RV Living! Why Most RVers Come HERE In The Winter & What It's REALLY Like

This is the life. Look who we ran into. Who are these strangers? Hi, how are you guys? You ready for this? What's on the agenda for today? Well, we are going to go snorkeling today. And where we're going is a place called Alligator Reef Lighthouse. So we've heard about it. There's so much to explore in Florida when you have an RV and can just be mobile. So another place to explore and check off the list of places to go check out. Real fast, before we jump into this week's video, we wanted to let you know, we will be at the Tampa show and we're hoping to meet as many of you as possible while that you're visiting there as well. Now, we're going to be different places at different times during the whole show. So if you can only come to the show, say on Saturday, well, we will be there and we'll be letting you know where and what time that we're going to be there in our emails that will be coming out over the next few weeks. So if you are not getting emails from us, just head over to GratefulGlamper.com. On that front page, scroll down to the Stay Inspired button, click that and give us your email address so that we can give you the whole schedule of Tampa Super Show and we're looking forward to seeing you there. Now to this week's video. All right. Are you excited to do some snorkeling? We are. At Alligator Reef? Yeah. Are you excited, Trin? Ingenuity here on her... Here, hold on. Maybe this will... Sometimes you just got to think outside the box. Sometimes. Okay. How does that feel? Well, that's too low here. I don't know that this is working. I think you're just going to have to carry it not on a backpack. I've heard of that. No bananas on the boat. Wait. No bananas on the boat, ever. Get all the bananas off the boat. Are you serious? Dad, did you bring bananas? No, I didn't bring bananas. It's bad luck for fishing. Are you sure? I thought you brought a banana. I didn't bring bananas. I'm sure. No. No bananas. No bananas on the boat. We love being able to take our kids on adventures like snorkeling. Our life philosophy is experiences over things. We feel experiences like this last a lifetime, where material things will wear out, break, or become outdated and fade away. The greatest gift we can give our families is the gift of time and experiences shared together. Yeah, I got it. Ready? Right here? Yep. No, not yet. Not yet, John. Not yet. I can't really see. Stand by. Stand by. You can't really see. You got a good stand there? Back here. Back here? Okay, right where he said? Yeah. Sorry, I just can't see what the bottom looks like. Where? He's not listening to you. He never does. I know. Some captains are like that. What do you think? I don't know what's down there. I'm afraid of sharks. Isn't it pretty? We made it out here to our first stop. This is Alligator Reef. This whole sanctuary out here is about a square mile. We'll start out over here and then we will make a move over to the lighthouse for our second stop. And that's kind of the shower side of things. Look, there's like a bunch of fish under us. See? There's like a bunch of fish. Yep. This 148-year-old lighthouse was built in 1873 and is still standing in honor of the USS Alligator, a ship that was used to recapture and free other ships taken over by pirates. Alligator Reef is located about four miles off the coast of Isla Mirada, Florida, located in the Florida Keys. This reef is a difficult area for ships to navigate due to shallow waters and the rocky reef below. Many ships ran aground here, including the USS Alligator. This area is a snorkeling and diving paradise with fish, turtles, stingrays, sharks, and more marine life. How was it in the water? How was it in the water? It was amazing! So one of the super cool things about this particular campground is just the accessibility to the water. So we are going to take our paddle boards down to this little beach area and we're going to go paddle boarding right here from the campground and we don't even have to drive the car anywhere to make that happen. Yay! You guys ready? Yeah. What is that? It's seaweed. It's like a sponge. No, it's seaweed. Seaweed? You're going to go on it upside down? Oh my gosh, it's upside down! Oh, that's a good idea. And then you can flip it around? Yep. Nice. Dad, you're going to come out with me, right? Uh, right here. Wait, is that just right there? Yep. No, you come out all the way. It's getting too deep! Alright. What do you think? There's something way out there that keeps jumping. Is it a fish or a shark or something? Shark. I guess we'll find out what it is. Look at all these crabs! I know, lots of crabs. So we came up with a system and the kids are pushing us. So they've got their fins and they're pushing us on the paddle boards. So this is the one time when your kid's pushing you around is actually a good thing. This was my idea, by the way. It's working beautifully. Beautifully. Oh man, this is rough. You're in the engine. Man, this is the life, guys. This is rough. Got a little motor in the back. Paddle's right here. I do have to steer every once in a while. Alright, are we going out? Let's go this way. This is the life. Alright, keep going. We're stuck in seagrass. We're stuck in seagrass? Alright. Your engine's getting loud. My engine's stalling. Oh man, we lost a flipper. It got stuck in the seagrass. But it's fine now, I have it. And we stalled for a minute, but she's got it back. This is why I came out in seagrass. It's so squishy. It is pretty gross walking around in the seagrass. It feels a little bit squishy. I'm literally going to fall out. So much fun. Welcome to Sunshine Key, where we are stopping for a little bit. A careful smell of rotten seagrass. I think the last time we were in the Keys, it was so strong that we actually thought that somebody's black tank was leaking or something, but no, it's the seagrass that gets washed up and then bakes and rots in the sun, and so you just kind of get used to the smell down here. It's not horrible once you're used to it, but at first you're like, what is that smell? Lots of seagrass. This is what I call explode-y. First you squeeze all the water out of them, and they look like they're not going to explode. And then bam, you drop them in the water, and then they go out. They absorb the water? They spread out. It's like zero G. Nice. Show me what you're doing. It's going down. I'm making this into like a mini torpedo. The problem is, it's going down and then coming down like that. I'm trying to make it go like that. OK, let's see what it does. I don't know what the heck these are, but they're really fun to pop. They look like seaballs. Oh, that one is gross. What is it? Oh, and then can I show you my sea snot, please? Yes, I would love to see the sea snot. Let me find it. OK. There's... Oh, what is that? That's gross. Let me see. Oh, that's disgusting. Ew. Let me go find some more. Look at that. Careful, don't get stung by it. Dakota, don't get stung by the chili fish. So I don't know if this is going to work how I envisioned it, as far as getting the paddle boards back to the campsite, now inflated so we don't have to inflate them again since we're going to be here all week. Just tie a rope around. This is how I envisioned it. Mom, all you need to do is tie a rope around the wagon. Let's see if this works. Yeah, it's moving on my hand. What do you got there? I don't know what it is, but it's moving on my hand, and it's like a snail. And then if you try and pick him up, he's really stuck to you. Oh, cool. Put him back. All right. Put him back. Grab his shoes. Did you have fun? Yeah. I had fun being the engine of the boat. In Trinity, I actually made up a method how. So I'm pushing the back of the wagon. And I'm steering. We're a battleship. Who are these strangers? Hi, how are you guys? Hello. Did you just make this? Yeah, I know. They had a little craft thing. So you guys don't have a toad? We have no toad vehicle. How are you getting around? This is our second trip to Florida this year, and both times had no toad vehicle. First time was in a 45-foot diesel pusher, and this is in 25-foot little diesel class C motorhome. So, OK, can it be done? Oh, yeah. Totally can be done. We even did it with a 45-foot diesel pusher. Well, you know. It's a little more trip planning than you do with the big coach. This time we actually have the smaller rig, which is easier to begin with. But then we also have an electric scooter and an electric bike. So it's super easy with that. Yeah, and the electric scooter you can take on the roads because it's a registered vehicle, so it goes faster. It's supposed to go 38. I had it at 50 the other day. That's impressive. But the e-bikes, so they'll go up to? 20 on throttle only and 28 with pedal assist. How far can you get on the electric scooter on a charge? 50 miles. Because I have two batteries. Depends on the speed. Not at those speeds, you can't. But then the e-bikes, you know, you can get a lot of range on it. Some of these new e-bikes, you can get 50 and 60 miles out of an e-bike on pedal assist. So, yeah, it's good. If you're going to a grocery store that's more than 20 miles away. You picked the wrong place. But what we did back in March when we stayed at Bradenton in the 45-footer, so we did two things. One is we just had to be more organized and plan our shopping ahead. And so we actually were pretty close to a Costco. So we would go for walks in the afternoon and we'd just get a few things. You can't get too much at Costco when you're not driving back. And another time we walked to the public grocery store and then we did a big grocery shop, but then we got an Uber back. Oh, yeah. Because rental cars, we were going to get a rental car, but they were so expensive with the pandemic. Yep. They were like, I don't know, over 80 bucks a day. I mean, normally like 20 bucks a day. We decided not to rent a car, so we just got the Uber. And we only used an Uber once. And then the other times we walked, another time we parked the coach in Costco and we just loaded it up with the trolley, with the shopping cart. And then other times we were with friends and going out and hanging out in there. We already had some people that we've met at multiple campgrounds staying here that offered us their vehicle in case we need to go out. So that was nice. I think this is so good. I just love the RV community. Everybody's always wanting to help people. Like, I mean, you take a walk and everybody always stops and says hi and asks like where you're from. You know, I mean, it's like you just, I don't know what other communities really kind of find that with. I know. Everyone just helps you. If you put your hood up on your vehicle, like, do you need some help? That's like, exactly. That's the thing. So what do you got there in your hands? I'm walking up to the office because we've got, these are our books. RV Hacks and Living the RV Life. And yeah, they've been out. Well, this one's been out. We've got this one here. Is this new? Is that a new one? You guys came to book signing in Westminster before you took off. Before we took off. And that's how we met you guys. And then this one just came out in July of 2021. Okay, so this is new. This one's new. This one's about three years now. Yeah. So can you give us one hack out of this book? One of your favorite hacks? Actually, one hack is that you don't necessarily have to take a tow vehicle. You can take an electric scooter or electric bikes and get around that way and park in convenient campgrounds. And I think towing's very overwhelming for a lot of people and it can be expensive to sit down a four-down set-up or to, you know, get a dolly and just the hassle of it. And, you know, I do have to wonder, I do not know if this is true, but I've tried to get into this campground here in the Keys for years and haven't been able to. And we had a 36-foot coach and we've had a 40-foot coach. And I got a reservation here in this coach and I don't know if the size had anything to do with it being a smaller size rig. I don't know. Maybe we would have got in anyway, but I do have to wonder if that was a factor. Chances go up for sure. Yeah. So that's one tip. What other tip have you got, hon? What hack? What's another hack? My other hack is when I saw the neighbor next to us at the campground when we arrived, I saw that his gray and black tank valves were open. And the tip is do not leave your black tank valve open. You keep that shut at all times until you're ready to dump, have at least a half a tank full. Because if you don't, you can have a future issue with a dried up pile of waste in your tank that would be very difficult to remove. So make that tip. What is it also known as? It's also known as the pyramid of poo. So keep that black tank shut until you're ready to dump. I think it doesn't matter whether you're a newbie or an experienced RVer, we never stop learning. You can always learn hacks whether you're new or seasoned. And even we learned stuff writing the book because it's not just us that have put the hacks together. There are other great RVers and a lot of popular channels and people that you will know that have contributed their awesome hacks as well. So we were even learning some new hacks as we were writing it. I've got 400 plus ways to make life on the road easier, safer, and more fun. There you go. So we are going over to a little happy hour. It's a happy hour for the kids and for the adults both alike. It's really cool just like the options they have at this campground. But what's even more cool is just RV community. And so completely unknown to us, Mark and Julie Bennett from RV Love are staying in the same campground that we are. And some of our other friends, Jimmy and Sandy, we're trying something new and just meeting new people. So we're going to go hang out with them for a little bit. I'm sure we'll meet more people that are in the RV community. And it's just always a wonderful time when you can be in community with like-minded people, get to hang out. And let me tell you, if you want to hang out with some fun people, hang out with RVers. ♪ Life's a dance, you learn as you go ♪ ♪ Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow ♪ ♪ Don't worry about what you don't know ♪ ♪ Life's a dance, you learn as you go ♪ All right, you're out. ♪ Life's a dance, take a chance on love ♪ ♪ Life's a dance, you learn as you go ♪ That's right, guys.