Campfires n S'mores

Current Location: Valley of the Rogue State Park, OR

Campfires n Smore's...two of our favorite things. OK, maybe only one favorite. The other we appreciate on rare occasion.

Last night we had our first campfire in what seems like eons. And how we enjoyed it. We love relaxing around a campfire. Why is it so mesmerizing to watch those flames dance? Even though it was quite warm (still hovering around 90 well after 7pm), how could we camp without having a campfire?

And how could we have a campfire without making s'mores? S'mores always sound good, but in truth, they are really too sweet for us to indulge on very often. It is typical that we buy a bag of marshmallows, make one s'more each, and usually watch the rest of the bag go stale before we're ready for another one. But alas, we may have discovered a secret! Somehow we got talking about spreading a little peanut butter on the graham cracker...our justification is that the protein would make it a little healthier! :) And how could it not be good? Peanut butter and chocolate are a great combination. Peanut butter and graham crackers aren't too bad either. And as a kid, I sure enjoyed my fluff-a-nutter sandwiches. So why not put it all together? As expected, it was good. But what was an even better surprise, the peanut butter cuts the sweetness so we each had 2!

As a matter of fact, that was our dinner. Yes, seriously. Hey, we're adults here and we can eat what we want! We did have a healthy snack of hummus and veggies a little earlier along with our cocktails of moscow mules. We got turned on to moscow mules through Oprah, who shared them on her camping trip to Yosemite. If you're looking for a refreshing drink on a hot afternoon, give one of these a try. Although we've made them following her recipe, we've found that our simplified version tastes just as good: combine half a can of ginger ale, juice of 1 lime, and a shot (or 2) of vodka and serve over ice. Delish!

I know I said it before, but I'll say it again...we really miss camping. This is one of many conundrums we have with full-timing. While RV Parks have their time and place and we do enjoy the convenience of full hookups, getting away from civilization is the way of life we really prefer. Unfortunately, having a large rig significantly limits the type of camping we can do. Don't get me wrong, we love our rig. It is very comfortable to live in full-time, but it comes with limitations. There were many reasons that we ended up with something this large, some of which are justified and some of which I attribute to beginner's pitfalls. I recall when comparing rigs, saying several times 'a few feet longer won't really make any difference'. Well, we learned quickly that a few feet can make a huge difference, not only in the floorplans and storage, but also when it comes to parking. We also overestimated the space we would need. We have yet to fully fill every storage compartment. It's a nice luxury not to have it all crammed full, but there are times that I would gladly give up the space. We frequently talk about significantly downsizing, but most likely that won't happen until we're animal-free, which unfortunately is probably not that far away. So until then, we continue to learn what works and doesn't work for us. I think it is a continual adjustment process, but then again, so is life.