Episode 58: From Roots to Routes: Making the Leap to Full-Time RV Life

Living out of an RV or van seems more possible than ever before, and, based on what’s out there on social media, a lot of people have already taken the plunge. If you’re someone who is curious about what it takes to make the switch to full-time RV life, this episode is for you. I talk with Patti Hunt, host of the RV Life podcast, and someone with plenty of first-hand experience. We focus mostly on her personal story as she and her husband made the switch from living in a house to living in an RV.

Patti describes how they prepared to make the switch, the priorities that guided their choice of RV, and how they eased into RV life. We talk about the challenges of getting used to living in a much smaller space, when it’s advantageous to plan, and when it’s not. She passes on a few tips she learned about the etiquette of RV life, managing health needs on the road, and dealing with emergencies. Finally, she shares how, above all, the community she connected with in the RV world has been the most meaningful part of the journey for her.

Below are photos of three varieties of orchids native to Minnesota: the Showy Lady’s Slipper, the Yellow Lady’s Slipper, and the Dragon’s Mouth.

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Mon, Mar 10, 2025 12:14PM • 1:00:17

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

RV Life, community, transition, flexibility, health insurance, RV etiquette, travel experiences, podcast, RV podcast, RV lifestyle, RV challenges, RV tips, RV planning, RV support, RV adventures.

SPEAKERS

Speaker 1, Patti Hunt, Dean Klinkenberg

Patti Hunt 00:00

The other thing about that I have to say about RV life that is probably the biggest thing, is community. And I know people say that a lot, and when I talk to people of actual experience, it’s like nothing that I’ve ever experienced. The community in the RV lifestyle is just like none other. It just can’t be described. And so those experiences were top of the list of things that I am so grateful to have seen, and been part of it

Dean Klinkenberg 00:57

Welcome to the Mississippi Valley Traveler Podcast. I’m Dean Klinkenberg, and I’ve been exploring the deep history and rich culture of the people and places along America’s greatest river, the Mississippi, since 2007. Join me as I go deep into the characters and places along the river, and occasionally wander into other stories from the Midwest and other rivers. Read the episode show notes and get more information on the Mississippi at MississippiValleyTraveler.com. Let’s get going. Welcome to Episode 58 of the Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast. Well, we’re going to go in a slightly different direction today. It is my pleasure to bring to you a conversation I had with Patti Hunt, who is the host of the RV Life podcast. We spent an episode just talking about living the RV Life. So in this particular episode, our conversation takes us in a mostly personal direction. I mostly wanted to hear about her experiences as she transitioned from living in a house to living full time out of an RV because her podcast has so much practical advice for those of you who might be RV curious like me. So you can go to her podcast, the RV Life podcast, and scan past episodes if you’re looking for some of the tips on the nuts and bolts. In this episode, though we focus on how she personally made that transition from living in a house to moving into an RV full time, how she prepared for that, what she did to sort of learn about the details of living life in a much smaller space. How she and her husband made that adjustment to sharing this much smaller space, the importance of planning for certain things, but not planning for others. And you’ll understand that as we, as you listen to the episode, we talk a little bit about the different kinds of RVs, why she chose the RV that, why they chose the RV that they ended up buying and living out of, and why you might want to look for something different. The importance of flexibility on the road, and how living the RV life really maximizes the value of flexibility. She talks a bit about some of the etiquette about RV Life that surprised her, that she learned through experience traveling around, how to deal with health emergencies and handling health insurance, especially for those of us who might be a little bit older, although one of the things that we talked about in another conversation is the demographics of RV. Who’s living the RV life are changing some. And you do see more families and younger people on the road today. And we really finish with she offers her thoughts on what she thinks, but I think it’s fair to say is probably the most important aspect of living the RV Life, and that is the community aspect of it, and how important the community is to the experience and how people really come together to help each other out. So it’s a wide ranging interview about her personal experiences with a few tips mixed in that I think you’ll find useful and interesting. So as I said, if you’re RV curious like me, I think this episode is for you. And I know there are lots of folks who are interested in driving their RV along the Mississippi. I see lots of RVers and campgrounds along the Mississippi, so I can’t think of a better place to get going or to spend a big chunk of your time than if you’re driving around in your RV to come to the Mississippi and explore the various campgrounds and get to know the river and our river communities better. As always, thanks to those of you who show me some love through Patreon. Your support keeps this podcast alive and makes me feel good. You can join that community for as little as $1 a month. Go to patreon.com/DeanKlinkenberg. You’ll find out more there. If Patreon is not your thing, buy me a coffee. Go to Mississippi ValleyTraveler.com/podcast, and there you’ll find out how to sustain my caffeine habit. And at that same address, MississippiValleyTraveler.com/podcast, you’ll also find all of the back episodes, all 57 previous episodes of this podcast where you can learn more about the history and traveling along the Mississippi. So now let’s get on with the interview. Patti Hunt is the host of the RV Life podcast, a popular weekly show about RVing and the RV lifestyle. Patti’s years as a high school teacher, lend itself well to keeping topics on point, drawing the most out of each guest on her podcast, and helping to simplify and explain more complex points to the audience. She can talk to anyone, including me, and isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions. But she’s not just a podcast host. She’s also a real RVer herself with over 40,000 miles under her belt in the past three years. She speaks from experience when she talks about the RV Life, you’ll often find her at RV shows and rallies, doing live podcasts or seminars and maybe even a special event at a campground near you. Patti, welcome to the podcast.

Patti Hunt 06:18

Thank you so much, Dean for having me. Thank you for that incredible intro.

Dean Klinkenberg 06:24

Well, it’s all true, though, right? Like you have a wealth of experience with this, and you know, we just had a couple hour conversation for your podcast. We were talking about the glories and the wonders along the Mississippi River for folks to explore. I thought it’d be fun for us to kind of do it on the other side. I’m one of those people I consider kind of RV curious. I don’t know if I’m ever going to go full time into an RV lifestyle, but I’m very interested in learning more about it. And I think there are a lot of people who listen to this podcast who probably have had this fantasy too. So I thought we would just kind of dive in and talk about that world from your perspective and leaning more toward your personal experiences. But then we’ll work in some tips, and then we’ll talk about your podcast near the end, because you’ve got so much more information there. So why don’t we just start with like, how did you make the transition? Like, tell us about that those moments when you decided, I don’t really want to live in a house anymore. I want to live in a vehicle that I can move anytime I want.

Patti Hunt 07:24

So it was peer pressure. Actually, we, my husband and I lived on the East Coast, and we had moved out to Las Vegas. We were there for three years when the pandemic hit, and my husband, having been in the entertainment industry his entire life, he was in the process of directing and producing a magic show on the strip, and the pandemic hit. He got a call that, not only are we shut down, but we have no idea when we’ll open back up. So you know, like most people, money’s flowing out, not much money is coming back in, and one day he called me up to his office. Now, we were living in a 35 foot house. My walk in closet was huge, a pool, a hot tub. He calls me up to his office and said, Let’s sell everything, get rid of the house and get an RV and travel the country full time. And I literally started to laugh, because I thought he was kidding. To that point, I had been in an RV a total of seven nights like that was it. And that was an RV going to a campground, hanging out there for a weekend. That was my camping experience. So when I looked up and saw that this man was serious, I my head was just, what are we going to do? How are we going to do this? What do you mean, like, how does this work? What are we going to? How are we going to make money? What are we going to? It was just a lot of questions at that point. And so, you know, we sat there for months, we watched all the YouTube channels, listen to people’s podcasts. He kept, you know, planning these trips, doing these trip planning, and saying, Look, we could do this, and we could do this. And he had said we could visit every national park in the country. And I was like, Okay, sounds interesting, but that didn’t really excite me, and so we decided to start our YouTube channel while we were still in Vegas. We hadn’t bought the RV, and we started content of what was in the Las Vegas area. And then I finally just gave in and said, Okay, what the heck?

Dean Klinkenberg 09:39

Wow. So what was how much time was there? Then, from that moment that he dropped this bombshell on you to when you are actually loading up the RV and ready to head out?

Patti Hunt 09:48

About three months. Yes, I don’t necessarily recommend that. Three months.

Dean Klinkenberg 10:00

Okay, So you watched a lot of YouTube videos. You were consuming a lot of information, like, what are some of the what were some of the bits that you learned as you were preparing that helped you feel better about making that transition?

Patti Hunt 10:11

I think I saw the excitement of it, the things that people were experiencing, the things people were seeing, just things that I had, I’ve, I’ve always loved to travel. I’ve always wanted to travel. As a kid, I did little to no traveling. So I was seeing these cool experiences, cool, you know, things to see in this country. And that, I think, is what, finally, that’s what got me. That was what it was.

Dean Klinkenberg 10:44

So you did follow through on that plan. You sold basically the house and most of your possessions?

Patti Hunt 10:49

We did. So we, we were renting out in Las Vegas. We had a house back in Pennsylvania that we had prior sold, previous to this had sold. And so we, we went through and and tried to sell as much as possible. We did get a storage unit, put everything that we felt like we couldn’t part with in a storage unit. And, you know, it was March 1, 2021, it’ll be, you know, four years that we just we decided, let’s go take off.

Dean Klinkenberg 11:25

Where’d you go first?

Patti Hunt 11:27

So I wanted to, like I said, we were living in Las Vegas, so I wanted to go somewhere local and stay for a while, get used to the RV, set it up, organize, reorganize. And so we went to Lake Mead, and we stayed right by the lake. It was beautiful, and that’s where we stayed for about a month.

Dean Klinkenberg 11:51

Alright, so you gave yourself some time to sort of get accustomed. You didn’t have a big you didn’t have to put a lot of miles on the road as you were getting started. So, so what was this first month or so like? Tell me a little bit about how you adjusted to that. What did you? What were some of the things that really stood out that you had to do very differently?

Patti Hunt 12:13

So, and like I mentioned, we were in a 35 foot 3500 square foot house, huge walk in closet. So adjusting to what kind of things you’re taking with, where do you put it, and now being in less than 400 square feet of space with another person, and you don’t always care much for that other person. So that was the huge adjustment. That was probably the biggest part of it. How do you do that? There’s, there’s not areas. We were in a 40 foot class, a nice size RV, but there’s not much privacy or space to, you know, have your own space. So that was probably the biggest adjustment.

Dean Klinkenberg 12:57

And how did you work that out? Like, if you needed a break from each other? Like, how did you manage to figure that part out?

Patti Hunt 13:03

Well, because my husband, Dan, was editing our videos, I cannot be in a room where somebody’s editing. Anybody that’s ever listened in to somebody who’s editing a video or a podcast or anything like that, they replay the same thing over and over and over again, and that just makes me crazy. Like that is not something I could handle. It’s it, and it was my voice, and, you know, watching me, and it was terrible to watch. It was difficult to watch the first time when it’s played over and over. So I would that would be laundry day. So I would go pack up all the laundry, go to the laundromat for two or three hours, read a book, journal, call a friend. Sometimes I get on the phone with a friend for a couple of hours. So that was my excuse to get out and get away and and that worked.

Dean Klinkenberg 13:52

Well, alright. And I think you maybe mentioned this to me before when we were chatting offline, but so you had this 40 foot class ARV, but you were also pulling another vehicle behind that?

Patti Hunt 14:03

Yeah, when we started, we had an HHR, which most people don’t even know what that is. It was actually given to us when we bought the RV, and then we transitioned into a jeep.

Dean Klinkenberg 14:17

All right, it seems like that’s kind of a nice I don’t know how common that is, but it seems like it’s important for the flexibility, especially if you want to visit places that it’s going to be a real pain to park a 40 foot vehicle if you have something smaller to zip into town to visit. Something is this. Is that a decision a lot of our viewers make on the road is to have that second vehicle along with them?

Patti Hunt 14:40

Yes, that is a very, very common thing. And the most common vehicle that people tow behind is a Jeep, so that, you know, because then you could take it to those remote places. You could take it out on a beach. So the the Jeep is the most common vehicle. Yeah.

Dean Klinkenberg 15:00

So in that, in the first few months, especially, what did you find yourself really missing as you made that transition?

Patti Hunt 15:10

Wow. What did I miss? I missed my bathtub.

Dean Klinkenberg 15:14

And that giant walk in closet, maybe at times too?

Patti Hunt 15:17

Yes, I did. That sometimes, as I went along, gets replaced when you go into a campground and resort that has a hot tub. But yes, I missed the bathtub. I missed so I think one of the challenges for me was learning to cook in an RV. We had a great big kitchen. Dan did almost all of the cooking we had sourdough starters so we would make fresh sourdough bread. So that was probably a big transition. A big thing that was missed was being able to cook, you know, real meals, excuse me, not just the hamburgers and hot dogs that people sometimes think of, right?

Dean Klinkenberg 16:02

What helped you figure that out was it just kind of a trial and error thing from experience? Were there resources or other things that helped you figure it out, or all of that?

Patti Hunt 16:10

So it was trial and error. It was listening to what other people were doing. Luckily, when we got to Lake Mead, the campground in Lake Mead, we met a couple that had been on the road for six years. They did it part time, and they taught us so much. And, you know, they’d invite us for meals and some of the campground etiquette like that, I never thought of. So they taught us those things. And so you watch other people, and you see what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. A lot of our cooking was then on the barbecue grill outside, but again, not just the hamburgers and hot dogs. So So yes, YouTube channels, talking to people, listening to what other people were doing, was a huge help community. Is huge in the RV world. That is the biggest thing.

Dean Klinkenberg 17:05

So do you have like, a go to dish that you’d like to make when you’re on the road now, like a specialty of some kind?

Patti Hunt 17:12

So it’s going to be interesting to say this, when Dan and I started out, we had been working with a I want to call her a health coach, but it was more than that. There were certain foods that we wanted to eat based on what worked well for our bodies. And sourdough was one of those things. One of our big go tos was like steak, meat. And so for a lot of people, that red meat is a no no for us. It worked well. So that was a big go to for us. And then I always like to make extra to have those leftovers for lunch the next day, because there’s, there’s a lot of for me, sort of pre planning, knowing, like, do I have what I need for certain meals. So a big thing for us was steak and potatoes and vegetables and things like that.

Dean Klinkenberg 18:08

Yeah, I watch a couple, I follow a couple of Van life people on YouTube. And one of the things that strike me is that one of the things I think I would probably have to change a lot is just the way I approach cooking. You probably can’t buy bulk in advance, right? You can’t buy a lot of supplies in advance and keep them around. You’ve got limited amount of storage space, but sometimes you’re going to be in places where you may not be around the grocery store for a while. So like, how do you think about that? How do you approach that, managing that?

Patti Hunt 18:40

Well, what’s funny is the way that I thought of it. So the the Lake Mead was maybe 20 minutes from the house we lived in, to where the house was. It was right outside of what people think of Las Vegas. It was in Henderson. There’s every kind of grocery store, Costco, all of that very accessible. When I thought of camping, in my mind, it was something, you know, remote out of the way getting to a grocery store was something you know, you had to take a hike to get to. So that was kind of my, it seems silly now, but my, my thinking, well, the grocery store, when we first started, was only 20 minutes away. But to your point planning, so we did still go to Costco. And while we had, when we started, a rather small RV refrigerator, I was still able to make sure we had chicken, you know, like, like, fresh chicken breast, or, you know, ground meat and steaks, we were still able to freeze those kinds of things and have them. And yes, that is a huge thing, is planning. For instance, we were going to court site the following year. There’s no, not much grocery stores around, and the stores that you have, you’re more limited on what you. To get so we did plan more of what will meals look like for the week we’re going to be there and making sure we have those supplies.

Dean Klinkenberg 20:07

Right. But I guess some of that is going to be driven to by the size of the RV that you’re you’re driving around or you’re living out of. So some of the van life, people that I follow would have less space, a storage space, than you might have in something bigger, right?

Patti Hunt 20:21

And they have, often way less space than what I have, and that comes down to the planning, but also with a van. Let’s say you’re traveling and you’re going somewhere that’s going to be remote. It’s really quick and easy to be able to pull into a grocery store get what you need for those days that you are going to be, you know, away, not near a grocery store. So there’s that flexibility, yes, each type of unit that you live in. We then bought a residential refrigerator, so our refrigerator in our RV, we can, we had enough supplies food for the last us a month. So that is definitely something to consider when you’re thinking about buying an RV, the type of RV you’re going to buy, and then how to plan for, you know, meals and things like that.

Dean Klinkenberg 21:17

So when you were making this decision to transition away into the RV Life. What were some of your priorities when you’re trying to figure out even what kind of vehicle you wanted to buy?

Patti Hunt 21:30

We had traveled in two different class A RVs. One was gas, one was diesel. So that was really what resonated with me. I had we had gone to dealerships and seen all kinds of RVs and and looked at different ones. But for us, the class A was it just fit what we needed. One of the reasons the class A often has two opposing couches toward the front of the RV. We needed a space to remove a couch and put a desk in for Dan to be able to edit, you know, the quote, unquote office space for me, my office was wherever I moved my laptop, so that was a big consideration for us. The other thing is, I wanted a an actual bedroom. There are some RVs that the bed kind of comes down over, the captain’s chairs. I didn’t want that. I wanted not only a bedroom. I wanted a bed that stayed, you know, in place. And honestly, I wanted a king size bed. So it was asking for a lot.

Dean Klinkenberg 22:40

Yeah. So that did rule out some vehicles then right?

Patti Hunt 22:43

For sure, for sure. And then the RV we ended up buying did have a queen size bed, but we knew we could convert it to a king. And we did end up converting it. We took side tables out and made it into put a king size bed in there.

Dean Klinkenberg 22:59

So I know, like hindsight is always, you know, always fun to visit, and when you think back to those first couple months, especially, are there some things you wish you have done differently, or you would do differently now?

Patti Hunt 23:11

I think that a big thing was number one, to realize that to take our time and enjoy the journey. I’ve realized that about three months in, I felt like every time I was going somewhere to be the last time we’d ever be there and try, go, go, go, and constantly be doing something. Which made it so I was never really present in the place I was at. And so luckily, early on, we I’d learned that. I’d learned we need to take our time, we need to be here and not just be thinking about what that next location is. I also learned very quickly, flexibility is key. I was never that flexible person. I was always planning, okay, today, we’re going to be here. What are we going to do tomorrow? What’s next week going to look like was always the thing I would say, because I I needed a plan. When we were in Lake Mead for a month, we had planned our trip, so we had a trip planning app and planned our trip, and we were headed to Albuquerque, and the first day we’re out, we get a call from the people we knew in Albuquerque, and they said, if you could get here by tomorrow, late in the day, we’re going to go on a Model T Ford, drive, run. It was some some event they were doing, and they were going to take us with so everything changed first day, really out, and everything changed. And you adjust where you’re going to stay in, the campgrounds you’re going to stay in. And we got there and we were able to do something that was probably, you know, something most people never get to do. It was an incredible experience. So learning to be flexible, learning to say yes, change plans quickly, was. is a really big thing.

Dean Klinkenberg 25:02

Yeah, I mean, as you’re talking like, it really strikes me is the sort of the difference in mindset you almost have to adopt, because, you know, we’re so used to this go, go, go, lifestyle. I’ve got all this work. I’ve got to do, I’ve got to get these 20 things done today, and it’s and while you still have things you’re trying to do, because you’re still working from the road, that it’s a very different sort of experience than when you can do them, how to do them, and you have to sort of let go maybe of some of those old that old mindset about how you handle your day.

Patti Hunt 25:33

And mindset is huge. I talk about it on the podcast. I’ve talked about it for many years. I actually don’t like the word mindset, because that means you’re set. I like, you know, more mind flow, because doing something different, just the idea of saying, What the heck, let’s sell everything and buy an RV and get on the road. Very different mindset. And if you’re set in what you’re doing, you’re never going to jump in and take that chance. People are going to jump in and take that chance. So while things in the RV Life have its difficulties and its challenges that you face sometimes on a daily basis, your mindset helps you through those things. You’re being able to look at the silver lining and things and and, you know, sort of go with the flow. Sometimes it it then leads to appreciating the really cool experiences that I had for three and a half years on the road.

Dean Klinkenberg 26:36

So let’s, let’s touch on some of those. What are, what are some of the experiences you you were able to have as a living this RV life that you probably never would have had otherwise?

Patti Hunt 26:45

Well, and I could talk about the big things, like we took a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon. We, we were at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, and had the opportunity to fly, do two flights and a hot air balloon. You know, so many incredible experiences for me. Some of the things I remember most are we were at a campground in Pennsylvania. It’s called Circle M. Now, I was born and raised in Pennsylvania. We were an hour from this place. We were now camping at, and now you could see the whole area from a whole different perspective. So walking out in the morning, I had to have a espresso every morning, a cappuccino every morning. When we bought the RV, that was priority one, that the machine had a place in the RV. Not all RVs could handle it, and so I’d make my coffee in the morning and sit outside and watch the river flow. Those things are amazing. Watching the sunset was a huge thing for me. And while it sounds like, Okay, not that big a deal, I could do that from home, most people don’t, and they don’t take the time to see it. And I didn’t, I mean, I’ll speak for myself, I didn’t. And then there was the sun rises. I was never an early riser, but when you’re going to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, you’re up by 5am those sunrises are truly amazing. And I just learned to stop and appreciate those moments and really see them, right

Dean Klinkenberg 28:19

So, and in some ways, I guess, like, when you’re living out of an RV like that, you’re less shielded from the rest of the world in a way, right? So you have that opportunity, like, you just have to step out your front your door, and you’re right there next to the river or the mountains or with the ocean or whatever, and you can stop, you can and take some of that in before you get about the rest of your day. Instead of, you know, throwing some coffee in a plastic cup and heading out to your car to on a for the commute to work somewhere.

Patti Hunt 28:46

Exactly, exactly. And it was a very different. It was very different. I had quit my job as a teacher probably six years before we started out, and it was like you said, got up in the morning, half asleep, you know, got my coffee at a plastic cup, you know, went to work, came back dinner. Kid dealt with kids, you know, rinse, repeat, do the same thing over and over again. So I had decided years before we went RVing that that just wasn’t the life that I wanted to keep living. I wasn’t living life to the fullest, and that was my big thing. The other thing about that I have to say about RV life, that is probably the biggest thing, is community. And I know people say that a lot, and when I talk to people of actually experience it’s like nothing that I’ve ever experienced. The community in the RV lifestyle is just like none other. It just can’t be described. And so those experiences were top of the list of things that I am so grateful to have seen and been part of.

Dean Klinkenberg 29:58

So So tell me a little bit more about that. Like. Does it, how has that experience been for you? What ways has community sort of played a really prominent role in the RV life for you?

Patti Hunt 30:08

Well, you know, first of all, being new to the RV Life. And like I said, we were at this campground. We met this couple, and the the they’re still friends today, and one point so at the campground we were at, I found out, learned later, what hookups meant. We were actually boondocking. There weren’t hookups with our RV. They had winterized the RV, so there was all this winterizing pink stuff in it for us to dump our RV we had to close everything up, take it up to a dump, dump it and then bring it back and re park it. Well, anybody that’s ever seen or heard videos or talk seen people who you know are our viewers, that whole parking thing is can be the biggest stressor. And so we were backing in the one day, and the guy that we had met become friends with. He said, Would you mind if I gave you some advice? And I’m like, “Sure,” so I’m on the outside of the RV telling Dan how to back in. Now, Dan is not the person that takes instructions like you know, he was a stunt man. He’s driven every type of car, truck, bus, you name it. He doesn’t really take direction well. So here we are backing up a 40 foot RV to a rather tight space, and this guy, after asking if he could give you know, suggestions, he turned to Dan, and he said, Okay, I know you’re the guy. You’re not used to this. He said, But you’re driving. She’s on the outside. You need to listen to her. She’s in charge. She’s seeing what’s back there. And we didn’t have all these fancy backup cameras because it was an older RV, and that kind of changed things for us and and that’s sort of what community is. They are about helping and supporting each other. And from there on, we learn silly things like, if I’m saying, Go to the right or the left, is it my right? Your left? Am I standing in front of you? Behind? So we learn things like driver side, passenger side, and that, that was a big learning experience. But those are the things, whether you look at people in the RV community and you’re like, Okay, I don’t want to do it that way. Let’s do it this way. Or, you know, people just giving great suggestions advice, like I said, it was the same couple that taught us some etiquette, that’s RV Life etiquette that I didn’t realize. When you go, when you’re invited to somebody, to somebody’s camp site for dinner, let’s say you’re supposed to bring your own unless they say otherwise, your own plates and knives and, you know, utensils. Bring your own drink. You know, like, that’s something that’s just etiquette, bring a chair. And these are things people don’t always realize. You know, it’s simple stuff, but the biggest thing is when somebody needs something, when somebody needs support, when you know stuff goes wrong, and it often does, you know, we have gone out and supported other people. Sometimes there was a guy in a fifth wheel brand new. He was trying to back the fifth wheel and to save his life. I swore he was going to just take that fifth wheel, leave it the middle of the road, and just walk away. And people came together and asked, Do you need help? And helped, and that has been the biggest thing, Dan’s had medical issues while we’ve been on the road, the biggest challenge to know that you are in the middle of nowhere in Florida, in Las Vegas, and he’s ill, and now I’m in an RV by myself, having people in community that truly care. You don’t even know people, and they will come out and help and support. And that was just the most amazing experience.

Dean Klinkenberg 34:10

So there’s just sort of this ethos of helping each other out, even if you you might have only been there one night and haven’t met anybody yet, but if you need help with something, there’s always going to be somebody there to help you out.

Patti Hunt 34:23

And that is absolutely true. And I you see it all the time. You see the support it, and maybe because it’s a whole different lifestyle, maybe the idea that people aren’t trying to manage the nine to five the kids by themselves. You know, you live in a house. I lived in a house i i was a single mom at some you know some point well, everybody’s living their life. They’re going to work, they’re doing their jobs. They don’t necessarily have time to help and support you. Being in the RV world, whether people are part time or sometime, whatever that is, or full time, I think it’s. Is a different world, a different environment of we’re just living life here and now. There’s not that constant rush, rush, rush. And I think that that attitude, that mindset, kind of plays into it.

Dean Klinkenberg 35:15

Hey, Dean Klinkenberg Here, interrupting myself, just wanted to remind you that if you’d like to know more about the Mississippi River, check out my books. I write the Mississippi Valley Traveler guide books for people who want to get to know the Mississippi better. I also write the Frank Dodge mystery series that is set in places along the Mississippi. My newest book, The Wild Mississippi, goes deep into the world of Old Man River. Learn about the varied and complex ecosystem supported by the Mississippi, the plant and animal life that depends on them, and where you can go to experience it all. Find any of these wherever books are sold. So you got me curious about this too. I’m getting older now, and so the issues of like, health insurance and medical care really are forefront of my mind as I think about longer trips. And I know, like, you know, in my the health insurance I have now there are preferred providers, and then there are out of network providers that cost me a lot more out of pocket if you’re traveling around then, like, how do you how do you approach that issue of finding reasonable health insurance that provides decent coverage and manages your costs, and then finding places to get medical care on the road?

Patti Hunt 36:30

And that’s huge, obviously, and it was a big deal for us. One of the resources that I had was a company. It’s called RV insurance. They’re actually, I gotta find the name for it, but, but these are people that have spoken to their RV ers themselves. A lot of them, I’ve interviewed the owner of the company, and just so people know I don’t interview or take sponsors or affiliates with people that I’m not familiar with, know, like and trust. So what they do is, based on what your needs are, they will find you suggestions for insurance that have worked for you, and that is for people who travel. So there is insurance that’s more for people who travel now that doesn’t mean your own insurance may not be okay, because if you have, say, an emergency situation, even if it’s out of network in network, sometimes that is covered, I will highly recommend that if people have insurance and they’re out on the road, they call the insurance company and they’re very clear on what that insurance is going to cover. I know a family who has a young boy that was diagnosed with type one diabetes when he was four or five. He almost died, and that’s what led them to get on the road. So they had to figure out how they were getting his insulin. And I just saw a post on Facebook, there was something about his insulin that’s now changed. So it’s really important, if you have people that have medical conditions that you know they you know how that’s going to be handled. There are ways, I don’t have all the answers, but there are ways. I really like the company that, and again, I think it’s called RVer Insurance. That they look at your age, what you have going on. And here’s the suggestions for you know what might work for you, because it comes down to costs as well. So that’s a big thing. Managing health while you’re on the road, you can always go to an urgent care. Often go to an urgent care. Sometimes just paying for that out of pocket is easier. I was in Las Vegas with Dan when he got COVID and he was hospitalized. He, I mean, he was in ICU for 14 days, 16 days. You know, it’s, it’s also having the support team, you know, something of a plan. I was grateful that we were in Las Vegas. It’s where we had friends and family and had support. But, like, I want people to know that a plan is good, but I’m also going to contradict myself and say, Hey, you can’t plan for everything, and you can’t let fear guide you. So that’s that’s kind of both sides of it. One of the things for me when we were in Florida and he got sick just this last year, and and it was serious, and I saw the RV community come together and be incredibly supportive. It’s also we were full time. So as full timers, people would say, Well, where do you live? Where’s home? And we’d say, wherever we parked the RV is home. We’re originally from outside of Philadelphia, but wherever we parked the RVs home. We had a backup plan. If one of us something should happen to one of us, a backup plan of how to get back to our home base, and that is a very good friend of ours that has a company that actually transports people. So this is non emergency medical transport. They do it on a commercial airline, which makes it more affordable for the patient, and they put a highly qualified doctor or nurse with that patient. Too many people say, My husband had a heart attack. He was in the hospital. He’s stable now, and we’re flying back home. That may or may not be a good idea, just the wife or husband taking that person home, or the son or daughter coming and taking that person home. You may need a medical trained person to do that, and it’s a huge passion of mine. This is an incredible company. The owner, I’m friends with the owner of the company, and even he will say, Don’t believe me, they have 250 plus five star reviews. And it is a passion of mine that people are aware of this. There are med flights, there are emergency medical transports that are on private jets or helicopter. Lot more expensive, sometimes that is absolutely what’s needed. But there are other options, and I’m very passionate about getting that out to people only because of what I experienced. The company is called Flying Angels, and the nurses and doctors that work for them are truly angels. I mean, they truly are. And so that was sort of my I had that backup plan. If I needed it, somebody would fly in assess the situation and be able to fly one of us wherever we wanted to go, whether that was another hospital or, quote, unquote, back home.

Dean Klinkenberg 41:53

Right. You know, it’s interesting, too. One of the struggles, I think, with a lot of things we face, maybe in life, but especially when we’re considering a big change, is finding a way to realistically assess the risks and not be so paralyzed by those potential risks that we’re not willing to take a chance and try something different. And what I kind of hear you saying is that you did think some about what could go wrong as you moved into the RV Life, and you did some research, you probably figured out some things that you would be available to you as a backup if you needed it, but you didn’t let the fear of those things that could go wrong stop you from taking that step.

Patti Hunt 42:34

Absolutely, I always say, you know, I used to train people. I had a large team of people, and I used to do training, and a lot of it, like we said before, is about mindset. It’s not about how I do the specific thing, but about our mindset. We all have fear. We don’t get past fear. We don’t, all of a sudden, say, I zip lined in Panama, across the rainforest. I didn’t say, Okay, I’m not afraid anymore. No, I was scared to death, but I did it anyway. And that’s the thing. Assess the situation and and sometimes do it anyway. I was scared to death to sell everything, go in an RV. And it was like, Okay, if this doesn’t work, we’ll do something else, you know, acknowledge the fear. Acknowledge what it is that you’re concerned about, if it is concerned about medical and that is a concern for people, especially people who are getting older. What happens if we’re stuck in Las Vegas and need to go to Florida to our doctors? How are we going to do that? So it’s, it’s realizing you have the fear acknowledging it, having an idea of what you can do about it, and do it anyway. The thing also is, no matter how much we plan, no matter how much we think we know how things are going to work out, you know, life comes along and you know, it’s my last year of this, last year of my life has just not been anything I ever planned for so, you know you, you kind of have to flow.

Dean Klinkenberg 44:11

Right. And I guess it helps you like to look maybe a little trite to say this, but it helps if you have that, that belief that in your ability to get through those unanticipated challenges in life. Like I know there are some people who are paralyzed at the thought that, if x happens, what am I going to do? But, you know, I think we It helps me to remind myself I’ve been through some pretty tough things and got through. Okay, not that it was fun, but there are always ways to cope and move on. And it sounds like you kind of have that same approach,

Patti Hunt 44:44

Absolutely. And you know, just for my story a year ago, back in March of last year, Dan got sick again, and in April it was getting worse. We knew we had to get back to Pennsylvania. That’s where I was. Wanted to make sure I had a plan. Packed everything up, from the RV into a travel into a little trailer, the Jeep, and had a friend drive us back to Pennsylvania. He then ended up in the hospital, and he’s actually had some strokes and is in full time nursing care. It’s a horrific situation, not something you ever think of or prepare for, but it’s knowing that you can get through those things. Was it horrible? Was it difficult? Absolutely, but you get through them. And some days are harder than others, and some days are curled up in bed crying, speaking about myself, and you know you have those people, that community that’s supporting you, that’s reaching out, that you know has your back, and that’s what gets you through life. There’s nobody in life that’s getting through this without challenges. It’s just how we handle them. I was no better equipped to handle them. I have nothing special, no special training, all of my education, all my training, all of my, you know, dealing with kids or being a school teacher, none of that necessarily prepares you. So for you know, I’ve heard people say, Well, you know, you, you have these abilities. You you have these people, you have something special. No, I didn’t. I just had to pull from those tools. And having had challenges in the past, instead of dwelling on them, I took them and I learned as much as I could to be able to handle whatever life throws at me. And like you said, it’s not fun, but it’s just, it’s part of life.

Dean Klinkenberg 46:37

Right. It’s extraordinarily difficult. I can’t imagine going through that. But like you said, you had, you had also this network, the support network that you’d built up over time from traveling around so you weren’t alone. You had plenty of support out there to help out as you needed it. And you know, there’s part of me that’s like, you know, it’s a terrible situation, but he got to spend three years traveling and doing something he really loved and wanted to do, and you got to experience that with him. And the alternative was you could have just stayed in a house somewhere, doing the daily routine and, you know, going through the same thing every single day, and maybe that would have been fine, but you got to do something very different instead.

Patti Hunt 47:21

And that is the message. That is my goal to put out the message. There’s a thread of that in my podcast episodes I sign off by saying, you know, reminding my listeners to remember to live life to the fullest without regrets. That’s the message, because, yes, yes, I am grateful the times that we had together, the things we experienced together, the it was an incredible time, and nobody knows how much time that is. And again, don’t want people to live in fear, but you know, go out and and live life fully is really what it’s about and whatever that means or looks like for the individual person.

Dean Klinkenberg 48:04

Absolutely. And I guess, like you’ve said this before, I think, but you’re, you’re making plans to get back out on the road yourself now, though, right, you’re going to go solo.

Speaker 1 48:15

So I, since we moved back to Pennsylvania, I’ve been in a house, um, we, I’ve sold the RV, and it was old, and we were going to sell it anyway, but I’ve sold the RV, And I have been flying to places, to events, to campgrounds, flying, driving, maybe take a train ride one of these days, a scenic train ride. I’m I’m thinking that going back out solo may be the way to go, or who knows? The thing is, it’s like, I don’t know what it looks like. And when this first happened, three months, six months, nine months, I kept thinking to myself, I need a plan. I need to know what I’m doing next. And I keep constantly reminding myself, I I’m I’m doing what I love, and my work, quote, unquote work is something I’d love, and we’ll see what happens, you know? We’ll see how it plays out. Who knows, right?

Dean Klinkenberg 49:11

So that the mind flow change of adopting the RV Life sounds like it’s carried over and it’s still with you, even though you’re not in the RV day to day right now.

Patti Hunt 49:20

Absolutely, absolutely, I love the industry. I love the community. I have campgrounds asking me to come visit, and, you know, I’ll stay in cabins. Now, instead of an RV, there’s a lot of cabin rentals. So for people who are saying, Well, I’m not sure what kind of RV, I’m not sure if I’m going to like this experience, go to a campground, rent a cabin. There’s things called yurts. I lived on the East Coast. It wasn’t until I got to the West Coast I even knew what a yurt was. It’s really cool, but go out and be within the community, immerse yourself. You know, by by being in a rental or people can rent an RV to. Try it out, to give it that try. So they’re the things that I’m doing for now. I don’t know. I’ll talk to you in two months, and maybe something will change. Just never know.

Dean Klinkenberg 50:11

I’m hoping absolutely, because, you know, at some point, you still have to figure out a way to get here to the Mississippi and you know, maybe, maybe we’ll have that cup of coffee watching the sunrise somewhere.

Patti Hunt 50:21

Absolutely, I’m going to take you up on that absolutely, and I’m all about figuring it out. I don’t have the answers, but let’s we’ll figure it out. Figure it out.

Dean Klinkenberg 50:31

Well, why don’t you tell us a little bit about the podcast? Then I feel like we could spend a lot of time probably going to the nuts and bolts of RV life, but you’ve got three plus seasons of episodes that people can explore, to really go to that detail, tell us about the podcast.

Patti Hunt 50:45

So the podcast started with company called RV Life. Anybody who’s not familiar that’s looking at RV, check it out. It’s very It helps with trip planning and RV safe GPS, so you know your particular RV, where it could go, and Campground reviews, and it has so much more. So we were connected with the company, and they came to us and said, we’re looking to start a podcast. You and Dan would be great. I honestly said, not interested in taking something else on, and again, peer pressure. So we started the podcast. November 2022 I was blown away, because within a couple months, it was in the top 10% of all podcasts worldwide to totally blown away. And then about a month later, we get a message that it’s in the top 5% and I was just making sure I love what I was doing, having fun with it. Dan and I would have guests on that were owners, presidents of companies, products or services, people who have traveled the RV or who has experiences. We had the whole gamut of guests on with the goal of educating, entertaining and helping people explore the RV lifestyle. And I always say it’s my mission to inspire people to live life fully. And then a year ago, when Dean became ill, and it was just me, it was, what’s this going to look like? How is this going to work? What am I going to do? And so it’s been almost a year of me doing it on my own, and we’re in the top 3% of all podcasts worldwide. And I see that I cannot say it with this straight face, because I’m so blown away by it. I’m so humbled, I’m so grateful that people are getting something out of what I’m talking about and, you know, again, it’s a it’s a range. I always look to, what can I do to help people learn about this lifestyle that I think is just incredible.

Dean Klinkenberg 52:52

Right. Speaks, you know, it seems to me, it speaks, at least, to the desire a lot of people have to break out of the routine and then monotony that a lot of us kind of find ourselves locked into from day to day and RV Life seems like it offers one way out of that. I know there are plenty of challenges along the way. I was just scanning through the list of episodes again today, there’s so many topics there for people to explore. I mean, from the really smaller, focused issues, like how to winterize an RV if you’re traveling in colder climates, there is an episode, I think it’s called, are you ready for full time RV life that I think probably you ask a lot of the big questions people need to answer before they take that leap. Maybe they only have three months to do it. You know? Maybe they have a little longer. So there’s a lot of really excellent episodes in there, from the practical tips to sharing stories about life on the road and three plus years of episodes to explore.

Patti Hunt 53:52

Right. And what I tell people is, even if you’re not going to do the whole RV thing, go out and experience something you live in an area your entire life, I lived outside of Philadelphia my entire life. There’s so much to offer there. Yes, I’ve seen the Liberty Bell and all of those things didn’t really excite me, I’ll be honest, because I’d lived there. You know, that was class trip to the zoo and and exploring your own neighborhood with a view in a whole different way. Not like, Oh, I’ve seen this before. Really be there that local park that you see the waterfall or the river, whatever, whatever it is that you enjoy going to the mountains and really being present. You don’t have to be an RV or to have experiences, right, right?

Dean Klinkenberg 54:42

I mean, boy, you’re speaking my language of this so much too, because i It seems like a lot of that. It we just get locked into this mode of trying to squeeze as much as we can into, particularly trips, maybe because we don’t get a lot of downtime. So we try to maximize that by. You know, my mother was crazy for this, like she would want to see everything she could possibly see when she was on the road. But it might be, oh, let’s go to the Liberty Bell, and we’re there for 10 minutes, and then we move on to the next site. And you know, the flip side of that is what you’re talking about, where you really you don’t have the pressures of trying to feeling like you have to see as much as possible, because maybe you don’t have time to do anything else again for a while. You have the luxury of going a little deeper and looking around and really feeling and experiencing at a deeper level what’s around you, right?

Patti Hunt 55:31

And we think about with our kids, and we think, Oh, we want to show them the Liberty. And that’s just a good example. And we’re going, going, going. And when you think of young kids, what did they remember? Oh, you know, something silly, something funny, something you you’re like, wow, we did this whole trip. So I used I took my kids to Disney World. Often, we did this whole trip. My kids remember this one time it was just the two kids and I, and I had to carry the four year old, like, a mile back to the hotel, and my son had to walk. Like they’re the things they remember. They’re it’s sometimes those things that the kids remember, the playing outside with other kids, the being in a campground and, hey, remember that time we were in a campground and and we did whatever. That’s what they remember. It doesn’t have to be all of the big things. I will see anybody going to Philadelphia go to Pat’s Steaks just by. I gotta get there by.

Dean Klinkenberg 56:30

Go to the Liberty Bell and go get some food at Pat’s Steaks.

Patti Hunt 56:33

Right Pat’s Steaks, that’s it, right there.

Dean Klinkenberg 56:36

Yeah. Well, and I’ll make my plug here for travel along the Mississippi too. Is, I think this is one of the reasons that I love traveling along the Mississippi so much, is I feel like there’s so much about it that rewards taking that extra time. And you know, I’ve read some comments online from folks who are disappointed when they came here and were driving the Great River Road, because there are lots of places the road isn’t right next to the river, and sometimes it’s not the most scenic in places, because there are factories or whatever. But if you take the time to get out of your vehicle and get out and you talk to people, you spend some time next to the river, you spend an hour sitting there in your chair with a cup of coffee, watching what’s going on around you, I think then you begin to really understand what makes this place special. Some places you just need to set your roots down for a little bit and spend some time looking around and not to look at your schedule and figure you got to rush on to the next site.

Patti Hunt 57:34

And you again, I had you on the my podcast, on the RV Life podcast, and it’s now going to be two episodes. You told those stories that really resonated with me. They really made me think, Oh, I’d love to do that. And a lot of them were the hike down to the river and where the convergence is. Did I say that? Right?

Dean Klinkenberg 57:59

Confluence? Okay, okay, confluence, um, those are the things that I’ve learned to love and appreciate, and they’re the big moments that I’ll remember honestly, so absolutely. Yeah. Well, Patti, we’re kind of winding, winding down here. Where can people learn more about the RV Life podcast?

Patti Hunt 58:23

So they can find the podcast on all podcast platforms, including Apple and Spotify and it’s RV Life podcast. They could also go to Instagram or Facebook, RV Life podcast. I answer every message. So if somebody wants to send a private message, I answer them all. If you send a message and I don’t answer, send me another message, I might have missed it, but yes, on on both of those, in any of those places, I’d love to hear from people. Anybody that’s got questions about RV, reach out, and sometimes that becomes a podcast episode. Absolutely.

Dean Klinkenberg 59:01

Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for sharing your your journey, your personal experiences living the RV Life, and I look forward to hearing more in the future.

Patti Hunt 59:11

Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun.

Dean Klinkenberg 59:16

Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the series on your favorite podcast app so you don’t miss out on future episodes. I offer the podcast for free, but when you support the show with a few bucks through Patreon to help keep the program going, just go to patreon.com/deanklinkenberg. if you want to know more about the Mississippi River, check out my books. I write the Mississippi Valley Traveler guide books for people who want to get to know the Mississippi better. I also write the Frank Dodge mystery series that’s set in places along the river. Find them wherever books are sold. The Mississippi Valley Traveler podcast is written and produced by me Dean Klinkenberg. Original Music by Noah Fence. See you next time.