Coleman-Mach - inventing and improving the RV AC - podcast 364
Coleman-Mach - inventing and improving the RV AC - podcast 364
Last week on the StressLess Camping RV podcast we shared our experience with a new, efficient and powerful AC from Coleman-Mach and this week we go behind the scenes to see how RV air conditioners are made in the U.S.A. and learn the history behind Coleman-Mach with Rob Leach, Division President.
We took a goofy tour of Albuquerque, with Breaking Bad RV Tours.
The StressLess Camping podcast is a weekly RV podcast with information, tips and tricks to help every RVer and camper enjoy some StressLess Camping.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
We introduced our new air conditioner in Episode 363, last week
Tony’s review of the Outdoors RV Backcountry 20MKS travel trailer on RV Travel
AirGear Store coupons on our website
Red, White, and Blueberry Firecracker Salad recipe
Goofy USA: The Breaking Bad RV Tour of Albuquerque on YouTube
Our fun and friendly StressLess Campers Facebook group
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 364
Peggy
Last week on the Stretches Camping RV Podcast, we shared our experience with a new efficient and powerful air conditioner from Coleman Mach.
Tony
This week we're going to go behind the scenes to see how RV air conditioners are made right here in the USA, and we'll learn the history of Coleman Mach with Rob Leach, division president.
Peggy
You don't want to spend all day slaving over a hot stove in the kitchen. Refreshing dinner salad idea for you. We did a little local tourism in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and went on the Breaking Bad RV tour.
Tony
Yeah, come along.
Peggy
Recently in Albuquerque, there was an RV show, an RV show, and we got to look at some RVs.
Tony
We have this week's podcast along with the notes, all the stories that go with this episode, plus discounts, deals, helpful tips, and more at our home on the web at stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy
Thank you for your likes, your shares, and just for hanging out with us.
Tony
Yeah. Episode 364.
Peggy
Stressless Camping.
Tony
Soy Tony.
Peggy
Soy Margarita.
Tony
Mm, margaritas.
Tony
Estamos los dos RV industry— I don't know how to say veterans.
Peggy
Oh boy.
Tony
Oh man. We're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time in a Rockwood Minilite.
Peggy
Looking to share our adventures and help you with great tips, tricks, and discounts.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
Okay, so I saw something on Facebook last week, and I got started to wondering about this. The situation that someone proposed— I don't think that they experienced this, they just proposed it— would you pay for a service when you're checking into a campground that would take your rig to the campsite set it up, hook it up, open your slides, turn on your air conditioner, get it ready for you while you're inside checking in, maybe having an ice cream or— no, he didn't add ice cream.
Speaker 3
Oh, he did.
Peggy
That's us. Now think about this while we're talking. No, no, think about what we're saying. But at the end of the episode, that hint hint is going to be the question of the week.
Tony
Oh man, let's say you're going somewhere Because kind of that's the whole idea of this podcast. For example, your brother-in-law's driveway or your own driveway.
Rob Leach
Mm-hmm.
Tony
And you know there's a regular old household plug there.
Peggy
Yep.
Tony
But not an RV plug. Our battery and lithium system from ABC Upfitters lets us step down how much voltage that system draws from shore power and then makes up for that in solar.
Tony
Solar and lithium, and we can set that parameter. So if we only have a household plug, or if there is an issue with the power at the campground, or whatever, it's just another way that it helps our camping adventures be stressless.
Peggy
Yeah, now I have to say, I hear little tidbits of rumors of thoughts about campgrounds starting— more and more campgrounds starting to meter the electrical usage. I think a lot of this has to with EVs and things like that, and campgrounds just trying to find a way to survive. So I was thinking, if a campground charges you on a meter for your electrical use, maybe they lower the price of the per night, but then they charge you extra for electricity.
Peggy
This would be a really handy way to lower your power usage off of their pedestal if you don't you need 30 amps coming in, with the ABC Upfitter system you can throttle it down, only bring in 10 or 15 maybe, and then you're going to pay for less power because the sun is doing most of the work.
Tony
That's right, that big ball in the sky. So there are so many intricacies to these systems, although they really do make it simple. So if you would like a reliable, flexible RV solar and lithium system for your RV, You could call 574-333-3225. That's 574-333-3225.
Peggy
And they can tell you how they can help you save on electricity.
Tony
A few weeks ago, you may know that we went to Wichita, Kansas to meet with the folks from AirXcel who make the Coleman Mach RV air conditioning line.
Peggy
While we were there, of course we got a tour of the plant, which was fantastic, and we got to sit down with Rob Leach, who is the division president. Event for Coleman Muck.
Tony
Yep.
Tony
So without any further ado, let's—
Peggy
Let's talk to Rob. We are in Kansas. We're not in Kansas City, as Tony keeps trying to say, but we are in Wichita, Kansas, and we are at Eric's Cell, and there is a very cool reason why we're at Eric's Cell.
Tony
Oh my God, oh, come on, you gotta chill there, Jatz, man.
Peggy
But while we're here, Rob Leach, the See, I knew I'd forget. The division president has agreed to sit down and tell us some Eric Sell stories.
Rob Leach
Welcome.
Tony
Yes, thank you for being here.
Rob Leach
Thank you.
Tony
Well, thank you for having us here.
Peggy
Yeah, both ways.
Tony
Something like that. So we are here because we are working with Eric Sell on testing a very cool new rooftop air conditioner.
Peggy
That's right.
Tony
And right now it is outside on top of our Rockwood, and it's running on battery power. And the last I checked, it had been running for an hour and a half or so, something like that, and had not depleted the batteries.
Peggy
The battery was still 100%, which is amazing. Very exciting.
Tony
So it's a new product from AirXcel that is a variable speed compressor.
Tony
Uh, it's, it's basically a very modern area. Well, you probably could tell us a little more about it.
Rob Leach
Probably. It's a variable speed, uh, we call it the VS18. It's called the Everest, is the actual name.
Rob Leach
Uh, we just came out with it, uh, in the last 4 months, and, uh, we're happy to have, uh, you guys here so we can install it on your coach and do some testing for us.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Rob Leach
And give us some real live results, and That's what we're looking for. The only way we get better is from teams like you. They give us great feedback, whether good or bad, and we look forward to it.
Tony
Yeah, it's so far, it's, it's remarkable. I notice an increase in airflow. It's very quiet. If you've ever complained that, oh, my air conditioner is noisy or it doesn't cool enough, you might look into one of these.
Peggy
Right.
Tony
It's, it's a direct swap. There's no fiddling or anything. It's the same 14x14 hole that your conditioner now goes on.
Peggy
So by the time that we release this episode, we will have more than an hour and a half of testing to report on. We will do probably a whole episode where we really focus on it, and that might be this one.
Peggy
We're not sure, but we thought while we have the opportunity to sit with Rob and talk, we should take it and let him tell us some stories.
Rob Leach
The project's been in the works for a good year or so. A little over a year, to be honest. There's been a lot of work done. As I don't know if you guys realize, but we are the only U.S. manufacturer of the Coleman Mach air conditioners.
Rob Leach
As of last month, we have built over 9.7 million air conditioners.
Peggy
Wow.
Rob Leach
That have made it to the field. The DS lineup that we're gonna come out with, this is just the start. We've had great results in our testing.
Rob Leach
We are part of the UL Certified Test Lab program in that all the testing we do, we immediately We send to UL for approval. It's a very lengthy document that we have to fill out, but it's all based on the thorough testing that the engineers do to make sure that it survives. And we run well below a half of 1% failure rate with our air conditioners.
Peggy
Wow.
Tony
And we got to tour the plant today.
Peggy
Yes.
Tony
And walk around and seeing them making air conditioners, and it's not, Just impressive watching how this process is done and how clean the plant is and how well organized, but also the number of tests along the production system so that— and they're all documented. So you have your serial number. They can say like, you know, Joe Smith made this part and welded this weld and all of that. And so it's down the line accountable and Did I mention how clean and organized everything was?
Peggy
Thank you.
Tony
It's really—
Rob Leach
We take pride in that.
Tony
And there's a fair amount of automation and more coming. In fact, tomorrow morning you're getting a new piece of equipment installed.
Rob Leach
We are. We're getting a new copper cutoff machine and bender all tied into one. And I think as you guys saw on the tour, we have our copper trees. Those are very expensive trees.
Peggy
Yes.
Peggy
Yeah.
Rob Leach
Everybody knows the price of copper. But yes, from when I started in 2006 to where we are today, the automation that we have put in with robotics is tremendous. And the young engineers that we have have a vision of even more coming.
Peggy
Nice.
Rob Leach
So it's pretty exciting. I mean, we're changing every day.
Tony
Right.
Rob Leach
And that's our goal. We have to change.
Tony
One of the questions I had that we talked about earlier was the history of the Coleman name. I asked, how is— how does that fit into the air conditioner? And you were able to—
Rob Leach
Yep, yep, I can give you a little history on that. Coleman all started with W.C. Coleman, and then Sheldon Sr., one year going on his annual trip to test his Coleman products, his camping gear and stuff like that, took a motorhome to— instead of staying in the old Coleman tent with the intent of doing all the testing and, and taking this new piece of equipment.
Rob Leach
And he went, and he's gone for about 2, 3 weeks, I guess. And he came back, and all the engineers and everybody asked him, how did you like it? He goes, I loved it, it was great, but at night it got too hot and I couldn't sleep. And this is 1966. So he told all his engineers, I will be using it next year, and I want you to specialize in air conditioner for the RV market.
Rob Leach
1967, he went up, he had an air conditioner, and the rest is history. It's also the name of the product back then was called the Polar Pal.
Tony
Okay.
Rob Leach
The Coleman Polar Pal. And that's how it all started.
Rob Leach
At first it was sold in the aftermarket, and then later it became standard equipment on every RV pretty much.
Peggy
It's— I mean, I know because I used to camp in, in what we now call vintage RVs. I know they did not always have air conditioning, but it's a little bit to think of an air— of a non-air-conditioned RV now.
Rob Leach
No.
Tony
Yeah, exactly.
Peggy
Well, I bet they don't put them in ice fishing RVs.
Rob Leach
They do.
Peggy
They do?
Tony
It's, it's— I guess they also drag them around in summer, so that would be our—
Rob Leach
Yeah, yeah.
Tony
I know our 1971 Aristocrat had the, the hole for the air conditioner because it was just a standard vent hole, right? But it also had the wiring run. There was a one 120 power to that hole. So by '71, they were already thinking about it. Oh yeah, they were. I wonder if it was an— that I don't know if it was an option from the factory or—
Rob Leach
from talking with Mel, our founder, it gained traction very fast with the OEMs. I can only imagine. Standard equipment.
Tony
Yeah, yeah, cuz the bathroom vent fan is the same size hole, right?
Tony
So that had to have been a factor in designing it.
Peggy
It's always been the same size hole, right? 1970-something was 14 inches.
Tony
Yeah, 14 by 14.
Peggy
They still are now.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
I was amazed looking at the manufacturing how big a variety of products are made here.
Rob Leach
Yeah, we have well over 100 configurations of an air conditioner.
Peggy
Wow.
Rob Leach
That can include a soft start, power saver systems that we have developed to make it run more efficient, condensate pumps, you name it, heat pumps.
Rob Leach
We even have an air ventilation air system that actually purifies air that we can put in. The engineers have done quite well on taking a— they can almost make it like a modular system where we can attach this, do this, and that's one of our strengths. We can have commonization of components and we can come up with the different air conditioners that you as an OEM want to sell to the customer.
Peggy
Where were we?
Tony
Notice we have no notes.
Rob Leach
Yeah. That's a wrap.
Tony
All right, so we, we talk about air conditioners, but another thing you guys make are really good vent fans.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
And you have— we saw Bluetooth-controlled vent fans, we saw vent fans that both can intake and exhaust, but our new favorite thing is the Pivot. Yeah, Pivot Fan.
Rob Leach
Yes, that is a— it's a great product. We've had nothing but great reviews on it so far.
Rob Leach
This is a product that the engineers worked with some of the sales guys to develop. Everybody had said it'd be nice to have a fan that I could directionally point where I wanted to and not eat up space, and it's built into the roof. I can bring in fresh air, we can exhaust it. So the guys went to work, and I don't know how many prototypes we went through I don't know how many times we beat it up and twisted too hard, and, uh, they did— I mean, probably by accident, we did, we did a lot of destructive testing, but it's turned out to be a very well-built product and it performs.
Tony
Yeah, so what, what it is, we have a full story at our home on the web at stresslesscamping.com, but it's a fan that it can come down from the roof.
Tony
You can turn it 180 degrees so you could exhaust and intake, and you can move it. We have it in our bedroom so we could like have air blowing on us at night. You can vary the degree of pitch, right?
Peggy
So instead of just going straight up or straight down, that we can turn it so that it, it angles right at our faces or right at our bodies or where, you know, wherever it is that we want that air to, to hit.
Tony
And a lot of times you don't necessarily want the air conditioner running, but a little breeze is pretty nice. And so that's where that comes in.
Rob Leach
You can pull in that fresh air with it open and direct it right to where you want it rather than just doing a massive dump, which is one of the, one of the big advantages that everybody was— had requested that it would be.
Tony
Yeah, and you can close the lid so you could just circulate air inside your RV or A lot of neat features on this. So any other stuff we should be sharing with folks?
Rob Leach
Ah, yeah, it's one of those things I have to say, stay tuned.
Rob Leach
As you guys saw in the lab, the engineers are working on a lot of different products.
Peggy
Yeah, the lab was fun to see. I mean, no, we didn't see it. Yeah, that's what I meant to say.
Rob Leach
I mean, there's a lot of cool stuff the guys are working on.
Rob Leach
Some of it I think we will bring to market. And some of those are at the beginning stages of the development, and there's still some work to be done. Uh, but yes, uh, the best thing to say is stay tuned, we got more coming.
Tony
Yeah, so I mean, it's really great to know there's a company in America making stuff in America and just innovating for we RVers. And we're really glad we came out here to Wichita and met you all and saw the operation and got to try out the Everest.
Rob Leach
Yeah. Yep, it's a great product, and I think you're going to have some happy camping with it.
Peggy
Absolutely.
Rob Leach
Sure, it'll be cool.
Tony
Oh man, there we go. Thank you. So what did you think of that? I think they're doing some neat things there. They have a full UL lab on site so they can UL-certify products. Something I've noticed about RV facilities, building stuff for RVs, some of them are really dirty and just disorganized.
Peggy
Some of them are so busy building, they don't take time to clean up after themselves.
Tony
This place was, it was spotless. It was very well organized. There was structure. The team was enthused about what they were doing.
Tony
There was the appropriate amount of automation and more. They were getting a new machine I think we talked about that.
Rob Leach
Yeah.
Tony
The day we left, so many things that really impressed me about this, including the answers we got from Rob and, and just talking to the team. It's a good team, but watching them build RV air conditioners was really impressive to me.
Tony
And all the tests that happen as they're being built, that was impressive. Now, to be fair, presently the Coleman Mach Everest VS18, the one that we went to go get is not being built in the US at the moment. They are working on that.
Peggy
Yep.
Tony
But at the moment it is imported, as is the Furion Chill Cube.
Tony
So we don't want to mislead you on that. Hopefully they will be able to figure out what they need to figure out and build it here.
Peggy
Right, right. Okay, so we have some good news. AirGear extended their coupon codes for us.
Peggy
They were supposed to expire, but we just decided we like each other so much, they don't want us to go away. So they extended their codes for the tire changing kit and the water hose— water hoses— through June 30th. So there will be QR codes covering our faces or something right now—
Tony
Yes, if you're watching on video.
Peggy
—that will take you to the AirGear store and where you can use the codes Stressless Tire or Stressless Hose and get discounts on the tire changing kit and the water hoses.
Tony
So I, I said it's raining today, and I don't think the weather knows what it wants to do. The other day it was almost 100 degrees.
Peggy
So it is coming up on monsoon season, and so we're going to get some rainy days and some relief from the heat, which is great, one of the great things about living in New Mexico, uh, but it is hot. You can't— you don't get monsoons until you get heat. And so we don't want to really sit down to a hot, heavy dinner necessarily.
Tony
Plus, let's be honest, a lot of times it's like 4:45 and we're like, okay, we're starving, what's for dinner?
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
Or you're coming off a travel day and you're like, okay, what's for dinner that I don't have to cook.
Peggy
Exactly. So on the end of a long travel day, on the end of a long hiking day, on the— you don't want to cook anything.
Peggy
You want a nice cool meal. I'm calling it a refreshing chicken dinner salad. I don't know what I'll call it exactly, but basically we have salad greens. Now I have to tell you, the last 2 boxes of salad greens, you know, we buy those big boxes at Costco. Costco.
Peggy
We do put it in a Tupperware that saves it better, but the last 2 boxes we've eaten all the way to the end, and it was not soup.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Peggy
We did not let our salad greens rot, which is fantastic.
Tony
That's surprising for us.
Peggy
Yeah.
Peggy
So we take the salad greens, and because, you know, it's big hunks of greens, big leaves and stuff, it's a lot to put in your mouth. So we use the salad chopper from Pampered Chef. We cut up the greens, and then we add kind of what we have in the fridge, but we try to always have either some kind of a crumble cheese like feta or blue cheese or a cheese. And then we have— you can actually candy, I don't know if you know that, you can candy your nuts. That sounded terrible.
Peggy
Really easily with just a pan of sugar. We don't, we just eat the nuts, you know, straight out of the bag. Blueberries, or some people actually like Craisins. I love Craisins, but I try not to eat that much fruit, so we don't have Craisins. So we put a few blueberries, some walnuts, some gorgonzola or feta cheese on there, and then we either have some cooked chicken that we've cooked— two of our favorite ways are either with lemon pepper or with ranch seasoning.
Peggy
So we'll cook the chicken maybe ahead of time and chill it and cut it up and then toss it with Frank's RedHot sauce.
Tony
Yeah. So it gives it a nice kick.
Peggy
Yeah, and that was a trick I learned back in California at Omura Brothers Brewery. I miss Omura Brothers Brewery. Don't try to go
Peggy
there. They don't exist anymore. But one chicken tossed in Frank's RedHot and I'm like, heck yeah, now I can't eat it another way.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
So we have our chicken with Frank's RedHot and all those other toppings.
Peggy
And he likes a balsamic. Right now you have a Yeah, it's just— Blackberry or raspberry.
Tony
Something like that. We bought it at the Quartzsite show.
Peggy
Yeah, some kind of balsamic vinegar.
Peggy
I like a creamy dressing, so I'm using a poppy seed creamy dressing right now, but you can kind of make it whatever you want it to be. And if you didn't have time to cook some chicken ahead of time, and you could even eat that warm if you kind of want a little bit of hot food, or just open a can of chicken.
Tony
Yeah, we get those cans of chicken at— And toss it in the cranks. Costco also.
Peggy
And that makes it even more, you know, at 4:45 when it's really dinner time or at the end of a day and you're setting up and you don't, you just don't have it in you to cook some chicken, open a can of chicken, toss some Frank's in it and put it on your salad.
Tony
Or stop at the store and get one of those, you know, already ready, already chickens.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
So yeah, those are good. Anyway, an easy summer salad for Travel days, or any day really. We got to see an Outdoors RV at an RV show here in Albuquerque.
Tony
And Outdoors RV is a company in LaGrange, Oregon that builds really good travel trailers and fifth wheels that are very well insulated. So they specialize in off-grid camping, but, but more traditional travel trailers. Their reputation is that these are really solid and they're very heavy because they're really solid. And that starts with they build their own chassis, they put a good suspension and tires on it, uh, they really insulate it well from cold and hot. That build a— That I can think of uses that cheap plastic compartment door.
Tony
What's gonna freeze first, right?
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Tony
Um, they are really known for how well their RVs are built, but they're also known that the interiors are a little dated, and we found that. What did you think?
Peggy
It's very dark wood, and we've had dark wood trailers, that's fine, but I agree they could use a little a little zippity in their doodah. Yeah.
Peggy
We've done a couple of episodes in the past about brown. Yeah. Everything's brown.
Tony
Everything's brown.
Tony
The thing I really liked about this, they had a tray in the front baggage compartment, and they also have places to hang— they said axes and shovels or guns in the front compartment.
Peggy
Fishing rods.
Tony
Yeah, fishing rods. They sell a lot to hunters out there.
Speaker 3
Yeah.
Tony
Um, they had— this thing had a huge counter, uh, kitchen counter, big counter, a proper oven. Um, it, it was really— And the way that works is it's particle board with a plastic laminate on top, and then the edge is like a routed out piece and they put like a trim piece in that—
Peggy
There's a seam right there where the water can go right into the wood underneath, and that is just, just— that's a dated construction. There's so many RVs now that use that solid— what's it called? Solid surface. Solid surface.
Tony
Winnebago uses fiberglass, and it's a 25-foot trailer, so they're not inexpensive. They are very well well made, but that counter just—
Peggy
The inside now. They've got the outside and the, and the underneath really in good shape.
Peggy
Now they need to kind of go inside and maybe look at it with some fresh eyes.
Tony
But anyhow, I have a link to a full review, and we also have a video on this trailer, so check it out.
Peggy
You may or may not recall that we really like things goofy. And we haven't talked about a Goofy USA destination lately, but we have one this week. And as we have done in the past, we are making it a separate video.
Peggy
So go check out on our YouTube channel the Goofy USA destination, uh, for the Breaking Bad RV tour of Albuquerque. Yeah.
Tony
Beer, beer, beer.
Peggy
Wait a minute, wait, what? What do you— is that— uh, that looks suspiciously like Heisenberg's blue crystal.
Tony
No, no, no.
Peggy
I said that we should be more like Albuquerque residents, but this is not really what I had in mind.
Tony
Oh, it's just blue candy, see?
Peggy
Oh, this is the candy we got when we went on the Breaking Bad RV tour.
Tony
Yeah, well, it's delicious too.
Peggy
It is delicious. Pure sugar.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
We got to go on the Breaking Bad RV tour in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where if you haven't seen the TV show, it won't make much sense to you, but they take you in a Bounder.
Tony
Yeah, like a 1980s, 1980s Bounder of some sort, like what they used on the show.
Peggy
Right, the same one they had on the show. They have They have a few in their fleet, and you can ride in a Bounder sometimes. Sometimes it's a different vehicle, but they take you to 20+ locations, filming locations from the TV shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the movie El Camino, and now there's a new show called Pluribus.
Tony
Pluribus, yeah.
Peggy
So they take you to some of those locations as well.
Tony
So the cool thing about this is For at least our tour, we rode around in this old Bounder that they had modified for as a bus, but there's still sort of like a fake lab in there.
Peggy
Yeah, they—
Tony
Not like a dog, but laboratory.
Peggy
Yeah, they left the kitchen kind of counters there, and so they built a little fake lab like Walt and Jesse built. And then the back room, which is, you know, normally a bedroom, They had just had some more seating and a spare television back there.
Peggy
They played a bunch of clips from the different shows so that when you went to a certain location, you could remember what scene it was in. And then they just drive you around Albuquerque and show you the locations of some of the houses that you saw a lot, some of the businesses, the, the chicken place, which is really a Stripes Burrito place.
Tony
Yeah, but it's Los Pollos Hermanos.
Peggy
Los Hermanos, yeah.
Tony
So it was good because Albuquerque is really becoming— They have this huge film credit program to bring more film production to the area.
Tony
As they drove around and showed you different things, the two people who did the tour were actually part of the production of Breaking Bad.
Peggy
Yeah, they were actually—
Tony
Very entertaining.
Peggy
Yeah, yes.
Tony
And they explained a lot of history and Albuquerque film, you know, inside stories, Breaking Bad inside stories.
Tony
So if you're going from one location to the next, you're not just sitting there, right?
Peggy
They're actually telling stories and making jokes and watching little video clips. Now we have— well, Tony has seen Breaking Bad all the way through. I've seen Breaking Bad now halfway through. We're in in the middle of watching it, streaming it, and I listened the first time that he watched it, but I didn't really, you know, watch it.
Peggy
Plus, we didn't live in Albuquerque back then. Now that we're watching it, and now that we're in Albuquerque a lot, we're like, "Oh, I know that place, I know that place." It's kind of a little bit more interesting, or a little bit more scary, to think that, you know, that could be happening in Albuquerque. Mm-hmm. A fact that I did not know is that this was originally written for Riverside, California. Yeah. Now, that is a trivia question, so if you go on this tour, you might win a little prize from them for knowing that.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
I won a prize for knowing that what Walt blew up the upstairs with was fulminated mercury, and I got Jesse's driver's license which I will not be trying to use at TSA because they don't have any sense of humor.
Tony
No, apparently, they advised against doing that. But anyway, this tour was really, really fun.
Tony
If you have any interest in Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul or El Camino, uh, it was neat because of how well the tour guides sort of kept you involved with trivia questions and videos and— stories and insights and all. It was, it was good.
Peggy
Yeah, and it's not just you sit in the bus and drive around. Like, they let you out of the RV, you know, you got out a few times. We actually went in Los Pollos Hermanos and had a breakfast burrito, uh, that was provided, part of the tour.
Peggy
And then we got to, you know, get out and take some pictures, and we got to tour the car wash and So it's not just sitting, and it was like 3 and a half hours that we were on the tour, and it starts and ends in Old Town Albuquerque at the Breaking Bad Store and Museum.
Tony
Yes, and you got passes to the museum too.
Peggy
Yeah, so as many times as we've been to the store, we've never, you know, spent the $5 'cause we're always in a big hurry, and we haven't been through the museum, and like, look, even if you don't wanna go on the tour, and you know the show even a little bit, the museum is worth it. There's a whole bunch of set pieces and costumes and pieces and stuff in there. So overall, I mean, what a great day.
Peggy
We just really had a good time. I don't want to give away all the hints because if you're going to go on the tour, you know, I don't want you to know everything that's going to happen.
Rob Leach
Right.
Peggy
But it was a lot of fun, very entertaining, very informative, and we got, you know, kind of a tour all over Albuquerque. Yeah, without having to drive.
Tony
Absolutely. Leave the driving to them. Yeah. And now I want a sweet treat.
Peggy
Deer, deer, deer.
Tony
Well, with that, we have come to the end and the question of the week. And that question is—
Peggy
well, last week our question was, have you camped in your driveway for any reason.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
We're recording this really early, so I don't know if you're gonna answer.
Peggy
I hope that we got a lot of great answers. You'll just have to go check it out. This week, our question is the same situation that I brought up at the beginning of the episode. Would you pay for a service that would set up your campsite, take your RV to the campsite, hook you up, turn on your air conditioner, open your slides, fix you a drink— oh wait, it didn't say that— while you're inside the office checking in. It seems like a nice service, but then again, that means someone else has to drive my RV, and I'm not sure I'm okay with that either.
Tony
You can answer that at our fun and friendly Stressless Campers Facebook group.
Peggy
Don't forget to like, share, and subscribe this podcast with your friends, your neighbors, your enemies, your grocery store—
Tony
The people who you're breaking bad with.
Peggy
The people that you break bad with. Thank you for being here for episode 364 of the Stressless Camping RV Podcast.
Tony
Remember the free once-a-week newsletter that we send out that delivers deals, discounts, and links gets right to your email inbox and helps make your RV adventures— Stressless Camping!
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!
