Military Campgrounds, The Whitlock Trail, Base Access & Veteran's Day Deals 2026

SPEAKER_01 0:05

One Air Force base that I looked at for full hiccup sites, I saw it for like $35. Now, that's not always the case. Oceanside is much higher at the beach, but you're right on the water. Having those items that are available to you if you're a military veteran or an active duty military, or you just left the military with an honorable discharge, a lot of those options are open to you all across the country. And there's a good chance that somebody that's out there listening either has earned that spot that deserves to be at some of those spaces. So today we're gonna get into that. I'm a wife of a Marine, and our first stop, we actually stayed at an Air Force base, and it was the first time I got a good night's sleep in over a year since he had retired because I was so used to hearing the planes and the jets over us that it was just normal for me. But this is Veterans Day. We celebrated all month at Learn to RV. I don't want to only say thank you. I want to help give you a map today. So today we're gonna talk about military and veteran RVers and how they can actually get a reservation, the discounts that are worth asking for. And joining me are two people that have been around a couple times on Learn to RV, Stephen Ashley Gallagher of Campfires and Motors. Hey guys.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Hey, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:19

All right, well, before we dive in, I want to say a quick thank you to this episode's sponsor, RV Rifting Solutions, which is veteran-owned nationwide mobile and comes to you. Full disclosure, it's my company. Um, Stephen Ashley, welcome. And you know, and on behalf of everyone listening, thank you, Steve, for your service. And thank you, Ashley, for being the spouse of somebody that served. Because that's not a light ask either. When people used to thank me, it made me really uncomfortable because I was like, I didn't serve. And people are like, Well, you did. So we did the deployments, we did all the things behind the scenes, we made sure dinner was on the table when you guys were in the field for 18 hours a day. So it's not about us, but uh, I want to back you up just a little bit because a lot of people that don't know you guys, how did Campfires and Motors start?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

I mean, we started we started RV in 2019, and then in uh what was it, 2023, I guess, or 2022, we went on a long trip and we're like, this was uh a lot of fun. We need to figure out how to do this full time. So in 2024, we we set a plan, and then 2024 we sold our house and we've been on the road since then. And we just wanted a way to share our adventures with the family and friends and all the people we meet on the road. So that's why we started Campfires and Motors, and now we have a YouTube channel and most of the other social channels out there to share our adventures.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

That's true. And would you say your army backgrounds shaped the way you plan trips?

SPEAKER_00 2:42

I would say so. Yeah, it's definitely plays a big part in it with the planning and uh figuring out where we're going and uh having the confidence to uh go to some places a lot of RVers just don't take their RVs to, especially uh some of our boondocking spots we've been into.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

That's true. You have been in some interesting spots. Um Ashley, do you help him plan or do you set the schedule? What does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Help, but he does most of it. Because he's always on the computer and he's always got things going on in his brain and knows how everything works, and I kind of just sit back and let him do his thing and then just pop in when he needs me. But yeah, I think Steve does most of it.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

I like it's hard to give up some of that control sometimes that you've been uh trained and learned to uh to take charge and get things done.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Well, here's a funny story for you. So because I did not do any of the bookings, because Frank has been in charge of the calendar with the jobs we've been doing, he's usually in charge of making sure we have enough days at each location when he's on a job. And um, I have 30 days in Florida, and that's it. It's all I've got. So I'm not freaking out. You're freaking out. I'm like, are you kidding me right now? So I think I need to go back and do all the Florida scheduling. That's on my agenda today. If I need to, the places in Florida are still booked out, even with military campgrounds. So I don't know what our options are right now. So that's scary. Right? So, what would you say that one thing people get wrong about RVing at a military installation?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

I don't know about wrong, but I mean, a lot of people have to have the proper access. I mean, you could be a honorably charged veteran and you probably won't have access to it. You need to be retired, you could be a DOD civilian, even. But another big one that a lot of people don't know about is uh disabled veterans have uh certain access rights to uh the base. I'm a disabled veteran, and that's how we can access and stay at all the military you know campgrounds.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Yeah. And and so Frank recently we found out because our daughter is not enrolled in school anymore, she actually is her card has expired, and so she's not considered a dependent anymore. So she actually has to we have to have a special pass for her to go on, and then we have to stay with her at all times while she's on base. So there's some rules that people don't realize that exist out there. All right, so there's more than 250 campgrounds across the country, and they're usually called fam camps in most cases. Each base will run their own. Um, and you can stay, depending on the location for certain periods of time. I think that one of the struggles since we hit the road, there's a lot of active duty military now inside those campgrounds. So it makes it hard for somebody that is a veteran or a disabled veteran, the ability to get those spots. Is there a way to find that out?

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Availability-wise, I mean, it's none of the campgrounds are really online. You'd have to pretty much uh call each one that you want to go to and see what their uh your stay period is and whatnot. A lot of times active duty people can stay a lot longer than your retirees or or other people. There's a lot of active duty military that they'll just go TDY. So instead of getting in the hotel, they'll take their camper and you know stay there for however long they're at that at that base. I created a uh website. It was the hardest thing was for me was finding where all these campgrounds are easily. So I created a a website, I can pull that up here, called uh militarycampgrounds.info. And there's actually a membership you can join, it's free, and you can help other military campers. You can leave reviews and uh post pictures of your sites and stuff like that. But scroll down a little bit, you have an interactive map that shows every single military campground in the United States. We can just zoom in on one, you just click on it. AF means Air Force. Then over on the side over here, tells you all the stuff, tells you it has 22 RV sites. Uh, any tent sites not listed, it's got 22, a full you know, service, uh full hookup sites. You can click on the uh card here and it brings up more details. Obviously, you wanted to leave a review, you could do that. And it gives you all the contact information right to the official source. So you can click on that and it'll take you right to the MWR or the or the fam camp site.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

On a lot of those you have to call. I know we almost stayed on one in Maryland just recently. You don't always get a person at the other end of the phone because a lot of those MWR people are doing other jobs too. They're not just managing the campground, so they're not just a campground host. So it took her usually half the day to get back to us. It was like playing a good game of phone tag. So don't be frustrated by that because it is something that's a service that's provided by the base. And usually it's not like a standard camp host that's handling those kinds of reservations. That's a neat website. And for those of you that are just listening in, you're gonna want to go watch the YouTube video on this one. We will have the show notes in there so you can access that page too. Walk us through a gate check. So when you go through the gate with your camper, what does that look like?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

First, the most important thing is figuring out which gate you're supposed to go in, because not all gates can handle the big rigs. That's the most important thing. And a lot of times you click through the links on my website and that'll it'll tell you which gate you're supposed to go to, the arrival instructions. But uh, once you find the right gate, it's pretty much the same as going through any military gate. You have to show your military ID and then just answer whatever questions they have. We've never really had any odd questions, or anybody was ever asked to search the camp or anything like that. They just look at the card or scan the card and then uh we're good to go.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

And sometimes your um access point isn't actually like on like it's on the property, but it's not within like the regular base access area. So like they'll give you instructions if you have to go to a specific uh location and what you're supposed to do. And we say that one where we had to go through a gate only because it was like a community. So we had to like go through a little gate and then we had to go all the way back to the building where we had to check in, but then we come back out of the gate just to go to the campsite. So not everything is like always on the base or site, like you don't always have to go through like your normal base gate access, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

Some of them have had the campground in the uh in the back 40 of the installation, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

That's like Las Vegas. Las Vegas it's on one side of the street, and the base is actually on the other side of the street.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

So Fort Campbell's similar, it's just outside the outside the gate, but still on you know installation property.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Well, and I think 29 Palms is similar as well. We never actually stayed at the 29 Palms one because we usually end up in Palm Springs because it's about the same distance to see my mom and Joshua Tree from 29 Palms as it is from Palm Springs. And we have a thousand trails passed, so we can use our thousand trails when we go to Palm Springs. But if I'm driving 40 minutes and I can save myself the daily rate, even if it's only $35, $40 a night, I'm gonna do that. All right. So I want to be careful because each installation decides for itself active duty, reserve, retirees, what general eligibility is. Make sure you check with the base on that. That phone call could save you the hassle of trying to make a reservation and not get it. But there are some bases that extend access to veterans with VA documented service, contract disabilities, purple heart recipients. When in doubt, just give them a call.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

They're usually the same number, call for a reservation. You can ask those questions too, and they should be able to answer that and tell you if you can access the base or not.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Well, and Steve, you guys, you didn't retire, but you're a disabled veteran. If someone listening served but didn't retire, what would you tell them to do first?

SPEAKER_00 10:15

Um it all depends. I I think it all depends. Like I said, I'm not an expert on this, but I think it all depends on the rating, the percentage rating that you get through the VA. I'm not sure where it starts, but yeah, it goes all the way up to 100%. And then you get access to all the military camps and commissary and go to the PX, all that, all that MWR type stuff.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

That's true. Have you ever shown up and been turned away or waitlisted?

SPEAKER_00 10:36

No.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

So you've always been able to get into a campground whenever you've looked for one.

SPEAKER_04 10:40

Uh-huh. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

That's awesome. So I think there were a couple of years that we tried and we weren't able to get in, so we stopped trying. So we definitely are guilty of not using all of those assets to us. What would you say is the best benefit for being able to get on base?

SPEAKER_00 10:54

The campgrounds, all the ones we've been to have been really nice. And probably the biggest benefit is the cost savings. The bottom are 30 or 40 bucks a night, where, you know, off installation, you'd be paying, you know, 60, 70, 80 bucks a night or more. And it's also convenient and close. And when we're all staying on a base, we'll take the time to hit up the commissary and in the PX and usually find some stuff that's a lot cheaper. At least you're not paying, you know, the sales tax in the local area when you shop at those uh those facilities.

SPEAKER_01 11:22

For sure. Don't forget to tell them if you have a great stay. Like if you're on a base and you are staying there, and we're throwing fancy words around that I understand completely because I live this lifestyle. But if you're out there listening and you're like, I am not military, what's a BX? That is actually like their, well, I would have called it an exchange, which is just basically a store, kind of like a department store that's on the base. Their commissary is a grocery store, and we talk all about different things, but your level of service, your rank, and so you're dressed differently the higher your rank is, and you're treated differently in some cases. All right. So there's no single one booking system. And each campground even sets its own window for those.

SPEAKER_00 12:04

Yep. They're all different.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Yeah, some of them are like what 60 days out.

SPEAKER_00 12:09

We've seen um if you're not active duty, you can't reserve more than a few days ahead. And we've seen other ones where you can reserve, you know, six months out.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

And some bases are still first come, first serve. I've seen that too. There's not a lot of them, but there is the possibility. How far ahead do you think you should book?

SPEAKER_00 12:28

You can get them, you can go to my website and that that tells you what the booking window is, and that takes you to the link directly for that that campground, and then you can read through that information, and that'll tell you how far ahead that you can book as uh what your status is, retiree, active duty, or disabled veteran.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

What do you think first timers at a base forget at the gate or at check-in? Or IDs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

Or the military ID is, yeah. Gotta have the proper ID.

SPEAKER_01 12:53

See, that's like front and center in my wallet. In fact, for years I didn't know my own social security number. I knew his because that's what I had to know. And so, and I last name because it's skalachi, they'd come out and they'd be Jennifer Shu Ska. That's me. I didn't even, I didn't even try. What's your backup plan if a base is full or closed to visitors that week?

SPEAKER_02 13:17

We'll find somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

I mean, just like anything in camping, we always try to have a backup plan. If something doesn't work out in one campground, we always try to have another one in the area in the back of our mind that we could go to. If all else fails, you get a cracker barrel parking lot nearby, probably.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Well, years ago, there were OPSEC guidelines. So that's operational security for those of you listening that don't speak the lingo. So Frank was actually stationed at Fort Knox, Kentucky for three years. And he did a competition called Tiger Comp every year. And that competition brought visitors from all over the world because all tank units from the Marine Corps would come to Fort Knox and compete. But it was just an interesting place because the campground filled up, all the hotels filled up, but it was not open to the public. This is probably 20 years ago, because they've disbanded that unit now out of Fort Knox. But he was an I and I instructor, which meant he trained reservists. So it was a totally different dynamic. And I used to say when he was there originally that that was the worst place we'd ever been stationed. Except it was the best meal I'd ever had after having a baby at the Army Hospital. However, I would come to find out less than a year later that two deployments back to back could possibly be worse out of Camp Lejeune. So my backup plan in those situations is usually the closest campground nearby if we if we miss something like that. But I think that it's important to understand that when you're on base, maybe don't share pictures of where you're going and what you're doing. That behind the lines scene is not something that the whole world needs to see because that's so important for our military members that are out there today. Um, and I know that's not a popular topic to talk about, but I feel really strongly about it. All right, so this episode is brought to you by RV Roofing Solutions. As I mentioned earlier, it is my family's company. It is a veteran-owned nationwide mobile roofing company. During the month of November, every year, we give some extra discounts. So when you get an estimate, if you're a veteran or active duty or retired, or you've just served your country in some capacity, as long as you're honorably discharged, you're going to get an extra $10 off a foot. And that happens every November. Um, if you're co-service with your spouse, if you are a teacher, if you are a Family RV Association member, if you're a member of RV Overnights, or if you're a member of the Open Roads VIP program. And so the Open Roads VIP program, you're in a unique position this week because you're at the Open Roads rally and it's their first ever rally. What does that look like for you guys?

SPEAKER_00 15:51

Looks like a pretty good rally. I mean, there's a hundred and sixty uh total RVs here. And it started just yesterday afternoon, and today's the second day, and then it goes on for uh tomorrow and then another half day for the checkout.

unknown 16:04

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

They got a full plate.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

It's such a prime time to be in you guys are in what, Tennessee?

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Tennessee, yep.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Yep. So I mean, like your fall colors must be absolutely fantastic right now.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

All around, yeah. And we even uh no, we didn't see it, but uh yesterday there was uh a mama bear and three cubs spotted up on the upper level of the campground. Uh, one of the cubs is climbing up a tree and they're just kind of walking through the woods behind the bunch of the campsites.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

And you're probably getting tons of great content for Camp Fires and Motors.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yep, yeah. We're doing a lot of filming or film or filming part of the rally.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

So that'll have a video out in a few weeks about this rally.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Well, and don't forget to like and follow them at Campfires and Motors on YouTube. All right, so let's dive into some year-round discounts across the internet. The military lifetime pass is free for veterans, including National Guard and Reserve, with no disability range required on those. And that will cover your day use fees at national parks. It does not necessarily cover your camping fees. That's important to state here.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

Most of the time, though, we found out you get 50% discount, like you stay at Army Corps of Engineer Parks, and you get a 50% discount with that pass a lot of times.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

Now, Thousand Trails offers some kind of discount. I don't know. We bought it in 2013, so it's hard to say. But they say that for active duty and retired military, up to six nights per stay. So I think that that just means that like that's probably off their retail rate.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Maybe a cabin or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

If you have a KOA card, like the little membership card for KOA, you can just ask for your military discount. Keep in mind KOAs are all independently owned and operated for the most part. So it will vary which ones that actually participate on that. A lot of state parks have a 50% off or some kind of discount for military veterans in some way or another. Camping World runs a hero program. They give you 5% off the retail and flat discounts on a new RV. What would you say did the discount-wise have saved you the most over like year over year?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Oh, that's a good question. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

I don't keep track of that.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

A lot of times, a lot of times we'll f I'll forget to ask for it or whatever. And then most times when we're making reservations for campgrounds, you make it online, and most of the campgrounds don't have a way to put that discount in. You'd have to actually call them on the phone in order to get the discount. A lot of times we're making reservations, it's not usually at night or something like that, so their office hours are closed.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

We probably pass up on a lot of discounts that we we should be getting.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Well, like the KOA up in West Yellowstone did a military discount no matter what. When you checked in, it was our job to ask you, and we would actually refund that difference back to your accredited to your reservation. It doesn't hurt to ask even once you get there. Um, because the worst they're gonna do is tell you no at that point. How do you feel about campgrounds that say no to a military discount?

SPEAKER_00 18:51

I mean, we like to stay at campgrounds where we can get the discount whenever we try to remember to get it, but it's feels good for them to be offering a discount to uh the veterans, and we've come across a lot of campgrounds that were managed or operated by the veterans, so they're just trying to extend that discount to other veterans too.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

Yeah, where we're staying right now, it's a little tiny campground at the bottom of a mobile home park because most people don't realize that a lot of campgrounds close for the winter. So this one does not. We're still in Pennsylvania. We won't be by the time this airs, hopefully. But uh the guy that runs the place is a Marine. And so he and Frank have had some good conversations because when Marines find Marines, it's probably like when Army Guys find army guys. So Veterans Days Week, National Park, November 11th is actually a free park day in the national parks. It's also Veterans Day. So the problem with going into the park that day is maybe that that's gonna be really busy.

SPEAKER_04 19:46

Everybody's gonna be there, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:50

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

And I mean there's a whole list of so it gets busy because veterans are going out, which is good that they do that though.

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Yeah, no, it's super nice. They know you're gonna take your spouse. So the veteran gets a free meal and your spouse is still buying dinner, and then you're still gonna leave a decent tip because that's just who you are. A lot of these, though, are on only new bookings, and so that's something to keep in mind too, is sometimes like if a private campground is doing a veterans day deal, it might not be if you go to that campground year after year. It might be only if this is your first time trying it. When you guys travel, what do you use for your booking other than your website? How do you make that route?

SPEAKER_00 20:28

The thing we use is uh an app or a website called Road Trippers. That seems to be pretty useful. They got a lot of uh a lot of the campgrounds across the country listed on there. You can put in your RV information and it'll you know route you RV safe routes as well. So you can actually put in your stops and you can see how many miles you got in between stops, stuff like that. So that's probably the biggest tool we use. And the other one is you know, Google, and then we'll take that campground if it's not in Road Trippers and uh just type in the address. But that seems to that's a pretty useful tool.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Gotcha. So how do you tell a real deal from a gimmick when you're booking that stuff?

SPEAKER_00 21:01

No, I never never had that issue. I mean, a lot of times we'll check out the campground. One of the things we'll do how we book it is uh you know, we find it if it's on road trippers or whatever. We'll go to Google Maps and we'll look at the satellite view, and we'll also look at the campground reviews on Google to make sure that you know it's seems like a decent campground. You haven't had a bunch of one star reviews here recently or anything like that, but made a mistake and been in a few campgrounds where uh we shouldn't have been there. We should have listened to the reviews.

SPEAKER_04 21:27

Yeah. I think we all do that.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Yeah, looking at Google Maps, you know, the satellite view is is real handy because you can look a lot of times, lush a bunch of trees, you can see how big the sites are, how close they are together and the turns, you know, getting into the campground and all that stuff. So that that's another useful tool.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

Yeah, for sure. Well, Veterans Day is Wednesday. This will air the Monday before it. So if you're traveling, here are a few small ways to say thank you on the road. Leave a note for your campground host if you can see that they're a veteran. Buy buy a coffee for a neighbor. Thank Camper wearing a service hat, and we do that all the time because it's easy to see the veterans, especially if they're showing their pride that they've done it. Sometimes there's always the chance that it's their kid, but that's okay too. You can thank them as well. All right. So you've been working on a big project. He's more than a veteran, and he's more than just a full-time RVer. He's also an author. His new thriller, the Whitlock Trail, just came out this October. And so it follows what? A family that gets handed a journal and follows clues on a treasure hunt?

SPEAKER_00 22:31

Yep. Yeah, I got the book here. This is a just a proof copy I had to order, so I've got this bar across the front. The regular uh cover doesn't have that. But if I was a full-time family, RV family, trying to I don't know. People say it was based on us, but it's not based on us. Maybe it's loosely based on.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

I was gonna ask you that. So what pushed you to write it and how much of your RV life ended up in it?

SPEAKER_00 22:51

A little bit of the RV life and a little bit of the military experience and yes, all the experience we have hiking on trails and stuff like that. So quick overview of the book. Uh the family comes across a stranger who has an old journal, then they start following the clues in the journal, and it they quickly find out that there's other people searching for whatever it is that's hidden. And then so they race the for the family to get to the uh the hidden vault before the uh the quote unquote bad guys get there, too. So that's the husband, the main character of the family, uh, David is a former military, retired, and then uh his wife, Michelle, was a former nurse, and then the two teens, or so it's basically a family adventure. The whole family goes and uh has to work together to uh solve this mystery. It's over a hundred years old.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

It definitely mirrors your life in a little bit of ways.

SPEAKER_00 23:41

Except we never actually found a real treasure in life, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

Well, that's why you're still traveling. Where can listeners find that book? Because it sounds like a good one.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

I mean, you can pretty much order it anywhere. Books are sold. I mean, like bookstores, they don't have it in stock, but it's listed on their websites. But the easiest place would just be Amazon. Amazon has uh the ebook and then paperback and then uh a hardcover edition, but the hardcover on Amazon doesn't have the dust jacket. There's another link on the website, thewitlocktrail.com, where you can order a book with the dust jacket if that's the type of you know books you like. I know some people like those hardbacks with the the dust cover. We're waiting to actually get down to our spot in Florida too, so I can actually order some more books. That's what we was able to get ordered was was was this one proof copy. So next week we'll uh we'll be there and uh hopefully get some uh books ordered in.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

That's awesome. So Ashley, what was it like watching Steve build that?

SPEAKER_02 24:38

Um, not any different than everything else that he does. Sometimes it's really hard to determine what he's doing on the computer, but I'm very proud of him. It took him a long time to get it finished. Um a lot of proofreading and editing and just all the behind the scenes stuff with it. And uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

I started it took about a year, started it last November, and then the book was finally published October 19th. Went through a big long uh string of trying to find an agent, probably got turned down by 60 different uh literary agents, so decided to go the self-publishing route. So that was a whole nother uh thing to figure out and learn. And then you know one of the things I did with uh my GI Bill when I got out was took the classes, got a degree in graphic design and photography. So I mean I designed the book, the cover, you know, the layout of the book all inside. It's a bunch of stuff that you don't normally think about when you pick up a book, but I mean somebody asked to design every aspect of it. So that knowledge I picked up and getting my bachelor's degree in graphic design actually helped save thousands of dollars from having to pay somebody else to do all that. So I write the book, but I I did everything with the book.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

That is cool. So it's your projects from beginning to end at this rate. It wasn't just something you handed off. That's cool. All right. Well, I also want to ask you about the Night Stalker Foundation. We've talked about it before because it matters to you. How do you get involved with the Night Stalker Foundation?

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Yep, the Night Stalkers, I was uh I was a Night Stalker, it's 160th, it's the Army's uh Special Operations Aviation Unit. So we would fly in uh all the special operations troops to their missions. So the Night Stalker Foundation supports those troops and uh and the families of of the troops. That's awesome. We can give you a link that you can put down below that if somebody wanted to donate, you know, they can click on that link and it'll go right to the Night Stalker Foundation.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

Absolutely. I mean, what better way to give back to the military than actually give back to the military foundation that supports those families? All right, one more question. What's one thing you wish you had known about RVing as a military family before you launched into full-time RV life?

SPEAKER_00 26:46

I'd say one thing I wish we would have known is we were RVing for years, you know, before even before we went full-time, but without even realizing that we could get on the military bases and stay at military campgrounds and you know, basically save a lot of money that way, because those campgrounds are cheaper. And that's why I created the militarycampgrounds.info website so people can quickly and easily find campgrounds close to them.

SPEAKER_01 27:11

Here's the one thing I would warn you don't joke around with the MPs. There are some things you can't have on board if you are using military installations. So keep that in mind. Take that list seriously because they're gonna check. We have been checked. We actually our first year on the road, and I think the campground there is now closed because they found live munitions on it several years later, which I was really excited to hear about. But, you know, they did check our rig. Now there was nothing in there, like they're not checking for fruits and vegetables, they're checking to see if you have a weapon. But if the dogs go in and sniff your rig, you know, short of finding those things, you don't want to have any of that on board if you're using a military installation for any of that. You can build your savings on what you do save at military campgrounds if you can use them and treat holiday deals like a bonus. And this month, you're gonna have lots of holiday deals from restaurants and places to spend more money to save more money. If you want to keep the conversation going, you can find Military Families on the Road on Facebook, where Steve is actually one of the moderators for that group. We're gonna have some conversation starters in there in the next couple of weeks that will give you that opportunity. And thank you again to Steve and Ashley from Campfires and Motors. Don't forget to like and follow them too, because they have some really stellar content out there. If this episode helped you in some way, please like and subscribe on YouTube, follow it on Facebook, or follow it wherever you listen to podcasts.