283. Driving an RV With Anxiety and Camp Coffee

do you have anxiety over driving a big RV this week we're going to talk about why that's not as big of a problem as it might seem plus we're going to talk about how we make coffee on the road that more on 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 cool 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 283 of RV miles I'm Jason and I'm Abby and we are two full-time Travelers who along with our three boys jack Ethan and Henry have been crisscross in 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 even coffee we are coming to you from the North Pole yes I promise it's the real one where Santa Claus is yeah you can see him actually Monday through Thursday from like nine to four you can see him from the highway excuse me the world's largest Santa he's held down with guy wires and has a fence around him he's lived through a lot of winters here but his reindeer are there so and they're adorable yes we actually why do I feel like you're throwing shade at this Santa Claus house that we went to which filled myself it was very enjoy it was really cool to see reindeer plus we got the best souvenir I think we've got in our entire travels ever I mean we got some real legit solid brass reindeer Bells like on a leather strap may sound like Magic Christmas and believing and just pure joy I cannot wait to put them up oh it's Christmas in July we're gonna take a break this week from talking about our travels and the different places that we've been and talk about fears over driving an RV I think it's something that comes around often for people who are driving one for the first time Abby recently had her real first driving the RV experience and she's actually been doing a lot lately so she's got some insight on that and I've got some as well there's a discussion from two very different perspectives from the perspective of a very anxious person who has taken almost seven years to get behind the wheel wave hello to the golf cart by KOA and from the perspective of someone who jumped behind the wheel of a school bus and didn't give it a second thought and drove it really having no experience whatsoever from Ohio back to Chicago it's just gonna be us talking it's going to be a lot of us on this episode because you also were like let's talk about coffee okay so you're the one who wanted to talk about driving in the SEC second section of the show but this post in the RV Miles Facebook group actually from your mom spawned this idea for me she posted a a tea kettle that is collapsible it's sort of made out of that silicon on top and then the bottom surface I can't remember if it was electric or if it was actually heatable but I think it was heatable regardless it collapsed and that got me thinking that we have tried so many different ways to make coffee on the road also just heating up water to be able to use in washing dishes washing dishes and ramen noodles and tea what happened so I thought we could talk a little bit about how we have tried to make coffee many different ways and how we sort of make coffee now sure well we're a real basic coffee people I think nothing fancy about my coffee I think you're a level up from base I think basic is Folgers from the camp right okay I'm not folders from the can I but you know what my grandma was yeah and when I see folders no but when I see Folgers I think of my Grandma Betty I think of my grandma Betty's house I find a lot of joy in seeing a can of folders I'm not going to buy a can of Folgers what we have right now is so we just finished some house roast from a coffee shop in Fort Langley that we had purchased that we had actually walked over there almost every morning to get coffee we really liked their coffee so I bought some for here we just finished that and then I just bought just at Fred Meyer the local I guess version of a Walmart in this area is the best way to describe a Fred Meyer I just bought some coffee from North Pole coffee company and I got their Saint Snickerdoodle well that's one thing that we've been enjoying doing is getting local coffee from local Roasters and no it's grown in these areas but it's roasted in these areas yeah tank at every single year the roasteries holiday blend is probably in my opinion absolutely the best coffee out there I think The Roastery in general anytime I find Roastery in Kansas City and that's a Kansas City that's a Kansas City company what I just got from North Pole Falls in line with the holiday blend it's got a little bit of cinnamon a little bit of hazelnut and it's got like some flavor to it it's got some comfort I am someone in the morning who the first thing I think about as soon as I open my eyes is the coffee I just want to reiterate you are watching a the second week of July episode we've already talked about Christmas a lot listen our kids have been going around singing that H.H Greg jingle like I don't even know how it goes but I know that the jingle is all about Christmas in July save all you want at Christmas and July yeah I'm totally Doing It Wrong you've not heard them you will know I'll you will know it when you hear it anyway you the reason I say you're not basic when it comes to coffee is you do grind the beans I do now yeah although I would like to stop doing that but I do grind the beans just because we're using a French press and one of the things about when you use a French press is often when you buy ground beans it's a really fine grind and a fine grind is great for drip coffee it was great for when we were in the saber because we had a drip coffee maker but it's not the best for a French press yeah the grinds get yeah through the screen yeah you need a much coarser grind so I've been grinding beans and also we have this amazing I mean really I actually saw it at one of the coffee shops in Langley it's called air escape and it's made by planetary designs I'll link to it I've probably talked about it before I'll put it in the RV miles Amazon shop but it is essentially an airtight canister and yeah it's what it's what the different border agents have been looking in for drugs yes it's our coffee slash drug storage and what it is what's great about it is so you can grind up the coffee you put it in there and then it has this airtight seal inner lid that you press all the way down until you reach the coffee grinds you press them down you can press you close it and then it has another on top of that airtight actual lid that goes with it as well so it's almost like a vacuum seal there's no air left in the container and it is specifically so you can have a full canister of ground coffee and be able to keep it nice and fresh and I noticed that one of the coffee shops like I just mentioned in Fort Langley they had a whole row of these I took a picture of it and sent it off to planetary design because they had a whole row of them on top where they make all their coffees they were keeping all of their coffees in these air Escape canisters so I would like what I try to often do is just grind up our coffee all on one big swoop and then put it into this airscape canister which I really love but it is a little I think in our current living situation because we can't keep like a coffee grinder out on the counter it gets a little tedious yeah you forget sometimes and people are in bed and all that and 7am and I'm like wrapping a towel around the grinder because there's three sleeving children within five feet of me and it's like well so and the main reason we use a French press is that we are trying to not use electricity because we're boondocking a lot and also there's nowhere to put one and we have no place to put a coffee in anywhere so we're able to heat the water up in a tea kettle on the stove with propane yeah and we use so we had a legit tea kettle and then Jason decided to take it with us one evening we were going to be making meals out at a park or something and he wanted to take that one instead of taking our more durable smaller camping wise well we were making a bunch of those like pre-made hiking meals that you just pour hot water in so I was gonna just put that on the camp stove with a lot of water in it and be able to make them all at once yeah and it was working out great until you decided to set the kettle on like a stump that wasn't a flat surface yeah and knocked it over and broke the handle the handle yeah so now we're back back to using this GSI Outdoors tiny little maybe it's 24 ounces it's a little maybe no it's like 32 ounces I think it's just a tiny camping tea kettle and the only real drawback with it is that it doesn't have a whistle I don't actually see what it's done I have I I just have an ear for them it doesn't bother me it doesn't bother me that there's no whistle now if it was your mother actually can we get her one of these there would be no water left because she'll sit let that thing whistle for 10 minutes don't be busy she's trying to wake up in the morning in the morning like come on come on at least when you live in a house sudden not in a 25 foot but this thing this to get back to our beloved little tea kettle which I at this point we're never getting rid of we have had this tiny little thing and you can get it on Amazon all you so y'all can see it I'll put it in the RV miles store we have had that since 2014. it's way before we started RV it has it has lived through so much it was tent camping we bought it to go camping in Smoky Mountains there are a lot of like camping Gadget things that we're just we don't recommend because they're cheap when they break or they're just not necessary when you have an RV you have a little bit more room for stuff but this one is just something that has always work it is No Frills there's nothing to go bad on it we're gonna pass it down to our grandchildren like if I leave them nothing I will leave the GSI Outdoors camping cuddle and they will look at it and be like oh that reminds me of grandma just like when I look at photos in the past we've done the K-Cups we've done we were in our apartment we've done the traditional drip coffee maker I think we had K-Cups for a while in the bus as well we weren't really coffee drinkers yeah in the bus felt like really daunting for some reason so the history of our coffee has been K-Cups when we were in the apartment I'm pretty sure we had that we brought our K-Cup coffee maker because we kept getting those from we got kept getting from Costco the compostable K-Cups oh you're right okay so we've done K-Cups we have when we were tent camping Starbucks Via the instant boy trash awful go get some hikers instant coffees is generally not great but Starbucks it's not yeah and look I got words for Starbucks in my black tank later so then we went on to we went back to a French press and that was like a glass one fine whatever didn't really like it because it wasn't keeping the coffee nice and hot yeah then that and also I think we didn't understand the grind issue with the larger grind and stuff you know I think back then we were kind of I think we understood it well I just don't think we weren't grinding coffee right right you weren't grinding the coffee yeah we had a drip for a while and really the saber is when coffee life really bloomed like when we finally had a true dedicated coffee bar in the saber or something boy do I miss the kitchen in that 37 FLL when we finally had that that's when like coffee life really excites we had a big drip coffee maker for a while we had a big drip coffee maker I would prep it the night before we went down to just like a little five cupper and that was also perfect because we're really just kind of like one cup one cup in the morning two cups yeah yeah that's two cups sends me off into the stratosphere like it's too much I think you have like a big meal if I'm having two cups of coffee yeah that's when you're like I need the Grand Slam breakfast yeah I'll do I'll do two cups of coffee at Cracker Barrel but listen two cups of coffee a Cracker Barrel is just watered down coffee like it's not even like real coffee and now we're using and I think we're in a period where we're using what I consider to be some of the best coffee that we have ever made at home and that is through our Brew tracks that we have both the Overlander and the base yeah we have two sizes it's basically it's a camping specific French Press yeah it's insulated it's stainless steel it's basically like a big stainless steel mug but it is a French press yeah and talked about it a lot I fresh tanked it I love it it just it keeps coffee so hot but also and you might be thinking Jason Abby why do you have two of those that's crazy but it's not because you know what happens you know what happens and it happens to all of us so don't come at me you do it too you forget to clean it well that's true okay and so the next morning because sometimes you know I make it and I put it off to the side because I don't want it sitting in the sink so I'll just like put it off to the side I'll wake up I'll do the dishes I'll wake up the next morning and I'll be like bugger and so what's nice is you got that back up up in the cabinet you're like oh yeah I got the back up and then it's you know early in the morning and the only thing you have to do is put all of the night's dishes away first before you can make coffee which is also very loud at 7am we have also been putting our coffee in coffee mugs from REI they're just sort of standard coffee mug size and shape they're metal and they have a rubber lid that presses into them yeah we only coffee mugs and this was not the trip to not have space for coffee mugs because I would have such a stellar collection at this point but we don't have space so we only brought four we brought a Yeti an LL Bean and then these two Rei's and all of them are insulated all of them are for camping all of them are awesome I have a lid I use Lids on mine because I am all about keeping the heat in you do not use lids and you are all about waiting until it's basically lukewarm bath water no I like it it's very hot I just don't want to burn my mouth I don't lie to the people Jason I don't my mouth it gets burnt easily I don't know how you drink it no I don't such a thing as hot coffee 30 minutes later that has been sitting at the counter with no lid on it that is not hot coffee you are lying to the people I mean I like mine at like the temperature you would eat soup at lukewarm like bath water all right so that's how we make coffee wow so gripping you're welcome we know that inquiring minds have wanted to know what is the coffee situation around Betsy but this was the episode we needed just a light fluffy episode we haven't done something like this we're gonna take a break and when we come back in just a moment we're going to talk about anxiety over driving an RV for the first time or not the first time we'll be right back be right back more in a moment but first this video is sponsored by rvmattress.com by Brooklyn betting did you know that the mattresses that come with your RV are usually just a placeholder most RV manufacturers never intended that you actually sleep on it we've been using mattresses from Brooklyn Bedding in our last two RVs and we couldn't be happier you can choose your thickness and all sorts of different odd RV mattress sizes that customization was essential for clearing the bedroom slide in our fifth wheel and for the kids bunks in the new travel trailer we're sleeping great on real mattresses from a real mattress company in our RV rvmattress.com offers a 120 night sleep trial along with a 10-year warranty plus their products are entirely toxin free and simple to ship and set up we even had them shipped to campgrounds and you just unroll them and let them expand the RV Miles Community gets 25 off when you visit rvmattress.com RV miles and use the promo code RV miles that's rvmattress.com RV miles with promo code RV miles for 25 percent off are thanks to rvmattress.com for supporting this Channel and to you for supporting our sponsors we are back and we're here to talk about driving your RV and some fears and anxiety that you might have over doing so or maybe fears and anxiety you you don't have quite understand why others do so we're going to have a conversation that involves two very different perspectives when it comes to driving an RV I for a lot of years in the beginning of the RV miles creation and discussions for the first like maybe a year or so I was really quiet about my struggles with anxiety my struggles with anxiety have been something that I think was really detrimental almost to my career as an actor it's probably one of the reasons if I ever really wanted to unpack it why I had to kind of walk away from theater a little bit and it is something that as I've gotten older and as I've had children and I've had all these different experiences that I've had to learn to manage and sometimes with anxiety there are things you can manage right away and then there are some things that take a real long time for you to find that sweet spot where you feel comfortable and driving the RV V was that spot for me it took almost seven years yeah and four rigs this is our fourth you did a couple little short stints like down the road oh yeah with the saber yeah with like traily and the sabre I would drive them small distances places where I thought out of the campground maybe yeah maybe maybe I never ever got behind the wheel of the bus though no and I kind of don't regret that like I don't have any regret about that I don't have any regret about not driving the trailer I the Pioneer I don't have any regret about not driving I will say the bus was the most fun thing I've ever driven you always looked like you were having such a good time up there as you were freezing or sweating that well that part was not fun that no air conditioning and it was so loud I couldn't hear an ambulance come up on me if I wanted nothing tunnel vision but what prompted this was we had a conversation the first time I got behind the eye or in front of the Ibex I should say and drove it here through Canada we had a conversation about what was it what triggered me being able to do this and what were some of the things that were helping me feel comfortable we had talked about that we're going to share those in a minute but before we get to those one of the questions I had posed to you that really had you stopping in thinking for a while was why was it so easy for you why weren't you nervous when you got behind the wheel well when we got the bus I had already driven big things before you know and I think like what if well if we go back to like when I was a teenager learning how to drive I was in in Iowa you could get your learner permit at 14 years old which meant you could drive with a parent and I got mine at 14. oh I'm sure my mom had a job where she was going to present stuff at shows around the Midwest that involved hauling a little I think maybe like an 18-foot sort of Hallmark enclosed trailer behind our minivan so I'm like 14 15 years old and I was driving that thing while she was like falling asleep because we were driving overnight to get to places right so she would like be have just finished working because we weren't staying in hotels and stuff so we did a lot of driving that and I think that plus then my second view I started driving in a minivan and my second vehicle was a pickup truck so I was driving bigger vehicles from the beginning and then when I got into doing theater professionally then I would sort of have to like rent box trucks to pick up sets and stuff like that so I did a decent amount of that driving through downtown Chicago and that sort of thing but you know I didn't have a whole lot of anxiety over that stuff back then either and I think well you're not an anxious person that's just just my mentality when it comes to driving is like I'm kind of excited about those things I almost feel safer in big things interesting in a way there is always the little sort of tinge of anxiety you're over it's it is always different driving a big vehicle or Towing something for me than it is just driving the truck you know to the store or something like that there is a difference and I think that's good I mean I think there's like a there's a saying a lot of dangerous professions have like they use the rigors in theater used to say this like if you're ever Not Afraid is when you should stop because that means you're comfortable with doing something that is extremely dangerous and you shouldn't be comfortable because you're not paying attention if you're comfortable so I think there's a level of the you should always have some sort of like extra something that's giving you the ability to like drive through it but that's not what we're really talking about here I think you're absolutely right I think the minute you become comfortable and you don't recognize the danger and what you're doing is when you there's the potential for an accident one of the things you know to come back to because for years anytime it has been mentioned and we don't mention it often but any time it has been mentioned that I don't drive or that I hadn't driven the level of crap I would get from people about it was just so frustrating because no one knows you okay no one knows you your life your situations whatever those may be but here's the thing about all of that is that the one person that probably mattered the no one else mattered in those comments the one person that mattered was the one person who never gave me crap and that was you you have never pressured me you have never requested it of me you have never tried to force me to do it and maybe that's a maybe not that I should have pressured you or forced you but there also is this thing where I just really like drive you really like driving I really liked being a passenger and yes you're you know a lot of people be like oh but remember my not I do remember my knot yeah and I also remember the community that came to help us I remember the people that were so kind in picking up in places where we had fallen or did not have the skills I don't feel shame for the fact that I didn't feel comfortable taking the Pioneer three or four miles over to the KOA or whatever it was and honestly maybe in my state of grief and fear and anxiety and the millions of other things that were going on I probably wasn't the one to be driving that anyway sure but had we you know done the things that you would have done say you were a solo rver sure you know you would have started off by trying to drive around a parking lot and then done some short drives and so like you have with the Ibex in recent days you would have been able to do it just fine but if I was a solo rver my Counterpoint to that would be is that I would be purchasing something that I was comfortable driving yeah I was not comfortable driving a school bus I did not feel comfortable pulling a 38 foot travel trailer behind us and I definitely wasn't comfortable with a 43 foot fifth wheel it finally took getting a 25ft travel trailer to be my sweet spot and that has been a joy I have loved driving back yeah but that was your sweet spot to jump into it like I'm I guess I don't know I have legit I will I have no desire whatsoever to drive the saber yeah yeah none I do not want that thing back there at all and I get that I do think though if you did it you would get comfortable enough with it sure to do it absolutely you know there's no reason you couldn't obviously you can do it you have the ability to do it and there's a there is a fear because of its size and I totally get that because there are listen like there are things to be to be concerned about there's wind hitting the side of your big RV there's low clearances there's changing lanes and worrying about is somebody that back there there's your tail swing and hitting signs and stuff when you turn there's a lot to think about and to be concerned about so all of those fears are legitimate I think personally just personally speaking I don't have a desire to be well-versed knowledgeable in every aspect of everything I am very comfortable being well versed in things that fill my soul with joy things that pertain to me and my interests and where I am in life and I know for a fact that presented like if I had no other choice when we were in Minot but to drive that Pioneer 100 that thing was going to get to the KOA and we were going to be fine if I had no choice but to drive that saver because you couldn't or I was alone or whatever I could drive it there's a difference between can I guess I guess the point that I'm trying to get at here is there is space between what we look at and think we would yes would or would not be comfortable with and what once we actually do it and try it we would or would not be comfortable with because I think a lot of people would be more afraid of driving a fifth wheel than they would a large travel trailer and actually driving the Sabers way better than driving the Pioneer was I think for people who live with anxiety yeah the space between those two is probably depending on the situation can be an incredibly long bit of space to get to that yeah yeah yeah yeah obviously for me it took seven years sure to get to the point that for this particular thing there are a lot of things like hey you have like 36 hours and then we have to take you have to have a baby like oh okay I thought I had you know I mean yes I are you serious sure okay I'm not gonna tell you I got 36 hours to reconcile myself with this here I needed almost seven years it's completely understandable I guess I think it's important though for people to understand I think there's a I think we make decisions big purchase decisions like buying an RV and I'm not saying we I'm saying we as a society as part of the moment without thinking it through yes well yeah but sometimes based on like what our perceptions of looking at that thing and being like Oh I don't want that it's going to be harder to drive than that if you're just going off the looks and if you're not going off trying it or the advice of many other people you might be making a mistake and I feel like we've made lots of purchase errors in our lives based on not necessarily anxiety based but like we thought this thing would be easier right and it was not right it was not the smart move to make sure you know like I said with the bus it's the it was the most enjoyable Driving Experience I wasn't expecting that you know going into it I was very nervous about driving it the first time but once I got behind the wheel of it and realized how well I could see down in front of me it was people around me in the vehicles and it turned better than any other RV we've had it was fantastic there are other things about it that gave us more anxiety having to do with like the engine and repairs and would we make it there yeah I I feel like if nothing else comes from this conversation because we've just been free talking I hope that anyone listening to despite where you are on your comfort level of driving is that you always provide Grace for those who are not in the same boat as you like understand that people who are nervous about driving who feel anxious about doing it please give them the space and the support that they need in order to be comfortable with that and that can take on a lot of different things maybe that is classes yeah maybe that is just being left alone maybe that is going to an empty parking lot and saying hey you want to drive this around a little bit or for me there were a couple of things that as kind of maybe crazy as this is going to sound it was being on two-lane Highway in Alaska that finally was the thing that I thought yeah fewer vehicles around here I can do this there's no you know entrance and exit ramps that I have to worry about I'm on a two-lane highway where you know they're keeping the speed let's be honest none of us can really get these things above 45 for the most part with a lot of the roads traffic is really light there's plenty of pull-offs and then I had the benefit too of having friends in front of us and asking them hey the first time I drove I said to Jamie I said will you lead can I just can I follow you will you lead today and she so graciously did and what that allowed me to do was to set my Pace based off of her so I didn't have to feel the stress of having someone else behind me and being like oh I hope I'm going fast enough or I she set the pace I was able to watch her rig have a rig in front of me watch How It Was navigating the roads and that was also great for me because then I could say okay I you know I'm watching how it's taking its turns and I'm kind of mimicking that and it was such a Stressless environment because there was no we got to get to this Campground by this time we've there was no real schedule yeah it was hey we've got some ideas of where we want to stop and that's what we're going to do yeah yeah and for anybody there it could be yeah just steps like either classes or or doing the going to a parking lot somewhere and taking your time as many times as you need to go do that or like you had been doing a little bit of why don't you just start by driving us to the dump station you know yeah and it's been going there trying to get out of a campground sometimes that's the worst part it might be some of those part but also for my my anxiety friends out there celebrate those who don't have the anxiety about driving and if they are comfortable driving and you all are comfortable with that situation that's okay it's really okay there is no rule out there that says if you own an RV with and you are unless obviously unless you're a solo rver then yeah you gonna need to know how to drive it but if you and your partner have purchased an RV together and one of you is comfortable driving and one of you is not yeah celebrate the person who is comfortable driving and you take your time until it's right for you and then it's great we all have different jobs when we when there's a couple in an RV we all have different things that we prefer doing and are better at somebody has to be in charge of the music otherwise it will be classic country but the other thing I want to say too is like there there's a big difference in knowing how to drive and in an emergency situation and by an emergency situation I don't mean what if like I got sick somewhere and where I have to stay there for a while I mean what if like I'm having a heart attack and you gotta drive us to the hospital because we're nowhere near anywhere where an ambulance is going to come like there where it's the emergency is happening right then if you are a licensed driver you probably have the skills to get that vehicle where it needs to go absolutely it just does not need to be something that you need to like practice on a regular basis and be forced to do if it gives you if it gives you like severe issues with anxiety maybe try it once or twice and realize how it goes and be like okay I could do this if I really had to and if you want to be done with it there be done with it there it's fine yeah I could not agree more with you I just really think that everyone deserves their space to do this I think this is a really good place to kind of end this conversation for this episode if you take anything from it just take that as little or as long time as you need to feel comfortable driving an RV is okay there is no timeline it you are not going to get your rvers unless you just bought one and you have to drive it off the lot okay and you're anxious and you don't know how you're going to get it off the lot take a friend find yourself a Jason Epperson take them with you and then get into the environment where you can learn or find a friend who owns one that might be willing to let you drive around in a parking lot or you know back roads or something so you can get comfortable I don't know that I could ever say an anxious person who feels anxiety about driving an RV should go buy an RV and then for the very first time drive it off the lot that was my own advice so let let's leave it at that let's take a break if you have thoughts though about this or your own experience with driving an RV that you would like to share with us if you have other encouraging words you can share for those who are anxious about driving or just feeling like they're not good enough because they're not doing it we'd love to hear those encouraging words you can share them over on the RV Miles Facebook group we always Post in the RV Miles Facebook group the show notes for this episode and then we encourage everyone there to have that discussion about that episode inside that post so please come over and share your thoughts with us on this or on coffee we would we'd really love to talk to you all right let's take a break we'll be right back 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 breaks a full line of weight Distributing hitches 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amazon.com shop Army miles along with all of our other fresh tank recommendations as long as they are sold on Amazon all right Jay what is in your black tank this week so we were at Costco yesterday you're black tanking at Costco and I'm gonna fresh tank a costume well this is weird that Costco itself it was a person at Costco so Costco there's this thing going around now you may have heard of Netflix started it where they're cracking down on password sharing well Costco is cracking down on membership sharing so you have you've always had to give them your card when you check out but now they've got the self checkouts too so now at the self-checkout sign they have a big sign there that says you need to show your membership card and that they have a person they're stationed so you have to show your the picture on the back of your membership card with the person standing there so that they know that you're not sharing your membership and this guy yesterday made a huge scene because he refused to show his membership card to somebody and they had to call a manager over who then had to call over the store manager and basically that store manager ended up just standing like right next to him waited for him because you have to scan it to actually use the machine and waited for him to scan it so he could like take a peek at the picture on the back of it to make sure this guy was who he said he was and he's just making a stink for no reason now and you know I hate when people make everybody else uncomfortable by doing something like that hold up the line no very long line there are times that I think that silent resistance is legitimate Costco which is a membership organization that you pay a membership for and I don't want other people using a you know I don't wanna other people making my membership more expensive by taking advantage of it right if you're at Walmart and they're wanting you to check the receipts and there's a line of 15 people waiting to check the receipts I'm walking past that line I'm walking right past it and you know at whatever like well I did not pay Walmart a membership to be there I already purchased my goods and I'm out this is before the point of sale making sure that you're a member before you buy stuff I get that fine with that yeah he was a really interesting individual and I think it takes a lot of I definitely don't think it takes a lot of courage to be okay with making everybody else in line I have the card in his hand you know so yeah yeah he was something all right what is in your fresh tank this week my fresh tank is that the 2024 Rand McNally motor carriers Atlas is out the motor carriers Atlas is the best paper map you can have as an rver if you have an RV of a decent size if you have some tiny little thing you don't worry about Heights of bridges and stuff like that you don't need to worry about it but don't tell ourpod people that they don't matter they can have it too little Class B camper van whatever but the motor carriers Atlas essentially shows you the routes that are friendly to semi trucks which means they're friendly to any RV on the road because semi trucks are bigger than any RV so it is really convenient they're highlighted in sort of like a bright orange and you can see which routes are safe for you to drive on doesn't mean there are always routes that you might want to drive on for instance like the million dollar highway is a truck safe route going from Ouray Colorado down to Durango and it's not one that a lot of people enjoy taking but there's also it's a long way around that too so but it's a great option especially if you don't have cell service your GPS goes down whatever to have a paper map backup we've used it many times to double check that the route we're taking is indeed safe for us to be traveling on so we'll throw that in our Amazon store as well but you can pick that up the 2024 of our version is obviously updated with the most recent information so if you you have an old one it is now over a year old and you probably want to replace it because stuff changes all the time awesome right all right what's in your black tank this week all right this has been 11 12. 13 year long relationship we've had a lot of good times you've gotten me through some bad times you've brought me the pumpkin cream cold brew you're not talking about me I'm like 13 years like we have a 15 year old okay just making sure listen I mean do the math I'm breaking up with someone that's not me I am breaking up with Starbucks oh my goodness Starbucks yeah I'm about to deposit a bunch of money in into our investments we about to be real Rich I'm done with Starbucks doesn't mean I'm not going to still go there every once while I will not be seeking Starbucks out I will I'm really frustrated with the quality at Starbucks anymore I'm incredibly a frustrated frustrated with the cost but what really did it for me look I can put up with all of your sugary drinks 900 grams of sugar and 2 000 calories what really tipped this scale for me though was they have drastically decreased the benefits within their app it's more stars now to redeem for rewards it's less stars for money there's no benefit anymore to Starbucks because I can go to a local coffee shop and get a drip coffee which is really all I want a drip coffee with some oat milk and I'm gonna pay probably a dollar less yeah I think the only real positive is you know you know Starbucks will always have that oat milk yes but there's a lot of the other places won't but yeah but it but times are a change in Jay yeah it's all throughout Canada times are changing also Starbucks has yet and this really does blow my mind Starbucks has yet to implement any kind of gluten-free or really dairy-free options outside of egg bites there's nothing there and I know that that's not impossible to do because I've seen the tiny mom-and-pop coffee shops be able to do it I know that a billion dollar corporation like Starbucks can make those kinds of changes but they haven't Starbucks you are just you're not you're not special enough for what you want from us anymore you're just not special enough I have to break up with you it's been I want to say it's not you it's me but it's actually it is you you're the problem I knew I was in trouble the day I was like I would rather go home and make myself some coffee than go to Starbucks yeah well that price is just things I you know I knew I had to end it then my grandparents used to live on my mom's side they used to live behind a McDonald's and it was more cost effective for them to walk over to McDonald's every morning and get coffee than it really was to just make it themselves coffee used to be that cheap I sometimes I have been known well not anymore but in the past I have been known to have a cup of McDonald's coffee in the morning I could have a very distinct memory of being in New Mexico yeah and the only coffee the only thing outside of me going home and making it was McDonald's and I was like I ain't got the patience I mean it tastes like you opened up the radiator on your truck and just poured it in there and drank that but sometimes you need that kind of jolt you just need it all right what's in your fresh tank so my fresh tank goes to Costco but not to the annoying man in the pink shirt at Costco but to a product at Costco that is also awful for you but so decadent and I am talking about the dark chocolate caramel sea salt squares you shouldn't be able to buy dark chocolate caramels in that quantity and if there is you can at Costco anyone listening whose last name ends in a person they know exactly what I'm talking about because I cannot go into your dad and Tam's house if they have them there yeah I they I cannot and now you've brought them into our home they once you pop you can't stop they're Pringles and so but they're not they're they're like 400 times the calories of Pringles oh they are luxury they're like a Lindor but better but not Lindor and so I bought these at for Costco yesterday because I thought we are about you know look we've done a ton of driving and in order to get back to Illinois we will have to cover 3 500 miles quickly and I was like we deserve these little chocolate caramels I like you I like how you think we'll still have those on the drive back listen I did go and strategically put them over by my side of the bed I'm not even keeping oh I always if I'm over on the side of her bed looking for something that I'm missing like their TV you're not allowed over there it's usually the TV remote and all of a sudden I always find Candy stop going there's always chocolate over there you are that is my side that is MySpace don't invade my space you've got your side with thousands and thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment none of it's chocolate that's my side with some dark chocolate okay we can trade that's fine I can have the camera equipment on your side I think I still have an ebay account so well you can't Mama it is hit or miss at the Costco having them but they come in the cylinder containers little plastic container you can't miss them they'll be over with all the fancy candies highly recommend them they are so good but be careful because you know it is once you pop you can't stop in fact I was waiting to talk to the doctor on a telemed today and I've been waiting and I thought you love these kids where's mine doctor comes on as I'm like halfway through one and I'm like written from caramel so there you have it that's it for this week's episode of the RV miles podcast yes it is and hey just a reminder homecoming is coming up we always want to talk about it at the beginning of the show and we always forget about it so come join us for the inaugural homecoming event October 4th through the 8th in Amana Iowa we only have a few tickets left so if you want to come to this event please get your tickets as soon as possible the camping price cannot be beat it's only 35 dollars a night for full hookups 200 for your event ticket and we will feed you Midwest food you are going to love it and I promise I'm also paying attention to those with dietary restrictions if you have any questions at all just head over to rvmiles.com 283 and we will have a link in there for you to sign up otherwise enjoy Christmas in July because that's how we started off this episode and stay safe can you still shop at an HH Greg I don't think you can but apparently they're really good for their Christmas in July if the kids know their jingle they still exist told me that they went out of business see if you can find that every time you do this I have to like double up the music at the end of that episode because this time don't double up our music play the hhgregg jingle here that's yeah there's a copyright infringement I cannot you get do that for you can play up to 30 seconds that is not true that is not five seconds at all there's no seconds no there's a second no there isn't I am an expert in copyright laws oh expert okay fine whatever don't play it for the people y'all go look it up for yourself and stay safe while you're doing it and keep vlogging those RV miles bye everybody goodbye save on everything at Christmas in July hhhhhhhh Greg Panasonic Blu-ray 99 hhhhhh Greg 32-inch LCD TV 299 LG 42 inch HDTV 489. everything's on sale during Christmas in July hhhhh

Channel: RV Miles Podcast

Views: 3,249

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Id: 0F4a8D2p0uA

Length: 51min 47sec (3107 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 09 2023