Bears and gators and manatees - oh my. Unique RVing experiences on two coasts.
Bears and gators and manatees - oh my! We have two guests this week who share very, very different styles of camping and places to camp. From very secluded RVing in the Pacific Northwest to the unique style of the Florida Keys, these places provide inspiration for some great RV camping.
We also have one of the most unusual travel trailers we’ve ever seen that even has a secret room like in those late-night mystery shows. Our gadget is a handy phone holder that we’re using for the dash cam in our truck.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
If you’re confused about solar, battery power or just want to upgrade your RV we have found the solutions from ABC Upfitters are both reliable and exceptional.
We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
Julie Crist came to us from The Wilds - a unique camping spot in Washington State.
Mark Koep shares travel trips for the Florida Keys. Mark comes to us from Campground Views, a great tool to see campgrounds before you go.
Our story about the incredible RV toolbox essential - the Nite Ize Gear Ties
Join our weekly email family for more tips, tricks, articles, hints and hacks.
Keep the discussion going in our StressLess Camping podcast group
Our friend Mark Koep from Campground Views shares some places to stay in the Florida Keys.
Our trusted partners - RV Discounts and Deals
Automated transcript of StressLess Camping Podcast Episode 213
Mark Ferrell
Welcome to the weekly podcast, all about turning the great American RV adventure into stress-less camping. Each week we explore tips, tricks, ideas, and destinations, and talk to the happiest campers in the RV world. Pull up a seat at the campfire as we enjoy some Stressless camping.
Peggy Barthel
Welcome to the Campfire.
Tony Barthel
I'm Tony.
Peggy Barthel
I'm Peggy. And
Tony Barthel
We're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time
Peggy Barthel
In a small trailer
Tony Barthel
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips,
Peggy Barthel
Tricks,
Tony Barthel
And discounts.
Peggy Barthel
Someone on Facebook today gave us a great tip.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. They've been doing it for years. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
Go ahead and drive with your fridge on propane.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. There's a lot of times you'll talk to people, especially in social media and they've been doing something for years and they, uh, are very proud to admit it and, oh, I've been doing it for years and it's not gonna be a problem.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah. One of the, until it is.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And we saw a post today on Facebook where somebody had been towing their travel trailer for years with the propane fridge running, and they shared pictures of it burning completely to the chassis. We have an article about should you tow with your propane fridge running? And that article was written. A lot of times if we're not totally comfortable with a topic, we'll turn to people who we believe are very knowledgeable.
Tony Barthel
Right. And regarding RV fires and propane fires, we turn to friends who are firefighters. Yes. We figured they'll probably know stuff about fires. And they do. And have an opinion because they've seen things and done
Peggy Barthel
Things. Yeah. They've put out plenty of fires. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Or at least stood by while. 'cause RVs, if you don't know, once an RV gets burning, it's done. There's
Peggy Barthel
No, it's
Tony Barthel
Not. Yeah. Yeah. Putting it out is usually they, it's more mitigation, so if there's RVs around it, they don't light up. Right, right. Yeah. Not good. So we'll share that article and we always ask you to share with your friends on social media or wherever, share this article. 'cause it could save somebody this kind of sad, sad, not stressless camping experience. Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
For sure. So we don't have to worry anymore. 'cause now we have a 12 volt refrigerator.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that's true.
Peggy Barthel
So we are able to run ours, but we are preparing for another big trip. And we are gonna get ready, and we'll talk more about this in the next couple weeks, but we're headed back to Indiana for the Frog Rally and other things. <laugh>,
Tony Barthel
We are gonna be doing a pretty long, almost two month trip now, right. Leaving New Mexico, August 1st and heading to Elkhart, Indiana to the Frog Rally. And Frog is Forest River Owners group. Yeah. So it's uh, basically a bunch of Forest River owners and there's a lot of reasons to go to these big rallies, including you can get warranty work done by the factory techs, which we don't need any. Uh, well,
Peggy Barthel
We need some tiny little things. We
Tony Barthel
Have one little thing. Yeah. You can also hang out with other people who own Forest River products. There's gonna be a bunch of mini light and microlight people there. Rockwood and Flagstaff will be on hand. We will be there, of course, the entire rally. And Mike Soel is gonna join us and we're gonna have our six o'clock wrap, as you may have heard a few weeks ago. So if you're there bus start
Peggy Barthel
The bling
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah. If you're there with us, come join us at six o'clock at our trailer every day. And if you're not, we will show you how to get a live stream of this silliness every day, <laugh>. So that's, that's the thing. So where else are we going?
Peggy Barthel
Well, I busted out the Trip Wizard as usual RV Trip Wizard, which is part of the RV Life Suite. And I love to use that Trip Wizard because it tells me, it gives me ideas of where to go if we have kind of a general idea. Like we need to be an Elkhart and we need to be there on such and such day. So I can work my way backwards and figure out when we have to leave here and where we can stop on the way and how many miles we wanna drive each day, and all those things that Trip Wizard really, really helps with.
Peggy Barthel
And then after we leave the Frog Rally, we are traveling with our friend Bill and we are going up to the Up, that's the Upper peninsula, that's the Upper Peninsula <laugh> in Michigan. So Bill and I have busted out our trip wizards and work together to come up with a plan of where we should visit and what we should see.
Peggy Barthel
The Trip Wizard has been getting a real workout because as I think we've told you, we're also starting to book some Girl Camper College classes coming up in the next spring. And so I have a whole layout of all the places that we'll be teaching the classes. I have one for this road trip, and then kind of in the middle of there, we're gonna be heading to the West Coast where we plan to spend Christmas and then from there, lead our way to Courtside, Arizona.
Peggy Barthel
So I have that trip sketched out on the RV Trip Wizard. So that thing is really getting its workout.
Tony Barthel
It's amazing. So we're gonna be putting some smiles and getting some smiles. Yeah. We're looking forward to these long road trips. We'll keep you in the loop. Perhaps we may run into you out
Peggy Barthel
There. That's right. And if you haven't used RV Trip Wizard and you are curious, it's a really great idea to check it out. We do have a discount on our website and there's a seven day trial. So you go to our website Discounts and Deals page, find the rv. I think it's actually says RV Safe g p s is how it's, that's how it's listed Becausecause. That is another really important part of the RV Life Suite, is that you can do RV safe G P Ss when you're going from one point to the next.
Peggy Barthel
Yep. So go check it out, try it for free for a few days, or just dive right in and get the discount and start planning your trips.
Tony Barthel
And I believe their price is going to go up soon. So this is something, you know, they're like, oh, how do I do RV safe directions? And they have a lot of other aspects to the RV life system, which is what Trip Wizard is part of. But if you've been thinking of doing this, boy now's a good time because Yeah,
Peggy Barthel
I think you're right. It might actually be August 1st that it might go up. So yeah.
Tony Barthel
So you wanna get in
Peggy Barthel
On that? Get in there.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Get in on our discount while it's as big as it is. Right. So it's on stresses camping.com in our discounts and deals or partners pages. And you can get a discount on RV Life Suite, including RV Trip Wizard.
Peggy Barthel
Now, here's some place you might wanna go if you are planning a trip to the Northwest States. This place is in Washington and we got to talk to Julie about her new campground. And well, I mean, let's have Julie tell us. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
We are with Julie Crist who reached out to us because she has a different sort of campground. And so we're anxious to hear about that. Julie, welcome. Thank
Peggy Barthel
You for joining us. Thank
Julie Crist
You Peggy and Tony, we're really, really glad to hear from you. This will be fun. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
So since we said you had something very different, tell us about it.
Julie Crist
My husband and I had RV probably about for four or five years, 20 years ago. And we had been all over the place. We went up the Alcan and down Baja and a bunch of other places, and we would find remote camping opportunities that were beautiful. But you always had the back of your mind occupied by how long can we do this before we run out of water or <laugh> our tanks fill up or else we would stay in a park.
Julie Crist
And then you're staring in your neighbor's windows and they're walking by right. Peering in. And we would really have loved the opportunity to kind of combine the best of both worlds. And we are on a property, we're actually managing a trust property that has a gorgeous, about two or three acres sort of set off in the woods that I, I just love going over to this piece of property.
Julie Crist
And finally, but what do you do with that? And finally kind of dawned on us, we should, this would be a perfect place for an RV camping spot. And when we started thinking about this, this, you would stand on the road and look at this piece of property and you were looking at a, just a complete wall of brush. So you had to imagine what you were gonna end up with. Right. And we, so we cleared it and we ended up with a dedicated, uh, single party camp spot in the woods. It's an RV spot, and we installed all the hookups.
Julie Crist
So it has water, sewer, and power, and it is one party at a time up to two rigs. So we have hookups for two rigs for people who are traveling with family or buddies or another rv. So you can stay in the woods as long as you want and not worry about running out of water or your tanks filling up on you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and enjoy the primo camp spot. I mean, it is, every time I go over there, I just don't even wanna leave. It's amazing <laugh>. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
It it's really isolated. It's really beautiful. Isolated, isolated from everywhere else. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that is a good thing.
Julie Crist
It, yeah. Yeah. I, when we've had people up there, that's the first thing outta their mouth is this is just amazing. And if you just stand there, you won't hear anything but the wind and the trees and the birds and the creek. And you could walk around naked up there and nobody's gonna really see you <laugh>. So it's, it's quite private.
Tony Barthel
Well, that could either be good or bad, depending on how good looking you are. <laugh>
Julie Crist
<laugh>. Yeah. Well that's the great thing about it. It's isolated enough. That won't even matter
Tony Barthel
Now. There you go. Yeah. And so is it, it's a single campsite that's large enough for two rigs then?
Julie Crist
Yes. So it, the actual parking area is 65 feet. And so you can put two medium sized rigs. You could drop a trailer, take the truck off back in another, you know, medium sized trailer or a camper. And there's plenty of parking for your vehicles if you have dropped your trailer. And then we also have, we're up in the tall timber, so we have really gorgeous tent spots in the, in the trees.
Julie Crist
Oh, okay. One of the kind of neat things about this part of Washington state is it's a really well kept secret. Most people who know much about Washington State think that the east side of the state is all desert <laugh>. I didn't even know about it. And I was born in this state until I came over here looking for property. Okay. We're at about 3,200 feet. We have quite huge trees. One of my, the whole, the whole campsite is actually sort of designed around this beautiful huge ponderosa and a huge variety of trees as well.
Julie Crist
And actually we had a writer come out to write a news story a couple of weeks ago, and she's a, I think she's a bird watcher, and she was just shocked at all the varieties of birds we have up there. Oh,
Tony Barthel
That's nice. I saw on your website a picture of one of the birds at the Hummingbird feeder. Yeah.
Julie Crist
<laugh>
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. We're gonna obviously share your website with our audience, but what that is is it was a bear <laugh>. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
A humming bear.
Julie Crist
Yeah. Humming bear. That's what he does <laugh> Sure. He was, I'm sure he was humming as he was ripping down my bird feeder <laugh>. Yeah. I actually opened up the window one morning. We had these big concrete pillars out at the edge of our, of our patio. I opened up the curtains and there's this bear up my, one of my concrete pillars reaching out for the bird feeder <laugh>. And once, once that gets started, you're not gonna stop it. So,
Peggy Barthel
Oh boy. Yeah,
Julie Crist
We do have bears. This is not, this is definitely not, um, a camping experience for everybody.
Peggy Barthel
Sure. Yeah. So you said that you have room for two rigs and many tents, but that doesn't mean that you make reservations for six different families. Right,
Julie Crist
Right. It's one party at a time. Yeah. So it's, it's, you know, we wanted it to be kind of our dream RV camp site, so it is private and as long as we have power, then you'll have power. You know, <laugh>, we, we live about 12 miles from the nearest town, uh, you know, out in the mountains. And so we lose power a few times a year. Not really for very long, but it's the woods. I mean, it's like the real woods, not, you know, virtual woods or fake woods or Disneyland.
Julie Crist
Yeah. So we have storms and power outages and we have bears and cougars, and so people that are afraid of all those things would not be happy.
Peggy Barthel
Sure,
Julie Crist
Sure. If you, if you want, uh, organized events and a lot of socialization, this is definitely not for you.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Tony Barthel
Do you have a limit as how long somebody can stay there? Obviously if there's another reservation, then that is a limiting factor, but other than that,
Julie Crist
No. We, we haven't put a limit on it. We've decided to since, I mean, we just basically finished this thing this summer. Okay. So this is brand new and we are doing, um, uh, six nights and the seventh night is free, so. Okay. It's pretty much unlimited length of stay for, for people.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So if you are, if you're writing a novel or, or whatever you, I mean, you could go up there and be at peace and write your, the Great American novel or <laugh> inspired.
Julie Crist
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. For sure.
Tony Barthel
And then what towns are near you and what kind of activities are there and is there a better or worse time of year to be there?
Julie Crist
I would say, so Coleville is the nearest town. We are two mile, well, two and a half miles off of the paved highway. And our, we're on a county road and our county road is actually quite well maintained. And then once you get out to the pavement, you're another 10 miles to town. And that's definitely the closest town. Beyond that, there's a couple of smaller towns that would be west of us and then to the east, there's nothing for a long way.
Julie Crist
So, and actually Spokane is about 75 miles away from us,
Tony Barthel
So it really is a place to get away from it all, and that a lot of people are really looking for that.
Peggy Barthel
And that includes internet because I know that Julie, that you have had to drive into town in order to have enough signal to talk to us. So this is another one of those places where you don't go to look at Facebook <laugh>. Exactly.
Julie Crist
Exactly. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Well, it might, starlink might work. Yeah.
Julie Crist
It, it probably will. We do have some internet reception out there. It's a lot of walking around, you know, holding your phone up and looking at it. Things going
Peggy Barthel
On. Can you hear me now?
Julie Crist
Yeah. And we have a cell signal booster on our house so that we get, you know, passable service. But we, when the newspaper people came out, uh, about three of us were sitting there with different phones and different services and, and where we were sitting, there wasn't much going on. So you have to hunt around just for a regular celler signal. But I do, I know people in the area out there have, um, satellite, uh, internet, so probably Sterling Works.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. Sterling has opened up so much mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And so I guess we should share what does it cost to stay with you?
Julie Crist
Okay, so it's 75 a night, and that's total, that's power, that's taxes, that's everything. Okay. And then it's four 50 a week.
Peggy Barthel
Okay.
Julie Crist
And then, uh, if you're coming in with another rig, it's one 10, so it's cheaper for both of you. And then it's six 60 for a week. Okay. It's not cheap. But if I'd had that option when, see, I grew up actually camping. I grew up being dragged in the woods in a backpack on my dad's back <laugh>. And, you know, going in, living in a canvas tent for a week or whatever. And so, to me, RV traveling wasn't really camping unless I was blue docking, maybe mm-hmm.
Julie Crist
<affirmative>. And so I love the amenities, I love the conveniences of the RV for sure. Sure. But I have also really loved the option of just getting away from everything and not doing anything and listening just to the wind blow through the trees.
Peggy Barthel
Right, right.
Julie Crist
And I, I just don't know anywhere else where you can do that.
Tony Barthel
It's so not rare, but I mean, I know there are a fair number of people who go boondocking mm-hmm. <affirmative>, like they find some spot in the forest or whatever. But then the issue is, will the rangers come and kick me out and Yeah. You know, it's this, at least, you know, no, this is, this is where I'm camping the next whatever number of days. Right, right. And you're not worried about, the tanks are always now the limiting factor, right? Yes. 'cause Exactly. Solar has gotten so good, right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative> mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But I mean, if you want complete solitude, you have it.
Tony Barthel
If you wanna play your radio, you can do that. Or Yep.
Julie Crist
Your kids can run around and act like, you know, crazy wild animals, <laugh> and they're not gonna bother anybody
Peggy Barthel
Except the crazy wild animals
Julie Crist
<laugh>. Yeah, exactly. And I think kids should be able to do that once in a while.
Peggy Barthel
Sure.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. I mean, and just, I, I think it'd be a great place to spend some time away. Yeah.
Julie Crist
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. When I go over there, I really kind of don't want to go back. I mean, my, I live in, you know, another part of the area. It's gorgeous, but it's just, there's something about that spot that's just very calm, very relaxing. We put a propane fire pit over there and a patio, uh, we poured a patio because we live in forest fire country. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and that's everybody's biggest terror this time of year is that somebody's gonna burn the woods down. Right. So rather than doing campfires or fire rings, we put a propane pit over there.
Julie Crist
So 'cause you still want a fire. Yeah. And so that's, that's an option for people too.
Tony Barthel
That makes perfect sense. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, during Covid, we did a whole series of articles about cooking over those propane fires. Yeah.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Julie Crist
Oh, okay. Great. Yeah. That's cool. There's a lot to do in the area. Colville itself, of course, has various fairs and events throughout the summer, like most small towns do. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, this is like Turkey hunting mecca, so, oh. We have turkeys all over the place all the time. Pooping on everything <laugh>. So we're really happy when people come out to shoot them. And then we also have fantastic logging roads up our mountain for people to go mountain biking on.
Julie Crist
Oh. Up at the top of our mountain is a, a beautiful little lake. There's a primitive campground up there and people will go up there trout fishing. Okay.
Julie Crist
We have, we run when we occasionally will ride our bikes up there and, and actually the, the mountain biking out there is not for beginners. It's, it's hardcore mm-hmm. <laugh>. But we'll go up there and run into some people camping. It's happened a couple times from, you know, just doing a big camping tour around the country and every one of 'em has said, this is the most beautiful campsite camp spot I've ever been to. So our whole mountain is just gorgeous. Yeah. Um, there's a beaver dam, a beaver lodge out in the middle of the lake and there's, there's moose all over the place.
Peggy Barthel
That's awesome. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
That it sounds like a good place to go if you like nature or just are tired of people, right.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah,
Julie Crist
It's absolutely, yeah. I mean, seriously, we are really happy for hermits to come out and hide out over here. You know, everybody likes a break from all of that once in a while, so that's mm-hmm. <affirmative> fine kayaking. We have, uh, about 15, I think it's 1215 miles east of us up the highway is this amazing chain of little mountain lakes that are all connected. The last time we went up there, we kayaked through the chain and up at the end of it there was a moose standing in the water munching away on seaweed <laugh>.
Julie Crist
And so That's pretty cool. Yeah. It, it was, we have eagles everywhere out here. We've got, we have the predators, we have pretty much every animal you'd wanna look at in the mountains. Bird, of course birdwatching is a big deal out here too. And then the night sky watching, I didn't know this is a huge interest of people until I was talking to this reporter, you know, I made mentioned about the, uh, the night sky is phenomenal 'cause there's no light pollution. And she said, oh wow, you need to register that.
Julie Crist
And I said, really? I mean, is there a, is that a thing? And she said, oh yeah, absolutely.
Tony Barthel
Oh yeah. There are people who travel with telescopes and such.
Julie Crist
That's what she was saying. Yeah. So I thought that was kind of neat. We're also on what they call a sail kirk loop, which is a scenic loop that goes through Canada, Idaho, Washington, and I can't remember what else, but, um, <laugh>, we have a lot of bicycle tourists on the highway out here that are doing the loop.
Peggy Barthel
Oh, okay. It is
Julie Crist
Gorgeous.
Tony Barthel
So it sounds like a great place to go to get away from it all. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and maybe recollect your thoughts without being so close to your neighbor that you can pass a cup of sugar between rigs, <laugh>.
Peggy Barthel
Exactly. Yes. Yeah, I don't think that we have said the name of the place.
Julie Crist
We call it the Wilds. Okay. W y l D S. We don't have a lot of signage. We have a sign that we plan to put up at the entrance to the actual camp site, but we don't have anything on the highway yet. People would definitely have to call to get directions and mm-hmm. <affirmative> Google Maps actually doesn't even work very well for where we are. It it sends you to the wrong place. So <laugh>, which is kind of, I kinda like that,
Peggy Barthel
But you do have a website. We've looked at the website, so we will post a link to your website and that'll have your contact information. And, and I saw that it, you know, kind of showed things to do in the area. And so, and you can look at the pretty pictures of the birds <laugh> <laugh>.
Julie Crist
Right. Like I said, we just opened, so we're just waiting to see, you know, is there an actual demand for this? We've actually also thought about eventually putting a, a bathroom over there like on a little trailer so that we can collect, attract more of the bicyclist, tent campers kinds of people. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Peggy Barthel
Okay. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
Sounds good. Well, we will definitely share this with our audience and, and you'll find it. We have two places. One is of course it'll be on the podcast. Okay. But we also have special episodes of just campgrounds that Yes, we will, we will put with maps and links as well. Right.
Julie Crist
Fun. Oh, thank you. That's fantastic. Absolutely. Yeah, that'd be great.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And keep in touch and sounds like a great place to go to get away. Yes.
Julie Crist
Well I really appreciate you guys taking time to talk about it. 'cause I like talking about it. We worked like Trojans to make this thing happen.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>.
Tony Barthel
I can only imagine. It's, uh,
Peggy Barthel
It's not easy now it's time to sit back and reap the benefits.
Julie Crist
Absolutely. I, I hope. All right, <laugh>. We'll see. Yep.
Tony Barthel
Well thank you Julie. Alright, Julie,
Julie Crist
Thank you Tony. Peggy, I appreciate it.
Peggy Barthel
Have a great day.
Tony Barthel
Happy camping.
Julie Crist
Okay, you too.
Peggy Barthel
So this sounds like a super cool new camping experience. I like that she gave us full hookups but she also left it in kind of an untamed forest area. So you can see the lion's, tigers and bears. Oh
Tony Barthel
My.
Peggy Barthel
But you can still have the hookups. So that is super cool. And again, that's in Washington, which has, you know, it really has a variety. As she said, everyone thinks eastern Washington is desert, but you know, we always thought New Mexico was desert, but all you have to do is go uphill a little bit and you get into the trees.
Tony Barthel
Absolutely. And if you're not using her full hookups, one of the things that we enjoy doing is a lot of boondocking and mooch docking. And the way we accomplish that is to use our A B, C Upfitters power package. And what the power package basically is, it is an engineered solar and lithium package that allows you to stay off the grid with a reliable, effective solar system.
Tony Barthel
I mean it's, there are a lot of people who are promising to put in, oh I can put in solar for cheap or I can just drop in some batteries or whatever. I just like stuff that works. And so we're very happy to work with a, B, C Upfitters on these power packages. And one of the secrets to that is they use masterful components and masterful are products that are used in a lot of marine settings, yachts, that kind of stuff because it's just top-notch.
Tony Barthel
Yep. That's part of the solution. But there's a lot more than that. Like how these systems are integrated into the campers, how well they're wired, the controls, there's, there's a lot of that. In fact, today I was conducting a test. We have our thousand watts of solar on our system and 400 amp hour of lithium battery. And I wondered what would happen if I put two more solar panels on the side and ran the air conditioner.
Tony Barthel
So it's out there right now as we're in here. It's out there staying cool. Yeah. And it's pretty hot right now. Not, might
Peggy Barthel
Wanna go out there instead,
Tony Barthel
But I would say, yeah, I know we should have gone out there. So anyway, I really like these master vault components. I like working with a, B, C Upfitters and it's just a good solution. So if you're solar curious or you wanna put in a reliable solar and lithium system, give Ben and his crew a call, at the very least they're very happy to answer your questions and listen to you. Hmm. Pretty good. Hey, yeah,
Peggy Barthel
We always try to tell you about a new destination and well, I mean we did because we told you about the wilds and we talked to Julie about that. But also, you know, maybe that's not your thing. Maybe you don't wanna go to Washington or maybe you don't wanna go where there's bears and what did she say? Coolers and <laugh>, all those things. So maybe you wanna go to a campground. So
Tony Barthel
Our friend Mark Koep from Campground Views has started to send us these hidden campground gyms. Campground views is neat because it's like Google Street View but Inside Campground. So you, let's say you're like, oh I wanna see if this space has trees over it or doesn't have trees over it or can I see the lake or whatever it happens to be. You can get that through campground views and they're literally virtual tours of, gosh, I think close to 2000 campgrounds a crazy number of campgrounds.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. So Mark's gonna send us videos of highlights from within campground views and we're gonna start that off for the first time this week. And while we were in the upper left corner of the United States for the wilds, we're gonna go to the lower right corner and head to the Florida Keys. So without any further ado, let's bring on Mark Koep from Campground Views.
Mark Koep
Hello there. Mark Koep with campground views.com. In today's hidden Gem campground of the week, I'm actually gonna show you a hidden gem destination and that is a popular destination year round, but really popular in the wintertime. I'm gonna pull up the big map at Campground Views, which shows everything we have in the directory on one gigantic map. And I'm gonna zoom into an area that is on the southern tip of Florida. The Florida Keys, if you have not been there, it is an amazing destination. There are are a number of state parks and private RV parks all along the Florida Keys.
Mark Koep
In fact, there's a number of resorts down there Now, first qualifier on this entire area is it is not cheap to stay. So if you're looking for cheap camping, it's not there. And also, um, the Florida Keys are very much not boondocking friendly.
Mark Koep
So as a result you do need to stay in a state park or one of the private parks or risk getting, uh, moved by um, officers if you try to boondock in different areas. The Florida Keys are impacted by hurricanes on quite a regular basis. In fact, a number of the resorts, um, along the Florida Keys have been destroyed previously. Um, and they are now reopening and being rebuilt. Um, a popular destination to visit is actually the Big Pine Key locations, the Blue Water keys and also the K o A location that is down here is very nice.
Mark Koep
The Sun Outdoor Sugarloaf key, that entire RV park is located on an island. So the entire RV park is its own island, which is quite amazing. Overall, this location is very nice to go visit. You will find that the RV sites are expensive, anywhere from $100 in the low end to some of the locations or $200 a night on the high end.
Mark Koep
So it's a place that folks will go to once or twice, um, and then move on from there and go to different areas. We do have listings for campgrounds all along there. One of the big things I would encourage you to do is look for the state parks along, uh, the Big Pine key area and surroundings. There are a number of state parks out there. They are quite busy and as a result they can tend to fill up very, very rapidly. And you have to use some of those site picking tools that allow you to get, uh, reminders of sites available like Baia Honda.
Mark Koep
Really great campground there and we're looking at it right now. This is one of the many state parks that are out there in that area for you to go enjoy. So our hidden Gem Campground of the week isn't really a hidden gem, it's a hidden Gem Camp grounds. It is an area that if you go to Florida in the winter, you have an RV highly recommended to go visit and by all means, let us know if you've stayed there and your favorite spots. Talk to you soon. Hope you're enjoying these hidden Gem campgrounds.
Peggy Barthel
Now obviously you didn't see the video because this is all audio, but there is a video and in that video Mark walks us through the campground and shows us the actual campground that he's talking about. So make sure that you go onto the show notes. Go to
Tony Barthel
Stressless camping.com, there's a podcast tab and this is episode 2 1 3. Piz video will be there for you to watch.
Peggy Barthel
Okay, so we haven't really talked about this yet, but we do have a dash cam and we're still learning to use it and we'll talk about it someday. But one of the things that happened is that the hanger for the dash cam broke and we had to come up with a new solution. I think we've probably told you about Night Eyes gear ties before.
Tony Barthel
Oh I love those
Peggy Barthel
Things. We love our night Eyes gear ties, but something else we really like is Night Eyes, magnetic phone holder, uppers <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that works. That's legit.
Peggy Barthel
So we both have agreed that we don't wanna put magnets on our phones. Correct. Night eyes phone holders are like a, let's say a metal ball that you stick to your dash just for simplicity's sake. And then you know, you could theoretically put like a metal di uh, a magnetic disc on the back of your phone to stick onto that ball. Well we don't want that disc on our phone, but Night Eyes has a great phone holder as well.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, it's like a clampy thing and it'll hold the larger phones or the smaller phones. It
Peggy Barthel
Holds them very nice and steady and it's got the magnet on it so you can put it any phone really or any camera <laugh> that you need to hold up.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, we stuck the night eyes mount right to the camera with its own built-in stickiness. Right now we have a metal phone holder on our dashboard that we are using for the camera. We also have a phone holder that we're using for the surprise surprise, oddly
Peggy Barthel
<laugh> the phone. So these things have come in really handy that Night Eyes brand, we really like what we've tried those gear ties and these phone holders have been just really top-notch quality.
Tony Barthel
They have withstood the test of time, the vibration, and lately the heat. Yeah and like I say, these things are made out of, a lot of this is metal or really good plastic. I have zero complaints so I am very pleased with the night eyes. Their sub-brand is Steely Squeeze, that's what these things go by <laugh>, but it's all part of night Eyes. So
Peggy Barthel
We'll put some links. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
Yeah we'll put links to them and some pictures you can see and it just really works well if you're looking for a way to amount a phone to your car or truck or whatever, this is a good choice.
Peggy Barthel
Alright Tony, how about if you tell us about your favorite RV this week?
Tony Barthel
Well I'm happy to do so. Also have an announcement. Not only will you be able to get RV reviews from me on Stressless camping, my RV's reviews are also going back on RV travel.com. So another place to find me and there may be a third place believe it or not. But this week a lot of RV companies say we have this innovative new blah blah blah. And what it is is different shiplap or our faucets are black this year instead of silver or whatever it is.
Tony Barthel
Well I actually have an RV that truly is unique and very innovative and just a floor plan that I have never, I not only not seen, I wouldn't have imagined this. So what it is is a Forest River Salem Cruise Light 24 view. And the reason that they call it view is they realized how RVs are getting fewer and fewer and smaller and smaller windows.
Tony Barthel
So this thing has over a hundred square inches of glass on it, huge bedroom windows, a huge window in the living area and a giant pair of windows at the very back. And we're gonna start at the back of this one with a big U-shaped counter that goes almost completely around the RV with an obviously an area you can walk in. But the neat thing about this is it can be a counter for food prep.
Tony Barthel
It can be a counter to eat at, it can be a work counter. That alone is very cool and unusual. Then there's a sort of L shaped lounge that they've put and one of the hallmark things about the Salem and Wildwood Wildwood is basically the same trailer, different brand, but the Salem Wildwood products is totes. They definitely use totes a lot. This one has some totes under the sofa, which is totes ados.
Tony Barthel
It also has totes under the front bed. And the front bed in this travel trailer is a king size ish bed. But the weird thing about it or the neat thing is you push a button and it kind of backs up against the wall and the headrest lifts up in the bed and that way that king-sized bed doesn't take up the whole bedroom when you want to just walk around. There's also a closet in that bedroom and a lot of nightstand storage and such little cubbies on the side of the bed.
Tony Barthel
And so the, the front bedroom has that neat, they call it versatile tilt custom king bed. That's their name for it. But again, big windows in the bedroom. So it's a really unusual bed situation and not something I've seen before. But wait, there's more <laugh>. This RV has a secret room like what you would expect in a horror movie, but it's not a horror, it's a pleasure.
Tony Barthel
Behind the entertainment center, you open the entertainment center and there's a bunk room back there. Literally in this slide room there are two mattresses. There's an upper and a lower bunk. Now your feet kind of go in behind the space left by the fridge. You have to see this floor plan. Of course we have pictures on our website under the Honest RV review section. But your feet go in kind of behind the fridge and then you have this tall bed.
Tony Barthel
And again, more totes. It's just, it's so unusual. They just have done a super job with it. All these beautiful windows and lots of seating area, king size bed on and on and on. And it's not that large a trailer, it's 29 foot 11. So I'd call it like a mid-size trailer but not bad. This is designed to be on the more affordable side of things.
Tony Barthel
So it's not a laminated wall, it's what they call a hung wall. And I kind of explain that in the article and it's, you know, leaf spring suspension and not a lot of super premium features but certainly some good ones. One of those is the underbelly has a segmented cover. So let's say somewhere in the middle you have a leak or you need to address something, you can just take that panel off without having to remove that whole underbelly. And to me that's a huge deal. So anyway, Salem Cruise Light 24 View travel trailer.
Tony Barthel
It's not out yet. This is your sneak preview and you can find this and lots more at Honest RV reviews@stresslesscamping.com. And Peggy asks a question every week on our fun and friendly Stressless camping podcast Facebook group.
Peggy Barthel
And last week <laugh>, I asked what is the biggest fear that you have overcome about camping?
Tony Barthel
There were a lot of responses. There
Peggy Barthel
Were a lot of responses. Some of them like I need to know your secret because maybe you misread it and maybe you just told me your biggest fear because some of these, like if you've gotten over it, I need some counseling 'cause <laugh> you gotta tell me how you did it.
Tony Barthel
Yeah. And this one had 88 comments. That's it was popular.
Peggy Barthel
That's right. Yeah. So Robert said he's still not crazy about backing up the trailer and you know, I get it. You know, I think that's one of those things you wanna stay a little scared. If you get too confident and comfortable you might start making mistakes. So I'm gonna say that it's okay if you're still a little worried about that as long as you're not too afraid to go out there and try it. Yeah,
Tony Barthel
I mean it's good to have some concerns when backing campgrounds have this tendency to put these stupid little posts and poles and rocks where you can't see them. Right. And that just makes me crazy.
Peggy Barthel
Right. Mark worried about pulling his camper over a mountain pass. And we did post a video about driving in the mountains. And so we will post a link to that YouTube video that we made. Robin said, backing into a campsite with a huge trailer. I'm pretty sure Robin just downsized her camper. So maybe she's not so scared anymore. <laugh> <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
We've known Robin for some time.
Peggy Barthel
Tina and Jerry both indicated that they just don't like trees and Jerry said she really hasn't overcome it. She just doesn't camp under big trees. And you know, as Tony replied, we survived a big, big, big windstorm when we had our bed and breakfast and five of the big tall trees on our property fell down. So he's with you on that one. <laugh>. Yeah, I'm
Tony Barthel
Not. And plus also for trees. They block the solar panels and they block our starlink. So as much as I'm a tree hugger, <laugh>, uh, I'm not gonna hug trees that are over me when I'm camping. How is that?
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, Debbie has done really well. She said first it was backing into a site and she got over that and then it was dumping the black tank with a line waiting behind her. Oh, she's finally gotten used to using propane even though she's got a healthy fear still. I think that's okay
Tony Barthel
Using propane should be a gas.
Peggy Barthel
Oh jeepers. <laugh>. So she parked her RV at a RV park where new and no one knew her. And every day she conquered a new challenge and she's getting better and better and I'm very, very proud of her.
Tony Barthel
That is really a smart idea.
Peggy Barthel
Leah answered not finding a good spot. So either that's still a fear for her or she's decided to just make reservations everywhere and not worry about trying to find something. Stephanie worried about bears. And I think that's another one that if you've gotten over that fear, I'd like to know how that happens. We don't camp a lot of times where bears are a possibility, but sometimes, and she was in a tent in Yosemite. So I would say that that's even, yeah,
Tony Barthel
That's a fairly legit a
Peggy Barthel
Good fear concern. And Nick said he has 101 pound Alaskan malamute and that's what helps him overcome that fear. <laugh> <laugh> Crystal's afraid of ticks. And that's again, probably not something you're over because if you are a tick magnet as she says she is, you wanna always be on alert for that. Kin who learned to camp in the Marine Corps said humping in for miles with everything in one backpack, including personal weapons, crew served weapons and hundreds of pounds of ammunition.
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Now
Tony Barthel
If you don't know Ken, Ken is I think six four. And if you wanna kind of have the stereotypical image of a marine, that's Ken.
Peggy Barthel
That's Ken. He
Tony Barthel
Is one big dude but he's the coolest dude. But still,
Peggy Barthel
Still, I'm gonna assume,
Tony Barthel
Well of course he's
Peggy Barthel
A marine. I'm gonna assume that he doesn't hump for miles with all that weight of <laugh> of weapons and ammunition anymore when he goes camping.
Tony Barthel
Probably not.
Peggy Barthel
So I guess you get over it by not leaving the Marine Corps, no one ever leaves the Marine Corps but
Tony Barthel
Well they leave the Marine Corps but they're still always a Marine.
Peggy Barthel
They're always a marine. Mana said her fear was having the end of the hose pop out of the sewer dump when emptying the black tank. Now I reminded her that she should just go ahead and get a dump buddy, but what she does is use a couple pieces of her firewood and weighs it down so that she doesn't have to worry about it <laugh>. And then Larry read that and said, well great. Now he has a new fear <laugh>. Oh
Tony Barthel
Man. Yeah. Mount Pooh sous
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Chris didn't worry about anything I guess while tent camping or we while using the popup. But now that they have a actual travel trailer worried about the what ifs, what if something breaks and not, what I said to Chris was, well then you're just camping in a big tent and when you get home you figure it out. But nah, let something break. You'll figure it out. Don't be
Tony Barthel
Scared. S they're gonna break. Michael
Peggy Barthel
Got over the fear that he couldn't go camping alone. I'm very proud of him 'cause I have known him for a long, long, long time and I am really happy to know that he goes out and goes camping on his own when he wants to go. Ezekiel's a little bit worried about seeing everything behind 'cause he, I, it sounds like maybe he triple toes. He is got a motorcycle pop up behind the Jeep and then you can't see the trailer behind them as they drive. So he said he is got new sturdy chains and tires and that helps with the anxiety and knows how to change a flat.
Peggy Barthel
And my response was, I don't worry about it. I just hope I never have to change a flat <laugh> on the side of the road. Shelly has overcome her fear of driving her motor home but cannot overcome the fear of all the other drivers. And again, very healthy respect for yeah the other drivers. You can never anticipate what they're going to do. I just don't think that that's, it's not something to fear but it's definitely something to keep in mind. Sally was worried about being able to boondock without solar, but they seem to be having a wonderful time on their out west journey with no reservations.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, that's something we're probably gonna do next year is just literally like hook up the Rockwood and just go
Peggy Barthel
And go somewhere and not know where.
Tony Barthel
See where we go. Yeah, that's gonna be the goal.
Peggy Barthel
Lynn's very snakes and yeah and again, snakes are terrible things. I don't know if they've gotten Lynn's gotten over that or just decided to get used to it. <laugh> again, just be smart and know what you're getting yourself into.
Tony Barthel
Not a big fan of snakes.
Peggy Barthel
Michael's worried that his mother-in-law will show up right after he's set up and grabbed a cold one. And now the reason he's afraid of that is because he got drunk one time and said, please feel free to join us anytime. We'd love to have you. W w w W.
Tony Barthel
Oh I don't have the world's loudest kazoo.
Peggy Barthel
Oh no, I don't know that he's really over that fear yet either. <laugh> Tina, uh, forest fires. I, yeah, as I said, if you have figured out how to get over that fear, please let us know what we did to get over it was move four states away. <laugh> <laugh>.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, but it's legit. I mean it's so dry, especially in the west.
Peggy Barthel
Marie was afraid of backing up the camper and Ingle said when he backpacked backpacked, he was afraid of being eaten alive in his sleep. And I guess the way he overcame it was to crawl into a tin can because he has a vintage airstream. So now it's less likely that he's gonna be eaten alive. Monica's afraid of forgetting the marshmallows. So she always keeps a can of fluff. Of a jar of fluff on hand. There
Tony Barthel
Was a time we didn't have a campfire because of restrictions where we were camping and I actually nuked the s'mores and it worked out really well. Yeah, but it was really entertaining 'cause the marshmallows get huge, the
Peggy Barthel
Marshmallows really puff
Tony Barthel
Up. Yeah. And then they get small
Peggy Barthel
Karen's fears ants and a few people gave her some ideas about how to overcome that.
Tony Barthel
Yeah, you don't want to cry uncle. When it comes
Peggy Barthel
To aunts <laugh>, Reverend Scott fear was not packing everything <laugh> and now he knows how to limit himself and we reminded him that checklists make for Stressless camping. Ooh. Sandy was afraid of a whole bunch of things, but she's learning to just go camping and not let not understanding stop her. And she's learning as she goes. And that I think is fantastic. Mike's afraid of the price of fuel <laugh>. Aren't we all again, if you've gotten over that <laugh>,
Tony Barthel
You just won the lottery.
Peggy Barthel
Yeah, Eric was afraid of towing. He had never towed anything and now apparently he does. Obviously
Tony Barthel
That's a very common fear is sure towing and also backing up something you're towing. It's extremely common. And I think the best way to get over it is to kind of find a parking lot and just tow around and yep. There was a lady I worked with and I've told this story a million times but I'm gonna tell it 1,000,001 time. Oh good. We set up like fake lanes and a fake campground using red solo cups. So as she backed up, if she heard that means she ran over a cup and boy she was, she turned out to be really good at it.
Peggy Barthel
She hardly broke any cups. I
Tony Barthel
Don't know if she broke any
Peggy Barthel
<laugh>. Larry said that getting into tight roads and parking areas, uh, that are difficult to get out of. And again, practice, practice, practice. Lonnie was afraid that something would go on wrong with her rv. Ironically, she wrote that the day her refrigerator stopped working. So hopefully she's been able to get that checked into. Tom said in the beginning when he was towing, that feeling of being sucked into a truck that passes you was kind of scary and freaky. But he has gotten used to it and learned to deal with it. We
Tony Barthel
Upgraded the hitch and the first time we're gonna tow it is when we leave next Tuesday, August 1st. And I'm curious how differently the truck will handle with the upgrade that we made to our hitch. And if, if you don't know, we have the hitch we really, really like and the one thing is it with the trailer being a little heavier, it wasn't quite the weight distribution. And so we'll see if this yeah. Helps or not. We'll
Peggy Barthel
Get to start testing that next week. So maybe that'll be our gadget next week.
Tony Barthel
Ah,
Peggy Barthel
Brenda's still getting over riding shotgun in the dually. It's a little overwhelming, but she knows that her husband is a farm kid who knows what he's doing. <laugh> Jenna went camping by herself one time with her dogs and she was worried about being alone, but she was just fine. So now she doesn't have to be scared anymore. Yay. You guys have made a great list,
Tony Barthel
A long list
Peggy Barthel
And again, as I said, if you've gotten over some of those things, I think I responded to all of you and said, please tell me how you got over that <laugh>. 'cause some of those things are still very scary this week because we talked about, you know, staying in the wilds with hookups, but in the wild and staying
Tony Barthel
And going to the Florida
Peggy Barthel
Keys and going in the Florida Keys and using that camping style, we were curious, what's your camping style?
Tony Barthel
Are you a boondocker? Are you a resort camper? Are you forest desert? You know, whatever your style and why, why do you like that? What is it about it that appeals to you? And as always, you could answer that in our fun and friendly Stressless Camping podcast Facebook group.
Peggy Barthel
Wow. And also you remember of course that we do a once a week newsletter that is absolutely positively free. Yeah.
Tony Barthel
You know, there's all the links to the stories, videos, and podcasts that will help you get the most out of your RV experience. And all you have to do to sign up is visit our website. A popup will pop up if it's one of the first times.
Peggy Barthel
That's what
Tony Barthel
They do popped in <laugh> <laugh>. But if not, uh, you can always go to the hamburger menu and hit contact and that will take you to the newsletter signup or it's also at the bottom of every page.
Peggy Barthel
Remember of course that we only send one email a week and that is it. And we do not share your information. We just send you things that we think will help you get the most of your RV experience. Yeah. While you're on the website, once you've signed up for the newsletter, you can go to the podcast page and find the show notes for this episode,
Tony Barthel
Episode 2 1 3
Peggy Barthel
On the Podcast Page at stresslesscamping.com.
Tony Barthel
And that's also where you'll find our discounts and deals for the best things you'll need on your Stressless Camping adventure.
Peggy Barthel
And you know, if you've got a great deal that we don't have, please let us know. Yeah. Contact us and let us know and we will work to get that available for everyone.
Tony Barthel
Yep. And of course we are in all of the social places and you can start@stresslesscamping.com in the upper right corner are links to all of those little social places that we are.
Peggy Barthel
And if you don't wanna miss a future episode of the Stressless Camping Podcast, it's free to subscribe on any podcast catcher. And we are saving you a seat around our virtual campfire. We
Tony Barthel
Are. We are indeed, indeed. And of course the review will help others find this podcast. 'cause that's how those algorithms work. They like to see reviews and of course the more listeners, the better the deals and discounts and, and all of that stuff. So if you haven't left a review yet, please do.
Peggy Barthel
And if you have left a review and you find something on the website that you really think is interesting and you know someone who would like it, please feel free. Please share it all over the place. Yeah. Post it on Facebook, send it in an email, call somebody and read them the address. I don't know, whatever it takes. <laugh>
Tony Barthel
<laugh>. Yeah. Sharing is caring So well with that, thank you so much for joining us once again this week. Next week we'll be coming to you from the road. You know what we're gonna be doing.
Mark Ferrell
Happy
Peggy Barthel
Camp Camping
Mark Ferrell
Happy.
Mark Ferrell
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stressless Camping Adventure. We're honored by your reviews on Apple Podcasts, which helps others find us too. Don't forget to subscribe so you won't miss out on the adventure. And we look forward to your joining us next week. Until then, happy camping.
