Time For a Change?

S.D. Making the Coffee

Really, it was the coffee that was the tipping point. Up until the morning at Gathering Grounds when the owner emphatically urged us to get the Hario coffee grinder  we'd been happy using pre-ground coffee. Every morning (each one suddenly becoming successfully colder than that last) one of us would bundle up in every possible piece of clothing, crawl out of the tent, open the car hatch, carry the kitchen gear box over to the picnic table, get the gas stove out of the car, open it up, pump up the fuel tank, light the stove, dig the kettle out of the kitchen box, go back to the car, fill the kettle up with water from the jug, set the kettle to boil, warm up the coffee mugs, set up the pour-over with coffee, bring the water to a boil, then do the pour over - just as the other one of us crawled out of the tent. The idea of adding freshly ground coffee to the routine was appealing, but just too much work to add to an already lengthy process.

We needed a way to simplify the coffee routine, and for that matter it would be nice to do something about the cold. Tents are great at keeping out the rain, bugs and dirt but not so good at keeping you warm. And have we mentioned that using the solar shower in the cold was starting to get tricky? Sure it would heat up in the sun. Somedays even up to 104 degrees but by then it would be 4:00 or so, and the air temperature would be dropping into the 60s.

So when the coffee guy suggested a coffee grinder a small RV began to really make sense. We'd (S.D. especially) had been already thinking about RVs and been researching the options. He'd learned that Bruce's towing capacity was very limited. Any RV we got would have to be small. That seemed fine as we really didn't want anything that would limit our ability to stay at the backwoods campgrounds that we most enjoyed. We also didn't want to complicate our adventures any more than necessary. At the same time, a coffee grinder, maybe a small grill, maybe even our bikes, not to mention a warm bed and shower could be great additions to our adventures. A little more 'luxury' could make also make our adventures a bit more sustainable. Something we'd be happy doing longer. 

And so, still hiking and exploring our way around Washington and Oregon, our search began.