March '24 Canlife Correspondence - Panels, Product Testing, Park Week & Prizes
What makes a home, feel like a home?
You know how it feels when you return to your dwelling from a long absence? Dropping back into our cozy three-quarter bed in Hamlet, with his oversized fleece duvet tucked into a warm wood paneled nook, while parked along some gorgeous section of the Pacific coastline always feels like a dream. While it doesn't really matter where he's parked, when we return from traveling without him for a few weeks or months, it is always coming home for us.
When we travel without Hamlet for work, visiting family or friends, our stuff has a way of migrating to the outer edges of whatever space we're in. The kitchen is in one space, the bathroom in another, the bed and closet lie on opposite sides of the room. I'm not trying to get my steps in between the bedroom and the kitchen... that's for hiking! The bigger the space, the further our flotsam spreads, until it all sort of feels uncontained. We grow to whatever the size of the fishbowl, and it makes us crazy to have our stuff scattered all over the place rather than neatly contained. And BTW, have you ever noticed the inverse relationship between the cost of a hotel room and the distance between bed and toilet?
So does this mean that "home" boils down to the well-organized containment of stuff? Or is it something more? Is it something we must search for, or return to, as some poets suggest? Is it more defined by some esoteric feeling we get from the connections and acceptance we find in and around that space?
One inspiration for downsizing our home to something light enough to travel came after 3 weeks of backpacking through Italy and Croatia immediately after leading a short-term study abroad program for college students in 2006. During the nearly 2 months away from our home in the Blue Ridge Mountains we discovered that we had everything we really needed on our backs. So, why did we need a closet full of clothes, kitchen full of appliances, or basement shelves stocked with useful (but now forgotten) things?
Backpacks might be a tad too light for the long-term, but where is the sweet spot? This is what our first few years of road life -- what we call #canlife -- was all about. Rather than searching for a new town in which to put down roots, it was about discovering just how little we needed to thrive. And for us, it is this cute and tidy space in which to sleep, cook, eat, converse and work all within the vintage chic from a mid-century canned-ham style travel trailer. We can find anything we want within a short reach and our camper manages to fit into just about every campsite we've tried. It is about being able to change the view we see when we rise in the morning and fling open our door. Everyone, if they are lucky, has to decide what they need in order to feel at home in the spaces that they inhabit, but for us 72 sq ft just about does it. Anything more spread out, and more stationary, ironically feels more claustrophobic.
Over the last two months, we've been so fortunate to share our message, insights, and knowledge with many current and soon-to-be RVers. As a job, it's rewarding to feel like we can inspire others through many of the choices we've made. But it's always meaningful to return to the road, with our home that rolls behind it, and feel like we're living it instead of just talking about it.
"Keep It Light Enough to Travel" - The Be Good Tanyas
Will it freeze? Will it burn? Will it drown? Will it rattle apart? We do a lot of product review videos, and if you've ever seen one, you recognize the pattern -- open the box, install the product, test the product, and report on what you observe. This time we got to have a lot more fun while we tested out the efficacy of Renogy's safety, reliability, and durability claims -- all of which we put to the test while visiting our friends at Three Oaks Farm & Vineyard, home of Revolve Wine!
Blog of the Month - Renogy's Latest Bifacial Panel Line Up
Thinking about installing solar panels? Check out bifacial panels. Unlike traditional solar panels with electrical current producing solar cells on one side, bifacial panels take advantage of both surfaces of the panel. Either in a tilted or flat installation, bifacial panels can be up to 30% more efficient than their mono-facial cousins. Check out the many options that Renogy offers in this category of solar panels, as well as our product testing video.
The Season of Camping is Upon Us!
It's spring break week in California and the campground in Bodega Bay is simply overrun with kids. Kids riding scooters, walking around barefoot, climbing the dunes, racing around on bikes, and even experimenting with keeping a nerf football aloft with an electric leaf blower -- while annoying to the ears it's inspirational to the heart, and they were doing some cool experimentation. They were kids being kids, not plugged into some game or screen, but being themselves in their semi-feral state in a natural setting.
Camping is one of those things that reconnects us to that inner kid, the person full of possibility and no agenda. Since it's camping season, here some of our favorite gear, tools, and apps to help you make the most of it.
National Park Week Begins April 20th!
Calling all National Park Nerds!! Where will you be this April 20-28? Along with all the special events offered by the NPS, we've got several fun prizes for a few lucky winners this year! Follow us on social media (Facebook and Instagram) for details about how to play along. Prizes include annual memberships to Harvest Hosts and The Dyrt PRO as well as an America the Beautiful annual pass! Planning a National Park camping road trip this summer? Check out our abundant resources for some inspiration!
Two years ago, we were knee deep in our Alaska trip planning. This meant that we were accumulating some good gear to combat rain and bugs, and purchased our "Milestone" the mile-by-mile guide to driving the Alaska Canadian Highway. If you're thinking about giving America's Last Frontier a visit, we've summarized a ton of resources in one handy place on our website.
Recipe of the Month -- Vegetarian Jambalaya
Inspired by our recent trip to New Orleans with some of our best buddies who've been there 20+ times, we decided to try our hand at making some vegetarian jambalaya and complement it with a NOLA inspired craft cocktail. If you've followed our recipes over the years, you know we don't eat meat, but have never shied away from flavor, spice, and texture. We jazzed up this traditional Creole recipe with delicious plant-based protein and roasted vegetables, then paired it with a tropical Huma Huma cocktail. Now if that doesn't inspire you to fire up the grill...?
Parting Shot -- Velella Velella
It's rare that we find something on a beach that we've never seen...or ever even heard of. Along the beaches of northern California millions of small bright blue creatures washed up along the sand marking both high tide and storm surge. Looking like a little jellyfish with a sail on top, they were blown ashore where they dried out, died and scattered like potato chips in the wind. Velella velella belongs to the phylum Cnidaria, and like Man-o-War jellies they are more than one organism made of cells, a colony of polyps making up the entire being. As a an evolutionary strategy, some have a left-handed sail, while others have a right-handed one. Certain winds might favor one kind of sail over another so that not all will meet the same fate of dispersal or untimely beaching. While sad to see, these strandings happen to many species, and create opportunities for others.
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