Mammoth: Preparing for the Third Voyage

                            two hundred pounds of flour, thirty pounds of pilot bread, seventy-five
                   pounds of bacon, ten pound of rice, five pounds of coffee, two pounds of tea,
                  twenty-five pounds of sugar, half a bushel of dried beans, one bushel of dried
                 fruit, two pound of saleratus [baking soda], ten pounds of salt, half a bushel of
                  corn meal; and it is well to have half a bushel of corn, parched and ground; a
                 small keg of vinegar should also be taken.
                                     --Joel Palmer, Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains, 1906


I've discovered something surprising about RVing vs. tent camping. Preparing for tent camping used to be a big hassle. We kept our gear in a single closet but still had to pick and choose and pack up what we needed for the specifics of the trip. Our kitchen gear stayed ready-loaded in a big plastic box, and while we always cleaned and put away the pans after each trip, we weren't real good about replenishing consumables. Before each trip we had to pull out the box and check the paper towel supply, salt, foil and other such niceties of civilized life.

Then we had to consider food and preparation. We typically ate "real food" while camping, even more so than in real life. But--as you will know if you ever eat real food--it takes preparation. Baking potatoes have to be washed and wrapped in foil; vegetables for skewers have to be cut in chunks; meat marinaded and cut up. For pancakes we cheated with a boxed mix and for beans we just threw in a can, however I did once try a semi-successful experiment with homemade baked beans that I dried and packed in "just add water" containers. Then, of course there were snacks like homemade trail mix or chocolate-chip cookies from scratch.

All this had to be done last minute--okay, no. I lie. All of this ended up being done last minute. Usually when we were tired from work and cranky and already late getting to bed before the early start next day.

Things have changed. Or maybe we've changed. Probably the latter. Maybe not changed enough, but we're working on that. Here's how:

We keep the RV stocked. How disciplined is that? Our methods may be archaic but the results are not.

There's a list (on paper, hanging on a hook in the kitchen) of consumables that we update during the trip if they need to be restocked. Food prep in advance is hardly necessary--there's a fully stocked kitchen in the thing. No washing, repackaging, or cutting up is necessary--just throw the grocery store harvest directly in the fridge. Shove the trail mix ingredients in a cupboard. You can pour the wasteful little plastic bags into the reusable bag and mix them when you've plenty of time to kill because there are no clocks, no deadlines, and no demands on your time other than the dog needing a potty walk.

As aging takes its toll and days ineluctably shorten, we need all the time we can get for important things--staring into sunsets, dabbling fishing lines in lakes, stumbling around with binoculars and shining flashlights on campfires.