Freedom in a Can: Adventures with Hamlet

Love National Parks?  Earth Day kicks off the Annual National Park Week sponsored by the National Park Service.   As self-proclaimed National Park Nerds who have visited nearly every national park in the nation, we’ve made it an annual tradition to share our own National Park Week Trivia Game to celebrate this fun week!  Each year, w e give away an annual U.S. National Park Pass (aka the America the Beautiful Pass worth $80) and a 1-year subscription to The Dyrt PRO (our favorite campground locator app worth $35.99) to the person who answers the most trivia questions correctly during the 9 days of National Park Week. Planning your own national park road trip?  Check out our Tips, Tricks, & Favorite Resources for Exploring Your National Parks here !   Explore The Dyrt PRO campground locator app and  get 30 days for FREE! Here's a recap of the questions (and answers) from our 2023 National Park Trivia Contest... QUESTIONS: Question #1:  How ...

We've always referred to this newsletter as "almost monthly" because we couldn't promise that life wasn't going to get in the way of a monthly deadline.  But, April 30th came and went in the middle of our Hamlet interior restoration.  Now that we're back on the road, and Hamlet is all fresh and shiny, we're catching up on our "other work."  Hamlet Renovation 3.0 "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!" This line from The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again!" resonates with us on Hamlet's most recent 65th Birthday renovation.  There's been just enough time in between projects that we've perhaps forgotten how much work is involved, and just how sore we become after holding an electric sander over our heads for hours on end.  While it's oh so easy to kvetch about middle-aged aging, we have to remember that we got sore even in our 40's when we first dived into bringing Hamlet back to life.  Hopefully we...

It's caaaammping season, y'all!  No matter what's going on the in the world that's troubling you, getting away from the city and out into nature  is one of those things that reduces stress and reconnects you to your inner kid.  We have both been campers for most of our lives, and since 2012, we've been full-timer RVers --though we still leave Hamlet behind occasionally and get out into the backcountry! When we present seminars at RV shows, attend rallies, and stay in campgrounds, we get tons of questions from other RVers about our favorite and most useful camping gear, apps, and RV accessories.  To answer that call , we share some of our favorite  camping gear that we simply couldn't live without!   While we don't have room for too much in our Hamlet, we simply couldn't thrive without these KEY items. We'll start off with some  awesome outdoor brands  who make products which are directly in-line with our values and traveling lifestyle. These ...

Vintage California, Kindred Spirits We spotted the mid-century Avion trailer from a quarter mile away, with its 13 panel arching aluminum half-dome glimmering in the sun.  The truck pulling this sweet, sweet rig had a Maine license plate and a truck camper in the bed.  We suspected that we might just become friends before they even pulled into the  adjacent  campsite, at Jamala Beach campground along the central California coast, just north of Santa Barbara.  It's not every day that we meet other folks going full-time in a restored, vintage RV.  Sure, the occasional weekend warrior shows up with some significantly refurbished piece of history, but it's rare that someone chooses this kind of rig for their post-COVID nomadic living & remote working lifestyle.  So, when we do meet a few of these unicorns, we've got more than a few things to share! Megan, Ben, and their adorable canine companion, Banjo, have only been on the road since February when th...

“You see, this is why we don’t make reservations!” Shari said, shaking her head as we tried to put some distance between us and the incoming blizzard.  We’d made plans to cross back over the Sierra Mountains and explore more of the California coast, even booked a night with a Boondockers Welcome host; but, the 2 inches of snow we woke up to at 5,000 feet in Reno, NV made us worry about how much was dumping at the 10,000-foot Donner Pass over which we'd have to cross.  We chose Plan B, stayed on the east side of the mountains, and drove straight to the lowest elevation on the continent in Death Valley National Park . Even at this altitude, the recent storms that rocked California , impacted the park taking out the power and forcing several road closures.  Fortunately for us at the generator free zone of Texas Springs Campground, we’re safe and sound and happily running on solar power.   In the words of Paul Petzhold, the founder of the National Outdoor...

The roads are terrible! The mosquitoes are as big as your head! It never stops raining! You’ll get robbed along the ALCAN, or break down in the middle of nowhere without cell phone service! Grizzlies are everywhere and they break into RV’s and cars! You’ll run out of gas! You’ll destroy your vehicle! The border guards will search your RV!   And on and on the rumors fly… Last year at this time, these were some of the worries running through our heads as we planned our Alaskan adventures. We are so glad that we did not give in nor give up on our dreams. This trip gave us not only a lifetime of stories, but also a new found confidence in how we choose to travel with our vintage camper. After nearly a decade of full-time RV living, we finally made it to our 50th U.S. state, our Last Frontier, in 2022! We spent 5 months traveling from Bellingham, WA through British Columbia, a small portion of Northwest Territories, the Yukon, all around Alaska, and back to Washington. ...