Harvest Hosts Review: Is It Worth The Hype (And Money)? | Ep 64

Harvest Hosts has become one of the most talked-about memberships in the RV world, with over 9,590 unique locations across North America—think wineries, breweries, farms, golf courses, and even museums. But what’s it really like to stay at one of these spots? 

In this episode of the RV Canucks Podcast, we share our very first experiences as Harvest Hosts members. From the surprises that caught us off guard to the little details that made it special, we’ll give you the real scoop on whether Harvest Hosts is a good fit for weekend warriors and part-time travellers like us. 

We’ll cover: 

• What you can expect on your first stay
• Tips to make your experience smooth and memorable
• Why Harvest Hosts might be the best membership you add this season

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TRANSCRIPT

0 (0s): Welcome back to the RV Canucks podcast, Canada’s RV podcast for weekend warriors, part-time travelers and full-time adventurers at heart. Today is episode 64 and we are going to talk about our very first adventures as harvest hosts subscribers, members from wineries, breweries to farms and museums. Harvest hosts offers over 9,500 unique locations across North America where you can spend the night in your rv. We’re gonna share what surprised us. We’re gonna talk a little bit about what delighted us and we’re gonna talk about a few things that you should probably know if you’re considering a membership, as well as, I guess our verdict on if we think the value for money is there. 0 (59s): Hi Dan. 2 (1m 0s): Hi honey. I’m Dan. 0 (1m 4s): It’s been a long week folks. 2 (1m 5s): It’s, it’s been something else. 0 (1m 7s): You’ll see as we get into this episode, we’re gonna go on a bit of a, maybe a couple of tangents ’cause it is been a busy, busy few weeks and you’re gonna understand why in a little bit. But before we dive in, a quick word from our 2025 sponsor Niagara Trailers. Whether you’re new to RV-ing or a seasoned road tripper, Niagara Trailers is more than just a dealership. They’re a family run team that’s been helping Canadians hit the road with confidence for over 50 years. From sales to service to making sure your rig is road ready. They’re the ones we trust to keep our adventures rolling. Check them out@niagaratrailers.com 2 (1m 43s): And tell them the RV Canucks sent you. 0 (1m 46s): Okay, so Harvest Hosts. I am actually really excited to have this episode 2 (1m 53s): Stay tuned because this is a bright spot in our RVing adventures. 0 (1m 57s): Yeah, I, I’m almost a little embarrassed that we haven’t had a Harvest Host membership already. It’s been a number of years that we’ve talked about it And I think just with the age and stage that we were at with the girls, it was always like a destination based trip. You know, kind of these one night stopovers we were usually kind of choosing to stay, you know, on the interstate at a truck stop places where we could just like put the kids to bed and get up and roll the next day. And I think we maybe always kind of thought like Harvest hosts would be maybe too far off the beaten path or you know, you know, why pay for that when you can stay at a, at a pilot flying Jay for free. And I think we’ve totally seen the value in Harvest Hosts. 0 (2m 42s): I think it was 2021 actually, episode 29. If you go way back in the archives, we actually interviewed Maryanne Edwards who is the founder of Boondockers Welcome. And Boondockers Welcome is now a part of Harvest Hosts. And that’s probably a good segue to even like talk about what Harvest Host is and how it works. But essentially it’s a yearly subscription. There’s a couple of tiers of membership that you can join and essentially, you know, you have access to a website, travel app on your phone where you can go ahead and book places to stay for free overnight as part of the membership. And it includes places like, you know, traditional harvest hosts category, which is what like museums, farm shops, breweries, churches, like you can find the whole gamut any place that’s essentially a business I would say. 0 (3m 38s): And then you’ve got Boondockers welcome options with the middle tier and the top tier of membership. And Boondockers Welcome is just folks like you and us who lend out their driveways for people to, to sleep there overnight. There’s the option of, you know, offering power if you want, offering water if you want, or offering just a blacktop driveway where people can stay. And then there’s also golf courses, they’re campground partners now on the app so you can look up and filter even by like, you know, if you’re looking for, for example, like there’s a couple of K oas that have been on there and like family run campgrounds if you can’t find anything to stay in the other categories. So it’s a pretty well-rounded, you know, group and a very eclectic group of businesses that you can choose to stay 2 (4m 23s): At. I’ve even saw some small family run amusement parks, you know, kind of think petting zoos and zip lines and corn maze kind of thing. So that’s another option in there as well. Yeah, 0 (4m 35s): We’ve even seen a couple of drive-in movie theaters, which I think is so cool and it’s definitely on our radar. We, we’ve saved a couple of them as favorites in our app where you just show up and they kind of park you in the back of the drive-in, you watch a couple of movies go to bed and, and get up and leave the next day. So, you know, it is a really neat, unique set of accommodations that you generally wouldn’t find anywhere else. And that’s kind of what attracted Harvest Host to us, especially for this trip where we were going out east this summer and because it was just the two of us, our trip as you were going to see heavily focused on spirits of some kind, not the ghostly ones, 2 (5m 14s): The Holy Trinity of liquor and booze. So, 0 (5m 18s): So on this trip we tell, tell the folks where we stayed. 2 (5m 22s): So we stayed at Three Harvest host locations. We stayed in Wick New Brunswick at Big Ox Brewery. We stayed in Caledonia, PEI at Double Hills Cery and we stayed in Aetna, Maine at Mossy Lodge Spirits. 0 (5m 37s): Yes. So put your pitchforks away. We will talk about why we were in Maine further when we get into it, but maybe we’ll start at the beginning. We’ll talk about Ncoic because I think that was one of our, one of the coolest places. I would definitely stay there again. 2 (5m 54s): So just a refresher, we’re traveling from Southern Ontario to New Brunswick, PEI in Nova Scotia with our rv. We left Ottawa on our next stage of the trip. We traveled through Quebec and we eventually arrive at Nawic New Brunswick at Big Ax Brewery. 0 (6m 13s): And so this is our first ever harvest host day ever. Super excited to find out, well number one, we actually, because remember this was the trip where we were kind of winging it. We booked everything last minute. We, I think we got the last spot that was available and the way that this particular setup worked, it was beautiful. The breweries right on the river in Ncoic and when you show up, I’m gonna say there was like eight spots, 2 (6m 39s): Eight or nine spots, I think eight, yeah. 0 (6m 41s): Was 2 (6m 42s): Their limit. And I think kind of somebody showed up unexpectedly 0 (6m 46s): But they made room for them but they made room. Yeah. Which I, I don’t, I still don’t recommend, like, you know, if you’re going to join, make sure you use the app to book and make sure you get confirmation from the host that there’s, that there’s room for you. But the way that this worked was like the brewery was on one side of the road and then on the river side of the road there was just eight spots lined up and they were numbered, no power, no water, no fire pits, like things like that. But they were all numbered very neatly and they just, you just pulled up at the side of the road and you went into the brewery and chatted and they just directed you into a site you backed in and Bob’s your uncle. 2 (7m 21s): Yeah And I think this is like one of the things we kind of observed along the way is like when you arrive, it’s probably apparent where you’re going to be putting your trailer but get yourself off the road outta the way. Go in and check in with them because it and any harvest host, I mean they’re gonna have a spot where they want you to park your trailer because you don’t know how many other people are coming in and how big those trailers or RVs are. And I did notice a couple times where people kind pulled in and you know, the person checking us in was kind of like, oh my goodness rolled their eyes. So you kind of build a little bit of goodwill that way by just checking in, even if it’s apparent to you where you’re gonna have to slide in and it’s like super friendly. It’s the easiest check-ins we’ve ever done. 0 (8m 0s): Yeah, it’s no different than rolling up to a Walmart and like the, you know, expected practices that you maybe like chat with the, with the manager of the store. You know, if there aren’t any rigs out there and you’re kind of not sure if you could park no different than that. Takes a few minutes and just establishes that goodwill for sure. 2 (8m 16s): Yeah, so like I would say, and of course it all depends on like where you are in your trip, but you know, if you’re traveling that 4 0 1 corridor and you’re going through Quebec and you’re going down into the Maritimes through New Brunswick, it feels like it’s a natural stopping point. It’s really convenient just off of the highway and it’s quiet. So We did, we didn’t have air conditioning. We have a couple of rechargeable fans that we use. We were able to put the tip out. I think we were allowed to put the tip out out. 0 (8m 44s): Yeah, I don’t think we put it all the way out just because of our neighbors, but you, you, you certainly could if it was less busy. 2 (8m 50s): So really good experience there. It was a little bit of a hometown reunion I think when we showed up. So I, you know, there’s eight people there. Eight, well I, I say eight. Eight groups. Eight, 0 (9m 3s): Yeah eight units. 2 (9m 4s): Eight groups. There’s like a really big like 39, 40 foot fifth wheel with a long box duly pickup truck from South Carolina. Like that was the biggest one. And I say that because they can take some big rigs and then we had like some Class B Travel vans and kind of everything in between just by fluke it turns out that one of the people, So we ordered dinner, we’re having, I don’t remember what we had, but it was really tasty and the beer was good. Pizza, pizza. So we’re having our meal And I just maybe, I think we had a casual conversation with the waitress and she’s like, where are you from? We tell her where she’s from. She was like, oh my god. Like it turns out her mom lives what, five, 10 minutes away from us and then somebody else at another table, they’re like, you’re from there. 2 (9m 48s): Ooh. And then all of a sudden it was like half a dozen of us were all in this random spot in New Brunswick having a little chit chat in a hometown reunion and then somebody else pipes up, well we live a couple hours away in Grand Bend and it turns out that their next door neighbors at their cottage to somebody that Molina works with. So it was kind of a really cool experience And I I, 0 (10m 10s): It was a very, like the world is small type of night 2 (10m 14s): World is small, very friendly, there’s kind of, everybody kind of goes off, they eat their dinner, we go back to our, our rigs, but we ended up chatting with one of those couples and find out like we even have a closer connection to them. Like when you think of six degrees of separation is probably at like two and a half with them and it, but anyways, all that to say is like, I think about that experience a lot and it’s nice to pull in somewhere and just chit chat with somebody. There was no obligation to it, right? Yeah. Like you don’t have to feel like you need to visit with your neighbors. If you just want to go to bed, play some cards. Like that’s cool because there were lots of people that did that. 2 (10m 54s): But to like at the end of the day, just maybe decompress a little, share a couple of stories for half an hour. I think we got a tour of one fellow’s class B van and then he showed us some pictures of his class B motor home in Europe. And then we ended up chatting with these folks that are like two and a half degrees of separation, had a beer for half an hour in their trailer, we went to bed and, and so I think that was really a fun experience on a long travel day. It kind of recharged you for the next day 0 (11m 23s): For sure. And that was, that was a very, very long travel day. So it’s nice to have that. And I think one of the great things is, you know, we are all kind of going in to different areas, right? Like the couple that we visited with in their trailer, they were heading to Newfoundland and other people were on their way home, other people were going different places. But there was enough kind of collective experience there that when you know, three or four units were sort of cha chatting, there was always like, oh if you’re going here you should really go see this place. This place is off the beaten path. So it’s just a really nice, I think I understand maybe like RV and trailer rallies a little more now. Like yeah you get a wealth of knowledge in a collective environment like that that, you know, I started taking notes on my phone as people were talking of places that we should go and see on our trip, which I thought was really lovely, 2 (12m 8s): Especially at that kind of place. Because it’s the gate that, I wouldn’t say it’s the gateway to the maritimes of the Atlanta provinces, but you have to go past this place on the Trans Canada Highway to get to Nova Scotia, PEI and everywhere else. So that’s maybe where you get this collection of people that give you good travel advice. So that was really good. So that’s our, our first day super quiet, great sleep. We was quiet, we didn’t, one fella did run his generator maybe till 9 30, 10 o’clock, but he ended up turning it off comfortable weather ’cause it wasn’t really a heat wave. Fans did their job like woke up, recharge, ready to go. We went into the town of Nawic, which is really, really small. 2 (12m 49s): It’s really a hamlet beautiful park down by the river. We took kind of a walk through like kind of their gardens there and there’s a playground, there’s a massive ar maybe there’s, there’s a big parking lot that seems massive in the summer because nobody’s in it because it’s at the arena. The arena’s an old barn if you’re from Canada and you know hockey, you know what I mean when I say it’s a barn. So it was kind of a nice little place. We picked up a couple of groceries at a really small grocery store, like maybe a case of water and some fruit and a couple of coffees and got on the road. So, well 0 (13m 21s): You’re missing the point where we saw the world’s largest ax stand and they have the, and is their claim to fame. 2 (13m 26s): They have the world’s largest axe. So really good recharge spot first thing in the morning. And I think what I’m trying to say is we didn’t feel rushed out of Big Axe Brewery. We didn’t just jump right back on the highway, went like five minutes down the town, down the road to the town, did a couple of things and then we got on with the rest of the day. Yeah. So overall like I think we would recommend that place 0 (13m 48s): For sure. And you mentioned something actually really important where you said somebody was running their generator till eight or nine at night and one of the really important things is to make sure that you’re reading the The 2 (13m 59s): Rules. 0 (13m 60s): The rules. ’cause every place has different rules and some of them say, yeah, generators allowed all night. Some of them say no generators at all. Some of them say, you know, quiet hours are, you know, 10:10 PM till whenever. So you know, there is a lot of information and the listings are very detailed so that you can kind of pick out like yeah that’s a place we would like to stay or mm, you know, we really don’t sleep well if we know that three or four people are running their generators all night so we’re gonna look for, you know, a different comparable place. The other thing I would say is, you know when we say that you can stay everywhere for free, there is sort of that like, you know, be a good guest, right? Yeah. As in there’s an expectation that if it’s a business that you would probably patronize that business. 0 (14m 46s): I would say you could do this very frugally, Dan And I did not because everywhere we stopped they, they tended to have food and we would have a drink or two and we got a souvenir or two. So really it can be kind of as large or as small as you would like it to be. For us it was like this is still cheaper than a hotel or comparable to staying at a campground in, in in terms of fees. So we were happy kind of doing what We did and we didn’t have to cook dinner at the end of a long day, which was nice. But you know, there is a sort of expectation if there’s a gift shop stop in and and grab something. 2 (15m 19s): Yeah buy like if it’s a brewery, buy a six pack mi mix and match. I’d say Dan’s math makes us okay because we were gonna spend that money on a meal somewhere. We just happen to spend it at the end of the day when we stop. So in my mind these are two distinct expenses. 0 (15m 35s): So what he’s saying is, Dan math is also girl math. Well and all the ladies listening know exactly what we’re talking about 2 (15m 42s): And maybe just to come back to the rules, do read the rules, what I would like to just jump in and say I think you found the app fairly helpful in the sense that if We did have a question you could send a message, get a clarification, which helped make a decision. So even if you don’t end up going somewhere, you still made a decision based on good information and so you were able to kind of go back and forth and it, we kind of found overall everybody was responsive on the app. 0 (16m 10s): Yeah, I think there was a few listings we browsed where it looked like the length restriction was, was not gonna work for our rig. But then I actually went into the reviews and you know, we talk about this all the time. If you were using RV Park, if you were using Harvest Host, if you’re you know, staying at a Walmart and you wanna leave a Google review or something, make sure you leave those reviews ’cause they are so helpful. You know there was a number of places where I’m like ooh, the length says we won’t fit but the reviews say that people were staying there in 38 and 40 foot, you know, rigs. So you know, you can just send a quick message and say hey I see your listing says this, this is the length of our rig, is that gonna be a problem? And then you’re gonna get a yay or nay from the host. 0 (16m 50s): But you know, just one more reminder that reviews are so helpful to everybody using the system. 2 (16m 55s): Yeah. So I think our next day was Caledonia, PEI at Double Hill Cery kind of in a relatively quiet and remote area of PEI understanding that most of, most 0 (17m 6s): Of PI is relatively 2 (17m 8s): Quiet. The center, your most of PEI is 45 minutes from the center of PEI. Yeah. So to describe this place, you are gonna come down a normal kind of two lane highway, bit of a bend in the road, you’re gonna go down a dead end gravel road. Don’t panic if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want to go down a gravel road. It is, it’s almost a long driveway. Really? Yeah. Which kind of makes you make a left turn into another long driveway and you can see the ery up, up on the hill, up on the top of the hill. If this is the place that you stay and probably advice for other places in addition to checking in and finding out where they want you to park, this is a good spot to stop and walk up because it was like maybe a hundred meters, a hundred yards. 2 (17m 53s): If we had gone that a hundred yards and we’d had to back up, that would’ve been not painful, but it would’ve been an inconvenience. So this is a good time to like stop, go up, find out where we’re supposed to be back in and get settled in. 0 (18m 6s): Yeah, so there was a clear area and again it wasn’t busy. We were the only people there actually that night, which was so lovely and, and very, very kind of cool and neat to be the only ones there at night. Just kind of watching the sun go down over these farmer’s fields. It was awesome. But there was a clear kind of parking area kind of at the bottom of the driveway and then there was another parking area kind of up at the top of the little hill right beside the, the side area, which is kind of why we just paused. Walked up and, and she said, Hey, you’re the only ones here you can do either. And then we decided to stay at the bottom ’cause it was a little more open and like the length was better for our rig. So we just parked and we traipsed up the hill to the cidery and had enjoyed a flight of cider while we sat in beautiful lawn chairs overlooking the fields and the water way beyond. 0 (18m 58s): And we saw the orchards that the owners picked their apples from and lavender 2 (19m 3s): Fields. 0 (19m 3s): Lavender fields. And then there was a ton of like games up there, right? So they have, they do have a little washroom up there and a tasting area and a ton of seats and then they sort of have like picture, you know, like kind of those outdoor tents that you would go to like an event tent. Like if you were at a wedding or something outside, they have one of those set up with walls and they have blankets and chairs inside and a ton of games like Scrabble and Jenga and all kinds of stuff. And they were like, yeah, you know, we close at six but you know, come on up and and use the games like the place is yours kind of thing. And, and it was really, really beautiful. And the cider like I think come on my last can of cider that we brought home with us and I’m really, really sad because it was delicious. 2 (19m 44s): Yeah, this was a really nice spot. So it was a little warm that day, which was nice to go up and have the flight cider because we opened up the trailer, all the windows. ’cause remember we don’t have a hookup so there’s no air conditioning. We got the trailer cooled down where We did all of that. The person who was the lady that was working there was super friendly. We visited her, she was amazing. We visited her, she just graduated university in Nova Scotia, was back home in PEI. So that was like, we had a good conversation with her but she was also a good wealth of information. So the next day, and the reason we chose this spot is again, it was close to the ferry that goes from PEI to Nova Scotia. And we needed to be on the ferry, I think it was eight o’clock, eight 30. 2 (20m 25s): So that wa the next morning was an early morning. This got us within like 15 minutes of the ferry. This person was like, listen you are, you’re definitely 15 minutes from the ferry. This is what you need to know if you need to get gas, go to this town. Like a lot of little information which was helpful, which I’m not sure you would’ve gotten you, you, well you wouldn’t get it in a Walmart parking lot, you wouldn’t get it maybe at a provincial campground anywhere. So super helpful that way. So again, another recommendation, no light pollution, you know, super dark skies like so quiet might even wake you up. Oh 0 (20m 60s): Yeah. It was stunning. Really beautiful. And I’m actually, so if you’re ever at the Devil Hill side, bring home a glass for us because we bought one glass, one beautiful little like cider glass. And I wish that we brought two ’cause I think you And I fight over it now ’cause it’s so perfect. 2 (21m 15s): So again, it’s another great stay that we would recommend. Yeah. So we run into a little bit of trouble on this trip. Mechanical trouble with the vehicle. So we make the decision to travel back through Maine ’cause that’s a little more expeditious to come. New Hampshire, New Hampshire, New York, New York. So that’s a little bit more expeditious and probably better for our setup to get us back home a little bit quicker. 0 (21m 41s): Yeah. So we’ll explain a little further. Yeah, so essentially what started happening is thankfully on our route home, once we had left Nova Scotia and kind of reentered New Brunswick, we started having some transmission trouble. So you know, we were having some trouble with grades And I will say kind of New Brunswick, definitely Nova Scotia was a problem for some of the roads that we were on in terms of like quality, the number of bumps that you hit, very narrow shoulders and New Brunswick and parts of Quebec can be a little bit hilly, right? And this is the stark difference I think between Canada and the USA is like our, our CR Trans Canada Highway and our highways tend to move with the land. 0 (22m 27s): Whereas like if, if the hills are there we just, we pave the over the hills and the, the highway goes up and it goes down and it goes up again and it goes down again. Where the US I think tend to, they like to blow stuff up maybe, I don’t know they, they’re, their interstates are generally flatter even in areas where there’s a little more of a hilly geography. So We did make the decision to detour so that it would be easier on the track. So we had a better chance of getting home because keep in mind we were still like 18 hours from home knowing that we were starting to have a little bit of trouble. Nothing was like breaking but we knew we would have a trouble going home if we were to keep working those grades. 2 (23m 10s): You so was you trouble working the grades, the quality of the roads was, it was good enough to travel around there if you weren’t having problems. But like they filled a lot of potholes and they filled a lot of potholes on the right hand side of the road. I noticed. So, so there’s that component. The other part to this is these areas relative to the way that we came home are not densely populated, right? There’s not a lot of places to pull off or to get repairs or to get help, whereas, you know, but when you travel, you know, main’s a little bit more remote for sure. But by the time like you get outta the other side of Maine, New Hampshire and then you’re into New York, you like if you broke down you were close to somebody and close to a tow truck. 2 (23m 53s): So there was a benefit to that. So that’s why we came home through Maine. The other thing I will say is it’s another good example of like the plan was never to come home through Maine. Yeah. But we were able to pivot quickly without having made plans months in advance and get ourselves home. So this is what gets us to Aetna, Maine where we stay at the mossy ledge spirits, 0 (24m 14s): Right? Which is like a day of booking. As we crossed the border, I just opened the map on Harvest host And I just started finding a place to stay. Luckily like, I mean they responded like rapid quick like within two hours we had a response and we had a couple other places picked out and you know, a couple of travel stops we could stay at like truck stops if of all else failed. But they responded to Suite. And again this was another situation where there was room, I think there’s room for three or four rigs at this place. And they had a really amazing setup. So you go down a long driveway again and then you have the, the distillery building and then you have the distillery equipment kind of beside the building. 0 (24m 59s): And then you have these three very clearly marked spots where you would back in if there was a lot of traffic. The rules did say that, that you like be prepared to unhook ’cause you might have to unhook. But there was only the three of us that were staying there in RVs and no other patrons. So we could stay connected to our vehicle and they each had a little parking spot that you would back into and then a little bit of like AstroTurf. So you had your own little kind of grassy area beside your trailer where you could pull out your awning and pull out your chair. So it was, it was a really, really beautiful setup. 2 (25m 32s): Yeah. So We did have a little bit of a visit with the two waitresses that were working. Again, I think we had the place to ourself, they make some great spirits and some great whiskeys. I mean like one of their whiskeys will put 0 (25m 43s): Peel paint off the walls. 2 (25m 46s): It was good, it was good stuff. Yeah. It makes Tennessee look like light beer. So we really enjoyed it there. We didn’t really chitchat too much with the folks that were beside us, but that was okay. It was a long, long day And I think we were part, they get a little stressed with the vehicle so that was okay. They were super friendly the next day actually it was kind of, I don’t know if you picked up on this, when we pulled in they told us where to park. Yeah. And we just assumed that they worked there. Yeah, they didn’t work there, they just kind of ga guided us in. So again, more friendly people along the way. I don’t know what their names are. Don’t think we’ll ever bump into them again. But they’re awesome people. 0 (26m 18s): Oh they were probably super friendly ’cause they were coming out of the distillery as we were going in. Yeah. So I think they had had a lovely afternoon. So those are kind of our first three stays. I think we have many more in the books. 2 (26m 32s): Yeah. So we’ve done a holy trinity, right? We’ve done a brewery, we’ve done a ery and we’ve done a distillery. So. 0 (26m 38s): So the next step is a winery, 2 (26m 40s): Next step is a winery. I think there’s a lot more places we could stay even close to home if you weren’t doing a big road trip. We did have a canceled stay. Do you wanna talk about that a little bit? 0 (26m 50s): Yeah, so one of these things is like, it’s a, it’s a community membership congress host, right? So you don’t wanna be that person that’s always, you know, booking a stay, canceling at booking it, canceling it same day. Like they ask very much that you don’t do same day cancellations if you can avoid it. And you know there’s a rating, right? Everybody on Harvest House has a rating just like you leave ratings for your Uber driver and vice versa. Like you can be rated as a guest. And so We did have a Boondockers welcome spot where we were supposed to stay in somebody’s driveway but our plans had changed that we changed the ferry time and it just wasn’t gonna work out anymore. So I did message them And I said I’m so sorry we do have to change plans. 0 (27m 32s): This was a lovely couple that lives in Cape Breton and they’re actually from Ontario and retired to Cape Breton to be closer to family. And they were like, absolutely no problem. Thank you so much for letting us know Like, you know, travel happens. Like we, we’ve been there, we’ve done it. And that’s the one thing I really love about the Boondocks welcome host is like they’re just people like again you And I who are like yeah you know we have room in our driveway. We’ll let, we can park up to a 24 foot class B come stay with us. Right? And so they’re fellow travelers so they know what it’s like. They know what happens when delay happens. And I felt so bad and like I was just past the 24 hour mark I think And I just felt horrible. 0 (28m 13s): I was like oh my gosh, we’re new to this platform, we’re gonna get bad ratings. But they were so lovely and so gracious. But I think communication is key. Like make sure that you’re communicating with their hosts if you have any questions, if you have to make a cancellation, there’s just a messaging app that will go straight to them. And I think that’s really important to know. But yeah, I think people do plan and prepare for you to come and other people may not be be able to book if you’ve got a slot, you know, and you’re only say 50% sure you’re actually gonna stay there. So I would say, you know, make a reservation and stick to it or don’t make that reservation until you know that’s where you’re gonna land if possible. 2 (28m 50s): Yeah. And then I guess there’s one more thing I’d say I’d give Honorable mention to And I think there’s probably an episode in the future what we’re, we’re trying to figure out what that episode looks like. But there’s this travel in the Toronto to Montreal 4 0 1 corridor through Quebec and we’ll maybe talk about that a little bit later on another episode. But we would like to give honorable mention to the Drummond Ville, Walmart. And so prior to hitting all these harvest hosts, if you’ve listened to the other episodes, you’ll remember we left Ottawa, we didn’t even leave Ottawa to hook up the trailer when we had a nail in the tire and had to get a flat repaired unexpectedly 0 (29m 28s): Of our brand new tires 2 (29m 29s): Of our brand new tire. Which you know, of everything we’ve gone through over the last couple of weeks seems like, like peanuts now. But So we didn’t know where we were staying that night is the point of the story. We had left Ottawa, we got through Montreal fairly easily. Actually that was a pleasant surprise. At rush hour we stayed at the Drummond, Ville Walmart we pulled in and there had to be like a dozen people already there at six 7:00 PM at night. So obviously like knowing you were allowed to be there, that was not in question. We knew we could be there. I think we found it on RV parking, maybe We did. Yep. Yeah, so, So we pulled in there, there was about a dozen, I think at one point you counted 14 different 0 (30m 12s): Units. It was, I think by the time we went to bed it was 16 units. Yeah. Of all different sizes. 2 (30m 16s): So normal rules apply like kind of don’t block the parking lot unnecessarily. Don’t put all your, you know, your awning and your tip out out your slides out and, but I will say the Walmart was not particularly busy that night. If you’re going there from other parts of Canada to the US, make sure you check their hours. ’cause I think their hours are actually a little bit shorter. They’ve got a grocery store, they’ve got a McDonald’s so you can get a cup of coffee in the morning. I think we grabbed dinner at night ’cause we were just done at that point. Where I’m going with this is look around and kind of read the room because We did end up not parking along a fence line. We parked perpen perpendicular kind of to the fence along a big open stretch of open parking lot, which was kind of the common standard in that parking, in that parking lot. 2 (31m 6s): We popped out our lawn chairs to eat our McDonald’s, pop them back in. So like read the room, don’t, you don’t have to like follow all the etiquette of boondocking super seriously, but also don’t take advantage of it either is what I’m trying to say. 0 (31m 21s): So, and one in doubt go visit, listen to episode five I think and we should probably redo it but it’s still got some really good, you know, etiquette and rules if you’re gonna boondock. 2 (31m 30s): Right. So I’m, I, I just wanna draw emphasis to this place ’cause I know there will be people from Southern Ontario, Eastern Ontario, people coming in, maybe from Michigan, from Ohio, maybe they’re, you know, Detroit area. They’re making that part of the trip. This is probably one where like listen it is a Walmart. You didn’t go on vacation to go to Walmart but this makes your trip move so much smoother down the road to get where you really wanna be is to the point that I’m trying to make. 0 (31m 58s): Yeah, for sure. And I probably should have said this at the very beginning of the episode, we have no affiliation with Harvest hosts. We aren’t sponsored by them. We don’t have any discount codes that we can give you. We should probably ask them. But we just really wanted to do an honest review of what this membership is like since it’s so new to us. Which is why I kind of didn’t mention what we paid. I think we bought ours just before Christmas or just right around Christmas time last year and we, there was like a discount, like a seasonal discount on at that time. So I’m gonna say I don’t know my memory’s gonna fail me. It was probably about, I think the prices are in us. So I think it was about a hundred dollars Canadian for our first year. It’ll be a little bit more than that to renew. But there is three tiers of membership. 0 (32m 39s): The classic just has harvest hosts and campgrounds. The moderate level, which is what we have, has Harvest host Boondockers welcome, which is the staying at people’s houses and campgrounds. And then there’s a top tier that also has like some golf courses in the mix and access to the Escapees RV club, which I don’t know much about but it’s, it kind of hits like a good Sam’s membership where you can kind of get discounts, RV related discounts on things. So whether that’s worth it to you or not. I do know I went on the website today just to like pull up how many locations that they actually had for this episode and they are having a 15% off discount right now. So I think they, they do some discounts from time to time so just hop on the website to check it out. 0 (33m 21s): But I would say value for dollars, it’s definitely there for me. 2 (33m 24s): Yeah, value for dollars it was there. I would say there’s some benefits and maybe some hidden savings. So it’s easy. We’ve, there are so many locations and so many places that you can stay that it really made for easy access. And by that I mean you’re driving for a purpose. You’re not diverting miles off the road to find a campground or something, you’re just kind of popping off the highway. I don’t think in any of these cases more than 10 minutes to, to go somewhere, which is the next minute, which is quiet, right. Quieter than a truck stop or a Walmart parking lot for sure. So that’s really good I think, I think it was like the biggest surprise for me was like how friendly it was And I, it’s not that we’re in friendly people but just I was not anticipating that we’d be having a beer in somebody else’s trailer or getting advice on what to keep an eye out for or you know, just finding out where people had been like that kind of was really nice. 2 (34m 21s): Like you don’t really see that when you stay at a provincial park. Nobody wanders over and says Hey where are you going? You kind of go to your park and you do your, your campsite and you do your business. So that was kind of really nice actually. 0 (34m 31s): Yeah And I love that what you said before, like it can be as social or as solitary as you want it to be basically, which means it kind of fits the way that everybody wants to travel For sure. 2 (34m 41s): And, and if you plan correctly, food can be easier the end of a long travel day. I think the last thing everybody wants to do is to go in and cook a three course meal in the back of the trailer without the benefits of electricity. So I think it made it easier. I’ll just say like don’t assume that they all have a restaurant read ahead check what, what is the menu, right? Especially if you have a fussy eater, what are the hours like common sense things. Don’t plan your whole trip and just assume, oh I’m showing up, there must be food there, there might not be. So you kind of have to factor that into your planning. 0 (35m 16s): Yeah and that’s actually a good point because when we stayed at this distillery on the last night, the Nest harvest host night, they only do food on certain nights of the week and we just happened to be there on a night that they did food, which was good. So always good to check the listings for sure. 2 (35m 35s): Yeah. And then I guess these are really simple things and yet it feels like it always has to be said but like when you show up there, check in before you park, maybe ask any kind of, I would always ask, especially at the last one at the distillery, like there was a gate, like is a gate gonna be open if we leave early in the morning? What way do you want us to go? Little things like that just to make that kind of thing a little bit smoother but kind of that check-in I think is the first step. Don’t just kind of, because we saw it right? People just bowl right in and just kind of take over, don’t be that guy is what I’m trying to say. Yeah, 0 (36m 11s): For sure. And if you’ve made it this far, we talked a little bit about the truck trouble so maybe we’ll finish off that saga. So We did make it home, thank goodness, barely, I will say barely. We made it home. So we’ve had quite a journey with our truck as of light. And for those of you who don’t know or for a refresher, we have a 2016 Ford F-150 Lariat, which we bought new, only the first and only new car we’ve ever bought in our lives. 2 (36m 44s): It has 255,000 kilometers. 0 (36m 46s): Right. So, you know, it’s getting up there. Our intent when we bought it was like, if we can get 15 years out of this truck, we’ll be super happy. Like we’re, it’s been about like nine and a half right now that we’ve had it. And So we, it is to the, to the I guess time that we have are having to replace important components on it. You know, unfortunately we had this nail in our brand new tires that we put on for this trip. We just had done a repair to replace two of the catalytic converters, which was is not a cheap job. So, you know, I think it was kind of a bummer we’ve, we’ve just got the truck back after having a full transmission rebuild. 0 (37m 27s): So essentially it wasn’t, it wasn’t the transition that wa or the transmission, sorry that was a problem. It was the torque converter. But as you drive like the torque converter can throw shavings into your transmission, which is not a good thing. And to replace the torque converter you have to drop the whole transmission. So we bit the bullet, we just had the entire transmission rebuilt and everything put back together. So you know, we can get those last three to five years out of this truck before we upgrade, which was our original plan. And I will say like, I mean we tow within guidelines, our trailer is not too heavy but this truck has been through a lot. We have taken it across the continent three times, east, west, south, Southwest. 0 (38m 13s): And it has seen a lot of grade and a lot of wear and tear and it’s just at that point where we’re, we’re getting some of these bummer repairs done, but it’s not quite time for us to upgrade yet because when we upgrade we are upgrading to our retirement rig, which will probably be a fifth wheel, in which case we need a larger truck. So we are trying to make this one work and to add insult to injury, you know, a week ago I was t-boned in our other vehicle, which is just our commuting vehicle for work and that was deemed a write off. So we are waiting for the settlement and are going to shop for a new car for me. So it’s been a crazy couple of weeks here in RV Connects land. 2 (38m 57s): I’ll maybe add just a couple quick things onto that. So at the end of the day we had the transmission rebuilt, they fixed the tor converter said like if we’re gonna do the tor converter, we might as well rebuild the transmission. I’ll also done in that was the exhaust manifolds and they put everything from the muffler back was replaced because a muffler hanger broke, which I suspect has to do with all of the right hand lane pothole fixes that happened in the Maritime. So like there’s been a lot of work done to the truck. There’s probably another podcast episode in this because we’re having this conver And I don’t think we’re ready to share all these thoughts ’cause we gotta like go through it. We gotta like make it coherent. 2 (39m 38s): But the the conversation is like, well do you trade in the truck and buy another truck? Well do you buy the trailer before you buy the truck? And I know we’ve talked about this in the past, we are now going through this And I think our solution right now is, it is just to get a couple more years outta this, but there’s probably another episode as we figure out like what comes first, the truck or the trailer and then of course we gotta figure out a whole nother vehicle. So there’s lots of stories to tell down the road. Yeah, but it’s been a month. 0 (40m 7s): It has been a month. And not to mention too, like the emotional journey and the emotional toil of making a decision then if you’re gonna upgrade the truck to upgrade the trailer and I’m not ready to let go of our trailer because we’ve had that trailer for 10 years and that trailer has seen all of the rv, almost all of the RV Connects adventures and has taken, has grown with our family and taking our family everywhere. So I it is going to be a very sad day for me when we let that trailer go. 2 (40m 32s): It’s, and maybe that’s brings us to the end of our Harvest host episode here. There’s definitely a few more stories to be told, but I think overall we’re big proponents of Harvest Host And I think, I never thought it was gonna be a bad experience. It was just better than I thought it was going to be. And I think I found it much more relaxing to make our trip. It, it made the trip a lot more relaxing, which made the trip feel a lot shorter 0 (40m 60s): For sure. Yeah, right. Yeah, it just allowed that bit of energy at the end of a long day. And on that note, it’s been a very long day here, so we’re gonna sign off and we will see you again on our regular schedule in a couple of weeks. 2 (41m 13s): Indeed. Have a great week. 0 (41m 15s): Bye everyone. Bye.