November 14, 2023 • 48 mins
RVing from Grand Ecore COE Campground in Natchitoches, Louisiana: Sherri & Russ recap an unforgettable two weeks in Coastal Mississippi. Join us as we explore and discover how to find the fun, while getting the work done -- with distractions! -- anywhere you go...
(Enjoy more episodes of RV Work Life Balance –> here! <– or on your favorite podcast app!)
~~~~~~~~~~
- 11-13-2023 - EPISODE 11 - (00:48:43)
- Title: Finding the FUN in Coastal Mississippi!
- - - - - HIGHLIGHTS - - - - -
- (00:00:30) - THANK YOU ❤️ for your response! 😊
- (00:01:20) - Grand Ecore COE CG - Natchitoches, LA
- (00:02:20) - Navy Son’s Job & Training (Hurt Locker)
- (00:07:40) - FAQ: Finding the fun while getting the job done
- (00:20:40) - 5 Best After Work Adventures in Coastal Mississippi
- (00:25:28) - #1 Fun With A Flying Disc 🛸
- (00:43:15) - NAVY⚓💙 & RV Work Life Balance
- (00:47:25) - Join the Adventure! - P.S. SUBSCRIBE! 😘
COASTAL MISSISSIPPI EPISODE SUMMARY:
#1 BENEFIT OF RV LIFE - WHEELS ON THE HOUSE!
“Hey, you're gonna be in Mississippi. Our house moves…”
Two weeks in Coastal Mississippi with our Navy Son!
Join us as we whisk you away on a heartwarming journey of reunion, exploration, FUN (and work, too)! We've been spending time in Coastal Mississippi with our oldest son, who now serves in the Navy's EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) unit. His intense training regimen while in Gulfport, and the experiences he shared with us, gave us a newfound appreciation for the demanding work our military personnel undertake.❤️ 🤍 💙
Frequently Asked Question: How do you find the fun while getting the job done?
Our travels in Charlie-The-Unicorn RV have led us to some hidden gems, and we're eager to share our tips & tricks on how to uncover the best a location has to offer: From searching out the local Convention & Visitors Bureaus (CVB) In Real Life and online, to exploring resources like OnlyInYourState.com, RV Life PRO Reviews & Tips and Harvest Hosts, we'll guide you on how to make the most of your RV Travel adventures.
We’ll recap our unforgettable after-work adventures with our Navy Son in Coastal Mississippi (Gulfport & Biloxi), including:
- (00:21:05) - Fine & casual dining on the Gulf Coast
- (00:23:00) - Science & space adventures with NASA
- (00:25:29) - #1 Fun (All Ages!) With A Flying Disc 🛸
- (00:35:10) - Harvest Hosts: Mississippi Blues & BBQ
- (00:38:40) - Thrilling wildlife encounters 🐊🐊🐊
🫣 SEE the horrific video of this encounter on BooksAndTravelUSA.com!
Our mission is to share what we learn about RV Work Life Balance and introduce you to new opportunities, people, places, and ideas to spark your interest and imagination…
Whether you’re a seasoned RVer, a beginner, or one of our armchair explorers 😘, we hope our experiences inspire you to embark on your own adventures and find the perfect balance between work and play. Buckle up and join us as we hit the road and explore the wonders that each new location brings!
As always, we are immensely grateful for your support and we look forward to sharing more adventures with you. Don't forget to share your thoughts and feedback. Your op
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, you've reached the Caldwells.
Please leave a message and we will get back
with you to Sissu.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to the RV Work Life Balance podcast
with your traveling nomadic hosts, Sherri
and Russ Caldwell.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, that's us.
We're living the dream, working from home.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
baby no matter where home is.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
How is it possible that I'm back here again?
We record this every week.
Woo, this is so much work.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I don't know why you make me do all this
work.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Anyways, I'll still say cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Cheers, everybody Cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
All right, well, welcome back everyone.
We really appreciate you coming back, and I
want to start with something we're getting
some feedback from the podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
We love hearing from you guys, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thanks for all the feedback.
So the comments and the feedback has been
really appreciated.
Thank you so much for that.
Keep it coming, because it gives us ideas
on what works, what doesn't, what you're
trying to solve or understand.
We'll use it in our upcoming podcast.
What's funny, what's not, what's not yeah,
yeah, all right.
So it's interesting because what's cool
about what we do is we get to travel so
(01:24):
much and it's, it's amazing.
It didn't hit me until like a couple of
weeks ago.
I was like we get to say the same thing
every week, which is like where are we
today?
And it's always different.
It's always different, you know it's so
cool.
So where are we today?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Today we are at the Grand Écors.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Is that how you say it?
Écors, écors, écors, écors for bluff.
The bluff, yeah, éclair.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So we're at the Grand Écors COE campground
in Natchitich, louisiana, which is actually
spelled Natchitoches.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Which is more fun to say it that way.
But you're saying but it's.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Natchitich.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Natchitich, that's what the little
visitor's guide says Natchitich.
And COE is Corps of Engineers, which is
really cool.
We like those.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yes, so we're here in Louisiana this week,
but our hearts are still in Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Oh, why is that?
Because, well, because we I think we might
have mentioned this, we did.
We got to see our oldest son, who happened
to be doing some training in Gulfport,
mississippi.
He's in the Navy.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
We really appreciate everyone in the
military.
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And he is making a transfer from his
current location in Hawaii to the cool
island of Guam.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Back to Guam, maybe, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So, but he had to come here to Mississippi
or where we were in Mississippi, to do some
training because he's got a new role.
What's that?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
He's got a new job or unit in the EOD,
which I was like.
Oh, is that in the education department?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
It's not the right letters no it's the
explosive ordinance disposal unit.
They blow stuff up.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Oh, super, Like Hurtlocker the movie.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It is.
It is Great Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And he's like, yeah, I'm an IT mom, I'll be
okay, it and communications.
And then so he came to Gulfport,
mississippi, for this training in its
acronym is ECS.
Okay, what's that?
Well, that's expeditionary combat skills,
(03:53):
which is very physical, hardcore training
outdoors in the heat with the guns and
homebies turning upside down.
Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm, my heart is going.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, you know our sense is in in
communications and IT.
And you know, when he said he was doing the
EOD stuff, the explosive ordinance stuff
and disposal, I was like you know, if
you're in IT and you're doing this, this
explosive ordinance, it reminds me of the
office space movie.
I imagine him going out and smashing up a
printer.
(04:28):
You know that's his job in IT is to take
care of it.
But no, he's doing the real things.
He's actually with the whole team that does
that, because they all have to be trained
in those same skills.
So it's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
We met a Navy guy in Blaine, washington,
when we were up at home.
They were next door to us and we were
talking about our son and this new
assignment and he's like does does your kid
work out?
And I'm like, well, yeah, he, he does.
(05:00):
Okay.
He's like those guys are hardcore.
And I'm like he's an IT and communications,
he'll be okay.
And I'm like the whole team goes.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah great.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Okay, all right.
We are super proud of our kid.
Yeah and all of our military.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, men and women, it's gonna make me cry
and he's really good at that, though he
really enjoys it and he's good at it.
So and he's enjoying it.
So it was great we got to spend time with
him there and that was super special
because when he's been, you know overseas
Whether it was in Guam or other places.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Ten years hard to go see him yeah hey,
you're gonna be in Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Our house moves.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Let's go see you so we got to spend two
weeks in coastal Mississippi.
So that we could be there and hang out
whenever he had time and we dodged the
hurricanes, because that's hard to do
sometimes.
September yeah, it's the most active month,
yeah, so, and there was actually no
hurricanes.
What was?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
the I can't remember the name of the big
storm.
There was a big one that was coming by.
It was a category five and it turned at the
last second before it went north.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
We don't have to put him in the spot.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I know but it doesn't matter.
But it was that one we thought might be
headed our way and we got lucky.
It made a turn, went north and, you know,
didn't cause any problems.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
That was great too much.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, we don't usually have that luck is
all I meant.
So, but it has been hot.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
It was very hot.
Yeah, it's hard to complain about that, you
know except for our kid who was out in the
field.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
That's right, my air conditioning was great.
I didn't notice that much.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Oh, but we had the same problem, mentioned
this last time.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, that's stupid ants.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It was battle of the ants the entire time,
yeah, and then when we got here too, to
Louisiana, yeah, I remember pulling away
from there, going woohoo, no more ants.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
We rolled in here to Louisiana.
There's as many ants here if there's, if
not more.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I mean I got out to help him park the back
the rig up back the rig up and I got bit.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
You stepped like I read a red ant pile.
Yeah, I got bit instantly, I'm like, okay,
this is a bad start.
There's ants here, so we luckily, we carry
all the stuff to get rid of them, and we
know we took care of those.
But boy, we are outnumbered here in a big
way.
But anyways, it's all good.
That was just a great experience.
Yeah, super excited that we got to do that,
(07:19):
and that's one of the benefits of what we
get to do.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yes, you know that's.
I loved it two weeks we got incredible.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, I mean if we, if we didn't do this
and we would fly down to see him, we
wouldn't be able to spend two weeks and it
would be very much different experience
like that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, we lived there together.
Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, so anyways, alright, so I'll keep it
moving.
What is the topic for today?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, in view of spending this amazing two
weeks with our kid, today we're we're
answering.
Another frequently asked question is how to
find the fun while getting the job done,
and we've got the top five tips suggestions
(08:06):
for how you go to a new place that you may
Never have been before, and how you find
the fun.
What do you do?
Okay, so number one the first thing you
want to do when you get to a new location
is Find the local visitor center.
(08:26):
It's there.
You can just Google it or put it on your
map visitor center and it'll tell you where
to go.
And those are great places to go.
Get all the brochures, find all the info,
ask any questions, tell them what you like
to do, and they'll say, oh, you got to do
this and this and this so the local visitor
(08:48):
center and we hit some of those.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Like if, when we're driving, we hit some of
those welcome centers at the rest areas In
the state lines, right, is that right?
Those are like state visitor centers.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Oh, okay, okay, scale so those are great to
stop at whenever you see the welcome to
sign.
Generally exit one or two you're gonna get
to the state welcome center and they got
snack machines there, by the way.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Rest areas yeah, for those big big, our
favorite.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
What was our favorite?
Because?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
they had like jet planes you know it was
cool.
Yeah, up on up on posts and stuff, real jet.
It was really kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And we had to buy our Florida Sun Pass.
Yeah, which is also an easy pass for toll
roads.
All which has been good.
That's super nice to have one pass.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
So you're right.
We learned that there and used it all up
the east coast.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, yeah, you get a matter of a vending
machine at the welcome center.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You get your candy and you get your easy
pass yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
So yeah, okay.
So Visitor center.
The second thing you do, you can do online
before you go, is type in visit, put the
name of the city, like butte or Cody or
Nacketosh.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Nacketish.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Dot-com and generally.
That will get you to the CBB for the area,
which is the convention and visitors bureau.
The visit is a.
They use that a lot, so yeah, that's a
great source of information online just
(10:30):
everything about the area.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Or you could be like simple, like me, and
just say Google things to do in Gulfport,
mississippi.
Right example, yes, exactly example, yes,
exactly.
For example yeah, another.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Okay, so another online thing that you can
do, and I really like this one and.
I'll put it in the show notes as a reminder.
I do this.
I post these on Facebook a lot too.
There's a website called only in your state,
calm, and it's broken down into states,
into cities, and they have a Facebook page
(11:09):
and it is so cool because they kind of
consolidate all of the creepy, scary,
historic, weird, just really interesting
things about a particular location.
I think last week I posted something about,
or I shared something about, the ghost Go.
(11:33):
I should look it up.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Is it the ghost?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
town's ghost towns.
In New Mexico it's like the scariest places.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, and we're headed that way.
Yeah for the Albuquerque balloon festival
she loves the ghost house.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
She loves the trolleys.
There's certain things that, like, we're
always looking for and they're usually
really fun, like we were in.
Yeah, I always mix it up.
It's like Deadwood and what's the other one,
tombstone.
We were in tombstone and we did the truck,
we did trolley and then we did ghost
trolley.
So I'm talking about a combo there.
That was really fun though.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah.
So that's a good one that reference only in
your state.
Calm, it's just fun.
Yeah because it's always really weird,
interesting things.
Okay, so, number three, ask at the
campground when you get there, when you're
(12:27):
checking in hey, what are the best things
to do around here?
They have brochures, their local experts.
They have people coming to them bringing
them coupons and discounts and all the info
about the local area.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
They're kind of like the camping concierge,
you know.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Absolutely are.
Or like a hotel in the lobby.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Campingconciergecom.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
We've got that one now, so yeah, and that
is actually how I found the Cody Cattle
Company and the dinner and the Cody Night
Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
That was so cool.
That's how you found that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
They told me about it in the campground
office.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
That was the best.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Well, I was in registering and you were
waiting.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I was reading my phone waiting.
That was important stuff, so what else?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
OK, number four RV life.
I've talked about RV life before Trip
Wizard and campground reviews and all the
information in one place.
Well, when you're doing your research, you
pop over into the review section on RV life.
They give you other campers reviews of the
(13:42):
campground, but there's also a tips section
not for money tips, but a tips and tricks
Right, and other campers will always
mention the cool things to do and where to
go eat and all the stuff that they found in
(14:02):
that area near that campground.
So that is a great resource for some really
good tips from other RVers.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
OK, cool.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
OK, and number five is one of our favorites.
What other source of information for really
kind of cool things and places to camp in
an area Places to camp that are cool.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
We'll take 500 for that.
On the board that will be Harvest Hosts.
Harvest Hosts.
Yeah, correct, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yes, you will talk more about this in a
minute specific to Mississippi our
experience.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
We've had some really cool Harvest Hosts.
That and this happened here in Mississippi,
which we'll dive into in a second.
But there's some neat things that we got
into that we had no idea we were going to
do.
It wasn't just a cool place to park the rig
and stay the night or something.
It created this whole new experience, some
of our massive photo shots where we just
take hundreds of photos because we're going
to have a cool Harvest Host.
(15:04):
Yes, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And Harvest Host is a membership
organization.
It is basically you pay one fee and then
you have access to this magic map of
thousands of these super unique locations,
like breweries breweries like where they
(15:28):
make beer and have really good food like
wineries, museums, ranges, alpaca farms or
lavender farms.
We've done a number of these experience and
it's basically an overnight stay.
So when you're on the road and you're just
(15:48):
going through someplace, it's a one night
stay for free because you are a Harvest
Host member Also golf.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We went to air museums, space museums and
yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Crazy things.
We went to Bo Dukes.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That's right.
Bo Dukes of Houser, bo Dukes, his studio,
john.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Schneider's studios in.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Holden.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Louisiana.
Oh, that was our first trip to Louisiana
two years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's on our website, the article.
But yeah, that's a cool place.
He actually had real spots with hookups too.
It wasn't just like a place to park and he
shoots movies there which is cool.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
It's so cool so I'll include a link to that
and a Harvest host in the show notes.
But basically it's just a really fun thing
to do and you stay overnight whatever the
accommodation is, and it's free, although
they do encourage you to participate in
(16:51):
whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
If it's a brewery, have dinner.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, enjoy dinner.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Buy a product, Wine or ease.
It's not required though.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Farms.
It's not required.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
But it is suggested.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Because, as we found out, our first trip
coming back across country, that was during
COVID and everything had been shut down.
And the couple of Harvest hosts that we
stayed at one was a lavender farm in
Washington state, One was a alpaca ranch in
(17:24):
Montana and in both of those experiences
the people told us, the hosts, the owners
of these places told us that really it was
the Harvest host program that kept them
alive during.
COVID when nobody else could come, but they
(17:45):
had a self-contained spot away wherever.
And our beers we showed up, spent money,
bought the stuff, ate the food.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Some of our coolest pictures were at these
places, yeah so Harvest host is super cool.
All right.
So how does this relate to work-live
balance We've talked about really cool
things we've just done.
But let's tie it back to why we're here.
How does this connect?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yes, Well, ok, it is a chance to talk about
our experiences with our kid in Mississippi,
which is really cool, but it is important
to balance work and life and fun and
finding the fun.
(18:30):
So we just wanted to share a little bit
about this experience with you.
For example, when we were in Biloxi, biloxi,
with our kid, coastal Mississippi, my first
stop was the Biloxi Visitor Center.
(18:52):
Well, and then I took the train tour, of
course you did.
They did not have a trolley, but they had a
kick in historic train tour.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Tram kind of thing, Was it?
I didn't get to go, but you said it's
similar to the old school Disney tram that
picked you up in the parking lot and took
you to the park she pulled two of those
carts with a jeep and the lady had been
doing this for 29 years.
She knew her stories at that point Doing
these tours.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
And she's a native.
But what was so fascinating about this tour
was Hurricane Katrina, which absolutely
devastated the coastal Mississippi area in
August of 2005.
So 18 years later, you still see and feel
(19:43):
the impact of that hurricane category five
hurricane on the people and on the coast.
It's just really interesting and
overwhelming.
And a lot of places they have the waterline
painted on houses and bridges and and
(20:09):
incredible so, yeah, I'll put one of those
in the show notes too.
It was just a fascinating history,
fascinating experience, and to hear people
that lived through it and how it still
impacts their lives, it's just incredible
(20:30):
really.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So that was fun and sad too, but the the
other stuff like we were we were trying to
worry about is like the we always talk
about after work kind of adventures, right,
and one of the things we got to do with our
son was he was working all day.
We were working all day but we made sure
(20:52):
when we, you know, he ended his classes and
we ended up finishing our calls and stuff,
we did a few fun things, not every night,
but every other night almost yeah, right
and one of those things was, of course,
going out to get dinner, and you know when
you're on the coast.
We decided we're gonna hit as much seafood
as as possible, and so we toured quite a
(21:13):
few of the different restaurants there,
some of the fun ones, so they weren't all
great but they were all great to laugh and
enjoy.
We had a great time at every one of them we
did.
The food was a lot of different things this
food went up and down in some of these, you
know, scuba steves, as I call it.
It's not really called that, but that's
what I call it not great shaggies, which
(21:36):
was just cool to say.
And they had live music, which is cool.
Their food was a little better and there
was multiple of those.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
They are very well known on the coast yeah,
coastal Mississippi pretty good, but we
went two times we did.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It was obviously good enough to go twice
right, yep, but the homerun was that patio
44.
That was amazing golf part everything all
of us got was amazing, and we got desserts
and we got drinks and every single thing
was amazing, so that one there was our
favorite.
But you know it wasn't the same as, like
(22:10):
you know, casual shaggies on the beach,
kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
But no, food was the best, it was a
waterfront.
It was beautiful, yeah, and we ended up
there after disc golf, so we were a little
sweaty and we did look out of place there,
didn't we?
We just played like 18 plus we'll just go
out to the patio, please.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
We're all like sweaty and t-shirts and
stuff and we walk in and everybody's
dressed up and like, can we sit outside
please?
They they looked at us funny, but they sat
us and and it was very nice.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
It was cool and casual and the food was
great and yeah, everything was great.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
So we just joked that we said hey, we just
finished golf.
We didn't say disc golf, you know so it's
finished golf no so that's coming up.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah, so one, one of the things we did on
the weekend we had two weekends we went to
the infinity science center, which is a
brochure that we picked up at the visitor
center, and, yeah, that was interesting.
That was a with the NASA stennis space
(23:16):
center that is located right there a little
north of right on it in right, it is right
off of it and you can see right next to the
welcome center, the.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Louisiana.
Welcome.
Looks cool because when you're driving by
you see parts of the rockets and all sorts
of cool stuff yeah, it looks cool yeah, we
were like one of like three cars in the
parking lot though we thought it was closed.
We're like, hey, maybe nobody's here, it's
closed no it just wasn't doing a lot of
business that day.
We went.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
But our kid was interested and we were
interested.
He had gone, russ and our son had gone to a
space camp back in the day and it was
awesome, go to space camp so this was kind
of like hey, they have all this space stuff
and hey, there's a guided tram tour, hey,
there's a bus tour to stennis space center
(24:08):
yeah yeah, none of that they canceled all
of those cool things they like yeah and
they said like that was like ten years ago,
like ten years, like it's on the brochure
saying this, but we did get to see rockets
and the.
Iss space capsule, the destiny capsule.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, that was really cool yeah, and some
of the other things some of the things
worked a little.
Yeah, I mean, I guess it was still good it
was a disappointment because the two big
things want to do.
They're like yeah, we don't do that anymore,
we don't take the tram out there to see
stuff, which was kind of a bummer, yeah, we
kind of counted on that and we looked for
alligators and their little possum walk,
(24:49):
trail.
But you know we like it.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
We actually spent more time, I think, in
the gift shop by t-shirts and stuff like
that, which was really cool because it was
actually gift shop, a NASA gift shop for
the stennis space center, so it was a lot
of fun.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I mean that's really good so we had a great
time.
The tour the 3d tornado movie got to choose
all these different movies yeah, that was
actually good yeah again a little dated,
but you know it's good 3d.
Yeah, so we had a good time yeah but okay,
so we'll set that aside because we'll say
you know it's mixed bag, we still, I'd
still put it in the plus side, even though
it was a little bit we had to go had to go.
(25:27):
We didn't know but disc golf.
I mentioned that a second ago, so we had a
oh my goodness super fun time, so we
actually sharing.
I started playing disc golf long before we
had kids and it was Awesome.
We were dinks right, dual income no chance
right.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
We had a group of friends, we were living
in Florida and we played a lot of disc golf
and also beach volleyball.
We were good at both.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
But Frisbee golf or disc golf is.
A lot of people don't know about it, but
it's a great game.
Slash sport depends on who you are and it's
got the similarities of golf but the
simplicity of Frisbees, right, you don't
have a whole bunch of clubs and a lot of
companies.
You're throwing little discs and you're
trying to get them into these baskets and
(26:17):
there's a big course.
You get to walk, you get to talk with
friends, you can bring snacks and drinks.
You know, it's a very fun casual event that
is low stress, usually hilarious.
I made sure that was true because I messed
up so many times, but it was fun.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
we had a great and our son had never played
and you've probably seen disc golf courses
or baskets and not really know what it was,
because there's a lot in state parks and
college campuses.
We've seen a lot of RV campgrounds that
have disc golf courses and basically it's
(26:58):
the chain baskets that you see on occasion
here and there.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, if you didn't know what it was, it
does look strange Like five foot basket
with a bunch of chains and that's.
You throw a disc into the chain so it grabs
them.
But it's really fun and it's a low
investment.
You need one disc, but ideally you have a
few, just in case you throw one in the
water.
And they have discs that are drivers and
putters, things like that.
They're different weights, but in general,
(27:24):
when you're learning, none of that matters.
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
We're actually carrying six discs from 30
years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, and they played just the same.
We keep in our car.
Yeah, we've been carrying them since back
then.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
You never know when you're gonna see some
baskets play a little disc golf.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
And so it was fun we brought it up with our
son because he actually played competitive
ultimate Frisbee.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yes, he did since middle school, really.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, and he played in international
competitions.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Over in Guam.
He represented Guam and went to the
competition in France.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
That's right and that was set on TV as well,
like they put it online and everything.
So yeah, so he's really talented in that.
But I'll be honest, that requires a lot of
skill, a lot.
You gotta be big time in shape.
Lots of running, because that's basically
like soccer or football from the rest of
the world, but it's soccer with a Frisbee,
(28:25):
very different to disc golf, which is like
we stand there and talk and laugh and
somebody throws a disc right, that's very
low pressure.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And also the Frisbees that you use in disc
golf are very different.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
They are and our son thought it would be
the same.
Ok, I can go with the old people.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
no big deal, it's just ultimate Frisbee.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
But in the first three holes he's like, wow,
this is different.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Because the discs are different, they're
weighted differently.
Now, we knew this, but he did not know this.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
And so we actually did pretty good and he
really enjoyed it and so we ended up
playing quite a bit over the two weeks he
was here and it was really fun.
I know I enjoyed it Because it was one of
the few things I could still kind of keep
up with him on this yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
And that we could all do together.
That was casual outdoors after work and it
was so fun and he, our son, really got into
it.
He because it started, because there was a
disc golf course on the Air Force Base.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And he was near the Air Force Base.
So he ended up finding this app on the
phone called UDISC, and it's a great little
app to locate disc golf courses near you,
and then they have the layouts and the
statistics and all this really geeky stuff
(29:53):
about.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
But a little track we used to do Watch out
for the alligator at hole seven but on
every hole.
It'll track your distance that you throw
each time.
And so it'll even mark the location on the
map of where all the shots are.
So if you're truly nerdy and want to know
exactly, how you played it'll track every
shot until your score and everything.
And it's cool.
It even made it possible for all of us to
play together as a team across our phones.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
He had all those stats.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
So all of our phones.
We all tracked it separately, but they were
all tracked together as a team game, so it
was really kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, so he came back with the UDISC app,
and then also we ended up at Academy Sports
to buy discs and equipment.
And then he's going to get all the guys
once we left.
He's like I'm going to get the guys.
We're going to go play disc golf, Cool.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And anybody can play it.
It doesn't matter your skill level, your
strength, anything.
It's really cool.
There's even just like a normal golf.
They have different teas for pros and men
and women, and you have different handicaps.
If you want to allow kids to play, everyone
can play the game which is really really
fun Make up my own rules.
(31:01):
That's right, sherry just decides.
I'm playing from here and I'm not playing
from the woods.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
I'm not going in the grass, I'm not going
in the snakes.
Can you get my disc please?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
And we had a great time.
And then I figured out I have a new problem
which is like the phrase is called grip
lock.
I didn't know that.
It's like my hand.
After the first game, after we played quite
a bit, my hand was not let go with a disc.
And I would end up throwing it sideways.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, yeah, it was embarrassing, it was
pretty sad.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
And our son loved recording that in slow-mo
on video, so not good, but we all had a
great time yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
It was so much fun and just such the
perfect thing for 250-somethings and their
20-something kid, so just so much fun.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
And we went to like five different courses.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
We did.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Which is crazy.
And we went to twice?
Did we go more than once to one of them or
did everyone was just once?
I can't remember if we got, I thought we
hit one of them more than once.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I think we went to.
We talked about going back, but then we
just went to different ones.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Oh, that's right, because we got finding
new ones.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
That's right and a couple of the days on
the weekends, we ended up playing two
courses.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, 18 plus 9.
9 holes and 18.
Yeah, and that was in 27.
That tells you how fun it was.
We just didn't want to stop.
Anyways, we need to get moving here, but
this is.
I do want to point out this is similar to
in the past we used to do geocaching.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's another fun thing With our kids?
Yeah, because again.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Anybody can do that too.
It's a very discovering and finding things
using GPS, and we've done that in the past.
This is, in my opinion, a little more fun
because you get a little bit more walking
involved.
It's a sport kind of thing where you can be
competitive if you want to, or you can just
play Sherry's rules, which says I'm playing
this way.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Well, and now that our kids can drink beer
and stuff, that's right, you can walk
around with drinks.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So yeah, and geocaching is actually still a
thing very much With the National
Geocaching Association.
So that's definitely something to look up
if you're looking for a fun, kind of weird
thing to do.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
But fun.
Yeah, we started that and we have friends
like Paul and David who took that when we
showed them how to play and they became
superstars.
Oh yeah, they have thousands of geocaches.
We're like rookies compared to them.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
They found thousands of geocaches and made
their own, and now they're like bigwigs in
the National Geocaching Association.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
We can't even hang out with them anymore.
Your parents did that too.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
They went way far with it.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Paul and David will now bring you to disc
golf, so we can be at the same level again.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, Well fun.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And then there was a lot going on also on
the coast.
While we're there, there's this thing
called cruising the coast.
That was advertised everywhere for miles up
and down the coast Right.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yes, it's an annual event of classic cars
and just all kinds of events.
The RVs and the trailers and the classic
cars were rolling in.
It actually didn't start until Sunday and
we left on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
But we got kicked out.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Out of our campground on the Saturday
because they're like oh no, we got cruising
the coast coming in, you guys got to go.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
But that turned out to be.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
We wanted to stay one more night.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
But because we got kicked out, that turned
out to be a crap opportunity.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
That was the harvest host, that's right.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
So we were trying to stay one more night,
but if we had, we wouldn't have stumbled
into this really cool harvest host.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
No, we almost stayed on the Navy base with
that.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
That was our backup plan.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
On the RV park.
We talked about that last week, right.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
What I'm saying is but that was too
complicated.
Both that and the harvest host were both
because we were having to leave.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Right, that's what I'm saying.
Yes, so yes, sorry, yes and so because we
had to leave.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
If we didn't have to leave, neither of
those other options would have been there.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
And that would have been sad.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, but because it turned out not even
better than our plan to go on base was this
harvest host and you located this.
It was really cool.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
So, yep, I just checked the map and we
found the cozy rosy glamp ground and the
shed barbecue and blues joint and this is a
harvest host location and it is just out of
this world in Ocean Springs, mississippi.
(35:40):
And the Cozy Rosie is a campground, a
regular campground, but they have four
spaces on this little loop on the bayou.
Yeah and yeah, it's available for Harvest
Host, so you can stay there for one night
for free.
(36:02):
But then of course, we went into the gift
shop because the Cozy Rosie's just cool.
It's an old story and our kid got a couple
of t-shirts, one for his wife and yeah,
they had moths, so we spent the money in
the gift shop.
And then also that night, our last night,
we went to dinner at the shed, the barbecue
(36:22):
and blues joint in Ocean Springs,
mississippi, and it was so cool.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
It's an experience, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Eclectic is how they describe it.
It just kind of like a bunch of the
buildings look like they're all just
leaning on each other.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Like if you push one, the whole thing's
coming down like a house of cards.
I'm sure it's not, but it does look like
that doesn't it?
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, and lights, and outdoor lights.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
A stage.
Sand A kids area way far away from us,
which was great.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
So the kids had a great time and the music
was somewhere else it was great.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It's huge, though.
The place is huge and the food was awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
It was awesome.
Highly recommend the ribs, though Laid back
casual fun, so yeah, that was for the win.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
And to get there was kind of cool because
we had to move.
Like we said, we had to move out of the RV
park because the crew's in the coast.
So it gave us a chance to let our son do
one of these RV moves.
It wasn't very far, it was like an hour
right.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
He had been in it, but he hadn't traveled
in the RV.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Yeah, so he got to help us move the rig and
we didn't connect the car this time because
it was only one hour, so you drove the Jeep
separately.
And then he and I drove the RV, which is
cool, so he got to experience.
We even let him drive it a little bit at
the very beginning, but yeah, it was a lot
of fun.
We he and I got to chat the whole time and
(37:54):
got to experience the challenges of
navigating the rig down the road with
everyone getting in your way and everything.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
He got to see our perspective from that big
old windshield.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, he was even trying to say, hey, we
should record the kind of conversations
we're having over the radios for the
podcast and I was like that's a really good
idea.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Oh, and he recorded in the podcast.
Oh, we let him.
You know, privacy, we're not gonna.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
We dropped him into the studio.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
But yeah, that's just for us.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So while we were down there, we moved the
rig Saturday morning and then, when we got
to Ocean Springs, which was about an hour,
I said South, but it's actually East.
Okay, anyway, we went to another experience
(38:44):
that I found out about at the visitor
center.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
It was awesome.
It was the Gator Ranch with the air boats.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Gulf Coast Gator Ranch and air boat swamp
tour.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, I mean, everybody knows it's gonna be
cool just from the name.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
And we had not but so unexpected when we
actually got there yeah, it was way better
than we expected.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Right, I mean you hear air boat that's cool.
You hear gators that's cool.
But it was even better than that.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Well, and I'd point out that everywhere we
were down in Mississippi, it was like watch
out for gators.
Don't feed the gators.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Gators here never saw a gator.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
So we were going to this thing going okay.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Rubberized gators floating around.
We saw alligators 120 gators or something,
and they were huge.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Yes, and we got to feed them and it was
literally a feeding frenzy.
Yeah, oh, it was just amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, watching you throw that chunk of food
over and then they go after it and it is
like you can't imagine if you were in there.
It's like, wow, it's a power.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
And again at that point, and that was just
the walk out to the dog to get on the air
boat, that wasn't even the ride, or
anything.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, that was just like hey, while you're
waiting, it was a.
If that had been the whole thing, it was
worth the money.
The gator ranch.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
It was so cool and they had the baby gators.
It was very cool.
But also at the Gulf Coast Gator Ranch they
had a Katrina waterline.
They're like almost five miles from the
coast.
I mean they're back in the bayou and the
water was so high that it went up to the
(40:29):
second floor.
Yeah, to the second floor of the building
there.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Which is higher than what the fences.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
On either side of the boardwalk that you go
down between the alligator swamps.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
So what happened back then?
The alligators all got out, they all got
out.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
All of them, hundreds of alligators.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
You were delegators.
They only got like 20 back out of the 120
or something.
I'm like what?
Speaker 1 (40:54):
happened to them.
He's like they all went out.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Yeah, and when you see these gators you're
like, oh my goodness, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
That is the picture that I will put in the
show notes.
I like it, just those waterlines.
You at the thought of alligators floating
around.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
So we did the airboat ride.
We got to see they fed some gators out
there and those out there were free.
They were free range but apparently they
kind of hang out in the same places.
Yeah, they know that.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
The food's coming and they feed them
marshmallows.
On the swamp boat tour, they used to feed
them raw chicken which is what they feed
them at the ranch.
But then a gator actually jumped onto the
front of an airboat with guests in the boat
because they had raw chicken on the front.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
So they quit bringing chicken.
So chicken gets them super excited and
they'll come join the airboat.
So they don't bring chicken anymore.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
That's what brings gators to the yard.
Yeah, so marshmallows.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
They can throw it away and it floats, and
then the gators will chase it.
They are territorial, so apparently the
same ones stay in the same areas out there.
Or they're all robotics.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah, not quite sure, right, hey, hank,
that's right, how's it going?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Push the button, make Hank do something.
And then so yeah, we did that it was really
fun and it was kind of hot.
We finished the airboat ride and bought
some trinkets there.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
And we had some time.
We had a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
So what did we do?
Speaker 1 (42:28):
with our free time.
That day, we went for our final round of
disc golf.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Yeah, the championships.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Actually two different courses.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
And we did a speed round at the end of the
last one because it was getting dark.
That's how much fun it was.
We were like normally.
We were like it's getting dark, let's leave.
We're like heck, no, I've got to make these
last three holes.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Let's do it.
Yeah, trying to light up the iPhone so you
can see where your disc is landing, and
yeah, it was kind of crazy.
And then, after all of that big day, we
went to dinner at the shed Barbecue and
blues joint.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It was so much fun, it was great, so OK, so
this has been an interesting podcast for me.
It's been really fun to kind of relive and
remember these pieces.
But if I had to kind of bring it back to
the top three things, it's how it relates
to work life balance.
Keep me honest here.
Here's how I'd kind of do this.
I'll start with I think it's finding the
(43:26):
fun and still getting the work done.
Not trying to rhyme, but you know it is
always.
The point of this is like we're doing the
work to pay for our ability to go see our
son and see our kids and friends and family
and have fun as we cross this great country.
Right, and so that's like one of the top
three things.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
What was the second thing?
Well, the second thing was being in
Mississippi with our son and how cool it is
that we could be there.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Oh, I'm getting cold, don't cry.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
That we could be there with him for two
weeks.
You know, he's been in the Navy, he's been
away for 10 years and, yeah, he's gotten to
come back.
He's come back and we visited and we met
him down in San Francisco and all that.
But man, just the chance to just hang out
(44:18):
and be there whenever he had time.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
And it was so much fun Because we said it
before, like we get to live while we're
there for two weeks.
It's not like we're sitting in a hotel room
waiting for him to finish his stuff.
We lived down here while he was here, and
so it was great.
He would come over afterwards, we'd have
dinner together, sometimes we'd watch a
show, sometimes we'd go play disc golf, but
(44:44):
it was great.
We were living here, and so there was
certain nights when he was too tired and
couldn't come over.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
No big deal, late night classes yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Yeah, so it was great.
I guess the third thing would be kind of
related to Katrina and all the stuff.
That's down here is a lot of.
The thing is there's a lot of job
opportunities to live this life, to have
this balance and travel and stuff, and
there's a lot of remote work possible
everywhere we go and obviously we've met a
lot of people doing this.
(45:13):
But one of the things that got us thinking
when we came down here is you kept talking
about the water lines in Katrina and there
was such an impact on this area.
Things like insurance jobs, right and
obviously this is just using that timeline
back then to kind of remind us of these
roles, but there's lots of those jobs and
that is still out there.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah, I mean.
Yeah.
It just constantly surprises us that there
are so many ways to do what we're doing
Maintain a full-time job and live, work and
play remote in your motor home yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
And so we were looking at remote insurance
jobs kind of thing, just kind of looking at
that category, since we're here One of the
big categories.
And yeah, there was.
In the US right now there's over 3100
remote insurance jobs and like that's
amazing to know that there's a lot of
opportunity so that people that have a
background in that it's everything from
customer service to sales, to insurance
(46:15):
adjusters that come out after natural
disasters and storms and stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
There are analysts.
We have a friend out in California, paul.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
That's right.
Who works for an insurance company and it's
not just for, you know the win a disaster,
and these are jobs that are, you know,
every day, 24, seven.
These are full time jobs, where you make a
very good salary and you have benefits and
like all the things you would get from a
what we call traditional job.
These are remote jobs.
(46:46):
That you can do on the road yeah, and so
we'll kind of share some of those in the
show notes.
So if you get a chance and want to know
more about that, check out the show notes
of this show here.
We'll include links to find out more about
that and how you can sign up on our website
to get updates about those kind of roles
and others that we'll be exploring over the
next podcast.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
Cause that's another frequently asked
question that we see all over the place is
like well, how, how can you do this?
How can I do this?
You can work on the road.
Yes, yes, you can.
So many opportunities, and so our goal with
RV work life balance podcast is to share
(47:30):
what we're learning and help anyone
interested in this crazy adventure of life
and work on the road.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Yeah, and I want to thank all the listeners
that have been listening on this podcast.
If you've made it this far, great job.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Good job.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
Yay and check out again, check out the show
notes.
There's links and products in there.
I think you'll find interesting and if
you're definitely, if you're new, please
subscribe.
There's a lot of more content that'll be
coming out and we don't want you to miss
anything.
We really want to thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
To our existing subscribers, both on the
podcast apps and on the website.
We love you guys.
Thank you so much for being a part of our
adventure on the road.
Please, please, be in touch by email or
Facebook.
That contact information will be in those
(48:20):
show notes and the most important thing for
all of us is to make your escape.
Get out here, yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
So are you ready to?
Speaker 1 (48:30):
I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
All right.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Let's go, all right.
Hi, you've reached the Caldwells.
Please leave a message and we will get back
with you to Sissu.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to the RV Work Life Balance podcast
with your traveling nomadic hosts, Sherri
and Russ Caldwell.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hey, that's us.
We're living the dream, working from home.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
baby no matter where home is.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
How is it possible that I'm back here again?
We record this every week.
Woo, this is so much work.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
I don't know why you make me do all this
work.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Anyways, I'll still say cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Cheers, everybody Cheers.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
All right, well, welcome back everyone.
We really appreciate you coming back, and I
want to start with something we're getting
some feedback from the podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
We love hearing from you guys, yeah.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Thanks for all the feedback.
So the comments and the feedback has been
really appreciated.
Thank you so much for that.
Keep it coming, because it gives us ideas
on what works, what doesn't, what you're
trying to solve or understand.
We'll use it in our upcoming podcast.
What's funny, what's not, what's not yeah,
yeah, all right.
So it's interesting because what's cool
about what we do is we get to travel so
(01:24):
much and it's, it's amazing.
It didn't hit me until like a couple of
weeks ago.
I was like we get to say the same thing
every week, which is like where are we
today?
And it's always different.
It's always different, you know it's so
cool.
So where are we today?
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Today we are at the Grand Écors.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Is that how you say it?
Écors, écors, écors, écors for bluff.
The bluff, yeah, éclair.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So we're at the Grand Écors COE campground
in Natchitich, louisiana, which is actually
spelled Natchitoches.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Which is more fun to say it that way.
But you're saying but it's.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Natchitich.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Natchitich, that's what the little
visitor's guide says Natchitich.
And COE is Corps of Engineers, which is
really cool.
We like those.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Yes, so we're here in Louisiana this week,
but our hearts are still in Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Oh, why is that?
Because, well, because we I think we might
have mentioned this, we did.
We got to see our oldest son, who happened
to be doing some training in Gulfport,
mississippi.
He's in the Navy.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
We really appreciate everyone in the
military.
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
And he is making a transfer from his
current location in Hawaii to the cool
island of Guam.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Back to Guam, maybe, yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
So, but he had to come here to Mississippi
or where we were in Mississippi, to do some
training because he's got a new role.
What's that?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
He's got a new job or unit in the EOD,
which I was like.
Oh, is that in the education department?
Speaker 2 (03:14):
It's not the right letters no it's the
explosive ordinance disposal unit.
They blow stuff up.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Oh, super, Like Hurtlocker the movie.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
It is.
It is Great Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And he's like, yeah, I'm an IT mom, I'll be
okay, it and communications.
And then so he came to Gulfport,
mississippi, for this training in its
acronym is ECS.
Okay, what's that?
Well, that's expeditionary combat skills,
(03:53):
which is very physical, hardcore training
outdoors in the heat with the guns and
homebies turning upside down.
Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm, my heart is going.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, you know our sense is in in
communications and IT.
And you know, when he said he was doing the
EOD stuff, the explosive ordinance stuff
and disposal, I was like you know, if
you're in IT and you're doing this, this
explosive ordinance, it reminds me of the
office space movie.
I imagine him going out and smashing up a
printer.
(04:28):
You know that's his job in IT is to take
care of it.
But no, he's doing the real things.
He's actually with the whole team that does
that, because they all have to be trained
in those same skills.
So it's really interesting.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
We met a Navy guy in Blaine, washington,
when we were up at home.
They were next door to us and we were
talking about our son and this new
assignment and he's like does does your kid
work out?
And I'm like, well, yeah, he, he does.
(05:00):
Okay.
He's like those guys are hardcore.
And I'm like he's an IT and communications,
he'll be okay.
And I'm like the whole team goes.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
Yeah great.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Okay, all right.
We are super proud of our kid.
Yeah and all of our military.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, men and women, it's gonna make me cry
and he's really good at that, though he
really enjoys it and he's good at it.
So and he's enjoying it.
So it was great we got to spend time with
him there and that was super special
because when he's been, you know overseas
Whether it was in Guam or other places.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Ten years hard to go see him yeah hey,
you're gonna be in Mississippi.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Our house moves.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Let's go see you so we got to spend two
weeks in coastal Mississippi.
So that we could be there and hang out
whenever he had time and we dodged the
hurricanes, because that's hard to do
sometimes.
September yeah, it's the most active month,
yeah, so, and there was actually no
hurricanes.
What was?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
the I can't remember the name of the big
storm.
There was a big one that was coming by.
It was a category five and it turned at the
last second before it went north.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
We don't have to put him in the spot.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
I know but it doesn't matter.
But it was that one we thought might be
headed our way and we got lucky.
It made a turn, went north and, you know,
didn't cause any problems.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
That was great too much.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, we don't usually have that luck is
all I meant.
So, but it has been hot.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
It was very hot.
Yeah, it's hard to complain about that, you
know except for our kid who was out in the
field.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
That's right, my air conditioning was great.
I didn't notice that much.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Oh, but we had the same problem, mentioned
this last time.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
Yeah, that's stupid ants.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
It was battle of the ants the entire time,
yeah, and then when we got here too, to
Louisiana, yeah, I remember pulling away
from there, going woohoo, no more ants.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
We rolled in here to Louisiana.
There's as many ants here if there's, if
not more.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
I mean I got out to help him park the back
the rig up back the rig up and I got bit.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
You stepped like I read a red ant pile.
Yeah, I got bit instantly, I'm like, okay,
this is a bad start.
There's ants here, so we luckily, we carry
all the stuff to get rid of them, and we
know we took care of those.
But boy, we are outnumbered here in a big
way.
But anyways, it's all good.
That was just a great experience.
Yeah, super excited that we got to do that,
(07:19):
and that's one of the benefits of what we
get to do.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yes, you know that's.
I loved it two weeks we got incredible.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah, I mean if we, if we didn't do this
and we would fly down to see him, we
wouldn't be able to spend two weeks and it
would be very much different experience
like that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Yeah, we lived there together.
Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, so anyways, alright, so I'll keep it
moving.
What is the topic for today?
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, in view of spending this amazing two
weeks with our kid, today we're we're
answering.
Another frequently asked question is how to
find the fun while getting the job done,
and we've got the top five tips suggestions
(08:06):
for how you go to a new place that you may
Never have been before, and how you find
the fun.
What do you do?
Okay, so number one the first thing you
want to do when you get to a new location
is Find the local visitor center.
(08:26):
It's there.
You can just Google it or put it on your
map visitor center and it'll tell you where
to go.
And those are great places to go.
Get all the brochures, find all the info,
ask any questions, tell them what you like
to do, and they'll say, oh, you got to do
this and this and this so the local visitor
(08:48):
center and we hit some of those.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Like if, when we're driving, we hit some of
those welcome centers at the rest areas In
the state lines, right, is that right?
Those are like state visitor centers.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
Oh, okay, okay, scale so those are great to
stop at whenever you see the welcome to
sign.
Generally exit one or two you're gonna get
to the state welcome center and they got
snack machines there, by the way.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Rest areas yeah, for those big big, our
favorite.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
What was our favorite?
Because?
Speaker 2 (09:17):
they had like jet planes you know it was
cool.
Yeah, up on up on posts and stuff, real jet.
It was really kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
And we had to buy our Florida Sun Pass.
Yeah, which is also an easy pass for toll
roads.
All which has been good.
That's super nice to have one pass.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
So you're right.
We learned that there and used it all up
the east coast.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Yeah, yeah, you get a matter of a vending
machine at the welcome center.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
You get your candy and you get your easy
pass yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
So yeah, okay.
So Visitor center.
The second thing you do, you can do online
before you go, is type in visit, put the
name of the city, like butte or Cody or
Nacketosh.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
Nacketish.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Dot-com and generally.
That will get you to the CBB for the area,
which is the convention and visitors bureau.
The visit is a.
They use that a lot, so yeah, that's a
great source of information online just
(10:30):
everything about the area.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
Or you could be like simple, like me, and
just say Google things to do in Gulfport,
mississippi.
Right example, yes, exactly example, yes,
exactly.
For example yeah, another.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Okay, so another online thing that you can
do, and I really like this one and.
I'll put it in the show notes as a reminder.
I do this.
I post these on Facebook a lot too.
There's a website called only in your state,
calm, and it's broken down into states,
into cities, and they have a Facebook page
(11:09):
and it is so cool because they kind of
consolidate all of the creepy, scary,
historic, weird, just really interesting
things about a particular location.
I think last week I posted something about,
or I shared something about, the ghost Go.
(11:33):
I should look it up.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Is it the ghost?
Speaker 1 (11:35):
town's ghost towns.
In New Mexico it's like the scariest places.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Yeah, and we're headed that way.
Yeah for the Albuquerque balloon festival
she loves the ghost house.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
She loves the trolleys.
There's certain things that, like, we're
always looking for and they're usually
really fun, like we were in.
Yeah, I always mix it up.
It's like Deadwood and what's the other one,
tombstone.
We were in tombstone and we did the truck,
we did trolley and then we did ghost
trolley.
So I'm talking about a combo there.
That was really fun though.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah.
So that's a good one that reference only in
your state.
Calm, it's just fun.
Yeah because it's always really weird,
interesting things.
Okay, so, number three, ask at the
campground when you get there, when you're
(12:27):
checking in hey, what are the best things
to do around here?
They have brochures, their local experts.
They have people coming to them bringing
them coupons and discounts and all the info
about the local area.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
They're kind of like the camping concierge,
you know.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Absolutely are.
Or like a hotel in the lobby.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Campingconciergecom.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
We've got that one now, so yeah, and that
is actually how I found the Cody Cattle
Company and the dinner and the Cody Night
Radio.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
That was so cool.
That's how you found that.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
They told me about it in the campground
office.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
That was the best.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Well, I was in registering and you were
waiting.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
I was reading my phone waiting.
That was important stuff, so what else?
Speaker 1 (13:18):
OK, number four RV life.
I've talked about RV life before Trip
Wizard and campground reviews and all the
information in one place.
Well, when you're doing your research, you
pop over into the review section on RV life.
They give you other campers reviews of the
(13:42):
campground, but there's also a tips section
not for money tips, but a tips and tricks
Right, and other campers will always
mention the cool things to do and where to
go eat and all the stuff that they found in
(14:02):
that area near that campground.
So that is a great resource for some really
good tips from other RVers.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
OK, cool.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
OK, and number five is one of our favorites.
What other source of information for really
kind of cool things and places to camp in
an area Places to camp that are cool.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
We'll take 500 for that.
On the board that will be Harvest Hosts.
Harvest Hosts.
Yeah, correct, yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yes, you will talk more about this in a
minute specific to Mississippi our
experience.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
We've had some really cool Harvest Hosts.
That and this happened here in Mississippi,
which we'll dive into in a second.
But there's some neat things that we got
into that we had no idea we were going to
do.
It wasn't just a cool place to park the rig
and stay the night or something.
It created this whole new experience, some
of our massive photo shots where we just
take hundreds of photos because we're going
to have a cool Harvest Host.
(15:04):
Yes, you know.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
And Harvest Host is a membership
organization.
It is basically you pay one fee and then
you have access to this magic map of
thousands of these super unique locations,
like breweries breweries like where they
(15:28):
make beer and have really good food like
wineries, museums, ranges, alpaca farms or
lavender farms.
We've done a number of these experience and
it's basically an overnight stay.
So when you're on the road and you're just
(15:48):
going through someplace, it's a one night
stay for free because you are a Harvest
Host member Also golf.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
We went to air museums, space museums and
yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Crazy things.
We went to Bo Dukes.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
That's right.
Bo Dukes of Houser, bo Dukes, his studio,
john.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Schneider's studios in.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Holden.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Louisiana.
Oh, that was our first trip to Louisiana
two years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's on our website, the article.
But yeah, that's a cool place.
He actually had real spots with hookups too.
It wasn't just like a place to park and he
shoots movies there which is cool.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
It's so cool so I'll include a link to that
and a Harvest host in the show notes.
But basically it's just a really fun thing
to do and you stay overnight whatever the
accommodation is, and it's free, although
they do encourage you to participate in
(16:51):
whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
If it's a brewery, have dinner.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, enjoy dinner.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Buy a product, Wine or ease.
It's not required though.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Farms.
It's not required.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
But it is suggested.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Because, as we found out, our first trip
coming back across country, that was during
COVID and everything had been shut down.
And the couple of Harvest hosts that we
stayed at one was a lavender farm in
Washington state, One was a alpaca ranch in
(17:24):
Montana and in both of those experiences
the people told us, the hosts, the owners
of these places told us that really it was
the Harvest host program that kept them
alive during.
COVID when nobody else could come, but they
(17:45):
had a self-contained spot away wherever.
And our beers we showed up, spent money,
bought the stuff, ate the food.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Some of our coolest pictures were at these
places, yeah so Harvest host is super cool.
All right.
So how does this relate to work-live
balance We've talked about really cool
things we've just done.
But let's tie it back to why we're here.
How does this connect?
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yes, Well, ok, it is a chance to talk about
our experiences with our kid in Mississippi,
which is really cool, but it is important
to balance work and life and fun and
finding the fun.
(18:30):
So we just wanted to share a little bit
about this experience with you.
For example, when we were in Biloxi, biloxi,
with our kid, coastal Mississippi, my first
stop was the Biloxi Visitor Center.
(18:52):
Well, and then I took the train tour, of
course you did.
They did not have a trolley, but they had a
kick in historic train tour.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
Tram kind of thing, Was it?
I didn't get to go, but you said it's
similar to the old school Disney tram that
picked you up in the parking lot and took
you to the park she pulled two of those
carts with a jeep and the lady had been
doing this for 29 years.
She knew her stories at that point Doing
these tours.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
And she's a native.
But what was so fascinating about this tour
was Hurricane Katrina, which absolutely
devastated the coastal Mississippi area in
August of 2005.
So 18 years later, you still see and feel
(19:43):
the impact of that hurricane category five
hurricane on the people and on the coast.
It's just really interesting and
overwhelming.
And a lot of places they have the waterline
painted on houses and bridges and and
(20:09):
incredible so, yeah, I'll put one of those
in the show notes too.
It was just a fascinating history,
fascinating experience, and to hear people
that lived through it and how it still
impacts their lives, it's just incredible
(20:30):
really.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So that was fun and sad too, but the the
other stuff like we were we were trying to
worry about is like the we always talk
about after work kind of adventures, right,
and one of the things we got to do with our
son was he was working all day.
We were working all day but we made sure
(20:52):
when we, you know, he ended his classes and
we ended up finishing our calls and stuff,
we did a few fun things, not every night,
but every other night almost yeah, right
and one of those things was, of course,
going out to get dinner, and you know when
you're on the coast.
We decided we're gonna hit as much seafood
as as possible, and so we toured quite a
(21:13):
few of the different restaurants there,
some of the fun ones, so they weren't all
great but they were all great to laugh and
enjoy.
We had a great time at every one of them we
did.
The food was a lot of different things this
food went up and down in some of these, you
know, scuba steves, as I call it.
It's not really called that, but that's
what I call it not great shaggies, which
(21:36):
was just cool to say.
And they had live music, which is cool.
Their food was a little better and there
was multiple of those.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
They are very well known on the coast yeah,
coastal Mississippi pretty good, but we
went two times we did.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
It was obviously good enough to go twice
right, yep, but the homerun was that patio
44.
That was amazing golf part everything all
of us got was amazing, and we got desserts
and we got drinks and every single thing
was amazing, so that one there was our
favorite.
But you know it wasn't the same as, like
(22:10):
you know, casual shaggies on the beach,
kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
But no, food was the best, it was a
waterfront.
It was beautiful, yeah, and we ended up
there after disc golf, so we were a little
sweaty and we did look out of place there,
didn't we?
We just played like 18 plus we'll just go
out to the patio, please.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
We're all like sweaty and t-shirts and
stuff and we walk in and everybody's
dressed up and like, can we sit outside
please?
They they looked at us funny, but they sat
us and and it was very nice.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
It was cool and casual and the food was
great and yeah, everything was great.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
So we just joked that we said hey, we just
finished golf.
We didn't say disc golf, you know so it's
finished golf no so that's coming up.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yeah, so one, one of the things we did on
the weekend we had two weekends we went to
the infinity science center, which is a
brochure that we picked up at the visitor
center, and, yeah, that was interesting.
That was a with the NASA stennis space
(23:16):
center that is located right there a little
north of right on it in right, it is right
off of it and you can see right next to the
welcome center, the.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Louisiana.
Welcome.
Looks cool because when you're driving by
you see parts of the rockets and all sorts
of cool stuff yeah, it looks cool yeah, we
were like one of like three cars in the
parking lot though we thought it was closed.
We're like, hey, maybe nobody's here, it's
closed no it just wasn't doing a lot of
business that day.
We went.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
But our kid was interested and we were
interested.
He had gone, russ and our son had gone to a
space camp back in the day and it was
awesome, go to space camp so this was kind
of like hey, they have all this space stuff
and hey, there's a guided tram tour, hey,
there's a bus tour to stennis space center
(24:08):
yeah yeah, none of that they canceled all
of those cool things they like yeah and
they said like that was like ten years ago,
like ten years, like it's on the brochure
saying this, but we did get to see rockets
and the.
Iss space capsule, the destiny capsule.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, that was really cool yeah, and some
of the other things some of the things
worked a little.
Yeah, I mean, I guess it was still good it
was a disappointment because the two big
things want to do.
They're like yeah, we don't do that anymore,
we don't take the tram out there to see
stuff, which was kind of a bummer, yeah, we
kind of counted on that and we looked for
alligators and their little possum walk,
(24:49):
trail.
But you know we like it.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
We actually spent more time, I think, in
the gift shop by t-shirts and stuff like
that, which was really cool because it was
actually gift shop, a NASA gift shop for
the stennis space center, so it was a lot
of fun.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I mean that's really good so we had a great
time.
The tour the 3d tornado movie got to choose
all these different movies yeah, that was
actually good yeah again a little dated,
but you know it's good 3d.
Yeah, so we had a good time yeah but okay,
so we'll set that aside because we'll say
you know it's mixed bag, we still, I'd
still put it in the plus side, even though
it was a little bit we had to go had to go.
(25:27):
We didn't know but disc golf.
I mentioned that a second ago, so we had a
oh my goodness super fun time, so we
actually sharing.
I started playing disc golf long before we
had kids and it was Awesome.
We were dinks right, dual income no chance
right.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
We had a group of friends, we were living
in Florida and we played a lot of disc golf
and also beach volleyball.
We were good at both.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
But Frisbee golf or disc golf is.
A lot of people don't know about it, but
it's a great game.
Slash sport depends on who you are and it's
got the similarities of golf but the
simplicity of Frisbees, right, you don't
have a whole bunch of clubs and a lot of
companies.
You're throwing little discs and you're
trying to get them into these baskets and
(26:17):
there's a big course.
You get to walk, you get to talk with
friends, you can bring snacks and drinks.
You know, it's a very fun casual event that
is low stress, usually hilarious.
I made sure that was true because I messed
up so many times, but it was fun.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
we had a great and our son had never played
and you've probably seen disc golf courses
or baskets and not really know what it was,
because there's a lot in state parks and
college campuses.
We've seen a lot of RV campgrounds that
have disc golf courses and basically it's
(26:58):
the chain baskets that you see on occasion
here and there.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah, if you didn't know what it was, it
does look strange Like five foot basket
with a bunch of chains and that's.
You throw a disc into the chain so it grabs
them.
But it's really fun and it's a low
investment.
You need one disc, but ideally you have a
few, just in case you throw one in the
water.
And they have discs that are drivers and
putters, things like that.
They're different weights, but in general,
(27:24):
when you're learning, none of that matters.
It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
We're actually carrying six discs from 30
years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, and they played just the same.
We keep in our car.
Yeah, we've been carrying them since back
then.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
You never know when you're gonna see some
baskets play a little disc golf.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
And so it was fun we brought it up with our
son because he actually played competitive
ultimate Frisbee.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yes, he did since middle school, really.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah, and he played in international
competitions.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
Over in Guam.
He represented Guam and went to the
competition in France.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
That's right and that was set on TV as well,
like they put it online and everything.
So yeah, so he's really talented in that.
But I'll be honest, that requires a lot of
skill, a lot.
You gotta be big time in shape.
Lots of running, because that's basically
like soccer or football from the rest of
the world, but it's soccer with a Frisbee,
(28:25):
very different to disc golf, which is like
we stand there and talk and laugh and
somebody throws a disc right, that's very
low pressure.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
And also the Frisbees that you use in disc
golf are very different.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
They are and our son thought it would be
the same.
Ok, I can go with the old people.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
no big deal, it's just ultimate Frisbee.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
But in the first three holes he's like, wow,
this is different.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Because the discs are different, they're
weighted differently.
Now, we knew this, but he did not know this.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
And so we actually did pretty good and he
really enjoyed it and so we ended up
playing quite a bit over the two weeks he
was here and it was really fun.
I know I enjoyed it Because it was one of
the few things I could still kind of keep
up with him on this yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
And that we could all do together.
That was casual outdoors after work and it
was so fun and he, our son, really got into
it.
He because it started, because there was a
disc golf course on the Air Force Base.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
And he was near the Air Force Base.
So he ended up finding this app on the
phone called UDISC, and it's a great little
app to locate disc golf courses near you,
and then they have the layouts and the
statistics and all this really geeky stuff
(29:53):
about.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
But a little track we used to do Watch out
for the alligator at hole seven but on
every hole.
It'll track your distance that you throw
each time.
And so it'll even mark the location on the
map of where all the shots are.
So if you're truly nerdy and want to know
exactly, how you played it'll track every
shot until your score and everything.
And it's cool.
It even made it possible for all of us to
play together as a team across our phones.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
He had all those stats.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
So all of our phones.
We all tracked it separately, but they were
all tracked together as a team game, so it
was really kind of cool.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, so he came back with the UDISC app,
and then also we ended up at Academy Sports
to buy discs and equipment.
And then he's going to get all the guys
once we left.
He's like I'm going to get the guys.
We're going to go play disc golf, Cool.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
And anybody can play it.
It doesn't matter your skill level, your
strength, anything.
It's really cool.
There's even just like a normal golf.
They have different teas for pros and men
and women, and you have different handicaps.
If you want to allow kids to play, everyone
can play the game which is really really
fun Make up my own rules.
(31:01):
That's right, sherry just decides.
I'm playing from here and I'm not playing
from the woods.
Speaker 1 (31:05):
I'm not going in the grass, I'm not going
in the snakes.
Can you get my disc please?
Speaker 2 (31:11):
And we had a great time.
And then I figured out I have a new problem
which is like the phrase is called grip
lock.
I didn't know that.
It's like my hand.
After the first game, after we played quite
a bit, my hand was not let go with a disc.
And I would end up throwing it sideways.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Yeah, yeah, it was embarrassing, it was
pretty sad.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
And our son loved recording that in slow-mo
on video, so not good, but we all had a
great time yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:40):
It was so much fun and just such the
perfect thing for 250-somethings and their
20-something kid, so just so much fun.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
And we went to like five different courses.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
We did.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Which is crazy.
And we went to twice?
Did we go more than once to one of them or
did everyone was just once?
I can't remember if we got, I thought we
hit one of them more than once.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I think we went to.
We talked about going back, but then we
just went to different ones.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Oh, that's right, because we got finding
new ones.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
That's right and a couple of the days on
the weekends, we ended up playing two
courses.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah, 18 plus 9.
9 holes and 18.
Yeah, and that was in 27.
That tells you how fun it was.
We just didn't want to stop.
Anyways, we need to get moving here, but
this is.
I do want to point out this is similar to
in the past we used to do geocaching.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
That's another fun thing With our kids?
Yeah, because again.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Anybody can do that too.
It's a very discovering and finding things
using GPS, and we've done that in the past.
This is, in my opinion, a little more fun
because you get a little bit more walking
involved.
It's a sport kind of thing where you can be
competitive if you want to, or you can just
play Sherry's rules, which says I'm playing
this way.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Well, and now that our kids can drink beer
and stuff, that's right, you can walk
around with drinks.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
That's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
So yeah, and geocaching is actually still a
thing very much With the National
Geocaching Association.
So that's definitely something to look up
if you're looking for a fun, kind of weird
thing to do.
Speaker 2 (33:20):
But fun.
Yeah, we started that and we have friends
like Paul and David who took that when we
showed them how to play and they became
superstars.
Oh yeah, they have thousands of geocaches.
We're like rookies compared to them.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
They found thousands of geocaches and made
their own, and now they're like bigwigs in
the National Geocaching Association.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
We can't even hang out with them anymore.
Your parents did that too.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
They went way far with it.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
Paul and David will now bring you to disc
golf, so we can be at the same level again.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
Yeah, Well fun.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
And then there was a lot going on also on
the coast.
While we're there, there's this thing
called cruising the coast.
That was advertised everywhere for miles up
and down the coast Right.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Yes, it's an annual event of classic cars
and just all kinds of events.
The RVs and the trailers and the classic
cars were rolling in.
It actually didn't start until Sunday and
we left on Sunday.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
But we got kicked out.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Out of our campground on the Saturday
because they're like oh no, we got cruising
the coast coming in, you guys got to go.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
But that turned out to be.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
We wanted to stay one more night.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
But because we got kicked out, that turned
out to be a crap opportunity.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
That was the harvest host, that's right.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
So we were trying to stay one more night,
but if we had, we wouldn't have stumbled
into this really cool harvest host.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
No, we almost stayed on the Navy base with
that.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
That was our backup plan.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
On the RV park.
We talked about that last week, right.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
What I'm saying is but that was too
complicated.
Both that and the harvest host were both
because we were having to leave.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Right, that's what I'm saying.
Yes, so yes, sorry, yes and so because we
had to leave.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
If we didn't have to leave, neither of
those other options would have been there.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
And that would have been sad.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, but because it turned out not even
better than our plan to go on base was this
harvest host and you located this.
It was really cool.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
So, yep, I just checked the map and we
found the cozy rosy glamp ground and the
shed barbecue and blues joint and this is a
harvest host location and it is just out of
this world in Ocean Springs, mississippi.
(35:40):
And the Cozy Rosie is a campground, a
regular campground, but they have four
spaces on this little loop on the bayou.
Yeah and yeah, it's available for Harvest
Host, so you can stay there for one night
for free.
(36:02):
But then of course, we went into the gift
shop because the Cozy Rosie's just cool.
It's an old story and our kid got a couple
of t-shirts, one for his wife and yeah,
they had moths, so we spent the money in
the gift shop.
And then also that night, our last night,
we went to dinner at the shed, the barbecue
(36:22):
and blues joint in Ocean Springs,
mississippi, and it was so cool.
Speaker 2 (36:30):
It's an experience, yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Eclectic is how they describe it.
It just kind of like a bunch of the
buildings look like they're all just
leaning on each other.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
Like if you push one, the whole thing's
coming down like a house of cards.
I'm sure it's not, but it does look like
that doesn't it?
Speaker 1 (36:47):
Yeah, and lights, and outdoor lights.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
A stage.
Sand A kids area way far away from us,
which was great.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
So the kids had a great time and the music
was somewhere else it was great.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It's huge, though.
The place is huge and the food was awesome.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
It was awesome.
Highly recommend the ribs, though Laid back
casual fun, so yeah, that was for the win.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
And to get there was kind of cool because
we had to move.
Like we said, we had to move out of the RV
park because the crew's in the coast.
So it gave us a chance to let our son do
one of these RV moves.
It wasn't very far, it was like an hour
right.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
He had been in it, but he hadn't traveled
in the RV.
Speaker 2 (37:33):
Yeah, so he got to help us move the rig and
we didn't connect the car this time because
it was only one hour, so you drove the Jeep
separately.
And then he and I drove the RV, which is
cool, so he got to experience.
We even let him drive it a little bit at
the very beginning, but yeah, it was a lot
of fun.
We he and I got to chat the whole time and
(37:54):
got to experience the challenges of
navigating the rig down the road with
everyone getting in your way and everything.
Speaker 1 (38:00):
He got to see our perspective from that big
old windshield.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, he was even trying to say, hey, we
should record the kind of conversations
we're having over the radios for the
podcast and I was like that's a really good
idea.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Oh, and he recorded in the podcast.
Oh, we let him.
You know, privacy, we're not gonna.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
We dropped him into the studio.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
That was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (38:20):
But yeah, that's just for us.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
So while we were down there, we moved the
rig Saturday morning and then, when we got
to Ocean Springs, which was about an hour,
I said South, but it's actually East.
Okay, anyway, we went to another experience
(38:44):
that I found out about at the visitor
center.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
It was awesome.
It was the Gator Ranch with the air boats.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Gulf Coast Gator Ranch and air boat swamp
tour.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, I mean, everybody knows it's gonna be
cool just from the name.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
And we had not but so unexpected when we
actually got there yeah, it was way better
than we expected.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Right, I mean you hear air boat that's cool.
You hear gators that's cool.
But it was even better than that.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Well, and I'd point out that everywhere we
were down in Mississippi, it was like watch
out for gators.
Don't feed the gators.
Speaker 2 (39:22):
Gators here never saw a gator.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
So we were going to this thing going okay.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
Rubberized gators floating around.
We saw alligators 120 gators or something,
and they were huge.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Yes, and we got to feed them and it was
literally a feeding frenzy.
Yeah, oh, it was just amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Yeah, watching you throw that chunk of food
over and then they go after it and it is
like you can't imagine if you were in there.
It's like, wow, it's a power.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
And again at that point, and that was just
the walk out to the dog to get on the air
boat, that wasn't even the ride, or
anything.
Speaker 2 (40:00):
Yeah, that was just like hey, while you're
waiting, it was a.
If that had been the whole thing, it was
worth the money.
The gator ranch.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
It was so cool and they had the baby gators.
It was very cool.
But also at the Gulf Coast Gator Ranch they
had a Katrina waterline.
They're like almost five miles from the
coast.
I mean they're back in the bayou and the
water was so high that it went up to the
(40:29):
second floor.
Yeah, to the second floor of the building
there.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Which is higher than what the fences.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
On either side of the boardwalk that you go
down between the alligator swamps.
Speaker 2 (40:41):
So what happened back then?
The alligators all got out, they all got
out.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
All of them, hundreds of alligators.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
You were delegators.
They only got like 20 back out of the 120
or something.
I'm like what?
Speaker 1 (40:54):
happened to them.
He's like they all went out.
Oh my God.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
Yeah, and when you see these gators you're
like, oh my goodness, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
That is the picture that I will put in the
show notes.
I like it, just those waterlines.
You at the thought of alligators floating
around.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
So we did the airboat ride.
We got to see they fed some gators out
there and those out there were free.
They were free range but apparently they
kind of hang out in the same places.
Yeah, they know that.
Speaker 1 (41:30):
The food's coming and they feed them
marshmallows.
On the swamp boat tour, they used to feed
them raw chicken which is what they feed
them at the ranch.
But then a gator actually jumped onto the
front of an airboat with guests in the boat
because they had raw chicken on the front.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
So they quit bringing chicken.
So chicken gets them super excited and
they'll come join the airboat.
So they don't bring chicken anymore.
Speaker 1 (41:58):
That's what brings gators to the yard.
Yeah, so marshmallows.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
They can throw it away and it floats, and
then the gators will chase it.
They are territorial, so apparently the
same ones stay in the same areas out there.
Or they're all robotics.
Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah, not quite sure, right, hey, hank,
that's right, how's it going?
Speaker 2 (42:15):
Push the button, make Hank do something.
And then so yeah, we did that it was really
fun and it was kind of hot.
We finished the airboat ride and bought
some trinkets there.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
And we had some time.
We had a lot of time.
Speaker 2 (42:27):
So what did we do?
Speaker 1 (42:28):
with our free time.
That day, we went for our final round of
disc golf.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
Yeah, the championships.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Actually two different courses.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
And we did a speed round at the end of the
last one because it was getting dark.
That's how much fun it was.
We were like normally.
We were like it's getting dark, let's leave.
We're like heck, no, I've got to make these
last three holes.
Speaker 1 (42:49):
Let's do it.
Yeah, trying to light up the iPhone so you
can see where your disc is landing, and
yeah, it was kind of crazy.
And then, after all of that big day, we
went to dinner at the shed Barbecue and
blues joint.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
It was so much fun, it was great, so OK, so
this has been an interesting podcast for me.
It's been really fun to kind of relive and
remember these pieces.
But if I had to kind of bring it back to
the top three things, it's how it relates
to work life balance.
Keep me honest here.
Here's how I'd kind of do this.
I'll start with I think it's finding the
(43:26):
fun and still getting the work done.
Not trying to rhyme, but you know it is
always.
The point of this is like we're doing the
work to pay for our ability to go see our
son and see our kids and friends and family
and have fun as we cross this great country.
Right, and so that's like one of the top
three things.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
What was the second thing?
Well, the second thing was being in
Mississippi with our son and how cool it is
that we could be there.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Oh, I'm getting cold, don't cry.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
That we could be there with him for two
weeks.
You know, he's been in the Navy, he's been
away for 10 years and, yeah, he's gotten to
come back.
He's come back and we visited and we met
him down in San Francisco and all that.
But man, just the chance to just hang out
(44:18):
and be there whenever he had time.
Speaker 2 (44:22):
And it was so much fun Because we said it
before, like we get to live while we're
there for two weeks.
It's not like we're sitting in a hotel room
waiting for him to finish his stuff.
We lived down here while he was here, and
so it was great.
He would come over afterwards, we'd have
dinner together, sometimes we'd watch a
show, sometimes we'd go play disc golf, but
(44:44):
it was great.
We were living here, and so there was
certain nights when he was too tired and
couldn't come over.
Speaker 1 (44:49):
No big deal, late night classes yeah.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
Yeah, so it was great.
I guess the third thing would be kind of
related to Katrina and all the stuff.
That's down here is a lot of.
The thing is there's a lot of job
opportunities to live this life, to have
this balance and travel and stuff, and
there's a lot of remote work possible
everywhere we go and obviously we've met a
lot of people doing this.
(45:13):
But one of the things that got us thinking
when we came down here is you kept talking
about the water lines in Katrina and there
was such an impact on this area.
Things like insurance jobs, right and
obviously this is just using that timeline
back then to kind of remind us of these
roles, but there's lots of those jobs and
that is still out there.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Yeah, I mean.
Yeah.
It just constantly surprises us that there
are so many ways to do what we're doing
Maintain a full-time job and live, work and
play remote in your motor home yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
And so we were looking at remote insurance
jobs kind of thing, just kind of looking at
that category, since we're here One of the
big categories.
And yeah, there was.
In the US right now there's over 3100
remote insurance jobs and like that's
amazing to know that there's a lot of
opportunity so that people that have a
background in that it's everything from
customer service to sales, to insurance
(46:15):
adjusters that come out after natural
disasters and storms and stuff.
Speaker 1 (46:21):
There are analysts.
We have a friend out in California, paul.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
That's right.
Who works for an insurance company and it's
not just for, you know the win a disaster,
and these are jobs that are, you know,
every day, 24, seven.
These are full time jobs, where you make a
very good salary and you have benefits and
like all the things you would get from a
what we call traditional job.
These are remote jobs.
(46:46):
That you can do on the road yeah, and so
we'll kind of share some of those in the
show notes.
So if you get a chance and want to know
more about that, check out the show notes
of this show here.
We'll include links to find out more about
that and how you can sign up on our website
to get updates about those kind of roles
and others that we'll be exploring over the
next podcast.
Speaker 1 (47:07):
Cause that's another frequently asked
question that we see all over the place is
like well, how, how can you do this?
How can I do this?
You can work on the road.
Yes, yes, you can.
So many opportunities, and so our goal with
RV work life balance podcast is to share
(47:30):
what we're learning and help anyone
interested in this crazy adventure of life
and work on the road.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Yeah, and I want to thank all the listeners
that have been listening on this podcast.
If you've made it this far, great job.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
Good job.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
Yay and check out again, check out the show
notes.
There's links and products in there.
I think you'll find interesting and if
you're definitely, if you're new, please
subscribe.
There's a lot of more content that'll be
coming out and we don't want you to miss
anything.
We really want to thank you.
Speaker 1 (47:59):
To our existing subscribers, both on the
podcast apps and on the website.
We love you guys.
Thank you so much for being a part of our
adventure on the road.
Please, please, be in touch by email or
Facebook.
That contact information will be in those
(48:20):
show notes and the most important thing for
all of us is to make your escape.
Get out here, yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:29):
So are you ready to?
Speaker 1 (48:30):
I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (48:31):
All right.
Speaker 1 (48:31):
Let's go, all right.
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