Tag: RV

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Relax RV Podcast – S2 episode 52

Paul Sebastian, RN

How are you doing?

These are strange and trying times.

It seems that people who are “not essential” are experiencing new stressors at this time of change.

..lack of income

..frustrations of try to negotiate super inundated systems like unemployment

..kids and adults are stressed with isolation from their friends

..adults are dealing with working at home OR being an essential employee

..hard to get comfortable with the uncertainty of when their lives will go back to the routine they are comfortable with

..try to keep needed supplies in the household

“Essential ” people may be feeling overwhelmed because of being overworked or fearful because of possible exposure to the virus.

Either way These ARE trying times.

Signs and symptoms of stress overload:

Anxiety or panic attacks, A feeling of being constantly pressured, hassled and hurried, Irritability and moodiness, Stomach problems, headaches, or even chest pain, Allergic reactions, such as eczema, Acne  or asthma, Problems sleeping too much or too little, Over or under eating, Increased drinking, smoking or doing drugs, Sadness or depression, Feeling like you are losing control or need to take control, Having difficulty relaxing and quieting your mind, Feeling bad about yourself (low self-esteem), lonely, worthless, and depressed, Low energy, headaches, Upset stomach, including diarrhea, constipation, and nausea, Aches, pains, and tense muscles, Chest pain and rapid heartbeat, Nervousness and shaking, ringing in the ear, cold or sweaty hands and feet, Dry mouth and difficulty swallowing, Clenched jaw and grinding teeth, constant worrying, Racing thoughts, Forgetfulness and disorganization, Inability to focus, Poor judgment, Being pessimistic or seeing only the negative side.

Things that will help you to relax:

..Find diversions

..start new or do old hobbies

..read

..jigsaw puzzles

..crafts

..clean

..paint

..fix or repair things that have been on the “honey do” list

..plan or explore options for your travel plans when the restrictions are lifted

..TALK on the phone

..play games with family or Solitaire

..work on the list of things broken in your rig or do modifications that you have wanting to do

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 40 – We visited the Everglades, the Keys and South Beach and Little Havana in Miami

Paul Sebastian, RN

Well, I learned I love Rt 27 in Fla, and dislike I-75 ! We had great cinnamon buns at Knaus Berry Farm then drove the northern end of the Florida Keys and found some great parks like Crocodile Lake NWR (which you can not explore) and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park Pennekamp . The next day we went on a airboat ride at Everglades Holiday Park to see Alligators and I talk about the good and bad of that. The next day we visited Biscayne Bay National Park and visited Everglades National Park. And in Little Havana, Miami we ate at El Cristo restaurant….wow !!!! And there was fantastic music at Cubaocho  and you need to check out el Santo. And we went to Manatee Park where we rented the canoe. 

Pictures of the airboat ride, Biscayne Bay, South Beach and the Florida Keys can be found on Facebook.

 

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 39 – We went to the Florida RV Supershow in Tampa, visited my brother Mike and his wife Jen and enjoyed time in the RV park

Paul Sebastian, RN

We visited the Florida RV Supershow in Tampa on the busiest day of the show, and let me tell you, WOW!  But the real reason for visiting Clearwater was to visit my brother Mike and his wife Jen. This was a bitter-sweet yet very healing visit for me. We then had our 2nd one-night stop over on the trip. We are loving the slower pace. 

Here are pics from the Tampa RV Supershow.

 

Here is a link to the Florida RV Supershow.

And a link to John and Kathy Huggins instructions on “How to survive a RV show”. 

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 37 – More time in and around Charleston SC then south to Savannah Georgia

Paul Sebastian, RN

We spent another day in Charleston and saw a Emancipation Celebration Parade. Then we visited a Tea Plantation, a huge Live Oak tree, a Distillery and a Winery near Charleston.  Then off to Jekyll Island, St Simons island and Savannah Georgia.

Here are links to the pictures of the Angel Oak Tree the Charleston Tea Plantation, Wormsloe, Firefly Distillery and Deep Water Vineyard. And we visited Savannah Georgia and Jekyll Island and St Simons Island. 

Here’s links to the places websites: Angel Oak Tree the Tea Plantation the First Baptist Church. and the Cathedral  of St John the Baptist.

The Firefly Distillery the Deepwater Vineyard and an article about the ship that sank with the Hyundias on it.

The Wormsloe park and the Hollings Basin. And the Dungannon Plantation.

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 34 – On the road again, the start of our Southeast 2019 trip

Paul Sebastian, RN

We finally left our stone and mortar home for our Southeast 2019 trip. We didn’t get out of our driveway before the problems started, Then our 1st night out … NO 110v in the rig !!!!! Ugh. This may be a trip ender. We stayed in Barnegat NJ, visited the “Christmas Vacation House in Mickleton NJ. Then off to Chesapeake MD. Afterwards we drove down to Assateague MD to see the wild ponies and went over to Ocean City MD.

 

Here are some pics of the Barnegat Light house.

And some from Chesapeake Maryland and our stop at 503 Legends Court in Mickleton NJ to see the Christmas Vacation House. 

Here’s photos of Assateague and Ocean City MD

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 33 -Getting ready to hit the road for our southeast journey

Paul Sebastian, RN

House is set.  Rig is packed.  Might as well get the road and travel to warmer climes for the winter.

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 32 – Back in our mortar and stone house. Made some improvements to the rig.

Paul Sebastian, RN

We arrived home from our 2019 Northeast trip. We were gone for 4 months and traveled 6,000 miles. In this episode I talk about how many nights we stayed at various types of places (Harvest Hosts, Campgrounds and Boondockers Welcome). Made some improvements to the rig. 

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 31 – Ohio, Pennsylvania, N.Y. and ….. home

Paul Sebastian, RN

 

We were pleasantly surprised with the service at Thor!!!

We then headed east to Ohio. Then onto Pennsylvania and upstate NY. We found some great towns, a casino, great beer and wineries.

This is episode is the last one for our Northeast 2019 trip. With over 6,000 miles of memories and problems, it was wonderful!!!!!

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 30 – West Coast of Michigan then to …. Thor

Paul Sebastian, RN

Wow this podcast is really growing in popularity. On September 5th 2019 we arrived at sleeping Bear dunes national Park. At first we were confused about the actual hike over the dunes. The information on the websites was confusing. But if you don’t think about it too much basically you pulling into the parking lot and walking over the sand dunes to lake Michigan. Now in New Jersey shore it takes about a minute to walk across the sand dunes. Here it’s two plus miles to lake Michigan. This Sand dune is definitely something to see and not an easy one to walk the first one plus miles it’s uphill and sand and the rest of it is downhill and sand. You don’t get to see the lake until you’re almost off of the dune. When we arrived at lake Michigan after the hike we walked along the beaches and it was really beautiful. We found this hike to be tougher than what we expected. There’s four miles of hiking in sand plus any additional walking you do on the beach. We thought it felt like about an 8 Mile hike. The weather definitely takes its toll also. At points we were chilly and other points we were hot and it’s still other places we were really cold. It all depended on elevation wind and sun. After we were done we drove over to empire bluff trail. It was pretty in a much shorter walk. Although there are some stairs and a small hill. The next day we went to Frankfort. Which is a nice lakeside town. We kept having to remind ourselves this is not a seaside town. Remember lake Michigan is unsalted. Lol. We rode the bike for a while on the path to other towns. We saw two jetties protecting the harbor there was a lighthouse out on the end of one of the jetties and the tops of the jetties were paved. I decided I wanted to walk out there even though it was windy and chilly and to get some pictures. I was walking out the jetty I got three quarters of the way to the lighthouse and a wave came and soaked me and my Canon camera. When we got back to the rig I took out the battery and the memory card and left to cover open. I took the lens off and left that open. I left it that way overnight the camera all dried out and worked fine the next day. We then headed south on Michigan’s West Coast we drove past Manistee it looked cute so we parked the rig and we walked the Riverwalk following the Manistee river. There were nice restaurants, shops and bars and also a casino with free parking. It turns out they have a Christmas parade and we saved it on our Google maps and will revisit it in the future. We then drove to our next boondockers welcome location. We met our host was in really nice guy. We hopped in our toad and drove to fennville Valley vineyard. They had a lot of excellent wines we bought a few bottles also got a t-shirt. We then went to the saugatuck brewing company you got a flight of beers and played shuffleboard on their tabletops. We then played bumper pool which we had never played before we were trying to read the instructions when a young mom and her son approached us and taught us how to play. That was a lot of fun. The next day we went to douglas. It’s a small town with a lot of expensive shops. And he also had an accessible kayak put in which was really cool. This town is on the Kalamazoo lake. We passed by Holland that had an amusement park but didn’t visit it. The next day we packed up and finally arrived at 4:00 we arrived there September 8th. I went through the rig I unscrewed the L brackets and beams that were holding the slide in.

our appointment was September 9th we set the alarm for 6:15 a.m. the service manager arrived at our rig at 7:05 a.m. which was a lot earlier than the year previous. I talked about that visit in episode 12. This time Jim met us right away he reminded us that the repair will not be covered under a factory warranty. Which we already knew. We gave him a list of things that we wanted to be addressed the bedroom door wasn’t sliding as it had fallen off the track, we had bent our ladder pulling in to a site so we wanted that replaced. One of our basement compartments were leaking water when it rained and I wanted a new antenna up on the roof. But I told him our priority is getting the slide fixed. Jim asked if I had an extended warranty and I told him absolutely not we got rid of Good Sam because their coverage was terrible. I talk about that in episode 12 also. Here’s a link to that episode https://relaxrv.org/2018/10/22/relax-rv-podcast-episode-12/

They took a rig into the shop and we went for a ride in the toad. At 10:00 a.m. Jen and Jim cold with bad news. She explained that at least one of our motor mechanisms were shot they cost between the part and labor about $1,000 each side each slide takes two. I explained to them that if only one mechanism is bad I expect only pay for one mechanism and not the two of them. She said they may have one left over from another repair but that’s not how they typically sell mechanisms. I said well then how come you have one left over from another repair? smh. We got to the rig that afternoon. Thor only keeps the rigs in the shop till around 3:00 in the afternoon and you can stay in the rig in the parking lot overnight with their hookups. When we got to the rig we saw a note by the slide switch don’t bring slide all the way out. They didn’t mention this to us when we’re on the phone with them. So that afternoon we brought the slide halfway out which gave us a little bit of leg room. The next morning I asked about a price for the ladder and antenna the ladder was going to be $500 including labor. Ouch. And the antenna was $15 they said that they did find one mechanism and being we only had one bad they would replace that. Jim had fixed the bedroom door from sliding. He also changed the gasket in our basement bin and explained that I had too much weight in that plastic bin. Now remember this is not a diesel pusher with metal basements. This bin is where I kept my tools stored and the weight of it was pulling the bin off of the mounts at the top of it. So I reconfigured my tools storage to get some of that weight out of there. I carry a lot of tools in our rig as we travel. And I’m really glad I do. To mount the L brackets for the slide and to cut the 2×4 to hold the slide in, to mount the d-ring for when the door lock broke, a chisel which I used to get the old lock off of the door etc. I like having tools handy. The next day all the work was done. It cost us $1,586. We felt that with Thor only charging us and doing one mechanism that they did us a huge favor and saved us a lot of money. He thought that perhaps Thor’s service has improved over our previous visit in episode 12.

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 29 – U.S. border crossing then to Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan again

Paul Sebastian, RN

We arrived in the US via the rainbow bridge. It was a Sunday August 18th 2019. We got there early to beat the traffic going through customs. We arrived at customs at 9:00 a.m. and waited a half hour. We went right through without an issue. Which made me think about border crossings it seems like the slower quieter ones have more time perhaps to look through RVs and such. Or perhaps they’re thinking is if you’re sneaking something through go through the quiet areas. But whatever the reason it always seems that going through customs at a high tourist area like Niagara falls even though we wait longer in line we don’t have our rig searched. In the past I had enjoyed seeing Niagara falls from the New York side where it’s quiet and more like a state park. Whilw we were in Canada we planned on walking across the bridge to the NY park from Canada but we saw the line of people standing and waiting to go through customs and decided it wasn’t worth it.

We arrived in Erie pa and stayed at another boondockers welcome location. We had never been to Erie before. We learned that the city has a lot of concerts and live music in the summer. Our hosts invited us to join them at a huge street fair. This was a part of their 3 day celebration which happens every year in August. They had three stages food art and a beer garden. But no wine. This year Sister Sledge and Scotty McCreery performed. The next day we paddled kayaks with them and their friendly neighbors at Presque Isle State Park for almost 3 hours. Halfway through the panel we stopped at a small Beach and had snacks and a glass of wine. The name got me wondering so I googled what a Presque is and it is a peninsula that is almost an island. Now you know lol.

The two of us then visited some covered bridges and wineries in Rome Ohio. We drove past Kent State University so of course we had to listen to The Crosby stills Nash & Young song. From there we went to Ashtabula which had a small main Street with a drawbridge and a great chocolate shop. From there we went over to Geneva on the lake well how do I explain this town? Think of the New Jersey shore without the crowds. A lot of shops food and arcades. It was August 20th it was a Tuesday. And it was empty! Many people say it’s packed earlier in the season and on the weekends. We had visited two wineries in the area one was South River winery which was a beautiful old church. Here’s a link to it http://southrivervineyard.com/ We really enjoyed that winery. And the other one was a ferrante winery. This one was an experience. They had two menus a dinner menu and a light self-serve menu. We got the muscles they were $14 and they were delicious but we got no forks or napkins. So he asked to waiter for some and he handed his silverware and cloth napkins and then he saw that we were not dinner guests but only self-serve guests so he took them away from us and gave us plastic wear and paper napkins. Unreal.

The next day we left that host and went to another boondockers welcome host location. As we’re backing into the site the host was guided me back on his hard pack driveway. I explained to him I don’t want to leave the hard pack because of all the rain lately we had gotten stuck in the mud in the past and I don’t want to get stuck again. Unfortunately I trusted him and not myself and he backed us off of the driveway and sank up to the rear axle in mud in the rig.

He said that his neighbor will be home the next day with the tractor and composed out. I shook my head the back of the rig was 2 to 3 ft lower than the front of the rig. And we were not going to be sleeping like that tonight. So I took out the tow strap hooked it to the front axle of the rig in the back of the Jeep Wrangler toad. I got in the rig Trish got in the Jeep we put it in 4 low. I told Trish hit the gas and keep going until I beep the horn on the rig. She did the rig pull immediately out of the mud and I beeped the horn. Yay trish. The next day August 23rd 2019 we were off to Nelson Kennedy ledges State Park in garrettsville Ohio. We figured to be there about an hour to hike the 3 miles of trails. We were there for four and a half hours. What fun. There’s waterfalls crevasses trails cliffs etc. It is probably the most unique State Park we have ever been to. It’s not long hikes but it is beautiful. The next day we visited Cleveland which we found to be a segmented City the New York City you can easily walk from one neighborhood to another like Little Italy to Chinatown. In Cleveland he really need to drive from one area to another. So that was a drag however there was no traffic at all. We visited the West side market. And then we saw that the house where the movie The Christmas story was filmed, was open as a museum. https://www.achristmasstoryhouse.com/

Now we both knew the movie and loved it. We figured we would stay about a half hour and look at the museum stuff. Well it turned out that they do a tour of the house and we were there for just over 2 hours. It was amazing of all the movie props that they had on display. And you can actually walk through the rooms freely to see them. From there we went over to the flats the flats are wrenched right on the Cayahoga River on both sides the east side and the west side. To get from one side of the river to the other side was not easy unless you had a boat. So we pulled out Google maps and we decided which side to walk down. From there we went over to the Mill stream run reservation which is a single track bike trail. Certain days of the weeks it’s only for walkers and we were there one of those days which was really nice. We stopped at Gibbs butcher block and got some free samples and bought some of their excellent sausages

http://www.gibbsbutcherblock.com/

The next day we headed out of Ohio and into Michigan. Last year we saw very little of “Troll, below the bridge” part of Michigan. The main part of Michigan is referred to that way because it is south of Mackinac bridge which takes you to the U.P.

So this time we wanted to see more of Michigan. In the lower East side of Michigan we stayed in another boondock was welcome location. Our hosts were a couple from switzerland. Very nice people. The next day we took our toad into Kerrrytown in Ann arbor Michigan. Really nice town. We saw a farmer’s market that has been going on every Saturday for over 100 years. We really liked Kerrytown.

From there we went off to Manchester. Another cute town. They had a farmer’s market there and met the organizer. They take a portion of the profits and they print $1 coupons. You take those coupons and you can buy things from vendors that are run by kids selling their crafts and such. The organizer gave us $5 certificates to help encourage the kids. We spent those $5 and a bunch more by the end of the day. At the end of the day the kids can take their coupons and cash them in for money. When we were in Provincetown I bought a sweater from the Marine store and it had a hole in it so one of the things we bought it this market was yawn and Trish mended it for me. The next day we left this area and we’re heading over towards Grayling Michigan to yet another boondockers welcome host location. We had stayed at this location last year and really enjoyed their company. They offered 15 amp which was enough for us.

We figured they would be busy with Labor Day coming but they said absolutely come by you know where to park and our son will help you with the electric. Grayling is an interesting town this is where the annual au sable canoe marathon is held. Which is touted as the world’s toughest spectator race. It’s 120 mi of paneling it runs from one day at 9:00 p.m. to the next afternoon. Very interesting but not for us. We did a more relaxed paddle on the ausable River. We hired a livery and grayling. We dropped our car at Stephen bridge they met us there. Drove us back to grayling. We then peddled our kayak 4 hours over 13 miles back to our car and they charged us 20 bucks not bad. The previous year we did almost The identical paddle but on a different River and our host shuttled us one way to the put in.

You would have to go back and listen to that episode to hear about that. The next day was a laundry day. And then we went over to North Higgins lake State Park. It’s clear that Michigan is a water-based state in the summer and in the winter. The park had a boat launch a beach and a campground we rode our tandem bike for about 10 miles to Roscommon. Not much there today but apparently a hundred years ago it was the destination spot. In fact Groucho Marx has been time there at a hotel. That night we had dinner with our hosts and their grandson. And when we were leaving they gave us some homemade apple pie moonshine which was delicious. The next day we headed over towards traverse City. And we stayed at Hawkins farm cellers winery via Harvest hosts. We sampled a few of their wines and then bought a bottle and we enjoyed a glass sitting there. That afternoon we went over to suttons Bay and Northport. Half of the stores were closed and this was Labor Day weekend unbelievable. Although there were a lot of shoppers walking streets. The next day we drove to another Harvest host winery called Brengman Brothers winery and we visited traverse City. We weren’t impressed by traverse City. Expensive shops and the such.

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 28 – Montreal, Kingston Ontario, and make our 2nd visit to Port Dalhousie …. and then another water leak

Paul Sebastian, RN

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 27 – Nova Scotia to New Brunswick and then to the Walled City of Old Quebec !!!!

Paul Sebastian, RN

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 25 – A wonderful garden on Eastern P.E.I. then back to Nova Scotia and …… home :(

Paul Sebastian, RN

We spent a total of 10 nights on PEI. This episode we talk about the Eastern side of the island and the trials of getting off of it.

When we got back to Nova Scotia, we stayed with our friends Andrew and Patty. Visited Tatamagouche, wait till you hear about the train ! We then visited Cape Breton Island, wow!!!

Not sure if you know, Nova Scotia translates to New Scotland. And Cape Breton is where the Irish settled, it’s so Irish, the street signs are in Gaelic. 

Pics of places I talk about in the episode:

 Cavendish N.P. and the Hope Gardens

A beach and light house in Panmure

Cape Breton Island and the Highlands National Park

Truro, Victoria Park and the Tidal Bore

Here’s a video describing our route across PEI

 

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 24 – A water leak, wineries in New Brunswick and fresh lobster on P.E.I.

Paul Sebastian, RN

 

Check out the photos of:

 St John and New Brunswick

 Sea Caves just north of St John on the Bay of Fundy – New Brunswick. 

Tyne Valley and western PEI (Prince Edward Island)

Here’s a video describing our route around PEI

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Relax RV Podcast – Episode 22 We start our 2019 Northeast Trip

Paul Sebastian, RN

 

Here’s links to pictures from the places we visited in this episode:

Mystic Seaport in Connecticut

Rock Harbor Cape Cod, Massachusetts 

We drive on the beach in Cape Cod

A day at a lake on “the Cape”

Salem, Massachusetts

Gloucester Massachusetts

 

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 21 – Dewinterizing and destroyed our water heater

Paul Sebastian, RN

Spring is here. I did a break in trip and found I didn’t winterize our rig correctly, ….. our water heater is shot, I made a short video on this mistake

Here’s a video on the water heater replacement:

And along with spring comes wild life. Bears are awake and hungry. Here’s a link to Yellowstone’s podcast “Telemetry”, in episode 9 they talk with a family that were attacked with a bear less than 1 mile from their car. They had bear spray with them. As of 2018 we always hike with bear spray.

I talk about being careful taking selfies this season and always. stay hydrated while driving.

Our Summer 2019 Northeast Trip is starting next week (May 2019). We will be visiting Connecticut, Cape Cod, Salem, Boston in Massachusetts. Then New Brunswick Canada, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Then to Quebec City, Montreal, 1000 islands, Finger Lakes NY and possibly Pennsylvania.

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Can downsizing lower your Stress? 

Paul Sebastian, RN

In episode 20 of my RelaxRV podcast I talk about how living on the road in our 30′ motor-home for four months changed my view of “size” and things.

It is a fact that today buyers aged 35-54 are the largest segment of RV owners, according to the 2011 University of Michigan study. This is the 1st time that the average age group of RVers are not retirees. During our travels we met a lot of young families living fulltime on the road while homeschooling their children.

While writing my notes for episode 20, I did some research and found a couple of articles and a great book that talk about the reduction of stress associated with downsizing.

In the article in WebMD (https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/features/cut-stress-simplify-life#4) the author talks about how living “smaller”,  can reduce your stress by lowering time constraints. She also talks about the importance of “disconnecting” and reducing debt as associated with downsizing.

In another article “6 Reasons Downsizing Your Home Can Lower Stress” (https://seniordirectory.com/articles/info/can-downsizing-really-lower-your-stress) the author focuses on the financial benefits of downsizing.

And an interesting book (Voluntary Simplicity: Toward a Way of Life That Is Outwardly Simple, Inwardly Rich by Duane Elgin) which looks at ways to live without being obsessed with “things” and may inspire you to start living a life that is simple, happy, and less cluttered.

So, take a deep breath in … let it out and relax.

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 20 benefits of stress?

Paul Sebastian, RN

I talk about the benefits of stress. Wait, Stress has benefits? It sure does ! Ever get sweaty palms while driving? Well, that Stress response helps you grip the steering wheel better.

I also talk about downsizing. Can it help lower your stress level? Check this out:

Can downsizing lower your Stress? 

And ways we lowered our Stress like our new Bedlift kit to ease the access to un the bed storage. Here’s a video on that and other Stress reducing modifications we’ve made: https://youtu.be/D5Y5zNK4CzI

Check out the bedlift kit at: https://relaxrv.org/thingsweuse/

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 19 find your passion

Paul Sebastian, RN

Find your passion in life. If you love what you do, it is never work. I met a retired S.W. on the road. We were talking about helping others. He said “don’t worry you’ll get over it”. That sure isn’t me.  

Between trips I’m keeping busy with my clients and teaching. Also spending time editing photos and working in the website. 

Podcasts I listen to: RV Navigator, RV Podcast, Campground of the week, Living the RV dream, Radio arizona RV, in the field camping.

Also spending time working on the RV. Our Fantastic Fan was getting really noisy, I contacted them and they sent me a new motor, so I swapped out the old one. 

We hit a RV show in Suffern NY, which gave us the itch to hit the road

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 18 home and work

Paul Sebastian, RN

I’m working on the website to include ways to deal with Stress, ways to be proactive and relax.

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 17 Planning a Nova Scotia trip

Paul Sebastian, RN

The RV is back in the shop …. again. So, in the meantime we are planning our next trip in May 2019. Going up though the North-East; Connecticut, Cape Cod, Boston, Salem, Acadia National Park, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Then down through the 1000 islands and the Finger Lakes in NY. And I talk about fears

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 16 Snow, Grandson, Cousins and Dad

Paul Sebastian, RN

So the last episode we left you when we were arriving at the winery. The day we arrived there we had driven 160 MI but it took us 7 hours to do that. We left from Prince William’s Forest campground Virginia to Cedar Valley winery in Logan township New Jersey. I was beat when we arrived at the winery but I was very glad that we stuck to our 3-hour drives per day. Planning for 3 hour drive day allowed us to get to the winery before bedtime. Lol. When we arrived I was beat. But I was very glad that I listened to my intuition and canceled our stay in Maryland. Have we gone there we would have been way off the beaten path and stranded in the snow with a flat tire. Yay intuition. Another problem was when we pulled into the winery I forgot to turn off the driving lights on the Jeep so the battery was dead and are towed. We unhooked I pulled the RV next to the Jeep and jump started it for more chassis battery. So we arrived during the storm of November 2018, do you remember that storm? It had dumped almost a foot of snow on New York City. We had gotten 5″ of snow in south Jersey.  That night it was supposed to be super cold so we planned on bringing the slide in to cut down on drafts however the slide would not come in. We thought it had broken again. But with the 5 in of snow up on top of the slide it would not come in so I had to climb up on top of those rig to clean off our topper.

George our repair guy from slate Hill New York had always said if it’s going to rain or snow pull the slide in. When we left this winery we drove a very short distance to the KOA in clarksboro New Jersey. Koa’s or not our first choice that’s for sure. And once again we were not surprised to find this isn’t a great campground. We pulled into our site and it was full of garbage that we had to clean up. The picnic table had a torn tablecloth on it. We went over we picked up Trish’s grandson and we took him to our rig. He was amazed by it he had his own bed over the cab. This was the first time we were having anybody sleep on that bed. He had a great time practicing climbing up and down the ladder getting on and off the bed. We had pizza delivered to our site. Then we had a nice campfire and sat outside. The next day we took him to an all-you-can-eat buffet which he loved. The next day we dropped him off at home and we drove over to spotswood New Jersey to visit Trish’s cousins and aunts. We parked the rig for a night of mooch docking. The next day we drove up to Bloomfield New Jersey and parked in Trish’s dad’s driveway and spent the night there. This was the first night that we slept outside the rig in over 5 months. It felt a little surreal. The next day we drove home I looked at the odometer and so that we had driven the rig over 8,000 miles and another $5,000 on our toad. We had stayed in 17 States, two countries.

Wow what a trip! We had our ups and downs. A ripped topper a broken generator. We slept in temperatures of over 100 degrees fahrenheit. We had to slide that wouldn’t work. Electrical problems. Killing our batteries. A trip to thor. Getting stuck in mud. A flat tire. Closet door falling off. And lots of rain leaks. And yet through it all we had a wonderful five-month trip we’ve seen so many sites and met really wonderful people.

It took us two days to unload everything from the rig. We organized RV stuff into bins so it’ll be easier to reload. Now it’s time to do an oil change.

So what are the things that we learned on this trip? First and foremost patience. Patience with each other and with the rig.

#2 help each other when you can. It really does take a pilot and a co-pilot to drive a rig. #3 set aside time for chores and root planning. #4 remember takes a lot longer to drive the rig a certain amount of Miles than a normal car. #5 set limits to driving times and distances to meet your needs. #plane driving days and off days a day off to do laundry and catch your breath is always helpful. #6 laugh! Laugh at yourselves and things .

The next thing we will add to this rig is a new mattress.

We ordered a 6″ inner coil mattress from Mattress Insider and wow do we love it !  And if you go to relaxrv.org/discounts you can get a discount on all if their bedding stuff like mattresses and sheets etc.

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 15 Shenandoah and a flat tire

Paul Sebastian, RN

11/15/18

We visited Lewisburg West virginia. It was billed as the coolest town in America by NBC News in 2011. We have been through many towns of listed as quaint or cute or nice. We have found that if a town is listed as quaint or cute means it’s small. So Lewisburg, in our opinion, was a snooty town, you’ll see when as you read further. There were quite a bit of shops which are mainly overpriced. There’s a bunch of places for live music but only on Friday and Saturday. It was also a playhouse but they only had performances on The weekends. So perhaps Lewisburg is a nice weekend town? But perhaps not, we visited the smooth ambler distillery, we walked in and were ignored by the two women at the reception desk. We then went to the bar and was ignored there also. A woman working there was walking by we told her we were interested in doing some tastings. She said okay we’ll be with you in a couple of minutes. We walked out 5 minutes later. He then went to the brick house antique shop. We browsed for 10 mins and as we were leaving, the owner said, “come back when you can spend more time”. Really?? We then went into Robert’s antiques and wine shop. We complimented the owner on one of his pieces. He asked where we’re from we told him New York. He asked if we were from New York City, we said no upstate and he turned around and walked away from us. 

We then left town and walked in the Greenbrier trail which was really nice.

We then drove over into the state of virginia. Stopped at the Blue Stone winery in Bridgewater. They have a nice New tasting room up on a hill and it was a really nice fireplace inside. They had a big patio outside with a second fireplace and numerous heaters. We said enjoyed the view and the tastings and relaxed. What we do now with tastings is we ordered different wines for each of us and then we sample each other’s also.

We’ve been headed north to luray Virginia and camped at a Yogi Bear campground. This was our first Yogi Bear campground. We’re planning on staying there for three nights but they’re running a special stay for three nights and get one night free so we said hey boo boo that’s a pretty good deal. We were here so we could visit to Shenandoah national park. When we checked into the campground the woman gave us wristbands to attend the activities. We asked what the activities were and she said I have no idea. Unreal! They had to sign up saying new golf carts allowed. Yet the workers raced around the campground at more than the five mile an hour posted speed limit signs. And if you wanted to use a golf cart you could rent one for $60 per day. Unreal! Shenandoah national Park is a really interesting park it has one main road that runs north south and is 105 miles long the speed limit is 35 mph. And remember you’re in the national park so people are driving a lot slower than that while they are 16. They gave us a map of the park when we arrived but it did not have any of the hiking trails on it. We went to the visitor center we talked to one of the rangers we explained they were looking to do a four to five mile hiking the area she ended up giving us four maps for free and told us a lot a different hikes. Very nice. The Appalachian trail or the 80 wines back and forth across skyline drive. Any hike that you do from skyline drive you will be hiking down off of The ridge and then hiking back up onto the ridge. We ended up doing a nice 5-mile hike but it was really cold. The next day we went on a guided horseback ride through the park. It was super cold around 30°. Foggy rainy and snowy. It was a beautiful ride but no open vistas. And the guide was not friendly at all. Not once did she acknowledge that we were behind her. The night we ate at moonshadows restaurant in luray. Had a great meal and highly recommended eating there. A bit pricey but we don’t splurge very often while traveling in the rv. After dinner we went to a place called The speakeasy. There was a guy playing the guitar which was excellent. When we were leaving Shenandoah national Park we decided to drive up the skyline drive North and took us about an hour to drive 30 miles. I was a little concerned about driving a rig on this road but there was no issues at all. We stopped at one of the wineries in delaplane. We knew we were back in the east the tastings of two different wineries were 10 dolls each and the glass of wine was anywhere between 7:00 and $12. We miss the prices out west. We stayed at one of the wineries via Harvest hosts which was really nice to sit relax and sleep at the winery. Here’s a link to the discounts page on my website and from there you’ll see discounts for Harvest House boondockers welcome and other things. Relaxrv.org/discounts 

Then it stay we went to Prince William State Forest we stayed at the campground which was really nice. We did find that the sites were not very level and we needed a bunch of leveling pads under the wheels for our rig. We’re there to visit Tricia’s son who lives about 45 minutes away just outside of Washington DC. 

We were planning on spending the night at a boondock was welcome location. But there was a winter weather advisory coming in and we decided to head north a little further to stay at a harvest host winery in Logan’s township New Jersey. On the way there we got a flat on the highway in maryland. The left front tire blew out the rig-handled it beautifully. All I noticed was a little bit of a sway. We pulled over onto the shoulder. We had to wait 4 hours for truck to show up with a tire. Which he installed on the side of the highway. We then headed off to Cedar Valley Winery. the owner Marsha invited us to stay a second night because of the weather. They were super accommodating to us. We arrived 5 hours later than we expected. And we pulled in with 5″ of snow on the ground. They also pointed us to another winery just down the road that we visited during the snow storm. This storm as it turned out had caught many new yorkers and new jersians off guard and shut down the roads for many if our friends and family. Glad we were safe.  

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 12 Ogallala. The Roca NE. Got stuck in the mud.

Paul Sebastian, RN

Went to Ogallala. The Roca NE. Got stuck in the mud. 3 hours. No tow companies would help. But Matt pulled us out with his Hemi SUV. Cracker Barrel in Lincoln NE. Flat tire. Firestone was no help. Walmart fixed it for $15. Ate at Carlos Kelley’s in Lincoln Nebraska and met Drake a EDM musician and a great guy. Then to Ohio and hid from a Tornado. Then saw a play in Genesio Illinois. We did fall in love with Goshen Indiana and Shipshewanna Indiana for their amish grocery stores.

Then finally to Thor in Wakarusa, Indiana. We needed the bcc fixed. it cost us $750. Good Sam Extended Service plan paid $400. This plan was costing us $200/month. We thought we had a $500 deductible but that was a joke!! Our 2 repairs cost $2,350.00. Out of that we paid $1,500.00 and Good Sam paid out $800. And we had the plan for many months waiting for our appointment at Thor, so we paid $2,400.00 for the insurance. So we canceled our Good Sam Extended Service plan.

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 11 Cummings and Good Sam, Laramie and Casper WY

Paul Sebastian, RN

episode 11 10/4/2018

Had a great 10 days visiting with Kevin and Dee in White Sulphur springs Montana. We love these guys. We left there to get our generator fixed at Cummings in Billings MT. Good Sam Extended Service Plan only covered the PC board board and 0.5hrs to replace it. We were billed for 5hrs labor. This repair cost $1,100 but Good Sam only paid $350. Very disappointing.

Now our slide started acting up. ugh. And we still had an appointment to get the battery control center (bcc) fixed at Thor, so hopefully they will fix our slide too. We then headed to Sheridan Wyoming. We hit 307 winery, why is it called 307??? That was my 1st question. https://www.sheridanwyoming.org/establishment/just-ledoux-it-saloon/ . Then went to Casper WY and loved Alcova !!! We saw ruts from the Oregon Trail. Then to Nebraska. We stayed at a walmart because our generator was finally working. Went to Agate fossil beds. Then to Ogallala

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 9 – Glacier National Park finally

Paul Sebastian, RN

We could see the glaciers even before we arrived at the park. There was a lot of road construction outside of the park which slowed our travel. But oh well, because Glacier is so beautiful !!!  We did many hikes including our 1st hike on the Continental Divide, we saw Bighorn Sheep, Moose (mom and calf) and came face to face with Mountain Goats ! Wow wow wow ! We will be coming back.

I’m still figuring out the Podcast, formatting and file sizes and how it sounds on your end)

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Relax RV Podcast – episode 8 – We picked up bear spray and made life long friends

Paul Sebastian, RN

Stayed in (and liked) Billings Montana then off to White Sulphur Springs and it was cold, sleeting and snowy and this was in August 2018 !!!!!!  Remember you are in the Rockies. 

We wanted to get out the cold and figured a glass of red wine would help so we looked and found 2 bars, “The Lane” and “The Sockman”. We figured Stockman sounded more like Montana so we went in a met a couple of locals (transplants from PA). We sat, talked, laughed, and made life longs friends with Kevin and Dee. 

We find that even with the stresses, RVing is fun and fantastic !