Beachside Banter w/Bee

RV Life, Faith, and The Open Road w/Dan Clouser

• Bee Davis • Season 2 • Episode 8

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Episode Summary:

This week’s guest is Dan Clouser — a full-time RVer, author, and golden retriever enthusiast who ditched the 9-to-5 to chase sunsets and stories from behind the wheel. Dan opens up about what inspired him and his wife to hit the road, how a 15-year-old golden named Euclid changed his life, and why freedom is the real definition of paradise. We dive into the power of reinvention, the beauty of unexpected detours, and how the road can lead you right back to yourself.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Why Dan and his wife chose to live full-time in an RV (and how it all started right before COVID)
  • The real story behind Dan’s beloved golden retriever, Euclid, and how he inspired a bestselling children’s book
  • How Dan finds peace, creativity, and community in the nomadic life
  • Travel hacks for future RVers — including the best (and wildest) places to camp
  • Advice for anyone looking to shake things up and find freedom on their own terms

Beach Town Spotlight:

🏖️ Galveston, Texas — Dan shares why this laid-back coastal town was the perfect month-long stop.

Mentioned In This Episode:

  • Dan Clouser’s Website
  • The Journey of My Mother’s Son (memoir)
  • The Beauty of a Diamond Through the Eyes of a Coach
  • Pawprints On The Road (children’s book “co-authored” by Euclid the Golden)
  • His upcoming fifth book, also written with Euclid

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Bee Davis:

Hey, hey, hey everyone, it is another episode of Beachside Banter with Bea. Today I'm here with Dan Clouser, who, honestly, is like one of my idols, just because he is living the life that I am dreaming about every single day. He lives full-time in RV and travels with his wife and how exciting is that? So, dan, go ahead, take it away, introduce yourself, tell everybody why you're living the dream that you're or the life that you're living. Why are you living my dream? How come? Let's go from there.

Dan Clouser:

No, absolutely Love the concept of your show and I'm really looking forward to this conversation. We are actually in a beach town right now. We're in Galveston. You can see I'm a little bit sunburned right now.

Dan Clouser:

And that's all good. But, yeah, I mean why we're living this lifestyle. I mean, it's just, you know, a few years ago, um, you know, if you were to talk to me in 2018, I would have told you I was going to die doing what I was doing. At that point I had, you know, no aspirations of living in an RV full time or anything like that. My uh, my mom, back in the eighties, traveled a lot. She took an old 67 Valiant, took the backseat out of it, turned it into a quasi RV, put a bed in there and stuff, yeah. So I was always inspired by what she did, but always felt that was her story, not my story.

Dan Clouser:

I never had any kind of aha moment. You know, I really, in the first time, for the first time in my life, I really took the time to enjoy the journey, as opposed to rushing and worrying about getting to the destination, to rushing and worrying about getting to the destination. So I kind of had this aha moment that you know. I understood finally, after all these years. At that point my mom had been gone for almost 15 years, but I understood why she did what she did and why she took her time and why she enjoyed it and I was in the process of adding 10 chapters to my first book at that point and when I got done with those two trips I'd just written like I hadn't written before and just felt really inspired and there's just such an incredible peace and serenity from the road. You know it's still. The drive itself is one of the things I enjoy the most. You know, I mean like I love being here, of the things I enjoy the most, you know.

Dan Clouser:

I mean like I love, I love being here. Yeah, I mean we're we're here in Galveston, texas, right now and and we're here for an entire month and I love that. But I really love being on the road and on the move. It's there's just an incredible serenity about that. So once I started writing like that again, I just kind of felt a calling that it was time to close a chapter and start a new chapter.

Dan Clouser:

I resisted at first because I loved doing what I was doing. I was working with kids, working in a nonprofit organization I had founded 30 years prior to that and really didn't embrace it initially. Once I did, I ran the idea by my wife. She thought I'd lost my mind, but then she was going through some issues at her employment as well and after a while, after a day of frustration as things not going the way she wanted them to go, she came home she says, okay, I think this is a sign as well. So I'm in, let's go ahead and do this. So we put the plan in motion and this August will be five years that we've been traveling full time and loving every second of it.

Bee Davis:

Okay, so five years. So that means you started pre-COVID right.

Dan Clouser:

The plan was in place pre-COVID. We actually bought our RV the day the governor of Pennsylvania was issuing the shutdown orders for the state. Simultaneously, we were in the process of taking our house off the market, because it had been on the market for about not quite two months at that time and weren't really getting a whole lot of action on it. And then, knowing that there was this looming, you know, unknown in the air, we didn't want it to look like a stale listing. So we were talking to our agent about taking it off and, you know, buying our RV at the same time, which definitely was not part of our plan. But it also felt right as we were doing it, like there's just something. There's just again a strange piece that you know. Okay, it wasn't the plan to have a mortgage payment and an RV payment and an RV sitting in our yard till who knows when, but it felt right. So let's keep, keep moving forward.

Dan Clouser:

So then, when the housing market opened up again in June of 2020, we put the house back in the market Ten days. We had an offer. It was a good offer for us because it was a kind of an extended settlement date. We initially weren't supposed to settle until August 31st, which gave us time to get rid of all of our other stuff. We ended up moving the settlement date up to August 14th because they had two properties to sell, so they ended up selling them both sooner than they anticipated and we hit the road on August 14th 2020. And, like I said, haven't looked back since.

Bee Davis:

Yes, wow. So the only reason why I brought up COVID was because I feel like there was kind of like a wave of people who started to kind of do the same lifestyle around that area, and I was definitely one of those people. At that point I was, my interest was peaked and I was ready to go. My husband, on the other hand, was like um, I just don't know what. We have five animals too, so two golden retrievers and three cats.

Bee Davis:

So trying to pile the the all of us into that, you know, into an RV, was just crazy. And then at the time, you know, my, my oldest son was still living with us and and and all of that. So things were just like not going to happen. But I've been slowly trying to convince him that this is the path that we need to go down eventually. So we'll see if it ever happens. So you guys, when you do your traveling, do you how, how do you go about planning it? Is it one of those things where you've got like you know the next six months lined up, or do you just wake up one day and like, let's move, let's go to Pennsylvania or let's go to Kentucky?

Dan Clouser:

So that's changed quite a bit since we started. When we first started it was the latter. It was like literally all right, where do we want to go today? You know we'd go into campground, we'd check in for maybe, you know, three, four nights or something. So we knew where we were leaving. We didn't necessarily know where or when we were leaving. We didn't necessarily know where we were going once we checked out Gotcha.

Dan Clouser:

Okay, when we were leaving, we didn't necessarily know where we were going once we checked out Gotcha, okay, and then uh, that changed quite a bit when I uh became part of this program called National Authors and Grocery Stores. Um, so I do a lot of book signings in, uh, kroger's and Kroger affiliates. So now we we have much more stringent plan of where we're going to be and when, when, because we kind of schedule our travel around book signings that I'm doing. So, like when we leave here at the end of the month you know we'll be in Louisiana for a book signing and then we'll work our way through Tennessee for, you know, a bunch of book signings in the Nashville area, Knoxville area, and then the Pigeon Forge area, in the Nashville area, knoxville area and then the Pigeon Forge area, and then we're doing a retreat in eastern Tennessee the third weekend of May and then we'll actually be in Pennsylvania for the entire summer. We've got two granddaughters graduating and we're doing a little work camping gig in Hershey, pennsylvania, this summer.

Dan Clouser:

So a lot more planned out than what it ever was. I mean last year we went to Alaska, which was a little bit more of the wing it plan, like we had an idea, we were with a group, we had an idea of where we would be at certain times. We didn't necessarily know where we'd be staying, whether that would be in a visitor center, parking lot or a campground or, you know, along the side of the road somewhere, um boondocking. So, um, yes, it's. It's changed a little bit over the years. Uh, I mean, I really do like the uh, you know, the wing it method.

Bee Davis:

Um, I don't know if I can handle it but you know I've got to generate revenue somehow.

Dan Clouser:

So you know, booking it around, the you know book signings and speaking engagement stuff like that uh makes a lot more sense for us.

Bee Davis:

That's awesome. So where would you say your favorite place to camp is so far?

Dan Clouser:

I mean that that's so tough. I mean, our favorite camping spot and it's actually very appropriate for this show was just a few weeks ago where we actually camped on the beach in Freeport, texas, before we got into Galveston. Free on the beach, and, you know, literally, you know, wheels are in the sand, um, you know, a hundred feet from the Gulf, Um, we were there with, you know, probably in our immediate area there were about six other rigs, uh, from camper vans to class A RVs and kind of everything in between, and then as we, when we left the next morning, um, you know, we saw a bunch of other, you know, further down the beach, a bunch of other RVs. So that was by far the coolest spot for me. I mean, just being that close to the water, you know, hearing the waves crashing all night long was super, super cool.

Dan Clouser:

I mean, we've had like some waterfront camping spots in the past, like when we were in Seward Alaska. We were right along Resurrection Bay, which was super cool. We stayed in the place in Maryland once, which is right on the water, but there's just something about being in the sand with the RV and you know literally that close, open up the front door in the morning and watch the sunrise.

Dan Clouser:

That was super cool. So generally it's tough for me to answer questions like what's your favorite this or what's your favorite that Cause it's so cool. But uh, my wife and I immediately um after that. We're like man. This is the coolest camping spot we've had in our in our travels, for sure.

Bee Davis:

Yeah, this is why we did this.

Dan Clouser:

This right here Exactly.

Bee Davis:

That's amazing. Yeah, and I to to do that in Texas too, because I know the beaches in Texas aren't necessarily the same as what you would find in like Miami, florida or places like that. So, having that like, I would assume that it would be a little bit more intimate. I mean, you said there was only a couple more rigs, so having the place to yourself and then I don't know, were you able to like start out like a little bonfire and stuff, or we didn't like we didn't.

Dan Clouser:

But uh, there was a guy, you know again, you can't say spaces, cause you kind of made your own space but, um, you know, a hundred yards from us or so, that did have a fire that night. Um, so yeah, you could absolutely do that if you, if you wanted to.

Bee Davis:

That's like ultimate bucket list things by the way for me is to be able to just sleep on the beach, have my little fire, maybe cook a little s'more all those kinds of things. One of these days it's going to happen. But yeah, that's awesome, I love that. So how did your friends and family react whenever you were like hey, you know what, I'm selling my house, I'm getting the hell out of Dodge, we're going to live in an RV, this is what we're doing? How did they accept that?

Dan Clouser:

It was all across the board. It was like wow, that's really cool, very inspiring to have you lost your mind. Is this a midlife crisis? You know what? What's going on, you know, is therapy going to be cheaper, that sort of thing. But yeah, it was really across the board. I mean, we got you know.

Dan Clouser:

I tell this story to a lot of people when they ask that question, and we got all of our kids together at the same time. We didn't want to tell one of them, you know, and then another one is offended because they weren't the first one to know. So we wanted to tell all of them at the same time. And again, it was across the board. To you know, one daughter you know saying are you guys crazy To. To one daughter saying are you guys crazy? To another being wow, this is really cool. And then after about an hour they're walking around the house picking stuff out Like, hey, can I get this table? When you guys leave, what are you going to do with the couch? So they adjusted pretty quickly until it was all said and done. But yeah, it's been all across the board. What people's reactions were initially?

Bee Davis:

Yeah, I bet I've had the same kind of reactions any time. I'm like, okay, this is what we're going to do. They're like, no, you're not Stop it, that's just wishful thinking. No, it's got to happen one day.

Dan Clouser:

I just know it yeah yeah, that's awesome.

Bee Davis:

So have you ever ventured into? Well, obviously you've gone through Canada because you've gone to Alaska, but have you ventured down into South America or Central America or any of that Mexico?

Dan Clouser:

No, we do want to get into Mexico at some point. I just don't know when that will be yet.

Bee Davis:

Yeah.

Dan Clouser:

But we have friends that go into Mexico relatively often. So again it's one of the things on the list. We just haven't crossed that one off yet.

Bee Davis:

Well, again, it's one of the one of the things on the list. We just haven't, uh, crossed that one off. Yet what? It opens up a whole new territory of places to explore too, which is awesome, yeah that's okay, great. So tell me about your book. I want to know books as in plural, because there's been multiples yeah what you got for me yeah.

Dan Clouser:

So the first one. It's called the beauty of a diamond through the eyes of a coach. It was originally published in 2012. It talks about my coaching career in baseball and softball. It was republished with 10 new chapters in 2021. And that's probably still my baby, because it was the first one.

Dan Clouser:

The second book is another memoir called the Journey of my Mother's Son, which talks about our RV travels, also a tribute to my mom with doing what she did in the Valiant. It's kind of written in a little bit of a journal form. So it talks about the six months leading up to us actually selling everything and the first 18 months that we were on the road. So it's written sort of like a journal. I mean just 18 months that we were on the road.

Dan Clouser:

So it's, uh, written sort of like a journal. I mean just the emotions that we were going through, um, once we put the house on the market, once we got closer to it actually being a reality, um, you know, because even though you're on board with it, like there's still all kinds of emotions that you're dealing with throughout that time. So, um, you know, so each chapter is like a, you know, almost like a journal entry where you know, it'll show the date that I wrote it and and uh, that sort of thing. And then the third book was a children's book that was actually, uh, written as though our dog had been the author. Uh, we used to travel with a 15 year old golden retriever. Um, unfortunately, we lost him back in April of uh 2024.

Bee Davis:

Anytime you talk about golden retrievers and like seriously my art, because I have two and they are just like the best. Once you experience the love of a golden retriever, your life is completely changed.

Dan Clouser:

I know it's crazy.

Bee Davis:

I'm literally like tearing up about it. But man, I could not imagine. I yeah. Anyways, go ahead.

Dan Clouser:

Even this morning. We went for a bike ride on the beach this morning and my wife got up ahead of me a little bit because I ran out to throw my feet into the gulf for a few minutes and I saw there was a couple walking up with a golden retriever and I'm saying to myself she's stopping to pet that dog. I guarantee she's stopping to pet that dog. You hope to. Sure enough she did, sure enough she did. And and uh, yeah, we, uh, we stood there for probably uh 10 minutes petting the dog and talking to you know, talking to our owners and stuff, and yes, um it was super.

Dan Clouser:

Yeah, I mean it's anytime we see a golden, like we literally go out of our way, like people probably think you know, because I mean we'll go, like across the street, you know 500 yards If we spotted golden in the distance.

Bee Davis:

You know, like hey can we pet your dog? Yeah, that's. All they need to do is bring a golden retriever and they could get me in any van yeah.

Dan Clouser:

So the children's book. Again, it was written as though Eucalyptus was our dog's name. He was named after the Red Sox old third baseman, Kevin Euclid, so it was his perspective of living in what he called the house on wheels. And then I published a coloring book that was just a follow-up to the children's book. A lot of the same illustrations that are in the children's book, but just somebody can color it in, whether you're adult color or kid color or whatever.

Dan Clouser:

So those are the four books, Um, and each one of them, you know, has their own story. Uh, I was once told by a publisher that I I'm all over the place. I have no niche. Um, I need to dial in more Um actually told actually told that I shouldn't you know that publishing the children's book would be the worst idea that I ever had, because it was completely out of my niche and by far that that book is my bestselling book. By far I mean probably three to one over the next bestselling book.

Bee Davis:

Yeah, now that the other stuff isn't interesting at all, but I mean, you're, you're the voice of a golden retriever. So yeah, of course that's definitely going to be a top seller. Yeah, that's that's awesome, awesome. So what made you decide that you wanted to start writing books? Was it just because you had gone through all this stuff and you're like, all these people are asking me these questions so I'll just throw it on paper, or I've I've loved writing my entire life uh okay time I was a young boy, I just enjoyed writing the creative process.

Dan Clouser:

Um, you know, I my first uh dabble into like letting other people read my writing was. My brother is nine years older than me, so we were living in Florida at the time. He had just gotten out of the service and he started playing on an adult soccer team down there in Florida. So I started writing a weekly newsletter for his soccer team called the Melbourne United Post, just handwritten on notebook paper, and I'd write highlights of the previous game and, you know, preview of the upcoming game and all that sort of stuff. And I just really enjoyed the whole process. You know the wives and girlfriends of the players and the players you know passing around you know my little newsletter, um, before a game or after after the game. You know my mom uh worked for an insurance company at the time so she'd make, you know extra copies that we could, you know, pass around uh, on game day, and I just always loved it. I mean through high school.

Dan Clouser:

Uh, I still remember writing an essay for English which you know I specifically remember my English teacher telling me that it was probably the best piece of satire he's ever read in his life and you know, again, just stuff like that sticks with me and I just always loved the process. But even like in high school and stuff I'd never really like had aspirations become a published author. I mean that didn't come till till later in life. Um, you know where I just again I wrote newsletters for our organization and stuff like that and, you know, wrote articles for our annual program. Uh, and at one point you know like I was like you know what? I think I'm going to write a book. I had no idea how the process worked but I started writing. And then I met another guy by the name of Jeff Potter who had recently published a book and he kind of set me off into the world of self-publishing or hybrid publishing at that time in 2012.

Dan Clouser:

of self-publishing or hybrid publishing at that time in 2012. And you know he, I hadn't told anyone that I was writing this book other than my wife. And he told me well, that's your first mistake.

Dan Clouser:

You want to tell everybody you're writing a book because they will kind of keep you on task, you know and that the fear of failure comes in, where it's like when someone, yeah, asks you, hey, how's the book coming along, and you're like, oh, I haven't touched it in you know, six months, um, kind of keeps your toes to the fire. So I took his advice and, uh, you know that's what I did. I started telling, you know, everybody I ran into I was writing a book and it did help. It absolutely did help. It kind of kept me on tasks Like man. I've told all these people I got to actually finish this thing and and get it published, you know.

Bee Davis:

So, um, I totally get, that Isn't it crazy how, um, like that, you kind of get led down this path in life. You know, so you may not exactly expect to do all these things, but then it just all kind of like flows in the same like it's the same way with with life, love and travel. So it was one of those things, like I didn't really ever have anything to desire to travel, and then I saw the beach for the very first time and I was like, oh my gosh, this is what I need to do with my life. Uh, I don't know how I'm going to figure it out. Um, and then it was like I don't really want to tell people because, you know, I've started businesses before. I had like this little tie by business that didn't do any well, do very well. And you know a bunch of other things I've sold, like snail stickers and you know Sensi and all that stuff, and I'm like I've already kind of tapped out all of my audience. So I don't want them to think, oh well, great, here's another thing that she's doing. We got a supporter and blah, blah, blah.

Bee Davis:

So I didn't tell anybody. I started it. Um, I actually just announced it on my personal facebook page about a three months ago or so, and it's been two and a half years and everybody's like, oh my god, I had no idea you were doing this. So then it's like why wasn't I telling everybody? But it's that, it's exactly what you said, though it's that fear of failure. You know, if I go out and I fail the people I have no idea, like they've never met me, then who cares? But if I'm failing in front of all these people that I, you know, love and all this, and it's like I can't do that.

Bee Davis:

So yeah I could see how telling people kind of holds you to it a little bit more and definitely gives you a little bit of motivation to keep going.

Dan Clouser:

So yeah, no doubt are you uh planning on writing anything else.

Bee Davis:

You got anything else in the queue.

Dan Clouser:

Actually working on a fifth book right now, and actually it is another dog theme, so it's actually. Euclid left me a little bit of a manuscript when he left. It's not going to be a children's book but it'll be co-authored between him and I.

Bee Davis:

Oh my gosh, I love it.

Dan Clouser:

So yeah, so hopefully that's done by the middle of this year. Um, yeah, just kind of putting a lot of finishing touches on it and and uh, again it's. It's an emotional book to deal with Um, as you you well know, being a being a golden mom. Um, but uh, I think it'll be, I think it'll be a good book when it's done.

Bee Davis:

Yeah, can I be honest with you, I think you did find your niche. I think I think that you and writing from his perspective, the two of you together, that's a bomb idea. I love it. I really, really think that's going to go, because it's not a lot of people do that and they don't have that kind of thought. So you, you know, maybe more like a, a teen adult book. Yeah, yeah, I'm in there a little swears every now and then I've oh yeah, you got it. You're gonna be world famous here in a bit, yeah, he I just know he did blog when he was still around.

Dan Clouser:

He had a blog as well and I did notice that, uh, he always got more hits on his blogs than I did on mine crazy like I.

Bee Davis:

I tell my husband that all the time I'm like you know we could throw the kids out there. The kids is what I call them, the girls and all that. Throw them out there. I bet they would make way more money on social media than I ever could. He's like yeah, you're probably right. I'm like they're a lot cuter, that's for sure. No, doubt, doubt, whatever, um, okay, so one of the questions that I've always wondered is like what's the biggest misconception for somebody who is traveling full-time in an rv? Because I know a lot of people think that it's difficult or it's stinky or whatever it is. But what do you think the most common misconception is?

Dan Clouser:

um, I mean, I think the the biggest one is just that you know you need to have, you know, some massive trust fund that you're drawing fund from.

Bee Davis:

Yeah.

Dan Clouser:

I mean we. You know we're far from wealthy. You know still doing book signings, still writing books, and you know generating revenue however I can. So I think that's probably the biggest misconception. And you know, for us, I mean, we never RV'd prior to full timing, you know so we weren't like you know weekends and campgrounds our entire lives, or anything like that.

Dan Clouser:

I mean, we both tent camped when we were kids with, you know, youth groups or family, or whatever the case was. I think I stayed in an RV one time when we were in Key West or actually, I'm sorry, key Largo with my uncle one time, and that was it. So I think there's a lot of ways to learn as you go.

Bee Davis:

Okay.

Dan Clouser:

YouTube is a great resource to kind of troubleshoot things that might go haywire, and one thing we've learned is the RV community is such an incredibly giving and just salt to the earth type community. I've heard that you know in a campground and you're you know somebody sees you working on something. You know a half a dozen people are going to stop by and say hey, you need help with anything.

Bee Davis:

Right.

Dan Clouser:

Just today, our neighbors here were doing something to their rig and you know I was out, you know doing some different stuff, and you know there were probably three people that walked by and like hey, you guys need help with anything. You know they're like no, we're good, we got it on. So there's always people that are willing to to help out. It's it's really an incredible community.

Bee Davis:

That's awesome. I have heard that from a few different people that like once you're, you know you're in and you have just a couple of the lingo words or whatever, right, then they're like oh yeah, this guy's a, he's a full-timer, we're buddies or whatever, just kind of like the Jeep people, right, it's like you all have your own community. I love that. If you were trying to give advice to somebody who is a brand-new RVer, what kind of rig would you suggest they start with?

Dan Clouser:

Oh, I mean that's so subjective to really what they want you know, and obviously affordability as well.

Dan Clouser:

I mean, we're in a 33-foot Class C. Okay, we, you know we got this because, again, we never RV'd so we didn't want some, you know, huge piece of machinery that we were dealing with. It was really we only really looked at two RVs machinery that we were dealing with. We only really looked at two RVs this one, which is a Forest River Sunseeker, and then we looked at another Sunseeker that was, I think, 24 feet, maybe 26 feet, something like that, and there's just kind of night and day between the amount of space that they offered. So this was like the perfect fit for us. But you know, we've talked to people who, um, yeah, I don't even know what you call it. We were sitting around the campfire last night with some guys and they're in this. It's not I don't even know if it qualifies as a travel trailer, but it's like this tiny little I mean for lack of a better term like a tow behind tent, almost, you know, but like.

Bee Davis:

Oh, I think I've seen those.

Dan Clouser:

That's now. They're not full timers, but that's like their their thing.

Dan Clouser:

Um you know we've got some other friends are in some big um, you know, class a, you know tandem axle, you know 43 foot, 45 foot rigs, um, and that's. You know that, 45 foot rigs, um, and that's. You know that's what they. They wanted. Um, yeah, you know, we have some friends and some fifth wheels where they just wanted you know something that was, you know, when it was in a campground. They wanted to be spacious, they wanted to, you know, not feel cramped if somebody came over to hang out inside the rv with them for a while, right, um, and that sort of thing.

Dan Clouser:

I mean, we wanted something that we could. We don't tow a vehicle, so we wanted something that we could get in and out of a grocery store or Walmart or, you know, a CVS without any major issues. So that's why we chose this. And again, you know, we didn't want something that was overpowering and you know, at the time the Class C just seemed like it was a little bit more driver-friendly as opposed to a Class A. So it really is subjective. So I would just say, you know, check out some floor plans. You know I did a lot of stuff, you know, floor plan-wise, online before we ever showed up at a, at a dealership, you know. So when we we showed up at the dealership, like we knew, you know the model we wanted to look at, you know. So it kind of eliminated some of that. You know I mean cause.

Bee Davis:

Look at the end of the day, they're looking to sell you something, you know so whatever's the most expensive yeah no-transcript like 2021 and 2022, because there there was popping it out left and right, yeah, yeah, there was some faulty uh worksmanship going on there.

Dan Clouser:

We were at the tampa rv show a couple years ago and you know, stuff that's at an rv show should be like the the cream, of the cream, um right and like you could just walk through and see, you know glaring, you know just bad workmanship, you know.

Dan Clouser:

So I'd avoid anything. I mean they were, they were pinch for staff, you had the supply chain issues, um, and all kinds of other stuff. So that would be my only advice is don't buy anything that was manufactured. You know, between 2021 and 23 at that point. But you know, by now I think everything's kind of worked through, you know. So I think you're good if you get something new at this point. But you know, again, that's a tough question to answer because it's so subjective. You know what you're actually looking for and we saw, when we were camping on the beach the other week, a woman traveling solo in a, you know, class B camper van. That was 24 foot, I think. Oh, wow.

Dan Clouser:

And it was like super nice. And she said, you know, again, for her it was kind of the perfect setup. Her husband had just passed away about a year ago, so they had had. You know, it was kind of the perfect setup. Her husband had just passed away about a year ago, so they had had class A's and travel trailers and fifth wheels. And she's like I didn't want to be pulling a fifth wheel around, so this was kind of perfect for me to scoot out and get away. So just look at a bunch of different models and see what you like the best.

Bee Davis:

Okay, yeah. So that's one of the things that, like we have, have gone back and forth. You know like I've gotten my husband at least entertained in the idea of floor plans. So we're getting there. I'm telling you one step at a time.

Dan Clouser:

Baby steps.

Bee Davis:

But that's like one of the things we can't really figure out. Like, do you, do you just go full force and get a class A, or do you get a truck and a you know whatever the fifth wheel, or do you and then pull something and it's? There's just so many different options that it's honestly overwhelming. Um, so I kind of wish somebody would just like start being like a here. Here's an idea for you, dan, an RV consultant, um, and you could just like make all my decisions for me and tell me what it is that I should buy and how to do it. Yeah, teach me how to use it too. That's my biggest fear that I'm going to get like to a campground and maybe like how do I turn on the water? What do you mean? I got to hook it up.

Dan Clouser:

Yeah.

Bee Davis:

How do I do that, you know. And so, like back to what you had said earlier, a lot of people there, the campgrounds are super helpful and all that. So that actually makes me feel a little bit better, because at least I know that when I have no idea what I'm doing, somebody might yeah, and they will, they'll, they'll help you out.

Dan Clouser:

I mean, cause that is, you know, we, we bought ours from a small, you know small town dealership in Pennsylvania, not far from where we lived. And, uh, you know, one of the complaints we hear from other people who are new to RVing is that they don't show you a whole lot of how things work. Uh, we were fortunate and again, maybe again it was part of the you know just the timing of it, the fact that, you know, this was probably their last day in business for what they didn't know till when, um, but like, we spent probably two and a half hours just going through, you know all the little intricacies and there was still stuff that was missed because there's so much.

Dan Clouser:

But, like we've heard, like my cousin just bought a little travel trailer and she said, like their, you know, walk through whatever they call. It was like an hour. And I'm like, oh yeah, you can't cover hardly anything in an hour, you know. So, yeah, try to get them to give you as much time as they can, on on that. But, like, when we first bought this, we did think that this was going to be like our starter RV and that we would upgrade to a Class A down the road.

Dan Clouser:

But we, we did a little renovation about a year, two years ago now, um, where we took our dinette out and, uh, like what I'm sitting at now, you can kind of see our walls behind us. So you know I'm facing the outside of the wall. So we put like a little bar in there and some regular moving chairs and took the one bunk out because, you know it, it sleeps too for the most part. I mean, that's what we're, what our goal really is. You know we'll have some grandkids or a niece every once in a while, stay with us and they use the top bunk, but you know we didn't need the extra bunk, so we have that for storage space and build a little kind of closet thing in there as well. So since we've done our renovation, like we're like you know what this is actually perfect for us.

Bee Davis:

At this point, we're not really looking to upgrade or do anything like that now. Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome, and that's one of the things, too, I feel like a lot of people are doing is they're taking, maybe, the super base model and then turning it into this super fancy. Some of the places are fancier than the apartment that I'm in now. It's crazy.

Dan Clouser:

That's what I love about people seeing people who actually do their own build out of a camper van or a skier or something like. They get very, very creative with those build outs as well, but you also have to be handy to do that which I am not.

Bee Davis:

Yeah, that's the key. Yeah, I used to consider myself handy and I have learned that I am not.

Dan Clouser:

Yeah, that's the key.

Bee Davis:

Yeah, I used to consider myself handy and I have learned that I am not. That is a for sure thing now. Uh, so when you're you're out and about and you're meeting all these people, like, has there been anybody that stands out? That is like maybe one of the funniest stories you might have.

Dan Clouser:

So the uh. There's definitely one guy that comes to mind as probably the most interesting dude we ever met. He was in Glen Allen, alaska, last year. Okay, we had stopped at a rest area, noticed that our one tire was low on air. Luckily there were two guys in the rest area that had a compressor that were able to get air in our tire, which got us down to Glen Allen. And this was the Saturday after July 4th.

Dan Clouser:

So my wife goes into the visitor center, you know, asks if you know, is there a tire repair shop in town that we can get to? And you know we're pushing five o'clock and you know the lady in the visitor center is like, well, yeah, but you're not going to get into anywhere until Monday and we were supposed to be on a boat in Valdez on Monday. So we're just thinking, man, this is going to be a major headache. And then she says but I do know a guy who might be able to help you out. And but I do know a guy who might be able to help you out.

Dan Clouser:

And initially I'm thinking this is a guy who owns a repair shop who is willing to come in after hours. And you know, get us hooked up, but it was literally just a guy. A guy who had equipment to work on tires and, you know, works on her tires for when she needs it, and so she gets him on the phone. His name is Matt and we, you know, draws out like on the back of a I mean, it wasn't a napkin, but it might as well have been a napkin directions to his house, because she didn't know the address.

Bee Davis:

I've seen horror movies start this way.

Dan Clouser:

Yeah, yeah Come on Dan. Yeah. So I'm like, well, you better give me his phone number because with these, with these directions, like there's probably a real good chance. We're not. You know, we're not finding them on. Go one and she's like I'll give you his number, but there's probably not going to be service around his house. I'm like, all right, excellent okay it is what it is.

Dan Clouser:

So we start our little trek with our napkin in hand and, you know, the one landmark she gave us was the fire company. So we found that and made the first left that we needed to make and at that point we're on gravel roads. Oh no, and just kind of. You know, she called it a development, different development than what I'm used to. Alaskan developments are quite different than developments anywhere else. So we're kind of moseying back these, you know, stone roads, and we get to a spot that you know, according to our map, looks like it might be the spot. So I give him a call. I'm like hey, matt, you know, this is Dan. We just talked. I think I'm at your house, but I'm not sure. And his first response, instead of like let me look out the window or something, would be what I would think was like what do you see?

Dan Clouser:

And I'm like, okay. I'm like I see two ATVs, an old pickup truck and an old Firebird. And he's like what color are the ATVs? An old pickup truck and an old Firebird. And he's like what color are the ATVs? I'm like one's yellow and one's red. He's like, oh yeah, you're at the right spot. He's like do you see the garage? I'm like, yeah, I can see the garage. He's like start backing up to the garage.

Bee Davis:

And I'll come out and get you.

Dan Clouser:

And we start backing up and he comes out and if there was a welcome to Alaska billboard like, this guy should have been on it. So he's a redhead with a big old beard, he's got a pipe in one hand and a Heineken in the other and he's guiding me back and he's like all know. He's got music playing relatively loud in the background and I forget exactly what song was playing anymore. Might have been a Lynyrd Skynyrd song or something like that.

Bee Davis:

Sounds about right.

Dan Clouser:

I was like man, I like your music, you know. And he's like, oh yeah, it just plays whatever it wants to play, you know. And then we just you know, he gets right to work, man starts getting our tire off and we just you know, he gets right to work, man starts getting our tire off and we just start having a conversation.

Bee Davis:

And this guy had been an ice road trucker. Okay, well, that builds character right there, yeah yeah, he was divorced.

Dan Clouser:

You know. He was telling me about, you know, raising his kids and you know how they played a little bit of baseball, and he was just really fascinating. And he started telling me about his wood stove. Oh, you know that he had just built this wood stove. That's awesome. And he has pipes going into the garage to. You know, keep everything warm when it's 40 below up there. Oh my gosh. You know, we ended up having like three tiny little sheet metal screws in our tire and he was like he's like, well, that's a record, I've never seen three screws in one tire. So he got us all patched up and then, before we left, he's insisting. He's like well, come on in, let me show you this wood stove. You're really going to be impressed, you know. And so I'm like sure enough, man. So I go walking in and, and it was, I mean the wood stove was probably as big as the bedroom in our rv. I mean like it was massive.

Dan Clouser:

And uh, he's like man yeah, and his wood shed, you know, it had good size logs in it that weren't split. And uh, he's like, yeah, I just throw those things in there and it burns like paper mache. He's like I don't have time to be cutting, you know. And and uh, splitting wood, they got to go in, go in full. And uh, he was. He was just fascinating.

Dan Clouser:

I mean, tell me the roads about the ice road, the stories about the ice road truckers, how he hates the show. He's like. He's like the show is all BS. He's like that's not really how it happens. He goes. I don't know if people don't realize that there had to be a camera crew that had to clear the roads before they started filming. He goes, but that's not how any of this works.

Dan Clouser:

And you know it was all said and done. I showed him the map. I'm like, well, here's the map that you know the lady at the visitor center gave us to to get here, cause I was telling him like I have no idea how we got in here. He looked at the map. He's like I don't know how the hell you got here either. He goes, but you did. And yeah, and it just just such a cool guy. And then he, you know, he said to me, he says oh, if you need anything else, you got my number, you know, just just give me a call like all right man no problem, but it was just, it was just absolutely fascinating and I mean I uh, I really, you know, it's like that's awesome.

Dan Clouser:

The best of a worst situation like that. That situation could have went sideways, you know, in so many other ways. And uh, you know the fact that he was the guy who ended up helping us out and was super funny and nice and helpful and at the end wanted to charge me $10. And I'm like, at least let me give you $20,. Man Like here's $20 at least.

Bee Davis:

Let me give you some more money. Yeah, come on now. $10 isn't even enough to buy lunch anymore. Yeah, or a coffee.

Dan Clouser:

Just super, super nice guy. You know, super nice guy yeah. So he was probably the most interesting Just because, like I said, the Ice Road Trucker stories and stuff. I was fascinated listening to him and just everything else you know.

Bee Davis:

Yeah.

Dan Clouser:

Just he was a fun guy to be around.

Bee Davis:

There's a lot of really, really cool people that come out of alaska, so my son is actually stationed up there right now. He's in the army and um, he there's every weekend. We talk and the conversations that we have and the stories that he tells me is just like yeah totally mind-boggling. And he's like oh yeah, we went camping, we were out and you know, sleeping in our little sleeping tent, blah, blah, I'm like, blah, I'm like, oh my gosh, it's negative 50 degrees there. What are you doing?

Bee Davis:

He's like I don't know, it's no big deal.

Dan Clouser:

The Alaskan people are so cool, whether they were, you know, transplants or whether they were born there, whether they're actually, you know, natives, so cool. And you know, I would tell people three book signings in Alaska. And so I got to interact with a lot of people and I, you know, I said it was the same story. Like every time you met someone who lived in Alaska it was the same story. It's like oh yeah, we came up here for you know, two weeks back in you know 87 and never left you know, or 2014.

Dan Clouser:

It's like just fill in the year, whatever the year was. Like, just fill it in. Like we came up here and you know, boom, we met a lady in Skagway who ran a fudge shop, who was actually from.

Bee Davis:

Mississippi, that's good.

Dan Clouser:

So they, you know she was telling us about, you know they had to go up and get the fudge shop opened up in March for the season.

Dan Clouser:

So like they're driving up the Alcan when there's still, you know, several feet of snow on on the ground at that point, you know, pulling a trailer and kind of all their stuff, and you know they work, they work the season and then they they drive back to, you know, to Mississippi for the winter. Um, so yeah, just fascinating stories like that. But and there've been so many just fascinating people that we've met, um on on the way that you know, just sitting around the campfire, I mean another guy in Toke that we were talking to, who him and his buddy were, um, riding their most their motorcycles across Alaska. They came up from, uh, they started in Vegas and uh, you know, drove all the way up the Alcan on their motorcycles and you know it was just fascinating to, you know, to listen to him as well. So, so, so many cool people we've met. I mean it's such a blessing to meet all the people we've met.

Bee Davis:

That's awesome, see, I told you you are literally living my dream life right now. You get to meet all these really cool people, you have all these awesome stories to tell and you get can hang out on the beach whenever you want to. You're writing awesome books sound with your dog. Oh my gosh, I love that so much. Yeah, this has been a really awesome conversation. I've. I've really enjoyed this. So, um, normally, before everybody leaves the show, I, you know, make sure that everybody knows where they can find you. So, uh, go ahead, plug your, uh, your socials, your website, all that stuff.

Dan Clouser:

Absolutely the best. Best spot to find me is just on my website, which is journeymymothersoncom or danclousercom. They both go to the same site but links to my podcast, my social media accounts, you know. If you want to book me as a speaker, see where my book tour is, if we're coming to a town near you, all that stuff is on my website. So that's definitely the best spot to go.

Bee Davis:

And then again from there go to all the social media sites and find all the information out that you want to about me Fantastic, yeah. So let me know too if you're ever in Atlanta, because we should like all meet up and maybe have dinner or something one night. It'd be fun to pick your brain a little bit more. So, real quick, the last question that I ask everybody before we end the show what does paradise mean to you?

Dan Clouser:

Freedom, freedom Just the freedom to go where you want to go, you know, be where you want to be. I mean, you know, paradise some days can be on the beach, some days it can be in the mountains. Um, last summer it was in alaska, you know this. This month it's in galveston, texas, um, so yeah, I think freedom is really, you know, the freedom to find your paradise wherever it is. I I think is is paradise.

Bee Davis:

Perfect. Yes, I love that answer. That is the perfect answer, so awesome. Thank you so much, dan. We will talk soon and, yeah, I will see you have a good one, absolutely.

Dan Clouser:

Thanks a lot.

Bee Davis:

Bye, hey there, beach lovers. That's it for today's episode of Beachside Banter with Bea. I sure hope you had as much fun as I did. Hey, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the show. You can catch me on all social media platforms at Life, love and Travel, and if you've got a question or you just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to slide into my DMs and I'll make sure to get those answered for you. Big thanks to everyone who joined me today and for all of you tuned in, and until next time, enjoy your week.