Starling Travel

Camp Cabela’s – Cooler Tricks has a great idea to keep your cooler cool.

To prevent cool air from escaping seal the top of the cooler with a DIY cooler gasket. Cut a sheet of thin closed-cell foam the exact dimension of the cooler interior. You can find such foam at most sporting goods stores. Or recycle an old foam sleeping pad. Just place this cooler gasket on top of the loaded ice chest. No foam? No problem. Several layers of newspaper will work wonders.

I’ve never tried this, but these southern Utah summers just kill ice in a cooler. Heck, a fourth of the bag melts on the drive from the convenience store back to camp. I’m about willing to try anything to keep my cooler cold.

I went to the Salt Lake Farmer’s Market in July 2012 and saw this AWESOME camper turned food truck. It’s called Ramblin’ Rose Cafe.

Their camper is adorable and they were so friendly.

The next time you are cruising around Salt Lake City, check out the Farmer’s Market. You might just find the Ramblin’ Rose Cafe.

I love this photo I saw on Facebook the other day:

When I was little, my dad had a Wagoneer that he said he was going to make into a camping vehicle. He never did that, but this is how I imagined it would look. I have been obsessed with teardrop campers for a long time and any car with a galley set up on the back like a teardrop just makes me swoon. Every car I have looked at, I’ve imagined what I could do to build a galley in the hatchback so we could camp easily.

The tent trailer should have cured that disease for me, but it didn’t and I know why. We can’t make meals when we are traveling. I have a fantasy that looks very much like this picture. It’s lunch time and we are halfway through our day’s drive. We stop at a day use area, use the restroom and eat the bountiful lunch that is just sitting in the back of the car waiting for us. No fast food. Just half a watermelon under Mike’s arm and half-pound burgers on the grill.

I can’t do that with the tent trailer because we’d have to pop it up to access the food in the cooler. I STILL obsess about a galley off the back of my car because in bear country, we keep the food in the car anyway. Ain’t no trailer that can keep a bear out, so we don’t store any food in the camper when we go to Yellowstone.

As good as our little Jayco is, it will never be able to be as inviting as this retro tailgate galley.

This is a pretty good chuck box made by heztherock on YouTube.

He seems to have everything that you need.

It’s a pretty small box when it’s all folded up.

I like how the shelves pull out like drawers.

This is a good video showing the camp kitchen setup.

Here it is full deployed on a campout.

I am impressed with the ingenuity of this camp kitchen from PNY Prepper on YouTube.

He started with a Hitch Cargo Carrier and built his camp kitchen to fit within it.

It looks great all set up!

I love how he shows the design details, like this pvc pipe that provides support for the lid/counter.

This video is a little long, but it’s a really interesting version of a camp kitchen.

We always stay at a campsite with electricity, but I keep hope alive that someday we will boondock, so when we do, I want to be able to have a good day and a day isn’t good unless I’ve had my coffee.

So, I found this percolator at the local thrift shop:

If you aren’t lucky enough to find one at a thrift shop, you can find one here at Amazon: Farberware Classic Stainless Steel Yosemite 8-Cup Coffee Percolator

I remember my grandmother making coffee every morning with one of these, but I had no idea how to use one. This video helped me greatly.

I never remembered my grandma having filters, so I tried it without them. It wasn’t a good idea. I had a lot of grounds escape into the pot.

And into my cup.

After buying some filters (they were at my local grocery store), I felt like an idiot because they were so cheap. I tried again, and I didn’t have any grounds in my coffee that time.

Other than the lack of filters incident, the percolator worked out really well. The video recommends percolating for fifteen minutes. That time depends on how far up the mountain you are. Where I live, ten minutes was great. I’m sure you need less time if you’re near sea level and more time if you’re up high in the mountains. Be forewarned that it might take a couple of tries to get the perfect cup.

Additionally, there are a few other options if you are boon docking. Here is a propane coffee maker from Coleman: Coleman Portable Propane Coffeemaker with Stainless Steel Carafe at Amazon.com

This guy thought it was pretty good:

It costs 84 bucks, which is WAY more than the four dollar thrift store find, but more importantly, it takes up so much space! That little percolator can double as a simple pot to boil water in, so it takes ZERO space in my trailer because it replaces my old one. If I do have electricity, I can just use a hot plate and the percolator instead of packing a automatic drip coffeemaker. The only benefit to that propane coffeemaker is that it is quick. You don’t have to wait fifteen minutes for the coffee to brew.

There is also this option that works on 12 volt power: Roadpro RPSC-784 12-Volt Quick Cup Coffee Maker with 16 oz. Metal Carafe at Amazon.com

This one works by plugging into your car or RV 12v system. The only problem with it is that it’s just as slow as the percolator. This guy tested with his solar system. It doesn’t draw much power, which is good, but it takes fifteen minutes to brew a pot.

Additionally, it only does a couple cups of coffee. With a good percolator, you can make 10 cups in the same amount of time. So, I decided on the percolator: small, easy to store, and inexpensive.

Now, I just need to convince Mike that we can do boondock camping…

Even though I now have a kitchen in my tent trailer, I am still obsessed with camp kitchens and chuck boxes. I believe Springtime designed by Bloondesign is an ingenious idea. It’s a picnic basket, a picnic table and stores your food and utensils.

It’s a clever design, as you can see from the original sketches. (Continue Reading…)

Yesterday, I was reading this entry from Retrospace about motorhomes in the Seventies.

• Retrospace: Vintage Wheels #18: Invasion of the 70s Motor Homes (Part 4)

When I saw this photograph from an old brochure, I was intrigued by its familiarity.

That wasn’t the first time I had seen someone enjoying fondue in a camper. Then, I thought that maybe I had just seen it before on Retrospace’s other entry.

• Retrospace: Vintage Wheels #17: Invasion of the 70s Motor Homes (Part 3)

But even that entry seemed like a cliche to me. It wasn’t until I went searching that I found exactly HOW much a cliche eating fondue while camping was. (Continue Reading…)

The folks at RV Geeks visited Rocket Science Ice Cream shop in Nappanee, Indiana. They create your ice cream for you, letting you choose whatever flavors you want. It starts out in a liquid form and then, using liquid nitrogen, they freeze it up for you right in front of your eyes.

Here is a video showing the process from RV Geeks:

The next time you find yourself in Indiana, make a detour to Nappanee so you can experience ice cream a whole new way!

Google Maps: Rocket Science Ice Cream shop in Nappanee, Indiana

I found this great recipe for Campurritos here:

• Campurritos! // Because Camping Should Be Fun! | Ninth and Bird

I can’t eat flour tortillas, so I’m wondering how they would turn out if I just put the mixture into a foil wrapper and ate it out of the foil. Click through for ingredients and instructions: (Continue Reading…)