Speaker 1: Hi, am Matt, and I'm Brad. This is park Landia.
Speaker 1: We packed up our loft in Chicago, moved into an
Speaker 1: r V with a dog, Finn, and now we're tralving
Speaker 1: the country full time, visiting America's national parks. Thanks for listening. Today,
Speaker 1: we're reading through some questions we've been getting from followers
Speaker 1: on Facebook or Instagram. How they asked us in the
Speaker 1: park Landia Rangers Facebook group, Um, how did you decide
Speaker 1: what to bring when you downsized your home to the
Speaker 1: r V. I think most of this was just a
Speaker 1: matter of space and what made sense and what was
Speaker 1: a priority. Like we couldn't bring anything big. We couldn't
Speaker 1: bring any unnecessary things like our or big photo frames
Speaker 1: or anything like that, just because there's nowhere to hang
Speaker 1: at or store. It couldn't bring our tiki mugs or
Speaker 1: anything breakable too, like twokmus for example, a lot of glassware.
Speaker 1: We had a lot of that, and we had a
Speaker 1: get rid of because we just didn't want to risk
Speaker 1: like bumping around in the road and shattering at all
Speaker 1: or anything like that. And throughout time we've actually you know,
Speaker 1: reorganized our space um to have like more shallow um
Speaker 1: holders and so that way we could put our bottles
Speaker 1: in them. And then we have these like bottle socks.
Speaker 1: So like for our our liquor, um, you know, we
Speaker 1: we cover it with different like they're called liquor socks, um.
Speaker 1: And uh, then we've done some organized reorganization. We've even
Speaker 1: actually gotten rid of all of our glassware and replaced
Speaker 1: it with plastic coffee mugs, plastic glasses, rocks, glasses, um,
Speaker 1: all different types of that. Because when you're driving down
Speaker 1: the road, you actually get a lot of the rocking
Speaker 1: back and forth, and so you get a lot of
Speaker 1: this like ting to ding ting, ting to dinging absolutely
Speaker 1: and that gets really old, really quick. And so we've
Speaker 1: definitely had to um rethink that. And you know, every
Speaker 1: time we go to the farm, I feel like we
Speaker 1: drop off different items that are no longer important um
Speaker 1: while we're on the road, or even if they are,
Speaker 1: you know, we don't have the space for them. So
Speaker 1: we definitely have to it's a continuous downsizing um. And
Speaker 1: when we are going to make purchases, we have to
Speaker 1: really think about what we want, what we need at
Speaker 1: this reason and season of life. Yeah, so it's like
Speaker 1: downsizing and also re prioritizing because some items we started
Speaker 1: with on the on the RV and we've since put
Speaker 1: in storage and replaced with other things that are we've
Speaker 1: come to find out are more important. Um. And that
Speaker 1: happens a lot. That happens, especially with clothes, at least
Speaker 1: for me. UM, when we first have denied to go
Speaker 1: through all my clothes, and then anything I had happened
Speaker 1: more in like a year or something I would put
Speaker 1: either putting storage or donated or get rid of it, whatever,
Speaker 1: find solutions because we just simply don't have the closet
Speaker 1: space that we used to. And we also had to
Speaker 1: take your DVD collection and downsize of that, downsize, get
Speaker 1: a big binder. And because I don't have the face
Speaker 1: to just stack up a bunch of DVD cases like
Speaker 1: I had previously, so I have to remove those cases
Speaker 1: and then just like just use the desk and put
Speaker 1: them all on one concise binder that can easily just
Speaker 1: fit underneath the DVD player. Yeah, and that really helps.
Speaker 1: So finding those different like storage and organization spaces for
Speaker 1: the RV is what really makes the difference, uh, within
Speaker 1: this lifestyle and choosing it from Cynthia and the park
Speaker 1: Landia Rangers Facebook group. We have another question. Yes, and
Speaker 1: full disclosure, this is my aunt Cindy, the one who
Speaker 1: gave me knuckle sandwiches growing up. Um, flush my head
Speaker 1: down toilets to give me swirlies. Um, you know all
Speaker 1: the kinds of things. I mean, shoot, I used to
Speaker 1: shoot up her launder room with BBS and then blame
Speaker 1: it on my cousins because that's that's how close we are.
Speaker 1: But she had a lot of questions and we definitely
Speaker 1: want to talk about some of them today because they're
Speaker 1: all very great ones and it's all about that RV lifestyle. Um,
Speaker 1: and they have a preface in them. So as she goes, okay,
Speaker 1: remember when you read these questions, I have a limited
Speaker 1: knowledge of national parks upside down smiley phase, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know a lot of people do, and that's why
Speaker 1: we're here to talk about this and these are absolutely
Speaker 1: amazing questions. So I'm gonna start with this one. Um,
Speaker 1: do you park the r V on the national park
Speaker 1: premise during your entire stay? Yeah? Well it depends yes,
Speaker 1: and sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. Depends what national
Speaker 1: park has an r V park or r V accessibility.
Speaker 1: And then if they if they do if they have
Speaker 1: reservations available. So like for example, at Everglades, we made
Speaker 1: we booked an r V spot like several months in
Speaker 1: advance and we stayed there the entire four days were
Speaker 1: at the Everglades. So and then the other hand, in
Speaker 1: yellow Stone, O. We went to try to find them,
Speaker 1: but it was like the week before fourth of July,
Speaker 1: depending on our part, my part, but that one we
Speaker 1: actually went into and we couldn't find anything, and so
Speaker 1: we actually went over to West Yellowstone and we called
Speaker 1: ahead and they had a space for the time that
Speaker 1: we're going to be there. So that was the other
Speaker 1: side of that. UM. So you know, we can stay
Speaker 1: on them. Sometimes they're overbooked, and then ones like Petrified
Speaker 1: Forests don't have an r V park at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they're It all differs from park to park. And
Speaker 1: we've done like every combination of this. UM. So the
Speaker 1: next question was do they have hook up for water, electricity,
Speaker 1: et cetera for r vs? Yes, so mainly, um most
Speaker 1: r V parks have water and electricity. UM. I would
Speaker 1: say of the time, those two are always happening. But
Speaker 1: the dump tank, I would say, of the time, has
Speaker 1: the dump um, dumb blinds as well, so that that's
Speaker 1: considered a full hook up is when you have water,
Speaker 1: electricity and the place where you can hook up to
Speaker 1: the ground from your r V so you can just
Speaker 1: continuously dump your black and gratings, which we've talked about
Speaker 1: in the past episodes. Yes. Yeah, and she also asked
Speaker 1: us as different by parks, So yes, exactly, it does absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Those are amazing questions. And then this is probably the
Speaker 1: most important question on all is do you have to
Speaker 1: make reservations or can you just arrive? Yeah, So if
Speaker 1: places do accept reservations, especially if national parks accept them,
Speaker 1: then I would absolutely recommend that as soon as you can. Um,
Speaker 1: they not all of them do. Some campgrounds in r
Speaker 1: V parks either don't accept them really at all, or
Speaker 1: they only offer some for reservations then keep the rest
Speaker 1: for kind of like walk in or day of, which
Speaker 1: is a good kind of option for last minute travel.
Speaker 1: But we all always try to make reservations whenever possible,
Speaker 1: whether it's several months in advance or a week in advance. Um,
Speaker 1: it's always just it provides a piece of mind and
Speaker 1: get to know where you're going to be when you're
Speaker 1: going to be there and knowing that you're gonna have
Speaker 1: a space there as opposed to being like out of
Speaker 1: luck and kind of scrambling. Yeah, and sometimes you there.
Speaker 1: They have it on their website where you can do
Speaker 1: a reservation. Sometimes you have to fill out a reservation
Speaker 1: form on the website. Sometimes you have to call them
Speaker 1: to make reservations. So the reservation system is not like
Speaker 1: a hotel reservation system where everyone absolutely has online booking. UM.
Speaker 1: A lot of these differ from park to park to park,
Speaker 1: and even from um City and states. We've had hookups
Speaker 1: as low full hookups as low as fifteen dollars a
Speaker 1: night and as high as a hundred and fifteen dollars
Speaker 1: at night. UM. And that one was in Jackson Hole,
Speaker 1: which makes sense because it's such a beautiful area and
Speaker 1: that RV park was spectacular. But UM, those are the
Speaker 1: different things that you have to think of out with
Speaker 1: the budgeting process of URV living. Is your fuel and
Speaker 1: your hookups are going to be your biggest two expenses
Speaker 1: minus if you took out a loan for your r V,
Speaker 1: which is actually probably cheaper in most cases. UM. So
Speaker 1: the budgeting aspect of that is something that I'm excited
Speaker 1: to talk about in a future episode of Parklandia. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for asking these amazing questions. We really
Speaker 1: enjoy this interaction that we get to do with you,
Speaker 1: and we're super excited to continue to engage with you
Speaker 1: on our Facebook group Parklandia Rangers, or our Instagram at
Speaker 1: park Landia Pod. Yeah. So reach out to us any
Speaker 1: time with questions, comments, conversations, and we're more than happy
Speaker 1: to chat with you and answer your amazing questions. So
Speaker 1: thank you for listening. You've been listening to the Parklandia Podcast,
Speaker 1: a show about national parks by Heart Radio, created by
Speaker 1: Matt Kerouac, Brad Krouac, and Chris were Hassiotas, produced and
Speaker 1: edited by Mike John's executive produced by Christopher Hasiotas. Special
Speaker 1: thanks to Gabrielle Collins, Crystal Waters and the rest of
Speaker 1: the Parklandia crew and Hey listeners. If you're enjoying the show,
Speaker 1: leave us a review on Apple podcast. It helps other
Speaker 1: people like you find our show. You can keep up
Speaker 1: with us on social media. Check out photos from our
Speaker 1: travels on Instagram at Parklandia Pod, and join in the
Speaker 1: conversation in our Facebook group Parklandia Rangers, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening.