RV Travel Myths, Tips, and Building Confidence on the Road | Ep. 54

We’re back from the 2025 Toronto RV Show with a full recap of the event, including what we learned, what we’d change, and some surprising takeaways. We’ll also share a condensed version of our presentation from the show, where we busted some of the biggest RV travel myths and talked about building confidence through adversity—something Melina had to put into practice after her bizarre pre-show injury (you won’t believe this one!).

Along the way, we’ll dish out some practical tips for RVers of all experience levels and reveal our personal show highlight—the moment that made it all worthwhile. Whether you’re new to RVing or a seasoned road warrior, this episode has something for you.

🚐 In This Episode:
✅ What we loved (and what we’d tweak) about the 2025 Toronto RV Show
✅ A recap of our presentation—debunking RV travel myths & confidence-building tips
✅ The ridiculous pre-show injury story that almost sidelined Melina
✅ Practical RV travel tips from the show
✅ Our favorite moment from the event

So grab a coffee, settle in, and let’s hit the road!

P.S. For our bare basics travel essentials, visit: www.rvcanucks.com/rvbasics

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• 16:09 (Cont.) RV Travel Myths, Tips, and Building Confidence on the Road | Ep. 54

Transcript

1 (4s):
Hello and welcome to episode 54 of the RV CANUCKS podcast. Today we're breaking down the behind the scenes of our presentation at the 2025 Toronto spring camping and RV show, the physical injuries, the technical difficulties, and the lovely people we met Along the way. We're also going to be giving a condensed version of that presentation. We're gonna bust some RVing myths and we're gonna talk about building confidence through adversity on the road. So Buckle up and stick around. It's gonna be a good one. Hello everyone and welcome back to the RV CANUCKS Podcast.

1 (46s):
We are super happy to be back on the air And we are celebrating the end of what has turned out to be a very, very busy weekend for the RV Connect. We are just wrapping up the 2025 Toronto RV Show And we are pretty tired.

2 (1m 1s):
We did, we put in a lot of steps. We saw a lot of units, we talked to lots of people. That was awesome. We actually just by chance bumped into two sets of friends down there. One set of friend bought themselves a new park model, and then our other set of friends, we think they may have bought a new trailer. We're really excited to find out what they may have done. And the only reason we know that is they've put their Class C motor home for sale on marketplace And we knew they were looking for something. So we're hoping they come with some exciting news. We saw amazing things. We saw lots of accessories. We met a nice young lady who sells some RV sweatshirts and swag and and accessories and she's got a little business, she's 14 years old.

2 (1m 43s):
We're gonna do a separate podcast just with her saw F three. She's 50 15. My mistake. Very nice lady. We, I got to sit in an F three 50 Molina, sat in a Bronco. Really lots of exciting things down there.

1 (1m 57s):
And for the first time this year we decided to come out from behind the microphone and worked with the Toronto Spring RV show to do a presentation on day one. That was a little bit out of our comfort zone in relation to the podcast. I think individually Dan And I are not unaccustomed to speaking to crowds. We both have done it for work, but this was a little bit of a different scenario. I think usually when we do the podcast we're a little more, we're notes driven when we're behind the scenes. We're not generally in front of the camera a lot. So it was definitely a learning experience. I would love to do it again. I think we have some good ideas about how we might be able to improve that for next year. But overall, I think it was a pretty positive experience for sure.

1 (2m 39s):
And it kind of gives the RV show like, like it presents it in a whole different light when you're on the other side of it and being able to take part in some of these unique seminars and keynote speakers and and whatnot that come in. That actually was, was definitely the most interesting part for me.

2 (2m 57s):
Yeah, there's a lot more to the RV show than just walking in and looking at trailers. There's so many interesting stories out there. There's people with interesting businesses, there's people that have gone on some really amazing trips and are planning some amazing trips. And I think that was really what was really interesting about the whole thing. Just learning about other people and their stories.

1 (3m 18s):
And I am going to give myself mad props for not passing out directly before our presentation. I don't know if we've ever talked about this on the podcast before or not, but I faint at the site of blood and when we showed up, we had 10 minutes to set up for our presentation. We were setting up our, our tripod that was going to hold the camera for the live stream, which we'll talk about that. We had a little bit of technical difficulty there, but I was setting up the tripod and Dan had just nipped to the washroom before we started and there was some really sharp metal on the bottom of the tripod. And I sliced my knuckle, which as we're like filming this, I'm gonna hold my finger up so everyone can see my booboo, but I sliced my knuckle open and it was, you know, fair, fairly deep, did not have a napkin, did not have a tissue, did not have a bandaid, and kind of started dripping everywhere.

1 (4m 10s):
I couldn't walk out to the area where the crowds were waiting. And so I kind of walked out the back door, which was behind this, you know, curtain beside the stage and just kind of hung my finger outside the door in the cold and just waited for Dan to come back. And with the other hand, I called him, I bet you 17 times, but Dan had his ringer off everybody.

2 (4m 28s):
So I put my ringer off so that we wouldn't be bothered during the presentation and it wouldn't be a distraction. So we did get Melina patched up, she's fine. It wasn't, you know, like she said, she faints at the sight of blood, but we got her patched up. So she did amazingly well and she was well composed when she got on the stage. The, the stage was a bit interesting. The microphones that the show provided us kind of ConEd out every 30, 60 seconds while you're talking. So it was a bit of a halting conversation. I think we had the flow okay, but every so often it would just kind of pooch and then it would come back to life. Well we managed to get through that and still everybody stuck around and listen. So at the end of the day I think it probably worked that way.

1 (5m 10s):
Yeah, I think it was pretty good. And for those of you who don't know and, and those of you outside of Ontario and if you're listening to this in a year or two on our channel, the day we did this was election day in the province where we were selecting a new provincial government and our oldest daughter, this is the first year that she can vote. So she was very nervous about it and she had a bunch of questions, last minute questions about platforms and things that she wanted to talk through before she went to the polls. And the polls were closing like within hours. So halfway through this line, live stream, she called my phone And we could see it, I could see the number pop up on my screen and then our live stream went blank.

1 (5m 52s):
And I thought, isn't that funny? Okay, I'm seeing a blank, a black screen. But then I thought that, you know, know it'll be okay, maybe it was just something on, on the screen end And I thought, okay, well if the video's gone, the audio certainly would be there and that was okay And we could maybe still retain the audio. But then we started getting like messages popping up on the screen and there was a couple, couple of people in the audience who were also watching the live stream and they were like flagging us down as in like, oh we can't, we can't see you anymore. We can't hear you anymore. So that was super unfortunate. So we ended up losing video and audio for seven minutes of this live, live stream. We got it back, we, we were able to refresh it in like the next 20 minutes or the last 20 minutes of the presentation. It was okay. But by the end of that night, Dan And I were completely begged.

1 (6m 35s):
We were so tired we decided to get a hotel near the international center because we were coming back in the morning for a really, really great keynote, which I think we should probably talk about. It was super interesting the next morning. And So we decided that we would sit on the couch, which some of you have probably seen this already And we kind of refilled those seven minutes. So we have this weird little spliced live stream together now. But definitely interesting like, and I think it was a little bit funny because a lot of the theme of this presentation was building confidence through adversity. And So we had our share of adversity for this, for this presentation. But all good. I think, you know, it was, it was well worth it and I'm so glad we did it And I have, you know, some pretty good ideas I think about how we might be able to improve or put a different spin on what we bring next time around.

2 (7m 24s):
Y yeah, you know what, like everything, you always kind of the day after quarterback it and you have some ideas, but like I told Molina, listen, we got it done, I'm happy with it. We learned some stuff. We'll we'll continue pushing on ahead. And the next day was really interesting when we got to hear from the president of the KOA and she came up and gave some really interesting information about the RV industry and camping. That was, it was just a really interesting conversation.

1 (7m 51s):
Yeah, it was a, it was a really good presentation. She's a great speaker. What I found really valuable is like the depth of analysis that did that the KOA does on camping in general on the, and specifically to Canada, she was talking about the report that they produce for Canada, which some of the statistics in that we had actually used the night before for our presentation. So If you ever get a chance, like look up the KOA campers report I think it's called, and they put it out yearly and it's just a really, really good snapshot of the industry and what people are doing and what they're camping and you know, how first timers are kind of getting along and what their impressions are of camping for the first time. So yeah, it was really probably, that was like the highlight of the weekend for me.

2 (8m 32s):
It was, they've gone really, they really understand the marketplace and they've kind of divided it up by age groups and generations and first time campers and season campers. And it was really interesting, you asked a question about Gen Z and how they camp and it was interesting. Gen Z really wants technology. Her answer was Gen Z really wants technology, say booking the campsite, getting there until they get there, then they don't want it at all. And that was surprising to me. I, I learned something new.

1 (9m 3s):
Yeah, and listen, one of those statistics actually formed the start of our session and that was that 50% of campers only ever travel within 160 kilometers of where they live. Which absolutely knocked my socks off as you know us, we love to travel far And we, we started this channel or this podcast so that we could teach people how to travel further on their vacations from work. And I think, you know, the whole basis of our talk on Thursday was, you know, what if staying close is actually holding you back from some of those really, really amazing travel experiences, some of the best that you will probably ever have as a traveler, right?

1 (9m 46s):
And I was so thankful for that information to kind of reinforce what we talk about a lot and just hopefully encourage people to go a little bit further even when things you know don't, don't go super well.

2 (9m 57s):
Yeah. So we talked about traveling as a new rvr And we talked about how you can travel further and even afterwards everything was wrapped up and you're just kind of down by the stage and a few people are just chatting informally, even people who've traveled a while, seasoned travelers still wanted some more tips on how to travel further. And we're talking about people that have put down some serious kilometers or miles and so that was really interesting 'cause I think the information applies whether you're brand new or you've been at this for 10 or 15 years. There's always something new to learn

1 (10m 29s):
For sure. And I think some of the reasons that people sort of typically give for kind of staying close or maybe not even choosing camping as an activity is, you know, you know, being with the familiar people don't want to travel to places they've never been. There's uncertainty around, you know, what happens If you break down, what happens if somebody gets sick that are keeping people closer to home. And I think there's like this, this myth about cost, like it's going to cost you fundamentally more to gas up and spend all of that money in gas and you know, RV parks, et cetera, et cetera, to kind of go on a really long trip. And there's kind of this desire, this like fomo, fear of missing out on like other types of typical vacations. Kind of like, you know, all inclusives and trips to Europe and you know, all of these like far flung places.

1 (11m 14s):
But I think Dan And I have talked about this a lot And I think a lot of this in our experience really comes down to confidence. Yeah,

2 (11m 21s):
It comes down to confidence and when you have a bit of adversity and you get through that adversity, it builds your confidence. It makes you feel like you can do something more. And I think for us, this goes back to one of our very first, I think it was our first big road trip really, we, we were traveling from southwestern Ontario up to Pancake Bay on the shores of Lake Superior and that's about an hour 45 minutes north of Saul, Saint Maria. And we decided we were gonna do a loop through Michigan up to Pancake Bay and then back through Sudbury and home. Well on our first night we were in Michigan, we were traveling down a nice quiet Michigan interstate. The sun was a half an hour from setting, there wasn't too much traffic, everybody was relaxed, the girls were in the back seat and just up to the left hand side of the road I could see a bit of commotion.

2 (12m 11s):
So I moved over to the right to give them lots of room and by the time we got up to the commotion, I looked in front of us and there was a dead deer in the right lane And I couldn't obviously go to the left because that's where the commotion was. And down on our right hand side was a steep ditch. And I looked at Molina And I said, hang on honey, we're gonna have to take this one square. And the, the deer went right underneath the truck and you could hear it but you know, I don't think we were too worried. And then we looked in the rear view mirror and the little eight foot pop-up camper went two three feet up in the air and slammed down. And we went on another five or 10 minutes And we could slowly see the bikes drifting out of sight. They were on a rack on the back of the bumper of the pop-up camper and the weld had broken.

2 (12m 55s):
So we pulled over on the shoulder and there was a sign said prison area, do not pick up hitchhiker. So I'm laying on the road and Molina's holding the flashlight, making sure I don't get hit. And the Michigan state trooper comes up and from his loudhailer asks us what we're doing. There was a little bit of excitement And we explained what we were doing and he was a, a good gentleman and just kind of stayed there by the side of the road till we got everything strapped up And we managed to make it to our stop that night, maybe an hour late, but we got there And we were fine and everybody was safe And we still had a great week.

1 (13m 28s):
Yeah And I think listen, that's a super condensed version of that story. I think the point of that story and If you wanna hear the whole story you can go to episode one because we share it there. The point of that story is like we were four hours into a week long trip. This was like the first time we were going, you know, super far. And it was you know, a good like nine hours. How long was it? Nine hours to get there.

2 (13m 49s):
It was probably a good nine hours at least with younger kids too at that time. You know, they weren't teenagers.

1 (13m 54s):
No they were tiny. So we were stopping a lot and you know, the point was we very easily could have just called it and turned around and went home and you know, there was a camping trip not too far before that where we actually did do that. We didn't have propane and it was freezing cold And we forgot food and like there was all kinds of stuff And we were just like, you know what, let's go home early. And So we did that. And so I'm glad that we didn't because that trip ended up being one of our favorites. It really kind of keyed our kids up for long road trips and you know, that was kind of the whole point of this is like you have this opportunity to turn around, what are you gonna do when adversity hits? How are you going to deal with it? And you know, I like to tell the story And I don't know if we've talked about this on the podcast be before, but we have this really great listener named Lynn and you know, she's a great friend.

1 (14m 40s):
She's come to see us in person before and she wrote to us, she was like the first listener mail we had ever gotten on the podcast. And she had wrote to us because they listened to that first episode right after they had got into a really bad accident that totaled their trailer and they were worried about the future and they were like, do we even want to do this? Do we even want to like get a new trailer? Do we wanna get back on the road? And they were sort of, you know, nervous to do to get back on the road and get going. And she wrote to us after they had listened to that episode and was like, I just want to thank you for, for putting that out there. It really kind of gave us the confidence to get back on the road. So those type of stories really warm our hearts And we know, you know, there's so many things that can go wrong when you're traveling.

1 (15m 22s):
It's just kind of how you deal with it, how you react to it and If you choose to keep going.

2 (15m 27s):
Yeah, I think about you choose to keep going if if a trip is gonna go sideways or you're not gonna have fun on a trip, it's not gonna be around the campfire. Even if your campfire got rained out, nobody's ever had a bad night playing cards in the tent or in the trailer or under the awning. It goes sideways on the logistical side of things. It goes, it, that's, that's where it goes wrong. And I think when you deal with little things like gas for example, how are you gonna gas up and where are you gonna stop? If you can solve that problem, I think you're gonna have a great trip because that's where it gets really stressful when you're traveling.

1 (16m 2s):
Yeah, I

2 (16m 2s):
Agree. Yeah, So we, I mean we have a couple of tips like gas is a good one. So first of all, and we've talked about this before, we use Google Maps. So if you've got a travel trailer and it can be a bit tight to get into some gas stations and you're probably not necessarily gonna fill up at your normal neighborhood gas station, use Google Maps, you can, you know say hey we probably gonna need to stop for gas in an hour and you can look up a couple of gas stations and you can see If you can get in or out easily. And when we went down to Key West this summer, we did that, you know, we, we knew that there's kind of getting off at this exit. There's three gas stations, we had one in mind, Molina looked at both of them And we made a audible And we took a different gas station and it made our trip much more enjoyable.

1 (16m 42s):
And to specify, 'cause you just always say Google Maps, but I wanna specify we're using like satellite view on Google Maps because you can see, you know, the entrance and the egress of the gas station, you can see if there's a grade or like a, it's, it's on the top of a big hill so it just makes it a lot easier to kind of visualize how you're gonna get in and like you have a pump that you can aim for.

2 (17m 2s):
Absolutely. And you know, many of the big, we're a big fan of stopping at truck stops when we can. We'll use something like the Flying J app and it'll let you filter for RV friendly locations. You can do a number of different things, what kind of services they have and I'm sure that many other big name retailers would have something very similar. So we'll use something like that. I'm even just a big fan. We have a 20 gallon spare gas tank And we keep it and it's, it's not gonna take us far, but we've used it a time or two and it's gotten us comfortably through a traffic jam or just given us the peace of mind that we don't need to drive, you know, 10 kilometers under the speed limit and nurse it in like we're in some kind of marathon NASCAR race.

2 (17m 43s):
So it's, it's good to just have the little things like that that that makes your trip last.

1 (17m 48s):
And one of the things we talked about, which I actually think is probably really key in changing the way that we traveled and sort of reducing the stress for long trips is that we stopped planning places to stay. So our first couple of long trips and that one where we, where we had the deer incident was one of them where we had booked like that particular night we had the pop-up trailer. So we knew we weren't gonna be setting it up in the middle of the night but we, So we booked a hotel in like Flint, Michigan or something to stay overnight And we still had a fair ways to go and this took a lot of time to solve the, the bike rack situation and and strap everything up so bikes weren't dragging on the ground.

1 (18m 31s):
And So we got there really, really late But there was a ton of hotels closer than that. But we had already kind of booked and paid for this hotel So we had to get to where we were going and that just kind of raises the stress level a lot. So we decided not to do that anymore. So we very rarely, if any, if ever will book a place to stay. So we'll use usually the app called RV Park and when we know we're like about an hour or two from being done or we stop for dinner And we say okay, we're gonna go another two hours maybe we'll look up places to stay from there and that will have everything from boondocking locations to like privately owned RV parks to KOAs to, you know, you name it.

1 (19m 11s):
Right. And so in all of the 40,000 plus kilometers that we've traveled, we have never been left without a place to stay. But it just is so much less stressful not having to aim for a specific point So we can travel more on how we're feeling, how we're vibing and what our energy levels are rather than like a specific mile marker.

2 (19m 31s):
Right. And to be clear, we the final destination we book a site like when we're in Key West or pancake day or or where it might be, we've booked a a a final destination, we've booked that site but on our way there we don't. And when you're feeling strong, you, you go a little further when you want a break you pull up short and it's actually given us some really great experiences. We used it coming home on our route 66, we stayed at the Illinois State fairgrounds and that was where we saw the Lincoln tomb And we never would've found that had we not done that. And so it's one of the good memories of that trip.

1 (20m 6s):
What I would say as well on sort of like the stress front and adversity is like the best way to deal with a adversity is to prevent it. And So we fully recommend having a shakedown trip. This is something that we still do because we always will find out like we're outta batteries, we forgot this, this doesn't work, you know, this is leaking, whatever it is. Having a shakedown trip is is super important. So

2 (20m 31s):
Yeah, And we still do that close to home. Sometimes we only go 20 minutes from home 'cause there's a couple of great parks near us. Sometimes we'll go 30, 45 minutes close to home. We've had some shakeout trips where we've called it off and come right back home, you know. But I think a shakeout trip is good because you know, we close the door on the trailer every October and we're like, we're ready to go. We can just pop in there And we can hit the road as soon as the first nice weekend comes in the spring and yet we do a shakeout trip And we're going, eh, I don't know what we were thinking in October.

1 (20m 59s):
Another important part, And we mention this a lot but maybe not often enough, is that I think it's so important for both spouses to know how to operate the rig. Every aspect of that rig, both of you should be able to know whether it's your spouse, your travel partner, your child that you travel with that's an adult and can operate everything. But knowing how to drive the trailer, back it up parallel, park it If you need to, you know, know where the reservations for your sites are, know how to gas it up, know how to empty your black water and your gray water. Those are all super important because it takes the stress off the other person who normally does that. And it's okay to have specific jobs that each person does. And I think, you know, in a relationship you always fall into that avenue where like you do certain things And I do certain things and that's just kind of the natural order and that's okay.

1 (21m 45s):
But there is this inherent stress on somebody if like if Dan was doing a hundred percent of the driving and a hundred percent of everything else and he was laid up with the flu, we're basically stuck, right? We can't get the get on the road until you feel better. Whereas if you're not feeling well, you can lay down in the truck and you know, we can hit the road and go and everybody knows how to hitch up and and get on the road without

2 (22m 6s):
You the other part. Absolutely. The other part I'll add to that is there's probably a couple of systems you may not ever use. Hopefully you never have to use them but you should at least know about them. If you have an electric jack on the front of your trailer, there's probably a manual override in click case it cos out. You should know how to use that. And we've used that once or twice, you know, maybe a battery's pooched or a blown fsed. So we've done that. The other thing is If you have a tip out on your trailer, there's a manual way to bring in your tip out. We've never had to use it, knock on wood, you know, think of all the good luck charms you can right now and and wish us well. But I know there's a spot to do it And I know there's an adapter And I know it's in the cutlery drawer and if I have to do it I'll check the manual but at least I know that I'm not gonna panic.

2 (22m 49s):
I'll just have to take a few minutes, read the instructions And I can bring it in. And that's another area where maybe you want to know just a couple of more systems about your trailer that you might not use every trip.

1 (23m 2s):
And one of those would be, you probably know it and you have known it at one point in time, but maybe it's not sitting in your brain and that is the exact height of your rig.

2 (23m 10s):
Yeah, you should probably know the height of your rig. We have maybe found this out the hard way. Fortunately we've never had an accident. You know, we went through St. Louis, I made a wrong turn going through St. Louis, they won't let dad live it down. But you know, we came up to a low hanging bridge and it was tagged at 13 feet And we thought we were about 12 feet And we thought we would be okay And we were nervous and, and then, you know, there was a truck in front of us but he wasn't super tall either and he made it And we went for it and fortunately it all ended well. But you know, we did put a little cheat sheet underneath the visor and feet and meters And we know now that our rig is 12 and a half feet tall, not 12 feet tall.

2 (23m 51s):
So, you know, And we used that this summer in Key West. We, you know, got onto a bit of a detour in downtown Jacksonville And we were about to turn left And we looked over and saw a bridge tagged at nine feet And we knew that we kind of had to turn right and find a different way through the city. But you know, I mean there's two instances where it was good to have readily available just to do a quick reference check

1 (24m 16s):
For sure. Do you wanna talk a little bit about the spare tire? 'cause I think you have some thoughts on that. Yeah,

2 (24m 21s):
So we've talked about keeping a toolkit in your car, you know, something that's got some socket, some wrenches, some screwdriver, some pliers. Something that you would pick up at like say Canadian Tire Harbor Freight Princess Auto. You, I found out that the tire iron and jack in an F-150 are not the best tools to change the spare tire on a trailer. So the jack would obviously work but the tire iron doesn't because they're different size lug nuts. So because I had the toolkit, I could make the change that all ended well. But this spring what we're gonna put in is a breaker bar, the correct socket set and maybe a little bit more of an indus, not a, I wouldn't say an industrial jack, but something a little more heavy duty to do a, a tire change.

2 (25m 6s):
So there's some stuff where if I hadn't known that it could have been late at night And we would've been waiting for a, you know, roadside service to come change a tire for us. But we've got everything in there to do it. Now this time

1 (25m 20s):
One of the things we talked about as well were the sort of basics that you need. And we're not gonna go into that now because If you go back literally one episode to episode 53, we talked about some of those like not so shiny basics, like not the really exciting basics, but the basics that you need to kind of run and protect your trailer. If you are interested in all of the things that we personally use, you can just go on our website, rv connects.com/rv basics and that just has a listing of everything we use and why. But I think at the end of the day, If you are new to this, If you are new to RVing, If you just bought your first trailer, you want just at the very basic minimum something to level your trailer, something to protect your power system, something to protect your water system and you know, a good toolkit fuses all of that stuff that Dan just mentioned.

2 (26m 8s):
Yep, absolutely. I mean I think two of our biggest purchases that are give us a peace of mind is a surge protector that did not cost us a lot of money. And a water pressure regulator, which protects a potential for a blown water fitting inside the trailer and they're just peace of mind to prevent future calamity.

1 (26m 27s):
And maybe we'll breeze over some of the considerations on picking a rig On that same topic, if you're kind of brand new to this, we do have a really full length fundamental podcast episode on that and that's kind of what to consider when you're looking to buy or upgrade an rv. So go check out that episode for more because it gives such a good, like Dan does a really good job of breaking down kind of every aspect. But maybe we'll just give a very high level talk about one of, you know, some of the really important things when you're looking so

2 (26m 59s):
High level, I think the first thing you need to know is what your weight budget is because you're gonna exceed your weight budget. Well, you're gonna potentially exceed your weight budget before you exceed your financial budget, when you're gonna purchase a new trailer. So by that I mean know how much your tow vehicle can tow and then you're gonna select a trailer that fit or you know, a fifth wheel, whatever it might be, you're gonna fit something that fits within those specifications. So the weight is the really the important thing that you need to know because you don't want to overload your tow vehicle. And then if you're overloaded, that gives you braking problems. And I mean you can see how this begins to spiral outta control. So stick within your weight budget. One of the great things for preventing, you know, disaster going down the road,

1 (27m 42s):
Talking about length budget, I think there's a couple of important considerations. One where you wanna store it. If you plan on storing it in your driveway, obviously you need to make sure it's of a particular length. But not only that, you're gonna want to check your bylaws wherever you live to make sure there's no fundamental bylaws against keeping your travel trailer in or your RV in your driveway. The other thing you wanna consider is where you want to camp the majority of the time. If you are getting into this and you know that you want to be a provincial park camper and a national park camper and that's pretty much gonna be 90% of your trips, you probably want to choose something that is like, you know, maximum 35 feet to make sure that you can get a spot in any park that you want to go to.

1 (28m 28s):
And we see a lot of people pushing this. We see a lot of people giving really bad advice on the internet about how you can push it. Even if, you know a site is rated for say 35 feet and under, yet somebody will read the specific description of that site and it says, you know, but it's 50 feet long and you know, 15 feet wide, oh well we're gonna, we're gonna be able to do it 'cause it's 50 feet long. In actuality, the way that site lengths are determined is not just the length of the pad that your wheels are landing on it, it has to do with turning radius, it has to do with obstacles, trees, rocks, drop toilets, anything that's blocking the way that you need to get into your site from. So please keep that in mind so that you are not disappointed.

1 (29m 10s):
But those are kind of the two major considerations from a length standpoint.

2 (29m 14s):
Yeah. And there's advantages to length. The longer the trailer probably is gonna sleep, a few more people have more conveniences, maybe it's a little bit more luxurious. So that's the advantage of a long trailer. One of the other things a long trailer is the longer the trailer, the easier it is to back up within reason. Right? You know, If you sneeze with an eight foot pop-up camper, you're all, all of a sudden jackknifed. But a, you know, a a 25 foot trailer is more forgiving. So that's one thing to consider. So that, that kind of is counterintuitive, especially if you're new RV or that maybe a longer one might be easier to back up. The other thing I would say is think about the long-term flexibility of your trailer. There's a million stories of somebody who bought a 20 foot trailer and all of a sudden in two years they need to update, upgrade to a 27 foot because it wasn't their family change.

2 (30m 4s):
They found that they really enjoyed it, they wanted something bigger. So in our particular case, we looked at a used trailer, we looked at a 27 foot trailer And we looked at a 29 foot trailer. And the price difference from the least expensive to the most expensive was $2,500. So we went with the 29 foot trailer. It's a bunkhouse. And that has really done us well. So first of all, we never, we in what, 10, 12 years or so, give or take, we haven't upgraded that trailer has really evolved with us. So initially the bunkhouse was great because the girls could go in the back with their stuff and their mess and their food when they were little and have a great time And we could close the door And we had fun.

2 (30m 44s):
And then, you know, as they got a bit older, they brought brought friends and the friends could stay back there and teammates would stay back there and then, you know, our parents can stay back there. And so that trailer has really evolved for us and given us a lot of lang longevity. And we haven't had to continually swap out trailers every three or four years.

1 (31m 3s):
But what I would say is when we purchased that trailer within a year we bought a new pickup truck and that new pickup truck definitely could have allowed us to get the trailer that had, you know, say a slide out in the bunk room to give that extra little bit of space. But we were at towards the top end, I would say, of our weight budget with the old pickup truck that we had. So if we were to do this again, I think we would, you know, figure that out kind of in tandem rather than kind of a year apart because I think we could have gotten maybe a little more space, but I mean, it's worked out well. We love our trailer, but it is a consideration where as soon as we bought that truck, we're like, ah, darn, we could have got that other trailer that we were looking at.

2 (31m 46s):
I'm, I'm happy. Yeah, I think what I'll tell you is like we have good friends and they have made a completely different choice. They have a class C motor home, they have seven people in their family. They don't bring a tow, they accept that if they forget a bag of milk or they need to get firewood and they've forgotten they're gonna either have to get on their bikes or, you know, unhook all of the services and drive to go get that. But they're really happy with that. So there's something out there for everybody, whether it's a class B van or it's a travel trailer or a fifth wheel. There's something out there for everyone.

1 (32m 19s):
So at the beginning of the episode, we talked a lot about kind of the uncertainty and the fomo and like all of the things that we're preventing people from really going a long way on their trips. And one of the things that we realized pretty early on is we had some bias around how we camped. And for us to be successful campers and to be successful RV lifestylers, we had really had to break the bias that we held, well number one was that like 10 camping was like far superior to everything else that's out there. And we found, you know, as we, as we got married and had kids and had really terrible weather, especially one year when we camped and, and had a river running through our tent, that, okay, well we broke that bias, we were ready to go to a little trailer.

1 (33m 3s):
And then it was like only provincial parks. Like, you're not really camping if you're at a KOA, like what is that? And then we found out really quickly, like we could have some really excellent, amazing adventures that rival anything where you have to take an airplane to get to. And it's just, it's, it's a whole different way of, of looking at it. And like Dan always says, there's no right way to do this.

2 (33m 25s):
Yeah. I think what I think the statistic was around 50% of people only camp in provincial park state parks or national parks. And in my mind you're cutting out 50% of the opportunities to have an amazing experience and make memories. And that's really why we go RVing, right? We don't go RVing to say we have a badge of honor that we only stay in a particular type of park. I would like to think we'll all try something because one of the things I tell people is like, even if you're in a bad site, you're probably only there for two nights. You're not gonna remember that. I don't even know if you'll remember that in a month or six months or even certainly not in five years, right? So give it a try.

2 (34m 5s):
If it doesn't work, you don't go back. You live and you learn, right?

1 (34m 9s):
Yeah. I think that's important and for us to kind of branch out to, we made an effort to do different things with our rv. Like we started doing like festivals and events where we would bring our trailer as opposed to just being day visitors. And that's actually turned out to, you know, it lends itself well to kind of like the immersive experience of what that event is bringing you.

2 (34m 31s):
And when we talked also, we, earlier we mentioned fomo, you know, people worry about missing out on another type of vacation. I'm a big proponent of a hybrid vacation. It's okay to travel in your rv, maybe you'll travel for a week, maybe you'll travel for a week and a half and then maybe you're gonna swap into a hotel and maybe you're gonna stay at a resort. And we did that this summer. We stayed at Disney in a resort proper and park the trailer for a few days. Maybe you're just gonna drive down the road and you're gonna stay in at the holiday and express and pull in and park out back where the trucks are because that's gonna help you get down the road quicker. So don't think you have to do it one way.

1 (35m 10s):
And I would say to those who, you know, I was thinking about this when we were doing preparation for this presentation we were doing and all of the ways that people like to vacation and all of the vacations that they, that they brag about and like, listen, Dan, Dan And I are fairly well traveled when it comes to kind of, you know, traveling across the pond and traveling across North America and hopping on flights to get to places and you know, non camping vacations. And I think there's really not a single type of vacation maybe except for a cruise that you can't replicate in an rv. And, and some examples that we always love to give are, you know, If you love kind of that old European kind of castle vibe, go to Quebec City, go to St.

1 (35m 52s):
Augustine in Florida, those are two of the oldest cities in North America. They have been owned by, you know, say the Spanish, the French, the British, you know, it's, and back again like, it's just, there's such a storied history, there's forts, there's, you know, really old buildings. Go to Newfoundland and take a ferry to St. Pierre and Michelon, which is a French overseas territory. You need your passport to get there. It's essentially France on a little island, you know, just off the coast of Newfoundland. If you like history, you know, you can't throw a stone on the east coast, whether that be the east coast of America or the, or the USA or the east coast of Canada where you don't hit some kind of historical site. If you love Jurassic history, go out to Alberta, you can see drum heller, you can see Dinosaur Provincial Park.

1 (36m 38s):
If you love city lights, you can go stay at, you know, Bronte Creek Provincial Park just down the road from Toronto and take the go train into the city and go see a Jays game or you know, experience the hockey hall of fame or just anything that Toronto has to offer. And we have stayed at the foot of the Las Vegas trip in an RV park, which was like one of our favorite RV resorts. It was really swanky as far as rv, you know, resorts go, we had the kids with us, they had a great time in Vegas. If you love a Caribbean vacation, we'll talk to the island boy over here. He knows that If you stay at the southernmost KA in Sugarloaf key, you are going to feel like you are having that Caribbean resort vacation.

2 (37m 22s):
You absolutely are. You're gonna feel safe, you're gonna feel secure, you're gonna have all of your stuff with you. So we're big proponents of it. I just, I love that the geographies can change so much in a day. You can leave Thunder Bay and by the time you get to Winnipeg, you're at the start of the prairies. You can be at drum heller and by supper time you can be in Banff in the mountains. And it's just, it's something completely amazing. I think what I will tell everybody is there's no wrong way to rv. We don't RV in a class A motor home. There's no wrong way to rv. We don't RV in a class A motor home. But they're not doing it wrong either. So do what feels right for you and don't feel the pressure to conform to somebody else's ideas. We're just here to throw out some tips to hopefully broaden your horizons and let you go a little further than that 160 kilometer barrier.

1 (38m 10s):
Absolutely. I couldn't have said it better myself.

2 (38m 13s):
I nailed it.

1 (38m 14s):
Yes, you did. Okay, so that's it for this week's episode. Check us again in a couple of weeks. I think by that point we'll probably have a really good idea of all of the places we are nailing down to go in 2025 on our new season adventures, I guess. And So we will be prepared to at least share some of that with you and we're very excited to see you again soon.

2 (38m 39s):
We are, it's exciting times. We're planning vacations and figuring out what time people can get off work.

1 (38m 44s):
Okay, stay safe everyone. Bye-bye Bye.