Navigating RV LIFE Trip Wizard: Safety Tips and Travel Planning

Imagine navigating Montana's Going to the Sun Road without breaking a sweat—Patrick Buchanan, an RVing veteran with nearly a decade of experience, joins us to turn that dream into a reality. Hear how the pandemic became the unexpected catalyst for my transition to full-time RVing, taking me from complete novice to a confident road warrior. We also share insider tips on selecting the perfect campsites and the essential safety measures every RVer should know.

Transform your trip planning with the RV Life Pro Suite of Products. We discuss how early challenges, like difficult routes and long drives, led us to discover game-changing tools such as RV Trip Wizard through the RV forum irv2.com. Learn how these tools revolutionized our RV experience, making trip planning seamless, safer, and more enjoyable. Our journey from novice travelers to advocates and team members of RV Life underscores the importance of connecting with industry professionals and leveraging reliable planning tools.

Join us for a preview of our most awe-inspiring travel experiences, from the iconic Devil's Tower to the majestic Grand Canyon. We highlight the benefits of using RV Trip Wizard over traditional GPS devices, sharing firsthand experiences that illustrate its efficiency. Furthermore, explore the vibrant RV Life community, driven by authentic user reviews and meaningful interactions in dedicated forums. Don't miss our exciting event announcement and workshop, promising an unforgettable experience filled with valuable insights from successful RV entrepreneurs.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What's most essential when traveling in an RV. I'm Patti Hunt and you're listening to the RV Life Podcast. Arriving safely is, of course, the most important thing. Travel is one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. Arriving safely obviously the most important part of the journey and we'll talk about that and so much more in today's episode.

Speaker 1: 0:30

Having been on the road for over three years, I saw so much this country has to offer and I made the decision to go full-time RVing over three years ago and, like many, it was during the pandemic, you know, sitting around the house wondering what you're going to do next, trying to figure out how we were going to make money Somehow or another. We decided selling it all and buying an RV and hitting the road was a good way to go. Funny when you think about it, because we really didn't have a plan of how we were going to make money when we got out on the road. We just did it Years later. I'm grateful that we did Now. When we first got on the road, my experience in an RV and camping was seven total days in an RV and about two weekends of camping. That was my experience. For whatever reason, I decided to jump in with both feet and my goal was to explore and experience the people and places across the country. When we started out, our mission was to inspire others to live life fully and before we actually launched, we started our YouTube channel exploring through our lens, and that was a way for me to inspire people to go out and fully live their lives. It was a way for me to show people what the country has to offer.

Speaker 1: 1:58

Eight months into our adventure, we met today's guest, patrick Buchanan, and I got to say there was this instinct connection. He's just that kind of guy that you meet and you just feel like you know each other. It was just an easy connection From there. Several months later, we started speaking about a podcast. I got to be honest, when this first came up, it was the last thing I wanted to jump into Again, one of those things that I just couldn't even fathom what that was going to look like, never having done anything like a podcast. But after a couple of months, again I jumped in with both feet.

Speaker 1: 2:43

The RV Life Podcast was created. It was created to educate, entertain and explore the RV lifestyle, with the mission to inspire others to live life fully, and today we are going to talk about all things. Travel safety got so much to cover. But right now it is time for today's fun fact and then fun facts brought to you by open roads, open road resorts, and they now have five locations. Two of them are in montana, one is in idaho, one in texas and their newest one is in Nebraska and it is called West Omaha KOA.

Speaker 1: 3:29

But if you're thinking about going to Yellowstone and it certainly seems like a good time Right now I'm in the Philadelphia area and it's in the 90s, with the humidity being in the same range, so it is hot and humid and it is starting to get to me. I'll be honest, and it's only when you're hearing this, it's only the end of June, july. I've got a long way to go. So Yellowstone National Park certainly sounds like a great place to go and if you want to go to Yellowstone, open Road Resorts has two fantastic locations to visit. We did have Chase Becker, the owner of the company, on the show and he talks about the location, what's in the area, and he paints this picture with his voice and I just knew it was a place I wanted to go. There are two locations Polson Flathead Lake, koa Holiday or Polson Motor Coach Resort. The Motor Coach Resort is Class A only and it is rated in the top 10 motor coach resorts in the country. When you look at the pictures, when you see the surroundings, you know why this is rated in the top 10 motor coach resorts in the country. It is beautiful.

Speaker 1: 4:51

So now for the fact, according to Camper Report, that the most dangerous roads in the country is going to the Sun Road, montana. That's actually what the road's called. I had to double check this. It's called Going to the Sun Road and it's in Montana and it is one rocks with limited space. So I'm thinking a 40 foot RV, I'm not going there, I'm not driving on that road, but I could see parking at that campground and taking a drive on that road, because sometimes those roads with the hairpin turns and the narrow tunnels are some of the most beautiful. So I'm looking forward to going there and checking that out. And now this article was in Camper Report, titled the 10 Most Dangerous Roads for RV Travel, and it was a very informative article and we'll talk a little more about Camper Report further in the show. That fun fact was brought to you by Open Road Resorts For so many RVers.

Speaker 1: 6:10

Today's guest does not need an introduction because so many of you already know him, but for those of you who don't, let me tell you a little bit about him. As RV Life's Director of Partnership, patrick Buchanan has been RVing for almost 10 years. He has authored hundreds of RV content articles across the RV Life family of blog sites. Most of his efforts are now directed toward helping manufacturers and service providers in the RV industry tell their story to RV Life's vast audience. You'll frequently find him at the large RV industry trade shows in Hershey, pennsylvania, tampa, florida and others. Patrick is the executive producer for the RV Life podcast and the Camper Report show and manages advertising on the industry's most popular RV consumer forum, irv2.com. Based in DW area of Texas, patrick enjoys driving and maintaining his diesel motor home. Not a full-timer. Him and his wife have managed to log over 20,000 miles with an ever-increasing audience of miniature dachshunds. Yes, that's right, that's what I said. Patrick Buchanan, welcome to the RV Life Podcast.

Speaker 2: 7:32

That's quite an introduction. Yeah, that's me and it's great to be here. I'm not sure I've ever been on the podcast that I manage right, but it's great to finally be here. It's great to see you enjoying and thriving in this. You said you couldn't imagine yourself doing it, but knowing you and meeting you in person, you're such a people person and you get such a charge out of people and what they're about and what they had to say and how they feel that a podcast is really perfect for you. So it's a joy to be here.

Speaker 1: 8:02

Thank you, and you have always been so encouraging and I greatly appreciate it. When you work with somebody and you are the executive producer, it is great to just be able to have those conversations and, like I said, from the moment we met I felt an instant connection and just looking forward to seeing what's next for us, because I've gotten to the point where just never know what's next. Maybe a TV show? Who knows? The RV Life TV show? How about that? I?

Speaker 2: 8:36

don't know. Never say never around here. That's what we've both learned, I think.

Speaker 1: 8:41

That is true. So we did have Andy Rabinowitz was the owner of RV Life on the podcast, but we've never had you. So let's have our audience get to know you better. For those of you who have not had the privilege of meeting you and your wife have been sometimes RVers for almost 10 years what made you start down that road? What was the thought process?

Speaker 2: 9:05

made you start down that road? What was the thought process we had? So we had appointed in time in 2014. It was early, earlier than this, but maybe about this time of year, maybe a little bit earlier. At that time, our schedule lent itself towards October being a great month for us to travel and get away both from our work schedules and we're here in Texas and we don't like to do a ton around here in the summer and by around September, october, we're sick of the heat, even though I love the heat.

Speaker 2: 9:29

By then, I'm sick of it and we wanted to go somewhere and we decided I had decided, I thought I would try a cruise. Right, I hadn't actually been on a cruise and we had decided to take a cruise. And my wife said I don't think so. How about we rent an RV and go to the Grand Canyon? And I was like it never crossed my mind even putting those words together, but I certainly loved the idea right away and we did, in fact, rent an RV that October in 2014. And we drove to the Grand Canyon and took a couple of little dogs with us at the time and it was just such a great trip it was. We had we rented a. Rented a big class, a gas motor home. It was only about 36 feet or so and we I didn't have a car or tow car or anything, we just drove that baby all the way up and around up to the Grand Canyon and down and back and into grocery stores or wherever we needed to Wow, and that was it. That was the first year and we already knew. As soon as we got back, we already knew we would do it again the following year and we went to Yellowstone you mentioned Yellowstone and we did that the second year in a different motorhome. We actually did the hat trick of Yellowstone, devil's Tower, mount Rushmore, and it was terrific.

Speaker 2: 10:44

This is about, of course, that was about 2015 or so, and we didn't even know what we didn't know. We stayed at a campground outside of Yellowstone and my plan the next day was hey, we'll go into Yellowstone, we'll drive around Yellowstone all day, check it out, and I see there's a campground inside Yellowstone. We'll just stay there. No reservations, no call, no, nothing. I just literally, oh, we'll just stay there. I had no concept of.

Speaker 2: 11:09

Fortunately, it was late October, very late October, and we happened to get to the little campground area early enough that we did in fact get to stay in there, but in retrospect it was the fact that they were, we had a spot was a miracle, right, because I had no backup plan at that point and I just was just too stupid to know. But we did and we looped around and went to Devil's Tower, went to Mount Rushmore, all that. So it was great. But that's how we got in and after that we were pretty hooked. We rented one more year, the third year, and then on the fourth year we've said are we renting or buying? This year? And it was buying.

Speaker 1: 11:45

And you bought? Is that when you bought the 40 foot Tiffin?

Speaker 2: 11:49

Yeah, 43 foot Tiffin Phaeton with a tag axle and the whole bit. It's just short of the just the right under the model of their bus. But, having rented three different models going, it wasn't as blind as it feels. We really knew what we wanted and understood why we wanted it and yeah, that was 2017. So here we are.

Speaker 1: 12:08

Wow, and so great opportunity to educate people. You rented for three years to figure out what you wanted to buy. When I came with both feet, we ended up with a 2002 Monaco Diplomat 40 foot. Didn't know what I didn't know, it was inexpensive, so we bought it. Honestly, I don't think Dan thought I was going to last. Why really commit to something? But I do think either buying something inexpensive and that Monaco was very inexpensive or renting is a great way for people to get a feel for what they like, what they don't like. Are they going to like it? What kind of RV? Because there is so much, as you've said, we don't know what we don't know. But now that 43 foot and you travel with not just a few dachshunds, eight right Eight of them.

Speaker 2: 13:00

Yeah, it's eight right now. There's a long story.

Speaker 1: 13:04

There's not enough podcast time in the world to explain that story, so we'll just let it slide, and it is what it is. Right, and I'm sure there's a lot of good information on how to travel with animals, especially eight of them, but yes, that's a podcast for another time.

Speaker 2: 13:22

It certainly is. I'm happy to jump on when you do that one, because I got tips. Believe me.

Speaker 1: 13:26

So now, how long have you been working with RV Light? When did that start?

Speaker 2: 13:31

So that's been just over five years. It's an interesting segue. That'll feel like a commercial, but it's really not. After that first year traveling out to Grand Canyon and back, I didn't really. I had no RV trip planning or any of that type of stuff. It was look at Google, make a plan and go. And I was at that point at least savvy enough to say you know, if I'm going to take this thing up to Grand Canyon Visitor Center, I should make sure I can get in there. So I did some satellite views and Google Earth things like that at the time. And of course you see the tour buses which are 45 foot full buses. You're like, okay, if they can go there, I can go there. So there's some comfort in that. And we did in fact take that thing all the way up in there. But what I didn't know was the difference in the driving and so on the way home.

Speaker 2: 14:20

One of my driving days was Flagstaff to Amarillo and it was brutal. You're not going 75 or 78 or 90 or 80 miles an hour, you're going 62 or four or five at best if you're lucky. And this was in a gas coach. The wind was brutal. I think my hands were at like 12 o'clock and six o'clock just trying to hold the wheels straight and it was about nine hours and I was just burnt to a crisp when we got there. I was fried and we got back home after that trip and I thought there's got to be a better way to plan these trips. There's got to be something.

Speaker 2: 14:52

And I looked around for the better part of six months or so and I ran across. I spent at that time and still do, but certainly at that time spent a lot of time on you mentioned it, I think, during the intro or the bio irv2.com, which is really the best resource. It's an RV forum that's been around forever but I spent a lot of time there trolling around, looking for knowledge, right, just trying to soak up knowledge. And I ran across a product at that time was called RV Trip Wizard and it was a trip planner. It did everything I needed it to do and I just bought it, paid for it, started using it and the quick story is on IRV2, anybody that's been around computers and forums and things knows you always want to give back if you can, right, and I just couldn't give back when it came to RV knowledge and all those things black tanks and tires and leveling and all the stuff that I now know about.

Speaker 2: 15:46

I didn't know any of it at that time, but I did know software. I was an IT professional for 25 years and I picked up and started using that software right away and thought it was the greatest thing. It was better than sliced bread. But that was something I could answer questions about and I saw people having questions about it, started answering them and somewhere in that point between there and 2019, connected with the team here at RV Life and Andy and Janet, and at one point April of 2019, I said sure, I'll join the team.

Speaker 1: 16:14

That was it. And yeah, and I love telling that story and I had heard that story from you and going back to the instant connection, how Dan and I connected with RV Life and how we forward to the RV Life podcast. I like the connections, I like the authentic, really having those real connections with people. And so before Dan and I ever started out on our RV journey, dan is the research guy. So he had looked at every trip, planning every GPS, all of it, and we had RV Life Pro before we had the RV. We may have had it and he may have been planning trips before. I said, yes, that is.

Speaker 2: 17:02

Knowing, Dan I believe that yes, absolutely so.

Speaker 1: 17:06

Anybody who knows Dan knows that he got an idea in his head. He went full throttle and hoped I was on board and, yes, that is for sure, dan, he just loved the app, the product. He would show me how he's doing these trip plans. He had all these trips planned out. It was fantastic because you could see the route, you could see where you could go, you could see how much money it was going to cost for me because, again, we didn't have a financial plan I could see an idea of what the gas was going to cost. There was so much to it that just totally made sense. And then we got in the RV and I pulled up my app and I can help navigate, which has always been my job.

Speaker 1: 17:45

But something that you said that I do want to jump back to is not to sound like a commercial. For me, the RV Life podcast is a way to introduce people, our listeners, to industry, people that we know and trust. And when I say we, you and I know and trust these companies, these people, and that's why when anybody listens to the podcast, they hear from our sponsors, our people you and I both know and trust. And that is the end, all be all. So if a sponsor wants to come in, you and I have the conversation. We want people that really care about the industry and the end user, the customer, so I'd love that, because it gives us the opportunity to offer discounts. You know, I am always talking about RV Trip Wizard. I love it and let's just get real. I can offer people 25% discount on it and we'll get into that a little more.

Speaker 1: 18:40

But that is, you know, one of the goals here and one of the things I just wanted to bring up as we talk about RV Life, the suite of products, the uses for them and telling your story about how you got involved with RV Life. It's funny. It seems like so many people that work for RV Life. That's how it started, dan and I. We made a product, we loved it, we were even promoting the product and when we met you instant connection we started to do some speaking at some of the events, because if you get into RV Life, you are in and there's no getting out. That's a good thing. So, yeah, so we were speaking, we met Janet and I don't even know if we had met or talked to Andy at this point and then we the podcast and who knows what's next.

Speaker 2: 19:32

Yeah. A quick shout out to Jennifer and Blake, our rally and show team. They got in the exact same way I was. We were looking for people that used our product, that were going to be in the Tampa area during the Tampa show, to just come out and help us man the booth. And I just said, hey, do you want to earn a few bucks? Are you outgoing and do you know our product? And, most importantly, do you know our believe and love our product? I think I said you love our product, something along those lines, and I just did that a little Facebook post and Jen and Blake were like sure we'll come up post. And Jen and Blake were like sure we'll come up. And that was four years ago. And here they are now. They are in charge of our rallies and our shows and will be the leads as far as setting up, tearing down and manning our big booths in Hershey, tampa, and all the great little rallies Grand Design, fmca, all the different rallies and things they go to and it all started the exact same way.

Speaker 1: 20:23

And they are awesome. And just to give a little bit of a shout out there, if people, when people are at these events we'll be in Hershey is probably the next event they'll be at, I might be wrong on that Go, ask them the questions. I'd love sitting in the booth and listening to them as much as I'd love the product not necessarily the person to answer all the detailed questions, but to listen to them, answer the questions and talk to the people just the perfect people for that. So anybody who's in and around any of those events that has questions, they could certainly go to that. So let's jump in, because I do want to clear something up.

Speaker 1: 21:02

First of all, rv Life Pro is a suite of products. We've already mentioned RV Trip Wizard and you're going to stay with me. Correct me, I actually have a cheat sheet because there's a lot that's involved with the RV Life network of products. We have RV Trip Wizard, which is for planning, and for RV Safe GPS. We have RV Campgrounds, which we'll talk about, rv life, and they're all RV life trip wizard.

Speaker 2: 21:29

RV life campground.

Speaker 1: 21:30

RV life maintenance, rv life master classes. So let's break some of those down. Let's talk about wizard Again. Dan did all the research. He decided trip RV life, trip wizard, was the product for us, for our listeners that either have RV Life and haven't really used all the facets of it, for those people who are new listeners that are saying what's a good planning product? Let's talk about it.

Speaker 2: 21:57

Yeah, and I'll flip your script slightly, because we'll talk about RV Life Campgrounds first, because it's the core and kind of the engine and the reason behind it all RV Life Campgrounds first, because it's the core and kind of the engine and the reason behind it all RV Life Campgrounds.

Speaker 1: 22:06

Okay, so I'm going to stop. You're the executive producer, I run this show, but I'm going to let you take it. You're just kidding. Yeah, you're like, I'm just going to change things here. Okay, I'll let you have it. You start with wherever you want to start.

Speaker 2: 22:23

And we want to talk about TripWizard, but you can't. I don't think you can successfully unless you talk about how and why it's there. And so we start with RV Life Campgrounds, which is. It's a website that's been around 20 plus years. If you've been around RVing a long time, you'll remember it was not so long ago, it was Campground Reviews and even before that it was called RV Park Reviews, and some of those name changes just become of age because of differences in vernacular and things right, as we've grown up and younger people coming into RVing says I don't want an RV park, I want a campground, and I don't have an RV, I have a motorhome or I have a camper, and just the vernacular was different enough that they're like I don't have an RV, I have a motorhome or I have a camper, and just the vernacular was different enough that they're like I don't need that website. Well, wait a minute. Okay, so we changed it to something else, but in the interest of bringing the whole RV Life brand and umbrella together, we moved it to RV Life Campgrounds and the idea is that 20 plus years of data, hundreds of thousands of reviews, tens of thousands of campgrounds, tens and I don't know hundreds of thousands of tips and photos and all reviews and all these things together they are the most complete source of campground. And that's RV park, campground, city park, state park, national park, corps of Engineers, all of that. You name it.

Speaker 2: 23:42

I always like to say, if it's not listed, either the name has changed and you don't know what it is now, or it opened last week. Otherwise it's going to be there, even if the owners themselves don't realize it. Our RVers, our huge audience. They'll come in, they'll go hey, this campground's not here, I just stayed at it. They'll click on a little thing, they'll add it. Our team will approve it, make sure it actually exists, find a website, that type of thing, and then, once that thing's available, people start leaving reviews and we've got owners out there that don't know it exists. It's like the Yelp of the campground world and but it is far and away the largest, most complete database.

Speaker 2: 24:20

And the whole point of this is with RV Trip Wizard. The idea was here I can find a whole bunch of campgrounds, here I can find every campground and location I need to go to. But how the heck do I get to it, right? Do I individually put them in Google Maps or something like that. And now I don't have RV safe routing. And so Trip Wizard was built upon that as a way to take that data into an RV safe navigation platform where you could plan that trip completely properly, you can vet that trip.

Speaker 2: 24:52

I'm not just connecting dots, I'm going to satellite view, I'm going to street view, I'm reading reviews, I'm adding fuel and calculating exactly when I need fuel.

Speaker 2: 25:03

The first few years we traveled, we owned I should say the first few years we owned our RV, we did not pull a vehicle.

Speaker 2: 25:12

It was enough to say, all right, it's 43 feet long, I'm going to get used to driving this thing, and I did fine, but tacking on another 15 feet behind me or more with a Jeep actually it's 17 feet, I think, with the Jeep and the tow bar.

Speaker 2: 25:27

We just didn't do that the first couple of years. And so I had to know which obviously fuel stations I could get into and when did I need fuel? And could I get into that particular Walmart to stock up on groceries and all of those, all of the little things I think about when I'm driving somewhere in a gigantic living room with no tow vehicle. And so, with TripWizard, I was using the satellite view, I was using the street view, I was using the elevation and the grade, I planned every single fuel stop and I always say I did three-week loop all the way throughout West Grand Canyon, moab, that whole area and back, and stopped exactly at every fuel station that I had not already planned on based on mileage, but had chosen based on that satellite view and street view, making sure I could actually get into the fuel station with my vehicle. So that's the TripWizard component.

Speaker 1: 26:27

And I'm going to. I want to go back to a couple of things. Number one when you talked about campgrounds, what impressed me? And again, I'm a customer who's loved the product, so talking about it in promoting it has just been easy. What I loved about the campground reviews was the fact that it was from RVers. A campground can't buy their way on to getting a good review. They were authentic reviews from RVers and so if an RVer went in and said the 50 amp hookups are great, the pull-through sites, it's level, it's not level Even to the point of checking, for me, obviously, wifi is important.

Speaker 1: 27:09

We were editing video and doing podcasts, so having good connections so people could actually go on. Okay, let me back up. I have my RB trip wizard. We do our planning on our computer. Ipad then could open the app and see my trip when I get to that campground. I can then go to the app and show my Wi-Fi connection. I do a Wi-Fi test and I could show that and share it with anybody who wants to look at it. So those things were very important. What's working in the campground, what's not, what's being improved, things to look for All of that is there. So that was very important for me and again we tried all the others. We looked at the others and this was kept.

Speaker 1: 27:56

Coming back to campground reviews as the best one. You also mentioned that you could do like the satellite view when Dan and I first started out 40 foot, 12, six high, we have propane on board. We're towing a car to want to verify that this particular gas station I could get into. I'm going to have room. The height's high enough. The turns are easy, especially for somebody newer who isn't as confident navigating. The other point I want to bring up you talked about like your exact, you're very I need to know where my spot is when I get to the campground. I especially with eight jogs, of course. That's important. You need to know when you're going to stop for gas and I work, fly by the seat of our pants kind of people for gas and.

Speaker 1: 28:45

I work, fly by the seat of our pants kind of people. It was let's get on the road where we had the trip plan, but two hours in we're changing it, and what I loved was I could quickly and easily change it. On Trip Wizard, I could say oh, we're going into this next state and their fuel cost is more, so I could quickly and easily find a fuel stop. It made it easy. This is a good place to probably mention one of our sponsors, open Roads Fuel Card. So anybody that has diesel to get the card is absolutely free, and every time Dan and I would stop for diesel fuel, we save money. We know exactly what we're going to save because we're checking the app for the gas station. They are all truck stops, so for the most part you could figure out easy in and easy out. But this card has saved us so much money over the years that we have had it and I'll put the details in the show notes for anybody who has diesel definitely want to check out the fuel card.

Speaker 1: 29:46

Okay, so we covered getting back to it. We covered campground reviews. We're talking about trip wizard Now, once you do the planning, let's talk a little bit about. Let me just say this I'm on social media all the time Last two months as people are going back out on the road saying what is a free GPS system or what is the best GPS I should use. But a lot of people are looking for free and I always say, if you've got something bigger than a minivan, you trusting Google Maps or something that's free is concerning. So talk a little bit to people about the importance of RV safe GPS.

Speaker 2: 30:28

Look, you've seen me at enough shows to know that I could probably go off on a tangent here for an hour on this. But if you spend between $40,000 and $400,000 on an RV, I'm pretty confident you can spend $65 a year on an RV safe GPS. Right, at least that's our cost, not without a discount or anything like that. But let's talk just in general about RV GPSs. Right, garmin makes some big, beautiful GPSs. They're expensive. But again, let's be real, if I'd spend $300,000 on an RV, I can afford a $500, $600 GPS. Tomtom and Magellan those guys are out of it. Rand McNally they're all kind of out of it for now. But the one thing that they have in common and I will throw ours partially in there if you use our GPS without any planning whatsoever, this will be an interesting for some folks because we got some new things happening. But if we take a GPS ad hoc and say, take me to X, you are at that point at the mercy of the GPS. Now you will get an RV safe route. Right, they're all looking for those bridges and overpasses and things you're not supposed to be on. But that RV safe route isn't always an RV comfortable route for every single person. But when you don't plan ahead, you are at the mercy of the GPS. It's really that simple.

Speaker 2: 31:51

Where we have had great success is with that TripWizard component. Now that I've spent I talked about all the time I spent preparing my trip Now when I go to navigate with the mobile app, I simply say yes, yes, navigate my route the way I planned it. So, even if it determined I've said this story multiple times before, but it's the old albuquerque to monument valley, right? We, uh, we were going to stay at goulding's lodge, and this is just a perfect example and we're going to stay at goulding's Lodge and we were leaving Albuquerque, I think, route 66. And to get to Goulding's Lodge, it's like a quarter of a mile faster or shorter to come up from the back instead of from the top. And what that means is when you're expected to be heading into Monument Valley down the 163, I think it is the Tom Hanks, the Forest Gump Freeway or the Forest Gump Highway. The view, the million dollar view. You don't see it unless you're paying attention, because your GPS says, oh, it's a quarter mile faster this way. So that happened to me and it's really got me exploring as to what was going on here exactly, but it's the same is true if you're traveling anywhere and it's a shorter but RV-safe way and you're like, gee, I could have gone this way, which would be much more RV-comfortable and it would have only taken me four minutes more, or something to that effect.

Speaker 2: 33:16

So, with our RV Trip Wizard, the idea is you plan the trip the way you want. You use the mobile app to navigate the trip exactly as you've planned it. Now, obviously, our goal is to be better than everybody else, and we've got a team that's working on all these different components so that when you ask two different units hey, get me from A to B we're going to come back and say you know what? We've got a lot of insight that the others don't have. How about you try this route instead? So we're working towards that. But that's the big component with the RV, and this is Apple compatible Android, compatible Apple CarPlay, android Auto. And again, you're not paying for anything extra. You have your phone, you just the maps are downloadable. So if you lose your connection, you don't lose your ability to navigate. And again, we're talking a subscription that, as of today, is only $65 a year.

Speaker 1: 34:08

And I want to push the point home. First of all, you could try it for free for seven days. So here's a little bit of the commercial. You could try it for free for seven days. There are discounts out there. I have a 25% discount code if anybody uses RV Life Podcast, making it easy. So let me just go back.

Speaker 1: 34:28

Dan and I got the RV. There was a Garmin in it. It did not have CarPlay in this RV, obviously 2002. So Dan liked looking at it. But we always used the RV Life GPS and compared them.

Speaker 1: 34:41

So the night before we compare the two different routes. Sure, in the beginning I wanted to confirm that what we were doing made sense. So there was a trip and nine times out of 10, they were the same. There were times that RV life had a different route and that route. When we looked on Google Maps and we'd seen better, in all honesty, the one time that really this was within six months of us being out on the road, that really said, okay, this RV trip planner is the best.

Speaker 1: 35:15

Because here's what happened. We were going up the one-on-one in the RV which is a little scary in itself If anybody's been up there through California into Oregon. We were in Oregon. We look at the two directions the night before and there was literally a hundred miles difference. The Garmin was taking us all off the 101, a hundred miles out of the way. I couldn't even tell you the roads Bring us back to the 101.

Speaker 1: 35:44

And we were dumbfounded, like how do you have to go 100 miles out of the way? There's no other road? It was baffling. Who knows that area knows there's mountains and all kinds of things, so it would make sense. I'm from the East Coast. I couldn't understand it. When we looked there was a route. The Garmin was saying we couldn't go under through this bridge, this tunnel, this small tunnel. We looked at RV Life, the trip planner, the trip wizard. It said we could go through it. Now who do you trust? I want to save a hundred miles. And we actually called, like the state, whoever Dan called I don't know if he called the police department and said look, this is the size, this is the and this was before. We knew we could have looked at the, the, this view.

Speaker 1: 36:31

Yeah. And the guy said look, you can go through it, some guys go through it and you could go through that tunnel and you're going to want to stay more to the middle. It was a short tunnel that saved us a hundred miles, a hundred miles. No exaggeration short tunnel.

Speaker 2: 36:45

That saved us a hundred miles. A hundred miles, no exaggeration. And one of the reasons we're able to do that is we have built into the mobile app this constant feedback, and we ask you, after a route, this is how is your route? And people can report and say it was great or it was not as comfortable as I was familiar with, or such and such. We had an incident very recently.

Speaker 2: 37:06

We now have the ability to block certain sections instantly and since our app is not a static map that's on your dashboard, it's built in. Of course, you can download it and update it, but when the bridge got hit over there on the East Coast, when that tanker drove into that bridge, we had it blocked within 15 minutes. We beat Google and the big map providers to blocking it because we have the ability to customize that stuff minutely and we had it blocked within 15 minutes. So now our viewers were not going to get routed over that bridge or attempt to. Obviously, you'd never get over it, but that feedback is what helps ensure that we're getting a route that's good and that's safe.

Speaker 1: 37:49

And that is one of the things I love about the RV life ecosystem. I love the fact that it is the customer is giving feedback. So, whether it's an RV campground review, whether it's the feedback of the road and I'm just going to talk for a minute about customer service your customer service are real human beings, people are getting to actual people that are there to help and support people in using the apps, in finding their way and navigating and learning how to use it. For some people it's you know, they have a bit of a challenge with it. I'm not the tech person, but I could say I could get on. Once I took a little bit of time and plan my trip and do a detour or change things. So there are real people in the customer service and it's great. I'm going to take a little bit of a break for a second and I want to talk about Clear 2.0, because once you get to that campground, water is very important.

Speaker 1: 38:50

Of our friends, keith and Barb Bernard are the owners of the company Patrick and I love them. Again, instant connection. Keith has developed all of the Clear 2.0 products which help with filtration. They have a product now, tank Fresh, which cleans the Clear 2.0 products which help with filtration. They have a product now, tank Fresh, which cleans the fresh water tank easily. Dan and I did it with our RV, took less than two hours. There's no bleach, there's no smell, no dangerous chemicals. They're Clear 2.0 products for fresh, clean water. Inline filters, three-stage filters. They use a solid carbon block. Again, the RV Life podcast is about education and learning about the better type of filters when it comes to water. It's so important as RVers, the water is so important. Barb and Keith also are offering 15% off any sale using RV Life podcast code and that will be in the show notes. Now, getting back to it, as we talk about there is the feedback from the community. It's all about community for RV Life. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 40:02

Yes, obviously, you mentioned, on a really important point about RV Life campgrounds that I always forget to mention, but it is all driven by RVers, right, the owners are not allowed to post their own reviews. We've got mechanisms in place to detect that, prevent that, all that. So that site's been on fire for so long with what it does, that's not even a question anymore. But another area that drives a ton of our we alluded to it a little earlier where I said I was hanging around on IRV2. That's just one of the community forums we have. We actually have about 20 of those forums, those RVing forums, all different brands. We have Airstream and Forest River and Thor and Keystone and Montana owners and Dutchman owners and Jayco of course. So a whole slew of those community forums and these are all moderated. You're not going to get on there and get lambasted by somebody with a smart mouth and we're going to keep a lot of the garbage out. I really have to say, and it's true, that when Facebook and that type of social media came about, we really thought forums were going to take a hit. And forums have actually grown because folks spent some time on social media and then they realized it's just a degrading experience. Half the time and even if you find something valuable, you go back to the next day to try to find it again. It's gone and forums don't suffer from that, and so our forums are a big part of that community. We have, of course, now six or seven blog sites, which is just articles and knowledge, and obviously people leave comments and things.

Speaker 2: 41:39

You mentioned our support team, but one of the things is a huge portion of our employee staff are all real RVers. A ton of our support folks are actually full-time. We've got everybody that's involved is an RVer at some sense, either former full-time, part-time, whatever, even some of the. Obviously, when you get into some of the technical development teams, that's a little tougher, but we do have a ton of those folks too. And then if we bring somebody on that isn't an RVer, we rent them an RV and say there, go out there and have at it right, give them that experience so they know when they're developing something they remember.

Speaker 2: 42:23

Oh yeah, that's hard to do when you're in an RV or when it's on the dashboard or when you're whatever, whatever this scenario is. So they all have that experience and we try to be involved in the community, obviously with our clubs and memberships and podcasts and shows. This is often maybe something I speak to from the biz dev standpoint a little bit more than the RV consumer. But RV life isn't an investment byline on some big corporate portfolio. We are all RVers and this is all we do.

Speaker 1: 42:57

And I will say, when I showed up at a lot of these events big ones, small ones, but let's touch on the big events, the Hershey RV show, for instance this will be my third year and that'll be in September and I do want to tease a little bit of that out there when I showed up and I got to the booth the expectation your vendors RV Life is a vendor at the booth I expected there to be quote unquote salespeople, but they're not. And not only is Jen and Blake, as you spoke about earlier. They're answering questions, helping people. There's no salesy. If you want to, anybody that wants to step into the RV life booth, wherever it is, don't feel like you're going to be pressured to be sold to. If the product works for you, great, If it doesn't, that's okay.

Speaker 1: 43:46

And what I also love is the people that were there. So you're there. Andy is in and out of the booth, Andy, the owner, but the tech people are there. I made some incredible connections. Bob, who's part of I don't remember all their names but Bob, who's part of customer support, is there, listening to people. What's working, what's not, what can I answer for you? Again, there's the other Andy that's there. I think he's a tech guy, as well as other people that are there just facing the customer, getting that knowledge, which I think is so important for learning how I, the customer, what I need, what I need now, how to make it better.

Speaker 2: 44:31

Yeah, it's one thing to get an email, and our support team takes those comments and passes them on to the developers. But when they see it and hear it coming from somebody and they're able to elaborate and throw body language and all those nuances into it, they really get the message. And so it's very valuable for our devs and our product managers to be at these shows, even just for a day, a few hours. We don't make them stand there the whole week like we do, but they get some feedback. It's incredibly valuable and we do that really in many other ways behind the scenes. We've got survey emails that go out and things to ask people hey, why this? Did you enjoy that? Et cetera.

Speaker 1: 45:10

And that's again. I believe it starts with Andy, the owner, and you and I. We're all about the community and so there are a lot of I'm going to just clump them as community type events. I'm going to talk about that in a minute. I want to talk about the newsletters and there are several newsletters that RV Life puts out, with obviously people resonating to RV Life because the newsletter email list is huge. He talked a little bit about newsletters and anybody that wants to join the newsletter obviously they're free and that will give them insight on things RVing.

Speaker 2: 45:50

Yeah, yeah, we have, like I said, the six or seven different blog sites and each of them has a little bit of a different tone to them. Obviously, rvlifecom and that's actually rvlifecom slash magazine, and maybe we just pause for a minute and say what to some of our audience? What the heck's a blog site, right? Is that, I think? Is that is it you telling me about every day of your trip? No, no, these are. Think of them as digital magazines, right? The term blog has evolved over the years. These are just digital magazines. These are magazines you don't get shipped to your house, right? We have the RV Life Camper Report you mentioned. We have Do-It-Yourself RV. I'll say, like, name them all real quick RV Life Camper Report, do-it-yourself RV, let's RV Camper, smart Van Lifers. That's six, and there's maybe another one somewhere. If I didn't mention it.

Speaker 2: 46:36

My apologies to that editor, but you want knowledge, right? If you're an RVer and you're learning this, you're soaking up knowledge and so signing up for the newsletter. These aren't random lists, we just crank out from some list we bought, right? These are people that want to hear about this information and so when new articles are published, once or twice a week, a newsletter goes out and you get to learn a little bit more. If there's something in that article that interests you, click on it and read it. If there's not, guess what, delete it. Next one that comes around it might be.

Speaker 2: 47:08

I found them certainly in that first few years where you're just soaking up knowledge like a sponge. Everything I could get my hands on to read about I would right. The other newsletters we have are for those that are part of those forums. I got I'm part of the Tiffin forum today and I got my Tiffin email today and all this is a quick newsletter item that shows me that this is good for any of those forums the Jayco and the Keystone and the Airstream or whatever.

Speaker 2: 47:35

You get that newsletter and here's what people are talking about and it's a great way. You've got something tickling in the back of your mind and I saw one the other day that popped in about the nylon slide guide that goes under a slide room needing to be replaced. And I don't need one replaced, but I sure would like to have a heads up on how that's done if it ever occurs. So I click on that baby, read that little bit and I'm good to go. So that's just all that valuable knowledge that comes right to your inbox, look at it on your phone, whatever. Plenty of articles to read about that type of thing, and so the newsletters are a huge part of our reach, and we reach several hundred thousand RVers every week with those.

Speaker 1: 48:16

And it's great because there are other people writing these articles. It's not all just coming out of RV life and I have personally learned so much my fun fact of the week I often get from those newsletters because what people want to know it's what people are talking about the most dangerous roads in the country. It was a very interesting article and that doesn't mean avoid those roads, it just means you might have to plan differently. So those newsletters are incredibly helpful and, like you said, sure, we're on social media and we could go on social media, but we all know that could get messy and clunky and people just saying whatever. I highly recommend the newsletters. I'm part of several of them that I've signed up for and, like you said, I go through them. If there's something that's of interest today, great. There are times I go back and I say, oh, that wasn't interesting. But I go back to something from a month ago that I needed to read. Those of you who are new or just starting out or even have been on the road for a while education, one of the most important things to keep us on the road and keep us safe. Now the other thing with being on an email list it helps in knowing some of these things that are coming up. What bothers me is when I go into a campground and there's an event, something going on and people don't know about it. So again, about this whole thing is very much about community for me, and that's keeping informed.

Speaker 1: 49:45

I do wanna touch a little bit on Hershey. We have not promoted or put all of this out. I didn't get your permission. We came on, but I do want to tease it. This episode will launch on July 3rd, just so you know. Let's talk a little bit about Hershey because let's back up Again for those people who are new, the Hershey RV show is one of the two largest Hershey RV shows in the country.

Speaker 1: 50:17

Hershey and Tampa are the two largest RV. Life will have a booth there and all of these people we were talking about will be in the booth, will come and go from the booth. So I'll be out and about during the Hershey event. But there are times I'll go sit in the booth because I need to sit down and I love talking to people. So that's a nice thing, but there will be plenty of experts there to answer questions and help people through whatever they have. So that's part of the Hershey event. It starts September 11th. It goes to September 15th. It is in Hershey, pennsylvania. There are campgrounds in the area and you could go on campgroundsrvlifecom to find the campgrounds in the area. I say, book your campground now if you're looking to be there. Don't lose hope, because a lot of times there are cancellations at the end. Just my little plug. But we also have a special event in Hershey. Are you ready to share a little bit about that?

Speaker 2: 51:21

Yeah, I wouldn't want to throw you into the bus. I was surprised to learn you wanted to work the entire Hershey event at no charge. That was surprising to me, but no, I guess, given the timing, yeah, so we'll have now what will be our third annual Hershey RV Life Hershey After Party. This is an event that will happen at the Englewood Hershey on the 12th. The sign up site is will be announced or set up or running soon. It is not up yet. We sold out last year with a waiting list of 60 people.

Speaker 2: 51:54

This is food, drinks, entertainment, dessert, prizes, giveaway, and it's going to be a ridiculously low price of $22 a person. I think we want that as low as possible $22 a person. I think we want that as low as possible and it's beyond well worth it. The twist this year is we are adding and this is not yet announced either, but again the signup page isn't there for you but we are adding the RV Entrepreneur Workshop, which is an all-day event like nine to four at the same venue during the day, and it'll be just like it says a workshop of RV entrepreneur types to share data, to share information and success stories and failures and talk about how they can be entrepreneurs, but while still being being in an RV, and that will be. I think we're at $55 ahead on that one and they will that again. These events will sell out quickly. They will announce that you said around July 3rd, so they'll be pretty close to announcing that as well.

Speaker 1: 53:03

Yeah and yes, and I just emphasize that the entrepreneur they also have RV Entrepreneur Podcast, which is our partner podcast. I just emphasize that the entrepreneur they also have are the entrepreneur podcast, which is our partner podcast. I just want to put that out to our listeners who are entrepreneurs, thinking about being entrepreneurs, whatever level you're at, there is content there that is so incredibly valuable Jim Nelson and Kimberly Crossland and Rose.

Speaker 2: 53:29

Willard. Just right, willard.

Speaker 1: 53:31

Thank you, I knew you could fill it in.

Speaker 2: 53:33

Lovingly edited by Kelsey Henry.

Speaker 1: 53:36

Okay, edited by Kelsey Henry, and it's just incredibly valuable. So when, jim and Patrick, you spoke about doing this entrepreneur workshop during the day, I was very excited. Again, of course, I volunteered to help for free. This is where it would be great to have the podcast on video, because Patrick's face is great, so that will be an incredible event. I'm really excited that's being added on the evening event. It will be the third of its kind. There will be giveaways and on the podcast I will be speaking about that. My point is if somebody signs up for the newsletter, will they get an email about it? Putting you on the spot here, patrick.

Speaker 2: 54:21

Yeah, I think we'll probably need to. Once it goes live, we'll need to go ahead and crank out a blog article and get that out in the newsletter. We're finalizing our sponsors. We'll have some great sponsors participating in this event and some good giveaways, so that'll be probably first and foremost, once this thing goes live, is to get that word out and get an article out there.

Speaker 1: 54:43

And just to be very clear for our listeners, you do not have to be an RV Life member. You don't have to be part of either of the communities. Everybody is welcome to be at this event and more information will come. I am so excited, like I am so excited. I just want to talk about it, but I'm going to hold off our next episode. It will be launched by the next episode. The website will be launched and I'll have all the details, the sponsors, the giveaways, all that I'll be talking about. I'm very excited about that.

Speaker 1: 55:20

So anybody coming to the Hershey area, anybody that knows Pennsylvania, knows that the Turnpike, pa Turnpike, is the most I want to say. I should look this up as a fun fact. I believe it is the most expensive toll road I want to say in the world. So I'm going to ask people if they yes, I got to check that and anybody wants to fact check that, has questions or anything they want to talk about. You know RV Life Podcast, instagram, facebook reach out. I answer all of the questions. Put it in the message, please reach out. So somebody who wants a fact check that for me, go ahead. The point being, it is an expensive toll road.

Speaker 1: 56:01

Toll Solution is a company we also work with. It is with Open Roads, and I got this toll pass. I was actually one of the first to get it. They'd been around for some 17 years. They have now really focused on RVers and so the toll pass costs $24 a year. With the RV and the tow car, I only need one pass. We'll talk more about how that works, but it works. The best part of it is so, patrick, when I came to visit you from what I've heard from some of my other guests is a tough toll road I got the message in the mail of how much it costs. This was before I had this toll pass, and then you get 25 days to pay it and I went over that 25 days. It got sent to an attorney. Even my crying didn't help in reducing those fines, and the fines were a lot of money. So with OpenRoad's innovative toll solution, what they do is, if you should get a fine, they have a concierge service that helps you throw it. So I'm so excited about this toll pass. I tell everybody about it. It has worked fantastic for me. Again, a great company with great people. The details of that will be in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 57:13

Quickly I want to talk about we're going to talk about. Go back to campground reviews. We do have a featured campground. Before we do that, for those people looking for their new RV, you and I both love National Indoor RV Centers. They have six locations across the country. We truly have a love for Brett Davis, the owner, and I know you use them for servicing your RV. Talk about why. Nirvc.

Speaker 2: 57:45

It's interesting. Obviously, if you've met Brett, you probably don't need another reason to say why. But for me, so I do as much work on my RV as I possibly can. I will get into the weeds in places most people will not get, but servicing a diesel, a gigantic diesel truck chassis is not necessarily in my wheelhouse. I've rebuilt VW bugs and I can do darn near anything, but that was just not going to be one of those things, and I've used a couple of places that were a little closer to me and it was just the dealer I bought it from.

Speaker 2: 58:21

And it's just little things. Are you going to plug my coach in so my batteries don't die while it's sitting there waiting right? If you've got lead acid batteries and those things die while it's out in the lot, they may be permanently damaged. And it's the little stuff. Keeping up with and being diligent about things. I've gotten stuff back where one of the repairs just wasn't done and it was like okay, whatever, it's such a hassle to take a big motorhome in somewhere, and so I've had good success.

Speaker 2: 58:52

I will say I had a great experience and of course I can't remember their name now It'll come to me in a minute, but when I needed. So the other issue I had with a big diesel chassis was when I needed truck stuff as I always like to say done, I had to go to the freight liner dealer. Well, that means a gigantic parking lot usually full of semi-trucks, and then they take your RV also and I came back with a huge scratch on a lower, not very critical portion of my motorhome after taking it there and it's just not the comfort level, it's not the personal personality, the personal service. So I took it last time I had major service done. I had a fuel, silt or housing that was seized and needed all this, some pretty big stuff, and I had it done.

Speaker 2: 59:40

I went to National Indoor and not only did they handle the RV related items that needed to be serviced, they also handled the chassis stuff. Now, I don't know if every single location does it or some of them are getting there, I don't know but here in DFW, the Louisville location, they did the chassis, the oil change, the lube, they replaced that seized housing, some tire issues and other things done. I know we're out of my. I can't bust and put a new tire on there myself. It's just some things you can't do. And so, yeah, the difference is that a very long answer to your very short question is trust. I just trust when it gets done, it's been done the best it could possibly be.

Speaker 1: 1:00:23

And I agree, and I was just at the Tennessee location, which is their newest, most amazing location, because Brett really does these places right, because he looks at what the RVer needs he is an RVer and what they need and he's always looking to make it better. If you haven't been, I've been to the Dallas location and the Tennessee location. People who haven't been should go check those out Again. An amazing person. And that's where it all starts Now. I just got a message, so the podcast is now being produced by an amazing guy, Aaron Mann. He produces and edits, so I don't have to deal with any of it. He just sent me an article that says Pennsylvania's Turnpike is the most expensive toll road in the world.

Speaker 2: 1:01:11

Wow.

Speaker 1: 1:01:12

We have checked that and have had it confirmed. Thank you, aaron, very good. For doing that, excuse me. So now it's time for the question of the week, and I have really liked asking this question of my guest, and the question is for our listeners. So, patrick, what is a place that you've either done or is on your bucket list to do that you highly recommend for people traveling across this country?

Speaker 2: 1:01:45

Well, I think that's a tough one. So we've been to Grand Canyon twice. The first time it was great, right, and we went up there. It was clear and beautiful. We saw the Grand Canyon and it is just mind boggling If you've never seen it for real. The second time we went, it was snowing. We didn't see a thing of Stone is really amazing as well. There's a couple of these places that are just so you just want to be able to see it. But I have to say that, as a kid of the 70s, watching Close Encounters for the third time repeatedly, devil's Tower was the most awe-inspiring for me, and seeing it from even before we get there, seeing it from the highway miles away, and remembering that movie and seeing it, it was more emotional than I care to admit.

Speaker 1: 1:02:37

Oh, wow, okay. And again, I think for people who have been RVing like you're going on 10 years, it's tough and I didn't tell you beforehand I was going to ask that question. Tough and I didn't tell you beforehand I was going to ask that question. And again, if people could see your face, try to search your brain, it is hard to narrow it down to that one place For me. I had the opportunity to leave Las Vegas in a helicopter and fly over the Grand Canyon and you just can't explain, express, put into words. Now people could go to the YouTube channel and see the video of it, but it is just something you've got to do. Yellowstone is definitely on my bucket list.

Speaker 2: 1:03:18

The great thing about the Grand Canyon is you're in this vast nothing area and you drive up and you imagine yourself, you imagine this Yosemite Sam sort of thing, where it's just going to get broad and open and there's going to be this giant hole in the ground. All of a sudden it starts to get wooded and you're like it doesn't look like the Grand Canyon. Now you're going through woods and there's deer and elk and everything along the road, and then you get into the visitor center and there's still no Grand Canyon. And then you get there's this line of demarcation, so to speak, where you walk over the sidewalk or all of a sudden, and there it is. It's just there and it's really remarkable.

Speaker 1: 1:04:01

Wow, and that's probably the best picture I've had of somebody paint like being able to paint that picture of what it is and what it's like. Like being able to paint that picture of what it is and what it's like and, yeah, I love that and I do definitely need to go back and do it on the ground and and drive up to it. It's definitely an experience to still have. Okay.

Speaker 2: 1:04:22

It wasn't a snowstorm.

Speaker 1: 1:04:24

No, I'll bet All I did was get my dogs wet.

Speaker 1: 1:04:27

Oh, great, yeah, and that, wow. Okay, we'll have to get back on and do all things dogs traveling in an RV for sure. But it's now time for the Feature Campground of the Week and it is brought to you by RV Life Campgrounds. The Feature Campground is Appalachian Campground. It's a really beautiful area. If anybody wants to, is looking for a place to visit, or when you're coming to the area for the Hershey RV show, this would be a great campground. It has 363 sites. This campground has full hookups, pull-through sites, the dog parks for you, patrick, you could also get a cabin or a cottage rental. It has a clubhouse lounge pool and it's got water frontage. There's so much to offer here.

Speaker 1: 1:05:17

It has a solid 7.5 rating on RV Life Campgrounds with 60 reviews, and this is where we were talking earlier about. These reviews are authentic by RVers and you could really get into the deep nitty gritty. What's the wifi going to be like, what's the site, what are the sites like, all of that. And you could go there by visiting campgroundsrvcom. And there's a book now button right there on the site so you could hit that book now button book your stay at Appalachian Campground. You could also see more photos, tips, a full list of amenities about this property. Rv Life Campground is part of the RV Life suite of products and it's the most comprehensive source We've talked about. It really truly is the most comprehensive source. So whether you're looking for RV parks, campgrounds, resorts, city, state national parks, corps of Engineers, properties and so much more, you just have to visit campgroundsrvlife. I covered that all, patrick, anything you want to add there.

Speaker 2: 1:06:21

No, that was terrific. We any, you know any. Of course we talked earlier. We want every campground owner to claim their own park. It's completely free. They can get in and respond to reviews. They can add photos, they can update the amenities, make sure they're accurate. We want every campground owner to do that. It's completely free. If they want to be a featured campground, which gives them a larger presence on the web and some quite a bit of additional exposure, they can do that right from within their dashboard. It's very reasonable. You've got to have at least a 7.0 rating to bea featured campground. So if you've got a great campground that doesn't have the ratings you want, but you've cleaned it up, you've got it all beautiful and ready to go, just get those RVers to leave a good review and eventually that will get back up there and you can be a featured campground.

Speaker 1: 1:07:12

Yes, and I, in traveling and going to campgrounds, I've talked to campground owners about getting on the site. Many people know about the campground site for RV life, but some don't and some aren't claimed or they didn't change their pictures. So that's one of the things I love to do and anybody out there that's stated at campground and it's not on just introduce them to RV Life. So if people want to get a hold of me or you, they can go to RV Life Podcast on Instagram or Facebook. There's RV Life social media sites. They could just reach out on RV Life and to customer service, right, Patrick? So there's all kinds of ways to get questions answered.

Speaker 2: 1:07:57

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:07:58

I want to thank you so much for so much incredible information for our listeners. Thank you so much for being the executive producer of the show, thank you for taking control here and there, and I can't wait to see you in hershey yeah, it won't be long no, not long, and people that want to be there and better sign up when that, when it goes live, because it was amazing how it sold out.

Speaker 1: 1:08:28

But all good things must come to an end. You have been listening to the RV Life Podcast. I'm Patti Hunt, wishing you a great rest of today and an even better day tomorrow.