Camp Coffee

Morning coffee is a ritual.

We must have good coffee, made in a French press with freshly ground beans each and every morning. Whether we’re camping, away for a weekend, or at home, this is how we start our days.

For camping, we bought a manual grinder. I read some reviews about manual grinders with complaints that it actually takes a little effort, oh-my-god!! You have to manually grind it?! Absurd!! Well, it works like a charm. Grind for about one minute (two for Amelia), and you have a nice, coarse grind perfect for the French press.

On our maiden voyage to Delaware last April we camped in Henlopen State Park. The park had no electric or water at sites; we used solar and filled up a 5 gallon jug of water every few days. The Park forbid the use of generators. Yay!

The campground was nearly empty and we had no neighbors for most of our stay. Then a giant 5th wheel RV came and parked right next to us. They were a family of four. After they got situated with parking the RV and setting up camp, they came over said hello and checked out the Teardrop.

Before they left the man and I had this conversation –

Man - “You drink coffee in the mornings?"
Me - “Yes.”
Man – “Boy, that's the one thing I can’t go without.”
Me – “Yeah, me too, gotta get that caffeine.”
Man – “You’re welcome to bring your coffee maker over, (with a whisper and a wink) cuz’ I brought my generator, it’s whisper quiet.”
Me – “We don’t use a coffee maker.”
Man – “What? Then, how do you make your coffee?”
Me – “We manually grind our beans with this grinder and then we use the French press, no electricity. Best camp coffee ever.”
Man – “What’s a French press?”
Me – “It’s this.” (show him the press)
Man – “Huh, well, if you change your mind! (with a whisper and a wink) I’ll be running it for just a few minutes in the morning, and it IS whisper quiet.”

Our coffee is ready within about 5 minutes every morning. Put the water on, grind the beans, steep, plunge. Drink.

He ran his whisper quiet generator (and it was really quiet for a generator) for about half an hour each morning for his coffee.

Buy yourself a French press, and leave your generator at home.

-Leah

Observations of RV Life

Your issues, fears and prejudices don’t go away just because you’re on vacation. They comfortably travel with you, don’t take up a lot of room, and frequently are inconspicuous travel companions.

The frivolous things that separate us are always here: money, gender, religion,
race, class, sexual preference, insecurities, judgment. Funny, because all these things are really quite private (yes, even gender can be private – welcome to the 21st century). We judge each others private worlds, places we don’t belong.

I am no different. I won’t lie and say I don’t judge, I judge – a LOT, too much. I judge people that judge me, I judge myself for judging them. I’m an equal opportunity judger. I would never do to you what I wouldn’t do to myself.

Welcome to my tiny world of dichotomy.

What I’ve noticed so far is that the large RV world is dominated by conservative, American flag-flying, somewhat rich, doughy, older white people usually traveling with at least one small, annoying dog. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things per se; in fact, I haven’t had a lot of judgment about most of my neighbors so far. I have given in to the fact that I can’t chose my neighbors. I will have neighbors no matter what, and I’m far outnumbered.

The number of people we have had conversations with in the campgrounds so far is four. When I say conversations, I mean people who come into our site or we go into their site and actually talk. Four people.

There has been little to no eye contact as well. Is this a South thing? Is this an RV thing? Is this a vacation thing? Is this a gay thing? Is this an age thing? Is this a sign of the times thing? Yes to all those questions.

When we’re in New York or Maine or Massachusetts there seems to be a lot more eye contact, a lot more conversation, a lot more hellos. I am very much a solitary individual. I would prefer being alone in most situations.

And now I find myself three and half weeks into the trip missing those casual exchanges.

-Leah