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Relax RV Podcast

Relax RV Podcast

By: Paul Sebastian
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About this listen

 Ever get stressed while RVing ???
Well this podcast focuses on Stress Management while RVing. I retired in June 2018 as a Registered Nurse. I've been a Stress Management Consultant since 2003. Trish and I had been planning on RVing for about 3 years prior to my retirement, At that time, our knowledge base about RVing was zero.

For many years I had wanted to buy a pop-up camper when I retired, I took Trish to a RV show to show her my plans. Well ..... she looked at pop-ups and said she couldn't camp in that, it was too small for her. She then looked across the room, pointed at a Class A and said "but what are those over there?". I shook my head and when I saw the price tag, my whole body shook.
3 years later Me and Trish bought a 29' 2015 Thor ACE - Class A. And in 2020 we sold that rig and bought a 2017 Thor 29.4 ACE. And we tow a 2015 Jeep behind us.

LET THE STRESS BEGIN !!!!!Copyright Paul Sebastian Hygiene & Healthy Living Personal Development Personal Success Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • RelaxRV S2 E79 MD NJ MA NH and done

    RelaxRV S2 E79 MD NJ MA NH and done
    Jul 22 2022
    Season 2 Episode 797/22/22Gas prices vs running up and mountains. Instead of $100 fill ups we doing $150+ fill ups . Instead of 20 gallons we putting in 40 gallons at each fill up. Gas mileage went from 9 mpg to 4.5 mpg, so we were using twice the gas. Left Alexandria VA. Drove for 1.5 hrs. Got set up and started the AC. At 1030pm it was still 82 degrees. Love our AC. We found a winery close by so stopped by we're pleasantly surprised that they had a guy on the guitar playing. However even in the shade the 90° temps got the best of us we headed back to the RV. The next day we drove over to Harpers ferry West virginia. We were here two years ago just at the start of covid and everything was closed so we decided to revisit it. This time the exhibits were open so we walked around for a couple hours. However it was in the 90s so we did not redo the short hikes we did the last time. From here we headed to Gaithersburg MD to a Boondockers Welcome location. We got set up. And paid the $10 for 30 amp electric. We took a ride to Sugarloaf Mountain State Park and did a 2.5 mile beautiful hike. We think this BDW location will be our default place while visiting Brandon or DC. We then stopped at a winery near by and had a glass of wine. The next day we went to Patuxent River State Park and did a 5 mile hike. Then off to Maryland Beer Company in Elkton MD which is a Harvest Host location. We pulled in enjoyed a couple of drinks. Then walked around the town of Elkton Maryland. Really cute town and we would not mind revisiting. The next day we drove up to Barnegat New Jersey. We set up at a doctor's welcome location. Hooked up to our 20 amp. We walked around Barnegat by the beach and we're disappointed by the lack of shops. We then met my sister-in-law Jen for dinner. The next day we took a ride an hour south to Atlantic City. Along the way we stopped at Smithville. Trish visited his place a few times as a young girl with her parents. We walked around for about an hour looking at all the different shops. It was a nice little train for kids and merry go round. We then spent the day walking the boardwalk at AC and even winning a little bit of money at the casinos yay. Did you know that the game Monopoly is based on Atlantic city?The next morning we hooked up and drove to Old cedar Campground. We got set up Took a ride over and picked up a grandson kingston. We had planned on picking him up and taking him out to dinner however he surprised us with the home cooked meal which was delicious. We then headed over to the campground he wrote his bike for a little while we walked for a little while the next day you spent the day fishing and riding his bike and swimming in the pool so we had a nice relaxed day with him. The night played games outside of the RV. The next day packed up dumped dropped them off and drove home. The next day we unpacked the rig and I tinkered with stuff on the rig. We have been planning on going to Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania, so we made a reservation at a boondockers welcome location. But as the days drew near, the temps were going to be in the mid 50s and rain the whole time we were there. So we canceled that trip. Then in early July we went up to Massachusetts and New Hampshire for a few days. In August we have a 3 week trip through Indiana planned. We'll be visiting a bunch of state parks, visiting the Amish town of Shipshewana and doing a tour of the catacombs under Indianapolis. Over the summer I also took time to catch up with my Stress Management clients so I booked a bunch of days to work with them.And it's bittersweet, but I do believe this will be my last episode of this podcast. Been doing this over 4 years with just under 10, 000 downloads of the 78 episodes. I'm sure this episode will push the download total number over 10,000. I will be taking notes of our travels and posting those notes on my blog at: https://relaxrv.org/category/blog/I will continue to post pictures of our travels on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/relaxrvpodcast/And my videos on Youtube at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwH6GhSMBDJ7qKxsLng-TAAnd for now my Facebook Page will remain active at: https://www.facebook.com/relaxrvpodcast/So, be safe, drive slow and relax. So what do you do to help MANAGE your STRESS? Perhaps you or someone you know would benefit from listening to Stress Management Exercises? I have 3 FREE Stress Management recordings at https://relaxrv.org/help/If that ain't your thing, I have DISCOUNTS on my website to various RV related stuff.https://relaxrv.org/discounts/ I’ve made some videos about improvements and fixes I’ve done to the RV. Here’s a link to them on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwH6GhSMBDJ7qKxsLng-TA Or you can watch them on my website at https://relaxrv.org/videos/Here’s a link to my RelaxRVPodcast Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Relax-RV-277623782811787/ I'm on Instagram as @relaxrvpodcast https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=hsxp0gjpugbz&...
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    17 mins
  • RelaxRV S2 E78 A Feud, Arches and Shakers

    RelaxRV S2 E78 A Feud, Arches and Shakers
    May 20 2022
    Season 2 Episode 785/20/22 We visited Bardstown. We hit the 1792 Distillery. They were the only distillery that offered a free tour. We parked in Bardstown and walked 20 minutes to it. They gave a great 45 minute tour and provided 4 samples and a piece of bourbon chocolate. We bought a few bottles and some if the bourbon chocolates. We learned they are ending the tour and gift shop in June 2022. We then walked around town and had Kentucky Fried chicken and cornbread which were delicious at Mammy's. We then checked a bunch of bars and only found 2 that were having live music but neither bands were playing bluegrass. So we went to McIntyre’s Winery. I liked their Corn Cob Wine which I had never heard of Lol. The next morning we drove for about an hour, dropped the rig and took the Jeep to the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. We figured we would spend an hour there. Well we ended up being there for 3 hours. We took a great tour and learned about the history of the Shakers. https://shakervillageky.org/Shaker We will return. We then went to Wildside Winery which is a Harvest Host location. We sampled a couple wines and bought a couple bottles. We are 60 miles from Church Hill Downs so we watched the derby on TV. The next day we drove to Callies Campground in Red River Gorge. We checked in got set up and then headed over to natural bridge State resort Park in Kentucky. This park is a part of the Red River Gorge geological area which is in the Daniel Boone National Forest which is part of the Cumberland ranger district. We hiked the natural bridge trail which was only about a half a mile but went straight up hill for 500 ft. This is really an impressive Arch. We hiked on top of the crossed over it and hike for another mile to more viewpoints overlooking the Daniel Boone National Forest. We did a total of 4 miles which was perfect. We then drove over to Miguel's Pizza. A few people have told us you need to eat there so we did. The amazing thing is with their pizzas and they have a list of around 30 different toppings that you can add to create your own. Us being from New York and New Jersey like a thinner crispier crust and our pizza but other than that this was delicious. We then stopped in at Gorge Outfitters. We got into a conversation with the owner who gave us tips on numerous trails and parks to see. Visit them, they are wonderful. https://gorrg.com/The next day we hiked the Auxier Ridge trail by recommendation from the server at Miguel's. The next morning we decided to stay in this park for an extra night. We drove over to Nada tunnel. We had this tunnel saved on our Google maps for about a year or so and we do know that NADA means nothing. So we assumed that not a tunnel but a tunnel to nowhere. However we found out that it's a hand carved tunnel that originated as a railroad tunnel way back when. Now it's a single Lane car tunnel that is really awesome to drive through. Here is a link to our pictures of those 2 hikes. https://www.instagram.com/p/CdWrLZHsTIG/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY= And hers pics of the nada tunnel https://www.instagram.com/p/CdWwUXcMqgM/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= We also learned that this area has the second highest number of arches in the US, of course the #1 area is Arches National Park. So after hitting the tunnel we drove around to the trailhead for the Auxier Ridge trail. We knew that this was going to be a 2.2 mile hike to the edge of the Ridge and then back. But we got to a beautiful overlook had a snack and a glass of wine and sore across the valley was twin Arch. So we pulled out our maps and we realized that there's another trail at the end of The Ridge trail that joins up and takes you to the twin Arch so we changed our plans and that's what we did. So it turned out to be an 8 mile beautiful hike. The next day we decided to stay an extra night to do numerous short hikes to give our legs a break. Beautiful ! Lots of arches.From here we were going to be staying at the Kanawha State Park in Kentucky we had the campground reserved and the campsite fit a 37 ft motorhome. we had reserved this a couple of months ago. Luckily Trish was looking on line and she saw a lot of people said you'll never make it up the road in a motorhome. We called canceled our reservation and they refunded our money. We then went to Roadside Park Port Of St. Albans. (304) 722-4625https://maps.app.goo.gl/ENR6t9DctNYY8dRU8And stayed there for one night. We'll never stay there again. Too many smelly factories and super loud traffic all night long. We got up the next morning and drove to Point Pleasant WV. To visit the Mothman Museum. And to see the Silver Bridge which collapsed in 1967 people in point pleasant WV kept seeing a winged creature around a bridge in town. Shortly after the bridge collapsed. Some people say he was scaring people away from the bridge and others say he made it collapse. That sparked the movie. Are the two connected? Here's pics https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdg1WMDpwY7/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=...
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    50 mins
  • RelaxRV S2 E77 Mammoth Cave an Arch and Waterfall

    RelaxRV S2 E77 Mammoth Cave an Arch and Waterfall
    May 6 2022
    Season 2 Episode 775/6/22 We left Johnson City on 4/25/22 and arrived in Pigeon Forge Tennessee an hour and a half later. We pulled into the campground they had no record of us reserving and paying for a spot for three nights via Passport America. But they said no problem. We asked that they received our package and they said it's been laying here for 3 days and we had no idea who Paul Sebastian was lol. We are in the south. Our package was a replacement valve for leveling jacks. Hooray our leveling jacks are fixed. We hooked up relaxed for a bit in the 86 degree temps and then drove around Pigeon Forge. The downfall to this town is it seems you really need to drive from place to place. Albiet there is a trolley you can take. It's amazing how many distilleries there are in this area and how many give you free samples, too many lol. We came back to the RV I set up the grill. One of our boondockers welcome hosts suggested cooking quesadillas on the grill. We had never done that but we did it today and I'll tell you what we are hooked. Here's the link to some pictures we took as we entered Pigeon Forge and walked around. You can see the Smoky mountains in the background ttps://www.instagram.com/p/Ccyny0WsvV3/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= The next day Trish did some laundry and I drove around looking for a place to buy propane gas line connections. When we first bought our first rig I installed an extended stay connection on the rig and ran a gas line for a grill and it worked fine. This RV has a quick connect in the back hooked up to the propane tank so I assumed it was going to be working good and it doesn't get as hot. Apparently the connection for the gas grill on this rig is after the regulator on the onboard propane tank so the Weber gas grill has two regulators controlling the propane entering it so it doesn't get so hot. So I'm looking around for connections to avoid the regulator on the Weber grill. Here's a link to the Weber grill we use and have used for going on 5 years now https://amzn.to/3LnQdzu During the night the rains came in and with it a cold front. 20 degrees colder today as compared to yesterday. The rain stopped around 1pm and we took a walk on the Pigeon Forge Greenway, a walkway that follows the West Prong LittlePigeon River. Here's a link to the walkways https://www.cityofpigeonforge.com/parks-greenways.aspx So we found Pigeon Forge to be an expensive area. And very touristy. If you have little kids definitely visit Pigeon Forge.The next day we visited Gatlinburg. We liked Gatlinburg a bit better than pigeon forge. Reason for this is you can actually walk from the store to store instead of having to drive. Either town if you have young kids teenagers or you like to hang out in bars these towns will work. We parked for $15. Walked one block and then went to Gatlinburg SkyLift Park. This was a bit expensive but we figured we'll never be back to Gatlinburg so might as well experience it. Basically take a chair lift to the top of the mountain is the skywalk which is a suspension bridge great views from the top that a gas fired fire pit with lots of sheets around it I would imagine in the summer it is mobbed but here it is late April and it wasn't bad at all. We then walked around town popping in and out of shops getting some free samples of wine. We then walked down to Hillbilly Golf and played a game of mini golf. We've seen this golf course 2 years ago when we're driving through Gatlinburg with our rig and said when we come back to Gatlinburg we got to play this. You take a small tram ride to the top of a hill and you have a choice of two different golf courses as you walk halfway back down the hill and then the tram picks you up and takes you back down to the bottom. Here some pics https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc5ZaPguDa9/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=After 2 and 1/2 days of over the top entertainment we hopped in the Jeep took a ride over to The visitor center of the Smoky mountain National Park and did a 4-mile hike into the cataract waterfall. Just what we needed. Back to the woods and move our legs. We drove back to the RV threw some shrimp on the barbie. Relaxed for the evening the next morning headed out.We drove 3hrs to Fall Creek Falls state park in TN. We are now in CDT .We arrived to our campsite $29/nite with w/e. Jacks work fine leveling. Yay and cheers ! Got set up and searched out a hiking trail on Avenza Maps. We found a trail that we could walk to from the campground to a beautiful waterfall and a bridge and then to a nature center. So we went inside we actually working there for suggestions for another hike and she gave us one with views of a few different waterfalls. So our walk turned into a beautiful six mile hike lol. The next day we did 2 different hikes. A total of 7.5 miles today. This state park was beautiful. There are breathtaking views on most of the trails and from some of the parking lots too. The next day we had a confusing 3 hr drive. We kept going from CST to EST. So ...
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    36 mins
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