(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - And welcome to "Forum 360," a program with a global outlook, and a local view.

I'm your host, Bill Steven Saus right here on "Forum 360."

And today we have a special guest couple, we have from the, actually Lakewood, when he grew up.

And from Akron, originally, they were native of Northeast Ohio, and the Western Reserve Area, we've got Jeff and Patti Kinzbach.

And many of you have heard Jeff for years, both up in WMMS, and at WOME in Akron.

WMMS in Cleveland.

And we are appreciative that now in your retirement, you're able to share some retirement suggestions, and tell us what you're doing now, Jeff and Patti, since you retired.

- Well, thank you very much, it is a pleasure to be on the show.

- We're very excited, thank you.

- Excellent.

- And we have gone from rocking on the radio, to Rockin' the RV life.

- That's what we're calling it.

Right.

Rockin' the RV life.

And you have, recreational vehicles is, it's a big subject.

And travel is a big subject.

You know, PBS always has Rick Steves, and traveling around Europe, and around the country.

But to bring it to a local level, you folks decided after September 2020, your retirement, you had these expectations to do something different.

So give us a little bit of what happened since you retired, with respect to RVs, and the RV life.

- Well, it's really funny, because we left on October 18th, 2020, and drove across the country.

Our goal was Los Angeles, to see our daughter, who works out there.

And the funny thing about it is, when you drive an RV in the Los Angeles, you gotta be good.

- [Bill] Excellent.

- But (chuckling), it was a great feeling for us, because it's that anticipation of going on vacation.

It's an exciting adventure.

And to have the scenery change every day, or every-other-day, was just a fabulous feeling for us.

And we haven't, we weren't really sure how long we would do this.

I wasn't really positive, it was Patti's original idea to do this.

- Right.

- But, we have not stopped.

We really love it.

- Now, you've been married over 30-some years now, right, you?

- Uh-huh.

- And so you worked together.

You know, seeing him go off every day to the radio stations, and you figured this is about time we get together and just stay with each other.

And I like your attitude.

One of the things you say on your podcast, and you're gonna talk a little bit about that, where you teach people about RV life.

Is that you need a strong relationship.

If you're a husband and a wife, and you're going on a long trek across the country, right?

So how is that?

How have you seen your relationship, since the retirement, improving?

- Well yeah, I'll tell you, it was a little bit of an adjustment at first.

Because we weren't used to being together 24/7.

But we did pretty well, we always got along.

Once in a while, we'd have a little fight, but no big deal.

But, yeah, it's great.

- Bill, it's fantastic.

As long as I do everything she tells me.

- Right, that's the way my wife and I am.

But my wife said she could never do what you're doing, so I admire you for doing this- - Well you know- - Because- - But you brought up a really good subject.

And that is you know, we went from a 3,000 square foot house plus, to a- - 300 square foot.

- 300 square foot living area.

- Uh, yeah!

- Amazing (chuckling).

- Yeah.

- And driving larger vehicles, did you have a lot of experience with that when you were younger?

Both of you?

- No, not at all.

- Not at all.

We kind of learned by the seat of our pants.

- [Bill] Really?

Okay.

- And thank God, it's all been good.

And we drive very carefully.

- Yes.

- Watching your podcast, tell us a little bit about how you, several months after your retirement, and going on the road, you decided this would be a good way of relating travel by RV.

So how did you start your podcast?

Some of your other, some of your sponsorships you're using, and so forth.

What's going on with your program.

- Well, it's "Rockin' the RV Life."

And you can get them all at rockinthervlife.com Also, on cleveland.com, with "The Plain Dealer."

- Right.

- We started this podcast about, it must of been maybe about 10 months into our little journey here.

And we had experimented with doing some videos, and we still do some videos, they're on YouTube, we have a YouTube channel.

But we found that the podcast worked best for us.

And we had been through some issues.

We had some recalls on the chassis of our first RV.

Our second RV.

- Our second RV.

- And we had gone through a lot of difficulty getting service, and we though, you know what?

Let's not glorify this kind of life.

Let's tell the truth, and let's let- - Talk about how it really is.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Mm-hm, what you go through, yeah.

- So that's what we started, and we thought, well, let's do one once a week.

And eventually, Michael Norman of the "Plain Dealer" called us.

- [Bill] Right.

- And he said, "You know, I've been following you guys.

"Would you be interested in coming on "'The Plain Dealer' platform?"

And we said, "Yes."

And so we started with them.

And that's really helped us a lot.

And then, they said to us, would you like to do a Sunday column once a month, for "The Plain Dealer," the print edition.

And we thought, "Fantastic, that's great."

- Get the word out, and bring it back to Northeast Ohio.

- Right.

- All your amazing travels.

So how many states, and I think you've even gone to Canada, so how many states have you encountered in your travels so far, Patti?

- Oh, let's see.

I have it written down over there.

- I thought it was over 40?

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- In the last podcast, it was 44, I thought.

- Yeah, yes, mm-hm.

- That, it's about right.

- That sounds about right, mm-hm, yep.

- You try to find the warmer climates in this kind of weather, where we're taping this in the wintertime.

- Oh yeah, in the winter for sure.

- We call it chasing 75.

- Right.

- Now, one of the things, you come up with various things on your podcast, one thing you talk about is planning, planning ahead.

And you did so well in broadcasting for years.

You ran the "Buzzard Morning Zoo," you ran the "Kinzbach and Company" in Akron.

And you had to plan, you had to know how to run your programs.

So, what are some of the tips you would give someone about planning a RV trip, or planning, let's say they're just gonna take a few months trip.

What are you suggesting they should do, to plan ahead?

- Well, as soon as possible, start booking your destination, where you're going to stay.

For instance, if you were going to drive down to Key West, Florida is really tight with the camp grounds, and they get filled up pretty quick.

So definitely book your destination, and slowly fill in between where you're going to go.

And you use Trip Wizard, as far as like a GPS system?

- Mm-hm, it would be Trip Wizard online.

- [Bill] That's good.

- That really helps.

Yeah, because it shows where all the camp grounds are on the maps.

And you can kind of book through that, well, not book through that, but do your route through that.

- I think Jeff said on a podcast that I tuned into, "Location, location, location."

- Right.

- So you wanna make sure that you're, as you said, some of the downside is being next to a noisy freeway, or dogs howling, and that type thing.

- Trains.

- Yeah.

- Trains going by.

- You're gonna get.

Sometimes, you just can't avoid that.

- And when you left Summit County, your home, you said you left a lot of creature comforts behind.

I know that's one of your top topics.

Give us a little bit of; well, on that topic.

Leaving the creature comforts behind and saying, "Hey, we don't have this anymore, "we're just gonna have to go," you know, "with the smaller thoughts in planning."

- Well one of the things, the thing that I miss mostly is the garbage disposal.

- Oh, yeah, okay, the kitchen.

- That's tough.

(Bill chuckling) - Now, I know what you're thinking.

Are these people out of their minds?

The thing is, when you are in an RV, you have to really take care of your holding tanks.

You have to take care of the black tank, and the gray tank.

- So the human waste, and all that, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Exactly, yeah.

- And you have to be careful what you put down those drains.

You just can't take a pan with grease in it, and put it into your holding tank.

- So you have to be prudent, you have to be cautious.

- Yep.

- And plan for flexibility there.

How about shopping and eating, and restaurants?

How do you plan for those kind of things?

- Well Bill, we only go to the five-restaurants.

(all chuckling) No!

No, we would be bankrupt if we did that.

We do a lot of shopping, and we cook a lot of our own meals.

Patti's a fabulous cook.

- Well, thank you.

- So what we'll do, is we'll plan on what we need at the stores.

Now, every once in a while, you go into the city, and the stores are totally different.

- [Bill] Yeah, right.

- Yeah, yeah.

- It's a challenge.

- It's interesting walking in your grocery stores, and they're different all time.

It's like you walk in, and it's like, "Now, which way do I go?"

And half the time, I can't find what I'm looking for.

They don't always have everything that I'm used to.

So, yeah, one of those things.

- You learn to adjust.

- All right, now, you were at home at the big recreational show the super show at I-X Center.

So, what were some of the reactions from Northeast Ohioans when you got back for that show?

And talked to people normally?

- We had a great turnout.

I mean, we are so grateful for everybody who came out, said hello, took pictures with us, asked us questions.

And it was interesting, because we would poll our audience, and we had a full audience every time.

We would ask them, how many of you are here to buy something?

What are you going to buy?

Where do you camp?

What kind of camping do you do?

And we had the full spectrum of everybody out there.

It was really a lot of fun.

- And people are, in Northeast Ohio here, and Northern Ohio, all across the country, have always been thankful for your contribution to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And Jeff, many folks, some of our other guests, have said we wanna thank you.

"Forum 360" wants to extend our thanks.

Someday, we'll have to talk about that on a different program.

- [Jeff] Sure.

- But your resources, you're talking about having to deal with your own maintenance.

You have your tools.

Tell us a little bit about some of the problems you've noticed, where you have to fix something.

You can't just take it into the local dealership, because there might not be a dealership around.

- Well I think the first thing that went wrong, we had bought a used RV.

And we were traveling across the country.

We were doing pretty well, and then.

- Had been to California.

- I think it was in Missouri, we ran into a pretty good storm, a rain storm.

And Patti started hearing this noise, and she goes, "You know, "I think our retractable stairs keep going out, "and coming back in."

(Bill chuckling) Which is not a good thing on an RV, because they stick out a couple of feet.

- [Bill] That's gonna cause problems.

- So we got off the freeway, went into a rest area.

And at this point, we were pretty desperate.

I knew that somehow they had been shorted out by the water.

And I had to disconnect them from operating.

When they went back in, I pulled the wires, disconnected them.

So I had to get underneath the RV, I had a sweatshirt on.

- It was still raining.

- Oh yeah, there must had been a couple of inches of water under the RV.

- [Bill] Wow.

- And I remember laying down in it, and going "Oh man, what have I gotten myself into?"

- Typical, yeah.

- I found the wire, disconnected them.

And got back in, took the sweatshirt off.

That cold, wet feeling.

- So, there's some highs and some lows of maintenance, and you found that low spot.

But you were able to handle it.

And so, you have to be resourceful.

You have to know where you're going.

What about the cost?

We're gonna be talking about some other things, but I think, think a couple minutes ahead, we're gonna talk about the cost and expenses, including gasoline, insurance, and everything you're dealing with.

Our guests are Patti and Jeff Kinzbach.

Our topic is the RV life.

And Jeff Kinzbach was a longtime member of the Northeast Ohio rock and roll radio groups.

And he worked in rock and roll.

So the website, and the podcast is "Rockin' the RV Life."

And I think that's a great title.

We are on "Forum 360," I'm Bill Steven Saus.

Jeff and Patti Kinzbach with us today.

We're talking about traveling the RV, recreational vehicles.

It's an expensive endeavor, isn't it?

- Yes.

- Would you say?

(Bill chuckling) - You know the spectrum is wide.

You can do this so many different ways.

People are going in their cars now.

We see a lot of homemade units.

We see school buses that have been converted.

And then on the other end of things, we see the giant King Aires, we see the Kreos, we see the multi-million dollar rigs.

And yeah, it can be pricey.

- I wish I had this information when I, my folks, we rented a Winnebago, we went up to Canada, in the late 1970s.

And I remember following with our, my brother and I followed with a car, and we had to follow our dad and mom, and they were driving with my sister.

Had we had knowledge like you're giving, and imparting to the people here in Northeast Ohio, we would had been a lot better off.

But in those days, we didn't have all that.

Talk about some of the things you had to prepare for with respect to expenses.

Insurance, right?

You have to be insured.

What are some of the other expenses you encounter, Patti and Jeff?

- Well, of course there's the cost of campgrounds.

And a lot of people do what's called 'Boondocking,' where they can find a place to stay without paying for it, without having your hookups.

We're, we like our hookups, we like to have our water, and our sewer hookup- - [Bill] Got some amenities.

- And electricity.

Yeah.

- We're not 20 anymore.

- [Bill] Right.

- Once in a while, we'll stay in a Cracker Barrel parking lot, or a Walmart parking lot, just to kind of, if we're on the way somewhere, and not to have to pay for a campground, so that helps.

- [Bill] And get breakfast, or lunch, that way, right?

- Exactly, so you got that cost.

- You're now in a 30 foot motor home.

And again, we talked a little bit earlier.

According to when I look at "Rockin' the RV Life's" website, and so forth, I see it's a Newmar Kountry Star.

And you got it down in North Canton.

- It's 38 foot.

- Oh, a 38 foot, now.

Oh, okay.

- It's like a mansion.

(all chuckling) - And, do you find that there's a group, that I think when you worked the show in Cleveland, and the I-X Center, there was the Great Lakes, it's a non-profit, the Great Lakes Recreational Vehicle Association.

So there are groups that can help encourage people, and give you some information, right?

- And they're a great group, they really are.

One thing that is a real positive thing, is buying your RV in Northern Ohio.

Because you get great deals, the prices are fantastic.

They're much better than Florida, or Arizona.

- California, right, yeah.

- And you get good service in Northern Ohio.

But you're also close to the factory service areas in Indiana, in case you need them.

- And so that's why we're loyal customers in Northern Ohio.

- Very good.

Now, talk about the gasoline, or the diesel, whatever.

Have you used both?

Or, have you always been a gasoline, or what are you doing now for fuel?

- Well, we started, our first two RVs were gas.

And then, we switched to diesel.

And with diesel, you also have to have DEF, if you have a late model.

So we like the diesel much better.

It gives us more power, and it's quieter.

And have a much smoother ride.

- The engine's in the back, so it kind of pushes us.

- Very good.

- Instead of it being- - A little more power, right?

A little more power.

- Yeah.

- But there are ways of getting around the cost of high fuel, too.

The high fuel cost.

And that is to stay longer in places.

And we use a, and we have no connection with any of these people, or anything.

But, we use a TSD card, Open Road's- - Fuel card.

- Yeah, it's kind of like joining a fleet.

And you get discounts at travel centers and places- - So that's a part of your planning?

Pre-planning, is if you're going to buy an RV, make sure you can find these resources.

You can always find them on your website, or on your podcast.

And also through "The Plain Dealer" in cleveland.com Again, tell us a little bit about dealing with some of the issues like neighbors, moving into a new park, getting to know people.

What's the average routine when you get to a new park?

What are you doing to find out more about other people in your area?

- Well, it's really funny, you do meet your neighbors.

And most everybody, I'd say 99% of the people are just fantastic, they really are, they're great people.

And you know, everybody has a story.

And we try to find people that maybe they'll have a really interesting story, and say, "Hey, you know what?

"Can we sit down and talk about this on the podcast?"

- [Bill] Excellent.

- And it's fun.

- That brings the human interest in.

Everybody is involved that way.

- Right.

- So, are you also moving into another area?

Like, are you gonna go beyond the United States and Canada?

Are you going into Mexico, or any other areas where you could drive?

- With Mexico, we could drive into Mexico.

But we would have to get more insurance.

You have to have specialized insurance for that.

- Okay, very good.

- In Canada, you don't.

And I prefer Canada, we went up to Nova Scotia, and absolutely loved it.

- Oh!

Yeah, the summer.

- [Bill] Nice area.

- We spent some time up there.

Beautiful.

- [Bill] Sea and the maritime.

- Yeah!

And we wanna get to Baniff, and we wanna go up to the Yukon.

We eventually wanna get up to Alaska.

And, so there's- - [Bill] That's way sweet.

- There's a lot to still see.

- Do you, how do you entertain?

Being long-time rock and roll radio personality, what do you listen to when you're on the road?

What are some of the places you like to go?

Concerts?

You find anything to entertain you in retirement now?

- Well, I'll tell you, we're both big outdoors people.

- Okay.

- So we like to hike.

We love the national parks.

We love the state parks are incredible, too.

- [Bill] Very good.

- Ohio has fantastic state parks.

So does Arizona.

And most of the states do.

But, we like that.

We like to get to know the history of the area that we're in, and experience that.

And just about everything and anything that a city has to offer, or an area.

It's nice, I prefer being out there.

I mean, being in those mountainous regions.

And Patti kind of prefers to be a little closer to town.

- I like cities.

- Very much so, yeah.

Shopping and some of the advantages.

- Close by, mm-hm.

- Now what are some of the, Patti, especially, what are some of the things that you, as a wife, and learning to drive these big larger vehicles like an RV, how is driving for you?

- Well, you know- - What is your concerns?

Do you have any?

- The first two, they were both about 30 feet long.

And they were gas, and I drove those.

I was able to drive those.

But then, once we got this 38 foot diesel, I have not driven it yet.

So, I'm a little intimidated by it.

And I know, we keep saying, we gotta find a place to get me to practice, and do it in a big parking lot, or something.

And we just, we're close.

We're gonna get to a point where, it's time for me to start driving.

- Well, as you said on your podcast, Jeff and Patti, safety is a big issue, you wanna make sure when you're passing, you have to do it correctly.

- Oh, yeah, yeah.

- But you learned this all, and that's why I admire you, you learned it on your own.

You didn't go, you didn't take a class.

It was basically on-the-job training.

On the retirement job training, you know?

(chuckling) - And it's interesting, 'cause we've met people that are former bus drivers, like women.

And so, they have no problem- - [Bill] They're used to it.

- Just driving one of these diesel pushers.

- Oh, they're amazing.

- Yeah.

(chuckling) - One thing you said on your podcast that I really appreciate is, you have to be flexible.

And for people that are thinking, well, this is a great way to retire, we'll do some traveling in an RV.

We'll get an RV and cross-country.

And you say you really have to be ready for change, and be flexible.

Is that correct, Jeff?

- Oh yeah.

- Yeah, it really is.

Because things can change in a heartbeat.

Especially weather.

Always, always, keep your eye on the weather.

And we change.

We were just recently in Yuma, Arizona.

And we were gonna head back to Palm Springs.

And we looked at each other and said, "You know?

We don't wanna do that."

We need an adventure, we wanna do something a little bit different.

And we were able to change on a dime.

- And came up to Las Vegas, here.

- Came to Las Vegas, but we also stopped along the Colorado River in a place called Earp, California.

Spent a couple of nights there.

And you know, that's the beauty of this.

- What are some of your favorite parks?

National Parks?

Some of the sights you've seen.

You've mentioned a couple.

But, if you had to mention your top three sights that you've been to and put them in order, how would you do it?

- I would say Grand Canyon, and Zion National Park.

- Amazing.

- I think those were so much fun to see for the first time.

I've never been there.

- And the Pacific Northwest.

- Oh!

- It's incredible.

- The Pacific Northwest, driving down that coast.

- You said you had to go down 101 in one of your podcasts, Highway 101, instead of the... Because it was better advantageous for you, for the size of your vehicle, I think you said.

- Yeah.

And luckily, 101 actually runs along the coast, throughout most of Washington and Oregon.

And then, when you get into California, it kind of goes inland a bit, and you can take Highway 1.

And you can do that with an RV.

But if you're towing a car, and you're 38 feet long, it's best to stay on 101.

- Plus a car, yeah.

- Good point.

So you have a Jeep, which you tow, right?

- Right now.

- Yeah we have- - That's your runaround vehicle, basically.

- Yeah.

- Keeps you in the area.

And when you're visiting, you're gonna visit family.

And how is your daughter doing?

She is Mackenzie, how is she doing out there?

She doing well?

- She's doing really, really well.

- I know you're proud of her.

You're proud of her.

- Oh, yeah.

- She's an aerospace engineer.

She spent about four or five years with SpaceX, and then, she was recruited by Universal Hydrogen, and she's developing hydrogen fuel for airplanes, for jets.

- [Bill] Wow.

- And for prop-driven planes.

So she goes back, actually she goes back and forth from the Seattle area, to Los Angeles, where she lives.

And, but she's doing really well.

Yeah, we're real proud of her.

- It's great, because there's a campground there.

It's a state park, actually.

Like 10 minutes from where she lives.

So it's nice when we go into Los Angeles, we can be close to her, we're on the ocean.

- Very good.

- We can experience that area.

- It keeps the family together, knowing that you can be there, you can visit her.

And then, find places to go with the family.

You've dealt with so many things in the last couple years.

And we got about 30 seconds left.

Would you give us your closing, by giving us your podcast information, and cleveland.com information, once again, Jeff, before we say goodbye.

- Yes, it's rockinthervlife.com We're on Facebook, Jeff Kinzbach.

And also, we're on Instagram, Rockin' the RV Life.

And let's see, what else do we have?

Of course, "The Plain Dealer."

- "The Plain Dealer."

- Cleveland.com - Yep.

- And once a month in the Sunday print edition.

- And "The Plain Dealer" podcast, we're in those.

- Yeah, it's super.

It's good to hear your voice again.

Thanks for being on "Forum 360," and being part of- - Thank you.

- Northeast Ohio- - Thank you for having us.

- For so many years.

- Yeah.

- Thanks Jeff, thanks Patti.

- A pleasure.

- Thank you.

- Have a good one.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Forum 360" is brought to you by John S. And James L Knight Foundation, The Akron Community Foundation, Hudson Community Television, The Rubber City Radio Group, Shaw Jewish Community Center of Akron, Blue Green, Electric Impulse Communications, and "Forum 360" supporters.