RV LIFE Podcast

Maine Travel, CARE Support, Mail Freedom & Trusted RV Training - RV LIFE 160

• RV LIFE • Episode 160

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Explore four-season RV travel in Maine, support for retired RVers at Escapees CARE, mail management for full-timers, and trusted RV owner education.

  • Explore Maine’s coastline, mountains, lakes, forests, and four-season camping with Kathy Dyer from the Maine Campground Owners Association. 
  • Discover how Escapees CARE helps retired RVers age in place, recover, and stay supported while living in their own RVs. 
  • Learn how Vern Six turned full-time RV mail headaches into Circle 6 Mail Drop, a flexible mail service built for travelers. 
  • Hear why Mark Polk of RV Education 101 says trusted, human RV training still matters for safety, maintenance, and confidence.

Kathy Dyer from the Maine Campground Owners Association shares why Maine is more than a summer destination, with coastal camping, mountains, lakes, forests, rustic parks, resorts, and even winter RVing.

Dave Condit and Crystal Saulters explain how Escapees CARE in Livingston, Texas supports retired RVers who want to age in place, recover from surgery, or transition safely while staying in their own RVs.

Vern Six discusses mail management when full-time RVing and how Circle 6 Mail Drop helps travelers receive, scan, forward, shred, and manage mail from the road.

Mark Polk of RV Education 101 talks about nearly 27 years of consumer RV training, online courses, trusted technical education, and why real-world expertise still matters.

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Real RV Problems No One Warns You

SPEAKER_07

My wife and I were on the road for five and a half years. Getting mail was really a troublesome experience.

SPEAKER_01

It really is a must-see destination and it's quite diverse.

SPEAKER_11

You're an influencer, so they believe that the content you're putting out is correct.

SPEAKER_04

Of course, doing rehab in one's RV is not always that easy, but the care center has got plenty of room.

SPEAKER_02

RV life, RV life, RV life, RV life, RV life, RV life podcast.

JIM

You know, there are some RV subjects that sound so simple until you actually live this lifestyle for a while. Oh yeah, like getting your mail, right? Exactly. Or figuring out what happens if you get hurt on the road and can't just pack up and drive away.

RENE

Or choosing where to camp when a state like Maine gives you coastline, mountains, lakes, forests, lobster, snowmobiling, and more campgrounds than you can possibly fit into one truck.

What We Cover Today

JIM

Welcome back to the RV Life Podcast. I'm Jim.

RENE

And I'm Renee. Today we have a little bit of everything that makes the RV life what it is all about. Travel inspiration, real-world sport for aging and recovery on the road, business solutions for full-timers, and trusted education for RV owners.

JIM

John starts us off in Maine with Kathy Dyer from the Maine Campground Owners Association. They're talking about four-season camping and why Maine is so much more than just a summer coastline destination.

RENE

And then we'll talk with Dave and Crystal from Escape's Care in Livingston, Texas. This is such a special place in the RV community. It helps retired RVers age in place, recover from surgery, or transition to a more stationary life while living there in their own RV.

JIM

Rose and Glenn then talk with RV entrepreneur Vern Sticks about something every full-time RVer has to figure out eventually. Getting your mail. Vern turned his own frustration with mail forwarding services into a business built for RVers and remote workers.

RENE

And Bob wraps things up with Mark and Don Polk from RV Education 101. This couple has been helping RV owners understand their rigs for nearly 27 years.

JIM

Once again, lots to cover here.

Why Maine Belongs On Your List

JIM

Let's begin with a destination on most RVers' bucket list, the great state of Maine.

RENE

I loved Maine. It has so much to offer. It's one of those places you can turn into whatever kind of RV trip you want it to be.

JIM

Right. You can go coastal and touristy like we did in Bar Harbor. That's a must-see stop. But we also got in some real remote camping and plenty of fishing. You got rivers, lakefront camping, mountains, family campgrounds, or premier RV resorts for comfortable winter camping, not to mention leaf keeping from falls.

RENE

All right, all right. Kathy Dyer makes it clear that Maine isn't just one destination. It's a wide variety of regions, each with its own personality.

JIM

Okay, here's John with Kathy from Maine Campground Owners Association.

SPEAKER_02

Everybody,

Maine Campgrounds And Regional Variety

SPEAKER_02

welcome once again to another segment of the RV Life Podcast, where we take you to interesting places throughout the United States to enjoy your camping vacations. And today we are venturing up to the great state of Maine, and our guest is the executive director of the Maine Campground Owners Association, Kathy Dyer. Kathy, welcome to the RV Life Podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks, John, for having me.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you know, we see each other at shows throughout the season, and I think a lot of people have a tendency to look at New England and Maine as as one area, but the great state of Maine is one big state. And I understand you can take all the other New England states and fit them into fit them into great state of Maine, which means there's lots of camping opportunities.

SPEAKER_01

There are. Yeah. It's and it's quite diverse. Yeah, you said it. There's over 350 private campgrounds here in the state of Maine. And and like I just talked to you earlier, what's nice about it, I think, is our campgrounds, five or more sites, do need a a license through the state. So it is uh a a heavily regulated, if you will, industry, which I would think would be very enticing for, you know, visitors to know that. Because it, you know, obviously everybody has to run their parks the same, basically. They have their different amenities and they different things that they offer and all of that, how they treat their their customers. But the baseline for which campgrounds are regulated is is equal all throughout. So and very safe, um, very healthy.

SPEAKER_02

There's equal on that part, but my guess is that based upon the number of campgrounds that you have and the diversity of campgrounds that you have, is that you can really find something for everyone, regardless of whether they are very commercially oriented, that want to partake in a lot of activities on the campground, or the most rustic campgrounds in America might be found in great state of Maine. Am I right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely. So we go all if you if you just ran Route One all the way up from Massachusetts, if you will, straight up all the way through Arustack County, which is the top part of the state with above Canada. Potato Town, right. You go right through Blueberry Vale and to make uh the Potato Town. But we also have rustic down here in the western part of the states, you know, Western Lakes and Mountains, you know, over where Casco is, the Sabago Lake, even though that is a very it's a highly populated and tourist area, in amongst it, you know, it's so wooded. Uh there's a lot of rivers and streams and small ponds and and things like that. There's rustic basically everywhere in the state of Maine. You can you can find it if you're looking for it. But there's also you can find even as as high up as when you get up to Catahdin and you get up to um Arusta County, everybody thinks of those as being completely rustic and and they're not. We have some mega parks up there. We have a brand new park in the Greenville area that has over 200 sites. And it is an RV resort. So we have diverse camping all over the state. You can be as close to Massachusetts and New Hampshire as you want and and and and have a megapark that old Orchard Beach or whatever takes you an hour to get to.

SPEAKER_02

Or you can travel eight hours and go to the you know Well, as we deal with a national audience on this particular show, I think people may have a tendency to put New England as just a a tiny region, because when you look at the big map, New England is really small compared to going down to Texas or out to the Midwest. But with the diversity in Maine, you could really spend your entire vacation there, whether it's one week or two weeks, and either stay in one place if you want to pick a central location, then travel. Or if you want to start down, you know, in the old Orchard Beach area where you've got, I mean, several large parks to pick from, or go way up, you know, like to Lubeck, the eastern one. You know, a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01

And we do. We have I have a lot of folks, and I say it's a lot throughout the summer, call the office and we'll ask. They're they're they're doing a travel and they are going for five, seven, ten days in their RV. And they want to do the state. So they they kind of know where they are starting from, obviously. And like I said, you can go right up ninety-five, you can go up Route One if you want to hit the traffic. Um or you can start on the other side through the Western Lakes and Mountains and go up that way and come around. But we we help travelers, I mean, every day of the week pinpoint different campgrounds that they want to stay at for a night or two nights. Yes, there are some that have a three night minimum, you know, in the in the heat of, you know, from July and August. But there are some that don't. And so typically what I what I do and Laura, my my right-hand gal in the office, when they call for references and and they're trying to um draw out their vacation, if you will, we we will give them in each area that they want to go to three or four choices of them to call, just based off of the questions that we ask them and what they're looking for. We certainly don't play favoritism, but we we're always asking them what they're looking for, and then we try to place them. And so we give them three or four different numbers to call because obviously a lot of these campgrounds are are full, they're full now. So but yeah, we we have a lot of people that will that are are going for the week and staying at different parks. They'll stay at five or six different parks throughout that week. And and their end destination will be their number one place that they really want to visit, whether it's Bar Harbor or over to Qatarden area, Mount Catada, but back to State Park or what have you. Or they come back down and they end up in Old Orchard Beach over in or if they end up over in Western Lakes and Mountains, Cepegal Lake or what have you. So it is it is it really is a a must-see destination. I do I go to the a lot of shows and if uh not so much Boston, but you do get it once in a while, but primarily down in Connecticut, a little bit further away, um, you get a lot of people that say, Oh my Maine. It's on my bucket list, but it's so far away. But it's not, if you if you think about it, because you can go to West, like I said, you can go to the Western Lakes and Mountains area, you can go to Rangely, you can go to Casco Bay. And if you're from, you know, Boston or or you're from, you know, Connecticut or what have you, you're you're talking maybe Connecticut's three hours. Boston's only two hours.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, or hour and a half depending on the case.

SPEAKER_01

I mean you can get Yeah, it's it's it's really not, you know, but they just if they haven't been, they they put us, I think they put us in the same caliber as like Alaska. It's like I want to go to Maine, but I just don't know how to get there.

SPEAKER_02

You know, New England is such a uh unique area in that the geography is such that there are several states and you can go from Rhode Island through Massachusetts and up into Maine all within two hours. You know, so it's not a thing. And and many people that we know combine their their main adventure with a stop in Vermont or stop in New Hampshire or stop in Massachusetts, et cetera.

SPEAKER_01

Well, they may do that on their way home too, depending on which like if they start in Maine and they come up and they go around, sure, they'll come back around and hit Vermont and then back down to New Hampshire. It's I mean, why not? Yeah. I mean, other than the fact that, you know, we have Maine has everything. I mean, we've got the oceans, we've got the lakes, we've got the ponds, the rivers, the streams, the mountains, the forests. Um, in wintertime we have ski, snowmobiling. I I mean it's and and typically we have the snow that is needed to back all of that as well. So and and we do now have, believe it or not, winter camping at some of these places. They will stay open all year round because they want the ice. They live on the the campground is on it might be on a lake. And they'll just keep a portion of the park open for the ice fishermen and the snowmobilers and so forth.

SPEAKER_02

But Kathy, how about a um online site? Campmaine.com is what I looked at, and it seems to really be an encyclopedia of everything you need to camp not only in Maine, but you know, surrounding states. Correct.

SPEAKER_01

Any other resources that we have well, the the campmain.com website is our website. It it is home for our member campgrounds. So, like I stated before, there's over 350 campgrounds in the state of Maine. But if they're not a member of the association, they're not on that campmain.com. The other resource is the camping guide, which we produce annually. It's a 80-page full copy of it here, which it's I know it's not visual, but um

Building A Maine Route That Works

SPEAKER_01

80-page full-size magazine that lists all of our member campgrounds. It has maps, it has uh state information in it. It's a huge resource for anybody that is gonna plan a vacation. So between the online and the printed resource.

SPEAKER_02

One of the things that I noticed in that in that brochure, not excuse me, in at Camp Maine on the website is that, you know, there's those eight big regions of Maine, all of which are diverse, and you really want to spend some time to take advantage of it. I mean, you know, the campground, the uh excuse me, the coastline, it's over 3,000 miles of coastlines. Um, you know, whether it's in the lakes, in the interior, or along that great Atlantic Ocean. I know that ride, just that ride itself from um, you know, from Portsmouth up to Bar Harbor along US 1 is an amazing ride, and there's campgrounds all along the way that you can stop at, you know, Booth Bay Harbor and that type thing. There's there's so much to do in Maine.

SPEAKER_01

Like I said, we're we're home to Baxter State Park up in the Qatarin region. We're home to Arcadia National Park and in our down east.

SPEAKER_02

One of the top ten national parks in the entire United States.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Over uh Sabago Lake is one of the largest lakes up here. Moosehead Lake, which again that's a little bit more Greenville and so forth. Freeport, El Albean, Capella's, uh I mean there's just everything imaginable. Shopping, outdoors, outdoor recreation, eating, home of, you know, the main lobster. We can't forget the lobster.

SPEAKER_02

Can't forget that. But we want to um, you know, let our audience know that all this information is available online at campmain.com or just Google Camping in Maine and you're gonna find some very interesting things in Cassie.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I can call the office. We're we're a huge resource and we love to take your phone call. Um, but is that number, Cassie?

SPEAKER_02

What is that number? The office number is 782-5874.

SPEAKER_01

Right. You can call and order the main camping guide. We'll send you one free. You can order it online at campmain.com. You can call and ask us any questions you want about any of our member parks. We'll be happy to give you as much information as they give us. We do recommend that anybody interested in traveling and visiting a uh a uh campgrounds here, call ahead for reservations. The state typically is pet friendly. There are a few here and there that um are a little more cautious. So it's always good to call ahead in advance for anything that you need and to make that reservation. I'd hate to have somebody come up and spend a couple hours driving and then everything is full.

SPEAKER_02

Kathy Dyer, we want to thank you so much and you know that this is the RV Life Podcast. Thank you for joining us, and be sure to call our friends in Maine for a great vacation.

RENE

Oh, well, that brings back some memories. I love how Kathy talked about Maine as a place where you can call the Campground Association and they'll actually help match you with the kind of camping experience you want.

JIM

That's really helpful because Maine can feel so big or far away and overwhelming when looking at a map. But she made it all sound so doable.

RENE

I really appreciate how she talked about more than just Acadia and Moosehead Lake. Maine has everything from old Orchard Beach to Baxter State Park, Tobago Lake, and can you imagine winter camping up there?

JIM

Uh yeah, imagine, sure. But it's a reminder that the RV life is not one size fits all. And that's so true when your own life changes out on the road.

RENE

Exactly. And that's why I'm so excited about our next

Winter Camping And Planning Tools

RENE

conversation. This one is about a place unlike anywhere else in the RV world. The escapees care facility in Livingston helps retired and senior RVers stay in their own RV while receiving support with meals, transportation, housekeeping, laundry, and most importantly, community.

JIM

Oh, for sure. We've been skipped for years, and we had the honor of meeting the founders Kay and Joe when we toured Rainbow's End. So it's another honor to share our conversation with David Crystal from Escape Ease Care.

RENE

Dave,

Escapees CARE And Aging On The Road

RENE

it's so nice to have you here. Thank you for being on the podcast. And you too, Crystal. We we love having both of you here.

SPEAKER_10

Well, it's our privilege to uh to be here with you today, and we're excited about being able to share a few things about care and what we do here and what this program offers.

RENE

Well, we are excited too. We are huge fans, and we want to hear a little bit more, Dave, about how you came to care because I understand you and your wife were full-timers. How did that experience lead you to going over to care and eventually becoming director?

SPEAKER_10

Okay, I've I've always been living a very exciting life. I worked for NASA for about 30 years at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Uh my job was to keep astronauts going and uh the the flight control team alive and well in the control room. And uh in 2010, I retired from NASA. We bought a fifth wheel and uh immediately set on the road, and our first trip was to Alaska because you know, as a first full-timer, the best trip you can make is one that's 5,000 miles round trip. So that's what we did. We headed off to Alaska, and then we we spent the next seven years traveling all over the US, Canada, and then in 2000 we kept reading in the Escape's magazine about this place called Care. And one of the things that they did there was they took care of people who were retired from retiring from their RVs, and we thought, well, that sounds like an interesting program. We'll go there and volunteer for a month and see what we think about care. And so we came here. Crystal is the one who was the volunteer coordinator at the time, and she sweet talked my wife and I into coming here to volunteer. So in 2015, we spent a month initially uh volunteering here at care to to be with the residents. I think at the time we had about 40 residents and about uh maybe 13 or 14 adult daycare members that were here. Uh our job consisted of driving people to their uh doctor's appointments, hospitals, that kind of thing. We also took care of checking residents in at night and in the mornings, uh, making sure they were okay for through the night. We had a phone that we had, and so we monitored them if they had problems. We could respond real quick and either get EMT or just help whatever we could do with them. We love that so much that we decided to stay another month, and then we stayed another month. We ended up spending six months here as volunteers. I think at the time it's probably maybe a record of what we would say. But we love the people here so much, we love the program for what it is. It takes care of people uh to the point that it gives them a place to live that period between living full time in an RV that happened to go to a place where you have to be taken care of. This is a fully independent living facility. It's one that we don't do medical work on the residents that are here. Our job is to feed them, provide them a place to live, keep their landscape up.

SPEAKER_04

And do their laundry every other week and do housekeeping every week. I'm sorry, laundry is every week, and housekeeping is every other week. And yeah, and activities, parties. We we we even go to the casino.

JIM

That's great. You know, we love care. We had the opportunity to tour it long ago and volunteered for a Thanksgiving dinner. And we love the facility, it's a wonderful concept. And care actually stands for continuing assistance for retired escapees. All escapees, you know, usually are RVers or have been at some point. I love how you call it, kind of called it a transitioning period, you know, not a home per se or assisted living. But if they can get from their RV directly across from the main facility there, they can come and have their meals there and all that. It makes it a special place, but why do you think it's really important that residents remain in their RV during this, you know, the remaining period that they have there?

Why Staying In Your RV Matters

JIM

Why is it important for that during this transition period instead of like get going and getting comfortable in a house somewhere?

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, I think there's a couple of reasons for that. One, that RV for many of them has been their home for the last five, ten, fifteen years. Some of them, like Fred and Joe, probably have lived in it for 30 years. That's they know where everything is at. When it gets cold, they know what needs to be taken care of. When it gets hot, they know how to keep the place cool. So it's their home. They have pride in it and they take care of it, and that's their responsibility, and we allow them to do that. We don't interject ourselves into taking care of their rig because that's their home. And I think they like that, that sense of pride, sense of ownership, which allows them to be happy where they're at. Whereas if you move into a a place where you're being taken care of, you don't necessarily care if you keep the place clean or the walls are painted or the carpet's clean. You don't care. But this is their house, their home, and they keep it clean.

SPEAKER_04

That's a great point.

SPEAKER_10

They're home and you make them feel at home.

SPEAKER_04

Uh-huh. I think I think we do. So for me, um, I have a friend. Her name is Vicky, and she's actually my age, and she had to have a hip replacement. Well, she did not know about care. And whenever she came here and learned about all of what we did, she said, Oh my gosh, I really wish I'd have known about this whenever I got my hip replacement. It cost her a ton of money just to get people to bring her food, you know, like Uber Eats or whatever. And she just really struggled from with that time of, you know, you go into you have the hip surgery and then you stay a couple of days in the hospital and then they send you off to rehab, but then they send you home to continue rehab. It's, you know, it's of course doing rehab in one's RV is not always that easy, but the care center has got plenty of room. And, you know, nursing homes are very expensive.

RENE

So yeah, we really appreciated that there was a different model of what that level of assistance could look like. We were just in our 40s when we toured care and you know, retirement for us, it's still uh several years away, but we just thought, wow, you know, this it's a really nice option. To have. And even RVers who think they'll never need care services or to stay there for to recover or anything, I mean, they really have that peace of mind when they're an escapee and they know that it's out there for them. You know, Jim had a hospitalization last fall. And, you know, if that had led to something more serious, care would have been a nice option to have if we weren't able to travel after that. So as far as like the broader community of escapees and the other RVers who aren't yet escapees, why do you think it's so important for this organization to exist?

SPEAKER_10

Well, we have two purposes here with what we do. We have our resident program, which is for the retired escapees who live in their homes here. And then the other part is the adult daycare respite center that we have, which is actually open to the community. Right now we currently have seven individuals who come in that either their children drop their parents off or there's some family relationship that a caregiver brings the person that they're caring for here and gives them an eight-hour chance of the day to get things done at their house without having to be burdened with taking care of the ones they're taking care of. So the two programs that uh that one probably is the biggest one. It's the one that contributes best to our 501c3 status uh because it does open up to the community. The other part is the resident program for the basically escapees who have come here to finish retiring to live out that time until they have to go to a place that actually provides more support and for them. During that time, they still have a time to fellowship with other people. They still get a chance to go out shopping with with other people on the bus. They go to community dinners, they go to community concerts. Like Crystal said, we go to the casino every now and then and lots of restaurants. We always we're always taking them out to eat because even though we have a great cafeteria here and a great staff of cooks, there's also a real nice need to get out and have a T-bone steak somewhere. We don't provide T-bone steaks here, but they they do like to get out and eat in the in the local areas around. So yeah, and and what I think one of the greatest stories, the I think the greatest story at Care is a couple that were involved here with Care, knew

Accidents Rehab And Real Community Help

SPEAKER_10

a lot about Care. Their names were Andy and Vera. They had a big class A, and I think it was maybe 10, 12 years ago they were headed out. They left from this area headed west. I think they were headed out for Arizona or somewhere, got around San Antonio, and somebody cut them off. And you know, when you cut a class A off, it's never going to be a pretty sight. I think the thing rolled three or four times, flipped, and the and the both of them were pretty well crunched up. The director here at CARE, once he heard that they were in the hospital, got a couple of vehicles and they headed over uh to San Antonio where they were at.

GLYNN

Wow.

SPEAKER_10

Went to the bus and cleaned out the bus, got their stuff cleaned out for them. And these weren't even residents here. They were just just friends.

SPEAKER_04

But actually they were volunteers. They had left here for volunteering. They were volunteers.

SPEAKER_10

And uh the director had sent people over, our people to clean up, get their stuff, and then we helped get them back here to care. Did they put them in the cottage? In the cottage. We have a cottage, it's a two-bedroom house, and uh they got them back, brought them back over here, got them in the cottage. I think they were in there for six months and they recouped in there. And you think about what that would have cost an individual and a couple that had, I mean, they've kind of both depended upon each other, but neither one of them were dependable, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so they had the care staff who was here to cook three meals a day for them, uh, take them to their doctor's appointments, the whole thing. And you just think, where else could uh I had ever gotten that kind of treatment and still be respected? Later they later then became residents here for a while. And then uh a couple of years ago, they bought a house here close. She actually uh volunteered to come on board as a board member, and uh she is one of our board members now. And so I mean, I just look at that couple and what that meant to them and what it meant for the reputation of care. I mean, nobody else is gonna do that.

RENE

No, no, I mean being being a full-timer and carrying everything you own and your RB, you know, it's a it's a great adventure. Highly recommend it. But sometimes things like that happen, and it's really scary. It says so much about the spirit there. I love that.

JIM

And I'm sure it's just one example. I'm sure there's plenty of stories there, but you mentioned care is a 501c3, and there is the escapees membership, and I'm I'm not certain how much of the dues go there. I understand you also just had a fundraiser that went off fairly well. But can we talk? You have so many resources, meals, transportation, day-to-day support. You just mentioned a cottage. All of this takes money. Can we talk a bit about the role funding plays in keeping these surfaces available?

Funding Volunteers And Monthly Costs

JIM

Where does it come from and where's it needed? Okay.

SPEAKER_10

There's a couple of funding areas that we get money from. One is escape uh escapades. We do usually get anywhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 to $15,000 or donations that come in from escapades. Uh the bash that just occurred uh was about almost $11,000 that came in. That's the two outside this area fundraisers that happened. We also every year in April, after April, we have a uh we call it a health fair. We have about 40 or 50 vendors come in from the outside. They set up booths and tables. Uh, they do some different testing and screening with people as they go through. And it's a week-long event. We have a a soup tasting contest. We have uh we have a one of the best things we have is a is a dessert auction where uh we probably have a hundred to a hundred and twenty-five dessert desserts that come in from around the Rainbows Inn community here bring in cakes. We have a lot of sweet ladies in this area that love to bake cakes or pies or whatever. Some and the vendors will sometimes go to a uh a regular bakery and get stuff you know uh made and bring and and bring to us. And we have the deduction. The auction goes off and it'll raise anywhere from five to eight thousand dollars. We have other events that uh occur that bring in amounts of money. We have a thrifting gift store here, it's a resale shop that started off as a little tiny closet with two or three little items in it years ago, and we ended up buying a building and then another building and another building, and now we've got four buildings. One's a huge building. Uh, praise the Lord. Last year, that little shop brought in fifty-five thousand dollars.

RENE

It's wonderful. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_10

All these volunteers who who work in it.

SPEAKER_04

Um I first started working here. I remember uh, because you know, with the smart weight here, one needs to lighten their load. They can always stuff like to care. So all these things really just work hand in hand. But we used to have these yard cells and the front of the building and then the multi-purpose room, which is a big open space. We would fill those areas up with all of this stuff. Stuff is yeah, literally. So much work. I mean, trailer loads of stuff coming from the metal container that we have that we store stuff in. And so now having the thrifting gift, we don't have to do that. We we would have those sales twice a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. But now we we have it going on, well, every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

JIM

Wow. That's so nice. What is the cost to members? We've been to Livingston, we understand there's site rent, but if you want to transition into the care quote unquote facility, is there an additional cost?

SPEAKER_10

Okay, for care itself is thirteen hundred and twenty-five dollars a month for a single individual, and it's about $1,900 for a couple. That includes three meals a day. Wow. The care that we have 24 hours a day to watch over you, the facilities that we have here, all that is all in that package.

RENE

Okay. But can we just be clear? That is a bargain for that level of and when when we toured over 10 years ago, it was not much less than that. Yeah, it hasn't gone up. It hasn't gone up, is what I'm trying to say. Very little. You guys have really kept the price on that down. That's so impressive. So, Dave and Crystal, either one of you can answer this, but what would you say to the RVer right now, who's maybe one of the younger ones, who's healthy, not even thinking about someday I may need assistance? What would you say to them?

SPEAKER_04

So last year, during one month period time, I fell three times. We are all one step away from a fall. You never know what's gonna happen. I mean, and what are you gonna do? You take a fall, you go into the hospital, you gotta go back to your RV. How are you gonna go up your steps? What are you gonna do? Care can answer a lot of those questions.

RENE

Yes, absolutely. Dave, how about you? You got any advice for the the younger folks out there?

SPEAKER_10

Keep this place in mind for anything. Like Crystal said, accidents can happen in a blink of an eye. Right now we have a couple, well, Matt is here. He's a resident, temporary resident. He had, was it some kind of surgery?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it was on his hand. In his hands. Something kind of a rare situation.

SPEAKER_10

I mean, you could stay out in your rig and try to get from one place to another and try to fix your meals with a you know splinted up wrist or whatever, but you know, why when you can come here and just for a few dollars more a month be taken care of.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And let's say you're on the other side of the country somewhere, because you know, what are the chances of you being near Texas in your time of need? But we have we have we can help out with that too. I mean, we've sent people to different states to drive one's RV back or get them back somehow, or if you can they can find someone to get their RV here and they fly here, we'll pick them up from the airport.

RENE

Wow, that is community spirit.

JIM

It's really wonderful to hear, and you never know what's going to happen. I can attest to the fact that you know things can blindside you in life. But if someone listening out here wants to support the wonderful efforts you're doing and kind of give back to the RV community in a way that actually does make a difference, how can people learn more and support the work that Escape East Care is doing?

SPEAKER_10

Okay, so Escape East Care has a budget yearly of about almost $2 million. Out of that, 75% of that money that we have in our operating budget comes from the residents in their monthly rent. They can jump on there and they can make a direct donation to us. That's wonderful.

JIM

Or you could head to Livingston and swing by the thrift shop and do some shopping. I know Renee wants to do it.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, I can't wait. Or you could come and volunteer. We rely on volunteers every month. So, you know, that is fun.

JIM

Job done. It's fun, you meet great people and you support a good cause.

SPEAKER_10

Yeah, we can't say enough good things about it. Volunteers are probably the most important part of our this whole organization because without them, it wouldn't be thirteen hundred and twenty-five dollars a month for them to live here. Getting into a living facility that's assisted is anywhere from five to ten thousand dollars a month. I mean, considering the fact we're not assisted, but we're semi-assisted. Thirteen hundred is pretty cheap.

JIM

It is extremely cheap, and we hope listeners can help out. So check out the links in the show notes. Dave Crystal, thank you so much for joining us today.

RENE

Absolutely. Thank you.

JIM

We appreciate you all.

RENE

The great work. All righty, thank you.

JIM

Every time we talk about care, I remember so many escapees getting together, helping out at Thanksgiving. And I'm reminded how rare and important that place is.

RENE

Oh, me too. It's not something younger or healthier RVers always think about, but things can change fast. A fall, a surgery, an illness, or an accident can suddenly make this lifestyle much harder.

JIM

You just like the thrift store. But what Dave and Crystal describe is really community in action, not just a service, but people looking out for one another.

RENE

That story about care helping the couple after their RV accident. Well, that really says it all. That's the community at its best.

The Mail Problem For Full Timers

JIM

Yeah, and speaking of real-time logistics, Rose and Glenn's next guest solves another issue all full-time RVers run into pretty quickly.

RENE

Mail. It sounds so boring until you're trying to get an important document forwarded to a campground where it only stayed for a few days. So the pocket.

JIM

Here's his discussion with Rose and happy to be here with you and Glenn.

How Circle 6 Mail Drop Works

ROSE

Yeah, we're excited for you to kind of share with us how to handle mail while full-time RVing, as well as the business you created because of all that. You were full-time for five years. So it's one of those topics that doesn't always get talked about when people think about RV life, but it is such a big part of making this full-time lifestyle really, really work.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, for sure. I I've been, you know, a uh a remote developer, software developer for 37 years. And um, when we lived in our RV for about five, five and a half years, um, one of the things that, you know, I loved about being remote, obviously, is just go wherever I want. You mentioned in the pre-session about uh Arizona. You know, I can be working in Arizona today and I can be working in Nevada tomorrow. And I love that about the RV life. And one of the biggest hassles that we had um was just getting our mail. It was we really relied on it a lot. Um, and and that was kind of the genesis for me developing the software that is our portal that allows us to do that. I mean, one of the biggest things was, you know, we we were at a a mailbox rental company and getting them to afford our mail, they were not interested in doing some of the things that I thought were just necessary customer service stuff. And they wouldn't open up the packages and combine them so I would pay less in shipping. They wouldn't, you know, they wouldn't ship it to me at a campground, they wouldn't send it to me if I was on the road, you know, plan it and schedule it so it arrived when I was the two days I was going to be in Arizona as an example. Um, and just lots of hurdles like that. And so that's why we developed, you know, our software that that really manages that. And and that's how we started this business.

ROSE

Yeah, Glenn and I were really fortunate because when we were on the road full time, we could have our mail sent to his parents' home while we were traveling. Uh, but we know that's not the reality of a lot of people. So we're really excited to dig into what you've built and you know how you're helping people solve that problem.

SPEAKER_07

Sure. I can tell you a little bit about our software and how our process works, and then we can kind of dig down from there if you like. Yeah.

GLYNN

Well, let's start with that because I I imagine that you you built this from the ground up and you have that expertise. So enlighten us.

SPEAKER_07

Yeah. Um, the way that our you know, basically we give you a a Texas address in Falls County, Texas, and you get what's called a PMB, a private mailbox. And so it's here at our address, and then you log in. Once we get you set up in the system, after you become a customer, you log in, and whenever your mail arrives, we take a scan of the outside of the contents, whether that be an envelope, a box, uh, you know, a big shipping tube, whatever, we scan that, and it shows up in your portal that I developed. And in the portal, you get to decide what to do with it. You have four choices. Um, and they're not all mutually exclusive, but your four choices are we could forward it to you, you tell us where you want it to go, and it just goes. And it's piece by piece on that mail, right? You can say forward it to me in Idaho at this campground or at my mother's house. We're here for a couple days, or or whatever. The other choices, if you need something that's right away, if it's an envelope, um, we can open that envelope and put it in our high-speed scanners. And usually within 24 hours, that's in your portal, the contents, both sides of uh whatever you know is in there. We don't charge any extra for that. And so it's just um, you know, you can see your mail right now. So for instance, if you got a lab result you wanted, and you know, you do you you got it in the mail and you wanted to have it at your at your uh computer, we just pop it in a scanner and it shows up in your portal the next day. Um sometimes faster than that, if it's urgent, we'll do it right away, if what have you. Other choices you have, um, so that's content scanning. The other choices you have, um, that was fording and content scanning. And then we can also do, we can throw it away or we can shred it. And we'll shred up to 20 pounds uh for each customer. Um after 20 pounds, um, we have to charge. Um, and it's just a dollar a pound. Uh, just because our our shredding supplier uh requires that we that we pay a certain fee to it. Um but the uh you know that's pretty much how it works. Um you can then get into the portal, you'll see the date that it shipped, the date that it left here, and you get the tracking number, you can track it through the entire process. Um, and we typically ship with uh you know the US Post Office, UPS, FedEx, and DHL, um, whichever makes the most sense to you um in your portal, you get to make those choices. And, you know, it it's just a pretty painless process. But the key to that is that I guess there's a fifth choice. You can look at it and say, I don't want that piece of mail, and you know, I don't want junk mail, and you can you can tell us, you know, just throw everything in this junk mail away, and we'll do our best guest to make sure what that is pre-sorted, first class, catalogs, you know, that sort of thing. But you know, you can get all that control is in your portal. And you you log in and and you see your mail in real time, basically, and and you get to know that okay, these four pieces of mail, they're going to my mom's address, and these five pieces I selected to meet me in Chandler, Arizona. And, you know, you can you can do all of that. And the nice thing about that is you can schedule that. In other words, you say, I'm gonna be there next Tuesday. It takes four days to deliver, ship this on X, and that's what we'll do. And it's it, and when you get a piece of mail, you can also sign up for text alerts or emails. Text alerts are um, you know, they're like four dollars a month, I think. Um, but we try not to nickel and dime anybody. We we we have yet to ever charge anybody for it, but that's that's what it costs us to sign you up for uh uh you know for text alerts. Um, but uh email alerts, they're free, they don't cost anything. And uh we would have a uh you know alert you when your mail gets here. If you don't want to log into the portal all the time, you don't have to worry about it. As soon as a piece of mail appears in your portal, you get an email. Right or text.

GLYNN

Can we rewind

Why Texas Domicile Comes Up

GLYNN

for one second? Because you mentioned Texas. Why Texas?

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, sure. Texas is very friendly to folks establishing the domicile here. And the uh one of the things that's nice about Texas, obviously, we don't have um state income tax. And you know, how you set that up is you know, I'm not in the I can't give you any legal advice or tax advice or that sort of thing, but I can tell you that getting a Texas driver license and a Texas address, um, we have several people who use that for their tax returns, you know, uh IRS tax returns. Um, their employers were it's in the W-2s here, they're on the road. Who doesn't know, you know, if they're in Texas or or or if they are, you know, so it's it's kind of a a gray area. I mean, if you're in New York, New York says that for instance, as an example, you need to pay New York taxes. Um, and but in if you're in Texas and you claim Texas as your domiciled address, then you know, if who's to prove you're not in Texas at the time? Um, and and I'm not I'm not suggesting anybody do anything. I mean, that's a tax, that's a tax question, right? But I can tell you that 90% of our customers do that.

GLYNN

I completely understand. There is a gray area there, isn't there?

SPEAKER_07

Yeah, there sure is, yeah. There is, but um, but we have you know, other services that we do, um folks want to get their vehicles and their RVs registered here. We are in one of the lowest uh cost centers. Uh, we're in Falls County, which is very, very low in terms of insurance dollars. I mean, when when we moved to Falls County, we bought the ranch, we moved to Falls County. My insurance, um, I have USAA because of my military service. Um, our insurance dropped $180 over a six-month period. And so just because we're no longer in the big metro of Fort Worth, you know, where we used to live. And so um, you know, so it's just some of the some of the benefits of that also. And other things we do, it's I mean, our business is not strictly for um people on the road, right? We have lots of businesses that use us who just want the privacy of having an address that is uh not their home address. So we got some businesses that are like literally just down the street and they use our address because they don't want, you know, visitors to their home business. And so we handle all that uh sort of stuff too. When you sign up for us, it's included, it's two two individuals and and one business. Um are included in the service that you can you can use. So if you've got a home business it or an on-the-road business, that's fine with us. We don't charge any extra for that. We can't accept service. I mean, you know, if you if you get sued by somebody for some widget you sent to them or they want to take you to court over it, I mean, those things happen, right? We can't accept those legal documents if a judge, I mean if a process server shows up to give us the paper that you need to show up in court. We're not your registered agent. But we we can we can receive all your business mail. We can forward it to you. And one of the things that's really unique we we've been getting into more and more we have a lot of businesses that have an RMA system, return material authorization system, where they have a lot of returns come from their customers. We will combine those into a smaller shipment. You know if if if it says if the RMA numbers on the outside of the the box um for one customer I know that's in the 3D printing business, he has some stuff that gets returned because it gets broken. It's fragile it's whatever it's not the right collar somebody wanted whatever. He wants all those shipped here and then we can bind them in one box and then send them to them. That way he only pays shipping once. And then also on some of the items he just asks us to verify that they're actually being returned and then asks us to discard them. He doesn't pay any postage at all. So there's you know just lots of different cust ways to customize it but especially for the folks that are actually on the road we have some folks that are RVers. They're in Benson Arizona at the moment they're on their way here to they want to meet us in person. So they're they've been customers for a year but they're on their way we have a campground here at the ranch also so they're coming here to to uh to camp here and and say hi so we're excited about that but he uh he's in the printed circuit business printed circuit board business everything he produces and designs from his R V is gets fulfilled by a company in Seattle and all the R all the return stuff comes here. And so then we ship it to him at whatever campground he's at I just happen to know he's in Benson Arizona at the moment you know so we do all kinds of neat things like that. And that's the nice thing about the portal you just change the address where you want every shipment to go. You just and each shipment can go to a different address.

GLYNN

It doesn't matter that's incredible. I mean first of all I I want to back I've gone through your website and I I have to say I like the the boondocking the the full hookup you know your choices are fantastic. And another thing I'm gathering and I think that the audience needs to gather is that that your company despite being it's big but it's it's small and how it treats the customer.

SPEAKER_07

That's right. I mean you know my wife and I were on the road for five and a half years and then we were full-time missionaries in Guatemala still be on the road getting mail was really a trouble troublesome experience especially when we were out of the country and you know we we have a lot of customers that are currently in you know uh Canada and that sort of thing. We don't care. We we we simply you know where where they're at we ship worldwide it's not a problem. But yeah it's you know we have a lot of options that were designed around the troubles that we had the hurdles that we really experienced and it it just made it easier for you know how we just kind of envisioned what we wanted and then once we bought the ranch six years ago we started this business got it going um I developed all the software over the last four years and uh well I had the other daytime jobs right and so uh but now it's the full-time gig and it's the uh it's really it's taking off people have just been really excited. Um one of the funniest things we have on our website is you know we have we have some little humor things on there if you go click on the little thing that says veteran owned you're gonna see some of my history of how they used to call me Sergeant Buckethead. But uh so you're gonna you're gonna see all kinds of so we're real personal. I mean that's the thing we we we are not some big uh corporation um we have a single location we've we've deliberately chose where we are um and we've deliberately provided the services that we have designed for folks who do the RV or Nomad life.

ROSE

So speaking of challenges and stuff let's go back to the business a little bit what were some behind the scenes kind of challenges like legal operational overhead that people might not realize in this kind of business?

Behind The Scenes Security And Compliance

SPEAKER_07

Oh in this kind of business I I don't know how much it pertains to our customers per se but setting up this type of a business is is a little bit more difficult than you might think. We had to get certified by the uh the postal service that would require the uh the inspector general of the postal service to give us an approval we had to be approved by our local postmaster and the postmaster that was above her um at the at the next uh at the sorting facility and setting all that up was kind of a a little bit longer process than I expected. Um then we had some issues with um setting up the different types of addresses and so we had to go to the county and get our you know physical addresses changed um from something that would be like a home based business. I mean we're in a we're in a facility that's much bigger than my home but it's you know it's still on my property at the ranch. So we had to get additional addresses assigned to our ranch here. So now instead of just you know our home address which was here we now have an address strictly for the mail and we have another address that's strictly for you know the campground and we have another address that is simply for my consulting office. And so you know that's kind of the the biggest hurdle of all that um one of the things that I also did is I I I designed this software you know to be a little bit different in that um we're going to offer this software as a service to other companies that want to start up like this. I'm not interested in doing franchising because everybody wants to run their own business their way, but we're gonna provide a tool to other companies who want to do this and kind of network with them and allow them to so if somebody comes to our website probably by August 1st you'll be able to select other locations other than the state of Texas. I personally think state of Texas is the best but you know maybe you want to maybe you want to have South Dakota you know or wherever that's our first licensee is going to open up in South Dakota and use our software to run his business. Now it won't be called the same thing but we'll have a have a link there it'll run exactly the same portal. The software will be exactly the same. And so we're we're definitely excited about that as we grow. That'll give us um a couple other points of interest that we would get from that we'll have some points of some data points I guess is the way to say it as to how how people other than us see the software and and we're excited about that. And we have right now we have 13 or 14 um what we call our kind of inner circle of customers our very first bunch of uh of customers that kind of just hammer on the software whenever I'm doing a release or whatever they really kind of try to poke holes in it. Two of those are professional testers. I mean that's what they do for a living so um yeah we're pretty excited and so and like I say I've been doing software development for 37 years so this is really nice. Some of the other things that we had to have some um some rather unique insurance um to cover it you know we carry three million dollars worth of general liability insurance but we have to have lots of writers on this particular type of business I mean if somebody were to get a paycheck and we were to lose it you know they're gonna sue me. And so we just have to be prepared for that. So we have you know that's a that's a business expense right up front. And then of course all kinds of uh you know attorneys wanted to look at our project and tell us that this that and the other thing so but uh it's been it's been fun um it's not a terribly hard business to run it's a very system oriented um we have a very unique way of doing it we get a pallet of mail we have a very particular way that we process that out in the warehouse and then we take all the photos we put them into the portal you know it's a secure facility I was telling you you know in front of the the show how secure our our network is well our our building where we actually do the mail storage is even more secure um it's you know it's got its own private land it's got its own private security system alarms the whole nine yards and because we want to make certain you know there's we we recognize the fact that we are in the mail business and a lot of personal private stuff comes and so you know there's just you know lots of those sorts of things all of our employees all go through you know the highest level uh that we can possibly uh get um for employee screening uh background checks drug tests that sort of thing um there are precisely three people who have access to the building um and and that is my wife myself and one employee um so that we're the only three with keys and so it's a it's a significantly respected problem that we want to avoid and so that's that's one of the biggest things and so yeah beautiful if I'm not mistaken cybersecurity includes physical locations absolutely it sure does yeah there's a there's a ton of that and and our all all of our uh all of our software runs on you know on the cloud and on the digital ocean cloud um and uh for our tech guys out there this is all Linux stack and but it's can work from a phone it can work from a Windows machine Mac machine doesn't matter it's it's mobile friendly um you know that sort of thing we have toyed with the idea of doing an actual app and we just decided that the uh the best for this product was to just do a mobile friendly web page that you can bring up with your web browser. Our our login security is even more unique uh just real quickly so some of our folks that are out there we don't use um the typical two-factor authentication um we use something that you come you log in you type in your email address and we send you a hot link that's valid for 10 minutes you have to click that link and that way we're not relying on any other data provider to validate you through like some single sign-on deal we're not worried about you having to remember a password every single time you come to us and you log into the portal it you're gonna type in your email address we're gonna say hi Glenn we're gonna send you an email now and we're gonna send you an email you click that then you're in and so it it just it kind of really secures it um and we've passed all of the you know PCI compliance rules and SOC2 compliance and all of those things that we have to pass to to do what we do. And um quarterly we go through a security audit with the Postal Service um our our postmaster literally makes a trip out here um you know and and they randomly make a trip out here make sure we're properly throwing you know mail the way that people wanted us to throw away properly shredding it. We have a provider for the shredding that uh that comes and you know we it's a locked container um once we drop it in the box we can't even get it out so and it's a it's a neat uh it's a neat deal and we have several high speed scanners and uh you know and it's it's a uh it's it's very very secure and even the scanners themselves when you think about what it does right is it it takes a photo of your mail on front and back of every page in the in the envelope if you tell us to open it up and scan it that's very important stuff. So we take that very seriously so the cybersecurity is it'll pass any three-letter agency's guidelines I promise.

ROSE

This sounds like an awesome solution for full time on the road but for those listeners that are new and they're just getting into this what are some challenges or problems that you feel like they haven't thought about or they need to be thinking about mail related well there's a there's a lot of those and mail related it's it's it's mostly you know how are you going to get your bank statements?

Insurance Certified Mail And Rookie Mistakes

SPEAKER_07

How are you going to get your insurance? Where are you going to insure your vehicle? How are you going to stay on top of it? It's not as easy as you might think. We found out the hard way um when we were on the road as an example we had to be at a physical address when the insurance company learned that we had an RV and that we were living in it. They wanted us to absolutely be at the quote garaged address they sent us a certified letter to that address. We couldn't we couldn't do anything about it. And and the reason for that was we had we had a claim and they denied the claim um for some water damage and and it's a long story but bottom line is the insurance company wants to avoid any claim it can and when they found and talking to the to the uh I guess what's it called the appraiser um adjuster whatever you talk to on the phone with the insurance company they kind of figured out that we were living in our R V and they were not friendly about that. And in fact they canceled our policy. And they canceled our policy because we couldn't get the mail. We couldn't get you know where we when we lived at home that's where we were we signed up for a company like this who would not accept certified mail um we accept certified mail every single day um you know and if we're for our clients and so that that's a big deal and and so insurance companies will sometimes balk at that but that's you know it's come a long way since we've done that. I mean we we lived full time from 2009 and and so was that 2014. And so it it was the the way that we you know found out the hard way what was involved and so our type of address is a legal Texas address. It's a street address you get a box number just like if you were to go to one of the mailbox rental places but the difference is here in our county for instance we we have a service that will take your registration paperwork to the to the county office for you to register your vehicles you never have to come to this county. But uh when you establish it this county um you know obviously you have the right to vote in this county you have the right to register your vehicles in this county that sort of thing.

GLYNN

So and it's just that's some of the things I think people don't think about is this that who's going to object to you not being in a you know a brick and mortar home and you have to really consider those the most I think when you're dealing with male you've given a very insightful picture of of how this business operates and from the entrepreneurial aspect, which is what we're all about I wanted to I was very excited for our listeners to to understand the intricacies that happen when you hear about a business like this because it's it's more complicated than most of us even realize.

SPEAKER_07

There really is a lot to it.

ROSE

Yeah.

How To Reach Circle 6

ROSE

So before we wrap up here what's the best way for the listeners to connect with you and see what you're doing?

SPEAKER_07

Our current website is circle6maildrop.com it's circle six the number six maildrop dot com and that's kind of a play in my name just so that people would know my last name is six really and truly so we just our ranch is called circle six. So it's circle the number six mail dropm-a-i-l d-o-p dot com or our phone number two five four two euros eleven seventy five and ninety nine percent of the time that phone's gonna ring to wherever I am because it goes to my cell phone if I'm out in the mailroom or if I'm you know here in the office or or whatever. So I'm typically the person you're gonna talk to when you call um myself or Renee my wife um those are the best ways to reach us um our website has a ton of content it has an it has a very elaborate um frequently asked questions page um it is also I think I told you before the show I have an ocular disorder so our website is designed for those who have reading issues um who have uh you don't notice it when you go there as just a regular uh user but somebody goes to it with a screen reader it is tailored to them because I use it all the time.

GLYNN

Excellent well Vern we really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience and and this incredible business that you've built.

SPEAKER_07

I really appreciate you all inviting me. This was so much fun I really enjoyed to tell our story. Thank you so much for sharing it.

RENE

Beautiful thank you Vern mail is one of those mundane matters that can make or break the full-time lifestyle.

JIM

And Vern really built that business from real life experience he knew it didn't work because he'd been the customer trying to make it work.

RENE

I liked hearing how much thought went into the security side too mail is personal and when someone else is handling it for you trust really matters.

JIM

Definitely it's also interesting how a very specific RV problem turned into a software platform and a workable business.

RV Education 101 Goes Online

RENE

Now we're going from mail management to RV education which is another thing every RVer needs but doesn't always get enough of when they buy a rig.

JIM

Right, like how we were just handed the keys for our first fifth wheel having never towed anything that size before well Bob talks with Mark and Don Polk from RV Education 101 about consumer RV training, how RV education has evolved from VHS tapes to online courses and why trusted human expertise still matters.

RENE

Here's Bob with Mark and Don Polk.

BOB

Alright today we're with Mark Polk and Don Polk who's off on the side we can't good you can't see this because we're only doing digging the audio but uh it's been a while with Mark and uh you and Don and RB Education101 are certainly the leading consumer education and training site in our industry for well can I say well over 25 years or can I say over 25 years? Well over.

SPEAKER_11

This coming November will be 27 years. So we are blessed as far as that goes when we started this thing I I told Don, I said, you know, we'll probably be lucky to get five years out of this and then someone in the industry and I thought you know they would see the need for consumer education and once they saw what we were doing somebody that had more capital than we have that could really invest in it would do something and probably edge us out of business. So when we hit five years I said well we'll be lucky if we get to 10. So I mean that's how I've been playing this all along and when we hit the 10 year mark I was kind of shocked at that point because nobody in the industry was was following our lead when it came to consumer education and I thought that's really odd that uh that we've been doing this 10 years. Well now we're we're 26 in and going on 27 and we're still the uh pretty much the only ones who are really our sole mission is consumer education for R V owners.

BOB

Well you know it's it's been a nice ride because you were one of the very first interviews I did when I started writing for RV News magazine back in back in 1999. Who would have thought that 27 years later we're still here and you're still producing great books and videotape not video tapes but uh on your your most recent thing is the online training talk talk a little bit about the online training courses because that's where people are going they they want to stream everything but they want to do it on their schedule on their timeframe and specific to individual topics that they want. So you let the league on that talk a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_11

Well it's gonna age us a little bit because when we started this thing like you said in 99 we were using VHS to uh that's it slipped out of my tongue right and then it then it went to the DVDs and um we ran with DVDs for a long time because the uh it the uh manufacturers were putting DVD players in the RVs so I think we actually went through uh probably 2017 is when we we stopped with the DVDs we still have them available so when if people request a DVD I mean we even have some old BHS tapes but uh what happened I realized that you know it's everything was moving online so we found a platform and we called it RV online training and it was a way that I could put all our courses on on a platform online and it included we can put video we can put text we can put uh ebooks we can put PDF documents whatever we want to do and then we made these courses for each type of RV we made some ebook courses and then we we uh bundled some packages together so say somebody wanted to buy a a travel trailer we would bundle all the courses that are related to a travel trailer so we made it as simple as possible and now the consumer can just go on they can they can uh review our selections our offerings pick one or pick several hit a button and basically right there in the comfort of their own home they can watch it on their phone they can watch it on a laptop an iPad any device that they they have and they can learn about using and maintaining their RV and that's about as easy as it gets.

BOB

Well you know I have a nephew who just bought his first fifth wheel and uh he'd camped years ago and now he's getting ready for retirement. So we got a fifth wheel the first place you go is RV Education 101 and RV online training and buy the bundle. It's all you have to know. So we get all the other stuff that's being thrown at you just buy that bundle. So you probably got an order from David Melanson recently I hope. Okay. All right another one so again 27 years and we still wave the flag and say look at this is the place to go. It's amazing that there haven't been others but probably because you've done so well, you're so educated you're you you've presented in a not even uncontrov controversy it's It's just a pleasant way to learn. Your your style. Your the way that you bring this information to the consumer. And they like that. There's no pressure and it's it's honest and uh comes with integrity. So yeah, it's fantastic that you're still doing that there. Let's switch over to a topic that is getting a lot of conversation.

AI Advice Versus Vetted RV Knowledge

BOB

You you cannot wake up in the morning without hearing AI somewhere, somehow, on a blog or or a uh news report or just trying to stay up. You know, if we go back six months or a year ago, we were all saying, or they were saying, look at it, if you don't do AI within a year, you're gonna be out of it. You've you've lost the race. And now all of a sudden it's if you don't do it in three months, you're done. But it comes it comes with some concerns. Talk about that.

SPEAKER_11

Well, I agree that I think AI has its really valid, good, solid points, depending on what your what you know what your job is and what industry you might be working in. So when it comes to me, my entire offerings are based on technical information for RB owners. And what I noticed early on with AI is that it is not capable of sorting through technical information and and keeping it accurate and vetted. I noticed people that were in the industry who were using AI, and when I would go look at the content, I could just start picking out the uh inconsistencies and the misinformation that was that was being put out. And I told Don, I said, when it comes to technical information, we need to avoid AI at all costs because our reputation is staked on accurate vetted information. So I avoid it. I I even say it go as far as when I write an article, I say this article was written by a human, not AI. Just to let people know that you know Yeah, so so we we avoid it at all cost as far as our business goes and and what I do, you know, for a living. And I'm not I'm not like I said, I'm not uh taken away from it. I think it you know it has some good points about it, but it but be careful if it's connected to anything technical because there's gonna be misinformation.

BOB

I agree, and and many people have said that. That look at you you have to have the real world experience on certain things. Whether you're a brain surgeon or whether you're an R V technician, you have if you if you don't know it firsthand, you're not gonna learn it through AI. It's it's just not the same. And the problem world experience.

SPEAKER_11

Yes. And another issue that I I've seen is if you take an influencer in the R V industry who isn't technically educated on RVs, they're using AI and they don't realize or they don't know when when a little one sentence is is incorrect, and you're telling the audience who's reading this or watching a video, and they they trust you, they believe you. You're an influencer, so they believe that the content you're putting out is correct, but you're leading them down a pretty can be a dangerous road in some instances.

BOB

And that's catching up with a lot of people, and and I think a lot of people are realizing that that the term influencer is not an expert. It's somebody giving you their you know, they're trying to influence your decision when in many cases they are not qualified to do that. But the but the consumer doesn't know, especially first-time buyers in the RV industry, which again go back to your original product, go back to your original online training. As you said, these are all vetted. This comes from years of experience of training and teaching, and it's it's a trusted, uh trusted source for them to get their information. Yeah.

SPEAKER_11

That's what we stake our reputation on. It's a resource that you can you can count on. You can depend on it. You don't have to be concerned about it not being correct information.

BOB

All right. Mark Polk, always a pleasure. Yes. You've probably done this more than the 27 years you've been in business, all the different interviews that we had. Hopefully we'll be here again for the next 27, but uh best of luck with that. Where do people find your online training sessions? Just super easy. RBonlinetraining.com. Fantastic. Well, best of luck to you and Don. Have a great year, and we will see you down the road. Good talking to you, Bob. Thank you.

Closing Thoughts And Next Steps

JIM

Mark and Don have been doing this for almost 27 years. That says a lot.

RENE

You know, it says we may need to explain VHS to some of our listeners. RV education is one of those things that can save people stress and money or keep everyone safer on the road.

JIM

And Mark's comments about AI were important too. The bots can be useful, but when you're talking about RV systems maintenance and safety, you really need information from people who know what they're talking about.

RENE

That's a good thread running through this whole episode. Whether it's planning a main camping trip, needing support through escape's care, getting your mail on the road, or learning how your RV works, the right resources make this lifestyle easier. And more enjoyable. Exactly.

JIM

That's it for this episode of the RV Life Podcast. We hope today's conversation gave you something useful to think about. Whether you're planning a trip, building your full-time systems, or just trying to stay prepared for whatever the road brings.

RENE

RV Life works best when you plan ahead, ask questions, and talk to people in the know. So check the episodes page at podcast.rvlife.com to connect with our guests and get more resources.

JIM

Happy travels, folks. And if you think you know everything about RVing or are immune to the challenges of the open road, remember.

SPEAKER_04

We are all one step away from a fall.

RV Life Masterclass Invitation

SPEAKER_00

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