little tip. Check the manual.
Peggy Barthel
Well, I mean.
Tony Barthel
Oh, my God.
Peggy Barthel
I know manuals aren't really all that easy to come by in. Isn't it true in all rigs?
Tony Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
We're so fortunate with this rig, with that great manual. We have an episode or we have a story about the manuals in these new rockwoods.
Peggy Barthel
Okay, so what else? So you may or may not know this, but trailers, any. Any towable, anything that's a trailer that's more than £3,500 requires a trailer brake.
Tony Barthel
So basically, the way it works is your tow vehicle, whatever that is, has a connection with the trailer. So when you apply the brakes in the tow vehicle, it sends a signal to the trailer that says, hey, can you help here?
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And the trailer has brakes and helps to stop it. It stops its own weight, essentially.
Peggy Barthel
Now it works through that seven pin connection. Right. That if you don't have the seven pin plugged in, then your trailer brake isn't your truck. Your vehicle is not going to talk to your brake.
Tony Barthel
Right.
Peggy Barthel
So that's the first step. You've got to have it plugged into the seven Pin.
Tony Barthel
But you need a brake controller in whatever you're towing with.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
Because you can change how much braking is applied by the trail.
Tony Barthel
And there are some other reasons to have it, too. Like you can just apply the trailer brakes specifically if it starts to wiggle or different things. Well, there was a. One of the rigs in our recent class was big enough, it needed a trailer brake, and the dealer told the person who had it, oh, no, you don't need that.
Peggy Barthel
You don't need that.
Tony Barthel
What? In the wide world of sports. That's nuts. So she did not have a trailer brake controller.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
And so if you have a trailer over £3,500, by law, you have to have an ability to stop it.
Peggy Barthel
Now, if you're not sure the weight, the. The seven pin, as opposed to the four pin, is how you know that you're. You have something that should have a trailer brake. Is that right?
Tony Barthel
Well, yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And also, those extra pins are. Is where the brake is located. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And.
Tony Barthel
And there are some smaller trailers that also have brakes, because why not? Right.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. It doesn't hurt to have brakes if you're smaller.
Tony Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
So there are smaller trailers with brakes. So. But, gosh, if you have brakes in your trailer, have a brake controller, and what several of the people in the class had was a curt Bluetooth brake controller, and they loved it.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So they didn't have to modify their tow vehicle.
Tony Barthel
It just worked somehow with. I haven't looked at how this works, but they absolutely loved it.
Peggy Barthel
So I remember last year teaching, and some people didn't. I mean, they had the controller, but they didn't realize that they should adjust it. And so that was something else that, you know, someone came in, and when they went to stop to check in at the office, their trailer practically towed them back up to the entrance.
Peggy Barthel
You know, it pulled so hard. That brake pulled so hard. And so that was, you know, a chance to let people know, to adjust the brake. But if you don't have a controller, you can't adjust it.
Tony Barthel
Next thing.
Peggy Barthel
Checklists really do make for stressless camping. We have an article we do that says checklists make for stressless camping. It's actually one of our. No, it's not. I'm lying.
Peggy Barthel
It's one of the sessions that we teach during. During the classes. I was going to say it's one of our seminars, and it's not. But it probably could be an actual seminar.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
But anyway, we have a whole article with downloadable checklists that you can customize for your rv, but gosh Checklists really do make for stressless camping. I mean, for example, if somebody comes over and you're halfway hooked up or halfway unhooked.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
Having a checklist really helps with knowing what. Where you stopped, where you.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Where you got interrupted. So we did. If you've looked at our checklist webpage before, I did get some new checklists from some of the students. They had great checklists.
Peggy Barthel
One of them had it laminated and was using a grease pencil on it. One of them just kind of prints a new. And she said her mom, when they would go camping, she had this whole, like, file folder, file cabinet, practically with dupe, you know, carbon copies of different lists. And if dad said we're going two days to the local state park, or if dad said we're going five days on a fishing trip, mom got out the checklist needed for each of those kinds of trips and that. And so she, you know, grew up learning that checklists make for stress was camping.
Peggy Barthel
And so she let me take her checklists and put them also on our website.
Tony Barthel
I like it. The last thing we keep learning about cool Facebook groups and apps.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And on this trip, I think we're going to talk about it on the Gadget Report.
Tony Barthel
But some of the new apps and some of the new groups that we found thanks to, again, our students teaching us have been pretty darn cool.
Peggy Barthel
And there's actually been apps that I had but forgot that I even had them. There have been apps that I used to have and somehow didn't have anymore. You know, sometimes I don't use an app for a while, and then I might take it off my phone because I've got so many. But then, you know, maybe they did an update and it's better than the one I'm using.
Peggy Barthel
And so that's not really a static, you know, get this app and never use anything else. It's really.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And some of them change or get, you know, bought out or whatever. So it's fluid.
Peggy Barthel
It's fluid. So one of the apps that I use quite a bit is the Harvest Host app. You know, we haven't played our Harvest Host ad in a while.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And actually Harvest Host liked it so much that they shared it with a few people.
Tony Barthel
So let's share it. Yeah, let's share it. It's time to play harvest host Facts vs Fantasy, where we talk about the latest updates to the Harvest Host program. Harvest Host is a service that matches you with over 5,000 locations in North America where you get to stay in your Self contained rv. These places offer all kinds of great experiences and range from restaurants to breweries, museums, farms, and so much more.
Tony Barthel
Not only do you get a great and memorable overnight stay, but these places offer incredible experiences that you'll want to share with your friends. And social media. The places you stay have changed, and so we wanted to share the facts versus the fantasy about staying at Harvest Host.
Peggy Barthel
Welcome, our first contestant to Harvest Host. Fact or fantasy?
Peggy Barthel
Welcome.
Tony Barthel
Thank you.
Peggy Barthel
Okay, here's your first question. How many nights can you stay at a Harvest Host?
Tony Barthel
Oh, yeah, I'm already here.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
One.
Peggy Barthel
No, not true. What? Some hosts will actually allow you to stay up to four extra nights.
Peggy Barthel
And you can find these hosts on the Harvest Host website or the app where they will show you how many extra nights are available.
Tony Barthel
Wow, that's cool.
Peggy Barthel
Okay, the second question. Ready?
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
What kind of hookups are available at Harvest Host sites? You don't have to raise your hand.
Tony Barthel
Oh, none.
Peggy Barthel
I am sorry, but that is also incorrect.
Tony Barthel
What?
Peggy Barthel
Many hosts are now offering electrical and water hookups.
Tony Barthel
Wow.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. You can filter the Harvest Host map to find hosts that offer extra nights. And electric and water hosts may charge you a fee to stay that extra night or to use electrical hookups.
Peggy Barthel
But these are just two of the ways that you can support your host business during your stay. They will keep 100% of the proceeds.
Tony Barthel
Well, it sounds like I'm a Harvest Host dunce, but now I know more.
Peggy Barthel
All right, that was a lot of fun. Actually, we are big fans of Harvest Host, and Tony does know the answers to those questions.
Tony Barthel
I actually do. We've had all kinds of great experiences at Harvest Host, including farms where we got to meet alpacas and pigs and.
Peggy Barthel
Cows and horses and the fluffiest bunnies you'll ever see. And fainting goats.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, we met those, too.
Tony Barthel
Well, I really like that a lot of the Harvest Host locations are breweries, which means great beer, great food, great atmosphere, and, well, you're at a brewery. In fact, we've camped with friends at several of these breweries. So that's another fun aspect of Harvest Hosts.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, there's also wineries, golf courses, museums, incredible historic places. We have got to eat apple cider donuts and we even got to sleep one time on an airport Runway.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So there's so many great experiences. There are over 5,000 locations in North America already, and they're always adding more.
Peggy Barthel
That way. It's a great alternative to expensive campgrounds, crowded campgrounds, or, you know, noisy, sketchy parking lots.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, there's not going to be that midnight knock at the door telling you to get out. It's a secure reservation made through the Harvest Host app or website, and you can rest assured that you got a great place to stay. You can find a discount to Harvest Host at our home on the web, along with an interview with Joel Holland from Harvest Host.
Peggy Barthel
With more hosts offering more features and our discount, this is the perfect time to join Harvest Hosts.
Tony Barthel
See you there.
Tony Barthel
So that ad is pretty silly, but we like it.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. So we, you know, we often have a gadget report and we often tell you about a destination, but this week we're doing. What is it?
Tony Barthel
Desti Gadget or gadgeonation?
Peggy Barthel
We're gonna tell you about some of the ways that we've been finding places to stop this trip. And it's not necessarily to sleep overnight. We talk about that and we talk about Harvest Hosts quite a bit, and that's how we find overnighters quite a bit. But this trip we had a little bit of spare time, which is really unusual for us.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Usually our trips, a lot of times the driving portion is get here to there as quickly as possible.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. 300 miles. 300 miles. 300 miles.300 miles.
Peggy Barthel
And then we're where we need to be.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
And that's kind of tiring and kind of boring, and we sometimes run out of podcasts to listen to. So what we are doing on this trip is I'm using a couple of apps. One is called Roadside.
Peggy Barthel
It's from Roadside America. And one is called Atlas Obscura. And those two apps have, like, roadside attractions. And some of them are very silly, and some of them are very informative, and some of them are a little dark. Atlas Obscura has things like, Walter White is buried here.
Peggy Barthel
Now, if you're not familiar, Walter White was the character on Breaking Bad, and that was filmed in Albuquerque. So there's a lot of Breaking Bad stuff. Stuff in those apps. But anyway, rather than only figure out where we're gonna sleep tonight, what we've been doing is. Here we are.
Peggy Barthel
What is the next thing that Roadside or Atlas Obscura tells me is interesting that we want to see?
Tony Barthel
And, boy, has Peggy found some interesting stuff.
Peggy Barthel
For example. Yeah. So we've.
Peggy Barthel
So that's how we've been planning is we've been planning basically one hour at a time instead of one day or one week at a time.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So what was that weird sculpture thing you found?
Peggy Barthel
Sculpture thing yesterday?
Tony Barthel
The.
Tony Barthel
That whole metal.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, okay. So that is called the mind field. That is in I think Brownsville. Brownsville.
Peggy Barthel
Brownsville.
Tony Barthel
Arkansas.
Peggy Barthel
Arkansas or Tennessee. I forget which state we were in now. Anyways, I think it was still in Arkansas.
Tony Barthel
Some dude just basically went nuts, welded up all this crazy, like, towers.
Peggy Barthel
And it's like an acre, one acre property. And he has metal. Yeah, like towers and metal. Just everything made out of metal, all painted.
Tony Barthel
His favorite color Battleship.
Peggy Barthel
Battleship Gray. And it's weird. Weird and fascinating and. Weird.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, weird is the best word for it.
Peggy Barthel
It's really interesting to see, you know, but it's just one of those things. It's just in the middle of a little tiny town. Right. So not a.
Peggy Barthel
Kind of. Not a place we probably ever would have stopped unless there happened to be a harvest host site there or something. Right. Otherwise we never would have known about it. But I.
Peggy Barthel
You know, we're doing this. We're not doing this by where to stop. We're doing this, or we're not doing this by where to sleep, we're doing this by what to see next.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, we also stopped at the Tina Turner Museum.
Peggy Barthel
Yes.
Peggy Barthel
And that's also in Brownsville. So I think they were both.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, they're both in the same town. And that museum had four museums inside of it. A farming museum, Five, I think, some.
Peggy Barthel
Music, the local kind of nature, birds and fish.
Tony Barthel
Oh, that's right.
Peggy Barthel
And then there's two buildings. One is an old school house, and it's kind of the Tina Turner tribute area. And then the home of Sleepy.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, boy, Sleepy Joe.
Tony Barthel
Oh, man.
Peggy Barthel
This sleep. Okay, well, watch the video. Yeah, right.
Peggy Barthel
See his house while we're talking. But that was also, you know, just a fun. That actually was a harvest host. And we had considered staying there for the night. But you know what?
Peggy Barthel
The day before, we just didn't feel like driving that far.
Tony Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So we had stopped already. So in the middle of the day, we stopped. And we didn't say, oh, gosh, we don't have the time.
Peggy Barthel
We have to get. No, we just stopped. And if we didn't make it as far as we thought we would, then we'll make it up tomorrow.
Tony Barthel
Yep. We also stopped at the Casey Jones Museum, which we've been to before.
Tony Barthel
We stopped at. Oh, boy. Oh, we drove by a post office in Texarkana.
Peggy Barthel
That's right.
Tony Barthel
And there wasn't really.
Tony Barthel
It was pouring, and there wasn't a great place to stop because we had the trailer and half the post offices in Arkansas, half the post offices in Texas.
Peggy Barthel
That was really interesting.
Tony Barthel
So I wonder if you could mail yourself something into the same building or get two post. I don't. I wish we had gone in, but it didn't work out that we did.
Tony Barthel
But there's a picture of it.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
But I think my favorite thing we found which. Well, remember we. We overnighted at a brewery.
Peggy Barthel
Thank you, Harvest Host.
Tony Barthel
That was good.
Peggy Barthel
That was the Hops and Chops Brewery and Steakhouse. That's where we overnighted.
Tony Barthel
And then from there, that same town has this beautiful courthouse building from the 1880s, I believe.
Tony Barthel
And we got to talk to a sheriff's deputy. Not because I did anything stupid, mind you. For a change.
Peggy Barthel
Actually we approached him because he was kind of guarding, you know, I think.
Tony Barthel
He was just hanging out, kind of.
Peggy Barthel
Security kind of hanging out. But the flags were at half mast.
Tony Barthel
And oh, we asked him why that.
Peggy Barthel
Was common because it was an actual veterans memorial area also. And so I thought perhaps they do it all the time.
Peggy Barthel
But apparently there was a Texas, a former Texas senator, somebody that had just passed away that day. So the flags were flying at half mast for that. But yeah, the building was. It was beautiful.
Tony Barthel
But the reason we stopped.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, they had these bathrooms in that park and they're in like these mirror cubes. So you look, looking at it, it's a mirrored building. It's, you know, the size of a bathroom.
Peggy Barthel
Right.
Tony Barthel
And you look at it and it's mirrored.
Tony Barthel
But you go in, it's a one way mirror. So you can look one way or two way.
Peggy Barthel
Well, I guess it'd be a one.
Tony Barthel
Way, I don't know. But anyway.
Peggy Barthel
Anyway, you can see in, but you can see.
Tony Barthel
So you could look at what's going on in the park while you're taking care of business.
Peggy Barthel
Right, exactly. So we thought we'd just video and goof around. But then it turned out I actually needed to use the restroom.
Peggy Barthel
So I gave it a good test. Nobody stood outside and laughed. So I guess it worked.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, I couldn't see in while he.
Peggy Barthel
Didn'T know what I was doing in there.
Peggy Barthel
And then they also, on that same street corner, have a tribute to the ministry of Silly walking that, that Monty Python did. And so we did this fun little video with Tony, you know, practice practicing his silly walk.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, so that was a social post we did this past week, but we'll share it again here.
Peggy Barthel
So that was Sulphur Springs, Texas. And that was a really good stop.
Peggy Barthel
And it was one of those like short days. We Maybe we went 100 miles all day because we just wanted to stop and goof off and see things.
Tony Barthel
But but another thing, you know, this has been proof again that now if you're trying to reserve Yellowstone or. Yeah, you know, those A list places. Yeah, it's going to be pretty crowded and hard to do, but we have had zero issues finding places to stay.
Tony Barthel
And I mean, granted, a fair number of places because of the master ball system are boondocking. Right?
Peggy Barthel
Sure.
Tony Barthel
But we have never come across. Nope.
Tony Barthel
We don't have any room for you. So thus far. And it is April, so I'm sure that changes once the kids get out.
Peggy Barthel
Well, actually, yeah. When we were at Hot Springs, remember, it was spring break.
Tony Barthel
Oh.
Peggy Barthel
And.
Tony Barthel
Oh, yeah.
Peggy Barthel
We were in Hot Springs for a couple of days and we thought, oh, we'll just. We'll go over to Bathhouse Row and we'll, you know, wander around because we like it there.
Peggy Barthel
And there's the Superior Bathhouse Brewery, which has great food and great beer.
Tony Barthel
And that was our plan.
Peggy Barthel
That would be our lunch. We'd go have a beer and have lunch. And it was Saturday and it was spring break, and there.
Tony Barthel
I couldn't find a place to park the truck.
Peggy Barthel
Parking. We didn't even have the trailer. It was just the truck, and we just couldn't find parking. So I.
Peggy Barthel
Well, this. This wasn't like the roadside app, but I just used the map and said, tell me when there's. Where there's places around here to eat lunch. And we found this really wonderful Cuban sandwich place and Cuban coffee and. Oh, the food was outstanding.
Tony Barthel
But. But the sad thing, Bathhouse Brewery is one of my favorite breweries. I didn't get. I had already drank all the beer in my fridge. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you that I did not.
Tony Barthel
I was not able to buy any Bathhouse beer.
Peggy Barthel
Plan was to stock up on beer there, and we just couldn't. We just couldn't get in, so. Poor guy.
Tony Barthel
I know even the neighbor at the campground is like, well, I could give you beer, but it's gonna be Bud Light.
Tony Barthel
And I'm like, that's not my style. It's okay for other people. It's not my style, but that's all right. Something for everybody.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
So anyway, you know, this is just kind of a plug for checking out some of those apps and slowing down and just seeing thing. You know, we're. We're not going to Yosemite, but we're going to big balls of twine and Tina Turner Museum.
Tony Barthel
And it's been really fun.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah.
Tony Barthel
And another app that you've used is that roots ultimate Route 66 guide I.
Peggy Barthel
Have not on this trip because we're not near. But that Route 66 Ultimate Guide is a great, great app for telling you like all the stuff that you can see when you're on Route 66. So you know that's a really slow down and, and really just dig into all that crazy stuff. And next year is the 100th anniversary of Route 66.
Tony Barthel
So you could get your kicks.
Peggy Barthel
You could get your kicks. We'll probably be there in 2026. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
On a road that was made of bricks anyway.
Peggy Barthel
Oh gosh. Okay. So.
Tony Barthel
Okay, so if you don't know, in the past we, when we were between trailers, the folks at four wheel pop up campers lent us a one of their rigs which was a pickup truck with a four wheel pop up camper on the back.
Tony Barthel
We were and we thought it was really a cool experience. I don't know what prompted me to look at them recently again, but I did. And they have this new camp out series. Another thing in the past I had poor Peggy. I had really wanted to build my own trailer using a cargo trailer as the trailer part.
Tony Barthel
Right. And what I was going to do is build all these interior components out of this stuff called 8020, which is like an extruded aluminum erector set thing. Well, four wheel pop up campers now has a model where they have all these interior components that they use that are built out of this 8020 stuff. So you can buy four wheel pop up campers makes campers for mini or you know, mid sized pickups, for big pickups, long beds, short beds, flat beds, all this. This camp out series is a slot what they call slide in truck camper.
Tony Barthel
And all of their campers have like a, you know, the part over the cab of the pickup that goes up and you have a bed. And their shtick is that there's a pull out like tray type arrangement that extends the size of the bed. So you can go as large as a king size bed depending on the camper. But all these components that four wheel campers has for this campout series are modular. So you could have a lower bed or you could have a dinette or you can have a refrigerator cabinet with a 12 volt fridge or you can have a sink cabinet with using the dometic go and you can take them in and out.
Tony Barthel
You can buy this as a whole finished camper from four wheel campers or their dealers or you can buy an empty camper basically and then add the modules as you need them or change the modules. Let's say this weekend you're just going to the sports game with your kids. Well now all you need are seats and maybe the, the cooler, maybe a potty. Yeah, well they don't have that. That's one thing.
Tony Barthel
And so anyway, this thing just to me is one of the best pickup campers I've seen because of the modularity of it. You could use the truck as a work truck during the week and then as a camper on the weekend. Or if you know, if you do participate in different activities one weekend it could be bring your motorcycles one weekend, bring your bikes bikes one weekend, go camping. So it's, it's really a neat flexible rig that I have not seen before. And all this 8020 stuff is really durable.
Tony Barthel
And the doors and walls are this honeycomb plastic material. The tops are bamboo wood material. And then it's all framed in this aluminum. And the campers themselves are really well made. They're all welded.
Tony Barthel
Aluminum cage and then aluminum outside and they, this one has a bunch of L track and molle panels outside. It's, it's just, it's fantastic. That's, I love this thing.
Peggy Barthel
You've talked about four wheel campers before and they had one called the Project M that was just an empty shed.
Tony Barthel
We actually considered buying one of those.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. So someone, if someone already has a Project M, they could just buy the components that they could put into the believe so okay.
Tony Barthel
So I, I, I, because they'll just sell you the individual components as well. So yeah, if you have the Project M, maybe, maybe they will. Now the two, there are two cabinets that are permanent in this.
Tony Barthel
One of them is the power cabinet where they have at least one lithium battery charge controller and, and you know the wiring and all that. The other is an empty cabinet but a propane system is optional. So if you do order it with the propane system that takes up a portion of the storage cabinet. But if you don't order the propane system then it doesn't, then it's just storage. Just storage.
Tony Barthel
So just four thumbs up for this four wheel pop up Campers camp outstairs and we have a full written review at our home on the web at Stress is camping cop.
Peggy Barthel
So is it time for you to de winterize? Please tell me it's time for you to de winterize. You know we don't really do that very much or we winterize de winterize three or four times in a month because then we're out and about again. But if the time is coming for you now to, you know, the, the snow is all brushed off and you're ready to actually get out there and start camping.
Peggy Barthel
We wanted to remind you that there are a couple of resources for you on our website. One is an interview about the things that you'll want to do. That's episode 245. And then there is an article with some checklists to make for stressless camping about de winterizing your rv. So we will put those links in the show notes or right here somewhere.
Tony Barthel
Every week, of course, we ask a question of the week. Now it's been two weeks. We've left this question up because we.
Peggy Barthel
Were kind of goof. We were kind of had a weird different episode last week.
Peggy Barthel
So yeah, we didn't do all these extra things. But a couple weeks ago we asked you for the question of the week, what did you name your RV and why? And we got some great answers. You know, some great, like couples answers. The truck is named this and the trailer name that.
Peggy Barthel
And we still haven't. And I have a reputation for naming everything in my life and somehow this truck and this trailer just haven't. Just haven't told me their names yet. But if you would like to see some of the answers that other people have given or you know, see their rigs and what their names are, we encourage you to go to the stressless campers Facebook group. I won't read them off because they don't make a lot of sense.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, without the pictures and the pictures. So that is a reason to go to the stressless campers Facebook group. And also if you want to read or answer this question, does your town have a roadside America worthy attraction? Is there something that we would pull over and drive through town to see because it was on an app that said there's something great to see here. Doesn't have to be completely ridiculous.
Peggy Barthel
But of course for us, the more ridiculous the better.
Tony Barthel
More likely we're gonna stop. So, yeah, something goofy in the usa.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, whatever.
Tony Barthel
So anyway, you can answer that question at our fun and friendly and we keep it that way and it's really been good Facebook group, which is linked on our website, which is also where.
Peggy Barthel
You can sign up for the newsletter. You will get a newsletter once a week. No more, no less. Hopefully. We don't forget you just sign up anywhere.
Peggy Barthel
You know, there's somewhere on every single page where you can sign up because we don't want to. We don't want you to miss out. And we have links to stories and videos and things from all over the Internet that we and all over the RV industry that we have found that we think will help you get the most of your RV experience.
Tony Barthel
Yep. You'll also find the show notes for this episode, episode 301 on the podcast page at stresslesscamping.com which is where you'll.
Peggy Barthel
Also find our favorite RV products and services page. And that is where all the things that we like to talk about and we like to use and some of them even give you a discount. And that's where we compile all those things for you, you know, so in case you haven't had enough shopping lately and you want to go shopping on our website. Yep.
Tony Barthel
We're also, of course, in all the social places, but you can start@stresslesscamping.com and there are links to those social places we like to hang out.
Tony Barthel
If you're there, we're probably there.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. If you don't want to miss a future episode of Stressless Camping podcast, it's free. It's free to subscribe on any podcast catcher and we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire.
Tony Barthel
Of course.
Tony Barthel
Don't forget to like, share and subscribe or post reviews on your favorite podcast app. It really helps tell the story that we are able to serve you and it helps other people find this podcast as well.
Peggy Barthel
That is our episode for this week. We hope that you got something out of it, we hope you liked it, and we hope that we run into you somewhere on the road looking at ridiculous things.
Tony Barthel
We also, again, we want to thank traveling Robert Robert Morales for help with our new theme song.
Tony Barthel
This is its second week. We also changed the logo a wee bit. Let us know what you think.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, you told. Okay.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, well, we're just kind of, you know, little house remodeling now that we've got 300 episodes.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. Anyway, have a terrific week and we'll see you next week. And in the meantime, Stressless Camping.
Mark Ferrell
We Hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next stress less 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.
