I was originally going to write about camping in touristy places (like Disneyland!). Then, one night I woke up in a Christmas panic and figured you too might need some holiday gift ideas for your favorite trailer enthusiast. So, I’m running a re-run! Here’s my blog post from last year about this time. It seems I have a panic about this time every year. I compiled a list of a few of my favorite trailer things. Many of these items are things my family have deemed necessary for trailer life as well. I promise I’ll get to the tourist town blog soon!
- Camping Chair – One of the best parts about camping, no matter how you do it is hanging out outside on a nice day or evening. It is 100% necessary to have a great camping chair. I just got my new, fancy zero gravity reclining chair from Camping World for my birthday this year. It is super comfortable. I tested it out on a 40 minute phone call with one of my Trailer Girls while at Camping World. I’m pretty sure the people who were shopping there thought I was obnoxious. (They may have been right!) My husband, who had chair envy got one for Father’s Day this year. (He told me not to get it for Christmas because he won’t be able to use it on our winter trips in Washington.)
- Weather station – we love our Lacrosse Technology Wireless weather station. We call it “The Guy” because there’s a little guy on it that tells you what to wear…. like you couldn’t figure that out for yourself. At any rate, we love “The Guy” and when our first “Guy” died, we replaced it with another Guy. Very important! I found one on Amazon. The remote for “the guy” we refer to as “the thing for the guy.” So whenever we’re setting up or packing up, someone always says, “Did you get the thing for the guy?” and everyone knows what we’re talking about!
- Games – We have two favorites. The first is Bananagrams. We have to play this Parents vs. Kids so that it’s sort of fair and so that all of the tiles fit on the dinette table. If you have my daughter on your team, you’re sure to win! Our other favorite game is called, “Smart Ass.” I’m not kidding – that’s really what it’s called! It’s a board game we found while on a trip with our friends. It’s a blast! You can find it on Amazon. Other than the word “Ass” in the name of the game, it’s totally family friendly. I would say it’s best for 15 and up. It’s sort of an easier and more fun version of Trival Pursuit. I feel a lot less dumb after playing this game than Trival Pursuit!
- Smart TV – This might be my husband’s favorite thing! We bought a TV that has apps for Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc on it. If you have decent Wi-Fi in your RV park, you can keep up with your Netflix shows, watch movies, etc. If you don’t have decent wi-fi, you can use a device like your cell phone or an iPad as a hotspot. (Just be careful and keep track of your data!) It’s great for nights when you just need to flop out!
- Trailer Slippers – Mine are fuzzy on the inside with hard rubber soles. My husband thought I was spending frivolously when I bought a pair of slippers on a trailer trip one time. Then, guess what… He got slipper envy! By about 2 trips later, he had trailer slippers too! When I asked my son what I should put in this blog post, Trailer Slippers were at the top of his list too. They not only keep your feet warm, but they keep your socks dry when your dog slobbers on the floor and you accidentally step in it!
- Trailer Coat – This might be best saved for a trailer trip purchase. We got ours at the top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park. There are a lot of tourist places that have cheap coats for people who forget bring theirs for about $30. They’re nice and warm and shed water. They’re great for trailer use! In fact, when my first trailer coat that I paid $27.99 for, started to disintegrate after 10 years, I found a new one in Cannon Beach for $28.99! A lot of towns that attract tourists or are near national parks have what I call, “forgot my jacket” or “forgot my sweatshirt” racks in stores with fairly inexpensive warm things.
- Headlamp – If you don’t already have one in your rig, get one! It’s the best stocking stuffer! We often set up in the dark and it’s a huge help! There are all manner of these available at Home Depot, REI, etc. It all depends what you want it to do, if you want LED, etc.
- Acrylic Wine Glasses – Mine are stemless because I’ve been fired from drinking out of wine glasses with stems in the trailer. My family says that after I have 2 sips of wine, I start talking with my hands more and the stems are dangerous for the person sitting across from me! My favorites came from Crate and Barrel. The acrylic part is super important because actual glasses would break on the road.
- Silicone Dish Scraper – Sounds boring right? NO! Best thing ever … where doing dishes is concerned. If you’ve washed dishes in a rig, you know there’s no garbage disposal. So, you have the gross job of scraping all the goo off of your plates and into the trash before you wash them. I got mine at the Container Store and went back and bought one for my mom. I wish I could find the same one to show you all because, as she pointed out, the packaging says, “Fun to use.” That may be an overstatement, but it beats using a bunch of papertowels or filling your sink up with floating grossness from your plates.
- Rolla-Roasters – Everyone that roasts marshmallows with me gets Rolla-Roaster envy! You put your marshmallow on it and there’s a little thingy (that probably has an official name, but who needs to be that technical?!) that you can turn with your forefinger and thumb to turn your marshmallow so they cook evenly. I love s’mores, so this is one of my all time favorite camping tools! You can get them at REI.
The best things about RVing really aren’t things, but the time together with family and all of the great places you can go and see. The things mentioned above are things that might make that journey a little more fun and comfortable. Below are some pictures of my favorite things! I posted links above directly to some of my favorite things. Happy shopping! My next post will be about getting ready to roll, I promise!
Trailer Girl's Guide to Happy Camping 