0:00

The 2024 rally season is

0:02

officially underway . We just got

0:04

back from the Alliance National Rally

0:06

. Storms are absolutely battering

0:09

the North Texas and Oklahoma

0:11

areas . What you need to know about what's

0:13

going on with the weather pattern down there and

0:16

if you're interested in going full-timing

0:18

or if you have some random questions from

0:21

a panel of full-timers

0:23

All that coming up next on the RV Shenanigans

0:25

podcast . Welcome

0:32

back . My name is Ryan and along with my wife

0:35

Lauren , we make up what's called Miller's In

0:37

Motion . We've been filming our

0:39

full-time journey now for a little over

0:41

two years and all of the travels in between

0:43

, and we're excited to have you here on the

0:46

RV Shenanigans podcast . A

0:48

few housekeeping things before we dive into

0:50

some of our topics today . One if

0:53

you watch this podcast , please

0:55

, please , please know we are no longer posting

0:58

it on the main Millers in Motion channel

1:00

and you'll find out why very , very

1:02

soon . Let's just say , youtube

1:04

doesn't love it when you make slightly different content

1:06

, and so we do have its

1:08

own podcast . So if you are listening

1:10

to this and you want to watch it

1:12

, please go to the RV Shenanigans podcast

1:15

YouTube page Now if you are watching

1:17

this on that page , because we're no longer posting

1:19

it on the Miller's In Motion side . Do

1:21

us a favor , let your friends know we are

1:23

trying to get the word out about the podcast

1:26

. Youtube doesn't love when you make big changes

1:28

like this , and so we are asking for your help

1:30

to try and get the show out to as many

1:33

people as possible so that we can continue

1:35

to grow and talk about all the things that

1:37

you guys want to listen to . Also , if you have

1:39

any show recommendations , please feel free to leave

1:41

it in the comments down below . If

1:43

you are listening to this , you can email us at info

1:45

at millersinmotioncom . Okay

1:49

, rally season . It is in full

1:51

swing now , so Elkhart Campground

1:53

is booked back to , back to back , and we just got

1:55

back from the 2024 Alliance National

1:57

Rally . But before we dive into all

1:59

the craziness that was that rally , we're

2:02

going to talk a little bit about the weather . Texas

2:04

and Oklahoma and areas of the Midwest

2:06

have been absolutely getting annihilated

2:09

lately . There's been multiple confirmed

2:11

tornadoes . We actually , upon

2:13

leaving North Texas to go to the Alliance National

2:16

Rally , had to literally play Dodge the Tornadoes

2:18

an area very close

2:20

to where we keep a more permanent site . So

2:22

we have somewhere to come back to . In between , some of

2:24

our other travels Got hit

2:26

pretty hard , literally just a few miles down the road

2:28

from where I'm currently sitting . So

2:31

do us a favor Just be very , very

2:33

weather aware as you're traveling around the country

2:35

. Make sure to use some of those things . In fact

2:38

, what we're about to get into , we talk a little bit

2:40

about weather and how not just

2:42

us but other full-time RVers kind

2:44

of approach that process . All

2:46

right , the 2024 Alliance National

2:48

Rally is officially in our rearview mirror and , oh

2:51

my gosh , was it a lot of fun . If you've

2:53

never been to an OEM

2:55

rally for us that's Alliance or any of the other

2:57

manufacturers you may want to consider

2:59

doing it . It is an absolute blast

3:02

. Not only do you get to hang out with like-minded

3:04

individuals , but they put on quite

3:06

a show and the OEMs always sponsor

3:09

it . There we go , support it . So

3:11

a huge thanks to Coley

3:14

and Ryan Brady , jeremiah Dumka

3:16

, joe Mell , the director of

3:18

marketing over at Alliance , rob

3:20

Boyer , who pretty much ran the rally

3:22

, and Jim Belletti . With those two guys

3:24

it was an absolute blast , and I've heard a

3:26

few rumors of what's coming and I

3:29

can tell you that that is just going to get bigger and

3:31

better , with more production value and all of the

3:33

things . Also , alliance

3:35

is doing its second national rally

3:37

officially , but they're doing it on the west side of

3:39

the United States . So , yeah

3:41

, it's going to be in Las Vegas , vegas

3:43

, and it is very sold out . So we're trying to figure

3:45

out if we can even squeeze in time to get out

3:47

there . Yeah , we'll see

3:49

. But what we're

3:51

going to talk about today in our longer

3:55

discussion we actually recorded

3:57

back at the 2024 Alliance National

3:59

Rally . So one of the things they do a great

4:01

job of is kind

4:04

of bringing together people that know a little bit more

4:06

about a certain topic and putting panels together

4:09

, and then they talk a little bit about what's going on and

4:11

, in addition to that , they also are

4:13

able to ask and answer a

4:16

bunch of different questions . So

4:18

the next few shows we have some of those panels recorded

4:21

and we're going to bring them to you . So , without

4:23

further delay , this panel is all about

4:25

full-time rving . So we're

4:27

going to go blast from the past , literally

4:29

like four days ago , and

4:31

we're going to let you listen in on the full-timer

4:34

panel that I got to emcee

4:36

back at the 2024 alliance

4:38

national rally . All

4:42

right , good morning . Uh , this is the 1030

4:44

full-timer panel . Before we

4:47

get into anything , we're going to go through and introduce everybody

4:49

. Also , full disclosure . We are recording this

4:51

for the RV Shenanigans podcast , so if you do get

4:53

up and talk , you're going to get to hear your voice again on the Internet

4:55

. I'm going to start with us , just

4:57

because I'm kind of holding the microphone . Sorry , guys , my

5:00

name is Ryan Miller . My wife , lauren , is

5:03

somewhere . Oh

5:05

, she went to the back of the room . That's nice . We're

5:07

brand ambassadors for Alliance . We do full-time

5:10

and we are in a Valor 44V14

5:13

, and we have been doing that now

5:15

for just over two years . So

5:17

I don't know which end you guys want

5:19

to start on this . One way down here

5:21

that has no mic perfect hi

5:26

, I'm Roger Hardy .

5:26

This is my wife , deb . We

5:28

have been full-time since 2017

5:31

and we just

5:33

reached , on the Wednesday

5:35

, our fourth anniversary in our

5:38

340

5:40

. We spend

5:42

six months out of the year five to six months out of the

5:44

year in South Texas during the winter and

5:46

then are traveling on the road the rest of

5:48

the time .

5:54

I know it's hard , because we have the same thing to say . I'm

5:56

Pat Hanisch , my husband .

5:59

Joe DeLucia .

6:02

We actually we have been on the road . We just finished

6:04

our third year , so we're starting our fourth

6:06

year . Oh sorry . Started our

6:09

fourth year basically in June , because

6:11

we bought it 2021 . We

6:14

actually travel , literally travel

6:16

around the country full time , and

6:18

so we've been kind of just about

6:21

everywhere . There's a few states left , but

6:24

we'll get those , hopefully this summer

6:26

.

6:28

And we have a paradigm 310

6:33

.

6:36

I'm Mitch Drake . This is my wife , Jane

6:38

. We have been full-time

6:41

, coming up on four years in

6:43

a 370 FB . We

6:47

never owned an RV before

6:49

and we

6:51

took off full-time . I'm

6:54

also the administer

6:57

of the Alliance Full-Timers page

6:59

and I

7:02

don't use my name . I use a fake

7:04

last name , Mitch Argg . I'm

7:08

a retired police officer and my wife

7:10

is a retired nurse .

7:15

Hello , my name is Shane Turpin . This is my wife

7:17

Kelly the better half . We've

7:20

been full-timing for about

7:22

four years now , but only two years

7:24

in an alliance . Our first was

7:26

a bumper pull that we bought , and

7:31

our alliance is a 372RK

7:34

which they no longer make and

7:36

we're not willing to trade for anything , so

7:39

we're going to stay in that one for a while .

7:43

He said it all .

7:47

Hi , I'm Lisa Goodman , this

7:49

is CJ , and we're probably

7:51

the newbies of the group in

7:53

that we only retired seven

7:55

months ago . I

8:00

hear myself perfectly . I hear

8:03

myself perfectly , but

8:14

we actually have been in our 370 FB for almost two years . We sold our

8:16

house in 22 , went ahead and moved in and just gradually

8:18

worked to the point of being able

8:20

to retire and travel , of being

8:23

able to retire

8:27

and travel .

8:28

Okay , so obviously we want to answer any questions

8:30

anybody has out there , so start formulating

8:32

them . When

8:36

we do get to that point , there is a microphone sitting right there that we're going

8:38

to ask you to go kind of line up at and or use so we can record . But

8:40

I have a question for the panel

8:42

essentially so I

8:44

get asked this all the time is what's the

8:46

right time to go full-time versus

8:48

part-time , or even get into the full-time

8:51

life ? I'm

8:55

cheating because I know my answer . Oh

9:00

, pat , you got it . Somebody want to take it . You have

9:02

to pass it .

9:03

Yeah , sorry , you know we did the

9:05

same thing that Mitch and Jane did . We

9:08

had never camped other than a tent , and

9:10

so we basically bought our RV and

9:13

we were going to do this for a year . That's

9:15

kind of how we started . Joe

9:17

has traveled around the country

9:20

as a kid I never did , and

9:28

I said I want to see as much as I can of the United States before we build , because

9:30

we knew we wanted to buy property and build . So that's

9:32

kind of what we've been doing for three years

9:34

and now we're on the next

9:36

stage . So maybe , joe , you want to tell them about

9:38

that .

9:40

Well , we'll save that for later , but we did buy property . We're closing on Friday

9:42

, we're excited . Well , we'll save that for later , but we did buy property . We're closing on Friday , we're

9:45

excited . Yeah , we

9:47

thought we'd do this for a year and it's

9:49

continued on for

9:51

three years . But

9:56

the question was when is the right time ? And the first thing that comes to my mind

9:58

is you know , everybody's circumstance is different

10:00

, but why not ? Stance is different , but why not

10:03

If you can make

10:05

some money or if you can afford it ? That's

10:16

really the key . But nobody's getting any younger . So that was one of the thoughts

10:18

in our mind too is you know , parents that have passed away and

10:20

our families and other people that have . We

10:23

thought let's do this while we're still young enough

10:25

to really have a lot of fun and

10:27

do adventures and

10:29

really enjoy it before

10:32

we can't . So there we

10:34

are .

10:36

For us , it was always

10:38

our goal that once we retired

10:41

, we were going to go full-time RV . We

10:43

had our five-year plan and it got

10:45

in 2020 . With COVID it got

10:47

bumped up a couple years . So we're

10:50

four years into our two

10:53

years . We should have been , but

10:55

have loved every minute of it . So it was always our goal

10:57

. So I think it's for you know , choice

11:00

for each person . We both grew

11:02

up camping . We went from backpacking

11:05

camping with a sleeping bag in the open

11:07

to tent camping to on

11:09

way . Up to now I'm in a house and I don't really

11:11

consider this camping Just

11:13

luxury living . So but for

11:16

us , I think it's just individual choice

11:18

and know that there's going to be

11:20

trials and errors

11:22

all along the way . So that

11:24

was for us .

11:29

Our full-time journey started probably five

11:31

years or more before we actually

11:33

retired . This was our goal

11:36

for many , many years . The

11:38

only decision we had to make was

11:40

is it going to be a fifth wheel ? Is it going to

11:43

be a Class A ? It going to be a class

11:45

a , and every time

11:47

we went to an rv show , one

11:49

of us was in favor of one , one was

11:51

in favor of the other . We left

11:53

the rv show . One was in favor

11:56

of one , one was in favor of the other but

11:58

they were reversed . So

12:01

we kept going back and forth , and when

12:03

we talked to our financial advisor and

12:05

he said , yeah , you're ready to retire , I

12:08

couldn't get there fast enough , and

12:10

we set a date and said let's

12:13

do this . And Deb

12:16

was just a little more hesitant about

12:18

that . This was in

12:20

the fall of 2016 , but

12:23

in January 2017 , she said

12:25

so when was it that you were planning on

12:27

retiring ? Yeah , I'll do it . Then

12:29

, too , she was absolutely

12:32

ready . But the

12:35

thing is , this is not an

12:37

inexpensive way to live

12:39

For anybody who

12:41

says that oh well , I'm going to travel

12:43

around in an RV and I'll

12:46

cut my expenses . I

12:49

got a deal for you . That's

12:52

not going to happen , so be prepared

12:55

for the likelihood that it's

12:58

going to cost you more than you think it's going to cost you and

13:01

plan accordingly . But

13:03

the big thing is for us have a

13:05

plan . Don't retire

13:07

from something . Retire to

13:09

something and have a goal

13:11

. Have something in mind that you want to do , all

13:13

in this rig around .

13:16

Anybody else ?

13:18

And for us that was a baseball game in every

13:20

Major League Baseball park and we've

13:22

gone to 22 . So we've

13:24

got some more to go . We've got to get to the West

13:26

Coast but it's going to take us some time

13:28

because we have little kids that live on the East

13:31

Coast . But you

13:33

know it is an expensive lifestyle

13:35

but it is a very rewarding

13:37

lifestyle because in this lifestyle

13:40

you get the family you

13:42

choose , not

13:44

the one necessarily you were given with , and

13:48

we've met so many fantastic

13:50

people . so the time has

13:52

yeah the

13:54

time has to be right for you which

13:58

, as everyone has indicated

14:00

, it just depends on your

14:03

circumstance .

14:04

But for us we kind of jump ship

14:07

early . We retired early . It has indicated it just

14:09

depends on your circumstance , but for us we

14:11

kind of jumped ship early , we retired early and our thought process was our

14:13

kids didn't necessarily need us . They're

14:15

grown , able to take care of themselves

14:17

and my parents are still able

14:20

to take care of themselves . But

14:22

at what point will that change

14:25

? If we wait two years , three

14:27

years , four years , five years , we

14:29

may have a totally different circumstance

14:32

. So it's like let's go now

14:34

have some fun , enjoy

14:36

life , while we can still walk around

14:38

. Of

14:43

course , after picking up ducks at the game the other day , the walking

14:45

around part is not as good as usual

14:47

, but for us that was our circumstance

14:50

. We just felt like we needed to

14:52

go while the opportunity

14:54

was available .

14:59

Can we grab a mic for a bit ?

15:00

Yeah , there you go

15:03

as far as the right

15:05

time . First of all

15:07

, there's a lot of people that go full-time

15:10

and they work from the road . Uh , we

15:12

run into them all the time , as a matter

15:14

of fact joe does contract

15:16

work , where they'll leave

15:19

the rv where they're at

15:22

and he'll fly somewhere

15:24

. I think you're . Where are you going next ? Rhode Island

15:27

, rhode Island for a couple months . I

15:30

said when I retired I was never going to work

15:33

again , and that

15:36

lasted five years , and now

15:38

I'm also working a

15:41

contract job that ends in August

15:43

. So people

15:45

that are not going to retire

15:48

a contract job that ends in

15:50

August . So people that are not

15:52

going to retire but still want to do this . The key is

15:54

it has to be something that you can do either remotely

15:56

, or you have to have

15:58

the resources to fly to where you want to work , or

16:01

there are a lot of stationary full

16:03

timers also that park

16:06

their RV work

16:08

. We have a lot of traveling

16:10

nurses on our

16:12

Facebook page and they

16:14

I mean they go and they work

16:16

a three month contract on the west coast and

16:19

then they pull all the way to the east

16:21

coast and they work a three month contract there

16:23

. So it's very doable

16:26

to work on the road . So we're kind

16:28

of talking about what it's like , you

16:30

know , when it's time to retire . In

16:32

our case , I was coming

16:34

up within a couple years of retirement

16:36

and I did

16:39

retire and we were still planning on

16:41

buying the RV and

16:43

then my brother suddenly died and

16:45

he was just a few years older than me and

16:48

my wife called . I

16:50

was helping take care of him and she

16:52

called me up right after he died , said I

16:54

turned in my paperwork as soon as you get back , let's

16:56

order the RV , because that was the

16:58

whole kick in the pants . You

17:01

know you're not guaranteed a day . You're

17:03

not guaranteed a day in this life and you want

17:07

to die . You don't want to die with stuff

17:09

, you want to die with memories . And

17:12

that's the way that we felt about it .

17:15

Yeah , I'm glad you actually went that route about

17:17

kind of the working and just out

17:19

of curiosity , just from a quick show of hands , who is

17:21

fully retired doesn't do anything . There is

17:23

no other residual income from up here

17:25

, okay . And then how many people

17:27

like part-time work or

17:29

work camp , that kind of stuff ? Yeah

17:33

, and then who's still full-time gig ? You

17:35

know , at least 40 hours a week , regardless

17:37

if it's remote or stationary , I'll

17:40

be doing 40 hours of short-term

17:42

what I'll be working

17:45

40 hours a week , but three

17:47

to six months .

17:48

Oh , okay , and then you're going to tone it back a little bit and then I

17:50

will . Okay , yeah .

17:51

And then we both still work full

17:53

time , and so it's funny because you get

17:55

all different age groups that

17:57

do that , because a lot of people like we're

17:59

in our late 30s and early 40s

18:01

and we have to continue

18:03

working . We don't have

18:05

a choice , right , but we don't want to not do the lifestyle yet because , just

18:08

like you heard a bunch here , you know

18:10

we feel like we get an even more head start because

18:12

now we get to get out , and our reason why for going full-time

18:14

was we lost lauren's dad back in 2020

18:17

, back in 2020

18:19

, and he was a big camper . We tent camped with him , all

18:22

of that stuff , and we looked

18:24

at each other other , especially post COVID and all

18:26

those things , and said you know what , we just don't want

18:28

to wait anymore , we're going to do it , and we do it

18:30

a little partial , stationary , because she still has

18:32

to go back to a in-person job

18:34

every once in a while that she can also do remotely . In

18:36

fact , she was working the last two days . That's why she's

18:38

been hiding , but she's done now

18:41

and in the back of the room . So

18:43

, for you guys , and if anybody

18:46

has a question , by all means pop up there . We will

18:48

go to that very , very quickly , so

18:52

feel free to jump up there whenever you have one . Is there

18:54

something that anybody on the panel just

18:56

is like ? I wish I had known this before

18:58

I went full-timing , because

19:01

that's probably the number , that is , the number one question we get by

19:03

a mile . Go

19:06

ahead Go ahead , joe .

19:08

Where to begin ? Go

19:11

ahead , joe . I'm

19:14

trying to come up with a good answer for that , because it's

19:16

like where do we begin ?

19:17

It's very loaded .

19:21

What I wish I had known , what

19:24

I wish I had known . Well

19:28

, we did a lot of research ahead of time on , you know , the right rig

19:30

and all that stuff . I wish

19:33

I had known that

19:35

boy . You know , every time you get on the

19:38

road it's like a 3.2 earthquake

19:40

for your rig , for your house , and

19:43

things will shake apart

19:46

. And so there's , you know

19:48

, there's kind of the constant maintenance

19:50

and fixing of

19:52

something . Things

19:54

do break , just like your house

19:56

, your sticks and bricks , things

19:59

will break down , and they always break down

20:01

at the wrong time . It's

20:03

always inconvenient , and

20:06

you know we're usually

20:08

on the move somewhere

20:10

, and so that's where it's always

20:12

challenging to juggle all

20:15

these I've got to get parts

20:17

ordered and , you know , set

20:19

aside the time to fix this thing

20:21

that's broken , you know , depending

20:23

on the priority of it . So yet

20:25

the fixing of stuff doesn't

20:28

go away . It's

20:30

not a it's not always a smooth travel

20:32

. And then , of course , weather too . That's

20:35

always a challenge when traveling

20:38

. You know , we've heard about the tornadoes

20:40

in Texas and Oklahoma and all that stuff , and

20:42

you know , if we have to make a trip across

20:44

country , we're really paying

20:46

attention to that , and

20:51

sometimes we need to be flexible with our travel plans depending on what kind of is going on with

20:53

the weather High winds

20:55

or , you know , bad storms

20:57

. We want to try and dodge those

21:00

whenever possible . Boy

21:03

, I'm sure there's more thoughts .

21:06

I know I opened Pandora's box by this one . I understand

21:08

.

21:10

Who would think that planning your RV

21:13

travel would be a full-time job

21:15

? Yeah

21:18

, raj does it , and it seems like most

21:21

of us , one person

21:23

kind of is responsible for planning the route

21:25

. But it's a full-time job

21:27

. I mean , he sits at that computer

21:30

and he's working , and working , and working . He goes

21:32

. What do you think of this ? But I

21:34

never dreamt it would be a full-time job .

21:38

I'm sure , but so

21:49

let's run through the rest of that question for the other panelists

21:51

and then we'll come right back to that one . Ok

21:59

, is that OK ?

21:59

Perfect , so what you wish . You knew anybody else before you started full timing . Well

22:01

, for us , being younger , the biggest issue is

22:04

health insurance . So

22:06

if I had known

22:09

then what I know now

22:11

, I would have bought less stuff

22:13

and stashed more cash

22:15

, because cash

22:17

is king . So

22:28

if you can kind of make your income what you need your income to be , you can use that stashed cash for

22:30

your reserves . Because if you make your income real low , you

22:33

may not be able to travel the way you want to

22:35

travel , so you need that stockpile

22:38

per se to pull from

22:40

. So I would have done things differently

22:43

as far as just cash

22:45

.

22:46

She was told to quit buying wine .

22:49

I have my limits , that's not going to happen

22:51

.

22:52

The life still has to be enjoyable . Come on , is

22:55

anybody else on the why ?

22:58

Most of us live in

23:00

about 400

23:02

square feet , live

23:05

in about 400 square feet . That's

23:07

a lot of togetherness . We always love

23:09

each other , but we don't always like

23:11

each other .

23:12

I love you Lauren .

23:18

So we have found that togetherness is next to godliness , but

23:20

so is apartedness . So

23:23

have some things that , and

23:26

something we never thought about was to

23:28

have activities and things that we can

23:30

do separately . So

23:33

for us , a lot of it is just walking . I

23:35

walk at a different pace than Deb does , so

23:38

we walk separately . We may both go out and walk

23:40

at the same time , but we're going in

23:42

opposite directions . But

23:44

that time away from each

23:46

other is also very important and

23:48

I just never thought that was going to be an

23:50

issue yeah , it's a

23:53

great point because I play golf and so

23:55

I'll go play golf .

23:56

Lauren runs and so we normally get a little

23:58

bit of time apart and you can always tell there's

24:00

a twitch in like normally her eye , because I'm annoying

24:02

her and that's time to go play golf . Anybody

24:05

else on that question , before we come back to the one from over

24:07

here , I just expand on what

24:09

.

24:09

Roger said

24:12

. What Roger said is very

24:14

true . When

24:18

I worked , I ended up being the

24:20

boss , and when Jane

24:22

worked , she ended up being the boss . I ended

24:25

up being the boss and when Jane worked , she ended

24:27

up being the boss . And I had a condo over by where I worked

24:30

and we had a house about

24:32

an hour and a half away from where I worked . So

24:34

we saw each other about two days a week

24:36

and it was always like a honeymoon

24:38

To come there

24:40

. We were all happy and everything and

24:45

we went out to eat and we had a good

24:48

time and everything , and

24:52

within a two-week period we sold everything and we're in 429

24:54

square feet , 24

24:56

hours , seven days a week , with

24:58

two people who are both used to being

25:01

in charge . It

25:03

wasn't pretty . It wasn't pretty .

25:06

How big was the therapy bill ?

25:07

That first six months was a little

25:09

trying and you

25:11

might want to bleep this out . We

25:16

were sitting about six months in

25:18

At the time . We weren't mad at

25:20

one another or anything . I was reading and

25:22

she was doing something , and we're

25:24

sitting next to one another and it's just dead

25:26

quiet in the RV park and

25:29

she just turns to me and she goes . You

25:31

are always effing here . So

25:45

what Roger said is really

25:47

true . I mean , we love each other

25:49

, but we also love

25:52

our part time . After

25:57

about seven months into it we bought a second vehicle and when we travel

26:00

she follows behind me

26:02

. Travel

26:09

, she follows behind me . And I like about a four hour travel day because I get to

26:11

listen to the music I want to listen to . It's nice and quiet . I don't

26:13

have to carry on a conversation . I

26:15

don't have to hear as I'm pulling 30,000

26:18

pounds oh did you see that when

26:21

you and you jam on the brakes because

26:24

you think you're about ready to run over something

26:26

?

26:27

My little helper in the car .

26:31

I'm only laughing because I kind of know

26:33

what you're talking about , so

26:38

a part time

26:40

is very important also

26:43

, and I

26:46

would say that I

26:49

didn't realize that either . I thought it was just going to

26:51

be like it was on our days off . You know

26:53

we were going to just run around , it was all

26:55

going to be sunshine and rainbows , and

26:57

you know you get on each other's nerves .

27:00

Well , I think the important thing there is like and everybody up here

27:02

is married , so you kind of know what we're talking about is marriage is work

27:05

regardless . Just work inside 400

27:07

square feet is a little more . So

27:11

I'm going to come back to the question that was over here when we were

27:13

talking a little bit about kind of some of the route planning stuff

27:15

down there . What does everybody use

27:17

to kind of plan their routes , figure

27:19

out where they're going ? All that good stuff . Just

27:25

to clarify the question

27:29

. You're talking about the software and all that . Right , I'm

27:32

coming to

27:36

you .

27:37

So what have you found useful as far as travel planning and weather monitoring

27:40

? I mean , there's Weather Channel , which is like

27:42

watching Armageddon every day , and

27:44

then there's apps and

27:46

RV Trip Wizard

27:49

and any of the apps that were handy

27:51

, yeah , so just essentially the

27:53

handiest apps and or I'm going to say pieces

27:55

of software .

27:56

maybe , if you're not actually on the road , like RV Life

27:58

, I like on a computer versus the app personally

28:00

.

28:00

So we've

28:03

been using RV Life for for several

28:05

years and I

28:08

will not try to plan anything on the

28:10

phone , on the app , it's just it's

28:12

too small , too big of a pain in the rear , but

28:15

on the computer it becomes very

28:17

easy and you can

28:19

tell I mean I've got 300

28:21

miles as my maximum that

28:23

I will travel during the day if at all possible

28:26

, and so

28:29

I'll plan that out . And I like it

28:31

because I highlight

28:33

where I'm trying to go from and

28:36

then I search and find something that

28:38

I want to go to and it will show me

28:40

exactly how many miles that

28:43

I will be driving that day and how

28:45

long it's going to take me to get there and

28:47

that I really like and

28:51

having . We use Passport America for

28:54

the one-night stands going

28:56

from Part A to Part B . We

28:59

use that a lot . So on Monday

29:01

through Thursday you can usually get half off

29:03

on sites . It's

29:06

a very inexpensive program to have and

29:08

you'll save 100%

29:11

of your cost , usually on the first stay

29:14

, First one or two stays . But

29:17

RV Life has been what

29:19

we've been using .

29:20

So just because we have so many panelists is a little format

29:22

thing , I'm going to kill this mic and bring it up here for you

29:24

guys and I'm just going to wander around . So if you have

29:26

a question , just throw something at me . Essentially

29:28

, okie , dokie . Yeah , we do use

29:30

.

29:31

RV Trip Wizard as well . Found

29:33

it to be very , very valuable . Same thing

29:35

you know , like what's our final destination and

29:38

then what we can see along the way . The

29:46

benefit of that one too , is that I can then send our link to family and then they know

29:48

where we are , even though when we talk to them they're still gonna say where

29:51

are you ? Again , I

29:53

do tell them where we just

29:55

left , yeah , but

29:57

we , so we do use that and

30:00

the way we've kind of divvied up

30:02

you know up the time

30:04

is that I do all the planning

30:06

and the navigation to get us somewhere

30:09

. And then we get there and Joe

30:11

picks the activities we're

30:13

going to do . He basically sets our

30:15

daily agenda , whether we're going to go hiking

30:17

or biking or whatever museums

30:20

, whatever it is in that area . He

30:23

plans all that out for us . So we kind of share

30:25

that .

30:27

And I'm also the meteorologist

30:29

of the couple , so

30:31

I watch the weather . So

30:34

what apps do I use ? The

30:36

ones I love myRIDAR

30:38

Pro , which is a

30:41

Doppler weather . It also shows

30:43

winds , high winds . I

30:47

also use AccuWeather a lot . I

30:50

have the app on my phone and

30:52

then , depending on what we're doing , national

30:55

Weather Service radio , noaa

30:57

weather radio , and

31:00

then occasionally I'll look at the weather channel as well

31:02

for a different perspective . But I

31:04

really use the AccuWeather and MyRadar

31:07

Pro a lot . Also

31:09

TripAdvisor for agendas

31:12

. You know things to do around town . I

31:14

love TripAdvisor and the folks

31:17

that give ratings and reviews

31:19

.

31:21

There's also an app called DriveWe

31:24

where you put in your route and

31:26

it will show you the weather and

31:29

you can watch it deteriorate

31:32

or whatever ahead of your route

31:34

. You mean get better , get better , get better

31:36

there you go Improve when to leave

31:38

that kind of stuff , but it will show you the weather all

31:40

along your route and it does have

31:42

wind speed on it , which is really

31:44

important .

31:46

So Kelly and I hello

31:48

, kelly and I usually do it together and

31:51

I'm going to say it can get very frustrating

31:54

at times , but she'll usually

31:56

be on the trip planner and

31:58

then I'll go to Google Maps and

32:00

we'll try to see

32:02

about . You know , we want to go about 300 , 400

32:04

miles , whatever . So I'll use the

32:07

Google Maps and , you

32:09

know , scroll in and see what towns are along

32:11

there and say , oh yeah , that's about right . And

32:14

then we'll also use Google Earth and

32:16

that way we can zoom in on the different

32:18

campgrounds . We're interested in see what they

32:20

look like . You know what their sites

32:22

look like a little bit better . You know

32:24

when they put pictures on their website it's like

32:27

the best it's ever been . So

32:29

if you get the Google Earth , sometimes it's a little

32:31

more up-to-date . So

32:34

we'll just sit there together and just go back

32:36

and forth . We

32:41

usually have somewhere we're trying to get to eventually and I just might say this , to eventually . And just might

32:43

say this it's

32:46

like in July we're going from Elkhart

32:48

because we have to have some repairs done

32:50

to Utah and

32:52

common sense would say , oh okay , jump

32:54

on I-80 , goes right to Utah

32:57

. Oh hell , no , we've got to go all

32:59

the way down south , go down here

33:01

, and then we'll come up north a little further and then

33:03

go back down , so we never go in a straight

33:05

line . That's the fun of it . You don't

33:07

have to , right .

33:12

So essentially all the apps

33:14

that they've already referred to are the

33:16

same ones that I would use . I

33:19

would add to whoever said that

33:21

trip planning is a full-time job

33:23

, that is 100% the

33:25

truth because I can

33:27

spend an eight-hour day literally

33:29

just planning a trip . But

33:32

I'll also add that YouTube

33:35

and the YouTubers great source

33:37

of information . If I

33:39

know we're going to a certain destination

33:42

, just go to YouTube , plug

33:44

in that destination or campground

33:47

and you'll be able to see

33:50

all the information

33:52

you want , in most cases about

33:54

that area and a

33:56

lot of things to do . So

33:59

they kind of cover everything I needed

34:01

to do in that area . I usually

34:03

have a pen and piece of paper and I'm taking

34:05

notes of the places that they

34:07

attended in that particular location

34:10

and then I go back to RV

34:12

life , look at campgrounds

34:15

and try to just pinpoint those

34:17

things . But that's been a great

34:20

resource for me , just simply

34:22

YouTube .

34:23

And I'm gonna add too because I'm probably the only

34:25

I'm going to say dumb one up here we typically

34:27

do an average drive day between 8

34:30

and and 12 hours

34:32

. Well

34:37

, so when you talk about going full-time

34:39

too , the hard thing is that sometimes we

34:41

have to get back for a meeting , Sometimes we have to get back

34:43

for something that we don't necessarily want to get

34:45

back for , but that's the reality of it and

34:47

that's the reality of the life we chose .

34:49

And so as it

34:51

ought to be young again

34:55

.

34:55

But like , for instance , we're leaving here

34:57

Saturday morning no later than what did we say 7

34:59

am , because we have

35:01

to be back in North Texas , which is a

35:03

little over 1,000 miles away , by Sunday at

35:05

2 o'clock . So

35:08

that's kind of so . Some of the things we also

35:10

use is we do use RV Life on the computer

35:12

in the planning process . Now we also have

35:14

a Garmin RV 895

35:16

that we use in the truck itself . Unfortunately

35:19

, they don't talk to each other . That would be amazing , but

35:22

that allows us to input everything and so I

35:24

have my entire route , actually for Saturday

35:26

, already loaded in that in

35:28

a planning thing and then it also

35:30

will show you weather upcoming and those types of things , as

35:32

long as you have it connected to your phone and you have cell service

35:34

. Another

35:39

app that we use for weather is called Windy . We've liked that one . It seems to be

35:41

. It's real basic , but it loads really fast

35:43

and sometimes when you get into some high

35:45

wind stuff or some of those situations , it'll actually

35:47

notify you based on your GPS location . Something

35:50

else that we don't do this with our families , but some

35:52

other people have done , is they'll use like

35:55

a location sharing app , whether you have an iPhone or like

35:57

Life 360 . So if you have family members

35:59

that are a little concerned for you being on the road

36:01

or you're going through an area that maybe you're questioning

36:03

, like a big mountain pass for the first time , that kind

36:05

of stuff they can kind of keep an eye on your

36:08

location . If you want someone to do that as well

36:10

when you're doing the planning process and so when

36:12

you're actually on it . If you were to go dark

36:14

, let's say , let's say you're in a bad , you get a blowout

36:17

. Right , it happens you , something happens with the RV , you

36:19

get stuck somewhere where you don't have cell service but

36:21

your phone still may have GPS connectivity and you

36:23

haven't moved in a few hours . Now you've got someone going

36:25

hey , what's going on ? And you might have

36:27

somebody else Life people this week and sometime

36:30

over the next few weeks .

36:31

those two are basically going to be

36:33

coming together , so

36:44

when you're going down the road , all of

36:46

the EFS truck stops

36:48

are going to be included on RV Life and

36:51

they're going to show live current

36:53

prices . So

36:55

that's going to be a nice combination .

36:57

One thing that we learned is

36:59

, when you're traveling , if

37:02

you can do it , don't book just one

37:04

night . You

37:06

just , I mean , you get there , you

37:09

know you have to leave the next morning and then you find

37:11

all this cool stuff you want

37:13

to go look at and you're like , well , we'll get back

37:15

to it someday Someday

37:17

. Just usually doesn't come . So if

37:20

you can try to book at least two nights

37:22

in one location so you can go out and see what's

37:24

in that area and not miss out

37:26

on all that cool stuff . Also

37:28

, if it's possible

37:30

and you do use your

37:33

trip planner , try

37:35

to stay off the freeways . Take

37:38

the highways , because you see things you'll

37:40

never see on that interstate Little cool

37:42

towns , all kinds of different sites

37:45

to see . So if you can do that

37:47

and can do it safely , the

37:49

RV trip planner , when you plug your info

37:52

in , it'll tell you if there's any little

37:54

bridges or anything like that . Get

37:56

off the freeway , man , because it is so

37:59

much better . Yes , it's going to take more time , but

38:01

it's nice .

38:03

The other one thing I want to just ask everybody

38:05

and tell everybody . You know I don't know about

38:07

you , but I rely heavily on reviews

38:09

. I read those reviews in RV

38:11

Trip Wizard or on the DIRT or wherever

38:14

I'm booking through , and so I

38:16

encourage you if you don't leave reviews

38:18

, please start doing it and give

38:20

good information about rig size

38:22

and how you fit and those kinds of things

38:24

. I started getting better and better on doing

38:26

that and I appreciate it so much

38:28

when other people do . So if

38:30

you're not doing it , good , bad , indifferent

38:32

, whatever they are just please

38:34

take the time to do it , because it not only means

38:36

something to the campground but it means a lot

38:39

to fellow campers . You know it's really

38:41

, really important . So I encourage you .

38:44

And that brings up a good point too is obviously you've got

38:46

varying sizes . I mean , typically in the paradigm

38:48

world , you're in the valor world , you're going to be a

38:50

certain size . Our valor , because

38:52

we're in the 44V14 , is 46

38:54

feet and change long , and

38:56

we're just over 13.6

38:59

high because we had independent suspension put on

39:01

to actually raise us up close to 13.7 . So

39:03

being able to type those things in , because we're 64

39:05

feet when we're connected , that's as

39:07

long as most of the semis that are out there , and so we

39:10

travel a little differently than , say , somebody that's in

39:12

a Delta travel trailer , because they're shorter

39:14

, both height

39:17

and length , and so they can get away with doing things

39:19

a little bit differently than we

39:21

can essentially . So you have to take all those things into

39:23

consideration . So the question's a very loaded

39:25

question , unfortunately of what do we ? I mean as far

39:27

as we all use the same thing , it sounds like . But

39:30

just know that do what you're comfortable with

39:32

with your rig . Don't do anything past that

39:34

, because if you get uncomfortable , that's

39:36

when bad things start to happen . So slow down

39:39

and do it right . And I was going to ask one follow-up

39:41

question to this whole thing what's

39:43

everybody's average tow speed ? 65

39:47

. Yep , and that's the reason I say

39:49

that is every time we happen to tow faster

39:51

than 65 , maybe trying to get somewhere 10 minutes early

39:53

, or whatever . Something's broken . It's

39:58

just the random is random . It doesn't matter what it is , but there's

40:01

something about 65 in RVs that that's a sweet spot . So , if you , I've

40:03

seen fifth wheels fly past us , going at least 75

40:05

, 80 miles an hour , and the only thing

40:07

I can think of is they're probably broken

40:09

every pex line in that thing . So

40:13

I had a question over here first , real quick , and then I'm

40:15

going to come back to you guys .

40:15

I'll tell you while you're getting there . A very wise

40:18

person told me early on in our travel

40:20

plans to use

40:22

the 3-4-5 rule

40:24

when you're traveling . That's

40:27

300 miles parked by

40:29

four , cocktails by five . So

40:41

you mean the Miller's in Motion version of 10 hours . Maybe have dinner by midnight . Yeah , it's a little different than that .

40:43

There are no cocktails because I have to be up at 5 .

40:49

Hi , I travel solo , me and

40:51

these guys , and I've got a bird , so I

40:54

know about the alone time . I

40:57

know about the trip planning taking hours

40:59

. I know about the driving

41:01

the 300 . The other day was 400 miles

41:04

, which about killed me , mr . 1,000 mile

41:06

a day . We were

41:09

talking about apps and stuff like

41:11

that . One thing that I do for weather is

41:13

Ryan Hall y'allall on YouTube . He

41:15

is awesome . The other day

41:17

I sat in North Tennessee

41:20

waiting out the storms watching Ryan

41:22

live , because those storms were right

41:24

over us . That's why I had a 400-mile day

41:26

the next day . So he's a really good one

41:28

, will you

41:30

have her say that name again , so it was Ryan

41:33

Hall Yall .

41:34

So he's a meteorologist . There's a handful of them on

41:36

YouTube now that actually have become pretty solid

41:39

. We watch him as well because he does national

41:41

weather , and so he's a great resource

41:44

. He has two channels . If you go to the main

41:46

one , there's a few . He's got one where he updates

41:48

kind of quickly if there's something happening , and one that's

41:50

a little bit more drawn out . That's

41:52

kind of the weather for the week kind of a thing .

41:56

I had a follow-up question . You had said you

41:59

recommend taking the secondary roads , the

42:06

state highways , that kind of thing , and we try to do that as well . But my stressor when we

42:08

do that is how do you find a place to stop when you're 55 , 65

42:11

feet long ? You can't just even

42:13

Walmart parking lots . Sometimes you can't maneuver

42:15

because they're too full , they've got all the islands

42:17

scattered about and so on . So

42:20

what do you try to do when you're traveling ?

42:24

When you're planning your trip , try

42:26

to look also at fuel stations

42:28

where they're at

42:30

and see if it's

42:33

a truck stop or something that's

42:35

big enough for you to go into or

42:38

wing it and hope to hell you get there .

42:41

The real question is how good at backing up are you

42:43

? Then you're

42:45

fine . No , I'm just kidding .

42:48

Yeah , that's very true . A lot of times

42:50

that we're like really sweating

42:53

over whether or not we're going to find a place , but

42:55

sometimes you just find a big parking

42:57

lot anywhere . That's an empty business that

42:59

we've pulled over in , and we try and

43:01

make sure that we know where the gas ones are coming up

43:04

so that we know where we can get the gas . And

43:06

there's times where we have like , okay , this route

43:08

is not going to pan out , we have to go on

43:10

the freeway , but we

43:13

avoid it at all costs . But

43:15

it is definitely . That's just one

43:17

of the things that you deal with .

43:18

so , yeah

43:20

, yeah , we do that we do a lot of like

43:22

where's it coming up , and so yeah , so

43:25

one of the things we do is , if we know

43:27

where we need to roughly I mean most truck stops

43:29

and that if we're just getting fuel , it's , you're safe . If

43:31

the trucks can go there , you can go there . We fly and fly out

43:33

, kind of a thing . But if we're looking to stop somewhere for

43:35

the night , like a Cracker Barrel or Walmart

43:37

or whatever else , if it's a

43:40

spur-of-the-moment thing , then Lauren

43:42

will essentially pull up Google Maps and do the

43:44

street view and we know how many spaces

43:47

horizontally that we need to

43:49

maneuver and then how many we need so we can stay the

43:51

night . And that's kind of a general rule

43:53

of thumb that we use . Now , if I typically

43:55

don't like to start moving the rig until

43:57

I know my next destination , whether it's a truck

43:59

stop , whether it's a Cracker Barrel , whether

44:02

it's a harvest house , whatever , and so I kind

44:04

of know what I'm getting into and then we'll kind

44:06

of leave that spot on Google Maps up on our phone

44:08

. So if I need a little refresher when

44:10

we get there , I can pull it up and go yep , I need to pull in here

44:12

and that and all that stuff and the new garments

44:14

actually do what's called eagle eye view , which is kind of cool . It actually

44:16

shows you a satellite view at the 895 and up

44:18

.

44:18

So I

44:21

swear to god I'm not going for a joke here

44:23

, but you're probably going to laugh . Hang

44:25

on , let me reposition the camera no you

44:31

will be in situations where

44:34

you'll run into an accident , and

44:42

we were in one where it took us four

44:44

hours to go 11 miles by

44:46

a urinal . I'm

44:48

dead serious Because

44:53

there's going to be times where all you can do , you can't pull off to the side

44:55

of the road and drop the steps to

44:58

get into the bathroom because you're

45:00

dead stopping traffic , you

45:02

know , and unless

45:05

you want to sacrifice clothes

45:07

in the format of your vehicle

45:09

, you know , and

45:12

the person who yeah , it depends

45:14

, yeah , it depends , yeah , it depends

45:16

, but

45:20

the person who sent me two

45:22

of them was Jim Bonacci from Alliance

45:24

, when he was telling me about us

45:26

going four hours to go 11

45:28

miles . Yikes

45:31

.

45:34

Hi , my husband and I are both retired

45:36

and we're full-time as well in our alliance

45:38

and we love it , um . So I have a couple

45:40

of tips and a question , um , one

45:42

tip is for for those who are curious about going

45:45

full-time and staying at places and saving a little money

45:47

. Um , state parks are always

45:50

looking for volunteers . We have not done it yet

45:52

, but you can volunteer . They look for a minimum of

45:54

a month and you can stay there for free

45:56

, and they generally ask for about two to

45:58

three hours a day of just like normal

46:00

grounds maintenance and stuff like that . So we haven't done

46:02

it yet , but it sounds like a great idea . Another

46:07

one is over here for you . So Love's Truck Stops and others are now

46:09

putting in RV hookups , so

46:12

we've actually stayed at those and it it's fairly inexpensive

46:14

and that's an easy you know if you've got one that

46:16

you can stop at . And then my question

46:18

is so we have our home base and we have our

46:20

doctors and things like that there , but

46:23

we also we just travel around the US full time

46:25

, similar to you guys . What

46:27

do you do when you're out on the road and

46:29

have you know , maybe

46:31

, prescriptions that you need renewed or

46:33

need to go to a doctor . What have you guys

46:35

done for that ? If it's anything unique , I

46:38

don't know if we're missing something . Great

46:40

question .

46:41

So our doctors

46:43

are in our home

46:45

base where we used to live , and

46:47

we do that annually . We get

46:49

there and get our prescriptions renewed If

46:52

it's something not

46:55

life-threatening kind of emergency

46:57

. There are apps , and

46:59

one that I like is called Call on Doc

47:02

and you can enter

47:04

your information . They'll connect

47:07

you , they forward

47:09

your information to a doctor

47:11

. I mean sometimes they'll have

47:13

you take a picture of something . They'll

47:15

ask you your medical history . They

47:17

ask the important questions what

47:19

medicines do you take ? All that kind of stuff , and

47:22

I've used it twice and

47:24

I've always had a prescription the next

47:26

day . So it costs about

47:28

$40 for the consultation

47:32

. So there are some apps . Urgent

47:35

cares I would tell you to make sure

47:37

with your insurance that your insurance

47:39

can be used in every state

47:42

. That's not true with all insurances

47:45

and as

47:47

we get to Medicare thank

47:49

you April 1st

47:52

make sure you pick a

47:54

Medicare supplement that will be

47:56

accepted in every state . The

47:58

Advantage programs are

48:01

great if you sit still . They

48:04

are not great for travelers

48:06

and

48:09

our prescriptions we

48:11

use pick a pharmacy

48:13

where you'll find one in many

48:15

places . So we

48:17

use Costco and

48:20

Walmart Walgreens

48:22

Walgreens now because of Medicare

48:25

but pick a pharmacy where they transfer

48:28

. The problem that you'll have with prescriptions

48:31

is if you use a controlled

48:33

medication . Pain is if

48:35

you use controlled medication , pain relief , that

48:38

kind of stuff . Those are

48:40

a challenge .

48:43

Or what . Or you go to Mexico .

48:45

Oh yes , definitely if you're

48:47

near Mexico stock up Tequila

48:49

pharmaceuticals .

48:52

I would also add talk to your provider . I

48:54

saw your tag . It said Dallas , texas , so Fort Worth . Talk

48:56

to your provider . I saw your tag . It said Dallas , texas , so Fort Worth . Talk to your provider

48:58

. A lot of general providers are offering virtual visits

49:01

now , and so if there's something along that line

49:03

that they may be able to also facilitate , that way

49:05

you can still technically see your own provider

49:07

. Now they may or may not , I don't know who you're

49:09

with , but that's worth a question at least

49:11

, or they might point you in a direction that makes it easier for

49:14

you and them to work with somebody else if you needed

49:16

to .

49:16

So along those lines . There's also

49:18

a great app that I

49:20

blessedly haven't used

49:22

, but I think it's really important . It's called find

49:25

er now , and

49:27

all you do is hit the button

49:29

and it will show you you're

49:32

the closest emergency room , because

49:34

I never know where the heck I am . Yep , I'm

49:36

going in order I

49:38

got them .

49:39

So a little bit of a follow-up with that my

49:45

wife and I full-time . We full-time

49:48

travel nurse and

50:02

to follow up on the insurance stuff there's a gypsy nurse through our travel

50:04

nurse locations and stuff that we talk with for getting nationwide

50:06

coverage . You know the same thing goes with anything Good insurance

50:09

is not cheap and cheap insurance

50:11

isn't good . But to go for . My question for you guys

50:13

was again

50:15

cheap Internet is not

50:17

good and good Internet

50:20

is not cheap . Is there anything that you guys

50:22

have stuck with or found a sweet spot in

50:24

your Internet ?

50:27

Right down the line Starlink

50:29

, Starlink . I just like the

50:31

. When

50:33

I volunteered for the panel , Rob said pick

50:35

people to be on the panel . I

50:38

just want to say that this

50:40

is something that happens when you full time

50:42

. These are basically our best

50:45

friends and we have met up

50:47

all around the country and gone

50:49

and we basically know more

50:51

about each other than anybody should

50:53

know about each other .

50:55

It's not that kind of panel man or want to know .

50:58

And we all have Starlink

51:00

and

51:02

we just recently got it . Shane

51:05

and Kelly just got theirs yesterday

51:07

. Lisa , if

51:09

you need an install , CJ's

51:11

your man right there on

51:15

Starlink . So , cj , what do you charge

51:17

for ? Oh , Deb and Roger don't

51:20

have it .

51:21

But we

51:23

use T-Mobile Home Internet for now

51:25

. They've just announced

51:27

they're going crazy and they're

51:30

trying to go from $40 a month

51:32

to $150 a month if

51:34

you're going to be traveling around the country . There

51:38

is also a program called Calix Institute

51:41

which still uses

51:43

the T-Mobile towers , but it's

51:45

a nonprofit so

51:47

you can go through

51:49

them . You'll get the same program that you have

51:51

on T-Mobile Home Internet You've

51:53

got to pay for it a year in advance that you have

51:55

on T-Mobile Home Internet you've got to pay for

51:57

it a year in advance , but

52:00

so it could be like $750 for the year . That includes your router and one

52:02

year's service and after that

52:04

it drops down to I think it's $500

52:06

for the year , but it still

52:08

ends up being like $40

52:10

, $45 a month that

52:12

you pay for that . So there are other alternatives

52:15

and we're gonna keep using T-Mobile

52:17

home internet until they kick us out or

52:19

until they jack the price up so much that that

52:22

we kick them out one of

52:24

the two , but we've been very pleased with that and

52:26

, if I could add to that , a

52:29

lot of people using cellular is an

52:31

option for internet .

52:32

We started using cellular

52:34

and found that we traveled a lot

52:36

of places where we just don't have good

52:39

cell coverage .

52:40

Got frustrated and said

52:42

, you know Starlink , and so once we did

52:44

that we can go wherever we want

52:46

regardless of cell coverage and

52:49

have very good internet and

52:51

to piggyback on what Pat said about leaving reviews

52:53

one of the things that I find very helpful

52:56

, since we stream pretty much everything

52:58

nowadays on TV if

53:02

you're going to leave a review for a campground , also leave a review on what kind

53:04

of speed you get on your cell

53:06

service . I find that very

53:09

helpful . If I'm planning on a

53:11

particular campground , I want to know what

53:13

I'm going to be able to get while I'm there , and I have

53:15

most definitely changed campgrounds

53:17

, changed locations , because the cell

53:19

service for T-Mobile was awful .

53:21

So Kelly and I just got Starlink

53:24

. Like Mitch said yesterday , and

53:26

if you find the instructions and read

53:28

them and follow it , very

53:31

easy to set up If you try to do it on your

53:33

own not so easy , but

53:35

it's a simple setup . The

53:37

only thing that we didn't really like

53:40

is now we have $150 a month bill

53:42

, but you know we're

53:44

tired of our TV doing this circle thing

53:46

all the time . Trying to watch OP live

53:49

and you get a circle .

53:51

I was gonna say . The funny thing about internet , too , is how

53:53

. What's your need ? Because if you're working

53:56

virtually from home and you're both there and you have a

53:58

high use , redundancy is probably

54:00

your biggest fan . So we use a T-Mobile 5G

54:02

, we have an AT&T card and a Pep Wave . We

54:05

also have a Starlink . For whatever

54:07

reason , when everybody started to get here , our T-Mobile 5G

54:09

started to tank as far as speeds , especially

54:12

for doing video calls , which Lauren

54:14

was doing the last couple of days , and so we

54:16

leave our Starlink in a paused mode , which is one

54:18

of the nice things about that , so we don't

54:20

use it all the time . But if we're going to be

54:22

off grid a lot , then we'll obviously

54:25

fire it up , and in this scenario it's actually

54:27

better than T-Mobile , at least for us at our campsite

54:29

over there . So we fired it back up . And

54:31

so if you don't have like , if you're retired

54:33

, for instance , and you just want the luxury

54:35

of Internet and you don't really require it , get something

54:37

simple and then , when you're off grid , just understand you're

54:39

not going to have it . But

54:46

if you are still working and you need that , then redundancy is going to be your best

54:49

friend , so you

54:51

get the most coverage possible . So

54:54

, mr Starlink , would you like to talk about that or do you want me to do it ? We don't care

54:56

, mr Starlink . Okay , so in Starlink , if you're in I don't know

54:58

how it is for the home version , the residential version , but

55:00

in Rome , which is the one that RVers use , where

55:02

you can use it anywhere you

55:04

can I think you have to stay signed

55:06

up for the first two months , to the

55:08

best of my knowledge , and then after that you can pause

55:11

it at any time . So you're paying month

55:13

to month , essentially , when you buy

55:15

Starlink . So you do have to buy the actual

55:17

setup through a provider

55:20

or direct from Starlink , or however you choose to do

55:22

it , and then do

55:24

what ? Oh yeah

55:26

, and if you want one , they're over in the vendor's tent along

55:29

with RV life . So

55:31

, but when you do get it , you can pause

55:33

it at any time . So you'll finish off that month cycle

55:36

, you're on , and then it'll just not work again . And so

55:38

what we do is we pack it up when we're

55:40

not using it , like we hadn't had it on in the last probably three

55:42

months , because the 5G home

55:44

thing was working great , so we didn't need it . So we didn't spend

55:46

that $150 . We were only spending $50

55:49

. We got here , we

55:57

needed it150 and it fires right up . You do have to have internet

55:59

to be able to turn on , to pause and unpause it . So you do have to be somewhere

56:01

where . Just think about where you're going

56:03

. If you're going like way off grid , like out west somewhere

56:05

and you know you're going to need it , turn it on before you go , kind

56:08

of a thing , because if you get out there you don't have cell service

56:10

on your phone , you're not going to be able to turn it on . So just

56:12

, you have to think ahead a little bit on that one . But that's

56:14

how we kind of do that . Is it a follow-up

56:16

to this ? So

56:24

, yeah , so if you buy a Starlink

56:26

system , your cellular is not going to work

56:29

through that ? Oh

56:32

, yes , you can . So

56:38

what she's saying is a lot of modern phones

56:40

now assuming everybody's got an iPhone or

56:43

an Android or something that was built in the last 8

56:45

to 10 years you can use

56:47

voice and text over Wi-Fi

56:49

. So as long as you have a decent connection , you

56:51

can still make calls , do text , all that stuff

56:53

, because

56:57

it's going to use the Wi-Fi as that cellular carrier essentially for you . So

57:01

are there more follow-ups to internet stuff . Okay

57:05

, because I've got a few questions over here I need to come back

57:07

to before .

57:08

I just have one plug here

57:10

. The reason we went to Starlink

57:13

is because I did take a contract job

57:15

that required streaming like

57:18

live streaming , like 100 cameras

57:20

at once . But before that we

57:23

didn't have a need for that type of capability

57:25

and we used what was called RVIT guy

57:27

and we found

57:29

that to be for people

57:32

that are retired and not trying to work

57:35

. It streamed well

57:37

. It did very well for us

57:39

90% of the time

57:42

. It pulls off of T-Mobile

57:44

and AT&T both , and

57:48

it's $100 a month and the equipment's

57:50

a lot cheaper than Starlink

57:52

and you can pause that also

57:55

. So when we got Starlink

57:57

we paused RVIT guy , but

58:00

we still have it . So when this contract

58:02

ends we may do it

58:04

the other way . We may save 50

58:07

bucks . We'll pause Starlink and

58:09

turn the RVIT guy

58:11

back on .

58:12

So the question , the follow-up question , was how does everybody

58:14

mount their Starlink ? And

58:21

I'll just say that this is obviously again another very loaded question because

58:23

everybody's got their preference , but not all of the , some of the

58:25

normal dishes . You think everything comes with its own stand , so you just

58:27

put it out . Some people will permanently

58:29

mount them on top of the rig , some people use poles . What's

58:32

everybody do ?

58:35

Silence . Mine's on the ground most of

58:37

the time Because I

58:41

have 150 feet of cable

58:43

and you have to get a clear

58:45

view of the sky . So I don't

58:48

, I

58:51

just need to have a clear view of the sky and you

58:53

can move it practically anywhere with 150

58:56

feet of cable .

59:01

I have a pole that I mounted to the stairs

59:03

so when we land

59:06

somewhere I climb up there . Put it on

59:08

there .

59:09

I'm going to clarify that if there's a tool

59:12

out there , a prop

59:14

, that you can buy , joe can make

59:16

it for about two cents

59:18

and that's what he does . So we don't

59:20

buy the ones that you pop up . We

59:23

have a PVC pipe that he

59:25

attached onto the ladder and it works

59:27

awesome . That's just who he is . He's my MacGyver

59:29

and I'm glad I've got him . Saves

59:32

us a lot of money , while I like

59:34

to spend the money on the other stuff .

59:37

Yeah , and then there's also there's some aftermarkets

59:39

, but if you did choose to spend a lot more money , then maybe

59:41

give him 20 bucks or something , or

59:44

more . You might charge more now after this Pole

59:46

Buddy , okay

59:50

. So like , pole Buddy makes

59:52

the stair mounts , that kind of a thing , and then you

59:54

can get the little attachment or again pay him

59:56

to make you one . They also have

59:58

something that uses what's called a tile sucker . So

1:00:00

we don't on our 44 , we're testing a new Lippert

1:00:02

ladder that's just a block , and so we don't have a traditional

1:00:04

ladder on the side of our coach , which

1:00:06

means I also lost the ability to mount my Starlink that

1:00:08

way . And so they make these things that

1:00:11

are like suction cups . They're just really , really strong

1:00:13

suction cups . If you see people that carry like big windows

1:00:15

around , it's those . That's actually

1:00:17

on the side of our rig right now , and the nice part is I

1:00:19

can elevate it above the coach still , but I can move

1:00:21

it up and down the coach line as needed , or

1:00:24

just keep the original mount and do exactly

1:00:26

what you were saying . If I'm in trees but there's

1:00:28

clearing out front , I'll just run it out front and

1:00:30

then put it on the ground , the ground . So

1:00:33

if it's a quick one , we'll go . So

1:00:38

can you mount the Gen 3 flat ? Oh

1:00:40

, you can mount . It's a statement more than a question , got

1:00:43

it ? So you , apparently , you can mount the Gen 3 flat

1:00:45

. I have Gen 2 , so I have no idea .

1:00:48

We just got the Gen 3 also in it . Yeah

1:00:50

, it's just right

1:00:57

, yeah .

1:00:57

Yeah , the downside there is you're stuck with it where you mount it , though

1:00:59

. If you do that , so if you're under trees you can't pull it out . Gotcha

1:01:01

, so not to get off the internet . But I know I had a couple

1:01:03

other questions right in here , so , oh

1:01:06

wow , there's a lot more . So we have time for probably about five

1:01:08

more , and I know your hand came up when I was back here

1:01:10

with them I was

1:01:12

curious what everybody picked for domicile

1:01:14

state and why . Texas

1:01:18

because I'm from there and it's awesome . No , I'm just kidding

1:01:20

.

1:01:24

Yeah , we were from Illinois and so we stuck with Illinois , only because , remember , we were doing

1:01:26

this for a year . Here we

1:01:28

are , three years later we still have Illinois

1:01:30

, which is not the best choice

1:01:32

for anybody . So don't do it

1:01:34

, just don't do it .

1:01:35

Well some people may like paying taxes .

1:01:38

Yeah , obviously .

1:01:41

We're domiciled in Florida . We're

1:01:43

originally from Illinois , we learned our

1:01:45

lesson , so

1:01:47

we domicile in Florida and

1:01:50

that works really well . It

1:01:53

was an easy process . They walk

1:01:55

us through it . Our mail service is

1:01:57

in Florida . We use st Brendan's Isle

1:01:59

so our mail goes there . They

1:02:02

help us with stuff like registering

1:02:04

the vehicles , voting

1:02:08

drivers licenses

1:02:10

. Everything was was less expensive

1:02:12

there .

1:02:15

What's that St

1:02:17

?

1:02:17

Brendan's Isle .

1:02:19

That's what it's called

1:02:22

.

1:02:22

We're from Mississippi and

1:02:24

if you know Mississippi , it's relatively

1:02:26

a poor state . So

1:02:32

there was no need to domicile anywhere else because we figured our tax base

1:02:34

our property taxes , insurance

1:02:37

et cetera would be more

1:02:39

affordable if we just left it Mississippi

1:02:42

.

1:02:43

And I think it's important to note , just because everybody up

1:02:45

here full-time people , you can still own property

1:02:47

and full-time , that doesn't necessarily change . So

1:02:49

if you have property , you can use that as your

1:02:51

domicile or camp , or

1:02:53

maybe it's a lease property . Whatever it happens to be

1:02:55

, you can still use that . And then there's

1:02:57

escapees . Essentially , Livingston

1:02:59

Texas is a really popular one .

1:03:02

We are in Maryland and because

1:03:04

that's where our family is , so we had everything

1:03:06

there , so we didn't change anything . We just

1:03:08

got a post office box and we're

1:03:11

there often enough , or our kids have access

1:03:13

to it for us and they just save everything for us

1:03:15

. So that's what we do .

1:03:19

We still own a home in Colorado so

1:03:21

we maintain our domicile there . But

1:03:23

we're there about two weeks out

1:03:25

of every year and that's about it , and we've got

1:03:27

family that's living and taking care of the

1:03:29

house . We also

1:03:31

own property in Texas . So if we ever

1:03:33

sell in Colorado , we've

1:03:35

got a small property in Texas . We still live

1:03:38

in our fifth wheel 365

1:03:40

days a year but

1:03:42

we own the property so we can domicile

1:03:45

down there when we sell

1:03:47

the house in Denver . But

1:03:49

it's more advantageous for us

1:03:51

tax-wise to maintain our domicile

1:03:53

in Colorado .

1:03:55

Yeah , there's companies that you can work with . Another

1:03:58

popular option and it's what we actually do is

1:04:00

we use Lauren's mom's house because

1:04:03

it's free and I like free . So

1:04:06

that's what we do . So that maintains , and all of our

1:04:08

business entities and everything are in Texas

1:04:10

, and so for us it makes sense to stay in Texas

1:04:13

. Who's got another question Over

1:04:15

there ? Oh , you had your hand

1:04:17

up a while back sense to stay in Texas . So who's got another question

1:04:19

? Oh , you had your hand up a while back . Sorry , I'm

1:04:22

going to come this way to that way , and we have to be wrapped up at 11

1:04:24

45 .

1:04:24

So we

1:04:27

have about 15-ish minutes , all right

1:04:30

. So we've only been in this for five months and we

1:04:32

have two small kids . My biggest

1:04:34

concern is security . Have you guys ever

1:04:36

run into have you run into a lot of security

1:04:38

issues in parks or even outside

1:04:41

of parks , whether it's at state parks

1:04:43

or wherever you're going ? Has

1:04:46

that ever been an issue ?

1:04:49

We have not found any issue at all with security

1:04:51

. It's always been great , and we

1:04:54

winter in deep south Mission Texas

1:04:56

. I mean we can spit across the border

1:04:58

and we have not had

1:05:00

any issues down there either . So

1:05:02

security is probably

1:05:05

something that has just almost never crossed

1:05:07

our mind .

1:05:09

It just almost never crossed our mind . I

1:05:17

would say that I was probably really security conscious

1:05:19

in my line of work when we took off and I've evolved

1:05:21

to the point that we don't even lock our pass-throughs anymore

1:05:24

. We've never had anything

1:05:26

taken . There

1:05:28

has been a couple campgrounds that we've

1:05:31

gotten into that we

1:05:33

were going to stay a couple days maybe

1:05:35

two , three days and we've got set up

1:05:37

, took a look around and said

1:05:39

we're getting the hell out of here because this

1:05:42

is not a good area . But

1:05:44

seriously

1:05:46

, we

1:05:49

have not had one thing taken . I

1:05:54

went to being hypervigilant about it and

1:05:57

, to you

1:05:59

know , nothing's locked

1:06:01

up anymore .

1:06:03

I think , too , the best security system is your

1:06:05

gut . The beautiful thing about this lifestyle

1:06:07

is , if you feel uncomfortable , just go and

1:06:10

at the end of the day , like I can't tell you , we've been at a

1:06:12

Walmart before . We're like , nope , hard pass , and

1:06:14

we just move on down the road a little bit and find something else

1:06:16

. And so , whether it's an RV park or a boondocking

1:06:18

site or anything else , trust your gut and if you're not

1:06:21

comfortable , just find somewhere that you are comfortable

1:06:23

with . So I'm

1:06:26

going that way as fast as I possibly can .

1:06:30

I would just like to go back to

1:06:32

medical , particularly dental

1:06:34

insurance , because most dental insurance

1:06:36

allows two cleanings per year and

1:06:39

I take very good care of my teeth , so I

1:06:41

want my two cleanings . But I

1:06:43

go home once a year to get

1:06:45

everything done and

1:06:47

so I get my first cleaning Six months later I'm

1:06:49

out someplace

1:06:51

else . So I told my dental

1:06:54

provider because

1:06:57

most dentists you go to out you

1:06:59

know in other states , they want to take

1:07:01

x-rays , they want you to become a patient

1:07:04

. I have already done that , you

1:07:06

know , once a year year . So my

1:07:08

dental guy said told

1:07:11

me hey , we're going to give you

1:07:13

a list of everything you have already

1:07:15

done right now , which was last

1:07:17

month , and just

1:07:19

give that to the next dental

1:07:22

place wherever you go , and they

1:07:24

can call us or you let us know

1:07:26

where you are for the cleaning

1:07:28

, because the only thing I want is a cleaning

1:07:30

, right

1:07:38

, six months later I want a cleaning , that's it . He said he would

1:07:41

contact them and let them know that we would send your dental records to them

1:07:43

to know that you have already got , you

1:07:45

know , x-rays and whatever

1:07:47

else . All you need is the cleaning . And he

1:07:49

said he's pretty sure that will work

1:07:52

. So for anybody else who , in

1:07:54

my condition , who wants two

1:07:56

cleanings a year because I , my

1:07:58

medical , my dental , paid

1:08:00

for it . I want that .

1:08:03

Let's see if that works there

1:08:06

you go , who had one , as I'm coming

1:08:08

this way , all

1:08:10

right , this

1:08:14

question is for the ladies .

1:08:19

How many of you ? We had a situation recently . My husband fell off of his electric

1:08:21

bike and broke his wrist . We were

1:08:23

in Bullhead City , arizona , and we

1:08:25

needed to be back in Michigan real

1:08:28

quick , so I

1:08:30

had to do all the driving . How

1:08:32

many of you ladies drive , hook

1:08:34

up and park ?

1:08:39

Actually , I've only driven

1:08:41

three different times , and

1:08:43

always on the interstate . We just had

1:08:45

a situation where Joe got stuck in

1:08:47

Rhode Island and we had to be out of a park

1:08:50

, so I was by myself . I

1:08:52

actually I had everything packed up

1:08:54

, I had it ready to hook up , I had the

1:08:57

truck backed up and my brother-in-law

1:08:59

, thankfully , was nearby and

1:09:01

came and hooked up and we just moved

1:09:03

it to another location . But

1:09:05

yeah , so from that situation

1:09:07

I've decided I need to drive more

1:09:09

so that I have that experience . I

1:09:12

have not really done it much and I felt

1:09:14

kind of at a loss . I knew I could

1:09:16

, but I hadn't done it with

1:09:19

him , and so I want to make sure that I do it

1:09:21

when we're together so

1:09:23

that when I'm by myself I'll feel more confident

1:09:25

.

1:09:26

I drive . I drove like 11

1:09:29

hours a day to

1:09:31

get back and we stopped at one

1:09:33

RV park and he couldn't

1:09:35

back it up because he only had one hand to

1:09:37

park it . I asked some guys

1:09:40

, they backed

1:09:42

it up and they hooked everything up . So

1:09:45

, and I need to learn

1:09:47

how to you know , hook it

1:09:49

up and now park it

1:09:52

.

1:09:53

So I'll say , just as a little plug for some

1:09:55

people , we know there's a YouTube channel called 52andYou

1:09:57

. It's like a women's empowerment in RVing . If

1:10:00

you look that up , they worked with the NRVTA

1:10:03

A couple of them . They're both actually instructors

1:10:05

through the NRVTA and they specifically

1:10:07

work on kind of how

1:10:09

to teach women to specifically kind

1:10:11

of use and operate their RV . So now I check

1:10:13

them out yep

1:10:16

, 52

1:10:20

you . So

1:10:27

the ? Yeah , the

1:10:29

National RV Training Academy . Yeah

1:10:32

, the National RV Training Academy . Yeah , the National RV Training Academy

1:10:34

does have what's called the fundamentals course . It's

1:10:37

the kickoff for the tech

1:10:39

process and then they have eight more weeks . But

1:10:42

it's also for owners and specifically

1:10:44

every year Alliance actually

1:10:46

hosts an Alliance-specific fundamentals class

1:10:48

. In fact , the last one they're not here anymore , the

1:10:51

WAGs just hosted it . They were right there a second ago

1:10:53

, unless they moved . So

1:10:57

Alliance always does once a year an

1:10:59

Alliance-specific . So they just kind

1:11:01

of narrow it down to things that are relevant for

1:11:03

an Alliance RV that we do a little bit differently

1:11:06

than other manufacturers . So that's another great

1:11:08

way to kind of go down there and it's a week of hands-on

1:11:11

. They actually have you mess with stuff and you'll be able

1:11:13

to fix . I think they say 80%

1:11:15

of your RV , and then they have a home study

1:11:17

guide as well .

1:11:18

We have some

1:11:20

other brand and at their rally they provided the

1:11:25

Training . Training . They provided

1:11:27

a woman's training . Yep , you could back

1:11:29

it up , hook it up , but it was all straight up Where's

1:11:32

Cully when you need him .

1:11:35

We can start making that happen Exactly . I'm

1:11:37

going to go here there , and then I saw a hand

1:11:39

pop up very briefly right over here .

1:11:44

Hi , we're about to dip our toe in this retirement

1:11:46

thing and

1:11:51

we're finding through the RV life . Everything is good , but we don't want to spend a

1:11:53

year or three or four years every

1:11:56

night in either a Walmart or

1:11:58

two nights at a campground . I

1:12:00

wonder if we wanted to explore

1:12:03

, if we could . How do you negotiate

1:12:05

, like I want to go for two weeks

1:12:07

and do the Virginia area

1:12:10

? Do you negotiate with a campground

1:12:12

or are you paying , you

1:12:14

know , $70 a night

1:12:16

? Is there a way

1:12:18

to do that without buying a like

1:12:21

your domicile ? Do

1:12:23

you return to that and have

1:12:25

a plug-in on an acre of land

1:12:27

in the woods , or how does that work

1:12:30

plug-in ?

1:12:30

on an acre of land in the woods , or how does that work ? Most campgrounds

1:12:32

, the longer you stay , the bigger the

1:12:34

discount you get . The nightly

1:12:36

rate is the most expensive , so

1:12:39

one to six nights will

1:12:41

always be your most expensive . Most

1:12:45

campgrounds you stay six nights

1:12:47

and you get one free , and

1:12:50

staying for a month is

1:12:52

cheaper than usually

1:12:56

about two and a half weeks . If you're going to stay longer

1:12:58

than two and a half weeks , book it for a month and

1:13:02

any time you can stay they call

1:13:04

it seasonally , like three months

1:13:06

at a time . That's

1:13:09

your sweet spot for

1:13:11

the lowest per night cost .

1:13:14

Yeah , it's always a slider scale . I'm

1:13:16

going to go right here real quick .

1:13:18

Going back to the booking , you guys said

1:13:20

it's a full-time job . What percentage of

1:13:22

your time is actually spent just planning

1:13:24

?

1:13:25

You know what I think for me in particular

1:13:27

, I will spend probably

1:13:30

two full days

1:13:32

a month planning

1:13:34

and booking and then filling

1:13:37

in the gaps maybe here and there along the way

1:13:39

. But it really is , and I do it because

1:13:41

the way I do it is I get out everything

1:13:43

. I get out the maps , I get out my notebook , I

1:13:45

get out my phone . Sometimes I pull up my computer

1:13:48

or a second device and that's

1:13:50

what I do . I mean , I don't really go

1:13:53

anywhere those days . I don't do anything

1:13:55

else . That's my focus , because I like to get it all done

1:13:57

at once , because I feel like if I lose

1:14:00

track of where I'm going , then

1:14:02

I forget . So to me , that's

1:14:04

kind of how I do it .

1:14:06

And remember she reads all the reviews .

1:14:09

Yeah , I do , and I started doing the trip

1:14:12

planning but

1:14:20

I don't read reviews , and so I've

1:14:23

been banned from trip planning . Yes , two times , and

1:14:25

they were both very dangerous situations Both .

1:14:26

He's never booked another site , so do you usually start with like big rocks , I

1:14:28

want to go , we want to adhere it here and then fill it in

1:14:30

between and go from there .

1:14:32

This is our final destination

1:14:34

, and what can we see along the way ?

1:14:36

Yeah , we pick our big major

1:14:38

spots . Like this fall we'll be

1:14:40

in Glacier , so we get that booked and

1:14:42

then we build back . How

1:14:45

far do we want to travel ? Where

1:14:48

are the other spots ? And rainy days are great

1:14:50

for trip planning , that's a given

1:14:53

.

1:14:54

And I kind of do the same thing . I usually start

1:14:56

planning in January . I'm a planner , I

1:14:58

want to know where I'm going to be , when I'm going to be

1:15:00

there , and by God I want to know what campground

1:15:03

I'm staying in and I want

1:15:05

all that stuff laid out . But I

1:15:07

usually start in January and

1:15:12

once we determine , okay , we're going to go to this part of the country , that's where we

1:15:14

want to be , okay , then I'll fill in all

1:15:16

the stuff in between and and

1:15:18

kind of plan the route . And

1:15:20

once we have that more concrete

1:15:23

, then I'll start making reservations

1:15:26

. And we're thousand trails members , so

1:15:28

once I get into my open window I

1:15:30

will make those reservations as early as I

1:15:32

can . I can always change them , I can

1:15:34

always expand them or contract them if I need

1:15:36

to . So it's always kind of nice

1:15:38

for that . I

1:15:41

put reminders in my phone . If I

1:15:43

know that , like we're going to Moody Beach in

1:15:45

Maine this year and if

1:15:47

I need to get up there I've got a 120-day

1:15:50

booking window , I'll put a reminder in

1:15:52

my phone at 120 days out

1:15:54

so that I will call

1:15:56

and get that or I'll go

1:15:58

online and get it all booked

1:16:01

. But I am

1:16:03

an uber planner . But as far as time early

1:16:05

on , yes , there's a little

1:16:07

bit of time , but then as

1:16:10

things start to get more concrete , that's

1:16:12

when it gets just a little bit more intense . As

1:16:14

far as making those reservations , and

1:16:17

on my Google Maps , if I know

1:16:19

I'm going to go to Moody Beach , but it hasn't been booked

1:16:21

. It's there in red . Once I

1:16:23

have it booked , I change the color to

1:16:25

green so that I know it's there , it's

1:16:27

solid and I've got my confirmations

1:16:30

.

1:16:34

You'll find the three things I'm thinking

1:16:37

. So , on the other side of the coin

1:16:39

, from Roger , my

1:16:42

wife does everything that Roger

1:16:44

does , and

1:16:49

I do feel for people that are doing this

1:16:51

alone , because I swear this is absolutely true

1:16:53

. I would say , 30%

1:16:55

of the time we are hooked up

1:16:57

, she's in the car , I'm

1:16:59

in the truck getting ready to pull out , and

1:17:02

I will get on the radio and call her and

1:17:04

say where the hell are we going

1:17:06

, and then I put it in the GPS , all right .

1:17:07

So we maybe have time for the two questions that were back here left . It in the GPS , all right

1:17:10

, so we maybe have time for the two questions that were

1:17:12

back here left , but where were the hands ? Just so , I don't

1:17:14

one , and once I'm gonna go here , and then you guys

1:17:16

, and then , unfortunately , our time is rapidly closing

1:17:18

on us just

1:17:22

a quick question about the Starlink equipment

1:17:24

.

1:17:24

We were online last night . Quick

1:17:26

question

1:17:28

about the the Starlink

1:17:30

equipment . We were online last

1:17:32

night and saw a big range in prices

1:17:35

600 to 4,000

1:17:37

. And

1:17:40

they all receive satellite signals . So do

1:17:43

we need to get the $4,000 package ? 600

1:17:47

.

1:17:49

Anybody want that one up there ? You want me to take it ? Go ahead

1:17:52

. So short answer is no Depends

1:17:55

. Do you want it to work in motion ? Do you not want it to work

1:17:57

in motion If you're in a trailer ? I don't really see the point

1:18:00

. I don't see the point in it working in motion ever personally

1:18:02

, but some people in motorhomes would prefer that . Obviously

1:18:04

, if you're here , you're more than likely in a towable

1:18:08

. So I would say start

1:18:10

with the entry level and go from there , and then if you

1:18:12

, down the road , decide you want that you can always upgrade

1:18:14

later . So that's my two cents

1:18:16

, and it was right here .

1:18:21

Okay , we are just starting our research

1:18:23

to plan out . We're

1:18:26

probably two , three years . I

1:18:28

understand all the maintenance . We've camped for many

1:18:31

, many years . What about tires

1:18:33

? I hear that people are having to go through tires

1:18:35

so much more frequently because

1:18:37

you're on the road all the time Is that true .

1:18:46

We got three years out of our tires and

1:18:51

so , yeah , it really depends on mileage

1:18:54

how you treat them . We do have a TPS

1:18:56

tire pressure monitoring system . I

1:18:59

would highly recommend that , by the way . So

1:19:02

try and keep a good eye on the tires . But

1:19:04

they do wear out , so it

1:19:07

is a point of maintenance . Same

1:19:09

with the truck Truck tires wore out too . We got about three years . Point of maintenance . Same with the truck

1:19:11

Truck tires wore out too . We got about three years out of them .

1:19:15

I'd say that's a real good rule of thumb

1:19:17

. When we first started

1:19:19

out we were rolling I mean

1:19:21

, we put a lot

1:19:23

of miles on the trailer and a lot of miles

1:19:25

on the truck I

1:19:28

just figured it out and we pulled the RV

1:19:31

just at 50,000

1:19:33

miles now and we've been in 45

1:19:36

states . I just

1:19:38

changed my tires for

1:19:41

the second time , but

1:19:43

I didn't have to

1:19:45

. They weren't quite

1:19:48

wore out , but I knew that

1:19:50

with our starting

1:19:52

to travel we're going to have a very long , several

1:19:54

thousand mile travel

1:19:57

and they would wear out

1:19:59

on that trip and I would rather not

1:20:02

do that on the road . Have the tires

1:20:04

changed on the road ? So

1:20:06

we just had it . I bought the tires

1:20:09

and I got new rims actually , and

1:20:14

we put them on here

1:20:16

.

1:20:17

What brand and rating did you do Sorry ?

1:20:18

I actually am very fond of the Alliance

1:20:21

tires . They're

1:20:23

Sterling or Westlake . They

1:20:26

are the same tire

1:20:28

, the exact same tire and

1:20:33

that's what I've always used . There's

1:20:38

probably less expensive ones on it . But

1:20:40

depending on your rig , you

1:20:46

want at least the very least a G-rated tire and 14-ply . 14

1:20:48

ply . Some of the heavier rigs , some

1:20:51

of the triple axle Valors that are pushing

1:20:54

20,000 pounds . I've

1:20:56

seen people go to H tires

1:20:59

on that . It's

1:21:01

a personal preference . I found that on

1:21:03

our 370 that the G

1:21:06

rated tires and the 14 ply have

1:21:08

been good .

1:21:09

So also , if you have a newer Valor

1:21:11

, alliance is one of the only , if not the only

1:21:13

, manufacturer that actually puts an all-steel on it . That's

1:21:16

not something that we had in a different brand

1:21:19

as well .

1:21:20

I just have one quick comment . We talked

1:21:22

about that women should learn how to drive . Well

1:21:24

, this group had an experience where

1:21:26

the men had to close up the

1:21:28

inside because the wife wasn't there

1:21:30

.

1:21:33

How much stuff fell out of the pantry on that trip

1:21:35

. I know because my TV

1:21:37

about fell off once because I had to do the same thing . So

1:21:39

this is going to be our last question , unfortunately .

1:21:43

It's really not a question , but I was going to

1:21:45

say we've been full-time for two years

1:21:47

and one of the things that we

1:21:49

did early on was my husband became

1:21:51

a Moose member and an Elks member , and

1:21:54

if you're in Moose or Elks , that's

1:21:56

a great place to stop

1:21:58

and stay . When we were in Alaska last year

1:22:01

, we actually stayed at a Fairbanks

1:22:03

Elks Lodge and we stayed

1:22:05

like that was our home for two weeks

1:22:08

. It was full hookups , $ bucks

1:22:10

in Alaska . I mean you can't beat

1:22:12

it . So , on the road , that is a

1:22:14

really good place

1:22:16

to either

1:22:18

stay for two or three days . On the coast

1:22:21

of Oregon , we did it the same thing , I mean

1:22:23

right on the coast , and we were paying $25

1:22:25

free laundry . I mean

1:22:27

it was great . So that

1:22:29

is another option as well .

1:22:33

There you go . Do us a favor . The Facebook group where

1:22:35

people can find that or what's the name of it , and all that good stuff

1:22:37

. What ? The Facebook

1:22:39

group online where what's the name of it

1:22:41

? How can people find ?

1:22:42

it what the hell's

1:22:44

the name of the group . Dude , it's your group

1:22:46

man Dude , it's your group , man . Alliance

1:22:49

RV full-timers . Now

1:22:54

I'm going to throw a caveat in there . This is probably

1:22:57

the most heavily regulated

1:22:59

alliance group and

1:23:01

I have three other

1:23:03

administrators . There's

1:23:06

questions that have to be answered or you

1:23:08

will not be accepted . If

1:23:10

you cannot provide a VIN

1:23:13

the last six of your VIN , which

1:23:15

we are able to verify the

1:23:17

people own alliances you

1:23:20

will not be accepted . You

1:23:23

have to have definite

1:23:25

plans and a time frame to

1:23:27

go full time or already be

1:23:29

full time and a time frame to go full-time or already be

1:23:31

full-time . And the first rant

1:23:33

that gets on there that

1:23:35

says this is a piece of junk

1:23:37

and , bill Martin , you're an asshole

1:23:40

and

1:23:47

stuff like that , you're banned from the group immediately .

1:23:49

Did you say what is defined as the first time ?

1:23:53

Oh , full time . Full

1:23:59

time is over six months of the year

1:24:01

on the road or in the .

1:24:02

RV , living in your RV Perfect . I'm

1:24:08

sure anybody up here would be happy to chat more about full

1:24:10

time , but unfortunately rob's already sent me one text message saying are you done yet ? So

1:24:12

that is going to do it for us

1:24:14

. If you're interested in listening back to this . Yes

1:24:17

, thank you guys . If

1:24:19

you're interested in listening back to this or have

1:24:22

someone that thinks it might benefit from it , it will be on the rv

1:24:24

shenanigans podcast in a few weeks

1:24:26

. Thank you guys for showing up .