Team Spooky vs. Team Fall Festival: A Halloween Showdown

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Uh

00:05 Team Spooky vs. Team Fall Festival

SPEAKER_02 0:05

so I've titled this one Team Spooky versus Team Fall Festival because I feel like I'm, you know, outnumbered two to one here, but that's okay. I'm good with that. What so I mean I don't know what you mean.

SPEAKER_03 0:19

Are are you Team Fall Festival, Jeff? Definitely not.

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Anyway, I don't know if the skulls behind us gave it away or well, I mean Ashley's ready too.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

She was ready a month ago. I've had these curtains for three years.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

Ours are year-round.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Yep. These don't come down, friend.

SPEAKER_04 0:37

We live in everybody's.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

This is my pillow that actually screens I'm more fall festival, right? So anyway, it's funny. So it's officially spooky season. And you know, it's I'm gonna be standing in the middle of Hershey Park by the time we air this, and the place is gonna transform right in front of us. Pumpkins, moms, string lights, all the things, right? But I am not a fall girl. So maybe you should know that going into this episode. I am a summer kid, I love summer, and so the crisp fall is not my jam, but there's lots of people in this world that love it. And so I've invited some of those people onto this episode today. But haunted houses, clown houses, yeah, no, I tap out. So my teens, on the other hand, love that type of thing. So I get drug into it on a very regular basis, but it's not genetic. But today I brought in reinforcements, people that absolutely love Halloween. Two of the biggest Halloween lovers that I know, but well, three of them actually are joining me, and I am fully outnumbered today, but I'm okay with that. So let's go. So welcome to Learn to RV the podcast. I'm Jennifer, and today's episode is well, I keep saying a little different in this season, but they all are Team Spooky versus Team Fall Festival. And I'm pretty much Team Fall Festival. So joining me is Ashley Sutterfield and Monica and Jeff Grant, and they're gonna get into some things that are worth talking about in the RV space. So I'm super excited. So welcome guys. I don't mind fall. I like going to Grandad's apples, like there's an apple farm in Asheville area that's super fun to go to. I love, you know, hitting that cider slushy. But I'm gonna be leaning on you guys today. So Ashley, you're gonna be the mayor of Vegas Halloween. And uh I don't know quite where Jeff and Monica fit in. In in our closing episode, I had a hard time explaining who Jeff and Monica were in the land of Dean and Gertie, because I was gonna call you their sidekicks. And so well, yeah,

Trick-or-treating in Vegas

SPEAKER_02 2:51

pretty much. Anyway, one practical question. If a family's like going through Vegas in their RV for Halloween, where do they start going trick-or-treating?

SPEAKER_01 3:01

So trick-or-treating starts on the first of October. That is when the trunk retreats start. They start on the weekends, they're during the week. There are hundreds of trunk or treats going on. The neighborhoods, you want to go to like down in Henderson, there's a whole area that it's like, you know, how Christmas time they do like Candy Cane Lane and kind of stuff. Down there, they have Halloween Lane, where it's the entire block, every house, full thousands and thousands of dollars worth of decorations. They got the radio planned to go with the music and everything, and you can literally just walk the block and have a pillowcase full of candy. They do the same thing over in like Summerlin. You just gotta go off the strip a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Yeah, for sure. And I mean, like it I've I love Vegas, like it's it's kind of a thing for me. We actually have been to Central Church, there's like a trunk of treat over there, and they do such a good job there, even bringing families in. Henderson, for those of you that are not from Vegas, is gonna be south of the city, where Summerlin is gonna be north of the city, and so it really depends on where you're parked for the season if you're in and around that area.

SPEAKER_04 4:21

Well, in Vegas in general, around Halloween is always debaucherous. Lots of concerts, festivals, all kinds of stuff coming in there. So it's always fun to kind of see what's happening.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Yeah. We actually years ago, I think it was 2017, my friend Stephanie hosted a rally at the Thousand Trails in Las Vegas during Halloween. And it was so much fun. You know, there was so much to do in the area, and then there were other families that came in, and it was just a great way to stay connected. And I think that that's nice too, is having those events and rallies. Um Firefly Hills, Kentucky is having to cancel theirs because of lack of participation. Um, yeah, that's kind of how I felt about it when I called her today. But up in South Fork, Colorado, Lulu is still hosting one right at their campground. So, you know, if you're in the Colorado area, there's still openings for that one. But that's unheard of, actually. Usually they're sold out by now. So it's crazy to me that there are still openings for that event. Jeff, Monica, what do you think the best costume or decor moment is that you've seen as you've traveled?

SPEAKER_00 5:28

I'm gonna say Amboy.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Oh, yeah, for sure. Really?

SPEAKER_00 5:32

Yeah, yeah, Amboy, Illinois. They rocked it. It was ridiculous. So it's a Thousand Trails, which I'm gonna tell you right now is shocking for what you're about to hear.

SPEAKER_04 5:42

What was the name of it?

SPEAKER_00 5:43

O'Connell's Amboy, Illinois. So the entire campground turns into Halloween Central. They have a haunted house that's free for anybody that's camping there to go through as much as they want.

SPEAKER_04 5:56

Not just like a little haunted house. Like they've taken like an old side barn building and like literally redesigned this thing into like a a real like a real deal haunted house. I think it stays that way all year round because I mean it's like the details in this place are absolutely crazy. And then all of the annuals they participate by being involved or being an actor in the in the haunted house, and then it runs the entire like whatever week or two weeks uh of the Halloween time that they have there.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Because they close down at the end of October because of weather.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Um, but then every campsite, every campsite has like an adult trick-or-treating table with drinks, and then a kids' trick-or-treating table with trick-or-treating stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

Um say Jeff didn't make it very far. I only made it down about two or three roads last time where the kids made it down like the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Amateur. Amateur.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

I had to crawl back home.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

It was bad. Right. I crawled back home at bash, but that wasn't at Halloween. So that was a whole different thing. But last year we actually went to a park that was a KOA in New York State. It was probably within 40 minutes of New York City. And so Frank went because they said they had like a Halloween thing. There were actual outbuildings that were kept year-round. And then there was this spooky haunted hayride that you rode out on. I did not get off the hayride. I rode all the way back while the characters chased us. And so to say I don't do scary would be that problem. I was not getting off when the guy with the the chainsaw started coming after us. I was just not. So if you had to convince someone like me, who'd honestly rather be drinking a slushy, um, why would you plan your travels around Halloween?

SPEAKER_04 7:54

I love Halloween. I love Halloween season. I love um the the ability to just kind of not out of the norm, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Everybody gets to be a kid.

SPEAKER_04 8:03

Yeah. You could be who you want, when you want.

SPEAKER_00 8:06

It's all, you know, the the make-believe, the acting, the you can do something pretty with makeup, you could be a flower, you could be a sprout, you could be something scary with makeup, you could be a zombie, you could be a vampire, you could be a demon, you could be an angel, you can do whatever you want to do. And it doesn't matter. You can do it great, or you could do it terrible because it doesn't matter. You literally just get to play and be a kid again, and your kids get to be kids, and they can be something cute, or they could be something not cute, you know. I mean, it's just like it's that one time where you get to just do whatever and laugh and have a good time because it's kind of like anything goes.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

Most of them.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Yep. I agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

One year my kids were superheroes, and then the next year, like last year, Logan was Beetlejuice. He had the full wig, everything going on, full face paint. And my youngest one was Killy Willy from Five Nights at Freddy. So it's kind of like Huckie Wuggy, but he has eyeballs all over him, and he had like six-foot long arms, and the stomach was like a big old mouth that like eats things, and that's that's what he was last year. But you can be whatever you want. And then here in Vegas, you said you like slushes, you can go to Fremont Street and just get a slushie, just sit down somewhere, just watching Fremont Street, even when it's not Halloween, is fun. But if you go in October, it is crazy. Like we went up there two years ago to Fremont Street and they were doing a $5,000 costume contest. These people in this costume contest did not get their costumes at like Spirit Halloween or Walmart. These were like thousands and thousands of dollars worth of costumes. And we didn't see who won, but the one we thought that should have won was a huge, like 3D I love Lucy black and white costume. You can look it up. It was amazing. And this thing had to be like seven feet tall. And I can't imagine the person that was inside of it because like it was still super petite, but like the head was gigantic and all black and white in a crowd of all colors and everything. And and there she was.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

That's really cool, though.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Yeah, a couple of years back, we actually all the kids dressed up for Halloween. We were at Lake Conroe. I want to say it was 2017. I could be wrong. So it's been a couple days. So the kids were littler. Frank dressed up as the Tin Man, and I'll have to find the picture because we sprayed him silver. And so it was very cold. I wish we had taken video of spraying him silver, but he was very silver. And then, of course, my daughter was Dorothy, and we had a scarecrow and a lion, I think is how we did it. But it was a lot of fun. So it doesn't have to be scary. But my kids all didn't grow up celebrating Halloween. So, you know, we were more conservative. I actually grew up celebrating Halloween, and then I pivoted. And I so we could dress up whatever day of the year they wanted to, just not the 31st of October. And so we steered way off the deep end on that. But the reality was, I think I saw the error of my ways on the road. So some of my kids didn't see me transition into letting people participate in Halloween again and seeing the fun of it. I think I took it way too serious. But Monica, you didn't grow up celebrating Halloween. Every day was Halloween for me. So can you walk me through kind of what that looked like for you? Because I mean, I think that parents that maybe try to protect their kids too much, I think Halloween can be just that fun place that you know we want it to be, but there's that fine line.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Yeah, I mean, I grew up, uh, and I'll be I'm gonna be brutally honest with you. I grew up as a Jehovah's Witness, so I didn't get to do anything. I was the weird kid in the hallway at school that didn't get to do nothing. And that was tough, you know. Like you see everybody having fun, you see everybody enjoying everything, and you're told that you're not allowed to. And then the whole aspect of just having to be that different was very, very difficult as a kid because you're just looking for a group to belong to, a tribe that you can relate to. And at such a young age, not having that is very, very difficult because it's one more thing that sets you apart as opposed to one more thing that somebody can relate to you on. So for me, growing up and knowing that, you know, Halloween and Halloween for that group that I had to grow up in, uh, Halloween is the devil's playground, you know. And for me growing up, I was like, that makes no sense. It's one day out of the year. Why does that have to be such a big deal? So when I got old enough and I left that religion and I got out on my own, I dived headfirst into it. I was like, boom, I'm gonna dress up like everything I wanted to. Like I was a bartender, so I dressed up like the German beer girl. Um, I was like 90 pounds and like the smallest waist, a size zero, and dressing up and being stupid and working in a college town. So every year it was like something else, like angels and demons and and beer girls and you know, whatever it was. I just I went head over heels because it I could go out and be a part of the fun and not have to sit on the sidelines and just watch. So when it came time to have kids, I was like, my kids aren't gonna sit on the sidelines and watch. Like, I want them to experience life and they can make up their minds on religion when they get older. Like, I'm not gonna enforce any set rules or guidelines on what their view of God is until they're old enough to understand what God is. And then they can tell me if I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

Then you have my side of the family, which when she met like my um one of my my uncle runs uh the town that we grew up in, like the largest haunted house, runs like 40 or 50,000 people through this thing every October. So she comes in, comes from that, but into a family who's like we grew up in that, participated in haunted houses from the time we were little, uh and then to the point where her and I actually owned a haunted house when we lived in Champagne that would run, you know, 10 or 15,000 kids through it during uh during October. And so, like she said, we dove head first into that. So uh Halloween is definitely our jam.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

It's just a chance to be silly, yeah, and creative. I love that. And and the thing is, like, you know, with Jeff, Jeff, does your family still run that haunted house?

SPEAKER_03 15:00

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Well, yeah, his uncle does up north. So where where can people find that haunted house since you know we're on the podcast?

SPEAKER_04 15:07

It's in Market Heights, uh, Illinois, uh, which is by Fekan. And it's uh run by the the community there in Market Heights, but him and several of his buddies have been building and running that thing for the past 40 something years. I mean, it's it's impressive. It's impressive. I mean, other people with haunted houses or want to start them come to his place to kind of get a feel for how they're run because they they've been doing such an amazing job.

SPEAKER_02 15:36

That's cool.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

Awesome, awesome place.

SPEAKER_02 15:39

Ashley, I want to come back to Vegas because I think that there's a few things that you can do with kids, especially. I know one year we went to Container Park. Have you ever been to Container Park for Halloween?

SPEAKER_01 15:49

We haven't gone for Halloween, but we've been there for lots of other events. So if you don't know what Container Park is, it is a bunch of shipping containers that create this whole area where there's like ice cream shops inside of there. There's shopping center, there's a tattoo shop, there's a stage for like bands, they have giant Legos and stuff like that. But then there's also a huge playground in the middle of it that's like made out of shipping container products. And it's for all ages, it's mostly all accessible to everyone. Like you can be on those in a wheelchair and be pushed around and everything. Like it's very wide open areas, but we haven't gone during Halloween.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

We went during Halloween one year, and I think it was because my friends that were running the rally were like, Yeah, drinks are 50% off from like two to four. So we went early and hung out for a long time because there was a lot going on now down there. Yeah. And then the people that didn't weren't comfortable going to Fremont Street, and you want to be off Fremont Street by a certain time if you have kids, because it can get a little wild. So we went down and that's my favorite grilled cheese in the whole world is down in Container Park. There's all right. Uh, so I'm not anti-Halloween anymore. I mean, obviously, I've come a long way from that. I got the vibe from you, it's fine. But what would you say to parents that maybe avoid Halloween activities everywhere that they go? What would what would you say to them?

SPEAKER_00 17:19

That they're the only ones that are taking it that serious. And life is too short to take everything that serious. There's a time and a place to to have that thought process and to teach your child about those those things, whether it's biblical or you know, you feel like it's immoral. But the fact that it's just a chance to go out and be creative, nobody's saying that you have to go do a seance, nobody's saying you have to do a Ouija board, nobody's saying that you have to, you know, burn ever anybody at the stake for being a witch. We're just simply saying let somebody's imagination run and let the kids be kids because they're not taking it to that spot, so we don't need to take it to that spot.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

That's really, really, really good advice, you know, because that's something I had to learn. I I didn't grow up staying away from Halloween. Now that didn't mean we didn't dress up the rest of the year. We made costumes, we went to rent fairs. You know, I was I was at a at a rent fair with Hugh Hefner, not on Halloween. But the reality was I literally could see, you know, the Playboy bunnies walking around the the Renfair with him. So like for Halloween, we just now we just you know, we just roll with it, you know. So spooky or not spooky, you know, the spook not spooky is my problem more than it is anybody else's. My kids stayed up last night and watched movies, and I just knew to leave the room.

SPEAKER_04 18:44

So you know our kids are our kids are 100% at this point desensitized to any of that stuff. I mean, her and I we also we owned and operated an event center there in Champaign, Illinois. Not only did we have the haunted house, but we also did uh some of the largest expositions and and things like that. So we did a dark history and horror one, we did a a tattoo and horror expo, and we had all of these famous people coming in there. We got to meet uh Jason and Michael Myers and you know, all of the actors that played those characters, and the kids got to meet them. Yeah, and we've got pictures of Dean with Pinhead, Pinhead's holding him, you know, when he was a baby, and Dean's got a hold of the pins. And I mean, it's some of those things that they look back at it now and they're just like, That is so cool. I was with Pinhead. But it also at the same time probably ruined a few things for them because now they're kind of like me. Like we walk through a haunted house and we'll have them do the scare, and then we'll pause, and then we'll say, Hey, can you rerun that again?

SPEAKER_00 19:47

I mean, you're the one that takes forever to go through the haunted house.

SPEAKER_04 19:50

The kids are like, They're like looking at all of the things that are operating and making this do this, and you know, Dean's like, we should have them do that again. That was pretty fun. And then, you know, or one of them actually spooks them and scares them, and then they're like, Forget about it. This one, you know, next room.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

I love it when they scare me because then I just start laughing, and then they're like, Stop laughing at me, and I'm like, I can't, like, you gotta stop yelling at me because this is so funny.

SPEAKER_04 20:13

We've had some of those, like her and I stopped and they're like, Man, that was that was pretty cool. How did you guys do that? You know, and then they're just like, Oh, well, we gotta, you know, it's like you're gonna get yourself in trouble. Move on. But we've encouraged them to be like that, even when we had the house. We had an entire storage unit full of Halloween stuff. And the neighborhood would know that it was Halloween when our entire house was little Monica's house got was was finally decorated because it would sparky. Yeah. And so everybody in the neighborhood would would kind of come up and say, Well, you know, you've given us somebody to compete with this year. So over a period of years living there, like people would start to add to their stuff, and our neighborhood became pretty fun. So I don't know, it was it was different moving from Illinois into South Carolina. I felt like there were that, but in Illinois, like um Halloween for us was like we lived in the middle of the cornfields, and it was like creepy in itself just to be there.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

I was gonna say they're in like problem, right? So there's no place to like that behind you in a you know with a cactus. It's not quite the same in Vegas. And Ashley's been on the road a bunch of years. So what do you think Halloween has given your kids on the road, you know, in terms of that as they've grown up?

SPEAKER_01 21:28

My kids, they love Halloween. So theirs, just like theirs, it doesn't stop. Um, when Dean was like three, like because we let our kids dress themselves however they want. If it doesn't match, it doesn't matter. Um, Dean was a rocket ship for a week. That is what he wore out in public, a giant silver rocket ship costume everywhere. Nice. He's committed. So yeah. Yeah. And like he would carry his little trick-or-treaty bucket around and we'd be like, but Halloween's kind of over, and he's like, No trick tree. Like little three year old. So, but it it helped out with body training. So you'd put a little treat in his little bucket and he would go to the bathroom. But yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:14

They start plotting and planning, like as soon as that one's over, like they're like, Oh, I'm gonna be this next year. Yeah, cool. I want to do that. How many they already know what they're gonna be? We've changed our Halloween costume ideas probably 30 times since then, and it'll change the day that we walk into the costume store, I promise. It'll be something completely different than we than than we talked about all year. So it's always fun to see where they're at and what's popular and what they want to do. And then they always go back to the classics, you know. I just want to be a monster.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

See, and my daughter, this will be her second year. I think she's gonna be coraline for the second year in a row because she just loves coraline. Right now her hair is platinum blonde, and we're preparing for rainbow, but by Halloween it will likely be blue. So nice. Yep. But full time on the road, you don't always get the same neighborhood every year. Um, how does each one of your families build like a Halloween tradition into traveling? Because I mean that can be its own set of challenges, right? Plan.

SPEAKER_04 23:17

Yeah. Um so we are very intentional in our in our travels and with one year we didn't, and it bit us really hard.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah. Because we were in Choke Canyon down in Texas, and there is nothing.

SPEAKER_04 23:30

No, but you know what we did? But instead we drove to San Antonio and celebrated the Dia de los Muertos on Halloween weekend with a million other people. So I was like, whatever. We didn't get to decorate our site, but we participated in one of the largest Halloween season festivals in the entire nation. So it was it was absolutely awesome.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

And like thinking about the fact that you can, as a traveler, in this life take something as controversial to some people as Halloween and build into it the different communities. So, like if you're up in the northeast, you've got, you know, all of the stuff from the Salem area that you can drive into it. And there's a lot of those. The Puritans are up there, and you know, they were heavily against it. So you can teach your kids about that. If you're in the southeast and southwest, you've got a lot of community that is celebrating Dia de la Muerte. And so you're gonna be able to teach them about that, which is really an amazing way to think about you know what happens when somebody passes, and that you don't just not see them like what happens, and so those are just conversations that you can have with your kids and bring it in based on where you're at geographically, like what is around you that can help you not only have fun with this, but also teach them something that maybe they don't know.

SPEAKER_04 24:54

So we've um we've done, like Monica said, we've we've been in the Salem area. We took them on a ghost hunt or a ghost tour in Williamsburg when we were up in Williamsburg around Halloween time. We've done other kind of haunted houses and haunted experiences and things like that too. So try to use that as a educational platform, but then also have fun with it. And then, you know, go trick-or-treating, and that's always fun.

SPEAKER_00 25:21

Yeah, because Jeff has candy to eat.

SPEAKER_02 25:26

Well, one of one of my favorite places to go trick-or-treating, which surprised me, was um the Thousand Trails out in Sedona. And if you go to the town of what is that town right there? The actual not Sedona, but if you go to the town that's right there, I'll have to look it up. That that little town has businesses, all their businesses you can go trick-or-treating at their businesses. And so as a full-time traveler, that meant that I didn't have to navigate figuring out what neighborhood was a good neighborhood to go to. There's a lot of those happening around the country where you can go to their downtown area on Halloween and they have, you know, certain hours. Get there early if you're going to do that. The businesses sometimes tend to run out of candy. But it also gives you a chance to go shopping and look at all of the different things, maybe grab dinner out that night. Uh, you know, our first year on the road, Christmas was our first major holiday where we felt how weird it was to be on the road. I think that making new traditions wherever you go. I want to know all the hot places in Vegas to go for Halloween.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

So we start out, we just scour Facebook and look for any events that are going on. But like there, if you go over to Boulder City, there is an actual train ride that you can take, not like a little one, like it's an actual locomotive that around Halloween, they do like the monster mash for like an hour as you're on this train going around Boulder City. And then we just opened the Universal Core Unleashed, which is now a year-round building that every single day there's four haunted houses inside of it. Um, and it's just right at area 15. And that you can just go in. Um, you can get a drink at the bar and then go to all the little individual haunted houses that are in there. They do recommend 13 and older to go in there. So my oldest can go, but my youngest can't. And then they, if you just want to have like a spooky food, we have like blackout where you eat in the dark. They bring you your food. It's completely pitch black in there. I have a clean do you know what you're eating? So they don't tell you what it is, but you can tell them if you have like allergies or anything like that. They don't really do any meat. So that way people can eat whatever there is there. And there's also like sliced pizza. It's a whore themed pizza shop that's open year-round. You can get your pizza on a black charcoal crust, and then you have like the blood and everything on top of it. We used to have a fun though. This place sounds awesome. Yeah, we used to have more cool ones, um, but they always seem they pop up and then they close down. Like um, Circus Circus used to run um haunted houses as well. Me and Jake went there for our honeymoon, and that was a huge one. So I'm glad we have the Universal Horror Nights now because without that, it was like there's not a whole lot. But then there's corn mazes around here, there's so much stuff to do. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 28:34

The pumpkin patches, the corn mazes, the you know, all those places that you like for the fall festival type stuff, too. They all have that, and you can go to the, you know, go pick your pumpkins and do the yeah, collect all of them.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

They got that at Gillcrest Orchard. You can get fresh apples and they can make you an apple slushie out of it or pick up your pumpkin. You can spend the entire day there just walking around.

SPEAKER_02 28:56

We did. We did. That's that's and right across the street, there's another like pumpkin place across the street from the orchard. That was so fun, actually, in Vegas. My other favorite is a place called Bates Nut Farm, and that's out um toward Julian, California. It's not quite too Julian, but it's uh that's actually when my my thought process changed on the whole holiday was we started going to Bates Nut Farm and taking photo ops because I was doing photography. And so I'd take my Nikon out there, take a bunch of friends out there and do photo shoots. It started with, oh, well, let's pick a pumpkin. Oh, everybody needs a pumpkin. But looking back, it was stupid. And I, you know, I'm glad I can say that now. And and maybe I needed to go through that to understand it, but I don't know that any apology fixes the decisions you make as a parent. But you know, just those memories.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Yeah, and you gotta think about like we do the best that we can at the time that we're in, but at the same time, like we're doing the best we can, and you know, you raise them and you hope that they become good people. I know my kids will either be fine or be in therapy and have a lot to talk about. So it's fine, it's not a big deal.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

We're all in the same way.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

We're covering the bases, nobody's perfect, and they're alive.

SPEAKER_04 30:10

I mean, as time goes on, things change, and everything, like not just your your opinion on things, just the way that I mean social media comes into things and things have just drastically changed over the last 30 years. So those things that were so taboo 30 years ago, people are laughing at now.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 30:29

And it's like that in the you you look back and you look back and you look back, and it was the same way. It's just that you know, that repetitive nature that and you know, things are now are a little bit probably a little bit crazier than they've ever been. But uh that's what makes it so fun, is that any you you can again, like Monica said, pick your poison, you can do whatever you want, you can be whoever you want, you can think like whoever you want, and that's the for for that one day you get to to do that for that one weekend or whatever. And if you're upset, you're back to work and you're all mad that you're back to work.

SPEAKER_00 31:01

If you're upset about like if it upsets you about any of the scary nature of Halloween, there's so many churches out there that are doing trunk retreats now that you can always go that avenue as well. So there's something out there for everyone, but I think that the big takeaway for me, and the thing that got my dad, even who is still in that religion, was how much the kids just have fun. And that it's not about how I was raised for it to be. It really is just them having a blast with candy and getting to know people. And so he got to see them go trick-or-treating, which I thought was hilarious when we were at O'Connell's, and he was like, I He was waiting for us to dance in our goatskin pants around the ancient ruin, and it just didn't happen. But he did get to see the kids have a blast, and he was like, I kind of feel bad because I shouldn't enjoy this, but I do. And I'm like, you should never feel bad for watching your grandkids have fun. Right. And if you do, you're thinking about it the wrong way. So it was kind of a good teaching moment for him, too. I mean, as a 60-some-year-old man, realizing that, like, it's not that maybe it's not as bad as he thought it was.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

Right, right. I love that. So, like teaching moments, here's one for you. So, this is why I'm not allowed to go to haunted houses. So, this is a Jennifer story that's better told by Frank around the campfire. One year we bought Six Flags passes and we went across the country doing Six Flags because we learned about roller coasters and we did all sorts of stuff. And so we happened to be in San Antonio around Halloween, and we went to Six Flags and did haunted houses. And that was not a good choice. So we went to this clown house, and we were standing in line at this clown house, and it was Justin, Hezekiah, me, Frank, and then Micah was behind him. Well, they hand you only a couple of flashlights. So Justin got the flashlight, so number one got the flashlight, and Frank got a flashlight, so he's behind me. And it we were actually having this conversation last night, my daughter and I, as we were talking about this, and so I told her, Well, well, what happened in that? I said, Well, your dad handed me the flashlight because he was being chivalrous and he wanted to make sure I felt safe. And so we go in, and I don't know at what point I got between Justin and Hezekiah and put myself between them. Now, now, where are the two flashlights now that we're talking? They're in the one-two spots, right? And so I'm literally holding my children on their shirts, like one in the back, one in the front, the flashlights here, and we zoom through the entire thing. And I don't remember anything, like it was black. Well, 20 minutes goes by and Frank still has not come out. And I'm hearing the clowns go, Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer, on the outside of the building. Micah and Frank are lost, and they are lost so bad that at some point Frank walks into where the clown is hiding and gets kicked out of the hole. And he's not allowed to turn on his phone. Like you're not allowed to use those lights. You can't get out that way. The clown says, Find the next guy and go through with them. Okay, you just told this to a Marine, and and Micah still has not forgiven me for this. So the walls are painted black. Everything is well done, Jeff. In your world, it would be like stellar, like chef's kiss, seriously. And so 20 minutes later, they have still not come out of the building. And all I'm hearing is all the clowns going, Jennifer, Jennifer, Jennifer, we can't find Jennifer. So there's an Uga horn with a clown at the very end that walks out and puts the hot corn in your face and it's like covered in blood. And I don't know, I saw it and I was out so fast I didn't remember it. Anyway, the guy comes up to Frank, puts the Uga horn up, goes, Hi, Frank, you may pass. And so I am banned from those types of things because of that situation. So you will not take me in a haunted house now that I've told you that story, because I will leave you.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

In the dust. That is hilarious.

SPEAKER_04 35:14

All right. We had in our haunted house, we had a tally board in the room where everybody could brag about how many people they made. Pee, scream, do whatever, right? Yeah. It was all all of the above. So that was.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Well, Frank walked through there like this and touched a lot of clowns. I don't know where he touched the clowns.

SPEAKER_04 35:31

All of the amusement parks across the across the U.S. are now doing a big Halloween thing. So I'd say for anybody, if that's what your game is, like go camp near one of those places and go check them out. And they're running of like Dolly is running the one there starting at the beginning of September. I think Hershey is running from September, whatever. So it's it's you know, it's it's easy to plan ahead. Salem is awesome during that time frame. But it's a madhouse, but it is a madhouse and be and be uh aware of that. Gettysburg and Williamsburg, all of those places have like the haunted ghost tours at night and stuff like that, and the ones on Halloween are like spectacular. You get to go into the houses and get toured around and all of that stuff. That's like super fun stuff. So depending on what you're into and what you you know, if you like the history stuff, or you just like being scared, or you just want to have fun and run around with the rest of your fairy friends or whatever, then you can find a place to be able to do that, and that's what's awesome about Halloween season, especially for traveling. You you like it, go to Florida. I mean, uh, you know, you're all of those amusement parks down there in the same bush gardens up there, and where you're at in Vegas, it's just it's one day I'll get to Vegas and be able to have fun out there. Definitely bucket list for Halloween for us, Vegas. I think that would be awesome. The kids would love it. I like for him to be a little bit heather um when we go out there, so we're just kind of you know, waiting. Curdy has a height thing where we're trying to get her up past 48 inches tall. So then we'll remember those days roller coasters and the water rides and those things. So, you know, that's the other thing.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

But Monica's not much taller than 48 inches, so she she might not make it. I'm forever young. You're fun sized. I am.

SPEAKER_04 37:15

Sneak Gertie in on her shoulders.

SPEAKER_02 37:16

You know, that's the advantage of having boys that get taller than you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:20

Well, we felt bad last time because Dean got to ride him and Gertie sat on the side, like, you know, and I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna do that again because that wasn't as much fun as it sounds.

SPEAKER_02 37:30

Well, and Ashley's got a pretty decent age gap between her kids, so I'm sure that that happens to you too, right? So, or not so Dean Dean's four foot now, so he's he's good. That's awesome. Yeah, the whole point of this episode is have fun on Halloween, you know.

SPEAKER_03 37:46

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

Don't don't overthink it. You know, there's lots of amazing places. If you're looking to get together with adults and you're an adult out there celebrating Halloween, there's lots of places to do that. If you're looking to find places for your kids, there are lots of places to do that. Be safe.

SPEAKER_03 38:02

You know, travel in numbers, take a flashlight. Don't give it to Jen. Don't that's that's true.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

And a lot of your campgrounds nowadays are doing Halloween stuff as well, where they're you know, decorating your your camper and and whatever.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Do you guys travel with like I mean, I mean, I think maybe Ashley does. Do you do you travel with like like props for outside, like or decorations, or do you decorate?

SPEAKER_04 38:32

We did keep everything from our storage unit, um, and we actually put it at my mother's house. And so we um, as I said, we travel pretty intentionally. So the week before Halloween and the week of Halloween, we're in South Carolina, and so we have access to everything in our storage unit. So we will once we get parked wherever we are there in South Carolina, we'll take a trip over to my mother's house and we'll pick up a handful of things and decorate, and then we put it right back where it came from, and I don't have to travel with it. Jeff's see how long she lets us do that because it filled half of her garage.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Jeff's mom's birthday is the first part of November. So it's always nice to be back in South Carolina to do her birthday with her or around that time. So if we leave a little bit early to get down to Florida, uh, she's she totally understands because I'm a big baby and I don't like cold weather.

SPEAKER_04 39:26

We come in to make sure that we celebrate Halloween and her birthday with the kids, and then we skedaddle down to Florida to hit that 70 degree weather for the winter.

SPEAKER_00 39:36

Yeah. There's some concessions you have to make.

SPEAKER_04 39:40

She wouldn't let me carry a trailer full of skeletons around with us all year long to use them once a year.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

No, he got his choice between his cast iron or that, and he picked his cast iron, which he's never used.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

So I have a friend that actually takes a skeleton and she puts it on her vehicle year round. He loses body parts on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

I think we should put one on our starling pole. Yeah. And see, we don't have anywhere where we can like drop stuff off. So we have to travel with everything. So just like you guys said, you have to pick and choose. So last year we had like this 12-foot tall like snowman. We got rid of that, replaced that with like a 14-foot tall like skeleton archway. So we only travel with our six inflatables for Halloween. So under one of these couch cushions, since under the it is just like storage, the whole thing is inflatables and lights back in the kids' room. We have two giant coffin shapes, like enter a few dare that are like four foot tall. We we have two totes just full of Halloween. The other holidays, we're like, oh well, we have a sign, but how Halloween is where we go all out. And whether we're like boondocking and at an event out like that, we can pull it all out. If we're at a campground, we can put it up. Even if nobody's around, we still decorate outside because that lets us know where we parked in the dark. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 41:12

And for us, you know, actually building and managing and owning haunted house. We've also learned how to make and manufacture a lot of that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

So, you know, for us, we can you can make eyeballs really easily.

SPEAKER_04 41:25

Yeah, and all kinds of fun stuff. Flesh out.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

How do you make eyeballs? Little latex and some and some caulk and some Mod Podge and some paper towels and a fake eyeball for 10 cents, and you can make it look like you just pulled it out of your head. Yeah, that's in my backpack.

SPEAKER_01 41:41

I have a little eyeball. So sometimes I'll pull my wallet out and the eyeball will come out flying.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

See, you gotta you gotta Mod Podge it and then attach it to your wallet so when you pull it out, it doesn't go flying, it's just like at our haunted house, we had a thing where the kids could have a safe uh safe trip through without a no-scare thing, and they would hold a balloon, a red balloon.

SPEAKER_04 42:08

And if any of the actors saw the red balloon, then they were told not to scare them. But unbeknownst to that kid around the first corner, the first one that they saw was a guy with a pin, and he went. They'd be like, Oh, I'm in the safe, and the kids would be like, Oh, that's nice. Click.

SPEAKER_02 42:24

Yeah, so I would have been I would have still been the one running through. You know, once you popped the balloon, I'd have been like, kind of.

SPEAKER_04 42:29

They were there, they were, or had to meltdown. Let me know this thing.

SPEAKER_02 42:33

Move along, kid. Good luck. I love Halloween and for the costumes and all of that stuff. I think it's a lot of fun and the family fun and the friends fun and all the things that go with it. So, spooky activity or festival, which one would you choose and why?

SPEAKER_04 42:50

Spooky activity won't be.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

Spooky activity.

SPEAKER_04 42:53

Yeah, yeah. I mean, so so the way that we kind of put it with our kids when we first went, because the very first haunted house house we took them to, they were very little, and it scared the pants off of them, not gonna lie. But then after going and going a couple of times, it was there's only a certain time in your life that you are really gonna be scared of that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 43:14

Well, then after you're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_04 43:15

Unless for me, you kind of then you kind of you kind of just get you, you know, not necessarily get used to it, but you're looking for the next scare and you're looking for that. But there's only that one time where it really truly scares the pants off you. And then after that, it kind of like, you know, it kind of You grow up, you grow up. Peter Pan leaves. Exactly. So I now they've gotten to the point where they're talking about, oh, remember that time that it actually did scare me, because when we go through the haunted houses now, it's just like oh, they still get scared. Well, we've seen that, we've done that, it's not as scary as it was that one time.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

The first time is always the best, right? You know, just like your first your first horror movie you ever watch is always the scariest movie you've ever seen. Even if you look back on it now, you're Like that was awful.

SPEAKER_03 44:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:02

But when you're a kid, you're like that's where I went wrong, I think, because I watched a horror movie as a kid, and I never watched another one again. I watched one. And and that one horror movie, the guy had his hands come alive in the shower and they grabbed you. And Jeff's laughing at me. I'm like, I'm sorry. That was it. That was the end of it for me. So I am team 12 festival all the way, cider in hand. But if you're team spooky, you know, now you have a a playbook from other people that absolutely love Halloween on why it's worth leaning into it. My kids can lean into it. I'm good. I still didn't get off the cart last year. Doesn't matter. But do the season your way and enjoy it. Take the time to enjoy it because it's honestly just a great time to make memories, you know. And I think that's what we have to remember is if we're out here living this lifestyle, traveling, whether it's full-time, part-time, whatever, if you're going away for Halloween, you're probably going away to do something with other people. Go go lean into it and have a good time. Yeah. Thanks, Monica. Thanks, Jeff. I appreciate both of you. Um and Ashley's such a shining light out there in Vegas. Where can people find you to follow each one of you?

SPEAKER_01 45:20

Um, so our tag is Wonder About Full Time RV. Um, you can find us on TikTok, Facebook, Amazon, uh, Instagram. We have a very small YouTube. Um yeah, we're all on almost all the platforms.

SPEAKER_03 45:35

Nice. Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 45:38

Ours are all uh Dean and Gertie Explore the World.

SPEAKER_02 45:42

So if you type in the right, and we might should say at that point, you are not Dean and she is not Gertie. So you might want to explain that to people that are just listening on the back side.

SPEAKER_04 45:52

So Dean and Gertie are children. Yeah. Uh and we've been traveling full time for about four and a half years now. And our channel is all about um RV life through the eyes of them, really. I mean, Monty and I are the main characters in the in the long form video uh YouTube stuff, but it's really all about showing them what our wonderful world has to offer and learning as much as we can along the way.

SPEAKER_00 46:18

Yep. We went on the road because of them to spend more time with them, to show them how great this country is and the beautiful people that are in it. And so we name the channel after them, even though everyone told us not to. Don't tell me what to do.

unknown 46:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:32

They do really exist, I promise.

SPEAKER_02 46:35

Oh, there they are. So awesome. But guys, if you're out there listening, we are Learn to RV the podcast. You can find us on learn to rv.com. We are on YouTube and all the socials. We're on pretty much wherever you can listen to a podcast these days, which we're very blessed by. We're very thankful that that has grown and it is continuing to grow. What Jeff didn't tell you is that he and Monica do write for Learn to RV as well. And so they're one of our creators. And Ashley's, you're gonna see a little bit more of Ashley throughout the season, I think, uh on the podcast as a co-host for some of the stuff. And we're just excited to create the space for all the creators and make this collaborative space for all of us to keep growing. And so we just want to make that campfire bigger. So if you're out there, you want to come on the podcast, make sure you reach out to learn to rv at gmail.com or fill out the the guest form at podpage. We'd love to have you.

SPEAKER_03 47:30

We'll talk soon. Have a happy Halloween.