SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hey guys, this whole season is a little bit different. It's kind of crazy. But I wanted to start by talking about the things that we say we're going to do on the road, but something happens and we just don't, or there isn't that much time of the day. I mean, how do you even work out when you live or travel on the road? Do you make time for it as you go camping? Or is that something that you look at it and go, eh, I'll get I'll do it when I get home? And so today it's it's we think it's a fair question, but it's one question that people ask a lot of times with some shame built into it, I think. If you're not doing, you know, I don't know, CrossFit on the road in a gravel parking lot, you know, at 6 a.m., maybe you're falling short. You're not. So Frank, actually, my husband loves to do yoga in the morning. And because he gets up on roofs all the time, it's an important thing for him. But he likes to do it really early. And that's not my jam. And today we're gonna kind of get into what that looks like, but we're also gonna talk about what that looks like for you physically, because we're not here to shame anybody either. It's not this is one right way to do it necessarily. Um, it's just here are a bunch of real ways that we can get some exercise in on the road as we travel. So, first off, let me introduce my co-host today. I've got Ashley Gallagher from Campfires and Motors, and then Joni from On the Go with Joni and Joe. And I'm actually gonna let each one of them introduce themselves and let them tell you why they're here.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

So uh my name is Ashley and I'm a full-time RV here. We've been full-time for about a year and a half now. Uh, we travel with our two teenagers and our Belgian Malinois dog Tango, and um, we've pretty much been all around in the last year and a half. And uh physical fitness is something that at least I try to put into my daily routine, doesn't always work, but hey, at least I'm trying.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Absolutely. And then Joni, so she met me when I was pretty sick because I actually had vertigo last year at Hershey. And so it was, yeah, if you didn't know that, it's pretty wild because I did. I found out later, because we did a community spotlight with Joni, which we'll have to tag in the comments. She is a retired physical fitness teacher. And so that makes her super special coming on today because she does all the things on the road, which is amazing to me.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Oh my gosh, you just have built me up, and I'm like, whoop. So I am Joni. Uh, I am from on the go with Joni and Joe. And we kind of feel like our on the go part really fits us well because we are constantly on the go. Uh, we did learn after one full year, we just hit our year mark in August 14th, is that we need to slow a little down on our travel part, but not on our movement part because it has always been a daily part of my life over the last 35 years that I was a physical education teacher. But I do want you to understand, like I ebb and flow as well. You know, I mean, because we all have seasons of life. And um, Jennifer, I am battling Vertigo right now. That's no fun. How odd is that? Uh, literally woke up one day with it, right? And it's it's not horrible, but it's still a little wonky. So I feel like I'm in a little bit of a different mode right now because I'm having to figure that out.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Yeah. And you know, as we age, there's things that happen to us that you never think is gonna happen to you. And Vertigo, that was my first time with it last year. Thankfully, I haven't had it again. And but I remember that week I didn't do anything exercise-wise, which I normally would have because it's rally week, but I was still walking the fairgrounds, but I was seated a lot at different events, which you know me, that's not my jam. And that was hard for me. Take care of yourself. I, of course, still haven't stopped.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Just keep I just keep going, but that's that's just how I always have been.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Well, that was me too. Yep. So for me, it lifted one day and it was just gone. So hopefully that'll happen to you too. Today, we're gonna talk a little bit about what actively moving your body means, like at every stage. So whether you're in your 70s and listening to this podcast, or you're out biking, or you're in your 30s doing weighted vests on the road, which I'm pretty sure Joni does a little bit of that, or you're doing water aerobics like I like to do when you can find a pool that's open, because that's where your joints can handle today. There's no wrong entry point. Let's start with the auto stuff. So RV life is genuinely different than a stationary life. Would you agree with that? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Because you're driving a lot, you're sitting up, you're breaking down camp, you're doing bursts of physical labor, like you know, leveling the camper, whatever that looks like in your world. But then you're sitting again for hours in the car. It's not a steady rhythm, and your body may have a hard time getting used to that. So, Ashley, you know, you're more of a trail runner. But what do you notice changes staying active once you're full-time versus when you're more stationary?

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Just the schedule. It's really hard to stay on a schedule. It's really hard to stay motivated when you're constantly moving around from place to place. Because not everywhere you go is a place where like I like to run, but it not every place has an area where you can go for a run. Like the campground that we're at now. Like, luckily, we walked it yesterday. I could probably get like a mile and a half in if I did the entire loop of the campground, which is fine for me, because then I can always fill in, you know, other ways by like lifting with the dumbbells or coming up with different exercises that I can do outside. But it just depends on where you're at because if if you try to get into a rhythm of something that you're gonna do every day, it's not like you have that same atmosphere everywhere you go. At least for me, it can be a little bit difficult to try to stay on a schedule and stay motivated to continue exercise in in general.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

And do you think like weather impacts that too?

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Absolutely. I think weather impacts that a lot. Like, I'm not a cold person, so we're getting ready to get into the cold season. And so for me, it doesn't matter if I'm in the RV or if I'm outside of the RV. If it gets cold, it's really hard for me to stay motivated and try to find something to do because I don't like to run in the cold. I don't like to walk in the cold, I don't like to be outside in the cold depending on the temperature. Jason 70. So it and then inside, you have to watch the weight that you're doing, you have to watch where you're doing it, because like ours is big enough for us to move around, but it's not big enough for me to try to do too much in here. And I don't like doing like jump and jacks and stuff where I'm gonna be bouncing a lot within the RV. So most of my stuff will either be like ab workouts or lifting the dumbbells, but I have to be in a tight space in order to do it. Sometimes I force myself outside to get it done, but I don't like doing that because I don't warm up enough, and so by the time I get back inside, I'm still freezing anyway.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

So well, that can happen for sure. So I remember a couple years back, and this is maybe more years than I should admit, but a couple years back we used to have We Fit, and so we'd do that with the kids inside the RV, and it was fine until we broke a TV. So so that tight space, you know, becomes that issue because you know, I think we were doing like punching, and one of the kids just punched and, you know, his arm was longer than he thought it was gonna be. And so that cost us a TV, which kept it very interesting. Joni, what's your take on why you think the movements slide as they hit the road? I mean, for me, I think that it's so easy to say I'm too busy.

SPEAKER_03 7:53

Mm-hmm. Well, you know what? Uh definitely. One of the big things is you lose your community of maybe who you were working out with or who you were, like the classes that you were taking. Um, and when you lose community, you might lose motivation, the accountability. So I knew that was going to be a big portion for me when we got on the road. And Joe and I first discussed that we would get a planet fitness membership because they're everywhere. No, they're not. I was like, we discovered they weren't. And then for some reason, we just never got into that mode of you know lifting weights. And Joe made me sell all my weights that I had because of the extra weight in the RV. He did not want it. And now going into year two, we might readjust things. So I had to really think outside the box, right? Like, what was I gonna do? Um, I had already been rucking, which rucking is having a weighted vest on, which is just taking your walks and kicking them up a notch, right? I've always been a runner, Ashley, and I love trail running, but I'm not gonna run trails by myself in a strange place. Like, I'm just not gonna do that. I always had a running buddy. I didn't get to trail run. Now, my running buddy, who has been my running buddy for 10 years, I'm actually at her house today, and I rucked with her this morning at 5:30 in the morning. We had been together for 10 years, Tuesday, Thursday before school. I'd come to her house. We would do our run three or four miles before school, then go to school. Well, when I retired, she's like, What are we gonna do? And I was like, Um, we got AirPods. So for the first six months while I was still on the East Coast, she called me at 5:30 every Tuesday, Thursday morning, and I still got up with her. And I ran with her wherever I was. Why? Because that was my accountability. That was my motivation. I am not motivated to run by myself very often. And I definitely have to do it in the morning. So you got to figure out what works. So Chrissy and I did that until we got to Destin, Florida, and then it was an hour time change, and I was gonna have to run at 4:30. And my husband felt 4:30 was a little less safe than 5:30. It is kind of dark out there in the morning. And so we we adjusted and we refigured. So I have that accountability partner, which is super helpful. And I think a lot of people may not have that when they they go out on the road.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Well, I wouldn't even have thought of keeping an accountability partner from backhoe. Like that's brilliant in so many ways, because it's also somebody you were accountable to previously. So you also didn't want to not show up for them because that's what friends do, right? Definitely. And I think together, wait, and being together now in person, it's like, wow, this is so cool. Right, because you stayed connected the whole time. I think that's one of the things that a lot of especially full-time RVers, like as we're not together, you almost become invisible, but then you pick up right where you left off, where you kept that relationship going. So she's heard about your adventures, she's done all the things kind of with you, which is a whole different level, you know. But here's the other thing I don't think you have to have a certain type of body type in order to exercise. So, like if you're lean and young, that's fine. Then that's not me. And I've always struggled with my weight, but I don't think that it means that I don't stay active. I hike with my family on a very regular basis. Again, that's location dependent. I actually get really down when we're not somewhere where I can get out and hike. And even if that's a hike along the beach, it doesn't have to be like on a trail. And I jokingly said um a couple months ago in June, we stopped by New York City for a day and we did almost 12 miles. And I I joked with my daughter. I said, Hey, this is urban hiking. And she said, Oh, I can get used to this. Yeah, definitely. So, Ashley, you and Steve do a lot of trails. How do you find those places to hike and run? What's that research process look like for you guys?

SPEAKER_02 11:58

Well, Steve does a lot of it based on location. So wherever we go, we tend to look up things in the area. And he does most of his by all trails. He'll use the all trails map to like look up the trails, determine, you know, if it's a trail that we want to do, and then we'll Google it. We'll try to see pictures of what it looks like, and uh then we'll go from there. So uh we just recently hiked up Mount Washington. Uh so we did the Tuckerman reviewing map and then took the Lions Head Trail back down. Definitely not for somebody who is a beginner in any sense of a hike or a walk, because I mean it is a straight, steady incline the whole way. I mean, you have great views with the waterfalls along the way, and then as you get up to the top, you get the views that are down in walking down into the rivy, but definitely not a trail for uh people that can't really handle the the climb like over all the rocks and like just the ascent in general. Um so we'd have to do that.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah, you don't have a problem going up, it's coming down that becomes the problem for me when I'm doing that. So I may be slower than everybody else. And I, you know, it's it's funny. There's actually a place just in uh Colorado that's all these steps. And so frankly, yeah, we did.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

We did that too when we were out there, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yep, so we did that one, and everybody, one guy walks by me and he goes, Oh, I didn't know fat girls could hike. And I was like, Yeah, we do all the time, actually. But but I didn't make it all the way up, and so I think that sometimes I know my limits, and that's okay too. Where Frank and the kids, you know, went a little bit further and then came back down. I went as far as I could go and then I came back down on my own where I was comfortable. But I think that there's so many people that don't get out and even try because they think it's too hard. I guess the encouragement, you used to do this before you hit the road, too. What is your advice maybe for getting back into it without feeling like you're failing?

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Start small. A little bit goes a long way. If you have the motivation to do it, you starting small will help you gradually pick up as you go along. So, like if you're a runner, like your pace doesn't have to be a full speed, but like you you can do a jog, and then as you gradually go further and further, your pace will increase. For me, I have learned that it's not a race. I'm so used to the mindset of a cross-country runner from high school that that tends to be one of my problems when it comes to running anymore, is that I feel like I have to keep that pace that I had in high school and I have to cross the finish line at a certain time. And it's not a race for me anymore. Like, and I think that's where a lot of the motivation kind of goes away for me because I don't have a specific goal that I look forward to every time I run anymore. So for me, it makes it harder. Now, if you're hiking, definitely start small. You don't want to go into a really hard trail and then not be able to get yourself back out because even the best of hikers get to a point where sometimes they have to be rescued. And the best thing you can do is just start small. Like start out on the easy trails that are just flat and then maybe have a little bit of an incline and then determine what you are able to do and turn around if you need to turn around. There's nothing wrong with stopping and going back down.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

So they shouldn't go to Acton, California and try the devil's punch bowl to start with, because I did that our first year on the road and it was it was it was down the whole way, but then coming back up because the punch bowl is like a mile and a half long, so it's not a long hike. And I was like, oh, this isn't gonna be hard. And so we go down the trail and we had to come up the trail. Elevation.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

So well, I'm not too familiar with that, but it sounds a lot similar to like what the incline almost is, just a little bit different. So, like, I mean, something like that. If you don't have the physical ability to do it, then again, just do what you can do and then turn around and go back.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Well, see, and like you're in I was down at the bottom. So it was just it was 50 steps, and let's keep going. Take a break at the bottom. Yeah, no, when I realized I was in over my head, and and that's my life. Like, that's just who I am because I've seen so many people go to the cusp of the trailhead, and these are usually older couples. And when we hit the road, I was 39. I don't know. I didn't think I was old when I hit the road. I'm much older now than I was then. Now I have to be more intentional about getting out because just busy life. But I've seen so many people go to the edge of the trailhead, snap the picture, and say, I did it after 13 years. And so going to the edge of the trailhead is not doing it. It's not even trying, in my opinion. Joni, you've spent a career thinking about how bodies of every age and ability can move. You know, weighted vestrucking is a whole thing. Let's that's pretty popular in the RV community. Um, what does that look like? I'd love for you to tell us about it.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Yeah, definitely. So um, I'm I was like Ashley. I was a runner, I was always about pace, and I went to Orange Theory back in the day and it was like, and I had to learn how to be okay with not performing, I guess, and you know, and take it out of a performance mode and think of it mostly like, oh my gosh, whatever I'm doing today, it's good for my heart. Whatever I'm doing today, it's good for my lungs. Whatever I'm doing today, it's good for my heart, my mind, my soul. Not that I am trying to compete. Now, some people want that, and that's fabulous. Like, go for that. But for the, you know, like when I was teaching elementary physical education, I never taught to the athlete. Because I was like, you can go out in the in the you know, community and join soccer or join the basketball league or the field hockey league or whatever and get that part. I wanted my kids to have a love for movement. And then I would sprinkle in, you know, where they had to work a little harder, but it was so fun that they didn't even know what they were, you know, they were doing at the end of class and be like, whoa, you know, but they were smiling and laughing and having a good time. And I really think that's where we need to be able to take it as adults is, you know, one foot at a time, get out there, just move. And a lot of times, you know, full-time RB, we got to do it by ourselves, especially if you are on the go as fast as we are. We were moving way too fast. We did not build a whole lot of in-person community, we built it online. You know, like actually, I'm thinking, dang, if we're ever in the same place, we're going for a trail run. Right. Right. Like that, that's my first thought. I was like, and and it'll be great to be able to do that. So, like for somebody who is already in a walking routine, all right, even if it's just focusing on getting 10,000 steps a day. And if you can't do 10,000 start out, like Ashley said, go smaller, go 5,000. You know, there are days where I'm lucky to get 5,000 steps because we traveled too long. And it's like, I just make sure I'm I try to do a little bit that day because sometimes travel days are super mentally and physically exhausting. And you have to be okay with that. So a ruck is a weighted vest that you wear. And mine currently is 25 pounds. I would not recommend 25 pounds to anybody who's starting out. My first ruck had 10 pounds on the front and 10 pounds on the back, but they were one pound increments. So I could start out with like maybe three on the front and three on the back and start out at six. Because if it's too heavy, it's gonna hurt here. And you're gonna be like the next day, like, why the heck do my shoulders hurt? Like, that makes no sense, right? Uh yeah, because it's on your shoulders. So when we went on the road, my husband's like, you're gonna have to get rid of the weighted vest because it's 20, you know, it's 20 pounds. And I'm like, okay, I'll get a different one. And I bought a 25 pounder on accident, but I made mine 25 pounds. So I am basically stuck with 25 pounds, but that's where I am currently, and I don't need to go any higher. Like, that's fine. So I absolutely love to add that extra little bit of weight, but make sure you do it mindfully and in control.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

For sure. And so it's funny, as you were talking, I thought, you know, I had 25-pound rucks, they just looked like toddlers for the first several years because we were baby wearing. And so, you know, whenever the three-year-old or the two-year-old, you know, decided to quit for the day. Sometimes we had one on the front and one on the back. Or, you know, I had all these carriers. Frank and I carried a couple fabric carriers. So if we ever had to throw toddlers in a thing. So, I mean, we were doing it. We were just doing it differently. So if you're younger and you're out there and you're carrying your kids, you're kind of rucking. I love that. Love that thinking. You absolutely are.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Yeah, sometimes the things that you do, it's an exercise and you don't even think about it.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Like carry like carrying your baby like that. Like it's just it's just an everyday thing that you do. You don't even like logically think that it's an exercise. It's just something that's part of your daily routine.

SPEAKER_03 21:30

I can imagine holding the baby and doing squats.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Okay, let's go. You know, Frank has done that though. So, you know, I had one that loved to be held, and so he'd throw the baby carrier on and he'd carry him wherever, whatever well, not on roofs, but oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 21:45

I've seen people out on hikes like that I feel are pretty intense hikes with the the baby on the back. And I'm thinking, we've done that. Like, yeah, you know, speaking of that, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:59

I just Saw an article where there was somebody that took their one-year-old baby and the baby was in the pack the whole way up now.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

I think to myself, so many people, when they do have kids, kind of keep them from doing some physical activities because they're first of all exhausted, but incorporating them in and not losing what they like to do, incorporating the kids into it.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

Well, and I think we always love to go hiking, even before we hit the road. So that's stuff that we would do anyways. You know, I had a hard time losing baby weight, and it was right after I had my first one. And it's almost impossible for me to lose. I just try to stay active. And so sometimes that's easy. And like last week, we were on the road four out of seven days, and so we were not as active last week, and we were making poor choices maybe on what we were eating or how late we were eating. And so all of those things were things we weren't really thinking about. There's a whole nother side of the community, though, that in RV life that does other activities. And so, like lots of us own bikes. I know we have one that we share between our whole family, so it's a little bit different just because we don't want to deal with the weight and uh because it has to be loaded every day, travel day. And we do a lot of kayaking actually when we're near a body of water, which is why where we are currently and not being able to get to the water has been disappointing because we have two blow-up kayaks and a paddleboard. And we actually started doing that in 2017. And we we had hard kayaks until they blew off the roof, and so now we pack them up in the camper, which is a whole nother level of you know, extra work. Frank is scuba certified. We did that one year when we stayed in Florida for the summer. But I want to throw in a very popular sport that I don't do, but I know Joanie does. Joni, what is that sport?

SPEAKER_03 23:58

I think there's something about a dink and staying out of the kitchen, which I'm very good at because Joe's the cook. I always laugh. I'm like, I never go in the kitchen. It is pickleball. Now, I was a huge pickleball player prior to hitting the road. And I will say that I was a little concerned because I had a number of communities that I played pickleball in that I could just show up and it was like, cheers, Joni. You know, people were generally excited that you were at the courts. And it wasn't like I didn't play with specific people. I would just show up at those courts. Like my home courts in Honeybrook, which is my hometown. Like I go there now that I'm home. I've been going there and it's just so much fun back in with the people that you played with. My other home courts were in Rest Reading, Pennsylvania, you know, and it's where everybody knows and you know the system and how to play. So I had said to Joe, we're going on the road for a year, but we are finding pickleball wherever we go. Like that is a non-negotiable, right? Originally, we were going to be called pickles and pints. Pickle for me and pints for Joe. We're now drinking non-alcoholic beer. So there you go. We've made a little switch. So I'm glad we didn't call ourselves that. But pickleball is, you know, you would think it's everywhere and it is, but like beware if a campground says, We have pickleball, they may have a pickleball court, but there's nobody playing on them. And if you're by yourself, which I am because Joe doesn't play pickleball, it's my one thing I can get out of the house for for two or three hours a time. You know what I mean? Because you're in a 300 square foot RB. But you not all campground, just because they say they have pickleball, actually have people playing pickleball.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Does that make sense?

unknown 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

That's an interesting perspective because a lot of the places that we've been, um, you know, where Thousand Trails members, you know, Thousand Trails Orlando almost always has somebody in the morning out there playing pickleball. What would you say to somebody that maybe is, you know, considering something like pickleball that is, you know, not just heavier, but maybe older? You know, is it a sport that could be, you know, used for anybody?

SPEAKER_03 26:14

Oh my gosh, I'm getting my butt kicked sometimes by 75-year-old people. I'm like, oh my gosh. Because once you understand the game and learn the game, right, like you could definitely be able to play it at any age. And that's the fun thing about pickleball. You could be on the court with an 18-year-old and an 80-year-old and anything in between. And you cannot judge a person by their cover on the pickleball court because you're gonna be in trouble then. And I think the thing is, I mean, I have so many people message me and say, Oh my gosh, I want to play. I want to play. I'm like, where are you gonna be? Are you near me? I'll teach you how to play. Like, you know what I mean? Because it's very difficult, to be honest with you, to show up at a random pickleball court and expect the people in that community to teach you. You know what I mean? Like you would have to maybe sign up for lessons wherever you are, get a couple of lessons under your belt, that kind of thing. Because as great as pickleball is, not every pickleball community is gonna welcome you in with open arms. That's just how it is.

SPEAKER_02 27:22

Well, and I think that's competitive. Even if it's not just because it's within their group. Some of them are very competitive and they don't want like an outsider coming in. Now, I don't know what to think about pickleball because the first time I played pickleball was in 2024, and it was just a quick lesson at a rally. So, like, we never played it after that. So I don't even I just say that it's a lot like tennis in some ways because basically what it looks like.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

It it has its it has its moments, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

We own a set of paddles, but other than that, like we always said we'll do it. So, like when I get to Florida again this year, if I can figure out where people are playing, you know, we would give it a shot again. But you know, I'm also gonna probably pick the pool over going to do pickleball because that's just my jam. Right. You know, but Frank really loves stuff like that too. Like he does different things than I do. And, you know, what I've learned is his exercise can be his exercise, and I don't have to do it with him. And so I think that a lot of couples fall into that trap of, oh, I've got to be able to do it together. You know, and it's great if you can.

SPEAKER_03 28:29

But let me, I'll I'll touch base on that, Jennifer. So my husband was a carpenter for 35 years. His body is racked. He's had double knee replacement, hip replacement, back surgery. So, I mean, he's had it all, right? And prior to retirement, he really didn't do much. His job, he always said, My job is my workout, which I have to agree with him 100% because it was just physically demanding. In retirement, though, because he doesn't have this physical stress of his job, that's where the hiking has come in. Like the two of us now hike all the time. When we were in Sedona and we did five days straight of hiking, six miles a day, I was like, who are you? Right? Like, you know, me, I'm like, let's go. But for him to be able to do that was such a blessing. And the e-bikes, like those, I cannot even stress how important e-bikes are. I resisted, coming from my mindset, like it's not gonna make me work, right? But then when I flipped my script thinking, oh my gosh, what will this do for Joe in retirement? Regular bikes, we'd probably get 10 miles. E-bikes, we can get 30 plus miles and see more of America and pick your level of assistance. I actually just did a post on this on all the socials about our e-bikes. So go check it out. But that to me is one of the number one things that I would tell people to get in in this lifestyle because you can see more of America in a different way and do it together. Cool.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

That's really cool. So we were actually out in Goshen at the Forest River Owners Group Rally, otherwise known as the Frog Rally. And there was a couple, it was her birthday, she had turned 80 that day, and there's an ice cream place, apparently seven miles from the fairgrounds. And we had taken the kids to the ice cream place because we had found out about it, but they're like, Yeah, the bike trail goes right to there. And one of the guys goes, Well, yeah, she and she looks at him and she goes, You're gonna make me ride seven miles 14 miles today on my birthday. I don't even have, I barely have pedal assist. And he's like, Oh, it's no big deal for me because I have a full pedal assist. And so, you know, so there's different types of e-bikes. So if you were shopping for an e-bike, what would you be looking for for that? Because obviously it can do it all for you. It can be resisted, then you probably have a pedal assist, would be my guess.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yeah, so we got pedal assists um because we obviously still wanted to have to get uh exercise and physical fitness. So you can pick your level. Like I typically don't use the electric. And then that to me is like I am pedaling a 65-pound bike, right? Except for I'm going uphill, then then I then I put it in. Or if I and I also, and I'm super proud of Joe because he typically was on turbo a lot because that's what he needed, right? But now he's like, ooh, I'm down to auto, right? So he's he's bumping his to less assists as we are continuing to ride the bikes, and I'm so proud of him, you know. So we also see a lot of people out there with the uh throttle assist, like where it's full throttle, and and in full throttle, you don't actually have to pedal. It's kind of like a motorcycle, I think.

SPEAKER_01 31:57

But and I mean I think that's what the guy had that was going to get ice cream, where this 80-old lady had one she had to work at.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

Right. So do you whatever you do, but um, you know, we wanted the ability to see more of America. And I will tell you, we went to Friday Harbor in Washington State, and it's a ferry ride, and we took e-bikes and we had our two kids, 31 and 28. The 28-year-old is a professional athlete, right? So she's fit. And we got them e-bikes, and at the end of our day, they both said, Oh, thank God. They both were like, We are so glad we because they wouldn't have been able to do that ride because there were so many hills. But instead, we got to ride all over Friday Harbor because we had the e-bikes.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

That's fantastic. The other thing is, I think that people don't realize how important the summit is. Our first year on the road, Frank, we're in Yosemite and we went to Sentinel Doe. And I'm about halfway up Sentinel Don, and I'm like, we're we're packing kids. I have a 15-month-old, and I have a three-year-old, and I have a five-year-old, and they're all done. Like, they're all like with me. And that meant half of them were toddlers. And about halfway up, Frank looks at me and he goes, No, come on, you got to keep coming. And so, like, fighting to that summit that day was brutal, but it was incredible. And I think that most people stop and they don't realize the view they're gonna get at the top. And, you know, we stayed up there probably way too long at the top of a rock with toddlers, but it was just absolutely incredible. And Ashley, you just recently did Mount Washington. How important do you think getting to that summit climb is in certain situations? Like, I'm not saying you're gonna do it every day, but I think that in RV life, like if you're gonna embrace this lifestyle, those summit climbs, whether they're hiking or just, you know, a 10-mile ride somewhere, how could you encourage somebody?

SPEAKER_02 33:59

I mean, that again, that goes back to just taking it slow. Like, that's not a hike unless you are familiar with the hike. You're really an active hiker. I would start out slow. I mean, we stopped a lot. For us, it wasn't necessarily a race to the top. It was just getting up and getting down. Like, I was so worried about weather the morning that we went to go do the hike that I was up at three o'clock in the morning because I know how the weather changes in the area up on that mountain. And for me, I was I knew like looking at the weather ahead of time that there was a possibility of rain. You never know what the wind is gonna be like up there. I mean, we we did we did it every way possible going up to the summit. We drove up, we took the cog, and we hiked up. And each day that we did it, the weather was completely different. All beautiful days down at the bottom, but then once you got up to the top, it's completely different. And so for me, knowing that it was gonna be, even though it was only like an eight-mile hike round trip, knowing that the terrain was what gets most people before the weather does as you get up to the top, because the closer you get to the top, especially that last mile, I mean that's all the terrain that you're the alpine. Like you're just you're climbing and climbing and climbing until you get to the top, and you can see the top of the tower as you go up. But as you get closer, it's not like you're getting any closer to that tower because it's just the way it changes. So I would say just take your time, stop for as long as you need to stop. But the biggest thing would be to start early, know what the weather's gonna be like in the morning and start early because we left at like 7:40 and we got up there a little bit after lunchtime. And I mean, again, we stopped, and you can go back and you can watch that video. We have it on our YouTube channel at uh Campfires and Motors. But yeah, I would say just just take your time. If it's your first time up and you get to a point where you don't feel like you're gonna be able to finish it, there's no shame in not being able to go to the top. I mean, you have two other options that you can go up to that summit. You can drive your vehicle or you can go and you can pay for the cog to take you up. But I mean, I don't know. For us, it was just it was part of what we knew we were gonna do. And so we did hikes leading up to it. Like we hiked Mount Shakura, which I felt like that was even harder than going to Mount Washington summit. Um that was a lot more uh I would say rugged in a sense, just because of the the way that mountain is. Um so I would I would just just take your time and know your bathroom.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Well, and I love that you talked about weather and how it can change. I remember we were in Glacier one year and we did the glowing to the sun road where we drove up and we went out and it was July, and we went out and it was snowing and you couldn't see 10 freet in front of you. Like it was cold. We went up in you know, shorts and t-shirts. Well, about two years later, we went back in October for my daughter's birthday. It was 75 degrees, you could see forever. We did this amazing hike. You know, the first time we barely hiked at all because we didn't expect to get to the top of a mountain and see snow. But yeah, the weather can and just change on a dime in those in those areas. And it doesn't matter where in the country you are.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

Yeah, and the scary thing about Mount Washington is you can hike it up in the winter. Really? Hike that, you can hike that summit in the winter.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

So interesting.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

I don't know about you, but I don't know if I would ever do that.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

So I so on our way to escapade this year, I actually listened to a podcast where people were hiking it in the winter. And, you know, it was not a good story, but we were looking for history as we were driving across the country. And so we found it. It was just a different, a little more dark history.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

And I mean, most of the time, especially when you get up further to the top, I mean, you're you're near the edge, and you never know when the boulder is gonna move. You don't know how far up you have to go on a boulder, you don't know where your next step is gonna be sometimes, depending on how far up that rock that you have to climb on to is gonna be. So, like that's one of the parts where it's like especially with kids. That's one of the parts that worries like that was how I was at a Grand Canyon. Or when we went to the Grand Canyon, I wouldn't even go near the edge. And every time I saw a kid, every time I saw a kid, I would start freaking out because that was like my my mother instinct was kicking, and like I felt like they like I every time Steve and the kids would go near the edge, I would turn around and not look.

SPEAKER_01 38:30

You must have been on the south rim. Yeah because when we hiked the north rim. The north rim was incredible. Yes, but I'll tell you, hiking out over the north rim with all the bridges. Well, it's probably not all there anymore, but the thing is with all the little bridges and stuff, even with my, I don't know, I think Judah was like 11 when we did that. And I got nervous even with him just because it's it's a thing. Like you're not, it's it's a hike, but it is.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

Yeah, we did we did both the north and the south rim, but we didn't hike down into the canyon or anything like that from like North Kaibab. We didn't do any of that, we didn't go down Bright Angel Trail or anything like that. We just stayed up on the top.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

But you know what? Like, you have to know your boundaries, you know. Like I we went, we were in Zion and we did Walter's wiggles up to Angel's Landing, and I looked at Joe and I was like, there's no way. I I I just I'm like, I don't care. I physically can do that, but I'm like mentally, I'm like, no, I don't need to. I'm like, I get the heebies, and I'm like, we get the heebies, we come down. You know, I got a couple of those during when we were in Sedona. So you just know your own limits and you know, big deal. You turn around. You know?

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Yeah, because there's always another place to go hiking.

SPEAKER_03 39:49

I said, I just want to live to tell the tale, you know.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

All right. So be more active is nice advice, but people need to know how. Um, gear-wise, what do you think earns the most space in your rig other than your e-bike and your rook? My pick.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

Yeah, and you know, I just had people ask me about the e-bikes because they do add a lot of weight to your rig, right? So we took things out or whatever and rebalanced, but they were important enough to us to be able to put them on the back of the RB, and then we can take them off the back of the RB when we're parked, and then we put them in the back of the truck. But, you know, those that weight was important enough. We actually got rid of our washer dryer because that thing was dumb. So I know our washer dryer combo thing was dumb. That's a whole nother conversation. So we got rid of that, but you know, obviously Joe wouldn't let me do weights because of the extra weight. And so, like, I haven't done weight lifting, and I kept saying I was gonna, but I didn't for this whole year. And and I always lifted weights three times a week. So that's something that I didn't do in full-time RV life that kind of bums me out.

SPEAKER_02 41:02

Now, can you do that with your weight vests that you have? Are you able to like do stuff like just little things with your weight vest?

SPEAKER_03 41:11

Yeah, 25 pounds a little much for me for the biceps and dry stuff. But I would do squats and lunges with that. Yeah, definitely. You know, so I I knew I know in year two we need to figure that part out. But like obviously all my pickleball gear, which doesn't weigh nothing, it doesn't even take up space, like just a little bit of space. But you know, a yoga mat. You know, in case I want to do yoga, which you have a lot of apps, like you know what I mean, like there are apps that you can use on YouTube to do yoga. Yeah, I just I just haven't done that.

SPEAKER_01 41:47

Yeah, see, Frank has Frank never did yoga, but this year he added yoga to his like regular routine, and I think it was really good for him, but he's never been so I I was a dancer through a lot of my high school years, and so it was weird to gain weight as an adult, but I'm very mobile and very flexible despite the fact that I'm heavy. And so where I may pay for it is in like joint pain or something like that later. I I actually said to Frank this past week, I should be like Chacos should sponsor me because that's like the only shoe I wear. And so, um, but it's good for me. Like it's got good arch support, it's got I can hike in them, I can kayak in them, I don't bike in them, but you rarely see me in closed-toed shoes. But at the same time, that yoga mat, it has improved his flexibility, which since he climbs on roofs on a regular basis, has been a huge asset for him. We try to build that routine, but even that, it changes like last week when we were traveling all the time. I want to talk about food on the road. I know Joni has a personal chef. His name is Joe. His name is Joe. Not not all of us are so lucky. And and some of us, some of us are like, you know, foodies on the road, and some of it it shows more than others because there are so many local places to go and things to do as you travel. After you'd set up camp, I know one of the biggest things that we're guilty of is not eating at home the day we arrive and making a plan to go to maybe two different local restaurants when we're in an area, and it's easy to do. So, how do you handle eating on driving days? Are you meal prepping, winging it, or something in between?

SPEAKER_03 43:33

On travel days, it's always over lunch because you check out at 11 and you can arrive at two most places. So I always pack lunch. For one, we don't want to eat the food at Bucky's or whatever, you know, wherever you're gonna stop. And we want to at least have control over what we do at lunch because typically on travel days, when you get someplace new, you're exhausted. Because even if it's a three hour travel day, it's the driving. And the maneuvering and it does get exhausting mentally and physically. I used to sleep in the car, you know, like before we became travelers. I am hyper-vigilant now. You know what I mean? I am like paying attention. I'm having to find the gas stations. I'm having to double check the GPS. And so it it's it's definitely stressful. So I always pack a lunch, depending on what we have. Typically it's peanut butter and jelly, you know what I mean? Just because that's easy. I always make a fruit salad with whatever fruit we have and we pick on it. And then we have these little fig bars we like die for. And when we can find them somewhere out there in America, we buy like 10 boxes because not everywhere has them. And they're a great little snack. And then we always have uh, I always pack my like hydrate, which is an electrolyte. So I have electrolytes. I try not to drink too much because then we have to stop more. That that kind of balance that kind of a thing. But we do typically go out on travel days because we want to explore where we're at. You know what I mean? Because there's so many hidden gem restaurants out there that are unique and cool. So typically travel days we will um go out to eat for dinner.

SPEAKER_02 45:12

So we're actually the opposite. Most of the time on travel days, once we once we park, we don't want to go anywhere. Unless we actually have to go somewhere. We don't want to go anywhere on travel days. So usually it just depends on what the time frame is and where we're at with travel. So if we don't eat lunch, then it's usually just a snack bag full of like granola bars and pretzels and cheeses and goldfish, like just your normal travel day snacks. Um the kids prefer to have uh a sugary drink in the vehicle over water. Um but it usually ends up being water because mom says so. I don't we don't really plan too much with lunch. Like if we have to stop for lunch, then it's usually we'll make sure we have like uh lunch and cheese, or we'll do well. Three of us will do peanut butter, one of us doesn't like peanut butter, so we always have to like accommodate just like everybody's different uh food ideas that they want. Eating out is usually like a l a luxury for us, so we might eat out maybe once or twice in an area while we're in that specific area, but we we tend not to eat out too much while we're on the road.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

That's interesting. So three years ago, my daughter uh went gluten-free because she was getting sick all the time every time she ate hamburgers, except it wasn't the hamburgers making her sick. It was the rules. And so for the last year we realized that she's not just gluten-free, she's celiac. So we do a lot of lunch on the road now in ways that we never used to. So we were the family that would stop and grab burgers at the truck stop and that sort of or subway sandwiches and split them. And while sometimes we still do that for the the teenage boys, because you know, they eating a sandwich on the road with a mini bag of chips that come like in the bite size, when you have a 16 and a 14-year-old boy that are 6'3 and 6'1 is just it's not enough for them. And so they'll have they'll pack out snacks, and but we're we're being more intentional about what that food looks like for our world. And then, like Joni said, you know, our our system is a little different, but we just went through Cincinnati and Jungle Gyms is in Cincinnati, and Jungle Gyms is this wild, crazy like, but we stocked up on all the gluten-free things and have way too much gluten-free stuff, snack-wise and stuff on board right now, but it's so hard to find other places. So, like they had great pasta, like good brands that actually taste like pasta. And then the other side of it is for us when we're cooking, a lot of nights our food is all gluten-free because I don't want to cross-contaminate now. And now Frank is starting to try the gluten-free stuff to see if that helps and make him feel better. But it's just an interesting problem on the road. And, you know, I think food is our arch nemesis when we're traveling because we do want to try all the things, right? I know that's true for us. This has been a great episode, but that's the thing I love about this, is it feels like we're just sitting around a campfire talking, and I'm sure we can talk about fitness for hours. Ashley's out there logging into trail miles. Joni's gonna plan to meet up with her somewhere so they can go together. Um, you know, pickleball can be played at any age. If you ever see us in a park and you see us out on kayaks, come out and ask to come play. We love doing that. We started doing that just because it was fun. And, you know, we love being able to kayak wherever we go now. Doing water aerobics is sometimes more challenging, especially if the pool's closed, like the pool that I'm at currently. It's growing trees out of it. So I don't think I'm doing any water activities there. And slow hikes, if you're in a body that maybe people don't expect to see on the trail, just roll with it. I think that, you know, I told Frank one year that we should just make some merch that say fat girls do hike, but he said that might be too much. So it's okay.

SPEAKER_02 49:09

We can always make it for you, Jen.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

Yeah. Go for it. All right. Hop on and say where people can find you and follow along your journey.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

You can find us at uh campfiresandmoters.com. Uh, we're on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and just out and about. You never know where we're gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 49:30

Absolutely. And Joe.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

I know we're in New England, so you never know where we're gonna be.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

By the time this airs, you'll be long past her. She but where can they find you online to connect with you?

SPEAKER_03 49:40

So we are on the go with Joni and Joe. We are Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and recently trying to figure out Snapchat. That's a whole nother thing. That one's interesting. Uh, like anyway, so yeah, you can find us there. Definitely. Um, one thing I love when we're out and about about meeting people is I'm like, say hi. You know what I mean? Message me, DM me, comment something just so I know our connection and where we've met you. Because, you know, the best part of full-time RB life is all the people that you are meeting that you would have never met otherwise, like Ashley today, which is so cool. You know, so anybody who's watching content creators, people out in this space, we love to connect with other people. No, we're not shy. I literally talk to everybody and oh my gosh, I love to talk to people and meet people and uh connect.

SPEAKER_02 50:42

Yeah, we just we just met people at our last campground that we were at. We they were our neighbors and they were there, we're friends, and we all just hung out and sat by the fire and got to know each other, and you know, now they follow us. So you never know who you're gonna meet out there, and it's always nice to connect with other people.

SPEAKER_03 51:01

You couldn't talk them into a trail run?

SPEAKER_02 51:03

No, the best part about that campground was it was right next to the uh rail trail. So like you could walk through the campground and hike down a small little trail and it connects you right to the rail trail, and then you can go in either direction about like eight miles, but going up and down the hills in the campground, so we never really went on the trail.

SPEAKER_03 51:20

It's really nice when you get a campground that is connected to something. Something. Yeah, you know, even if they just have their own little thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 51:29

It is Yeah, and they had they had two pools, they had two courts that were pickleball, basketball, and tennis, and then they had like a beach volleyball area. So I mean, they there was plenty of stuff for people to do physically.

SPEAKER_01 51:43

So before I wrap this, you know, if you are Thousand Trails members, it used to be there was a hike the trails badge you could earn with Thousand Trails. I don't know if they still do that. I'm gonna have to look it up, but you can actually hike the trails and earn like a pin or a badge for doing that at Thousand Trails Park, which is an interesting concept completely. Yeah. Anyway, thank you guys both so much for being on today. How real you've been about how you move through this RV life. And so, quite literally, if you're out there listening and you have questions, whatever pace you're going at, feel free to ask them here. Get in a pool, get on a trail, reach out to us, go at your own speed. Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe. Learn to RV the podcast, and visit learn to RV.com. There's so much there for you. It's a whole ecosystem. There are community groups. If you happen to be in one of those community groups like the Road Schooling Resources Group or uh Learn to R V, uh, yep. I love when I do this. Learn to RV, the friendly informative group, and you're looking for like a walking buddy, post in there and say, Hey, I'm looking for a walking buddy, and I'm in, you know, frostproof Florida. You know, whatever that looks like for you, you might find out that you've got neighbors real close by that you can hike hike or get out and take a run with or play pickleball with. There's any number of things out there. So we'll see you next time. Thanks, Joni. Thanks, Ashley. We'll see you around the campfire.

unknown 53:12

Bye.