Welcome to the RV Podcast, episode 4 35. This week we talk about a trend of turning RV campgrounds into RV communities. Well, hello everybody. I'm Mike Winland, and this is my lifelong traveling companion and my bride Jennifer. And this is episode 4 35 of the RV podcast. And, uh, we've got a lot of RV news and tips and all sorts of stuff, but, uh, we're gonna talk, uh, in a minute or so in our interview, the week segment about this trend we're seeing about how, uh,
RV resorts and parks are turning into RV communities. What's behind that? I think you'll find that pretty interesting. But, um, a week of travel for us. Yes, we're gonna take our Class C motor home and go camping it for a few days. We're gonna go to the western side of the state where we purchased our 10 acres, and it'll give us a great chance to explore. And Beau is going to have a blast exploring his land. I think. So Beau is, uh, a dog born to wander. that.
He is. But one of the things that's neat is when he wanders, he wanders least free, uh, with this spot, uh, satellite color. And there's one more week that you can still get a chance to win. One of these. It sets up, I think, what they call a geo fence , uh, which is, uh, connected with a satellite. This connects with a satellite. I'll even work through a tree canopy. And, uh, with an app, we are able to draw a, uh, sort of a map of a,
of and a boundary. And if he goes outside of that area, he gets a little correction, a little vibration, and it really has given us peace of mind. Anyway, we're giving an away last chance to win, and you can do it free. It's absolutely free to win. Just go to rv lifestyle.com/sweepstakes. So, I guess since I told about one of our RVs that we're gonna use to go camping, I should mention our fifth wheel, which is on our Tennessee property near Lynden, Tennessee. We've got five acres there.
And the fifth wheel is just enjoying not being in winter weather. , we call it. Uh, our property down there, LA Lali Ridge, it's at the, actually at the Woodlands at Buffalo River. And, uh, their commercials coming right up. I should tell you, their next sale is coming up fairly soon. It's March 11th at the Woodlands of, uh, at Buffalo River. We get down there, usually it's been lately, it's about every month or month and a half or so. Mm-hmm. . And we're looking forward to going down.
And especially since spring is just around the corner for us. And it's gonna come a little earlier down in Tennessee. What about mid-March? Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, for their March sale, March 11th at the Woodlands, they'll probably have some pretty good weather. And, uh, that's when we wanna get down there. We get our first taste of spring and, uh, we'll enjoy it. All right, we'll be right back.
The interview of the week coming up after this, tired of overcrowded campgrounds and competing for reservations, paying high fees for sites while ownership is an emerging trend in RVing that might be right for you. It was for Jen and Meat. We bought some land just west of Nashville, Tennessee in an incredible collection of mountaintop RV properties called the Woodlands at Buffalo River. These are five to 62 acre properties that allow RVs year round, starting at $79,900. And we loved it.
The scenery is breathtaking and you can own it outright. It's not a timeshare, it's your property your way. You can landscape garden, bring your pets, build what you want to. There's high speed internet and it's so private. It's a great place to make your home base. No more calling around for reservations. Ready whenever you want. And they're selling these properties. Buy appointment, five to 62 acres, $79,900.
Financing big discounts available on multi lot packages for information, visit my rv land.com, my rv land.com. All right, welcome back everybody. Time now for the RV Lifestyle interview of the week. And, uh, this week, uh, we're gonna talk to the owner of a RV community that we chanced upon as we were down headed down into Florida in January. Uh, it's called the Ocala North, uh, RV Resort. And we were very impressed with this. So one thing, it was, it was fairly new.
All the sites were big. There were a lot of pull through sites there, I. Believe. 200. 200. And, um, and there was room to get in, which is unusual to find in Florida. It was in a, um, in a really nice area in the middle of horse country they call it up there. That's between Ocala and Gainesville. And, um, as we got talking with the owner, he told us about another place that he's about to open next year.
And since then we have heard, uh, this is kind of a trend from RV campground to RV resort now to RV community. And we thought that, um, we actually, you were the ones who found, found Sean and brought him over and, uh, thought it'd make a good interview. I. Thought he'd make an excellent interview cuz number one, it really encourages me.
And I know it encourages you when you hear about new parks being built, and especially by somebody who already has a park, cuz they know what they could do better and what people want. So we're gonna show you a little bit of what that place is like and, uh, give you an idea of this trend that's dropping up around the country from RV campgrounds to RV communities. Our guest is Sean Sims from Ocala North RV Resort.
I think that the change has been in the making for 10 years, but when Covid hit and everybody went to working at home and remote working, that everything that was important now to the community hadn't been created. I e uh, the bathrooms, private bathrooms and showering facilities in the, in the RVs, in, in, in the community. The RV always has it. But what we found with our business model is that we give you private showers,
walk into your own bathrooms. So, so when you go into our bathhouses back in the old days, you should walk into a bathroom and you could stand there with 10 people, not at our communities. You walk into the bathroom, you have your own bathroom, you go into and close the door and it's all your shower, walk in showers, full tile to wall to ceiling tile, um, just absolutely great experience.
You can have your privacy shave, do whatever you need to do. Take your time. Um, and then the second thing that we found that was super, super important is the internet. Because everybody now is remote working. So they're doing their zoom, they're doing their, uh, email, checking their emails. So what we did was we bring, we brought fiber in to the community and we spent a lot, we spent a lot of time and we focused on that.
And then we also catered to the client. We brought back customer service. You know, we are open seven days a week. Um, all the communities we have are essentially located in Florida, close to 75. So people can come in, work for a month or two, enjoy beautiful weather in Florida. There's no better weather than Florida weather. So they come here easy in, easy out, long pull throughs. And that's just the secret. That's the, that's a recipe for success right there.
So upping the quality of the stay. Now this, uh, how many sites here in Ocala North? Ocala North RV Resort has, uh, 3 85. And of the 3 85, we have 200 pull throughs and they're 80, 90 feet long. So you can, you can stay attached, you can be pulling, you can be pulling a trailer, you can be pulling a class a pull in an Escalade and leave it all attached. Um, and then pull out the next day, hang out a day or two or, or say six months. It's up.
To you. But you've also, you've put in a big dog park. How big are, how important are dog parks? An hour? So that's funny you should say that. Um, we, we have a half acre dog park now that was super popular, like lines of people wanting to get in the mornings cuz it's so big. You just let your dogs go. That I sprinkled five more locations in the community where you can let your
dogs go. So there's actually six locations now. You can, uh, have your own private area and you could go to multiple parks spots in the park to, if some people are in one, one area, you can go to another, you can get in the shade if you wanna be in the shade, if you wanna be in the sun. So there's six different locations total, uh, for the dogs. And you guys can just do what you want there. And, and, uh, how many of these sites these days were in Florida? So, uh, seasonable sites are a big deal.
How many of of your sites do you think are seasonal over here? Well. That, that's actually a great problem that we have. And that's funny you asked that and bring that up. Before, when I first got into industry, it was predominantly snowbirds. Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania. They would be coming down here in the winter. They would be doing either four to six months. They would monopolize the community, you'd be happy, it'd be great, but they would leave.
And then all of a sudden you didn't have nothing to do the rest of the year. But now since Covid, um, and the facil the infrastructure in the communities as far as the internet, um, especially the internet, bringing in the really good internet is a big deal because people can be remotely working. Engineers, people that work in healthcare, coding nurses, they, they're looking for all this, this stuff in the community now. And we, we give that to 'em.
So that brings in a lot of people that will stay here for eight, nine months, even year to year now. And we're having a problem where we, as quick as we build them, they're filling up and now we're staying full through the summer because we have traveling nurses, engineers, uh, healthcare, uh, bridge workers, road construction companies that guys are guys and girls are have, they're good paying jobs or staying in the communities because of the apartments don't allow short-term leases.
So a couple of, couple of changes then since Covid, uh, one, uh, people have become more demanding. A hundred percent. They expect. Customer service the internet seven days a. Week. You know, so many times you go into a park, they're closed Yes. Or they call and they don't answer the phone. Yes. Or you go in and the bathhouse is filthy. Yes. Or it's sturdy. Yes. Uh, and then you try the internet and it's a shared wifi connection that they get. Yes. Yes. Uh, do you still do overnights at all?
We do, absolutely. We'll do 20 to 30 overnights a day every single day throughout the winter. Now, you know, there's a whole lot of people who, uh, wanna get in this lifestyle year after year after year. They wanna get in the lifestyle and they wonder, they go, is it economically feasible for me to be a seasonal renter? Now, I, I don't know what your seasonal rates are, but it's a beautiful facility you have here. What does the cost for a seasonal South south?
Well, like anything in life, it's like going to Disney World, right? If you go to Disney World and you spend three days there, it's gonna be a little bit more expensive if you buy a year pass. So if you stay here year round, I think it's like five 50 a month. Really. Year round. Now, if you wanna come here in the middle of January, then it's gonna be a lot more expensive. It's gonna be probably double that just for one month to stay here for a month.
But that's still cheaper than really a home in many places in the country if you're renting a home. Oh. Absolutely. The great thing about the modern RV is that there's so much luxury. Some of 'em have side by side refrigerators in them, you know, six and four and six burner stove inside their walk-in showers.
And that really what changed our industry when they came out with the 40 footers, the 45 footers, the with, they have toy haulers that are, that are, um, you can sit on the back of your coach. We have a patio on here. Patio, yeah. Yeah. There, there's so much great luxuries. And that's why I encourage everybody to come out to, to the big show, the big shows, whatever town you're in, you're in Indiana, Kentucky, New York,
California, Texas. Go to the big super show, RV shows and just walk some of these units and you'll be so amazed. And they're affordable. You know, you can get into something for 80, $90,000 I believe. Um, you know, we have a little bit of inflation right now, but with a little bit of inflation, the economy will slow just a little bit and maybe some of the prices may come down a little bit and you're getting the benefit of that. So that could work out to your advantage.
Well you got a great facility here. You're building a new one. Yep. Next year. A second one down here in the same area. Yep. We're building, going right down the street three miles at, uh, it's gonna be on uh, orange Lake. It's Orange Lake RV Resort. It's gonna be approximately 500, uh, sites. It's gonna have 11,000 square foot clubhouse. It's gonna have four independent bathhouses. It's gonna be state of the art. Everything's gonna be brand new,
it's gonna be gorgeous. And you guys should check us out@orangelake.com or, or Orange Lake on Facebook or follow me or follow the. We'll, we'll be here next year. We'll give it a, a quick try. Yeah. And, uh, we, we. And it's on the lake now. It's on the, I think Orange Lake is the top five biggest lakes in Florida. It is absolutely amazing. So there's gonna be all kinds of water stuff to do there.
Just another experience to Rvn. So it could be, it would be just another twist to it, another another feature of amenities. You can't just get anywhere because of the lake's gonna be there. Awesome. Alright. Hey Sean, thanks for taking time to talk to us about, uh, the RV park industry and the new emphasis on quality. Quality. Yes. Thanks, Sean. Over now. Well, we thanks Sean for that, uh, interesting interview and, uh, the, the tour of, uh, the, uh, Ocala North RV resort.
And we look forward to seeing the new one that he's gonna be building that on that lake coming up. Um, you know, next year. I, I plan on going there on our way to Tampa. Next year. Yeah. The time we go back doing from the Tampa show. RV show. But what I was amazed at is how inexpensive, uh, seasonal lots are down there. If you, or even if you went year round and many people do and they just keep their RVs in that warm weather rather than having to, to winterize them. Uh, anyway. Well,
we come back. New travel tech. Stay with us. The one thing that can ruin a perfect RV trip is a bad mattress. And believe us, we know over the years we've tried many and found them all wanting until now. Now we sleep on the RV mattress by Brooklyn Bedding. Quite simply, it's the best we've ever slept on. We chose a queen size aurora luxe medium firm mattress. And it arrived tightly rolled in a box. All we did is put it on the bed and roll it and wait for it to recover from the compression.
Oh, does this ever feel comfy? It's so cushiony. Then we put on the sheets and the bed covers and we found ourselves ready to order another one for our home. That's how comfortable it is. That first night's sleep was luxurious and deep, and it's been like that ever since. The RV Mattress by Brooklyn Bedding comes with a 120 night sleep trial and a 10 year warranty. Shipping is free if you're disappointed with the current mattress in your rv.
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Again, use the promo code RV lifestyle for 20% off the cost of the RV mattress by Brooklyn Bedding. We're sure you'll be as thrilled with your RV mattress by Brooklyn Bedding as we are with ours. It really is the most comfortable mattress we've ever slept on. Now it's time for the new travel tech segment of our podcast. And this is drawn from the pages of new travel tech.com that is, uh, our sister blog. And it celebrates the many ways that technology enhances the travel experience.
And it's brought to you by Nomad Internet Nomad Internet is now the exclusive internet provider for us as we are on the road and traveling. And we have been very impressed with Nomad interview internet. We've been trying it for several months now. Um, it is UNT throttled. It is unlimited data. Uh, it is high speed. It works on that new C-band system that, um, uh, Verizon and uh, uh, I think at and t's trying to make it come up.
But this is on the Verizon system are with Nomad interview internet. And it, uh, it has really been, uh, neat. And one of the things that they just came out with that I wanna show you is, uh, is this, this is the air travel bag and it's pretty cool. It comes with, uh, let's see if I can pull it outta here and show you. It comes with a, um, a battery that will power the Nomad Air modem for a week. And that is pretty amazing. This is the battery. Isn't that cool?
See that thing that will go for a week? And this is the modem that we use right here, the Nomad Air. And, uh, it's really neat. So you, uh, particularly for Boone Dockers, uh, if you don't have, uh, commercial power or you're trying to conserve power, this little bag, it's not very big. Very easy handle. Anyway, we're big fans of the Nomad Inter internet and you can, uh, learn more about it at rv lifestyle.com/nomad rv lifestyle.com/nomad.
I've gotta say, I really appreciate that bag to keep it safe because it seems like so many things that are delicate that you really wanna take good care of, you don't have a good container for them. So to get something that's fairly expensive mm-hmm. and to have a bag for it, good idea. Anyway, that's what we use for our internet, uh, nomad internet. Uh, and you can again, learn more to score their website. Alright, so what are we gonna talk about this week? We're gonna talk about a weather.
App. Yes, we indeed are. Now we know that there are a gazillion weather apps out there, and probably between the two of us, we have a dozen of them on our smartphones and our, uh, tablets. But the, the one that we have been using now for several years and that we wanna share now cause it just gets better and better. It's called Weather Bug. So if you wanna know everything about the weather, weather bug is what you need to.
Get. It's our main go-to weather app, and then we'll kind of mess around with some of the others. But what I like about it is when you launch a weather bug, uh, it immediately displays the local weather, including the temperature and the dew point and humidity, sunrise, sunset, uh, wind pressure, any active weather alerts for your area. And what what's neat about that is, um, oftentimes we'll be driving along and we'll say, oh gosh,
are we gonna get there before dark? We're gonna get, so we, we like to set up camp before dark and it'll, we always can find the local sunset. And that's how Handy to know that's one of the things that we like about it. And also the toolbar that's at the bottom. Yes. Uh, there's a toolbar at the bottom. There's one, uh, a couple of menu bars. But what is, I think the best feature for us is when you're traveling,
it always updates your current weather. Uh, and so wherever you happen to be, right, then that's the weather you're seeing. That toolbar, uh, is, uh, along the bottom is for radar and stuff, but there's also one on the top, which lets you switch from the current forecast to a, a more detailed, uh, forecast. And for anybody with allergies, it's nice to have their app that lets you know what the pollen count is. Yes. Uh, WeatherBug works on both iOS and on Android.
It also works on your laptop or your tablet as well. Uh, and, uh, we think it's just a great app to have, uh, give it a try. Um, that's our, probably our go-to one. So see it if you want to check. It out. So don't forget weatherbug.com. That's where you can find it. All right. Thanks to, uh, new travel tech.com. Uh, our sister blog that keeps track all things technology and, uh, weatherbug.com. That's our, uh, new travel tech, uh, tip of the tip of the week.
We'll be back with the news of the week after this. When we're in a road trip, we always seem to find a way to stop at a Camping World Center. There are over 225 Camping World locations across the country, and there's always one close by when we need parts and accessories for our rv or just wanna shop. In fact, uh, we have so much fun with, uh, camping World and as we talk about it as one of our sponsors, they have agreed to offer a 10% discount if you use the coupon code RV Lifestyle 10.
When you buy $99 or more in merchandise, you'll find everything you want from outdoor furniture and appliances. The ones you see us use in our videos and we talk about here in the podcast, RV extras that include everything from camping chairs to fire pits, electrical accessories, must have gadgets. Check them all out. And again, don't forget, use the coupon code RV Lifestyle 10 when you visit camping world.com. One of the most exciting developments for RVs is happening out west in Arizona.
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The community is in the center of it all close to the best of the West Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, lake Havasu, lake Mead Lake Mojave, the Colorado River, Flagstaff, Sedona, and Historic Williams. If you're tired of crowded RV parks and paying high fees for sites, well ownership might be right for you. This incredible collection of mountaintop properties called Greenwood Ranches hit the market and it's selling out fast. There is no hoa. You can build a house, a cabin out buildings,
or just rv, it's your property your way. 100% ownership. Visit the website to get details and set up a showing Arizona rv land.net. That's Arizona rv land.net. Welcome back. And now it's time for the news of the week. And Mike, you got. The first story. Well, this is a, a topic that we have been talking about a lot, uh, over the last couple of years. And this is a problem that really started with Covid and the big, uh, rush to get campsite. And that's no shows at, uh, state parks, actually,
all of them like that. And what happens is, is, um, selfish, can I say that Selfish people book a site and they might go to book two or three different sites so they can be sure they have a place to go that weekend, or they'll book a week when only they need two days and then they don't show up and therefore other people can't use those sites. And we have been complaining about that as you have been complaining about that
for a long time. So now, uh, the news of the week is, uh, in California, a state assemblywoman has had enough of this also, and she has introduced a bill and that bill would penalize campers who make a reservation at a state owned campground. And then they don't ever show up. And the goal is to make it easier to get a camping spot, but providing a reason for people to cancel their reservation if they can no longer use it. Uh, it frees up the camping spot.
So it's a matter of getting part of your refund back or absolutely zero your refund back. And if you cancel numerous times, you're not gonna be able to book. Yeah. So this is gonna apply to 15,000 individual campsite if it passes in the California State Park system. And, uh, we're, we're hoping that this, uh, this really helps, uh, this and other people will, will pick up on this. Uh, campers would get more of the reservation if they canceled seven days in advance. And like Jen says, uh,
you lose more and more the closer it is to cancellation date. I think that's a, that's a pretty good. Bill. Sounds like logical thing to. Do. Yeah. Maybe that'll solve some of the problem. All right. What do you got? So we've got another California story because of all the rain that they've had out in California, all the drought that they've had now they have rain and there's all those seeds from flowers, there's, uh, super bloom going on out there.
All those seeds that were laying dormant and now the rain has come and it's supposed to be like overnight Absolutely beautiful with the yellows and the purples and the white flowers. And, and when are they, we're gonna put a, a link in the description of the show notes@rvlifestyle.com. It'll kind of give you their projected timeline, but coming right up. They're expecting this, you know, very soon in California, so pretty cool, um,
federal officials have closed. You're gonna find this interesting, uh, the Giah wilderness, uh, for the next week or so for, uh, to visitors because they're going to begin a controlled hunt for feral cows. , you heard that right? Cows. The Giah Wind wilderness out there in New Mexico is home to feral cows, which apparently became rather aggressive this past year to human visitors. And they've, they said they've harmed the environment by grazing year round and trampling
down stream banks and that's caused erosion and other issues. Uh, they say there's about 150 of these wild feral cows. That doesn't sound like that many need to do all this damage. Yeah. So they're gonna kill 'em. They're gonna shoot 'em out. Uh, gunmen sounds really barbaric. Gunmen in helicopters will shoot them dead between Thursday and Sunday of this week, uh, leaving their bodies out there to decompose. Uh. I don't understand that part. I I guess it's too hard to harvest.
Them. Oh, they're heavy. They're big. I guess they'll leave their remains out there unless they're near water or hiking trails or sensitive spots. But, uh, obviously there are some people in the New Mexico legislator legislature who are opposed to this, a cattleman association against it. Some environmentalists are against this, and I imagine some RVers after hearing this story,
will probably be against it. But, uh, that's what federal officials are gonna be doing this week and why part of the giah winded wilderness in New Mexico is closed. In a lot of states they hand out permits and people get a license, like for deer hunting and things. If you need. This just sounds like a lot of expense flying around helicopters, taking out cows. Leaving dead cows lying around out there. Oh no, I don't understand. I don't have all the information. I'm sure.
We're talking with the federal government, you know, never understand what. They do. . Okay. Mardi Gras just around the corner. And so, uh, in fact, February 21st, isn't. It? Yeah. Was this week? Is this week. Mardi Gras week is this week. Yeah. And so many our veers in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, who really take Mardi gra very seriously, this means just one thing they take off, or rv, I mean,
the weather's nice and Mardi Gras, who can, who could not go camping. So, uh, many, uh, cities near the Gulf like Lafayette and Louisiana and Mobile, Alabama have large numbers of little RV villages that spring up along the, the routes for parades. Yeah. And under Bridges. Yeah. We've seen this ourselves. We did a video, uh, a couple years ago about Mardi Gras around the Gulf Coast, and most people think it's all in New Orleans.
New Orleans is just the raunchiest one . Uh, it is the Rowdiest one. Mardi Gras events generally are pretty family friendly and the, there's parades actually started few weeks ago in all these communities along the South, south Gulf coast there. And it's been fun to, uh, it's really fun to watch 'em. We put a video link,
we'll put it in the show notes of what, what it was like with us. But in Mobile, Alabama, uh, for like over two decades now, people have been setting up what they call RV City underneath a freeway as the town has prayed after parade, these different civic clubs, all sponsored parades, uh, and you need to get a spot ahead of time. Uh, there's 118 spots out there. Uh, we'll put links to all this and,
uh, you'll see. But it's a lot of fun if we've never been to Mardi Gras, not New Orleans, but along the, uh, the coast there, um, check it out. It is pretty much a, a fun thing. All right, last story.
This is kind of a weird story and I hope this is not a trend. Um, campers in Texas told us about this and they're pretty sad to learn that the state is losing Fairfield Lake State Park at the end of February because, uh, the landowner sold the property to a private developer who has plans to build a gated multi-million dollar housing community. You can't compete with that kind of money for buying.
The land. No. For about 50 years, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has operated the state park and they leased it from a company called Vista Corporation, Vistra, which operated a coal plant there previously. And, uh, the state invested 70 million over the years. Uh, they tried to buy it, but, uh, Vista Corporation, uh, they went for the big bucks, uh, parks located about, uh, 95 miles south of Dallas. So a lot of Dallas people really liked it. It was very popular. Fishing and camping.
Had 83,000 visitors last year and now that's all gone. 2,700 people already reserved camping spots for this year, but that corporation, because they took it away from the state, has canceled them. Um, Texas has like 14 other parks on state. Land. I mean that is so sad to hear and I betcha all that money that was put into that land, they probably did a lot to clean it up after what it was originally used for the coal. Yeah, I said state land, say they have 14 other spots on lease land. So yeah.
Uh, hopefully the people they lease it to don't change their mind like Vistra and sell out for the big bucks, but that's a trend I hope doesn't continue. But money wins, doesn't it? Always. Alright, we come back RV questions of the week. So please stay with us when we're asked. What's the most important modification we made to our rv? It's an easy answer. Battleborn batteries. Battle born batteries are quality, safe, reliable lithium batteries that allow us to stay out there
off the grid longer. Lithium batteries charge faster, they charge fuller, they're longer lasting, they're maintenance free and born batteries are protected by a 10 year guarantee. Now in our case, they just dropped into the existing AGM batteries that we have and they'll probably be the same on your rig too. Battle borne battery experts can get those in your rig just like they did with
ours. They can also match you up with the right cabling, the inverter, the charger, the solar controller, everything. Jennifer and I swear by our battle born batteries, they allow us to boondock off the grid. Check them out, go to rv lifestyle.com/lithium rv lifestyle.com/lithium. Now it's time for the RV questions of the week. And here is the first one from Gary. And his question is, is it true that older RVs older than 10 years old, you can't park at a lot of the uh, parks?
Yes. Um, technically that is true, although in our experience it's not very often enforced unless the RV is in, you know, poor condition and has a lot of, you know, obvious defects and looks to kind of be on its last legs. Um, parks have that rule because they then have, they can say, well, that's right, and the rules, uh, they can exclude rigs that in their mind it would reflect poorly
on the appearance of the park. And, uh, we've heard of some, uh, who would require would-be renters who have something older than 10 years to send in a photo of their RV so they can check it out. Um, there are some RV parks that don't allow any Class Bs, no matter how new it is or how old it is. Uh, no camper vans, class Bs,
um, others are for class A motor coaches only. So, you know, generally speaking, I think though, uh, at most campgrounds, if your RV is well maintained, if it's clean, good mechanical condition, you know, I think you'll be fine. But, um, they do have that rule and, and sometimes they do enforce it. Uh, fortunately I think that's a minority of cases, but they do have that. Rule and I can see why they do. Yeah, I mean I, you know, there are some out, you know, every,
you gotta have a rule for the exceptions, right? Yes. So, and, and it's usually an exception. I. Mean, we have seen RVs out there with wood boarding up windows and, you. Know, oh my. Gosh, with looked in pretty rough shape. With the body tied together with duct tape and, you know, that's what they, they're trying to. Avoid some. That's what they're, yeah. So if, if you don't do that, you should be okay. All right. Here's one that, uh,
is for you Jennifer, and it's from Megan. And Megan says, what do you use for a vacuum cleaner in your rv? It always looks so clean and sparkling in your videos and I've heard you talk about vacuuming it before and after your trips. Well, I used to use just a plain old whisk broom and then decided that was much too much labor and I got a little shark, uh, vacuum that I love. It's easy to detach if I wanna use it as a hand vacuum or attach the
bottom so that I can do carpet. And, uh, I use that thing all the time. It picks up sand easily. In fact, I like it so much that we bought a second one because we have one in the fifth wheel and one in our other and the. Motor home. Yeah. And I think the thing that, and we use it sometimes as the clear clean out our truck or our vehicles Yeah. Really picks up bow hair very well too. Mm-hmm. ,
the actual model number we have, it's a cordless one. Um, they have make a whole bunch of different models and I think ours costs like 130 bucks or so, but it's the Shark IX 1 41 Pet cordless Shark vacuum, that's the Amazon name. And we'll put a Amazon affiliate link, uh, uh, in the show notes if you want to see the one we.
Have. And for those of you who don't read, uh, the manual that comes with it real well when, if you buy that, there's a couple little filters that you have to take out regularly and rinse out and wash and that way it'll work. Otherwise it'll get clogged up with dust and you won't like it at all. You, you don't like.
This vacuum. It's really easy cuz uh, all the stuff kind of goes into this dust bowl and then you just put that over, you know, some, a garbage bag or something and you just lift it and it just empties right out. But you do wanna check. Those. Filters. I clean the filters as in any vacuum. Let's see. Shark IX 1 41 again, we'll put a link@rvlifestyle.com in the show notes for you so you can find that. All right, that's the podcast for this week.
If you have a comment or if you have a question, we would love to hear from you. Our private email is Mike and jen@rvlifestyle.com. Happy. Trails.