Relaxrv Podcast

Season 2 Episode 797/22/22Gas prices vs running up and mountains. Instead of $100 fill ups we doing $150+ fill ups . Instead of 20 gallons we putting in 40 gallons at each fill up. Gas mileage went from 9 mpg to 4.5 mpg, so we were using twice the gas. Left Alexandria VA. Drove for 1.5 hrs. Got set up and started the AC. At 1030pm it was still 82 degrees. Love our AC. We found a winery close by so stopped by we're pleasantly surprised that they had a guy on the guitar playing. However even in the shade the 90° temps got the best of us we headed back to the RV. The next day we drove over to Harpers ferry West virginia. We were here two years ago just at the start of covid and everything was closed so we decided to revisit it. This time the exhibits were open so we walked around for a couple hours. However it was in the 90s so we did not redo the short hikes we did the last time. From here we headed to Gaithersburg MD to a Boondockers Welcome location. We got set up. And paid the $10 for 30 amp electric.

Season 2 Episode 785/20/22 We visited Bardstown. We hit the 1792 Distillery. They were the only distillery that offered a free tour. We parked in Bardstown and walked 20 minutes to it. They gave a great 45 minute tour and provided 4 samples and a piece of bourbon chocolate. We bought a few bottles and some if the bourbon chocolates. We learned they are ending the tour and gift shop in June 2022. We then walked around town and had Kentucky Fried chicken and cornbread which were delicious at Mammy's. We then checked a bunch of bars and only found 2 that were having live music but neither bands were playing bluegrass. So we went to McIntyre’s Winery. I liked their Corn Cob Wine which I had never heard of Lol. The next morning we drove for about an hour, dropped the rig and took the Jeep to the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. We figured we would spend an hour there. Well we ended up being there for 3 hours. We took a great tour and learned about the history of the Shakers. https://shakervillageky.org/Shake

Season 2 Episode 775/6/22 We left Johnson City on 4/25/22 and arrived in Pigeon Forge Tennessee an hour and a half later. We pulled into the campground they had no record of us reserving and paying for a spot for three nights via Passport America. But they said no problem. We asked that they received our package and they said it's been laying here for 3 days and we had no idea who Paul Sebastian was lol. We are in the south. Our package was a replacement valve for leveling jacks. Hooray our leveling jacks are fixed. We hooked up relaxed for a bit in the 86 degree temps and then drove around Pigeon Forge. The downfall to this town is it seems you really need to drive from place to place. Albiet there is a trolley you can take. It's amazing how many distilleries there are in this area and how many give you free samples, too many lol. We came back to the RV I set up the grill. One of our boondockers welcome hosts suggested cooking quesadillas on the grill. We had never done that but we did it today and I'll

Season 2 Episode 764/24/22 So on the last episode I mentioned our leveling jacks were acting wonky. When leveling if I pushed the button to extend the right jacks, the left front would also extend. I called Lippert the their tech support guided me through some testing to ascertain where the problem was. It turns out our Cartridge Valve was bad. The transferred me over to their parts department and the leading parts said we do have it in stock and it's $165.00. Then she said it may just be the coil which is the metal around the valve. She said to check to see if that is magnetized or not. She also said to take out the cartridge valve and use an air compressor and blow it out and sometimes that gets it working. Amazing she's in the parts department and gave us advice on how to avoid buying a new part smh. Unfortunately our coil was magnetized and I borrowed a guy's compressor blew out the valve and it didn't work so we went on to e-trailer dot com and sore that they had the same valve for $128.00 so we ordere

Season 2 Episode 75 4/18/22After dewinterization the day before our trip, I noticed low water pressure in the bathroom sink. And I saw a small leak underneath it. So after some research I saw the aerator was clogged. I tried to clean it to no avail. So we bought a new one and put it in. The next day we finally got on the road for our Kentucky 2022 trip.Our 1st stop was in Lititz, PA. A 3 hour drive from home. Remember we limit our travel days to 4 hours. We stayed 2 nights at a Boondockers Welcome location. We also plan our stays at a 2 night minimum unless that says driving is very short or we are staying at a Harvest Hosts. So we pulled in and plugged into their 50amp electric. Set up our grill. And headed over to intercourse PA. and did some shopping. We then headed back to the RV and cooked shrimp skewers on the grill.The next day we went to Lancaster for a little bit then to Turkey Hill experience where the ice cream is made. It was definitely not our cup of tea LOL however for a young family it looke

Season 2 Episode 743/23/22I had gone to the RV show at Rockland county community college in suffern New York back in February. It seems like a lot of the new rigs out there are getting rid of valances and putting up curtains. It also seems like there's a lot more rigs out there with outdoor kitchens. Which got me thinking our first rig did not have one our second one does. And we don't use the outdoor kitchen very often. Also I noticed not one rig or camper had a topper on its slide. We love our toppers. I finished putting up the curtains in the living room which meant removing the valence and moving the light switch. A beautiful decision. Here's a link to the before and after pics https://www.facebook.com/277623782811787/posts/1115125672394923/I went to put out my awning and nothing. I then tried the over-the-cab bed also not working. All else working. Tried it on shore power, 12v batteries and generator. Same issues.I checked 12v fuses, all good. Are these 2 issues related? I'm sure they are. The first thi

Season 2 Episode 732/20/22Welcome to all you new listeners and welcome back to all you long time listeners. Each month the number of episode downloads just so thank you So I had just finished recording the last episode and I went to go move the RV so we could bring firewood from our backyard to our house. And the lock on the RV broke. I climbed in the window took it apart from the inside and here's a video of this easy way I removed this broken lock.https://youtu.be/NERHUQKgbNg On our last rig we had the same issue except I needed to disassemble the lock to get the door open so it took many hours here's what we did the first time on lock broke.https://youtu.be/qgLsNSM9mdg But, when the lock broke this time I just took a deep breath let it out and said I'll deal with it as it unfolds.So I ordered a replacement lock from etrailer, installed it in a few minutes, problem solved. However I contacted them about fitment and they didn't answer my questions. It is slightly smaller than the original and the only way to

Season 2 Episode 72 1/16/22 RVing the peaceful wayHappy New Year everyone.We decided to install a heat strip in our roof AC. I saw that adding the heat strip wouldn't be too much work and not a ton of money. So I confirmed that our AC could be adapted. I had emailed Airxcel at rvpsupport@airxcel.com and gave them my AC model number, they replied the next day saying it could be modified with a heat strip but I would need to swap out out my controller and thermostat to have it work. They gave me the model numbers for the parts. So for $190 and about 2 hours of install work, we now have electric heat throughout our whole rig. Yay, that will save us a lot of money as compared to propane for our furnace heat.I learned this while installing the solar on my 1st rig:Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs- Henry FordI recently came across this gem of a book where I found that quote. 365 Quotes to Live Your Life By https://amzn.to/3t77fv8 It truly follows how I strive to live life. I created

We headed to NJ and Pennsylvania to see a reenactment of George Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas day which he did in 1776. But before I get into that, on October 26th while recording the last episode, a package was delivered to the house. I did not want to interrupt the recording so I didn't check what the delivery was. It was our surge protector from progressive Industries so it took them less than a week to mail us a replacement with no email no notification no nothing except a new progressive Industries 30 amp EMS portable protector for our rig. Yay. This is our third surge protector albeit we only paid for 1. Here’s a link to our surge protector https://amzn.to/3EBd1HwJohn and Kathy Huggins in the later episodes of their podcast Living the RV Dream, often mentioned having a 'exit plan'. Plan ahead of time, to know when it's time to leave the road, when to part with your RV and where to live when the times arises. I'm sure I couldn't do that. But we met wonderful folks in Vermont who are faci

Season 2 Episode 70 10/26/21I met Gina in Albany NY, who runs a non profit that brings yoga and mindfulness to first responders and front line workers . That account is @courageouswarriorcoalition Changed the oil on a motorhome and the two cars. We got the rig loaded up for a 11-day trip through New Jersey. We have reserved a campground for two nights at 2 different wineries through Harvest Hosts. And five nights at 2 different Boondockers Welcome locations. Both have electric and the last one has a dump available, yay. On the way South we hopped on the garden State parkway and was very confusing about where motorhomes were allowed and weren't allowed. So we emailed the New Jersey turnpike authority and asked about any restrictions for a 30-foot motorhome towing a jeep and they responded back "no restrictions".So our first stop is old cedar Campground. We are picking up our grandson and taking him there for a haunted Halloween Walk and trick or treating.Pulled in plugged in progressive Industries EMS and

Season 2 Episode 6910/11/21We tweaked a few things in the rig. We had a water leak whilst hooked up to city water. I thought there was a loose connection somewhere. Actually the line coming into the rig was kinked and the back pressure caused it. I took off the line straightened it out and viola fixed. Also, we installed curtains in the bedroom. Wow what a great upgrade. Heres a video showing the curtains https://youtu.be/D5Y5zNK4CzI We have stayed at almost 100 Boondockers Welcome locations for over 200 nights and 16 Harvest Hosts. Heres a link to discounts on those memberships https://relaxrv.org/discounts-to-help-lower-your-stress/ So on October 1st 2021 we pulled out of our driveway and headed north west to another boondockers welcome location about a half hour outside of Syracuse New York. We pulled in our host met us helped us get set up and we engaged in nice conversations. While I was talking to her I heard a crash inside the RV I looked at our house and I said I think Trish just dropped the coffee

Season 2 Episode 689/23/21New England 2021 2.0Over 7,000 downloads ! Awesome, I hope you are enjoying it.We left you after we visited Mt Washington, NHWe drove 2.5 hrs to Newport Center, VT. Which is in the North East Kingdom. Yep. We are at a Boondockers Welcome location for 4 nights. The next day we went to Derby Line, VT. What an interesting place ! This town borders canada. There's yellow ribbon crossing over the street at the border border patrol was sitting in their car just watching and protecting. There's also a library and Opera House which is half in Canada and half in the us. The books on the American side were in English while most of the books on the canadian side were in French. We were talking to a volunteer and the librarian assistant and had a wonderful lengthy conversation about the borderline and etc. Heres a link to the Haskell Free Library and Opera House https://maps.app.goo.gl/GrJkJfrUR3sezMuf6 Here's a link to our pictures of this town and library on Instagramhttps://www.instagram.

Season 2 Episode 67New England 2021 trip, part 1.0So I installed the Maxx Air Fan 7500k in our bedroom. This RV had a fan but it didn't have a remote and it would only exhaust. We had installed and loved the 7500k in our previous rig. It's nice to have a remote fan in the bedroom. And it has a thermostat setting. https://amzn.to/3fplK5SThe install wasn't bad to do. So, the next project was ... solar ! I had installed solar in our last rig. Now this system is up and running. We have 800 watts on the roof, a 60 amp mppt charge controller and a 4000 watt pure sine wave inverter. We love solar and having an inverter. With the solar and the inverter it freezes us up to camp and more remote locations like national forests. Some places don't offer any amenities and they limit generator use so this system works great for us. I'll post a video on it soon.After that was done we cleaned and restocked the rig and finally hit the road on 8/20/21 for our Northeast 2.0 trip. Our 1st stop was at Boondockers Welcome locat

Season 2 Episode 66 8/1/21 Toilet started to smell. Previous rig I put in a roof vent which worked great https://amzn.to/2WA1ZC4 This rig didn't have any smell then all of a sudden it did. And then toilet wouldn't hold water in bowl. We cleaned the toilet seal and then applied petroleum jelly to seal and that did it, yay. -A.C. had problems. Thought it was the thermostat but it turned out to be the AC control box. I 1st accessed from roof then a friend said it's much easier to do it from in the rig. I replaced the control unit and all is cool again. https://amzn.to/3xGbrla How I deal with stressors as they pile up. Here's an example: We had gotten home from our last trip and the lever that switches from tub to shower in our stone and mortor house wasn't working and I didn't know how to fix it. So I started googling it. Then Trish said the house refrigerator felt warm and the freezer had ice in it. So I again started googling. And I also had a list of things to do on the rig, like the toilet the AC and

Season 2 Episode 657/13/21We installed a 5 Star tuner. These tuners plug into your computer port on the engine under the dashboard and they set the engine settings to ones that are more economical and powerful. I looked into them and was surprised at the price. So I did some homework. I found this video of a company testing them and was very impressed. https://youtu.be/z9N5M2WhIiI So we took a Gamble we ordered our tuner. This is a phenomenal product. We love it. Here is a link to the tuner.https://amzn.to/3jEGytb I believe there is a disproportionate amount of high school bullies on RVing social media groups. It's such a shame.On June 21st we left for a trip to Indiana. We have fallen in love with Goshen and Shipshewana. In spite of being near Thor, smh.We've been there a few times, but always for Thor issues, but never for fun. And we haven't been to southern Indiana before so that's the reason for this trip.We drove 3 hours to Fantasy Island Campground in Sunbury PAhttps://maps.app.goo.gl/pG75MDBbyqDRX

Season 2 Episode 64 6/8/21We did our 1st ever campground stay with friends. We stayed at J&D campground near Knoebels amusement park. Next to us was Scott and Amy, next to them Mike and Shelley. And on the other side of the campground was Scott's parent Jack and Jan in their seasonal site. It was a cold and rainy weekend. While setting up we were fighting with the rig (2017 Thor 29.4) trying to get it level. Out came the level and viola the rigs LCI leveling system was way off with the Zero Point Level calibration. I went into the Thor owners portal, pulled up our rigs VIN number and saw 7 manuals for the leveling system in it. None of the were for our leveling system. I googled our key pad, then how to zero point level it and 3 minutes later, the rig was level and the leveling system agreed with us. We wonder how long it was inaccurately calibrated. Yay. That evening with sat with our friends in their Prevost and caught up with one another. The next day me and Trish revisited Centralia pa. This i

Season 2 Episode 635/25/21So we got the rig home and I never thought to open up the awning but I did two days after we got home and it would bang on the way out.And Does not close all the way.Grabbed a ladder and saw 2 loose screws on the roller.I then climbed into roof and saw they did not calk above the front door.And when then installed the gutters they didn't screw the screws all the way down nor did they caulk the screws.So I called Connecticut Motor Cars and spoke to Brian the Service Manager.I told him about the three problems. He said they always test the awning and it had worked fine. And the screws for the gutters had probably loosened while driving the rig.We drove up to the shop. Left rig for 4 hours. When we came back the awning was fine and all of the screws were tight. He told me I was not allowed of the roof of my rig while on their property. He said would you have wanted be in the shop and checked every screw on the gutter as they put them in? I said yes if I had known it wasn't going to be

Season 2 Episode 62 4/11/21WOW this podcast is 3 years old. 1st episode was released on 3/9/2018. 62 episodes !! When I was getting ready to retire I wanted to continue to help people. And this podcast had allowed me to do that. The podcast had come a long way in 3 years. Here's a summary of the number of downloads this podcast had....1st month - 8 downloads6 months -100 downloads1st year - 1000 downloads2nd year - 2000 downloads3rd year - 3754 downloadsFor a total of 5,754It's amazing. My 1st episode took over 3 days to produce. My learning curve started with how the mic worked. Then how to load into the software on the computer, editing it, uploading to the host site and my website. And then as time went on, the process sped up but I was still hand writing notes which could take an hour or 2 for each episode. Now I used a voice recorder for my notes and from the time I finish recording an episode it takes about 15 minutes to get it published. And my website has grown too. It's had over 2,000 visitors

Season 2 Episode 61 Released 2/5/21Grandpa ! My grandson Maverik was born at 11:17pm on 1/8/21 . He was 7lbs 5.5oz And 20.5"What a joy. When you're fixing your RV and something overwhelms you try to break it down into attainable tasks. like I did with my solar.But if it seems like it is way too much, let someone else do it like I did with the water heater in our rigSo quick recap on RV finish- Blue Beacon washed the Rig and our finish was ruined. Geico (https://www.geico.com) agreed to cover the damages. We brought it to Connecticut Motorcar and Coaches (http://ctmotorcars.com/) on 1/4/21. They tried different compounds to no avail. Geico said go ahead with the repair. So Brian at Ct. Motor car stripped off the stickers on both sides and has begun the repainting. It's a good feeling that the damage that was done to the rig will be fixed. And it's perfect timing with the lack of winter travel.Our rig is not yet winter ready. Heated tanks yes, not plumbing yet.We are still waiting for the cabinet door from

Season 2 Episode 60 1/8/21Episode 60!!Wow 60 episodes.This podcast had grown since I started it in March 2018.It's been downloaded well over 5000 times.So our rigs finish.Blue beacon said not us ...Geico said No...Attorneys won't get on board, no water samples Etc.So either I let it go or let it eat at me. I'm a Sebastian and we have a tough time letting things go. So my initial reaction is fight this everyday until I win. which will only lead to high blood pressure, increase pulse, tension, headaches, sleepless nights.Better off recognizing that parts of the rig just aren't as shiny as it was.We will never go back to Blue Beacon.And at the end of the day we love our rig and it's going to take us to wonderful places.Stress is going to happen. Try to interrupt it having negative biological effects on our body.Ah a nice deep breath.And then Geico accepted our claim. Dropped the rig off in Connecticut in 1st week in January 2021.I won't drone on about Covid restrictions .... you know them as well as I.If you a