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What is it about cooking on the road or at a campsite that brings out our inner fat kid? Why do we intrinsically crave food cooked in kettles, cast iron skillets, and open-flame grills the second the city fades from view? There are certain foods that, yeah, you could make any time you want, but you really only make them when you travel. S’mores are an obvious example. Homemade beef stew and chili are another RV and campfire mainstay. Anything barbecue is an obvious choice for when you pitch the tent or pull out the awning, but all too often, these nostalgic dishes get abandoned in favor of hot dogs, trail mix, prepackaged food, and other simpler fare. The main culprit for these missed opportunities? Lack of preparation.

It’s all well and good to have the desire to cook up a mess of hearty vittles, but if you don’t have the ingredients or the utensils, you’re out of luck. When you’re preparing your trip, remember to plan for some meals! If you’re camping, most of the ingredients will have to be brought with you or purchased at the closest general store. If you’re in an RV, you have a bit more freedom. You should keep your eyes peeled for farms that will sell you fresh produce (usually for much cheaper than at the store), especially if they let you pick your own stuff. Aside from making for a fun activity and a great vacation memory, it’s even cheaper and allows you to find the plumpest, freshest supplies. If you’re in an area known for its cheese, get some! If you’re in potato country, ask the farmer and his wife about some tasty recipes for hashed browns, skillet potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato pancakes, and the like. If you’re planning on catching fresh fish, don’t forget the garnishes and fresh herbs that will really make the dish sing.

As for utensils, your best bet is to grab a few sturdy, multipurpose essentials. You’ll want a teakettle, particularly if it can be hung over a fire. You’ll want a big stock pot for cooking chili, soup, spaghetti, and anything else requiring a big ol’ cauldron. Include a few different pans and skillets, at least some of which are non-stick to save yourself some cleanup. Bring some Pyrex measuring cups. If you have a seasoned cast-iron frying pan, bring it along too. RV users will benefit greatly by owning a slow or pressure cooker, as you can leave it to slowly cook dinner when you leave for a mid-morning hike. Tin-can Tourists who want to get a little more gourmet can also store food processors, ice cream makers, bread makers, waffle irons, and sundry other comfort food knick knacks.

Last, and still quite important, is eating and serving utensils. That pot of award winning chili you just cooked isn’t gonna do much good if the only thing you have to eat out of is your cupped hands. Be sure to bring along break-proof or break-resistant plates and bowls, mugs, and cups, though not too many. Bring just as many as you think you’ll need before one washing, and make sure to clean the dishes as soon as the meal is over. It’s a lot more eco-friendly than disposables. Some wine glasses can be fun, and if you have an RV, you can handle their safe storage easily. If you’re camping, though, and still feel like popping some bubbly with friends, bring a few pieces of disposable plastic stemware, and rinse or wash it instead of throwing it away. Then you can use it for several nights of inebriated, off-key singing around the fire.

We don’t know about you, but all this talk about travel cooking has us starving. What’s your favorite campground or RV food? What’s your go-to snack? Found any brilliant recipes in your travels? Tell us in the comments!

There are some things that, when you think about what to take on an RV trip, are pretty obvious. You’re probably going to need some clothes, unless you’re planning on keeping the blinds up in between stops at nudist colonies. You’ll want some food of course. Toothbrushes, toothpaste, towels, tissue paper, and various other toiletries that may or may not begin with the letter “T” will most certainly figure highly, as well.

But what about the less obvious things? What about the million little things that you’ll wish you had the second you realize you don’t have them? If you’re thinking about taking a trip in an RV, especially if you’re still new to the hobby, it’s a good idea to spend some time putting yourself in the mindset of a mid-RV-vacation traveler. Think first of the places you plan on going, and then of the sort of spontaneous adventures you think you may encounter in between those scheduled stops. The cool thing about an RV is that you’ll have a lot more versatility regarding which possessions and comforts you have access to. The downside is that you still have to consider how much you can bring, where you can keep it, and not overestimating the storage space you have.

It’s always important to make your own list of things you’ll need, but let’s start with a quick list of things you may not initially think of:

• Spices, hot sauces, and various other condiments to enhance and differentiate the flavors of what you cook
• Batteries
• Lashings, ropes, duct tape, and bungie cords
• Music!
• Several types of outfit; hot weather, cold weather, wet weather, swimming, formal, business, space travel, etc. It’s smart to have several pieces that are color and style complimentary, so you can maximize your versatility without taking up much space
• Several types of shoe: sneakers, slippers, hiking boots, dress shoes, sandals, clown shoes, and rubber flip flops if you ever feel like taking a shower in the petri dish of fungal potential that is a campground shower
• Fuses and bulbs
• Folding table and chairs for relaxing outside of the RV
• DVDs, and if you don’t have one, a 12 volt TV and a DVD player. Or even better, a combination 12 volt TV/DVD player! The space that would have been taken up by a DVD player can now be used for…
• Board games, playing cards, and other fun, unplugged, family-time oriented activities
• If you know how to use them, various repair kits; electrical, automotive, sewing, tire, etc.
• FIRST AID KIT! Always have a fully stocked first aid kid, as well as any prescription medication you need. This one’s so important, we’ll probably do an entry on what constitutes good first aid and emergency preparedness kits.
• Resealable plastic bags of several sizes
• Environment preparedness items such as sunscreen, sun hats, sunglasses, umbrellas, ponchos, windbreakers, tire chains, flares, glow sticks, and flashlights
• All the members of the family who will be going on the trip with you. Getting two states away from home before you realize your wife, husband, or child is sitting on the curb in front of your locked house is pretty much the definition of a no-win scenario. Cause, y’know, you have to go back, but hoo-boy is it gonna be ugly when you do.

What else can you think of? What other easy-to-forget must haves do you make sure to pack every time? Do you have a “weekend getaway” bag filled with everything you’d need for a spontaneous outing, and if so, what’s in it? Let us know in the comments!

Common sense dictates that RV camping would be more wasteful and less environmentally conscious than “regular” camping and backpacking. Well common sense can cram it, because RV camping can be as Earth-friendly as any other kind of camping. I mean, you’re already driving your car to the campsite. Only now, you don’t have to set up camp when you get there. If you’re very committed, you may even be able to make RV camping even more environmentally sound than regular camping! Here are some of the ways RV camping is low-impact:

• Used water is stored until it can be disposed of in a sanitary manner, as opposed to trickling down into groundwater and rivers.
• RVs are built for efficiency and economy of supplies, which means the toilets, kitchens, and showers tend to be conserve resources better than those provided by the campground.
• You don’t have to light any fires, as you can both cook and stay warm in your RV.
• Since you have storage and cleaning ability in your RV, you don’t need to tie down laundry lines, dig up the campground, or do any of the other things one must do to make a site accommodate humans.
• You can wash and reuse your dishes as opposed to using disposables and throwing them away.

Here are some tips to keep in mind to make RV camping even more clean & green:

• Install solar panels to recharge your batteries with the limitless might of the sun!
• Recycle worn or punctured tires instead of throwing them away
• Pick up books on beginner maintenance and electrical repair. You’ll save money by doing your own fixes, and you’ll save resources because you didn’t just go buy a new widget.
• Since you’re on the road, you can stop by farms and farmer’s markets to pick up fresh, locally grown food. This is always a good idea, since it tends to be cheaper, healthier, and tastier than buying from a grocery store. It also spares the environment all of the transit costs associated with shipping food across the country. Plus, you’ll in all likelihood meet the person who grew it, and they’ll be glad for your business.
• Schedule regular oil changes and check ups for your engine to make sure it stays running in tip-top shape.

Do you have any other tips and tricks for keeping the environment clean while RVing? Share them with us in our comments section! We’d love to hear them, and the best ones may be used in a future eco-friendly rundown.

Taking a decked-out living space with you wherever you go is an awesome idea no matter how you slice it. Crabs were way ahead of the game on that one. In fact, why do we even call them crabs? How could you be crabby when you have all the comforts of home with you at all times? Maybe we should call them “brilliant idea spiders from the beneath the waves,” or “Poseidon’s little red advice vagabonds.” Right now, you’re probably thinking something like “Because both of those names are completely terrible,” but at least they recognize what a great idea it is to take your house with you when you go on vacation.

An important factor to keep in mind, though, is that you’ll need some way to power all the microwaves, refrigerators, blenders, HDTVs, AC units, massage chairs, strobe lights, aquariums, back-up aquariums, and similar amenities that any normal person will have installed into their RV. Lucky for you, most campsites will provide a place to plug in your mobile-living-environment. Unlucky for you, they often provide only 30 (or sometimes even 20) amp hookups, while many modern motorhomes require a 50 amp hookup.

So before you emulate the stately crab and go adventuring into the great blue yonder, make sure you have a set of adapters. You’ll want one that converts from 50 amp to 30 amp, as well as one that converts from 30 amp to 20 amp. You can find ones that go directly from 50 to 20 (and if you know that’s all you’ll need, go ahead and grab one), but if you want all your bases covered, we recommend you go for the aforementioned set of two.

When you get to your campsite, you can plug your motorhome’s 50 amp hookup to the 30 amp adapter, and if necessary, daisy chain the 30 amp to the 20 amp adapter, finally plugging the appropriately converted hookup into the site’s power box. Voila! Now you can watch nature documentaries in the glorious majesty of nature itself.

Just make sure to avoid the poison ivy when nature calls.