August 13, 2023 • 50 mins
RVing from Pacific Shores Motor Coach Resort in Newport, Oregon: Sherri & Russ celebrate two years Full Time and share Top 10 Lessons Learned On The Road: RV Work Life Balance. From RV Internets to DIY RV Repair, Surviving Hurricanes & Tornados to Saving The Marriage…
~~~~~~~~~~
- 08-13-2023 - EPISODE 3 - (00:50:47)
- Title: RV Full Time Two Years Lessons Learned!
EPISODE SUMMARY:
Situated on the edge of a cliff in Newport, Oregon, immersed in the rugged beauty of the foggy coast, we suddenly realized: We’ve made it two full years living, working, and traveling full time in Charlie-The-Unicorn RV. We survived! How about that?!
How did we do it? In this episode, we share our Top 10 Lessons Learned for RV Work Life Balance: From figuring out reliable internets to trip planning and travel schedules; surviving extreme weather events to discovering what brings all the boys to the yard (?!?), we’ve encountered many surprises and challenges along the way.
Here’s to two years full time on the road, and to many more adventures yet to unfold. Join us as we celebrate, reflect, and share our Top 10 (so far) for balancing work, life and travel on this incredible journey…
- - - - - HIGHLIGHTS - - - - -
- (00:02:38) - Location, Location, Location: Oregon Coast
- (00:04:55) - Two Years On The Road: Top 10 Lessons
- (00:06:19) - Reliable RV Internet for Remote Work
- (00:12:20) - RV Trip Planning & Travel Schedules
- (00:18:44) - Expect the Unexpected!
- (00:24:08) - Extreme Weather Adventures in RV Travel
- (00:28:06) - The Social Life of RVers
- (00:33:25) - Water Quality is a Thing
- (00:40:52) - Saving The Marriage…
~~~~~~~~~~
→ Be sure to LIKE - SHARE - SUBSCRIBE or FOLLOW on your favorite podcast platform! Thank you! 😉
~~~~~~~~~~
SPONSORS & AFFILIATES
Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means we will earn a commission on the products or services you purchase using the links. There is no additional cost to you and the earnings help keep this program running. Thank You!!! Read our Affiliate Disclaimer for more information.
>> FEATURED FOR THIS EPISODE:
Product Links:
- Marriage Saver: Midland Two-Way Radios - Long Range Walkie Talkie (set of 2) - Trust me, you need these for parking the RV!
- Water Filtration: Clearsource Ultra RV Water Filter System with VirusGuard - Russ researched the heck out of this - the best!
- Clearsource WeatherGuard - Ultra - Heavy duty carrying case to protect your investment & keep it all together during travel.
- Clearsource Ultra Replacement Filter 3-Pack - Keep it fresh!
- Water Softener: On The Go Portable Water Softener - *Must have*
- Corps of Engineers (COE) Campground Directory :-)
>> RV WORK LIFE BALANCE TRUSTED RV AFFILIATES:
- RV Life Trip Wizard - We rely on RV Life Trip Wizard for RV trip planning, campground info, reviews &
Mark as Played
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 suit.
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 (00:26):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
All right, welcome back to the podcast Cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Cheers everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
All right.
So you know, I always start trying to figure out how to get this thing started, and I think the one thing we've agreed on is I'm going to ask the question where are we now?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I answer right.
I hope it's you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Let me check.
Today it's you.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
This week we are at Pacific Shores Motor Coach Resort in Newport, oregon, on the coast, baby, baby.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And so why is this special?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Oh well, we're on our way home to Washington state, and so we stopped in Oregon.
Last week we were near Crater Lake, and this week we're out on the coast, which is completely on a unexpected, in my view, anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Was not unexpected that we accidentally got here.
It's unexpected in what we thought we were going to see versus what we saw.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
The reality of Oregon on the coast.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And you think we wouldn't be surprised because we're like Washingtonians Washingtonians, we should not be surprised.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
But it is To explain.
The Oregon coast is beautiful.
It is rugged, it is stark.
You're set up on the cliffs generally and the sand and the beach and the waves and all is far below.
There's a lot of rocks, some small, some very large, off the coast of Oregon and it is incredibly beautiful.
(02:15):
But it's also surprising in a way.
Okay, there's a lot, that's not surprising.
No, not surprising, but here at this resort on the coast, on the edge.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
On the cliff over the Pacific.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It is very windy.
It's a little cold for June.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Neither of those are the big problem, though.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
It's the fog.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It's the fog.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh my gosh, it is aggressively foggy here and I don't know.
Can you explain that?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I don't know, but I'll try.
It is weird Because if you ever see the movie the fog, you know it's like the ghost ships that come in to kill everybody in the town.
It feels a little bit like that, but it's really the fact that you can see the fog blowing by like smoke.
We talked about it.
It seemed like there's a fire and the smoke is blowing through the campground, but it's just fog and we can't see the ocean right now.
(03:14):
We did 30 minutes ago, but it's gone again.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
However, sometimes we're sitting here at the resort in a pea soup of fog.
But we'll go a mile or two down the road down to Newport Bay where the restaurants are and the waterfront and the fishing colors coming in.
It's very cool and it's blue and clear as day.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
But right on the beach it's many times just fog.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
But, why?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
What's special about right now?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh, ok, do you remember what anniversary this is for us?
I?
Do because you set me up for this and I'm tossing it back to you.
I was trying to scare you, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I do actually remember because she told me.
By the way, this is our two year anniversary for being full time.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Full time baby.
Full time baby.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Which is a big deal, because I can't you know we started this we never imagined, we never planned to get an RV.
We never planned to travel Like hits.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
We were traveling by phone, by phone.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah and yeah, so now we've been doing this two years, two solid years.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
It was Memorial Day of 2021.
It's crazy.
When we set out, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So you know, I'm sure everybody has those kind of things where you started something and then, like two years later, you're like whoa, I'm still doing this and it's even bigger.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So yeah, that's incredible, and there's always questions.
People ask so many questions about this experience, so we decided, as part of our two year anniversary, full time on the road celebration Baby.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
That we would talk about maybe the top 10 things, top 10 lessons we've learned in our two years on the road, living, working and traveling full time.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, because it's fun, because when we meet people we all talk about some of these topics, so they come up a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So if you, yeah, and we also encourage our listeners that if you have questions or comments or anything, at all be in touch.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, what have you learned?
What have you heard?
That is, like you know, really changed how you travel and stuff.
Because these are just the stuff we learned, some the hard way, I'll be honest.
Some were like painful lessons, some were you just slowly learn over time and like, oh, now I get it.
So, yeah, it's been interesting.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Got pretty good at some of these things, so maybe not.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
What would you say?
The first one is Because it's pretty big one.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Okay, so the top 10 lessons in our two years.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
For an RV work life balance kind of way.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
On the road, not just general RV.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Okay, we're dealing with work and life balance.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Okay, so the first, the very first lesson was figuring out our internets, which is your specialty.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It's funny because I think we've mentioned it before.
Number one question we get while we're on the road and we ask other people the same thing is you know how do you get internet?
Because you know you might use it for entertainment, but we use it for work, right, cherries a writer and publishing stuff all the time.
I'm on zoom all day.
So internet is super important and before we started we were doing what we call it, we were doing part time and we called it in the harbor circling the harbor, we were learning how to do this for the first year.
(06:45):
We had to work out the internet.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, we weren't in Washington for the first year, but the first couple months.
We were out by July of 2021.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So we had to figure it out, and while we joke about Starlink a lot because we do have it, we didn't have Starlink at the beginning.
We basically had to work out some hotspots from multiple providers because we knew one would be good here and not good there.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Redundancy Redundancy.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Good job.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Good job yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So we, in fact I remember bringing ordering all this stuff before we even left our house, and we said I started running all of my work over these different internet things without, you know, telling anyone I was working with, because if you couldn't tell as I switched, then it must be good enough.
And that was how I tested these things out.
So we ended up with a T-Mobile offer, we ended up with an AT&T, we ended up with a Verizon, and then eventually, we were able to add Starlink.
(07:45):
But I think that was after season one, right.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That was our last year, last summer, when we were back in Washington.
So, what are currently our big three.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
The big three In order of it's hard to say.
So the funny thing is, Starlink is number three, not number one, and what I mean by that is it is awesome.
It is awesome.
I'm not going to, I'm not putting it down at all, but I'll be honest.
Getting it out and setting it up is a big deal, and sometimes we are in places with trees and you can't get it out.
(08:19):
So it you can't even come out.
But when we're traveling, even when we're driving, because we do some traveling for eight hours at a time our top two is number one is our AT&T 5G, and we'll have a separate episode about how we do all that.
But that 5G internet from AT&T is number one because it's on 24, seven, feeding the rig all the time, even while we're driving, listening to music, looking things up.
(08:45):
And most, most of the country, I'd say has been reliably AT&T internet service the shocking number two, which, I'll be honest, is starting to climb to number one in a strong way.
I don't remember how I found that one.
It was an introduction from someone, but it's actually an organization that promotes the accessibility of internet, and the organization is called Calix C-A-L-Y-X.
(09:15):
They offer both the devices and services at a very reduced rate, and it is fantastic.
And so our second one is AT-Mobile 5G.
It is actually, right now, twice as fast as the AT&T and in most cases it will defeat AT&T in performance, but it doesn't have it has one disadvantage it doesn't have an external antenna, so I can't leave it up all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So it's a nerdy thing, but it is amazing, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And then number three, because I don't want to belabor this.
First item is Starlink.
Now, starlink is stunning when you're in the middle of nowhere.
We've been places where nothing worked.
You'd drop the Starlink antenna out and magic happens.
But if you do zoom, this is the one thing.
Zoom when you get a buffering issue when you're listening to music or you're transmitting an email.
(10:07):
No one notices.
But if you have a stutter of five or 10 seconds while you're zooming, everyone notices it just stops A dreaded freeze frame.
That is not good, it is not.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
When you're in a work conference, it is not, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
90% of the time and we pull it out of the, out of the basement, 40% of the time.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And the cool thing about what we got because I don't want to stick here- Because right now heading through Oregon and Washington with all the trees it's not very helpful.
We actually have it turned off.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
We have it turned off, which is cool because we don't have to pay for it.
We have the RV version, so we turn it off right on the app and we say we're not going to use it for now, and so you get to turn it off month to month, and so we leave the other two on and so I have it as an emergency backup, which is actually the whole point of redundancy.
So what's cool is, in theory, we'll use it probably 20% of the time cross country and I won't have to pay for it the rest of the time, which is really cool.
(11:06):
So I do love it because it is magical when you need it, but it's nice to not have to pay for it when I have two other fantastic options right now.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
And that's about $150 a month that we're saving by having it kind of in freeze frame or our backup as a tech nerd.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I love to own it, but I'll be honest, I like not having to pay for it too.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
So that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So, yeah, that's the number one thing Whenever we have it out.
Before we kind of figured all this out everyone, all the boys, would come to the art, as they say to see the Starlink and talk about it.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I don't like your Starlink.
I don't like your Starlink.
So it was a way to meet people, but that was not the point it did and I always ask.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I'll be honest, I ask other people too.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
What do they think?
Yeah, and then the only addition to that whole conversation is that our cellular service, our main cellular, is with T-Mobile.
Oh, that's right, our cell phones, that's right, yeah, separate from that Kalex thing, that's right.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
It is still the T-Mobile towers, so they would have the same ability.
But you're right, our phones were different than some of the networks we had originally because we've switched before.
But good point.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
OK.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
All right, so this is a big one for you.
Number two, can we talk about this?
And this is super important when your work-life balance traveling, it is trip planning.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And what have we learned?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
over the last few years.
What did we learn?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I didn't learn anything because I don't know how to do this, because I don't know how to do it and trip planning includes our schedule, our campgrounds, rv friendly GPS, which we've talked about before, and the biggest lesson we've learned with that is OK.
Well, there's two things.
Number one is we are still using an app from RV Life called Trip Wizard for planning, scheduling, rv friendly GPS.
(13:05):
But the lesson we've learned with that is trust but verify.
I like that as far as the GPS goes and there's we've talked about that before, I'm sure we'll talk about it again, but having a handy truck atlas so you know which roads are truly big rig accessible and friendly.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Low bridges there Around.
Here we had a low bridge we went through while touring the coast of Oregon and we were so glad we weren't in the rig at the time and tunnels, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So trip planning, we've discovered our favorite places and we tend to really enjoy these quirky campgrounds.
They're actually in the range of like $20 to $50 a night, which is cheap in today's RV life, and they tend to be private campgrounds in unusual places, and we've really had some great experiences that we'll talk about as we go.
(14:12):
So we've discovered our favorite places are quirky campgrounds and outside national parks.
We love visiting national parks and also COE campgrounds.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Corps of engineers.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Army Corps of engineers and they are so cool.
We've only had a chance to stay a couple of times because the biggest drawback Most of the time they don't have all services.
Sometimes, they'll just power.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Sometimes they'll have a power of water.
Rarely do they have all three.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
With a sewer connection, and so staying for a full week can be challenging, although we're getting better.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
We are.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, ok.
Also, with regards to trip planning, we've discovered our ideal pace of travel.
We've learned that we really would like to travel two weeks at a time where we stay at a campground or a resort for two full weeks, because we have the weekend in the middle where we can go exploring.
(15:22):
And also it's a way to save money, because generally campgrounds offer a weekly rate.
Usually it's maybe pay for six and you get your seventh night free, but it is a way to save a little money and so that's nice.
(15:43):
And then also our driving schedule.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, part of the trip planning.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
And we've learned what is the lesson there?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It's taking a while.
But when you're working, if you're just vacationing, it's one thing, but when you're working, time off is really nice.
And so if we can drive one long day and so we travel on Saturdays and Sundays typically if we can drive one long Saturday and have Sunday off, it's great because we got to work again Monday.
(16:16):
But we have to do two long days of Saturday, Sunday, and then immediately start work on Monday.
It's hard.
So yeah, we've figured out, we would rather double down on a long Saturday knowing we can sleep in on Sunday.
And that took us a while because we were so excited at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
We were like whatever, we'll just drive.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It's awesome, but eventually you're still living your life.
You're still working All the normal stuff you do in a sticks and bricks or a normal house you're still doing.
So when you don't get a day off, it starts to add up and so that's Sunday off.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Woo, that's sweet.
So we tend to prefer to drive one long day, which is generally about six hours.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, which is longer than most people.
I'll be honest, Right.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
A lot of people are out here on this 3-3-3 schedule.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You might hear that, and that's what it's literally three hours or 300 miles or stop by 3 PM, depending on what works for you, and so that's again typically people that are retired and they just want to which is I'll be honest, it's a great schedule if you can do that.
Yeah, we unfortunately not.
(17:26):
fortunately, unfortunately we always have a schedule.
We're trying to get to a place because we have an event or we have a work thing, and so we're trying to get across country to hit these things, and so we can't typically go only three hours.
So.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Right, we need to go further and also to be honest, these first two years.
Although our ideal is two weeks, we generally find ourselves week to week, leaving out Saturday, hopefully arriving at our destination Saturday late afternoon, definitely before dark, and then spending the week just because we've had places to be and things to do, and that's the schedule we've been on.
(18:10):
We've also been traveling all the way around the country, from Washington state to Florida and back around, and we're going to try to stick to that two week thing.
We'll let you know, because there's always something somewhere we have to be, and that continues through October, november of this year.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
All right, so we're gonna try to pick up the pace, because we've only gone through two of these items.
Number three learning to be flexible.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Expect the unexpected.
Which is like you know, it seems so obvious when you started.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
You're gonna learn so much, that's true, but we always get caught off guard, always.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah.
And when we had recently.
We had some engine trouble and we ended up in Phoenix Arizona.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Would you say when I asked what's this episode back then Breakdown, breakdown, yeah we talked about breakdowns episode, but you know, it's just the first thing.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
the first reaction is oh no, I have reservations.
I gotta be somewhere, and we have learned that sometimes you just have to call the next place and say, hey, we're at Camp Cummins in Phoenix, Arizona.
We're gonna be a few days late and somehow it all works out, but you've got to expect the unexpected.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Cummins is the engine company that powers our rig, so Camp Cummins is really just sitting in the parking lot waiting to get fixed.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Just so you know.
All right, so let's move along, okay.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So number four, what's number four?
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Oh, this is your expertise and do it yourself RV repair.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I remember when we got this rig we signed up for, like this extended warranty and we had, you know, the company that sold us the rig.
They were like we're gonna help you.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
You know the moment they threw us the keys it was our, it was our problem at that point.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I did not know that at the time, but now I know that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
We thought there'd be, you know, like RV service stations.
We thought there'd be people, just with all magical gremlins that would fix this rig.
Yes, Like with your car.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah, there's like people fixing it everywhere.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, that's not true.
It's not like that With big rigs.
It's not like that.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So be prepared that number one, google, is your friend, and I'll be honest.
Number two, youtube, is amazing because they want people that have already solved your problem are there.
I live on watching YouTube 20 times and then doing the repair myself.
So I'm not saying repairs that are super complicated like rebuilding it, transmission or something, but there's a whole bunch of stuff.
(20:58):
We've talked about this before.
When you're rigged, rolls down the road, stuff breaks.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
So you're going to be fixing it.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
So don't wait.
You're not going to be able to wait forever.
There's a huge line of people waiting.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, you can't always get to a service center as wonderful as and IRVC is our national indoor RV centers.
We have a partnership with them.
I write for them, so we love them.
They're a great service center, but you can't always get to the service center and you can always get in to an IRVC or freight liner or Cummins.
(21:32):
We had to wait a week, yeah.
So I just want to say that Russ, who had never worked on an RV before, I could spell RV.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
That was pretty good to date.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
There are over 25 things.
I'd say that you've figured out.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Wow, that's not even including the coffee pot that I fixed.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
That's pretty good so no, that's just specifically RV.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Thanks yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
And I guess some of the biggest things were Well, you fixed our aqua hot water heater.
That was big, yeah.
So we have something that basically provides what they say infinite hot water.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
What they mean by that is, water goes through this system and it heats it on the fly so that you know it's not a tank, it's tankless, but you know it doesn't always work perfectly.
So and ours is propane powered and it has a igniter and there's been some problems where we've had replaced that igniter twice now, and so I'm pretty good at aqua hot and I'm not even certified, but I probably should be certified to fix that equipment now.
(22:44):
So yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And because when we had problems with the aqua hot and we would call the RV certified service guys about it, they're like propane.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
We don't do that anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
We don't work on the propane.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Our rigs of 2016, not like a you know 1997.
What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
So you figure these things out yourself with the help of you, of your online community.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Really.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
And also Freightliner 24 seven and YouTube and YouTube.
Yeah, youtube is the bomb.
So I also want to say that, in addition to the aqua hot, you fixed our water pump.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah.
So everyone that has an RV will have a water pump, and you will probably have to replace it it.
Luckily, this is probably the easiest thing.
Well, not these.
It's pretty freaking easy.
Let's just say that.
But be prepared Water pumps don't last forever.
Luckily, they're relatively easy, but boy, when your water doesn't work your wife's not happy, you better fix that.
(23:44):
So in fact, we carried a backup water pump the whole time, so when ours went out, I had a backup already.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And you had to fix it yourself.
Had to fix it myself.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah, amazing, no big deal I got.
I got street cred for that, though.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Okay, yeah, like I said, there's a list of 25 things.
This man is fixed.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So so we're going to move on to number five on this.
We'll go to the next item.
Let's just say that this is another thing that we have learned.
We learned weather patterns, which is my God.
This year we season one, we thought we did Okay.
Season two was all about weather.
It was big.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Right, Because you try to time your travels Okay.
We all know hurricane season in Florida June through Well as it turns out.
I thought it was October but it turns out it's November, but okay.
So hurricanes has been a thing this year with.
We arrived in Florida the first week of November, ended up driving back up to Atlanta for tropical storm Nicole that turned into a hurricane.
(24:54):
That was a thing, okay.
So we all know Florida hurricanes, okay.
Then when we left Florida and headed across the Southeast back toward the West Coast, there's, there's tornadoes, guys.
They chased us everywhere.
Oh my God.
Four separate tornado events we did and we ended up in a in a shelter in Arkansas, at the RV resort that we were at Our bug out bag and we got into the shelter.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
We said we're never going to see our rig again and crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Crazy experience.
So we finally got out of the Southeast and we ended up in the Southwest.
What's the big thing in the Southwest?
Dust storms.
That is actually what we believe, screwed up our rig.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Oh, the camp Cummins thing, we actually had dust storms last season too, so the Southwest has hit us two years in a row with dust storms.
So that's, no joke.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So yeah, yeah, and then we finally get back to the West Coast and I guess actually this year this has been a thing all over, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Last year it was the wildfires that Montana and Washington and Canada and Oregon and things like that, but we haven't hit that yet where we are now.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
but wildfires and smoke.
But wildfire and smoke season, yeah, it's been bad.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So yeah, the weather patterns has been.
That's what's really funny, because the previous season we started when we rolled into Montana and we hit wildfires and I thought that was going to be crazy season.
Yeah, this year was pretty tame and this year was way worse, with hurricanes and tornadoes.
Yeah, it was like smoke is one thing, but when your rig is flying away in a tornado, that's completely different.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
And we already know in our travel plans okay, we spend the winter maybe in Florida, but not this year.
You want to be where it's warm during the winter, and then we know that the best season in Washington state, the best time to be there, is July.
(26:59):
Basically, right, july.
August maybe September but, we're usually on our way out at the end of July.
It's beautiful then, yeah yeah, because of the rain and the seasons.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
So we're literally rolling in during that time.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, because we're trying to work it out.
Plus we have July birthdays.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
That we can do with kids.
Yeah, we have kids to see and family to enjoy and have a great time.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So you're constantly worrying about the weather patterns and understanding the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning when you go to the shelter.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, and so why this is important?
Because if you live in a sticks and bricks or a house, right, you're worried about your local weather, and so if you live on the West Coast maybe in California you have earthquakes and fires and stuff.
You live in Florida, you worry about hurricanes.
We get to see all of it as we travel, so it depends on where you're going.
We do coast to coast and we love seeing the whole country, so of course we get to try to dodge some of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
We are trying to travel.
We didn't do great at it this year.
We kept seeing the driving into it, so yeah, they were chasing us.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
All right, next one, let's move along.
The next one.
What is the next one?
Speaker 1 (28:10):
We wanted to talk about something we've learned about the social life of RVers.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Did we learn anything about the social life?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
We have, you have, yeah, so we've talked about this before.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
The cool thing is like when we used to live in a house or in the condo in Seattle we barely met our neighbors, we barely got to talk to people and, what was interesting, when we hit the road, I did to be fair.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Okay, apparently it's just me, but you as a worker guy.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Exactly, but we meet everybody.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
What's interesting is I met nobody.
I meet more people than you do now he does.
That's what's funny, and it's always when we're leaving.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, when I'm supposed to be on the hook and get ready to go, people want to talk to me there, he cannot walk outside the RV door without the boys coming to the yard asking about the Starlink.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
and how do you like your integral Exactly?
But, beyond that, everyone is so very friendly in the campgrounds and the events that we go to.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
So we go to a lot of cool events.
We go to the FMCA, which is the Family Motor Coach Association.
We go to AIME Event, which is all-inclusive motor homes.
We go to lots of different places and we meet cool people and some of them you really just hit it off with because you do connect.
And what's cool is new best friends and you get to connect with them online the rest of the time, and occasionally you get to connect back up and see each other at another event.
(29:38):
So we've met some neat friends.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Give a sample of some of the people that we just love just bumping into over and over A shout out and there've been so many, because it is a very warm and welcoming and outgoing community.
But new best friends we've got to shout out to Kim and Pete hey.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Pete.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Ha, ha, ha ha.
Also George, andrew and Elizabeth Taylor.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Hey Elizabeth Taylor.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Ha, ha, ha, ha, we, we, you gotta explain.
Elizabeth Taylor I know I'm trying to think of how to do that in a short term.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
It's their dog.
It's their dog, Okay not their dog.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
So it took me until we actually met them in real life.
I didn't really realize that I was conversing on Facebook with a dog, the dog's famous Ha ha, ha ha.
So then, so anyway, kim and Pete George, andrew and Elizabeth George and Andrew and Elizabeth Taylor, we met at the AIM All Inclusive Motorhome Club rallies and events and just love them and I've enjoyed seeing them after.
(30:52):
Also, Ann and Brian are Integra friends.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Hey Brian.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Who are on the road of adventure.
They do videos and and write ups and newsletters on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
They're amazing.
We're gonna end up talking to them in the future so you'll, you'll, you'll get a chance, hopefully, to talk to them.
Yeah, and their dog, skipper, he's so cute.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Who else?
Oh, Bob and Lisa.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Bob, we get to go fishing soon.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I promise you're going to teach me how to fish, so who travel in a TARDIS, which is a story for another time, hard to explain that.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So catch the next episode or a Upscoming when they drive.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
They drive a.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
TARDIS.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Let's just say that, and we actually first saw them at Stone Mountain, a campground in outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
Didn't meet them until a couple of months later in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Oh, that's right.
So if we haven't said this before, so you're right, we met them and went.
We didn't meet them the first time we saw them and we didn't know them.
And you're right, it's because of the TARDIS that we saw them and that was a location where a movie was being shot.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Oh, in New Mexico.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
In New Mexico for Disney, and so Disney was shooting a movie at the campground we were all staying at.
We did not.
Nobody knew that, neither Bob and Lisa or ourselves did not know that, and so we got to meet them there.
So that's right, I forgot there was a connection there.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Which was independent of the movie that was being filmed.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I know I didn't get to be in the movie this time.
No, I tried.
They didn't want me.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
It was George Lopez and Eva Longoria Longoria, that's right Filming Alexander's.
Very bad day Terrible, very bad, horrible day.
The children's book.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
So we're excited to see that come out, because we were there while they shot that yes.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
And totally random, but this is what happens.
The thing was we met Bob and Lisa and the TARDIS, even though we had seen them in Georgia and watched them pull in, and that was a whole other story in itself.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And we'll end up talking to Bob and Lisa as well, because they're an interesting couple that have some amazing stories to tell with their bikes and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Also working on the road.
That's right.
That's right they work out of the rig.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
So these are some of the things when you work life balance, when you meet people doing similar things, they're traveling, they have great stories, so that was really cool.
What's the next thing?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
OK, then the next lesson that we learned out of the 10 in our first two years is that water quality is a thing.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, it's hard to believe you'd have to think about your plumbing, your electrical, your internet, all that stuff, all these things you take for granted at home.
Water, big deal, real big deal.
So this actually turned out to be something that we caught, caught off guard.
We were in.
Where was it?
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Detroit Lakes, minnesota, that's right.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Detroit Lakes.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
With the hard water issues.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
So we didn't know about this.
We learn, unfortunately, sometimes the hard way.
This is one of the hard ways, and there was a lot of storms that week too, so we had lots of storms.
It was an interesting week over there, but the thing was we parked the rig and we had noticed people had these big tanks beside their.
They're the longer term.
People had big tanks there and I didn't think twice, kind of like we had talked about in the last episode about everyone having their hoods up.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It was like you.
Just think about it.
I'm like huh, I wonder why they have those things.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I should probably investigate this now, but I didn't, and so we get halfway through the week we're there and we started seeing the residue of hard water on dishes and in the appliances that in our rig.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
And on the outside of the rig we'd have those spots.
That was starting out.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
That's right, that's right.
So we started seeing this as we started crossing and it really got bad in Detroit Lakes, minnesota.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
And honestly, in Washington state before and then when we lived in Atlanta, Georgia for 25 years, we never had to think about hard water versus soft water.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Okay, maybe we're not.
City water is processed, but all of a sudden, we're experiencing hard water.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
This is well water.
What the hell is that?
That's right.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It's got a lot of minerals in it and it ends up potentially damaging appliance things like that.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
And we started seeing it and our systems, yeah, started messing up the systems.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
And then a quick Google and noticing these other rigs quickly were like we need a softener, a water softener.
We may sound like the dumbest people on the planet and everybody's like, oh my God, you should have known that we did not Because again, we didn't know that and you had to have one that was portable and mobile.
So we did the research and we quickly, we had to drive a long way.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
We ended up driving from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, to Chicago almost all the way to Chicago.
Illinois.
Oh, that was the next stop.
But yeah we did go into Chicago to pick up this special water softener thingy from Camping World.
We ordered through them.
Yeah, it was an on the go system.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
You can Google it on the go.
Water softener.
Love this system.
It's basically based on a simple salt.
You just end up putting in table salt and it softens the water.
I'm sure there's other systems.
It's been working for us for over a year.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
It's made such a huge difference, particularly in those places where there's hard water versus treated soft water.
Yeah, if it's city water.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
It's been treated.
You don't have the same problems.
But a lot of times the campgrounds, as we're traveling, you're in the middle of nowhere.
It's just.
It's basically pumped on the ground, out of the ground, which is fine.
It's nice and clean.
The problem is is that it's got a lot of different.
You know hard minerals and stuff that'll show up as these calcites that are on your dishes and appliances and stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
But the softener can really mess up your pipes.
Yeah, it can really mess things up.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
So that was a big big thing that we didn't plan on and I'll be honest, add it to your list if you're gonna be full time, we'll have to put a picture and a link.
We'll put links, yeah, in the show notes below.
All right, next one.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Oh, but wait one more thing.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
One more note on the water systems.
What is it?
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Is filtration.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Oh, okay, so that's big.
Yeah, so okay, this is big.
So before, so we already knew about water filtering, right?
We actually hadn't.
We didn't know about water softening at the time when we started, we knew about filtering, so we had started like everyone.
Where you go to the Walmart system you get the little blue filter turns out it's crushed.
No, the green system.
(37:44):
It was a crushed carbon filter kind of thing and it really doesn't catch anything other than like, maybe, a mouse that's going through it.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
It's not good at all.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
And then the next level up.
We were using this green system I forget the name of it, doesn't matter, it's at Walmart, but this and it's actually very good.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
It's got a one micron and a 10 micron kind of thing, and that was good, but they don't last long, yeah, because you use them and they clog up in like two weeks and then you have no water and those things are super expensive, and so we were going through them a lot.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
The water was okay, but it gets slowed down.
We did that for the first nine months and because we want good water, we don't want to be drinking or using bad water.
But it was not financially a very good option.
So we started doing more research and in the last six months we've made the move from in Tampa to clear source, which has a three filter system one that pulls out rust, one that pulls out normal particulates and stuff and then one that actually pulls out viruses and stuff.
(38:50):
So it's really, really amazing and it changes the taste of the water, it changes the quality of the water and it lasts so much longer.
But that's taken us almost the full two years to figure out and cannot say enough good things about that.
But that's different from softening.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So well also that filtration system, that we have now is in addition to you've got so many filters on seven filters, yeah.
I mean not just us specifically, but in the RV.
We've got the filter coming into the RV, that's right.
(39:25):
And then there's a filter on the refrigerator.
So what?
Speaker 2 (39:29):
she's talking about.
We have the clear source as external, and outside there's three separate filters, so you may not have that.
Maybe you're just using the one from Walmart, the blue one.
It's a good way to get started.
You'll have that one, but in our inside our rig, we already have a full house master filter and that everything goes through that, and then there's a separate filter down there that feeds the refrigerator for us.
(39:50):
Okay, so that's down there too.
That's another one, and actually in the refrigerator inside the rig there's another filter that filters the water.
One more time for the ice maker.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
And we use the Brita filter and then my wife loves.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Brita.
So there's actually she puts it through another filter.
So we have a lot of filters, but I'll be honest it wasn't enough.
It wasn't enough.
The main thing was that clear source keeping anything from going through any of the other filters.
So all the other filters in the house were just traditional kind of filters that capture, you know, larger particulates and some of the other stuff, but but nothing like the rust and the virus protection kind of stuff.
(40:26):
It changes completely.
We would go places.
I remember the water would actually smell when you turned it on and that was going through like four filters.
I'm like something's not right here.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So now we have none of that, none of that, and we go across country.
But that took us.
This is part of the lessons learned that took us almost the full two years to figure out.
I wish we'd learn that sooner.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
All right, what's next?
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Okay, well, another most favorite product that we should talk about for just a minute is our marriage saver.
Oh, the walkie talkies that could be dirty, that could be dirty.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
But walkie talkie, we'll keep this quick, just to say so.
It's like a sport when you're traveling is watching other people back their rigs in right.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
So you sit around with your drink, you're watching somebody back in and inevitably they don't have walkie talkies.
They 90% of the time, don't even use our phone.
They're waving their hands because they believe and yelling that they believe they're the other person that understands or cell phones, which don't always.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
you don't always have cell phone service, so that's not reliable.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
So it's hilarious because they end up yelling at each other.
And didn't you hear me?
Blah, blah blah it's hilarious where we were the last location.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Everybody watches everybody.
Come on, guys.
So you're looking to like minimize your stress.
Right Communication is number one.
That's true in your marriage.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
That's true in back in an RV in.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
And you want to look professional Pros.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
So yeah, the last place.
The couple was backing in for 15 minutes while other people were waiting to get in.
And they had no radios.
They also didn't know what they were doing, and yelling at each other.
They got out and yelled at each other.
You don't want that.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
I'll do it then.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
And fine, we were at a place just recently and somebody came to you afterwards and said I really liked your radios.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
We have walkie talkies that we ordered from Amazon.
They're so awesome that we had.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
We got them for our daughter and her boyfriend when they were traveling across country in a U-Haul, in a car.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
We got them for Scott and Kelly, yeah, on their inaugural RV adventure.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
It's a marriage saver.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
The walkie talkies are amazing and they're fun.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Yeah, that was supposed to be quick.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
All right, Number the next one we're going to talk about.
Oh wait, you're on the off.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
No, and actually the walkie talkies, the marriage savers kind of segue into number nine yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Living and working together in a very small space.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
This is probably.
This is a huge lesson of living, working and traveling full time in an RV.
Guys, we've been married 35 years, 35 years this August, yep, and it was an adjustment learning to live together in 400 square feet of space with both of us working, and just this lifestyle.
(43:39):
I'm noisy, but we have, we have survived.
You are noisy, you're just loud, but thank goodness.
Thank you, I'll take that as a compliment and I guess you know I have my own issues, I I.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I You're perfect.
No, no, that's not true, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
That's why all your worker, your work coworkers are like.
I'll always say bless you when I sneeze in the back.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Well, those are the same coworkers that wrote on my whiteboard inside voice Cause I was so loud.
He was loud, I'm very loud.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
So how we've lived, how we've learned to live and work together in our very small space.
We are very fortunate that we have a back bedroom and a back bathroom that separates from the front of the RV with a big, nice wooden sliding door, so we both have our own space, so to speak, and we both have our own bathroom during the day, because we have a half bath in the front.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
That is awesome.
So I ended up making coffee in the morning, and then I'm up here in the front, I have my desk, I have the coffee and I have my own half bath, and then there's a door that separates so she could be back there working on calls whatever she has her own bathroom.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Sneezing, Sneezing luckily I don't have to say anything.
So yeah, it's great.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
But we know, not everybody has the same design rigs.
In fact some of our friends they say, oh, we have a huge master bathroom but they don't have a second bathroom.
And you know, we actually thought our half bath was not gonna be a big deal.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
We were like eh, I was like, hey, could we make that into a pantry?
Just take that toilet out of there.
And now we're like, oh my goodness, we are so glad that's there.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
So, but that's important because, again, some of our friends are retired and traveled, so it's not the same, you know.
So when your work-life balance, you're trying to work out in a rig, it is different.
It's important to have a place where I don't bother you while I'm doing stuff.
And, yeah, I run between calls.
I go to the restroom, I fill my coffee, I get back in my desk.
I shouldn't be affecting you, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
So I have workspace in the back in the bedroom, but then I can also I mean, there have been times when I still enjoy going to libraries local libraries where I can work amidst the books and the history, and it's a really nice quiet place that I can camp out for an hour or a couple hours to get some work done.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, what's nice is you can actually still come upfront.
You can, you know, make food and coffee and stuff like that, because the way I've got my desk set up in my Zoom I'm facing against the rig wall so nobody sees you as you walk by, so you can come and go outside.
We just wanted to make sure, like if I have some very early calls sometimes it's actually the next item.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Yeah, that kind of leads into number 10.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Yeah, which is sometimes it's very early for me and I don't want to wake her up and so I'm able to kind of like cordon off the back of the rig and she can be fine, and that is number 10.
What is number 10?
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Number 10 is this work life balance and the key secret that Russ has learned to really make it manageable, his life manageable, and that is time zone management I stay on one time zone.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
So if you're not traveling across time zones, this does not apply to you.
But we go coast to coast and most of the time, and so we end up traveling across all the time zones in the US, and that I've always tried to make sure not be a problem for anyone else I work with.
Now I talk to people all over the world, so Australia.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
China, uk, india everywhere.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Yeah, it's just lots of time zones, but I never make it their problem, so I stay in one time zone.
I actually stay in the Pacific time zone, which is actually where our location is based, we're based out of that, and so, even when we're on the East coast for a while, I'm Pacific time, and so, as we move my times of when I get up, how late I work, how early I work, that shifts, I don't make it a problem for anyone else saying hey, by the way, I'm in the East coast now.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Nobody else has to worry about that.
Russ is always on Pacific time, whether it's nine o'clock on the East coast or six o'clock on the West coast.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
And so it's painful at some times, right, so it's later at night that I work on the East coast, but it's very early on the West coast because everybody's trying to do calls early.
But it ends up helping me too because there's some regularity to it.
My calendar always looks the same, so that's good.
(48:20):
It's painful because I wake my wife up, to get up at five or 4.30 to go through the shower or whatever, but that's okay, it ends up being okay.
In other ways I end up.
My day ends earlier too.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
And we just kind of adjust.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
We roll with it.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
So that was the top 10 things that we've learned.
Speaker 1 (48:41):
That is right.
In our first two years RVing full time, living, working and traveling full time coast to coast, I'm not even sure how to summarize this, because normally we would say you know the things we learned, but we learned 10 things right there.
Oh, that's just 10 of.
That's the top 10.
Yeah, we debated these about which one should make the list.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
But they're ones that they made the list because we have so many stories we could tell you we just don't have time to.
But we wish somebody would kind of led us into some of those.
Like there's some water softener and things like that Just to know.
Just to know that this is coming be, prepared, and it's not a bad thing.
But we learned and in fact, we feel really good about them now.
All of these, we now have a solid comfort level about all of them, we're pros.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
Okay, that's too far Pro level.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Yeah, it's pro strat.
But yeah, that's what we've done and it's exciting.
This has been two years and we're starting season.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Three.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Woo.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
So anyways.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
I think that's where we're gonna tie this up.
We're gonna wrap it up.
Sounds good.
I wanna thank everyone for listening to this.
I know in a little bit longer, please subscribe.
If you haven't, take a look at the show notes.
We're gonna include a lot of links to the topics and the products we talked about here.
So if you're interested to learn more and we hope, oh I- was gonna say, guys, this is an interactive experience.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
If you have any questions or comments or things that we can help illuminate or anything at all, please, please, be in touch, subscribe on the website and we're on social media, always up for email or a Facebook or a message about any questions.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
We'll catch you on the next podcast.
Thanks everyone.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Take care.
Thank you, let's go.
Okay.
Okay, this is great, you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Thank you so much.
Thanks everyone, take care.
Thank you, let's go, okay, so.
Hi, you've reached the Caldwells.
Please leave a message and we will get back with you to suit.
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 (00:26):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
All right, welcome back to the podcast Cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
Cheers everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
All right.
So you know, I always start trying to figure out how to get this thing started, and I think the one thing we've agreed on is I'm going to ask the question where are we now?
Speaker 1 (00:48):
And I answer right.
I hope it's you.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Let me check.
Today it's you.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
This week we are at Pacific Shores Motor Coach Resort in Newport, oregon, on the coast, baby, baby.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And so why is this special?
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Oh well, we're on our way home to Washington state, and so we stopped in Oregon.
Last week we were near Crater Lake, and this week we're out on the coast, which is completely on a unexpected, in my view, anyway.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Was not unexpected that we accidentally got here.
It's unexpected in what we thought we were going to see versus what we saw.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
The reality of Oregon on the coast.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
And you think we wouldn't be surprised because we're like Washingtonians Washingtonians, we should not be surprised.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
But it is To explain.
The Oregon coast is beautiful.
It is rugged, it is stark.
You're set up on the cliffs generally and the sand and the beach and the waves and all is far below.
There's a lot of rocks, some small, some very large, off the coast of Oregon and it is incredibly beautiful.
(02:15):
But it's also surprising in a way.
Okay, there's a lot, that's not surprising.
No, not surprising, but here at this resort on the coast, on the edge.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
On the cliff over the Pacific.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It is very windy.
It's a little cold for June.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Neither of those are the big problem, though.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
It's the fog.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It's the fog.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Oh my gosh, it is aggressively foggy here and I don't know.
Can you explain that?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
I don't know, but I'll try.
It is weird Because if you ever see the movie the fog, you know it's like the ghost ships that come in to kill everybody in the town.
It feels a little bit like that, but it's really the fact that you can see the fog blowing by like smoke.
We talked about it.
It seemed like there's a fire and the smoke is blowing through the campground, but it's just fog and we can't see the ocean right now.
(03:14):
We did 30 minutes ago, but it's gone again.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
However, sometimes we're sitting here at the resort in a pea soup of fog.
But we'll go a mile or two down the road down to Newport Bay where the restaurants are and the waterfront and the fishing colors coming in.
It's very cool and it's blue and clear as day.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
But right on the beach it's many times just fog.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
But, why?
Speaker 2 (03:42):
What's special about right now?
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Oh, ok, do you remember what anniversary this is for us?
I?
Do because you set me up for this and I'm tossing it back to you.
I was trying to scare you, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
I do actually remember because she told me.
By the way, this is our two year anniversary for being full time.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Full time baby.
Full time baby.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Which is a big deal, because I can't you know we started this we never imagined, we never planned to get an RV.
We never planned to travel Like hits.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
We were traveling by phone, by phone.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah and yeah, so now we've been doing this two years, two solid years.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
It was Memorial Day of 2021.
It's crazy.
When we set out, yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
So you know, I'm sure everybody has those kind of things where you started something and then, like two years later, you're like whoa, I'm still doing this and it's even bigger.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
So yeah, that's incredible, and there's always questions.
People ask so many questions about this experience, so we decided, as part of our two year anniversary, full time on the road celebration Baby.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
That we would talk about maybe the top 10 things, top 10 lessons we've learned in our two years on the road, living, working and traveling full time.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah, because it's fun, because when we meet people we all talk about some of these topics, so they come up a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
So if you, yeah, and we also encourage our listeners that if you have questions or comments or anything, at all be in touch.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, what have you learned?
What have you heard?
That is, like you know, really changed how you travel and stuff.
Because these are just the stuff we learned, some the hard way, I'll be honest.
Some were like painful lessons, some were you just slowly learn over time and like, oh, now I get it.
So, yeah, it's been interesting.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Got pretty good at some of these things, so maybe not.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
What would you say?
The first one is Because it's pretty big one.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Okay, so the top 10 lessons in our two years.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
For an RV work life balance kind of way.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
On the road, not just general RV.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Okay, we're dealing with work and life balance.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Okay, so the first, the very first lesson was figuring out our internets, which is your specialty.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
It's funny because I think we've mentioned it before.
Number one question we get while we're on the road and we ask other people the same thing is you know how do you get internet?
Because you know you might use it for entertainment, but we use it for work, right, cherries a writer and publishing stuff all the time.
I'm on zoom all day.
So internet is super important and before we started we were doing what we call it, we were doing part time and we called it in the harbor circling the harbor, we were learning how to do this for the first year.
(06:45):
We had to work out the internet.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, we weren't in Washington for the first year, but the first couple months.
We were out by July of 2021.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
So we had to figure it out, and while we joke about Starlink a lot because we do have it, we didn't have Starlink at the beginning.
We basically had to work out some hotspots from multiple providers because we knew one would be good here and not good there.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Redundancy Redundancy.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Good job.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Good job yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
So we, in fact I remember bringing ordering all this stuff before we even left our house, and we said I started running all of my work over these different internet things without, you know, telling anyone I was working with, because if you couldn't tell as I switched, then it must be good enough.
And that was how I tested these things out.
So we ended up with a T-Mobile offer, we ended up with an AT&T, we ended up with a Verizon, and then eventually, we were able to add Starlink.
(07:45):
But I think that was after season one, right.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
That was our last year, last summer, when we were back in Washington.
So, what are currently our big three.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
The big three In order of it's hard to say.
So the funny thing is, Starlink is number three, not number one, and what I mean by that is it is awesome.
It is awesome.
I'm not going to, I'm not putting it down at all, but I'll be honest.
Getting it out and setting it up is a big deal, and sometimes we are in places with trees and you can't get it out.
(08:19):
So it you can't even come out.
But when we're traveling, even when we're driving, because we do some traveling for eight hours at a time our top two is number one is our AT&T 5G, and we'll have a separate episode about how we do all that.
But that 5G internet from AT&T is number one because it's on 24, seven, feeding the rig all the time, even while we're driving, listening to music, looking things up.
(08:45):
And most, most of the country, I'd say has been reliably AT&T internet service the shocking number two, which, I'll be honest, is starting to climb to number one in a strong way.
I don't remember how I found that one.
It was an introduction from someone, but it's actually an organization that promotes the accessibility of internet, and the organization is called Calix C-A-L-Y-X.
(09:15):
They offer both the devices and services at a very reduced rate, and it is fantastic.
And so our second one is AT-Mobile 5G.
It is actually, right now, twice as fast as the AT&T and in most cases it will defeat AT&T in performance, but it doesn't have it has one disadvantage it doesn't have an external antenna, so I can't leave it up all the time.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
So it's a nerdy thing, but it is amazing, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
And then number three, because I don't want to belabor this.
First item is Starlink.
Now, starlink is stunning when you're in the middle of nowhere.
We've been places where nothing worked.
You'd drop the Starlink antenna out and magic happens.
But if you do zoom, this is the one thing.
Zoom when you get a buffering issue when you're listening to music or you're transmitting an email.
(10:07):
No one notices.
But if you have a stutter of five or 10 seconds while you're zooming, everyone notices it just stops A dreaded freeze frame.
That is not good, it is not.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
When you're in a work conference, it is not, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
90% of the time and we pull it out of the, out of the basement, 40% of the time.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
And the cool thing about what we got because I don't want to stick here- Because right now heading through Oregon and Washington with all the trees it's not very helpful.
We actually have it turned off.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
We have it turned off, which is cool because we don't have to pay for it.
We have the RV version, so we turn it off right on the app and we say we're not going to use it for now, and so you get to turn it off month to month, and so we leave the other two on and so I have it as an emergency backup, which is actually the whole point of redundancy.
So what's cool is, in theory, we'll use it probably 20% of the time cross country and I won't have to pay for it the rest of the time, which is really cool.
(11:06):
So I do love it because it is magical when you need it, but it's nice to not have to pay for it when I have two other fantastic options right now.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
And that's about $150 a month that we're saving by having it kind of in freeze frame or our backup as a tech nerd.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I love to own it, but I'll be honest, I like not having to pay for it too.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
So that's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
So, yeah, that's the number one thing Whenever we have it out.
Before we kind of figured all this out everyone, all the boys, would come to the art, as they say to see the Starlink and talk about it.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I don't like your Starlink.
I don't like your Starlink.
So it was a way to meet people, but that was not the point it did and I always ask.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
I'll be honest, I ask other people too.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
What do they think?
Yeah, and then the only addition to that whole conversation is that our cellular service, our main cellular, is with T-Mobile.
Oh, that's right, our cell phones, that's right, yeah, separate from that Kalex thing, that's right.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
It is still the T-Mobile towers, so they would have the same ability.
But you're right, our phones were different than some of the networks we had originally because we've switched before.
But good point.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
OK.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
All right, so this is a big one for you.
Number two, can we talk about this?
And this is super important when your work-life balance traveling, it is trip planning.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
And what have we learned?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
over the last few years.
What did we learn?
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I didn't learn anything because I don't know how to do this, because I don't know how to do it and trip planning includes our schedule, our campgrounds, rv friendly GPS, which we've talked about before, and the biggest lesson we've learned with that is OK.
Well, there's two things.
Number one is we are still using an app from RV Life called Trip Wizard for planning, scheduling, rv friendly GPS.
(13:05):
But the lesson we've learned with that is trust but verify.
I like that as far as the GPS goes and there's we've talked about that before, I'm sure we'll talk about it again, but having a handy truck atlas so you know which roads are truly big rig accessible and friendly.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Low bridges there Around.
Here we had a low bridge we went through while touring the coast of Oregon and we were so glad we weren't in the rig at the time and tunnels, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So trip planning, we've discovered our favorite places and we tend to really enjoy these quirky campgrounds.
They're actually in the range of like $20 to $50 a night, which is cheap in today's RV life, and they tend to be private campgrounds in unusual places, and we've really had some great experiences that we'll talk about as we go.
(14:12):
So we've discovered our favorite places are quirky campgrounds and outside national parks.
We love visiting national parks and also COE campgrounds.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Corps of engineers.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Army Corps of engineers and they are so cool.
We've only had a chance to stay a couple of times because the biggest drawback Most of the time they don't have all services.
Sometimes, they'll just power.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Sometimes they'll have a power of water.
Rarely do they have all three.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
With a sewer connection, and so staying for a full week can be challenging, although we're getting better.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
We are.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, ok.
Also, with regards to trip planning, we've discovered our ideal pace of travel.
We've learned that we really would like to travel two weeks at a time where we stay at a campground or a resort for two full weeks, because we have the weekend in the middle where we can go exploring.
(15:22):
And also it's a way to save money, because generally campgrounds offer a weekly rate.
Usually it's maybe pay for six and you get your seventh night free, but it is a way to save a little money and so that's nice.
(15:43):
And then also our driving schedule.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, part of the trip planning.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
And we've learned what is the lesson there?
Speaker 2 (15:55):
It's taking a while.
But when you're working, if you're just vacationing, it's one thing, but when you're working, time off is really nice.
And so if we can drive one long day and so we travel on Saturdays and Sundays typically if we can drive one long Saturday and have Sunday off, it's great because we got to work again Monday.
(16:16):
But we have to do two long days of Saturday, Sunday, and then immediately start work on Monday.
It's hard.
So yeah, we've figured out, we would rather double down on a long Saturday knowing we can sleep in on Sunday.
And that took us a while because we were so excited at the beginning.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
We were like whatever, we'll just drive.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
It's awesome, but eventually you're still living your life.
You're still working All the normal stuff you do in a sticks and bricks or a normal house you're still doing.
So when you don't get a day off, it starts to add up and so that's Sunday off.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Woo, that's sweet.
So we tend to prefer to drive one long day, which is generally about six hours.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Yeah, which is longer than most people.
I'll be honest, Right.
Speaker 1 (16:59):
A lot of people are out here on this 3-3-3 schedule.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
You might hear that, and that's what it's literally three hours or 300 miles or stop by 3 PM, depending on what works for you, and so that's again typically people that are retired and they just want to which is I'll be honest, it's a great schedule if you can do that.
Yeah, we unfortunately not.
(17:26):
fortunately, unfortunately we always have a schedule.
We're trying to get to a place because we have an event or we have a work thing, and so we're trying to get across country to hit these things, and so we can't typically go only three hours.
So.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Right, we need to go further and also to be honest, these first two years.
Although our ideal is two weeks, we generally find ourselves week to week, leaving out Saturday, hopefully arriving at our destination Saturday late afternoon, definitely before dark, and then spending the week just because we've had places to be and things to do, and that's the schedule we've been on.
(18:10):
We've also been traveling all the way around the country, from Washington state to Florida and back around, and we're going to try to stick to that two week thing.
We'll let you know, because there's always something somewhere we have to be, and that continues through October, november of this year.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
All right, so we're gonna try to pick up the pace, because we've only gone through two of these items.
Number three learning to be flexible.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Expect the unexpected.
Which is like you know, it seems so obvious when you started.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
You're gonna learn so much, that's true, but we always get caught off guard, always.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah.
And when we had recently.
We had some engine trouble and we ended up in Phoenix Arizona.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Would you say when I asked what's this episode back then Breakdown, breakdown, yeah we talked about breakdowns episode, but you know, it's just the first thing.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
the first reaction is oh no, I have reservations.
I gotta be somewhere, and we have learned that sometimes you just have to call the next place and say, hey, we're at Camp Cummins in Phoenix, Arizona.
We're gonna be a few days late and somehow it all works out, but you've got to expect the unexpected.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Cummins is the engine company that powers our rig, so Camp Cummins is really just sitting in the parking lot waiting to get fixed.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Just so you know.
All right, so let's move along, okay.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So number four, what's number four?
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Oh, this is your expertise and do it yourself RV repair.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
I remember when we got this rig we signed up for, like this extended warranty and we had, you know, the company that sold us the rig.
They were like we're gonna help you.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
You know the moment they threw us the keys it was our, it was our problem at that point.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I did not know that at the time, but now I know that.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
We thought there'd be, you know, like RV service stations.
We thought there'd be people, just with all magical gremlins that would fix this rig.
Yes, Like with your car.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah, there's like people fixing it everywhere.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
Yeah, that's not true.
It's not like that With big rigs.
It's not like that.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
So be prepared that number one, google, is your friend, and I'll be honest.
Number two, youtube, is amazing because they want people that have already solved your problem are there.
I live on watching YouTube 20 times and then doing the repair myself.
So I'm not saying repairs that are super complicated like rebuilding it, transmission or something, but there's a whole bunch of stuff.
(20:58):
We've talked about this before.
When you're rigged, rolls down the road, stuff breaks.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
So you're going to be fixing it.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
So don't wait.
You're not going to be able to wait forever.
There's a huge line of people waiting.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, you can't always get to a service center as wonderful as and IRVC is our national indoor RV centers.
We have a partnership with them.
I write for them, so we love them.
They're a great service center, but you can't always get to the service center and you can always get in to an IRVC or freight liner or Cummins.
(21:32):
We had to wait a week, yeah.
So I just want to say that Russ, who had never worked on an RV before, I could spell RV.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
That was pretty good to date.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
There are over 25 things.
I'd say that you've figured out.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
Wow, that's not even including the coffee pot that I fixed.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
That's pretty good so no, that's just specifically RV.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Thanks yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
And I guess some of the biggest things were Well, you fixed our aqua hot water heater.
That was big, yeah.
So we have something that basically provides what they say infinite hot water.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
What they mean by that is, water goes through this system and it heats it on the fly so that you know it's not a tank, it's tankless, but you know it doesn't always work perfectly.
So and ours is propane powered and it has a igniter and there's been some problems where we've had replaced that igniter twice now, and so I'm pretty good at aqua hot and I'm not even certified, but I probably should be certified to fix that equipment now.
(22:44):
So yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
And because when we had problems with the aqua hot and we would call the RV certified service guys about it, they're like propane.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
We don't do that anymore.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
We don't work on the propane.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Our rigs of 2016, not like a you know 1997.
What are you talking about?
Speaker 1 (23:04):
So you figure these things out yourself with the help of you, of your online community.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
Really.
Speaker 1 (23:11):
And also Freightliner 24 seven and YouTube and YouTube.
Yeah, youtube is the bomb.
So I also want to say that, in addition to the aqua hot, you fixed our water pump.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Yeah.
So everyone that has an RV will have a water pump, and you will probably have to replace it it.
Luckily, this is probably the easiest thing.
Well, not these.
It's pretty freaking easy.
Let's just say that.
But be prepared Water pumps don't last forever.
Luckily, they're relatively easy, but boy, when your water doesn't work your wife's not happy, you better fix that.
(23:44):
So in fact, we carried a backup water pump the whole time, so when ours went out, I had a backup already.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
And you had to fix it yourself.
Had to fix it myself.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Yeah, amazing, no big deal I got.
I got street cred for that, though.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Okay, yeah, like I said, there's a list of 25 things.
This man is fixed.
Speaker 2 (24:04):
So so we're going to move on to number five on this.
We'll go to the next item.
Let's just say that this is another thing that we have learned.
We learned weather patterns, which is my God.
This year we season one, we thought we did Okay.
Season two was all about weather.
It was big.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Right, Because you try to time your travels Okay.
We all know hurricane season in Florida June through Well as it turns out.
I thought it was October but it turns out it's November, but okay.
So hurricanes has been a thing this year with.
We arrived in Florida the first week of November, ended up driving back up to Atlanta for tropical storm Nicole that turned into a hurricane.
(24:54):
That was a thing, okay.
So we all know Florida hurricanes, okay.
Then when we left Florida and headed across the Southeast back toward the West Coast, there's, there's tornadoes, guys.
They chased us everywhere.
Oh my God.
Four separate tornado events we did and we ended up in a in a shelter in Arkansas, at the RV resort that we were at Our bug out bag and we got into the shelter.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
We said we're never going to see our rig again and crazy.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Crazy experience.
So we finally got out of the Southeast and we ended up in the Southwest.
What's the big thing in the Southwest?
Dust storms.
That is actually what we believe, screwed up our rig.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Oh, the camp Cummins thing, we actually had dust storms last season too, so the Southwest has hit us two years in a row with dust storms.
So that's, no joke.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
So yeah, yeah, and then we finally get back to the West Coast and I guess actually this year this has been a thing all over, yeah.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Last year it was the wildfires that Montana and Washington and Canada and Oregon and things like that, but we haven't hit that yet where we are now.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
but wildfires and smoke.
But wildfire and smoke season, yeah, it's been bad.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
So yeah, the weather patterns has been.
That's what's really funny, because the previous season we started when we rolled into Montana and we hit wildfires and I thought that was going to be crazy season.
Yeah, this year was pretty tame and this year was way worse, with hurricanes and tornadoes.
Yeah, it was like smoke is one thing, but when your rig is flying away in a tornado, that's completely different.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
And we already know in our travel plans okay, we spend the winter maybe in Florida, but not this year.
You want to be where it's warm during the winter, and then we know that the best season in Washington state, the best time to be there, is July.
(26:59):
Basically, right, july.
August maybe September but, we're usually on our way out at the end of July.
It's beautiful then, yeah yeah, because of the rain and the seasons.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
So we're literally rolling in during that time.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yeah, because we're trying to work it out.
Plus we have July birthdays.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
That we can do with kids.
Yeah, we have kids to see and family to enjoy and have a great time.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
So you're constantly worrying about the weather patterns and understanding the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning when you go to the shelter.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, and so why this is important?
Because if you live in a sticks and bricks or a house, right, you're worried about your local weather, and so if you live on the West Coast maybe in California you have earthquakes and fires and stuff.
You live in Florida, you worry about hurricanes.
We get to see all of it as we travel, so it depends on where you're going.
We do coast to coast and we love seeing the whole country, so of course we get to try to dodge some of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
We are trying to travel.
We didn't do great at it this year.
We kept seeing the driving into it, so yeah, they were chasing us.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
All right, next one, let's move along.
The next one.
What is the next one?
Speaker 1 (28:10):
We wanted to talk about something we've learned about the social life of RVers.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Did we learn anything about the social life?
Speaker 1 (28:18):
We have, you have, yeah, so we've talked about this before.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
The cool thing is like when we used to live in a house or in the condo in Seattle we barely met our neighbors, we barely got to talk to people and, what was interesting, when we hit the road, I did to be fair.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Okay, apparently it's just me, but you as a worker guy.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Exactly, but we meet everybody.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
What's interesting is I met nobody.
I meet more people than you do now he does.
That's what's funny, and it's always when we're leaving.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, when I'm supposed to be on the hook and get ready to go, people want to talk to me there, he cannot walk outside the RV door without the boys coming to the yard asking about the Starlink.
Speaker 1 (29:02):
and how do you like your integral Exactly?
But, beyond that, everyone is so very friendly in the campgrounds and the events that we go to.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
So we go to a lot of cool events.
We go to the FMCA, which is the Family Motor Coach Association.
We go to AIME Event, which is all-inclusive motor homes.
We go to lots of different places and we meet cool people and some of them you really just hit it off with because you do connect.
And what's cool is new best friends and you get to connect with them online the rest of the time, and occasionally you get to connect back up and see each other at another event.
(29:38):
So we've met some neat friends.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Give a sample of some of the people that we just love just bumping into over and over A shout out and there've been so many, because it is a very warm and welcoming and outgoing community.
But new best friends we've got to shout out to Kim and Pete hey.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Pete.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Ha, ha, ha ha.
Also George, andrew and Elizabeth Taylor.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Hey Elizabeth Taylor.
Speaker 1 (30:09):
Ha, ha, ha, ha, we, we, you gotta explain.
Elizabeth Taylor I know I'm trying to think of how to do that in a short term.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
It's their dog.
It's their dog, Okay not their dog.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
So it took me until we actually met them in real life.
I didn't really realize that I was conversing on Facebook with a dog, the dog's famous Ha ha, ha ha.
So then, so anyway, kim and Pete George, andrew and Elizabeth George and Andrew and Elizabeth Taylor, we met at the AIM All Inclusive Motorhome Club rallies and events and just love them and I've enjoyed seeing them after.
(30:52):
Also, Ann and Brian are Integra friends.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
Hey Brian.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Who are on the road of adventure.
They do videos and and write ups and newsletters on Facebook.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
They're amazing.
We're gonna end up talking to them in the future so you'll, you'll, you'll get a chance, hopefully, to talk to them.
Yeah, and their dog, skipper, he's so cute.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Who else?
Oh, Bob and Lisa.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Bob, we get to go fishing soon.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
I promise you're going to teach me how to fish, so who travel in a TARDIS, which is a story for another time, hard to explain that.
Speaker 2 (31:33):
So catch the next episode or a Upscoming when they drive.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
They drive a.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
TARDIS.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Let's just say that, and we actually first saw them at Stone Mountain, a campground in outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
Didn't meet them until a couple of months later in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Speaker 2 (31:54):
Oh, that's right.
So if we haven't said this before, so you're right, we met them and went.
We didn't meet them the first time we saw them and we didn't know them.
And you're right, it's because of the TARDIS that we saw them and that was a location where a movie was being shot.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Oh, in New Mexico.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
In New Mexico for Disney, and so Disney was shooting a movie at the campground we were all staying at.
We did not.
Nobody knew that, neither Bob and Lisa or ourselves did not know that, and so we got to meet them there.
So that's right, I forgot there was a connection there.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Which was independent of the movie that was being filmed.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I know I didn't get to be in the movie this time.
No, I tried.
They didn't want me.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
It was George Lopez and Eva Longoria Longoria, that's right Filming Alexander's.
Very bad day Terrible, very bad, horrible day.
The children's book.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
So we're excited to see that come out, because we were there while they shot that yes.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
And totally random, but this is what happens.
The thing was we met Bob and Lisa and the TARDIS, even though we had seen them in Georgia and watched them pull in, and that was a whole other story in itself.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
And we'll end up talking to Bob and Lisa as well, because they're an interesting couple that have some amazing stories to tell with their bikes and stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (33:12):
Also working on the road.
That's right.
That's right they work out of the rig.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
So these are some of the things when you work life balance, when you meet people doing similar things, they're traveling, they have great stories, so that was really cool.
What's the next thing?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
OK, then the next lesson that we learned out of the 10 in our first two years is that water quality is a thing.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah, it's hard to believe you'd have to think about your plumbing, your electrical, your internet, all that stuff, all these things you take for granted at home.
Water, big deal, real big deal.
So this actually turned out to be something that we caught, caught off guard.
We were in.
Where was it?
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Detroit Lakes, minnesota, that's right.
Speaker 2 (33:54):
Detroit Lakes.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
With the hard water issues.
Speaker 2 (33:58):
So we didn't know about this.
We learn, unfortunately, sometimes the hard way.
This is one of the hard ways, and there was a lot of storms that week too, so we had lots of storms.
It was an interesting week over there, but the thing was we parked the rig and we had noticed people had these big tanks beside their.
They're the longer term.
People had big tanks there and I didn't think twice, kind of like we had talked about in the last episode about everyone having their hoods up.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
It was like you.
Just think about it.
I'm like huh, I wonder why they have those things.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
I should probably investigate this now, but I didn't, and so we get halfway through the week we're there and we started seeing the residue of hard water on dishes and in the appliances that in our rig.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
And on the outside of the rig we'd have those spots.
That was starting out.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
That's right, that's right.
So we started seeing this as we started crossing and it really got bad in Detroit Lakes, minnesota.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
And honestly, in Washington state before and then when we lived in Atlanta, Georgia for 25 years, we never had to think about hard water versus soft water.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Okay, maybe we're not.
City water is processed, but all of a sudden, we're experiencing hard water.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
This is well water.
What the hell is that?
That's right.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It's got a lot of minerals in it and it ends up potentially damaging appliance things like that.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
And we started seeing it and our systems, yeah, started messing up the systems.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
And then a quick Google and noticing these other rigs quickly were like we need a softener, a water softener.
We may sound like the dumbest people on the planet and everybody's like, oh my God, you should have known that we did not Because again, we didn't know that and you had to have one that was portable and mobile.
So we did the research and we quickly, we had to drive a long way.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
We ended up driving from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, to Chicago almost all the way to Chicago.
Illinois.
Oh, that was the next stop.
But yeah we did go into Chicago to pick up this special water softener thingy from Camping World.
We ordered through them.
Yeah, it was an on the go system.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
You can Google it on the go.
Water softener.
Love this system.
It's basically based on a simple salt.
You just end up putting in table salt and it softens the water.
I'm sure there's other systems.
It's been working for us for over a year.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
It's made such a huge difference, particularly in those places where there's hard water versus treated soft water.
Yeah, if it's city water.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
It's been treated.
You don't have the same problems.
But a lot of times the campgrounds, as we're traveling, you're in the middle of nowhere.
It's just.
It's basically pumped on the ground, out of the ground, which is fine.
It's nice and clean.
The problem is is that it's got a lot of different.
You know hard minerals and stuff that'll show up as these calcites that are on your dishes and appliances and stuff.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
But the softener can really mess up your pipes.
Yeah, it can really mess things up.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
So that was a big big thing that we didn't plan on and I'll be honest, add it to your list if you're gonna be full time, we'll have to put a picture and a link.
We'll put links, yeah, in the show notes below.
All right, next one.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Oh, but wait one more thing.
Speaker 2 (37:18):
One more note on the water systems.
What is it?
Speaker 1 (37:21):
Is filtration.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Oh, okay, so that's big.
Yeah, so okay, this is big.
So before, so we already knew about water filtering, right?
We actually hadn't.
We didn't know about water softening at the time when we started, we knew about filtering, so we had started like everyone.
Where you go to the Walmart system you get the little blue filter turns out it's crushed.
No, the green system.
(37:44):
It was a crushed carbon filter kind of thing and it really doesn't catch anything other than like, maybe, a mouse that's going through it.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
It's not good at all.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
And then the next level up.
We were using this green system I forget the name of it, doesn't matter, it's at Walmart, but this and it's actually very good.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
It's got a one micron and a 10 micron kind of thing, and that was good, but they don't last long, yeah, because you use them and they clog up in like two weeks and then you have no water and those things are super expensive, and so we were going through them a lot.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
The water was okay, but it gets slowed down.
We did that for the first nine months and because we want good water, we don't want to be drinking or using bad water.
But it was not financially a very good option.
So we started doing more research and in the last six months we've made the move from in Tampa to clear source, which has a three filter system one that pulls out rust, one that pulls out normal particulates and stuff and then one that actually pulls out viruses and stuff.
(38:50):
So it's really, really amazing and it changes the taste of the water, it changes the quality of the water and it lasts so much longer.
But that's taken us almost the full two years to figure out and cannot say enough good things about that.
But that's different from softening.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
So well also that filtration system, that we have now is in addition to you've got so many filters on seven filters, yeah.
I mean not just us specifically, but in the RV.
We've got the filter coming into the RV, that's right.
(39:25):
And then there's a filter on the refrigerator.
So what?
Speaker 2 (39:29):
she's talking about.
We have the clear source as external, and outside there's three separate filters, so you may not have that.
Maybe you're just using the one from Walmart, the blue one.
It's a good way to get started.
You'll have that one, but in our inside our rig, we already have a full house master filter and that everything goes through that, and then there's a separate filter down there that feeds the refrigerator for us.
(39:50):
Okay, so that's down there too.
That's another one, and actually in the refrigerator inside the rig there's another filter that filters the water.
One more time for the ice maker.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
And we use the Brita filter and then my wife loves.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
Brita.
So there's actually she puts it through another filter.
So we have a lot of filters, but I'll be honest it wasn't enough.
It wasn't enough.
The main thing was that clear source keeping anything from going through any of the other filters.
So all the other filters in the house were just traditional kind of filters that capture, you know, larger particulates and some of the other stuff, but but nothing like the rust and the virus protection kind of stuff.
(40:26):
It changes completely.
We would go places.
I remember the water would actually smell when you turned it on and that was going through like four filters.
I'm like something's not right here.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
So now we have none of that, none of that, and we go across country.
But that took us.
This is part of the lessons learned that took us almost the full two years to figure out.
I wish we'd learn that sooner.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
Yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:49):
All right, what's next?
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Okay, well, another most favorite product that we should talk about for just a minute is our marriage saver.
Oh, the walkie talkies that could be dirty, that could be dirty.
Speaker 2 (41:12):
But walkie talkie, we'll keep this quick, just to say so.
It's like a sport when you're traveling is watching other people back their rigs in right.
Speaker 1 (41:21):
It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
So you sit around with your drink, you're watching somebody back in and inevitably they don't have walkie talkies.
They 90% of the time, don't even use our phone.
They're waving their hands because they believe and yelling that they believe they're the other person that understands or cell phones, which don't always.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
you don't always have cell phone service, so that's not reliable.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
So it's hilarious because they end up yelling at each other.
And didn't you hear me?
Blah, blah blah it's hilarious where we were the last location.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Everybody watches everybody.
Come on, guys.
So you're looking to like minimize your stress.
Right Communication is number one.
That's true in your marriage.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
That's true in back in an RV in.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
And you want to look professional Pros.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
So yeah, the last place.
The couple was backing in for 15 minutes while other people were waiting to get in.
And they had no radios.
They also didn't know what they were doing, and yelling at each other.
They got out and yelled at each other.
You don't want that.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
I'll do it then.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
And fine, we were at a place just recently and somebody came to you afterwards and said I really liked your radios.
Speaker 1 (42:24):
We have walkie talkies that we ordered from Amazon.
They're so awesome that we had.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
We got them for our daughter and her boyfriend when they were traveling across country in a U-Haul, in a car.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
We got them for Scott and Kelly, yeah, on their inaugural RV adventure.
Speaker 2 (42:45):
It's a marriage saver.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
The walkie talkies are amazing and they're fun.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Yeah, that was supposed to be quick.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
All right, Number the next one we're going to talk about.
Oh wait, you're on the off.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
No, and actually the walkie talkies, the marriage savers kind of segue into number nine yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:06):
Living and working together in a very small space.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
This is probably.
This is a huge lesson of living, working and traveling full time in an RV.
Guys, we've been married 35 years, 35 years this August, yep, and it was an adjustment learning to live together in 400 square feet of space with both of us working, and just this lifestyle.
(43:39):
I'm noisy, but we have, we have survived.
You are noisy, you're just loud, but thank goodness.
Thank you, I'll take that as a compliment and I guess you know I have my own issues, I I.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
I You're perfect.
No, no, that's not true, yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
That's why all your worker, your work coworkers are like.
I'll always say bless you when I sneeze in the back.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Well, those are the same coworkers that wrote on my whiteboard inside voice Cause I was so loud.
He was loud, I'm very loud.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
So how we've lived, how we've learned to live and work together in our very small space.
We are very fortunate that we have a back bedroom and a back bathroom that separates from the front of the RV with a big, nice wooden sliding door, so we both have our own space, so to speak, and we both have our own bathroom during the day, because we have a half bath in the front.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
That is awesome.
So I ended up making coffee in the morning, and then I'm up here in the front, I have my desk, I have the coffee and I have my own half bath, and then there's a door that separates so she could be back there working on calls whatever she has her own bathroom.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
Sneezing, Sneezing luckily I don't have to say anything.
So yeah, it's great.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
But we know, not everybody has the same design rigs.
In fact some of our friends they say, oh, we have a huge master bathroom but they don't have a second bathroom.
And you know, we actually thought our half bath was not gonna be a big deal.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
We were like eh, I was like, hey, could we make that into a pantry?
Just take that toilet out of there.
And now we're like, oh my goodness, we are so glad that's there.
Speaker 2 (45:24):
So, but that's important because, again, some of our friends are retired and traveled, so it's not the same, you know.
So when your work-life balance, you're trying to work out in a rig, it is different.
It's important to have a place where I don't bother you while I'm doing stuff.
And, yeah, I run between calls.
I go to the restroom, I fill my coffee, I get back in my desk.
I shouldn't be affecting you, so yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
So I have workspace in the back in the bedroom, but then I can also I mean, there have been times when I still enjoy going to libraries local libraries where I can work amidst the books and the history, and it's a really nice quiet place that I can camp out for an hour or a couple hours to get some work done.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
Yeah, what's nice is you can actually still come upfront.
You can, you know, make food and coffee and stuff like that, because the way I've got my desk set up in my Zoom I'm facing against the rig wall so nobody sees you as you walk by, so you can come and go outside.
We just wanted to make sure, like if I have some very early calls sometimes it's actually the next item.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Yeah, that kind of leads into number 10.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Yeah, which is sometimes it's very early for me and I don't want to wake her up and so I'm able to kind of like cordon off the back of the rig and she can be fine, and that is number 10.
What is number 10?
Speaker 1 (46:42):
Number 10 is this work life balance and the key secret that Russ has learned to really make it manageable, his life manageable, and that is time zone management I stay on one time zone.
Speaker 2 (47:00):
So if you're not traveling across time zones, this does not apply to you.
But we go coast to coast and most of the time, and so we end up traveling across all the time zones in the US, and that I've always tried to make sure not be a problem for anyone else I work with.
Now I talk to people all over the world, so Australia.
Speaker 1 (47:19):
China, uk, india everywhere.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
Yeah, it's just lots of time zones, but I never make it their problem, so I stay in one time zone.
I actually stay in the Pacific time zone, which is actually where our location is based, we're based out of that, and so, even when we're on the East coast for a while, I'm Pacific time, and so, as we move my times of when I get up, how late I work, how early I work, that shifts, I don't make it a problem for anyone else saying hey, by the way, I'm in the East coast now.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
Nobody else has to worry about that.
Russ is always on Pacific time, whether it's nine o'clock on the East coast or six o'clock on the West coast.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
And so it's painful at some times, right, so it's later at night that I work on the East coast, but it's very early on the West coast because everybody's trying to do calls early.
But it ends up helping me too because there's some regularity to it.
My calendar always looks the same, so that's good.
(48:20):
It's painful because I wake my wife up, to get up at five or 4.30 to go through the shower or whatever, but that's okay, it ends up being okay.
In other ways I end up.
My day ends earlier too.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
And we just kind of adjust.
Speaker 2 (48:34):
We roll with it.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:37):
So that was the top 10 things that we've learned.
Speaker 1 (48:41):
That is right.
In our first two years RVing full time, living, working and traveling full time coast to coast, I'm not even sure how to summarize this, because normally we would say you know the things we learned, but we learned 10 things right there.
Oh, that's just 10 of.
That's the top 10.
Yeah, we debated these about which one should make the list.
Speaker 2 (49:02):
But they're ones that they made the list because we have so many stories we could tell you we just don't have time to.
But we wish somebody would kind of led us into some of those.
Like there's some water softener and things like that Just to know.
Just to know that this is coming be, prepared, and it's not a bad thing.
But we learned and in fact, we feel really good about them now.
All of these, we now have a solid comfort level about all of them, we're pros.
Speaker 1 (49:26):
Okay, that's too far Pro level.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
Yeah, it's pro strat.
But yeah, that's what we've done and it's exciting.
This has been two years and we're starting season.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
Three.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
Woo.
Speaker 1 (49:40):
So anyways.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
I think that's where we're gonna tie this up.
We're gonna wrap it up.
Sounds good.
I wanna thank everyone for listening to this.
I know in a little bit longer, please subscribe.
If you haven't, take a look at the show notes.
We're gonna include a lot of links to the topics and the products we talked about here.
So if you're interested to learn more and we hope, oh I- was gonna say, guys, this is an interactive experience.
Speaker 1 (50:03):
If you have any questions or comments or things that we can help illuminate or anything at all, please, please, be in touch, subscribe on the website and we're on social media, always up for email or a Facebook or a message about any questions.
Speaker 2 (50:29):
We'll catch you on the next podcast.
Thanks everyone.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Take care.
Thank you, let's go.
Okay.
Okay, this is great, you're welcome.
Speaker 2 (50:35):
Thank you so much.
Thanks everyone, take care.
Thank you, let's go, okay, so.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.