Inspired Travels With Patti

Full-Time RV Life with a Teen: Budgeting, Homeschooling, and Finding Hidden Gems on the Road

• Patti Hunt • Season 1 • Episode 9

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I (Patti Hunt) sit down with full-time RVer’s Melodie & Kurt Clayton of RV Plus 3 to explore how life on the road reshaped their family’s priorities, education, and connection. From selling their home to traveling across 20 states with their teenage son, they share practical tips on memberships, budgeting, homeschooling, and discovering hidden gems most travelers miss. Whether you’re dreaming about hitting the road or already RV-curious, this candid conversation reveals what RV life is really like, the challenges, the freedom, and the unexpected beauty of living small while seeing big.

Key Points:

  • How Melodie & Kurt transitioned from a traditional home to full-time RV living
  • Budgeting, memberships, and programs that make RV travel affordable
  • Tips on fuel savings, campground choices, and planning vs. flexibility
  • Homeschooling on the road: how their son learns through experience
  • The emotional side of travel, loss, resilience, and finding community on the road
  • Favorite hidden gems across the U.S

Resources & Mentions & Links:


Thank you for listening, I would love to hear from you, please leave me a comment or question here on the podcast page or on my social media channels and share with others that want to adventure.

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Links and Discounts

* Camp for Less than $9 a night: Reach out to Sharon & Warren Lewis Thousand Trails Membership Specialists. Call/Text 772-217-1851

* AirSkirts $200 off with Code: RVPOD

* Rivet Supply Co Adventure Boards check website for FREE Personalizing

* KoolRV Optimize RV AC

* Open Roads discount diesel fuel card

* VIP Access Great RV product & services discounts

* Innovative Toll Nationwide Tolling for $24/year


why has RV travel become so important over the last several years? Some of the answers may surprise you. On today's episode, we have Melody and Kurt from RV plus three. Kurt, why did you decide to travel by rv? Well, I spent about four years watching YouTubers do it before I was able to convince her to get into it. Four years it took. Okay. Yeah. I was, uh, watching, she had her own business. I was the stay at home dad, so I was sitting around with a infant and toddler watching all these guys travel all over and have all these adventures, and I'm like, that looks like fun. Okay, well, we are gonna get into that today. On today's episode, my guests are going to cover. RVing. So whether that is full-time like they are, whether you're thinking about doing it part-time, you're a weekender or you're just thinking about it, or those people that are really curious about RVing. We're also gonna talk about why travel is so important for us, uh, incredible places and experiences you have had, as well as some RV travel tips like planning. Now that's a. Full on episode, so we're gonna have to try and get as much as possible into this. For those of you who don't know, I am Patti Hunt, and I traveled four years, no, three and a half years. I started four years ago full-time in my rv. I've done some international travel. I am right now off the road and travel by plane and car and train. I want to go. On a river cruise, just experience different types of travel. But the RV travel experience is really interesting, really exciting things that I did not expect. This podcast was created to inspire you to travel whatever mode of travel, whether you go close to home or far away. That is the mission of this. Podcast. It's to inspire you to get out and travel right? We're gonna talk about why that's important. So this is Melody and Kurt Clayton of RV plus three. Go check them out on social media. We'll talk about your social media and where to find you. YouTube. And you've been full-time RVers for four years, so a little longer than I was. You travel with your son Marcus, who is now 14, right? 15 next month, 15 next month. Hard to keep track. I know. He's way taller than me. Almost as tall as you now. And he has had some incredible experience as a kid traveling in an rv. Um, so how many states have you been to Melody, do you know? I don't, I haven't kept track. Listen, you gotta get the board. Gotta get the, I got the board back. I don't know. You have a kid trip, do you? Well, we haven't updated it in a while. We haven't updated it in a while. Do you have a guess? So why don't you take a guess and then we'll come back and post on social media with the actual answer, maybe a guess. 18. 18 states. And how about you? What do you think? You think more or less? Um, I, I say maybe 20. 20. Okay. So you guys are going to fill the map in. Okay. And you're gonna let me know and we'll post that on social media. How many states it was for Dan and I, we were up to about 28. But there's also, when do you count this state? So we could talk about that in a little bit. National Parks. Do you know how many, I'm just putting you guys on the spot. Five. Five National Parks. Yeah. Not too many. Yeah. Not too many, not your thing. Well it's not high on our bucket list right now because our rig is so big we can't fit into national parks. Right, okay. And that's the big thing about traveling full time in a 43 foot RV is you have to find parks near the national parks. Okay. And we're gonna talk about some of that because we are gonna talk about sorta, I say sorta 'cause we're gonna talk a little bit about choosing the RV that might be right for you. Depending on what you need to do and what you're saying is with a 43 foot rv, you can't go into the national parks for the most part, so we'll talk about that. Now, I gotta say, these guys were instrumental in helping build my last podcast, which was the RV Life Podcast. They helped with social media and were the self-proclaimed producers. Truth be told, they did help produce that show. For those of you who don't know, they, they helped get it into the top 3% of all podcasts worldwide. And our mission was to make sure people were inspired to travel, had the information they needed to, to go out and rv. And so when Kurt came up with the idea that we were going to do a coffee chat, we were gonna sit down with our coffee and chat, I said, okay, he's the producer. He's decided to produce this show. And so here we are now, we were gonna be outside. But it is a rainy day, as you can see. I am. We are in Circle M Campground, and I'm staying in a cabin, which is a story that I'll talk about another time. Let's jump into it, Kurt. Four years ago, let's think back to four years ago. You said you were sitting around with an infant well before that, but it was four years ago when you convinced Melanie. To sell the house and the business and go in an rv. What did that conversation look like? How'd that go? Uh, she had a lot of stipulations, I should say. Um, one of the big ones is financially how to make it work. Um. You know, I'm a disabled vet. I have the disability income, you know, how much, how much is it gonna cost? How are we gonna afford doing it? You know, using things like thousand trails memberships and buying one right off the bat, we actually bought coast to coast as well. Yep. So being able to go places and not break the bank, trying to stay, 'cause we're living in it. This isn't a vacation for us. We're actually living full time. Okay. And so you brought up a number of things and again. I have a computer in front of me. I just have some brief points. So we're gonna be going in many different directions on this. First of all, you talked about being prepared, which I was not. I spent about three months and went out and got on the road. I don't recommend that approach 'cause we got out on the road and realized we couldn't afford to be in campgrounds, but we are thousand trust members. This is a thousand trust campground. Talk a little bit about that to help our listeners. One of you, whoever wants to talk, or both of you. On having certain memberships to help with campground cos Um, well I was the one watching all the YouTubers out there doing it, the big ones, you know, KYD, less junk and, uh, you know, changing Lanes. Ev I watched a lot of YouTube videos before we got started and actually that kind of what led into also being prepared and we'll touch on that here in a few. Um, but the Thousand Trails membership, we decided to buy the biggest and best package that they had. The adventure, you know, park to part. Uh, six month reservation window for regular tt and, you know, uh, 90 days for the encore parks, which is what makes it feasible. Without it, you're gonna be dumping 50 at a very minimum to 120 a night in a lot of campgrounds with a thousand trails. They have a lot of good locations near a lot of good areas and it works. But we also supplemented it with a coast to coast, which has a lot of parks up in Michigan, um, where TT doesn't really have anything. Right. So we're able to go in a lot of other areas that aren't just limited to the TT parks. Okay. And like you guys, I also, wait, I've waited six months and then bought the Thousand Trust membership, and I always say my biggest mistake was. Not buying it sooner because the money I wasted, like you said, trying to find a campground for 40 or $50 a night was difficult at best. But when you think 40 or $50 a night, $50 times, 30 nights, that's $1,500 a month. Am I doing my math right? That's a lot of money that we didn't have. So, thousand trails. I, I'm just gonna say they have changed all of their membership, all of them. And anybody that's interested in hearing more about that, there is a link in the show notes. Sharon and Warren are our membership specialists that can help answer all of your questions. They're people that we know love and trust, so we'll. We'll go on from there because memberships are something that, depending on how you're traveling, what kind of travel you want to do, where you want to go, the membership really depends. And I know with the new membership. Even if you're doing it part-time, it still pays. Okay. So you've got the membership down. Good for you. Planning that beforehand. Um, let's talk a little bit, okay, so now here you are in a house. You sold the house, you had a house, you sold it after fully remodeling it for of course, right? So that was another catch is I just finished helping get the house remodeled, uh, you know, full paint, new flooring, everything. And it was beautiful. It looked gorgeous. Yeah, it was gorgeous. But the market was there. During COVID to sell, and we got way more than we paid for it. And it was kind of one of those things that's like, all right, well that'll help pay for the truck, paid for almost a hundred thousand dollars truck in cash. So that's one less payment we're gonna have on the road. The thousand Trails membership pay for in cash, one less payment. We have to worry about just the yearly dues, which aren't bad at all. Right? And so one of the things to talk about is budgeting. People ask all the time. What's cheaper, what's less expensive A house or living in an rv. And I always say it depends. Yeah, it depends. They have a, you have a dually and a fifth wheel. It's new. It was new, correct. Yes. We, my husband and I had a old, uh, class A, so it really depends where you're coming from and what kind of r you're going into. But certainly finances are something to consider. And just know that it's gonna cost more than you think it is. You have to factor in repairs that you find out a planned, all of that stuff. And that probably is a whole episode conversation itself. Anybody that wants to hear more about financing being on the road, and is it less expensive than a house and how do I figure out finance? We'll come back and do another episode on that. Let us know in the comments. So that, that's of interest. That's a long episode. That's a long, long episode. Just right there of, yeah, probably mapping out if this, then this, you know, if we lived in a house in Las Vegas, it was a four bedroom, three and a half bath. The walk-in closet was as big as my rv, um, hot tub in a pool. So, you know that. Costs are pretty Penny being in Las Vegas? Well, you look at your travels and I think our first year we did 8,000 miles. Mm-hmm. And that was during COVID and fuel prices were five, $5 a gallon. So it added up real quick and we had to reevaluate, all right, how far do we want to go? Where do we wanna stay? How long are we gonna be there for? Because the, uh, just in fuel cost alone, it can surprise you out of the blue, but then you run into programs like open roads. Yep. Let's talk about that. Okay. So that's another great point. And again, this is not on. This list. We are really wingy it. We are really having a coffee cup and I'm letting Kurt take some leeway here. Um, but it's a good point because the next big expense would be your fuel co cost. Your dually is a diesel. My RV was a diesel. 10 miles to the gallon. Yeah. We always lie to ourselves and say it's like 12. But it's really, ours was seven or eight, but we said Ted, just to make us feel better. Um, and that's just the towing side of it. When you disconnect, you know, for us, you know, we didn't have a tow behind vehicle or you know, a chase vehicle. In the case of some fifth wheel, uh, people, you know, they use a, have a whole separate vehicle just for running around and we decided against that route and well, even not towing, I'm only getting 15 if I'm having a good day. Right? So the dually gets 15. Okay, so let's talk about open roads, because again, this is a consideration whether you're gas or diesel, to have programs that'll, you know, save you money. Open Road is one of those programs. Can you talk a little bit about it? Let you talk about it. Well, I saw it on a YouTuber's channel. That was one of the things. It's like I, I'm a prepared person. I like to be prepared for just about any eventuality. And I over plan, definitely over plan, spend way too much time doing it, checking the routes four times. Is there any bridges? Is, you know, we're gonna talk about that in a minute. Yeah. Let's talk about fuel costs and how Oprah burn. So saved you money. Um, it's a free to join program. Um, and you basically get a fleet. Style discount like the truck drivers get. So you're not paying the pump price. And that can range anywhere from 15 cents all the way to a dollar or even more per gallon off. Right? And that makes a big difference when you're filling up, uh, even my 50 gallon tank, you know, a class a's they've got, what, 200 gallon tanks? Uh, it just cost us three plus a hundred dollars to fill it up. So whatever. I don't even remember, oh my gosh, how many gallons it was, but it was a lot. That's a lot. Okay, I'm gonna go back. So a program like Open Roads, there are some other programs out there. Do your research like mm-hmm. Kurt has done, what's really nice now is if there's some program out there, I just ask Kurt. I don't have to do my research. I know he's done it, but Open Roads is a great program. I'm also gonna add on that Open Roads over the last two years has a toll pass. For those interstates that you need a toll pass and it covers all 48 states. That's called Innovative toll Solutions. But they have the VIP, which include, and they have the VIP, which includes, we're gonna put all this information in the show notes, but I wanna ask you, melody. Yeah. He came, we haven't heard from you yet. He came to you, you're off working. He came to you and said. Yeah, he, well, he had been talking about it for a while, so it wasn't something new. You know, we watched the videos together, but it was kinda like our son with COVID started being homeschooled. We saw he did so much better. He, he just didn't do good in school, so, okay. Our oldest was going off to the Air Force, and so it was like, well, the prices are, the, the houses are really good right now. So I'm like, sell me on it. Break it down for me. I'm not doing this without you breaking it down. And he, you know, he broke it down. He was like, Hey, look, if, if we did a thousand trails, that'll save us a lot of nights. And he kinda showed me what normal nights cost versus doing a package like a thousand trails. I was like, okay, that makes sense. And he's like, they got programs for helping let's saving on fuel. Okay, great. And he just broke it down. He showed me a lot of stuff and I was like, okay. So from the time you said yes to him Yeah. Until you sold the house. Packed it up. We're gonna talk a little bit about downsizing. Again, that's a whole topic in itself, but we're gonna talk a little bit about downsizing. From the time you said yes till you got the RV and got in and hit the road, how much time was there? Eight months, probably. Yeah, because we had to, to get finish, getting the house fixed up and then, then we had to get it sold and then, then after that. We were helping our son get off to the Air Force, our oldest cj. So we were actually, once we sold the house, we were living in our bumper pole. We had a 26 foot forest river, um, mini light. Yep. And we were living in that. So we lived in an RV park for several months and then we got our oldest off to the Air Force, and then we officially left. You know, not just living in the rv, but actually traveling and living. I went to see him in Texas for his graduation of basic. Wow. So it gives you another really great part of R being, whether it's a bumper pole, travel trailer, a van, it gives you that opportunity to go somewhere and stay in a campground, not be in a hotel. Okay. Well this was our third rv. This was our third RVR. So, so you weren't new to it? Not fully, because as I've gotten older, I was in my forties. I've, you know, got health issues and. Tent camping, just wasn't, couldn't do it anymore. I'm like, I need a bed. You know, a place to lay down, comfy. And so that's kind of what started us is like, all right, we bought a 30 foot before the Rockwood and had a bunk house and we took the kids out on the weekends and did some summer trips with it. So we we're familiar with rv, but still newbies by any means. There was mistakes made. Stakes are always going to be made downright screw ups too. Yeah. I could say something else, but we don't, we don't wanna say that on this podcast, but, so do you recommend people maybe rent an rv, maybe come into a campground? So, my experience, let's go back a little bit. My experience with camping was, I think I spent maybe 10 nights in a tent. Mm-hmm. So it was a weekend, I was in a tent night, one. It not only rained, it poured torrential downpour with full on lightning middle of the night. Of course I have to go to the bathroom. That was my experience. Night two. Thankfully, somebody in the campground had a cabin. They let us stay 'cause I was ready to pack up and go home. That was my experience with tank camping. Now, I did have a lot of great memories, meeting people, community. I loved that part of it, but only saw Ted camping or somebody buying an RV as the option. And at that time the RV wasn't a consideration. My RV experience was seven nights, two different trips in an rv, you know, just going on what was like a vacation. So you guys had some experience. What do you recommend? Do you recommend people try the campground experience, maybe renting an rv? What are your thought? I think renting an rv. Would be good if, if you've never done it, just as a, let's get out there and try it.'cause you don't wanna sell everything and then go, oh, I really cannot live in 200 some odd square feet. I think it'd be good. Try a couple trips and then if you like it, there you go. Or buy a small bumper pull or something and take it for weekends for a bit. Get your feet in the water if you really like it, that we can take test a camp ground. You can test going out on BLM Lamb, you know, try a few things. Yeah.'cause we did. Everything from campgrounds to really off-road camping with the little bumper pool. Yeah. Um, when we got the short one, it was like, oh, okay, so we can take this all the way up in the mountains here and not necessarily wasn't meant for those off-road conditions, which I learned relatively quickly. That's again, nowhere. You can take your r. It's really important. Yeah. So, and again, let's talk a little bit about trip planning. We, you brought up going out to the mountains, BLM land. Let's talk about what that is, the type of, we are going in all kinds of directions, but the type of things when you set out, let's just use you guys as, as an example, when you set out in the rv, you were headed to Texas because CJ was going in the military, the Air Force. So was that like the first kind of trip? The fir What was the plan? Because you're the planner. We gotta back up a little bit. Oh, okay. There's a, there's a small Trump of story. He story, yeah. Who's the producer here? No, right in a second. I'm sorry. Both her and I have had cancer. Mm-hmm. And we're cancer survivors. We've gotten through it and, uh, during that time period as well, my mother, uh, had health issues and concerns that popped up and it was, uh, you know, we only got to see 'em once a year. They'd have to fly all the way out to Arizona where we were. When her health deteriorated, she couldn't fly anymore. Um, so one of the trips was we took the little bumper pole during, well before we decided to do a full house sale. And then, uh, we were headed, uh, we took it and visited them in Missouri where they're from and visited her family, uh, that has place up in Iowa. And uh, that was one of the kickoffs is being able to go and visit family. Yep. It was a lot harder to do. In the house and it's like, okay, we get to see you for a week or maybe two weeks if we're lucky for one every year. Um, and so it's like, well, we can work from the road. We can do different things and travel and see, and we got to go see my mom before she passed. And that was one of the kickers that when we were on that same trip is when we jumped to the 43 foot fifth wheel. I'd already had the bumper pull. Okay. And we were going through Texas and we found a rig that. We'd looked at for years and checked out the different model years and everything, and finally was able to make a deal on it. We got that back to, and my mom passed during that time period of us getting the house sold. So it was kind of, uh, heartbreaking in that respect that I lost my mom before I could go out and do more visits to her. Right. And that just goes to show life is short. Mm-hmm. You don't know what's gonna happen. Do you want to wait? Right. Yeah. And this is the big reason. For the podcast because that has been the, um, inspiration is that life is short and you don't know, there's no, you hear about people that retired 65 or 72, whatever it is now, and they, six months later they pass away. People who know my story know that Dan became in a year and a half ago and is now in full-time nursing care. Didn't see that coming, so, mm-hmm. Go out and do the things. Now caution, because it does not mean you should sell everything. It does not mean you should like get off of this episode and convince your spouse to go full-time in an rv. But it does mean to sit down and really think about what you want to do. Yeah. So let's talk about the trips you wanted to visit family. That was a big thing for you. It was. It was a big deal for me When you, it came to planning. When it came to trip planning. You kind of, in the first year you said you did 8,000 miles. That's relatively slow for RVs, full-time RVs, right? Is that relatively slow, fast? Kind of fast? Fast. I mean, we, we were, we were moving in either bug dials, we were moving quite a bit and only staying in a place for a week or two weeks at a time. Okay. Because, uh, when we got the big rv and, uh, our oldest boy at that time was literally heading off to basic training. And we were finishing everything up, the business sale and everything. It's like, okay, well we hit the road. I even forgot we had the thousand Trails membership. Oh, we pulled into a rest stop in nowhere Texas. And I'm like, where are we gonna stay tonight? Ah. And I'm like, it's like the planner didn't plan that one. Not the first trip. I was like, let's get to San Antonio and get there so we could be there for his graduation. And I didn't even think about, you know, how busy campgrounds in the San Antonio area was gonna be. And it's like, okay, wait, there's a TT park near there. We can drive in. And we stayed there for a few. But when he actually had his graduation, we picked up a park near, uh, what SeaWorld down there? Yeah. Somewhere, somewhere near SeaWorld. And was able to bring him back to the rv, get him off base for a little bit.'cause he still had to do his primary training after that. He, that was his basic right. And after that it's like, alright, I wanted to make this basic training. Um, that was the important one to me.'cause I'd been through it myself. I'm ex-military. So I know how nice it is to have family show up at your graduation there. Right? Right. And so again, planning is all great. We've all done it where we're like, oh, something fell through. Something didn't work. Um, as much planning as you could do. But also even within the planning, there's sometimes those things that come up that are fun, exciting, didn't expect it. I had that happen all the time with me. We set out, so we spent a month. Um, 15 miles from the house that we were in. I wanted to get the RV set up. I just wanted time when we spent a month in Lake Mead and then we had this whole plan for two or three months, like, oh, I have to plan this. I'm not, I should say I was not a spontaneous person. Yeah. So the idea of rv great, but we're gonna plan things. We're gonna schedule this. I'm gonna have, you know, camp Gros Reserve that went out the window very quickly, and now I weigh. I'm much better at flying by the seat of my pants now. Um, but we had this plan of where we were gonna go the day before we were taking off. Somebody called us that we were friendly with and said, uh, there's a Model T Ford rally, and if you get here in two days instead of four or five, four days, you could join us in that rally. And Dan was like, oh yeah, we gotta do this. So everything from there changed. Yeah. And that's where I think I knew. Planning was great, but being flexible. Go ahead you and say something. We plan a lot of our stuff out really far out, but we're always open to change. Last year we were supposed to be going to Louisiana. Never been so go Texas to, you know, to Louisiana. We wanna go do Mardi Gra, check it out. Well then we found out that they're gonna have a lunar clipse and one of the best places. Solar eclipse. Solar eclipse, yes. Thank you. Solar eclipse. One of the best place to see it was in Texas and we had a bunch of friends staying at a thousand trails Campgrounds. We're like, okay, well let's detour. We canceled Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee. Yep. Because we were gonna go up and back to Missouri and visit my dad afterwards, and we wound up just extending and staying in Texas for the entire eclipse. But the nice thing is also is we made new friends that we're still really good friends with. So it's just funny how. Things work out how things work out. Yeah, and, and again, for those people, planning is a good idea. Having an idea of where you wanna go, what you want to do. I always recommend that whoever is traveling, so whether it's couple, whether you're solo, whether you have a kid or kids with, you kind of sit down and you know, what are the types of things you want to do and see, great to have that, great to have the list and be flexible, things that come up. So planning's a great idea. Being flexible. Good. Let's talk about community, and it's one of the reasons I love being in campgrounds. And while even though I don't have the RV anymore, I stay in cabins. I've stayed in a yur, I've stayed in a retro rv. I'm planning on renting an rv'cause I do want to stay in a fifth wheel so I could rent one. They'll bring it to the site, they'll set it up. Actually just talking to somebody from the company. It's called Fireside RV Rental. They'll bring it out. Do everything you need. I don't know if they set up the tanks. I would imagine they do the black and gray tanks. They would because a lot of people don't know how to. I would hope so. I figured Bring it out. I'll have to check that. I would imagine you set it all up so you had that experience. It's also a good way to decide which RV might work for you in your family or whoever you're with. Okay. Well, your first RV isn't your last. Your first RV is usually not your glasses. Yeah, that's usually the case. We've even looked at changing after four years of, uh, you know, maybe to a toy haul or something different, you know, but it's kinda like, well, we spent four years fixing up the rig and getting it to exactly what we want. It's like, do we want switch? Except now you have a kid that's what, over six foot? No, not yet. But he will be, he's gonna be, I, I look up to him like, and he's 14, almost 15. That was part of our planning is. I crawled up in the bunk room where he could sleep and if I could fit, I knew he could. So I'm 6 4, 6 5. So it's bigger than I think it is. It's long. Yeah. Okay. It's long. It could fit probably someone's six. Six. Yeah. Okay. Just so people know what we're talking about in a fifth wheel, and you could Google pictures or I'll remember and just take some pictures. Um, when you walk into the fifth wheel, you're in the kitchen living room area. What's nice about a fifth wheel is it does feel more like a living space where the class A just. You're, you're in a, it does feel more like an RV depending on the kind of class that you have. But then you go up steps and there's steps to a loft. Where Marcus's bedroom is, we have a minimum. So, yeah. Um, there's no windows. It's just this little cave-like area that, and he likes, so you have to figure out what your kid likes. Um, okay, so let's talk about the, the campground. What's great about being in a campground? Why a campground? Why, why? You know, didn't you travel in some other way? I'll let you take it. Well, I mean, we like the campgrounds because usually there's lots of kids. Um, Marcus will have, we'll find friends, usually full-time families on the road. You know, you look for a little sciences, full-time families on the side. You'll say, oh, okay. They most likely have kids and, you know, he'll find someone to play with us. The nice thing about RV kids, they, they are very open to other kids and they're like, hi. And then they go play. Um, I like campgrounds. Um, I don't know. I just like, 'cause you meet a lot of people that you see, especially a thousand trails. You see a lot of the same people over and over and it's nice because you can meet up with friends, but there's lots of really nice campgrounds. You like full hookups. I like full hookups. She's not a boondock. Alright, so let's talk about a couple things. First of all, full-time families is a group for people who are full-time with their families. Mm-hmm. They do events together and get together and. You could just Google full-time families. I'll put it in the show notes for you. Um, but that is a great group with kids. And you said one of the things you like is there are a lot of kids I've traveled and once in a while have had a grandkid with, so I don't have kids and I can go off and, and you know, do my thing. There's usually something for every one. Mm-hmm. What else besides, now she's saying full hookups. For those of you who haven't RV yet, that means that you have sewer, so you're. Black and gray tanks are going into the sewer. You don't have to worry about your tanks filling up. You have water and you have electric, and that could be 30 or 50 amp electric depending on what your RV needs. So just a very basic, if I, I'm sure I missed a lot of things on that, but to give people basic, so you like the idea of full hookups? I stayed with them a couple weeks ago, and when I went to get in the shower, I had to think about, oh, I could actually take a real shower. They were on full hookup. If you're not on full hookup, so you're using your tank water and your tanks is where your. The holding tank is where your water goes from the shower. Then you have to take quicker showers. So I know I can take a good shower. Um, so thanks for letting me stay here. That's the nice thing about the fifth wheel too, 'cause there's a pullout couch. Mm-hmm. I was nice and comfy. I would serve coffee in the morning with love our coffee. It was great. So, you know, maybe find a friend who has an RV that you could just go hang out with. Okay. What else about the campground experience as opposed to, you know, you've been to resort type places, like hotels that are resorts that have some amenities. What makes a campground experience more appealing for you guys? I gotta just a quick one. Okay. Go wherever I go. I have my bed with me. Oh. I hate hotel beds. Oh. I've maybe been in one hotel in my entire life. I had a good bed. In it. Wow, that's a good one. So that's a big one for me. Yes. And you have all your stuff. Yes. You have all your stuff with you. Yeah. Yeah. But campgrounds can offer, like here at. Um, circle N they have activities. Mm-hmm. Every weekend there are things going on. You could participate or not. They have a pool. They have a pool, indoor pool, and a hot tub. They have a mini golf that people love, they rave about. They have the, the campground, uh, the playground for kids. They have trails. They have a, actually a river. And I said it right this time, I always called it a lake, but a river that runs around the place and you put your tube in and you could spend an hour or two hours floating around when it's warm. Um, and those are things that you just, you're here, you meet people, you could walk outside the rv mm-hmm. And somebody walked by and. Have an hour conversation and you've met your new best friend. Yep. Right. I know you love that. Oh yeah. I love that. I love meeting new people. Well, being able to cook at home, not having to go to, to restaurants. Yeah. I mean, there is some draw to, you know, hotel travel and other, you know, even cruise ships and things like that. And I can see it for, you know, okay, a weekend you're going out special place. You know, they don't have RV campgrounds near some of them, but for all it's having your home with you. Yeah. Everything that you need. It's a very different experience that it's hard to explain if you've never done it. Yeah, it's very different. I feel like every, every campground's different with what they offer. So you can pick one, if you pick one in the mountains that you know, they, they offer certain things. You can pick one by the beach. I, I just like that you can, depending on what you're in the mood for, that's what you can book. You know, there's some right on the beach, you know, there's something beautiful places in the mountains, our favorites. One of our favorites is Shenandoah Crossing in Virginia. Yep. And I love it. They have horses there. Lots of horses. So if you have kids that are, or if you're an adult and you wanna ride, you can ride. Um, they have a beautiful lake there so you can, you know, you can walk, they even have hotels. So let's say you're in the rv, but your family wants to stay in the hotel. They have a hotel on site or say it's a resorts, right? Um, so I don't know, there's just so many great campgrounds. I, I, I do like boondocking once in a while, but. Our tanks aren't that big, so we can't go that long. So I think that makes a difference. Yeah. Well, let's talk about what boondocking is really quick. Do you wanna take that just quick for people who have no idea what we're talking about? Boondocking is, uh, filling up the fresh water tank with some water and going out to a place that has no hookups, no electric, no sewer, no water ducking and emptying your gray and black tank so that they are empty for the trip. Mm-hmm. And then, so when I first started out and I stayed at Lake Meat. I didn't know anything, so if you get nothing out of this, do your research. There are a lot of, you know, Google it chat, GPT, it, I don't care what you do. Listen to YouTubers. You do a lot of things on social media, like pick your people, do your research. So I, mm-hmm. We're going to lake meat. No big deal. There was, it was boo docking. For a month. That's a, that's a long time to move. We had to pack up the whole rv, go to the doctor station and take it up to the dump station, build the water and dump every five, four, or five days. Yeah. So I'd lived through that. Anything after that was, you know, resort living. When I could pull in, take a sh and you took quick showers, you turned the water off in between. Soaping military shower. Yeah. You put the bucket in the sink when you were washing dishes, so you could, you can't always do that. Pour it outside. There's some places at Lake Me. You weren't supposed to do that. Yeah, I was watering the trees. Um, so there were ways around things. Uh. Y. Yeah. You have to think about those things. Mm-hmm. When you're traveling, you have to think about those things. We'll go back to, let's talk a little bit about types of RVs. We've covered class a's they're the big bus, like drivable RVs. What is it in the drivable category? Drivable category, and then you have B, class B. I'm going to the alphabet camera bands. and you have Cs, which are bigger. It's smaller than a Class A, but bigger than a van. Okay. And And there's Super Cs. Super Cs. Yep. The highest, which I found out why people buy Super Cs because they, they're just bigger, they're heavier, they're more expensive. They tend to be, but they're for people who want, who have bigger loads. Like they're either pulling something that's heavier. So you can pull a full size pickup. A full size pickup. Okay, there you go. So it just depends on what you're doing with it. And then we move into the towables. Let you take those.'cause they're outta my, well, there's a lot of to, so you have the popups, travel trailers. Mm-hmm. Everybody jump in. Let's go a little little to big pop popups. Okay. Pop up again. He's producing the show. We're going little to big popups. Teardrops. Teardrops. Yep. Then your regular bumper pulse slash travel trailers. Mm-hmm. Then you get your big fifth wheels. Then you got the toy haulers, and then you can even go all the way into like the luxe category if you've got a couple hundred thousand to blow. Or more. Yeah. Or more. Mm-hmm. Okay. So the toy hauler is a fifth wheel. Some class A have a toy hauler garage, which it's like a garage, so you could park something in there. Motorcycles, golf cart, small car, golf carts, all kinds of things. So these are the basics for types of RVs. And we might miss some. I don't know. You're pretty thorough, so I'm not sure you did. Sorry. That's a, but I, you know, there, there's a lot. So different. There are a lot out there. Sorry if we missed something. Yeah. Oh yeah. But it's planning what will work for you and your family, how you wanna travel. Mm-hmm. Like where you wanna go. So you mentioned national parks, of which you've been to four or five you said, which I thought you would've been to a lot of them. Number of, number of national parks. I've been to Zero. So you're way ahead of me. Well, we just did the one up in, um, or Acadia. Acadia National Park. Absolutely. That was up in Maine, our first trip to Maine in four years. Okay. Mm-hmm. Uh, didn't do everything there. And that's the great thing. I don't, I want to go back, find more to do. We did Shenandoah National Park. Yep. Shenandoah. We did. So maybe again, you'll count them, you'll let us know we're posted on social media. Yeah. I have a book that, okay. They have books so you can get stamps. Okay. Put stamps in. Um, when we did the cake. Up in Cape Cod. I thought we did. Was that a national park? I thought it was, uh, national something shore or something. So we've been to a few, but it's, we're not just going hunting for National Park. Right. Some people they're gonna knock it off their list. We just hit on if we're in the area and they're, you know, we're like, oh, that looks cool to do. We'll go, well, there's some national parts that are great, and others that you're like, eh, it doesn't interest me that much. Yeah, and that's the thing too, is I think when you're planning, what kinds of things, we talked about it a little bit. What kinds of things now do you guys, I guess you talked to Marcus or the three of you, kind of get an idea of what kinds of things you want to do, where you want to go. How do you figure that all out? Well, part of his homeschooling is like going to see things like Gettysburg Valley, forge, Washington, dc um, all the forts and lighthouses and so many things. It's part of his homeschooling. Instead of reading about in a book, he actually gets to go out there and experience it firsthand and see it. That's cool. Yeah, so it's a completely different education. And that's the other thing. So now you have kids homeschooling. That's a whole nother conversation. So let's talk about that a little bit. When it comes to homeschooling, you don't have to know it all. The two of you. Yeah, and I try and tell people this all the time. I was a teacher for 20 years. I taught science. If you ask me to try and teach. Even algebra level. I'm out. I'm done. I, I'm not, I can't even help my kid with it, let alone teach it. But you guys, he, Marcus uses an online program mm-hmm. Right? That you recommend? What Do you know the name of it? You want to share it? We have the time for learning. So like he, because he just got into high school, they, they, they upped it. They changed it a little. And so it's definitely more for older kids. And so it's good because it's transitioning in him into, Hey, you've gotta write more. You've gotta think more. And I, I really like it. But it's nice because they have, you need to get this, this, and this and this done today. And when he gets done, he is like, I'm done. Can I, do you want me to do more or do you want me to call it done? So typically three or four hours he gets school knocked out and then he can do whatever for the rest of the day. Or if we've got things to do, he can go with us. And so it's nice he's not wasting time just sitting in the classroom. Repeating things over and over and over. He can just get it done and let's go do and do other things. And I think one of the nice things, and again, I was a teacher for 20 years, he could work at his own pace. Mm-hmm. He could do his own thing. You're encouraging, you know, the things that he could go see and actually be there, you know, from Philadelphia. So people going down to Independence Hall. Yeah, seeing the Liberty Bell instead of just reading something out of book book, different programs are gonna be helpful for different kids. Every kid is different. Yeah. I have three kids and they're totally different. So would finding what would work for you? There are tons of programs out there, right? There are tons. Yeah. I think it just depends on how your kid learns. Our oldest would've never been able to do homeschooling. He would've never made it. And our youngest is opposite. He does great with it. So I, I always just say, ask other parents. I mean, you'll hear so many. You can have a group of moms sitting there and they'll all have different things of how they teach their kids. Some do half books, half online, some I use this curriculum, this curriculum, this curriculum. And some are just strict, Hey, I just used this one. So you hear so many different ways to do it, which is nice. And depending on, you know, where you're located out of. They'll, you know what state you're residing in. They'll say, Hey, you gotta teach this, this, and this, but the rest is up to you. Right. Okay. And they, that's another thing is do your research on the state. That you reside in and what their requirements are? For homeschooling? Yes, as full-timers. A lot of the questions that come up that I guess at some other time we could cover is, you know, my address. How do you plan an address? We use a program called Escapees. I think you use the same? No, we use use right now we're in South Dakota, but we're gonna switch our residency to Florida. But is it Escapees? You go through, you go through a different programs? Dakota. Dakota Post. Oh, okay. So within your state? Mm-hmm. So what we're talking about is to get your mail if you are on the road full time to get your mail and your residency. Their company. Some states do it for me. We use a company called Escapees. There are different ones. There's a lot of information out there about them. You could go into a group and ask about the different people, like different ones for, for various reasons. Um, trip planning we talked about, there are a number of different. Trip planning programs. Yes. Um, and again, finding the one that works for you to map out the trip safety. And I'm going through a couple things quickly as we wrap up our time. Yeah. But safety, so RV safety UPS. You got a big truck. This is a pet peeve of mine. I hate to call things out. We're on Facebook. Somebody has just bought a$300,000 plus Class A and wants, should know what a free GPS is. We're talking about safety on roads. Yeah. Like I'm driving this little car, it's out here. That's what I'm pointing. But I can go anywhere pretty much. You've got a dually, even in the dually. Well, it's not the dually, it's the height and the length and the weight. Yeah. So those semi class a's are 50,000 pounds. Right. They're as much as a semi. I'm tall as a semi at 13 feet, five inches. So we are going to say, make sure you have an RD safe GPS. Now that could be an online program. There are a bunch of programs. It could be, um, whether they trucker maps, trucker trucker maps. Don't just use weights. Yeah, don't just Google it. Don't use Google Maps. I'm on this kick because we have heard of and seen too many people that have created cause an accident that's created a problem for other people coming here. There was a bridge that was nine. A foot 10 inches. Yeah. Because it was a covered bridge. It was really cool. But you're not going anywhere near that. And if he said, okay, well I Google mapped it and it took him there, he gets stuck. Yeah. Would not be able to turn around. Mm-hmm. Now you've got the police coming out, you're blocking traffic in both directions, obviously you already safety G RV safe GPS is really important for all of us. Yes. We've seen too many people make some mistakes. Um, what are. Some other, let's talk a little bit about a couple of your favorite places, some hidden gems. We're gonna start wrapping up. We still have a lot more information, but as we start to think about wrapping up and anything that's left, we really want the listeners, you guys, reach out to them. We're gonna talk, how do they reach out to you? Let's just say it now. Oh, how they reach out? How could they reach out with questions? Oh, with questions. They can email us at RV three or, yeah. Go ahead. Well, Facebook, Instagram, RV plus three. Yes. Um, YouTube, TikTok, we have it all. We're gonna put it all in the show notes. Yeah, we'll put it in the show. So if you wanna reach out, you have questions about homeschooling, traveling with a child on the road. Fifth wheels reach out to them, certainly like their, uh, channels. If it resonates with you, we're gonna talk a little bit about. Really cool places that people don't often expect because you have the big ticket items, the big things that everybody's talking about. Mm-hmm. But some of the hidden gems or experiences that you didn't expect, so, oh, well I don't, that's, I'm putting you on the spot.'cause, 'cause that they often go to these hidden, I'm letting them think so they often do the, the cool places, the hidden gem, the experience. I feel like there's many, um, of course, you know, you have Key West, love Key West. Um, but then you have places like the Upper Peninsula in Michigan. Oh yeah. The UP was beautiful. Up is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. Heavily wooded, very pretty Petoskey, Petoskey State Park. They have a beach there and it's absolutely gorgeous. It's super fine sand and you can go out, I mean really far up to waist deep. It's clear water. Absolutely gorgeous. Only during the dead of summer. Yeah, only during the dead of summer. Um, yes, they have a lot of wineries. Uh, up in Traverse City, that that's just really, they got New Holland down in that area, or New Holland's a little further south, but they have the tulips, the Oh yeah. Tu Festival. And they have an old, um, windmill. Windmill that's the Holland style windmill. Yeah, yeah. Uhhuh that you can go see, which is a lot of fun. And then you have places like, we went to Acadia. Yeah. And, you know, in Maine and Bar Harbor, and they have so many, you can find so many pretty lighthouses. Um, just what him and I would do is we would lay out the mat. And you could like, let's go the, on the outside of this island here. And we'd just drive and then, okay, let's go to this, out this island, or let's take this road that goes through all these islands and see how far we go. And we'd just go exploring. And we found this cute little town called Stonington, and it's tiny. It's a hidden gem, but it's a hidden gem. It's cute. Um, we found a parking spot we had to drive through and back, but with it, um, we saw lobster boat races there. And the locals were having, they had a festival, a festival, food trucks, and the locals were all super friendly. You know, the Coast Guard came in and it was just, it was a lot of fun and they had boats everywhere. So it's like what you picture for me. Yeah. So that's cool and, and that's a good place to start our wrap up. Because a lot of people think of traveling in an RV and sometimes they think of the big places. Mm-hmm. The national parks, like I said, I've gone to zero. I was across the country three and a half times over three years. The only reason we didn't go to a national park is because we found these cool little places that most people didn't know of. So as you're planning, sure. If you wanna go to Yellowstone National Park, put it on your. List of places you wanna go, but also I love your idea of going into an area, just driving around. Yeah. But really being there and being present and see what's there. Because I passed by Sunflower Fields where there's sunflowers as far as the, I could see, which is an amazing view. Put your phone down though. We're content grade or sometimes put your phone down. That's hard sometimes. Be there. Be present. You know? Yeah, Google it. Watch some YouTube videos of people who talk about hidden gems. I actually did an episode a couple weeks ago mm-hmm. At the Hershey Show introducing people, whether they're hidden gems. Yeah. And there's gonna be a part two, probably in a week or so after this. I don't know when my episodes are going out, but there's also a hidden gems part to ask people, talk to people. You get information when you're in campgrounds. Mm-hmm. You know, go talk to locals, go to the, you know, visitor centers. They're full of information. The goal here is to get out and really enjoy. Don't just go one place to another and you're planning the next place while you're at this one. Yeah. Right. Okay. As we wrap up, what is one. Thing, one tip that you would give people? One tip, like something you would encourage people. I know I put people on the spot, so now I have to talk while they're thinking. I would say don't let fear stop you in the end, because I look back, I, and I was really afraid of it, but I wouldn't change it for the world. I wouldn't, I wouldn't go back. I couldn't imagine now, and everybody's different, but I couldn't imagine just sitting in a house. Because you, you know, when you're there, you think everything's so huge, or my state's so big, and then you start traveling and you're like, no, it's not. And then people are like, what's the most beautiful place? You, you're like, I don't know. There's so many different beautiful places. So I, I just couldn't imagine going back. That's actually a great incredible tip. Again, if you've got nothing else out of this podcast episode, that's it. Don't let fear hold you back. Do you have something? No. Or should we just leave? That was perfect. That was perfect. She spoke for all of us. That was perfect. I wanna thank you both for, thank you. Taking the time to go all the way from Dee down here, the whole, you know, two blocks to come visit me and talk. It was great hanging out with you guys this week. Thank you so much. And again, you could reach them at RV plus three on both. Social media channels, YouTube. I'm gonna put it in the show notes so you don't have to think about it. Um, you can reach out to me on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. Now I'm doing a little bit YouTube, obviously any podcast platform. We wanna hear from you. What are the questions? You still have questions? We can an we can help answer episode ideas. Please let us know. Thank you for being here and listening, and I wanna remind you, travel isn't just about where you go, it's how you live, and I'm encouraging you to live life to the fullest every day.