Turning into a Glamping Gourmet

If we're going to live out of the Airstream, I'm going to have to learn how to cook and eat 'real' food, not just camp stuff. 

There are a few things I insist on. A well-dressed table. A handcrafted cocktail. A thick piece of steak, cooked to just past medium rare. Fresh vegetables and fruit. And dessert, of course.

The Aluminium Falcon is equipped with a fridge, freezer, gas range and oven, and microwave, and a kitchen sink with hot and cold running water. Aside from the fridge/freezer and sink, this past weekend we did all of our cooking outside. Dave used his new Tough Tripod over a charcoal fire to do most of our cooking. We did cheat a little, and used the propane Weber for the jalapeño poppers.

Friday night was an uncomplicated salmon dinner, served with grilled asparagus, an un-oaky Chardonnay, and brownies (brought from home) for dessert. I also brought along a kale-date salad, since kale holds up well in the fridge. 

Saturday night was more of a luxurious feast, starting in the early afternoon with appetizers (jalapeño poppers) and bourbon cocktails*, moving on to strip steaks washed down with Veuve Cliquot (Happy 20th Anniversary to us!), and then plum cobbler for dessert as the sun began to set. We finished the bottle of champagne by candlelight, and under a blanket of stars. 

I insist on a well-dressed table. 

Friday night dinner: Salmon fillets with lemon and EVOO, grilled asparagus. 

Jalapeno poppers were cooked on a Weber propane grill. These didn't translate too well to outdoor cooking, but I have some ideas on how to make them better next time. 

Camper Smash, recipe below!

Strip steaks over charcoal heat using the Tough Tripod. 

That's what I'm talking about.

Plum cobbler. Another good idea that didn't exactly translate well to outdoor cooking, but it was delicious nonetheless.

Camper Smash:
Knob Creek bourbon
Brown sugar simple syrup
Lemon juice
Mint leaves
Shake over ice

Going Primitive in the Airstream

Our latest Airstream adventure was another learning experience. This time, we rented a primitive camping site (no hookups) at Findley State Park, in Wellington, Ohio. The objective, aside from spending a perfectly gorgeous autumn weekend outside, was to figure out how to use all the amenities of our Airstream, without relying on outside water, gas, or electrical sources. When we eventually take this thing on the road for months at a time, we want to be ready for any excursions into the remotest places we can access.

Another objective of mine was to figure out how to eat well on the road. I have nothing against burgers and s'mores, but I know there's got to be a way to eat better (healthier, more 'gourmet') using open heat sources.*

We learned a lot, and doing these short trips will help us figure out what we'll need for our longer trip in December. Here's an abbreviated list of some of those things we became aware of during this trip:

• Start with full water tanks. The Airstream holds 39 gallons of fresh water, but we started with only about half that, and ran out before our weekend ended.
• Learn to conserve water! We were lucky to have a shower house 1/2 mile down the road, but there will be times when an outside source of running water won't be an option. 
• And while we're at it, we need to learn to conserve electricity, too. We ran off of the battery power, but that has its limits and we reached them, too. We need to consider other sources of light (outside, mostly) and be conscious of where we're drawing power. Of course, some things that draw on electrical power are not optional, like listening to the Tribe playoff series game through the stereo system.
• Camping in primitive sites means that most of your neighbors will be tent campers. I kept an eye on how they managed water, heat, light, etc., especially those who were camping with their kids. If they can survive in a tent all weekend, I can figure out how to survive in a camper.
• Bring a bike! It would have been really helpful to have another mode of transportation, especially since the shower house was half a mile away.
• We continue to add to our list of 'creature comforts' and other things we'll need to pick up to live more efficiently in our silver dream. I'll post that list soon so you can get an idea of what I consider the bare essentials.
• I'm learning that I like the transition state of camper living. I guess I'm used to my creature comforts, and if I don't have to give them up then, well, why should I? For example, it was pretty cold when we woke up in the morning, but, unlike the tent campers, we just had to flip a switch for heat. We also have the luxury of A/C (didn't need it this time), and if my coffee gets cold I can pop it in the microwave. I'm OK with this.

We had a fantastic weekend getaway in a gorgeous (and relatively quiet) park. Findley State Park has a well-maintained trail system that we made good use of during our visit. I'd like to come back here sometime in the dead of winter to get a better perspective of camping life in the cold and snow.

*Future blog posts will feature our gourmet cooking experiments.

Dave doing the camping thing. Which is mostly nothing!

Dave emerging into the cold morning. 

Leaves are showing a touch of fall color. 

Morning hike around the lake.

Eric joined us for a 10-mile trail run, then went off and ran it again without us. He's a trail beast!

Trial Run: Salt Fork State Park weekend

Campsite C12 at Salt Fork State Park

Full disclosure: I am not a camper.

That's not to say that I've never been camping, nor that I don't enjoy roughing it. I do. I've done plenty of tent camping over the years. It's a great way to become very intimate with wild places in a hurry, and that is very attractive. But after a few days worth of grime build-up,  sloping and rocky sleeping surfaces, ubiquitous camp smoke smell, and the absence of running water (hot and cold), I'm done. My tolerance decreases further in the event of rain.

So how do I now find myself spending a weekend at a campsite in central Ohio, on a couple of the hottest and muggiest days in this hottest and muggiest of summers? Because I can do it without having to give up most creature comforts.

It's called 'Glamping': Glamour Camping. And it's true. We had all the comforts of home, in 23 feet of space. Queen bed, full kitchen, full bathroom with shower, hot and cold running water, A/C (needed it), heat (didn't need it this time, but we will). Fridge/freezer. Microwave. And to further enforce that this isn't run-of-the-mill camping, I have a designer set of melamine dishes and I brought my Italian espresso maker.

Hot and cold running water, gas stove

Fridge, freezer, microwave, queen bed, dining table 

Dining table folds into an extra sleeping space, if necessary

My cool camping dish set that I insisted the dealer throw in when we bought the Airstream

How cool are these??!!!

Italian espresso maker. Camping should not mean having to give up the finer things. 

The 'trial weekend' was all about figuring out what we were doing, and to get a sense of the possibilities of this Airstream lifestyle.

We chose Salt Fork State Park because there is an annual trail race here that we wanted to preview. (It was the most unpleasant 10 miles of trail, ever. Fully 8.5 of those miles were calf-deep, off-camber Zika breeding ground. 'Running' was rarely an option. The heat, humidity, and never-ending spiderweb network added to the fun. Not.) Salt Fork is also far enough away, yet close enough to home, in case we needed to ditch in a hurry or if we ran into any newbie camper issues.

Worst. 10 miles. Ever. 

Didn't see him. 

The park has plenty of nice sites for RV campers the size of our Airstream. We got a shady site with full hook-ups (electric, water, and sewer), but we didn't use the sewer or water because there was a shower house nearby, and we filled our water tanks ahead of time (39 gallons of fresh water). We also had a portable propane tank to power our Weber Q, a miniature version of a standard gas grill. It was simply too hot and humid to consider a charcoal or wood fire.

The mini Weber! 

Stuff I learned about pulling a camper:
It's big. It takes a lot more space to maneuver around things. You can't be as responsive to traffic situations as you can in a zippy little car. Got a hankering for a Starbucks? Forget about the Drive-Thru window. Even stopping for gas requires a bit more forethought and planning. But it's not a big deal.

Taking up a lot of parking space. 

Stuff I learned about camping:
It's good to have a destination and objective in mind. The trail run, as awful as it was, was the thing that I was looking most forward to. That, and the filet mignon dinner and cold beer under a star-filled sky.

The surprising thing was the blissful hours of nothing to do. Some might call this 'relaxation'. I'm not very good at it, but I can see how it might become enjoyable. I brought some stuff to read, and I played around with a photo app that converts pictures into art. After about 20 minutes of this, Dave and I decided it was probably a good idea to go for a hike. We set off on a trail that quickly became an unmaintained, overgrown weed bed. After this 10-minute hike, I spent the next hour before dinner picking little green, sticky plant thingies off my clothes, while Dave fired up the grill. I started feeling like a camper!

Airstream art!

Creepy cool!

Stuff to keep my brain occupied. I'm a huge fan of ancient Roman history in Great Britain. Who knew? :)

Space Constraints:
Before we got the Airstream, we had a little pop-up A-frame pull-behind camper/trailer. It was fine, but it had it's limitations. Space was at a premium. One of us would have to go outside if the other wanted to walk from one side of the camper to the other. We don't have the same issue in the Airstream. The interior design of this thing is a marvel of engineering. Every inch of space has been well thought out, and right now there is more space than we know what to do with. Once this Airstream thing becomes more of a lifestyle than a weekend getaway, I may have a different take on this. But for now, the space feels luxurious.

Roughing it in style:
I need to figure out how to bring a gourmet element to camp cooking. Although we did enjoy our steaks and s'mores (thanks to John and Cindy Debo for the extensible marshmallow-roasting forks!), there's got to be a way to fit a martini shaker and some top chef cuisine into this new paradigm. I'll find out and let you know.

Our brief foray into the world of RV camping was over too soon. It took us about maybe an hour or so to pack up, disconnect, and clean up before heading back to civilization. Which really isn't all that different from living in the Airstream.

Next up: another weekend getaway in early fall, possibly Findley State Park (great trails). Then we're off to Kentucky's Bourbon Trail over Christmas. Let the adventures begin!

A Bright and Shiny New Adventure Begins

This has been a dream of ours for a while: to escape for a few months every year to some new location, to explore the country at a slow roll. To live a wanderer's lifestyle. Camping out in some remote and wild location, with just enough creature comforts to keep this non-camper from losing her mind. Our new 2016 Airstream 'International Serenity' 23FB should be just the right thing.

Dave and I are excited to begin this next chapter of our lives, and look forward to many years of adventures in 'The Aluminium* Falcon'!

Next weekend is the maiden voyage. I'll be posting our experiences here, and hope that you'll join us as we figure out how to make this all work.

*We're using the British spelling of the thirteenth element. We like the allusion to our favorite Star Wars space vehicle.