The year end at the Smart Rver.

And this is our last episode of 2024.

Not our last episode period, but just our last episode of 2024.

So today we're going to be going through the highlights of 2024 and enjoying the RV life.

Alexis and I are going to be going back and forth between three of our favorite episodes and the enjoying the RV life section of that episode.

And then the next stop, basically the same thing.

Staying on the road.

I'm going to cover the ground on several things that stood out to me that we talked about.

I just couldn't make my mind up.

So, yeah, I'm running the show.

So I picked a bunch of stuff.

Then RV envy.

I got three products that we're gonna just quickly talk about.

They're great products and things we need to be reminded about.

So this is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast, delivering the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down.

So let's talk everything RV in today's episode 166.

And we have Alexis in the studio with us, ready to go.

She's got on her California Joshua Tree.

Yes, I wrote about that.

Fun fact, Joshua Tree used to be the murder capital of the world.

Oh, that may not the murder capital, but a lot of people got killed there.

Yeah, by the heck, you know, you know, don't worry about that.

We won't think about that.

Just bring a big stick when you go there.

Yeah.

All right.

So rather than.

We don't really have anything.

None of my normal rants, we're just going to get right into this because we have a little.

Shows me a little longer than normal.

So we're going to clock in a little over an hour, which takes us past our normal time.

But anyway, let's get to enjoying the RV life.

So we're going to start with Alexis and her first pick, which is dog friendly RV parks taken from episode 155.

Yes, this one was really, really fun to write about because I love dogs.

You know, we see a lot of RVers come through here with their pets, whether it be cats or I think somebody had a rabbit even, but usually it's dogs.

We want to talk a little about how we can fit our dogs into our RV life.

And this is a really good one.

We covered 10 originally and that's still up on our page, but we're only going to highlight three of them today.

So the first one is in Utah.

That is the Zion River Resort.

And this is a really nice One, because they have a select spot just for dogs to run around.

And that is off leash.

So you don't have to keep them on their leash.

You can just let them run, let them exercise, which is super, super, super convenient.

Get all that energy burnt off that they, you know, have when they're stuck in the rv.

And so that's really.

Actually that, that was the other thing.

They have dog walking services there.

So if you're older and you can't get, you know, mobility wise around, hire somebody to walk your dog.

It's kind of convenient.

Or if you're just morbidly obese.

So the other one I wanted to cover was in California.

It's Pismo Coast Village RV Resort.

That is a mouthful.

This place is super beautiful because it's right on the ocean front and they have this quartered off piece of beach front that you can let your dogs run on off leash again, which is super nice.

And they can play in the ocean.

You know, you're going to want to watch them, obviously, but that's anywhere you go.

That place is also very friendly for dogs.

And then the last place I wanted to talk about was the top Sail Hill Preserve State Park.

And this is in Florida for our Florida friends.

And again, right on the beach, they have designated areas for dogs to run around.

And they have it all set up.

So it's super convenient for the owners to pick up their poo in case they do that.

Because they do.

But we just, we want you to be able to, you know, enjoy your RV life with your dog.

And so my takeaway is call before you make a reservation at one of these, make sure if you're bringing your dog that it is going to be okay for them to be in that resort.

That's my call to action.

Wow.

So here's what I was thinking.

Here's what I got from that is like, you know, most places like, like an in and out burger, they have a secret menu.

Yeah.

So if you go to these parks and you say, hey, on the flip side, can I put my kids in there?

You know, let them run, run wild, no leashes.

I would do that.

All right, man, we can't do that.

But like in California, I don't know, I better shut up.

See, a Sunday, we're not on a normal day here, so we can get pretty stupid, you know, wild here, let our hair down.

As you can see.

You know.

Anyway, so now we're gonna go to hosting an exciting RV party.

Parties are like just part of the RV lifestyle.

Right.

Everybody wants to have a good party.

So hosting a party, though, it takes some responsibility, it takes some planning.

And you know, you can't just do it anywhere, Especially in an rv, you know, you don't want to, I don't know, pick a really lousy place to go and just not be able to do it, or pick a place that's great, but then the park ranger say, no, not here.

It isn't happening.

So you want to pick the perfect spot.

Someplace where, you know, you can do this and get away with it.

Get away with it.

Or you can do it and have a nice time, not get away with it.

And, you know, sometimes there's, you know, a park might seem pretty loosey goosey, or maybe you're up in the mountains or out in the desert.

You want to make sure there's no regulations or anything that's going to ruin it.

You'd hate to be into your party, you know, an hour or two or three, and all of a sudden you got to pack it up and stop.

I think that's basic stuff most everybody knows, but also something to kind of add a little spice to.

It might be picking a theme.

Now, it doesn't have to be a crazy theme.

You know, you could all dress up as rvers and go that way.

That'd be the simplest thing.

Or just a beach theme or something like that.

Something simple.

Something where everybody's not going to have to spend a lot of money to do it and bring us, you know, a lot of extra clothes because that takes up space.

There's enough stuff you're already trying to put in your RVs.

And then when you do this, think about the meals.

I mean, everybody loves to eat, especially at rving.

That's kind of the thing thing, you know, having all that fun food, comfort food, as they call it.

So think about that.

Or 1, 2, 3, or all of you gonna bring stuff.

Everybody brings a dish.

Or is one person gonna do it?

Or you gonna just buy a bunch of stuff and bring it, like catering or 50 pizzas.

But think about that.

Make sure there's a lot of fun food there.

Chips, dip, salsa.

And you know, an Uncle Leo goes over, this is chip to double dip.

Now you boot him out.

No double dip in here.

All right, let's keep the dip clean.

Let' good party.

You know, you want to invite your neighbors or at least warn them, depending on how out of hand it's going to be.

But inviting them always kind of brings them in there.

You know, it's guilt by they're there they're guilty.

They can't complain at that point.

So you've invited your neighbors, you've invited all your friends, you're having this great time.

And so that's what it's all about, you know, and RV life is about community and getting together with other RVers, other friends.

And so this isn't something you're probably going to do spur of the moment.

You're going to have to plan this.

My takeaway from this is, you know, having a party is a great way just to get together, let your hair down, eat some great food, and have a good time with your friends and family and fellow RVers.

That's going to take us to our next choice in enjoying the RV life.

Can't talk here.

So this is Alexis number two choice.

And by the way, these aren't in any order.

We just picked them.

So Overcoming towing anxiety.

And this came from episode 147.

Yes, it did.

Did.

This one really speaks to me because we got a camper this year and my husband is learning to tow it, and I should probably learn, too, but I haven't yet, so this would be a good thing for me to think about as well.

So that's kind of what I wanted to talk about.

Learn it beforehand, not when you're going up to the campground.

You know, you don't want to get there and it be just full of people and you're stressed already and you're trying to tow this thing or back it up.

That would be, you know, for your first time.

That's just not kosher.

So learn beforehand.

And there are ways you can do that.

You can practice with somebody who's had a trailer for a long time, who knows what they're doing, that can give you tips, or you can take a course online.

You can take a course at the college.

They do offer things, especially, you know, locally if there's a lot of camping around.

So there are things you can do to make your life less stressful and have more fun in your RV or your trailer.

And then practice.

Practice with easy places.

And maybe, maybe it's a big parking lot.

Maybe it's your home, your own driveway where it's private.

You're not going to be stressed out.

You're not going to be watched by a bunch of people or kids screaming, you know, as you're running over them, I mean, because it happens.

But, you know, we're just going to crunch them and move on.

It's fine.

Well, if they're in the way, you know, that's their Fault.

So this is.

This is one I think about a lot because I could definitely work on this.

My.

My husband's very good at it, and he's learned, but I need to learn, too, in case there's an emergency.

And so you out there, if you're an avid camper and you go places where there's, you know, low signal or no signal out there, you need to learn how to tow and back up.

So that's important.

So my takeaway from that one is be ready before you go out there.

Get out of your comfort zone, and just be brave enough to do it.

All right?

So there you go.

Anxiety while towing.

Now, just another piece of advice Alexis missed.

This should be the most obvious.

If you have your spouse train you to drive and back up and do all that, get an attorney beforehand.

So you can just make this a package deal.

Okay.

And make sure the hospital nearby, because there's fights and all sorts of stuff, you know?

All right.

No, so that's pretty cool.

Toy anxiety is a real thing.

There's a lot of courses, and I would pay someone to do it myself if, like, if my wife wanted to do that, which probably should, I'd pay so much.

I know she can go forward, but I'm backing up.

Might be an issue.

Another story.

Yeah.

Yep.

All right, so now we're going to go to the next one, which is essential tips for buying your first RV.

And this is taken from episode 141.

Now, I'm pretty negative on buying an RV from a dealership, but not your first RV.

That's cool.

You got to buy your first RV, but you got to be smart about it.

And that's where everything falls apart.

Everybody just.

They get all taken up.

The emotions start going, oh, look at this one.

It's so nice.

It's so cool.

Look at all these great things.

And behind the makeup, if you will, it's just a pile of junk.

So you got to be careful of that.

And, you know, it doesn't matter where you're buying it.

Quite often, I should say it does matter.

But you're going to get sold a bill of goods if you're not really careful.

So first look at some RVs, and based on what you see, define your needs.

What do you really need in an rv?

Do you need to have a satellite dish on the roof?

Well, not anymore.

That's old stuff.

But think about that.

If there's a satellite dish on the roof, that's not cool anymore.

That's just a waste because we don't Use satellite dishes in RVs anymore.

Everything's Internet.

But think about your needs.

What do you really need?

You need a furnace.

You need a microwave.

Do you need a tv?

How many bedrooms or how many beds?

Bathrooms?

Sometimes you get two bathrooms.

But think about the bigger picture and then set a budget.

You know, don't get taken in by, wow, that motorhome is so nice.

And it's just $10,000 more, and that's only a hundred bucks a month.

Don't do that.

Yeah, just set yourself a budget and stick to that budget.

And here's one of the most important things is inspect that RV thoroughly.

You want to get on the roof, you want to see every appliance work.

You want to make sure there's no water leaks.

Inspect the ceiling, inside cabinets.

Make sure there's no signs of leaks in there.

If there's any sign of a water leak, just run.

Even if they tell, oh, no, we fixed all the leaks.

Yeah, yeah, I wouldn't risk it because when you buy it and the first winter comes around or first rainstorm is leaking, you're going to hate yourself.

If there was a leak, you don't know how long it was leaking, how much damage there is.

There could be soft spots in the ceiling and the wall.

So make sure you thoroughly inspect that RV from top to bottom.

And then also, if it's a motorhome, take it for a test drive.

Make sure the brakes work, the turn signals work, everything works.

The fuel gauge, the speedometer.

And a motorhome that's been sitting for a long time is going to have problems.

So think about that.

You know, it's.

Things go bad just from sitting.

Also, analyze the amenities, the features it has.

Is it what you really need?

If it's a little more than what you need.

But does it fit your budget?

It's not ridiculous.

Okay, Are you going to buy an extended warranty if you do that?

Think about wholesale warranties.

They have a very transparent process.

You can't go wrong with them.

And those extended warranties are from wholesale warranties are good.

Other places are not so good.

And they'll do private party.

In fact, if you're buying a used rv, they'll actually have it inspected.

Now you pay for that inspection, but when it's done, you know exactly where you stand with that rv, its quality, and then also the warranty company as well.

You'll know whether they covered it or not.

And then think too about, you know, if you were to sell it in a year, if it's not your cup of tea, would you be able to get your money back or would you be taking a big bath on it?

Or in 10 years, years, is it going to be in still good enough condition where you can actually still get some money back on it?

Those are things to consider.

It might not be that important to you because it's always, well, we'll never get rid of it once we buy it.

But after a year, sometimes rvs go up for sale because it wasn't your cup of tea.

Also, check on insurance, see what it's going to cost.

You know, that's another factor.

Sometimes is not thought about.

And that might make the price too expensive for the budget you have set.

So you might have to lower your budget to be able to afford the insurance.

And these are just things.

So my takeaway from this is be very cautious when buying an rv, whether it's new, used, private party or from a dealership.

An extra caution from a dealership and make sure everything works.

All right, so Alexis grieves with that.

She always hears me ranting about that, buying RVs and how cautious we have to be because, man, there's just some duds out there.

And we get customers in here.

I got the best deal.

And all summer long, every time they come in dropping 500 here, 100, I got the best deal.

They're just defeated, looking after a while.

You look like one of them gonna go there.

Oh, no.

All right, so now we're gonna go to enjoying the RV life for Alexis.

And this is her third choice.

And this is about Jace case.

And this is taken from episode 154.

Yeah, this one always struck out to me because I think it's a really good idea.

I kind of want one.

And there's something you can really invest in, which I think is awesome.

So what Covid really, you know, showed us was that the medical system is very fragile.

It can run out of things very quickly.

So this is really nice because it's customizable.

You can get your Jace case online, you can put whatever you want in it, whatever, you know, features you want about it, whatever medicines.

They've got a whole list.

I was kind of looking it up the other day again, just to see they've got just a laundry list of these medications that you can use it.

Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

And they're nice things that donate, expire, you know, right away.

But you do have to watch that because eventually they won't be as potent.

So you'll have to re up your case, which is fine.

That's normal, but they're just nice.

They're.

They're high quality, top of the line stuff.

You can even get a package where you can talk to a doctor about what you might need.

So that'll help.

You can tell them what your health issues are, and then they can help you make the right one for you.

So it just again, gives you that comfort of when you're out RVing, whether that be in the middle of the woods or out on the road, you know, you just know that you're prepared because you know you have the medications you need.

And it's something we don't maybe think about all the time.

But it's super important, and not just to older people, but to younger people, too, who rv.

So it's something we need to have.

This company's really easy to work with, really trustworthy.

So I just really like them.

I like J's case.

So please take your time.

Look online for them, because they are an amazing company and we.

We back them and we probably will buy one.

So my takeaway of that is be prepared, especially with medications.

And with this company, you can customize what you need.

Excellent.

Yeah, being prepared is important.

Now, one thing that I saw on their website, too, is because Alexis mentioned this, sometimes after time, they're not as impo.

As potent as they could be, but they're all.

Drugs are that way.

Yeah.

And even the United States government, when they buy drugs, they know that there's an expiration date, but they also know that it might be good for another year, two, three, four years.

That's how they stockpile all this stuff.

Otherwise they'd be throwing it out very quickly.

Like during the pandemic, they would have been trash and tons of vaccines.

So they actually tell you the expiration dates and then how far you can go before it becomes no longer a good product.

Right.

So that helps because you're not just throwing money away at that point.

And there's safety conscious, so you don't have to worry about it getting poisoned or anything like that either.

You know, Jay's case, go to our website.

There's a link there.

Just click on that bad boy.

It'll also be in the description of this video or this podcast.

I mean, and video.

It'll be everywhere.

And just use that link.

It'll take there.

And I believe you get a discount, too, when you use our link.

Yeah, be great.

Then we make a million dollars per purchase.

It's awesome, you know?

Or is it 3 cents?

I forget.

But somewhere in there, the difference all Right.

So now we're gonna go.

The last portion of enjoying the RV life, And this is RVing without guilt.

So just do it.

Who cares about everybody else?

That's what I say.

You know, sometimes when you get an RV and you start using it, you're traveling.

Conversation you have with your friends and family might be all about you and your rv.

And everywhere you go, everything you do and all your pictures.

Now look at my pictures.

You pull out your phone and you know it's 10,000 pictures.

What you think is really cool.

They think they're a waste of time, you know, which is typical because what we see is different than what everybody else sees.

Your husband's a photographer.

I mean, his pictures are probably much better, but they're probably still gonna be boring for somebody after.

Come on, let's look at these pictures.

So also, you know, you don't want to wear them down that way, but you also want to communicate with people too.

If you are traveling a lot, just let them know where you're at.

Because sometimes we might take off on an extended trip, maybe for three weeks, a month or something.

Not even tell anybody or maybe we mentioned a couple times beforehand.

We just think that they process that, like it's something they need to know or should know, but it's always good.

Just communicate.

Let them know what's happening.

That way you're not thinking about it, oh, we should have told so and so, you know, when you're doing this, when you're RVing, think about the quality of it.

You know, don't worry about everybody else if they can't rv.

Because sometimes just.

It's just funny how humans work.

The mind thinks just, we need to worry and be concerned about this.

Like, do we have too much?

Are we enjoying too much life?

Well, if you got an rv, just use it and enjoy it.

But don't worry about traveling the whole US Just rapidly pick a couple states and enjoy it.

Get the quality out of it rather than the quantity.

Know if someone's helping you.

Maybe they're watching your house while you're gone, or you.

You call them up.

Hey, can you drive by?

I heard there was a big rainstorm or a windstorm.

Be appreciative for that.

Show them the gratitude that you really appreciate it.

And maybe buy them a gift while you're on the road.

That's nice.

In fact, buy a little gift for everybody, even us here at the Smart rvr podcast.

You know, Magnet, actually, gift cards will work okay.

Best buy gift cards.

I think all the Nigerians are asking for those.

So we'll get our plug in there for them.

Well, I meant Nigerian scammers.

Okay, so if there's any Nigerian scammers listening, sorry, but heck, you brought this upon yourself.

The takeaway is don't worry about it.

If you got an rv, use it.

You know, your family and friends, sometimes there's going to be some jealousy or maybe they feel like you're leaving them out, which, you know, now I think about that, you might want to invite them to come along with you so they can experience it.

But just enjoy that lifestyle.

That's why you bought it.

Not for everybody else, you bought it for you.

So enjoy it that way.

Think about it.

Just.

It's about you, man.

No, just enjoy it.

Now, what I noticed here is Alexis's picks versus mine are completely different.

See, hers are more.

How would you say this Alexis, yours are more practical.

Practical.

She wants to worry about dogs, towing, anxiety and medical emergencies.

You know, where I'm just about buying the rv, having a party, and getting on the road and don't worry about it.

Don't worry about.

About it.

Wow.

Big difference there, huh?

Go to our website, the smartrver.com, if you.

And you can read all this stuff.

It's all there.

Well, these articles are there.

And we'll just have a list of the articles so you can read the entire article.

You won't have to go through the entire episode.

Just the article where we were pulling this stuff from.

All right, so now that brings us to staying on the road.

And this is going to be a little bit different today because we don't have one topic.

So in the Last year, in 2024, we talked about a lot of different things like refrigerators, water heaters, furnaces, waste valves for holding tanks, electrical adapters, you know, how to keep them from burning up, power cords.

Not buying things just because the buy buttons there and purchasing too many products.

Right.

Going crazy with it, you know, because that's what they want us to do.

We're fighting back against the man.

No, just kidding.

And then communication.

Communications.

If there's no cell phone service.

One episode we talked about all that I've learned from the.

I forget 10,000 phone calls or something like that.

Yeah.

And, you know, so there's so much.

So all these episodes really have some value in them in the staying on the road section.

So it was hard to just nail down one that I really liked.

Yeah.

One thing that just stood out to me because there's so much in them.

And, you know, really the Plumbing system and the, the 110 volt system in your RV are probably the two most.

I would say Google searched, YouTube searched things or aspects of an RV that need repair and maintenance that people are the most interested in.

So those episodes specifically which we'll have them in the description of the podcast where you can go back and listen to those if you want to.

We'll also, we've also done videos on that as well.

We have.

So we'll put links in for the videos because those are probably the two things.

Like if you go to an RV park, you know, power is important and you want to have water.

Especially if you're traveling without a fresh water tank filled with water, which you know, I would say not to do maybe a little bit for on the road, you know, if you have a breakdown or something comes up, an emergency, but you don't want to travel with 100 gallons of water.

That's just extra weight or 50 gallons extra weight, extra fuel, wear and tear on the tank, everything else, those two things are important.

When you hook up, see power, you plug in, you want to make sure that your adapters aren't going to burn up, your plugs aren't going to burn up, which you've checked all those before you left, I hope.

And then you have power and you're good to go.

You want that air conditioner to kick on and lights to work, everything to be there.

The microwave, gotta have that popcorn.

Popcorn or what else do you micro like that Comfort food maybe, you know.

Yeah, gotta have that party.

Yeah.

So you get there and they're having a party.

You don't have power.

Come on, man.

Yeah, you'll have a riot.

Exactly.

And who needs a riot?

Then you need that Jace case.

Yeah, you will.

And so water systems, you know, once you hook up your water hose, you want everything to work.

You don't want to have to stop what you're doing and fix a water leak.

You know, run into the nearest town or the nearest place that has a part that might work if you haven't already bought the extra parts, which we've talked about having those spare water parts, which you can find several kits on sunpromfg.com, our website.

And even if you don't buy one of those kits, you can look at it gives you an idea of what you should be carrying.

And those parts are very important.

In fact, I carry quite a few of them just to make sure because things happen.

Now mine's probably a little more dialed into my RV because Well, this is what I do for a living.

I think I do.

Right.

Yeah.

Okay.

It's profitable.

We're not a dot org, we're dot com.

So there's money to be made.

All right.

So anyway, see, I'll just go on a whole different thing there, you know, so those are the two main things, but there's so many other things.

And it's.

That's just some of what we covered in the year.

You know, we do 26 episodes a year, so there's 26 episodes.

I mean, I would recommend go back and listen to them all, sharing with your friends and family, everybody else, but that might not be your cup of tea.

Think about your RV and what aspects of it are you not familiar with?

What things do you want to learn more about?

And we can help you at the smart rver.

Like I said, we have YouTube videos, we have our web or all of our episodes, and they go into pretty detail.

I mean, we don't.

You can't repair a furnace in a podcast where you can see it.

Right.

But we certainly can walk you through the steps or how to get it done properly.

You know, there's a lot to that.

So we've covered some ground in the last year.

And if you're keeping up with the episodes, then you've covered some ground too, which is very important.

So you're becoming a smart RVer.

If you're not already a smart RVer.

In fact, you know, we should open up a genius bar.

No, that's taken, isn't it?

Oh, yeah, I guess so, yeah.

Apple people, you know.

Yeah.

Oops.

Oh, well, just gave them a plug.

We take that back.

Continuing that learning process.

Even RV technicians continue to learn.

Now, if you keep your same RV for many years, that's great.

You know, hopefully you know it inside and out.

And when you sell it, you know, it's.

Man, I knew everything about that rv then.

You buy a new rv, you're gonna be starting all over again.

The systems are similar, but they're not identical.

Every RV is built a little bit different.

A motorhome has a lot more electronics and let's say a travel trailer or a fifth wheel.

High end fifth wheels are closer to motorhomes when it comes to electronics, but not as close.

So there's some differences there.

You upgrade, you go from a very simple trailer to a complex motorhome.

You're going to have to start that learning process all over again.

Yeah, but we help you with that.

And being aware of that is half the battle sometimes, you know, Understanding it and just take off one little bit of it at a time so you can understand it.

And that's basically what we do throughout the year.

Our episodes are, you know, just little chunks here, little chunks there.

It's like eating that elephant.

You do it one bite at a time.

You don't eat the whole thing.

And so we.

We've developed it that way.

And that's what we're going to continue to do now next year, which I forgot to mention in our introduction, we're going to have some changes.

Yes.

One of them is.

Which.

Might as well just cover it now, right?

Yeah, we'll get it at the end.

Don't let me forget.

Okay, I won't.

All right, so there we go.

She won't forget, huh?

I didn't see you write it down.

I did not.

Yeah, so I'm on my own on that one.

So I don't want to go on forever about the different aspects of the rv.

But look at your RV and see where we've come into help and where you might need some more help.

In fact, you know, you can send us a.

An email.

You can contact us through the contact us page on our website, the smartrver.com and we all.

We're putting it in the description now phone number and the contact link.

So we're making it easy as possible.

We don't really like putting the phone number out there like that because of spam bots and all that.

Pick it up.

But we're gonna do it anyways.

We're gonna run the risk of more junk phone calls.

But anyways, you can contact us with your questions and we always have the answers and we don't give out answers that are incorrect that we don't do.

Our information is always good.

It's researched, it's thorough.

Yeah, we just make sure it's right because we don't wanna make you the dumb rver.

That's right.

Yeah, there's.

There's no.

Not gonna say that either.

Okay, That's.

Bite my tongue.

All right, so I think that's gonna bring us to the end of staying on the road now.

We're gonna go into.

Well, actually, before we go on, go to YouTube.

Spread the word on YouTube.

We want those subscribes.

We've reached.

We're over 2,000 now, so we're getting closer to that 10,000 mark, but we don't have much time left.

Yeah, come on, guys.

Yeah, it's in the December pretty much, so yeah, we need 8,000 more clicks.

So come on.

Between everybody out there, you got to have 8,000 friends.

Remember, I gave you some simple suggestions before.

Sign up your dogs, your cats.

Even though Alexis hates cats.

I like cats, you know, so sign up your cats, children, grandchildren, your neighbors, their kids.

Make up emails.

Come on.

There you go.

Make it up.

Yeah.

Go to Gmail and just start 900 Gmail account.

If everybody did that, you got another.

Password once, just one time.

That's it.

All right, now we got carried away there.

But, yeah, we are looking for likes and subscribes to the channel.

It helps the channel helps it become found easier, pops up in more algorithms, people that are searching for problems.

And it's helpful.

And same with the podcast.

Share it with everybody, you know.

Very helpful podcast.

All right, so now we're going to move on to the next stop.

We're going to start with Alexis and her top choice.

Well, I shouldn't say top choice.

One of her three top places.

The first one is Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, taken from episode 128.

Yes.

I'm super excited.

So, folks, we're gonna head eastward.

Okay.

We're gonna go to the east coast.

We're going to Virginia.

Colonial Williamsburg is super special.

It's some place I want to go with my husband.

I think it would be awesome whether you're an RVer or not.

I just think it's a neat place because, for one, they dress up in period clothing.

They act like they would have.

They even have accents like they would have back then.

They probably don't shower like they did back then, so you might want to keep your distance.

But it's super neat because they come out in these amazing colonial clothing, and, you know, they tour you around the town.

You can see buildings that were there when the pioneers first came over, and it's.

It's just a fun place to be.

They have fudgeries and all these kinds of things.

The history is just all over the place.

So it's.

It's very different than your normal place that you would go and visit.

It's more theatrical, I would say.

And if you're interested in history, in that type of history, you gotta go there.

It's gotta be on your list because it's just incredible.

And there are a ton of RV parks, by the way, around there.

So you're gonna get really nice scenic RV parks in the area.

So definitely do your research.

Pick where you want to be, and.

And the town will just.

It's amazing.

I mean, you just have to see it.

You have to go buy, you know, whatever colonial stuff that you want and just.

Just have fun with it.

Maybe it's a bonnet.

Maybe you want a bonnet or you know those uncomfortable boots that they wore?

I don't know.

I want to go there.

So my takeaway is it's a really significant center of history and I think everybody should visit it.

There you go.

Colonial Williamsburg.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Reminds me of an episode of the Office Leslie.

Nope.

And that goofball stayed in the cabin or whatever.

Parks and rec.

Yeah.

See, there's a big difference here because my Choice would be RVing in Coyote, Wyoming or Cody, Wyoming.

Excuse me.

Coyote, Wyoming.

Cody, Wyoming.

So there they just shoot the bonnet right off your head.

They will, yeah.

You know, a bonnet.

How'd you pick a bonnet?

That's an interesting choice.

Wear a bonnet.

I don't know, might come in handy.

Oh, no.

Get one for your dog.

Yeah, there you go.

You gotta shoot your dog going to Wyoming.

Cody, Wyoming, specifically.

These next stops.

There's so many things to describe in each one that sometimes hard to describe.

And that's why we have them all on the website, the smarteveryear.com so you can really go there and take in more of it.

But even then it's probably not enough because it goes beyond even that.

So it's doing that research.

But the whole point is to whet your appetite about these places.

Like Wyoming in itself is a great state.

Just that classic old west type Americana type state where there's just.

It's changed but not like with the rest of the country, which is a good thing.

Yeah, it still has a lot of.

Oh, just old towns, a lot of things going on that are very cool.

And of course it's the gateway to Yellowstone.

So it's.

Yellowstone's right there.

Which if you want to go to Yellowstone, spend some time in Wyoming and you know, then hit Yellowstone or afterwards.

But you know, there's.

Wyoming is just one of those states that almost anywhere you drive it's going to be very scenic.

And some are more scenic drives than others, of course.

But like you have the Grand Tetons, that's something to see.

But also besides the scenery, you have the cowboy culture that's in Wyoming and especially in Kaya or Cody.

I don't know why I keep calling it Coyote Coyotes.

And Cody.

Right?

And Cody they have.

During the summer months they have a rodeo every night, which that's pretty cool.

You know, I mean, if you haven't been to a rodeo, that's just an easy way to go to a rodeo.

Oh yeah.

And because it's cowboy culture.

You don't have to wear cowboy boots and a hat.

You can wear just shoes and whatever shorts.

You know, you can dress up like a tourist or whatever you want to do, but you don't have to look like a cowboy.

You don't have to dress up like Buffalo Bill.

Now Buffalo Bill, there's a center there for him too because that was one of his stomping grounds.

So that's an interesting thing.

So there's many different things to do in Wyoming, but specifically Coyote or Cody Coyote.

Let's just rename it.

I'm calling the governor when we're done here.

Rename the state or the city.

Now it's the state.

Oh, boy.

Wyoming is a broad, spacious state that's still wide open.

There's a lot of private land there.

So a lot of dirt roads have gates on them.

That makes it an obstacle.

If you're thinking of just exploring that way, that could become more challenging.

But that in itself is kind of a good thing.

It's a lot of private land, you know, ranches and stuff like that.

Go there or look at it on map.

Do your research and see if it's a place you'd like to go.

It's a family friendly place.

It's an RV friendly place.

Tons of places to eat, rv.

The whole package is there.

And then it could be a great base camp for doing other things or a stopping point along your along to Yellowstone or coming to Montana or Idaho or wherever.

So it's a great place to go.

Now we're gonna go back to Alexis and now she's getting a little more on track here because she's gonna take us to Rio Grande, Texas.

Yeah.

This is an episode 91, this little more western.

I like that.

We're going down south, folks.

No, I don't ruin it.

Everything's on you now.

Yeah.

Okay.

Eric told me not to call it Rio Grande, so.

Or Ariana Grande.

Isn't that what.

Rio Grande.

It's Rio Grande, so I will call it by its proper name.

But yes, this is an amazing place as well.

Also full of history.

It's got a ton of things for you to see and buy, so you can go, you know, if you want to.

They have a big flea market, by the way, which I think is really cool.

Open during the summer.

I was kind of checking this out and a lot of local artists will bring their, their beadwork and their pottery there, so you can, you can buy that.

And there's also a flea market I think is like Older stuff too.

So there's a lot of, you know, antiques and gently used things that you can, you know, look through and buy.

But it's a beautiful place.

It's.

It's got a lot of historical places.

I think there's some graveyards there that really famous cowboys died at, or gallows that, you know, have a lot of stories too.

So if.

If what you want to do is tour it, that's a perfect place to go.

You can do a self tour, you know, do a little research about what happened there and so you can hit the spots that you want to see or hire somebody.

There's a lot of guided tours in places like this, so it's super easy to get someone to take you out there and, and check out the area.

And I just think it's an incredible place to go.

Texas in itself is really amazing.

It's a unique place, a very clean place.

So that's kind of neat.

But there's just so much history, there's so much to see.

It's just a.

It's a really interesting place.

So that is one that you should hit for sure as an RVer.

And my takeaway is just enjoy the culture while you're there because it's very different from other parts of the US So it's unique.

Take advantage of it and go there.

I would agree with that.

Yeah, Texas is pretty cool.

A lot of stuff there.

In fact, all these places are pretty cool.

So now we're gonna hit or go to the heartland of the United States.

Heartland of America.

We're gonna go to Kansas.

This is taking from episode 155, Kansas.

Typically, people think it's just this boring, flat chunk of land where they grow corn.

And that's not really the case.

Kansas is a pretty interesting state.

It's in the Midwest.

It's got that old feel to it, that Americana feel, if you will.

Probably countless movies, videos and such where they show like a car going down the road.

There's the corn stalks or the fields in the background, a sunset, a rolling hill.

Well, that's parts of Kansas.

That's not all of Kansas, but that's parts of it.

There's much to do there.

It's a very unique state.

I mean, every state in the United States has their own uniqueness.

I mean, no two states are alike, and Kansas just is one of those states.

There's a lot of old towns there.

There's a lot of history there.

It's not the same kind of history like you're gonna find in Texas.

Right you know, there were no wars fought there, you know, but actually the Civil War probably spilled over into Kansas, if I'm not mistaken.

It's not like Texas, where there was a lot of battles going on.

It was an interesting place, a lot of history.

A lot of people pass through there heading west.

In fact, some of those trails are still there and preserved where you can see them.

And then the small towns, which.

That's what I really like are the small towns.

You know, forget all the big cities.

Forget that.

Go to the small towns.

And sometimes they seem like the less or least exciting place, but in reality, they have all the history.

Yeah.

And like I've been talking about lately, as if you can talk to people in those towns that know the history, it'll bring that town to life.

It'll change your perspective on it.

It'll change it on the small towns in general.

And so that in itself can make a trip to Kansas worthwhile.

And of course, you know, there's a lot of scenery there to see, and that's great.

The small towns, there's big towns.

You know, there's, like I said, the history, like some of the trails, the Oregon Trail, the Pony Express, spent a lot of time going back and forth through there.

So there's a lot of things that you can not only see present in current time, you know, you can also go back in time and not to mention, you think about all the farmers out there growing all that food, their lives, what they go through.

You look at these farms are just vast amounts of whatever they're growing, corn, wheat, whatever it might be.

That's a life there, a very interesting life.

And if you can talk to some of those people, that's going to give you a different perspective on the next time you eat an ear of corn or a piece of bread, what they have to do to make their living.

And it's back breaking work.

And it goes from family to family.

Although that's changing anymore.

These farms are getting gobbled up by big companies.

So you want to see why they're still actually small and nice.

See, it's another slice of Americana that, you know, kind of brings you back to a time when things were better.

And that's what he's looking for today.

It is.

Not to mention, it's great for children because they can learn something different, set their phones down, pay attention to stuff, and they might complain a little bit, but, man, it's a something they won't see every day.

You're not going to see it in most states, in cities, where most people live.

So I would say check out Kansas.

Even if you're going someplace and you're driving through Kansas, take a little more time than maybe you normally would.

Don't make it a rush to get from one side of the state to the next.

You know, stop and enjoy it.

The warm hospitality, the small towns.

What a wonderful place to go.

All right, so that's my take on Kansas.

And my takeaway is just spend a month there and visit the entire state.

Like, you know, there's so many states like that.

Yeah, definitely.

You know, back in the old days, the very wealthy, they would just take years off to go someplace.

1800s, if they wanted to go to the US that wasn't like a weekend trip, get on a steamer, head across the Atlantic, they'd be gone for a year or two.

We can't do that as easily today, but we can do it over time.

All right, so now that's going to take us to the final portion of this.

And next stop, to White sans New Mexico with Alexis taken from episode 119.

Yes.

Going down into the warmer climate again, we're going down back into the south a little more.

This one is very interesting to me because of how unique the area is and how much you can do, and you might even learn a new sport.

So this is super fun.

It's just covered in white sands, obviously.

So there's.

The dunes are amazing, though.

There's miles and miles and miles of it.

There's actually a trail that you can take either on four wheelers or you can do it in your own car.

You can just drive them.

And it's just like another planet.

It is like nowhere else.

And you're used to seeing desert, but, you know, if you're used to seeing desert, you're used to seeing brown sand, probably, but this is white.

It looks like salt, you know, everywhere.

I'm sure I haven't been there.

I will.

It does.

Okay.

See, he knows he's been there.

This place is incredible.

And.

And what they do out there is they sled on it, but it's nothing like snow.

So if you're from the colder side of the US it's not like snow.

It's not slippery like that.

So there's a learning curve to it.

But I think it sounds really fun and I've kind of seen people do it, you know, and the.

The fail videos when they fall is pretty fun.

So wait, do they go to the top of a sand dune and just sled down?

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, that's Pretty awesome.

And it's like a very well known thing that they do out there.

It's gotta be something you do.

You gotta pick up a sled and do it.

I think it's just so much fun.

But besides that, if you don't want to do that, I think you should at least try it once if you're there.

But there's a lot of hiking out there and most of that land is just you can go basically wherever your heart takes you.

There's not really designated trails here, even though it's a national park.

It's just the way the place works that you can just hike around there.

So my takeaway is be sure you buy a sled before you go there, because you have to do it.

It's incredible.

And just enjoy the.

The weird, unearth like place.

It is different, that's for sure.

Very different.

All right, so I said the last one, but that was Alexis's last pick.

My last.

So I have mine yet to go here.

The last one.

And that's exploring the most famous RV parks in the usa.

Wow.

So still Colonial Williamsburg is bottom of the list, I tell you.

Sorry.

But anyway, so the RV park, they're kind of spread out all over the US I got a list here.

I'm just going to kind of go through the list.

So we'll start with Arizona.

There's a trailer village RV park, and that's at the Grand Canyon.

Being at the Grand Canyon is really the thing.

Yeah, RV park's cool, but the Grand Canyon makes it that much better.

The Grand Canyon is quite the place and you can spend a lot of time there.

You got the north side, the south side, completely different.

You can go on the donkey rides, you can hike, you can just explore.

And everything around there is really interesting too.

So even if you spent time just exploring beyond the Grand Canyon, you're going to find all sorts of very interesting things.

And then Yellowstone, actually West Yellowstone in Montana, there's the Yellowstone Grizzly RV park, which there they serve up grizzly bear every night.

No, I'm just kidding.

They serve up humans every night.

The grizzly bears serve up human every night.

That's true, they do.

So it's another RV park in this West Yellowstone.

West Yellowstone's this cool little town.

You got to go there.

It's right next to Yellowstone.

And that in itself makes again worth going there.

That's where these places are just in these strategic spots where you can go to the nearby attraction or you can go do other things around it.

You're not Obligated to one thing.

Now Myrtle Beach, Florida.

Florida is another one on the list.

Now.

I've never been to Myrtle Beach.

I've been to Florida and so I really can't speak to this.

Florida is a cool state.

It's interesting.

You kind of have to see it to understand it.

It's hard to explain.

It's got that kind of beachy feel to it, but yet it doesn't.

I don't know how to explain that other than that.

So that's my explanation.

I guess so.

I would go to Myrtle Beach, Florida to go to the RV park.

But there's also.

We talked about that.

I remember that in that area it's kind of expensive as I recall, just dining.

Sorry.

So there's other places that are less expensive, I think.

Yeah.

And that was one of the things.

Florida had some kind of high end areas and more affordable areas.

If I was going to go to Florida, I'd definitely go there.

I'd want to go to Myrtle beach just because of the reputation it has.

You know, everybody goes to Myrtle Beach.

It's one of those places.

It's one of those hot spots.

Yeah.

And then of course there's in Utah, the Zion River Resort.

Now Zion is a pretty cool area.

You have the Zion park, you have Zion itself.

It's a neat place.

Utah has all sorts of these little gyms there and Zion happens to be one of them.

I've been through the park, but I've never really explored it.

Went from one side to the other.

We were going somewhere and went through.

That's all I can speak to actually being there now.

My wife and I went camping near there one time, but we never went into Zion.

But we hit all these parks around it.

Very cool.

Like Kodachrome Basin.

I can't think of all the others, but definitely worth the trip.

And again, it's one of these places where you can do all these other exploratory trips around the main attraction.

Now San Francisco's on my list.

I'm not even going to talk about it.

It's in California.

I'm done with San Francisco, California, the whole thing.

Sorry, California.

Yeah.

Alexis knows how I feel.

In fact, I'll let you know how I feel.

But.

So now we'll go back to Utah.

We'll go to Moab this time.

Now Moab is.

Everybody knows about Moab, I think bicycling, off roading, rock crawling and jeeps and stuff.

It's one of those very scenic moon landing looking places.

You know the Orange Rock and Yellow rock and all that and rounded and everything.

So, Moab, even if you're not really into that type of outdoor stuff, it'd probably be worth the trip to go there for a day just to see it.

Say you've been there, buy a little sticker, a magnet or something.

Yeah.

And you never know, you might be surprised.

There might be some things around there that you would like.

But there's an RV resort there.

So sometimes you talk to other people in the RV resort and you might find a whole different world of things to do there.

And you might discover a new hobby.

You know, you might go home and spend a hundred thousand dollars on a Jeep so you can go crawl them rocks.

You know, expensive hobby, but you can do it.

So Moab is one of those places as well, the RV resort there.

Then there's Borrego Springs in California.

Now this is down lower in the desert, so I'm okay with it.

Now Brago Springs is.

I don't know, I think most people think Brago Springs is kind of a ghetto type area, but it's not.

It's actually pretty cool.

It's not too far from Palm Springs and Indio and those places.

So they do have golf courses and stuff there, RV resorts.

So I would say if you're in the area, it'd be worth checking out.

I personally wouldn't make a trip to go there just to see it.

In fact, I lived in California and never did, only because of everything I heard about it, you know, But I don't think it's really that way.

And the next one I'm going to skip because I can't even pronounce it.

That works.

Ashwagandhi.

I don't know what it is.

And then Garden of the Gods in Colorado.

So that's in Colorado Springs.

That's another RV resort.

Colorado's changing rapidly.

Get in there while you still can.

See it.

While it's good.

There's a lot of things in Colorado.

Again, you go to the RV resort and that can be your base camp for doing a lot of great exploring in Colorado.

And you know that Colorado Springs is pretty cool.

Been there, done that.

That whole area in there is nice.

So I would definitely spend some time there and enjoy it.

So that brings us to the end of the next stop as far as the places we've gone.

Now we're going to talk about some places to eat, because every show we always talk about eating and we're hungry afterwards and all of that.

So we're going to start with Alexis's first pick on her place to eat.

So it's Brad's Bakery in New York.

I'm super excited about this one.

I was brushing up on it, and I realized there are a lot more locations than I thought.

So it's not just Manhattan where the original one is, I believe.

So if you're a New Yorker and I'm wrong, please let me know.

This is an amazing place.

It's family owned.

There are just incredible pastries.

So the patisserie, or they call it, you know, the Brits.

So it looks beautiful out on the shelf.

You just go in and it's warm in there, and they've got all your favorites, stuff you probably shouldn't be eating.

But that's the best part about traveling anywhere is eating what you shouldn't eat and being a part of the culture and just enjoying yourself.

So this is a bakery that you can do that at.

And there, like I said, there are a ton of locations around New York, so you're not just tied down to one.

If you're staying in a certain part of the city, it's huge.

Just look it up.

I'm sure you'll find one that's more, you know, centrally located to you.

That is definitely high on the list.

I think that's from episode 162.

So be sure to check out that entire episode or entire episode.

Segment.

Segment.

But go back there.

Yeah.

Bread.

Bread's Bakery.

Man, that is one to see.

So that's my takeaway is.

Is go there, eat a croissant.

There you go.

And all these places to eat are in each episode.

So that would be an Episode162 on the website.

Right.

All right, Now, Alexis mentioned about places where you shouldn't eat while you're traveling.

All that bad food.

Wait until she gets to her third check.

Man, you're gonna get sick just thinking about it.

Oh, man.

All right, so my first pick is in Tucson, Arizona.

And this actually is an episode we developed, but we never did it for some reason.

We call it, like the lost episode.

So, you know, for those mystery hunters out there, there's a lost episode that we have somewhere.

Find it.

My place to eat was El Guero Canelo.

I'm probably saying that wrong, but it means the blonde guy.

And the owner of the place is a Mexican guy, but he has blonde hair, so it fit.

Now, forget about him.

The food is unbelievable.

It's that real authentic from Mexico, Mexican food.

It's not like one of those chains, like, I can't even think of any names.

Right now, I can.

California or state where they got the chain restaurant, like the Red Onion or something, where it's just that Americanized stuff.

Yeah.

I remember a Mexican person one time ate at one of those places, like El Paso Cantina, I think, or one of them places, and she's like, what kind of food is this?

She's like, this is horrible.

Hilarious.

So this is the real deal.

And probably the thing I liked on their menu the most was their hot dogs, because they're Mexican hot dogs.

They take a roll and carve it out, and they put the dog in there.

Then you just pack it full of everything.

You can get it with some stuff on it already.

Then you can put all the fixings on it.

You know, the sliced jalapeno, carro, sliced jalapenos, the cabbage, all that good stuff.

The spicy things, very filling, unbelievably good.

So if you're in Tucson, go there to El Gueto Canelo.

That's the place to go if you want real authentic, real authentic Mexican food.

All right, so now I'm getting hungry, so we're gonna have to speed this up.

Alexis now, next one is she's going to take us to Farm and Fire in Banff, Canada.

Ah, this is a cool one.

We're going all the way up into Canada, our Canadian brethren.

But Farm and Fire is very interesting because it's farm to table, so they take a lot of pride in doing things locally and taking meat and their grain and their fruits and veggies, and it's all local, and they just make amazing dishes.

If you check out their menu, it's just incredible sounding.

I wouldn't mind having a meal from them.

So if you're listening, anybody from Canada, let them know that's place they kill.

The cow right there.

Right?

It is.

You can hear a mooing in the back.

You'll pick your cow and.

Yeah, exactly.

Right on.

Like Red Lobster, but for cows.

No, it's great.

And people, you know, it's concerning what we put in our body.

So this is a place where you don't have to worry about that.

It's very good.

And.

And the ambiance, too, is really neat here.

Banff is kind of, you know, that ski town a little fancier, and this is definitely fitting in that.

But it's also.

It's also a place that you can, you know, spend time with your friends and family.

It's a very warm environment.

I think there's a.

A fireplace right in the middle of the restaurant.

So very inviting camp Is usually cold a lot, you know, a long time in the year.

I don't know what I'm saying.

Long winners, long winter.

But it's a place where you can cozy in and have a nice meal and just enjoy the environment around you.

So if you're in Canada, if you're in Banff, that is the place to look up.

That's my takeaway.

Right.

You know, that could be your one, like super high end meal if you wanted to.

Yeah.

I'm sure it's not cheap, you know, but it's not gonna be like your last one here.

But I decided to share it in Texas because of the barbecue and the brisket.

Yeah.

Well, these things tell so much about every us, right?

So many things.

It's true.

Barbecue is just awesome when it's good.

Yeah.

You know, when you get bad barbecue, man, it's just like, it's horrible.

You don't even want to finish it.

It's like, what's the point?

You know, and they give you some sloth.

It's just like, you know, is it from KFC or something?

You know, and.

But you know, Texas or Sheridan, Texas is known for their barbecue.

And those are the places to go that are known for barbecue.

You know, there's a lot of places that have barbecue.

Like I said, it's just not the same though.

But when they're known for it, man, everybody's competing.

You got all these little restaurants and shops that are all competing to get the customers and make their barbecue unique.

The sauces they put on it, the way they cook it.

We cook our this way, we cook ours that way.

And you know, all of a sudden you're just, how do you know what to choose?

You know, you're kind of going from one to the next and.

But the hunger you get, the more desperate you get.

But, you know, that kind of food can be so good and it's that bad food, but generally it's fresher bad food.

That's true.

It's the better quality bad food.

And the pork and all that probably isn't that bad in itself, but it's everything else that goes with it, you know, especially when you got that really good slaw and when these guys are bragging about it and they're proud about what they're making, those are the good restaurants.

You know it, they're into it.

Then you get brisket there, if you like brisket.

So it's one of those towns that's just all encompassing that type of food.

And that's not the Only one in the United States.

But different areas have different types of barbecue as well.

So you have to consider that Texas might not be your flavor for barbecue, but it certainly would be for me.

And I've been to Texas.

I've been to some places there, but I don't recall ever having barbecue.

Oh, man.

I've never been to Sheridan either.

So maybe I gotta put that on my list and get there so that all that information is in episode 152.

And again, these things are gonna be listed on our website, so you can check them out.

This is really what I've been waiting for.

Especially Alexis is talking about all this good food, and it's good for you and everything.

This one just blows it right out of the water.

So Alexis, she's gonna take us to Texas.

Now, what's interesting is Rio Grande, Texas.

And there's probably not.

Not a shred of barbecue on the place she's talking about.

There's probably not even a vitamin of any kind in this place she's talking about.

So, Alexis.

What?

Tell us about Mr.

Corny.

Okay.

And the name even.

Come on.

So Mr.

Corny.

Oh, how do you describe this place?

It actually became Tick Tock Famous.

Because it is.

So that right there says it all.

Yeah.

It is just where you would go to find the grit of the grit of junk food.

So one thing they do.

Mexican junk.

Yes, Mexican junk food.

So it is just covered in, you know, cheese.

Get your bag of Takis here.

This is one of their dishes.

Okay.

They actually take these.

Okay.

You can't see this if you're listening.

She's holding up a bag of Takis.

They're like, equivalent to Fritos.

I.

Or.

No, you're all crunchy.

Flaming hot.

Cheetos.

Yeah.

Okay.

So fuego.

That means hot, I'm sure.

Right.

Anyway, but I think.

Okay, look at the color scheme of this.

So if you look it up online, this is what Mr.

Corny looks like.

It's purple like this with the yellow.

Okay.

You can't miss this place, by the way.

It is so.

It's just insane.

Their sign.

And then their whole building is this bright, electric purple.

You go in and, I mean, you got your sugar, you've got your carbohydrates, you've got your saturated fats.

Anything they do there is just extra.

So they've got the Takis and the Cheetos, and they just dump cheese on it and more cheese on top of that.

It is just insane.

And the hot sauce.

Yeah, the hot sauce.

Okay.

You've got that.

The ice cream with the sugar coated on top of it, the blue dye that you're gonna.

Your mouth is gonna turn blue do.

It's just junk food capital.

All right.

So if you're an RVer, though.

Yeah.

And you go there, you're probably not going to eat anything.

And if you have kids, though, they're gonna love it.

I want to suggest something, and this.

Is that bad thing.

You'll let your kids just go wild.

Here, get yourself some of these, some white.

You're gonna need these if you eat anything.

They're butt wipes for those who are just listening.

Okay.

Very vital.

Gonna be coming out of you.

That's my takeaway.

It's an interesting choice.

So along border towns.

Which Rio Grande's a border town.

It's catering to the Mexican kids.

Okay.

And not in a negative way.

It's just they're selling all the junk.

And this kind of stuff in Mexico just is popular.

The place looks like it came out of like Tijuana or something.

Totally Mexico.

So I would definitely go there.

Just, if not anything else, to see it, to see this in real life and how much.

Oh, man, your fingers are just covered with everything.

You just wipe it wherever.

It don't even matter.

You can get Takis in the States.

You can just try them out.

You don't have to put anything on them.

They are smoking hot, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think they're hotter than those Flamin Hot Cheetos.

I think so.

And these things are bad for you.

Real bad.

So they must be good, right?

So now we're gonna go to someplace a bit different, a little farther from the border to Arco, Idaho.

I picked this place.

We did an episode about Craters of the Moon.

And that was kind of the.

The thing because that.

That's a place by itself.

So you can go like to Twin Falls.

You can go to Arco.

It's kind of out there, but in Arco, Idaho.

Arco is kind of a cool little town.

It's one of them older towns.

Been there a long time.

But there's a place called Pickles Place.

Now, there's really nothing spectacular about it other than the cool little stickers they sell that have a pickle with hands and.

Or arms and feet and stuff.

So that's some fun.

But they sell their own little spices, little jars of them.

And that's.

That's cool.

But the place is just unique looking.

You know, obviously there's a guy.

A pickle guy out front.

It's green and, you know it's just got that total feel to it, like you're in a jar of pickles.

For better or worse.

I guess that's better than being in a jar of beets, right?

Like a blood vessel.

Yeah.

But the food there is good.

You know, they have hamburgers, hot dogs, all the normal fare.

And it's not like to die for food, but it's just good food.

You know what you're going to get.

The prices are fair.

So it's just one of those good places to eat that is not the attraction there.

It's just one of the things there that kind of makes Arco, Idaho a cool place.

So if you go to Arco, you got to go to Pickles Place.

Or if you're passing through there, if you're going to Craters of the Moon or Twin Falls, Idaho.

Is it Twin Falls?

It's inland.

I think so.

Yeah.

So but I would go there.

Buy yourself a sticker.

Actually get a couple of them.

Two or three.

You're going to want more than one.

Buy some of their spices.

It's good on a lot of different things.

You know, try it out.

Try it on Tater tots.

Really good on those.

Oh, man.

Yum.

That some ketchup.

Oh, boy, I'm so hungry.

I know.

It's like we just go to Mexico all the time.

Just get near the border and you start smelling all the food.

That that's the end of our next stop and the place to go and the places to eat.

So go to our website and like I said in the description of this podcast, we're going to have all these episodes listed and what we talked about as well.

Not the details, just the heading there.

So, you know, Mr.

Corny and you got to look that up on the.

We'll put a picture in there just for the fun of it.

You'll get a kick out of it.

All right, so now we're coming up to RV Envy.

And so there are three areas that thought were very interesting that we talked about through the year were RV Defender being one and the FloMax toilet valve.

Toilets.

Big deal, right?

Well, this thing saves you some money and headaches and hassles and then the safe view 30 and 50amp power inlets.

So let's go back to the RV Defender.

So the RV Defender is a tire blowout system for travel trailers and fifth wheels.

It's not going to work on every trailer.

It has to.

You know, there's a lot of measurements you have to get.

It sounds kind of daunting, but it's not too hard to do.

It's just when it.

When you install it.

This is not one of those things you want to install to find out you can't install it, because I did that, and it's a hassle.

You got your axles out, everything out.

And I was swapping axles, so it was already all apart.

The problem I ran into, my axles were an inch too wide.

Then this could accommodate.

So it posed an issue.

Other than that, though, this thing is pretty darn nice.

And I almost want to get the right axles to make it work, but I'm not going to do that.

What it is, it's like a fender that wraps around your tire, the upper half of the tire, so if you get a blowout, it doesn't destroy the underneath of your trailer because, you know, the blowout in itself.

A tire blowing out, what, 200 bucks, 300 bucks.

Not the end of the world.

You got to throw on your spare, go find another tire, and we can deal with that.

But when it tears out your holding tank, your fender skirts on the side, does some damage to the body, the tire rips up through the floor, and, you know, destroys your refrigerator, your furnace or something.

That's where the problem is.

You know, a $200 tire can cause two or three or $4,000 worth of damage pretty easy.

So these things eliminate that.

Definitely worth looking into.

Maybe it's not your cup of tea.

Maybe you don't want to spend the money on it.

You're not going to worry about it.

But it's definitely one of these items you have to check out.

So there's gonna be a link to that in our description of this podcast.

And I'm definitely a fan of that product.

I wish I could have them on my trailer, man, I really do, but I can't.

That's life.

And so next is the Flomax toilet valve.

Now, the Flomax toilet valve is for the Lippert flowmax toilet.

And the reason why this thing, I think is so cool is because the it replaces the water valve on the Dometic 310 toilet.

They're identical.

In fact, the toilets look almost identical.

Little variation in the past, Lippert has had Dometic make awnings for them.

So maybe they made this toilet form.

I don't know.

This part is 25 bucks versus $80 or more from Dometic for their 3 10.

You're saving $75 minimum by buying the Flow Max valve.

So if you have a dometic 310 toilet and your Water goes.

Water valve fails on you.

Which it will.

They do.

I mean, how many of those we sell a year?

I'll access quite a few tons of them at 80 bucks are whack.

And most stores are like a hundred.

Yeah, you know, actually we're under 80, you know, like 75.

Yeah.

So this thing's going to save you some money.

It's the exact same valve.

So if Dometic 3, I should.

I said 310.

But any 300 series toilet from Dometic uses the same water valve.

If you go to an RV store and you see the Flomax water valve for a Lippert toilet, buy that.

If you have a 300 series dometic toilet and you need to replace the water valve, save some money.

And that came from our episode 158.

The next one is the safe view 30 and 50amp power inlets for RVs.

So this is where you plug in the.

Your power cord to the side of the rv.

Power cord has a twist.

So you twist lock it in there.

And what I like about them is they tell you if you have a bad ground or no ground, if you have a bad neutral or no neutral if there's no power whatsoever by plugging in your cord.

Those leads in the cord, if they're not working in the RV park, which your cord probably won't be the issue.

It's the park where you plug into and it tells you so.

It has a G for ground, an L for load, and an N for neutral.

So if one of those is red, you have a problem.

If they're all green, you're good to go.

So that's pretty cool.

Then it also has around the side of it an LED light that's just white.

It's just there at night so you can find your cord.

It doesn't light up.

It's not like a porch light where all your neighbors are being all wound up.

What is this guy's problem, man?

It's not that kind of light.

But the red light, if it's flashing at you, it's gonna drive you crazy because you're gonna want to fix that problem.

In fact, on my trailer, I plugged it in yesterday and the cord I had didn't have the neutral on it.

Someone pulled it off.

Someone.

Someone, probably me.

And that the light was flashing.

I really didn't care because before I put this on, I didn't.

There was no light.

But now I saw the light and I can't walk away from this.

So I got another power cord and I actually had to another outlet because, you know, one of my outlets got a little bit of a problem too.

Yeah, my, my shop's a little unique, but anyway, so it's like I had to have all green lights.

And so if you're at a park and you got a red light, you know, you definitely want to look into it because generally LED the red lights, you'll be able to use your rv, but it's a safety issue.

You might lose your neutral.

You might not have the right ground so you could get electrocuted.

Things can happen and, you know, you don't want to think that it won't happen to you because it can.

Odd things happen with power.

Even the park where you plug in or the box you plug into have issues.

You touch it and you get zapped.

You don't want to think it can't happen.

I remember along these lines something a little bit different.

But in an RV or a mobile home park in Arizona, installing the sunshade or window covers on this house and I leaned against this patio cover from the neighbor's house and I got shocked.

That's the weirdest thing.

Touch it and I finally put a volt meter on.

It had 120 volts going through it.

So odd things happen with power.

So you want to make sure your RV is wired right or the park you're plugging into.

So the safe views, and those are made by Hughes Autoformers.

Couldn't think of the name there.

So they make great products and they're definitely a power driven company.

So they understand the ins and outs of electrical.

Bringing us to the end of the show today.

Yeah.

So one last reminder thing we talked about is going to be in the description.

Check us out on YouTube like and subscribe.

Subscribe.

Subscribe, subscribe.

Share our podcast with everybody you know, great information.

So we want everybody to know about it and learn more about what we're doing here and how we're helping the RVers become smart RVers.

And before I forget, since Alexis didn't remind me, I was going to come on next year in 2025, we're going to be introducing another portion or another segment in, in the next stop.

It's called Shadows of the past.

The towns that once were.

Yeah.

And so we're going to be exploring the normal next stop towns, but they're going to be neighbors to a town, a very small town, a town that's a shadow of the past.

Basically.

The town may be alive today, but it's not like a thropping or a Thriving metropolis.

It's just a very small town.

So we've been working on that.

And it's very cool because it's bringing back a slice of life that people miss now.

You know, everybody's kind of craving these places.

They're becoming more popular.

There's small towns now where a house, you know, prior to the pandemic was $20,000.

Now they're 250, 300,000.

So it's amazing how people are flocking to these places and it's not crazy.

Go on the Internet and look, man.

You'll see it.

Yeah, you will.

But.

So we're going to these places and we're going to start sharing them and doing a lot more research on them.

The show's not going to be as in depth as our website will.

Sure.

So we're definitely going to do some coverage on these.

So we're going to hit two places.

The normal next stop and then.

Which will be a neighboring town to a shadow of the past, the town that once was.

Yes.

Then there's going to be some other subtle changes that we're just going to work in, but that's one of the major changes.

So you're aware of that.

You have a little more to look forward to.

That brings us to the end of the show today.

And I want to thank everybody for listening, everybody for watching Alexis, for bringing her butt wipes, as she said.

You're welcome.

And a bag of talkies, man, you know, we should have, like a giveaway.

Yeah.

Or maybe we should save these and put them in the archive for some time.

There you go.

Yeah, I got a signed package of butt wipes from the Smart rv.

Well, that just pretty much sums up the quality of the show.

Anyways, so, hey, I want to thank Alexis for her effort today and bringing in her gifts that we're gonna put in the archives for a while.

Then one day we'll sell them off at auction for millions.

And I want to thank everybody else for watching and listening.

So this is Eric Stark with the Smart RVer podcast.

It's been great hanging out with everybody today.

I don't see on the road.

Let's connect@the smartrver.com.