Road Warriors Live

I’ve had a little boat problem ever since we got our RV last August.

Every time we hit a campground that’s near water. I always wished that we had her boat along with us. In fact at times it’s gotten so bad that we’ve even rented boats to go out on the water. It just kills me since we have a perfectly good 15 foot jet boat and a jet ski sitting in the garage at home.

The only other option we’ve had up until this point is to bring an extra vehicle and tow the boat behind it, or to actually tow the boat behind the RV. I feel for the folks that have a fifth wheel. Since latter is not even an option. I have talked to a ton of people that own fifth wheels, and since their heavy duty towing vehicle is towing the fifth wheel. They really don’t have the option to bring their boat.

For me the idea of launching our boat, with the motor home brings up nightmares of RV floating slowly across the lake, due to loosing traction on one of those slippery boat ramps. Even if we bring the boat towed behind our SUV. There are lots of places that don’t have slips available, or restrict the use of gas motors and their size. So except for a few select campgrounds it was either take the RV or take the boat for the day.

Up until last week we broke down and rented paddle boats for the kids or a pontoon boat for a full day. Now days most of the places we go, want to charge you anywhere from a $100 all the way up to $300 a day to rent a boat.

I don’t even want to tell you what it cost to us to rent a boat at Fort Wilderness in Disney World just to see the fireworks. We also rented a couple canoes to go around the little river in the center of the campground.

I spent all winter trying to find a solution to this problem. I have been on dozens of web sites and must’ve looked at a hundred different boats, but was not able to find a solution and until two weeks ago.

I created a list of must haves, and unless I wanted to make some serious compromises. These were the things that I absolutely had to have if I was going to drop hard-earned cash on another water craft.

1. It had to be portable enough to fit in the storage under the RV, or at the very least able to stow inside still have room to move around while her on the road.

2. It had to be lightweight, since I was concerned about gas mileage, and the amount of weight in the RV. I did not want to reduce my towing ability if we decided to bring the car as a toad.

3. It had to be quick to assemble. So we can take advantage of some of the early morning fishing at campgrounds we were just passing through. I also want to make sure it gets used. If it’s going to take more than 15 minutes to put together I know I won’t bother unless I am spending a weekend or more somewhere.

4. It had to be big enough for four of us to fit in. Since I do not want to deal with the flights of bringing one of the kids without the other. I also do not want to leave the wife at the motor home while I was out having fun on the water.

5. It had to be comfortable to fish out of since kids were getting to the age where they liked fishing and wanted to spend the time with Jen and I.

6. It had to be small enough that I can launch it in fish out of it by myself if no one wanted to go with.

7. It absolutely had to be safe. I can take some risks on my own, but no matter what. I make sure the kids are safe.

8. It needs to be cost effective. I am always looking for the ROI on whatever I buy, especially when it comes to the RV. In other words, could it pay for itself in what I would save on rental fees for a season. After the first season it’s almost like it’s free.

9. It had to be able to be rowed and also be able to use a small electric trolling motor. On some campgrounds you can only row or use an electric motor. Plus I did not want to have to carry along gas for it in the RV storage.

As you can see the list was pretty extensive. I found boats that matched a few of the must haves from above, but nothing matched them all.

I found one company that was very close, but the only REAL option would be a two seater. So there was a real problem with leaving Jen behind with one of the kids.

I gave up and figured we were just going to have to make do with the situation.

A couple weeks ago I went to show someone the pontoon boat I had found, since they didn’t have any kids. It was perfect for them. To my surprise, they just released a four seater. It’s a perfect and match to all of my must haves from above.

I talked to Jen about it and we put in our order.

The boat arrived a few days ago and I will be posting videos of how easy it was to put together. You’ll also get to see videos of the kids, Jennifer, and I out fishing at a few of our favorite campgrounds.

I am extremely pleased with the quality, construction and price we paid for it. There are a few things that I have picked up for our RV trips that have made the experience much better. I would have to say that this purchase is at the very top of the list.

Here is a link for the boat so you can check it out yourself. Even if you’re not looking for a pontoon boat. All the boats that these guys have are perfect for anyone who uses an RV, fifth wheel, or just like us to hit the water while camping

Stay tuned for some new videos.

Steve

I’ve been debating whether or not to broadcast the trip I am about to go on.  I am not taking the RV this time. I have to fly to California for two days.   

I asked a couple people that follow Road Warriors Live, and they said sure, why not we would love to see it.  So starting today, I will be broadcasting live on and off for the next three days.

Bookmark this page and don’t forget we still need your vote at www.seero.com/contest.php

This should be some pretty interesting stuff and give you an insight into what I do. You will see how I can afford to be able to drive all over the country and spend this much time with my kids. 

I hope you enjoy the video, and don’t forget we still need your vote.

I hate to ask, but we could use a quick favor.

I just found out that we are finalists in a contest for the streaming video service we are using.

If you like what we’ve been doing and would like to see more we could really use a vote in this contest.  The way it looks right now we’re in the running for the top three, but I know you can take us to number one.

So here’s the deal go to www.seero.com/contest.php and vote for RoadWarriors.  I think you will have to create an account, but it only takes a couple seconds and they don’t ask for too much information.  All they want is a username, password and e-mail address.

It will really help us out and let us know that you would like to see more streaming video.

If everything works out as planned.  We should be taking a long trip, with lots of video at the end of the month.  The problem that were running into is that my five-year-old has T-ball until the end of June.  And I have taken a trip to California mid-June.

If it wasn’t for the prior commitments we’d already be on the road and taking advantage of the gas prices while they are still low.  I know, we think that gas prices are high now, but from what I’m hearing the experts are saying that they’re going to be a lot higher by the end of the summer.

As soon as we have something definite for a destination I will post it on the calendar.

Even though we will not be going on an extended trip this month.  Stay tuned for some weekend video streaming from some of the festivals going on in the area.  We might be able to get to something today, depending on the weather from the bluesfest held in downtown Chicago.

In the meantime, if you could go to www.seero.com/contest.php and give us a quick vote, we would really appreciate it. 

Stay tuned for video today weather permitting.

Thanks,
Steve

I thought I would do a quick post with my new toy and give everyone a quick update.

I want to apologize if you’ve got a couple of e-mails today with some errant posts. I’ve invited some guest posters to post on this blog. Unfortunately they are not posting what I feel to be appropriate content. I usually catch them in time but today those two got through. Sorry about that and it won’t happen again.

It’s been 24 hours since I started using the new computer with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. All I can say it’s been almost like a dream. I’ve used these text-to-speech programs before but never one with the accuracy like this. I swear I’m not a salesman for them but I could be. It’s really high on the geek scale plus it works exceptionally well. Enough about the geek update now on to something a little bit more meaningful.

I was trying to figure out a couple posts about the time I spent in Charlotte at the Coca-Cola 600. What I didn’t want to do is post every little thing and bore you all to death. Well, it’s been a little over a week and there are two things that still stick out in my mind.

The first thing is how crowded the campground was. I have done a lot of camping over the past year and have never seen this many RVs in one place even at the Camping Shows. One thing I can say is these folks sure know how to pack them in. I put together a little video of some of the prerace festivities and a view from the top of the stands looking over just one of the campgrounds.

I’m not sure if you can get a feel for it from the video but the campground that we were in was huge. Now if you can imagine a campgrounds just like this all around the race track you’ll get a feel for how many people were actually there and camping. I had somebody asked me if I thought the gas prices kept people away from the race. From the amount of people there camping in RVs and the distance they drove. I would say no, at least for this one. I don’t know what it will look like next year but as far as I’m concerned everyone that planned on going showed up.

As for the party atmosphere that I thought was going to be there that didn’t really materialize at all. Maybe we were at the wrong campground, maybe I believed all the hype, from what I saw it was just a bunch of folks at having a good time enjoying Memorial Day weekend. I could’ve brought the kids and they would’ve had a great time. I would’ve not been worried about them at all. I have been the campgrounds much worse than this and they were supposed to be family-friendly.

Don’t get me wrong, people were drinking and having a good time but it was NOT an out-of-control party like I was led to believe it was going to be. It was a little bit of a letdown as I was prepared for something a little different but it turned out okay and was one of the best Memorial Day weekends I can remember a long time.

There was one more thing that sticks in my mind even a week later and I’ll share that with you tomorrow in another post.

Hope you enjoy the video. And for my fellow geeks (you know who you are) this whole post was done on my handheld computer and dictated through the microphone. (very cool)

Steve

Sorry for the delay in postings.  March was extremley busy and we are finally catching up.  We shot a video at an event here in Chicago that you have to see. 

 We heard about this and we happening and we just had to be there.  International Pillow Fight Day was held around the World in 30 different cities. 

 We met with the President of the Chicago Pillow Fight club and some of the other members before the fight. 

All I can say is they are a great bunch of people and if you want to get in on the next one just drop Heather and the rest of the group a message at http://www.myspace.com/pillowfightchicago    

 I will let the video speak for itself. 

The voiceover needs work so please excuse Jennifer for being a little dead.