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Small Obsession

November 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’m developing a little infatuation with old vintage travel trailers.  I’ve always liked them.  They are cute and charming.  I’m starting to peruse Craigslist more often looking for old trailers for sale that perhaps I could restore them and make them colorful and fun and mine.

My family thinks I’m nutty.

I’ve been following the journey of Britt Reints as she dropped everything to travel in a trailer with her family.  Her family of four live in a trailer.  They sold everything and off they went.

I am so envious of her spirit.  I want to restore an old trailer and then go off and live this spirit, but too many “real life” complications make me afraid to just pick up and go.  I’ve told Bob that we should do it.  Unfortunately, he’s entirely too practical.

In the meantime (while I talk Bob into selling everything and moving into a tiny trailer) I’m mentally making a list of the first places I would like to visit.  In no particular order, for no particular reason (well…I LOVE New Orleans and would love to visit every chance I’m given).

Portland Oregon

I’ve been to Portland and it is absolutely gorgeous.  Perhaps it’s all the rain that they get, but the surrounding areas are lush and green and it is like wandering through a magical forest.  Even the city is pretty.  I think parking a little trailer next to one of their many rivers would be heaven.

Grand Canyon West Rim Skywalk

It is no secret around here that I LOVE the Grand Canyon.  I’ve been to both the South and North Rim’s (North is so beautiful!) but I’ve never been to the West Rim…home of the Skywalk.  Now, the Skywalk scares the bejesus out of me…but WOW!  Can you imagine those views?  I might just have to take a Xanax and do it!

Park City Utah (photo credit: Jill Richards/National Geographic)

I have never visited Park City but I’ve seen pictures of the area and it is just gorgeous.  All of my boys would love to learn to snowboard, so what better place to learn that picturesque Utah?  It is a growing community and Rustler Homes look like it would be a beautiful place to live (if I ever decided to settle down again).

New Orleans, Louisiana

My favorite city in the world.  *sigh*  I have yet to be in the city during a Mardi Gras so I would hang out in NOLA during the Spring time, before it gets too humid.  It is an amazingly vibrant city and I would love for my boys to learn about the culture in this old charming city.

So, if you had a travel trailer and planned on taking off to explore this great country of ours….where would you go first?  What is somewhere you would visit?  Would you plan it out or just go where the wind blew you?

*dreaming*

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Camping Recipe – Chicken Fajitas

August 12, 2010 By 9 Comments

I actually had a really good time planning our week long camping trip to the Grand Canyon.  Really, if you’ve ever been camping, you spend a lot of energy and time on planning menus.  You want it to be good, but have easy clean up and easy storage.  It’s not like you can bring your giant kitchen pantry and refrigerator with you.  I found the perfect camping recipe for Chicken Fajitas that is both delicious and (almost) mess free.

Supplies needed:

  • boneless/skinless chicken breast (1 for each camper)
  • taco seasoning (1 tsp per chicken breast)
  • your favorite salsa (2 tbls per chicken breast)
  • can of black beans
  • can of corn
  • cooking spray
  • ziplock baggies
  • heavy duty foil

At Home:

Buy however many boneless/skinless chicken breasts you need for your group.  While still at home, prep your chicken.  This way most of the mess it left in your kitchen.

Slice or cube your chicken breast.  Place 1 chicken breast in a ziplock baggie, add 2 tablespoons salsa and 1 teaspoon taco seasoning to the baggie.  Mix, seal and freeze.

I put all my individual baggies inside of a larger ziplock bag to keep them together.  I’m thinking of perhaps wrapping the chickens in the foil while at home so that I can skip the transfer step at the campground.  I think it should work, it’s something to consider.

At Camp:

It should only take a day or two for your chickens to thaw in the cooler.  So just don’t plan on eating these day 1 and you should be fine.

Remove your thawed chickens from your cooler.  Place 1 chicken breast onto a square of heavy duty foil (I folded it and doubled it up) sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Add a spoonful of black beans and corn to the top of your chicken.  You could get creative with your veggies here if you like, but taking a can of corn and a can of beans is much easier than bringing fresh veggies.

Fold your foil into a “packet” and make sure the ends are sealed tight.

Place chicken packets onto the fire.  We were lucky at our North Rim Campground that we had fireplace grates over our fire.  But you could place the packets directly in the fire if you had to.  You could also use a bar-b-que.

Cook for approximately 30 minutes.  The time will completely depend on how hot your fire is and if the chicken is in direct flame or not.  Check them after 20-30 minutes to see if they are done.

When done, carefully unwrap your HOT foil pouches.  Wrap up your chicken fajitas in tortillas and top with your favorite toppings (we had cheese and sour cream).

Enjoy!

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Campfire Cinnamon Rolls

August 10, 2010 By 7 Comments

Did you know that you can still have warm gooey cinnamon rolls even while “roughing” it?  I learned, while at the Grand Canyon last week, that I could “bake” cinnamon rolls right on the campfire.  It really kind of happened by accident, but we’ll keep that between you and me.

I actually found a recipe on this site that explained how to bake canned cinnamon rolls inside a hollowed out orange.  This was my original plan.  Until a squashed orange and a hot trailer compartment molded my oranges and tried to thwart my plans.  But being the former Girl Scout that I am, I improvised!

I knew you could bake on a campfire using a Dutch Oven.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have one handy (I don’t have one at all).  But I did have my favorite cast iron skillet.  So I placed my 5 large, Cinnabon style Cinnamon rolls into my skillet, put a lid on it, and placed it on the fire.

I told the boys not to get their hopes up.

But, after about 10 minutes, I took a peek…

HOLY COW!  We had half baked cinnamon rolls!  WOOT!

The instructions on the can of rolls said to bake for 20 minutes.  So I checked again a bit later and Viola! Cinnamon rolls.

Now, the bottoms were a little overdone (burned).  But we just picked the black part off and enjoyed the gooey goodness anyways.  My advice for you (and myself) is next time, don’t place the skillet directly over the flame.  Keep it to the side, but still in the heat, so that the bottom doesn’t burn.

Now, if you are planning a camping trip, be sure to at least have a good cast iron skillet with you.  I hope to be getting a cast iron Dutch Oven before we go out again.  There is so much you can do on a campfire with a dutch oven.

Anyhow, take a can of cinnamon rolls with you and you’ll be the most popular person at camp!

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We Survived the Grand Canyon

August 8, 2010 By 22 Comments


My family had the best (near) week at the Grand Canyon’s North Rim!  I’ve talked about our camping before (we do it a lot), but usually our trips include a lot of my large extended family.  This was the first time just the 5 of us embarked on an adventure of our own.  I thought it would be fun to plan something big and educational.  I think the Grand Canyon provided that.

I made the decision to to visit the North Rim rather than the more popular South Rim, because, well…it’s less popular.  The North Rim has about 1/4 the annual visitors as the South side and it’s a lot more rural/rustic.  We were lucky that I planned ahead and got reservations in the absolutely beautiful North Rim Campground.  The campground made it so that we were only a few hundred feet from the edge of the Grand Canyon.  It was very cool!

I took LOTS of pictures and had a really great time planning a fun camping menu.  I actually had quite a few fun food ideas that I will share with you soon, so check back.

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I took 282 pictures on the 4 days we were gone.  Crazy tourist!  So I’ve broken them down into a few themes so I can share them with you.  These pictures above are some of  my favorites of the North Rim in general.  The top one (biggest) was taken from Bright Angel Point, the highest elevation on the North Rim (8100+ feet if I remember right).  The bottom middle shot was taken from my camping chair at our campground…space 33.

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Speaking of high points…Bob took every chance he could to scare the ever living bejeezus out of me.  He would go right out to the very edge of the canyon, with several hundred feet below and yell “take my picture!”  I wanted to vomit he wanted to look down.  Crazy person.  The top right photo above was atop the 10 foot “knoll” on Bright Angel Point.  You could not of paid me a million dollars to go up there.  I was happy with both feet firmly planted on the trail, thank you very much.

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These are my favorite shots of all three boys.  As shocking as it seems, I got several pictures with all three of them actually smiling and (sort of) cooperating.  I think they had a really good time.  At all National Parks they have what’s called a Junior Ranger Program.  We were given an activity book and they completed tasks based on their age.  It helped the boys learn about the Grand Canyon, the environment and the nature around them.  It was fun to sit at our picnic table and talk about all that they were seeing and hearing around them.  Then we helped them complete the book and the next day we returned it to the Visitor Center where they were sworn in as Junior Rangers.  It was very fun and they are very proud of their badges!

Here are some of my random favorites out of the 282 pictures I took:

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L-R clockwise:  Bright Angel Trail, me and the boys on the Transept Trail, me and the boys on the Coconino Overlook (North Kaibab Trail), boys being sworn in as Jr. Rangers, Anthony at sunset, looking through some rocks.

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L-R Clockwise:  Anthony on Bright Angel Point, Bob & Anthony on Bright Angel Trail, Fave of Gabriel, looking up a mossy tree, me and Bob (awww), a mule deer that visited the campground.

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And then, on our last night at the canyon, I finally got to see the spectacular Grand Canyon Sunset.  A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

Bob and I talked a lot during the 12 hour drive home and we’ve decided two things:

  1. We are going to plan more National Park trips. It was amazing and beautiful.  Such a great learning opportunity for our children to learn to appreciate the Country that so many of us take for granted.  There are 58 National Parks in the US and we plan on taking the boys to as many as we can before they are too old and don’t want to go with us anymore.
  2. Bob and I are going to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, stay the night, and hike back out. It was absolutely the most awe inspiring place I had ever been.  And since I’m turning over a new “healthy” leaf and trying to live my life rather than just sit it out…I think hiking the canyon is a great thing to add to my “bucket list.”

Being the good blogger that I am, I took pictures of some of our fun camping meals.  I’ll be back later this week with how-to’s so you can use them on your next camping trip, too.

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