April 16, 2025 • 67 mins
I (Patti Hunt) sit down with Patrick Buchanan, a long-time team member of RV Life, to unpack the latest updates to the RV Life Pro Suite of Tools. From the robust RV Trip Wizard to the sleek new features in the mobile app, they explore how RVers can better plan, navigate, and track their adventures. Patrick shares insider knowledge on the development of tools like RV Life Garage, improved campground reviews, and mobile GPS navigation features like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility. Whether you're a seasoned traveler or just starting your RV journey, this episode has essential tips and updates to elevate your RV lifestyle.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Did you know?
There is an app that helpsRVers plan smarter and travel
with confidence?
I'm Patti Hunt and you'relistening to the RV Life Podcast
.
Patrick, what happens behindthe scenes of RV Life?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I think the most interesting thing is that our
customers and our audience ingeneral.
They have no idea of the amountof people working on our
products trying to make thembetter, the amount of time that
is spent on these products andhow much they truly, truly care
about getting it right.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
RV Life.
The RV Life podcast was createdto educate, entertain and
explore the RV lifestyle, withthe mission to inspire you to
live life to the fullest.
Today, I have Patrick Buchananfrom RV Life on to talk all
things updates, upgrades,improvements to the RV Life
suite of products.
(01:04):
It is April If you're lookingto get out and start your
camping experience.
Open Road Resorts has fiveincredible locations in Idaho,
nebraska, new Mexico and two inTexas.
These parks are all highlyfavored by you, the RVer.
(01:24):
On the RV Life CampgroundReview site, you can check out
what RVers have to say aboutthese parks by going to
campgroundsrvlifecom, and youcould also go to
openroadresortscom.
Patrick, let's jump into this.
Patrick has been an RVer for 10years and has been with RV Life
(01:45):
for six years.
He currently works with thedevelopment and design teams to
bring to life the RV Life Garage.
We're going to find out whatthat is.
He also works with themarketing team, the rally and
show team, the podcast teams andworks with RV Life affiliates
and content creation partners.
(02:06):
Wow, that's a lot.
He and his wife vacation intheir RV with their pack of mini
dachshunds.
Welcome, patrick Buchanan, tothe RV Life podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Well, thank you, Patti.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I am so glad We've been talking about this for
several months because there areso many new things coming to
the RV Life suite of products.
But before we start, I wouldlove to start with your story.
You've been an RVer for 10years.
How did you get started RVing?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, we got started RVing because we were looking to
take a vacation.
I thought we wanted to take alittle cruise or something along
those lines.
And my wife said, well, then wegot to put the dogs in the
kennel and all of that.
And she said I've always wantedto see the Grand Canyon, so how
(02:58):
about we rent an RV and driveto the Grand Canyon?
And the funny thing about thatis, as I've told that story
before and thought about it, itoccurred to me she's never said
that in her life to me.
You know, I don't.
We've been married 40, almost40 years now, but at some point
she's never said, hey, I think Iwant to go see the Grand Canyon
.
All of a sudden, out of theblue, she says this.
And so we're like I was like,oh, wow, okay, we'll do that and
(03:19):
we did.
And then that was kind of thatwas kind of it right, that's
setting the hook and reeling itin.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You were hooked from there and I've got to share with
people and we don't have totell this story.
But not only do you travel withminiature dachshunds, there are
eight of them.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, it's a whole other podcast, possibly a
YouTube show and maybe a TikTokchannel, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
It totally is YouTube show and maybe a TikTok channel
.
I don't know.
It totally is, because if weare on the phone, if we're on
the call together and it isfeeding time, those dogs sound
like they are being killed.
I know, yes, that would makefor funny content, but after
about four years you startedwith RV Life, so talk about how
that happened.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, that's crazy.
In fact, I just celebrated mysixth year, which is on April
Fool's Day, which you know.
I guess I could think maybe itwas just a joke, but I still
keep getting paid, so I guessit's not.
But it was just a byproduct ofmy background as an IT
professional, with a lot ofexposure to software and things
like that and spent some time Ihad actually, when I had taken
(04:29):
our very first RV trip, I madesome bad navigation decisions
Fortunately none of them thatappeal at the top of my rental
RV, but they did result in somereally really long travel days
that I just did not anticipatebecause I was trying to use
Google and normal ways ofplanning and it just doesn't
(04:50):
work.
And after a brutally longparticular day from Flagstaff to
Amarillo, I said there's got tobe something out there that
does this better and I actuallydid find at that time was just
called RV Trip Wizard, which isnow RV Life Trip Wizard, part of
the whole RV Life Pro package,and I said, wow, this is amazing
(05:10):
, this is exactly what I waslooking for.
And in my efforts to sort ofgive back to the community, I
found myself on IRV2.com, whicheveryone knows is the number one
RVing forum out there, and Iwas just helping people that
were having struggles trying tolearn how to use software, and I
just, of course, being in mycareer for a very long time I
(05:33):
was able to answer those, andone thing led to another.
I got connected with the RVLife team and April 1st 2019, a
new journey started.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
That's awesome, and so I guess I have to be really
grateful that I didn't have togo through the issues.
So I started RVing four yearsago for those people who are new
to the podcast and it wasduring COVID and my husband, dan
, just said let's selleverything and buy an RV and I
(06:05):
thought he was kidding.
So I just looked at him andlaughed and he actually got on
to all these different tripplanning.
I don't think there were many,but he settled on RV Trip Wizard
and he would plan these tripsand then show them to me to
convince me to go RVing.
So this was like RV Trip Wizardwas my gateway drug into RVing
(06:30):
and so from the time we startedout we had our trips planned and
RV safe GPS.
So I'm very grateful that wedidn't have to learn the hard
way by trying to use Google Maps.
But we'll talk more about theRV Life suite of products as we
go along.
You and I met.
It's actually been almost threeyears since we met Two and a
(06:52):
half years.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
No, it's longer than that.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
longer.
It's longer than that.
We met in Albuquerque at theBalloon Fiesta that was.
If that wasn't 2019, it was waswell, it couldn't have been
2020 because of COVID.
I thought it was 2019.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
But no, I think it was after that, so it feels like
I'm holding for guests now.
So yeah, yeah, yes, well, I'mnot going to admit to that, but
it's been a long time.
We met at the Balloon Fiesta.
We hit it off.
I started to speak at someevents for RV Life and an
affiliate, and so I've been RVLife for three years.
(07:29):
I have to talk, though.
About six months later, afterwe met, dan started talking
about a podcast, and I was likeI do not want to take one more
thing on, and no sooner did I dothat.
You come along and say RV Lifeis looking to start a podcast.
We think you guys would begreat hosts, and I was
outnumbered and I tell peoplethat story on the podcast all
(07:51):
the time.
So, I have to thank you becauseyou are an executive producer,
the executive producer for theRV Life podcast, and because of
you, it has had great success.
Ok, so let's move on.
For my listeners that aren'tquite familiar with the RV Life
suite of products, let's talkabout that.
Let's explain what that is.
(08:13):
We'll help each other rememberall the pieces of it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well, I'm getting better at it.
You know I really should haveit mastered and I think for the
most part I often do.
But as time goes on and you getpulled in different ways, you
don't always remember everysingle little component.
And we've had a lot of excitingnew things and in fact today we
officially sort of announced anew feature that's been lurking
(08:37):
in the background.
But you know, the core of ourproduct is the RV Trip Planner.
You know, which we call TripWizard or RV Life Trip Wizard,
and our mentality is reallysimple Plan your trip carefully,
slowly, on your laptop, on yourtablet.
(08:59):
If you are addicted to yourphone and you want to plan it on
your phone, go ahead.
You know, addicted to yourphone, then you want to plan it
on your phone, go ahead.
And then, when you're ready totake that trip, pull that mobile
phone out, get the RV life app.
Your trip's already there.
You can start navigating yourRV trip.
The way that you carefullyplanned it and that suite
(09:19):
together is is just genius rightnow, especially now with the RV
Life mobile app being bothAndroid Auto certified, apple
CarPlay certified, loads andloads of new features being
poured into both products, andthere just is no better way to
(09:39):
plan a trip.
I always say well, when you'redriving a 40-foot living room
down the freeway, you just don'tmake ad hoc decisions, and most
RVers will agree to thatstatement.
And so we've got othercomponents in there.
You alluded earlier to the RVLife Garage.
(10:02):
One of the things we offer aspart of the RV Life Pro
subscription is this access to amaintenance tool that we offer
and you know it's not a secret,it's long in the tooth and it
needs to be replaced, and it infact is being replaced and if
you're going to have an RV tokeep track of, you're going to
(10:25):
need a garage to put it in.
So we sort of have that digitalgarage that we have.
That's going to.
It's sort of a repository.
You can get there throughTripWizard, you can get there
through the mobile app and itjust keeps your RV there.
We're working on it.
It's not there yet.
Mind you, this is something newthat's coming soon the ability
(10:47):
to have mileage logs, fuel logs,generator logs, maintenance
tire pressure tracking all kindsof goodies that we're looking
to build into this toolthroughout the course of this
year.
Hopefully, within a few monthswe'll have something out there,
and the ultimate goal is twofoldNumber one to replace the aging
tool.
We currently have something outthere.
And the ultimate goal istwofold Number one to replace
the aging tool we currently haveand then, of course, have this
(11:10):
far more new and modern, sprylittle tool that you can access
easily with your phone andmultiple different ways to keep
track of all kinds of thingswithin the RV Life app.
And even now, right, you lookat that app, there's access to
articles and, of course, thecampground map, and there's just
(11:30):
loads of good stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Right, and so one of my favorite parts of it is the
campground review piece of this.
And what I loved and why Ichose the campground reviews
through RV Life is because itwas from all of it was from
RVers.
That was so important to me andmeant so much to me.
They were authentic reviews.
(11:53):
You have to read throughreviews, obviously.
What one person doesn't like,somebody else may, but I knew
that all those reviews werecoming from RVers and that was
important.
So as I was planning my triplooking for a campground within
the circles and you know we'llput some pictures out there I
could see which campgroundswould be right for me and look
(12:16):
at the reviews and all theinformation.
That's part of the suite ofproducts.
I didn't have to go off of RVLife's suite of products to find
a review, to do all this otherresearch, because it just became
too much.
So really nice how everythingis in one place.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It really is, and TripWizard itself is legendary
for that aspect of it.
Like you mentioned, the drivingradius, the campgrounds, it's
all just built in street view,satellite view, elevation grade.
All of those things are builtinto the single tool.
I always use it on a laptop.
I have used it on a tablet.
I refuse to use it on a phone,but that's but.
(12:59):
I've seen people just use it onthe phone as if they've been
doing it their whole life.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Am I correct in still saying that when somebody first
sets up their program and againwith all the changes, I'm not
up on all of them when somebodyfirst sets up their RV life
program, they have to do it on alaptop or a tablet or an iPad.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
No, they don't really have to do that anymore.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
It's the team has done well.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
they've done such an amazing job of integrating all
of these languages into asingular platform.
It's quite remarkable whatthey've accomplished over the
last few years we do.
The thing you might bereferencing is the old
maintenance tool is still alittle bit dated and you kind of
(13:48):
have to do that from a you knowmore or less from a laptop or a
tablet.
But as far as the RV Life suiteof products, they're infinitely
flexible to use on any deviceyou want.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Okay, so that's something new, or I wasn't aware
of that.
And again for me, I use myphone a lot, but I really like
the planning on the computer.
And for people who haven't usedthe RV Life program yet,
there's also all kinds offilters for it, and we'll talk
about that because I know a lotof there has been changes in
(14:21):
that.
I want to take a minute andtake a quick break.
When we come back, we have somuch more to talk about Changes.
We didn't even jump fully intothe changes that RV Life has
made to their products I do wantto talk about, for those people
who don't yet have an RV or arelooking to buy a new one, blue
Compass.
When you're an RVer, you want toknow someone is with you every
(14:44):
mile, whether it's sales orservice.
That someone is Blue Compass RV.
With over 100 locations coastto coast, featuring more than
15,000 new and used RVs and over1,000 service bays, with more
certified RV technicians thanany other dealers.
Blue Compass RV is with youtoday, tomorrow and the road
(15:08):
ahead.
Visit your local Blue Compassdealer or go to bluecompassrvcom
today.
Okay, so many people alreadyhave this, the RV Life product.
For those people listening thatdon't, there is a seven-day
free trial.
Some of what we're talkingabout may be a little more
difficult to understand ifthey've never used it before,
(15:31):
but you know they have sevendays they can get on.
They could try it to see ifit's you know would work for
them.
So let's talk about those newchanges.
What are some of the newfeatures?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
new changes.
What are some of the newfeatures?
Yeah, one of the, and actuallywe'll probably start on the
mobile side, because it was kindof on my mind here that just to
remind folks that we have a tonof customers that never plan
trips, they just rely, you know,and, in fairness, you know
maybe they've got a pickup truckand a small travel trailer and
(16:07):
you know they're not worriedabout giant overpower, low
overpasses or bridges or thingsthat are going to be a problem
for them, but they love thecampground map and the RV safe
direction.
So we've got a whole, reallystrong percentage of RVers that
have the RV Life Pro mobile appand just use it for that
(16:28):
navigation.
And so one of the excitingthings we've built into that is
I'm thinking we call it trafficavoidance or construction
avoidance.
I think it's less to do withtraffic avoidance than it is
some kind of a construction, along-term issue, right?
(16:48):
And a common scenario is youplan your trip.
You know, here it is April,right, I plan my trip and I get
to October when I plan on goingor wherever I'm going, and
they've started construction onthis road, like the main road I
need to take, and you know, Idon't know where we're going
Yellowstone or whatever and andall of a sudden, my trip, which
(17:12):
is supposed to be a four or fivehour day, it looks like it's
going to be a nine hour day.
And so that mobile app will sayhey, something's going on here,
do you want to find a differentroute?
I don't know the exact languageit's using, that avoidance that
we're building in.
You know, it's not like a Wazeright now where you can just go
behind somebody's side street.
(17:32):
Right, you can't take that 30or 40 foot camper down any old
streets you want.
But at least now, if I knowthat that trip's got a delay
built in and that delay couldwork to my advantage, right,
perhaps it's like, oh, we couldgrab lunch now.
Right, we're not in a biggerhurry.
Or it might be hey, I betterfind another route here, let me
(17:54):
pull the app up, or whatever.
So that addition is reallyimportant and we'll continue to
build on those types of things.
It's no small feat.
Obviously, we did this lastyear, but becoming Apple CarPlay
is a pretty big process.
(18:15):
But becoming Android certifiedis a nightmare, any Android
developer will tell you, becauseof all the different pieces of
hardware and all the differentAndroid flavors and all that.
It's a tough road and our teamjust kept working, kept working,
kept working, and so that was abig deal.
With regard to some of themobile stuff, one of the most
(18:40):
unbelievable things that we'vedone is they implemented
something called route feedback,and so we're now taking
feedback on when somebodyfinishes a route.
You know, hey, how was thatroute?
Were there any problems?
We're now grabbing, we're nowasking for any road conditions.
You know, did you go over asection that was super bumpy or
(19:03):
super windy or was there aproblem with it?
And we can go into our toolsand flag something.
We're actually working towardsgetting a route score so that we
can begin to present differentoptions with different route
scores and start to do.
(19:25):
Essentially, what we're doingis sort of that ways like
mentality, where we're getting alot of the feedback.
You know, your, your mapproviders, no matter who they
are, just can't tell you if theroad's bumpy or not, right or
narrow, or too many trees orwhatever, and and so this type
of feedback from folks that arenavigating with the mobile app
(19:49):
is unbelievably valuable and isgoing to end up with us
providing the absolute bestRVing routes in the industry.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And that's incredible and all of these things have.
I've seen the progression ofthe RV Life products over the
last four years.
I mean, I loved it when westarted four years ago.
It's always, you know, how canit be better?
I'd love the fact that it's onCarPlay.
I do CarPlay because I'm Appleand now that it's on Android, a
(20:22):
lot of people are very happyabout that.
And now that it's on Android, alot of people are very happy
about that.
I have to tell people, when Iwas using this, I was about six,
seven months into the trip andwe were taking a trip of the 101
.
And we had had a garment thatwas for the RV.
So it was there and what we dois at night we would look at our
(20:42):
trip and we would compare whatthe garment was saying and what
RV Life was saying.
The RV Life Trip Wizard wassaying, and we would look at
both and if there was any kindof discrepancy we'd talk about
it.
We did it the night before.
Then in the morning we'drecheck because, like you said,
maybe there was some kind ofwhatever traffic issue, whatever
(21:10):
traffic issue.
And we're on the 101 in Oregonand the trip wizard had a
certain number of miles and thegarment had miles that was
literally a hundred miles more.
And I had to keep looking at it.
Well, what was happening is wewere on the 101 and it had us
get off the 101 and it like tookus all the way around to come
back onto the 101, literally 100miles.
(21:34):
And so when we looked atTripWizard, it showed a tunnel
that TripWizard was saying wecould go through.
Well, we were a 40-foot Class Atowing a car.
So what we did is we called thestate police and said look,
this is what we have.
Can we go through this tunnel?
And the guy said yeah, tractortrailers go through there, no
problem, stay in the center,here's what you need to do.
(21:56):
That trip alone saved us 100miles.
And then I also learned thatyou could do the view, so I
could have focused in on theview to see the tunnel and what
the measurement was.
So I was able.
Later I knew I could find thesethings out myself without
(22:16):
calling the state police, butthat's not a bad idea if you're
concerned.
But you know I was alreadyhooked on the products, but that
solidified it for me and as wetraveled across the country for
three and a half years, thepeople that told the stories of
the bridge they came up to, orthey should have gone over or
(22:37):
they were too long.
We have heard stories afterstory after story and you know,
I always say to them look, thisproduct would have helped you
with that, so okay.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, and you know, anybody that's heard me before
knows I'm a big advocate forgetting on there and looking at
the trip right.
I mean, we're providing for yousatellite view, street view and
all of these tools to vet outIf you're going somewhere.
You've never taken your RV, whywould you not want to check
(23:12):
that?
And so I don't leave anythingto chance and I don't think
anybody that's concerned should.
And, like you said that, thattunnel and that type of thing,
those are the types of thingsyou can vet ahead of time, and I
wouldn't necessarily findmyself defending Garmin in a lot
of cases.
But we do know that sometimesthe data you get from the map
(23:33):
provider is just it is what itis alluded to earlier this whole
issue we have, or this wholeability we have now with the
various types of route feedback,improving our pin positions,
all of these things.
We've got a whole team ofpeople that grab this stuff so
(23:55):
that even if the map providerprovides a wonky route, it's
always going to be safe.
It's just not always going tobe the smartest route.
We have the ability to go inthere and massage that.
And I did talk about some of thenew mobile features, but we do
have some other features, somenew things coming to TripWizard,
(24:16):
rv Life, tripwizard.
The first and foremost is a new, updated version.
You know, we really we've beenadding small tweaks for, you
know, forever, right, but theoverall face of the product
hasn't changed a whole lot inthe last three, four years,
maybe even longer, and we nowhave have introduced a refreshed
(24:40):
version.
You know, I don't know aboutyou, especially being an old IT
guy, when I, you know whenMicrosoft would offer new
updates to Windows, or Appleoffers new updates to the Mac or
the iPhone or whatever it'slike.
All right, sweet, what's goingon in there, right?
And so this new Trip Wizard isa real strong refresh of what it
(25:01):
looks like visually some colorchanges, some placement changes
that make a lot of sense, andsome real exciting sort of
building, if you will, buildinga frame to the door the door is
not there yet, but the frame'sbuilt and some things that we're
going to be able to show andoffer on a daily trip basis.
(25:22):
So, like right now, if you lookat your trip in the new version
, you can actually see thatelevation and grade that we
talked about now on a dailytravel segment type basis versus
the whole trip at once.
So little stuff like that.
I won't get too far into theweeds for that from you know,
(25:43):
regarding that.
But of course, the big recentannouncement and the email I
actually just got the emailbefore we started recording this
is we have integrated withHarvest Host so that now you can
click on the Harvest Host iconin our menu and display those
locations.
(26:03):
Host icon in our menu anddisplay those locations.
You connect your Harvest hostaccount directly so that we're
allowed to show you thelocations and let you add them
to your trip.
If you're not a Harvest hostmember, you'll need to be one or
take advantage of that feature.
But there's so much synergybetween the two companies and so
(26:23):
many of our customers, ourcrossover.
You know I can't tell you and Iknow, patty, you've seen this as
well how many times I've beenasked at RV shows hey, when are
you going to show Harvest Hostlocations?
And you know the answer waspretty easy for a while.
Right, it was like, well, Icould show them to you, but then
they would have a problem withthat because they want you to.
(26:46):
You know, penny up for that.
So we fine-tuned with them.
It's an exciting arrangement.
It's really and it's reallycool when you're in there using
it in that regard.
So that's new.
The new features I talked aboutwe're introducing slowly.
I think about right now, as youlog into TripWizard, you may
(27:08):
see a prompt to give those a try, and right now I think we're
about 30% or 40% saturation.
You don't want to bring onhundreds and thousands of people
at one time in case you haveany problems to flesh out.
So those are some of the newthings, kind of on that website.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
And for people who already have the app and have
looked at TripWizard.
This is, I'm sure, making sensefor those people who haven't
yet had the experience.
Go on, try it out.
You have seven days free.
But something that has been ontrip wizard that I was asking
for way back when was thingslike I'm a thousand trails
(27:50):
member, so having thousandtrails that show up for me, as
well as other type campgroundskoas are on there um, so it's
the.
The filter system on the tripwizard is amazing.
I can look for Cracker Barrelsand I can look for my Costco's,
I can look for gas stations.
(28:11):
There's so much already thereand it's always great to hear
that more things are being added.
More updates are constantlybeing added.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
In addition to those kind of chain campgrounds or
what you will brandedcampgrounds, we've got all the
private campgrounds and thenevery city, state, local,
national park, corps ofEngineers, blm land.
My typical saying is that ifthere's a campground that's not
on our site, it either justopened the other day or they
(28:46):
changed their name and nobodytold anybody, but otherwise it's
there.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Right, and every week on the podcast I give a feature
campground of the week.
So anybody that listens to thepodcast there is a feature
campground and I always say RVLife is the most comprehensive
source.
It's like you said, city, statenational parks, the private
parks, the resorts, and if it'snot there, people could just let
(29:12):
RV Life know or let thecampground owner know hey, just
add it to the RV Life campgroundreview site and that's free for
theer and for the campgroundowner.
So it's really nice to havesuch a comprehensive source.
When I'm looking forcampgrounds, campground reviews
(29:33):
is probably one of my favoritefeatures, after the Trip Wizard
and the planning.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You know and I know Patty planning.
You know and I know, patty, youspent some time at the
campground owners shows.
And I know, right, because I,because I know you and I've
experienced the same thing whenpeople come up to your
campground owners, come up toyou and they have no idea that
we exist, that hundreds, if notthousands, of people have
(30:00):
reviewed their campgrounds andgiven ratings and posted
pictures and they have no ideawhatsoever.
It's just shocking to me.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yes, and it's shocking to them.
So I have to.
You know anybody listeningthat's connected to a campground
owner.
It is shocking to them.
I was just at an event a coupleof weeks ago in Boston, outside
of Boston, and I make theseconnections where you know, I
truly create relationships withthese people.
I have been, excuse me, invitedto a number of campgrounds
(30:31):
where the owners come visit usand I had a campground owner
that I had followed up with andsaid, wow, I went on and there's
all these reviews and I didn'trealize this existed.
They didn't realize it existed.
People are coming into theircampground, there's all these
reviews, they just have to claimtheir park so they can respond
(30:51):
to the reviews.
And I mean, this person I wasspeaking to just this past week
was shocked by how many peopleare going to our site and that's
because RV Life correct me ifI'm wrong has over 2.5 million
members, right?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.
And you know we're no differentthan the Yelp, than you would
with Yelp or Google, whereyou're going to claim your
restaurant or claim your hotel.
It's like, hey, you know thisis a campground, it's the same
deal.
Claim your campground becauseyou know millions of RVers are
currently using our tools andour websites.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
It's just incredible.
Now I have to talk aboutsomething.
Last year, some people know Icame out of the RV and I sold it
, and it's been a year now, andso I've been flying and staying
in campgrounds or driving andstaying in campgrounds, been
flying and staying incampgrounds or driving and
staying in campgrounds, and lastyear at the end of the year I
(31:48):
was filing my tax return.
I know what this has to do withRV life, but the accountant
said how many miles did youtravel with the RV?
Because it's a business, thosemiles make a difference.
And I was like I have no idea.
And literally I got in bed.
I was tossing and turning, howam I going to come up with the
miles?
And then I thought Trip Wizard.
(32:10):
So I called him the next dayand I said Listen, I have this
app that showed all of my travel, all of it, and all of my
travel is, you know, pretty muchbusiness, because I'm doing a
podcast or YouTube video.
And he said as long as you havesomething that shows it, that's
fine.
What's the miles?
(32:31):
And I was easily able to add upthe different trips and give
him the miles.
And now that I'm not in the RV,I am still using TripWizard for
my trips, both for keepingtrack of these things, keeping
track for tax purposes, but italso helps me to find places
(32:51):
along the way, even though I'mjust in a car.
It's been really helpful.
I was at a campground SpaciousSkies Country Oaks campground
this weekend with the girlcampers it was.
We had so much fun and I spoketo somebody, denise who raved
about RV Trip Wizard.
I got her on video so I justwant to put it out there.
(33:12):
I will have her audio added tothis podcast as well as video on
my YouTube channel, inspiredTravels, with Patti and she just
talked about how she traveledone time across the country by
car and was able to put herhotels in, so it helped her keep
(33:32):
track of things.
So it's got probably uses thatRV Life hasn't thought of, but
it's got a lot of great uses.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Well, you know, it's interesting because you bring up
something that I will oftenshow people at a show.
I don't usually talk about itbecause the visual is really
helpful.
But the search tool we havebuilt into the map, aside from
the fact that with our menusystem you can find and select
and filter campgrounds, you canfind and select and filter fuel
(34:01):
and restaurants and CrackerBarrels and Walmart, all the
stuff you talked about, but youcan focus in on an area, right,
let's say we're focused on wheredid you guys have that girl
camper thing?
That was in PA.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Yeah, no, it was in Dorothy New Jersey, right,
Dorothy New Jersey, Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
So you could center on New Jersey roughly right With
this search tool or with ourmap and then when you go to this
search and type something in,it knows to focus on that area
first.
So if you're in an area you'venever been to and maybe you need
to find a hotel right, I knowwith Patty it's got to be
(34:37):
Embassy Suites or something likethat, she's not looking up
Motel 6s.
But if you're in an area andyou want to find a brewery, a
winery, a veterinarian, ofcourse we've got veterinarian
filters and things.
We've got a lot of thosefilters built in.
But whatever you're looking for, right, maybe a go-kart repair
shop, it doesn't matter.
Whatever you're searching foris map-centric and so it's
(35:00):
really easy to find something inthe area that you're going to
be.
I had to do windshield repairone time.
It was really easy just tocenter in and say, oh, I'm going
to be down here by the end ofthe day and I'm going to need
that chip fixed right away.
So zoom in, type windshieldrepair.
And I set a point with a guyand when I got there he came to
the campground and fixed thechip.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yes, and I have to say, even though I've been using
this all of the products for solong, there's always something
new that I learned.
There is something thatsomebody will say hey, I did
this, just like the woman at thecampground this past weekend, I
wouldn't have thought to putthe hotels in For me, because I
have a business and I travel forbusiness.
(35:43):
It's really great to keep allof that in one place, and, you
know, my accountant was reallyhappy with it, and so there's
always another feature that I'mlearning about or another filter
that you guys have added in.
That's just incredible.
Yeah, are there any otherupdates that you want to talk
(36:05):
about right now?
I'm sure there'll be morecoming.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
You know there are so many and I have to be careful
because I sit in on so manymeetings and some of the things
are six months away and some arethree months away and some are
tomorrow, and they often becomea blur and so I don't always
know and I don't want toannounce things too early.
Obviously, for me, the bigthing is trying to get some kind
of a maintenance tool out thereand get that in the hands of
(36:33):
people, and I think it's goingto be amazing when we do.
That's been my focus andcontinues to take more of my
time and focus and continues totake more of my time and focus
as I sit through these variousmeetings.
There are just constant,constant tweaks, updates,
changes, the process we have fortaking customer feedback from
(37:00):
the support desk to the analysisand testing team, to the
product owners, then to thedevelopers.
I mean it's remarkable and somany of the features we
introduced were at some point acustomer asked for those
features, or generally more thanone customer.
You know it pops up two orthree times and our help desk is
(37:20):
amazing because they're attunedto this right.
So it's one thing if somebodysays, hey, you guys should have
31 flavors on your map.
Yeah, okay, right, right.
But then if all of a sudden, acouple of weeks go by and 10
people have asked for that, allof a sudden it's like, hey, we
should explore this Now.
No, we don't have 31 flavors onour map, it's just an example.
(37:40):
But they take this stuff veryseriously and they take it to
heart.
And you know our team knows notto get overly offended by
things.
Somebody says, hey, thisposition of this button or this
menu or this tab or this coloris just dumb, right, it doesn't
make sense.
Our people will go back and say, you know what?
I think they're right, itdoesn't feel right.
(38:02):
And you know we're all going togo through those growing pains
as we're developing orpresenting things.
But sometimes you don't see ituntil 10,000 people start
playing with it.
And then you're like, oh, okay,I see what they're getting at.
It's one thing when you have adozen testers and those testers
are used to testing software.
(38:23):
It's another when you get 100people that barely know how to
use it.
That go, hey, why can't I clickon this?
You're like, wow, gee, you'reright, you should be able to
click on that.
And so the process is amazingand it's a really long way of
saying that.
We take and we value thefeedback tremendously.
(38:44):
We send emails and do surveysabout the usability.
We do testing groups.
We send our developers to tradeshows so they can ask our
viewers in person.
I mean, it's a very seriousmatter for us to create the best
tool on the market and we haveand that's one thing I have to
say, I have to give.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
I have to give a shout out to the customer
support.
When I am dealing with acompany whether it is my cell
phone or any company that I haveto deal with my health
insurance, any company I have todeal with I call a doctor's
office, that person that answersthe phone.
That is the first mostimportant field.
(39:23):
Customer service is soimportant.
If I have an issue I want toknow I could go to customer
service.
There's going to be a humanbeing that answers the phone.
There's going to be a humanbeing that takes their time.
They're going to listen,they're going to try and help me
.
I am not tech savvy at all, so Iwant somebody who can
understand that not make me feelstupid and answer that.
(39:47):
And I have to say, the supportteam at RV Life is above and
beyond and I have been to somany trade shows now.
Rv Life is at Tampa every yearand in Hershey every year and I
have met people from the techpeople and the customer support
(40:07):
people and they are all workingtogether.
There are no salespeople in theRV Life booth.
There are people looking forfeedback, looking to help
customers, looking to helppeople who are already customers
as well as educate people whoaren't, and so that was a long
way of saying how impressed I amwith the customer support at RV
(40:30):
Life, because you could callthem and they pick up the phone
and they care.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
They really, they really care they do, and we
don't pick up the phone a wholelot, but we do answer through
the email and through thecontact tabs or tools.
We don't really have phonesupport, which is surprising to
some, but when you realize thatall of our support people are US
based and they're all realRVers and so they're all
(40:58):
scattered around the countrychecking emails at all hours of
the day and night you know we'vegot early birds in Maine and
late night hawks in Californiaand that type of a cycle ends up
almost feeling like a 24-hoursupport.
It's not we don't claim it tobe, but the way people access
the support tickets and theservice it often feels.
(41:21):
People are often shocked to geta support answer on a Saturday
or a Sunday or a Friday night orwherever, because our team is
all over the country tappinginto those resources at all
hours of the day.
But it is mostly an emailsupport base and there's a
reason for that.
Again, obviously we can't justrun phone lines or virtual you
(41:44):
know VPNs and different thingsto all these RVers.
But when you contact us throughthe tools we provide in both
the Trip Wizard and the mobileapp and through our campground
site, not only are we able toget things like screenshots.
We're also able to getversioning information from your
operating system and your phoneand your device.
(42:04):
That can often cue us into whyyou're having a problem.
So it's really it's a benefitto do it that way.
It's easier to get differentperspectives right.
If you're talking to one person, you get their perspective, and
if they don't know what arethey going to do, they're going
to put you on hold.
You're going to listen to someterrible music and they're going
(42:26):
to go talk to somebody elsewhen that ticket is in a digital
hopper, if you will.
Multiple eyes can be on that.
People can chime in and answerthose questions.
It's really a great system.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yes, and I agree, and I hear people all the time
talking about you know myquestion was answered quickly
and then if you have a follow-upor still have a question, just
follow up on the email and yes,it's been incredible.
I want to talk a little bitabout, first of all, andy
Rabinowitz is the owner ofHarvey Life and if you go to
(43:01):
some of the events I know heshows up in at the Hershey event
as well as the Tampa event attimes, so you might catch him
and, you know, actually have aconversation.
He is there, he wants tointeract with people who were
there.
He doesn't, you know, juststand around.
He actually interacts and isinterested in hearing what
people have to say.
(43:22):
Something that's really veryimportant for Andy, for me, for
you, is community, and I want totalk about RV Life's community,
because it is huge.
We embrace community and peoplegetting together.
So can you talk to us aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Yeah, I think I can.
You know, a company started.
Really, its roots are in the RVforums.
You know the sites likeirv2.com, which I mentioned, and
airforumscom, and we've gotanother 20 plus RVing forums
covering brands like ForestRiver and Keystone and Jayco and
all of these.
That was kind of the basis ofthe community.
(44:11):
And for those that don't knowwhat a forum is, it sort of
predates social media.
Social media, but when you askquestions you get real answers.
Media, but when you askquestions you get real answers.
The things don't roll off andget absolved.
Social media is not a bad placeto get started, but people find
(44:35):
out pretty quickly that it's avery shallow sort of a one-sided
offering.
And when you want a little moremeat, you know, with your
potatoes you end up going to aforum.
And so that's where we started.
And that carries on to ourcampground site which has I
don't know, I mean half amillion reviews or something
like that.
It's a vast number.
(44:56):
The site's been around 20 years.
And then we try to carry andwe're working even more so to
carry that over into TripWizardand the mobile app.
We're going to try to sort ofbring that community into that
space.
We're doing it another way withour podcast.
We have two podcasts and you'reout there liaisoning with the
(45:20):
community.
We've got a rally team thatdoes shows and rallies.
They're interfacing with thecommunity and of course, we have
articles, blog articles, socialmedia we are it's virtually
everybody on the planet, Isuppose that's in the RV space
uses hashtag RV life, and sothat engages us automatically.
(45:43):
It's funny how that worked out.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
So we're happy with that.
Yes, great planning.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
It was good planning before.
I think before we knew what ahashtag was, we had hashtag RV
life.
So that's worked out well.
And it is a big, you know,especially in this world now
where a bad review, a bad socialmedia post or a bad article can
(46:11):
really hurt some people, right,and we're always cognizant of
that and we're trying to alwaysbe transparent and always be
forthright and say you know whatYou're right.
That's a weird way to toperform that function.
Let's do better, or, you know,whatever the case may be, but
(46:31):
the community is forefront, we,you know, I I think this is
something I don't talk a lotabout, but I think it's really
important.
When we you mentioned earlierour campground site, you know
one of the things that drives mebananas if I go and look at a
product on amazon, right, I wantto buy a headphones or
something, and I see others.
There's five ones to fiveone-star reviews.
(46:54):
I better go check those out,right, something's wrong with
these things.
One star the ship, the shipmentwas a day late and you're like,
really, you're giving a onestar because ups was was frozen
out of of their hub because of awinter storm, you know.
And with the campground site.
We don't really allow that kindof stuff.
(47:16):
You're allowed to say badthings about a campground that's
terrible, but you're not goingto give it a ding for something
stupid like that, and youactually have to have been there
and stayed there in order toleave a review.
And likewise, we don't let theowners pop on and go oh my God,
this is the greatest campgroundI've ever seen in my life.
Right, we've got tools thatprevent that and some validation
(47:39):
.
That occurs, like you said fromthe beginning real RVers leaving
real reviews.
And if you want to improve thereviews at your campground
number one, do a better job,clean it up, treat the customers
right and then get people totell you about it.
Those averages will skew rightout of there.
And so that's all part of thatwhole community picture.
(48:01):
We have the same values on ourforums.
You can't just get on the forumand bash a vendor mindlessly,
unless it's true.
And if it's true, then you needto have some common courtesies
and explain your situation, andyou'd be amazed how often a
vendor will see it and go oh,you know what?
We didn't realize this washappening.
We'd love to help you out andmake it right.
(48:22):
Right, it's all part of thecommunity it's start to finish
top to bottom is trying to makesure that everything we touch is
good for the community.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Right and I just want to add some specifics.
First of all, rv Life has thispodcast and our partner podcast
is the RV Entrepreneur.
So those people who areentrepreneurs looking to become
an entrepreneur just want tolisten in on what it's like to
be an entrepreneur, I highlyrecommend checking out the RV
(48:56):
Entrepreneur.
They have amazing hosts there'sthree hosts now and incredible
guests on the podcast.
So I recommend that as well.
As as far as community people,there's the forums, people who
want social media.
On Instagram and Facebookthere's RV Life pages.
(49:16):
There's groups.
There's Trip Wizard pages,there's groups.
So you just type in RV Life andyou can find a lot of the
community type aspects, as wellas a lot of times the RV life
show team event team will beattending events.
Can we talk about RV lifehaving their own event?
(49:39):
I didn't ask this before theirown event.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
I didn't ask this before.
Yeah, well, we, we are.
So we've, you know, we've,we've.
We've got a little traditiongoing now and, uh, we've got a
couple of a couple of new things.
We'll start with the new thingsfirst, and that is obviously
the stuff.
Patty's going.
She's got all kinds of irons inthe fire there um more than I
can keep up with, but we've gotour rally team our show team is
now going to be doing somespecial things on their own,
(50:10):
some appearances and some littleevents and ultimately a rally.
We hope to have more informationon that soon.
We're in the midst of planningthat now that we're really
excited about and they're agreat presence out in the field.
And then, of course, everySeptember at the Hershey RV Show
, rv Life holds its own HersheyAfter Party and we'll be
(50:33):
releasing those details againhere in the next month or so or
two-ish.
What month is this?
April, may, june, yeah, a monthor two-ish, and we'll be in our
fourth year.
It's a great event, it's fun,it's relaxing, it's exciting,
it's interesting, and so pattywill have more information on
that in the coming weeks.
But, uh, yeah, lots of a lot ofthings going and, of course,
(50:56):
dawn, our campground director ofcampground success, uh, and
partnerships.
She's attending as, as wementioned earlier, patty's done
a few.
Dawn attends campground ownershows all over the country, a
whole lot of them.
Those are usually set in thespring and fall, and so she's in
kind of in full show swingright now, but connecting with
(51:17):
those campground owners, makingthem aware of our site and where
excuse me, where our reach is.
You know, those campgroundsthat appear on our campground
site also appear in TripWizard.
They also appear in the mobileapp.
They also appear.
Some of our featuredcampgrounds appear on our blogs
and our websites and our forums,and so it's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
Yes, absolutely, and there's so much going on.
People can go to the RV Lifesites and find out some of it.
I will be posting RV Lifeupdates.
I'll be posting about events.
I'll be posting when theHershey event is ready on RV
Life podcast on Instagram andFacebook.
(52:01):
So all the updates will bethere.
If people want one location togo to, as far as the Hershey
show it's called America'sLargest RV Show.
I know people are starting toplan their trips.
Right now it is in Hershey, paI suggest getting your
campground reservations, alsofor our after party, which I
(52:26):
don't know if we want to releasethe date, but it'll be during
that week of the hershey rd show.
It has sold out every yearsooner and sooner.
So the year before last it soldout the first day of when the
hershey show started.
Yeah, it sold out actuallybefore the show started.
(52:47):
So this year I think sellout isgoing to be quick and it is
just April.
But I'm going to say once we'vereleased that if people are
interested in going to thatevent, they need to get on board
with that.
I get really excited.
Again, it's about community.
Rv Life is so about peoplecoming together, sharing ideas,
(53:08):
helping each other, supportingeach other, and that's what
probably was the biggestconnection for me to RV Life,
because that's their mission.
How can we be of help?
How can we support each other,you know, so people can get out
and go RVing, stuff happens, youknow, it's great to have the
(53:29):
community that RV Life providesReally excited about that.
Okay, I have a question,another question for you, but
before I do that, do you haveany other things that you'd like
to add here that I might havemissed?
Anything else, are we coming?
Speaker 2 (53:43):
No, you know, the only thing that I didn't really
talk about and I often don'ttalk about it because it's when
people hear this broadcast andthey're going to be one thinking
, wow, gee, that sounds likesome pretty amazing you know,
trip planning and navigationsoftware.
I hate to think what that thingmight cost me, right?
And well, I'm going to tell you.
(54:05):
It's a shocking and staggeringat least the time of this
recording $65 a year, a year,yes, a year, and it's okay to
have multiple tools in yourarsenal.
As I always say, I'm driving a40-foot living room down the
(54:25):
freeway.
The more tools I can have in myarsenal the better, and at $65,
if you used it once to plan onetrip, it's paid for itself, but
it's really an incredible value.
We rarely go up.
We will go up, you know,occasionally, a few bucks, here
and there every couple of years,and the nice part is, when you
(54:47):
do sign up, you are locked intothat price forever, which
essentially, as I always say,it's $65 is one good night
camping, or maybe two lousy ones.
Now, having said that, I spenda lot of time at Corps of
Engineers parks, which are 20bucks a night, so it's three
nights.
But you know if, if I can pay$65 and have an entire year of
(55:09):
the trip planner and thenavigation coming soon, the
maintenance and mileage trackingand those types of things, I
mean it's, it's an unbelievablevalue.
I've I've said this before I'vedone RV shows and RV shows and
you're busy, you're talking tocustomers nonstop, right.
And then at the Tampa showparticularly, we finally hit a
(55:31):
lull after it seemed like hoursof talking about this product
and the guy across from me wasselling hitches or something
with fifth wheels, I think, andcomes over and says you guys
need to raise your price,because he'd been hearing us
pitching this whole thing,telling people about it, and
then they would ask how much itcosts.
We'd tell them and he finallyhad heard this for three hours
(55:51):
and came over and said dude, yougot to raise your price.
That thing sounds like it doesway more than $65 worth.
And I said you're right, itdoes.
So we raise it when we need to,but not just because we can.
Speaker 1 (56:02):
So we raise it when we need to, but not just because
we can.
Right, and I love that my priceis locked in.
I think I'm locked in at $39,.
If I'm not mistaken, a yearyeah, going back five, six years
.
Speaker 2 (56:18):
And then Patty, that's a great, some great scale
or some great perspective.
So at $39, it's now $65.
It was $39 eight years ago whenwe really rolled it out.
And so in eight years it's goneup $26.
Right, and we've added thenavigation and the CarPlay and
the Android and all these othertools and it's barely gone up.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
Right, so worth it.
And not only that.
There's a link in the shownotes first time buyers for 25%
off, seven day free trial andthen 25% off.
I talk to people all the timeyou just can't beat it, you
can't be without it.
But it's now time for thequestion of the week, and it's
(57:01):
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and then give you a minute tothink about it while I talk
about people keeping their RVcooler as we get into the summer
months.
So, patrick, what is on yourbucket list?
Either people you want to meet,places you want to go, an
(57:24):
experience you want to have.
So, while you're thinking aboutthat, I'm going to talk a
little bit about Cool RV, andthis is somebody who was
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Actually, each of the peoplehad a different map system One
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Each of the people had adifferent map system One had
(57:45):
Google, one had Apple and theywent through an underpass that
knocked off their airconditioner Really expensive
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It is on their website becauseit would have saved him from
knocking his air conditioner off.
Now, because he knocked his airconditioner off, he actually
(58:07):
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(58:28):
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Okay, patrick, you're up tocome up with something.
(58:50):
I see.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
Well, I had to run through it quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
I saw it over.
I saw a lot of thinking.
Speaker 2 (58:58):
You could.
You could hear the the rustforming and the gears turning
and you know I think I foundmyself on the fence.
So I really love the beach.
I would love to.
I haven't.
I haven't actually taken.
We took the RV to the beach,but it was more like parking a
parking lot and walk the dogsdown to the beach right.
I'd literally like to campright at not necessarily on the
(59:19):
sand, but at the beach.
You know one of these niceresorts in Destin or somewhere
where you're just right upagainst the beach.
So I'd really like to do that.
But I have to say I wouldn'tmind going back to Yellowstone
again.
I'm really 50-50 on this.
We did Yellowstone.
It was our second trip and itwas almost 10 years ago now and
(59:40):
knowing what I know now, I wouldreally feel like I'd like to do
that again.
You know we tossed around theidea of Crater Lake and Niagara
and things like that and they'reinteresting and I think someday
we wouldn't mind doing that.
But the beach slash Yellowstone, as I have to say, is probably
(01:00:05):
on my list.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Okay, so you're saying the beach which is in
Destin, florida or Yellowstone?
Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Or somewhere.
It doesn't have to be Destin.
Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Okay, well, you mentioned Destin, so Destin
Florida is a beautiful area Ipassed through there once.
Yellowstone is a place I amplanning on going in the late
spring or summer because OpenRoad Resort has Red Rock RV
Resort, which is 30 minutes fromthe Western entrance, so you
might want to consider them Anincredible resort up there, so
(01:00:37):
that's something to think about.
Okay, so a lot of greatinformation.
Thank you for that.
Let's talk about this week'sfeature campground, and I chose
this campground.
It's in Donna, texas, becauseyou're in Texas.
Do you know where Donna Texasis?
Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
I think I believe I do.
Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
yes, I wouldn't want anybody to follow me there, but
I do think I could get within 10miles.
Okay, so it's way south Texas.
I had to look it up myself.
This is a Thousand Trailscampground.
It's called Victoria Palms RVResort and, as I said, it's in
Don and Texas.
It is a 55 plus, so I willadmit on the show you and I
(01:01:20):
qualify.
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Right in our wheelhouse.
Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Right in our wheelhouse.
I don't often admit that, butthat's the truth.
I qualify to be there Again.
You don't need to be a member,but you do need to be 55.
This resort is nestled in thetropical Grand Rio Valley of
Southern Texas and it features atropical pool, outdoor spa,
full restaurant and so much more.
(01:01:44):
It has a solid 8.6 rating onthe RV Life Campgrounds review
site with 79 reviews.
It has 1,122 sites and what'sreally nice, when people go to
campgroundsrvlifecom I love thisthey go to campgroundsrvlifecom
, I love this.
They go to campgroundsrvlifecomand they could just search
(01:02:06):
Victoria Palms RV Resort and onthat site they could then see
all the photos of this place,the tips on it, full list of
amenities about this propertyand all of the reviews that the
RVers who have stayed there haveput up there.
So I could see all the reviews.
What I love is I do not have tocome off of the RV Life site to
(01:02:30):
book.
I can book right there andthere's a great big red book now
button.
Such a great feature.
Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Yeah, for those campgrounds that really buy into
the process and make themselvesa featured campground, they get
that book now button, which isreally handy.
It keeps people from you knowattention getting diverted and
kind of like squirrel and theygo somewhere else and they
forget the book.
Another feature that I use Ihave to be.
No matter where I am, I have tohave internet, and so there's
(01:02:58):
this little chart we have onthose pages that shows you know,
internet, starlink, at&t,verizon, t-mobile, shows the
strength and availability of allof those features.
So if you're planning and youneed to have connectivity, it's
a great tool.
Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
And the way that you guys get that information.
So I go into a campground, Iset up my Starlink and I do a
test on my phone.
I go onto the RV Life app, do atest and that's where that
information then comes from.
I also can check my T-Mobile.
I have T-Mobile, so that isgreat.
Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Yeah, just like we prompt for your feedback on how
your route was, when we see thatyou're at a campground, you
know we prompt for that speedtest and it just helps.
We've gotten now tens and tensof thousands of these speed
tests that really help peoplesee what the internet is like
and you know what, Honestly, ithelps the campgrounds too,
(01:03:54):
because maybe they don't realizetheir internet is garbage and
they can look and see theirreviews and go, wow, I didn't
know it was this bad and it's agood prompt for them to fix it.
Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And RV Life Campgrounds is partof the RV Life suite of
products, as we've been talkingabout, and it is, as we've said
I have got to emphasize it againthe most comprehensive source
of RV parks, campgrounds,resorts, as well as city, state,
national parks, corps ofEngineers and so much more.
(01:04:27):
And, like you said, if peoplepull into a park, it's not on
the RV Life site.
Just tell somebody in theoffice to get on the person in
the campground.
The RVer can also add it to theRV Life review site.
So that's great and all peoplehave to do is visit
campgroundseverylifecom and I'mgoing to reiterate if you're not
(01:04:47):
already a member, there's alink in the show notes for 25%
off, and that is everything wehave been talking about.
There are no extras on that.
So, patrick, as we said, peoplecan reach out, they can ask you
questions by going to socialmedia.
What's the best place if theyhave questions for people to go?
Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
You know, I think, just real easy.
Just if they grab an email theycan go to, they can email
support at rvlifecom.
That's they're going to be ableto answer all the questions
about the product and they canredirect something that perhaps
isn't product-related.
That's the best repository forall of us, because we sort of
all connect to that one way oranother.
(01:05:33):
It keeps us from having toforward email to this person.
No, it's that person.
No, it's that person.
When it's in that spot, we allknow whoever's supposed to pick
that up can grab it.
That's the best way to getstarted.
If you have specific questions,obviously we've got two YouTube
channels that help support theproduct itself.
(01:05:54):
We've got an RV Life ProYouTube channel, an RV Life Trip
Wizard YouTube channel.
They're pretty much the samecontent.
It's just sometimes peoplesearch for one thing or another,
but a lot of great supportvideos, how to get started and
that type of thing.
Pretty much the same content.
It's just sometimes peoplesearch for one thing or another,
but a lot of great supportvideos, how to get started and
that type of thing.
Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Yes, yes, and I forgot to mention that they are
short, to the point videos.
I'm not the tech person.
I have, when I'm doing thingslike that, the attention span of
a net, and so I'd like thatthey are short and to the point.
It covers a topic.
Usually it covers a topic.
Anybody have want to seeupdates or have other questions
(01:06:30):
that aren't specifically relatedcan reach out to me on RV Life
Podcast on Instagram or Facebook.
I answer every message.
If you do message me and Idon't respond, please send me a
private message.
I might've missed it.
But thank, thank you, patrick,so much for being on and sharing
(01:06:50):
such a wealth of information,and I know that as soon as we
get off the phone, before thisis even posted, you're going to
say oh, by the way, there'sanother update.
So I know and I'll just keepadding it to the social media
channels.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Thanks, patty, it's always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
And I want to thank you, my listeners, and remind
you life's a journey.
Live each day to the fullest,without regrets.
I'm Patty Hunt and you havebeen listening to the RV Life
Podcast.
Did you know?
There is an app that helpsRVers plan smarter and travel
with confidence?
I'm Patti Hunt and you'relistening to the RV Life Podcast
.
Patrick, what happens behindthe scenes of RV Life?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I think the most interesting thing is that our
customers and our audience ingeneral.
They have no idea of the amountof people working on our
products trying to make thembetter, the amount of time that
is spent on these products andhow much they truly, truly care
about getting it right.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
RV Life.
The RV Life podcast was createdto educate, entertain and
explore the RV lifestyle, withthe mission to inspire you to
live life to the fullest.
Today, I have Patrick Buchananfrom RV Life on to talk all
things updates, upgrades,improvements to the RV Life
suite of products.
(01:04):
It is April If you're lookingto get out and start your
camping experience.
Open Road Resorts has fiveincredible locations in Idaho,
nebraska, new Mexico and two inTexas.
These parks are all highlyfavored by you, the RVer.
(01:24):
On the RV Life CampgroundReview site, you can check out
what RVers have to say aboutthese parks by going to
campgroundsrvlifecom, and youcould also go to
openroadresortscom.
Patrick, let's jump into this.
Patrick has been an RVer for 10years and has been with RV Life
(01:45):
for six years.
He currently works with thedevelopment and design teams to
bring to life the RV Life Garage.
We're going to find out whatthat is.
He also works with themarketing team, the rally and
show team, the podcast teams andworks with RV Life affiliates
and content creation partners.
(02:06):
Wow, that's a lot.
He and his wife vacation intheir RV with their pack of mini
dachshunds.
Welcome, patrick Buchanan, tothe RV Life podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Well, thank you, Patti.
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I am so glad We've been talking about this for
several months because there areso many new things coming to
the RV Life suite of products.
But before we start, I wouldlove to start with your story.
You've been an RVer for 10years.
How did you get started RVing?
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Well, we got started RVing because we were looking to
take a vacation.
I thought we wanted to take alittle cruise or something along
those lines.
And my wife said, well, then wegot to put the dogs in the
kennel and all of that.
And she said I've always wantedto see the Grand Canyon, so how
(02:58):
about we rent an RV and driveto the Grand Canyon?
And the funny thing about thatis, as I've told that story
before and thought about it, itoccurred to me she's never said
that in her life to me.
You know, I don't.
We've been married 40, almost40 years now, but at some point
she's never said, hey, I think Iwant to go see the Grand Canyon
.
All of a sudden, out of theblue, she says this.
And so we're like I was like,oh, wow, okay, we'll do that and
(03:19):
we did.
And then that was kind of thatwas kind of it right, that's
setting the hook and reeling itin.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
You were hooked from there and I've got to share with
people and we don't have totell this story.
But not only do you travel withminiature dachshunds, there are
eight of them.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, it's a whole other podcast, possibly a
YouTube show and maybe a TikTokchannel, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
It totally is YouTube show and maybe a TikTok channel
.
I don't know.
It totally is, because if weare on the phone, if we're on
the call together and it isfeeding time, those dogs sound
like they are being killed.
I know, yes, that would makefor funny content, but after
about four years you startedwith RV Life, so talk about how
that happened.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, that's crazy.
In fact, I just celebrated mysixth year, which is on April
Fool's Day, which you know.
I guess I could think maybe itwas just a joke, but I still
keep getting paid, so I guessit's not.
But it was just a byproduct ofmy background as an IT
professional, with a lot ofexposure to software and things
like that and spent some time Ihad actually, when I had taken
(04:29):
our very first RV trip, I madesome bad navigation decisions
Fortunately none of them thatappeal at the top of my rental
RV, but they did result in somereally really long travel days
that I just did not anticipatebecause I was trying to use
Google and normal ways ofplanning and it just doesn't
(04:50):
work.
And after a brutally longparticular day from Flagstaff to
Amarillo, I said there's got tobe something out there that
does this better and I actuallydid find at that time was just
called RV Trip Wizard, which isnow RV Life Trip Wizard, part of
the whole RV Life Pro package,and I said, wow, this is amazing
(05:10):
, this is exactly what I waslooking for.
And in my efforts to sort ofgive back to the community, I
found myself on IRV2.com, whicheveryone knows is the number one
RVing forum out there, and Iwas just helping people that
were having struggles trying tolearn how to use software, and I
just, of course, being in mycareer for a very long time I
(05:33):
was able to answer those, andone thing led to another.
I got connected with the RVLife team and April 1st 2019, a
new journey started.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
That's awesome, and so I guess I have to be really
grateful that I didn't have togo through the issues.
So I started RVing four yearsago for those people who are new
to the podcast and it wasduring COVID and my husband, dan
, just said let's selleverything and buy an RV and I
(06:05):
thought he was kidding.
So I just looked at him andlaughed and he actually got on
to all these different tripplanning.
I don't think there were many,but he settled on RV Trip Wizard
and he would plan these tripsand then show them to me to
convince me to go RVing.
So this was like RV Trip Wizardwas my gateway drug into RVing
(06:30):
and so from the time we startedout we had our trips planned and
RV safe GPS.
So I'm very grateful that wedidn't have to learn the hard
way by trying to use Google Maps.
But we'll talk more about theRV Life suite of products as we
go along.
You and I met.
It's actually been almost threeyears since we met Two and a
(06:52):
half years.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
No, it's longer than that.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
Is it?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
longer.
It's longer than that.
We met in Albuquerque at theBalloon Fiesta that was.
If that wasn't 2019, it was waswell, it couldn't have been
2020 because of COVID.
I thought it was 2019.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
But no, I think it was after that, so it feels like
I'm holding for guests now.
So yeah, yeah, yes, well, I'mnot going to admit to that, but
it's been a long time.
We met at the Balloon Fiesta.
We hit it off.
I started to speak at someevents for RV Life and an
affiliate, and so I've been RVLife for three years.
(07:29):
I have to talk, though.
About six months later, afterwe met, dan started talking
about a podcast, and I was likeI do not want to take one more
thing on, and no sooner did I dothat.
You come along and say RV Lifeis looking to start a podcast.
We think you guys would begreat hosts, and I was
outnumbered and I tell peoplethat story on the podcast all
(07:51):
the time.
So, I have to thank you becauseyou are an executive producer,
the executive producer for theRV Life podcast, and because of
you, it has had great success.
Ok, so let's move on.
For my listeners that aren'tquite familiar with the RV Life
suite of products, let's talkabout that.
Let's explain what that is.
(08:13):
We'll help each other rememberall the pieces of it.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Well, I'm getting better at it.
You know I really should haveit mastered and I think for the
most part I often do.
But as time goes on and you getpulled in different ways, you
don't always remember everysingle little component.
And we've had a lot of excitingnew things and in fact today we
officially sort of announced anew feature that's been lurking
(08:37):
in the background.
But you know, the core of ourproduct is the RV Trip Planner.
You know, which we call TripWizard or RV Life Trip Wizard,
and our mentality is reallysimple Plan your trip carefully,
slowly, on your laptop, on yourtablet.
(08:59):
If you are addicted to yourphone and you want to plan it on
your phone, go ahead.
You know, addicted to yourphone, then you want to plan it
on your phone, go ahead.
And then, when you're ready totake that trip, pull that mobile
phone out, get the RV life app.
Your trip's already there.
You can start navigating yourRV trip.
The way that you carefullyplanned it and that suite
(09:19):
together is is just genius rightnow, especially now with the RV
Life mobile app being bothAndroid Auto certified, apple
CarPlay certified, loads andloads of new features being
poured into both products, andthere just is no better way to
(09:39):
plan a trip.
I always say well, when you'redriving a 40-foot living room
down the freeway, you just don'tmake ad hoc decisions, and most
RVers will agree to thatstatement.
And so we've got othercomponents in there.
You alluded earlier to the RVLife Garage.
(10:02):
One of the things we offer aspart of the RV Life Pro
subscription is this access to amaintenance tool that we offer
and you know it's not a secret,it's long in the tooth and it
needs to be replaced, and it infact is being replaced and if
you're going to have an RV tokeep track of, you're going to
(10:25):
need a garage to put it in.
So we sort of have that digitalgarage that we have.
That's going to.
It's sort of a repository.
You can get there throughTripWizard, you can get there
through the mobile app and itjust keeps your RV there.
We're working on it.
It's not there yet.
Mind you, this is something newthat's coming soon the ability
(10:47):
to have mileage logs, fuel logs,generator logs, maintenance
tire pressure tracking all kindsof goodies that we're looking
to build into this toolthroughout the course of this
year.
Hopefully, within a few monthswe'll have something out there,
and the ultimate goal is twofoldNumber one to replace the aging
tool.
We currently have something outthere.
And the ultimate goal istwofold Number one to replace
the aging tool we currently haveand then, of course, have this
(11:10):
far more new and modern, sprylittle tool that you can access
easily with your phone andmultiple different ways to keep
track of all kinds of thingswithin the RV Life app.
And even now, right, you lookat that app, there's access to
articles and, of course, thecampground map, and there's just
(11:30):
loads of good stuff in there.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Right, and so one of my favorite parts of it is the
campground review piece of this.
And what I loved and why Ichose the campground reviews
through RV Life is because itwas from all of it was from
RVers.
That was so important to me andmeant so much to me.
They were authentic reviews.
(11:53):
You have to read throughreviews, obviously.
What one person doesn't like,somebody else may, but I knew
that all those reviews werecoming from RVers and that was
important.
So as I was planning my triplooking for a campground within
the circles and you know we'llput some pictures out there I
could see which campgroundswould be right for me and look
(12:16):
at the reviews and all theinformation.
That's part of the suite ofproducts.
I didn't have to go off of RVLife's suite of products to find
a review, to do all this otherresearch, because it just became
too much.
So really nice how everythingis in one place.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
It really is, and TripWizard itself is legendary
for that aspect of it.
Like you mentioned, the drivingradius, the campgrounds, it's
all just built in street view,satellite view, elevation grade.
All of those things are builtinto the single tool.
I always use it on a laptop.
I have used it on a tablet.
I refuse to use it on a phone,but that's but.
(12:59):
I've seen people just use it onthe phone as if they've been
doing it their whole life.
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Am I correct in still saying that when somebody first
sets up their program and againwith all the changes, I'm not
up on all of them when somebodyfirst sets up their RV life
program, they have to do it on alaptop or a tablet or an iPad.
Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (13:23):
No, they don't really have to do that anymore.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
It's the team has done well.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
they've done such an amazing job of integrating all
of these languages into asingular platform.
It's quite remarkable whatthey've accomplished over the
last few years we do.
The thing you might bereferencing is the old
maintenance tool is still alittle bit dated and you kind of
(13:48):
have to do that from a you knowmore or less from a laptop or a
tablet.
But as far as the RV Life suiteof products, they're infinitely
flexible to use on any deviceyou want.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Okay, so that's something new, or I wasn't aware
of that.
And again for me, I use myphone a lot, but I really like
the planning on the computer.
And for people who haven't usedthe RV Life program yet,
there's also all kinds offilters for it, and we'll talk
about that because I know a lotof there has been changes in
(14:21):
that.
I want to take a minute andtake a quick break.
When we come back, we have somuch more to talk about Changes.
We didn't even jump fully intothe changes that RV Life has
made to their products I do wantto talk about, for those people
who don't yet have an RV or arelooking to buy a new one, blue
Compass.
When you're an RVer, you want toknow someone is with you every
(14:44):
mile, whether it's sales orservice.
That someone is Blue Compass RV.
With over 100 locations coastto coast, featuring more than
15,000 new and used RVs and over1,000 service bays, with more
certified RV technicians thanany other dealers.
Blue Compass RV is with youtoday, tomorrow and the road
(15:08):
ahead.
Visit your local Blue Compassdealer or go to bluecompassrvcom
today.
Okay, so many people alreadyhave this, the RV Life product.
For those people listening thatdon't, there is a seven-day
free trial.
Some of what we're talkingabout may be a little more
difficult to understand ifthey've never used it before,
(15:31):
but you know they have sevendays they can get on.
They could try it to see ifit's you know would work for
them.
So let's talk about those newchanges.
What are some of the newfeatures?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
new changes.
What are some of the newfeatures?
Yeah, one of the, and actuallywe'll probably start on the
mobile side, because it was kindof on my mind here that just to
remind folks that we have a tonof customers that never plan
trips, they just rely, you know,and, in fairness, you know
maybe they've got a pickup truckand a small travel trailer and
(16:07):
you know they're not worriedabout giant overpower, low
overpasses or bridges or thingsthat are going to be a problem
for them, but they love thecampground map and the RV safe
direction.
So we've got a whole, reallystrong percentage of RVers that
have the RV Life Pro mobile appand just use it for that
(16:28):
navigation.
And so one of the excitingthings we've built into that is
I'm thinking we call it trafficavoidance or construction
avoidance.
I think it's less to do withtraffic avoidance than it is
some kind of a construction, along-term issue, right?
(16:48):
And a common scenario is youplan your trip.
You know, here it is April,right, I plan my trip and I get
to October when I plan on goingor wherever I'm going, and
they've started construction onthis road, like the main road I
need to take, and you know, Idon't know where we're going
Yellowstone or whatever and andall of a sudden, my trip, which
(17:12):
is supposed to be a four or fivehour day, it looks like it's
going to be a nine hour day.
And so that mobile app will sayhey, something's going on here,
do you want to find a differentroute?
I don't know the exact languageit's using, that avoidance that
we're building in.
You know, it's not like a Wazeright now where you can just go
behind somebody's side street.
(17:32):
Right, you can't take that 30or 40 foot camper down any old
streets you want.
But at least now, if I knowthat that trip's got a delay
built in and that delay couldwork to my advantage, right,
perhaps it's like, oh, we couldgrab lunch now.
Right, we're not in a biggerhurry.
Or it might be hey, I betterfind another route here, let me
(17:54):
pull the app up, or whatever.
So that addition is reallyimportant and we'll continue to
build on those types of things.
It's no small feat.
Obviously, we did this lastyear, but becoming Apple CarPlay
is a pretty big process.
(18:15):
But becoming Android certifiedis a nightmare, any Android
developer will tell you, becauseof all the different pieces of
hardware and all the differentAndroid flavors and all that.
It's a tough road and our teamjust kept working, kept working,
kept working, and so that was abig deal.
With regard to some of themobile stuff, one of the most
(18:40):
unbelievable things that we'vedone is they implemented
something called route feedback,and so we're now taking
feedback on when somebodyfinishes a route.
You know, hey, how was thatroute?
Were there any problems?
We're now grabbing, we're nowasking for any road conditions.
You know, did you go over asection that was super bumpy or
(19:03):
super windy or was there aproblem with it?
And we can go into our toolsand flag something.
We're actually working towardsgetting a route score so that we
can begin to present differentoptions with different route
scores and start to do.
(19:25):
Essentially, what we're doingis sort of that ways like
mentality, where we're getting alot of the feedback.
You know, your, your mapproviders, no matter who they
are, just can't tell you if theroad's bumpy or not, right or
narrow, or too many trees orwhatever, and and so this type
of feedback from folks that arenavigating with the mobile app
(19:49):
is unbelievably valuable and isgoing to end up with us
providing the absolute bestRVing routes in the industry.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
And that's incredible and all of these things have.
I've seen the progression ofthe RV Life products over the
last four years.
I mean, I loved it when westarted four years ago.
It's always, you know, how canit be better?
I'd love the fact that it's onCarPlay.
I do CarPlay because I'm Appleand now that it's on Android, a
(20:22):
lot of people are very happyabout that.
And now that it's on Android, alot of people are very happy
about that.
I have to tell people, when Iwas using this, I was about six,
seven months into the trip andwe were taking a trip of the 101
.
And we had had a garment thatwas for the RV.
So it was there and what we dois at night we would look at our
(20:42):
trip and we would compare whatthe garment was saying and what
RV Life was saying.
The RV Life Trip Wizard wassaying, and we would look at
both and if there was any kindof discrepancy we'd talk about
it.
We did it the night before.
Then in the morning we'drecheck because, like you said,
maybe there was some kind ofwhatever traffic issue, whatever
(21:10):
traffic issue.
And we're on the 101 in Oregonand the trip wizard had a
certain number of miles and thegarment had miles that was
literally a hundred miles more.
And I had to keep looking at it.
Well, what was happening is wewere on the 101 and it had us
get off the 101 and it like tookus all the way around to come
back onto the 101, literally 100miles.
(21:34):
And so when we looked atTripWizard, it showed a tunnel
that TripWizard was saying wecould go through.
Well, we were a 40-foot Class Atowing a car.
So what we did is we called thestate police and said look,
this is what we have.
Can we go through this tunnel?
And the guy said yeah, tractortrailers go through there, no
problem, stay in the center,here's what you need to do.
(21:56):
That trip alone saved us 100miles.
And then I also learned thatyou could do the view, so I
could have focused in on theview to see the tunnel and what
the measurement was.
So I was able.
Later I knew I could find thesethings out myself without
(22:16):
calling the state police, butthat's not a bad idea if you're
concerned.
But you know I was alreadyhooked on the products, but that
solidified it for me and as wetraveled across the country for
three and a half years, thepeople that told the stories of
the bridge they came up to, orthey should have gone over or
(22:37):
they were too long.
We have heard stories afterstory after story and you know,
I always say to them look, thisproduct would have helped you
with that, so okay.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, and you know, anybody that's heard me before
knows I'm a big advocate forgetting on there and looking at
the trip right.
I mean, we're providing for yousatellite view, street view and
all of these tools to vet outIf you're going somewhere.
You've never taken your RV, whywould you not want to check
(23:12):
that?
And so I don't leave anythingto chance and I don't think
anybody that's concerned should.
And, like you said that, thattunnel and that type of thing,
those are the types of thingsyou can vet ahead of time, and I
wouldn't necessarily findmyself defending Garmin in a lot
of cases.
But we do know that sometimesthe data you get from the map
(23:33):
provider is just it is what itis alluded to earlier this whole
issue we have, or this wholeability we have now with the
various types of route feedback,improving our pin positions,
all of these things.
We've got a whole team ofpeople that grab this stuff so
(23:55):
that even if the map providerprovides a wonky route, it's
always going to be safe.
It's just not always going tobe the smartest route.
We have the ability to go inthere and massage that.
And I did talk about some of thenew mobile features, but we do
have some other features, somenew things coming to TripWizard,
(24:16):
rv Life, tripwizard.
The first and foremost is a new, updated version.
You know, we really we've beenadding small tweaks for, you
know, forever, right, but theoverall face of the product
hasn't changed a whole lot inthe last three, four years,
maybe even longer, and we nowhave have introduced a refreshed
(24:40):
version.
You know, I don't know aboutyou, especially being an old IT
guy, when I, you know whenMicrosoft would offer new
updates to Windows, or Appleoffers new updates to the Mac or
the iPhone or whatever it'slike.
All right, sweet, what's goingon in there, right?
And so this new Trip Wizard isa real strong refresh of what it
(25:01):
looks like visually some colorchanges, some placement changes
that make a lot of sense, andsome real exciting sort of
building, if you will, buildinga frame to the door the door is
not there yet, but the frame'sbuilt and some things that we're
going to be able to show andoffer on a daily trip basis.
(25:22):
So, like right now, if you lookat your trip in the new version
, you can actually see thatelevation and grade that we
talked about now on a dailytravel segment type basis versus
the whole trip at once.
So little stuff like that.
I won't get too far into theweeds for that from you know,
(25:43):
regarding that.
But of course, the big recentannouncement and the email I
actually just got the emailbefore we started recording this
is we have integrated withHarvest Host so that now you can
click on the Harvest Host iconin our menu and display those
locations.
(26:03):
Host icon in our menu anddisplay those locations.
You connect your Harvest hostaccount directly so that we're
allowed to show you thelocations and let you add them
to your trip.
If you're not a Harvest hostmember, you'll need to be one or
take advantage of that feature.
But there's so much synergybetween the two companies and so
(26:23):
many of our customers, ourcrossover.
You know I can't tell you and Iknow, patty, you've seen this as
well how many times I've beenasked at RV shows hey, when are
you going to show Harvest Hostlocations?
And you know the answer waspretty easy for a while.
Right, it was like, well, Icould show them to you, but then
they would have a problem withthat because they want you to.
(26:46):
You know, penny up for that.
So we fine-tuned with them.
It's an exciting arrangement.
It's really and it's reallycool when you're in there using
it in that regard.
So that's new.
The new features I talked aboutwe're introducing slowly.
I think about right now, as youlog into TripWizard, you may
(27:08):
see a prompt to give those a try, and right now I think we're
about 30% or 40% saturation.
You don't want to bring onhundreds and thousands of people
at one time in case you haveany problems to flesh out.
So those are some of the newthings, kind of on that website.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
And for people who already have the app and have
looked at TripWizard.
This is, I'm sure, making sensefor those people who haven't
yet had the experience.
Go on, try it out.
You have seven days free.
But something that has been ontrip wizard that I was asking
for way back when was thingslike I'm a thousand trails
(27:50):
member, so having thousandtrails that show up for me, as
well as other type campgroundskoas are on there um, so it's
the.
The filter system on the tripwizard is amazing.
I can look for Cracker Barrelsand I can look for my Costco's,
I can look for gas stations.
(28:11):
There's so much already thereand it's always great to hear
that more things are being added.
More updates are constantlybeing added.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
In addition to those kind of chain campgrounds or
what you will brandedcampgrounds, we've got all the
private campgrounds and thenevery city, state, local,
national park, corps ofEngineers, blm land.
My typical saying is that ifthere's a campground that's not
on our site, it either justopened the other day or they
(28:46):
changed their name and nobodytold anybody, but otherwise it's
there.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Right, and every week on the podcast I give a feature
campground of the week.
So anybody that listens to thepodcast there is a feature
campground and I always say RVLife is the most comprehensive
source.
It's like you said, city, statenational parks, the private
parks, the resorts, and if it'snot there, people could just let
(29:12):
RV Life know or let thecampground owner know hey, just
add it to the RV Life campgroundreview site and that's free for
theer and for the campgroundowner.
So it's really nice to havesuch a comprehensive source.
When I'm looking forcampgrounds, campground reviews
(29:33):
is probably one of my favoritefeatures, after the Trip Wizard
and the planning.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
You know and I know Patty planning.
You know and I know, patty, youspent some time at the
campground owners shows.
And I know, right, because I,because I know you and I've
experienced the same thing whenpeople come up to your
campground owners, come up toyou and they have no idea that
we exist, that hundreds, if notthousands, of people have
(30:00):
reviewed their campgrounds andgiven ratings and posted
pictures and they have no ideawhatsoever.
It's just shocking to me.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Yes, and it's shocking to them.
So I have to.
You know anybody listeningthat's connected to a campground
owner.
It is shocking to them.
I was just at an event a coupleof weeks ago in Boston, outside
of Boston, and I make theseconnections where you know, I
truly create relationships withthese people.
I have been, excuse me, invitedto a number of campgrounds
(30:31):
where the owners come visit usand I had a campground owner
that I had followed up with andsaid, wow, I went on and there's
all these reviews and I didn'trealize this existed.
They didn't realize it existed.
People are coming into theircampground, there's all these
reviews, they just have to claimtheir park so they can respond
(30:51):
to the reviews.
And I mean, this person I wasspeaking to just this past week
was shocked by how many peopleare going to our site and that's
because RV Life correct me ifI'm wrong has over 2.5 million
members, right?
Speaker 2 (31:08):
Yeah, absolutely Absolutely.
And you know we're no differentthan the Yelp, than you would
with Yelp or Google, whereyou're going to claim your
restaurant or claim your hotel.
It's like, hey, you know thisis a campground, it's the same
deal.
Claim your campground becauseyou know millions of RVers are
currently using our tools andour websites.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
It's just incredible.
Now I have to talk aboutsomething.
Last year, some people know Icame out of the RV and I sold it
, and it's been a year now, andso I've been flying and staying
in campgrounds or driving andstaying in campgrounds, been
flying and staying incampgrounds or driving and
staying in campgrounds, and lastyear at the end of the year I
(31:48):
was filing my tax return.
I know what this has to do withRV life, but the accountant
said how many miles did youtravel with the RV?
Because it's a business, thosemiles make a difference.
And I was like I have no idea.
And literally I got in bed.
I was tossing and turning, howam I going to come up with the
miles?
And then I thought Trip Wizard.
(32:10):
So I called him the next dayand I said Listen, I have this
app that showed all of my travel, all of it, and all of my
travel is, you know, pretty muchbusiness, because I'm doing a
podcast or YouTube video.
And he said as long as you havesomething that shows it, that's
fine.
What's the miles?
(32:31):
And I was easily able to add upthe different trips and give
him the miles.
And now that I'm not in the RV,I am still using TripWizard for
my trips, both for keepingtrack of these things, keeping
track for tax purposes, but italso helps me to find places
(32:51):
along the way, even though I'mjust in a car.
It's been really helpful.
I was at a campground SpaciousSkies Country Oaks campground
this weekend with the girlcampers it was.
We had so much fun and I spoketo somebody, denise who raved
about RV Trip Wizard.
I got her on video so I justwant to put it out there.
(33:12):
I will have her audio added tothis podcast as well as video on
my YouTube channel, inspiredTravels, with Patti and she just
talked about how she traveledone time across the country by
car and was able to put herhotels in, so it helped her keep
(33:32):
track of things.
So it's got probably uses thatRV Life hasn't thought of, but
it's got a lot of great uses.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
Well, you know, it's interesting because you bring up
something that I will oftenshow people at a show.
I don't usually talk about itbecause the visual is really
helpful.
But the search tool we havebuilt into the map, aside from
the fact that with our menusystem you can find and select
and filter campgrounds, you canfind and select and filter fuel
(34:01):
and restaurants and CrackerBarrels and Walmart, all the
stuff you talked about, but youcan focus in on an area, right,
let's say we're focused on wheredid you guys have that girl
camper thing?
That was in PA.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Yeah, no, it was in Dorothy New Jersey, right,
Dorothy New Jersey, Okay.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
So you could center on New Jersey roughly right With
this search tool or with ourmap and then when you go to this
search and type something in,it knows to focus on that area
first.
So if you're in an area you'venever been to and maybe you need
to find a hotel right, I knowwith Patty it's got to be
(34:37):
Embassy Suites or something likethat, she's not looking up
Motel 6s.
But if you're in an area andyou want to find a brewery, a
winery, a veterinarian, ofcourse we've got veterinarian
filters and things.
We've got a lot of thosefilters built in.
But whatever you're looking for, right, maybe a go-kart repair
shop, it doesn't matter.
Whatever you're searching foris map-centric and so it's
(35:00):
really easy to find something inthe area that you're going to
be.
I had to do windshield repairone time.
It was really easy just tocenter in and say, oh, I'm going
to be down here by the end ofthe day and I'm going to need
that chip fixed right away.
So zoom in, type windshieldrepair.
And I set a point with a guyand when I got there he came to
the campground and fixed thechip.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yes, and I have to say, even though I've been using
this all of the products for solong, there's always something
new that I learned.
There is something thatsomebody will say hey, I did
this, just like the woman at thecampground this past weekend, I
wouldn't have thought to putthe hotels in For me, because I
have a business and I travel forbusiness.
(35:43):
It's really great to keep allof that in one place, and, you
know, my accountant was reallyhappy with it, and so there's
always another feature that I'mlearning about or another filter
that you guys have added in.
That's just incredible.
Yeah, are there any otherupdates that you want to talk
(36:05):
about right now?
I'm sure there'll be morecoming.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
You know there are so many and I have to be careful
because I sit in on so manymeetings and some of the things
are six months away and some arethree months away and some are
tomorrow, and they often becomea blur and so I don't always
know and I don't want toannounce things too early.
Obviously, for me, the bigthing is trying to get some kind
of a maintenance tool out thereand get that in the hands of
(36:33):
people, and I think it's goingto be amazing when we do.
That's been my focus andcontinues to take more of my
time and focus and continues totake more of my time and focus
as I sit through these variousmeetings.
There are just constant,constant tweaks, updates,
changes, the process we have fortaking customer feedback from
(37:00):
the support desk to the analysisand testing team, to the
product owners, then to thedevelopers.
I mean it's remarkable and somany of the features we
introduced were at some point acustomer asked for those
features, or generally more thanone customer.
You know it pops up two orthree times and our help desk is
(37:20):
amazing because they're attunedto this right.
So it's one thing if somebodysays, hey, you guys should have
31 flavors on your map.
Yeah, okay, right, right.
But then if all of a sudden, acouple of weeks go by and 10
people have asked for that, allof a sudden it's like, hey, we
should explore this Now.
No, we don't have 31 flavors onour map, it's just an example.
(37:40):
But they take this stuff veryseriously and they take it to
heart.
And you know our team knows notto get overly offended by
things.
Somebody says, hey, thisposition of this button or this
menu or this tab or this coloris just dumb, right, it doesn't
make sense.
Our people will go back and say, you know what?
I think they're right, itdoesn't feel right.
(38:02):
And you know we're all going togo through those growing pains
as we're developing orpresenting things.
But sometimes you don't see ituntil 10,000 people start
playing with it.
And then you're like, oh, okay,I see what they're getting at.
It's one thing when you have adozen testers and those testers
are used to testing software.
(38:23):
It's another when you get 100people that barely know how to
use it.
That go, hey, why can't I clickon this?
You're like, wow, gee, you'reright, you should be able to
click on that.
And so the process is amazingand it's a really long way of
saying that.
We take and we value thefeedback tremendously.
(38:44):
We send emails and do surveysabout the usability.
We do testing groups.
We send our developers to tradeshows so they can ask our
viewers in person.
I mean, it's a very seriousmatter for us to create the best
tool on the market and we haveand that's one thing I have to
say, I have to give.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
I have to give a shout out to the customer
support.
When I am dealing with acompany whether it is my cell
phone or any company that I haveto deal with my health
insurance, any company I have todeal with I call a doctor's
office, that person that answersthe phone.
That is the first mostimportant field.
(39:23):
Customer service is soimportant.
If I have an issue I want toknow I could go to customer
service.
There's going to be a humanbeing that answers the phone.
There's going to be a humanbeing that takes their time.
They're going to listen,they're going to try and help me
.
I am not tech savvy at all, so Iwant somebody who can
understand that not make me feelstupid and answer that.
(39:47):
And I have to say, the supportteam at RV Life is above and
beyond and I have been to somany trade shows now.
Rv Life is at Tampa every yearand in Hershey every year and I
have met people from the techpeople and the customer support
(40:07):
people and they are all workingtogether.
There are no salespeople in theRV Life booth.
There are people looking forfeedback, looking to help
customers, looking to helppeople who are already customers
as well as educate people whoaren't, and so that was a long
way of saying how impressed I amwith the customer support at RV
(40:30):
Life, because you could callthem and they pick up the phone
and they care.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
They really, they really care they do, and we
don't pick up the phone a wholelot, but we do answer through
the email and through thecontact tabs or tools.
We don't really have phonesupport, which is surprising to
some, but when you realize thatall of our support people are US
based and they're all realRVers and so they're all
(40:58):
scattered around the countrychecking emails at all hours of
the day and night you know we'vegot early birds in Maine and
late night hawks in Californiaand that type of a cycle ends up
almost feeling like a 24-hoursupport.
It's not we don't claim it tobe, but the way people access
the support tickets and theservice it often feels.
(41:21):
People are often shocked to geta support answer on a Saturday
or a Sunday or a Friday night orwherever, because our team is
all over the country tappinginto those resources at all
hours of the day.
But it is mostly an emailsupport base and there's a
reason for that.
Again, obviously we can't justrun phone lines or virtual you
(41:44):
know VPNs and different thingsto all these RVers.
But when you contact us throughthe tools we provide in both
the Trip Wizard and the mobileapp and through our campground
site, not only are we able toget things like screenshots.
We're also able to getversioning information from your
operating system and your phoneand your device.
(42:04):
That can often cue us into whyyou're having a problem.
So it's really it's a benefitto do it that way.
It's easier to get differentperspectives right.
If you're talking to one person, you get their perspective, and
if they don't know what arethey going to do, they're going
to put you on hold.
You're going to listen to someterrible music and they're going
(42:26):
to go talk to somebody elsewhen that ticket is in a digital
hopper, if you will.
Multiple eyes can be on that.
People can chime in and answerthose questions.
It's really a great system.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yes, and I agree, and I hear people all the time
talking about you know myquestion was answered quickly
and then if you have a follow-upor still have a question, just
follow up on the email and yes,it's been incredible.
I want to talk a little bitabout, first of all, andy
Rabinowitz is the owner ofHarvey Life and if you go to
(43:01):
some of the events I know heshows up in at the Hershey event
as well as the Tampa event attimes, so you might catch him
and, you know, actually have aconversation.
He is there, he wants tointeract with people who were
there.
He doesn't, you know, juststand around.
He actually interacts and isinterested in hearing what
people have to say.
(43:22):
Something that's really veryimportant for Andy, for me, for
you, is community, and I want totalk about RV Life's community,
because it is huge.
We embrace community and peoplegetting together.
So can you talk to us aboutthat?
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Yeah, I think I can.
You know, a company started.
Really, its roots are in the RVforums.
You know the sites likeirv2.com, which I mentioned, and
airforumscom, and we've gotanother 20 plus RVing forums
covering brands like ForestRiver and Keystone and Jayco and
all of these.
That was kind of the basis ofthe community.
(44:11):
And for those that don't knowwhat a forum is, it sort of
predates social media.
Social media, but when you askquestions you get real answers.
Media, but when you askquestions you get real answers.
The things don't roll off andget absolved.
Social media is not a bad placeto get started, but people find
(44:35):
out pretty quickly that it's avery shallow sort of a one-sided
offering.
And when you want a little moremeat, you know, with your
potatoes you end up going to aforum.
And so that's where we started.
And that carries on to ourcampground site which has I
don't know, I mean half amillion reviews or something
like that.
It's a vast number.
(44:56):
The site's been around 20 years.
And then we try to carry andwe're working even more so to
carry that over into TripWizardand the mobile app.
We're going to try to sort ofbring that community into that
space.
We're doing it another way withour podcast.
We have two podcasts and you'reout there liaisoning with the
(45:20):
community.
We've got a rally team thatdoes shows and rallies.
They're interfacing with thecommunity and of course, we have
articles, blog articles, socialmedia we are it's virtually
everybody on the planet, Isuppose that's in the RV space
uses hashtag RV life, and sothat engages us automatically.
(45:43):
It's funny how that worked out.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
So we're happy with that.
Yes, great planning.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
It was good planning before.
I think before we knew what ahashtag was, we had hashtag RV
life.
So that's worked out well.
And it is a big, you know,especially in this world now
where a bad review, a bad socialmedia post or a bad article can
(46:11):
really hurt some people, right,and we're always cognizant of
that and we're trying to alwaysbe transparent and always be
forthright and say you know whatYou're right.
That's a weird way to toperform that function.
Let's do better, or, you know,whatever the case may be, but
(46:31):
the community is forefront, we,you know, I I think this is
something I don't talk a lotabout, but I think it's really
important.
When we you mentioned earlierour campground site, you know
one of the things that drives mebananas if I go and look at a
product on amazon, right, I wantto buy a headphones or
something, and I see others.
There's five ones to fiveone-star reviews.
(46:54):
I better go check those out,right, something's wrong with
these things.
One star the ship, the shipmentwas a day late and you're like,
really, you're giving a onestar because ups was was frozen
out of of their hub because of awinter storm, you know.
And with the campground site.
We don't really allow that kindof stuff.
(47:16):
You're allowed to say badthings about a campground that's
terrible, but you're not goingto give it a ding for something
stupid like that, and youactually have to have been there
and stayed there in order toleave a review.
And likewise, we don't let theowners pop on and go oh my God,
this is the greatest campgroundI've ever seen in my life.
Right, we've got tools thatprevent that and some validation
(47:39):
.
That occurs, like you said fromthe beginning real RVers leaving
real reviews.
And if you want to improve thereviews at your campground
number one, do a better job,clean it up, treat the customers
right and then get people totell you about it.
Those averages will skew rightout of there.
And so that's all part of thatwhole community picture.
(48:01):
We have the same values on ourforums.
You can't just get on the forumand bash a vendor mindlessly,
unless it's true.
And if it's true, then you needto have some common courtesies
and explain your situation, andyou'd be amazed how often a
vendor will see it and go oh,you know what?
We didn't realize this washappening.
We'd love to help you out andmake it right.
(48:22):
Right, it's all part of thecommunity it's start to finish
top to bottom is trying to makesure that everything we touch is
good for the community.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
Right and I just want to add some specifics.
First of all, rv Life has thispodcast and our partner podcast
is the RV Entrepreneur.
So those people who areentrepreneurs looking to become
an entrepreneur just want tolisten in on what it's like to
be an entrepreneur, I highlyrecommend checking out the RV
(48:56):
Entrepreneur.
They have amazing hosts there'sthree hosts now and incredible
guests on the podcast.
So I recommend that as well.
As as far as community people,there's the forums, people who
want social media.
On Instagram and Facebookthere's RV Life pages.
(49:16):
There's groups.
There's Trip Wizard pages,there's groups.
So you just type in RV Life andyou can find a lot of the
community type aspects, as wellas a lot of times the RV life
show team event team will beattending events.
Can we talk about RV lifehaving their own event?
(49:39):
I didn't ask this before theirown event.
Speaker 2 (49:46):
I didn't ask this before.
Yeah, well, we, we are.
So we've, you know, we've,we've.
We've got a little traditiongoing now and, uh, we've got a
couple of a couple of new things.
We'll start with the new thingsfirst, and that is obviously
the stuff.
Patty's going.
She's got all kinds of irons inthe fire there um more than I
can keep up with, but we've gotour rally team our show team is
now going to be doing somespecial things on their own,
(50:10):
some appearances and some littleevents and ultimately a rally.
We hope to have more informationon that soon.
We're in the midst of planningthat now that we're really
excited about and they're agreat presence out in the field.
And then, of course, everySeptember at the Hershey RV Show
, rv Life holds its own HersheyAfter Party and we'll be
(50:33):
releasing those details againhere in the next month or so or
two-ish.
What month is this?
April, may, june, yeah, a monthor two-ish, and we'll be in our
fourth year.
It's a great event, it's fun,it's relaxing, it's exciting,
it's interesting, and so pattywill have more information on
that in the coming weeks.
But, uh, yeah, lots of a lot ofthings going and, of course,
(50:56):
dawn, our campground director ofcampground success, uh, and
partnerships.
She's attending as, as wementioned earlier, patty's done
a few.
Dawn attends campground ownershows all over the country, a
whole lot of them.
Those are usually set in thespring and fall, and so she's in
kind of in full show swingright now, but connecting with
(51:17):
those campground owners, makingthem aware of our site and where
excuse me, where our reach is.
You know, those campgroundsthat appear on our campground
site also appear in TripWizard.
They also appear in the mobileapp.
They also appear.
Some of our featuredcampgrounds appear on our blogs
and our websites and our forums,and so it's a big deal.
Speaker 1 (51:40):
Yes, absolutely, and there's so much going on.
People can go to the RV Lifesites and find out some of it.
I will be posting RV Lifeupdates.
I'll be posting about events.
I'll be posting when theHershey event is ready on RV
Life podcast on Instagram andFacebook.
(52:01):
So all the updates will bethere.
If people want one location togo to, as far as the Hershey
show it's called America'sLargest RV Show.
I know people are starting toplan their trips.
Right now it is in Hershey, paI suggest getting your
campground reservations, alsofor our after party, which I
(52:26):
don't know if we want to releasethe date, but it'll be during
that week of the hershey rd show.
It has sold out every yearsooner and sooner.
So the year before last it soldout the first day of when the
hershey show started.
Yeah, it sold out actuallybefore the show started.
(52:47):
So this year I think sellout isgoing to be quick and it is
just April.
But I'm going to say once we'vereleased that if people are
interested in going to thatevent, they need to get on board
with that.
I get really excited.
Again, it's about community.
Rv Life is so about peoplecoming together, sharing ideas,
(53:08):
helping each other, supportingeach other, and that's what
probably was the biggestconnection for me to RV Life,
because that's their mission.
How can we be of help?
How can we support each other,you know, so people can get out
and go RVing, stuff happens, youknow, it's great to have the
(53:29):
community that RV Life providesReally excited about that.
Okay, I have a question,another question for you, but
before I do that, do you haveany other things that you'd like
to add here that I might havemissed?
Anything else, are we coming?
Speaker 2 (53:43):
No, you know, the only thing that I didn't really
talk about and I often don'ttalk about it because it's when
people hear this broadcast andthey're going to be one thinking
, wow, gee, that sounds likesome pretty amazing you know,
trip planning and navigationsoftware.
I hate to think what that thingmight cost me, right?
And well, I'm going to tell you.
(54:05):
It's a shocking and staggeringat least the time of this
recording $65 a year, a year,yes, a year, and it's okay to
have multiple tools in yourarsenal.
As I always say, I'm driving a40-foot living room down the
(54:25):
freeway.
The more tools I can have in myarsenal the better, and at $65,
if you used it once to plan onetrip, it's paid for itself, but
it's really an incredible value.
We rarely go up.
We will go up, you know,occasionally, a few bucks, here
and there every couple of years,and the nice part is, when you
(54:47):
do sign up, you are locked intothat price forever, which
essentially, as I always say,it's $65 is one good night
camping, or maybe two lousy ones.
Now, having said that, I spenda lot of time at Corps of
Engineers parks, which are 20bucks a night, so it's three
nights.
But you know if, if I can pay$65 and have an entire year of
(55:09):
the trip planner and thenavigation coming soon, the
maintenance and mileage trackingand those types of things, I
mean it's, it's an unbelievablevalue.
I've I've said this before I'vedone RV shows and RV shows and
you're busy, you're talking tocustomers nonstop, right.
And then at the Tampa showparticularly, we finally hit a
(55:31):
lull after it seemed like hoursof talking about this product
and the guy across from me wasselling hitches or something
with fifth wheels, I think, andcomes over and says you guys
need to raise your price,because he'd been hearing us
pitching this whole thing,telling people about it, and
then they would ask how much itcosts.
We'd tell them and he finallyhad heard this for three hours
(55:51):
and came over and said dude, yougot to raise your price.
That thing sounds like it doesway more than $65 worth.
And I said you're right, itdoes.
So we raise it when we need to,but not just because we can.
Speaker 1 (56:02):
So we raise it when we need to, but not just because
we can.
Right, and I love that my priceis locked in.
I think I'm locked in at $39,.
If I'm not mistaken, a yearyeah, going back five, six years
.
Speaker 2 (56:18):
And then Patty, that's a great, some great scale
or some great perspective.
So at $39, it's now $65.
It was $39 eight years ago whenwe really rolled it out.
And so in eight years it's goneup $26.
Right, and we've added thenavigation and the CarPlay and
the Android and all these othertools and it's barely gone up.
Speaker 1 (56:40):
Right, so worth it.
And not only that.
There's a link in the shownotes first time buyers for 25%
off, seven day free trial andthen 25% off.
I talk to people all the timeyou just can't beat it, you
can't be without it.
But it's now time for thequestion of the week, and it's
(57:01):
brought to you by CoolRV.
I'm going to ask you thisquestion, put you on the spot
and then give you a minute tothink about it while I talk
about people keeping their RVcooler as we get into the summer
months.
So, patrick, what is on yourbucket list?
Either people you want to meet,places you want to go, an
(57:24):
experience you want to have.
So, while you're thinking aboutthat, I'm going to talk a
little bit about Cool RV, andthis is somebody who was
traveling in, I believe, a fifthwheel.
They were using Google Maps.
Actually, each of the peoplehad a different map system One
had Google, one had Apple.
Each of the people had adifferent map system One had
(57:45):
Google, one had Apple and theywent through an underpass that
knocked off their airconditioner Really expensive
mistake, and he now spouts RVlife trip planning GPS.
It is on their website becauseit would have saved him from
knocking his air conditioner off.
Now, because he knocked his airconditioner off, he actually
(58:07):
created or invented anincredible product.
Because RVing is about notsweating in the heat, coolrv
came up with a game changer inRV air conditioning upgrades.
With cooler air, more airflowand whisper quiet operation,
you'll stay comfortable withoutthe noise, whether you're
off-grid or at a campsite.
(58:28):
Enjoy the chill without theroar.
Upgrade your ride with CoolRVwhere comfort meets the road.
You can visit CoolRV and that'sK-O-L-L-R-Vcom today, or go to
the link in the show notes.
Okay, patrick, you're up tocome up with something.
(58:50):
I see.
Speaker 2 (58:52):
Well, I had to run through it quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
I saw it over.
I saw a lot of thinking.
Speaker 2 (58:58):
You could.
You could hear the the rustforming and the gears turning
and you know I think I foundmyself on the fence.
So I really love the beach.
I would love to.
I haven't.
I haven't actually taken.
We took the RV to the beach,but it was more like parking a
parking lot and walk the dogsdown to the beach right.
I'd literally like to campright at not necessarily on the
(59:19):
sand, but at the beach.
You know one of these niceresorts in Destin or somewhere
where you're just right upagainst the beach.
So I'd really like to do that.
But I have to say I wouldn'tmind going back to Yellowstone
again.
I'm really 50-50 on this.
We did Yellowstone.
It was our second trip and itwas almost 10 years ago now and
(59:40):
knowing what I know now, I wouldreally feel like I'd like to do
that again.
You know we tossed around theidea of Crater Lake and Niagara
and things like that and they'reinteresting and I think someday
we wouldn't mind doing that.
But the beach slash Yellowstone, as I have to say, is probably
(01:00:05):
on my list.
Speaker 1 (01:00:06):
Okay, so you're saying the beach which is in
Destin, florida or Yellowstone?
Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
Or somewhere.
It doesn't have to be Destin.
Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Okay, well, you mentioned Destin, so Destin
Florida is a beautiful area Ipassed through there once.
Yellowstone is a place I amplanning on going in the late
spring or summer because OpenRoad Resort has Red Rock RV
Resort, which is 30 minutes fromthe Western entrance, so you
might want to consider them Anincredible resort up there, so
(01:00:37):
that's something to think about.
Okay, so a lot of greatinformation.
Thank you for that.
Let's talk about this week'sfeature campground, and I chose
this campground.
It's in Donna, texas, becauseyou're in Texas.
Do you know where Donna Texasis?
Speaker 2 (01:00:52):
I think I believe I do.
Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
yes, I wouldn't want anybody to follow me there, but
I do think I could get within 10miles.
Okay, so it's way south Texas.
I had to look it up myself.
This is a Thousand Trailscampground.
It's called Victoria Palms RVResort and, as I said, it's in
Don and Texas.
It is a 55 plus, so I willadmit on the show you and I
(01:01:20):
qualify.
Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Right in our wheelhouse.
Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Right in our wheelhouse.
I don't often admit that, butthat's the truth.
I qualify to be there Again.
You don't need to be a member,but you do need to be 55.
This resort is nestled in thetropical Grand Rio Valley of
Southern Texas and it features atropical pool, outdoor spa,
full restaurant and so much more.
(01:01:44):
It has a solid 8.6 rating onthe RV Life Campgrounds review
site with 79 reviews.
It has 1,122 sites and what'sreally nice, when people go to
campgroundsrvlifecom I love thisthey go to campgroundsrvlifecom
, I love this.
They go to campgroundsrvlifecomand they could just search
(01:02:06):
Victoria Palms RV Resort and onthat site they could then see
all the photos of this place,the tips on it, full list of
amenities about this propertyand all of the reviews that the
RVers who have stayed there haveput up there.
So I could see all the reviews.
What I love is I do not have tocome off of the RV Life site to
(01:02:30):
book.
I can book right there andthere's a great big red book now
button.
Such a great feature.
Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
Yeah, for those campgrounds that really buy into
the process and make themselvesa featured campground, they get
that book now button, which isreally handy.
It keeps people from you knowattention getting diverted and
kind of like squirrel and theygo somewhere else and they
forget the book.
Another feature that I use Ihave to be.
No matter where I am, I have tohave internet, and so there's
(01:02:58):
this little chart we have onthose pages that shows you know,
internet, starlink, at&t,verizon, t-mobile, shows the
strength and availability of allof those features.
So if you're planning and youneed to have connectivity, it's
a great tool.
Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
And the way that you guys get that information.
So I go into a campground, Iset up my Starlink and I do a
test on my phone.
I go onto the RV Life app, do atest and that's where that
information then comes from.
I also can check my T-Mobile.
I have T-Mobile, so that isgreat.
Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Yeah, just like we prompt for your feedback on how
your route was, when we see thatyou're at a campground, you
know we prompt for that speedtest and it just helps.
We've gotten now tens and tensof thousands of these speed
tests that really help peoplesee what the internet is like
and you know what, Honestly, ithelps the campgrounds too,
(01:03:54):
because maybe they don't realizetheir internet is garbage and
they can look and see theirreviews and go, wow, I didn't
know it was this bad and it's agood prompt for them to fix it.
Speaker 1 (01:04:05):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And RV Life Campgrounds is partof the RV Life suite of
products, as we've been talkingabout, and it is, as we've said
I have got to emphasize it againthe most comprehensive source
of RV parks, campgrounds,resorts, as well as city, state,
national parks, corps ofEngineers and so much more.
(01:04:27):
And, like you said, if peoplepull into a park, it's not on
the RV Life site.
Just tell somebody in theoffice to get on the person in
the campground.
The RVer can also add it to theRV Life review site.
So that's great and all peoplehave to do is visit
campgroundseverylifecom and I'mgoing to reiterate if you're not
(01:04:47):
already a member, there's alink in the show notes for 25%
off, and that is everything wehave been talking about.
There are no extras on that.
So, patrick, as we said, peoplecan reach out, they can ask you
questions by going to socialmedia.
What's the best place if theyhave questions for people to go?
Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
You know, I think, just real easy.
Just if they grab an email theycan go to, they can email
support at rvlifecom.
That's they're going to be ableto answer all the questions
about the product and they canredirect something that perhaps
isn't product-related.
That's the best repository forall of us, because we sort of
all connect to that one way oranother.
(01:05:33):
It keeps us from having toforward email to this person.
No, it's that person.
No, it's that person.
When it's in that spot, we allknow whoever's supposed to pick
that up can grab it.
That's the best way to getstarted.
If you have specific questions,obviously we've got two YouTube
channels that help support theproduct itself.
(01:05:54):
We've got an RV Life ProYouTube channel, an RV Life Trip
Wizard YouTube channel.
They're pretty much the samecontent.
It's just sometimes peoplesearch for one thing or another,
but a lot of great supportvideos, how to get started and
that type of thing.
Pretty much the same content.
It's just sometimes peoplesearch for one thing or another,
but a lot of great supportvideos, how to get started and
that type of thing.
Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Yes, yes, and I forgot to mention that they are
short, to the point videos.
I'm not the tech person.
I have, when I'm doing thingslike that, the attention span of
a net, and so I'd like thatthey are short and to the point.
It covers a topic.
Usually it covers a topic.
Anybody have want to seeupdates or have other questions
(01:06:30):
that aren't specifically relatedcan reach out to me on RV Life
Podcast on Instagram or Facebook.
I answer every message.
If you do message me and Idon't respond, please send me a
private message.
I might've missed it.
But thank, thank you, patrick,so much for being on and sharing
(01:06:50):
such a wealth of information,and I know that as soon as we
get off the phone, before thisis even posted, you're going to
say oh, by the way, there'sanother update.
So I know and I'll just keepadding it to the social media
channels.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (01:07:06):
Thanks, patty, it's always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
And I want to thank you, my listeners, and remind
you life's a journey.
Live each day to the fullest,without regrets.
I'm Patty Hunt and you havebeen listening to the RV Life
Podcast.
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