Trailblazers' Toolkit: 15 Tips for Epic Camping Experiences & 10 Must-Haves- Part 2 Sponsored by Uco Gear)

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Transcript

Alexa: 0:01

*THIS TRANSCRIPT HAS NOT BEEN REVIEW O Hi, I'm Alexa and.

Rory: 0:07

I'm Rory, and together we are.

Alexa: 0:09

The.

Rory: 0:09

ROAMies R. O

Alexa: 0:11

We are married To each other.

Rory: 0:13

Right, we are a touring musical duo.

Alexa: 0:16

And our music has taken us to all kinds of places all around the world and keeps us always on the go.

Rory: 0:21

So we hope you enjoy our stories and adventures while running around working to keep all your plates spinning.

Alexa: 0:27

And we hope, to facilitate your busy lifestyle and feed your inner travel bug.

: 0:32

Mm-hmm.

Alexa: 0:37

Hi everyone, welcome to our latest episode sponsored by UCO Gear. We are so excited to tell you all about them. But first, all right, rory, we forgot last episode to do our dumb world trivia, world travel trivia cards that we're doing this year, so now we have to double up on this episode to make up for it well, it's dumb that we forgot right, all right, y'all.

Alexa: 1:06

We're going to tell you the answers at the end, so you have to stick around to hear the answers. But here are the questions. The first one, the dancing house, is a curvy building that can be found in which european city that's an easy one.

Rory: 1:21

I've walked past it and driven past it many times, so I know this building. I can see it in my head right now it's next to the river. I'll give you a hint. It's next to a river. That's an easy one. I've walked past it and driven past it many times, so I know this building. Wow, I can see it in my head right now. It's next to the river. I'll give you a hint.

Alexa: 1:31

It's next to a river, and there's a famous bridge that goes across the river Okay Great.

Rory: 1:35

Yep, it's a very old Eastern European town city.

: 1:40

Okay.

Rory: 1:42

Famous for its music, now its symphony. Okay, famous for its music, now its symphony hollywood does.

Alexa: 1:48

Hollywood does recordings over there with the symphony because it's cheaper, so giving everything away I'm just saying people, might you know it's a hint okay all right. The next trivia question is the statue of liberty was a gift to the usa. From which country?

Rory: 2:03

another easy, easy one, come on.

Alexa: 2:05

Okay, I'm from.

Rory: 2:05

South Louisiana.

Alexa: 2:07

All right, rory, so you read the next ones that are compensating for missing them. Last episode.

Rory: 2:14

Am I reading the?

Alexa: 2:15

You're reading the question, not the answer they have to wait for the end for the answer Both of them. There's two questions per card. These are just random drawings. Okay, go.

Rory: 2:25

Who is considered the founding father of Mongolia?

Alexa: 2:32

We've never been to Mongolia. We need to go.

: 2:35

Yeah somebody told us recently that we really need to go there.

Alexa: 2:38

Yep, all right, and what's the next question, rory?

Rory: 2:42

Which city is home to the statue of Christ the Redeemer man tonight? They're just such easy ones, Come on.

Alexa: 2:51

Well, I mean, I just picked the random cards from the deck All right. So y'all can. If you don't know the answers to any of these, you have the whole episode to figure it out. While you're listening, you can be thinking about the answers or you know.

Rory: 3:06

No Googling, come on.

Alexa: 3:07

Right, and now let's dive into part two of our conversation with Craig and DJ, and we're going to finish learning all of our 15 tips for camping.

: 3:20

You're bringing animals onto those trips too, it's a whole different thing You're putting out, the water bowls.

: 3:25

You have to bring all the to those trips too. It's a whole different thing. You're planning out the water bowls.

: 3:26

You have to bring all the food that they will not eat.

: 3:28

Yeah, Making sure that they're comfortable and you lose all that seat space for them. Yes, you're still overpacking, but as long as it can fit in the car you're fine, yeah, if you're going backpacking, you definitely want to be more careful, because that's going to be a situation where every ounce matters.

Alexa: 3:45

Yeah, so what's your next tip?

: 3:48

So the next one we have is you want to plan activities for yourself and for a group. If you are going with a group, and so things like that, I mean you can bring a deck of cards. That's an easy one to do, bringing a book, so that way you can like sit alone. We always like to bring hammocks on our trips and so there's nothing like being at a campsite reading a book, sitting in a hammock, it's kind of like the idealistic experience and so like planning on things because you are there to enjoy the nature and the natural world around you, and so planning time for you to spend by yourself, but also planning time for you to be with other people.

: 4:28

If you are going with a group or just your spouse or partner, it allows you to like not just default to old things like going like just watching videos on your phone or doing things that you'll be doing at your house hopefully you won't have reception, exactly, yeah, paying yourself to be out there and enjoy it, and so, like people bring drawing pads or, yeah, board games some of our friends actually bring paint and they'll paint while they're out in nature because they get inspired.

Rory: 4:53

A lot of our friends bring their knitting or crocheting and continue to work on their projects that way or those types of projects cool, yeah, really depends on what you're into. If you like it at home, you're probably gonna like it outside, but just make sure it doesn't eat up any electricity yeah um, I think our next tip is well, this is, this is my tip. Actually, my rule this is my rule is that no one else wants to hear your music when you are camping, no one else wants to hear your music when you're camping, bring your headphones.

: 5:24

Listen to your music, hear your music when you're camping.

: 5:26

Bring your headphones. Listen to your music in your headphones if you want to listen, but when you're out in nature, people want to be out in nature. They don't want to hear your music, which, even if they liked it two campsites over, it's not going to sound the same. So, yeah, so be courteous, please don't share.

: 5:44

Yeah, that's one thing you don't want to share when you're on a campground. And so just be cognizant of other people are there to enjoy the space also.

: 5:51

There's a few exceptions.

: 5:53

Yeah, I will put a caveat on that. Like there are some situations where people bring and this is one of those can go either way. Someone brings a guitar and you have a group of musicians who are out there playing. We ended up the site where it was this whole group of people and they were at the next side over and it was this very beautiful uh thing. They were all singing in a group and playing different instruments and it was just a really nice experience to be on the periphery of but, that can also go badly, depending on who is holding those instruments and singing those songs.

: 6:24

So, just be cognizant. Our other caveat for that is if you are dispersed camping and there are not other people around you, then feel free to play your music on loud, Because at that point it's just you. And if you are done listening to the sounds of the birds and the crickets and the wind going through the trees, by all means.

: 6:44

Yeah, but also realize that that noise carries, especially like if you're desert camping.

: 6:50

We were out in joshua tree and I mean we were probably three miles from the next group dispersed camping and I could still hear them. So yeah, yeah, there's, uh, there's definitely different situations in forests it's a little bit more. There's a lot more noise cancellation in the trees and stuff.

: 7:06

So it's safer Things to absorb the sound waves.

Alexa: 7:11

And plus that's going to run down your battery or use up electricity in some capacity. So that's another good reason.

: 7:19

Which brings us to our next step, which is watching your car battery and maybe bringing jumper cables, because we have known a lot of people whose car batteries have died because they've turned their, their auxiliary power, on to recharge their phones or their headlamps, or let the door open and let the light on all night so we actually have a little independent what would you call it? The thing that starts the car? Yeah, so they have these little jumper packs. That would you call it, the thing that starts the car.

: 7:46

Yeah, so they have these little jumper packs that are basically backup batteries now and they're really compact and you can put them in your car and they charge off of your car, so if you haven't charged it before, you can just plug it in the back on the way to the campsite no-transcript.

: 8:09

I mean, if you're driving all the time, you're not really having to deal with it and you're taking your keys out of your car as soon as you get home. As soon as you end up in a situation where that car's going to sit for a while and you might be going in and out of it, your battery might not be as good as you expect it to be Also great if you have an old Camry that's 20 years old and still running and on occasion, just decides it doesn't want to start anymore, so I like to keep it with my spare tire, and then it's just ready to go when I need it.

Alexa: 8:36

Yeah, well, and that's exactly like I was thinking. That's when you were talking about emergency preparedness and just someone who is on the go all the time, something like that. It's just a good, that's a good idea to have in your car. It's just kind of a smart thing to just kind of always have.

: 8:51

We should put a link to that in the show notes too, yeah, yeah folks can grab something like that, and that's when those items, too, that you have to check on on occasion, right, because it won't hold the charge very long, so you do need to make it kind of part of your routine to take it out and recharge it every once in a while, gotcha yeah just like you're gonna check the food in your emergency kit

: 9:12

exactly check in dates, making sure that things are ready when you do need them yeah we depending on what we're doing too, like we have a solar panel that we'll bring if we need to charge things, so like, like and that's. I mean even stupid little things like lights around a campsite, having the ability to have that stuff charged, so that way when it does turn night, you aren't necessarily turned off and you can still cook if you came home a little bit too late.

Alexa: 9:38

Yeah, nice.

: 9:39

Bringing ability to do those sorts of things and enjoy the site a little bit longer. I think you don't want to stay up too late. You are there for the natural experience and shutting down. I think it's always been a good way to reset my sleep cycle.

Alexa: 9:52

I mean, we are creatures of art, exactly, and so we tend to bring in some of that into the campsite.

: 10:00

One of the things that we like to bring, though, are little fairy lights that have a solar panel attached, so that's how they charge themselves, and then you get these pretty little twinkly lights at night time, so you know where the tree branches are and you don't hit your head on the way to and from your tent. But they're also really pretty and very subtle. They're not going to take anyone too much out of the experience by seeing them at your campsite.

: 10:27

But they're just some additional stars to the starlight. That's great. Our next tip is considering your trash pack out. If you're going to a site where it's pack in, pack out, or if you're going backpacking, then you need to bring all of your trash back out with you, and so you need to make sure that you have trash bags available and that you aren't emptying any containers that you're putting into that trash bag, so you don't end up with a big wet mess in your car at the end when you're packing it back out. And you do want to make sure that you're not leaving trash behind, because it does take so long to break down, and it can really ruin the experience for other people to show up to a campsite or to a hiking trail and see trash all over.

: 11:03

You also have to plan for the fact that when you're in these campsites, you're dealing with wilderness and there are bears and other animals that are going to get into that trash. So you can't just leave things out and be able to go clean up in the morning, because then you'll have a bunch of critters running through your campsite. We've had raccoons, bears, squirrels, all sorts of things.

: 11:25

And you want to think about where you're putting it.

: 11:27

Her brother one time was camping and an animal ate its way.

: 11:31

He had a bag of marshmallows in his tent.

: 11:32

Yeah, in his tent he had a bag of marshmallows and they ate through the wall of the tent, got inside, grabbed some marshmallows.

: 11:38

Run to a perfectly good tent, exactly.

: 11:46

And so, like when you have that trash, I mean you can put it up in a tree while you're there, um just, or you can put it in your car, although they don't always recommend that, because bears know how to get in the cars now, yeah, and so just planning a lot of places now have bear boxes and so it's a little box where you can store all that stuff, so making sure you're putting your trash in there too a lot of people will hang it up on a tree and leave it there until the end of the trip, but realize that you'll have food things in there.

: 12:08

You'll have scraps.

: 12:09

You'll have things that other things want access to. And so planning for that Trash might draw critters that might then find your uneaten food, right Right, and then you might be out.

Alexa: 12:28

And also, like my parents, had a cabin in angel fire, new mexico, and a bear came in and my parents had a box of snickers in the cabinet and the bear came for the snickers. But there are claw marks on those cabinet doors. So the bear not only broke into my house my parents were not there, the house was locked up. The bear got into the house and then opened a cabinet door and got the Snickers off of the shelf behind a closed cabinet door and found his way out and my parents knew it wasn't a burglary from a human because of the bear claw marks that are now permanently on those cabinet doors.

Alexa: 13:02

So yes, we can attest to the fact that animals can destroy your property um, it'd be very expensive yeah, and it's all because, well gosh, I didn't want to take the extra five minutes to put my trash where it needed to go, exactly. So that's sounds like a lesson that we would want to learn from other people and not learn that mistake on our own. Yeah, very good, yeah.

: 13:24

You want to be very careful, and I mean there's certain things that you won't necessarily think about until after it's gone bad.

Alexa: 13:31

So like pouring, which is why we appreciate you telling us all this stuff now. It's really great.

: 13:37

Pouring out some pasta water on a fire. I mean, that's kind of things like if you put certain food in there, if you're putting sausage or something, you're allowing for all the smoke now to come up and fill the air and now, like you, have drawn a bunch of animals to your fire.

Alexa: 13:55

I'm sorry we're laughing because their dog is snoring. It's right next to us. He's so cute, she's so cute.

: 14:04

She's a next to us. He's so cute. She's so cute. Yes, she's a horrible camp partner.

Alexa: 14:08

So if you hear snoring folks, it's the dog. All right, hopefully, okay, go ahead.

: 14:14

No, no, I was going to say when it comes to animals that are in the campsite. Having animals with you is helpful. Okay, like having dogs with you does scare away some of the other animals that might come around, but when it comes to nighttime and your dogs are snoring in the tent, they're not they might still come eat your marshmallows, exactly, yeah I think that leads us into the next thing, which is always putting out your fire.

: 14:43

This is something that I always didn't do, because I thought it was very it was very nice to wake up in the morning, start a fire with the coals that are already in there, yeah, but with the fires that we've seen all over the country now. I mean it's very easy for, and especially at night, winds pick up. Things happen. It just takes one spark in order to start a fire and ruin everybody's experience, and so making sure that you put it out every single night once you're done with that fire, and so like pouring water in it, actually mixing it up, putting what is it?

: 15:15

sand, yeah yeah, so burying it is actually the most water efficient way to do it right, so you don't waste all of your good water, although it does work with pasta water or you're. You know you're actually your leftover dish water is a really good use for that. But drowning the fire, unfortunately, you know, can be a big water waste and also means that the fire might be harder to start the next day.

: 15:37

If you've got now a wet, if it's all wet, fire pit, and so the best way to do it is actually to bring a little shovel with you and we have a little fold up one that we bring with us and just to turn the dirt over the sand that's in the pit, over to bury the coals, and you just smother them out. And you just want to make sure that you're feeling all around the fire pit to make sure that there's no hot spots and, if there are, that you turn those and smother them again.

: 16:02

The fire part of it can really go bad south. We want to be able to continue camping. A few years back there was a really bad one in Angelus National Forest and we were watching those fire lines as they slowly grew quicker and quicker to one of our favorite campsites.

: 16:20

Yeah, it was terrifying, it was very terrifying, and they crossed right. So they went over our favorite campsite, which it's the very best first-come, first-served site that we know. It has water, it has restrooms, it has trash facilities, so it's a really nice, easy place to go to. It's just this oasis and it's all these gorgeous old trees and it would take decades, if not like hundreds of years, for the site to recover. And we watched the fire line cross over that campground and we thought we'd lost it forever we're fortunate it's still there.

: 16:55

It somehow survived the fire, but everything around it was burned and you know you, you lose a lot and you're not going to get any of that back quickly when you get a big fire like that.

: 17:08

And I mean the animals that are in those areas, too, that are living in that situation. We're just borrowing it while we're camping. They lose their homes in those situations.

Alexa: 17:16

If not their lives, and then people lose their homes.

: 17:19

when the fire hits Exactly. Yeah, it goes even further now.

Alexa: 17:24

Yeah it's a big to-do. That's not a good situation, so put out your fire.

: 17:31

Put out your fire, always put out your fire, let's see. And then our next tip is bringing soap to wash your clothes. We bring a couple little laundry detergent pods with us, but a friend of mine I was speaking to recently had recommended naphtha soap, which is a bar soap that she uses for washing your clothes when she's camping. That also, apparently, is really good for poison ivy, because it'll help to get the oils off of your skin and make the reaction less severe if you end up accidentally touching it. So, um, so it's like a double duty soap, yeah, and yeah that multiple actions there. So you're packing less things, right? Yes, I, I have to say we've almost never used soap when we bring it camping, but you know, if you ended up in a situation where your clothes got really dirty and you really wanted to re-wear them, it just seems like a nice smart thing to have, okay, you?

Alexa: 18:24

don't normally wash your clothes while you're camping because you're gone few enough days and yeah you can be stinky if you need to anyway, it's kind of part of it.

: 18:33

You're supposed to be stinky.

Alexa: 18:36

You usually wear the same thing over a couple days yeah, yeah, you definitely won't need as many clothes as you think you're going to need yes, and with everybody working from home, or so many people working from home, you're used to stinking anyway.

: 18:48

Exactly, yeah, yeah, you can't even tell anymore.

: 18:51

No, it's all good, it's all good.

Alexa: 18:55

This poison ivy made me think of mosquitoes. Oh yes, I think mosquitoes are evil. They love me. Oh yeah, rory is a little more immune to them, but I have, I guess, type a blood or something. Whatever it is that they love. I think I don't remember my blood type, but whatever mine is that's what they love. Yeah, any mosquito tips for me stand near craig they will go after me and they leave marks maybe, maybe it's because we have freckles, we need to do a study on that we do we do Not the blood type?

: 19:30

it's the freckles, the big thing, yeah, just staying covered fully, making sure that you're wearing clothes that are covering all parts of you. At least that's my solution, because I am such a magnet to mosquitoes. They do have different sprays. They say the most effective repellent is DEET although it's not exactly the most environmentally friendly thing and it can make you sick if you use too much of it, but my friend who used to work clearing trails said that was the only thing that ever worked for those ones, and he was in the Pacific Northwest.

: 19:59

And so I prefer to wear clothes that cover everything and then spray the clothes with something, so it's not necessarily touching my bare skin.

: 20:06

Yeah, really, I just don't want to have that bug spray feeling all over me. The whole rest of the camping trip, because it's just so hard to get off and you know you're probably not going to be showering when you're on a short camping trip, and so generally, yeah, just covering up is your best bet with kind of loose fitting clothes that they can't bite you through like a thin long sleeve.

: 20:24

Yeah, and being aware when they do feed too, because they usually feed as the sun's coming up and as the sun's going down. So those are the times you need to be most aware of what you're doing and being prepared to be covered, because that's when the ones who are going to want to take your blood are going to feed it.

Alexa: 20:42

And that reminds me I did do a TikTok video where I show that I sprayed clothes. Oh yeah, so you have reminded me, so I'll put a link to that in the show notes too. Oh yeah, but you can pre-spray your clothes and let them, you know, and it lasts like six months of washing.

: 21:00

Oh, nice Really.

Alexa: 21:02

Yeah, so I did that before we left for our camp in finland last year, but our camp is like at a dorm, you know so we're not camping, camping. I think that that spray also helps with like ticks and stuff. Do you have you guys run into and it might not be so, like my parents live in kentucky and so we have a lot more ticks there than california but have you run across?

: 21:24

anything like that or little red bugs or critters definitely had ticks, and usually what I've seen them on is the dogs those are the ones because they're running through the grass.

: 21:33

They're the ones who are the most likely to get them.

: 21:35

So checking your dogs if you're wearing long pants, I mean you're. You're a lot safer as long as you're like being care, you're being careful where you're stepping. But we have a friend who was hiking and got bit by a tick and developed this rare A meat allergy?

: 21:51

Yeah, this rare disorder that you get where.

: 21:53

Now, if she eats meat, she.

: 21:55

She needs to use an EpiPen or get to the hospital. Yeah, if she gets really sick.

: 21:59

Yeah because it will kill her. Yeah, so it's not in this area out in California, but in other areas I think she was living in Indiana at the time in some areas there are ticks that will give you a meat allergy. So, yeah, in those areas especially, you want to be really careful to make sure that you're wearing long pants or avoiding walking through a brush where the ticks tend to sit, because you know they're not going to come after you.

Alexa: 22:24

They're gonna happen upon you when, when you go through their their territory or whatever where they're hanging out, but just like a spider web, you're walking through their yeah areas

: 22:36

tall walking shoes are good and checking yourself for ticks too, because a lot of tick does. Tick-borne diseases can be prevented by removing ticks in time. I think and maybe don't quote me on this, but I think Lyme disease, yeah, if you get it off within a certain period of time, they don't necessarily transmit the disease, and so you can protect yourself from that.

: 22:56

Yeah, and they don't bite right away. They usually crawl into a dark area. So it might not be the first thing you want to do when you get back to your campsite, but definitely checking your body and making sure having a good friend who can look at something you can't reach, or a feeling.

Alexa: 23:12

I think there's a country song about that. Oh yes, yes, but we won't go there.

: 23:20

This next one is more about safety. This is something that we've talked to a friend about who goes camping and actually does a lot of backpacking. He always, when he goes backpacking, he puts in his car a note in the windshield saying when he left, when he plans to come back.

: 23:37

So, that way, if he doesn't come back, they are able to identify his car and where he actually started off from. We had somebody who was fairly close to us. Their teacher was in the Pacific Northwest and went hiking out in Mount Rainier and disappeared, and this was last year and they still haven't found him.

Alexa: 23:53

Oh, my yeah.

: 23:54

And so those are situations. I mean, those are worst case scenarios. But they found his car recently, in the last month or two.

: 24:02

Oh wow, where if?

: 24:02

they were able to find that that sooner, if somebody had seen that car and seen a note saying I was supposed to be back on this saturday and it's two days later they could have redirected their search to more in that region. Right, and so being able to plan like that. Now we have a discussion about this.

: 24:18

Regarding security, you don't want people breaking into your car especially with saying like, hey, nobody's gonna be here for a couple days.

: 24:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah but you got to think about, really weigh your situations. If you're hiking by yourself and you need to, be in a really dangerous area. Yeah, yeah or yeah, you just have no way to communicate with anybody. You don't expect anybody else to run into the trail. It's the safety. Risk is more on you being found in case something goes bad than somebody breaking into your car.

: 24:47

Right.

: 24:48

And so planning out for that and just I think, like putting how many people are in your party if you are doing that, Just making sure that before you go telling people where you're going to be camping, this is the campsite we're going to be at. This is what we're planning to do. This is the campsite we're going to be at. This is what we're planning to do, Just so that way you have somebody who knows where to look for you in case the worst thing possible happens.

: 25:11

And when you're planning to get back. I don't know if you've mentioned that, yeah, yeah, I mean they have a lot of cool tools.

: 25:16

now they have these. They have a lot of GPS tracking tools, I mean they have watches Satellite phones.

: 25:22

Satellite phones yeah, and so like if you really get into it.

: 25:26

There's a lot of technology to protect yourself. Now, if you're at a campsite where you're going on little day hikes that are less than 10 miles.

: 25:34

And well populated, where there's other people walking through those.

: 25:37

Yeah, you don't have to worry so much, but definitely, as you start getting into these more isolated regions or you're doing dispersed camping, you want to think about that a little bit more? Yeah.

Alexa: 25:47

That's just a general good travel tip anyway, and especially if you're traveling solo. Just to always let someone know this is where I'm going and you can always have your. Find my Phone on Try to keep your phone on you and if you have an iPhone you can do the Find my Phone Like with maps I. I can like share my location with people, but you can't always count that your battery's gonna last and you know that kind of thing.

Alexa: 26:12

So, yeah, so just always communicating with someone. Hey, just make sure I check in with you by this time exactly.

: 26:20

If you don't hear from me by saturday, send out the dogs.

Alexa: 26:22

Yes, yeah, yeah yeah. Our friend smart, who does that note in the windshield also will text his wife in the morning, if you don't hear from me by.

: 26:25

Saturday send out the dogs. Yes, yeah, yeah, it's just smart. Our friend who does that note in the windshield also will text his wife in the morning and at night, because he keeps the phone off the rest of the day to save the battery. Right but he messages her just so that he's you know. Checking in and letting her know like I'm still okay without too much time passing Right.

Alexa: 26:41

And that's also good too, like if you just need some me time and you need to get away, that's fine and have your phone off if you need like a unplugging retreat, it's still a good idea to okay my phone is going to be, off. Don't expect to hear from me.

: 26:58

Yes.

Alexa: 26:59

But I will check in these days.

: 27:02

At this point, if you don't hear from me, then you might want to, Then we care yeah it might worry you a little bit more.

Alexa: 27:09

Yeah, that's just always a good tip in general, even if you're not camping.

: 27:13

Yes, yeah, traveling. So the last thing is kind of the antithesis of what we started, but you don't need to plan it all out. I think a lot of people get hung up and all of these things you have to prepare for, but a lot of times, especially if you're just beginning camper, you can go out and you're probably being close enough to a store nearby where you can get more ice or you can get a knife or you can get firewood so I mean or drive to a hotel.

Alexa: 27:41

If you just really get in this room, exactly, yeah, you can always get away.

: 27:46

You're in your car, you just pack it all back up and you head home and so like, if you are afraid of like, oh, I don't have everything I need and I'm not prepared. This is too much I have to handle. Don't worry so much. If you have a tent, you'll probably be fine.

: 28:01

I mean you can and food Well you can and food well, I mean you can like go out to dinner and come back.

: 28:10

Yeah, we like to plan so that way. Once we're there, we're there but you don't have to worry about losing any street cred if you have to leave your campground. Camping is an experience to enjoy and if you are going and you still have to go into the location to get things you're still enjoying the experience. It's not like we're living out in the woods for three months at a time.

: 28:30

It's something where you're enjoying nature for what it is and even if you're making a day trip out of it and then leaving and going back at night. That's okay you're still going out, you're getting away from your normal life and you're reflecting on the things that you have to deal with on a regular basis and that can be really powerful as well absolutely.

Alexa: 28:50

I agree 100. That's awesome, and I love the day trip idea too, because there's so much you don't have to think about, just go yeah, a lot of the campgrounds too.

: 29:01

They have a camping site and then next to it the hub the day use area. And so people go.

: 29:11

They have barbecues there, they set it up, they sit in the woods, they go for hikes. We have a church camping trip that we do every year and we have some members who need devices to sleep with like a CPAP or a bipod machine, and so they usually stay at a hotel nearby, and then that way they can use the machine when they are sleeping, and then they just come and hang out with us during the day.

: 29:29

There you go. That works great for them, and it is good to have some downtime right, you don't want every minute of your day filled because that's you know, camping is kind of about getting back to basics and just being out in nature, and it's nice to just kind of have that time to just sit in the hammock right and stare up at the treetops or the sky or the clouds.

: 29:47

I'm gonna go chomp some wood now, or I'm gonna just go throw some sticks and stuff or maybe you find a trailer trail that you didn't know was going to be there.

: 29:55

Now you have some extra time to hike right because maybe you, you know, didn't plan for it, but you, you get to explore something new and exciting carve something, yeah plenty of things to do out there if you're one of the people who are afraid of everything you have to do.

: 30:11

You can definitely get away with just showing up just show up.

Alexa: 30:15

Yeah, I love it. I love it well. Thank y'all so much. This has been so helpful. It's great to have all of these little things to think about and, like you said, we're not going to get everything perfect every time but there's just so much helpful information here, so I hope this is a great resource for a ton of people and I just I really appreciate your time and wish you the best next camping trip that you have. I hope that it's a great one.

: 30:41

Thank you, thank you, we're looking forward to it.

: 30:45

Do you? Have one planned Not yet no, it's just been too cold. It's been raining a lot.

: 30:50

So now it's starting to get sunny again, we're starting to look at it. Maybe at the end of the month we'll just get away. Yeah, all right, just go for it.

Rory: 30:58

Exactly. We're sure you enjoy the episode with Craig and DJ learning about 15 wonderful things.

Alexa: 31:06

All the things you need to know about camping. So thank you again, craig and DJ, for all of your wonderful stories and insight, and y'all, we are not stopping there.

: 31:17

Nope.

Alexa: 31:18

We finished up camping tips, but now we are going to introduce you to UCO Gear. Now we are going to introduce you to UCO Gear and we've got withU with UCO Gear here with us to tell us 10 must-haves that you need when you go camping. So we are excited to hear about this super cool gear. You guys can get your hands on it. You're going to visit ucogearcom U-C-O-G-E-A-Rcom and you are going to find all of these wonderful products there, and we're also going to link them in our show notes, and we are just excited. So let's dive in. Brooke, welcome to The Podcast O R Romy's podcast, and we're excited to hear from you.

Rory: 31:56

Welcome.

: 31:57

Thanks, I'm excited to be here.

Rory: 32:00

Well, I've got yeah, I've got running through my head you cold gear like it was a superhero program. It's like you cold gear. I can hear that, wow, he's already making you a jingle. I'm just saying, yeah, superhero camping equipment must have. And today we're going to learn the 10 must haves of UCO gear from Brooke.

Alexa: 32:25

Hey and Brooke, before we dive into like the nitty gritty, you are our second Brooke interview of our podcast this year. We had a previous episode with Brooke from Her Packing List, who was teaching us how to pack light, and what's so fun is that the things that you have to tell us about today, because I have an inside scoop that I know a lot of the things you're going to be sharing with us. They are super compact and just super travel friendly and so, just like all of the Brooks that we're having on our episodes are just like super amazing. So, anyway, Travel goodness.

: 33:04

That's what I absolutely love about Yuko Gears products is that they are designed to be portable. They're lightweight, they compact really nicely and you can pretty much take them anywhere. Yuko stands for utility and comfort in the outdoors, so we try to make adventure-proof essentials that are durable.

Alexa: 33:25

See, I mean that's kind of I'm kind of rough on things. Lori said we can't have anything nice in the house.

Rory: 33:32

Rough on our relationship. Rough on, I mean, oh man.

Alexa: 33:36

So the fact that they're durable is also a very good yeah it is, I love it yeah also a very good.

: 33:43

Yeah, it is, I love it, yeah, yeah. And I can even go as far to say that we started Yuko with the original candle lantern back in 1971 and there are still people today that bought the original ones, that are still using them since 1971.

Rory: 33:56

That's amazing.

Alexa: 33:57

Talk about durable gear and how long have you been working at or for Yukuko?

: 34:05

Yeah, so I've been with Yuko gear since May. I'm actually just coming upon my one year anniversary.

Alexa: 34:12

Okay, and you go to UCO for the utility and comfort in the outdoors.

: 34:20

Yeah, very cool, and that's the outdoors is very broad. For us it means from opening your patio door and sitting on your back patio to backyard camping, to being in the back country and super lightweight backpacking stuff.

Rory: 34:36

See, I love it because we travel so much. For us it also means when we travel sometimes we go to places overseas that well, we want to have a fork with us, we want to have a spoon with us or something like that. We want to have sort of something with us because we know we're going to need it. We got to have a cup or something, and it's really hard to find something that travels well, that you can do that with, that's reusable and that is durable and that's not metal, it's true.

: 35:00

I mean, I am an avid user of our six piece mess kit that comes with a spork, a plate bowl and a cup and I have everything that I need. And then I also always carry around our eco three piece utensil set, which is made of cover recycled polypropylene, and it has a knife, fork and spoon and a carrying case. It's amazing that I can just cut my bagel in a hotel room and spread some peanut butter on it it's not going to snap in half like a plastic knife would and just wash it and use it again. I don't have to throw it away like you do with single-use plastics I love it.

Rory: 35:35

It goes right back in your bag. You got it next time you need it.

Alexa: 35:38

I love that stuff like that I constantly break plastic, plastic wear, so I'm glad that I will now have my Yuko gear.

Rory: 35:46

We're traveling. No more snapping of plastic.

Alexa: 35:49

Yes, you probably already touched on a few of the items that you're going to be covering for us. What would you say? The 10 must haves from Yuko gear?

Rory: 35:59

Yeah, so I mean, first of all, I'm sure it's really hard to narrow it down to 10, but if you have your two, let's call them your 10 highlight that you love best. See, your dog loves them as well. That's awesome, he sure does.

: 36:14

He loves being out at the campsite. He loves traveling around. I can put him right in my little backpack and he just goes everywhere with me.

Rory: 36:23

And you could use a little yuko thing for a dog bowl I do.

: 36:26

I that's absolutely what I do, rory, you took her, I'm sorry about that sixth?

: 36:32

item or whatever.

: 36:33

Okay, all right and now we're turning it over to you, brooke so the first item that I have on our list is actually what we started with back in 1971, which is the original candle lantern. Okay, the original candle lantern. It chases the chill away. It's lightweight, collapsible, it's windproof. It's a trusted and time-tested lantern that you can have around the campsite to brighten up camp or the backyard. It fights off dampness. It provides cozy heat and natural light for up to nine hours per candle if you're using our paraffin or citronella candle, but we also use a beeswax candle as well in it, which can last up to 12 hours. And what's great about the candles is that they're smokeless, so you don't get that black ring around the glass.

Rory: 37:22

Nice.

: 37:23

A lot of oil candle lanterns or just regular candles that give off that black smoke. Yeah, these are spring-loaded candle lanterns, and what's great about the spring-loaded is that you always have candlelight. I was just wondering about that. That's so cool. Yeah, it's really, really awesome. And another interesting feature to it is that it has like a little glass chimney that slides down for lighting, so if it is really windy, you can still light it by using one of our stormproof matches that are windproof, and the candle is not going to blow out because it's got the glass actually protecting it from the wind, which is really nice.

Alexa: 38:00

That is so cool. When you first mentioned the candle, I thought, gosh, it would be so cool if there was like a mosquito fighting candle. And then you mentioned citronella and I'm like what?

: 38:10

Yeah, and what's even great about the citronella candle is that it doesn't have that over. It's not an intense citronella smell. We have 0.5% citronella oil in it, so it just gives a very light aroma okay but is it good at fighting off mosquitoes? Oh, absolutely yeah, okay, absolutely, it does exactly what it's supposed to do.

Alexa: 38:33

Okay, good, good, good she'll love that because, yes, gets big old yeah, well well, well, well, mosquitoes like you, yeah, yeah, they really do yes, and we had also talked about that with Craig in our interview. Craig and I both are very like mosquitoes love us, so yeah, yeah, great.

: 38:53

I thought there's a good solution. The candelere, which is a three candle burner, and the candelere you can put three citronella candles in it for nine hours each, or you can burn one at a time and you get 18 hours, but it also lets off enough heat that you can boil water on top of it.

Alexa: 39:14

Yeah, it's wow, yeah wow, that's very cool so you don't need gas, you just need those, those matches, those super cool matches, the stormproof matches that are windproof, waterproof and submersible. Yep, okay, come on yeah. Serious phosphorus or something going on? Are those matches maybe number two on our list?

: 39:35

Those matches are number two on our list, oh my Yep. So the stormproof matches. What's great about these is that they burn for up to 15 seconds. They can light a campfire, a stove, a gas barbecue, your lantern, regardless of the weather, whether it's pouring down rain and super windy or you have snow falling down, and it even relights after being submerged in water. So if it gets wet or you can literally like strike the match, put it in water, pull it out and it will relight.

Rory: 40:07

Wow.

: 40:08

Yeah, next to the candle lantern, one of our best selling items.

Rory: 40:12

I guess so.

: 40:13

Well.

Alexa: 40:13

I love we've talked about in this episode with our camping supplies. We've talked about it with our emergency preparedness, that this is a great emergency preparedness item, that if you're not an avid camper, or camper at all, anyway, you need to grab these for your emergency kits. Have some in your car.

: 40:33

What a great tool keep them in your go bag yeah, and I can say I was at an event this last weekend trying to light some candle lanterns and I did not have stormproof matches on hand and the winds were like 20-30 miles an hour and so it, like every time I use this little lighter, you know, it just kept going out. Every time I couldn't light a candle to save my life. I was like man, I need to keep these matches in my glove box so I don't have them regardless of the weather right, absolutely.

Rory: 40:59

I gotta buy a pack for Paul, my brother-in-law. He loves, he's a big time camper.

: 41:04

Our next item would actually be our flat pack small and medium portable grills and fire pits. Okay, what I love about these is that they collapse down, so they're really compact. You can take them anywhere. They set up in less than 30 seconds, you can use charcoal or wood in them and they're very lightweight.

: 41:22

I have one that I use at my cabin. I have a small one. I can fit two pieces of salmon on it, two steaks with like eight or nine charcoal blocks, and it's super easy to clean, like you could throw it in a dishwasher. It's all stainless steel. It comes with a canvas case. It safely contains fire and keeps the fire off of the ground of the ground and then the sides of the grill is a really great for getting air in to make sure that your coals get nice and hot, but also serves as a wind break as well, and the dual purpose that it's a fire pit as well as a grill yeah so it's gonna cook your food, it's gonna keep you warm and it's gonna keep the wind at bay, so it has a better chance of sticking around.

: 42:03

It is but you can also pack it in your backpack while you're on a trip. I mean, our small one weighs about a half a pound, and so you can have a nice small fire out in the backcountry that's completely contained. You don't have to worry about anything else, you know catching on fire or anything like that.

: 42:20

Yeah.

Alexa: 42:20

When it is collapsed, what are kind of the dimensions you mentioned?

: 42:24

it's lightweight but what are the dimensions for it to be able to fit in a backpack? Yeah, our medium flat pack grill and fire pit is 13.5 inches long and 10.5 inches wide and 1.1 inches thick. And then our small grill. It's much, much smaller.

Alexa: 42:44

It's nine inches long and 6.75 inches and one and a half inches thick yeah, easily, easily put into backpacks yeah, the smaller one, I mean, other than the thickness, which is only an inch or so, is smaller than a sheet of paper, and then the medium size is a little bigger than a sheet of paper, and then the medium size is a little bigger than a sheet of paper yeah, probably like the the size of a notebook amazing.

: 43:08

Yeah, that's awesome okay, cool, our fourth item, when I'm just kind of taking you around the campsite here yeah it's our six-piece mess kit.

: 43:18

Okay, our six-piece mess kit comes in a couple different colors, but it's built on the success of our four and five-piece mess kits. It gives camp couple different colors, but it's built on the success of our four and five-piece mess kits. It gives campers, adventurers and people who just like eating lunch in the break room the best of both worlds. So each one contains a switch spork, and if you don't know what a switch spork is, it's a fork, spoon and knife and they they actually connect together to telescope, and so the the length of the fork or the spoon allows you to get into those freeze-dried bags of a camping food. You don't have to get your hands all dirty or anything like that.

Alexa: 43:51

Or it can cut open your food earth sauce that we talked about in our last month's episode.

: 43:56

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The mess. Kit itself is a plate and a bowl that has a gasket, seal around it and locks together. And then it also comes with a collapsible cup that can be used to drink coffee out of, or some bubbly, or or water out of a stream, yes or water out of a stream, although it should be filtered first. Absolutely.

Alexa: 44:21

Well, one thing that I love about those cups, the collapsible. Again we, if we're talking about you, give us a lesson on how to collapse it quickly, because it's almost hard to collapse, because it's not flimsy, which is great.

: 44:49

It is not flimsy whatsoever. It's made of ultra durable polypropylene and silicone. It's best to just kind of collapse it with two thumbs underneath and then push down on the top and up with your thumbs and it goes right inside, okay.

Rory: 45:05

Awesome. That makes sense. What I love about them we we had this collapsible plastic. You know they have the plastic ones that fit down into each other. The collapse, they're so easy to break, so not durable, and then they sometimes leak. And when I saw these I was like, okay, I'm really digging that, yeah, it's a game changer.

Alexa: 45:23

Yeah, the other thing you and you, you mentioned this, but I just want to highlight that those can hold hot or cold, and so, if you want to make your tea, your Vigabond tea, which is my tea line, if you want your hot tea, or if you want, you know, your cold drink, like you know, I, I usually do my vitamins or my greens powder.

Rory: 45:47

I usually want cold for those or your trail coffee when you're camping. Right, you know, we'll make coffee pot and filter it out I mean all those things.

Alexa: 45:53

So I just love that it can do hot or cold and they are dishwasher safe, which again is very high on my priority list.

: 46:00

Yes, because's huge.

Alexa: 46:01

Yes, because even if I'm camping, I probably would wait to clean them until I got home. I like to wash dishes.

: 46:09

Oh man, that's really great.

Rory: 46:12

Yeah, I've been camping for more than one day.

: 46:16

And in addition to being dishwasher safe, they're also BPA free and you can use them in a microwave free and you can use them in a microwave. So if you are traveling to a hotel or something like that, these are also really great to make oatmeal in or, uh, like heat up some hot water.

Alexa: 46:29

You know things yeah, that's awesome and even, like you said, like taking it to work. If you, these are great, just on the go. You don't have to be camping to use these items. And so this is for your on the go everyday life. Take it to the office, put your leftovers in it, heat it up.

Rory: 46:44

You're good, check it out. Here's a plug All you mom and dads out there who have kids that are going to college, or all of you guys going to college and live in a dorm I lived in a dorm we could have a microwave. That was it. You're really limited. And then like, what's microwave safe that you can use again and again and again? That's not going to make you sick because you're putting plastics in the microwave, these things you can make your ramen noodle in Yuko gear. I mean, how awesome. That's the first thing I thought of. Oh, in the dorm room, this is talk about a game changer. This is awesome.

: 47:16

Yeah, man, absolutely, and they're super easy to clean.

Rory: 47:20

That's it. Yeah, five for your, for your college kids yeah absolutely so.

: 47:26

Our fifth item is actually of the same vein. It's our eco five-piece mess kit. This one does not come with a cup, but we do have a collapsible eco cup as well, in large and small. The large one is my favorite because it comes with a lid, and I'm I'm a sometimes I'm constantly like knocking things over, so it's really nice to have a lid on it. So my cup or I have a dog that jumps on me and spills, like you know you know, yes, um yeah, so the the eco line that we've created.

: 47:56

all of the materials are post-consumer and post-industrial plastic waste that's been transformed. So we take existing plastics and create these amazing products with them. These are recycled polypropylene. They meet FDA, food safe requirements, again, bpa free, dishwasher safe, microwave safe and all that stuff. The five piece comes in three different colors, but it includes a switch spork which has the fork, knife and spoon, and a mess kit which is locking so it can lock on both sides, and then you have your plate and your bowl and a tether which ties everything together. I don't leave home without one of these in my bag when I'm traveling.

Rory: 48:41

Yeah.

: 48:42

From looking at it.

Rory: 48:43

It looks like that the pieces fit together so that if you have leftover food, you could actually store your food in the same pieces. And what am I trying to say?

Alexa: 48:52

The mess kit can become like a Tupperware case in a sense, right, because it's got a top and a bottom.

: 48:57

Yes, and they walk together, so it keeps it intact.

Rory: 49:02

Yeah, so that's nothing's not camping and traveling, but again, I just keep thinking of the dorm room.

: 49:07

Yeah those little fridges your own kitchen, take it out heat it, eat it.

Alexa: 49:11

You got your plan everything you need yeah, yeah, does it, because it's kind of like a bottom and a top that are covered when you pull apart. Is that your plate and your bowl?

: 49:24

Yeah, so the lid serves as a plate and the bottom serves as the bowl.

Alexa: 49:29

Yeah, Okay, yep, and then when the lid is on, does it keep your food hot for a certain amount of time, or anything like that, or is it just more like a Tupperware container would be, in the sense that it's just going to store it?

: 49:44

Yeah, so actually what I do is I use them to make oatmeal in, like when I'm camping. So I'll open up some oatmeal packets, pour them into the bowl, add hot water and throw the lid on it, and it actually cooks up my oatmeal perfectly and keeps it warm.

Alexa: 50:06

Yeah, I love it.

: 50:06

That's awesome so yeah, keep your food warm for a little bit of time. Yeah, and I can even transport the oatmeal as it's warming up and cooking right, because of those locking mechanisms on the mess kit and the gasket around the plate. I can like it's. It's not gonna like drip liquid out or anything like that. Nicely, we're gonna go to my filson bag and go that is so cool wow okay, that just became my new best friend, okay, okay.

Alexa: 50:34

So next, what number six?

: 50:38

number six, five or six, I I think six, six. So another really important thing to have around the campsite is our Ingle Switchlock knife. Now we are just getting ready to launch these knives in July. They're not even on the market yet, but this is the ultimate campsite companion, designed to tackle tasks with ease. But it's also approachable for all users. So our knives were designed for novice users, not someone that's like a knife collector or anything, although we do love that they also enjoy our knives. This is a slip joint knife that has a switch lock push button. That instills confidence and it makes it very user-friendly. The shape of the knife, the way that it holds in its lanyard loop, makes it substantial enough to handling demanding tasks. It has a black tini coating on the blade which keeps the knife blade itself protected, and then glass reinforced nylon scales on the handle, which makes it really nice to hold.

: 51:41

Yeah, and it sounds like you could use it with just one hand if you had to open absolutely and close it again yeah, so it has a nail nick in it, so it just opens right up and you just push that button and it closes right up. Yeah, that's really, it handles really nicely and you can do anything from like cutting open a bag to taking pieces of wood and making fire starter with it yeah, shaving off how durable it is.

Rory: 52:03

yeah, yeah, small pieces of wood and making fire starter with it. Yeah, shaving off small pieces of kindling or something to light super fast.

: 52:08

Right, you don't have to worry about the blade bending or breaking or anything. Awesome.

: 52:14

Yeah.

Alexa: 52:14

Right For your little portable fire pit.

: 52:19

Yeah, I mean making Tinder like there was a time when I was a kid where our parents would send us out to go collect all of the sticks for Tinder, right?

: 52:27

Yes.

: 52:28

Okay, you're going to go spend like six hours, you know, out there like collecting all the Tinder for the weekend, you know. So we can start all of our fires. You can just sit there and like get a stick and like thread it with a knife and you don't have to be out there all day looking for things that that might be wet or yeah, not completely dead yeah, that's awesome, and and those shavings will light a lot faster than some of the kindling, or that is so true yeah yeah, um, so kind of segueing into fire starting.

: 53:00

We just recently launched our flat pack smokeless fire pit and grill. What's great about this and why it's so essential, is it flat packs down and you can take it anywhere with you. It weighs 14 pounds. It comes with a canvas case that has shoulder straps on it so you can carry it over your shoulder. You can pack it into the back of your car.

: 53:20

It's it's a rectangular and this can be like for state park camping, backyard camping, beach camping or just kind of having it around. It sits pretty low to the ground. It has radiant holes on the side, so with a lot of smokeless grills the heat just kind of goes straight up. But this one, you actually get heat all around the fire pit, which is something that makes it very unique. In addition to it flat packing down, it additionally has a double wall construction that creates superheated air channels that exit at the top of the firebox, which combusts the smoke more thoroughly than regular fire pits. So the other really cool thing about this one is that not only is it long lasting and it's really durable stainless steel that's rust and also corrosion resistant. You can grill on it as well and you can put 16 inch corded wood into it. A lot of smokeless fire pits are more round and you have to chop the wood down more.

Alexa: 54:21

This one, you can just go to the store, get your firewood and it's going to fit right in there 16 inch, that's huge man, that's big yeah, and you can use our strikeable tinder to light the fire yeah, with the cool matches from yuko gear, you don't even need the matches oh, it strikes on the box and you can just throw it in to start the fire. Oh, nice yeah pretty cool, very cool just to kind of sort of dumb it down for me what this product versus the fire pit that we fold in our backpack, the? What are the?

Alexa: 55:00

the differences are basically size well, so yes, size, and this one is smokeless yeah okay, you're not going to walk away smelling like charcoal or a campfire smoke okay, so the small one that folds in my backpack is going to release some smoke, of course, and it's smaller and I would use it for more personal, whereas this big one, it's going to surface, service more people and be smokeless.

: 55:29

Yeah, this one here. I mean, it's like a two-in-one, where the because it's a smokeless fire pit you can have friends and family gather around a fire and everybody's going to feel really warm and, if you want, you can make eight burgers on it, you know. Whereas, like, the smaller flat pack is more for backcountry camping, even if you want to do it on a patio or something like that, where you're not taking up as much space.

Rory: 55:57

And it's got that double wall construction for superheated air to combust that smoke.

: 56:02

Yes, it's a pretty incredible design. Yeah, what's great that I think about is that you could just pack it down. You can pack it down. You can take it anywhere. You know, I love sitting on the beach and listening to the ocean waves come in and also not freeze or smell.

Alexa: 56:16

Like you know, I'm leaving we lived in la for so long and never went to the beach. I mean, we did go, but like barely because we were wusses of like.

Rory: 56:26

Well, it's just gonna be cold, always cold at the beach yep, you know, in the evening and the sun's going down, it's like, okay, that's the coldest place to be, and so southern california is the beach which seems. I'm from south louisiana, it ain't that way. So the beach is supposed to be hot, oh man yeah, much different than louisiana, isn't it much different?

Alexa: 56:47

yeah, man, I know I didn't get in the water, so, yeah, so I love that, like even just being at the beach can be you. You can use all of these items. Yeah, I love it as a carry case with the shoulder straps.

Rory: 57:02

That I was immediately like oh, that's awesome. Yeah, so it also has. And you said you can grill on it, so does it come with the grill?

: 57:09

It does. It comes with a stainless steel grill grate that sits right on top. It is the. The grill itself is 9.5 inches like long and 16.4 inches wide, and so you can fit probably like six good steaks on there and roast them over a smokeless grill see, that's great because, like backcountry stuff you're, you're having to create something to hold it over the fire.

Rory: 57:33

In this case, you've got it. You've got the grill that comes with it, that is. That is very cool.

Alexa: 57:37

I bet you could take that grill top and put it in your dishwasher, you sure?

: 57:41

can? I'm just saying I bet you all right you just sold her. Absolutely. And so, while we're talking about the smokeless fire pit, what people love to do when they're sitting around a fire is roast marshmallows. Right, right.

Alexa: 57:56

That's what you have.

: 57:58

An essential item is our roasting forks. And our roasting forks are actually pretty different than your typical roasting fork because we always have to put a unique design spin on it and make them an adventure and an essential item. And so with our roasting sticks, they have a rolling wheel on them and you know how, like when you have kids well, I've got kids and when they're roasting their marshmallows over a fire, they'll stick the the marshmallow in there and it'll catch on fire, and then they'll be like swinging it back and forth and back'll stick the the marshmallow in there and it'll catch on fire, and then they'll be like swinging it back and forth and back and forth and the marshmallow will fly off. Yeah, these ones have like a thumb wheel that you can like. Just move the thumb wheel and it rotates the skewer in a circle get out of here roast on your marshmallow so you've got a marshmallow on a spit that rotates.

: 58:48

Pretty much. Yep, wow, it's so awesome and the handles are made of recover, recycled polypropylene, so they're made from post-industrial plastics. And the skewer itself telescopes down and telescopes out to 11.5 inches. The roasting stick itself is made of stainless steel, so it's more durable. So you're not going to get if you put a hot dog on it. It's not going to droop down and you're going to be like you know it's like it's going to sturdy, durable product. Your hot dog is going to stand firm and it's going to get a really good roast on it.

Rory: 59:25

And you can rotate it.

Alexa: 59:26

so you can roast the hot dog too, and it's not going to fall off, yeah, and you don't have to spend time with wire hangers and poking yourself in the eye with wire hangers well, things like that apparently okay so it's a measurement too, safety measure to have that. Yeah, that's awesome.

: 59:44

Are we on number nine? Sure I think so. Yeah, okay let's say we're on nine yeah, we'll call it nine another item that I think is really essential and more fun to have around the campsite, especially for kids, is our ice cream ball okay, I am so excited to hear about this.

: 1:00:02

I like, oh, my gosh, okay go yeah, so you can make delicious ice cream anywhere, but especially at the campsite, by just adding some natural ingredients such as cream, sugar, vanilla, and one end of the ice cream ball and then adding ice and rock salt any other end, and then you shake it, roll it around, kick it around softly for about 20 minutes and then you're it around softly for about 20 minutes and then you're going to have ice cream.

: 1:00:30

And it's such a fun thing for kids to play with at the campsite because, one, it keeps them occupied, two, it keeps them exercising and, three, they're hungry for ice cream afterwards. Right, it's like you get to do some work and then you get to have a reward, right, yeah yeah, burn the calories underneath the calories, Exactly, exactly, so fun. Yeah, it's a really neat product. We've been making it for a long time. It's constructed from food safe and BPA free materials. It does come with a simple recipe booklet and it has built in handles that actually make it really easy to open the ends and get it cleaned, and things like that.

Alexa: 1:01:07

Okay, and about how big?

: 1:01:09

is it.

: 1:01:10

The product weight is two and a half pounds. The capacity for ice cream is one pint of ice cream. The ball itself is 20 centimeters of diameter. Okay, so is that like my?

Alexa: 1:01:19

head, no like a pint of ice cream.

Rory: 1:01:21

That's amazing.

Alexa: 1:01:22

I can't wait, I got to get one. Yeah, and you can always go to our website for some tips and tricks on it as well that's good enough now can you, like you said, in 20 minutes you'll have ice cream, but if it's just in your bag all day and you're hiking, is that enough jostling? And is it okay if you wait an hour or does it like? Does it need to be 20 minutes?

: 1:01:43

yeah, I mean, I think, like the, I think about 20 minutes to maybe 30 minutes might be max, just because your ice might start melting and okay, if your ice starts melting then it's not going to be as cold for the ice cream. Yeah, just to get that ice, getting that cream and sugar and flavoring, all nice and mixed up and cold and yeah, okay yeah, I don't know if you've seen the video. We do have a video on youtube on how to use as well oh, that's great.

Alexa: 1:02:07

Yeah, we haven't seen that yet, but we will link to that.

: 1:02:10

Yes.

: 1:02:10

Yeah, definitely in the mood for making ice cream in the summertime, that's for sure.

Rory: 1:02:14

I can see myself strapping it to my leg and taking a hike. And then I've got ice cream.

: 1:02:22

Yeah, I don't know about backpacking. I don't know if I'd want that extra two and a half pounds.

Alexa: 1:02:26

I mean you got to burn calories to eat the ice cream, so yeah, the reward after the work Absolutely, absolutely.

: 1:02:38

So I think the last item that I have on our list is and it's just because eventually it gets dark out, right, and so you need some illumination around the campsite. Our Sprout LED lantern is one of our top movers, and what makes it really interesting is it has a couple different modes of light. It has a lanyard loop that's magnetized so it connects to the LED light itself, but you can take it with you if you have to leave your tent to go to the bathroom, and you don't have to mess around with undoing the lanyard or something like that. You know, you just take it off the magnet. It has a push button for activated low, medium and high light. It has a moonlight blue color and a white light mode, and then it comes in four different colors. Wow.

Rory: 1:03:24

Mood lighting.

: 1:03:26

Yes, the blue light on it. I love the blue light feature because one blue light has been known to keep bugs away. You know you probably noticed like those zappers and stuff like blue light, so it helps with that, but it also doesn't make, like the white light, so bright.

Rory: 1:03:42

You know like there are a lot of people who are sensitive to different kinds of light and that blue light mode is just to see a nice ambiance at a nighttime Very cool and you guys have an amazing website where people can go and learn more about all the products you've mentioned, but also all the other products you guys have, because I'm super intrigued now as I'm sure everyone listening is to go and check that out, so we'll put a link to that. But what is that website?

: 1:04:07

It's yukogearcom, yukogearcom.

: 1:04:12

That's easy enough.

Alexa: 1:04:13

Yukogearcom. Yes, and be watching our socials throughout the month because we're going to be highlighting some of these products on our socials. You can follow Yuko Gear on Instagram at Yuko Gear yeah, go figure. Follow us at TheRomies and follow Yuko Gear at.

Rory: 1:04:34

Yuko Gear, yukogearcom and Yuko Gear on all socials. Make sure you follow Yuko Gear.

Alexa: 1:04:43

Well, Brooke, thank you so much. This has been super fun. We are excited to dive in and put these products to use. We are excited. I can't wait to get my hands on that ice cream ball, because I'm just going to go and have fun with that.

: 1:05:01

You never heard ice cream.

Alexa: 1:05:03

And I told Brooke that earlier. I really want to try like vegan ice creams and stuff like that, so I'll probably be trying like weird things, but I'm allowed to oh poor you Cookie.

Rory: 1:05:15

I feel bad for your gear.

: 1:05:17

That's what makes it an adventure right.

Alexa: 1:05:20

See, my cooking is an adventure, we can say that for sure.

: 1:05:26

That's the thing we want to foster connection and add excitement to adventures, and that's what our products are doing.

Alexa: 1:05:31

There you go. That's so cool. Love it Case in point right there. Yeah, it's been great. Thank you so much.

: 1:05:36

Yeah, thank you.

Alexa: 1:05:38

All right, before we wrap up everyone, we've got to do our answers to our trivia, as promised.

Rory: 1:05:51

This is the A part of Q and A. Okay, are you going to give the A and then we tell the Q, or what? No, we give the Q first. Okay, yours are first.

Alexa: 1:05:54

Oh, I'm going first. Okay, so, rory, the Dancing House is a curvy building that can be found in which European city?

Rory: 1:06:03

Ready.

Alexa: 1:06:03

Yeah, I'm ready. Prague, all right, good job.

Rory: 1:06:08

Charles River is right next door. Remember I gave you guys the hint. Charles Bridge, rather, is right there by it.

Alexa: 1:06:14

We got to record a music video in Prague years ago. It was super fun.

Rory: 1:06:17

It's across the river, though, from the castle in the old part of Prague, but anyway, yeah, if you haven't been to Prague get there. Wonderful city, yeah.

Alexa: 1:06:25

To me it was like Paris, but like with its own style, it was just super cool.

Rory: 1:06:31

Eastern European Paris.

Alexa: 1:06:33

Yeah, it was super great. Okay, the Statue of Liberty was a gift to the USA, from which country Rory go.

Rory: 1:06:39

France.

Alexa: 1:06:40

Very good, very good, alright.

Rory: 1:06:42

Who is considered the founding father of Mongolia?

Alexa: 1:06:47

Ready Genghis Khan.

Rory: 1:06:50

Genghis Khan is correct. All right, okay, see if you can get this one. Which city is home to the statue of Christ the Redeemer?

Alexa: 1:07:01

We've actually been there.

Rory: 1:07:02

We've been there, been to the statue.

Alexa: 1:07:06

Rio de Janeiro.

Rory: 1:07:07

Oh, so close the correct answer is Rio de Janeiro. Oh, so close. The correct answer is Rio de Janeiro. Oh, you were so close, I was so close.

Alexa: 1:07:16

Well, we hope you guys had success. At least you got one out of two. I hope y'all had success with your answers to these trivia questions. Thank you so much for joining us and we have some super fun episodes coming up for the rest of the year, so we are just cooking them up and excited to share with you. But you'll have to wait until next episode.

Rory: 1:07:37

And you have to stay tuned, stay tuned.

Alexa: 1:07:38

We'll see you then, bye-bye. Now, we hope we've inspired you this episode, so join us next time. Please subscribe to rate and share our podcast with your friends or you know whomever? And please like and follow us on Instagram, youtube and Facebook.

Rory: 1:07:53

We are also on X and on all social platforms. We are at TheRomies.

Alexa: 1:07:59

That's T-H-E-R-O-A-M-I-E-S and our main hub is our website At wwwtheromyscom, that's right, that's d-h-e-r-o-a-m-i-e-scom. We'll be there until next time. Yeah, thanks for listening. Bye.