2022 Interview with Stuart Crawford from 3 dogs and an RV.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi, welcome back to RView. We’ve got a great show for you today. We’ve got Stuart Crawford here from three dogs in an RV. And he’s going to tell us all about his visit at Hilton Head Island motorcoach resort.

intro
Welcome to RView with your hosts George and Lisa Hernandez each week listening as George and Lisa talk about their RV and travel adventures all around the world. George and Lisa travel in their 40 foot Class A Tiffin motorcoach and tow their Jeep Wrangler, always looking for fun and adventure.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Hi friends welcome back to our view. I’m Lisa RichartHernandez.

George
And I’m George Hernandez.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And we have a special guest with us today. We’ve got Stuart Crawford from three dogs in an RV. Welcome, Stuart.

Stuart Crawford
Hey, good afternoon. Good day, everyone. Nice to be here.

Lisa RichartHernandez
We’re well, it was so exciting. When you reached out to us when we were in Hilton HeadIsland motorcoach resort together. I’ve watched some of your YouTube videos. I think it was the dog parade over the Fourth of July. And then you saw the podcast and we thought, hey, we need to get together. So really excited to sit down and chat with you. And

George
that’s where we met.

Stuart Crawford
That’s right. That’s it. Yeah. That we

George
were trying to figure out before where we met. Yeah, you just said the dog. Fourth

Lisa RichartHernandez
Fourth of July dog parade at the illite Island motorcoach.

George
All right light bulb just came on. Yeah, sorry to interrupt go on.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So we always love to talk to people that have become full time RV years because someday when I retire hopefully our goal would be to do a full time our veers and travel around and do our podcast so to me you’re living the dream right now. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you got there and how that all came about?

Stuart Crawford
Well I think it all happened by accident. And I’ll my wife Missy who unfortunately couldn’t be here today with us. She said to me I want to go buy an RV let’s go look at our reasons weekend. So we ended up going to Tampa went to Lazydays like everybody else goes to a big box store the first RV they buy you know La Mesa Lazydays wherever they got it from. So we ended up on a Lazydays in Tampa and we and we did the typical rookie mistake we bought the first one we saw because the sales guy said, Hey, there’s five other people queued up for this. So we dropped our American Express card and bought it we bought a 2019 Fleetwood flair. Okay, now I speak about this being like a long time ago, it was only like 16 months ago. It wasn’t that long ago.

Lisa RichartHernandez
This is a great story.

Stuart Crawford
So we bought this flare it meant to be a weekend coaches do away on the weekends and travel around and we still had our normal sticks and bricks house in Sebring, Florida at the time. And we just regarding the weekends, and I have a friend of mine who’s a realtor. Now he brought in a deal. I said Tim, if you ever want to sell my house, feel free to show it we don’t we had a very unique floor plan. It was the only one in the neighborhood with the style that we had. And I said Tim, if you ever want to show our house feel free you got to keep going show it so we went to we went to the 1000 trails and what Tula for a weekend get away. We come back to him standing in my driveway. This is Easter Sunday. With a contract in his hands. I sold your house. Okay, he sold my house. So we went looked at the bill and unfortunately that deal fell through Well, maybe not unfortunately was fortunate it fell through because it was a little shady. Tim was a good guy. But his some of his real estate practices were a little shady. And off the air, we could talk about what he did. Anyway, so the deal fell through we relisted it with a with a professional Realtor. And she sold it for more than we were asking. So we bought we sold it right away. And so we ended up moving into our RV full time because that was the only place we had to go right we didn’t have a home to go to. So we took advantage of the hot Florida market and sold or sold our house and and moved into our RV. And then we quickly realized that the flair wasn’t suitable enough for full time living. Yeah, what was what was the size of the flare? It was a 36 foot gas coach, you know, typical 36

George
gospel for living that’s a little little short. Yeah,

Stuart Crawford
It was good for weekends and getaways but for living full time it was It wasn’t suitable. So we ended up upgrading to a 2021 Fleetwood Bounder. Same same length every six feet, but newer with more feature

Lisa RichartHernandez
features. Yeah, that was that was our first one and I love

Stuart Crawford
that coach. I didn’t do we went we went all the way up three hours north of Toronto last summer with it and scooted around Buffalo and in the areas up there and we loved it. But my lovely wife had an idea of hey, let’s go get a deal. Let’s go look at diesel coaches. Yeah, so we said I wouldn’t I really want to get a Tiffin so I said, Let’s go look. So went to one of the biggest retail shops in the Buffalo area. And the sales guy was really, really good. Even though we had our ideas on Tiffins and they had a 2016 and the 20 19 And they had a 2021 45 opp which is a coach I love. I love it. Unfortunately, he talked us into getting a Thor Venetian. Okay, which, in retrospect, I shouldn’t allowed him to talk me into. But we are looking at that and, and you know a little bit more backstory, my wife and I are Canadian, and we live in the US full time. So we looked at a duck star as well around that time, but it was just a little bit outside our price range that we couldn’t, we couldn’t qualify for financing because we’re Canadian. And even though we have a company here in the US, and we lived in homes here and you for some reason, banks still don’t like that, you know, temporary resident status that we carry with us. So we ended up buying the store Venetian because it was right in our price range. And that was we call it the COVID. Coach. Because anything and everything that could fall apart on it fell apart. Oh

Lisa RichartHernandez
no,

Stuart Crawford
the Aqua hots didn’t work the the heat pumps didn’t work. It was the only thing that worked out it was the engine. Now what about it? Yeah, we had nothing but problems with it. So we ended up Chris It was Christmas. It was Christmas. You guys don’t have Boxing Day. Who knew? So we call it Boxing Day because I’m still Canadian. Right? Right. So the day after Christmas, we’re watching Andrew steel YouTube channel. And this 2017 Integra Cornerstone comes up at the Motor Coach store in Bradenton, Florida. And it’s like I called up or Missy called up the owner there and said, Hey, we’re and this is on again, keep mine this is the day after notices. This is Christmas day evening. We call up the guy in or you send them an email said hey, we’re interested in the cornerstone he got back to us like five minutes later. And and I wired him the money two days after that. So this, if you’re keeping count, this is Coach number four. Wow. In under one year. Wow. So we ended up buying the summit, 2017 cornerstone, and we still have it today. So we’re on our record is the longest coach we ever owned. And Brad Brad at the Motor Coach store ended up trying to sell us a new car. No, he talked me out of the news because I wanted the new rule talked me out of it because he said it’s a 29 a 2009 There’s all kinds of technical things. And you know, I went I’m a technical guy, but ya know, I’m not doing that. Yeah. So

George
I’m ready to back away a little bit from the technical stuff. Yeah,

Stuart Crawford
the more you know, the more things technical in it, the more things can go wrong. So yeah, that’s so we asked, we’re quite happy with our corner. So that’s our, that’s our RV story of our four RVs and in under a year.

George
So we had the Fleetwood Bounder we’d love that was our first one with the Ford V Titan or whatever it is,

Stuart Crawford
yeah, we had the V eight, which was probably the newer engine that they came up with.

George
And we love the coach itself. I hated the engine. It just it didn’t have enough power to do anything. And if we hit a hill, forget it. Well, we’re

Stuart Crawford
coming to Georgia going up north the check engine light came on. So I pulled into Crossville, Tennessee and I was calling for places to get it in again. Look at nobody would touch it. And that was my early indications that you know maybe this is not the right chassis to be on. Yeah, under the four guys want to touch this.

George
Yeah, it’s it was it was a I guess the engine was the our engine was good. It was just we just just like you

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, it was just gas not diesel. So I think it I always tell people that don’t know very much about like different motor coaches and stuff I said we kind of went from like a Ford Focus with all the bells and whistles to now the tiffin Phaeton, I would say is around like a five series BMW, you know, like, that’s kind of what our upgrade was. And you’ve kind of been through that whole process, too. I think you’re more of like, you’re probably more than a five series. I think you’re probably closer to this. Not quite the seven series BMW but yeah,

George
that’s the Tampa RV show. I said to Lisa, if any RV is gonna get me in trouble. It’s the cornerstone I really love that model. Fortunately, when we were at the show, I really didn’t like any of the interiors that they had there. So I was like

Stuart Crawford
we and we felt the same way we look to the 2022 Cornerstone they had their and Missy said, it looks really cheaply made compared to the one that we have.

George
Yeah, yeah. And it looked like grandma’s house. The trimmings on the ones there were just I mean, they had the the headboard on the bed was just like this ginormous thing. What the hell was going on? And I love that coach, I just the trims just threw me off real bad.

Stuart Crawford
Well, knowing what I know now, if somebody came to me and say, Hey, what kind of advice would you give me as a first time RV buyer? I would say don’t go to a big box store. And secondly, get a used one and see if you like

George
it? Yes, absolutely. You know, we’ve said that many times also and he

Stuart Crawford
because most of the bugs Knock on wood, you know, I still have big issue that we all do, but the relatively minor and the major besides the Deaf had problems that we just yeah and tigers are especially are known for with their Spartan chassis they I got the I got the Keith def head failure especial I don’t know if you know Keith here in the park, now, he makes a simulator. I did a video on our YouTube channel about it that you plug into the Deaf system and it simulates a deaf, you know, the Deaf head. So at least you can get in and get into some servers. But that’s the only thing I want diesel coaches that that concern me is is the Deaf problems, but that’s just Yeah, everybody.

George
Everybody has them. And that’s that’s a big issue they need to figure out because that’s not good. No, we just had to repair ours. That’s why Brian was here earlier.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. Well, that we did. We did a podcast about like, you know, buying your coaches in everyone says buy your third coach first.

Stuart Crawford
Well, we bought our fourth one. Right, our first coach on the fourth one,

Lisa RichartHernandez
right? I agree

George
with you start with a used one. Figure out if you liked this lifestyle, figure out if you’d like that our RV and then start shopping for your dream RV. We stumbled onto this one. That’s a long story. It’s another podcast. You guys can go back and listen to it. But we weren’t even shopping for one and our friend who sells Arby’s is like, we need $1,000 deposit. And I said are you in jail? Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, it was. It was it was great. How we

Stuart Crawford
kind of put a bow on our story, though, is it’s fun even it’s even funnier is that we loved working with the motorcoach store in Bradenton so much that I went to work for him. Oh, wow. So he’s my only non IT related customer that I have. So I do all of his marketing for the motor coach, because I just believe in so heavily in the service that they provide, and the quality of the products they sell. Wow, that’s awesome. That’s a great plug. Yeah. So we I took him on as well as a marketing client for, you know, for my business that I’m still doing today from our RV, which is another story

Lisa RichartHernandez
and what’s in what’s the name of that business and Burlington.

Stuart Crawford
It’s called the motor code store. Okay, yeah. So they, Brad Tweed is the owner there. And if you watch Andrew Steel’s RV channel, Andrew features a lot of coaches on his channel from there. They just have a total stand up group there and not to make this a plug for him. But, you know, there’s a lot of good retailers of the small dealers. And that’s my recommendation. Prior to hit up the smaller dealerships versus the big box stores.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I

George
would agree. 100%.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. So you’re still working? I am. And how is your wife’s work work? Or is she so that’s,

Stuart Crawford
that’s a very contentious subject. Because we set we set, we set a retirement income goal, which we achieved this month. And she said, Okay, as soon as we hit that I’m done. So slowly, trying to figure out how to get her out of the business, not get her out, not get her out works with you. Yes. Okay. So not to get her out out as an owner or partner, just get her out of the day to day management of it. So we’re working on that. And you know, I’m in my early 50s, mid to mid to late 50s, mid mid to early 50s. I’ll just say that way. And I was telling you before we got went on the air here. Is that my gas tank, doesn’t it right. It seems to run out faster than I did when I was in my 20s. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. So at the middle of middle of the week, I am pretty much exhausted. And yeah, and I don’t want I don’t work at night anymore. Like I used to work. I used to work 18 hour days now. 8am, exhausted after eight. Yeah. So we’re, you know, at this stage, and I’ll blame the full time RV living for this, too, is I and, and, and I’ve had a number of friends that have had some health issues, and some didn’t make it through their health issues, and they’re no longer with us. And that kind of opened up my eyes to and said, Life is too short for, you know, working, working working all the time. And I don’t know what your all industries have been like in the past. But one thing about the IT industry is that I have realized if people that were your friends 20 years ago, are not in contact with you today. And the ones that you should have paid attention to 20 years ago are still here with you today. So my advice to any young entrepreneur who is you know, pay attention to your family and your friends. They’re more important than the vendors that you take care of.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Right. That’s very true. Yeah. Family will always be there. Yeah, so I still sell real estate. So you know, we are one of the preferred brokers in the resort down here in Hilton Head and then I have a brokerage in Charleston too. And Georgia is retired. So balancing that out, I completely understand. So like, unfortunately, I still have to physically be here for a lot of things, but thankfully, I guess there’s some silver linings COVID Like for me, people are just more accustomed now to doing so many things online, where we don’t really have to be so much in person as we as we needed to before we can send our contracts via email and do zoom calls and stuff like that.

George
Yeah, you do so well, online. I mean, our kids always laugh that every time we go on vacation, she sells a house. They’re like, we just need to go on vacation all the time.

Stuart Crawford
Well, you know, and COVID was a blessing for us. Because we had a physical office in Sebring, you know, I was paying $2,500 a month in rent for that space. And we covered it, we sent everybody home. And we didn’t miss a beat. Yeah. So I said, Well, why am I paying a lease I called my landlords can get out of my lease. I’ll pay the rest of the lease, but I’m not going to stiff you for that. I just want out. Right. So he let us out. And we shut down the office and we moved to Tampa, we move the offense of Tampa now we’re just in a Regis office there. We have no need for a full time office. But everybody works from home. Yeah. And we’re more functional now than we ever were. Yes. And it’s unbelievable. And I get to work for my RV. Great. Yeah, that’s great.

George
I think people are more productive. Also, they you just, you’re more comfortable at home, you’re not you don’t have the watercooler distractions and the people that want to talk to you about all kinds of silly stuff, just get your job done and move on. Yeah. And then the quicker you do it, if you can, the more time we get to enjoy. But we’re in the same boat as you were we don’t bounce back. Like we used to when we’re 21 We’ve actually reached the stage of our life now where a nap is included in our daily activities. So

Lisa RichartHernandez
go do this and we’ll take a nap. Yeah, that’s,

Stuart Crawford
that’s a Saturday and Sunday ritual for us to

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, most everyone around here knows we’re the exact opposite of early birds. Like this whole retirement lifestyle. Like every everyone likes to get up really early, and they do their things and they like to start having cocktails like around one. And then everyone’s in bed by 10 o’clock. Like gets a ghost out. You know,

George
but I kind of enjoy that. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
I like to eat early birds.

George
That’s another thing I can eat late. If I eat late. I’m just feel like I’m really

Stuart Crawford
looking forward to the 55 discount. That’s what I’m like, Oh, yeah. When I go for dinner, hey, you’re 55 you get a discount? Yeah,

George
I’m gonna remember my first ARP letter. I was like, signing up for this crap. Now I’m like, Okay, time to sign up.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, God. So you started your YouTube channel? Was it just a hobby? Or were How did that get going?

Stuart Crawford
That’s, that’s an interesting story. So we wanted to do it from day one. And we had a few false starts getting a going. And we were up in North Toronto near North Bay, Ontario and I there was a goose walking around our campsite, we call their Gertrude that was the name of the goose We nicknamed. And I just whipped out my iPhone and start taking pictures of Gertrude. And you look back at the early videos, you’ll see the video Gertrude. And she was very people friendly and come up right up and she would never bother the dogs. And so we made this video of Gertrude the goose. And that was our and that was that was our initial video that our our second video we did we had another one of driving around Ottawa that we that we never really released. But Gertrude was our initial and I said this, I can get used to this. Yeah. And I had I had a guy doing the editing for me. So I’ll just meet you shoot in the raw video and sending it over to him. And he would edit it for me. But yeah, we got to the hit. And I found that people wanted to watch this. Interesting that people want to watch our journeys, right. And really, the whole premise of it is so that Missy and I can look back, you know, in the years down the road and say, Hey, remember when we went here and went and we went in here? It’s not we don’t do it necessarily for the monetization, right? Or the followers of the likes and views. We just do it for a record of our journey. Yeah, that’s really and it wasn’t till I had that clarification that made it worthwhile doing because I wanted to oh, I wanted to monetize this I want to retire there’s live off you know, that never had very very rare does that happen where people make enough money to retire and live off YouTube? Right? It doesn’t happen as frequently as you think. Yeah, but then

George
they really retire either. Not that it becomes a serious job. I mean, there’s people out there that started with let’s make a little bit of money and all sudden it’s like okay, now we got to production and we got to know Yeah, and it’s crazy but they do make some money though. Yeah, you

Stuart Crawford
there’s a few channels that we watched that the one of them we met at the Tampa show, and we’re talking to me so yeah, that’s a full time job. This is eight hours a day me editing video and producing it. Yeah, I don’t know if I want to do that. I want to play golf and smoke cigars and drink beer.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

George
Yes. Yes. And yes. Yeah. And That’s kind of what happened to me. We started with the intention of doing YouTube. And then I realized, Holy mackerel, this editing is just horrendous. And our friend Chris used to be a news reporter. And he said for every 440 minutes of video, they get a minute and 20 seconds of a clip. Oh, wow.

Stuart Crawford
Yeah, that makes sense for the news.

George
I was like, Wow, that’s crazy.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, yeah, yeah. Plus, then you got to do your hair and makeup.

Stuart Crawford
I’ve done I’ve done new spots when they came in and and shot an hour worth of video and I look back at six o’clock. Do there’s like 30 seconds. Let me talk about Windows XP. Yeah. And

George
that’s exactly how it goes. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So three dogs in an RV. Tell us about the three dogs part.

Stuart Crawford
So we’ve so it’s funny because when we leave here on Sunday to go up to Myrtle Beach, that’s where we’re heading to next. That’s spooky. Our youngest Chihuahua. That’s his hometown. We bought him in little, little river, South Carolina. So we’re heading there to, you know, just by fluke, that’s where we got him from. That’s where we’re going to be for the next two months after we leave here. Is is there and so we bought him when we used to Snowbird down to Myrtle Beach. And so we picked him up. We had two other dogs. So Archie is our terrier. He’s my baby. He’s, like, right by my side everywhere I go. And then Sammy, Who’s the oldest Chihuahua he’s missing his baby and then we just named spooky as the dog’s dog. Okay, because he really doesn’t have any human tie. Tied to the other dogs right everywhere that other dogs go.

Lisa RichartHernandez
He’s there. So they’re pretty small dogs. Three small,

Stuart Crawford
three. Siamese like three pounds spooky for and Okay, Archie probably the heavy he’s 15 pounds. Okay, okay.

George
So that’s not that’s not too bad. You’ve seen people here like

Lisa RichartHernandez
three golden retrievers. Wow, I

George
can only imagine it takes up a lot of room. Well, I

Stuart Crawford
totally believe that. Three. Our three little dogs take up a lot of space in that king sized bed at night. Yeah. When they when they will spread Reuter. Oh, you know, it’s there. A lot of space.

George
Did you say you were going up to a little river?

Stuart Crawford
I am. Yeah. For leaving here. Are North Myrtle Beach RV Resort Marina?

George
Is that the new one? There’s supposed to be a really, really

Lisa RichartHernandez
Marina there.

Stuart Crawford
Right on the intercoastal. Yeah, that’s it. Yeah, that’s right. It’s like from 2018 is when they opened? Yeah, yeah, they got to flow writer and a waterslide. And

George
yeah, that’s it. Everybody says that’s really nice. And we’re I said,

Stuart Crawford
when we booked into I want to be far, far away from all that stuff. Because I don’t have kids. Right? All my my all my kids are grown up again, kids of their own. And I want to be far, far away from that stuff.

George
What do you mean, you don’t want to hear Marco Polo? Exactly.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So tell us how were some of the places that you’ve already traveled to? And like I noticed you said you’re gonna be there for two months here for two months. What what are sort of your, your travel plans.

Stuart Crawford
So last year, we did a lot of travel because the fuel prices were more reasonable. So we would move every three to four weeks. And we started in Florida after we we got the bounder and stayed the 30 days, we can go back in and do the post sale service. And then we had we made our way up north. So we made our we made our way up north the long way. We ended up going through Tennessee, Kentucky, and we stayed in Indiana for a couple weeks and then went over to Canton, Ohio for three and visited the Football Hall of Fame and all that stuff. And then we spent most of last summer in Niagara Falls New York. Okay. And then when the Canadian border opened up now being Canadian, we could have went home at any time there was no they couldn’t stop us. Okay, but we wanted to wait to the border officially opened so we would have less problems. So we got across in middle of August last year, visited some family spent a month and a half up in Ontario north of Toronto and near the Ottawa area. And then came back for the start of football season in Buffalo because my wife and I are diehard Bill fans. Okay. So we had, we had season tickets up until this year, we didn’t renew this year, but we went to the first few home games last year. And then and then made our way back down south with of course, being avid football fans. We followed the bills road schedule. So I stopped in Nashville, Jacksonville, and then ended up in ho hum for Christmas. If you ever been to whole hung up on the Panhandle. It’s it’s amazing, really. It’s not a luxury. It’s not like where we’re at right now. It’s far from where we’re at right now. But it’s it’s a gravel pit where you pull up right to the Gulf of Mexico and your coach is overlooking the Gulf.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh yeah. So beautiful wanted to do that. Every time I looked at places like that. They’re always booked. You gotta Did you plan that way and I’m not

Stuart Crawford
really three or four months maybe. Okay, so we spent December of last year there and then made our way down we bought and we bought the cornerstone spent the month and of our home bases in the in Bushido were part of escapees. Okay, so we went to Busch now with your driver’s licenses and all that stuff. And then we spent the majority of last winter in Arcadia, Florida for four months there.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Okay. And where’s our Katie

Stuart Crawford
so it’s kind of halfway between Sebring and Fort Myers in the southwest corner Ocala, Florida. 35 miles outside of Fort Myers, okay. Okay. Well, we had we had doctor’s appointments and dentists and bets and stuff to do. So we did all that. And then and then came up here. Okay, so Hilton Head has been your we wanted to go out west this summer, but with the price of diesel being the way it is.

George
I’m glad we did it when we did we did it just prior to COVID

Lisa RichartHernandez
and 2020. No, it was during during COVID. That’s right. Yeah, because everything was canceled. I was like, let’s say

George
we said we’re going to quarantine let’s quarantine in the mobile condo. Yeah, just head out west. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
we went all the way over to all the way up to Seattle cross. We went to Mount Rushmore in Yellowstone and Seattle and all the way down the Oregon coast.

Stuart Crawford
Yeah. See, we wanted to go to we want to go to Vancouver and Calgary. Yeah, because we have grandchildren in Calgary and Vancouver that we haven’t met yet. Oh. So we you know, we’re we’re thinking about going out there. But just the price of fuel to screw up. And so our fuel budget for this year talk about travel is the same as it was last year, but we’re staying two months instead of one month, right in places now. So budget wise, we’re about the same but yeah, length of stay now. And in all fairness, two months here and Hillhead. It’s been great. Yeah, two months is long enough at two months ready to say, Okay, I’m ready to go do something else.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, yeah, I

George
agree. We’ve always talked about so we own here at Hilton Head, we want to buy somewhere. There’s a new place in Nashville that we want to buy. And then two other places. So we could do three months at each and just kind of rotate around because I agree with you two months here. It’s a beautiful place, we’d love it. But after two months, you’ve seen and done everything. It’s time to go somewhere else and explore. That’s what this lifestyle is about.

Stuart Crawford
There’s only so many dolphin tours and stuff you can do until you say okay, I’ve done that. It’s been there done that.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. So how do you think Hilton Head Island motorcoach are like, how does this resort compared to some of the other places that you guys have been?

Stuart Crawford
It’s either here like, it’s, it’s where they say paradise, it’s is truly paradise? Yeah, like, it’s an older resort. Don’t get me wrong. It’s got some very mature trees. And and it’s an it’s an older, it’s been around for a while. But that’s not a knock towards it. It’s part of the charm of it. Yeah. It’s, it’s great. I would you know, if I was a little bit older, I would seriously think about buying here. I’m just at that stage right now where I’m not ready to settle down. Yeah, so I don’t want to do that. We thought about it long and hard. We thought about it. But I just went now I think I think I just want to travel a bit more. Yeah, I want to experience and I want to be I don’t want to have that commitment to having to come back to a single play now. In 2025 and beyond when our immigration statuses change. Yeah, we may think about buying something up north and then, you know, in Canada for the for the summer. And then something down here for the winter. Who knows? I mean, there’s, there’s a lot of balls in the air right now that, you know, that whole 2025 is gonna be very critical year for us, because that’s when our immigration status changes. Okay, so you don’t have to decide, am I going to renewed live in the US? Or am I going to go back to Canada and become a full time resident back in Canada that come down? Like all the other Canadians come down in the winter? Yeah. But by hopefully by that time, I’ll be retired. And that decision will be easy.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. Yeah. The I felt so sorry for the Canadians. We have some friends that are Canadian. And we actually met them in Florida, you know, during the winter, and they’re like, we can’t we were we were sending them pictures, you know, like from Florida and the sunshine. And they’re like, oh, like, the Canadians can only go so far. So

George
they’re way up there too. So it’s always cold. Yeah, I mean, I was

Stuart Crawford
lucky I grew up in Niagara Falls. So I like I grew up a mile away from the border. Right. So going across to Buffalo or Niagara Falls. That was a, that was an everyday thing. You never thought anything. Now of course, when 911 happened, the whole the whole process changed, right? We used to go across and you know, my dad, my dad had my aunt lived in Niagara Falls, York, we lived in Niagara Falls, Ontario. And it was and I used to ride my bike across the border and the customs guys would say, you’re going to go visit your aunt so Does your father know where you are? Yes. That centers on now today as well. God kids today. We couldn’t do if I was a kid today. We couldn’t do that.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, I actually grew up in Michigan. And so we used to go to Ontario, Toronto, you know, all the time. We used to play, like soccer against them and stuff like that, you know, crossover in Detroit. As a matter of fact, we went to the casino up there. When the kids want a rugby tournament in Ann Arbor we went to Canada.

George
Yeah. But the town was kind of shut down. Remember, it was it was during COVID There was so many shops closed. It was it was

Stuart Crawford
they had some pretty aggressive lock downs in Ontario. Yeah, yeah.

George
But we definitely we’ve always talked about doing a road trip through Canada. And that’s definitely on our on our schedule. Just don’t know when

Stuart Crawford
so here’s some advice for those one of the travel to Canada. And you can read all about the customs stuff online. That’s this is what I’ve learned is many of the RV parks don’t have 50 amp connections. It really 30 amp is but you find that quite a few campgrounds and RV parks and resorts might be a different thing. But that’s what we struggled with. Last year we were up north of Toronto, we only had 30 amp. Thank goodness, I had the bounder that did okay, on 30 amp. I had the cornerstone I would be I would be stuck. I wouldn’t know what to do, because that thing takes a lot more power than Yeah. 30 amp service can provide.

George
Yeah, but I guess the 50 amp the biggest thing for the 50 amps is the ACS but being up north it’s not quite as hot as here is I think, well, you might need heat though. Yeah, but you could run the heat you can run you can run the bases is what really sucks up the 50 amps. Okay. Yeah, because we have that converter when whenever we

Stuart Crawford
that’s that’s the biggest thing people are gonna be look on the lookout for is just that. Yeah, that’s one limitation. Yeah, that’s

George
that’s not too bad.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Our hope is to go do east coast up to Nova Scotia. So that yeah, that’s one

Stuart Crawford
of the areas that we’re looking at settling. If you know if if we ever go back to live full time is is in Nova Scotia. I lived in Western Canada. I lived. Of course I grew up in Ontario, but I’ve never spent a lot of time out east other than my basic training when I was in the army. I did it oh, oh, eastern Canada. Oh, wow. So I say well, I love it. I just maritime life is my thing. I love I love that whole lifestyle. So I think that’s what we’re gonna we’re eyeballing that to go to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick. Yeah,

George
that’s where our friends live. Nova Scotia. Yeah, yeah. He’s the undertaker.

Stuart Crawford
The actual Undertaker? Yeah, people are

George
dying for his business.

Lisa RichartHernandez
I saw a t shirt the other day that said, I put the fun in funeral. I was like, oh my god, we need to get that

George
out. That’s terrible. Yeah.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Well, while you’re in Hilton, that you’ve been here for two months. Let’s talk a little bit about the whole thing and plate. What are some in like, Alright, you’re coming to here to visit Hilton Head. Now you guys have been here as tourists for two months, what have been some of your favorite things that you’ve seen or done and on the island.

Stuart Crawford
So I had a bucket list item that I needed to cross off. When I got here. My cousin was a US Marine Corps. He spent 22 years in the Marine Corps Parris Island, and I wanted to go to Parris Island, I wanted to tour the museum. So that was one of the first things we did, we took a trip to Parris Island and toured the museum. And that’s all on our YouTube channel, you can see that that was the biggest thing I wanted to get crossed off my bucket list, because when I was 18, I actually tried to join the Marine Corps because I had family in the US and for some reason, they didn’t approve my application. So I ended up going in the Canadian Army instead. But that was one of my live bucket list items. Other things that we did that we really enjoyed we did a we obviously went to Savannah a few times. But the one trip to Atlanta that stands out the most is when we went on the intercostal waterway. Okay by boat. So we left from Harbor Harbor Town Marina and took the ferry to Savannah. And it was it was fun. It was a two hour ride on the on the ferry. But the one thing that stands out I haven’t released a video on this yet because I haven’t got around to editing yet. Is the boat captain decided to outrace a freighter, a cargo ship coming in. Oh God and we and we got caught in the wake of that cargo ship. Oh, wow. And we are rockin and rollin in more than a Metallica concert. It was something else that was that one stood out we did the obviously the the we did the firework cruise we did the dolphin tours, all that stuff. The most the biggest thing that stands out the most for me is the memories of taking taking my dog to the beach. Oh yeah. And just just having that time on the beach and being so close that we could just drive there very easily or Yeah, you know, that was probably the biggest thing that stood out for me it was just that that time just you know, just being you know, you can go and spend money on all kinds of activities and they’re great. But that time on the beach was just, you know, that was special.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we really enjoy literally we just bought e bikes yesterday so we’re super excited with that kind of like expanded our our I areas that we just love to just kind of just get out on the bikes and go exploring and ride around the island and this. It’s so bike friendly, you know, and

George
miles and miles of bike trails.

Lisa RichartHernandez
And there’s there’s seems like there’s live music and so many places. We like to ride down to click on the beach and go to the tiki bar. And it’s I mean, it’s like the beaches are the bars right on the beach and there’s always what was

George
the name of the one we went to yesterday?

Lisa RichartHernandez
That was Jim’s Pool Bar. Yeah. What have you been there?

Stuart Crawford
No, I haven’t been there. Yeah, it’s

Lisa RichartHernandez
it’s at the

George
tiny little place. And if you don’t know where it is, it’s super hard.

Stuart Crawford
We’ve been to Coco’s on the beach. Okay. Now your bike would have been perfect for that because trying to find parking and Coco’s was. Oh, yeah. next to impossible.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, like Fourth of July in the week. Like we just stayed inside the resort here during Fourth of July because it’s just so

George
that’s why bike rental business here does so well. There’s just so many people and sold limited parking. Yeah, you’re better off going anywhere by bike.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. Well,

Stuart Crawford
we’ve been caught in traffic an hour coming in from Bluffton. Oh, yeah. It’s crazy. Because if you wanted to go to Sam’s Club and an hour later coming back,

George
yeah, at least they finally got rid of the toll booth that made it even worse. Yeah, that’s gotten much better.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, we. So we have a bunch of different favorite restaurants that we’ve been to since we’ve been here and you just mentioned one. I was like, oh my god, we haven’t even been there yet. But what are some of your tell us about some of your favorite places that you’ve gone to eat? Like we’re foodies, so we go. Like to try new

Unknown Speaker
things? Yeah. And so are we we love we have a good, good, inexpensive meal. Yeah, so we went to low country backyard, which is just on the main road when you come in next to the smokehouse. Oh, it’s that was so by far the best meal we’ve ever had on the island. Really? Yeah, that was sensational had their their version of jumbo Elia which was great. Yeah, it rivals anything that we would get New Orleans. Really? It was good. And, well, we had the fat babies a couple times. Yeah. One hot mom was Barack Obama, Barack Obama. Oh,

George
man. Isn’t that good?

Stuart Crawford
Barbecue? Fan those ribs?

George
Sorry, there’s nobody can compete on this island with 111 I

Lisa RichartHernandez
think one hot Mama’s ribs are probably the best ribs I’ve ever had.

Stuart Crawford
And their wings are sensational. Oh, yeah. And I’m gonna kind of a chicken wings now being from the Buffalo area. Oh, yeah. That nothing touches the buffalo wings, we get back home. And these ones here and I told the bartender said, you know, I got some pretty high standards. And if these are pretty, pretty close to being back back home, and then she said, Well, I’m from Rochester. Well then they know you know exactly what I’m talking about. Because your area right?

Lisa RichartHernandez
Next time we go up there, we’re gonna have to get buffalo wings and buffalo like, I want to get a Philly cheesesteak in Philly. Like, I don’t know. So like, you don’t have at that place. You don’t have like, a bar that you have to like New

George
York pizza for me, right?

Stuart Crawford
Yeah, here’s my here’s my recommendation for anybody going to Buffalo and wanting to have wings. The anchor bar is your tourist trap. Everybody’s gotta go there. Duff’s is good. You know, but you really want to hit those hole in the wall places.

George
Like, anywhere. Yeah, the hole in the wall is where you want where the low. That’s where you’re gonna

Stuart Crawford
zactly night I find the best the better wings in Niagara Falls, New York. And then you get in and we get on our YouTube channel. We’ve reviewed a lot of these places. Oh, great. We’re gonna have this. So you know, there’s some really good pizza wing places in Niagara Falls, New York that we just love that we every time we go home. That’s where we go.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Oh, that’s cool. Craving. Like Jordan has New York pizza.

George
That’s me. When I go to New York. I got my my couple of pizza shops that I have to hit. And when I go to Miami, it’s my Cuban food. Yeah, so

Stuart Crawford
just fill up. So new New York pizza is interesting, because I’m not a New York Pizza fan at all. But so Buffalo New York pizza is different than New York City pizza. Yes, absolutely. And I like the thicker crust and buffalo do they always do it in a in a rectangle pan? Instead of the circle pie? It just it’s not the Nakamura pizza at all. But buffalo people to me is far superior.

George
That’s the thing everybody you know, when you grow up with it, that’s that’s your thing. That’s me. I love the thin crust. Oh, man just talking about it. I got to stop talking.

Stuart Crawford
We’re going for pizza after this.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, so what about Alright, let’s go through favorites. What’s your favorite place in Hilton Head for a burger?

Stuart Crawford
Oh, where are we? We went somewhere the other day and had a really good burger. I can tell you what’s not my favorite five guys. It’s not my favorite.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, that’s that’s no change. Yeah, you know, I just char bar is my favorite play forever.

Stuart Crawford
I don’t think I’ve been there.

George
Oh, we got to take you there then. That is that’s definitely the best

Stuart Crawford
Exactly one by the Kroger.

Lisa RichartHernandez
It’s over by Harris Teeter in right near the entrance to see pine shopping center.

George
Oh, kids over that way. Yep. On the other side of the circle. Gotcha. And there’s Oh, I think I’ve been there.

Stuart Crawford
They have like the outdoor it’s an outdoor place, right? Yeah. Okay. I’ve been there. Yeah, that was really good. Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
they have the like the $25 Ward winning burger like, gourmet. So

George
move on. Oh, five guys making me hungry.

Lisa RichartHernandez
What about favorite place for pizza on Hilton Head Island?

Stuart Crawford
fat baby pan down. That

Lisa RichartHernandez
was like my favorite. Yeah, babies. Yeah. Wasn’t that where they have the really good chop salad too?

George
I think so. Or is that dough boys? fat babies and dough boys. They’re both pretty good. I agree.

Stuart Crawford
My wife is on keto. So we don’t get the chance to go for do a lot of these car places. So when I go, I get to go.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, well, I think it’s Doughboys has a really good chop salad. Like you can like pick all your ingredients for it. So I lean towards that one because I don’t really I try not to eat sugar or carbs or dairy. But if I’m gonna it’s gonna be pizza.

George
You’re gonna cheat cheat.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Alright, what about your favorite place for seafood?

Stuart Crawford
Wow, you know that? That’s I have to say the place on the road coming in. What’s the one before you get? No, it’s off. It’s on the oh, I’ve just drawn a blank. Now. It’s an outdoor patio. Just on the road coming in before you get to the bridge. Crab

Lisa RichartHernandez
something or other? Blank. Oh, I’ve never been there

Stuart Crawford
before the outdoor patio. We went there by fluke because we wanted to go watch the planes flying down the coast on the Fourth of July. And we couldn’t get to the beach. So we ended up going there on the Crazy Crab Crazy Crab that’s called Yeah, that was that was that was really good.

Lisa RichartHernandez
What did you have their

Stuart Crawford
eye on? You know? So I’m, you know, obviously we talked about this off off the air. I’m suffering from the old age can’t remember stuff.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So yeah, horrible. Like a casual though, right?

Stuart Crawford
Yeah, it was just regular. You know, just crash. I think. I usually have grouper. That’s my default. So I must have had group for that day. Yeah.

George
That’s one thing with Hilton Head lot of places to get fresh seafood, which is really nice. And I’m not a big seafood guy. But I’ve always

Stuart Crawford
some people say go try. The sea is in the sea shack. And I haven’t haven’t been there yet. Have we?

Lisa RichartHernandez
I feel like we I think we have. I can’t remember.

George
Unfortunately, a lot of times when we go out to eat, there’s alcohol involved.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So can’t remember

George
what we all kind of blend together.

Lisa RichartHernandez
We just went to what is it called ombre the Italian restaurant. Yes, that was really good. And we just thought we would just It’s right behind the RV Resort. We thought we would just pop in for an appetizer and a drink. I ended up getting like a whole tenderloin filet. It was so delicious.

George
They got this spaghetti with clam. And usually it’s just clam sauce is thing the whole it was a big piece of spaghetti in the middle surrounded by clams.

Stuart Crawford
And what was it? Where’s this place called? Ombre? I am if I have one weakness in life, it’s spaghetti. So I think that’s where I’m going for dinner tonight.

George
Yeah, me both me. Yeah, I

Lisa RichartHernandez
think you need to make a reservation there. It’s It’s like It’s like more of our sit at the bar like we did. Yeah, we also enjoyed Michelangelo’s which is also a really good Italian on them on the island to

Stuart Crawford
tell you the best place at Italian was Flores here. Yeah, on the island. We went there. Just one night we went there for dinner and the the staff there were great. And the owner took personal care of us which was Oh yeah, you don’t see that everywhere you go. Yeah, it was a small little tiny place. It was It wasn’t your traditional time place where you get spaghetti. It was like more I would say I don’t it’s kind of like more like upscale Italian. Yeah, there was more upscale dishes. Yeah, but it was it was really, really good. Yeah. And that’s how ombre

George
is it’s the clams just caught my eye because that’s that’s kind of like my go to meal. I would love to see the different takes on it. That’s all good. Oh my god. It was so good.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. There’s, I could probably talk about restaurants on Heartland and a whole nother podcast for like the whole.

George
I mean, there’s so many really good restaurants here. That’s that’s a nice thing.

Lisa RichartHernandez
So when we first came to Hilton Head, we didn’t have a tow vehicle. And so now that you’ve been driving around the island, you’ve probably figured out how hard it is to find anything because it’s a twilight community. There’s no bright signs there. I didn’t know there was a McDonald’s across the street for like a year. You know, I was like oh my god look that’s a McDonald’s

Stuart Crawford
we ended up going to McDonald’s on the other side of the island because I didn’t see the one here right yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
it’s literally camouflage which is really nice because it keeps the integrity of the island but when you’re looking for something it’s so hard to find. So once we got our bikes and we got our tow vehicle we kind of got a lot more chance to explore. We first thought out there aren’t even any good restaurants on the island and then then Oh once opened up the whole world once we got more more ways to get around.

George
Well, we were so bad that one of the first times and I’ll tell you this quick story, one of the first times we came here, we ventured out and we walked out and we said, We’ll walk around to a couple of bars. So we went to a bar right outside and had a cocktail, and we went to another bar and we, boy, we walked around. We had so many cocktails, we got totally disoriented.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Now it’s dark out. Now it’s dark lights, at

George
least I said, Why don’t we head back to the RV? Is it okay, let me call on Uber. So I call the Uber and they may have had a few cocktails where I just ordered it, and sat there and the Uber driver pulls up, and you know how they always say, Hey, are you George? And I’m like, yeah. And the guy says to me, are you serious? And I said, What? Yeah, I’m George. I’m serious. Okay, got it. And we got in, he put it in drive, drove about 100 yards, put it in park. We’re here. We were literally, I mean, Deandra, which is right across the street, but we had gotten so turned around.

Stuart Crawford
Yeah, that’s happened to me a few times. Yeah.

George
Yeah. So that was that was our embarrassing story of our first trip here.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah. Yeah. So what are your future travel plans for? And do you think you’ll ever go back to bricks and sticks.

Stuart Crawford
So I mentioned we’re leaving here on on the weekend, heading to Myrtle Beach for a couple months. And then Mrs. Mom and Dad are coming down from Canada and in November and they’re going to be in the Daytona area. So we’re going to spend some time at daytona. And then we’ll be back in the Sebring area for the winter to do our normal doctor’s visits and bet visits. Our long term plans is to head out west next summer. Okay, I definitely want to see my grandkids you know, see all their pictures on Facebook as I’m gonna go see the in real life yeah. So that’s our that’s our plan for next summer is to head out west and then spend the spend the winter in Arizona or Yuma Palm Springs area. Okay, and then come back to Florida. And from there, I don’t know. Again, I mentioned 2025 as being a very pivotal point for us. We may talk about going back to sticks and bricks. We may just sell the RV and 2025 and then take the money and go travel the world and do Airbnb ease. That may be on our radar. We don’t we just don’t know because I’m although I’m Canadian, and I can live here and I’m also a British citizen as well. Wow. So I’m we’re thinking about maybe go spend three months of the year in the UK three months or four months of the year and UK four months in Canada four months here, and kind of just do that loop. So are spent some time in it. I just there’s so much of the world to see. Yeah, I want to go and experience it. And think you know, Airbnbs and trains and stuff. You know, they’re they’re plentiful, you can get them. Oh my god. Yeah. And the cost and cost wise. It’s the same as having an RV. Yes. Maybe? Maybe even cheaper. Yeah. So that’s where that’s our long term vision. I don’t know if how. I don’t know if I want to go back to a sticks and bricks and enjoy the freedom. Yeah, but who knows. I mean, that’s that’s the thing. You know, I want to be flexible enough that if we need to, we can go back and live full time somewhere. Or continue to live our nomadic life that we Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Until my until my health tells me I can’t that’s the goal.

George
Yeah. Quick question. What do you tow behind her?

Stuart Crawford
We don’t tow at all so you don’t tow at all. This is funny My wife hates hates the idea of towing. Okay. So she drives behind me. Okay, so what does she drive she we have a Chevy Trailblazer. So talking about BMW was earlier we had two of them that we trade it in, when we went full time and bought an electric car and we drove all the way up to Canada with their electric car. And it was working great. Came back down to the US and we found that the mileage wasn’t as good coming back down south of the woods going up north. And we traded it in when we got when we got back to St. Augustine and got our Trailblazer before gas got crazy. Yeah, but the lifestyle didn’t allow us to have an electric car because some resorts kind of frowning upon you charging your electric vehicle into their pedals. Yeah, so we decided okay, we’re gonna go back to the old you know, gas powered engine and in till she drives behind me. What like so we only go maybe a couple hours, two or three hours on him, right? Like even when we go to Myrtle Beach. We leave here on Sunday. We can’t check into Myrtle Beach until Monday. Yeah, so we’re staying at a harvest host outside of Florence. Oh, nice. Yeah, just overnight at a winery, which

George
we love harvest. Host Yeah,

Lisa RichartHernandez
we’re seeing it. On Friday. We’re excited about it. We’re doing a trip up to Michigan. We’re leaving on Friday. We’ll be gone for two weeks it Knoxville on the way back to do some jeeping. So we’ll have some more podcasts coming up about that. Yeah. So sir, it’s been great talking to you today. Tell us tell our listeners how they can find you and where you what your website is and all that kind

Stuart Crawford
of stuff. So three dogs in an rv.com and nnrv.com That’s probably the that’s our travel RV lifestyle website, that’s the one that you can get my email address and contact information from there if you ever want to reach out. That’s and then we can go to our YouTube channel on there, you know, I will welcome all the all the new subscribers we can get. Yeah, you know, that’s, that’s our that’s my true passion. Now, like I said, it’s still work for a living and still gotta pay bills. But my true passion is, you know, documenting our lifestyle and our journeys. And that’s, that’s Yeah, threedogsandanrv.com.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Great, awesome. We will pass that along to our listeners. And we’ll also put it in the show notes for you, those of you that are driving and can’t write it down. And anything else?

George
No, let’s go get a cigar and some food.

Lisa RichartHernandez
Yeah, that sounds like

Stuart Crawford
sounds like a plan. All right. Well,

Lisa RichartHernandez
thanks so much, Stuart. Have a great day. Thanks, friends, and we will see you next week.

George
Bye bye.

intro
Thanks for listening to another episode of RView. Don’t forget to drop us a line at RViewpodcast.com That’s the letter R view podcast.com And like, subscribe and follow us so you don’t miss out on our next adventure.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai