When we’re not camping, I’m one of those people who really enjoys coffee as a daily ritual. Yes, you may call me a coffee geek. It’s more than just an indulgence – it’s a full blown hobby.

Coffee is kind of like cooking and photography – while everyone does it, not everyone does it well. Does that sound snobby? It really shouldn’t. I don’t think it’s snobbish to pursue quality; in fact, these sorts of pursuits make life interesting. And it’s certainly not a money issue. While there may be a few snobs who insist on drinking nothing but $50 cups of cat poop coffee, there’s no reason that quality coffee should be an expensive hobby.

A few years ago I decided to learn the ancient, or actually the modern, secrets of the barista. I bought a fancy Italian espresso machine (Rancilio Silvia) with matching burr grinder (Rancilio Rocky) and started pulling shots. My espresso machine is a full blown manual experience, a little messy and time consuming but also quite satisfying. Like an Airstream, it’s a quality product that’s built to last. Unfortunately it’s too large and unwieldy to take with us on the road.

This is my home coffee rig. It pulls a killer shot of espresso. Unfortunately, it's about the same size as our Airstream and draws more electrical current than the Las Vegas Strip.

If you have acres of space inside your RV, and if you never boondock, then maybe you can go for an electricity suckin’ shot pullin’ Italian stallion of a machine. But inside our Airstream, we measure countertop and storage space in terms of square inches. We’ve been known to go weeks without a hookup. We’ve got to focus on something small. And if it doesn’t require electricity? That’s a bonus.

It probably wouldn't kill me to quit coffee, but why take chances?

You’ll find that creating your own coffee is both more rewarding and more economical than lining up for a hit at the local Starbucks. Even my fancy Italian espresso machine, expensive in the short run, “saves money” over the long haul by delivering restaurant quality espresso at a fraction of the cost. If you are in the habit of shelling out $4 for a grande latte every day, do the math. Although I’m no mathematical genius, the numbers favor prepping your own quality brew at home. By a huge margin.

Good coffee beans need not cost an arm and a leg. At the moment I subscribe via Amazon to Lavazza Qualita Rossa espresso. I get a four-pack at the subscription price of $22 – less than $6 a bag! This is excellent Italian coffee at a reasonable price, and another reason why I love Amazon. Sometimes I use other beans, though I’m fairly loyal to Lavazza when making a “serious” cup of coffee. Lavazza sells a variety of espresso blends that are available in bulk. In addition to Qualita Rossa, I have tried Crema e Gusto, Crema e Aroma, Super Crema, and In Blu. They each produce espresso with unique flavor and character.

"Italy's Favorite Coffee" - buy it in bulk for $6 a bag!

I’ve learned a lot over the years – enough to know that I’m still learning. Again, it’s like photography. You can learn the basics (composition, shutter, aperture) in a day, and then spend the rest of your life in pursuit of excellence. There are many variables that contribute to a great cup of coffee – the bean, the roast, the grind, the water, and the “extraction” process. The one constant is the need for good water. As for the rest, you can change ‘em up to see what suits you.

My goal over time here is to document the various means of making coffee when camping. For our first video, we take a look at the world’s most popular coffee maker. Bialetti has been selling “Moka Pot” coffee makers since 1933 – just a couple of years after Wally Byam started Airstream! They are a staple in every Italian household. If you go to Italy and stay in a B&B, chances are that your morning brew will be made with one of these durable contraptions. Not only do they make a nice cup of espresso (well, it’s technically “almost espresso” because the pot doesn’t create the same pressure as a true espresso maker) but you can buy one on Amazon for a measly $20. See? Good coffee doesn’t need to be expensive.

Italian coffee pots are ideal for camping (even tent camping) because they do not require electricity. They are also quite compact. Our “three cup” version is about the size of a travel coffee mug. The downsides to this approach? First of all, they use some of your propane. Secondly, there’s a bit of mess.

If you want minimal mess, consider this video:

I know what you’re thinking. Instant coffee? Didn’t I just blather on about roast and grind and extraction? What does instant coffee have to do with quality? Admittedly, I am stepping onto treacherous ground here by even suggesting that instant coffee may be worthy of consideration.

Yes, in the past, instant coffees have been rather terrible facsimiles of the real thing.

Yes, it’s probably true that most instant coffees still taste like dirty lawnmower oil.

I love Trader Joe's, but HATE their instant coffee. This horrid nasty stuff is frankly undrinkable. That's why there's mold growing inside this jar.

Nevertheless (and I’m probably destroying my coffee snob credentials here), there are a couple of instant coffees that are surprisingly decent.

The first is Starbucks Via. If you drink Via you retain your snob status because the stuff is more expensive than plutonium. Plus, every package comes equipped with its own stylish Starbucks logo. Via is a weird product – kind of like a practical Ferrari hatchback. You may be inclined to mock it, but you can’t deny that it delivers the goods. I daresay that Starbucks Via would perform well in blind taste tests. This would make a great ad campaign, if Folger’s hadn’t already done it.

A Ferrari FF, aka "the Starbucks Via of automobiles."

Of course there’s an alternative to Via. It costs one-tenth the price and it’s available everywhere…

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My wife has a Barnes & Noble Nook (also a fine e-reader), but I have a Kindle. Amazon makes Kindles in many different varieties that serve different needs and different budgets. Kindles have fixed storage capacities, but even the cheapest current model offers 2GB (enough to store about 1500 books!).

The author's own Kindle DX!

My own Kindle is the Mac Daddy DX version. It features a large 9.7-inch black & white (e-ink) screen that is not backlit. The “e-ink” screen makes it easy on the eyes in all sorts of lighting environments, even bright sunlight.

Overall I love my Kindle DX and its large display. But if there’s a drawback to my model, it’s that the DX is a bit bulky and heavy compared to the standard Kindles. It’s heavier in the hand. It’s also more expensive (thankfully, mine was a generous gift). I don’t think the DX sold particularly well, because Amazon isn’t really promoting it these days. The standard-sized Kindles are where the action is. Once you try one, it’s easy to see why.

A standard 6-inch Kindle.

My mother has two Kindles. One is the 6-inch size and the other (the new Fire model) is 7-inches – about the size of a traditional book. (For you ladies out there, Mom likes these sizes because they easily slip into her purse.) The standard e-ink Kindles are light as a feather and a joy to read. “Sometimes I forget I’m reading my Kindle,” Mom told me, “and I try to physically turn the book page!”

If you want larger text on a standard Kindle, it’s easy to adjust the font size to suit your eyesight. The entry level Kindle lacks a touchscreen, but it costs a mere $79. It weighs less than six ounces; if it was any lighter, it might blow away like paper! So it’s no wonder these amazing devices are selling like hotcakes.

The Kindle Fire tablet.

In addition to the 6-inch e-ink Kindle (a black & white unit that’s just like mine but more portable), Mom also has the new Kindle Fire. The Fire is a more robust tablet that’s comparable in performance to an iPad or Nook Tablet. Its backlit full-color touchscreen isn’t quite as eye-friendly for readers as e-ink, but it does a great job with Facebook, email, web surfing, playing videos, apps, and games like Angry Birds. There’s no camera or GPS, but if you want a reasonably priced tablet, the $199 Fire is the bargain of the year.

What about e-books? It’s my belief that e-readers should lead to a lower cost for books. We all should benefit by the permanent retirement of the “dead tree” delivery method. The end of paper-and-ink printing and distribution should mean better prices for everyone.

Along these lines, we’ve priced my e-book on RV camping (Long Long Honeymoon – Living Large in a Small Tin Can) cheaper than a cup of fancy coffee. For only $2.99, you get a whopping 80,000 word book on RV camping. Not a bad way to start the new year.

So that’s a quick look at the Amazon Kindle.

There are many e-readers available for your purchasing pleasure. One of the most popular rhymes with “book.” Why should I choose to focus on Kindle? Conspiracy theories abound. Am I biased? Have I loaded up our investment portfolio on AMZN? Or am I merely an Amazon fanboy who wears Jeff Bezos pajamas?

Nah. While I may be a bit of an Amazon fanboy, I started with Kindle because Amazon is currently KING KONG of the e-reader world. If recent sales figures are to be believed, Amazon is now perched on a skyscraper high above E-Reader Metropolis with Fay Wray sitting on its lap. Or is that Jeff Bezos in a dress?

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos in a dress? This is wrong on many levels.

With Kindles selling faster than mouse ears at Disney World, it’s good to be King Kong. But if there’s a pesky swarm of biplanes on the horizon, it’s the Barnes & Noble NOOK.

The author's book on his wife's NOOK.

The Nook is a series of e-reader devices sold by everyone’s favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore behemoth. These range from inexpensive e-ink readers (Nook Simple Touch) to more robust tablets (Nook Color & Nook Tablet). You can buy Nooks online, in 90,000-square-foot bookstores, in shady back alleys, and even in exotic specialty stores like Walmart.

After slugging it out with Amazon, Apple, and Sony for a couple of years, Barnes & Noble has carved out 25% of the e-reader market. I’m not sure whether that share grew or shrank this past retail quarter. But if a Nook tickles your fancy, current market share shouldn’t matter. Nooks are excellent devices and they have garnered a large and dedicated following. In fact, there’s a Nookite in my own family.

NOOK Simple Touch ($99)

About a year ago, my wife was choosing between Kindle and Nook. She chose NOOK. Why?

“I liked that I could check out e-books from our local library on Nook,” she told me, “and it was also easier to lend and borrow books from friends.”

Over the past year, Amazon has made strides by adding these features to Kindle, but her points were well taken. Nook was first to embrace book lending. Amazon arrived late to the party.

“Also,” she added, “I like that Barnes & Noble has real brick-and-mortar bookstores. If I bring my Nook into a store I can read any book for free. Sometimes they offer complementary coffees and that sort of thing to Nook owners.”

A national network of physical bookstores? Free hot beverages? The occasional slice of pumpkin pie? Amazon won’t be adding those benefits anytime soon. Advantage: Nook.

NOOK Tablet ($249)

Another feature of Nook that appeals to the geek in me is the micro SD card slot. The micro SD slot allows owners to easily expand the memory capacity of their Nooks. The only Kindle with such a slot was the first generation unit that Amazon no longer sells. All of the new Kindles have no memory expansion. (Sometimes I think Jeff Bezos graduated from The Steve Jobs School of Dumbing It Down.)

Along these lines, one exciting development in the world of NOOK was the Nook Color. While its full color backlit touchscreen is not as eye-friendly as e-ink screens, it is fantastic for displaying magazines and children’s books. But the real excitement? Nook Color could be “rooted” and converted into an Android tablet. Thousands of people bought and “rooted” Nook Color to Android so they could check Facebook, play Angry Birds, etc. In a way, these hacked Nook tablets paved the way for the Kindle Fire. Of course, now there’s also a fancy $249 Nook Tablet that offers a few spec sheet upgrades over the Kindle Fire.

The Nook Tablet is a premium color ereader. At $249, it’s half the price of the cheapest Apple iPad. It’s also $50 more than Kindle Fire. But it’s loaded with more memory than the Kindle Fire (1GB of RAM which makes it more speedy), allows for capacity expansion via the micro SD slot (only 1GB reserved for user content, but easily expandable up to 32GB), and an integrated microphone. The idea of the microphone is genius – it allows grandparents to narrate books for their grandchildren. Of course, the microphone also begs the question, “How many technology challenged grandparents will ever be able to figure out this feature?”

We could spend all day debating the technical pros and cons of “Nook versus Kindle,” but it strikes me as a “Ford versus Chevy” type of argument. Both camps have their loyal fans. Really, with the exception of the occasional tech failure, I’ve never heard an owner of either device regret their purchasing decision. At the end of the day, either a Nook or a Kindle will get you where you want to go.

You first need to decide exactly what you want to do. In other words, do you mainly want to read books? If so, a true “e ink” device with a black-and-white is what you want. Trust me, these black-and-white readers are fantastic for extended reading sessions. The screens are simply easy on the eyes.

If you want to do Facebook, browse the Web, and so forth, then your choices become more spendy and a little more complex. Or in the case of one option, spendy and simple…

It’s time to address the Godzilla of the e-reader world. Yes, we’re talking about Apple and its iPad tablet. If Amazon is King Kong, Apple is Godzilla. (In this analogy, Nook is Rodan; never underestimate Rodan.) While iPad isn’t a dedicated e-reader, many people use it as such.

NOTE: Images are not to scale (we all know that Godzilla is much larger than King Kong).

It wasn’t so long ago that ol’ Mister Black Turtleneck himself was standing on stage like some sort of Silicon Valley prophet, proudly holding his gleaming metal tablet aloft. The initial response was a collective, “Huh?” On that day Apple CEO Steve Jobs suffered a few snickers at the device’s name, which reminded some of a feminine hygiene product.

A lot has happened since that fateful day in 2010 when Jobs unfurled the iPad to skepticism and derision. It turned out that Jobs was once again right. The iPad became the most popular consumer product since running water. People around the planet bought RVs just so they could more comfortably camp outside Apple stores while waiting to buy the latest model. Apple became more valuable than the Earth itself.

You never know when NOOK might fly into the scene and crash Godzilla's party.

As for Steve Jobs, in 2011 he moved on to that great product launch in the sky. I read the authorized Steve Jobs biography (on my Kindle – sorry, Steve), and learned that he was almost as much a jerk as he was a genius. (I’m being generous by using the word “jerk” instead of a certain alternative.) Jobs had his own way of doing things. His approach worked wonders with technology, but not so great with people. One lesson we might draw from the Steve Jobs tale? Never rely solely on herbal teas and fresh fruit to cure pancreatic cancer.

Steve Jobs at the original iPad product launch. Good times...

In some ways, the iPad represents Steve Jobs’s final genius move on the global computing chessboard. Apple created the tablet market. The iPad has flourished where others have struggled. If you are considering full featured tablets, there’s the iPad and there’s everyone else. Many other tech firms have tried to compete with iPad, and failed spectacularly. Yes, Apple has acted like Godzilla in this tablet space, and has reduced many tech rivals to smoldering ruins. (Hey, anyone want to buy some HP stock?)

My in laws have an iPad and they love it. In fact, I’ve never really heard from anyone who didn’t enjoy the iPad.

The author's father-in-law browsing vintage vehicles on his iPad.

Every iPad comes equipped with an Apple logo; we all know what these logos do to price. The cheapest wifi-only model costs $499. A fully loaded model will cost you $829 (plus a monthly 3G contract with AT&T or Verizon). Even with these prices, iPad benefits from the Apple halo effect. Many consumers happily pony up a few extra hundred dollars to get the Apple gadget, even though cheaper alternatives abound. This is a key reason why Steve Jobs died with 7 billion dollars in the bank.

Apple's iPad 2 ($499 and up) is the Rolls Royce of tablets.

What is an iPad? It’s a 9.7-inch touchscreen equipped with a robust CPU and Apple’s intuitive iOS operating system. It’s kind of like a jumbo iPhone, but without the phone. This is not intended as criticism; the iPad is perhaps the best Internet content consumption device ever created. If you have any familiarity with iPhone, you already know how to use an iPad. It’s brilliantly easy to use. Steve Jobs dubbed the iPad experience “magical,” and who are we to argue? This is the Rolls Royce of tablets. Yes it costs more, but you get a very smooth ride. It does everything quite well. (Everything except play Flash content; Steve Jobs didn’t like Flash, so neither does iPad.)

Like other tablets, iPad really isn’t focused on content creation. Most people don’t go to the Internet to edit HD video or write the next War and Peace. If you want to check email and Facebook, browse websites, and even play a few games, do you really need a physical keyboard and mouse? The iPad has proven that you do not.

The iPad’s large backlit LCD touchscreen does not offer an “E ink” reading experience. For those of us who enjoy reading novels (and labyrinthine Steve Jobs biographies), an iPad is less than optimal. The backlit screen simply strains and tires the eyes after a while. Black-and-white e-ink devices like Kindle and Nook can be read all day long without eye strain. Nevertheless, a lot of people are doing a lot of reading on the iPad. The iPad is wonderful for magazines and the Web, and fine for short bouts of book reading.

The 9.7-inch iPad screen is larger than most of the competing ereaders. The larger size is nice, though it comes at a cost of weight and bulk. If you’re kicking back on the sofa or easy chair and browsing the Web, the iPad is tough to beat. But unlike Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, the iPad isn’t purse ready. Sorry guys, but it probably won’t fit your murse either. It’s thin but it just isn’t as compact and lightweight as the less expensive competition. On the other hand, the build quality of the iPad is excellent. The iPad feels well crafted and solid in your hands.

What about apps? This is where iPad really shines. iPad benefits from Godzilla’s – I mean, Apple’s – massive network of third party developers who are churning out fresh apps on a daily basis. At last count the iPad boasted more than 250,000 separate apps (ranging from games like Angry Birds to social media like Facebook). There’s an app for just about every desire under the sun. And here’s a key point – you can install free Kindle and Nook apps for iPad. So if you want to buy books on Amazon / Barnes & Noble and read them on your iPad via the Kindle / Nook apps, feel free to do so.

At last app count, Android was catching up to Apple quickly via the Android market. But since Apple was the first on the scene with its iTunes apps market, it remains the gold standard.

If you’ve got the coin and want to indulge in a premium full featured tablet, it’s hard to find fault with the iPad. The main criticism these days concerns price, since there are lower cost alternatives available in the form of the Kindle Fire and Nook Color. Some Wall Street analysts have speculated that Apple will unfurl an “iPad Mini” to better compete with these tablets. But I would also state that if your primary goal is reading books (not magazines), the “e ink” screens offered by inexpensive Kindles and Nooks are better suited for this purpose.

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I get this question from time to time. The honest answer is that I use more than one camera. You need different tools for different jobs. My cameras range from the point-and-shoot Panasonic TS1, to the ultra compact GoPro HD, to the Panasonic TM700 camcorder, to the five pounds of Cinealta goodness Sony EX1. And let’s not forget the humble iPhone 4, which is equipped with an excellent still camera along with not-too-shabby HD video capability.

Having an expensive camera doesn’t guarantee nice photos or video. I’ve taken crap photos with pricey cameras; I’ve taken fantastic photos with el cheapo cameras.

I took one of my all-time favorite nature photos with my iPhone! You just never know.

Snapped on my iPhone in North Dakota. Image has been reduced in size, but is otherwise completely unedited.

But with that said, we carry around a digital SLR. There are some things that SLRs just do better than point-and-shoot cameras. They have bigger sensors that capture more light. They are capable to rapid fire shooting. And the ability to swap lenses comes in very handy; it’s a lot easier and safer to view bears and bison through a 300mm telephoto lens. In recent years, SLRs have evolved to become hybrid cameras, capable of shooting high quality video along with spectacular photos. The video capability appeals to filmmaker geeks like me.

With respect to traditional SLR cameras, it’s mostly a Nikon and Canon world. (Although Sony and Panasonic are making inroads.) Although I’m brand agnostic, with SLRs I’m a Nikon guy. This is mainly because I already have a stack of Nikon lenses. Once you buy a boatload of glass, it doesn’t make much sense to switch brands. As those of you who follow my Twitter shenanigans know, I recently acquired a Nikon D7000 for use here on the website.

Wanna see it taken out of the box? Your wish is my command.

Unboxing videos are quite popular on YouTube. They are of special interest, obviously, to people shopping for products. There’s something reassuring about actually seeing what’s inside the box!

I guess these unboxing videos are also fun for anyone wanting to live vicariously. Hmm, this is a great way for RV owners to participate in our consumer culture without cluttering up the place; just watch the videos, and save your money and storage space!

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One thing’s for sure: even the cleanest freakiest CLEAN FREAK struggles when attempting to keep an RV spotless. It’s just a fact of life: your rig’s interior is constantly bombarded by outside debris. The typical RVer goes back-and-forth between outdoors and indoors multiple times a day.

Oh, we try to keep things clean. When we camp, we usually leave our shoes by the door to minimize the influx of dirt. But there are times (when we’re in a hurry, etc.) when this policy falls by the wayside. So, the area by our Airstream door gets the dirtiest. As we camp, the carpet is besieged by loose grass, soil, leaves, and other assorted crapola.

Then there are those of us with pets. Most pets, bless ‘em, simply refuse to wear shoes.

And spills? Don’t get me started.

Enter the Dyson. It’s a handheld vac. But it’s a far cry from those weak, underpowered handheld vacuums of yore. In the old days, handheld vacuums were pitiable affairs. They just didn’t work very well. Many of those vacuums are still being sold; and they still don’t work.

The Dyson DC31 is notable first and foremost because of its design. Its engineering contains several upgrades over the old school vacuums.

***STAY TUNED FOR SEAN’S REVIEW OF THE DYSON DC31***

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When you buy an RV, you are faced with a plethora of related decisions. You’re embarking not upon a journey but upon a lifestyle. You buy a lot of stuff. Some of it’s good. Some of it’s not so good…

In the early days, I bought a few dumb RV items. Like that huge plastic meat serving tray that seemed like such a good idea, but consumed massive amounts of storage space, was a bear to clean, and thus was used a grand total of ONE time. (Hmmmm, no wonder I found it on the “clearance” isle.)

Since RVing is a social activity, eventually you’ll want to join a club. Count on it! Every manufacturer has a club, and many regions have clubs. But if you only join one club, make it the Good Sam Club. It’s one of the “good” ways to invest your RV moula.

The Good Sam Club has been around since 1966, and over the years it has become the gold standard of the big RV clubs. And it is big — we’re talking about more than a MILLION members! So you get the benefits of scale: a low membership price buys you all sorts of materials and benefits.

When Kristy and I first departed on The Long Long Honeymoon, we weren’t members of ANY club. We chose campgrounds randomly, and our results were about as good as my luck at Vegas slots. (That’s not good, in case you were wondering.)

The Good Sam Club takes the guesswork out of choosing a private campground. When you see the Good Sam logo, you can rest assured that the campground meets a certain standard of quality.

Early in The Long Long Honeymoon we randomly happened to choose a couple of Good Sam campgrounds. I noticed they were pretty nice, and seemed to be managed by people in good moods. So we decided to give it a shot.

Membership costs a measly 19 bucks! And it pays for itself in short order.

In exchange, you flash your Good Sam membership card when checking in to Good Sam campgrounds. This generally saves you 10% off the cost per night. So if you camp at Good Sam Parks, membership pays for itself.

If you own an RV, you’ve got questions. The Good Sam Club’s got answers. In addition to the camping savings, you get access to a members only website, and tons of proprietary Good Sam information. You also get a subscription to Highways, the Club’s magazine.

There’s also a HUGE annual club gathering called “The Rally.” This year’s Rally will happen next month in Albuquerque. It’s a lot like Woodstock, without all the naked hippies.

Some of our favorite camping experiences have happened at Good Sam Parks. The Schlegels’ campground on Route 66 in Texas, for example, is a Good Sam Park.

If you want to join the Good Sam Club, just click one of the buttons on our site. In a couple of minutes, you too can be a member!

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And yet, our truck SEEMORE has the subtlety of a sledgehammer. A mountain of gleaming non-aerodynamic metal, it’s pretty much devoid of technological gadgetry. The 1980s LED dash display is illegible in all conditions except total darkness. One suspects that its engineers would’ve preferred installing an old school 8-track cassette deck, but reluctantly switched to a CD player after pressure from marketing. These sins are forgivable because the gargantuan diesel engine is capable of towing the Statue of Liberty over Mount Everest without skipping an 11.8 MPG beat.

Although SEEMORE’s an old school beast, I somehow refrained from taking the GPS plunge – until our Airstreaming honeymoon. After driving around North America for two months with a ratty old $10 map, I finally surrendered to my technological desires and bought a Garmin Nuvi 660 GPS system. Simply stated, it changed our lives along with our credit card statement. The resultant question was not, “Why the hell did we buy this thing?” but rather “Why the hell did we wait so long to buy this thing?”

Of course, in the comfort of your own hometown, you can probably (hopefully?) make it down to the grocery store and back without some fancy gadget leading you by the nose. But suppose you are 1000 miles away from familiar streets…it’s dark…you have a flat tire…and you’re looking for that international camping haven known as Wal-Mart. Just type “Wal-Mart” into the Garmin and you’ll find the nearest one. No phone calls, no guesswork, no hassle. A GPS is not only a timesaver, it’s potentially a lifesaver. You might make an occasional wrong turn, but you’ll never really be lost if you have one of these gadgets. This totally changes the tenor of the classic American road trip.

Our GPS has a zillion other features with varying degrees of usefulness. It broadcasts audio over our truck speakers via an FM transmitter. It has a very nice Bluetooth cellphone connection, so you can gab on your cellphone hands free. And it plays audiobooks seamlessly, even pausing the books when offering spoken directions. I haven’t tried every GPS out there, but this Nuvi 660 model has been named one of CNET’s editors’ best GPS navigation systems. So don’t take my word for it; take CNET’s.

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Note that we DO intend to update this list. Some of these items are of a common household nature. In the future, we will add more RV-specific items to these selections.

Without further ado, here’s our list.

Wells Lamont Leather Gloves
Pick up a 3-pack at Costco for $19.99. Look in the hardware section. They are tough, comfortable, durable, and essential around any campsite. These will save your hands time and again. Don’t hitch or unhitch without ‘em!

Kirkland Signature Non-Latex Gloves
I wear these gloves when dumping the water tanks. A 2-pack (which lasts a LONG time) costs $15.99 at Costco. Look in the pharmacy section. We keep one box in the truck, and the other under the Airstream sink.

Trailer Life Directory
This book helps you find the best campgrounds. It retails for $24.95, but you can find it for less. We bought ours at Camping World. The Directory will help guide you to Good Sam Parks (which offer a 10% discount to Good Sam Club members). It also helps you find excellent campgrounds that are not affiliated with Good Sam Club.

Silly hat is optional, but recommended.

GPS (Any GPS!)
We chose a Garmin Nuvi. I believe the current equivalent of our model is the Nuvi 760. We bought ours from Amazon, but these days I would watch Costco for a coupon special.

With prices on these things falling faster than the stock market, you probably don’t need to pay more than $250 for a state of the art unit with ALL the bells and whistles. But who knows, you may find a nice one for half that price. If possible, get one with a wide screen and the text-to-speech feature. Check cnet.com for the latest reviews.

Oxygenics BodySpa Handheld Showerhead
Quite simply, it delivers a great shower as advertised, increasing water pressure while using less water. These cost around $50, so they are expensive as showerheads go. But they’re worth it! We bought ours from Amazon, but you can also find ‘em at Camping World.

Of course the utility of this one may depend on your rig and shower arrangement. But I think this showerhead works with all Airstreams, and probably with the majority of RVs.

Clorox Wipes
Here’s one of those household items that comes in handy when camping. We buy Clorox Disinfecting Wipes in a 3-pack from Costco. They’re handy for wiping counter tops, cabinets, etc. I like the convenience factor of these wipes, and the fact they nuke germs is a welcome bonus.

Purell Hand Sanitizer
I use a lot of this stuff, both via a pump bottle and little portable bottles which I carry in my jacket and backpack. Feel free to make fun of me for doing so. (Oh, and I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been sick! What a shame. Wonder how that happened?)

Novaform Foam Mattress Topper
A good night’s sleep is essential to enjoying the camping experience. Our factory RV mattress, quite frankly, left much to be desired. It was not only thin, it was resting on top of a flat wooden slab instead of box springs. We added one of these foam toppers and it really transformed the mattress. Now we enjoy a completely comfortable and cozy sleeping environment. At $140 for a Queen size, this seems expensive. But a good night’s sleep makes it worth it.

3/4-inch Drill Socket Adapter
Our rig has manual stabilizer jacks. With one of these socket adapters (less than $10 at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, or your hardware store of choice) you can use a cheap ($20) electric drill to raise and lower your stabilizer jacks. This is a nice time saver and convenience.

Power stabilizer jacks... who needs 'em?

Crocs Flip-Flops
I bought a pair of these flip flops on sale just to see what the “Crocs” mania was all about. A few months later, I bought a second pair.

Check out those tan lines!

These are my shoes of choice when camping about 99% of the time. They are light, comfortable, water proof, durable, and easily slip on and off. (But with regard to water, please note that they do get a little slippery when wet.)

We’ve marched all over Disney World wearing these Crocs and suffered no foot pain. I don’t know what proprietary blend of rubber they use to make these shoes, but Crocs has built a better mousetrap.

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Or is it? Sometimes it’s tempting to think we can leave the maps at home. After all, these days they’re packing GPS units in cereal boxes. And GPS units have maps, right?

Not so fast, my friends.

As much as I love our GPS, we haven’t yet invented a technological gadget that truly replaces a good old fashioned ink-and-paper map. A GPS is not a map.

REPEAT: A GPS IS NOT A MAP.

Part of the fun of a road trip is charting your own course. You need to scan a map to get the big picture, an overview of ALL the territory.

You make discoveries when browsing maps that can really enhance the quality of your trip. (“Hey, why are we taking a boring ribbon of asphalt when we could be traveling The Avenue of the Giants?”)

You also learn when browsing maps. You learn geography, you learn topography, you learn trivia. You develop a better understanding of our country, its wide ranging landscape, and how all the pieces fit together. The same can’t be said of punching coordinates into a GPS.

When we travel, Kristy usually handles on-the-fly map navigation while I steer our rig down the road. Many times she’ll pick up the map to check one small matter, and then continue reading it for a long time.

Once we bought our GPS, I thought this behavior might change. But no, we still find ourselves referencing a map. The GPS tells us how to get from point A to point B. But we use the map to define point A and point B!

Which brings me to the Trailer Life Directory RV Road Atlas. It’s made for RVers by Trailer Life, folks who know what RVers need.

As you’ll see in the video, this atlas is loaded with RV-specific information for RV travel.

While I’m not sure this product attains the “must have” status of the legendary Trailer Life Directory, it’s nevertheless a natural purchase for any RVer in the market for a road atlas.

If you you’re going to buy a road atlas for RV travel, doesn’t it make sense to buy an RV road atlas? I think so.

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There’s no shortage of places to camp in the good ole USA. Somewhere in between the National Parks and the Wal Mart parking lots are privately owned campgrounds. Before we owned a campground guide, we would just randomly choose campgrounds depending on where we felt like stopping for the night. The results ranged from great to … not so great. Private campgrounds are kind of like hotels; you have your four-star resorts, and you have your roach-infested hostels.

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One day while browsing a Camping World store (I believe it was in Seattle), Kristy picked up a copy of the Trailer Life Directory. At first I was a little hesitant to shell out $25 for any book not written by Faulkner or Hemingway. But I relented, and I’m really glad we did. In fact, after traveling with the Trailer Life Directory, I daresay we would never go on any RV road trip without it. Of all of our RV purchases, this one probably had the biggest “bang for the buck” impact on our travel.

The Directory is a massive tome that looks not dissimilar to a phone book. It’s jam-packed with two essential categories of information: campgrounds and reviews. LOTS of campgrounds and LOTS of reviews.

The Trailer Life Directory includes thousands of campgrounds, but it also spotlights Good Sam Parks. We really like camping at Good Sam Parks. As Good Sam Club members, we save 10% on the nightly camping fees at Good Sam Parks. But it’s not just a money thing. These are privately owned and operated campgrounds that have received the Good Sam Club seal of approval.

Why do we like these places more than other campgrounds? With Good Sam Parks, you usually get a good variety of amenities (hookups, wifi, etc.). These parks are also well maintained and clean. They also are more likely to feel like parks than corporate campgrounds.

On the first cross-country leg of the Long, Long Honeymoon we traveled about 15,000 miles. For the latter half of that number, we had the Trailer Life Directory on board. I noticed an immediate impact on the quality of our travel. Not only were we staying in generally better campgrounds, we were also removing the frequent “drama” of not knowing where to stay.

It’s just a cinch to open the Directory, find a well reviewed campground in the community of your choosing, and then call to book a same-day reservation. For the way we tend to travel (making many last minute decisions as we meander from point A to point B) the Directory is brilliantly useful.

This is one of those purchases that’s sort of a “no brainer” if you plan to do any serious road tripping with your RV.

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Basically, the Wifi in Motion kit grabs and boosts a cellular signal, pumps that boosted signal into your Internet data card, and then uses it to create your own wifi network in your RV. It may sound complicated, but in practice it’s quite simple. Once you have the kit installed, you don’t really need to do anything. You just plug your card into the router, turn everything on, and you’re good to go.

When we’re on the road, we carry two laptops, two iPhones, and an Xbox video games console — all of which demand a wifi connection for best results. Plus, I’m usually uploading video and posting to our blog. So for us, this kit has been a Godsend.

The Wifi in Motion kit offers several advantages to the RV traveler. Here are a few.

First and foremost, you are no longer reliant on third parties like campgrounds to provide your wifi network. After over a year of traveling on The Long, Long Honeymoon, we’ve had mixed experience with campground wifi. Sometimes (in a highly annoying practice that ranks up there with early checkout times) campgrounds charge extra fees for an Internet connection. Usually, wifi is included in your campground fee, but the signal is often so laughably weak that you can’t receive it inside your RV.

Weak signals have been an ongoing problem for us. The aluminum exterior of our Airstream acts as a shield that helps to prevent outside wifi signals from penetrating our rig. More than once I’ve found myself sitting outside, in the dark, hunched over a laptop — simply because that’s the only place I could receive a decent Internet signal. With our Wifi in Motion kit, so long as we can get a cellular signal, we always have a strong Internet connection inside our RV. And thanks to the antenna and amplifier, we can receive a signal just about anywhere, from national parks to Wal-Mart parking lots. I’m told that the antenna and booster provides an extra 40-50 miles of range. So that means we can dry camp with wifi. 

A second advantage is that the kit creates a private, secure wifi network. This provides a little extra peace of mind when conducting banking and other sensitive transactions online. In this age of identity theft, sending private data over public Internet connections makes us all a little wary. So it’s nice to have your own password-protected network.

A third advantage is that the kit is highly portable. You can not only use it traveling along the highway, but you can also use it when you’re not camping. After our recent cross-country journey, we actually removed the router from our RV and placed it in our house. We’ve been receiving quite respectable connection speeds (about 1400 Kbps downstream, 400 Kbps upstream) using the router at home. In theory, you can use the Wifi in Motion kit as your sole Internet connection — at home and away. When we finish an RV trip, we just remove the router from our rig and we are set. You don’t really need to take the antenna and amplifier home with you, since they mainly assist when your RV is “in motion.”

Installation is a breeze (the trickiest part is drilling a single hole through which to feed the antenna wire into your RV). If you are a “handy” type of person, you won’t have any issues. We opted to mount our amplifier and router inside our RV with velcro. Not only does this approach maintain a stock appearance to our Airstream interior, it also facilitates portability. Removing the router from our Airstream now takes RRRRRRRRRRIP! about 3 seconds.

A final consideration (and for most of us, it’s also the first consideration) is cost. The complete Wifi in Motion RV kit costs $895. Your monthly Internet subscription costs about $60 per month.

How does this compare? The main alternative to this kit would be a satellite Internet kit. I recently researched one. It looks like a comparable satellite Internet kit would cost about $4500 for the hardware alone, plus $1000 for installation, plus a data plan of $80 per month. Maybe I’m a cheapskate, but I can’t imagine shelling out this kind of cash for an Internet connection. By comparison, the Wifi in Motion kit seems a bargain. And unlike some clunky satellite dish, everything is low profile and portable.

So, there are some of the upsides. What about the downsides?

The primary downside is that your speed of Internet access is dependent on your cellular company. If you are camping in a high speed 3G area, you’ll get excellent connection speeds. I’ve uploaded massive video files with surprising speed. But if you are in a low bandwidth area, the connection speed is unremarkable. If you’ve ever used the AT&T Edge network on your iPhone, you know what to expect. It’ll deliver the basics (email, browsing, etc.) but heavy users will be yearning for a faster connection. I would have major trouble uploading a fat HD video file, for example.

Another potential downside is that most of these cellular companies are instituting monthly bandwidth caps on usage. These caps are typically around 5GB per month, which is more than enough for most folks. But for an HD video-loving bandwidth hog like myself, it could eventually pose a problem. We’ll see.

So the moral of this story is to choose your Internet provider carefully. AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon each offer different amounts of high speed coverage, and different policies with regard to usage caps. Do a little research before you choose a card. If you watch our video, you probably know what we chose. (One company sprinted to the fore.) But I do think that nationwide high bandwidth coverage is inevitable, as all three companies scramble to improve their Internet delivery everywhere.

Overall, I feel the Wifi in Motion kit is a superior solution to satellite kits, for the reasons stated. I love the fact that we always have a wifi connection, even when we’re boondocking. This company has done its homework and bundled together everything you need in one box. Our router even arrived pre-configured with the necessary security and password information. Installation was painless, and the ownership experience has been fantastic. If you want to learn more about this product, check out the company website at wifiinmotion.com.

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