Learning Through Experience - The Journey of RV Renovation- RV podcast 354
Learning Through Experience - The Journey of RV Renovation- RV podcast 354
This week we speak with Susan Carpenter from the RV Women’s Alliance about their latest project, Chassis to Classy. The RV Women’s Alliance is a member organization that helps women succeed in the RV industry through a number of pathways including this one - taking an RV from project to final stage.
Then, you can buy tickets to win this specifically-customized RV which helps fund the RV Women’s Alliance. Pretty cool!
We also visit the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park and check out what is called some of the best bird watching in Albuquerque. Our RV this week are the Winnebago Thrive and Micro Minnie which use a unique way to build a better rig.
Lastly, we have yet another portable power station, or solar generator. This time it’s smaller than the others we have - why did we buy it and what’s so great about it? All that’s in the podcast!
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Our guest, Susan Carpenter, from RVWA
Our podcast episode 104, revealing the Drab to Fab project
We mentioned that we have our RV Basic Training camp - an interactive learning experience for RVers wanting to learn StressLess Camping
Peggy updated her article on RV spring cleaning with a couple of new videos
We also did a podcast about Big Ideas for Small RV Storage
Our RV reviews covered how differently the Winnebago Thrive and Winnebago Micro Minnie are built.
We got to spend some time visiting the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park in Albuquerque
We shared our many stays at Coronado Campground in Bernalillo - just outside of Albuquerque
Below you’ll see the changes Gail made to the interior of her RV - looks so great!
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.
Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 354
Peggy
The RV industry is listening. Yes, it is. And this week we speak with Susan Carpenter from the RV Women's Alliance.
Tony
They are working together to take an RV from chassis to classy. Yeah.
Peggy
We also have another portable power station,
Tony
Like we needed another one.
Peggy
Yeah. Like a hole in the head
Tony
And or RV of the week is definitely built differently. Plus
Peggy
We went to a local place that's really for the birds. Oh boy.
Tony
We have this week's podcast episode and notes and stories to go with it, along with deals, discounts, tips, and a whole lot more at our home on the web at Stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy
Don't forget to like and share. And we really appreciate your being here for stress. This Camping RV podcast, episode number 3 54, Stressless camping. Look who's back. Wait a minute. Yeah. Look who's back.
Tony
We're back in the same room. Yeah. That
Peggy
Experiment. Yeah. Testing another mic.
Tony
That experiment was not good. I don't know why, but a seven feet of hallway caused a 12 second delay. That was really hard for us to,
Peggy
It was
Tony
Figure out.
Peggy
It was ludicrous. Yeah.
Tony
Chris. Hey. Only Ludicrous gets to decide what's ludicrous.
Peggy
Oh.
Tony
Anyway, I'm Tony. I'm Peggy,
Peggy
Or two RV industry veterans who travel part-time
Tony
In a Rockwood Mini Light.
Peggy
Look at the She Big adventures and help you with great tips,
Tony
Tricks,
Peggy
And discounts.
Tony
Here's a tip we run. You may or may not know a Facebook group called the Rockwood Mini Light Dash Flagstaff Microlight Fan Club, and that is on Facebook. And this week Gail posted some pictures of a really cool upgrade that she did in her mini light that was actually really easy, really simple and easy to reverse if she changes her mind.
Peggy
Yeah. Basically what she did, you know how RV cabinet, or a lot of cabinet doors are made where there's kind of like a picture frame and then a flat spot in the middle. Well, she took this sort of antique wood temporary peel and stick wallpaper and cut it to fit like inside that slat spot. Boy, it makes a difference. And then she used like a sticky tape to hold it on so that it's not permanent.
Tony
Well, it's, I think it's self-sticking, but it's a, it's sort of like post-it note and you can get this stuff also. She did not, but you can get it at a company called Spoon Flower. Yeah.
Peggy
I
Tony
Think she just said she went to her local hardware store, but it's like removable wallpaper. So it's, it's kind of like a big old giant post-it note in a way. But, but I think it sticks better than that.
Peggy
Yeah. We'll put pictures in the show notes at Stresslesscamping.com. It was just a simple thing. You know, I've seen a lot of people like repaint their RVs, or
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
That's a
Peggy
Commitment. Take them from drab to fab. Well, it damages the resale value.
Tony
It can for sure. It
Peggy
Can. Yeah, that's true.
Tony
Yeah. And
Peggy
Not all paint adheres well to the walls in an rv. So this, this was a really nice upgrade that was simple to do, inexpensive and reversible.
Tony
Yeah. So lately we've been watching the TV show Wednesday, and I think of Uncle Fester and Pugsley. When I saw the posts that ABC Upfitters put on Facebook for April 1st, April, April full
Peggy
Day,
Tony
They put a post about Mike, the installer, and it shows a picture of him. I'll share that picture. And it says it, it says that the points about Mike that they're revealing now is that he charges himself by standing near Sunlight and alternators.
Peggy
He runs three days straight on energy drinks and protein bars.
Tony
It says he emits a steady 120 volt stare when you ask for just a small system.
Peggy
And he automatically says, we can make that work no matter what you bring in.
Tony
Now, I already knew all these things about Mike. Right. Especially that last thing. That is not Oh, yeah. That is not fake. That is true. Mike is willing and able to put together whatever system you want, whether it's just a small system or a great big, giant, humongous system.
Peggy
And one of the nice things is, let's say you start small and you're like, I'm not sure how much this solar and lithium is gonna work for me. And then you discover, Ooh, this is pretty good. The systems are upgradable and they're all built by Master Bolt. So everything from the connectors to the solar and the shaper and everything is master bolt parts. Which means that if you do have a question or you do want an upgrade, they can answer that and help you. Right.
Tony
And
Peggy
There's no finger pointing. It's one company doing the install, one company making the pieces. So really good situation. If you'd like to have a great solar and lithium system, you can give our friends at a BC Upfitters a call at (574) 333-3225.
Tony
That's 5 7 4 3 3 3, 3, 2, 2 5. Today we are thrilled to welcome Susan Carpenter from the RV Women's Alliance RVWA. We have talked to Susan and, and met her a few times. And we've been playing an intentional game of phone tag this time since September. Susan's gonna reveal a little secret that we, she wasn't really ready to talk about yet. Anyway, so the fact that it took us from September until March was kind of intentional.
Tony
So Susan, thanks for being here with us today. I'd like you to talk to us about the RV Women's Alliance, and then kind of at the end we'll reveal, partially reveal your secret project.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you very much for having me today. I am very excited. I I did enjoy our, our exchanges and our, our Game of tag, only because I kind of got caught up on where you guys were at and what you guys were doing, but the RV Women's Alliance was started in 2019. It launched in March, and it was kind of to address the need of an organization where women could find a bunch of like minded people, let's say, in a very male dominated industry.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
One of the things that we are very passionate about is making sure men are included in this alliance as well. Good. Only because it takes Yeah, right. You, we, we love our champions of women. That's what we call our men, our champion of women. Because, you know, we're not a men haters club. We love our men, we love our women. You know, it's, it's an equal thing and we can learn a lot from each other, you know, if we just decide that's what we wanna do, right? Sure. So, so it's really, the membership is free and it's open to anybody who works in the RV industry.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And when I say work in the RV industry, I mean campground dealership, supplier, OEMs, you know, if you are fiddling with an RV, then you can belong to RVWA.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
So, fast forward seven years later, you know, it took us quite a while to actually get to where we are today. If anybody's ever started a startup company, let alone an association, takes a little while to figure out who the heck you are and where you wanna go. Soon after we launched COVID hit, and, you know, we started up as like kind of a networking thing. And well, guess what you can't do in during COVID, right? Right. You can't network, you know, you're, you're stuck in a, a, a closet basically with a mask on, and you're not allowed to talk to anybody.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
So, you know, we really had to pivot and try to figure that out. And it actually ended up being a blessing because, you know, during that time we did a project that you guys were familiar with was Drab the Fab, where we took an old RV, we stripped it down to nothing and we rebuilt it. And during that, you know, everybody else was hiding. We were coming together as a community rebuilding this RV. So we had over 150 volunteers, not at once. We had to, you know, keep it small chunks because of COVID and Crowd Control.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Six people at a time, you know, would come in and help us rebuild that. But now we're not only the RV Women's Alliance, we have a 5 0 1 C3, which is the RV Women's Alliance Charitable Foundation, which is a big, big mouthful. We now use that for educational purposes.
Tony
That's awesome. So now we have 3,300 or so members. Is that about
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
The right number? Yeah. About there. And we represent over 500 companies, which is really hard to believe. It's really exciting. Some people are more, you know, they just sit and watch what's going on or do our online things. And then some people go in, you know, head first and get fully integrated in all the different things that we do. Whatever you're comfortable with. But we've got so much going on, Peggy, I swear there's not enough hours in the day. Right. And this is my second job.
Tony
Right. Oh, and because you're in Indiana, I, most of what I do is of course, you know, meet with you online and things, but I've been able to go to a couple of events. The Drab to Fab Reveal, I think was the first time that I met everyone. Yes. And then last September, the breakfast where I kind of reconnected with a bunch of ladies.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yes. It was great to see you there. That was, that's a very well attended event for us is our open house breakfast. And if anybody knows what the open house breakfast is, it's the RV community coming together and the dealers coming in and looking at new units and that kind of thing. So we usually try to kick it off at the breakfast early in the morning. I'm not an early person, but I make it there anyways. I made it
Peggy
For those not familiar. Open house basically is where the RV industry brings out all the new and shiny and invites dealers across the U.S to come and see what's coming and what's available. And that's where a lot of dealers will order a majority of their product for the year. And it's a huge, it's enormous. It covers all over Elkhart and just all over Indiana. And it's, for us, it's like going to an unlimited candy store.
Peggy
That's our
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Land
Peggy
Take on it. Yeah. It's Disneyland for RVs and we're so fortunate because it's really for dealers. Yeah. We're very fortunate that with our relationship with the RV industry, we're able to, to attend and wander around and ask dumb questions and even shoot videos that we forget that we shot.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
The memory's the first thing to go mine left long ago. But yeah, no, open house is, is really kind of a, a fun, you know, even for me, my, my day job is I work for an injection molding company in the RV industry. And so I love just looking at the units and poking my head in there just to see what's new, what's different, what are they using differently, how have they changed, you know, have they moved the floor plan? You know, I'm a big fan of the fifth wheels with the living room over the gooseneck, you know?
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. Yes. Yeah,
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Love that floor plan, you know. But, you know, my days of RVing, I, I still camp, but I don't, I don't, RV is often anymore.
Tony
I was actually gonna mention that you have an annual, I think it's annual camp out, and we talk about this periodically. A lot of people in the RV industry are busy being in the RV industry, and they aren't necessarily campers. And so I think, and I don't know what the percentage is, but some of the ladies that go on these annual campouts, that's the only time they get to go camping.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. So that's it. You're absolutely right. I was just talking to our chair of the charitable foundation the other day, and she says she's, you know, the first 12 years of working in the RV industry, she'd never camped or even been associated with an RV. So it's very common. Our campouts the first weekend in May every year. And it, it, it's one, it's, it's fun because it's a bunch of us professional and unprofessional, probably ladies. It's a time that we can come together as a community and not, not be in a setting where you have to, you know, be on your best behavior and, you know, you have to have your hair and makeup done and all that kind of stuff.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
You can just, you know, let your hair down do karaoke. We have a campout crawl where you can go from Campsite to Campsite to taste everybody's drinks. You can just go from there. But we always have the famous saying, what happens at the campout stays at the campout.
Tony
Why am I here on the first week of May then? Yeah,
Peggy
Right. We have an RV,
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Why don't you two come to this? That's right. I think you guys would have an absolute blast. It's just so much fun. We have this year, it's the classic country, so we're gonna have Rodeo games. We also have like sip and paint where you can have a glass of wine. And I think they're doing bird houses this year. We've done mats. We just have a lot of community campfire. You know, everything that RVing is all about. Right. And Camping's all about happens during this camp out. And it's a great opportunity for those who's never RVed or camped to get a cabin or tent or, and I gotta admit, a lot of the manufacturers will drop their RVs and RV spaces and let their employees come, like Forest River Alliance, RV Grand Design, they all come, they bring their units, they drop 'em for a group of their employees to come in and camp and experience it.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
So it's kind of a lot of fun. We have problems that come along the way. You know, somebody says there's something coming up, smells in our RV, what can I do about it? You know, and I go right immediately and I close their, their termination valve that they're hooked up to the main sewer and say, you can't keep that open. You know, there is a back flush to that, you know, but I mean, we just, we just have a lot of fun doing exactly what we're trying to get other people to do.
Tony
That is fantastic. Is there, and I don't know if, you know, I don't, I'm not asking for a specific number or anybody's names or anything, but do you have a sense of kind of a percentage of people who are regular campers and who are that one time a year?
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
You know what, I don't, you know, I, I, I'm gonna say it. In my experience with people that I work with and associate with, I'm gonna say 60% don't RV, but the other 40% do. Okay. I don't know if that's, it's not a any kind of proven statistic or anything, but if I go across all my friends and think, you know, who owns RVs and, and stuff like that, that are working in the industry, I would say it's about that.
Tony
I'm gonna be honest, that's higher than I thought it would be.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Sometimes it's what draws them to this industry now. So I'm a, our, you know, Elkhart Transplant. I was not born and raised here. I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York. Didn't move here until I was 50. And then after 50 I start going down in years net up. But anyway, so I've been here. So I've been here long enough, you know, that, you know, it's kind of neat because everybody who's, you know, knows somebody else. Somebody works in the RV industry. So Yeah. It's Oh yeah, very, I mean, it's just a family thing, but you look at some of the people they're drawn to stay here because they like the lifestyle.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
You know, they enjoy the camping. I love, I was, I was born and raised RVing, you know. I
Tony
Love it. That's fantastic. Yeah. And I know that one of the aspects of RVWA is kind of an educational component and you do online things, and I'm sure you do a lot of things about how to work in the industry. But also I know that there are things about how to RV, you have the RV systems class and you have the hook up tow and unhook class.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. Ready hitch Go camp. Yeah. So, you know, this was actually, this started between a conversation between Tracy Engelmeyer and Mary Minix. Tracy is our chair of RVWA, and Mary Minix works for Grand Design, she's HR there. And at our education symposium, they were talking about how a lot of the women at their plant didn't know how to tow. And they're like, we wanna learn. They really wanna learn, but they feel really intimidated about it.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
You know, or, or their husband's not gonna be patient enough with them. Who knows. I, I don't know where the root cause, but they're like, would you come teach a class? And we're like, sure, why not? Right? So Tracy went out there and there was a, there was a classroom portion of it where we kind of teach, you know, how to weigh, you know, how to weight in an RV, you know, don't put everything on one side or in the back or in the front, you know, your weight distribution and all that kind of stuff.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
We kind of explain it to 'em in very layman terms. And then after they go through that class, then we take 'em out and we've got RVs and, and trail, you know, trailers and trucks. And they take cardboard and they like make these parking spots. Like they put a campfire as a box and a tree is a box. Okay. And so it's a very safe space. So then they go out and they go around the building, we put cones up and everything that they have to get around the cones without knocking 'em over and stuff. And then at the end they turn, they have to back in without hitting anything.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And they, I think they feel a little bit more comfortable. 'cause if you hit a box, no big deal. It's not really a tree. Right. Right. And we, we've had women and men go through this class and the, you know, some of them were like, oh, I can't do this, I can't do this. But they did it. And then they got out and they were so excited. They're like, I did it. You know, and they're just like, and we're like, well, now you can go camping. You know? Yeah. But it just gives them the confidence, you know, to say, you know, because it's so intimidating, because, you know, if you ever, one of the good pastimes is sitting at a campground watching people back in.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Right. Oh
Peggy
Yeah. I always want those, you know, like the old Olympics, they'd hold up a number signs, I want those, I wanna sit there, but I'm afraid somebody would come over and punch me.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Right. Oh, I mean, it's, it's a great pastime. Right. And it's so, I'm sure they all see the arguments, you know, and they're like, yeah, or, or the pressure of trying to get this in. And then they're like, I'm never gonna do that. I'm never ever gonna do that. You know? So, you know, it takes at least the first initiation to it. It takes the sting out. We've actually got one young lady that's taking it for the third time, and she goes, yeah, I understand it. I, I, she's, I just wanna keep on taking it until I, like, I've mastered it.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
You know? So great.
Peggy
Yeah. But that's admirable because, you know, for any learned skill, the more you do it, especially in a good environment where they have someone to help, that's fantastic. It's, that's something we've done a lot of classes with various groups, including Girl Camper that we call RV Basic training and backing is one of the components of that.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Exactly. Exactly. So you're doing the great job of doing it to the consumers. We're doing it within the industry and Right. Together, we'll get more people out there camping and, right. 'cause I
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Mean, yeah.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And, and you think about it too, one of the biggest growing segment is women camping Alone, girl Camper, Janine Pettit, as you mentioned, a good friend of mine, she brings that to light a lot. And she's doing a lot with the help of you guys, of getting people out there. And to understand that it may take you 15 times to back that stupid thing in, but that's okay. Yes. Right. You know, nobody's an expert.
Peggy
Right. There's no report card for, for, Hey, I didn't do it exactly. Right. Or how many times, even if you think you really know what you're doing, and then you're like, doggone it, I don't remember. We were camping somewhere recently and it was like, oh, I just got so frustrated. I'm like, but I teach this. I should be, but whatever. You know, it's like
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Some days you just, but it's true. Some days you just have an off day, you know, that you just, you just can't get away. I did that with a pop-up camper one time and this stupid thing. And those are, those things are hard to make in. They are, yes. Those little ones with one axle matter, one did. Yeah. I could not get this thing the way I wanted. So it ended up being a little bit on the hill. I finally said, forget it. Done fine. You know, I had two little ones with me we're camping and I'm like, you know what, we'll sleep on a slant. No big deal. I don't care. I'm done. You know? And we did.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
We had a great time. Perfect.
Peggy
I guess that last experience, I was probably having a bad hair day
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
There you, that's probably, there you go. Yeah. Yeah. But, and then like you said, we have the systems, the RV tech classes that we teach too. Those are, you know, we partnered with Rvti in their tech classes and basically they're all women classes. Although our last one, we had a couple men in it, but most of the time it's mostly women. Because when you really start getting into the technical issues, we found that women tend to be intimidated by men in these classes.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Men don't go out of their way to do it. It's not the men's problem, it's the women. It's our problem. It's just how we feel, you know?
Tony
Sure. We
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Put it on ourselves. So I always tell the guys, you're not doing anything wrong. But it's funny when you take the men out of there, how like inquisitive women get, you know? Well, I think's just like
Peggy
If you look at the average person, like a man will just assume they know about stuff and not know. Yeah. A woman will often assume she doesn't know and look to learn
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
<affirmative>.
Peggy
Yeah. And that's, you know, and ask questions. And that's a big difference. It's like, how many times have I heard men say stuff and it's like, where, where did you get that? And women will just ask questions and get the answer right. At least, you know, generally speaking. Of course.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
No, you hit the nail on the head on that one. You are so right. It is, I I think it's just the pride of men maybe that they don't want to admit they don't know something. I don't know where women, if you put 'em in a comfortable situation, we're we're voracious or ferocious or whatever for the information. I mean, we just want it. Our, the guy who, who, the gentleman who first started doing the classes for us, bill Stewart, very amazing guy, really fought for our classes and was teaching him.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
He said ours, our classes were the his favorite classes. 'cause he had so much fun with these women because they asked so many questions. He said, really kind of, you know, it got me going and made me think and all that kind of stuff. And unfortunately since then he's passed away. But we do have the Bill Stewart Scholarship Foundation now where we're giving scholarships away in his memory.
Tony
Yeah. That's fantastic. And that's for members so that they can go to these classes and learn these things. Right?
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Absolutely. And it, you know, when we find that people that take 'em don't necessarily wanna know how to camp, they just wanna know how to do their job better. So if you're doing customer service or you're warranty person or any of those jobs that, I mean, anything that you're doing to understand the RV better, especially level one is just the basics. You know, a lot of these women come out going, oh my God, I so can now get what my customer's talking about. You know? So we did find, you know, and then there's some people that took it on and, and went to level two and level three.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
We have our instructor now, Jessica Ryder is a level, or she's a master tech now. She teaches the class and sits on her board. Okay.
Peggy
That's cool. Now through the RVWA, do you offer, well I guess you can go to the RV Technical Institute. So to become like a inspector or a tech
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Tech, yeah. So if you're just, you know, a consumer out there and you wanna know more about your RV or you want to learn enough to teach your neighbors or be that person at the campground that knows everything. Yeah. You can go to Rvti.org and you can sign up for their classes there. They have a lot of different ways you can do it. You can do it in person, you could do a hybrid, you could do it all online. Really great institution to really get involved with and to learn what you wanna learn.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And you could take it as far as you want.
Peggy
They've even had some outreach to schools. I think there are, like, I believe there was one in Colorado that had partnered with them for the students. So,
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah.
Peggy
And, and some dealerships are now sort of partners of theirs if, if I remember correctly, which usually don't.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. Which they call their Alps ALP were one of those as well. But they even, you know, they even partnered with a Women's Correctional Institute or facility down in Texas That's, yeah. And they taught the courses to those women, you know, coming out of that, those, those prisons to give them, you know, a head start in life of, of something that they can do. So they've really done some really great stuff. And you know, they've only been around just a little bit longer than we have.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Okay.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
But a really great resource. Anybody looking for more information about learning more about their RV and getting certified and just go to RVTI, which stands for the RV Technical Institute.
Peggy
Yeah. And it's a great organization.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yes. Excellent. It is. It is.
Peggy
And it's, if you do choose to, I don't mean to be distracted, sidetracked by this. Speaking of trains, if you do choose to become a tech or an inspector, it is really inexpensive because a lot of it's subsidized by the RV. Yes. Industry Association.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Association. Yes. Very much so. Yeah. So we've got, and even some of the OEMs, you know, invest into the schooling. So if I'm not mistaken, they just raised their dues around $650. Don't quote me, maybe 6 59, somewhere in there. But that will cover level one and level two. And there's so many dealerships out there looking Right. For inspectors and tax that for $650, you go out and, and learn these and, and go to a dealership and they'll be, you know, welcome.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Oh, you've taken the RVTI course. Yes. Come on in. You certified. Yeah. Yeah. Come on in.
Peggy
Yeah. If you don't make that back in your first week, then something's not right in the world. And, and if you don't have multiple job offers, no matter where you are, it's
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah.
Peggy
Compare that to any other college level class, I guess. And you're paying that college off for decades for the rest of whereas here it like
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
The rest of your life. Yeah.
Peggy
I, I made my money back the first week. Now it's all, you know. Right.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Anyway, yeah. It goes back to going back to, you know, our roots again of, of those using your hands again, you know, those jobs. We need those jobs out there. You know, college is a great way, if, if that's for you. But there's no shame in taking a different direction. 'cause there's money to be made without college.
Peggy
Right. Oh yeah. And, and talk about an in-demand field. Holy cow. Yeah.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. It's huge. 'cause there's a lot of RVs out there.
Peggy
Yeah. And if you, if you haven't been around, if you haven't been around an RV that hasn't broken, you haven't been around an RV.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. I mean, we always laugh. I mean, you're taking a house, basically, you're putting it on wheels and you're bouncing down a highway and it's going like, you know, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy. Yeah. Yeah. Something's got to break. I mean, it, it's, you know. Yeah.
Peggy
Yeah. Exactly. And the, and the roads are so smooth.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Oh yeah.
Peggy
Anyway, I got sidetracked.
Tony
Yes. Alright. That's okay. It's always fun. So we said a little bit ago in our episode 104, we revealed, or we didn't reveal, we were able to attend the reveal of your Drab to Fab project. And that was when you had taken an older RV and really gutted it and rebuilt the whole thing and made it fabulous, as the name implies.
Peggy
First, let's explain what the to Fab was.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. It was a concept that I came up with. I, I don't know. I come up with these crazy ideas and my first, my first phone call is always to Tracy Engelmeyer, my, my partner in crime that we call each other the crazy ladies. 'cause there's no project that we're gonna turn down if as long as it makes sense. And I said, Hey Tracy. I said, I had this idea this morning, why don't we take an old RV, strip it down and, and build it back up, basically flip it. And she's like, let's do it. And so we did, within six weeks we started, I mean, from inception to starting this, this silly thing.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
But we stripped it down to the struts. Her and I were up on the roof, peeling off the roof and putting a new roof on. I mean, we had over 150 volunteers that came in and helped. It, helped build it back up again and rip it apart and, you know, and, and we only, I think, used one bandaid through the whole thing, which is amazing.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Oh wow.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. I mean, I might have caught cut a corner off of a sawhorse, but, you know, it's okay. I was able to screw it back on. Yeah.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
But yeah, so it was a really great project because not only did we learn from each other and we taught other people how to work on things with power tools and stuff like that. But all those people that, you know, work in the industry that had no idea what goes into building these RVs or you know, what it takes to do all that really came together and they got to learn, you know, next to each other. And we got to network and we got to get to know a lot more people. And it was just a fantastic project from beginning to end. And then we, then we raffled it off and some, some lucky person won it.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And it's, it's a fun story. And they took it down the road.
Peggy
Awesome. I wonder, we were very fortunate to be at the Reveal and there were a lot of really different things in the layout, which I thought were really good. And the style, the design that you all did, it was beautiful
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
<affirmative> thank. And
Peggy
I wonder if any of that style or functionality, if you could point to, oh yeah, you can see that, you know, dinette or whatever in the such and such RV. Have, have you been able to point to some of the,
Tony
Like did you influence any OEMs? Is that what you're saying?
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah, that's a, that's a very good question. I can't say for sure that we did other than I think they understood the need for an office or a place in an RV that people can use it. Was that because of us or was it just because of COD? I don't know. But we did some things to it that like a, an OEM couldn't do and we, we understood why like, patterns on walls, because to match those patterns was probably the biggest thorn in our side.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And we said we'd never do it again. And we're like, now we get why they won't do it. Right. We're like, yeah, never again. You know, it also gave the consumers that followed the project, the idea that they could change their RV. Right. So it's, it's no different than, you know, you see that a lot now. People are customizing their RVs. So, you know, my husband owns a Jeep and what's the first thing they do? They raise it. They put a bigger bumper on it. They do this, they do that. Jeep Jeep people are kind of crazy about that. They wanna make it their own because cars are on assembly line.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Well, RVs are the same way. They're in assembly line. We have to make 'em the way we make 'em to fall within code. Once you buy it though, the gloves are off. You can do anything you want to it.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
So it gives people the ability to change things up and, you know, take something out, put something in if they want to and just make it their own.
Peggy
It's funny while we're talking, I looked up the photos we have and it really was a, a nice unit.
Tony
It was a nice unit.
Peggy
So we do have photos of it.
Tony
Yeah, we have photos. We just don't have much in the way of video because that was pre-video days
Peggy
For us. Yeah. But yeah, there was a desk and there was a lot of innovative. Yeah.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
We took the bunk room that was in the front of it. Totally Took it out and made it into a desk, a whole work area. Okay.
Peggy
And now you're seeing desks in RVs.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Very much so.
Peggy
Makes sense.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Because people are using 'em to, you know, work remotely, which brings us too. Yes. Let's get
Tony
In here. So you have another project, this one's not called Drab de Fab. 'cause that one's been used.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. So you know, the pain of rebuilding that, 'cause it was a lot of hours, a lot of hours that Tracy and I put into this thing. And, and it's kind of like giving birth. You have to, to wait for the pain to go away and the memory of it so you can come back and do it again. But we're, we're just launching Chassis to Classy.
Tony
Excellent.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
That's a new RV build and it's got a twist to it. So, and so, instead of finding a twelve-year-old or fifteen-year-old RV Thor Industries donated a KZ KZ Connect se to RVWACF beautiful coach. I mean, I walked into it and said to myself, I can take it just as it is. Right. But that's not what we're gonna do because that's not what we're about. So we're actually gonna make it into what we call a vision vehicle. And what we mean by that is we're kind of doing the same thing, but not, we're not taking it down to the studs.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
'cause you don't have to, you know, we don't have to take any of the sidewalls off, but we're going to customize this thing. Genesis products came in as our gold sponsor. And if you know Genesis products, they're very well known for innovative designs and different things that you can do after you buy the RV and that kind of thing.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
So we're working with them and our designer, Lisa Chapman from Sharpland, and we're putting our spin on it. Right. And then Lippert products came in as our silver sponsor and you know, Lippert pretty much owns everything out there. Yeah. You know, so, but then we have about 18 other sponsors, what we consider product sponsors. And these are products coming in that we're going to install to kind of make it the vision that we want it to be.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
So we're going to, we've we're, it's a double bunk room in the back. So we've already taken out a set of bunks. We're gonna make that back room more of A, it's an office slash gaming room. So you could use it as an office or you could, if you have kids, you still have your bunk beds back there and they can sit and game. I know it goes against what RVs really wanna do, but, but we know what these days kids like.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
You know, we're changing up the kitchen, we're changing up the, the dining room, the bedroom, and we're just, we're just doing a spin, kind of the, that customization that we've talked about that you can do after the, after you buy the RV. Also bringing all the suppliers in this industry an opportunity to showcase their newest and best products. Terrific. And we're doing it on a volunteer basis again. So volunteers are gonna come in and help not only just install their own products, but install products they've never worked with before.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
We're hoping to have it done at this point by the open house again this September, which we will reveal it.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yay.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And we will be or raffling it off again and Oh, the raffle. Fantastic. The rle will go a little bit longer. So the raffle actually will open up, I don't know when this airs, but the raffle will open up sometime in April.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Okay. Okay.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And even though we're still building it, they have an opportunity to buy into, because it is a nice RV to begin with. We're just making it, you know, our vision rather than anybody else's vision.
Tony
Right.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And then it will ride down the road with the winner again. And all the time, all the money we raise for this goes to our 5 0 1 C3, which goes into educating women in the RV industry and the raffle and everything that we work towards to give women a voice in a male dominated industry.
Speaker 6
That is fantastic.
Peggy
I love it. Now it's gonna be fun. Will people be able to follow some of the progress of this and, and maybe you, you might see a, a gadget that you're installing and go, Ooh, yes, I want one
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Raffle will. So that's we're right. News. Thanks. Social media. So it'll be on our Facebook page, Instagram, just look up RVWA. You can look it up on Rvwa.org. We'll have the updates on our website as well. We will have little snippets of everything being installed and who they're being installed by. And then RVTV has picked up some airtime for us. So we are actually going to make a TV show kind of like Flip My Ride or, you know, property Brothers or whatever from beginning to end and you know, what we've gone through.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And so people can also then watch the TV show showing where it came from to what it is today.
Tony
And that will happen after, after the reveal, after the
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Rally
Tony
And
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Everything. Yep. Right after, after September you'll, you'll be able to see, you know, we'll have the channels set up and you'll be able to go out and we'll have it on our YouTube channel and people will get to kind of take the ride with us. And hopefully I'm not crying by the end, but
Tony
I don't think anyone can blame you if you do.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. This is like my third job, you know, so I work daytime and I work RVWA now. This build has, it's a whole nother hour, you know, there's at least 10, 12, 15 hours a week that I'm, I'll be on site to do that as well, but
Peggy
That'd be hard for me. Like all this cool new stuff. I'm a real gadget Hound, all this cool new stuff to, to not, you know, like be, oh, you gotta check this.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. I love little gadgets that like you just install and play with. Oh yeah. I'm, I'm all about the gadgets, you know, my kids tease me and, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's fun. It, it, it's really fun. It's kind of fun to watch because like the manufacturers will come out too sometimes and, you know, do it with us. We actually have whole solar system coming in, going on. Our very, our second sponsor first was Century Chemical, second was Renogy, and they're sending all their stuff in and the people they're sending, they're like, we've never, we're not installers, so don't expect us to know how to install this thing.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
And we're like, that's okay. That's where we come in. Yeah. And the people that work for the company get the opportunity to actually install it and, and how cool is that? They get to learn about it. Yeah. You know, and rather than just selling it, they really understand how, what it takes to install the product too. That's
Speaker 6
Fantastic
Peggy
That, yeah. There is such a lack of knowledge or understanding of two things, solar and towing in Yeah.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
In
Peggy
The business. And so having a greater understanding of both of those two thumbs
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Up. Yeah. And, and you can't just YouTube some things, you know.
Peggy
Right. No, because sometimes I look at stuff, you wanna make your garage door
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Remote. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. But installing a whole solar system on a, on a brand new RV and, and even I'm like, okay, well I've installed solar, you know, on the last one. I was part of that. But yeah, I, I will learn so much for so many people and meet so many new people, which is, and see other people they've seen before. But it's, it's just kind of fun because, you know, you just, there's just, there's some days you sit in the RV and you sit on the floor and you're exhausted and you, you look at each other and you're like, what have I gotten myself into?
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
But then at the very, at the very end, you realize what a journey it was such an amazing journey to do something like that along so many talented and and fun people. We laugh, we cry. That's
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Awesome.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
I don't think we've ever cried, but like I said, we only use, so our goal is not to use any band-aids this time, since we used one last year, man. You know,
Peggy
Well see, that's why you can have men helping because have you ever watched, you know, home improvement and
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yes.
Peggy
Like, ends up in the hospital tool that's knee.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah. Well, so yeah. Now I'm telling you, I'm accident prone, you know, I get up on that roof and I'm like, are you sure you want me? I mean, we did Habitat for Humanity with Rvwa and I broke a finger, you know, and I'm like,
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Oh man, but
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Oh, but that's okay. Broken fingers don't need
Tony
Band-Aids.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
No, that's true. That's true. But, you know, I was, I was literally up in the scaffolding on the joists
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Oh.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Screwing something in. And I was wearing a glove and the glove got caught in the, the drill or whatever, and twisted. Oh, oh, I, and I just remember that that feeling that came over my, and all I remember sitting there is I'm looking down way down into the house going, don't pass out. Don't, oh my gosh. I don't know. So I don't know. I felt it crack or something and your body just gets that real hot feeling, whatever, <affirmative>. And I'm just like, don't fall, you know, just breathe. And I breathe and I finished drilling in and I continue drilling in more screws. Oh my gosh. And more. I worked the whole day and then I went home and I said, I think I broke my finger.
Tony
Oh my goodness. Is this supposed to be like that?
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
It was straight, but it was like Yeah. Oh, it was, it was just so funny. So they, their, their joke now is they won't let me, you know, I could only supervise, but they were only kidding 'cause they put me in a closet last time You made me build it. But no more ceilings. Yeah, yeah. No more hanging from the joists anymore.
Peggy
Man. That sounds like a, a great project. And you had said Rvwa.org is a good place to start.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yes.
Peggy
And then all of that'll take you to all the social places. And of course we'll put links in our show notes so people can find you Fantastic. And hopefully buy tickets to maybe win a new rv.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah, yeah. And they're not super expensive either. It's not like those things that you get in the mail to win a Corvette and you get to pay at least 50 bucks. I mean, you could just spend 10.
Peggy
Yeah.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Right. So you just spend 10 bucks, you know, and, and get like 10 tickets or something like that. Yeah. So
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
That's not
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Bad at all. The entry is Yeah. Very low. And, and we want it that way 'cause we want it be, it's, it's, you know, accessible to anybody out there, you know, that has that dream of, of owning this thing when it's done. And I'll be a little jealous when this one leaves this time because it's, it's gonna be pretty amazing.
Tony
You're gonna buy the tickets.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah, no, I'm not allowed to. So, or my family's not allowed to either, so. Oh man. It's illegal. Yeah. Nope. You can't do that when you do a raffle. But, you know, we, we, I've seen the, the preliminary design of the inside and it's pretty sweet. Well,
Peggy
The last one was really nice too. Yeah. So I can only imagine with, you know, years of even the stuff that's available now for RVs that wasn't available five years ago.
Tony
Right, right.
Peggy
Has is just remarkable. And so I'm excited to see this thing. I I wanna be at that dinner again.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah.
Peggy
Or whatever, you know, the, the event
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Come to our open house breakfast again. You were there last time. You'll get to see it this time then. And then Yeah. It'll be, it'll be great. But yeah, I mean, what's nice about it's, it came off the line part way off the line and there's some things that we didn't have 'em, I install like the roof vents, they're not installed, you know, there's just, we said don't install 'em. 'cause we're just gonna put something else in there anyway, so. Right.
Peggy
Makes sense. Yeah. Well, I'm excited.
Tony
Yeah. Well, Susan, this has been so fantastic to catch up with you again. Yeah. And spend some time with you and to hear about this new well, to hear about Rvwa of course. And to hear about the new project, which is also very, very exciting. And we wish you all the best of fun things. And no Band-Aids, no
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Band-Aids, no bandaids. No.
Tony
And we are putting it in our calendar to try and get out there for open house. We kind of plan to anyway, but
Peggy
Yeah, we, we usually are there.
Tony
Yeah. And then we'll get to see the new chassis to Classy rv.
Peggy
Yeah. Yep,
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yep, yep. Absolutely. We're, we're super excited. I'm so happy to be on your show. It's always fun to talk to you guys and see what you've been up to as well. And I appreciate the time.
Peggy
It's a, it's a real pleasure. I just wonder you like trains and gadgets. I wonder if we're related.
Tony
I'm telling you. You know. Well, again, thank you for your time and Thank you. We look forward to speaking to you soon and seeing you in September. And best and best and best of luck.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah,
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Absolutely. Well thank you very much and safe travels for all, wherever you so go.
Peggy
Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
You're welcome. Thank you.
Peggy
How often do you see the Black Tank indicator showing empty?
Tony
Ever since we started using liquefied Black Tank treatment, our show's empty pretty regularly.
Peggy
The liquefied line of products includes black tank, gray tank and a toilet bowl cleaner, which a lot of people seem to ask us about.
Tony
It's very easy to use. You just have to squeeze the lid and turn it for two clicks. That way you know that it's open and when it's closed, you know it's closed. Then turn the bottle upside down and squeeze three or four ounces of toilet bowl cleaner into the bowl.
Peggy
There are no harsh chemicals. And the toilet bowl cleaner works along with liquefied black tank treatment for a total solution that will bowl you over.
Tony
It only takes a little bit of scrubbing and the bowl turns sparkling clean.
Peggy
The best thing is you can use the code STRESSLESSFIFTEEN for your discount on all liquified products.
Tony
I always also scrub the flap a little bit just to get it nice and clean and then flush everything away and done. All done.
Peggy
Sounds great. You'll be flushed with excitement about how well this works. And it's totally safe for RV septic systems and RV tanks and it just works.
Tony
Okay, well last week we sort of preempted your regular RV review to do a kind of a April Fool's review of the John
Peggy
The John.
Tony
So do you have a, a real RV review this time?
Peggy
Real? It's the real deal. Late last year, I had the privilege of going to Winnebago and I gotta see a bunch of prototype and pre-production travel trailers and they are really putting a lot of effort into the Micro Mini line and the new Thrive line. And one of the first things I noticed, I go into the, I don't remember, I think it was the Thrive. And I look around, I'm like, my gosh, this thing I, it was literally the first unit off the line and it was so precisely put together.
Peggy
I thought, boy, they're really good at this. So I asked about it and I said, oh yeah, the way we're doing it is we have a CNC, which is a computer controlled router that's cutting out all the cabinet openings and the plug openings and just all of that. So if there's a hole in a panel inside, they're using a computer controlled router to cut it. That's very different than typically how RVs are done. Which is a dude with a router who walks up to where he thinks the hole should be punches a hole on the wall and is like manually.
Peggy
And they do it a lot every day.
Speaker 6
Yeah.
Peggy
But they can miss, and I've seen some holes, like, you take out a, a power outlet and it's like,
Tony
It looks like they gnawed a hole through my, oh my gosh. Teeth instead of,
Peggy
Of cutting it. It's so bad. Well then I learned they're also doing the same thing for the outside walls. So where there's a window or baggage door, water inlet or plug or whatever. It's done with this computer controlled cutting system. And boy, it really did make a difference. Another thing they told me is how they're doing the walls. So typically an RV wall is, oh well, laminated RV, they have the aluminum frame and then they have these blocks of foam that they drop in.
Peggy
But where they don't have a block that fits, it don't get no block.
Tony
Oh.
Peggy
So there's holes in the insulation on some of these trailers. The way they're doing it is it's a solid wall block and a CNC machine basically routes out where the aluminum goes and it's a really tight fit. Oh. And it, it's really cool. And they recycle what they've routed out. So.
Tony
So it's kind of like one big piece with With tracks in it.
Peggy
Yeah, basically fit around basically
Tony
Frame,
Peggy
Basically. Okay. So it's really, I was pretty impressed. So I mean, of course we love our rock woods, but the Thrive and the Micro mini, I thought they were definitely worth the look. And I'll put links to both, both of the articles I wrote about those at our home on the web at Stresslesscamping.com.
Tony
So something that you've been playing around with a lot this week is yet another
Peggy
Portable power station.
Tony
Portable power station.
Peggy
We do have a podcast on how to choose a portable power station, but even though I have more than one, more than three, I've bought another one when we were in Courtside. Yeah. How many do we have anyway? Don't ask. Don't ask. Don't doubt. We bought another one in Quartzite from Lion Energy and this is the Lion Summit and it's a smaller unit, so it's good for charging like a laptop or a tablet or things like that if you wanna run a CPAP overnight, depending on how long you're, how large your CPAP is, that sort of thing.
Peggy
And this is small enough to fit kind of on a counter and it's 18 pounds, so it's relatively light
Tony
Now. It's small enough that it did not run your induction cooktop. Right.
Peggy
Did not run high energy consumption. Things like the induction cooktop. So it wouldn't use it for that, but it will run a 12 volt cooler.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
So like Costco runs, we have the cooler in the back seat or whatever. It'll do that. What I it what it has, it's got two USB-C two USB-A two household outlet, you know, one 20 volt standard plugs and it's got a cigarette lighter adapter
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
That
Peggy
You, you young people call a charge boy.
Tony
Yeah. They don't call it cigarette lighter anymore. I know. But anyone who's over, I don't know how old
Peggy
25
Tony
Knows that round hole as a cigarette light.
Peggy
Yeah, yeah, that's right. And don't stick your finger in this because that's, I learned that lesson. But anyway, but I liked about this and what we said in our episode about choosing a portable power station. It uses standard connectors. So one of the things at Quartzite that I bought was a 25 foot extension cord to plug in the power station. Well I found that the orientation of the plugs on our Go Power portable solar panels and the orientation of the plugs on the lion were different.
Peggy
And I thought, ah, fuzz bucket.
Tony
We thought we were gonna have to buy an adapter or buy a
Peggy
Different plug or Yeah, I was, I was kind of disturbed about that. I'm disturbed anyway, but Yeah. But anyway, I wrote to Lyon figuring in, no one will write me back. No, they wrote me right away. They're like, oh, you just pull the sheath back and you can reorient the plugs and you're done. And I did and I am and works really well with our existing Go Power portable solar panels.
Tony
So now if you're gonna use that plug with a different portable power station that has a different orientation of the plugs, you can just Yeah.
Peggy
Turn
Tony
It again.
Peggy
Turn it again.
Tony
Okay.
Peggy
Yeah. Yeah. And that cable is really high quality too. So right now the panels are sitting on our back deck and the solar chart are the portable power stations in a closet. And that's good because those portable power stations don't like to sit in the sun. In the sun
Tony
Don't be, even though they can be charged by solar panels.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
And And they usually come with like a one and a half foot Yeah. Cable between the two <laugh>
Peggy
Silly. Anyway, we will put a link to that article in the show notes@stressescamping.com. Oh.
Tony
This week Tony and I went someplace new, we wanted to buy the New Mexico Resident State Park Camping Pass. And you have to buy that because the Senior pass is only available in person right now. Senior
Peggy
Pass.
Tony
Sadly we, well he Qualifies for a senior pass. I won't qualify for two whole more months, but, so we decided to go and buy a pass. Now one of the places we could have gone is to Santa Fe, which we love to go to.
Peggy
Oh yeah.
Tony
And they have a state park office. But then I found out that right here in Albuquerque there is a state park, it's not a camping park, it is the Rio Grande Nature Center State Park.
Peggy
Yeah. And it's one of three state parks that don't offer Camping.
Tony
Three in New Mexico. Yeah.
Peggy
Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what this is, is it's basically 170 acre park to kind of preserve natural flora and fauna. And apparently this is one of the principal places birds use in their migration. So you could say it's for the birds.
Tony
Oh. And
Peggy
I'm not just winging it. Oh
Tony
Boy.
Peggy
So
Tony
They do have a little, I don't remember if it was, is it on the river? Is it part of the river?
Peggy
Yeah, it's right on the real
Tony
Kind of wetland part where they've got two live-streaming cameras and or you can just go in this like Observation room and just look out and watch the turtles and the wildlife and the birds and everything,
Peggy
And the squirrels in the bird feeder Mark Roper, we're tipping our hat to your squirrel challenge. It's a really nice, real easy strolls. Apparently you can get there by bicycle. We drove there.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
But
Tony
They also have, which we didn't get to go into an educational center, and I'm not sure what all they do there. Educate.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Probably educational stuff
Tony
Probably. Anyway, it was a nice place and I think it would just be a nice place for us to just go and sit in that room and watch the Birds play for
Peggy
Yeah, they have all kinds of educational programs too, and it's a really nice place. We have a bunch of pictures and a full article at StresslessCamping.com. Oh. And one of the, you know, there's a few neat places that we've stayed here, camping in town, basically. There's a KOA right adjacent to a brewery. The Cactus Brewery Brewery. The Cactus Brewery. There's the Coronado Campground where we just stayed a couple of weeks ago.
Tony
Yep. Just for fun. Yeah. We just drove over there. That was one of our short drives to camping. Yeah. Is 16 miles and we were at camp.
Peggy
There's Enchanted Trails, which is a little further away, but it's right on Route 66, so it's super cool. So some good places. We'll put links to all of those,
Tony
Of course,
Peggy
In the show notes at StresslessCamping.com.
Tony
So I just kind of gave it away last week. Give it away, give it away. The question of the week was, what is the shortest drive that you have made to get to camp? And Yes. 16 miles to the Coronado Campground for us, but our shortest actually turned out to be 3.6 or something like that. Was
Peggy
That Clear Lake State Park,
Tony
Clear Lake State Park. When we lived in Kelseyville, I was really, really thrilled. We don't always get a ton of activity in our question of the week posts, but this week we really did. A lot of people responded and told us where they stayed and how close they stayed. You know, Tony tried to get away with saying it was right there in the yard.
Susan Carpenter - RV Womens Alliance
Yeah.
Tony
And I said, you know, I did say how far you've driven to go camping.
Peggy
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now this week we're asking what's the longest distance you've driven? And so
Tony
That could be distance or it could be amount of time. Right. True.
Peggy
True down.
Tony
If you, if you didn't drive very far, but you stayed for a really long time, that kind of counts as a long trip. Yeah.
Peggy
Yeah. So anyway, you can answer that at our fun and friendly Stressless campers Facebook group. You can ask your own questions, you can answer other people's questions.
Tony
You can share pictures of your wallpaper.
Peggy
Yeah, absolutely. So it's a great place. It kind of takes the stress out of Facebook, which is the whole idea. Yes. Well, that's what we have for you this week. As always. We really appreciate, and you have no idea how much all these Google and Apple and chairs you can subscribe so you don't miss another episode of the Stress Escape. Right. We appreciate you being here for episode 3 54.
Peggy
Also, don't forget, we do have a once a week newsletter where we have tips, tricks, ideas, destinations, and links to the stories that will help you get the most out of your RV experience,
Tony
And that will make your RV Adventure Stressless camping.
Mark Ferrell
We hope you learned a lot and had some fun and got some tips for your next Stress less 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.
Peggy
Well, at least I hope I press the record button this time.
Tony
Let's hope
Peggy
Doggies. Okay, let's check B.
