RV LIFE Podcast
The RV LIFE Podcast, created by one of the premier companies in the RV industry, is for the RV Community with a mission to Educate, Entertain and Explore the RV Lifestyle. Episodes explore everything about RV living: travel, maintenance, lifestyle, working on the road, industry insight, and more. Our team of remote hosts includes seasoned RVers, full-timers, content creators, and industry experts.
RV LIFE Podcast
Quartzsite, Mexico, The RV Actress, and More - RV LIFE 148
Get a peek behind the scenes at Quartzsite, Mexico RVing tips, new RV electrical news, and meet the Netflix actor working on the road.
This week on the RV LIFE Podcast, we’re taking you behind the big tent at Quartzsite. Discover how this legendary desert gathering is like “Burning Man meets an RV show.” John DiPietro talks with Kimmy King, the woman who runs the famous Quartzsite Sports, Vacation & RV Show, now celebrating 43 years.
Then we head south of the border for practical, eye-opening tips on RVing in Mexico with longtime caravan leader Paul Beddows—covering safety, border crossings, road conditions, and what first-timers need to know.
Next, Rose & Glynn chat with actress and entrepreneur Cara Ann Marie, who balances Netflix roles and her eco-friendly pet business, Doggy Do Good, all from the road. And Bob wraps up with RV electrical expert Mike Sokol, who explains a major industry safety update coming in 2026.
Travel tips, lifestyle inspiration, income ideas, and essential RV news—all in one episode.
Get Complete Show Notes & Full Transcript
https://podcast.rvlife.com/rvlife148/
Connect & Learn More
- https://facebook.com/rvlifepodcast/
- https://instagram.com/rvlifepodcast/
- https://www.facebook.com/groups/rvlifemovement
Be A Guest or Share Your Story!
https://podcast.rvlife.com/contact
Special Discount Codes: Click Link & Use Code
* RV LIFE Pro 25% off at check out
In some ways I think you're actually safer down there.
SPEAKER_05:This lifestyle is an adventure. It's still wild.
SPEAKER_10:RV life, RV life. RV life, RV life, RV life, RV Life Podcast.
SPEAKER_02:Welcome back to the RV Life podcast. This week we're diving into one of the biggest gatherings that you might have heard about, Quartzight. John has a great conversation for us, all about the big show, as everyone calls it. The Quartzite Sports Vacation and RV show. The big show indeed.
SPEAKER_11:If you've never heard about quartzite, you're probably not an RVer. And I think it's actually mandatory, written somewhere, that if you're a full-time RV'er, you gotta go at least once. I remember our first trip to Quartzite and all of the exciting gadgets. I was so overwhelmed by all the new rigs and what's going on under the tent. But what really struck me the most and what really stands out was the connections I made. I love the boondocking in the desert and the free camping and the sunsets and all the parties, the rallies, the gatherings, the get-togethers. Quartzite's really about community.
SPEAKER_02:And the flea market.
SPEAKER_11:You can't miss that. But let's not get too sidetracked here. If quartzite isn't far south enough for you this winter, how about Mexico? Today we're gonna hear from a long-term traveler to Mexico and share what you need to know about RVing south of the border. Spoiler alert, it's safer than you think.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, it is. We're gonna talk with our friend Paul, and he's gonna share what it takes to RV through Mexico safely and have fun doing it. He has a lot of must-know tips for first-timers, so pay attention.
SPEAKER_11:You know, speaking of Mexico, Renee, when I've spent the winter in Alaska with you, you promised that we'd spend the following winter in Mexico, and here we are, another winter's almost gone by. I guess I owe you one. Let's go. It's definitely still on my list. But hold on. We've got much more in store for you here. For our working on the road income segment, we meet a Hollywood actor who balances filming and entrepreneurship from her RV. Then Bob wraps things up with an important RV tech update that affects every future RV owner.
SPEAKER_02:Alrighty, let's get things rolling here and kick it off with our RV travel segment with everything you need to know about quartzite.
SPEAKER_11:Right, the big show. Every January, hundreds of thousands of RVers roll into Arizona Desert for what many call the Super Bowl of RV shows.
SPEAKER_02:John Di Pietro is going to talk with Kimmy King. She's the woman who runs it all, the Quartzite RV show celebrating its 43rd year.
SPEAKER_08:Hey everybody, and welcome once again to the RV Life podcast. And you know that when you talk about Super Bowls, granddaddies of them all, and big events in any category, if you're talking RVing, the big event, the big, big one, is quartzite. And with me today is the I'm gonna use a dire, I'm gonna call you a director. I know you're much more than that. You're the chief cook bottle washer, you direct traffic, you put the tent up, you you um direct the camels all around there and and everything. Kimmy King, who is uh in charge of Quartzight. And Kimmy, uh welcome to the RV Life podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much. I'm very happy to be here. And yes, I have many hats I wear, so I'll take director. That works for me.
SPEAKER_08:That's the easiest one, huh? Yeah, I'll take it. With the least responsibility.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, oh, I like to direct. I will tell people what to do, don't worry.
SPEAKER_08:Okay, okay. And then there's times when you end up doing it yourself when there aren't others that do it. But um uh you know, when we met a few years ago when I was out there, one of the things that I noticed is that you are very down to earth, very focused, uh, and very approachable to the attendees. In fact, I think I recall on opening day, you wanted to be right at the gate to welcome people there as they came in. Um, tell us a little bit about the show. I know your dad started it, but he really didn't start it as an RV show. He um had a really kind of roundabout route to get to where Quartzight is today.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so my late father, Kenny King, um, he was he was in the RV industry. He sold RV awnings for awning system.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:Um, and so he was actually going in, he lived in Southern California and he'd go to all the surfside RV parks, I guess you could call them then too, and uh was kind of going literally door to door selling RV awnings. And someone mentioned Quartzight to him, and he made his way out to Quartzight, and he was actually at the show across the street from us, which is the Tyson Wells. Um, and he started selling RV awnings there and essentially outgrew it by making his own show within the show and ended up getting the kicked out. And uh him and my mom kind of put together this cool plan of, you know, we have this Mecca, we have this small town, quiet town, lots of RVers, lots of snowbirds. What can we bring to Courtsite um that would be unique? And he thought, why not an RV show? And that was in 1983, and him and uh his late partner, Mal Mallory, which is the other founder of the Courtsight RV show, sort of built this thing, right? They they kind of melted it into what it needed to be each year to find its groove, which is sports, vacation, and RV. Um, and then here we are almost 43 years later. And my husband and I are the uh are who run it now.
SPEAKER_08:You know what? I was trying to do the math. Thank you for saying 43 because I was gonna have 42 down. But 43 years, I mean, when you go to the show, if you've been to another show, if you've been to Hershey or if you've been to Tampa um or uh any other regional show that takes place throughout the country in January, February, March, this show is totally different. Um totally different. Talk about what makes quartzite quartzite.
SPEAKER_01:So it's quartzite is is different in the fact that we are direct to the consumer. So we are a consumer-based RV show. So we're not you're not gonna see um tens of twenties of dealerships or manufacturers there with all the new layouts. We, it's our own property that we own. It's only 17 acres, and we only use the show grounds as about four acres. So we had a problem with not having enough manufacturers at one point or not having enough room for the manufacturers. So um we are a direct-to-the-consumer sports vacation parts accessory home show. So if you are an RVer that loves to RV or even is just what I call a weekend warrior who just likes to go out on the weekends with your family and you're looking for the newest, latest, and greatest in RVing things, right? Under our Big Ten is where you'll find them. You know, we don't have all the room that we have for the manufacturers, but we do have RVs for sale. So we're a little bit of a of a combination of a show, and we're definitely not your typical RV show. We're in the middle of the desert. Most people come, they stay, they're there for sometimes days, weeks, months. Um, you know, it's kind of a mecca of of a diverse group of people that that that can join in quartzite and they all find something for someone under the big tit.
SPEAKER_08:Talk about the vibe of quartzite because when it's when it's not during showtime, it's what five, seven, eight thousand people?
SPEAKER_01:3,500.
SPEAKER_08:Okay, 3,500 people.
SPEAKER_01:So quartzite's tiny.
SPEAKER_08:Come to okay, we're going from 3,500 to the heart of the season.
SPEAKER_01:I would say the heart of the season, which is January. Um, I there's been so many numbers thrown out there, but just based on being able to look at the BLM limb, I mean, there's gotta be at least quarter to a half a million people in courtsight, not necessarily coming to my show, right? So those numbers get a little bit skew. People think that I have that many at my show. You know, there's people come to courtsight for the weather, they come to courtsite for the quietness, they come to courtsite for the BLM to be alone. Um, there's such a diverse group of people. So courtsite's only 3,500 when the season isn't going on. And then it blossoms during, you know, November, December, January really being the heart of it, because there's a couple other shows going on in concurrence with my show. Um, and then they stay all the way into March until you know the snow melts back home or they're ready to go to the next place. Um, but we really, it's it's just this beautiful thing that happens where it's just all these people come together who maybe wouldn't normally mix, um, but they come together because they're the heart of the RV or they love to RV and they love what quartzite brings to them.
SPEAKER_08:I told you I might drift and I'm drifting from the show to the uh to the neighborhood, but the the show itself, um, buy tickets in advance. How do you get in?
SPEAKER_01:We are free. We are probably the only free show still standing, I want to say, like in the world. Um, we are free entry, we are free parking. Uh, my dad tried to charge a quarter on the first show in 1983, and it just did not go well. So he pulled the sign down and said, put a huge sign up that said free for all. And and people came pouring in, you know. Um, I would have a much bigger house if I charged to get in. I'd have a lot of things. But um, I think quartzite is quartzight because you have that experience. You don't have, you can go in and just experience it and not have to drop a dime, right? And you can be the person looking for something for two for one deal, or you can be the person looking to buy the$500,000 motorhome. And it's just kind of a um everybody comes to the show. Um, you know, there's parking. Quourtside's a free-for-all. So there's no, you know, there's it's not a big metropolitan area. We're not gonna go, hey, hey, hun, do you want to go down to Phoenix to pop in the courtside RV show for two hours? People come, they camp, they bring, they bring family, they bring friends, they go, they do the big rallies, the circles. So there's it's it's an experiential thing. I've always said quartzide is an experience. It's not just a let's drop in and say hi. It's something that you have to come and you get to experience it all.
SPEAKER_08:What what what are people gonna see at the show? What are they gonna see? I mean, I know they'll um we're gonna get into seminars in just a minute, but you have some unique vendors there. I know the food people that you introduced me to were as unique as you could find. And um you sit at tables with people and and you have new friends.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's weird. We try and make quartzite like a meeting space, right? Like a a ground where we can um break bread together, so to speak. You know, it's not we're not trying to have you go sit by yourself in a corner or feel unwelcome. You know, we have all of our eight major food vendors that all have tables and chairs out there that people come. We have um we're gonna have live music playing all week at our barbecue vendor. Um, it kind of just brings a fun vibe. Um, you know, quartzite isn't it's different. It's like I've heard it's people say it's like Burning Man meets an RV show minus maybe the drug use.
SPEAKER_03:It's true.
SPEAKER_01:You know, you get everyone. You have the nomad travelers, the people that are the travelers that come or are coming through that are just trying to make a dollar. You know, our our crew that we hire every year is seasonal. You know, we have our couple staple crew, but a lot of them are people that are just traveling the world trying to figure out where they fit in. And they have they find a place with us in quartzite. And that's the beauty of quartzite is you find your place there. No matter who you are, where you come from, you kind of find a place there. And um, you know, we are a little bit different that we have um, we have full, full-fledged RB service spots. So I know you said what you'd find in Quartzite that's different than some other places. So we have Redlands RB truck, we have Blue Ox, we have Roadmaster, and those are our staple guys that you can come in and you can get work done while you shop. You know, you can make your appointment early. You can go through and get your appointment in in the in the tent, but you can get things done, you can get your rig worked on while you're there, and it's all on spot. You don't somebody doesn't have to come find you, you know, you just come to us.
SPEAKER_08:Yep. Um, and you can learn too, because our friends Tony and Peggy are your your seminarians. That's probably not the right word. That's seminarians.
SPEAKER_01:They are our Peggy and and Tony Barthel from Stressless Camp Bears are are really who who make these seminars happen, these workshops and seminars that we have. It was my father had them back in the early 2000s. We had seminars, we had some live music, it was more of a stage presence. Um, but we didn't have anyone to run the seminars besides my dad. If if y'all don't know, we are a mom and pop shop. We are not a big RV FMCA or anything like that. It's just myself, my husband, and a seasonal crew. And so back when my dad was here, he didn't have anyone to run them. He couldn't be eight places at once, you know? So he had to had to phase them out. And then um, we decided, hey, like what if we could bring those back in? And I can't be eight places at once. And so um the Bartels run it for us. And we have heavy hitter lineups. We have people that are in our show. We have people that are content creators that are coming in to share what they do and share their knowledge and experience. Uh Big Beard Batteries is who our sponsors are. Um, and they have daily seminars uh two a day to talk about all the knowledge that they know. Um so it's just a very cool space. Again, free. There's no cost to get into the seminars. It's all educational. So it's it's a really neat part.
SPEAKER_08:Right. You know, you you alluded to a little before, a combination of Burning Man and whatever. I'd I'd throw wood stock in there somewhere as well. But the thing is this, and I want to talk to you about repeat visitors because I just thought of that question that I forgot while I went on to the next question. But um it's really a little bit of everybody. I mean, you'll see the people that that you know, Gillette razors are not their friend, but yet you'll see well-heeled people in their prevostes um pulling into park.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's a convergence.
SPEAKER_08:Demo imaginable.
SPEAKER_01:It is, and I think um I think that so for so long, um, before maybe maybe 10, 20 years prior to me coming in the show, it was definitely the snowbird, a little bit older crowd, the big motorhomes, the full hookups, you know, and there's been this um surgence of of maybe a bit of a younger crowd or a bit of more smaller units, more mobile, more self-contained, off the grid. And that's another thing that brings quartzight different than you'd see in Tampa or Hershey. You know, um, I'm learning that Tampa is very RV park-based. And so if you're if you're an RV company or an, you know, anybody coming in the show and wants to get demographic information, we have such a different demographic. You can walk out to the BLM land. I mean, mind mind you, you're gonna be walking, but you can you can interview all these people that have such a different lifestyle than you would find in the bigger cities. You know, we have tens of thousands of BLM land that are right next to our R V show. And so people go there and they, you know, it's most of it's self-contained. You have to dump your own tanks if you if you're not self-contained, you have to dump your own trash, you have to fill up your water. So it's just a different type of demographic than you would really see. That's not to say we don't have full hookups. I mean, we have over 40 RV parks in quartzite, and those get very much used, but it shows the diversity of of quartzite and who comes and the things that you can do. You can try and go off the grid for a week and no, I'm not for that. Let's go over to, you know, the next next town over and let's get some full hookups.
SPEAKER_08:So it's it's neat. What would you say on the percentage of return visitors is that you've had, you know, since you've been running the show? Uh I'm sure I saw a lot of people come up to you and give you a hug and and that type thing.
SPEAKER_01:But um I say it's a lot because I love, as you mentioned in the beginning of the show, is um my dad always liked to sit at the at what we call the north gate um and watch everybody come in. That's our busiest gate.
SPEAKER_08:That's where we were, the north gate.
SPEAKER_01:And that's where um it's it's our busiest gate. And I have gotten now into the habit of actually getting on either a social media platform or just uh videotaping and going through and asking people, you know, where they're from, uh, how long they've been coming to the show, if they're new. And honestly, in the last, I want to say like five or six years, it's been an upheaval of new faces. You know, we do have the returners who have been coming for years. I have one gentleman who comes every year and says hi to me, and he's, I think this will be his 30th year. His name's Keith. Um, and he always says hello and how much he loves to come to courtsite. But you have this new uh surgence of of younger families that we definitely see on the weekends. And now that kids can learn from home learn from home and you can work from home because of beautiful platforms like Zoom, um, you have more flexibility to be on the road. And so you really see that dynamic changing in the attendance at quartzite, you know.
SPEAKER_08:Yep. Both demographic and where they're coming from.
SPEAKER_01:And where they're coming from.
SPEAKER_08:What I forgot to mention, I made my cardinal um error in introducing you, uh assuming that everybody knows where quartzite is, but um not everybody does. Get give us give us some uh parameters as to where we are. I mean, we're in Arizona.
SPEAKER_01:So Quartzight is in Arizona, and we are a very, it's it's a very tiny little town, and we're about 20, about 22 miles away from the California, Arizona border. So we're definitely more on the west side of Arizona. Um, your biggest town or city is gonna be um Yuma or Phoenix. So to put it in perspective, Courtside has two small little grocery stores. It's the Roadrunner and oh, I'm blanking on the other one. The Roadrunner and the Coyote Fresh. So Roadrunner and the Coyote. Um, and there are small little mom and pop shops, and that's where people shop. So if you really want to go to like, there's no Starbucks, there's no Marshalls, there's no Coyote. There's no wall, like you have to, you have to drive. And I coming from a girl who lives in Southern California, it's a change in pace. It's a beautiful change in pace. It's a slowdown. It's a it's a town that really enjoys their peace and quiet. Um, but they do really welcome us, you know, with open arms to bring in this revenue to the to to this small town for the winter months.
SPEAKER_08:Any uh new features this year that people should be looking for when they get ready to go?
SPEAKER_01:So we uh the seminars are packed up. Um we are doing a content creator meet and greet this year. Uh the Barthells are um hosting it for me, and we're gonna have live music by the border hookups, and then our barbecue vendor is um gonna graciously uh donate food for us, and we're gonna have content creators who want to, who are in the area, who want to meet each other, um, public are welcome. And then we're actually bringing in our vendors to see if we can maybe have some business relationships made between the content creators and the vendors because the way that marketing's happening through social media is such an outlet that I think they could take advantage of to make some, you know, business relationships. So that'll be a fun one to see how that goes this year.
SPEAKER_08:You know, and my other um cardinal sin that I committed is I never even asked you the dates.
SPEAKER_01:I was gonna say I should have oh I'm a cardinal sin as a show promoter, as I haven't been saying it every two minutes.
SPEAKER_08:We're going this, we're we're doing this interview in reverse.
SPEAKER_01:So the 43rd, the 43rd annual courtside RB show is January 17th to the 25th of 2026. We open on a Saturday and we are opening Sunday. And we close the following Sunday. We open we're at bankers hours, nine to five. Um, we close on closing day at three o'clock. So um it's it's you know, if you're not one for crowds, don't come the first four days. Just avoid it. Come during during the week because it's it's a little quieter. Um, you can be a little bit more one-on-one, you can see more. If you love to be in crowds and like cattle herding, you know, herding cattle through the tent, then opening weekend's your jam. Um, we'll have some live music. Um, there'll be food. Um, you know, yeah, we're right next to, like I said, the BLAM Lamb, which has an Arizona Peace Trail. So we have off-road, I mean, so many off-road uh routes that people love to come out there. So the amount of people that I see getting out of um side-by-sides and playerises that are the age 50 and over is amazing. Like I had no idea the demographic that that actually pertains to. And so that's a really cool thing to see in courtside as well.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, when they get out of those things, they're holding their back. They're holding their back.
SPEAKER_01:Like, let me just oh, and I forgot to mention beer bellies, the adult daycare. So after you come and shop at our show, that's right, you can go to the adult daycare, which is our the local bar. It's called Beer Bellies, they're fabulous.
SPEAKER_08:Right, right by the north.
SPEAKER_01:Right in the middle. Yeah, so it's really cool. We have our show across the street from us. Uh, Kim Scott is the promoter over there. It's called the Tyson Wells Celerama, runs concurrently with my show. So you come to one of the shows, grab a cold beer, you know, watch some live music, and then you come over to the other show and shop. And most people stay for days. I mean, quartzite you can't do in one shot. You're there for a couple days.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah. Although it is feasible if you're if you're an adventurous person to fly into this is what I had to do a couple years ago because of time constraints. I flew into Phoenix, rented a car, came down, found a hotel, I think in Parker, uh, or somewhere around there, and was able to do the show for a couple days. But um, you know, even if you don't have an RV and want to see what the RV lifestyle is, um, quartzite is the place to really get a um baptism under fire to find out.
SPEAKER_01:You get a first-hand view. You really can. There's plenty of hotels, motels. I mean, even quartzite starting to have Airbnbs, which is a new thing for the city. Oh, really?
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I think there may be like uh Uber in town, but um but yeah, they're starting to slowly creep up with the time. So it's really fun to see it all change and grow and be a part of it.
SPEAKER_08:And I mean, we know you have a yacht club too in the middle of the desert.
SPEAKER_01:We do, we do. You can find the yacht club. You can be an honorary member. I have a hat and a t-shirt, and you can be a member.
SPEAKER_08:So uh website, can we?
SPEAKER_01:Quartzitrv show.com is where you'll find all the information. You'll find all of our seminar schedules, our content creator meet and greet. You can find out about our service bays, hotels, motels, all the things. Um, our Facebook page is gonna be another great resource um to find anything that's new and upcoming or any announcements.
SPEAKER_08:There we go. The quartzite RV. No, but that's not the real name. Give it give me the official name.
SPEAKER_01:So it's the quartzite sports, vacation, and rv show. And um, we are proudly sponsored by Progressive Insurance, and we are just really grateful to have this opportunity. And we look forward to seeing everybody from on January 17th, 2026, on opening day.
SPEAKER_08:There we go. The Quartzite show with our friend Kimmy King. Thank you for being with us. This is the RV Life Podcast.
SPEAKER_02:I love how Kimmy took us behind the scenes at Quartzight. Half a million RVers, live music, Rving seminars, and a yacht club in the desert. Let's go.
SPEAKER_11:Let's go indeed. Get all the details and dates for the 2026 show in our show notes on the episodes page at podcast.rvlife.com.
SPEAKER_02:From the Arizona Desert Southwest, it only makes sense to keep driving south of the border. So our next guest knows how to do it better than most travel guides.
SPEAKER_11:Paul Bettos has led RV caravans all across Mexico. So let's find out what it takes to explore safely and confidently. Paul, thanks so much for joining us today. Yeah, you're welcome.
SPEAKER_02:Hey, Paul, it's nice to nice to chat with you again. Um, I I consider you a huge expert on Mexico RV travel. So it's really an honor to have you here for our discussion about this in today's episode.
SPEAKER_07:Okay. Um, speaking modestly, I guess I am sort of an expert.
SPEAKER_02:Do tell. Tell tell our listeners about how you got into it and what you've done all these years by traveling.
SPEAKER_07:Well, I started traveling to Mexico on my own, I guess about uh must be 15 years ago now in my RV. And I set up a um a website to kind of provide information for people, and that attracted the attention of a guy named Gabriel Romero, who um is a tour guide down there, and he was doing contract work for various RV caravan companies, and he wanted to set up his own. So he asked me if I'd help him, and I said, No, I don't want to help you. I don't like caravans to use up all the RV spots for me and everything else. Then about one year later, um, is when the drug stuff really started badly, and um I'd made friends with a few campground owners, and they were really suffering. So when he approached me the next time, I said, Yeah, okay, I'll do it. As long as you use this campsite and that campsite or run by friends of mine. So he said, Yeah, no problem. So we actually saved a couple of campgrounds from going under in the process. So that's how it started. And then I um I'd already led caravans in North America. You know, I'd done it for an RV club before, so I had some experience in it. And um then I started leading them down there, and I took over his website and it sort of went on and on and on, and now I'm trapped. I can't quit because he's a good friend of mine. And if I quit, it'll leave him in a bind. So I'm still doing it. I'm not leading caravans anymore myself. I had a very bad RV accident uh in British Columbia about uh five years ago, and I'm not really comfortable driving an RV much anymore. I've done it, but um, I'm not really comfortable at it. And um, so I I basically to the point where I'm uh flying into Mexico and renting, and I've done that now for about two or three years.
SPEAKER_11:So when was the highlight of like this journey of yours, you know, leading people into Mexico? When did it begin? And when, you know, how about how many trips have you made?
SPEAKER_07:I started doing it about I'd say about 10 years ago, and I've probably led about seven or eight trips in Mexico. The only place I haven't led one is through Baja, but I've I've done the rest of Mexico, you know, all through the northern part down through the Yucatan, Chiapas, places like that. You know, so I've I've pretty well driven, I've driven a heck of a lot more of Mexico than I have in the United States or Canada, actually.
SPEAKER_11:So you probably know. Um how has RVing in Mexico changed since you first began, or has it?
SPEAKER_07:Um it hasn't really changed. That the RV parks down there come and go. You know, some some close down, new ones open up. The highways, the the roads are still pretty bad. Um, they are building an awful lot of toll highways in Mexico over the last few years, and um some of those are pretty good. There's a lot of them are better than California, but some of them have god-awful still, too. So uh and they're expensive. I mean, I'm not gonna kid anyone. You know, they're probably the most expensive toll highways in in the world.
SPEAKER_03:Wow.
SPEAKER_07:But you don't have speed bumps all over the place, and you know, they're safer, and the they get you there faster. You're not stuck behind some sugarcane truck doing you know 30 kilometers an hour for three hours, you know, that sort of thing. So there's some big advantages to using the toll roads for sure, especially with an RV, especially if you have a large range.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah, oh yeah. And there's uh two things that I think of because this is always what gets talked about when whenever the discussion of RV in Mexico comes up. It's the roads and the drug problem. And I'd like you to tell our listeners more about what your experience has been with those two things.
SPEAKER_07:Well, I've never seen a cartel or run into one. Um I know we're down there. Uh the town I live in in the wintertime, which is um on the coast just north of Manzanillo. I'm pretty sure that the cartel is around that area. In fact, I think they protect the tourists in the town because there have been a couple of instances where there's been some bad people who have suddenly disappeared out of out of bothered tourists. So it's it's kind of, you know, it's it's a bit of a protection racket in some ways. But on the other hand, they realize the town depends on tourists and um, you know, if nothing else, they're patriotic. Um I've never had any problems with them. I I bought a car down there actually, and uh I didn't realize at the time when you buy a car in Mexico, you're responsible for the um unpaid taxes or unpaid fines, everything else of the previous owner. So when I went to register it, all of a sudden I got nailed for like 600 extra dollars. And I told that story to the lady who was teaching me Spanish, and she said, Oh, do you want my friends to go pay the person a visit? And I said, Who? He says, Oh, the cartel. I said, No, I don't want to go there.
unknown:You know.
SPEAKER_07:So I know they're around. You know, I don't you know if you're a tourist, as long as you stay away from drugs or people that do them and you don't go bar hopping at 3 a.m. in the morning and stupid stuff like that, you're probably never gonna have any issues unless you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that can happen anywhere. That is, you know, you gotta remember about Mexico is that that violence down there tends to be targeted. Whereas in the United States and even Canada, it tends to be random. So you can avoid being a target. It's pretty hard to avoid being a victim of somebody that walks into a Walmart and starts shooting. So in some ways I think you're actually safer down there.
SPEAKER_11:Interesting. I've heard that you you're not gonna find trouble unless you go looking for it.
SPEAKER_07:Exactly. You know, I mean, my you know, I I have a relative who lives down there, and he took me to a bar one night outside of Portavir. We drove out to the countryside, and I mean as soon as I walked in there, I knew it was a cartel bar. You know, I just you know, they just gave me the most evil look. You know, as soon as they realized I was with him, I was fine. But I just I just said to him, I said, Ken, you know, you're nuts. You know, how do you know somebody's not gonna come in here and start shooting, you know? And then he started going out with the girlfriend, well, actually, actually the ex wife of a cartel leader, so he's still alive, folks.
SPEAKER_02:Well, that's It's good. Well, you know, a lot of our viewers think of going to Mexico for winter. And I want to know, because this is something I've always wanted to do, what makes it a different experience in winter than going there any other time? It really is.
SPEAKER_07:You know, I mean, if if you go to the United States or you go to Canada, I mean you don't even know which country you're in half the time because everything's pretty much the same. You know, down down there, everything's so much different. You uh, you know, the the culture is just just really special. You know, I I I really enjoy it. And you know, the more Spanish you learn, the better, better time you have as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. How would you rate your Spanish skills?
SPEAKER_07:My Spanish? It's uh intermediate. You know, it gets better every year.
SPEAKER_02:So in 10 years, you picked up a lot then.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I try. We had a couple immigrate from Colombia that lived with us for a while, so I I picked a lot up from them. And you know, I I really try to use Spanish as much as I can while I'm down there.
SPEAKER_02:It makes sense. You know, I think you get you get a lot more respect that way, and you also might get better deals on things if you uh language.
SPEAKER_11:Yep. Well, I agree, but is it necessary to speak the native languages on there, or can you get by?
SPEAKER_07:If you speak if you speak English, you can get by quite nicely. The people that have a lot of trouble are French Canadians. Because even though French and Spanish are a lot closer than English and Spanish, hardly anybody down there speaks French.
SPEAKER_11:Interesting.
SPEAKER_07:So, you know, but nearly everybody they speak English, they want to learn English because it's a ticket to a better job in a lot of cases, right?
SPEAKER_11:Sure. So speaking of RVers, what type of RVR is kind of best suited for the adventure to Mexico?
SPEAKER_07:Do you need to be the adventurous type or um Yeah, why would you if you're gonna do it on your own for sure, you know? Like, I mean, I'm you know, I'm helping run caravans, and for somebody who's not the adventurous type or is nervous, it's certainly not a bad idea to do that the first time. But we found a lot of people that take a caravan the first time end up uh going down on their own later on. In fact, a lot of them do, you know, sometimes they make friends and go down with someone else. And once you get past all the hassles with the paperwork and, you know, and and learn the ropes, it it's not too bad, but it is different. I mean, it's a lot different to dealing with the insurance, for example. You know, if you're in an accident down there, it can be a bit of a headache, you know. And I mean, I I got a Mexican car now and I was in an accident uh in middle of November last year. I got rear-ended at a red light. Very nice, you know, the insurance agents, the police, nobody gave gave me any fault for it. But they insisted I take it to the Nissan dealer in Manzanillo, and when I did that, I asked them how long it was going to take, and they said, Oh, two or three months. Oh, you know, to get it fixed. So, you know, it happened in November. I got it fixed in March. You know, it was drivable just. But don't expect things to happen fast down there because they don't.
SPEAKER_11:But it sounds like a caravan might be a smart way to go if you've never even considered it before. But what can someone expect in a caravan besides aside from going alone? What do you mentioned? Insurance, what are some other benefits of going with a caravan versus going solo?
SPEAKER_07:Um, basically, you know, really the big advantage is knowing where you where you're going. The wagon master theoretically should know where it's safe to take an RV. I mean, I went down on my own the first time. I mean, I'm that sort of person. I never even thought of going in a caravan. But I mean, you know, things like ending up on one-way streets where you have to back a trailer or a fifth-wheel down a one-way street, you know, for four blocks because it turns into a dead end or is a low balcony overhead. You know, you know, you know, that that sort of thing can really throw you. And uh it's it's definitely safer because you're in a group. Your chance of having an accident is a lot less. If you're gonna have an accident, chances are it's of someone else that's in the caravan.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_07:So, you know, and and the main thing is having someone that's leading it and knows where they're going and where the low trees are and the archways and you know, everything else that can be a real hassle for your RV or a danger to your RV, physically speaking.
SPEAKER_11:Yeah. That makes sense. You mentioned a couple of different types of RVs. What rigs are best suited for the travel on these roads or the trip to Mexico and back?
SPEAKER_07:I've come to the conclusion you're best off with a class C or a Class B. You know, I've I've had I've I've got a class C right now and I've taken it down twice. That was since my accident, and uh that kind of convinced me that, hey, you know, my RVing days are they're almost finished because I was not comfortable with it to start, you know, I really wasn't. But I've had towed a trailer down there, I've had a truck and a camper. The truck and the camper was the best, but that can cause you some some issues with getting it into the country. They don't know how to classify it, and there's some hassles like that.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, really?
SPEAKER_07:But you know, a fifth wheel, you know, if you're trying to tow a 40-foot fifth wheel with a triple axle behind you, you know, you're gonna have issues because the RV parks down there don't have the same sort of infrastructure you're gonna find in Canada or the US for sure. You know, you you know, you it could be difficult to get in there to park it. And, you know, getting, you know, mo most services, RV services and campgrounds in Mexico, they haven't really thought out where they're gonna put them. So chances are it's gonna be at the very back of the campsite. So you're gonna need to strap two two or three uh sewer hoses together to get sewer, that sort of thing. You know, so the longer RV you have, the more headache it is. Sure.
SPEAKER_02:You know, what what is the ideal length you would say for an RV?
SPEAKER_07:Um I would say um, you know, if you're talking about a class A, I would probably say you don't want to go much over 36 feet.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_07:You know, um a trailer, maybe uh 25 foot, something like that, 28-foot tops. I mean, I've got a 28-foot class C right now. It's a rental return. Um, you know, and it it's a little long, but it it's adequate. You know, I I've have I've managed okay. I mean the trucking camper was great, but that has some disadvantages too, because you can't use the truck, you know, without taking it off and all that sort of thing, you know. So I don't usually advise people to tow a car behind them down there because it really adds to the cost of your tolls and your fuel and your insurance and everything else. Unless you're going to go to one place and stay there for you know for three months, then it makes sense.
SPEAKER_11:You briefly mentioned accommodations. Are can people expect the same amount or distribution of campgrounds and and places to go?
SPEAKER_07:There are quite a few campgrounds down there, but most of them are not up to what I was I would call American standards. You know, there there are a few of them. Um I know about three of them that actually have 50 amp hookups, but that's pretty rare. And you know, you you've almost got to treat it like you're camping in the 1950s. You know, most of the campgrounds will have a 15-amp hookup. Sometimes there's only a common water supply and a common sewer, that sort of thing. So it's a lot more inconvenient. So, you know, you you gotta you know, don't go down there expecting a thousand trails because you're not gonna find it.
SPEAKER_11:So you won't find this network of KOAs and thousand trails, but it sounds like if you go with an open mind and a sense of adventure, you really do get to experience me.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, exactly. You know, you know, go go with a sense of adventure and you'll have a great time. You know, but if you're gonna be inconvenienced because you can't get a 50 amp hookup or a 30 amp hookup, you know, then you then you're gonna be disappointed. That also brings up another um fact down there is the uh the electricity is not reliable. So you really want to protect your electrical system. I mean, the easiest way to do it is to uh get an EMS um power protector. But um what a lot of people do is they buy a voltage regulator, and you can buy those in Mexico. They're kind of like the Hughes autoformer, but the Hughes auto former only corrects low voltage, it doesn't correct high voltage. In Mexico, you'll find both. So, you know, you can you can source ones in Mexico that'll correct both of them. And uh the advantage of that is too when you go back into the United States, a lot of cancerous um RV parks won't let you use the Hughes auto former, but they don't know what this is, so you can get away with it, you know.
SPEAKER_02:We'll uh we'll try to find a link to that uh in the show notes. Sure. That's something I hadn't heard about.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, the the one the best one is called the ISB Solar Basic, S O L A Basic 4000. It's a 30 amp one.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_07:And um it'll correct up to 20% either way. Wow. And it fits nicely into a milk crate. And what I did if I don't have the storage, or I tell people to do if they don't have the storage room is just throw it in the door when you're on the road and push it up underneath so it's not in the rain when you camped. You know, that was very difficult to get last year because they had a part shortage. Um, they're starting to become available again now. They're about$300 US, and you've got to do some wiring yourself, so there's a little bit of a hassle with that. There's another one out there called a Kleinstadt or something like that, which is 20 amp, and you don't have to wire that one. But I haven't found anybody yet that's tried it to see how it works. And that's available on Amazon Mexico.
SPEAKER_11:Okay. Well, that sounds like an important tip for anyone preparing to go and want to protect their equipment there. But what about the water? Everyone hears nightmares about the water. Is a good filtration system necessary?
SPEAKER_07:There are campgrounds that have that, you know, you know, that have water that's potable. But I mean the trouble is people say, oh, it's potable, so they fill your tank, you know, and they they you know, they they forget they already have contaminated water in there. And it doesn't matter, you know, if there's an ounce of bacteria to 40 gallons, you know, after a couple of days that bacteria is going to be through the entire tank. So I never trust it. I mean, basically I use bottled water, I fill my tank with Mexican water, I run it through one of those blue filters you can buy at Camping World, you know, just to keep the sediment out. And maybe it sanitizes it enough so if you forget and brush your teeth, it won't make you sick. But I use bottled water for everything else, and I just use the water in the tank uh for showering and washing dishes. And then when I get back into the United States, I pretty pretty, you know, I put a good dose of chlorine in there and let it slosh around while I'm driving and drain it a couple of times to, you know, to sanitize it, and then you're good to go. But the you know, you know, you can buy the big uh five-gallon bottles of water anywhere in Mexico. All the gas stations in Mexico usually have a convenience store attached to them. And you can you can do an exchange there, or you can just take it outside, bring a big, you know, you bring a funnel and just transfer the new one into the old bottle. You know, you want to look for one with a screw top cap, of course. And if you've got a pickup truck, it's no big deal to throw it into the pickup truck. You know, some people I've seen people carry it in their showers, but that's actually not a good idea because if you hit a bad bump, you know, you could crack your shower pan. So, but it's so cheap, you can actually pour it out and and fill it up when you get where you're going. And um, most RV parks you'll find the water truck comes around.
SPEAKER_02:Oh. So you have so many of these fascinating tips that I haven't seen in other places.
SPEAKER_07:It works the same with propane too, you know, because you think you know you can't just stop at a gas station and top up with propane like you can in the United States or Canada. You know, the propane dispensaries are usually separate, they're on the outskirts of towns. You'll see them. The big one is Global Gas, is the most popular one. Some of them can handle the onboard tanks, some of them can just handle the portable tanks, or some of them handle both. Um, but once again, you'll find if you're in a larger RV park, uh they will bring the truck around and fill you up. You can go talk to the RV park owner, and if there's three or four people in there that need it, you know, the truck will come in and do it. So it's really not a problem. The only thing you've got to be careful of is if you go into southern Mexico, you're getting butane, not protopane.
SPEAKER_03:Oh.
SPEAKER_07:Which is which is okay, except it'll freeze if you take it home. So you want to make sure you've uh, you know, you you you've gone back to propane before you get back into the United States, you know, unless you're in the middle of summer or something, then it's not an issue.
SPEAKER_11:Right.
SPEAKER_07:Are gas and diesel equally accessible, or is one more popular one? Yeah, yeah. Actually, they're actually they're more accessible than they are in the United States. Um the only difference is the pumps are reversed in color. Good tip. Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_02:I thought I thought Canada had uh reversed color when we were.
SPEAKER_07:Oh, actually, you know, in Canada you'll see diesels quite often yellow. Yellow. Yes. But in Mexico, in Mexico, you'll find gas is green and diesel is black. Very important tip for that. The only saving grace, yeah. The only good thing about it is nearly every single gas station has them on separate islands.
SPEAKER_02:Ah, okay. So you just have to know which island is.
SPEAKER_07:You don't pump your own gas in Mexico, right? Okay. So you don't want to pull up to the gas station and you accidentally gone to the wrong one, and the attendants there are already pumping fuel into your tank before you get out. And you also want to make sure they've zeroed the pump too before they start pumping.
SPEAKER_03:That's a good tip.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, if you don't have a locking flap on your gas supply, you you want to put a locking gas cap on them.
SPEAKER_02:These are things I hadn't heard about. This is so fascinating.
SPEAKER_07:Well, the biggest the biggest trick at gas stations, and it still happens, and I I got caught by it two years ago, even though I was watching for it, is in Mexico, um, right now the 20 peso note and the 500 peso note are both blue in color. And some of these attendants, they should be on stage, literally. You know, they'll you'll give them a 500 and all of a sudden it's a 20 in their hand. And like I said, this one gas station, I was actually watching for it and he did it to me, or I didn't see him do it. And I was actually sitting there really watching closely. So I'm in the habit now of trying to pay for fuel only with 200 pesos of notes because they're green. They're the only ones that are green. Like I learned how you learn how to count in Spanish in 200s, you know, 200, 400, 600, you know, go up to a couple of thousand and hand them to the guy one at a time, and then you won't have that issue. Sweet.
SPEAKER_02:Well, what about uh electronic payments? Do you get to do that at gas stations or is it still in cash?
SPEAKER_07:Um they they they well they they do take credit cards now. Okay, you know, they they started doing that about three or four years ago. Once again, you've got to be careful. You know, I always keep the receipt. Um, I was leading a caravan and one customer got billed for the semi that was filling up next to her when it came through on her credit card. Uh fortunately she had the receipt, so the credit card hadn't covered it. You know, wow. You know, it's sometimes it's an honest mistake, you know. And you know, there there's there's a few tricksters out there too that'll tell you the machine is broken or something like this, you know. So you you do have to be careful of it. You know, make sure you get a receipt. If the machine's broken, get them to write out a receipt, you know.
SPEAKER_11:There you go. And it's not necessarily a cartel that might be giving you trouble, it might be the smaller players out there.
SPEAKER_07:I mean, I mean, I mean the gas station lieutenants, they pay them really crappy, right? Yeah. In fact, I always tip them. You know, I I tip them like 50 pesos or, you know, which is like$3 or something like this. And I've the more gringos that do that, you know, the less chance of, you know, that they're gonna try and cheat people, you know. So you try and be friendly to them and give them a tip. And they they really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that is so nice, Paul. So, you know, one of the things I I really like about your travel style is that you've led caravans into some of the lesser explored areas of the country. And, you know, I I've always thought Baja was just California light. It just it it has never really appealed to me older.
SPEAKER_07:So you have to. I mean, we're running caravans, we're running caravans down Baja and the mainland, and Baja is the most popular. There's no doubt about it. We have no trouble filling caravans to Baja. I don't know why that is. People seem to think it's safer, I guess. I don't know. It you don't need the vehicle permits, which is the one advantage to the mainland, in my opinion, is is a lot more interesting, you know.
SPEAKER_02:And that would you say, like for a new new person to RV New Mexico, that the mainland would be your first choice to take them to?
SPEAKER_07:Uh most people do the Baja first. Like you say, it's Baja light. You don't, especially if you've got um you know a pickup truck that's like a three-quarter or one ton, you don't have to sit there and deal with the uh the permit headaches that they can give you and and that sort of thing, you know. So it is easier, you know, but it's all desert pretty well. If you like beaches, the Baja is better. You know, just want to go there and sit on a beach, it's great. You know, but I mean most of the interesting archaeological sites and places like that are on the mainland. You know, one advantage of the company I'm working for is it's Mexican-based. So the owner is a Mexican tour guide as well. He's been one for years. So he knows places to take people that they would never ever dream of going on their own or on an organized tour, you know, like remote ruins on the Guatemalan border, that sort of thing, you know. That sounds fine. So there are some advantages of a caravan in that way, you know, you're gonna get to places, and they don't have big parking lots for RVs like they have, you know, it's not like going to Mount Rushmore, right? You've got to go to a campground and ride a taxi if you want to go to some of these places because you're not gonna find parking for your RV. So, you know, as you know, it is definitely a little different.
SPEAKER_11:Paul, you've provided some excellent tips here, and I wonder for the person out there who's just considering it, never been down there, what should someone ask themselves before looking into this? And then what are the best resources to go find out more?
SPEAKER_07:Um, you know, to tell you the truth, it's oh god, it's really hard to say. You know, the first thing you want to do is figure out where you're gonna cross, you know, and most people, I would say the majority of people cross even at Laredo. And if you're crossing at Laredo, you want to use Columbia Bridge, do not use downtown Laredo. And the other option is um Nogales. And in Nogales, you want to use the Mariposa truck crossing, do not use the downtown one in that case. And if you're going to Baja, um your best crossing is Tacate.
SPEAKER_02:Good, good to know. I you know, I didn't even know there was gonna be that big of a difference between where you go over.
SPEAKER_07:Um, and as far as like Well, you want to look and see, see where the closest campground is, too, after you cross, you know, because you're gonna get held up at the border with all the paperwork and everything else. So you want to make sure that you're you're in range of a of a campground, you know. By crossing some of the lesser Texas crossings, you have to go an awful long way to get to uh an RV park, you know.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, that is smart. Are there any groups that you would recommend talking to uh other than the the caravan group that you work with? Like what about online, uh any Facebook groups, um discussion forums?
SPEAKER_07:I mean that we run a Facebook group called RV Mexico. And it's run by the it's owned by the caravan company, but we're not there to sell caravans. Um a lot of independent people go on, the travelers go on there for information too. And we have no problem with that. Nice, you know. So that's probably your best resource. And the other good resource is a site called On the Road in Mexico. That's run by a guy named there's two of them out there. Um, the one you want is one that's run by Bill Bell. It says it says right on the site that it said that it's operated by Bill Bell. And that's a really good one as well, especially for people that are driving with cars. Okay, not necessarily RVs.
SPEAKER_02:Right, right. Um, yeah, a lot of people go over in their vans or just a regular vehicle.
SPEAKER_11:Um, you've provided so many tips here and some great resources we're gonna add to the show notes here. So, Paul, any final words for people considering RVing to Mexico?
SPEAKER_07:Um, no, just make sure you have all your paperwork. You know, the the big thing is to make sure you have all your vehicle paperwork. And that means your registration or your title, or both. You know, some some jurisdictions they keep the title, so you may only have the registration. And make sure you have um copies of everything, your passport page, your credit card, the titles, you know, like like make two copies of everything, even if you think you don't need them. And the other tip I would give you if you're crossing with a pickup truck towing a trailer or a fifth wheel, is take a photo of the truck hooked up to the trailer or fifth wheel and print it out on a full sheet of paper. You'll probably find you have a little less hassle bringing it across because there's an issue with three-quarter and one-ton trucks. And without going into it deeply, it's it's actually a misunderstanding between SAT who sets the regulations and banner C2 who issues the permits. And people with the heavier pickup trucks, to be quite honest, you may find you have to pay a bribe.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, well, get it in. Good to know. I've learned so much from you today. Thank you.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, if you're in a motorhome, there's no problem at all. You know, you can be as it could be a tank, you know, it won't give you any headaches with it. And finally, the name of the caravan expedition group that you work with is Caravan Este Mexico, which is uh Mexico Caravans.com is the website. And actually, they're um mentioning that particular website. There is a lot of information on there that's useful to independent travelers as well as people going for a caravan. And if you go to go to any page on that site and look at the black um bar at the bottom of it, it'll I think there's a thing there that says um other websites or other sites or something like that. If you click that, there's a whole list of stuff there, like information about crossing the border, you know, you know, um, there's a fuel conversion chart there, and you know, all sorts of things like that that are you know does have nothing to do with caravans per se. So you can get a lot of useful information off it.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, nice to know. I like it. One stop shopping. Well, thank you so much, Paul.
SPEAKER_07:You know, the thing is we're trying to get people to go down there. We don't sell in a caravan all the better. But you know what? We try and help independent travelers as well.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, you've been very helpful to the RV life community. Thank you so much. We hope you have a great season. Yeah. Wow, I learned so much from Paul. Mexico by RV is definitely back on my bucket list.
SPEAKER_11:Just remember cash in small bills, lots of bottled water, and watch out for those crafty gas station attendants.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, those are good tips. All right, now let's switch gears to our latest RV entrepreneur profile with Rose and Glenn. They're talking with a working actor who's figured out how to keep the cameras rolling while living on the road. Meet Kara Anne Marie, aka the RV actress.
SPEAKER_12:Hi, Kara. Welcome to the RV Life Podcast. Thank you. Thank you for having me. This is so much fun. Yeah, we're really excited to have you on today. You have such a fun and unique story. So why don't you just fill us in a little bit? Tell us a little about yourself and what you do.
SPEAKER_06:Sure. Well, I am an actress. Um, I started performing at a really young age, and um I started out in musical theater. So I lived in New York City, and I traveled a ton during that time of my life doing tours, cruise gigs, um, regional theater. I mean, I was always traveling. And then um eventually I kind of moved into more on-camera work. So now I'm pretty much exclusively working a lot on Netflix. I've done three different Netflix shows, um Cobra Kai being the most prevalent of those. I was also a Detroiters, which is a great show, and um Florida Man, and I I have a number of different credits. That's kind of what I do. I also co-own uh eco-friendly pet company with my husband. We started that in 2025. We called Doggy Doo Good, and that all came because uh before we started RV life, I rescued a senior dog, and she came with a lot of health issues, and we kind of just realized there was there was a lot of dogs and rest, like a lot of dogs and rescues, a lot of senior dogs and rescues, and we wanted to do something in combination together. We wanted to work together and we wanted to build something that we felt really good about that was giving back, and we love dogs. We we sat down and really just spitballed about what what could we be doing, and that's kind of what we're doing, and now we're doing it uh from an RV. We're doing all this stuff from an RV.
SPEAKER_12:That is awesome, and you're doing it part-time, right? You have a home base, yeah, yep.
SPEAKER_06:So I can feel us getting more and more full-time. I know that there will be some years for sure coming up, especially we have a almost five-year-old, especially in these little years. I think I mean, I can't tell what's gonna be more interesting. The older years being on the road with him because of the educational value, um, or the younger years. But right now we're we're really in the mix of it. So I I know we're only getting more into it, which is a funny thing. I I couldn't tell if we would love it or not, and we're only getting more and more deep into the community and the lifestyle. I mean, we're we're we love it.
SPEAKER_12:Yeah, I would say get into it now. We we started when our kids were a little bit, well, they were seven and ten, right? But for us, I feel like maybe we should have started a little earlier with them.
SPEAKER_06:We got our first RV when he was three months. I mean, a lot of it was the world too. The pandemic was going on, we had a new baby, which I think everyone's gonna respond to that differently. We responded by not wanting to feel home bound. We didn't want to be stuck in in this one house. We wanted to keep moving. Uh and I just I attribute a lot of our ability to live the way that we do to his. He's a very go-with-the-flow resilient. He he loves getting back in the RV. Um, and we do, even though we are part-timing right now, I would say six to eight months, we're full-time. So we will leave all winter. Uh, like this winter, we will we're just a week away from getting it down to Florida, and then we'll do, we'll come back up for the holidays, and then we'll go back, spend some time down there. We're actually gonna spend a month in Austin because we really fell in love with Austin last year. We did a month there last year, and then we'll make our way to the West Coast, and we'll be pretty much on the West Coast for the rest of the winter.
SPEAKER_12:Fun fun. Well, let's dive right into what you're doing on the road when you're on in your RV, and you are the R V actress, you're you're in your RV. How you know what inspired you to take that on the road?
SPEAKER_06:During the pandemic, all of our auditions switched from in person to self-taping.
SPEAKER_03:There it is, which is wonderful.
SPEAKER_06:Now things are starting to readjust again, but I still think that that initial audition will remain self-taped. It's just everyone realized everyone's busy, even if they're not traveling. You know, you're working with actors that might be working on another show and you want them on your show. Like, you don't need them to roll into your agency in LA, and if they can't, then they're totally eliminated. Like, I think all right, maybe you're looking at someone that lives in London. Like, this just opened up being casting was is able now to see everyone from wherever they're interested in submitting to. So, right now, how it works, and I actually have an audition that I'm working on right now that we'll tape on Sunday while we're doing this Halloween camping trip. But I just get it, I open up my email, I get an email from my agent with the project, with the deadline, with the script that I need to record, and we have a self-tape set up in the RV, which I I did make a little reel on my social media to show people kind of how we juggle that in the RV, and it really works. You know, the only thing that I would say, and it's so crazy, even when you think things are maybe the not ideal circumstances. I did just get um like on hold for a movie and we had done we were it was such a quick turnaround or something, and we were actually driving, my husband was driving the RV while I was trying to edit the audition, and then I upload, I mean, and it was bouncy, and I'm like, I can't even tell. I hope they can hear. I mean, it was such chaos, but at the same time, it just was I wanted to do it, it was like we were moving, it had to be what it was, and if I you know, and and then I couldn't even believe it, then I get a thing that they want you to hold for this movie in Nashville, and I just thought, like, that was kind of crazy audition where I was god, my laptop was bouncing all over because we were driving. It was crazy.
SPEAKER_04:So I feel like that added some real that was like real novelty to the audition.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I mean it could be what you're telling me.
SPEAKER_04:I I understand from what you're telling me is that the landscape has completely changed. Now the the world of auditioning and movies and television, that's totally foreign to me. So in my mind, I pictured you going to a casting call and but now New York or LA, right?
SPEAKER_12:Right.
SPEAKER_04:But now you actually get to video yourself and send and submit that. That's really cool.
SPEAKER_06:Because the the the thing that didn't stop during the pandemic was entertainment. I mean, everyone really was desperately hanging on to new shows, and actually, season four of Cobra Kai, we did shoot during the pandemic. I mean, that was shooting in 2020, so it was right after I had my son. So it was just really kind of heavy. We were all masked everyone was distanced. You know, that's the other thing about film and TV that's so interesting is you can shoot people in a way, you can film people in a way that it looks like they're standing very close talking to each other, but we were actually none of us. And we'd all been tested for everything. And you know, they were really making sure that no one was coming in sick and trying to regulate as best they could, but people were desperately needing entertainment. They were needing t new TV to come out and that's what everybody was doing or baking breads. I will self-tape for something and then if we if I do get called back, which is really what's I I've had two or three things recently that I do show up in person and and I'm in front of the producers and directors when it's getting to the end and there's only a couple people that they're looking at, that's pretty common to be in person.
SPEAKER_12:I bet the RV life helps with that flexibility. You can just go.
SPEAKER_06:I love it. And even this the first time it happened it was pretty quick and I was like you know what I'm just gonna hop on a flight and I'll be back tomorrow. The second time it happened we had a little bit more turnaround and I did say like I want to pack up the RV. It's down in the south we could see some friends in Nashville. Then we went to Mammoth Caves and I took my guy to the little little slugger museum like we we will turn something it almost guides our adventure a little bit you know sometimes it hijacks it but there are times it it just it makes us really and I hope that this is what our little guy is picking up is that it just makes us resilient and kind of like nothing's really a problem. It's always something that we just have to figure out how to tackle this new idea that's been presented to us and we're gonna figure it out. You know, it it might not be what we thought was coming but we'll figure all this out.
SPEAKER_04:Even when the RV breaks we will figure this out you know we'll get this yes I like how you keep using the word resilient because that's one thing what we learned on the road was resilience because like you said everything breaks everything changes. You know you don't find the boondocking spot that you wanted. So you know for you to teach your son this at this age it's permanent.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah it's permanent I hope so I really hope so right now you know it feels still that we're very new parents so I still there's some times where I'm like are we just messing all this up but I think we would have that if we were in a house too you know and him seeing us juggling all this stuff and I I I know he already is a very interesting little guy.
SPEAKER_04:And he will continue to be so do you mind if we sort of pivot and look more at uh doggy doogood in your entrepreneurship absolutely yes you mentioned how that came about you know you adopted the senior dog and but this is a really unique company and you're you're using like totally compostable products to clean up something that is compost basically. When I first read about it I thought it was smaller than it is and then I went online and I started to investigate and like wow this is really big.
SPEAKER_06:You just don't know when something's gonna catch fire. So we started this in 2015 and that was a time where people weren't really thinking about plastic and they weren't as conscious. You know there weren't paper straws and there weren't all the stuff or even bands on plastic bags within grocery stores and things like that. So when those things started happening people really began to understand that like oh gosh I'm using this plastic constantly to pick up after my dogs and then it's going into landfills and we're just getting bigger and bigger. So the first product that we ever came out with was the it was a vegetable based compostable bag and we had a zillion sizes that you could do. We even have a lot of uh we make an extra large bag and that was perfect for people that did garden composting we actually have a lot of friends some friends in Brooklyn that do it um but we got a lot of cats families as well because they would scoop up from the litter into our extra large and then we also ended up doing um bamboo pet wipes which I love love love and use on all of the humans especially in when we're in the RV sometimes you gotta cut down on the water usage so everybody's getting the you know washcloth bath today but they're great so it's it's been awesome. And then we have a shampoo bar and right now actually we are just launching a brand new product that I really believe will be the the future of hopefully all of our plastic bags and all of our like I'm using this drinking out of you know we all have plant we're surrounded by plastic so we are we've just launched uh a landfill friendly bag that uses 60% recycled plastic so we're trying to reuse up some of that plastic and it has a pretty nerdy science aspect to it. It has an additive that's sprinkled within the plastic that breaks this down it basically attracts microbes to decompose the plastic within five years inside of a landfill so it's going to just decompose like any other dead item uh within the within those landfill confines. So um that bag's called next but we're actually switching all of our bags over to that and we've had a ton of interest to private label for some big uh we were running around yesterday because there was interest from like a pretty big pharmacy to try to get us to private label for them. It's awesome to work together with my husband I think we make a great team and to be doing something that I I just think so much about having a a four year old and we my husband and I grew up on the Great Lakes and I'm I'm sure you guys appreciate and respect nature in where you are and I want him to swim in the Great Lakes and not have it be filled with garbage that's important to me. So if we're actively doing that as a company and uh I think that that just sets a good a good role model for him to understand that we're trying to fight pretty hard to keep Mother Nature as gorgeous as we experienced it if not better. I mean if we can do better I I think we should we can all do better Kara.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah yeah I mean sure it's such a large business like this when you're on the road who is running it for you do you have management in place? How many employees do you have?
SPEAKER_06:It is my husband and I we are really we are running it. We've structured so that my husband full days he takes two days a week where that's where all of his calls are and then we have a handful of contractors that are actually close friends of ours that have come in because the business just became obviously out growing us a little bit and we needed help. And they've come in and been really really great to assist us and but it's really just he and I at this point which I was talking to him this morning I mean the thing that we do do a pretty good job with is prioritizing what is the immediate need right in front of us. What business needs us right in this moment and who can address that because we have other businesses and we have a child and he's his own little business that we're always somebody's gotta be doing Legos or somebody's gotta be you know writing letters with him and it it gets imbalanced. You know that's the thing that it's just understanding. You know there was a couple days where my husband was needed so much for doggy doogood and then I needed my own stuff and then I was a little grumpy because I wasn't getting to address you know like I'm going on this podcast and I have this interview coming out and like you need to give me the time sometimes that's not always you know as a husband wife team sometimes we just it it manifests in just getting grumpy. But on the whole I think we've been doing it long enough that we understand like that grumpiness isn't me just being annoyed with you. It's actually because I have I need some space for my own stuff and I've been doing a lot of just just momming and now I need to switch back into addressing my acting roles or whatever it is. But we do my husband actually is my reader in my audition and he is not an actor and he's become wonderful at just reading these sites for me and taping me. Uh so he even gets a little out of his comfort zone to help make sure that that aspect of my career is still moving forward. And but again it's easy to get out of balance and um especially when it's just the two of you.
SPEAKER_12:For sure.
SPEAKER_06:But I love how you guys balance each other out and kind of work together and you've got a lot of uh good good values that also are running across your you know your doggy do good business and then with you know how you're traveling and your lifestyle it's just um I think it blends really well you think it certainly seems to yes you're growing a platform that's called the R V actress right yeah and so what inspired you to kind of share your behind the scenes life with that this lifestyle is is an adventure it's so wild it's it's kind of unhinged sometimes there was a time when we were driving our first RV so the first one we bought was a 25 foot sprinter and it had a full wall slide it was the Villaggio and it was made by Renegade beautiful I loved it but it was basically like a studio apartment oh it was it was so wonderful. I I still miss some things about that but it was great for a couple and a baby and a dog. Love Renegade oh I I I really do too if we could now we're now we're in uh Tiffin Allegro Bay Super C 40 foot and then we we flat toe um our blazer we've always flat towed but I remember when we had the little one we were driving it down to Florida and we stopped we pulled over just to get gas in rural Florida and it would not turn on again and it was nighttime I had a baby and a dog and a thunderstorm was rolling in we so we tried to call triple A or whoever we called they sent over Tweedledee and Tweedledum. It was the craziest thing they just pulled in in a Jeep to fix we told them we have a truck that needs to be telled these guys show up I don't know what they're doing. You know what I mean I just thought like where are the cameras where is it? Because this is the craziest TV show I've ever seen and it's only been kind of a continuation and it's not all just disaster. You know so much of what we're doing I think is is really just spectacular and we don't get that just staying in one place. So and a lot of what inspired me I've only honestly been trying to share more in the last couple months maybe it's been like six months that I've been like I need to really try to document what's going on but we would meet so many people at RV parks and just share all the stuff that we're doing and they couldn't believe it. You know they were just like what what is happening over there? Also some of the time there's crazy audition things happening like we were in Long Beach and I had booked the sci-fi web series and the woman was like screaming and I was trying to practice it and I just thought like I have to say something to the neighbors so they don't think I mean they'll never be able to look at my husband again you know like that I'm sure they're concerned. I had I went to the office finally and they had this like empty kitchen space in in the office in the RV park and I just explained like could I use that like I'm gonna be screaming this is crazy. I don't want people to get upset you know so it's always an adventure and I think we're doing some fun and positive things like that's what I really hope we can get a lot of just documenting how we we really try to to just put good out into the world no matter which direction we're going no matter where we are whether I'm working to be on a show or we're working on the pet company like just pursuing in the pursuit of good stuff is is our agenda and I want to share that with other people. I also want to build a community so that when we are traveling and we are at the pool or wherever we are that people do feel like they know us and can be like oh I saw this thing that you're doing or whatever. You know I I I love having a community and sometimes when you're on the road you can get a little isolated and um sometimes when we're at repeated RV places because we do like to stay in resorts um or I'm gonna get us a little more off grid. That is my mission for this year is to be more off grid. But I think because we are doing so much we've just wanted that to be less wild a little bit and more like oh there's a restaurant up front that we could go to and there's a pool that I could take my little guy to and I'm not sure I I wonder if someone has done has shared a lot of it's not always national parks and boondocking but there are people who've built some really spectacular RV resorts that you can go to too and that might be a fit for someone it doesn't people would always say you guys must love camping and we would look around like I don't know that this is camping but it doesn't happen yeah we just happen to be in an RV. But yeah yeah yeah you're what you're doing is great and it's working for you right now and you'll evolve into whatever else works in the future and we could talk forever about all this I love our conversation but we do need to wrap up so where can everyone find you and learn some more about you we are all over the internet social media Kara Anne Marie on all the platforms RV actress you can find me at Doggy Do Good Doggy Do Gooder on all the social but I actually just redid my website to kind of encompass everything. So that's cannmarie.com if you just go to my website I'll have a link to Doggy Doogood I'll have a link to kind of what we're doing on the road and you know staying in touch with what I'm acting in next or whatever's going on next with us but I'm all over the internet. Awesome we can't we can't wait to keep following your journey we'll have to do a part two and three because I could definitely keep talking to you.
SPEAKER_11:Oh yeah for sure this has been fun I'd like that yeah thanks so much for joining us today thank you guys for having me be well oh I love how Kara makes her creative life work so well she auditions she's a mom and she runs a pet industry business all from the road pretty impressive and you just gotta love doggy do good that eco-friendly business of hers is proof that it's possible to turn your passion project into a paying business even on the road all right now let's hear about a topic that impacts every RV er electrical safety. Oh speaking of which remember that time you smelled smoke when we turned on the AC as we were about to leave our dog Wyatt all alone in the rig?
SPEAKER_02:It could have caught f we don't say the F word in the RV.
SPEAKER_09:Finally Bob sits down with RV electrical expert Mike Sokal to explain a major upcoming industry change that could affect how every RV connects to power welcome back to the RB the new RB life podcast everybody and my guest tonight is Mike Sokal who is the number one expert on RV electricity in the RV industry. It sounds really important to me it is a heavy mantle to bear let me tell you well you know uh there's been a lot you know lots of times we don't get a chance to report on news until it's already news or it's a tight deadline but in this case you've been kind enough to share with the community and with the industry uh your expertise relative to GMIs which are grounding monitor interrupters.
SPEAKER_10:Why don't you give us a little overview of that just to start off with well I I've been working on this for several years and this also is part of my project for the last 15 years of safety for the RV industry. So I happen to know a lot about it from the people that are actually doing it. This is not hearsay I talk to the guys that are writing the code. So grounding monitor interrupter it's its main job is to help keep RV owners safe safe from shock. And it does it a little bit differently from a couple of the other ways they tried to do it. You know it's not really a GFCI which kind of works after the fact after you're getting shocked to try to disconnect you before it kills you. That's how a GFCI works. This is a proactive unit the three basic things are it's a grounding thing got its first name the the G in it and it's worried about your RV being properly grounded. The second part is the monitor so it is constantly looking to make sure it is grounded continuously. It's not like it checks it when you first plug in it does it all the time no matter when you interrupt no matter when when and where you plug in no matter when it happens right and then the interrupter part is if it doesn't like something in the ground of the RV which could potentially allow you to be shocked it will interrupt it will disconnect your RV from the shore power completely. That's the grounding monitor interrupter.
SPEAKER_09:And that's very understandable so there's two components to it one being the RV, one being the campground so what do we have to look forward to from the RV manufacturers?
SPEAKER_10:Well the RV manufacturers are not actually building the box the the big companies that make the advanced search protector are building these uh and it's a box that will be then installed in new RVs sometime late 2026. We're not sure the exact date yet but it's going to be third quarter around that there or so.
SPEAKER_09:So it's a supplier provided product.
SPEAKER_10:A supplier is going to provide it and I I know of at least four or five different suppliers that are working on these. And again you can just go down the usual suspects that anyone that makes these advanced search protectors. And the RV manufacturers the builders will be adding those in and it basically hooks into where the shore power goes into your RV and then it goes back and talks to the pedestal and says pedestal are you giving me good ground? So that's the thing the RV manufacturers are just installing this literally a black box that will go confirm that the grounding is okay from shore power. Now the manufacturers lots of times won't do something that is not required but this is required by an industry standard correct it is in fact this is part of the latest you know NEC then the National Electrical code states that in 551 I believe it's 551.40 that all man all RVs new RVs that are manufactured will have this grounding monitor interrupter and it must comply they say it must be listed which means it must comply with something that's called UL2299. So the specs are written there we know it's going to be have to be installed in new RVs sometime late 2026 there is nothing that says it has to be installed retrofit although there will be units eventually that you can retrofit if you want it. For the after for the aftermarket aftermarket stuff right but right now they're struggling just to get enough units for the how how many RVs do they make do they build a year 5000 about 300 now we're back to about 3000 but it's still a lot still a lot and and and this would be everything from a pop-up to a three million dollar bus right anything that has a 30 or 50 amp connector now if it had a 20 amp which is very very rare nowadays you would it would not be re it's not required on the 20 amp connectors but if it has a 30 or a 50 amp shore power cord it's required. I don't know anybody that's doing uh 20 amp at this point in time I know a couple little people have built their little retro stuff but again that's not brand new one I have never I have never encountered a new RV that's 20 amp.
SPEAKER_09:All right we got a couple minutes left talk about the campground side of the equation.
SPEAKER_10:Well the campground side means um you've got to make sure that your pedestals are properly wired and properly grounded. Now you don't install a box in there but if somebody pulls in with a GMI equipped RV, doesn't matter what it is and plugs into that pedestal if your pedestal is not properly maintained and wired they will get no power and there's no workaround. I mean there's no disconnect. So that means campground pedestals are going to have to be tested in advance of this uh the last thing you want is a bunch of people showing up on a big weekend and they can't get power for their RVs. So I think we need to start this winter testing them.
SPEAKER_09:Very interesting.
SPEAKER_10:So and you you're gonna be developing some of the testing modules correct right I'm developing a test protocol what we would call an SOP standard operating procedure and and also working on a couple of of ways it'll be simple for campgrounds to begin testing these but also we're we're working on how to train RV technicians or mobile technicians how to actually maintain pedestals because there's a lot of them out there that are just really worn out. They're going to have to be fixed or replaced.
SPEAKER_09:Okay so again just to recap we're talking about something that's going to take place for the main RV manufacturers late 2026 with full implementation both on the manufacturing and the carcraft stuff coming into 2027. So there's plenty of time for the industry to address it. There's plenty of time to get education out to the consumers that is true.
SPEAKER_10:But one of the real bad parts is there's an awful lot of AI written stuff or creative stuff and it's just plain wrong I look at it and I start laughing about how incorrect the AI generated press releases have been Wikipedia stuff is wrong everything's wrong.
SPEAKER_09:I know how it works because I have these guys on speed dial um that are writing the writing the the code for it yeah that that that is that is that is an issue you know with all the incorrect information that we see out there um about AI. So how do we combat that to give you last 30 seconds here?
SPEAKER_10:If you go to my website my new site is rvelectricity com I've got sections on there that I'm creating that are all about this. If you've got questions about this thing you want to know more about it um email me directly mike at rvelectricity com and put in GMI in the subject and I'll get back to go directly to rvelectricity or go right go to rvelectricity com. I've got sections on there that's my news site I've just transferred a thousand articles over to in the last month. So I write a lot.
SPEAKER_09:All right you are you are the number one electricity guy in the RV industry. Mike thanks very much for joining us on one of our initial broadcasts. Bob thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER_02:Hey thanks Bob that's so important for RVers and campground owners alike.
SPEAKER_11:All these new safety standards are coming in 2026 and Mike's got the full scoop at rvelectricity.com you'll find all the links in the show notes along with today's travel lifestyle and income resources. And remember the RV Life podcast is powered by your stories. That's right this is a community effort folks so share your RVing tips and campfire stories for our RVR insights segment. Just visit podcast.rvlife com slash contact and record a smart message we may feature you in a future episode next week we've got more stories and expert advice to help you live your best RV life.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you so much for tuning in please subscribe and rate the RV Life podcast wherever you listen. Your reigns are what helps us get found so that we can keep bringing you all the best info in the RV universe.
SPEAKER_00:Until next time experience bid farewell to the stress of travel planning with RV Life TripWizard. This feature allows you to customize your routes avoid potential hazards and even discover the best campgrounds based on real user reviews it's not just about reaching your destination it's about enjoying the journey and with RV Life TripWizard every journey is effortless. Learn more about this game changing feature at rvlife calm