Top 1O Ways to Ruin Your RV Trip (KYD Vancouver Canada)

What are we doing on this fine, sunny kind of day in Vancouver? Friendship on the road. That's what we're doing. Caleb's meeting up with one of his friends that he met last summer in Whistler. And then you and I are going to go finish up this video, find Wi-Fi. Yeah. And wrap up a few things. Oh, yeah. Look at him brushing his teeth. Aren't girls great? Look at you. That was great. Okay, you guys. Bye. Ciao. There goes Gail in his 450. Are you going to be okay? I'll be all right. During the border, past the interrogation, he asked if we had any citrus. So the only problem with not having a reservation sometimes is you have to go through all the drama of not having a reservation. It goes like this. Hi, I'd like to check in. Do you have a reservation? No. All right. Well, we're full. We're full. And that's a trailer? Yeah, it's a trailer. Oh, okay. Well, I called yesterday to see if you had availability and it didn't seem like a problem. Did you tell me you had a trailer? No idea. I have no idea why that matters. But no, I don't think I mentioned that. Well, we have one site available. It's 50 amp. That's fine. 50 amp's good. Okay. It's a nice site. It's wider than most. It's really nice. Did I want to tip you? Why do we have to go through all of that? If I'm coming across Aragon to Dall, we've been driving for a long time. Three days. And we're tired. And we haven't eaten in a while and we need to regroup. So yeah, look at this. Site 88. Super nice site. Let me set up a time lapse of backing in and setting up. All set up. So now, got the water heater going. I'm going to take a shower. And Trisha's going off to Whole Foods to get some groceries. And we're going to spend the next two days editing. And we're going to regroup, as we've mentioned several times. And we're going to get re-centered. And we're also going to share some ideas on how not to ruin a perfectly good RV trip. Focus. Yes, sir. Okay. I've got some notes here on how to ruin a perfectly good RV trip. How would we be able to create that, you ask? Because the way home from Alaska was a little challenging. It was. And the video didn't show it. And a lot of the reasons it didn't show it is because it happened at nighttime. And recording at night is a little bit more difficult because the GoPro doesn't show up in the car. And it's just kind of hard to capture the irritating things. When you're over something, it's kind of hard to turn on the camera and be like, I'm over this. But in hindsight, we're able to share with you some ideas so that you can smooth out some of those rough edges when it comes to RVing. Very nice. All right. So we've got top ten lists. Trish, take it off. Number one, it's always our number one. Being in a hurry takes the fun out of everything. It really does. Especially RVing. And the reason it comes up so much is because I'm in a hurry most of the time. And I keep relearning the lesson. It kind of reminds me, I never repeat the same mistake twice. I repeat it seven or eight times just to make sure I've got it. Yes. And that's my number one. Being in a hurry. Being in a hurry to set up. Being in a hurry to get there. All that stuff. All right. Number two? Let's see. Letting the small things grow into a big problem. What does that mean? Remember when we pulled into Skagway and the truck was beeping and saying that you're low on fuel and you're low on DEF and you need windshield wiper fluids and all these things? It was like, ha ha. Yeah. It was. That's what was happening. As we were coming back from Alaska, we were just running low on everything. And all of these little things ended up creating kind of a fatiguing environment. And you like to make the bed in the morning. I like just things to have like a little bit of a pace. Right? So that you know in your mind things are like put together. So anyway, just remember what are the things that nag on you and see if you can get rid of those things so that your trip can go a little bit smoother. Okay. Number three. Over planning. Yeah. Sometimes when you're like over finessing a trip, we're gonna do this and we're gonna do this. It gets like really hyper. And you, especially if you only have your awesome June clock, everyone has a schedule and we're going out. So anyway, it reminds me of, you know, meet the parents. How we had an agenda for everybody. Yes. So anyway, if you over plan and maybe not let the trip kind of unfold, you might feel stressed out. When you get home, you're like, I need a vacation from my vacation. So anyway, that's just one of the things to think about. Oh, this is yours. Not making it work for everyone. Okay. Well, for us, we usually have five people. This season, we had four people in the rig. And if we don't take like a little bit of a poll on what everybody wants to do, then pretty much we're just dragging the people that don't want to do it along. Are you suggesting that Carson and Caleb don't want to go on hikes every weekend? Or a farmer's market. I literally had to tell them that I would buy them chocolate cups. Oh, we're all into bribing. Oh, totally. You want a soda? Today's soda day. Yes. So anyway, but asking them, even if it comes down to like, hey, we're going to go to the farmer's market, which is not what they want to do, but it's totally what I want to do. What do you guys want for dinner? I want a steak. That's the first thing out of the mouth all the time. Okay, let's find a steak. So they were in. Yes. And so that's kind of exciting. So even if you are forcing some of your kids to do things that they don't want to do or your spouse, maybe there's something in it for them while they're there. All right. Number five, trying to cover too much ground. Now, this is interesting because we get a lot of emails from people that say, hey, I'm going from California to Maine. I've got 10 days. Where should I stay? I mean, we get a lot of emails like this. And you know what? We did the same thing when I emailed Mark and Emily and I said, okay, we're going to do six months. We're going to run the entire United States. I'm going to be like, seems a little fast, but anyway, so we're trying to cover too much ground, which is exactly what we did from Skagway to Vancouver in like three or four days. It is a bit of a recipe for disaster because when you're covering that much ground, you run low on resources and energy and you're more susceptible to flat tires. We picked up a screw at like midnight. There's just things that are going to happen on each other. Exactly. And so then you don't have like that emotional cushion to deal with everybody in a tiny space. Yes, you really need to think about that because you like good moods in a tiny rig. This is not a tiny rig. This is a fabulous rig. But when we had Ginger one, we had all the kids kind of like on top of each other. And if someone was in a bad mood, it showed really fast. So one solution for that is just kind of plan on maybe getting where you need to get by three in the afternoon so that you have some time so that you have just have time. It just takes the pressure off everything. We might be the worst people to tell you that because we know this because we make these mistakes. We make these mistakes. But anyway, if you can do that, yes, actually, that leads right into number six arriving in the dark. Super bad. Sometimes there's nothing more stressful than trying to get into a back a back into a site at night. Yes, it particularly if you don't have proper lighting or if it's a tight site. So if it's not level or if you're in a tight like you're saying tight and some people go to bed early. So, you know, you're like backing in ruining people's sleep and you're like trying to put a slide out. And yeah, it's just super not getting gas or fuel when it's convenient and easy. I might be a bad offender on that one. Well, it happened to us when we were driving home from Alaska. So it's taken us about 20 minutes to find fuel and I was forced to come into this gas station. Chevron didn't accept retail customers. Now I'm over to Flying J having to go inside. Not not ideal conditions to come in here, but we did it anyway. Now we're trying to find food and we've let it run to E. And so now we had to get fuel and the problem with having to get fuel is now you have to go to a gas station that you would not normally ever want to pull into but you have to anyway. It's like threading a needle. That is a problem. And if you're tired and if you've been covering too much ground, you see how these things start stacking up. So when it shows a half tank or quarter tank, that's probably a good time to start looking. And then you finally get yourself all nosed in somewhere with your big long rig and you realize they don't sell diesel. That happens. Or it's out of service and you get back out. Okay, number eight not finding solutions to small problems. This is an interesting one because we get emails from people sometimes that say we went out for a week and it was a disaster. I don't know how you guys do this full time. Oh, yeah, part of the reason that we're able to do it full time is we solve the problems. So there's a little things. There's an expression that I love called you get what you tolerate. Yes, sometimes when you're out for three or five days, you tolerate a lot when you're out for a longer period of time. You're going home. That's right. You're going to be back home in a week. I'm just going to deal with it when you're out for a longer period of time. You don't deal with it. You solve it. Okay, number nine and this is yours. Find the right balance of dry camping and RV parks for your family, right? Okay. So we we tend to do that. We'd love to do more dry camping. It's just that we make so much food for us. This is we make so much food that I'm constantly doing dishes and I feel behind when I'm dry camping because I know I can't use my water resources. So anyway, whatever it is for you, make sure that it works. And if you were like one or the other and your spouse or partner is not they're not coming back. Yes. Okay, number 10 another one for you meal planning and groceries. Oh, yeah. Okay. So one of the things that I love doing is when we're going into a new place have that first night ready. So we've spent the whole day driving navigating like there's a lot of mental physical energy that goes into getting somewhere. We've set up. I want to have a meal going Walmart's outside and vice versa. If whomever is setting up and whomever is in charge of cooking, I want to make sure that that's ready to go. So we're not thinking. Okay. So now where do we have to go to dinner? I know a lot of people have texted us and said they order pizza. So that's like super easy and they call whatever pizza place will deliver to the RV park. They break open a bottle of wine. They have pizza. They look at their view then they plan out their trip. But sometimes when you land you've spent all day getting somewhere you land and then you have to think about dinner. It's exhausting. Okay. So there you have it. I hope that was helpful top 10 ways to ruin a perfectly good RV trip. Hopefully got something that you don't ruin your yes. You don't ruin you can land and you can run and have fun, right? Exactly. Okay. All right still a bunch left to do in Vancouver. So now let's teleport back to Vancouver. Well, we're in Vancouver. Do you like our spacious site? Look at this. Wait, you can't see it in the I can't this way. You know what though? It's a city living. It's worth it. It's city living city living worth it. All right. So what are we going to do Trish? Well for this very moment, it's not raining which is so exciting. So we're trying to get out. We're going to Granville Island. I guess it has one of the best little marketplaces but we get to drive through Stanley Park to get there. All right. So we're going to pop in the truck drive to Stanley Park go over to Granville. See if there's a market get some like fruits and veggies. Well, we are crossing a border tomorrow. So maybe I have to exhibit some restraint. So I'll buy a bag of oranges. So basically you're saying is we can get anything we want. Hold on before I leave. I'm gonna flip the camera around so that you can see what this RV park looks like. Oh, yeah, see if it's right for you. And then I'm going to shift it to time-lapse mode so you can see the drive over the bridge through Stanley Park in the Granville. Cool. Downtown Vancouver and it is busy here. It's reminiscent of Chicago, Toronto, Boston. I mean not in every category but just in the fact that there are there's a lot going on here. Lots of crosswalks delivery trucks buses. It's very exciting. Trish loves it. I love it too. I love driving in the city. You got to be careful here. I don't know about this right on red because I wish I had two cameras going. Yeah. Okay. This is are we turning right? Yeah, we get to turn right but look these people aren't paying attention. No. Hold on real quick. By the way, what Trish is doing right now is taking a little Instagram story every once in a while. We're in a place where we like to do a little Instagram story, which if you're interested in like super real-time, it's only every once in a while. Mind you that is the cutest system. I've ever seen for $11. You can get on that and go to like, I don't know five six different places. Maybe nine. I'm not sure but $11 for an all-day pass and it drops you off in all the cool places in Vancouver. Then you get to see the city by water. That sounds cool. That sounds really cool. But we only have a three-hour parking spot so we can't go do that. Yes. What else was we going to say? Oh, this market is a lot of fun and I had no idea how much I actually like to record fruit. Apparently, you know, I learned in Skagway that I like to record flowers. Now I like to record fruit. All right, all these new things. All these new things. Let's go hit a museum. Right. Uh, $3. So I've got the GoPro. Not my favorite camera anymore. I pretty much only use it for time-lapse and dashcam. But in case it rains, this is what we have and then I can clip it to places and we can walk around this pretty little park. Might even rent some bikes. But we got to pay for parking and then we're going to walk to the water edge. Okay, as Trisha and I were walking along the shoreline here, we noticed two things. We noticed this in Toronto too. All the buildings kind of look the same, don't they? Trisha is wondering if maybe there's like some city code. City ordinance. They have to have the same like color glass and the same type of design. Anybody from Vancouver or as the kids like to call it Vancouver. Vancouver. Are there any Vancouver's out there that know why the city has very similar buildings? I think it's kind of cool. I think they're treating their city like an Instagram feed. Everything matches. I like it. And then the other thing is we were looking over at this these houses kind of like Sleepless in Seattle, but Sleepless in Vancouver. Those houses that float, right? Don't talk about and this one house had their boat tucked in between their house. It was like it's like a private little slip right into the house. I said those people are dedicated to their water experience. I like it. I like it too. All right. Are you ready? Oh my gosh. Look at that cup and that shirt. We got to talk about that. All right, Trish. Come on. You got to show everybody. Oh, check this out. And Trish didn't even wear that shirt because we were at the insider meetup and I don't know. It wasn't really a meetup like they are insider coffee. Yes, and Tracy brought this. How fun is that? So I had to get dressed in the shirt this morning. Oh, you did wear it intentionally. Oh, I had to. Oh, yes. I had to I mean because the cup is now a part of my life. Yes, so I got to like, you know, wear the shirt. That's fun. All right, let's put in Seattle. We're going through the border kiddo. Wife and two boys. We are. We're in Alaska. Three months. Marketing. Medical. The gentleman's asking are you bringing anything into Canada? No jokes. No joke. Nothing. Just some memories and some joy. I said no joke. No jokes. No, they go online school. Yeah. Through the border past the interrogation. He asked if we had any citrus and Tricia's like we have some blueberries. We have blueberries. I mean she came. If I ever need to get the truth out of Trish, I'm just going to like I'm going to bring I'm going to bring a border agent and like the citrus police. You guys have any citrus any oranges anything like that? We have blueberries. Other than that, it was a simple boarding crossing, but we got more questions from this border agent than any other border ever. You've been coming home from Mexico. Yes. Yeah, and once he was done with Trish and I went back to the boys. So boys, you bringing anything into the States? What are you bringing in? What do you got there? Caleb says just memories and joy. I said I had to remind Caleb no jokes. So what do you do for work when it comes to those questions? I stick to my day job. Keep it straightforward. I don't get into the nuances of blogging and blogging and video work because that just perpetuates more questions. So if you have a peculiar job, I would suggest making it sticking with the simple answers. Well, what is the broadest description of your job? Yes. This is not your opportunity to show off. Yeah. Well, I talk about the intricacies of life on the road. Okay? No. Intricate. Is that what KYD is about? Talking about the intricacies of life on the road? Yes. Well, there you have it. KYD intricacies of the life on the road. We don't need to be talking about that. Speaking of the intricacies of life, let's make our way to Seattle and explore mooch-donking at the West Bees. Can you stop calling it that? I just hate it. All right. We're just going to take a quick little pit stop over here at this shopping center. And Trish is going to get a few little groceries and some things before we head down to Seattle. We've learned with city driving that you want to get everything you need when you're outside of the city. Because once you get in there with the length that you have a hard time stopping, obviously, that's pretty obvious when I bring it up. Another thing that might be obvious is how to park in a parking lot of a shopping center like this one. So I thought I would provide a quick little tip because I've learned this on several occasions. I typically go all the way to the back. I typically go all the way to the back like this and I go all the way to the front and try to take up enough of this spot in front of me where someone wouldn't want to park there. Because I have learned that people have no concept of a rig. They're just doing their thing. They want to go around there and they see a parking spot. They park. They don't look around. They don't notice the rig. You'll have someone. There could easily be someone that parks right there and someone can park behind me and you are stuck. So I go to the end and I go all the way into a spot where I can prevent someone from blocking in front of me. So keep that in mind when you go to shopping centers. It'll save you a lot of pain and aggravation. And then, of course, the advantage of being on the end is that you can bring the slide out and don't have to worry about it blocking any traffic and stuff like that. What are you doing? Meeting our blueberries. Oh, good. Non smuggled. Yes, not smuggled. You mean innocent, guilty, free blueberries. Guilt free. There's duty free and guilt free.