Live Q&A From the Road to Ocala, Florida… TRAVEL DAY

Sixth year full-time Van Traveler discusses Travel Day while driving a Winnebago Travato 59GL on a Ram Promaster 3500 chassis.

TOPICS
Travel Day planning
Stop for restroom, food, and toilet
Crazy drivers around me
Driving in bad weather

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Howdy! My name is Scott. In 2017, I was unhappy with a traditional house (aka, storage unit) and a long Chicago commute. In 2018, I reinvented my life which included buying a Winnebago Travato GL Camper Van. Now in my 5th year of full-time travel in my Class B RV, I help others achieve their RV travel dreams more quickly and more fully. Thanks for watching and being part of the Go Small. Live Large! Community.

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At you from the road on the way to Okala and we’ve just run into some traffic because there’s a car crash ahead this is pretty cool never done one of these before uh certainly from the road I am not a believer in distracted driving but if you’ve driven this stretch of highway

You know it’s pretty boring and not a lot going on um except for the uh fire trucks coming up behind me uh so I just want to chat with you and um had a couple topics on my mind and uh talk about travel day that’s when you

Get into the uh rig and you are traveling to your destination let me flip this around so you guys can see what’s going on up here the uh sorry this wasn’t planned right here it’s kind of cool I hope everybody’s okay uh there was a crash going the

Opposite direction and I thought when I saw them come on the uh and this guy’s going to try and beat the traffic of course um get uh get on the three I thought they were head the the southbound Direction and this clearly is not the case here so I had a couple

Topics on my mind about travel that’s when I get into a van and get uh I’ll let the camera point that way um I should be able to kind of scan and uh seek questions hi Peggy um and I’ll be very careful here because I was playing I’m just crusing

Along at 65 miles an hour and uh that’s pretty easy this is a bit of a distraction here uh hope they’re okay if you’ve driven in Florida at all on the Atlantic coast side from about Jupiter Florida on Interstate 95 South to Miami you know that Florida I think has some

Of the most disrespectful impatient rudest drivers and the most unsafe on the planet I’m not saying something having traveled five years in my van 123,000 miles let me tell you um so travel day I was going to about some planning thoughts and uh a stop this is kind of

Cool um talk about taking a stop uh what that would include getting some food maybe using the toilet do we do it in the van or in uh the rest area and then um taking a rest uh so I just left a travel uh rest stop area where I got a

Little bite of food and uh yeah this is going to be interesting up here and um I took a power naap in my van and uh whoa that guy’s going that way C let me spin this which way is he going I guess went that way so now we’re

At a complete standstill uh these responders have been coming for a while about 10 minutes up the road so uh we’re right at the front of the action here I’ll spin this around let me know if you have any questions I got Drive save yeah

Thanks Rog Jane oh look we got this dog looking out the window at me he’s so funny U here comes another one on the right let me turn this around what’s going on um it rained earlier but uh this stretch of the turnpike in Florida goes up to Central Florida is so dangerous

Because it’s only two lanes and it is um people literally are flying the speed limit is 70 I go 69 trying to keep my RPMs at 2000 uh for fuel economy so I’m either with a trucker or following or just in front of him her her driving so that I

Can have a pace car but these people just fly by 80 85 miles an hour hardly doing anything but driving they’ve got this block it looks like we’re going to go around on my side live from the road pretty cool uh hopefully nobody got seriously hurt we’ll find out um it

Is no wonder if you have driven your van at all you know when you look down to the the cab of other vehicles oh we got one in the ditch this might have been one of flew by I think it’s a Tesla let’s see um is it upside down I can’t

Tell oh I see a civilian standing by the car so that’s probably good let’s see if I can adjust this a little bit so you can see what’s happening still is this guy’s going to cut in front of me thanks B that’s one thing I think Kobe taught

Us all how to be super selfish I don’t know blame it on Co why not everybody else did and was thank you First Responders thank you firemen and women oh that’s not a good one at all I count one two three vehicles that one is smashed oh my God from

Behind yeah that’s pretty bad see some Journeys out airbags deployed yeah that’s pretty scary oh that car did flip over grass on the on the Roof oh man that’s bad news hopefully nobody seriously injured they all kind of focused around the U Middle vehicle there I’m serious the heart attack people just

Don’t give a crap anymore when they’re driving I drive I’m doing a YouTube live from the road was to meet um complain about distor driving but um okay let’s see if there’s a few quick questions as we kind of come up to speed uh roads of Life once to know uh what

You do on the first day of travel assuming you start from home do you prep a mail on that first day and just stop and eat so good question I’ve just started got two and a half hours to go I’ve left uh home base West Palm Beach

I’m head to Okala why Okala because tomorrow is our Giddy Up in Okala vane with Sunshine State RV so it’s a pretty good haul it’s about 4 hours Al together including a stock to go potty um I don’t really prepare food I might have something in the um in the fridge uh

That I might halfway stop stretch my legs and it’s going to be kind of like snack food so it’s like carrots and um maybe some uh like deli ham something like that but I don’t get a huge uh meal set to eat while on the Road I I don’t

Like eating when I’m driving because when I drive I like to drive unless I’m doing a YouTube live so um and I usually stop about every like this is almost a 4 hour drive so I stopped early in because I was pretty tired and I wanted to do

This YouTube live and kind of get it staged up um but I would stop probably every hour or prior two hours just to stretch my legs good question this guy’s going the speed limit of 55 and uh and this guy’s coming up behind us doing 85 I just love these people this guy

Right here the red car he very impatient uh lot of people on the southbound uh checking out the crash get around this guy and then we will uh go back to this uh okay here we go all right so that’s what I do on that yeah that was a pretty bad accident

Um I don’t think there’s a time I’m not on the road in the city or on the highway these days where I don’t um pass an accident or a disabled car um it’s just amazing um so planning some planning thoughts I had was um start

With the full tank of gas I stopped at Costco today it was $3.9 which is about 20 cents less expensive than the other cheapest gas in town and uh so start with a fuel a full fuel tank um I kind of planned my uh navigation which route am I taking I’ve

Taken this road many times so kind of knew what I was getting into um if I’m not in a hurry which I am today I would take a back road but if you’ve driven Central Florida it’s uh the back roads are pretty awesome but it it almost

Doubles the the amount of time least at least adds an hour uh you know Ro life asked about food I just make sure I have something in the fridge if I need to stop here I gra a slice of Hawaiian pizza that be pineapple and Canadian bacon um just something really easy I’m

Actually going to go grocery shopping probably in the morning before the veree gets rolling um that’s I to do on that uh let’s see if we got any questions here um uh so Peggy saying they’re coming to the bambur tomorrow that’s so great and uh only adds about 15 minutes which is

Great yeah not so much coming from the south you’re kind of coming from the um almost the same area um so when I do stop uh I would probably make myself uh some food or uh in this case run in and get a slice of pizza um and in that case

I used the toilet most times I use the toilet in my van why just because it’s in my van it’s you know clean it’s not smelly it’s my toilet um but in this case I was going in to get the food and so I just opted for that we’re head to

An RV resort that has full hookup so I can fill my tank to the uh to my heart’s content and then empty it before I leave um that’s how we do that um the bad weather let me uh talk about bad weather so it is raining pretty on the way up

And uh again I’m not the fast one on the road I’m doing 65 I’m at miles per hour I’m at ,00 RPMs my instant fuel economy saying 14 uh this is pretty flat um um freeway topographical wise uh but when it was raining and I watch out for drivers that do not have

Their lights on which is a law here in Florida but weirdly where it rains a lot nobody turns their damn lights on I have my lights on all the time um in fact I’ve noticed my headlight has burned out again I’m going to have that whole headl assembly

Replaced um because I just changed that light bulbs five six weeks ago um so in bad weather I just slow down uh it’ll leave more room between me and the person ahead of me uh the tailgating in this part of Florida is absolutely the worst in the country uh um and ever

Since I got rended in in Texas in April of 2023 I am hyper really to a road rage point of hyper sensitivity to people tailgating me and uh so I’m just always really watching what they’re doing behind me and in front of me in bad weather leaving uh even more space

Between me and the car ahead of me um if it’s really bad rain and I can scan the weather really fast what I do is look for some place to pull over and I will wait it out not on the side of the road but maybe exit find a gas station

Um parking lot something like that where I can wait out the the rain event um because I don’t like driving in bad weather I don’t like driving at dark um around here it gets dark around 6:00 p.m. uh eastern time and it’s light at about uh 700 a.m. eastern time so I

Don’t drive at dusk I don’t drive at dawn two reasons number one I just I like to see the scenery around me it’s kind of the point of Van travel I uh am super nervous about um deers deer strikes um and if you’ve ever kind of watched what time of day floating around

The roads it’s it Dusk and Dawn and they blend in really good I’ve never had a deer strike that’s one reason I put a a guard on the front of my uh my my van uh some people um like Mike and Janice they actually struck a deer in their travado

Smashed it pretty good um and they were out a commission in their van for a couple of months if I remember right um it was a bad strike but not catastrophic so they were able was in the front obviously so they were able to get back

On the on the road um so that’s I do on bad weather been some weather where um in Arizona going up over a mountain pass it actually was um hailing so badly it was St up like snow there again I pulled over um this is near um where was it

Sedona and uh it was really really kind of scary rain it was really going like crazy so I just again pulled over and would recommend people do the same thing if is a safe place to pullover and just wait out the uh the storm cell that’s passed overhead you know frankly if I

Got to sit on the side of the road safely off the road for an hour make a meal I don’t know take a snooze do some work we’re in a van so we can do whatever we want um that’s pretty cool um I get asked a lot of times about uh

Wind I’ve never been in a wind storm in the van there’s some stretches of the interstate certainly out west like in California and Nevada where there’s big signs about windstorms and what to do I’ve never been in one dust storm uh and so I’ve never really had to experience

That thank goodness and um if it’s strong winds I’m I always have two hands on the on the wheel and uh that was nice A bird just pooped on the windshield jeez and right so why is it always in the driver view right right not over

Here um and so I just have two hands on the wheel I just kind of expect it if you’ve ever been passed by a semi going pretty fast that’s what a side wind gust kind of feels like just a little bit of a a jostling of the van but but nothing

Really um to get too worked up about for me winds are kind of a pain in the rear if it’s a headwind because than the van downshifts and you’re really driving uh it’s driving in fifth gear um at about what 2500 RPMs um because the uh gear ratio

Between five and six is really narrow so it downshifts at the Littest slightest bit of incline or a little bit of headwind now if you get tail wind um it is that’s nice because now I can go faster with less um pressure on the accelerator so that’s pretty cool um

Trying to think of the worst weather I’ve been in um and there’s an app called uh Drive weather that an audience friend clued me into so if you’re kind of route planning I want to see what the weather is like across your route um check out I think

That’s pretty sure that’s what the name of it is bad weather or drive weather Drive weather um it’s got a black and white icon on it um really Daniel Bird pipping on my vehicle em motion is good good I will take it because we’re have a

Great time at the van B uh starting tomorrow at 2 p.m um but the worst weather I I I remember distinctly because of what I was trying to do and was a big boo boo I would recommend not doing what I did which is try to outrun

A storm cell uh I I saw it coming I was at the um Confederate it was Jefferson Davis uh house um is in Alabama I think down by mobile something like that um Jon Davis was the first president of the Confederacy right and uh I saw the storm cell

Coming to where I was parked actually we need to go see the uh uh the house it pretty interesting old Victorian house and um I saw the weather alert and I’m like I’m going to get out of here and try and race ahead of it um bad idea

Even though well the storms is coming about 50 m hour she look at this guy look at this guy he’s going even faster oh my God not funny I’m going the speed limit um and uh I the the storm kind of began to overtake me and it was pretty windy and the rain

Um and uh what I did is I pulled over in a Walmart parking lot and I just was going to wait out the storm this is the first time doing that deliberately um the lesson I learned is don’t out run don’t try and outrun a storm cell um because

They’re usually Trucking pretty fast you know 40 50 miles an hour and um when I got to and then when I got to the uh the Walmart lot what I did not do and will now do given the same circumstances is go collect all the orphaned shopping

Carts around me um before the wind and and bad weather really kick up because when I was in that Walmart parking lot I parked well away from the store but there was a number of Orphan shopping carts and when that 50 mph wind hit it moved those carts around like I don’t

Know like remote control cars and there was a car empty car parked a few spaces over from me and this shopping cart came flying by probably doing I don’t know pick a number 15 miles an hour that’s probably 2 f 10 miles an hour uh because

The wind was pushing it got a little bit of momentum on it and it hit the side of the car I’m like oh my God I’m so glad it hit that car and not mine because mine’s a little bit bigger to uh got a little more girth to her and uh so

That’s what I would do next time is not outr run the storm park with for the orphan uh shopping carts put them in the corals so it doesn’t damage my vehicle or other vehicles um we got nice group in here so I hopefully you’re coming to

The van B some of you we’ve had a lot of fun lately uh let’s see looking uh did you ever plan coming up north to New York maybe SAR too says Fair um yes I maybe this year um toward the end of the year but I’m

Not sure I’m kind of hitting the West Coast this year which I uh haven’t uh or the the mountain states go up through um Arizona Nevada New Mexico um into Oregon not really sure yet but um I don’t want to be in the Northeast in cold weather that’s which really

Starts in early November so I’m um we’ll see but no I have not been to any of the Northeast in the van yet so I cannot quit van life until I get up there so that’s my safety uh my safety uh for keep me in Van life right um so let’s see uh Uh let me just kind of show the excuse me what the um Road looks like it’s really flat and uninteresting and so that’s why I chose to do this at this point so let me flip this back around so um question from Fair we talked about

Excuse me um roads of Life want sow what is your average mile per gallon and do you tend to go under over speed limits under for sure um cuz if I tried to actually do the speed limit um I’m getting to that point where it have to downshift and then it wrecks my

Fuel economy so right now I’m at 66 miles an hour I am at 2,000 RPMs and I’m the instant fuel economy is uh uh between 14 and 15 so that’s what I like I’m in kind of a hurry particular hurry and I’m more interested in Saving the

Gas now F let me up shift and hit 70 and so the upshift goes to 3,000 RPMs and I’m going to hit 7 hour ised I’ll hit 70 so I’m just at 70 up shift to six and now my RPMs are 20 21 2200 um the instant fuel economy is still

14 but if there’s just the slightest little it’s already Coast so down to 68 miles hour so again if I want to stay at 70 um it’s going to want to keep downshifting um so I just kind of not any hurry 1900 RPMs that’s kind of what

I like to be hanging at um and everybody can just pass me as um fast as they want which is all the time I’ll wait for some speed racos I keep an eye on you because again I’m just at the speed limit um I saw a question about

Winger uh so pegy says porn pretty hard uh thumbs up yeah thumb up everybody um um so AC I have had a little bit of communication with them um is still going yeah um so um a deposit holder for the uh Wingham OAS 5401 sent me the email he received from

Them they had a big price increase from like 150 some thousand to 180 some thousand and uh uh pretty big kind of even though they kind advertise that for a couple of years uh probably not unexpected uh they’re just having it’s just a really huge lip it’s a really

Very different rig and to do it the way they’re trying to do it is uh um is a big project so we hope them uh with the best of success um somebody give me a thumb out they’re still live appreciate that it’s hard to see um

But we wish them the best um it will change everything if they can get that done and get it over when they get that done and get it over here um um and they have assured me that when there’s news big news um that we will

They’ll be reaching out to go small live large um I can’t tell if this is still going the counter is counting so uh dad’s trying to call he’s on my list too Dad we’re doing a YouTube life thank you R life appreciate that um let’s see what

Of the things I want to talk with you about didn’t want to make a a long session about this just want to kind of catch uh catch you all on a Sunday afternoon next weekend is the Super Bowl and uh we’re head to the uh giddy upala

Banb camp out with Sunshine State RVs bunch of you are going totally sold out I’m so happy U we got another one um in a couple weeks peace love and vans totally sold out for that as well they they’re expecting close to 500 Vans um

Glad to be a part of that as well and um then we are uh doing another vanur in Bisby Arizona see this is February March March we’re doing March oh yeah we’re doing the LC and blach um the the vanry and Lucan Bo so if you

Want to do a camp out with me and us all the the van friends van bees um go to my website go small live large and you can check out the uh information there on the uh the Texas Hill Country vane um and then if you’re a part of our patreon

True Believers family um we’ve got a secret location for the eclipse in Texas that we’re doing on um Sunday the 7th of April that’s the day before the eclipse eclipse is um midday on Monday the 8th so pretty excited about that let me just see if there’s any more

Questions uh well let me add some Emoji um let me know if you have a or what your travel day is like see if we can uh um what do you prepare for uh one thing on travel day to um unless I’m really in familiar territory in a long

Stretch of highway way oh my God this guy needs a suspension change let see you see him bouncing not really from that angle um is a fuel tank so I don’t get below a half a tank of gasoline um if I don’t really know where the next stop would be

Or where um with the road ahead certainly if I’m going up a mountain path something like that I don’t ever travel with less than a half tank of gasoline in un unknown territory so that’ll be another travel day tip for you it’s also a good time just to

Stretch your stretch your legs right and if you’re trying to save a few bucks on the gasoline I would recommend using the um travel buddy or Gas Buddy uh is the app Gas Buddy uh it’s free and there’s a paid version I think um and we’ll find the least expensive gasoline in your

Area we’ll go for just a few more minutes uh and let’s see can’t wait for Peace Love Vans yeah totally the roads are you going to be there for that huh that’s cool that might be our first time camping out Kyle and I were planning um uh last

Night uh he’s actually I think going to join for the Texas Hill Country um in his rig so we trying to make some travel plans travel together and be with some of you which is really awesome so let me uh so RS of Li day make food for the

First day freeze and then lots of meals for easy prep would take some fresh fruits well yeah you kind of do what I do I kind of grow the grocery usually every few days um I don’t keep a lot of pantry food a few Frozen items um because you know I’m not out

Boondocking in the mountains for a couple weeks on end so there’s usually a grocery store or something pretty near me unfortunately I guess this is a good thing the uh got hurt too badly Banda cars are smashed though um he has an embassy RV congratulations sir we have enough storage in our Embassy

Pack for both hot and cold weather so that’s good uh here’s some guy pulled over to uh go potty uh say get an RV sir you’re so i’ see it so often it’s I get it you got the little kids right they can’t hold it it’s just amazing how

Many times I see an adult pull on the side Scamper off into the brush do whatever it is they’re doing and they Scamper back into the uh into their car and they Zip by me it’s always pretty funny um one more comment here let’s See special be at the Okala RV Show I’m gonna be there as part of some some brand duties with Sunshine with Rover Vans with Embassy uh and I think he’s coming to that there’s kind of overnight camping in the parking lot so it looked like he was going to do that and they’re

Going to um leave the Okala RV Show and and head directly west to Texas and we got about what 7 to 10 days uh to do that so to travel together really for the first time other than just flopping around Florida uh that’ll be a first so uh his and his rigs pretty

Cool um I’ve met a few Travelers where they have his and hers hers and his never about hers and hers rigs um the one that was was pretty funny was um I can’t remember what if she was in a class C or the van or the other way

Around but uh one of them couldn’t stand the small space hello Kyle can’t stand the van so we got himself a B+ um yes hi Lyall it’s very quiet um Sunday afternoon so this is what I was expecting and that’s why we’re doing this I’m really not a proponent of

Distracted driving but this is a super boring stretch of Florida um although the excitement back there um uh this is what it’s like and it goes on forever it seems like I’ve got two hours to go 143 miles U probably what about 50 miles outside of uh

Orlando uh so let me see if there’s a little bit here otherwise we’ll we’ll sign off I’ve got a new video posting tonight um it is of the four big things I think Winnebago needs to fix in the new floor plan the new 59g floor plan

It’s been out for a few years now um and I have good on good authority that they’re making some some changes in 2025 we oh my God I’m actually going 72 miles an hour the cellular is not awesome through here um all right folks so watch for

That it’s dropping um at 5:50 p.m. Eastern until we see you soon I’m driving safely you do too please we’ll see many of you at the van tomorrow in Okala Florida uh Journey on and peace be with you thanks for watching really appreciate it