Starling Travel

This video is EXACTLY why I love my tent trailer and would rather stay in it than a hotel room.

Here are Chuck’s reasons RVs are better than hotels:

• You load your luggage once. No packing and unpacking in each city you stop.
• You have your own closet and sleep in your own bed.
• You have your own stocked refrigerator, not a mini-bar with overpriced items in it.
• You can cook healthy meals in your RV and save money.
• You know who slept in your RV bed the night before.
• Your RV is cleaned by you, so you know how clean it is: no bed bugs, strange bodily fluids or uncleaned glasses.
• Hotels are not always near the places you want to visit.
• No elevators or long hallways to negotiate with luggage. Just pull into your spot and go.
• You meet cool people at campgrounds.
• Campfires!!
• RV campsites cost less than hotel rooms and are sometimes free.

This is a great list, but it’s kind of skewed toward luxury RVs, which are EXPENSIVE!!

We have a tiny tent camper with no bathroom or fridge. You can see it in this photo compared to a large fifth-wheel next to it:

How does it compare to a cheap hotel room?

EVEN BETTER! Here’s why:

• Easier to park than a huge camper. We literally can ROLL it into the campsite by hand if we need to.
• A spot near the campground bathroom is WAY better than emptying a black water tank.
• We only spent $1200 on the camper two years ago. No payments. Those inexpensive campsites really do cost LESS than a cheap hotel room because we didn’t pay a ton of money for our camper.
• We can still sleep in our own bed and cook our own food.
• We get 25 mpg with our car pulling our tent camper, so gas is as cheap for us as it is for a hotel traveler.

I have no desire to go back to hotel traveling. Whenever I have to stay in a hotel, I feel put out and miss my little tent trailer. If you feel as if camping in an RV is roughing it, you have the wrong idea. If you WANT to rough it, then I understand how sleeping in an RV might not feel right, but if you just want to travel the country and enjoy beautiful views, then an RV is the best way to go.

This video is a nice and quiet walkthrough of the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN.

I so want to go there and look at all the old trailers in person!

This quote about beauty reminded me why I love to go to the mountains.

It reads:

No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty. Whether as seen carving the lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars, or planning the movements of water, or gardening – still all is Beauty!

• John Muir

This is why I go camping and hiking, to experience that overwhelming spiritual feeling of pure beauty. When I go too long between camping trips, my feet become eager to leave home behind and go in search of the mountains.

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…

I saw this picture on truckinu’s Flickr site and it looked perfect to me!

From the modern teardrop trailer to the changing tent to the tarp on the picnic table, this campsite looks like the perfect place to relax.

For over TWO years, I have coveted Stacey and Dan’s kayaks. I wrote about them here:

• Starling Travel » Kayaking at Sand Hollow Reservoir, Utah

Back then, I said:

Stacey and Dan did much better with their fancy boats, but our poor little inflatable just couldn’t take the Southern Utah desert heat. It was a wonderful kayaking adventure, but next time, Mike and I might need something a little more substantial.

That was Labor Day weekend in 2012. We have been back to Sand Hollow many times, but each time, I skipped the kayak ride. Our little Sea Eagles just couldn’t take the heat and were difficult to row. I dreamed of someday buying cool kayaks like Stacey and Dan’s, but they were SO EXPENSIVE! The one that could hold Mike, Sean and I was over $1000.

• Sea Eagle 420x 2 person Inflatable Kayak. Package Prices starting at $1,099 plus Free Shipping

If we each wanted our own, we would have spent over $3000.

Then Mike discovered old fiberglass motorboats. He obsessively watched the local classifieds, looking for one that could take all of us and even a few extra passengers. Before I knew it, he found one in good condition with a motor that WORKED! All for only $999.

We took it out on Sand Hollow yesterday and it worked beautifully!

Of course, we were too terrified to take pictures of it while we were on the water, so these snapshots on land will have to do.

We towed it with our Subaru Crosstrek XV and it pulled like a dream. No problems and went into the water just fine.

TWO years ago, I wanted something more substantial, never realizing that a REAL boat was less money than my dreams of an inflatable kayak. Can’t wait to show you footage of it on the water. SO MUCH FUN!

I love this photo of a camper and tent from the 1930s.

I just realized that we are a mere sixteen years away from 2030 and only six slim years from the 2020s. It seems crazy to me because the phrase The Twenties refers to the 1920s in my mind, but suddenly, we are on the cusp of a different Twenties.

And as strange as that sounds, humans have been living in tents for THOUSANDS of years. Sure the animal hides were replaced by canvas and then replaced by lightweight nylon, but the basic shelter of the tent has been around for longer than the memory of man. It’s awe inspiring to me and it answers that question I keep asking, “Why does it feel so good to go camping?” Because it is hardwired into my cavewoman brain.

I’ve just heard about RVillage and signed up for it. It’s a way for fellow RVers to get in touch with each other and for you to see who is in the RV site where you may be.

Here’s the description of it from Technomadia:

The core idea of RVillage is to create a very simple (and free) tool for RVers to connect with each other – not just online, but right in the RV parks and places they are currently staying in.

When a user checks into a location in RVillage, they can discover the things that they have in common with other RVers right around them.

This sure beats leaving connections up to chance encounters while walking the cat, or the random stranger coming up asking “what type of engine is in that thing?” while you are busy dumping the tanks.

I like the idea of seeing other people who might be in your campground before we meet them, but it seems strange to me. What do I do? Just start wandering the campground calling the name of fellow RVillagers? I like the idea and I think it’s a great idea to do meet ups, though. I’m giving it a try and I hope you do as well. Then all my best friends will be signed up and ready to roll!