INTRO

What do you dream about when you sleep? It must be your RV. That's what I dream about. Unfortunately, this is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer Podcast, delivering the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down. So, before we get into what you're dreaming about, well actually I don't really want to know what you're dreaming about unless it's your RV.

That's right. You know, I brought that up because this morning kept thinking about installing solar panels. Yeah. On the trailer, we bought for the business. Ah, yeah. That was my, uh, dreaming last night, wake up. Wow. I must get that done. So hopefully you guys dream the same way. You know, I think everybody does, right?

LIVING THE RV LIFE

Yeah. All right, so before we, uh, talk about that any further, because that's leading up to something, believe it or not, but before we talk about that, let's talk about living the RV life and how to travel with pets. Yeah. You know, everybody has a pet, a cat, a dog, a goldfish, something. But we're going to primarily talk about dogs and cats.

Probably that's really the most common thing to travel with, although birds are out there, so, yeah. Yeah. You know, whatever you travel with, maybe you call your spouse, your pet, who knows? But it's, it's doable or very doable to travel with your animals. It just takes some time too. To figure it out, we're going to give you some tips to make that process a little bit easier.

You know, we're going to make it smooth. That's right. Maybe smooth out some wrinkles. All right. So, Alexis, what would be the first thing you'd recommend to somebody?

Alexis- Ah, I mean, making your camper or RV pet friendly is important. Pets can be, you know, clutter makers, so you want to clean up after them and make sure you have storage for all your and your pets’ things, you know, keep it in one place, and then you'll know where it is. You can grab it quick if they need to eat, you know, you know where everything is for them. All right. And then even the flooring, make sure it's a good type of flooring for pets. So, if they make a mess, it's easy to clean. Yes, exactly. And put that odor building up.

Eric-Yep. All right. So now if you're traveling, just want to go anywhere if you have pets.

Alexis- I mean, it'd be nice if it also was a pet-friendly place. I mean, not all campgrounds and RV parks allow pets. So doing a little research, um, in advance to know which ones do allow them would be a smart idea.

Eric- Right? Yeah. You know, in some parks don't want pets, so obviously you're not going to go there. You know, thinking about like if you want to have a little fence outside your RV, you know, have that ready.

There's a lot of stuff you can make or buy for that, right? Larger cages or a kennel to have them outside so they're not just stuck inside the RV all the time. Taking them for walks. It depends on your animal too, if they must be on a leash or they can be off a leash. But you must remember that. Other people might have pets too. Yeah. And not all pets get along, so you must be on the lookout as well to protect your animal from other animals. Yes. You don't want them to come and pray. Yep, okay. So, when you're, when you're packing up the stuff for your RV and your trip, you know, obviously you're thinking about your clothing and the food and stuff.

Alexis- Oh, from now on, do we have to look at it the same way as with pets? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. They need their bowl. You have food bowls. You need their bedding and their toys, and any medications that they might take, you know, a lot of people have pets that require that. And another good thing to think about is bringing their medical records because if you're out and about in another state and for some reason they might need to have a vet visit, it'd be good to have that long.

Eric- Yeah, absolutely. And like you would for yourself. So yeah. Great. Remember, your pets can't speak for themselves. That's right. You must. You're their advocate. Yeah. Yep. And so just like people, you know, you're traveling, you need breaks, go to the bathroom to eat, to stretch your legs. Animals are the same way. Might even be a little bit more often than you do. Yep. You know, animals must get used to traveling.

Some animals just settle right in. They could care less. Where other ones like you have a cat might meow forever, you know? Yeah. And it is going to take getting used to that. And it's just the cat. You can't beat up the cat bring, just you, you must get used to it. Let them adjust to traveling. Mm-hmm. And they might get motion sickness. Mm-hmm. There are a lot of things, you know? Yep, yep. You know, you might even start out with smaller trips just to test the animal to see if you can deal with it, you know? And that brings us to a point here about being patient, you know?

Alexis- But yeah. So, we really need to, or you know, if you want to do that, think about it.

Eric- I know we've had pets in the past and just put them in a car for a few hours. Yeah. There's no way I'd go for a long trip, like moving up to Montana from Arizona. Cat rode with Karen and her card meowed the entire time.

So, yeah, it's crazy. And it was like, yeah, they're just stressed out. Mm-hmm. Of course. So, yesterday, a person came into the store. And he's looking for a way to unlock his RV door. Huh. And so, he explored it, called locksmith, blah, blah blah. So, he decided to take off the door and he asked me how to do this and said, why do you need to take off your door?

And I thought this was hilarious. His dog locked the door from the inside and he couldn't get in. Oh no. So, keep that in mind, you know, as odd as that sounds because most RV. Locks on the inside, have a little lever, a little something. But you think about it, if the dog or the cat gets it just right, they're locking that door.

Oh, my goodness. And you know, this is Montana. It was cold outside. It was like 40 degrees. Yeah. It was like 17 degrees. That could become a problem quickly. Yes. And it'd be very in working in that kind of temperature. To free the animal can be harder. Exactly. And it goes the opposite. If you're in Arizona or someplace and your pack gets locked in an RV and it's 115 degrees out or even 90 degrees out, it's going to get very hot in there.

Mm-hmm. And it's harder to. For the animal. So, think about having a spare key. Yes. Or having a lock where, you know, you can, uh, use a key code on the outside. Yep. Um, but be prepared for that. Oh yeah. It doesn’t happen very often, but if it does happen, it's got to be a nightmare. Yep. You don't want to find yourself taking your door off from the outside.

Yeah, exactly. So, it's a unique situation. So those are the things that can happen with pets, so. Mm-hmm. So be prepared. Okay, so again, this is a reminder, you know, again, we're asking you to do stuff. The last episode I talked about a product called Magic Mind. And so, I'm still using this pro or product and I like it.

I like it a lot. And as always, I like to share things with you guys when I find something. And as I've said before, I've tested it, I researched it. I bought it and I like it. And the reason why I even started going down this road or this rabbit hole you might say, is that after I had covid, it was just hard to stay focused on things, needle extra energy, that boost.

And that was over a year ago or about a year ago, and it just hasn't really gone away. And you know, time can just disappear and there's some days where you just don't get a lot done and you need to get things done. Then it goes into the next day and things just start stacking up to the point where now you're.

Overly stressed and you just wipe your calendar or schedule on, I'm just going to start out fresh, you know, but that doesn't work. Mm-hmm. You know, I've done that. It’s just, everything you wiped off your calendar is still in your mind, and you have got to finish it no matter what. Right. And so, I take vitamins and supplements every day, and they help to a degree.

They do some things, but they're not really solving this whole covid thing because it just lingers on. Mm-hmm. And that's when I started looking at the Magic Mind product. It has an energy boost in it, but it also helps with anxiety and stress, and it's because of what's in it and the way it's made.

It's a completely safe product. And that's what I like, it's all-natural. There's nothing in there that's going to hurt you and it's not filled with sugar or like, um, you know, 85 billion grams of vitamin B to give you that. Yeah. G boost, you know, it's the real thing. And so, it works better. And I'm kind of particular about taking certain stuff.

Like if I take NyQuil, it doesn't put me to sleep. It keeps me up all night. Wow. So, I'm cautious about doing the research. I thought, why not? It looks safe. I talked to some friends of mine or some experts, um, happened to be friends and they said, yeah, go ahead and do this. This will help you with the things that claim it will like your energy and clear up your mind, making you think a little bit better.

So, I did. And I just take one of their shots, you know, it comes a little shot bottle, drink it in the morning, and it gets me going off in that right direction. And I think the ingredient that really helps me the most is the ashwagandha because it helps with stress and anxiety. Mm-hmm. And they also have lions, which means mushrooms in there too, which also helps with that.

And that's just a good product period. More and more people are finding these types of things, like the ashwagandha and the lions means mushroom. People are just taking that because it helps them in general. So, this is, you know, it has more to it than just that. But everything in there is okay, it is good for you.

Mm-hmm It's not going to hurt you. And that's what's important, that it's not only not going to hurt you, but that it's good for you. Because it's like taking vitamins or something. So, after taking Magic Mind and trying it out, it's not one day, not two days, but trying it out. And I like how it works. I wanted to share it with everybody.

Because that's what I do. If you've been listening to the podcast, you know that I share things with you and no matter what the product is, ideas, whatever. So Magic Mind, um, they've set me up with a, uh, promo code. And a link where you can go to save up to 50% on a subscription, or 20% on a, uh, discount on a one-time purchase.

So, the link is magicmind.com/smartrver, and you can use the promo code, uh, promo code SMARTRVer20. And that'll save you up to 50% on a subscription, or 20% on a one-time purchase. So, check it out. And these codes are typically good for about 10 days, but I think you'll be fine with it. You know, a little bit longer, a little bit later, whatever.

Just go there, and try it, whether you use the code or not, that just saves you money. But try it out and there's going to be links to it in the description of the podcast on our website and whatever podcast. Channel viewer, you're using iTunes, Spotify, whatever. You'll see the links there as well along with the promo code.

And so, if that's for in case you forget when I told you the promo code was right, this will help you remember. So, you have got to try it. All right, so now that takes us to the next section of our show, staying on the road. And as I promised last week, we are going to have Stuart Takahiro on the show who's doing the.

Full-time Freedom Week rally, virtual, virtual summit. So, Stewart's been full-time for about three years. He lives in a 24-foot sprinter van that's been converted, obviously into an RV, so he has a lot of experience. Three years might not sound like a lot, but when you're on the road for three solid years, you get a lot of experience quickly.

So, Stewart's kind of an expert at this. His website, RVDreaming.tv, reflects the expertise that he has, and his team has. So, everything you need for full-time, I think you can find it there. So, we're going to ask Stewart a few questions about the, um, full-time Freedom Week summit that is coming up. And, uh, Stuart, first off, when is that summit?

So, in case you can't make it during that time, uh, you can always come back and watch it at your leisure. Okay, perfect. So that spreads it out. It makes it nice and easy for most people to watch. Or you know, if, as Stuart said, you can't watch it, you can always just get the recorded versions and all that's available on your website.

It was started as a hobby by, um, four lovely ladies I met while traveling on the road, and they just wanted to share. What it's like to start what you must do to be able to start really living full-time on the road. And that's more than just picking out your rig. That's about domicile taxes, um, how to find remote work, reliable internet, um, creating community on the road.

It's really 360 degrees. Holistic approach, I want to do this, but I just don't know how, and I don't know what it's going to be like, and I don't know what to expect. We try and answer all those questions during full-time freedom week. And when I took over two years ago, I really wanted to dive into, um, more of the specifics instead of giving you, we'll give you the whole broad angle, but we also kind of wanted to dive down into a little more detail on exactly what it would look like for you to start getting on the road.

INTERVIEW

Okay, perfect. And so, your website, RVDreaming.TV, has the details as well, right? You explain a lot of this stuff there and cover many facets of full timing, right? We do. We try and cover everything about it. What to do when you want to get on the road. And there are a lot of different areas where you can go on that, but we really want to try and educate you as to what works, what doesn't.

I know when I went on the road, I spent a lot of time researching things that really didn't matter and I didn't spend enough time thinking about what I really should be focusing on. And so, part of the stuff on RV Dreaming that TV is we really want to focus on where you should be spending your time and talking about the things that.

People don't really think about, like, we have a whole, um, segment and we have whole sections on how to talk to your friends and family. Because when I first told my family that I was going to do this, their first thing was, oh my gosh, is it safe? How do you do that? We're, you know, aren't you afraid that something's going to happen?

And so, we, we kind of cover all of that in a section on that website, and some things that you may not think about would be useful. Resources when you're. Making your plans. All right. Very good. Yeah, so there's a lot to it, and that's one thing we talked about on the podcast all the variations of this.

But Stewart's here to help you to a much greater level and detail than we do here at TheSmartRVer.com. So now Stewart, what sessions are there going to be at the summit? The full-time Freedom Week summit. You know, we're covering the whole gambit. So, everything from how do I start to selecting and buying the right rig?

And that's really a self-assessment of what kind of traveler you want to be. You know, I, I started out in a big 40-foot Super Sea. And that was huge. And then I downgraded into a van because I changed my priorities on travel. So, we have sessions about trying to identify what it is, what, what's your why? Why do you want to start on the road?

Some people just want to hit up national parks and they want to do all that. And that's a different kind of travel. And say some of the younger folks that want to hit up music festivals in urban areas, and then we have the people that are just working from the road remotely. Everyone's needs are different.

So, we will help you identify what kind of RV you need to have, and that'll help you select the right rig. We talk about domicile, we'll also talk about some other great, uh, sessions in there. One of them is about emergency situations. So, what to do if you find yourself in a tornado warning or hailstorm or extreme wind or freeze, that was just unexpected?

Um, you know, as, as our veers, we try and. Do what we can to avoid extreme weather, but sometimes it's just inevitable. And so, we, we have sessions on that as well. There are sessions on solo traveling. We feature three great female solo travelers. Um, and their stories are just amazing. And, um, and then we have normal solos families.

Finding your tribes and communities. Uh, we have big sections of remote work as well, and, um, it's, it's just a, uh, it's just a ton of fun, a lot of information and, um, and I'm, I'm really looking forward to, uh, some of the live sessions that we have too. For the first time, I've been able to convince a former RV salesperson to come on and answer questions about the RV buying process on how to negotiate if you've never bought an RV before.

For, unlike buying a car or any other kind of, uh, vehicle or any, any purchase out there. So, we have some great stuff on that. We're going to be doing a live video tour of the Battle born battery factory. Uh, that's going to be interesting, and people will be able to ask about any upgrades they want to do to lift the um, uh, to the rigs or what the benefits are because it is a big investment.

We're really talking about everything you can possibly want to know about how to start and how to stay on the road. All right. That sounds interesting. So, listening to what you just said, this sounds like it would be good for people who aren't necessarily full timing is, but spending a lot of time on the road or more than the average RV, or because of some of the benefits of like how to be prepared for, you know as you said, the uh, Unexpected hailstorm or uh, breakdowns on the road type of thing.

So, it's kind of reality for most RV years in a sense. Yeah, whether you're looking to start, maybe you're a part-timer and you want to go full-time or you just don't know where to start. There's also a lot of information for people who just started on the road. Uh, even if, uh, you've never done this before, you're just a few weeks or a few months into it, there's still really good information, uh, for people who are already, you know, living life.

Okay, very good. So now with these different sessions, who's going to be presenting these? That's a great part. All these sessions are taught by other people who are living full-time on the road. So, we're not talking to people who are part-timers, we're talking to people who are living full-time on the road.

When I search for people, I look for people who I meet, you know, obviously who are out and about that have interesting stories, that have unique situations, and so I invite them to participate because they have firsthand knowledge too. About stuff. I've had, I have people that have been on the road for over 10 years that are going to be sharing some of their information and experiences, um, as part of this program.

And then we talk about new ones. I don't think we have it this time, but in the past, we've had ones where we talk about, um, we've talked to people who are on the road for less than 60 days about an expectation versus a reality. And that was a lot of fun. I think that's even on our YouTube channel as well, that you can go back, and you could watch that.

Um, what you think it might be, might not be exactly what it is. So, it's just different perspectives from different people. But almost everyone is a, uh, current full-time RV or someone that is, has been a full-time RV in the past. Okay, perfect. Very good. So now, what does it take, I mean, to me, you got to be a special person to live full-time in an RV, but for you as an expert, what does it take to live full-time in an RV?

You know, you’ve got to be flexible. You must have an open mind. Um, this, this, I don't know if I would say that this lifestyle is for some type A, you know, that must have every moment of their day planned. There's a lot of, uh, s that come with it. I think that's what's exciting about living in an RV is you never know what to expect from one day to the next.

You might have a general plan on where you're going to, what you're going to do, and that could be exciting, but then suddenly something happens and you meet someone on the road or you have, um, this thing that you just never found out about that. You had to pivot, and you changed. You know, a quick example, I was planning on spending about four days in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Because I drove through it one day. I was like, wow, this area is gorgeous. It's nice, I want to come back. And when I finally did a year later, um, I got there and some reality it sent me first, our Steamboat Springs is a gorgeous area, but it's very expensive. If I went in there to have dinner just by myself at a bar, at a local restaurant.

A glass of wine and dinner cost me $67, and I was like, I'm staying here for four more days or five more days. I was like, I'm not doing that. So, uh, I went up the road about 30 or 45 minutes to a little tiny town called Craig, Colorado. I stopped off at a local brewery and I met the greatest people, the greatest neighbors.

They said, hey, how long have you been in town? I said, well, a few days are like, you got to come to our account fair. There, we're doing hot air balloon launches, you can count through overnight. So, I, after I left the brewery, drove over there, and yeah, sure enough, I woke up and there's this free fair with live music, hotter balloons, launching right outside my van, and just the nicest people.

And I just had so much fun, and I think it's the spontaneity of that. Willingness to just pivot as you kind of go. That really makes, you know, full-time exciting. You just never know where you're going to end up. Right, so that sounds interesting, but being flexible, that kind of stood out to me. You, you must be you.

You absolutely must be flexible with your plan because you might be on the road and you might pop a flat, you get a flat tire. There might be inclement weather that's going to force you off or delay your departure at some point. You just never know what's going to happen when you're on the road. And so, the ability to, to remain flexible and keep an open mind, um, it's vital, uh, when you're, when you're out and about.

Yeah, no doubt. And I'm sure there are probably some bad days when you've experienced them, but you just must get past the bad day, right? And just looked at the bigger picture. Absolutely. There's, um, when you look back on it, a day or week or a month later, you realize you have a great story and it made it seem like the worst experience in your life at the time.

But every time you pull out of an experience like that, you know that you can handle what's next. Right. Sometimes I find the best stories I have are about the worst situations I've been in, and you know those are the ones that people love to hear. Yeah, those are the stories that people just smile on later.

You're laughing about it because you've stopped crying. So now another question. Why do most people quit living in an RV? Oh gosh. That is, there's a several reason. Some of it is just not for them. I mean, there are so many differences between living in an RV versus living in a stick and brick. Um, you're making, first off, it's going to be huge if people just can't deal with minor repairs going on all the time, cracking down water leaks or anything like that.

Um, you know, there're, there's that some people like routine, and in an RV, you have a routine, but that routine involves, you know, moving a lot and change. That's part of it. And, um, and you're not there. There's, there are some people that just, I don't know what it is, they're just, we always say this lifestyle is not for everyone.

You know, there are so many different variables, that go into it, and, and some people just aren't built for it, so to speak. Like, if you need a, if, if you need that 20-minute hot shower everyday RV light, it's probably not for you. You know, there's, um, there's a lot of comforts, creature comfort that you give up, but, and some of these larger rigs, you can have most of them as well.

You know, I think people get out of the RV life for a lot of the same reasons they get into it. Um, and it just depends on everyone. I always say you just never know until you try and to be an RV. You don't have to go all in all at what? Yeah, you can go and rent RVs, um, nice ones as well.

And you can start doing a weekend trip or a, or a week-long trip, or a 30-day trip in these things and just really see if it's something that you can envision yourself doing. So, if people are on the fence and you're not sure if you would like it, that's what I would say. It's just like, get out there and, and buy an RV.

The other thing is that we talk about in this session, a full-time freedom week is there's a difference between living in an RV full-time and being a part-time camper, so to speak, or vacation time or it, it's, uh, things like that. Mm-hmm. I remember when I first started, you know, you pulled up into a campground and you set up your barbecue grills, you set up your fire pits and all your tables and chairs, and you, you're kind of camping.

You're kind of on vacation though. But the more and more you get into it, you go, eh, I'm not putting all that up, you know, today. Or I, you know, I was like, I don't even know why I have this anymore. Like, or I'm going to stay inside all day. I don't need to be. You know, outside in the cold, you know, it, it's, it's one of those, um, strange things that from, that happens, and you move from, you know, a new RV or to a, to a full-timer.

Right. So, you brought up some good points there. Very interesting about maybe renting an RV for 30 days and, you know, it's different from just a weekend traveler, but now, if you were going to like to get into this, now you brought out some things about, like I said, renting the RV, but you know, for 30 days. But it's more than just getting an RV.

Maybe you own it or you're renting it, but going to, you don't want to just go to Yosemite for 30 days. You want to go to multiple places, right? To really get a feel for driving it and exploring the things that can happen and the detours and so forth. Would that be the best way to go about it? I think if you're wondering if this is what you want to do, absolutely.

Um, create a 30-day plan if you can. If you're still having to work from the remote, work from the road, think about how that's going to look, uh, when you're doing your travel, and think about just being on the road. You're right. Don't stay in one spot for 30 days. That's not really what most full-time RVs do.

They're bouncing around anywhere between. Three, four days to maybe a week or two, just depending upon their, um, their travel goals and, and what they want to do. Um, so get up on the road and get out there and think of it more than just. Hey, I'm going to see if I like this. Get up there as if you already are on the road and see if, you know, build an itinerary that excites you.

Um, sometimes I can get very tired of doing route planning and stuff, so when I do mine, I have to think about and build something in every month or every few weeks that I look forward to that I can, well, I'm looking forward to visiting these friends in this city, or I'm looking forward to this event that I'm going to, or this RV rally.

What’s exciting is you can always find something exciting to do that fits your interest. The one thing I think that surprised me the most about going full-time is the ability to visit friends and family that I haven't seen them a long time just because your life is busy and they're busy.

I'm busy and you pass this cross and next thing you know, years go by. But being in an RV, you can say, hey, I'm going to be in your area. I'm going to park my van in your driveway for a few days, you know? And they're at work. You're at work. But then at the end of the day, you know when, when everyone's done, you know, you can catch up, you can make dinners, and it's more than just a superficial high overnight, you know, kind of visit.

You can reconnect. And I think that's one of the great things about full-time travel. Yeah. So that's another reason why going to the summit would be so important to hear all the stories and really connect all the dots if you're thinking about doing this. Yeah. A lot of good information there.

So now, there are a lot more homeless people out there. Um, some people might just consider living in an RV as just, um, glamorized homelessness. Is that the case? Maybe.

I mean, if you consider a quarter-million-dollar Mercedes van conversion or a $300,000 class, a diesel push for homeless, um, yeah, you know, it, it, it could be. Um, that's the thing about army life is, uh, some people, people do it for all sorts of reasons. It doesn't have to be. Because you have nowhere else to go.

And a lot of people convert back to that just because that's a situation. And it's unfortunate. But there are other people that choose this life because they want more. They want the adventure, they want, um, they want the, the experiences and, and all that. When people think of it, cause you see it, all the news all the time that, um, there's RV parks or, or people living in their RVs.

Out on the streets, they're run down, they're broken, they're, they're taking up neighborhoods. You, you see that all the time all over the country. It's becoming more and more prevalent. So, when people think that you live in your car or you live in your RV, sometimes that's the first perception that they go, but full-time RV travel is different than what we do, we may not have a physical home, but I wouldn't say that, um, that we're homeless.

I think that we're out looking for. Adventure and ex and exploring the country or exploring different areas and wanting to just kind of take in more of what, you know, the country has to offer. Really, RV life is different from just living near HU RV because you have no other place to go and, and that is a problem.

There are some great charity organizations that are out there too that do help people. You know, acquire vans or RVs to live in because it gets them off the street and it's a much easier solution than some of these housing projects, these big housing projects that a lot of urban cities and such have going on.

So, it's a good temporary bridge from one to another. Right. So, they could be called full-time explorers. Yeah. That's What're doing? Yep, indeed. Okay. So, for someone who. They want to become a full-time RVer, but you know, they've kind of explored it, they've looked at it, but they're just not sure how they start doing this.

Can you help them with that? Well, the first thing I would say is to attend full-time Freedom Week, because you're going to have a lot of, lot of answers. Provided to you during that, during that session, and, and access to questions you probably didn't even know you had. But the first, the first one is, you know, check out the summit or check out the website, RV Dreaming tv and just figure out why this lifestyle is, is why you want to consider this.

We spent a lot of time talking about your why, why do you want to travel, why do you, um, want to do this? What are your needs? And as you start learning what your goals are, it will make it easier for you to make better decisions about what kind of rig you want to buy, how much you want to spend, uh, what kind of gear and equipment you're really going to need.

When I first started, I watched a lot of YouTube videos from a lot of different full-timers, and they all have these Amazon stores where you can go and buy stuff in. So, you just go to their store and you're like out all the carts. Next thing you know, when I was moving out of my super seat in my van, I had stuff that I hadn't even opened yet, and it's like, I don't need any of this, you know?

But you don't know what you don't know. One of the sections we have,

Um, Army's accessories, leads versus wants. Because there is a big difference between what you need versus what you, and what you want to have. Um, and we talk about strategies on how to, you know, just basically what, what you need when you start and what you can acquire along the way as you more identify what kind of traveler you want to be.

So, if you really want to start and you want to think about this and you're not sure where full-time, cause what. Is what this session or this summit is designed for, to give you a glimpse into not only what you need to do to get there, but what it'll be like when you're out on the road. And of course, once you do get on the road, you can create your own journey.

You create your own story, and what's exciting is there's no one wrong way. To RV. There's your way and there are some people that just love visiting national parks and that's all they want to do. I don't think I've visited maybe two. It's not even on my list, but if I pass what is there, you know?

But that's not why I want to go. Um, I want to go do other things. So, there is no wrong way to do it. Helping, you know, just helping to identify your why will help you make better decisions along the road. Then you can create your own story. You can create your own journey. Right? And that's one thing I think we're always talking about is making memories in your RV.

There are so many ways to do it. You also brought up another good point out about buying stuff, you know, sometimes you go to these, these websites and they top 20 things for full-time RV. You know, it's a list of stuff. And then you go to Amazon, you buy it. But as you said, you have stuff that you didn't even open when you were downsizing, you know?

Yeah. And you know, when you don't have anybody to talk to on the other end, it makes it more difficult. Should I get it? Should I not get it? That's where the summer would help him. But also calling local RV stores, getting their perspective on what you need, you know? Sometimes these websites sell a lot, but their intentions are not solely for your benefit.

It's for their pocketbook. I hate to say it, but that's how it is sometimes. Yeah. And, and there are incentives for some of these RVs, and I'm not saying that they have bad intentions, but you know, these Amazon stores, a lot of them are affiliate-based, so, right. Yep. Yeah, and some of them, they have a good service.

They provide a good service. Some of them are just there, you know, they're just capitalizing on a market basically. But that's where the full-time rv, uh, freedom Week Summit comes in because that's really going to help you make good decisions. And of course, Stewart's website, another website, RV Dreaming. tv. See that gives you a nice package there.

So, Stuart, I think we've covered everything. Is there anything else you want to throw in here? No, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about Full-Time Freedom Week. I made some mistakes when I hit the road. I spent more money than I needed to, and I wish that I had known about this before I started, because I could have been smarter, and a little more efficient, in how I got onto the road.

Um, so I think that if you're, you're in the planning process, you're negotiating, getting ready to go to, you know, take this, take this leap, um, I encourage you to go and, and just sign up again. It's free if you want to attend during the week. And, um, and I hope that you get. Something out of it. I hope that we, try and cover, a large view from start to finish, uh, and, and add as high level and as granular as we can get.

So that way you really benefit from, from this, you don't make some of the same mistakes that maybe I did when I started. Right. Yeah. Sounds good. So, I know we're going to sign up here because we want to go watch it or be part of it. Uh, one way or another we're going to be there. Um, we'll buy out the time during the day because I know there are things we can learn from.

And even though. We're not full-timers, but we have a store. We provide a service for people. So, I know there are going to be things in there that are going to benefit us just for helping other people. So, Stuart, I really appreciate your time today coming on the show, so that's going to bring us to the end of staying on the road.

NEXT STOP

All right, that takes us to the next stop, and today we're going to be going to Lewis and Clark Cavern. All righty, and where are Lewis and Clark Caverns?

Alexis- in Montana. What a beautiful Montana.

Eric- I was thinking South Dakota, but Oh yeah, it makes sense because Lewis and Clark have spent so much time in Montana and they were traversing the United States, mapping it and all that.

Exactly. All right, so if we go to Lewis and Clark Caverns, what are we going to see there?

Alexis- The caverns speaking the obvious. But yeah, you can take a guided tour of the caverns or go by yourself, I believe. Um, but they're, they're really, cool. I went on a fourth-grade trip when I was little, so I'd like to go back as an adult and just see it again, I think.

Um, but there are lots of camping places that you can, um, do over there as well. There are not just caverns you can. You can do that in RV spots. Um, there's hiking, and there's Boulder Hot Springs. So, there's a lot of options, um, for you to enjoy.

Eric- So that's cool. So that made me think of, you know, when you're a kid, everything seems so much bigger. You know when you're. In elementary school, like the stage or something for a play. It's just gigantic. Uh-huh, the scene is huge, you know? Yeah. And the tables in the cafeteria are gigantic. Yeah. Did you go back to when you were an adult? Uh-huh? Yeah. This is like a little doll for the next. Right. Right. It's weird, so Lewis and Clark caverns, you go back now, and you might have to duck and exactly.

Totally. Just won't have the same thing, but it's, it'll still be cool to go. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There's, this is Lewis and Clark spent a lot of time in Montana. I. Sure. Like they did every state up here you see more signage for it, and you pay a little closer attention to it. Because we live here. Yep, yep. But they uh, yeah, they spend a lot of time going back and forth, up, and down, in and out, whatever.

That's right. So, it's another place in Montana and we seem to find a lot of cool places in Montana. And that's only because we live here. Yeah. But if anybody out there has a place they would like to recommend, please send it to us. We're more than welcome to do a. A show on it or an episode I should say. Now also along with the things to do at Lewis and Clark Caverns.

I want to mention this, you know, to even get there, you're going to pass a lot of cool places. Yeah, yeah. True. So where would, where would we eat if we were there?

Alexis- There are a few places. There's a chain in Montana that’s kind of like a deli bakery. It's called Wheat Montana. Amazing food. You can get breakfast, lunch, um, I don't know about dinner, but you can do the first.

Too. Um, there's Pompeo's Grill, which is like hamburgers, steaks, pizza, all that good stuff. And then there's a cool pie shop there too. So, if you're looking for dessert, you're going to want to go to Iron Horse Cafe and Pie Shop. So, a pie shop.

Eric- So, does that mean Dwight CH shoot's going to be driving the bus? So that's from the office if you're not familiar with that, right? That's right. So as always, we're going to take you places where there's food. Mm-hmm. There's always good food. That's right. Okay. So now that we've eaten, we need to go to relax now and spend the night someplace. Where can we go?

Alexis- Um, there are a couple of places that even actually stay right in the Lewis and Clark Caverns. There's a national forest around it. Obviously, you can stay right in there. There's also Branham Lakes Campground and Del Mo Lake Campground. And honestly, if you just search up, um, where to stay around there in RV parks, you'll find a ton.

There's a lot, a lot of options. Okay, very good. That's cool. So, another place to go, another place to stay. Lots to do there. So again, we're wetting your whistle.

RV ENVY

Um, and, I mentioned the last episode, check out RV Destinations Magazine. If you haven't done this free subscription. Give that a try. A lot of good information in there, places to go.

It's RV Destination City with some gorgeous pitchers as well. Oh yeah, they do a really good job on that. Very nice. All right, so that concludes the next stop. Now we're going to go into RV Envy. So, RV Envy, you know, we talk about so many different products and, um, things that are available for RVs. The way to.

Do stuff, you know, if you want to make additions to it, you know, to make your, your neighbor envious of your RV. So today, you know, I was just going to kind of remind everybody, there's always so many products out there that are new things that you like, or even little hacks you come up with. And if you find things like that and you want to share them with others, let us know.

Let us talk about it on the podcast. If you have a YouTube channel where you've posted it, send us a link to it. We'll watch it. You know, we're putting a lot of the products that we talk about now on YouTube. We come out every other week with what we call Fast Tip Friday, and these are videos that last, you know, from five to 10 minutes, depending on what it is.

And breaking down some products for you. Mm-hmm. And they're helping, you know, helping a lot of people out there. We get a lot of responses to the videos because they pose questions, they get you thinking about things and that's the whole point of being, to do it yourself is thinking about things and understanding how to do it and learning along the way.

Mm-hmm. And we're here to help you do that. And RV Envy is just putting products out in front of you today. I don't have a product that I want to specifically talk about. But we do have a lot of stuff slated that's coming up. I mean, we're getting more stuff, more things coming at us every week now, and so it's just, it's pushing things out and we can't speed up the podcast.

That's too hard to do. So, there's still going to be every other week. So, but we're doing videos and we're trying to get more videos done, and we do everything in batches of three, you know, and so we try to do things, we don't necessarily push it out in batches of three, but some of the videos we do maybe two at a time because they're related products.

Yeah. So, it's just kind of a little update on where Ralph, you know, RV Envy is always about products that are cool. And like I said, if you have a product out there you really like, that you think is going to help somebody, let us know. And we do talk about it sometimes because of our schedule. It takes a while.

Like I've got an email from Frank we haven't been able to get to, and it's been on my list for quite some time. Mm. But I think we're going to do it in the next one or two episodes. Nice. So, we're going to get to that. And he has a lot of good things, um, just about the RV industry, some questions that are very valid because sometimes you don't understand how things work, why it's working a certain way, because you're not an insider like we are, we're in the RV industry, you know?

Yeah. So, RV Envy is about making the RV cool and better, and so everybody wants to do that. We're here to help you, and if you have ideas, let us know so we can share them with others. So that's going to bring us to the end of the show today. I hope everybody enjoys it. And check out RV dreaming.net for the weeklong RV seminars online.

I can't think of the word. Um, summit, the RV Summit. Check that out. And, you know, gear up for that weeklong. Be able to check it out on your website, where the, on the internet, wherever you're at. So, this is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer Podcast. It's been great hanging out with you today. If I don't see you on the road, let's connect at TheSmartRVer.com.