282. Port Angeles, Victoria, and RV Dealership Insights

this week we head into Port Angeles Washington and even a little bit into Canada plus some industry insights in the RV World and a whole lot more this is RV miles this summer L.L bean wants to help you feel great out there with gear tips and advice for heading outdoors and exploring all the possibilities of the season one easy addition you can make to your camping and Hiking wardrobe to help keep you cool is a bandana this adware hero will keep sweat out of your eyes bugs out of your hair and sun off your neck and you can even dip it into water and then put it under your hat or around your neck to keep you a hot weather must-have for more fun ideas easy how to's and inspiring stories visit llbean.com guide [Music] welcome to episode number 282 of RV miles I'm Jason and I'm Abby and we are two full-time rvers who along with our three boys jack Ethan and Henry have been crisscrossing North America on one Epic road trip since 2016. here at RV miles we talk all things RV and Outdoors from industry news to travel destinations our national parks and a whole lot more well it's been a long journey but we are finally coming to you from Alaska we're coming to you from Fairbanks this week we've been in Alaska for a half a week or so not too long at all and we're enjoying it so far from from Canada but we're back in the U.S we're using American currency again suddenly said should we tell everyone what we did the minute we got into Fairbanks what was the thing we did as soon as we basically sat down somewhere in Alaska and knew we were going to be here for a while we went to Walmart we went to Costco went to Barnes Noble Let's see we got fuel at Costco we went to a Starbucks we were so basic it was more about being in back in the city for the first time and not even that big of a city but back in the city for the first time in a long time I actually went to a movie with Jack and yes we've got a lot of that kind of stuff going on we do a whole bunch of laundry and so much laundry we were very happy though to see that thank you to Fairbanks for having the latest Wes Anderson film available Jack really really wanted to see that so we were thrilled that we could do that you guys went to like a 9 40. it came out and it was still I'm still thinking about that movie it was weird really it was interesting I mean it's Wes Anderson so there's a lot to think about but the cast is the cast is out of this world Jeff Goldblum is in this movie or I'm not kidding three seconds yeah Max it's very weird it's called asteroid City one person in the audience there's maybe 10 of us in there uh towards the very end we just heard a very loud what that it wouldn't be a western understand but you might also be wondering why there was no RV miles podcast last weekend we had a very unscheduled weekend off for the show because we found ourselves in an area of the Yukon getting right across into Alaska where we ran into finally for the first time starlink issues so we ended up having to take not only the week off from the podcast due to the travel schedule but also the news video so we're really glad to be back with all of you after the last couple of weeks we're excited to talk about Port Angeles but before we do that I think we need to talk about a little bit there's some dealership insights info that you recently got well I put a video out uh in the middle of last week about something called repair event cycle time which is the amount of time it takes to get RV repair done from the moment you drop it off from that from when that order is made until until the repair is complete and that number is 34 days which is wild it's over a month to get a RV repair done but the the interesting good news in that story is it's actually down 10 days from a year ago that it's fantastic uh so last time I checked it was at 84 years but that's fine so there is some improvement there but you can watch that video to get all the details about the uh sort of time of repair in the RV industry lots of interesting comments on that video as well that I think are worth checking out but this came from a report from a company called IDs who uh makes software that dealerships run their service departments off of so it's it's legitimate data but there's also some other data that was involved in this report that is not related to repair that I thought was interesting to share some of this coming from the financing department at RV dealerships so 63 of RVs bought at a dealership are financed I don't think that's much of a surprise it's a lot but I I don't think it's much of a surprise but the surprising thing about that is that the average term the average term that people are financing an RV for is a 192 months wow that's like what that's something like something like 15 years-ish I don't I don't know the math offhand but I think it's 84 years it's been 84 years oh bad bad too soon I don't I've already too soon I already got raked across the coals in a DM let's not too soon so 63 Finance uh 21 get Gap coverage we talked about that in a past episode that we actually think Gap coverage is an important thing to get it covers if you are financing something it covers the depreciation on that vehicle if it's totaled and you need to replace it you don't have to get it from your dealership though probably best not to get it from your dealership 42 percent get the service contract that's probably not something that is always worth it um you sometimes some sometimes you get a good deal on the service contract and it's really not much at all and it's fine to get but the service contract extended warranty another word for it is where a lot of dealers make a lot of money roadside assistance 19 again that's something you can get elsewhere and these last two are things that thankfully not a lot of people get because usually they are near hoaxes by the dealership paint and fabric coverage uh uh this includes like when they sort of go in and spray uh they they go and spray a spray on all the fabric in your RV and they say that they've protected it um yeah and then they put a coating on your paints I'm just trying to think what fabric in my RV I'm even interested in like I'm so I don't I don't want to make fun of it because I know some of you out there are paid for it but no it's not it literally if you talk to insiders in dealerships whether it's Automotive RVs or whatever the paint and fabric protection it's literally they've got a bottle of something they go and they go in Spritz on on the fabric if they even do it at all in the on the fabric of your seats and stuff and they spray a film on your your basically they wax your your car now listen I've never bought a 300 000 RV I've never bought a 200 000 RV I so I I don't want to like you know come at those of you who have and spend a lot of money and you're like please go in and spray my RV so it's protected I just know of all the rigs that I have owned the only rig I was ever interested in protecting the fabric on was the converted School Bus here's the thing this is how they get you they they are laser focused on monthly payments and we've we've we've been there this before learn from us it's only gonna cost you two dollars a month more to get this tire and wheel coverage and on your what 124 months but then what they don't tell you it's like you're never gonna be in a convenient place when you need a tire replaced no so it it it's almost useless unless you're getting it from the place that does your Roadside Assistance or this is through a roadside system now some dealerships sell legitimate roadside assistance that also might have Tire and Wheel protection like they might sell through coachnet I know I think blue Compass RV was it don't quote me on that just bought coach net I believe oh really okay uh blue blue Compass used to be rv1 they're a big conglomerate of dealerships kind of like camping world or General RV but you don't hear about them as much because most of their dealerships have sort of just a local name they're not just called Blue Compass wherever they are some of them are but not all of them are so I mean they're not just called Jayco dealers yeah like camping world the Camping World so I thought that that stuff was interesting a couple other things here from the average selling price of an RV is 51 000. this is May stats by the way 51 986 dollars the average down payment is about nine grand the average amount financed is 50 Grand again of course this there's such a wide range of prices people are paying for RVs whether they're getting a 20 000 travel trailer or a five hundred thousand dollar motorhome or more right uh and of course some of those really big ones are going to skew some of this quite a bit 9.61 is the average APR people are paying uh on an RV uh and the average monthly payment is 517 dollars that's a lot 7 out of 10 RVs sold at dealerships in in May were new units and not used the used Market is starting to pick up a little bit I'll talk about that on the news video that is coming out this week as well there just hasn't been used units available and now there are more used units available so the used Market is picking up a little bit but guess what people still want them there is a lot of interest in used RVs still it's not as much as it was last year or the year before but it is still more than it was pre-pandemic so there are a lot of people even though interest in buying RVs has been waning a bit there are a lot of people that have been waiting for prices to come down or at least for used units to become available so that they could actually afford to get into rving and that's only just starting to happen so so what you're saying is is that if somebody happened to own two RVs and they needed to get rid of one of those and one happened to maybe be in California uh-huh things might still be okay for that said person who's holding on to two RVs yeah okay yeah which is a topic we're actually going to get into in our detour which is the sort of side bump Side Road uh podcast we do for our mile marker plus monthly and yearly members we are going to spend a little bit of time uh talking to all of you who are mile marker Plus members about our next thoughts on another rig but maybe someone who owns two RVs should think about going down to one soon yes maybe okay we're gonna take a break and when we come back we're going to talk about Port Angeles Washington we'll be right back the team at Harvest host has just launched a great new Campground discount program called Camper's card for just 39 a year you'll receive benefits such as early check-in late checkout and discounts on nightly camping fees which will quickly offset the membership cost get 15 off your first year of membership with the code miles that's m-i-l-e-s but if you're a current Harvest host or boondockers welcome member you get an even better deal 25 off your first year of membership what are you waiting for go to camperscard.com to join campers card today chances are you've seen them on the road that's because Blue Ox designs and manufactures the best towing products in the industry just look around you'll find them on highways and campgrounds and anywhere you find people traveling in The Great Outdoors award-winning tow bars base plates and brakes a full line of weight distributing hitches adjustable ball mounts and a new line of fifth wheel hitches with Blue Ox Towing doesn't have to be a drag to learn more about how Blue Ox can make your travel Adventures even more stress-free visit blueox.com we are back and we should mention it was something we neglected to mention in the top of the show is that we are we are very close to a very busy road right now so yeah the background behind us if you're watching this on YouTube is very natural and beautiful uh it is very deceiving we are camped in a parking lot and it is very close to a extremely busy road so you might hear the occasional ambulance drive-by or what have you or a hot rod or a motorcycle this is actually a really cool place to be camped we are at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks um it's 12 a night and it is just again there's no hookups or anything it's just dry camping it's a parking lot it's a parking lot but we you know I have to say for being a parking lot there's a row of back insights yeah up against what if you can see up against this really nice like wooded area behind us I think it's worked out great we get plenty of solar there's free water here and the park is really cool to go into the park is very cool they have a variety any show that you better believe I'm going to I'm going to support that local theater and there's also the this Salmon Alaska salmon bake restaurant that I can't figure it out yet but we're gonna figure it out and we'll tell people all about it yeah we'll talk about it in the future but this is right now we're going to talk about yeah we need to go back in time we're going to talk about Port Angeles Washington uh really cool town we really enjoyed this place 100 this is on the short list for me like this is a a Santa Fe I actually liked this more than I liked Astoria um this is this is the very tippy top uh uppermost left-hand corner of the lower 48 states they are in fact from our Campground we were looking across the bay to to Vancouver Island looking across to Canada which we actually visited so that's going to be part of our discussion here but we stayed at a Campground called Salt Creek which is part of the tongue Point marine life Sanctuary this is 20 minutes or so outside of downtown Port Angeles and it is right on the ocean we really enjoyed just sort of watching all the cruise ships go by and the oil tankers and the the freight ships and uh we didn't get to see one but Jamie and Clay saw some whales out out on the bay and they're there's tide pools and rocks and and as the tide comes in and comes out you can go down to the sort of Rocky areas and see all the marine life that shows up in the tide pools and we just had some spectacular views from this Campground it is a uh there are some reservable bus sites here and there's some first come first serve it is Water and Electric in the sites we stayed in but there are also some no hookup sites that are deep in the woods and a little bit prettier and maybe more close to the uh private view of the tide pools and stuff but we were we were out in the open which was great for us with starlink uh but still looking straight across this wonderful Bay to Vancouver Island yeah this was a really enjoyable Park and I think that's one of the reasons why Port Angeles was so Charming for us there's a great playground here there's tons of space the bathhouses are okay it is a paid to shower you're going to start to encounter a lot of this as you move through the Pacific Northwest and even a little bit as you go into Canada I think it was a quarter or something for a couple minutes I can't quite remember exactly what it was but this is one of those parks where you will have to pay if you want to use their shower I just I for me um even though the sites we were in we did first come first served they were on the smaller side very small sites but if you can manage now we could do it because we're 25 feet and we should say that you know bigger rigs would do better to try and Reserve I think a lot of the first come first served sites with hookups of being Water and Electric are on the smaller side um but we were we managed to get one on the end and getting one on the end gave us a little end cap of Green Space which nobody else had and that allowed us to put the gazelle up because the way it was arranged is like you're sort of all in a row and they've tiered it so because you're looking uh oh out over the water right there there's there's a a row of sites looking over the water and then behind them there's a raised up row of sights and then behind them there's another another tier so that everybody gets a decent view which I absolutely love and because we had the 25 foot travel trailer that fit into that site it was still small enough that most of the time we parked the truck in overflow parking in order to give ourselves a little bit of space between the road and the rig so that we could have bikes out and things like that because again it's just a tiny tiny little Campground space there there are two or three decent trails that you can do in this park there was a winery really close by that we went to and had a few had a few glasses at um it was just sort of a wonderful little place to real to relax you know we love to look for places like this that are kind of like they're they're less sort of traveler places but there might be more like a place where locals would go camp Oh yes we really like going to that type of place the weekend definitely filled up there the week was quiet and then as the weekend as the week progressed and the weekend rolled in the park started to get a lot busier and that is so enjoyable to us and you know we talk so much about this I'm sure everyone's so tired of hearing us preach this but those city parks and County Parks and state parks and your public lands like all of those spaces especially if they're more not necessarily the big tourist ones but they're just the ones that like the local community is visiting those are truly special places to go they just they have something to me they have an energy there that I don't think you get um no shade to a KOA but I don't think that you get when you go to something like a KOA or a private RV Resort yeah yeah yeah so in the town of Port Angeles itself uh you know we had some pizza we had some beers we did the things that we always do that we also did we also did go to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center that is in Port Angeles however we didn't really visit Olympic from Port Angeles no hurricane Ridge beforehand yeah and we didn't do anything with hurricane Ridge I'm sorry I cut you off there but uh hurricane Ridge um there there was fire that ripped through I do believe like The Visitor Center or something further up that further in Visitor Center was closed it was closed and so most of uh your ability to get to Hurricane Ridge at that time that we were there was closed and we had experienced so much of Olympic already that when we got to Port Angeles it was just really nice to be at camp we had come from that spectacular Allen's bar dry camping spot that we'd been at so it was really nice I think to kind of be hooked into power and at least water and we found ourselves just kind of really enjoying being at the campsite but that Port Angeles itself just had so much to offer yeah unless you want to get your haircut because don't go to the ATT store either but uh do get your oil changed we had the guy oh we had a great oil change we had a great oil change and that guy was solid I do not like he gave us some insights into how yeah Jiffy Jiffy looks their employees however yeah I'm sorry their bonuses are tied into getting reviews yeah maybe we should be calling him out on this episode but like no shame on you Jiffy Lube shame on you for tying in your employees bonuses to whether or not I go over to Google beg for reviews they you know they did exceptional service and they should be rewarded for exceptional service and it should not be based on whether or not I go open the Yelp app well what I don't either a couple things I don't like about it one is like okay just why don't I just Mark like one through five on your own survey like when I took out or while I'm sitting there in my car you're gaming the system there too like when to go back to some certain RV dealerships there's been a lot of there's been a lot of there's a certain major RV dealership chain uh who if you go into the Facebook group that is dedicated to people's experiences with them uh there there are lots of screenshots of people screenshotting like the the dealer that they bought from commenting on about another deal oh this guy's so great you should buy from you know they're all like comment all the dealers the individual employees are commenting on posts about each other it's almost all not this one CEO who spends a lot of time on Instagram looking for the hashtag of his company so he can go after people anyway anyway Annie who also don't be that Jiffy Lube don't do that but all the we wanted to get haircuts there at least for me yeah you needed one uh and all the barber shops were open for like it not just we looked at every place to get your hair cut barber shops uh traditional hairstylists the Super Cuts I closed at like three o'clock and open for two days a week couldn't even get a Classy Cuts with a K to see you it was crazy we did enjoy a decent bit of being right downtown on the waterfront a couple things that we did mainly before we got on the ferry and we'll talk about that in a second but we uh first we went to this uh Wharf building called The Wharf which is uh the Port Angeles Wharf is the most northwesterly mixed-used building in the continental United States oh did you look that up before this that's cool I did they had an arcade we had some fun playing an arcade in there and they had an ice cream shop called Wellies ice cream which was it was very dairy uh Dairy friendly for folks that are non-dairy non-dairy friendly we have a member of our party is dairy free it was great to have that option there and sort of stuff that we could hang Mountain Dew before the ferry and then there was a farmers market that we we walked through right downtown that was one of those towns where they have like a really well dedicated Farmers Market facility that you can go to and beautiful jar of honey that I took home and then they had some food on site that was being prepared and a gorgeous bakery that the boys really enjoyed and it just really delightful little farmer's market that we popped into because we were really early to catch the ferry over to Victoria which is probably what we should transition into now unless there's something else about Port Angeles you want to talk about before we move on no we should just discuss it for a while that would be good trying to be a professional podcaster and you are over there looking at me like I am speaking foreign language I mean it is next on the list you are you this is the difference between the guy backstage and the person on stage the transition read the room there was a transition there was there there was a transition and then there was or if you don't want to transition we don't have to think what do you want to do I don't know you put the show notes for this episode together I was trying to be respectful of your work we headed over it to Victoria Canada we couldn't wait to cross into Canada we this was Sans RV this was Sans Vehicles all together we parked downtown Port Angeles and got on the ferry to go over into Canada which is a super easy and fun process uh because the folks at the border know that you're just over for the day and they don't really care that much I mean you do have to still go through all the Border pools border patrol stuff on the way into Canada and on the way back but if you you know you're carrying a backpack that they're not really it's not like if you're traveling with a vehicle right I mean just try to go on a day that like 15 high schools aren't well that was our issue so you can go on that day or you can get ahead of them your day will be fine but if you get stuck behind 15 uh different high schools yeah in trouble there was a band competition happening in Victoria and uh so there was a lot of high schools that had that were that came up there to cross into Victoria and you know it's a ferry that you can put your vehicle on if you want but you can just be a passenger on as well and we were obviously we were just passengers but uh these big high school groups 150 kids in each one or so and they've got other trailers and with all their band equipment stuff I felt bad for them too because they're like going to like do a band competition for a day and you know that it was just like they were so like unprepared for it no they were definitely there for an overnight oh no they were 100 overnighting they all had luggage they're a hundred percent overnighting because what we didn't know on the day that we headed over uh it was a weekend was that it was a national holiday in Victoria yeah it was it was Victoria Day right which is amazing and we got to see the city at its brightest and liveliest and most outspoken uh but it was also incredibly busy and the reason why all of these enthusiastic High School band kids were and their chaperones were all getting on this Ferry is they were going over there to participate in this holiday and so that was really great what was so odd is that the fairy knew that all these tickets had been sold they knew that these groups were coming and they didn't it was like they did nothing to facilitate the process to speed it up and every single time be that heading over to Canada on the U.S side or once we got over there it was two-thirds of the way through trying to shuffle all of these young people through before the Port Authorities were like oh you know what let's get them off to the side let's get everybody else off first then we can deal with these big groups and do what we need to do which is a special thing to get all these groups off and and so I would say easily a couple two hours of our day were lost just standing in line trying to get through which Angela Ferry was late and everything yeah yeah which we were told is not normal so that will probably not be your experience unless you decide to go on Victoria Day the town of Victoria wow this is oh my gosh this is a nice city this is I mean it is a city it is a it's a you know decent sort of mid-sized City and uh when you get off the ferry you're on the water there and there's all kinds of seaplanes and hotels and and marinas and it's a just a it's a sort of water-centric city in in a way I think it is one of the cleanest towns I think I've ever been in everything is super super clean the architecture in Victoria is stunning and if it's Victorian it's Victorian it's beautiful if I can offer a piece of advice for anyone who's going uh to do the opposite of what I did if you can book an afternoon tea somewhere I really wish that we had been able to do that I wish that I had been able to do yeah we sort of walked through a couple hotels and saw a couple going on yeah and there and you can wear you can wear your fascinator and it is it's beautiful and they bring out this gorgeous tea service and all of these tea cakes and tea sandwiches and you know it's just it's so charming and I think that um that is really one of those places to experience an afternoon tea and so if you find yourself in Victoria it's I think it would be well worth the cost to me um I think we should talk quickly before we get too deep into Victoria not only about the crossing but then also about the cost it wasn't cheap to do this Ferry the ferry was was one of the more expensive ones that we've done yeah it was well into the close to two hundred dollars for our family to for a family of five to do this Ferry and that was the round trip um absolutely worth it you know a little over an hour I think an hour and a half I counted every single minute because for some of us on this Ferry uh on a day when there was a gale warning uh struggled to get across it was the longest 90 minutes of my life it was the longest 90 minutes of a lot of people's life because they ran out of dramamine in the shop on the way it was rough on the way there it wasn't it was it was not the worst yeah it was okay and we only know it was not the worst because we came back and it was the worst uh so we're on our way back it was really really bad so y'all were were real good and I was thankful for that on the way there I did spend the majority of my time on the way there uh oddly sitting in the back of the ferry that seemed to be the calmest spot for me because I could look out on the horizon I could get something to focus on I put my air pods in I listened to an audiobook and I really tried to get into a real like Zen space because it was rough on the way back we thought oh we're so we're gonna be so cheeky we're fine like everything's great we're gonna play cards we're gonna drink on the way back at first it was like super smooth until you got into the like International Water open water and it became I twisted my ankle walking clay and I had clay and I had to go outside and just sit we couldn't even really talk we just had to sit and stare I mean semi trucks are on this boat this is a big boat is a big boat and it was uh there was a lot of movement and we had started the grown-ups that started like we're gonna play some work in place of cards we're gonna have some drinks more in the back we're hanging the kids were all doing really good they were playing their games and it no there was so much movement so that could be something yeah the bottom line I think is if you're going to be in Port Angeles you want to cross over into Victoria for a day just sort of keep an eye on the weather if the if the water is going to be somewhat calm it's going to be a breeze it's going to be fine it's not going to be a big deal at all we've been on several ferries now Ethan was like don't ever take me on another Ferry and then I was like okay four or five more uh it's like four or five more but yeah just kind of kind of watch the weather we were we were just on a very windy day but was it worth it it was so hundreds we we had no plan uh for spending time in Victoria we just sort of wandered around we went to shops we stopped in and we sort of snacked at places we did some poutine we didn't have full meals we stopped and had our first taste of poutine um uh to mixed reviews I loved it the kids did not um well Ethan was bummed because he really wanted to try their uh Italian version of poutine stayed around it was like had a bolognese sauce on it he was really excited about that he so he wasn't able to try that uh we went to a local Brewery we had some drinks there yeah it was called The Whistle buoy Brewing it was in a great shopping center that uh that is sort of a fantastic really Place good place to hang out where there's lots all sorts of little antique small shops and Waffles I I yes I got a I got a waffle a Belgian waffle I was a little disappointed in it though Jack loved his he well he got like a super sweet I got kind of a basic one I know he got kind of a we sent him off to get something said here go enjoy and he he landed immediately in The Waffle Shop uh but it's just sort of a great City to sort of wander on it we went through the Chinatown which is wonderful Little Chinatown got some dumplings and and such in the Chinatown and just again sort of snacked all day and uh and enjoyed the sights in the atmosphere and the architecture and and all the different shops it was just a really nice day in Victoria it was it was very warm but it was beautiful and I'm so glad that we did it it was nice to do it with our friends and to all be together and experience that like it's so unique it's definitely a town that I would love to go back spend a weekend take a seaplane or go out on a boat or you'd be in a hotel you know and be out on Vancouver Island for a bit yeah so my that was my biggest takeaway that the next time I go I actually feel like at least for a short period like that maybe one or two days what a great couple's destination yeah yeah Victoria or out with your friends the kids had a totally perfectly fine time but Victoria definitely feels like the things that are at the heart of Victoria are really designed I think for weekend getaways for couples and friends and and in adults yeah okay that was our journey to Port Angeles Washington and Victoria Canada that was such a nice transition I read the room good job babe we're gonna take a break and when we come back we'll check the level of our tanks we'll be right back this episode of news from the parks is supported by parkwolf the ultimate app for visiting U.S national parks with Park wolf you can view upcoming places and amenities as you drive through the park locate the nearest gas food bathrooms and pullover points Park Wolf's Wildlife Maps show you the best times and places to see or avoid Wildlife along with a feat of the latest Wildlife sightings and photos from the parks Park wolf even makes it possible for you to view your live location and direction on official Park Maps while staying up to date on current MPS alerts and advisories bark wolf keeps working even if you lose service to learn more download the park wolf app for iPhone free from the Apple App Store today welcome back it is time to check the level of our tanks sponsored by our friend over at Matt's RV reviews liquefied RV toilet treatment the no BS toilet chemical that really works check it out along with all of our recommendations in our Amazon store at amazon.com shop slash RV miles all right Jay what is in your black tank this week my black tank is is movie theaters we as we mentioned earlier Jack and I went to the movie theater we said I love going to movie theater I love seeing a movie on the big screen but specifically movie theater concessions I think I talked about this a little bit when uh on another the Mario movie yes I had a bad experience at the Mario movie with concessions and I had another bad experience last night with concessions the the issue is like you get there 15 minutes before the darn movie and whatever for whatever reason the the concession lines now take forever the people in the concession lines are doing their job at whatever speed that you know they can do it at that's not it it's it there's not enough of them and the theaters want them to ask 1400 questions of you about like how you want your popcorn made just want the popcorn if I'm one of those people that is picky about my popcorn I'll say can you put a third in and then put the butter on it and then put another third in and then put more butter on and then put butter on the top you don't need to ask me if I want to do that and ask everybody in line if they want to do that well see I appreciate that they ask no it makes the line go a million minutes long it's no Jack and I stood in line for a good 10 minutes there was probably 10 people in front of us and two of them got served and we were like okay we'll miss the movie we just did the math we'll miss the beginning of the movie including all the previews if we if we continue to wait here for a drink I don't understand what takes so long can I say that this is one of the nice things in any of those is so random that we're members of this but this is one of the nice perks about having that Cinemark membership that we have so we have a cinemark membership that is 9.99 a month that gives us one ticket a month plus all these other perks that come with it those tickets will roll over month after month after month so when our family does finally decide they don't actually go every month no we don't actually go every month but when our family does finally decide to go to a movie and we go to a cinemark we can cash in all of those tickets and we have saved a ton of money because those tickets last night for you guys were 15.50 yeah it's already less it's already savings yeah so we're always saving but another really nice thing is not only do we get 20 off on our concessions but you can order them ahead and they will have them waiting for you with your name you can bypass all of that at this point there is a mosquito which leads me to my fresh tank no don't sweat no don't swat at me with that thing I have listen some when we crossed into Canada somebody said get one of the electric mosquito swatter things the tennis racket I don't like anything bug zapper one thing that listen this thing was three dollars and fifty cents and it works because you just swat at them they zap and they're gone it feels so violent yeah but like ah it's an instant death still like there's one over your head I don't know I just I just press the button and I zap them I'm not a fan I'm not like a bug zapper it's like a it's targeted it's like you just get the one you want I just feel like you've entered a stage of life now where like you just sit outside with your bug zapper like I'm gonna get one of those Bug Assault guns that that shoot salt at the bugs I don't know I just use I see you out here with it in your in your chair it's hot in the way at the mosquitoes and I just think they are biting me so I know the bites are awful you have been having to take I need one of those I've been looking I want like one of those net shirts and hats and brushed into the lady and chicken we're in the Whole Net outfit yeah she's like I was here last year whatsoever she knew what she was doing she said I'd been here done that I will not live through that again secondary fresh tank can I have a second one sure you just made me think about it okay the number of people since we have stepped into foot in sub foot into Alaska that have come up to us to say hi it's amazing you know we've seven years now spent so much time on the road all of these great RV destinations and we love meeting y'all in campgrounds wherever we go but we have met more people in the last four or five days then then and any other week that we've been on the road it's been so great and in fact it's just so random that we uh happened to meet someone and this is actually this is actually going to be my fresh tank so I'm gonna switch things up here now and I'm gonna give my fresh tank before I do my black tank I'm going to do a fresh take I have two fresh tanks this week my first one goes to Eyemart Express here in Fairbanks for so quickly taking care of Jack's glasses and they could have easily just tried to be like look we're gonna have to make new lenses for him because one of the arms on Jack's glasses just totally snapped not fixable poor kid had like electric tape wrapped around it for two or three days until we can get in the middle of the Canadian wilderness it's like his glasses of course so I had already called up here I talked to my buddy Jay I had the script from our doctor back in Illinois I was all prepared I could have easily gone in there they could have looked at the script and been like um this is expired he needs an eye exam or been like oh we're going to need to get new lenses and you know new frames and this guy was like you know what I'm gonna go rummage over here and I'm just gonna see if I can pop these lenses into a frame for you and get you out of here in and out in 15 minutes for forty dollars and I just I just want to say thank you because very easily he could have made a much bigger sale off me he could have totally done that whole thing and he he did not and while we were sitting there and chatting with him another gentleman named Jim is standing over there and just happened to come in and he's like I know you Abby it's so nice to meet you and he is a listener of the of the podcast and watches the YouTube channel and there in the Eyemart Express in Fairbanks Alaska not only did I meet a very nice gentleman who helped me take care of my son but then I got to meet someone who lives in Fairbanks and is familiar with the RV Miles Community and got to chat with him and he was so excited to meet you well what's cool too is we're seeing some of these same people at different stops too like we saw some people in chicken that we have seen here now and it's there we're all kind of like even though there are a lot of people up here in Alaska right now it seems like we've entered into a community of people that like are going to continue to see each other and know each other yeah we were just talking to to another couple that we had met in chicken and then we just ran into them over in Pioneer Park and we're all kind of uh crisscrossing a little bit on the same path we're doing some things before them and they're doing some things before us and that's going to be really cool to share that information you know and they had some really good Intel from locals that they had gotten that we didn't have so they shared that with us and vice versa and it's just uh the the Alaska rving community there's just sort of like this unspoken sort of bond I don't know how else to say it you pass by people on the Alaska Highway and as you pass by them you wave at each other because you're like you're doing it and I'm doing it and we're on this kind of really crappy road right now together and yes go us well I think a lot of us here too are are not we don't have our attorneys entirely planned like in the U.S we might have all of our campgrounds booked in a given destination uh in the in the mainland U.S the lower maybe we don't really prescribe to that sure but here in Alaska like we you're a little bit more free to be able to hop around although some of the like full hookup campgrounds are full yeah I mean if you are with fantasy tours or that your Vibe is that you want the full hookup experience which is totally fine that's probably a very different experience we we have not had that kind of travel but you you can you can have lots of conversations with other rvers I mean the Walmart was like a campground right there's so the Walmart is has RV sites they're specifically for RVs they want you to come there and park and they know people are going to stock up on stuff at at the store and we did we we had a big uh a pickup delivery wheeled my basket over to the pickup section the guy was like do you want to drive your camper over here and I was like nah nah just put it in the basket it's fine just put it in there I'll wheel it over but you chat with people and you're like how was this road how was that road should we go there oh that wasn't as good as people say this is better you should go over there it's gonna Denali was really busy but this isn't yeah don't go to this hot springs because it's boring and none of the locals like it we're looking at going to this one instead because we met you know a local geologist working for the federal government who's driving around in her van you know I mean just the most random stuff and you know I'm not even gonna do my black tank because I don't want to end on such an kind of note but like I feel like what's come from this fresh tank discussion is just the pure joy that we all know in in a very special way that a trip to Alaska is truly the Journey of a lifetime there is so much that goes into it and there's so much time and energy and planning and the possibility for things to go wrong well there's clearly a lot of people doing it right now too that have had been planning on doing it for several years and covid got in the way so they're all kind of this is the year it's joyful this is this is there's so much joy right now every time you know we run into people who are also doing this we it's Joy no one is complaining even though we've that 27 miles between chicken and top of the world where 27 of the most miserable roads I drove those roads Yes you heard that right I am driving now I drove those 27 miles and I thought this is so stressful but that's not what anyone talks about like when you all get together because those moments actually enhance the experience there's 30 seconds of oh that rough that road was rough and then did you talk about like yeah yeah and then yeah and I mean if you're like Hey we're in chicken at the saloon anybody want to live and drop martini okay great you know I mean it's just so it's so wonderful so you know this has been the adventure of a lifetime for us and I really hope if you take anything from our Baja to Alaska Journey is that if we can do it you can do it so many people say they're scared and I I get that like as someone who lives with anxiety I get that took me seven years to be comfortable being like I can drive I'm okay I can do this seven years but if we can do it if I can do it you can do it and so I hope that if if all you take from all of the last you know six to eight months that we will be doing this is the empowerment to go and plan your own trap it that is more than I could ever ask for totally agree what do you think it would feel like if you put your finger in this bug zapper get away that's it for this week's episode podcast yes it is I am gonna go throw that bug zapper in the trash just a reminder the RV miles homecoming Meetup is happening October 4th through the 8th in Amana Iowa if you want to see what we look like after being in Baja and then going to Alaska this is the event you want to be at this is going to be the end of this journey for us we will actually be premiering our very first episode in the Baja to Alaska docuseries at the homecoming event we are over halfway sold so if you are seriously considering joining us I highly recommend that you do it sooner rather than later there's always going to be a last minute push for tickets so we would love to see you there we've got so much planned you can learn more about that just by heading over to rvmiles.com or clicking the link that will be here in the podcast description and also the show notes on YouTube all right everyone please enjoy your summer it's here y'all the sun is not going to set tonight until 12 30 a.m and it will be up again at a very very early 3 15 a.m so enjoy your summer a very happy Fourth of July to all of you please stay safe and keep logging those RV miles bye everybody bye [Music] thank you

Channel: RV Miles Podcast

Views: 4,388

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Id: NqLdg6mZSd0

Length: 50min 34sec (3034 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 02 2023