August 13, 2023 • 44 mins
RVing from the KOA Journey in Butte, Montana: Sherri & Russ reveal Sherri’s RV Work History and how living, working, and traveling full time as a Freelance Writer led to surprising new opportunities as a Digital Nomad Writer… And Guest Blogging for NIRVC – National Indoor RV Centers.
~~~~~~~~~~
- 08-13-2023 - EPISODE 4 - (00:44:49)
- Title: RV Work: Digital Nomad Writer - Sherri & NIRVC
EPISODE SUMMARY:
We never had the plan to do this, so when we got on the road, we didn’t know what was going to happen… you never know what opportunities are going to be put in front of you…
First in this episode of RV Work Life Balance, explore with us the fascinating history and eerie landscape of Butte, Montana: From its Boomtown mining days as The Richest Hill on Earth, through its century-long transformation into a toxic wasteland, buckle up for a spooky adventure!
Then we’ll get to RV Work, revealing Sherri’s work history and new job opportunities on the road: After a long career as a travel writer, published author, journalist, blogger and copywriter, Sherri discovered an irresistible Help Wanted Ad in a Campground Guide and leaped into a lucrative opportunity with a great company ON THE ROAD. Want to know more? Listen in! 😉
Full Time RV Life led to surprising new opportunities – crapportunities?! – from a disastrous RV service experience… to guest blogging, writing and traveling with NIRVC and the All Inclusive Motorhome (AIM) Club.
Learn more about becoming a Digital Nomad Writer!
Our mission is to share what we learn about RV Work Life Balance and introduce you to new opportunities, people, places, and ideas that might be of interest or inspiration…
Let’s hit the road together for this unique journey!
– – – – – HIGHLIGHTS – – – – –
- (00:01:35) – Spooky History: Butte, Montana
- (00:07:55) – Film Production: 1923 / Yellowstone
- (00:14:32) – Campground Guides – RV Job Opportunity!
- (00:21:33) – BooksAndTravelUSA.com
- (00:22:25) – National Indoor RV Centers
- (00:25:15) – Meeting RV YouTube Superstars Mark & Sue
- (00:33:05) – Working & Traveling With NIRVC
~~~~~~~~~~
→ 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:
- LOST BUTTE, MONTANA BOOK by Richard I. Gibson - From the stately Queen Anne mansions of the West Side to the hastily constructed shanties of Cabbage Patch, Lost Butte, Montana traces the city's history through its architectural heritage.
- The Rebel Housewife Rules: To Heck With Domestic Bliss! BOOK by Sherri Caldwell & Vicki Todd (2004)
>> 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 & RV-friendly GPS!
- FMCA - Family Motor Coach Association - Find your tribe on the road & so much more with the #1 RV Travel Club!
.css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}
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 (00:25):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey, welcome back.
Thanks for joining us again.
So let's start with cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Cheers everybody, boom, I like it.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So in my favorite question I always say that because it's super cool, because we get to do this lifestyle is where are we today?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And we are in Butte Montana at the KOA journey.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
It is interesting.
So so we're big fans of Montana.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Okay, just to be really clear, huge fans of Montana from our previous travels across country.
But it is in Butte which we've been once before, right, yeah, like 30 years ago, 30 years ago.
That's right, and so far it's not been super awesome, it's been unusual.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Oh, I don't know.
I got to ride the trolley.
That was cool, you got the fun.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You did get a cool, fun trolley ride.
She loves trolley rides.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I do, yeah, and it was.
It was really good.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
What was your favorite thing on the trolley?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Well, it was very historic.
Butte has this amazing historic district like from the 1880s and also a very tragic mining history around these parts that I never knew any of this.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, there's a very big visual.
Look at the mountain side here.
Yeah, they have the big structures where the the mines were set up and you could see them.
So you know where these mines are and each one of them has their own body count, right?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, lots of deaths there's been fires, there's been explosions, there's just been all kinds of things.
And then, well, my favorite part which is kind of weird in retrospect, but is the Berkeley pit, which I then took you to.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
The Berkeley pit, also known as one of the super fun sites.
The cleanup sites, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
It's kind of creepy but really kind of awesome.
How do I explain that?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, it's, it's.
It's like, basically, you're paying to go to a toxic waste dump, right.
That's kind of what it's like.
Yeah, yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
But it is so weird because what it is butte Montana started as a mining town and they were tunneling down in the down underneath the earth and bringing all the copper and different valuable metals.
Butte was known for a time as the richest hill on earth.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Right Tons of mining.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And.
But then at some point, the, the, the copper kings decided that they, instead of mining underground, which was very expensive, they started digging these big pit mines.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, strip mining, this Strip mining.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And there's still evidence of that.
I mean, that's what Butte is these big hills that have been carved up?
and they're different colors and it's amazing.
So it was that big pit mine that then, because of all the toxic metals and things, became a huge super fund cleanup site, toxic, and so they shut it down.
(03:58):
And so now that big mining pit where they sent men and trucks and beasts and all kinds of things to bring out the ore, carve up the hillside, bring out the ore, it's now because they stopped working on it.
I guess there were water pumps in the 10,000 miles of tunnels underneath Butte and once they shut the mining operation down, they stopped the water pumps.
(04:27):
So all of the ground water, all of the water backfilled into this pit, and so now it's like a thousand feet deep.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And it's totally toxic.
Yeah, it's weird because there's stories and we won't go too much, but it was enough of a story that's interesting, where hundreds of like Canadian geese landed one year on it, and they all died because of such of the toxic heavy metals and arsenic and just really bad things.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So now they have special devices that we're there Well yeah, and then they're like to the pit overlook and it's really stunning because it's this weird glowing aqua green color and then the hillsides are very steep so that not in it's all surrounded by a huge fence and chain link on the top or chain link fence with barbed wire on the top Right yeah.
(05:26):
But in order to keep the birds and animals out of that, because it's instant death, so they have noises that go off all the time.
There's these pops and sounds and gunshots explosions.
The tour guide said that at times they play rock music and it's all an effort to keep animals away and keep birds from flying into that pit, into that water.
(05:57):
And it was so bad after that Canadian geese where thousands died, that they now have drones that look like predator birds so that if they see on their radar a flock of birds coming over, they take more aggressive action.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
The noises go on all the time, but if there's a flock of birds coming on the radar they send the drones out the predator drones to scare them away.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, and it's different than the actual.
If you Google predator drone, you're going to see US military drones, but these are predator birds and that's exactly the kind of stuff that airports have been doing for a while.
They use the explosions and certain birds and I've known that for a while because birds they don't want them getting sucked in the engines and obviously the birds dying, but of course, potentially taking airplanes down.
(06:55):
But this toxic lake is scary.
It could really be.
We haven't talked about this, but it could really be a good origin story to a super villain, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
It totally could, it totally could.
And I walked out of that place and got back in the trolley and I'm like, oh, I guess that's where they hide the bodies, huh.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, we joked about that.
It's like if you're hiding the body, throw it into that, Because you cannot go in there.
You cannot send divers in there.
So this is not an encouragement to bad people.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
No, no, but it is.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I'm sure everyone's thought of this.
It's pretty creepy, but it's now not only a super fun site, but it's also a place where they collect money for tourists to come see it, which is unusual yeah.
Unusual.
It's an interesting town, let's just say that.
And I think anyone that's in mining mining is always dangerous and they've got a lot of dangerous stories here.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, so, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So in all of that I took you around a bit, tried to show you what I learned.
What was your favorite thing?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
My favorite thing.
I'm a huge film and TV show buff and they shot the prequel to the Yellowstone 1923.
They shot a lot of scenes here.
So when we drove around we saw the shots where the boxing ring that was outside and there was a bar they go into.
(08:20):
So we walked around and shot photos.
We'll try to put some of those in the show notes down there below, but it's cool.
So you get to see where Montana is used as Montana for Yellowstone and all the prequels.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, very cool.
It was a stand-in for Bozeman.
A lot, a lot of the signs that they put up were Bozeman.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
And back, if you haven't seen that prequel in 1923, they still have horses and the introduction of cars is there.
So it's a mixture of cars and horses.
It's very fun, and so we parked right where some of the scenes were right there on the street.
So that was my favorite thing was you driving me around to the best spots of what the trolley had shown you and I thought that was amazing, so I thought that was great.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
And that was right on Broadway Street downtown Bozeman.
I mean Butte Sorry.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
They tricked you.
You believed it was Bozeman yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
It was very cool.
Apparently they still have studio and production space here in town, or at least they did as recently as August 1, right, because the Yellowstone, the 1923 production company, had rented out the Butte Civic Center, which is this huge building that they were using as a production facility, and then, when the writers went on strike and TV productions shut down, apparently they worked out a deal.
(09:44):
The production company worked out a deal with Butte and that Civic Center.
They are going to break their lease, which they were paying $75,000 a month just for that location, and all their stuff is still in there.
They have the rest of the month to get all the stuff out.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
We're big fans of going to see Locations where films and movies and TV shows are shot, so it's really kind of cool.
And this is pretty recent.
This is a prequel.
That was very recent, so it was neat to see that Harrison Ford and all the other major actors it was really cool.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
And it's so fun to watch these shows.
As we go across country, we always try to find books or television shows or movies that kind of is based in the area and it's interesting and that would be a really cool job if you had it A job on the road going around.
We saw a movie making production in New Mexico when we were there.
(10:42):
We did so maybe that's a job opportunity.
So that was all to say.
That was a big segue.
It's been a big week in Butte.
We have been exploring, but also we've both been crazy busy with work.
I've been on deadline y'all.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, so not just any deadline.
What kind of deadline was it?
No?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I was finishing a series of articles for NIRVC, National Indoor RV Centers.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And we've mentioned before, that's who you work for while we're on the road here.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yes, yes, I write for the NIRVC blog.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, and so in the past we've done a quick conversation about what I do and that's what got us on the road was the ability to take my desk job and move it on the road.
But really what we thought would be interesting was to talk about Sherry's job, and I want to toot her horn, so to speak here.
(11:38):
Ooh, but she's an amazing writer and she's been writing for a long time and in fact I want to start with one of the coolest things.
She's a published author.
She has an awesome book.
It's Women's Humor.
The Rebel Housewife Rules.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
To heck with domestic bliss.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's right.
So go ahead and Google that and we'll put it in the show notes.
But she's done all sorts of writing, so she's written for newspapers and magazines.
She's been blogging since before.
Blogging was cool.
Let me honest, right Long time ago.
She's been blogging.
She's done a lot of travel writing Because even before we've done this, we did a lot of travel, whether it was with our family or with our previous jobs kind of thing and then you got into copywriting which was interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
That was different Working with a company called AWAI.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
America, American Writers and Artist Institute.
I think.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah, and that's a great organization.
We'll put that link in the show notes as well.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, because they actually teach people, writers and non-writers, how to get into the business of copywriting, which is marketing and all kinds of marketing advertising, all kinds of different writing opportunities.
So at a time I wanted to make more money so I went into marketing and advertising and then ended up doing some coaching and editing for AWAI.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, you're actually.
And then again I'm going to say something cool.
She's won awards with that organization from writing some amazing pitches and the marketing materials she's produced, so she learned a lot with that, but that also drove her career into some of the stuff we do today, which is awesome, and so what did that take us to?
So you did all this.
You have this amazing starting a part of the storyline here as a great writer.
(13:30):
And then we start to go down this path of where we are today.
And then what happened?
What happened?
Tell me what happened.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Well, in 2019, we moved from Atlanta, georgia, to Seattle Washington, and that was a big change in our lives, and so I was exploring some other writing avenues and opportunities.
And then what happened?
2020, covid boom, and it just kind of changed everything.
(13:57):
2020, if you remember, was going to be our my year of international travel writing.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That was so set up perfectly.
We had so many places to go, so many places we were going and then, like everybody, we were all caught off guard with oh, I guess nothing's going to happen now.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So yeah it was going to be a bummer, yeah.
So then we had talked about how we ended up being in an RV and taking Russ's job on the road.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, we'll link that episode below, so if you haven't heard that episode, we'll have it in the show notes.
That's how we kind of got on the road.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Our origin story.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Our origin story.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And in that transition something really interesting happened.
This was on our way back from picking the RV up in Des Moines, iowa.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That was the time we still knew nothing about RVs, by the way, nothing.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
In our first campground experiences.
Well, the first campgrounds and every campground, since usually they hand you this campground guide at a check-in, which is so cool.
I don't know if you're familiar with these things, but basically remember those old-time placemats that they used to have in the restaurants.
(15:10):
That would have a map of the city, the area, and then all around the edge of the placemat there would be advertisers local advertisers.
Well, a campground guide is kind of the same thing.
It's a slick little fold-over sheet that usually has a map of the campground and all their deals.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
She's holding the current one we're at right now, by the way, just so if you haven't heard that she loves these things, we have stacks of these things at the rig.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I collect them, I have collected them for the last three years because I find them fascinating.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I guess that's better than collecting plates and spoons and stuff.
This is great.
We have pieces of paper, which is cool.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
And we did talk about these when we were talking about medical emergencies and having the information at hand, and the campground guide is a great little resource.
So, anyway, we got back to Washington State.
We were staying at our favorite RV resort in Washington, which is Fadalgo Bay RV Resort in Anacortes, washington.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Very cool.
If you're going to Washington, go there.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
It's awesome, but leave a summer room for us.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Leave a space for us.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
But they have a campground guide and I was looking at the campground guide and I noticed earn on the road Free, stay at top campgrounds, Earn residual income, Connect our customers with you small businesses.
And it is an ad for Southeast Publicationscom and there was a 1-800 number and I love these little things so much and I was like hmm.
(16:45):
I'm going to call and find out and so for a time I got a job and I was working with Southeast Publications and it was fantastic and what it was.
Basically we would go to a campground for two weeks and I would work that job and what it was was updating their campground guide if they had one, like going and talking to the local businesses and attractions and things like that and convince them to put advertising in the campground guide.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, it was a cool sales job to help pay for these awesome maps that she loves so much, and so the campground basically gets this basically for free, right, because it's paid for by the advertising.
So it's a win-win for everybody, in fact, all three people the people that get the maps love them, the advertisers that are putting there.
(17:44):
They get a chance to sell pizza or repairs or whatever they're selling, and the campground gets an awesome map and stacks of them without having to pay anything, right their information is on one side and all the community information is on the other.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
It's a really cool setup.
They are great and it was really fun.
I mean, I talked about being in advertising and marketing and for the campgrounds that did not already have a campground guide, I got to design the campground guide and draw the maps and in addition to helping the businesses and the advertisers with their advertisements and we had design help from the company and they would actually produce it but it was a really fun job.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
We had a great time.
So that's kind of where we started is.
You found this and it was really cool.
You even had.
I took pictures.
She had a cool shirt with the logo and.
I sent her out with her little lunch and she got to go do this great job.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I sat on Zoom the whole time.
I got paid to explore the community and talk to people.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
It was totally cool Because we were still, at that time, even learning how to use the rig, learning how to where to go.
We would go out like two weeks at a time maximum.
And it was perfect.
It checked every box.
We got paid.
In fact, there was another benefit we get to stay there for free.
Free camping for two weeks, you were free while you were there, so it didn't cost anything.
(19:11):
It was really cool, but we speed forward a little bit, right?
So, we talked about in the past, where we toured the harbor, as we say we were learning how to do the rig Right.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
This was all in Washington state, that's right.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
We stayed and we were just figuring out our rig and learning how to be on the road working.
And then we decided, hey, we want to go on the road more full time, right?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
That was for about six months, from like October until we left.
We went full time in May of 2021.
So it was about six, eight months and I worked with them, yeah, but then, as we were making this decision and looking forward to this adventure of living, working and traveling full time on the road and we were still very new to this whole RV lifestyle thing with Southeast Publications I just needed we needed more flexibility.
(20:09):
Where we wanted to go, yeah, of where we wanted to go and and and.
Yeah, at the time everything was so new.
You know the logistics of full time live work and travel.
It's a lot.
So that was taking a lot of my time when we went through that transition and we were first new on the road keeping everything else going while Russ was working.
(20:35):
So, yeah, I only worked with them for about six months, I think.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, we did look at like if we tried to do this across country, which was our goal.
We wanted to see family, we wanted to go to places, and that's where it became challenging of like we could hit some of them but we couldn't do everything.
And that's where we said is this perfect for us?
Some people basically like to travel local, to where they are, and it's fantastic for them.
(21:01):
We made this decision to do lots of travel and that's where it became less flexible, so it's not a bad job at all.
It's an awesome job.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
It is.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
It's a lot of fun, it just didn't match what we were trying to do with lots of travel.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
So that's southeastpublicationscom.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
We'll put that link in the show.
We will, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, it's an opportunity that I definitely good experience, recommend yeah.
Yeah, so what did that?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
lead us to next.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Well, as I said, when we first went full time, there were a lot of logistics and getting used to this lifestyle, so that took a lot of time and we decided.
During that time, russ helped.
Russ basically put together our website, books and Travel USA.
(21:53):
Which was the basic idea, was a blog for our family and friends to keep in touch while we were on the road and let them know where we were and share all that cool stuff, like we were talking about butte.
Yeah, and I'm a big book books person and literacy advocate.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Book nerd.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Book nerd.
I miss my book group that I left in Atlanta, Georgia, after like 13 years together.
So, yeah, I love finding the books Anyway.
Books and Travel USA blog and then and then, yeah, something weird happened with that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, so we hit the road and we're trying to you know, collapse a little bit of this story.
But you know, at that point when you're on the road we've talked about that things break on the RV, right, and so a lot of it we've tried to figure out how to fix ourselves.
But occasionally things break that are above my qualifications and so at that point we are trying to figure out how to get a fix.
And so we had to go to a location to get a fix and we're big fans.
(22:55):
We were researching, we found NIRVC right.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Because they had at the time five different service centers, locations all across the country, mostly on the southern part of the country.
But we figured if we were traveling full time, well, that would be great, because if we had something happen we could stop anywhere along the way from.
Atlanta, georgia to Dallas, texas, las Vegas, nashville and Arizona.
(23:26):
Those were the first five ones.
Surprise Arizona.
So All of that to say books and travel USA kind of led us to NIRVC.
Well, my, my current work with NIRVC and it all kind of started with our first service appointment in November of 2021 in Atlanta, georgia.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, so we went in to get some repairs.
We had a handful of minor things and one or two big things, and we actually were there for a wedding.
We had family and friends we were seeing.
It was great.
So we were dropping the rig off and we were staying in an Airbnb for a week with our son.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
He's so in for the wedding.
Yeah, it's like dropping your car off.
I think we thought.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
But we were there.
We said, okay, we're dropping off again a week.
Here's a check your punch list.
Please, you know, work this out.
Yeah, went through the all the stuff.
We came back and it did not go well.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
It was bad.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
What did happen Was it right?
What didn't happen was disappointing and it was just kind of a disaster.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, we were.
We were upset, to say the the least, and and we basically hadn't achieved what we wanted to achieve there and Our rig basically sat there for the week and didn't get fixed.
And so we were.
We were not happy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, it was bad and and and.
There is an article about that experience.
Not that I tore them up, I just, while we were in Atlanta doing all the things I mentioned in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
We'll put the link.
This is on the blog.
This is well, Well documented.
In fact, you're gonna hear this article comes into play into the story right Well, so what was the best thing about it?
Wasn't all bad, the one part that was the shining thing for me.
We were sitting in the front of our rig, we were about to leave, we were discussing the situation with the service advisor.
(25:24):
Service visor, sitting in here with us and walking right in front of our rig, was Two of our favorite people from YouTube that are in RVs.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
All of a sudden Russ goes.
Oh my gosh, it's Mark.
And Sue Jumped up and I said it's.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Mark and Sue.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
My wife was very confused, even though she had watched them, but I did know their YouTube channel is our journey in miles it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
We love my can Sue big friends of ours now, but at the time we did not know them.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
RV YouTube Superstar.
They are super happy watching it, that's right.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
So they walked by.
They had their their cameras and stuff, but they were just chatting because their rig was there to get fixed as well.
Yeah, and they were there to also shoot some footage of the fixes going on, so we ran out and introduced ourselves to them and you know it was great.
They they made it a little joke about why they thought they were being delayed because, right, our rig was in front of them.
They thought it was kind of funny and we got to spend a few hours chatting with them after that and it was really really nice.
(26:21):
So that was that was a highlight for me, because you know you meet a few of your your what you think are your online friends.
They don't know you, but you know them, right, right, so that was great.
That way, I like that.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So that was awesome, and then at the end of the day, we ended up leaving NIRVC and going to Stone Mountain.
Yeah the camp ground nearby, and, and it was just a disaster.
What had been done, like I said, and what had not been done?
(26:53):
Yeah, and we ended up going From Atlanta up to Spartanburg, south Carolina.
This was right around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We were going up to Spartanburg to visit our daughter who was living in Spartanburg at the time.
So we set off and we were.
(27:17):
We were really disappointed, but we didn't quite know what to do yet.
So Spartanburg, south Carolina we get there, we are parking the rig in our spot.
It was the end of November and I get a phone call while we're trying to park the rig, and so I let it go to voicemail, because that's what you do when you're trying to maneuver this thing.
(27:41):
Yep, and then I listened to the voicemail message and it was from Brett Davis, who is the CEO and president of NIRVC, not just NIRVC in Atlanta, but the whole thing Five different service centers and dealerships and indoor storage facilities and the whole thing.
(28:06):
This was Brett Davis calling and, and, and he just left a really nice, genuine message.
He said I hear that you have had trouble at NIRVC in Atlanta.
I Would like to speak to you.
I consider all feedback a gift and I really want to see if we can make things right.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, so, which is funny, because she got this message.
We were like she said we were parking the rig and she said, hey, I got this message and we played it and Nice.
So I asked how did you actually respond?
Because this is really funny.
How did you respond?
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Well, when I first heard the message, I was I was impressed.
He sounded like a very nice man and that he had reached out.
So that was.
That was really neat.
Yeah but, and so I Did call him back and we did have a.
Well, we played phone tagging a bit because it was in the holidays.
(29:06):
I think he was traveling internationally or something.
But we did end up talking and and he was, he was wonderful, but I was also just I was so mad, you were over it.
Yeah, I was so mad at what had happened.
And here he is, like I'm like, well, you want me to take my RV all the way back to Atlanta, atlanta, and Waste another you know how do we know that it's gonna be any better?
(29:38):
Because it was a disaster.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yeah, and it's important because again we're working.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
So taking it back like dropping it off and this was during the holidays and we had plans and, yeah, things to do.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
But at the same time I was.
I was like, she was like Because I was angry at the beginning too, but I, you know, I was like realizing, like she just said, this is like the owner, president and CEO of the entire company calling her, yeah, to try to make it right, yeah, and so I said let's give him a chance, because they're not.
(30:13):
This is not a just a support tech person calling to apologize for Problems that didn't get fixed.
This is the, the top person.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
So I would say I was resistant at first, although he was genuinely a nice man and Russ called it a crapper to do, but there's an opportunity to make it right.
It's a good day.
That's right right.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
So we did return to NIRVC.
We had to hit a couple of things while we were up there and.
South Carolina.
We did those things and we've scheduled it.
And we came back and in fact, we had to warn them that you know, hey, we're working.
This is how this whole work-life balance came into play.
We're not dropping it off.
Even when we did the, the wedding, I was working out of the, the Airbnb, so it was still a work situation.
(31:01):
So we warned them we're gonna have a work situation.
I don't want to pay for another Airbnb.
So they hooked me up with I got to go into their training room upstairs.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
They do have a customer lounge.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
They have a nice customer lounge, but at the same time they offered Russ a quiet Space so that he could work and be on the Loud, yeah, yeah.
So they made the arrangements and we went back to NIRVC.
Yeah, and I wrote about that experience on the blog.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, yeah, the show notes.
You're gonna see that that blog talks about the good and the bad.
Actually, I should say the bad and then the good.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
And meeting mark and see you too, yeah yeah, you'll read all of it.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
You'll see the photos and stuff.
So if you get a chance, take a look at the show notes, the great blog article about it.
I got it.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
So I wrote about it and I wasn't angry, or you know mean, or anything.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
We became, as you said, what you call super fans.
Right, we went from super fans angry and we moved into super fans and then we left.
We just left.
That was it.
We didn't meet Brad or anything.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Right left Well, and we were there for two days basically.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That's right, was it?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
yeah, one overnight because we stayed inside the facility.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I thought it was on for two, but it might have been two anyway.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
So we were there for two days two work days and they did, they made everything right.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
And then some they went over and above the list to fix things that weren't even on our list, which was fantastic, right and they just they did make it right and there was a reason and I wrote about that in that article.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
there was a reason for what happened.
This was during COVID.
There was a lot of turn, you know a lot going on, but the bottom line was they made it right and we drove away from that as raving superfans for NIRVC.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
So then what happened next?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
A little bit later, not too much later I got another call from Brett Davis and he had read that article that I wrote.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
The bad and the good.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Right, very balanced.
And yeah, he invited us to go down to Tampa, Florida, to the Tampa RV show and meet him and NIRVC Angie.
Angie Morrell, the National Sales Director, she does all these great videos for NIRVC.
(33:40):
They're awesome.
So he invited us to go down to the Tampa RV show and meet with them at the aim tent.
Oh, okay, the aim tent, and apparently they every night of the Tampa RV show.
They were feeding people dinner and they'd have live music entertainment and a whole thing every night.
(34:04):
And, okay, we were headed to Central Florida anyway.
So we decided to go over to Tampa and I don't remember all the details, but I ended up with a job as a guest blogger for NIRVC, for their national blog.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Yeah, and you actually put in a specific category, though, that they were very excited about RV lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
That's right.
He asked me to write RV lifestyle articles for the NIRVC blog.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
And.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Because they have multiple bloggers there.
If you go to, they got a great blog.
If you haven't read their stuff, they've got technical writers that'll tell you about how some of the stuff works.
But Sherry was hired on to be the lifestyle blogger because we are again we've described we're a little bit different.
We're working, living and traveling here, so it's not a vacation for us, and so there's a definite difference here and she brought a unique style to it.
(35:02):
If you get a chance to read the link in the article about what Brett liked, that's what he said.
He wanted more of that.
That voice.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
He wanted that voice.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, that's right, so wow okay, so he brought up something else After inviting you to do that.
What did he talk about?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
So then, when we met with him in Tampa, him and Angie they invited us to an aim rally.
An aim is all inclusive Motor homes.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, and if you haven't heard previous ones, we've talked about it.
We knew nothing about it at that time, not a thing, but they said we would love you to come and join one of these rallies Tours.
Yeah, and remember we're in Tampa floor at the time.
Okay, when she finishes the story.
We're in Tampa right now, Okay.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
And this aim rally which Angie characterizes is basically an all inclusive cruise, but in your RV, oh, okay.
So yeah, we ended up in San Diego early March.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, we crossed country from Tampa to San Diego in a pretty short period of time.
Again, while we're working In our RV.
Yeah, so we had to make those stops all along the way, and that's the navigation problems that Cherry has to solve for us.
But it sounded fun and then funny thing it was just before, we were already planning to be in Arizona.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
We were for the FMCA rally.
For our first FMCA rally in Tucson Arizona.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
A week or two later we were supposed to be in Arizona for this other rally.
So we said okay, okay, we'll just go past that.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Go to San Diego.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
We left a little early and then we'll come backwards to Arizona, so that's what we did.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yeah, so our first aim.
Do we want to talk about that?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Okay, so our first aim rally.
It was amazing because what they do it's four nights and five days at a really nice luxury RV resort, and this was at a sun resorts on San Diego Bay.
So your camping is included, your campground fees is included.
(37:21):
All of the meals breakfast, lunch and dinner are included.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
High-end meals.
These are really nice.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Catered yum.
And then they also have educational seminars and you're there with 100, these are limited to 100 coaches, so at most it's a group of 200 people, but they're all Class A motor home well, motor home motorized vehicle owners.
(37:48):
So it was just so cool to meet all these people.
And then they had educational seminars about these and we were still really new at the time.
So we learned a lot, which was awesome.
But then, on top of all of that, they have these adventures activities and in San Diego, at that aim rally, what do we do?
(38:11):
The first was the Whale watching.
We went on a three-hour whale watching cruise the whole group.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
And then the zoo for dinner.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
And then another activity we got to go to the San Diego Zoo after they closed it down for the day, and they toured us all around in the big double-decker buses.
So we got to see all the animals at sunset, and then there was a catered meal.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
With the animals.
Yeah, the San Diego Zoo.
They all wandered around.
It was awesome In an animal show it was just incredible.
And then the last night, the best part, the best part.
What was the best part?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
We got to go for dinner and dancing on the deck of the USS Midway.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
The aircraft carrier.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
That's based on Live band dancing, catered food.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You get to walk around the air deck and see it.
It was awesome Downtown San Diego it was awesome.
And so that was incredible, and this is all included.
This is that part of like you said.
It's like a cruise, so they give you the entertainment, the food and where you're staying is all included in that price.
It's great.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, and this is actually less expensive than If we had.
I think we went in a couple of days early, maybe three nights, because of the work schedule.
We needed to be set up and working and this all started on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Anyway, the whole aim thing was less expensive than the three nights of camping or campground fees that we paid at that resort.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
And the reason that is because they actually help fund it with the sponsors that come there.
So Freightliner and a bunch of others help actually, and IRVC and they all actually contribute money.
So your cost is actually low but you get this amazing experience.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
We're a little off topic because we went way into this, but it is important.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
We wanted to point this One of our favorite things that kind of started to sell us on a lot of the people and the process of living on the road here.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Right.
So the end of this story is that almost two years later, I write for NIRVC and we have the opportunity to travel with NIRVC and with the AIM Club on occasion, you know.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
So I've written about that.
We've leveled up our AIM Club there.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
We're now lifetime AIM members.
Yeah baby, which is very cool because it also comes with discounts and service from NIRVC, as well as the opportunity to travel with them a bit.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
And that job of yours and the writing for NIRVC and the traveling with this organization and the AIM Club is really we've met a lot of people because of that right.
Some really interesting people that also work and live on the road and that's been extremely interesting of the kind of people that we meet.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, yeah, it's just been an interesting two years.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yeah.
So if I try to tie it together, like some of the top three things I think about from the work-life balance point of view is you know, when you get on the road, you never know what you're gonna have.
We've talked about that.
We never had the plan to do this, and so when we got on the road, we didn't know what was gonna happen and you never know what the opportunities are gonna be put in front of you.
And that was her job, was we never on the horizon?
(41:44):
But boom, it just appeared.
In fact, it appeared because of some bad things that happened and good people that we met.
And so the other thing is like there's so many people that we've met doing very different jobs, right, like you're this writer and have these ability to communicate the storyline for NIRVC.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
And I would say too, there are a lot of opportunities for writers out there.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
There he is.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
I mean, I'm writing for NIRVC and pretty exclusively because I'm also working on our own blog and now the podcast too.
That's right, but there have been several other opportunities to write for businesses and companies in the RV industry.
(42:32):
There's just a ton of opportunity for writers.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Yeah, when you're actually doing the traveling, the living, the working, people do wanna work with you because you have a unique viewpoint.
That's what got Sherry her job is.
They loved her voice and what she was living.
And then the last part is being able to actually share these jobs and these interviews of these people we meet and the lifestyle that other people can have.
(42:59):
We have our viewpoint, but we've met so many interesting people and we're excited to meet so many other people right.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, so our goal or our mission with our podcast, the RV Work Life Balance podcast, is to share what we've learned about work life balance, but also introduce you to all of these other opportunities, the people and the things that they're doing and the opportunities that are out there, cause you never know, it might be something of interest to you.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yeah, and we have a lot of cool stories of people we've met both and other YouTubers too.
We haven't even told you all the stories.
We'll tell you those that they have met so many people too.
So we keep hearing the same story that we have of connecting with people.
But to kind of wrap it up, I really want to thank all the listeners that have been with us on this podcast journey here.
Definitely check out the show notes.
(43:55):
A lot of the links of the videos and the blog articles that Sherry's written will be there and if you're new to this, please subscribe.
We really thank you for joining us on the adventure here.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
And if you're not new, if you're one of our existing subscribers, guys, we love you.
Thank you so much for following us in this adventure and for supporting us.
Oh, I also want to mention that we love to hear from you, so please, please, be in touch, and I guess the most important thing is to make your escape and get out here.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Yeah, so are you ready?
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Let's go.
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 (00:25):
And you can too.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey, welcome back.
Thanks for joining us again.
So let's start with cheers.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Cheers everybody, boom, I like it.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
So in my favorite question I always say that because it's super cool, because we get to do this lifestyle is where are we today?
Speaker 1 (00:51):
And we are in Butte Montana at the KOA journey.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
It's interesting.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
It is interesting.
So so we're big fans of Montana.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Okay, just to be really clear, huge fans of Montana from our previous travels across country.
But it is in Butte which we've been once before, right, yeah, like 30 years ago, 30 years ago.
That's right, and so far it's not been super awesome, it's been unusual.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Oh, I don't know.
I got to ride the trolley.
That was cool, you got the fun.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
You did get a cool, fun trolley ride.
She loves trolley rides.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I do, yeah, and it was.
It was really good.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
What was your favorite thing on the trolley?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Well, it was very historic.
Butte has this amazing historic district like from the 1880s and also a very tragic mining history around these parts that I never knew any of this.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, there's a very big visual.
Look at the mountain side here.
Yeah, they have the big structures where the the mines were set up and you could see them.
So you know where these mines are and each one of them has their own body count, right?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, lots of deaths there's been fires, there's been explosions, there's just been all kinds of things.
And then, well, my favorite part which is kind of weird in retrospect, but is the Berkeley pit, which I then took you to.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
The Berkeley pit, also known as one of the super fun sites.
The cleanup sites, right yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
It's kind of creepy but really kind of awesome.
How do I explain that?
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, it's, it's.
It's like, basically, you're paying to go to a toxic waste dump, right.
That's kind of what it's like.
Yeah, yeah, it's weird.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
But it is so weird because what it is butte Montana started as a mining town and they were tunneling down in the down underneath the earth and bringing all the copper and different valuable metals.
Butte was known for a time as the richest hill on earth.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Right Tons of mining.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
And.
But then at some point, the, the, the copper kings decided that they, instead of mining underground, which was very expensive, they started digging these big pit mines.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Yeah, strip mining, this Strip mining.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
And there's still evidence of that.
I mean, that's what Butte is these big hills that have been carved up?
and they're different colors and it's amazing.
So it was that big pit mine that then, because of all the toxic metals and things, became a huge super fund cleanup site, toxic, and so they shut it down.
(03:58):
And so now that big mining pit where they sent men and trucks and beasts and all kinds of things to bring out the ore, carve up the hillside, bring out the ore, it's now because they stopped working on it.
I guess there were water pumps in the 10,000 miles of tunnels underneath Butte and once they shut the mining operation down, they stopped the water pumps.
(04:27):
So all of the ground water, all of the water backfilled into this pit, and so now it's like a thousand feet deep.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
And it's totally toxic.
Yeah, it's weird because there's stories and we won't go too much, but it was enough of a story that's interesting, where hundreds of like Canadian geese landed one year on it, and they all died because of such of the toxic heavy metals and arsenic and just really bad things.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So now they have special devices that we're there Well yeah, and then they're like to the pit overlook and it's really stunning because it's this weird glowing aqua green color and then the hillsides are very steep so that not in it's all surrounded by a huge fence and chain link on the top or chain link fence with barbed wire on the top Right yeah.
(05:26):
But in order to keep the birds and animals out of that, because it's instant death, so they have noises that go off all the time.
There's these pops and sounds and gunshots explosions.
The tour guide said that at times they play rock music and it's all an effort to keep animals away and keep birds from flying into that pit, into that water.
(05:57):
And it was so bad after that Canadian geese where thousands died, that they now have drones that look like predator birds so that if they see on their radar a flock of birds coming over, they take more aggressive action.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
The noises go on all the time, but if there's a flock of birds coming on the radar they send the drones out the predator drones to scare them away.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, and it's different than the actual.
If you Google predator drone, you're going to see US military drones, but these are predator birds and that's exactly the kind of stuff that airports have been doing for a while.
They use the explosions and certain birds and I've known that for a while because birds they don't want them getting sucked in the engines and obviously the birds dying, but of course, potentially taking airplanes down.
(06:55):
But this toxic lake is scary.
It could really be.
We haven't talked about this, but it could really be a good origin story to a super villain, kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
It totally could, it totally could.
And I walked out of that place and got back in the trolley and I'm like, oh, I guess that's where they hide the bodies, huh.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, we joked about that.
It's like if you're hiding the body, throw it into that, Because you cannot go in there.
You cannot send divers in there.
So this is not an encouragement to bad people.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
No, no, but it is.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
I'm sure everyone's thought of this.
It's pretty creepy, but it's now not only a super fun site, but it's also a place where they collect money for tourists to come see it, which is unusual yeah.
Unusual.
It's an interesting town, let's just say that.
And I think anyone that's in mining mining is always dangerous and they've got a lot of dangerous stories here.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Yeah, so, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So in all of that I took you around a bit, tried to show you what I learned.
What was your favorite thing?
Speaker 2 (07:55):
My favorite thing.
I'm a huge film and TV show buff and they shot the prequel to the Yellowstone 1923.
They shot a lot of scenes here.
So when we drove around we saw the shots where the boxing ring that was outside and there was a bar they go into.
(08:20):
So we walked around and shot photos.
We'll try to put some of those in the show notes down there below, but it's cool.
So you get to see where Montana is used as Montana for Yellowstone and all the prequels.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah, very cool.
It was a stand-in for Bozeman.
A lot, a lot of the signs that they put up were Bozeman.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
And back, if you haven't seen that prequel in 1923, they still have horses and the introduction of cars is there.
So it's a mixture of cars and horses.
It's very fun, and so we parked right where some of the scenes were right there on the street.
So that was my favorite thing was you driving me around to the best spots of what the trolley had shown you and I thought that was amazing, so I thought that was great.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
And that was right on Broadway Street downtown Bozeman.
I mean Butte Sorry.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
They tricked you.
You believed it was Bozeman yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
It was very cool.
Apparently they still have studio and production space here in town, or at least they did as recently as August 1, right, because the Yellowstone, the 1923 production company, had rented out the Butte Civic Center, which is this huge building that they were using as a production facility, and then, when the writers went on strike and TV productions shut down, apparently they worked out a deal.
(09:44):
The production company worked out a deal with Butte and that Civic Center.
They are going to break their lease, which they were paying $75,000 a month just for that location, and all their stuff is still in there.
They have the rest of the month to get all the stuff out.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
We're big fans of going to see Locations where films and movies and TV shows are shot, so it's really kind of cool.
And this is pretty recent.
This is a prequel.
That was very recent, so it was neat to see that Harrison Ford and all the other major actors it was really cool.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
And it's so fun to watch these shows.
As we go across country, we always try to find books or television shows or movies that kind of is based in the area and it's interesting and that would be a really cool job if you had it A job on the road going around.
We saw a movie making production in New Mexico when we were there.
(10:42):
We did so maybe that's a job opportunity.
So that was all to say.
That was a big segue.
It's been a big week in Butte.
We have been exploring, but also we've both been crazy busy with work.
I've been on deadline y'all.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, so not just any deadline.
What kind of deadline was it?
No?
Speaker 1 (11:02):
I was finishing a series of articles for NIRVC, National Indoor RV Centers.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
And we've mentioned before, that's who you work for while we're on the road here.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Yes, yes, I write for the NIRVC blog.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, and so in the past we've done a quick conversation about what I do and that's what got us on the road was the ability to take my desk job and move it on the road.
But really what we thought would be interesting was to talk about Sherry's job, and I want to toot her horn, so to speak here.
(11:38):
Ooh, but she's an amazing writer and she's been writing for a long time and in fact I want to start with one of the coolest things.
She's a published author.
She has an awesome book.
It's Women's Humor.
The Rebel Housewife Rules.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
To heck with domestic bliss.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
That's right.
So go ahead and Google that and we'll put it in the show notes.
But she's done all sorts of writing, so she's written for newspapers and magazines.
She's been blogging since before.
Blogging was cool.
Let me honest, right Long time ago.
She's been blogging.
She's done a lot of travel writing Because even before we've done this, we did a lot of travel, whether it was with our family or with our previous jobs kind of thing and then you got into copywriting which was interesting.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
That was different Working with a company called AWAI.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
America, American Writers and Artist Institute.
I think.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Yeah, and that's a great organization.
We'll put that link in the show notes as well.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, because they actually teach people, writers and non-writers, how to get into the business of copywriting, which is marketing and all kinds of marketing advertising, all kinds of different writing opportunities.
So at a time I wanted to make more money so I went into marketing and advertising and then ended up doing some coaching and editing for AWAI.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, you're actually.
And then again I'm going to say something cool.
She's won awards with that organization from writing some amazing pitches and the marketing materials she's produced, so she learned a lot with that, but that also drove her career into some of the stuff we do today, which is awesome, and so what did that take us to?
So you did all this.
You have this amazing starting a part of the storyline here as a great writer.
(13:30):
And then we start to go down this path of where we are today.
And then what happened?
What happened?
Tell me what happened.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Well, in 2019, we moved from Atlanta, georgia, to Seattle Washington, and that was a big change in our lives, and so I was exploring some other writing avenues and opportunities.
And then what happened?
2020, covid boom, and it just kind of changed everything.
(13:57):
2020, if you remember, was going to be our my year of international travel writing.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
That was so set up perfectly.
We had so many places to go, so many places we were going and then, like everybody, we were all caught off guard with oh, I guess nothing's going to happen now.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
So yeah it was going to be a bummer, yeah.
So then we had talked about how we ended up being in an RV and taking Russ's job on the road.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, we'll link that episode below, so if you haven't heard that episode, we'll have it in the show notes.
That's how we kind of got on the road.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Our origin story.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Our origin story.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And in that transition something really interesting happened.
This was on our way back from picking the RV up in Des Moines, iowa.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
That was the time we still knew nothing about RVs, by the way, nothing.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
In our first campground experiences.
Well, the first campgrounds and every campground, since usually they hand you this campground guide at a check-in, which is so cool.
I don't know if you're familiar with these things, but basically remember those old-time placemats that they used to have in the restaurants.
(15:10):
That would have a map of the city, the area, and then all around the edge of the placemat there would be advertisers local advertisers.
Well, a campground guide is kind of the same thing.
It's a slick little fold-over sheet that usually has a map of the campground and all their deals.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
She's holding the current one we're at right now, by the way, just so if you haven't heard that she loves these things, we have stacks of these things at the rig.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I collect them, I have collected them for the last three years because I find them fascinating.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I guess that's better than collecting plates and spoons and stuff.
This is great.
We have pieces of paper, which is cool.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
And we did talk about these when we were talking about medical emergencies and having the information at hand, and the campground guide is a great little resource.
So, anyway, we got back to Washington State.
We were staying at our favorite RV resort in Washington, which is Fadalgo Bay RV Resort in Anacortes, washington.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Very cool.
If you're going to Washington, go there.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
It's awesome, but leave a summer room for us.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Leave a space for us.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
But they have a campground guide and I was looking at the campground guide and I noticed earn on the road Free, stay at top campgrounds, Earn residual income, Connect our customers with you small businesses.
And it is an ad for Southeast Publicationscom and there was a 1-800 number and I love these little things so much and I was like hmm.
(16:45):
I'm going to call and find out and so for a time I got a job and I was working with Southeast Publications and it was fantastic and what it was.
Basically we would go to a campground for two weeks and I would work that job and what it was was updating their campground guide if they had one, like going and talking to the local businesses and attractions and things like that and convince them to put advertising in the campground guide.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, it was a cool sales job to help pay for these awesome maps that she loves so much, and so the campground basically gets this basically for free, right, because it's paid for by the advertising.
So it's a win-win for everybody, in fact, all three people the people that get the maps love them, the advertisers that are putting there.
(17:44):
They get a chance to sell pizza or repairs or whatever they're selling, and the campground gets an awesome map and stacks of them without having to pay anything, right their information is on one side and all the community information is on the other.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
It's a really cool setup.
They are great and it was really fun.
I mean, I talked about being in advertising and marketing and for the campgrounds that did not already have a campground guide, I got to design the campground guide and draw the maps and in addition to helping the businesses and the advertisers with their advertisements and we had design help from the company and they would actually produce it but it was a really fun job.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
We had a great time.
So that's kind of where we started is.
You found this and it was really cool.
You even had.
I took pictures.
She had a cool shirt with the logo and.
I sent her out with her little lunch and she got to go do this great job.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
I sat on Zoom the whole time.
I got paid to explore the community and talk to people.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
It was totally cool Because we were still, at that time, even learning how to use the rig, learning how to where to go.
We would go out like two weeks at a time maximum.
And it was perfect.
It checked every box.
We got paid.
In fact, there was another benefit we get to stay there for free.
Free camping for two weeks, you were free while you were there, so it didn't cost anything.
(19:11):
It was really cool, but we speed forward a little bit, right?
So, we talked about in the past, where we toured the harbor, as we say we were learning how to do the rig Right.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
This was all in Washington state, that's right.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
We stayed and we were just figuring out our rig and learning how to be on the road working.
And then we decided, hey, we want to go on the road more full time, right?
Speaker 1 (19:32):
That was for about six months, from like October until we left.
We went full time in May of 2021.
So it was about six, eight months and I worked with them, yeah, but then, as we were making this decision and looking forward to this adventure of living, working and traveling full time on the road and we were still very new to this whole RV lifestyle thing with Southeast Publications I just needed we needed more flexibility.
(20:09):
Where we wanted to go, yeah, of where we wanted to go and and and.
Yeah, at the time everything was so new.
You know the logistics of full time live work and travel.
It's a lot.
So that was taking a lot of my time when we went through that transition and we were first new on the road keeping everything else going while Russ was working.
(20:35):
So, yeah, I only worked with them for about six months, I think.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
Yeah, we did look at like if we tried to do this across country, which was our goal.
We wanted to see family, we wanted to go to places, and that's where it became challenging of like we could hit some of them but we couldn't do everything.
And that's where we said is this perfect for us?
Some people basically like to travel local, to where they are, and it's fantastic for them.
(21:01):
We made this decision to do lots of travel and that's where it became less flexible, so it's not a bad job at all.
It's an awesome job.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
It is.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
It's a lot of fun, it just didn't match what we were trying to do with lots of travel.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
So that's southeastpublicationscom.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
We'll put that link in the show.
We will, yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Yeah, it's an opportunity that I definitely good experience, recommend yeah.
Yeah, so what did that?
Speaker 2 (21:32):
lead us to next.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Well, as I said, when we first went full time, there were a lot of logistics and getting used to this lifestyle, so that took a lot of time and we decided.
During that time, russ helped.
Russ basically put together our website, books and Travel USA.
(21:53):
Which was the basic idea, was a blog for our family and friends to keep in touch while we were on the road and let them know where we were and share all that cool stuff, like we were talking about butte.
Yeah, and I'm a big book books person and literacy advocate.
Speaker 2 (22:11):
Book nerd.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
Book nerd.
I miss my book group that I left in Atlanta, Georgia, after like 13 years together.
So, yeah, I love finding the books Anyway.
Books and Travel USA blog and then and then, yeah, something weird happened with that.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Yeah, so we hit the road and we're trying to you know, collapse a little bit of this story.
But you know, at that point when you're on the road we've talked about that things break on the RV, right, and so a lot of it we've tried to figure out how to fix ourselves.
But occasionally things break that are above my qualifications and so at that point we are trying to figure out how to get a fix.
And so we had to go to a location to get a fix and we're big fans.
(22:55):
We were researching, we found NIRVC right.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Because they had at the time five different service centers, locations all across the country, mostly on the southern part of the country.
But we figured if we were traveling full time, well, that would be great, because if we had something happen we could stop anywhere along the way from.
Atlanta, georgia to Dallas, texas, las Vegas, nashville and Arizona.
(23:26):
Those were the first five ones.
Surprise Arizona.
So All of that to say books and travel USA kind of led us to NIRVC.
Well, my, my current work with NIRVC and it all kind of started with our first service appointment in November of 2021 in Atlanta, georgia.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Yeah, so we went in to get some repairs.
We had a handful of minor things and one or two big things, and we actually were there for a wedding.
We had family and friends we were seeing.
It was great.
So we were dropping the rig off and we were staying in an Airbnb for a week with our son.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
He's so in for the wedding.
Yeah, it's like dropping your car off.
I think we thought.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
But we were there.
We said, okay, we're dropping off again a week.
Here's a check your punch list.
Please, you know, work this out.
Yeah, went through the all the stuff.
We came back and it did not go well.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
It was bad.
Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
What did happen Was it right?
What didn't happen was disappointing and it was just kind of a disaster.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, we were.
We were upset, to say the the least, and and we basically hadn't achieved what we wanted to achieve there and Our rig basically sat there for the week and didn't get fixed.
And so we were.
We were not happy, yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
Yeah, it was bad and and and.
There is an article about that experience.
Not that I tore them up, I just, while we were in Atlanta doing all the things I mentioned in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
We'll put the link.
This is on the blog.
This is well, Well documented.
In fact, you're gonna hear this article comes into play into the story right Well, so what was the best thing about it?
Wasn't all bad, the one part that was the shining thing for me.
We were sitting in the front of our rig, we were about to leave, we were discussing the situation with the service advisor.
(25:24):
Service visor, sitting in here with us and walking right in front of our rig, was Two of our favorite people from YouTube that are in RVs.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
All of a sudden Russ goes.
Oh my gosh, it's Mark.
And Sue Jumped up and I said it's.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Mark and Sue.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
My wife was very confused, even though she had watched them, but I did know their YouTube channel is our journey in miles it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
We love my can Sue big friends of ours now, but at the time we did not know them.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
RV YouTube Superstar.
They are super happy watching it, that's right.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
So they walked by.
They had their their cameras and stuff, but they were just chatting because their rig was there to get fixed as well.
Yeah, and they were there to also shoot some footage of the fixes going on, so we ran out and introduced ourselves to them and you know it was great.
They they made it a little joke about why they thought they were being delayed because, right, our rig was in front of them.
They thought it was kind of funny and we got to spend a few hours chatting with them after that and it was really really nice.
(26:21):
So that was that was a highlight for me, because you know you meet a few of your your what you think are your online friends.
They don't know you, but you know them, right, right, so that was great.
That way, I like that.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
So that was awesome, and then at the end of the day, we ended up leaving NIRVC and going to Stone Mountain.
Yeah the camp ground nearby, and, and it was just a disaster.
What had been done, like I said, and what had not been done?
(26:53):
Yeah, and we ended up going From Atlanta up to Spartanburg, south Carolina.
This was right around Thanksgiving and Christmas.
We were going up to Spartanburg to visit our daughter who was living in Spartanburg at the time.
So we set off and we were.
(27:17):
We were really disappointed, but we didn't quite know what to do yet.
So Spartanburg, south Carolina we get there, we are parking the rig in our spot.
It was the end of November and I get a phone call while we're trying to park the rig, and so I let it go to voicemail, because that's what you do when you're trying to maneuver this thing.
(27:41):
Yep, and then I listened to the voicemail message and it was from Brett Davis, who is the CEO and president of NIRVC, not just NIRVC in Atlanta, but the whole thing Five different service centers and dealerships and indoor storage facilities and the whole thing.
(28:06):
This was Brett Davis calling and, and, and he just left a really nice, genuine message.
He said I hear that you have had trouble at NIRVC in Atlanta.
I Would like to speak to you.
I consider all feedback a gift and I really want to see if we can make things right.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, so, which is funny, because she got this message.
We were like she said we were parking the rig and she said, hey, I got this message and we played it and Nice.
So I asked how did you actually respond?
Because this is really funny.
How did you respond?
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Well, when I first heard the message, I was I was impressed.
He sounded like a very nice man and that he had reached out.
So that was.
That was really neat.
Yeah but, and so I Did call him back and we did have a.
Well, we played phone tagging a bit because it was in the holidays.
(29:06):
I think he was traveling internationally or something.
But we did end up talking and and he was, he was wonderful, but I was also just I was so mad, you were over it.
Yeah, I was so mad at what had happened.
And here he is, like I'm like, well, you want me to take my RV all the way back to Atlanta, atlanta, and Waste another you know how do we know that it's gonna be any better?
(29:38):
Because it was a disaster.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Yeah, and it's important because again we're working.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
So taking it back like dropping it off and this was during the holidays and we had plans and, yeah, things to do.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
But at the same time I was.
I was like, she was like Because I was angry at the beginning too, but I, you know, I was like realizing, like she just said, this is like the owner, president and CEO of the entire company calling her, yeah, to try to make it right, yeah, and so I said let's give him a chance, because they're not.
(30:13):
This is not a just a support tech person calling to apologize for Problems that didn't get fixed.
This is the, the top person.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
So I would say I was resistant at first, although he was genuinely a nice man and Russ called it a crapper to do, but there's an opportunity to make it right.
It's a good day.
That's right right.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
So we did return to NIRVC.
We had to hit a couple of things while we were up there and.
South Carolina.
We did those things and we've scheduled it.
And we came back and in fact, we had to warn them that you know, hey, we're working.
This is how this whole work-life balance came into play.
We're not dropping it off.
Even when we did the, the wedding, I was working out of the, the Airbnb, so it was still a work situation.
(31:01):
So we warned them we're gonna have a work situation.
I don't want to pay for another Airbnb.
So they hooked me up with I got to go into their training room upstairs.
Speaker 1 (31:10):
They do have a customer lounge.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
They have a nice customer lounge, but at the same time they offered Russ a quiet Space so that he could work and be on the Loud, yeah, yeah.
So they made the arrangements and we went back to NIRVC.
Yeah, and I wrote about that experience on the blog.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, yeah, the show notes.
You're gonna see that that blog talks about the good and the bad.
Actually, I should say the bad and then the good.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
And meeting mark and see you too, yeah yeah, you'll read all of it.
Speaker 2 (31:45):
You'll see the photos and stuff.
So if you get a chance, take a look at the show notes, the great blog article about it.
I got it.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
So I wrote about it and I wasn't angry, or you know mean, or anything.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
We became, as you said, what you call super fans.
Right, we went from super fans angry and we moved into super fans and then we left.
We just left.
That was it.
We didn't meet Brad or anything.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Right left Well, and we were there for two days basically.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
That's right, was it?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
yeah, one overnight because we stayed inside the facility.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I thought it was on for two, but it might have been two anyway.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
So we were there for two days two work days and they did, they made everything right.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
And then some they went over and above the list to fix things that weren't even on our list, which was fantastic, right and they just they did make it right and there was a reason and I wrote about that in that article.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
there was a reason for what happened.
This was during COVID.
There was a lot of turn, you know a lot going on, but the bottom line was they made it right and we drove away from that as raving superfans for NIRVC.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
So then what happened next?
Speaker 1 (33:04):
A little bit later, not too much later I got another call from Brett Davis and he had read that article that I wrote.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
The bad and the good.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Right, very balanced.
And yeah, he invited us to go down to Tampa, Florida, to the Tampa RV show and meet him and NIRVC Angie.
Angie Morrell, the National Sales Director, she does all these great videos for NIRVC.
(33:40):
They're awesome.
So he invited us to go down to the Tampa RV show and meet with them at the aim tent.
Oh, okay, the aim tent, and apparently they every night of the Tampa RV show.
They were feeding people dinner and they'd have live music entertainment and a whole thing every night.
(34:04):
And, okay, we were headed to Central Florida anyway.
So we decided to go over to Tampa and I don't remember all the details, but I ended up with a job as a guest blogger for NIRVC, for their national blog.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
Yeah, and you actually put in a specific category, though, that they were very excited about RV lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
That's right.
He asked me to write RV lifestyle articles for the NIRVC blog.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
And.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Because they have multiple bloggers there.
If you go to, they got a great blog.
If you haven't read their stuff, they've got technical writers that'll tell you about how some of the stuff works.
But Sherry was hired on to be the lifestyle blogger because we are again we've described we're a little bit different.
We're working, living and traveling here, so it's not a vacation for us, and so there's a definite difference here and she brought a unique style to it.
(35:02):
If you get a chance to read the link in the article about what Brett liked, that's what he said.
He wanted more of that.
That voice.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
He wanted that voice.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
Yeah, that's right, so wow okay, so he brought up something else After inviting you to do that.
What did he talk about?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
So then, when we met with him in Tampa, him and Angie they invited us to an aim rally.
An aim is all inclusive Motor homes.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Yeah, and if you haven't heard previous ones, we've talked about it.
We knew nothing about it at that time, not a thing, but they said we would love you to come and join one of these rallies Tours.
Yeah, and remember we're in Tampa floor at the time.
Okay, when she finishes the story.
We're in Tampa right now, Okay.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
And this aim rally which Angie characterizes is basically an all inclusive cruise, but in your RV, oh, okay.
So yeah, we ended up in San Diego early March.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, we crossed country from Tampa to San Diego in a pretty short period of time.
Again, while we're working In our RV.
Yeah, so we had to make those stops all along the way, and that's the navigation problems that Cherry has to solve for us.
But it sounded fun and then funny thing it was just before, we were already planning to be in Arizona.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
We were for the FMCA rally.
For our first FMCA rally in Tucson Arizona.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
A week or two later we were supposed to be in Arizona for this other rally.
So we said okay, okay, we'll just go past that.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Go to San Diego.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
We left a little early and then we'll come backwards to Arizona, so that's what we did.
Speaker 1 (36:52):
Yeah, so our first aim.
Do we want to talk about that?
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Okay, so our first aim rally.
It was amazing because what they do it's four nights and five days at a really nice luxury RV resort, and this was at a sun resorts on San Diego Bay.
So your camping is included, your campground fees is included.
(37:21):
All of the meals breakfast, lunch and dinner are included.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
High-end meals.
These are really nice.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Catered yum.
And then they also have educational seminars and you're there with 100, these are limited to 100 coaches, so at most it's a group of 200 people, but they're all Class A motor home well, motor home motorized vehicle owners.
(37:48):
So it was just so cool to meet all these people.
And then they had educational seminars about these and we were still really new at the time.
So we learned a lot, which was awesome.
But then, on top of all of that, they have these adventures activities and in San Diego, at that aim rally, what do we do?
(38:11):
The first was the Whale watching.
We went on a three-hour whale watching cruise the whole group.
Speaker 2 (38:19):
And then the zoo for dinner.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
And then another activity we got to go to the San Diego Zoo after they closed it down for the day, and they toured us all around in the big double-decker buses.
So we got to see all the animals at sunset, and then there was a catered meal.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
With the animals.
Yeah, the San Diego Zoo.
They all wandered around.
It was awesome In an animal show it was just incredible.
And then the last night, the best part, the best part.
What was the best part?
Speaker 1 (38:49):
We got to go for dinner and dancing on the deck of the USS Midway.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
The aircraft carrier.
Speaker 1 (38:58):
That's based on Live band dancing, catered food.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
You get to walk around the air deck and see it.
It was awesome Downtown San Diego it was awesome.
And so that was incredible, and this is all included.
This is that part of like you said.
It's like a cruise, so they give you the entertainment, the food and where you're staying is all included in that price.
It's great.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, and this is actually less expensive than If we had.
I think we went in a couple of days early, maybe three nights, because of the work schedule.
We needed to be set up and working and this all started on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Anyway, the whole aim thing was less expensive than the three nights of camping or campground fees that we paid at that resort.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
And the reason that is because they actually help fund it with the sponsors that come there.
So Freightliner and a bunch of others help actually, and IRVC and they all actually contribute money.
So your cost is actually low but you get this amazing experience.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
We're a little off topic because we went way into this, but it is important.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
We wanted to point this One of our favorite things that kind of started to sell us on a lot of the people and the process of living on the road here.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
Right.
So the end of this story is that almost two years later, I write for NIRVC and we have the opportunity to travel with NIRVC and with the AIM Club on occasion, you know.
Speaker 2 (40:40):
So I've written about that.
We've leveled up our AIM Club there.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
We're now lifetime AIM members.
Yeah baby, which is very cool because it also comes with discounts and service from NIRVC, as well as the opportunity to travel with them a bit.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
And that job of yours and the writing for NIRVC and the traveling with this organization and the AIM Club is really we've met a lot of people because of that right.
Some really interesting people that also work and live on the road and that's been extremely interesting of the kind of people that we meet.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Yeah, yeah, it's just been an interesting two years.
Speaker 2 (41:20):
Yeah.
So if I try to tie it together, like some of the top three things I think about from the work-life balance point of view is you know, when you get on the road, you never know what you're gonna have.
We've talked about that.
We never had the plan to do this, and so when we got on the road, we didn't know what was gonna happen and you never know what the opportunities are gonna be put in front of you.
And that was her job, was we never on the horizon?
(41:44):
But boom, it just appeared.
In fact, it appeared because of some bad things that happened and good people that we met.
And so the other thing is like there's so many people that we've met doing very different jobs, right, like you're this writer and have these ability to communicate the storyline for NIRVC.
Speaker 1 (42:05):
And I would say too, there are a lot of opportunities for writers out there.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
There he is.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
I mean, I'm writing for NIRVC and pretty exclusively because I'm also working on our own blog and now the podcast too.
That's right, but there have been several other opportunities to write for businesses and companies in the RV industry.
(42:32):
There's just a ton of opportunity for writers.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Yeah, when you're actually doing the traveling, the living, the working, people do wanna work with you because you have a unique viewpoint.
That's what got Sherry her job is.
They loved her voice and what she was living.
And then the last part is being able to actually share these jobs and these interviews of these people we meet and the lifestyle that other people can have.
(42:59):
We have our viewpoint, but we've met so many interesting people and we're excited to meet so many other people right.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, so our goal or our mission with our podcast, the RV Work Life Balance podcast, is to share what we've learned about work life balance, but also introduce you to all of these other opportunities, the people and the things that they're doing and the opportunities that are out there, cause you never know, it might be something of interest to you.
Speaker 2 (43:33):
Yeah, and we have a lot of cool stories of people we've met both and other YouTubers too.
We haven't even told you all the stories.
We'll tell you those that they have met so many people too.
So we keep hearing the same story that we have of connecting with people.
But to kind of wrap it up, I really want to thank all the listeners that have been with us on this podcast journey here.
Definitely check out the show notes.
(43:55):
A lot of the links of the videos and the blog articles that Sherry's written will be there and if you're new to this, please subscribe.
We really thank you for joining us on the adventure here.
Speaker 1 (44:06):
And if you're not new, if you're one of our existing subscribers, guys, we love you.
Thank you so much for following us in this adventure and for supporting us.
Oh, I also want to mention that we love to hear from you, so please, please, be in touch, and I guess the most important thing is to make your escape and get out here.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
Yeah, so are you ready?
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Let's go.
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.