Tales From Our RV Window

In this episode of TravelEssary, we’re recording outside of Texas for the very first time after two long travel days that brought us to Alabama and yes, the scenery (and accents) have officially shifted. But today’s stories? They’re still straight out of Texas campground life.

When you live full-time in an RV with near 360-degree windows, you don’t just travel, you observe. And campground life is its own kind of entertainment.

We’re sharing what we see from our RV window, including:

• The wild differences in rigs, budgets, and setup styles
• Multi-day “garden oasis” setups (that look like they require a blueprint)
• Outdoor laundry situations
• Totes. So many totes.
• And what happens when Texas windstorms meet awnings and canopies

We also talk about how watching other campers has influenced our own RV setup, from adding a rear stabilizer to finally buying an outdoor rug, and how different parks shape the experience. We compare community-focused campgrounds like Thousand Trails and KOA with more spacious stays at Corps of Engineers and state parks.

Full-time RV travel constantly teaches us something, sometimes through our own mistakes, and sometimes by simply watching what unfolds outside our window.

Season five is carrying us beyond Texas, and we’re just getting started.

Transcript

  We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time. On this episode of Travelessary, we're going to spill the tea on all of the things we've seen from our RV window.

Welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode. As we talk about everything that we've seen from our RV window and ladies and gentlemen, is it a ton of things that we've seen, mainly because we almost have a 360 view from our RV just sitting in the living room, so we get to see a lot of things that are going on.

At the little places that we get to stay at, and we are going to talk about a few of them because if we were to spend the time and the effort to go through all the list, we would be here for hours. Yes. But you know, before we get into that, before we have some amazing news to share, special announcement.

We're not in Texas anymore. Dun, dun, dun. We're not in Texas anymore. Toto. Okay, so this is our first official podcast that we are recording. Away from our home state. Yes, we have officially left Texas. We have been full-time in RV for a while, but we are now out of Texas. Anyone who's actually been to Texas knows that it's massive.

You could literally spend half a year in Texas alone and still not see everything. But we have gotten away from Texas, and this is our very first recorded podcast. Outside. Of the state of Texas. Yeah. We took two full travel days to get to where we are now from Texas. We're in Alabama and you know, it's just, um, I'm not gonna lie, it doesn't feel that different from home now.

The scenery. The scenery is so different. 100% different. Yeah. Even from. All the places we stayed in Texas, this is still 100% different., I love North Alabama, I'm not gonna lie. I think it's absolutely beautiful.

One of the things that I've been looking forward to is like having conversations with people who have some of those thick, deep south type accents. Um, when we went through Arkansas, that's where they really have those accents. People think that, you know, we Texans have some southern draws, which I guess.

You know, in the East Texas area you get that, but compared to some of the southern states, which. Whether you do or do not count, Texas is up to you, but compared to the other Southern states, like ours is very minimal. Well, it's just different because ours is more like the wild, wild west type thing and down south, I, I don't, I don't know.

It's just different. , As weird as that is, yeah. I mean we always think that that Texas is definitely one of account.

We like to think that No, but like we have like our Tex-Mex lingo. Yes. And that, those kind of things, like you don't hear very often outside of Texas. Yeah. But coming down south. So you've already visited with going up south Yeah. Going, we're going up to go to the southern states. Yeah. But so you, you got to talk to some people in Arkansas.

Mm-hmm. I've already got to talk to some people here and Mississippi, here in Alabama. And it's prevalent here, , you can tell that we are not in sexist anymore. We're so excited to continue our full-time journey going through the rest of the lower 48 like I am.

Just, I'm beyond thrilled about this. I cannot wait to share with you guys even more things that we see from our RV window, but today the things we're gonna share really have all taken place in Texas. Yes. So stay tuned for sure. Of the rest of season five. Mm-hmm. All the wonderful things that , we've still gotta talk about.

The different places that we're gonna get to go are gonna be super, super amazing. I am seriously looking forward to at least four of our stops in the next couple of months, which is almost all of the stops. I'm looking forward to all the stops. I have high hopes for some of them, and I hope they meet my expectations , as much as we tell y'all not to have those expectations whenever you go on trips and vacations, those really high hopes.

I have some extremely high hopes for at least four of the stops that we're gonna be at. Really, the only hopes that I have is that the next six weeks are better than the last six weeks as far as like troubleshooting goes. Uh, yeah, we've had a little bit of issues, and if you want more information about the in and outs and kind of our, our for real struggles that we go to, please check out our Patreon page.

There's a whole lot more information as far as what we go through, how we try to fix things. Um, our financial struggles, our life struggles, our day-to-day struggles. So make sure that you head over there. The link is in the description below, so check that out. Uh, leave us a review, a like share and tell your friends and family about us.

Now let's kick into it. Let's get real what we see from our rv. Window. And ladies and gentlemen, we are gonna give you the down and dirty to what it looks like as far as the good, the bad, and of course the ugly. The very first thing that we want to talk about we believe 100% that no matter your situation, you can live this life. And there are so many different ways of doing this specifically. RVs. Okay, so my little spiel before we get started, we are about to, I don't wanna say infringe on gossip territory, but we are gonna be absolutely honest and raw of the things that we see outside of

our windows, like seriously just sitting in our couches or at our table , whether we're eating or podcasting, like right this moment when we have this big old giant window in front of us that we get to look out while we're podcasting. Like we are going to share with you guys. Some of 'em, you know, some of us good, but some of the crazy things we've seen, or even whenever we're just walking or we're driving in.

Because we definitely like to scope out the entire park 'cause I believe there's some very beautiful things in every single park. And if you don't leave , your camper, you'll never get to experience those man. While we're sitting here making this podcast. Like I'm trying not to watch these people over here that have a beautiful truck and a fantastic RV that is pulling in, is that one of those Brinkley two, two spots away from us and they're trying to figure out.

How, what kind of churn they need to make in order to get it in. Like where are they gonna pull in? So, so, oh man. We're not into that yet, but the entertainment value from this window is priceless. Before we talk RVs, let's talk entertainment there , for a little bit. The different ways that people set up are so drastic.

Yeah. And I do believe we've talked about this quite a bit before, but like, it's seriously an understatement when you say they're different. Some people, at , the last one in Arkansas that we were at. Me and another guy, I don't wanna say we were racing, but I set up as fast as he set up, and I guarantee you we were set up in like 30 minutes.

Mm-hmm. And then we've kind of pulled in almost the same time as some other people. We're done in like 30, 40 minutes and they're going two or three hours later, like they're still going and putting stuff up and, and decorating and, and getting all of their RVs, you know, situated and everything. , That's just a little tidbit about what we're about to get into.

But before we do that. And before we talk about everything that we've seen and looking at this really nice sprinkle that's coming in, that is so nice, such a nice fifth wheel. And if anyone doesn't know Brinkleys are just pretty, like as far Brinkley are expensive. They are expensive, but they're pretty just to look at because they're like, they're very simple.

Rolls Royce of like RVs. They're very simple and elegant. And so, I mean, you can't go wrong, , with a Brinkley and that's just my honest opinion. But it doesn't matter if you're coming in a fifth wheel. If you're doing a bumper pool, which is your normal travel trailer. Yeah. We've seen people in camper vans.

. Oh my goodness. Camper vans are actually kind of becoming more and more popular. Yeah. Especially with , the younger. Even today when we went on our walk, we saw there's two or three, it's like sprinter vans and stuff. Yeah. So that's pretty cool from Class C's and class a's and we have seen the newest models roll in with the nicest trucks. And then we have seen something that looks like. It was made in the seventies and I'm not sure how they got it in and , like how did it survive the road? You're wondering how it's still going, like it should have fallen apart at some point in time.

It comes rattling in and it's like duct tape together. But that is so true. We've seen , I wanna say. Brand new, like they probably bought it off the lot two weeks ago. Mm-hmm. They did a little prep. They took it home and loaded it up with whatever they were going to, and then they hit the road with it and it looks absolutely spotless , from front end to back end.

And then we've seen some other ones pulled in that you can tell it's got a little bit of h, has a little bit of wear and hair to it. Ours has a little bit of wear and tear to it. It does. It's nothing wrong with coming in with a wear and tear. You know, you that old adage of keeping up with the Joneses.

Mm-hmm. I believe in RV life there's less of that. Yeah. I think that people who have RVs, no matter like what their age or whatever is, I think they feel like they're already. They're already reached that spot they wanted to reach like they're doing what they wanna do. Right? Like , the type of RV you have is not preventing you from going out and enjoying the rv.

Yeah. And another thing that we like to do whenever RVs pull in is we like to guess how that RV is set up. Yeah. Does it have the bunk beds in the back? Is it a mid bunk like ours? Is it a front living room area? , How many bathrooms does it have? Where is that located? We just like to play detective every once in a while just to see , what the RVs look like

yeah, that's more of a game that Jeremy likes to play than myself, 100%. I don't care about their layouts , but it doesn't matter. What your taste is. It doesn't matter what your budget is because , you can go from the cheapest, which still lasts. Mm-hmm. I mean, there's still good RVs. Okay, but wait, let's clarify this. So that's not true in every park or resort. There are a lot of campgrounds and RV resorts that they have a 10 year.

Age rule, your RV cannot be older than 10 years. Now. The thousand trail system and the core of engineer systems, which is where we stay like 99% of the time, they do not have that. Theirs is more like, as long as it's drivable seriously though it's not supposed to have duct tape on it. I have seen duct tape on someone's, like , their slide had

a piece of wood and it was like held on, on one of the sides. It was different. But that's not the case with everybody. But in the systems we are in, that is the case. We've seen. Single people that they just want to take their little sprinter vans and , their Class B's and hit the open road and , they jump around from park to park a lot. And we've seen some retired people that they roll around in class with that Class A with their little car that's pulled in the back and , they just have a wonderful and good time of doing that.

, I mean it, it all works. You can make this work no matter what you want to get, and it's not just the RVs that vary what each person brings with them and how they set up their space varies so much.

I will never forget our very first spot. We were in Lake TA thousand trails. And we were there for a few days and then someone pulled in next to us and it was this little, what was it? Like a class CI believe it was a little Class C. Class C. It was a small class C and these people, totally floored me because I didn't think people would do this, but there are people out there that do this.

They brought their portable washing machine outside and stuck it on the back end of their rv, so it was like where we look out of our front door area. So it was on that side , of their rv and then they had a close line back there too. So the people that are facing them, was like having to enjoy the view of their laundry and stuff, and they weren't shy. Everything got hung up on that clothesline and I was like, this was not quite what I anticipated whenever I came to sign up for this. But you know what? It is part of the gig and now, I mean, I just find it kind of funny, like it's just funny how everyone sets up so differently.

We have people with the nicest. Most expensive equipment you've ever seen. They have like these tents that go around the campfire ring and these big old, nice expensive chairs, and they are just set up , like Academy or Bass Pro or something, spit up outside of their rv. And then you have people who have clothes lines and portable washing machines and it's just, it's so interesting how different that is.

And it doesn't matter, like Misty said, if you go to. Any bass Pro . Uh, academy there are , so many different things, different items, different little accessories, , all sorts of crazy gadgets that are out there.

And we've seen people. Pretty much bring the store out. Yeah. And totally set up. And then we've seen a lot of people come out and don't set anything outside, which was us in the beginning.  Yes, and we're gonna get , to that. Oh no, we're becoming those people. We're becoming those people, and I'll talk about those people in just a few seconds,

, we have seen people like pull out a plant nursery out of their RV in the back of their SUV and stuff. There were so many plants when we were at Lake Whitney, we were next to this couple, they had . Little mini potted trees, like little potted tree plants. And they had three or four different areas of chairs and tables, depending on how they wanted to lounge, , they had a regular metal.

Table and chairs, and then they had camping, baseball chairs. And then they had these loungers like all placed in different areas around their site. They had so many different decorations, like the kind you stick in the ground, like the flags and the poles and like garden type, sparkly things like it.

There was so much stuff everywhere. So we're totally gonna dive into this because this is one of those that it's. It is nice if you're gonna be a full-time in that spot, if you're gonna be an annual in that spot, which they weren't as far as traveling, getting up every three weeks and having to move.

, This is totally excessive. Okay. Misty doesn't do it justice. We need to get this out so they have an Airstream. Okay. A 1970 something, Airstream. That was really nice. It's been redone on the inside, , almost back to original. It was really beautiful on the inside, but outside they had everything that you would find like in an outside, uh, garden oasis type thing.

Yeah. Plus like an outside kitchen. That outside kitchen had outside tables, outside chairs. Um, he had one of the few fire rings in that area because not every spot had a fire ring around. The fire ring was like five or six chairs. There's only two of them at this. There's wooden chairs, metal chairs, lawn chairs, like so many different kinds of chairs.

They pulled out hummingbird feeders and regular bird feeders, um, that the squirrels got in their picnic table all the time. Had like decorative items. For the season it was in and like she keeps different, yeah. Like they decorated seasonal items to decorate in her rv. And this is no joke. So we talked to some other people that were around there and they said it took that guy three days to no set up and he was still putting more, more stuff out.

Every single day. Well, I watched them take down, and it took him like two and a half, three days to pack everything up in his truck to get rid of stuff, , to go to the next campsite in the Airstream. They totally packed it full. And then he had a whole truck that had a little camper on it 'cause it was a bumper pull and.

He just let down the gate and just kept on putting more and more and more stuff. And that stuff was piled high too. And he left stuff. Yeah, they didn't even take it all. They didn't even take it all. They left stuff for the next skipper or whoever else wanted, to grab it. . People. I'm not gonna say it's excessive because that is a matter of 100% excessive.

Jeremy's gonna say it's excessive. I'm gonna say it's a matter of opinion, and it's a matter of your lifestyle. In our eyes, we view it as excessive, but we're not living their life. And different people have different desires and needs, and maybe that's how they, because , they're both retired. Maybe that's just how they.

They occupy their time and they did have several people come over and visit and they were super friendly and they said they traveled with two or three other couples a lot and they met up. So maybe that's why all those chairs were there. Maybe they all have it like that so they don't have to take their chairs from one campsite to the other.

Yeah, . Don't get me wrong, as far as , the people themselves, absolutely wonderful. They had , oh yeah, they were awesome. They had , a new little puppy. , They were like, it was an older puppy, but they were like older hippies, but they were so incredibly nice.

Yeah. We got to talk to them for a long time whenever we first pulled up and we got everything set up, , they came over, they introduced themselves,. But they put a lot of stuff out. . I have seen a few terrifying sites. These ones I'm not gonna say is excessive, but I am gonna say is maybe on borderline disrespectful, one to the campground itself and two to the people around you.

It's one thing to have outdoor things that you're going to utilize you. Outdoor decorations. They're loud in these campsites, you know, chairs, tables, outdoor kitchen, fine, whatever. Bird feeders. I have seen people that they had stacks and stacks of totes and boxes everywhere around their campsite. I'm not talking about, well, like a few people who pull 'em out of their trailer and then stick 'em underneath, you know?

Whatever. I've seen that too. That's camping. Trying to hide them and kinda get them outta people's views. Yeah, that's camping stuff, especially when you're at the lake and you have like tackle gear and things like that. I'm talking about massive piles. I'm talking 20 plus totes and boxes outside of their rv, and it was there the entire time we were there and those are not annual people.

So let me clarify this a little bit. There are people that go there to either camp for the weekend. Or are full-timers like us, and then there's a whole new section that is, they're called annuals. They rent their spot all year round. Mm-hmm. And they're allowed to do certain things that normal campers are not allowed to do within reason.

Such as put storage buildings on their sites. Yeah. Which they have to get permits for. They have decks or patios. Mm-hmm. They, they have way more decorations or , the really big propane bottles. Yeah. And we're not even that moveable and we're not even talking about them. I'm leaving them out of this category completely.

And the reason we're leaving them out is because we've seen both sides. We've seen those that , they almost trash their place. And , in my opinion, being an excode enforcement officer , it's so disrespectful. And if it was my park, either they would clean it up Or they would leave.

Yeah. Just 'cause of how bad it is. Yeah. And then we have seen some, like we're looking at one right now that has a whole full deck and it's covered. They have two gazebos and it's lawn furniture and it is absolutely beautiful. Yeah. Now. The canopy that's beside them, that's all ripped up. That needs to come down.

It's another thing. Yeah. But the deck itself is absolutely gorgeous. That's cool. Rock and roll with that. So you do have your annuals and then you have your campers. We're specifically talking about campers and people that come in and then have to put everything up and then tear everything down because they gotta go to the , next campsite.

Yeah. You never know what you're gonna get outside of your window. Every time we pull into a campground, not only is it different, , from campground to campground while we're there during . The stay, whether it's a week, two weeks, three weeks while we're each, at each place. People will , come and go the whole time.

One time we were in Columbus and the people next to us, we had like six different neighbors , during the three weeks we were there and each one of them were so very different from the next. And sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes that's a bad thing. Sometimes you lose a bad neighbor and you get a good neighbor.

Sometimes you lose a good neighbor and you get a bad neighbor, like the one that did the laundry while we had to look at it. But , there's so many other accessories that our So cool . Yeah. You know, you talking about things that we see other people have and maybe one day wanna have ourselves. Um, two of those things we have already purchased, that we have seen on other people's, and we were like, oh, I want that.

I need that. And the first one was our backend stabilizer. Yes. Because, even with, everything being down leveled. It's still a little bouncy in here. Well, we have a six level jack system, so if you know what that is, you know what it is. But our last jack is like right behind our tires and we still have like 20 feet Yeah.

To the back end , of our camper. Mm-hmm. And that's where our living room is. That's where Jasper plays, jumps and everything else. And it's shaky. And it's shaky. So that's the very first thing that we get. And I'm still looking at getting the front. Stabilizer in the different one. Yeah. But it was our very first one at Lake Oma.

Yes. That we saw some of those backend stabilizers and we were like, wait a minute. We'd never seen one before. Didn't even have one know they existed. And then they kept popping up and we were like, we need that, we need that. And now that we have 'em, I see 'em way more often. Like I'm noticing more and more people have them.

, And then our second item. Which is the one that I wanna talk about. Their second item is our outdoor rug, which is so nice. Look at it. It's so nice. This is the first thing that has nothing to do with the camper at all. This is just outdoor, nice accessory rug. Okay, so we may or may not get out every time when we were at, um.

Lake Conroe. It wasn't a necessity. We had a concreted pad, fully concreted that was so nice except for the glass that was all over the, the concrete pad. But then when we were at Lake ee, I cannot tell you how much that. Rug came in handy while you were gone, and Jasper wanted to play outside because it was just mud.

It was just dirt and mud, and that gave him something to play with his cars and for me to sit on, like, to have my chair on and not have to go through the, the dirt and the rocks, and it was just, it was really pleasant and nice to have. . It is something that is nice, but it is something that it adds to our setup and take down.

It adds to our setup and take down, and I wasn't happy with it because you know, you start with one thing and then you add another and another. The next thing I know, I'm setting out 50 potted plants. Oh my gosh. We will never, bird feeders set out potted plants and bird feeders, I promise. But let me tell you guys the truth.

He did complain about me wanting, I did the rug. And then today he said, I think we need a bigger rug. So I'm gonna tell on myself, I have sensitive feet. Oh my gosh, you do. I can't walk on rocks. Certain grass just, , it irritates me. But this rug, I can walk on it no matter what it is outside and it's really nice.

So yes, we did get a rug. , And it's been nice. Some of the other things that I definitely wanna talk about is. , The canopies , and the fire pits because , there's so many different things that you can do with them. You can go get the regular sport canopies that are usually like a 10 by 10 or a 12 by 12, and a lot of people put those out to, to keep out of the sign.

Mm-hmm. But some of these octagon looking things that are like screening porches. Are super, super cool. And then we were at thousand trails, uh, Colorado River, Colorado River. And we saw our very first one go over a fire pit. Mm-hmm.

And it had a windbreaker on one side. So whenever the north wind would come in, they would be able , to block it, still have the fire inside and it would still vent outside. You know, you weren't suffocating, wasn't that the one that got destroyed in that windstorm? And then the next day and windstorm came through and like the day after they set it up and like two or three of them got totally destroyed while it was done.

I mean, like, not even fixable, completely destroyed, ripped outta the ground frame was bent. It was so, so bad. But I felt so bad for them. There's one, whenever we were walking just a while ago, that's over there , on another site. Mm-hmm. And I was like, that is so cool, because then you don't have to worry about like the bugs and the mosquitoes.

So even like in the summertime, 'cause it's screened in, you can still open everything up and get that breeze in there. Yeah. But then you have to set, get away from the mosquitoes, take it down with every little like rainstorm or windstorm that comes through. Yeah. You definitely have to watch anything that you put outside because it's gonna be ripped out.

That's why me and like 90% of everyone else. We don't put our awnings out. Okay, so that brings me to another thing we have seen outside of our window. Again, it was our first stop. Lake Texoma really broke us in that first stop. There were people who pulled in behind us and they were actually setting up in the storm.

They were setting up whenever it was raining. I remember this, and he put his awning out in the storm. I actually have a picture of it on her Patreon page, and it was a bad storm, you guys, it was bad. And their awning ripped to shreds it completely ripped to shreds. And then isn't that the same guy that had the leaf blower?

Yes. I'm not done yet. This was a fun, this was a fun one when I say it was so highly entertaining. So that happened and that made me feel bad for them. That part wasn't entertaining. I felt really bad, but I was like, why did you put your awning out in the middle of a rainstorm? Like you pulled in and it was raining and you put your slides out.

Great. But then you put your awning out and I'm like, why? It's raining outside. And then the storm got worse and they went inside and they stopped hooking up. I don't think they were totally hooked up yet. And then the storm led up a little. He tried to do whatever he could do with his awning. I think he ended up just like cutting it off or something like that.

Well, he was still putting plants out on the table. Oh yeah. They were still putting plants out on the table and then he brought a leaf blower out. Guys, you can't make this up. While it was still raining and he was blowing the water off of his chairs and picnic table, it was still. Raining instead of just leaving everything inside, letting the storm blow over in a couple of hours , and then blowing everything off and putting everything outside.

He did a full setup. And then he tried to keep the rain off of it. , I was just flabbergasted. I was like, what am I even watching right now? Like, what, what is happening? I felt like I was in some parallel universe, like, it's still raining. You do realize everything is still going to get wet. It was, I'm telling you the things we see outside of this window, it was so mind boggling.

Okay, so, and. That's Texoma. That's all I can think about. Texoma. And then we went to Bridgeport, and Jeremy wasn't here for this one, but the neighbors on either side of me got into a screaming match with each other right in front of our driveway area. , I don't know what they were arguing about, but it was very loud and it was to the point where I was like, lock the doors.

It was two women. It was two older women. So , you just see a lot. You see a lot. , I'm gonna be very careful with this one. 'cause we've seen them at several parks now. It's this family and they have like five kids. We call them the feral children. Yes.

Jeremy texted me one time and he was like, Hey, that feral family's here. No, honestly, I know nothing about this family. All I know is that they have five kids. They have five kids. They run around with no shoes. No jackets. Even sometimes when it's cold outside, they'll have like the bare minimum, like a thin little long sleeve t-shirt on.

They look like their hair hasn't been brushed in weeks. And they're running around like filthy, filthy, filthy. And maybe they're just really fun campground kids, but they're having a blast. Yeah. But , we've seen them at like three different spots now. We've seen three different them at three different spots now the same family.

Um. They're, they're not excessively loud or rude. Rude or disruptive or rude? No. No., They remind me of like little wolf puppies, like just running around everywhere, howling at the moon. Like they're adorable. They're absolutely adorable. Every single one of the kids are gorgeous and if they see other kids around.

They, they're make friends, they're instantly best friends with them playing, , doing whatever that they possibly can do. Yes. You know, at the campgrounds, I mean, so, I'm not gonna lie, I'm picturing Jasper as almost one of those feral children, and he gets older, not because I want him to be that way, but he's just a little bit feral already.

Oh, absolutely. . He's just a little bit feral. Um, , yeah, we, we've seen some things. We've seen some things you guys. And the crazy thing is we are at month five, six. We're going into our sixth month. We're going into our six months. Wow. And we've already seen so much. Wow. I did not realize that.

We just finished our fifth month. Yeah. I'm gonna jump in real quick on . This one little thing. Every park is different. Thousand trails are set up pretty much all the same. You're gonna have really close RVs. , They're really close to each other. Like Towa wasn't that bad.

Our core of engineers that we've stayed at, you have a lot of space. Mm-hmm. You definitely get like double, sometimes triple the space. State Park is the same thing. So if you've been to. Like Corps of engineer or state parks and you know, your neighbors are quite a bit away. You don't really hear what's going on at their campground, or you have plenty of room outside to set a whole bunch of stuff up.

That is not what you're gonna get at KOAs. Thousand trails. Yeah. Um, even regular RV parks because they're trying to fit in as many spots as they possibly can. Yeah. And still allow you to have a little bit of room, which is nice. It's nice to have that space in the core of engineer parks and stuff. I, I did enjoy that.

Like we stopped at Mamel Park and right outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Just northwest of Little Rock. Absolutely. Gorgeous Park. Beautiful. Oh my gosh. Our view, we were right on the river. It was could've asked for a better view. Amazing. Like we stepped out our front door and we were at the river.

It was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. But I think the offset. That makes thousand trails so great. Is I know we've talked about this before and I will keep saying it, is it has community like Corps of engineer. They don't have the community, they don't have the amenities. But , that's your trade.

Yeah. You're gonna be a little bit closer to your neighbors, but you're gonna have way more amenities in a thousand KO. Yeah, either one of those. You're gonna have way more amenities. You've got pools and outdoor games and like the one we're at now, we just went through the clubhouse and it's massive. And they have an entire playroom for kids.

And then they have like a breakfast nook area and then they have , a area with pianos and couches and televisions and , you're not gonna get anything like that out of a Corps of engineer. Yeah, corps of engineer or a state park Corps of engineers All. Yeah, they're all about your campground. You gotta bring whatever you want, your own entertainment to your campground.

Yeah. It's very like you're there privately like , it's you and your family and you're having your weekend or time together. Yeah, exactly. When you're in a KOA or a thousand trails, it's like you're here with everybody else. You're here with everyone else. You're gonna enjoy the, the, I really like that aspect.

I do. If you don't like that aspect, do not join thousand trails. I didn't think that. I hate it. I didn't think that I would because I looked at a whole bunch of 'em. I'm like, man, we are so close. Because I'm so used to the corps, Corps of engineer, Corps engineers in the, which we have plenty of space. Even if you get like , the family reunion sites, you still have massive amount of space from RV to rv.

And I was like, man, it's almost like a parking lot. They just have RV on top of rv. From our RV with the slide outs to the next rv, maybe 50 feet. If even that. If even, I mean, that's how close they are. Yeah. But the one at Mabell Park

maybe 200 feet. Mm-hmm. 150 feet. It was a long, long ways. Right. So just be prepared for that. . What are you gonna see outside of your window? Another rv. Another rv? Not in all cases. It depends on your spot. Yeah. But for the most part. But it gives you great opportunity to see how other people do this lifestyle.

And I think that's been the most interesting part of me as we view, you know, the views outside of our window. Is as we view the views, view the views as we see what's going on outside of our windows. , It interests me so much how different people do this lifestyle from person to person to person, and how everyone approaches it differently.

Yeah. Everyone's doing something similar, whether you're a weak weekender or a full-timer and you're out here and you're camping, ,, it's just everyone approaches it so differently and it doesn't matter what your experience is. You've never pulled an rv.

You don't know how , to back one up. Oh, yeah. We've seen people who were like, didn't know how to hook up their hookups before, like they were so new to RVing. They were like, how do I hook my hookups? Yeah. Like they didn't know what they were doing. But the community of a thousand in KO eight, , if they see you struggling, they're at least gonna offer, Hey, you need help.

There's so much to see out there, and we are looking forward to seeing so, so much in season five and season six as we take our adventure even further away from Texas. Yeah, so we've seen all the crazy stuff inside of Texas now.

I'm ready to see all the crazy stuff outside of Texas. What other state has crazy things. Yeah. That's where it's gonna come from right there. Who can beat the craziness of Texas? That's the challenge. And I can tell you, just looking from one to another, , so far, it doesn't matter what park you go to, you're gonna find all of these.

Mm-hmm. At every park.  📍 Yeah. Like even right now we're looking at a few that we just talked about. Mm-hmm. So they're out there. Sometimes it's really good. Sometimes it's really bad, but mostly it's just entertaining. It's very entertaining. So make sure that you stay tuned. Stay with us as we continue our adventure.