One of the most intimidating tasks awaiting any new towable RV owner is backing into a campsite. The process is counter-intuitive. When traveling in reverse, you’ll find that the trailer responds to steering inputs in a fashion that’s completely opposite to what you expect. Sometimes back-in campsites can be narrow, and require the type of precision usually reserved for LASIK eye surgeons.

But we’ve learned a few techniques over the years. Here’s one of the best. If you perform this maneuver we call “the scoop” (TM) you’ll find that back in campsites are really nothing to worry about. Armed with this knowledge, you will tackle back in campsites without fear!

Of course, there’s more to backing up a travel trailer than doing “the scoop” (TM). But I think you will discover that this little tip can be INVALUABLE when you’re faced with a “back in” campsite.

Before I knew about “the scoop” (TM) we suffered more than a few nasty episodes. One of the most extreme was at Walt Disney World’s Ft. Wilderness. After about 30 minutes of frustration, we finally called the front desk and requested a different campsite. I was ready to label Disney the Most Frustrating Place on Earth.

But since we learned “the scoop” (TM) our problems with backing up the Airstream melted away. Now I feel confident that I can back our Airstream into a shoebox, if necessary.

The key upside of doing “the scoop” (TM) is that your angle of entry is improved. It gives you that extra few degrees of movement that you need to slip into the campsite.

Note that the degree of angle of “the scoop” (TM) represented in the video is a bit exaggerated for emphasis. You just want to scoop the tip of your rig into the campsite, and then scoop it back out. This little wiggle gives you the angle adjustment you need.

Of course, as always you must proceed slowly. Whatever you do, don’t get in a hurry.

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Here’s a short film I made about one of our favorite artists. Justin Gaffrey creates art in Blue Mountain Beach, Florida. We’ve camped in this area more times than we can count. We love it so much, we made it our home away from home. When Walkabout Production Group isn’t roaming on a walkabout, we can often be found here along the Florida / Alabama Gulf Coast.

We discovered Justin’s work a couple of years ago.

While walking past an art store, Kristy stopped in her tracks. A painting hanging in the storefront window caught her eye. Although the store was closed she could just see the artwork by peering through the storefront window. She was so smitten with the painting, she immediately called me on the phone to tell me about it.

“You have to come see this painting,” she said. “The paint is so thick. It’s looks 3D!”

Later we went back to the store together. But alas! The painting was gone. So we asked the store owner about the cool painting that Kristy saw, the one with the thick colorful paint. Who was the artist?

“Oh, that’s Justin Gaffrey,” she said. “He’s local. His studio is in Blue Mountain Beach.”

If you watch the video, you’ll see what makes Justin’s work so unique. His style of painting involves using a LOT of paint. In the painting featured in the video, he uses about FIVE GALLONS of acrylic paint. That’s like forty pounds of paint on one canvas. He paints mostly without brushes, instead using special metal tools.

The results speak for themselves. If you like the impasto style of Vincent Van Gogh, you will like Justin’s work. Justin’s painting have a depth and dimensionality that is really powerful and unique. The paint is applied thick — it’s so thick and durable you can freely touch the dried paintings all you want.

All too often, great artists go unappreciated. Van Gogh, it is famously said, never sold a painting in his lifetime. Think about it! Arguably the greatest painter of the past century died having never sold a painting.

So it’s refreshing to see an artist like Justin Gaffrey whose work is appreciated. Unlike Van Gogh, Justin sells plenty of paintings, and it’s easy to see why. He has developed his own signature style, and it’s spectacular. He found his niche and is producing wonderful art that makes people happy.

So, all of you Florida / Alabama Gulf Coast snowbirds… If you ever go camping in Grayton Beach, Topsail, or Camping on the Gulf, you’re just a stone’s throw away from Justin’s studio! For more details about Justin check out his website (JustinGaffrey.com).

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Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Rime of the Ancient RVer Mariner

Water — it does a body good.

For the moment, our Long Long Honeymoon is veering into edumacational territory. It strikes me that the gigantic edumacational elephant in the corner is made of water.

So I’m putting together an extensive video discussion of RV water management. This is the first bit of the first bit (hence the “Part 1, Part 1″ designation). FRESH WATER! How much is there to say about water? So much that I can only fit a tiny fraction of it into this video. And it’s probably already too long for the average ferret on amphetaminesInternet surfer’s attention span.

Many of you more experienced RV campers will have long since mastered the nuances of water management. But for newbies, water management skills are a must! (Why does this sound like a job description?)

I’ll never forget the first time Kristy and I took our Airstream out camping. I couldn’t believe how quickly we drained our fresh water tank, and heard the telltale gurgle of a full grey water tank. (“Noooooo! NOT the gurgle!”)

When you are dry camping (camping without any water hookups), you have to become a water miser. You must learn how to shower using no more water than fills the average cola can. But more on those skills in a future video.

For many of you, this discussion of fresh water will be old hat. But many visitors to Long Long Honeymoon are newcomers to Airstreaming and RV camping. Wise ones, camping is kind of like American history. It never hurts to review what you’ve learned.

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A week or so ago, I asked my Twitter friends for topic suggestions. Someone (yes, I’m referring to you JJohnston1975) suggested integrating “creature comforts” and the spa experience with RVing. Personally, I’ve been wanting to do a blog about sleep for a long time. So these two topics dovetail in this LongLongHoneymoon.com entry.

I’m a big believer in “spoiling” ourselves when we go Airstreaming. I mean, we’re already dealing with compromises in terms of living space and **ahem** plumbing. So why not add a little pampering to the equation? An extra pillow or blanket never hurt anyone. A dash of lavender linen spray can work wonders. And yes, you WILL find Grey Poupon in our fridge (right next to the cave-aged cheese and Trappist ale).

Someone out there will inevitably shout, “Hey, that’s not exactly roughing it!”

Indeed, it is not. We have a tent for roughing it.

Here's Kristy in the pre-Airstream days on our first camping trip together, "roughing it" in Yellowstone National Park. We had a blast, even though things went predictably awry.

Someday I’ll video blog about our first camping experience — this was BEFORE we owned an Airstream. We were visiting Yellowstone National Park. Since the park hotels were booked full, we stopped at the Big K in Jackson Hole to do a little shopping. We bought a $40 tent, a couple of sleeping bags, and an inflatable mattress. So far, so good, right?

By midnight, the inflatable mattress had completely deflated. We were lying on the bare, rocky ground. The temperatures dropped into the low 40s. We got so cold that we formed an impromptu camping burrito, cramming our two bodies into a sleeping bag made for one person. Around 2AM a pack of wild coyotes was howling just steps outside our tent. We felt we were living out an old Hayley Mills movie, and the joke was on us. I guess we got about two hours of quality sleep. When we awoke, I’m pretty sure there was frost on my eyebrows.

So, yes, we know all about “roughing it.” Don’t get me wrong: we love tent camping! It has its place. But RV camping is different.

We have an Airstream for doing what Wally Byam suggested so long ago: taking the comforts of home (or even the spa) with us on the road. Airstreaming may be about simplifying, but it’s not about roughing. If I wanted to rough it I’d be outside lying on the ground. This is a distillation of the essentials, of exactly what we need, and little more.

Here I am "roughing it" on our first Airstream camping trip.

There’s nowhere this is more true than the bedroom. The most essential purpose of any shelter is to facilitate adequate rest. It’s a little known fact of American history that Patrick Henry originally said, “Give me SLEEP or give me death.” (He was misquoted as saying “liberty,” which is why we don’t have a Statue of Sleep. )*

What about those people who glibly advise, “You can sleep when you’re dead!” Don’t worry much about ‘em; they’ll be the ones dying young due to lack of sleep.

With an RV, it goes beyond shelter from the elements – it’s about comfort and familiarity. If this is your home away from home, you better treat it as such. Bring on the creature comforts!

The view from our bedroom on our first Airstream camping trip.

Our strategy has been to treat the Airstream as a cocoon. Our bedroom is a small, cozy nest that’s filled with familiar comforts. As we discuss in the video, we’ve given consideration to every element of the sleeping experience: mattress, pillows, linens, light, sound, and even scent.

During our first RV camping trip, I guess we did get a little chilly on the beach at night. Then we went inside to our cozy Airstream cocoon, kicked on the heat furnace, and broke out the lavender spray.

So, after taking all of these steps…  why the heck can’t I get any sleep?

Costco fans take notice! You can buy the memory foam pillow toppers at a $30 discount this month.

*Okay, that bit about Patrick Henry was a blatant lie.

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When we first started blogging, the original plan was to simply to keep friends and family in the loop. Our posts were snapshots and text. Then we began uploading the occasional short video to YouTube. This quickly morphed into regular YouTube uploads from the road. At times, the video obsession led to much gnashing of teeth (imagine me standing on a picnic table, in the dark, holding my laptop over my head, struggling to upload a 120MB video on a shaky Internet connection).

YouTube led to Vimeo which led to Facebook which led to Twitter. We have no time to actually DO anything any more because we’re too busy telling everyone what we’re doing.

But back to YouTube: as of this writing we have over 100 videos in our YouTube Channel. A good way to catch up on all of our stuff is to visit the Channel and subscribe. When we upload new videos to YouTube, you’ll receive an email with notice of the video. I subscribe to a few different YouTube Channels and it’s all quite unobtrusive.

This leads to the SHORTEST video we’ve ever done. Those of you who feel my videos have been dragging lately will be pleased with this concise effort. Who says I’m long winded?

YouTube has recently upgraded its display technology to a robust 1080P high-definition. This means that you can see all of my physical imperfections in full HD! If this technology gets any better, I may start wearing a bag over my head. Of course, along with my aging, abused physique, you can also enjoy some destinations like the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls in HD.

There’s one problem with YouTube. I like to periodically “improve” our old videos by adding content and rendering fresh versions. Some of our older videos were originally uploaded in SD, so I’d like to replace those files with high-def versions. But YouTube won’t let me! My choice is to either delete the old pages (losing ALL associated data) or upload a completely new page — YouTube won’t allow me to modify the original page.

Confused yet? Anyway, this means that I may re-upload our older videos in full high-definition someday. I’ll let you know if this happens.

In the meantime, we’ll continue updating Vimeo. And Facebook. And Twitter. And whatever else we find time to update.

Thanks to all who have taken the time to join our newsletter mailing list, and subscribe to our YouTube Channel. I’m glad you find value in our little corner of the Internet.

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Confession: I find RV floor plans strangely fascinating.

Okay, “fascinating” may be a stretch. I mean, I don’t sit around all day dreaming about floor plans. But it’s quite remarkable how many different combinations manufacturers create. I’ve likened RV floor plans to Mexican food entrees — the chef always starts with the SAME BASIC INGREDIENTS (meat, beans, cheese, lettuce, etc.) and somehow they concoct 347 different menu items. In truth, we’re all getting some version of a TACO, but they each seem so gloriously unique.

The latest and greatest trend in AIRSTREAM floor plans is the FRONT BEDROOM layout. For you non-Airstreamers, this means that the bedroom is located at the fore of the trailer — it’s closest to the tow vehicle. The basic idea is that since you BACK into most campsites, the most desirable view of nature is in the back. The front bedroom, in theory, allows you to enjoy that natural view all day long from your living room. That’s the advantage.

What do I think about this floor plan? WHO CARES what I think? I’m married. What MATTERS is what my WIFE thinks. Hence, this video (which is pretty much a simple vlog like granny used to make — sorry, film critics, this ain’t Citizen Kane ).

Look, I’m a MAN — toss me a shiny gadget and a cold beer, and I’ll be happy in ANY floor plan.

But my wife has definite opinions on the topic — as you’ll see in the video.

While I enjoy browsing different RV floor plans, Kristy has an intuitive sense of “what works,” and how livable the plan will be on a daily basis.

These different floor plans all have their strengths and weaknesses. There’s not really a clear cut “better.”

After all, sales of the front bedroom units have been booming. People LOVE their front bedroom Airstreams, so maybe we’ll hear some reasons WHY.

Ultimately, this is a personal preference issue, and there’s no right or wrong — what matters is what works for YOU.

So, what about you? If you have an OPINION on the contentious FRONT VS. REAR BEDROOM issue, please chime in…

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Kristy and I are members of Good Sam Club. We joined in 2007, a few months after buying our Airstream and hitting the road. We don’t have any “official” affiliation with the club, although we do blog on RV.net (a site that’s owned by the same parent company, Affinity).

When we first started camping, we really didn’t know ANYTHING about the RV club scene. What interested me in Good Sam Club, quite frankly, was the 10% discount that members receive when staying at Good Sam campgrounds. It costs about $20 to join the club, but the membership “pays for itself” if you use it at campgrounds the way we do.

When we do long term Airstream travel, we stay at a lot of privately owned campgrounds. There’s more to life than Walmart parking lots, right? At times, even the most ardent boondocker has gotta have hookups. Even Queen Elizabeth I took four baths a year.

We usually choose to stay at Good Sam parks because (1) they are everywhere (2) they are usually quite good (3) we get a modest discount, and (4) there is NO number four.

Anyway, as part of its standard membership, Good Sam Club also sends a monthly magazine to its almost ONE MILLION members. We were pleased to see LongLongHoneymoon.com featured in the current issue. Woo hoo! Good news, indeed.

What's this? Long Long Honeymoon gets a little magazine love!

Some corporate campgrounds are basically grassy parking lots with sewer hookups – sounds inviting, doesn’t it? But I’ve noticed that most (not all) Good Sam parks are a little more charming in character than other campgrounds.

Each park is individually owned and operated, so there’s obviously some variation in quality. But we’ve had satisfying experiences at the parks. You usually (not always!) get a little more space, a little better landscaping, and a little warmer hospitality. We use the Trailer Life Directory and RVParkReviews.com to choose the better campgrounds before we book a reservation.

So anyway, thanks to the good people at Good Sam Club for the coverage. We’re getting 2010 off to a promising start!

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“Time,” an otherwise forgettable Star Trek villain once said, “is the fire in which we burn.”

As we transition into 2010, I’m once again faced with one of those watershed moments. Not only are we collectively closing the chapter on a decade, but I’m closing the chapter on a PERSONAL decade. My birthday, as anyone with Facebook can tell you, was December 29. This year I hit the big 4-0.

What the heck happened to the past ten years? Did I make the most of my thirties? What is this alien girth lodged around my midsection?  These pressing questions will have to wait until I’m no longer pecking out keys on a tiny netbook in Europe. As Plato once said, you can’t tackle philosophy without a full size keyboard. But one of the reasons we’re here on the Continent is that ticking clock…

Bruges is like something out of a storybook -- a pop-up book with lots of pretty pictures!

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View from our hotel in Bruges -- this city is beautiful! You can see the famous tower in the distance.

What can we say -- this place rocks!

Every visit to Europe should include some nice cathedrals. These views can't be captured on camera, but I did my best.

We lit a candle in honor of loved ones lost in 2009 (rest in peace Mike Nix)

Awesome cathedral in Bruges... We pay homage to generations who carpe diem'd before us...

My father likes to quote the legendary baseball pitcher Satchel Paige, whose professional career spanned forty years: “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

It’s actually a provocative question if you give it proper consideration.

So in the spirit of “40 is the new 30,” I’ll choose to be 30.

And now, on to 2010.

Here are a few photos from our ongoing Christmas / birthday / New Year’s trip to Germany and Belgium.

The area received a heavy blanket of snow right before Christmas. It disrupted travel for thousands, but hey -- it sure was pretty.

Trappist beer! Belgium's best export?

The old man and the tree. (Wasn't that a Hemingway novel?)

My father loves it when I take extreme closeup photos from weird angles. (Not really.)

Typical German house. Lots of Porsches in local driveways. I am a recovering car addict. Camera equipment is a much cheaper addiction, but then again so is crack cocaine.

Hey, we found an RV! This sort of conversion camper van seems to be popular in Europe. Tight quarters, but highly maneuverable.

Bruges at night.

Typical mode of transit in Bruges.

Bridge over untroubled water.

Our five-year old niece took this photo in a local restaurant. Nice work, Kayli!

More photos will be posted on this page as we go.

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Here on LongLongHoneymoon.com, we focus upon our Airstream / RV travels. Since it’s pretty tough to haul one’s Airstream across the ocean, this means domestic travel throughout the spectacular United States.

But the fundamental goal is to share our enthusiasm for not only camping, but travel itself. Travel is arguably the best form of education. How better to absorb culture and history (and beer) than to experience it first hand? So we occasionally take our walkabout overseas (Argentina or Guatemala, anyone?). This is one of those times. Someday we’ll travel abroad with an Airstream; at the moment, backpacks will suffice.

Backpack? Check. Scarf? Check. Silly hat? Check...

While it’s not the same as camping, there are similarities. It’s certainly consistent with what Airstream founder Wally Byam was doing 50 years ago, when he led group Airstream caravans to faraway destinations around the globe. The philosophy of “less is more” also applies, especially when you’re serving as your own pack mule.

How many women can fit three weeks worth of stuff in one backpack? That's my gal!

How to pack for a journey such as this one? There are many theories. We go as light as possible while retaining DAILY fresh underwear. We also plan to do laundry once or twice during our trip. For me, choosing which photo & video gear to pack is the most difficult part of the process.

Of course we rely on mass transit, which is generally excellent. In London we just bought a one-week “Oyster” pass that grants unlimited usage of the subway (the London Underground), buses, and some boats.

Sometimes there's a 12-inch gap between subway platform and car. Which begs the question -- why not just fix the gap and be done with it?

No exit signs -- instead, "way out" signs!

Kristy on the London Underground (not a political movement!).

It's COLD here. That's 21 degrees, for all you Farenheit fans!

They've set up a temporary ice skating rink on the MOAT outside the Tower of London. Brilliant!

They wouldn't have done this in the old days -- mainly because the moat was full of garbage, sewage, and stagnant water. It's no fun skating on sewage.

This market (Leadenhall) is located near our hotel. During daytime it's full of hustle & bustle. But it's quiet at night: London pubs have last call at 11PM!

In a world of cellphones and wifi, these traditional red booths are mostly useful as temporary shelter from the elements.

The first bottle of brew on this trip! For all I know, this may be the Milwaukee's Best of the UK, but I'll give it a shot. Beer is culture, right?

Traditional pub dinner of beef pie, mashed potatoes, and a few veggies. The little pot contains gravy! British cuisine is often the subject of ridicule, but I go for this sort of old-fashioned comfort food. (Hey, chicken pot pies got me through grad school.)

Ahhhhhh. The pride of London, indeed.

Harrod's is a London shopping institution. It's kind of like Macy's, but more...of everything.

Harrod's is owned by the guy whose son was dating Diana. Here's a memorial to the two.

Since the owner is Egyptian, there's a general Egyptian theme throughout the store.

Harrod's averages 30,000 visitors per day, but that number multiplies during the holiday season. Multiplies, get it?

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The obligatory self-portrait. Happy Christmas to you from across the pond!

We will be blogging from the UK and Europe for the next few weeks. We are starting in London before moving on to Germany and Belgium. We have family in Germany, so we’re excited about experiencing Christmas in Deutchland.

I’ll upload photos whenever possible. Bear in mind that I’m dealing with inconsistent wifi and a tiny netbook! But we’ll do the best we can.

Happy Christmas to all of our online friends!

MORE TO COME

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One of the primary missions of our website is to document RV ownership. We like to help educate newcomers to RV camping. It can all be a little perplexing at first. So why haven’t we talked about liquefied propane (LP)? Well folks, now you know what’s inside those mysterious aluminum canisters resting at the fore of every Airstream. Propane is one of those not terribly sexy expense items in your RV camping budget. It’s kind of like electricity and water — you never fully appreciate it until you don’t have it. In an RV, it works together with electricity to help tame the wild.

Let’s put it this way: if your RV was a baseball team, propane would be the utility player — the guy who plays shortstop, right field, and occasionally pinch hits for the pitcher. It’s the unsung hero of RV camping. So let us gather together, my friends, in praise of gaseous hydrocarbons.

Why do we use propane? It’s an alternative source of fuel, and it powers some of our appliances (the oven, stovetop, and furnace) exclusively. It powers other appliances (refrigerator, water heater) occasionally when electricity is not available.

Wait a minute. Did he say refrigerator?

Yes. Although it seems counter-intuitive, an RV refrigerator is capable of operating on either electricity or propane power. If the refrigerator senses we have no electricity available, it switches to propane. This feature is essential when you’re traveling across the Arizona desert and you want milk that passes the sniff test.

Can a person legally operate RV propane tanks when driving down the highway? State laws vary — I think that some states actually forbid the use of propane when traveling down the road. Those states also boast an excess of spoiled milk.

In truth, the majority of RVers traveling down the highway are powering their refrigerators with propane. This is a classic case of, “Hey, everybody else is doing it!” It’s legal in many states. But bear in mind that it increases the risk of fire if you have an accident. So please, don’t have an accident.

With regard to powering appliances, propane has some unique real world advantages over electricity.

The hot water heater, quite simply, gets hotter faster when we engage propane heat. We have two switches for the hot water heater – one activates electrical heating, the other propane. So one can choose whether or not to engage the propane. If you are already paying for electricity (as in a campground) then perhaps you will prefer to conserve your propane for those times when you really need it.

The heat furnace, since it generates heat from beneath the trailer, warms our Airstream’s pipes as it operates. (The so-called “heat pump” refers to heat generated by our ceiling mounted A/C unit; this works fine for human warmth, but does NOT protect the pipes on a cold winter night.)

Prices vary, but in our area propane seems to costs about a dollar a pound. Of course, as with any fuel tank, you just pay for what you need. In the video I refer to our tanks as “empty,” but in actuality they were about one third full.

Here's a typical receipt after filling ONE 30-pound tank of propane. It costs about $22 for a tank, money I'd really rather put towards a case of Sam Adams.

In the video I reference the notorious unreliability of our propane gauges. The interior gauge is pretty much useless because it ALWAYS reads 100% full. The exterior gauge is more accurate. Yet it now apparently reads “empty” when the tanks still are one-third full. More on this little dilemma in a future episode. Hopefully your digital gauges, if you even have digital gauges, are more accurate.

Our two 30-pound tanks of propane will last quite a while. How long is a while?

During summer, the two tanks probably last the entire season. This is because we don’t do daily oven cooking, and the propane supply is really just tapped for occasional refrigerator and water heater power.

During winter, quite frankly, it all depends on the weather. We live in an area with mild winters. Temperatures rarely dip below freezing. When they do, they rarely stay freezing for long. So we can get along without winterizing our RV, so long as we’re prepared to turn on the heat furnace on those “hard freeze” occasions.

Propane is a gaseous fuel, so there’s at least a slight element of danger associated with it. Our RV cabin is equipped with a carbon dioxide detector. It emits an ear-piercing alarm when it detects too much gas (or Kristy’s perfume!) in the air.

The worst accidents I’ve heard associated with propane have been fires. Remember that refrigerator power I mentioned? Recently the huge RV refrigerator manufacturer Dometic recalled about a trillion refrigerators due to a potential propane fire hazard. Leaks and sparks are not a good combination. If you have an RV with a refrigerator manufactured between April 1997 and September 2006 (this went on for NINE years, guys?), please Google “Dometic recall” and make sure your refrigerator is safe.

Can we camp without propane? Sure! We can camp without anything. Heck, we can lie down on a pile of leaves and call it a night.

Okay smart ass, does it make sense to RV camp without propane? In our case, it does not make sense. Our oven and stove would be useless without propane. And then there’s the refrigerator. We spend so much time on the road, we need to fuel our well stocked refrigerator at all times. It’s crucial to EVERYONE’S morale that my beer is maintained at proper temperature.

So that, in a nutshell, is propane – your silent but deadly camping friend.

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