Food & other stuff - Page 2

Kristi · 04-11-2014, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Javi

I've been trying to make a meal plan and grocery list for 41 years... so far no joy

At least I'm not alone in the leaky boat....

.

It's not the meal plan that gets us, it's all the snacks! Gotta have apples, grapes, crackers, chips, marshmallows, string cheese, and, and, and....

ed cobos · 04-11-2014, 03:07 PM

Before we bought the trailer I was like you- traveling light and quick, ,but times have changed! I always complain that we pack in too much food but in the end when we are eating well and not having to go and buy, I tell my wife that I planned things really well.
Enjoy

AlbertaRvMan · 04-11-2014, 03:45 PM

I'm probably going to pack a cooler full of bacon each trip, one thing I've learned is to never run out of bacon!

Blackbears · 05-16-2017, 05:27 AM

My DW is great about saving space and packing the minimum when it comes to nonessentials. I credit the packing routine we became accustomed to camping in our pop up.

rhagfo · 05-16-2017, 07:34 AM

Wow, we leave the 5er loaded with cloths and staple food. Laundry is taken home washed and returned to the 5er mid week.
When we leave for a trip, the contents of the home refer go into a tote and is the starter load for the RV and then shop from there.
Same happens on the way home empty the refer into the tote and restock the house.
We have not brought the 5er home to load or prep for a trip in about four years.
Yes, we are lucky storage yard is about two miles from the house.
Then also DW LOVES to cook and is a great meal planer, I only wish I could plan meals a tenth as well as her.

Desert185 · 05-16-2017, 08:57 AM

All this is part of the camping experience. I, for one, am happy for the effort to enjoy the net experience. Having the trailer at home, plugged in, does make the process easier. I would have a hard time storing the trailer elsewhere.

Gotta remember to check the battery water today...

canesfan · 05-16-2017, 09:05 AM

I always have too much food, even with a menu "planned". But I'd much rather have too much than not enough. The main problem I seem to have is the beer keeps evaporating and I always seem to end up having to buy more.

I keep mine in my yard, plugged in, ready to go. Just throw in last minute clothes and food. I hated it when I couldn't keep it in the yard.

Javi · 05-16-2017, 09:09 AM

Well I see that someone has resurrected this old thread... As an update... things have not changed all that much... 4 weeks of groceries and clothing are still loaded into the trailer for a 4 night trip and unloaded in 4 hours after we get home...

I have resigned myself to this, even though internally I'm screaming and gnashing my teeth... outwardly I'm calm and nodding my head YES dear....

Desert185 · 05-16-2017, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Javi

Well I see that someone has resurrected this old thread... As an update... things have not changed all that much... 4 weeks of groceries and clothing are still loaded into the trailer for a 4 night trip and unloaded in 4 hours after we get home...

I have resigned myself to this, even though internally I'm screaming and gnashing my teeth... outwardly I'm calm and nodding my head YES dear....

You're a wise man. I am slowly learning the lesson as the wifey and I meet somewhere in the middle...sometimes.

66joej · 05-16-2017, 10:09 AM

She does the food I do the booze. "Even Steven" I think.

**sourdough** · 05-16-2017, 11:11 AM

Don't know how I missed this thread in the beginning!

We used be able to go minimalist but as time has progressed, as well as our likes, it has changed.....a lot.

Now, before we take a trip we bring the trailer into our property next door and plug it in. Over the course of 2 days we load it. We generally camp during the "off" seasons so clothing runs the gamut from swim suits to long sleeve shirts and jackets - all stuffed in. Needless to say, quite a lot of stuff.

Foodwise, after arriving at places to find that the kinds of food that we like may or may not be available, or a grocery store for that matter, we take anything and everything we think we might need...PLUS. I like certain brands of canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, pickles etc. so we load them all up. I am partial to TX beef that I get from my local meat market. When traveling out of state I usually don't like the meat, especially in FL, so we load the freezer to the gills with beef, TX smoked sausage etc.

Upon return we always find that we loaded too much. Many of the clothes are never touched; we don't go through all the meat; canned goods are still "canned"

. We allocate 2 days for unloading. This also usually includes linens, towels etc.

We have resigned ourselves to the fact that that's just the way it's going to be. In our case it's because I'M phobic about having exactly what I want. I guess it would be stressful if we were pressed for time....but we're not so we just have a good time at it, finish up and put the trailer back in the storage barn until the next trip; then look forward to doing it all again

**chuckster57** · 05-16-2017, 12:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Javi

Well I see that someone has resurrected this old thread... As an update... things have not changed all that much... 4 weeks of groceries and clothing are still loaded into the trailer for a 4 night trip and unloaded in 4 hours after we get home...

I have resigned myself to this, even though internally I'm screaming and gnashing my teeth... outwardly I'm calm and nodding my head YES dear....

That makes two of us. With it stored in the back yard, no need to rush.

Pull Toy · 05-16-2017, 02:11 PM

Pass the Peanut Butter!

The "Yes dear..." is a great start... but under no circumstances let her hear you say that... you'll live to regret it!!!

LOL

gearhead · 05-17-2017, 03:45 PM

We hadn't used the 5th since early last summer, 1st grandbaby arriving in August and all. So we had some canned goods in the camper from last year. We bought fresh stuff...snacks, pasta mixes etc. for the recent trip up to Virginia. On that recent trip I opened a can of soup, dang it was almost dried out. Date was good, barely. I ate it. Didn't open any more and threw the rest away. Carried some good Cajun meat market sausage with us and I grilled that up at the racetrack. But we never thawed the boudin stuffed chicken so that is back in the home freezer. I swear I'm still unloading junk. We are going again in July so its almost time to start over.
I will tell ya this....I can pack that cabover camper for myself and be on the road in 3 hours. No 28 pairs of shoes in there. A few steaks, mac and cheese, Bush's beans, crackers, Cracker Barrel sharp cheddar, bourbon, and a pocket knife.
Boogity boogity boogity....

66joej · 05-17-2017, 04:21 PM

Boogity boogity boogity....[/QUOTE]

Hey gearhead isn't that DWs saying?
Love NASCAR been a fan since it was Winston Cup back in the 70s.

**sourdough** · 05-17-2017, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gearhead

We hadn't used the 5th since early last summer, 1st grandbaby arriving in August and all. So we had some canned goods in the camper from last year. We bought fresh stuff...snacks, pasta mixes etc. for the recent trip up to Virginia. On that recent trip I opened a can of soup, dang it was almost dried out. Date was good, barely. I ate it. Didn't open any more and threw the rest away. Carried some good Cajun meat market sausage with us and I grilled that up at the racetrack. But we never thawed the boudin stuffed chicken so that is back in the home freezer. I swear I'm still unloading junk. We are going again in July so its almost time to start over.
I will tell ya this....I can pack that cabover camper for myself and be on the road in 3 hours. No 28 pairs of shoes in there. A few steaks, mac and cheese, Bush's beans, crackers, Cracker Barrel sharp cheddar, bourbon, and a pocket knife.
Boogity boogity boogity....

You know we were always the same way as you are with your cabover. I'd call DW at noon and say "let's go". By the time I got home we were about packed with everything we needed and ready to roll - but, like you, we were packing a smaller trailer. Reckon because we have the room for stuff we just fill it up "because"? I swear, I would have never dreamed people could pack as much stuff as we do now to take a trip.

On canned goods, be sure and watch tomatoes or tomato products. We have on more than one occasion opened them with good dates to find they were what I call "bitey"; the tomatoes starting to go bad. I look at the ends of the can to make sure they are concave and not raised.

gearhead · 05-18-2017, 04:40 AM

^^^Campbells vegetable soup, so it had a tomato base. I keep anything that can spill and make a mess in plastic tubs. Takes away from storage space but prevents messes. Anyway the canned soup was in a tub for some reason and the bottom of the cans were rusted. Not all the way through just surface rust on the ridges. Those cans had been there maybe a year. My pea brain told me there is more moisture collecting inside the trailer than I would have thought. No place has humidity like southeast Texas, so not much to be done about it. Top vents are open and a window cracked.

gearhead · 05-18-2017, 04:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 66joej

Boogity boogity boogity....

Hey gearhead isn't that DWs saying?
Love NASCAR been a fan since it was Winston Cup back in the 70s.[/QUOTE]

I think my first big time stock car race was actually a USAC race back when they did stock cars along with the open wheels. Probably about 1969-1971 at Texas World Speedway in Bryan/College Station.
Yeah the Waltrip brothers are nut jobs but they're making a good living at it.

Mandolin · 05-18-2017, 08:41 AM

The last trip of the season (late Oct, early Nov), I go through the trailer -while the spouse is winterizing - and take out anything perishable or that might freeze. So the first trip out in the spring takes a bit more work, bringing back the perishable/freezable staples that will stay in the trailer over the spring-summer-fall. (We have no space at home for the trailer so we rent a space at a storage lot.) Cookware, bakeware, skillets, pots, plates, bowls, cups, spoons, etc etc stay in the trailer year-round.

Once the trailer is set for the year, it takes a half hour or so to load it back up for a trip, ditto on the flip side.

This year I had to do that twice because we went to Tucson for two weeks in early February.

Before we go camping, I usually make and freeze a bunch of stuff, mostly for the nights on the road and/or days that I don't feel like cooking. Plus the more already-frozen stuff in it, the better job the freezer compartment does. Then I make a list of what I might make plus snacks and shop off of that. Staples (flour, cornmeal, sugar, oils, 3 kinds of rice, beans, cans of stuff, homemade pancake mix, etc) go in the full height pantry that came with the trailer, other stuff (breads, crackers, chips, cookies, onions, potatoes) go in the half-height pantry that the spouse built in a wasted space in the trailer. Anything that is perishable in the short term (breads, onions, garlic, ginger, etc) goes in the smaller pantry so I know to take out anything left at trip end. A lot of the items for the fridge and freezer come from the fridge at home.

When we get back I take everything out of the fridge and freezer, inventory the staples (I have a check list). The towels (4 bath towels, 2 washcloths, 2 hand towels, 2 dog towels) and the sheets get taken out and washed. I might take the blankets out and air or wash them.

Clothing-wise, we had to pack more clothing for this trip than we normally do, we've had cold, rainy, snow mix but are expecting 70s starting tomorrow, so I have my winter parka, gloves, hat, my insulated rain coat, my fleece jacket and cold weather jammies along with the usual summer stuff. For a 10 day trip like this, I will take 5-6 short sleeve shirts (they fit under heavier long sleeve stuff for layering), a couple heavier shirts, a couple long-sleeve shirts and 3-4 pairs of jeans and a pair of heavy canvas hiking/fishing pants along with my hiking boots. I often end up doing a small hand laundry while out, I have a small dryer rack that goes outside or hangs inside the shower. All of the stuff I take fits in my hanging closet plus the one cupboard and 3-4 wall hooks that is my space allotment, lol.

We both have a set of cold weather clothing and full rain gear that permanently rides around the truck, so I can dip into that if I have to.

canesfan · 05-18-2017, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gearhead

Hey gearhead isn't that DWs saying?
Love NASCAR been a fan since it was Winston Cup back in the 70s.

I think my first big time stock car race was actually a USAC race back when they did stock cars along with the open wheels. Probably about 1969-1971 at Texas World Speedway in Bryan/College Station.
Yeah the Waltrip brothers are nut jobs but they're making a good living at it.[/QUOTE]

Amen to that. Wouldn't mind having some of their cash though. My first was probably 1968ish at Dover, DE. I made my father take me after seeing a few minutes of the Daytona 500 on tv.

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