RV fitness

One of the biggest downfalls I've noticed in the past year is the weight I've gained since we purchased the RV. I love to cook and the weekends that we're camping I was guilty of lazing around by the RV reading magazines and just relaxing.

My goal this year is to get out of that gravity chair and hit the trail! I've got a FitBit and my new rule of thumb is that I don't get to read or relax until I get to 10,000 steps. So far, by following this rule and by eating a lot healthier, I've lost 8 pounds (still need to lose about 15 to be ready for those pools this summer).

Here are some tips for getting exercise while you're camping:

• Get active early in the day so you can have time to veg later in the day around the fire.
• Bring a comfortable pair of walking shoes and some workout clothes and walk around the campground. You'll be amazed at the campsites you're able to scope out as you walk each and every loop. Next time you're at the campground, you'll be an expert in which site you want to reserve!
• Buy a pedometer. It doesn't have to be expensive. Anything that will tell you how many steps you've taken. 10,000 steps is about 4.5 miles for me.
• Get the entire family to have a contest for the most steps in a day. My kids love this and it helps get them out of the RV even on cold days when they'd rather veg and play their DS games.
• Use your campsite to do a bevy of exercises that don't require equipment. Think back to your gym classes in school. Do jumping jacks, push ups, sit ups, lunges, etc.

Exercise is only half the battle. Watching what you barbecue is the other half! We all love s'mores, but those extra calories are waist killers for sure! Those ribs are delicious, but watch your serving sizes and make sure if you're eating more, that you're exercising to burn those extra calories.

Remember to pack healthy and low-calorie food options like fruits and veggies. Peppers and onions are delicious on the grill as are asparagus and red potatoes. Serve these with a boneless chicken breast or a small 3-ounce portion of steak and you have a really easy and low calorie meal option. Roasted brussel sprouts are really easy to do as well!

The only other advice I'm going to follow is to also try to abstain from having more than one glass of wine or bottle of beer as I sit around the campfire. Really, I'm not a big drinker anyway, but every calorie counts and I might as well save them for the s'mores!

Until next time.

Winter Camping Tips

This is our first year of winter camping in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. We're trying to venture out every other weekend, watching weather reports and trying to find the rare bits of sunshine so that we can enjoy the great outdoors while not being cramped up inside with our two young children on the weekends.

There have been some noticeable differences to us as we go out in the cold weather.

• It's cold. Our little electric space heater doesn't make a dent when the high is in the low 30s. We use it to supplement our furnace which warms up our 31-foot Coachmen Freelander quite quickly.

• It's colder at night. We really don't like wasting the propane (because at over $2/gallon, it's like burning dollar bills) when we can bring extra blankets. But we noticed the extra blankets truly didn't make a dent on really cold nights. We found a pretty cozy solution by buying an electric mattress heating pad. It goes underneath the fitted sheet and has dual controls for both his and her side of the bed. Very nice since we both like different temperatures. For the kids, we decided to buy an electric blanket found on sale after the holidays. Tried it out last weekend and wish I would have just bought individual blankets instead of a king-size blanket. You'd think it would be big enough to share, but apparently not... But that's an entirely different blog topic! Buying these blankets is hopefully a one-time expense and with what we're saving by not running our furnace at night, they will pay for themselves in one season.

Winterization

We also had our rig winterized. Quite a few people poo-pawed this idea since it rarely freezes here in the PNW. But when temps dropped to record lows in December, we were feeling pretty wise.

I found an easy solution to washing dishes with no running water or grey tank access: I just have two dish pans that fit in each sink. One I fill with suds, the other with rinse water. It actually isn't a hardship at all to have find some vegetation in an out of the way spot to drain these. We use 'green' dish-washing soap and scrape our dishes really well so to leave as little trace as possible (we could also find a grey dump station if the water was gross). I warm the water on the stove (during our last outing a couple of weekends ago, the faucet was frozen solid at our campsite the last morning there - was very happy I'd filled my water container the night before!) and then split it between the two tubs with a little cold water to cool it down.

I also use paper plates a lot more and try to do as much of the meal prep as possible at home to eliminate the mess that comes with it.

The biggest challenge I find is not having access to the bathroom in the middle of the night. While this isn't terrible, it sure is inconvenient! But it provides a little extra exercise for the entire family and will make us appreciate the convenience so much more once warmer weather rolls in and we're able to use our tanks again.

What are your best winter RVing tips? 

Electric Skillet

I bought an electric skillet several years ago on clearance and it had just been eating up space in my kitchen. I'd literally used it twice for roasts.

After our first experience with an electric hookup, I started thinking about that electric skillet and pondering the many ways I could use this modern-day convenience. Vince could barbecue chicken on the grill outside and make Rice-a-Roni in the electric skillet without ever having to worry about lighting the RV stove top's propane, thus saving the cost of that high-priced fuel.
 

In addition to Rice-a-Roni, I've made pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns and more on our recent outings. It's amazingly convenient and small enough that I can store it in our microwave when it's not in use. I'm now going to keep my eyes peeled for other electric gadgets on clearance since this one has come in so handy.

What's your favorite electric gadget for the RV?

Camping Etiquette

After our first outing, some friends of ours referred us Thousand Trails (https://www.thousandtrails.com/). We did the math and for hook-up sites for 30 nights a year, it was a pretty good deal. We signed up and immediately made a reservation!

La Conner Thousand Trails
We pulled into the resort and checked in. The ranger was extremely friendly and helpful and pointed us toward a site that was adjacent to a grassy field with a play area for the kiddos. There was a little putt-putt golf course, playground, and pickle ball courts.

At Thousand Trails, it's first come, first serve so many of the premium sites were already taken when we pulled through on Saturday. Not a huge deal because we're not extremely picky (or so I thought). We pulled through the loop and almost got into a jam with a Canadian camper who was attempting to back his huge fifth-wheel into a spot for the first time. When I tried to explain to him that we couldn't squeeze by him because our rig would swing wide, he didn't understand. I literally had to show him with arm motions the angles necessary to turn our rig to the left around his... And mention our previous incident with swinging wide and a certain lamppost that will never be the same. He pulled up and we scooted by.

We discovered a site that looked okay and backed in (our first attempt!). Vince did really well at following my hand signals and we didn't even come close to filing for a divorce (a situation I've heard is common when it comes to backing in large trailers).

A few lessons we learned.

Make sure the site is wide enough to pull the awning out before you walk back to the ranger station to hand in the paperwork. We got back to the site (after a 1/3 mile walk) and realized that we couldn't pull it out more than a few feet. But, heck, we were just happy we could pull the awning out at all since we didn't even try during our first trip out.

We were thrilled to have water and electricity. I cannot begin to tell you how convenient both of these made my life as camp mom. We grilled hamburgers and the OreIda grillers on our small Weber BBQ and had dinner outside on the picnic table that we moved under the awning. Everything was simple and easy and fast!

We decided to walk to the lodge. It was full of people and there was food set out. It felt like we had walked into someone's party and it was a little awkward, so we left. But while inside, we noticed there was a giant flat screen TV, couches, fireplace and more. It would be quite the relaxing atmosphere if there wasn't a party going on that you weren't invited to!

Around back was a hot tub full of women along with a group of teenage boys headed there. Soon the women left and the boys took the place over. I wish there was a pool here so the adults could enjoy the tub while the kids played in the pool.

We walked down to the beach and noticed signs saying that no shells could be removed because the beach was shared with one of the local Native American tribes. It was still pretty cool, even though my 5-year-old was disappointed she couldn't keep her treasures.

Someone had constructed a pretty cool shelter made out of driftwood and there was a gross couch in it as well. All the comforts of home on the beach if you were a kid who didn't wonder where the couch had been.

The weather was pretty good for late April and we were able to walk all around the resort. We brought the map with us and circled other campsites that looked a little better than the one we selected. Next time, we will be a little more picky with selecting the perfect site...

After our walk, we headed back to our campsite to find blaring music and screaming children across the grassy field from us. Definitely not the peaceful outdoor camping experience I was looking forward to. We retired for the night after making peep s'mores (http://eclecticrecipes.com/peeps-smores-for-easter) and could hear the music even inside the RV until 11 p.m. (http://alittlecampy.com/camping-etiquette-the-unspoken-rules-of-campground-camping/).

Thankfully I had a good book and was able to just read until it quieted down enough to sleep. I kept thinking a ranger would tell them to be quiet, but alas, no one came around. Another friend who camps often said recently that camping etiquette is dead. I would disagree most of the time, but this outing was pretty ridiculously loud.

After the music died down, we got a pretty good night of sleep. Got up early and had the worst experience of my cooking career. We hadn't leveled the RV because it seemed to be pretty level. That's a big mistake when it comes to using a flat griddle. You see, the butter I was melting shot off the back of the griddle, under the stove plates. Oh, and did I mention the back two burners of the stove only have a "high" option so the butter that's on the griddle scorches almost instantly setting off a fire alarm at 7 a.m. My only thought in retrospect is that this my own little revenge on the campers across the way that were surely awakened by the alarm's screeching noise and the screeching camp mom who was trying to get the noise to stop while trying to also retrieve the butter... Needless to say, the griddle will not be making another appearance in the RV...  So far, I feel as though there has been many errors resulting in what would make for great sitcom fodder if you were writing about a family trek across the country in an RV. Good grief, it's like I am 10 years old and learning how to make a semi-complicated recipe for the first time. I hope the cooking experiences improve or my family may be relegated to eating sub sandwiches picked up along the way and cold cereal each morning.

We really liked the campground and will be going back there in May for another overnight stay. We're looking forward to picking a better site and not setting off the fire alarm.

-30-

Rain, rain go away

This describes our first outing after purchasing our 31-foot Coachman Freelander.

Deception Pass
Our first weekend trip was to Deception Pass State Park (http://www.parks.wa.gov/parks/?selectedpark=deception%20pass). Since it was our first real trip, we decided to go with some more experienced friends who have a fifth-wheel. We booked a pull-through site with no electricity (our first mistake). Our stay was in early April and the site was fantastic, despite the rain. The road through the loop was a little narrow given our lack of driving expertise (and an earlier run in with a pesky streetlamp in our culdesac).

I should preface this by saying we had a fantastic walk-through at the dealership. They answered questions, we took photos and notes. What would have been helpful is to be able to find those notes... That said, these are the things we struggled with:

Propane: Wait, we have to turn on the propane? Where? Thankfully our friends were on hand to find the correct compartment and show us how to swivel the valve properly. They also taught us to be patient with lighting the stove top because the propane needs a minute to get to the stove. Now if only I could figure out how to light the oven, we'd be in good shape.

Generator: Every time I started the generator and then started the microwave, the generator would die. I talked to the service department after the trip and they said it's a good idea to let the generator run for at least 60 seconds before switch on the microwave. Good to know.

Meals: Okay, I love to cook. But I felt like I spent three hours each day prepping meals in the RV while Vince visited with our friends and kept an eye on our two kiddos. Lesson: keep it simple. There is a reason hamburgers and hot dogs are camping staples. I also learned that prepping in a small RV kitchen will take 3 times as long as prepping in my regular home kitchen. Moving forward, chopping lettuce, tomatoes, etc., will be done before we pull out of the neighborhood.

Electricity: Back to the mistake referenced above. We booked a site with no electricity for our first outing. We were so used to tent camping that we didn't realize the convenience electricity brings to RV ownership. We had to use the propane to keep the food cold, cook, etc. Since we had issues with the generator, and we didn't want to run down our batteries, we ended up skipping the RV's bathroom  and using the state park's facilities down the road a ways. Not the end of the world since we were tent campers in our previous lives, but certainly not convenient. From this point forward, if we're staying more than one night, we will stay someplace that has electric hookups at the very least.

Satin Sheets: We will laugh about this last mistake for years to come. In our RV, we have a king-size bed in a separate bedroom. It's phenomenal and we are so appreciative of the privacy it provides. Unfortunately in my rummaging for sheets, the only "spare" ones I could find were some satin sheets. It didn't dawn on me that these would allow the covers to slide off of us the entire night. The minute I got home, I found some nice flannel ones and traded those darn satin sheets. Never again will I trade a few minutes of search time for something that involves my sleep. Now I remember why those had been stuffed to the back of our closet in our house. 

* Up next: La Conner Thousand Trails, here we come.