Category: Airstream Accessories

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Airstream Accessories Giveaways Outdoor Gear

Ultimate Summer Gear 10K Giveaway!

10K Giveaway

We are pretty stoked here at CurrentlyWandering to have reached over 10,000 followers on Instagram! I’m still blown away by the communities we’ve found with both our Airstream/full time family travelers and our outdoor adventure friends. There are so many amazing people that we’ve been able to connect with, be inspired by, and best of all meet in real life and become friends! If you don’t follow us over there, please do! Instagram is always up to date as far as where we are and our most current crazy adventure.

As a HUGE thank you to our amazing community, we put together the Ultimate Summer Gear Giveaway. Over the last few months I reached out to many of our favorite brands who generously donated some of our favorite gear so we could pass it on to you! We’ve tested every single piece of gear and given them all two thumbs up, falling in to the “I can’t imagine traveling without this stuff” category.

Peak Design Capture Clip

We backed the Capture Clip v.1 on Kickstarter over 3 years ago. We’ve since upgraded to the v2 (see blog post here) and Peak Design continually amazes us with the gear they produce. The best part? Their gear is not just for professional photographers, but really for anyone! We use their Field Pouch as a GoPro bag, I bought Sam the Messenger Bag this year for Father’s Day, and with their most recent Kickstarter Project, they released 4 new everyday bags! I’ve got my eye on the tote. Check them out on Kickstarter here. Really, though, it all comes down to the Capture Clip. I use it almost everyday strapped to our Flash Pack when we are out exploring. I love that my camera isn’t hanging by a strap around my neck to get in the way, but its still easily accessible. Paired with the Cuff wrist strap I feel like my camera is totally safe.

peak design

Power Practical 10 ft Luminoodle w/ Battery Pack

We have a laziness struggle with putting lights outside our Airstream. I love the look of the party lights hanging from the awning, but in the summer when its practically bedtime by the time it gets dark we don’t put them out. WINTER, however, is an entirely different story. We love having lights outside and the Luminoodle is an easy solution. Its lightweight, packable, and with some of their new designs they even have color options and dimmer switches (blog post here). They are giving away a 10 ft Luminoodle with battery pack.

Power Practical

 

Ultimate Hammocks Double Hammock + Straps

Hammocks are all the craze right now and for good reason. We use ours all the time and have found ways to rig it to the truck when two trees are not readily available. We’ve been impressed with the quality of Ultimate Hammocks, their prices, and most recently their Ultimate Hammock Straps. Definitely the lightest, smallest ones on the market right now (blog post here).ultimate hammocks

Action Wipes Survival Kit

Cleaning up after an adventure can sometimes take the experience from great to amazing! There’s nothing like a quick “shower” after a really hard ride, or being able to freshen up in the backcountry. Action Wipes has donated their “Survival Kit”  to “Cleanse, Soothe, and Protect”. It’s a BPA-Free Loksak bag that contains 6 Action Wipes Singles to cleanse, a 1/2 oz Healing Honey Stick and Healing Honey Lip Goo to Soothe (dry skin, bug bites, rashes, sunburns, you name it) and a 1/2 oz Natural Sun Screen to protect your skin from harmful UV rays (blog post on Action Wipes here).
Action Wipes

Enso Rings $50 Gift Card

We love our silicon wedding rings! Durable, light weight, and flexible these things are super comfortable. We’ve worn ours canoeing, mountain biking, hiking, weight lifting, swimming, rock climbing, pageant acting, and canyoneering. We also have worn them to church, social events, and during our everyday activities. In fact, Sam never takes his off anymore (blog post here).

enso rings blog

REI Flash 18 Pack

Turns out REI is a *really* hard company to work with (we are still too small to garner their attention!) but since the Flash Pack is pretty much a staple on our adventures we’ve decided to fork up the cash and donate one ourselves! This is a slightly newer version but the concept is still the same and I do love the improvements they’ve made over the years. They’ve added a removable back panel for extra padding, and now the top fully closes when cinched tight. We pair this with a 2 Liter Platypus Big Zip Reservoir and the capture clip and take it everywhere! Actual color: Green.

flash pack

21 oz Hydroflask & Sport Cap

Saving us from lukewarm, the Hydro flask is our newest “can’t live without this” item. Originally we bought it for hot chocolate while backpacking (and it stays HOT) but once we added the sport cap we now use it everyday. So much that we own 2. I’ve been tempted to buy a larger wide-mouth version but haven’t made the jump yet.

Hydroflask

Now to the fun part! ONE lucky winner will take home the ENTIRE Ultimate Summer Gear Pack! How awesome is that? Enter below using the rafflecopter wideget and spread the word for additional entries. Contest ends Monday, August 15, 2016 @ midnight Pacific Standard Time. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Airstream Accessories Outdoor Gear

Wipe Out! Cleaning Up in the Boondocks

Wipe Out! Cleaning Up in the Boondocks - from Currently Wandering

There are a few terms that get tossed around in the RV/camping world that are probably unfamiliar to most people. While I’ve never seen an actual dictionary to define these terms, we’ve been around for awhile and we’ve seen a general consensus among the full time crowd. Many travelers prefer to stay in RV Parks, but for those of us that like to get out of typically cramped and overcrowded spaces there are a lot more options out there! Here are a few definitions for clarification purposes:

Boondocking: Camping (in a trailer or otherwise) on BLM land or in a National Forest with no fees or established campground. The general rule is to camp where others have, i.e. set up near an established fire ring, but there’s no ranger or camp host, and hopefully very few neighbors. For more info, check out this article on RV share – they did a pretty good job of covering the basics.

Dry camping: Camping in an established campground with no hookups. Generally there are bathrooms (typically pit toilets or “long drops” as we call them), and water spigots in the loop but nothing at your actual site. Fees are usually minimal, anywhere from $5-$15 per night.

It’s no secret we love to park our Airstream out in the wilderness, and we find that both Boondocking and Dry Camping are our favorite options when deciding where to stay. Not only is it cheaper, but generally more pleasant.

With five people in our family managing water can be tough, especially in the summer when everyone gets hot and sweaty. Then we start to smell, and living in 188 sq feet with smelly people is not fun. Since showering uses quite a bit of water we’ve found other ways to clean up after time on the trail or even just a few days lounging around in the back country.

Showering Wipes

Think baby wipes, but for adults. We’ve tried two different brands (well, three if you count our first epic failure almost three years ago but we won’t discuss that one) and they have both have their pros and cons but generally leave us feeling refreshed.

Action Wipes – Probably the most recognizable brand when it comes to body wipes as these guys have been around for quite awhile. The Epic Fail three years ago was trying an off brand when we should have just started with these guys. You can buy them individually packaged (which we prefer) or in a 30 count box (again, think baby wipes).

These body wipes are a pre-moistened towelette, that have a natural, clean, fresh scent. They smell great when you are using them and the smell dissipates quickly. They claim one Action Wipe is equal to 25 gallons of water which is the average amount of water used in a 10 minute shower. Granted, our showers are never 10 minutes long, but you get the picture. Their formula uses pure essential oils that are also great for cleaning minor cuts, scrapes and even poison oak & poison ivy oils although I really hope to never have to test that one out!

We’ve found that one wipe generally cleans all the dirtiest bits – you start with a quick wipe down of arms and legs, then move to chest, armpits, and the private parts last (because those are generally the dirtiest!).  There’s a couple of times I’ve felt like I could possibly use two – and if you are caked in adventure dirt you’ll definitely want to double up!

Action Wipes are strong and customers have sent it dozens of ideas on how to re-purpose them once you are finished with your shower!

Action Wipes

41ra68IeKZLBuy Action Wipes on Amazon

Epic Wipes – These guys are the new kids on the block. We were sent a box of Epic Wipes to test out as part of their Kickstarter Advertising campaign. My first reaction was that they are HUGE. They’ve got some serious heft to them, and I’m not sure I’d want to pack them on a long backpacking trip as they’d add extra weight. Probably depends on how dirty we think we’d get.

That said, having a little more wipe is kind of nice sometimes. They claim their wipes are “two handed” and you can actually manage to clean your back! Epic Wipes are made from bamboo so they are 100% biodegradable and are also made with antibacterial essential oils and are paraben and toxin free.

After a quick ride on the Slickrock trail in Moab, UT I pulled one out to test it and immediately tore it in half and let Sam use the other side. Half of it was still larger than our Action Wipes and I felt like I could get really, really clean. It was awesome. I can’t wait to be dirty enough to use the entire thing!
Epic Wipes_01 Epic Wipes_02 Size comparison:

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Photo credit: Epic Wipes

Epic Wipe vs Action Wipe Size comparison

I don’t know that I have an opinion one way or another between the two brands. I think they are both useful in different situations and plan to keep both on hand at all times!

Dry Shampoo

My other best friend while dry camping or boondocking is dry shampoo. Honestly, I have many friends in sticks & bricks houses that use dry shampoo on a regular basis in between showers so this is nothing new. There are many arguments claiming washing hair too often actually strips away healthy oils and can damage your hair.

Dry shampoo soaks up excess oils in between shampooing your hair leaving your locks looking fresher and less greasy. I’ve also found that spraying dry shampoo on my hair, combing it through, and then styling with my flat iron combats the “I just need to wash my hair so that I can do something with it” syndrome.

My favorite brand lately has been Herbal Essences Naked Dry Shampoo. No particular reason other than I’ve found it both on Amazon and at most Kroger brand stores (probably other places too but I don’t go through it that often). It also smells really good. That’s a definite must.

Don’t forget to comb it through your hair once you spray your roots and hair! It comes out white and looks a bit like dandruff if you don’t comb it through. I generally wash my hair every three days, and can stretch that a little longer if I use dry shampoo a few times as well.

Herbal Essences Dry Shampoo

Buy Herbal Essences Naked Dry Shampoo on Amazon

There you go! Cleaning up doesn’t necessarily have to mean a full on shower (or “Navy Shower” as usually happens around here). Honestly, sometimes I’m just in a hurry and need to clean up fast after a mountain bike ride or I’m feeling really lazy and don’t want to walk to the camp shower. Either way these products help me feel refreshed without taking the time to soap down!

Cleaning off in the back country

Categories
Airstream Accessories Outdoor Gear

Possibly the World’s Coolest Hammock Strap.

Ultimate Hammock Straps_34

I’m a hammock guy. We added an ENO hammock to our gear collection long ago, and it comes out whenever we get the chance. We read in them, work in them, and even snuggle the kids in them. The ENO DoubleNest hammock we’ve been using have been good, but we have not been happy with the Atlas straps we bought. We’ve experienced some stitching failure on the straps, despite staying below the stated capacity of the straps. A few of the strap loops have failed completely, providing an unsettling experience.

Ultimate Hammock Straps_35

I began the search for a new set of straps, but all the straps I found were either very bulky, or were constructed in similar ways to our current failing straps. I was testing a Chrome Extension that I’ve been building, and was notified of a new Kickstarter Project from Ultimate Hammocks that claimed to be building the “Ultimate Strap” for hammock lovers. After reviewing their project, I was one of the first few backers.

Side Note: If you like Kickstarter projects, you should really use my LaunchScan extension to get notified of new projects and catch all the early-bird deals before they are gone! It’s free and easy to use.

After backing the project, I noticed that the creators were based out of the Salt Lake City area, where we are staying this week. We reached out to them, and they were kind enough to meet up and let us get a first hand look at the straps themselves as well as one of their hammocks (an extra hammock is never a bad thing!).

I should explain that I wasn’t looking for a way to hang my hammock with ropes. Thin ropes place all the weight of the hammock along a thin strip on the tree, and this can be damaging to the tree bark. Hammock straps are wider, and distribute the weight so well that the tree remains unharmed by my hammock time.

The really unique thing about the Ultimate Hammock Strap is that the multiple attachment loops are woven into the strap itself. This provides a connection much stronger than stitching and keeps the weight and bulk of the straps pretty low. The stitching is the weak point of our current hammock straps, and I’m glad to see somebody coming up with another solution.

The straps are also wider where it sits around the tree, providing more surface area which protects the bark but then slims down to keep the size and weight down on the rest of the strap.

Ultimate Hammock Straps_31

Long term durability tests have not been performed on the straps with this new unique weaving, but I can’t see how it would be any worse than the methods already in place. Strength testing has been performed on the straps, and they have an ample rating for hammock use.

These straps are not the only product of Ultimate Hammocks. They also sell hammocks directly, and they were nice enough to provide one for testing. We’ll have a deeper review later, but the hammock was well built and comfortable. It is worth noting that their hammocks can be bought through their KickStarter project for a pretty steep discount. $55 buys a single hammock AND straps, and $65 buys a double hammock AND straps. As this is less than the cost of most hammocks, this is a deal. Straps themselves are $25, and the price gets better adding extra straps and hammocks. Their Kickstarter project ends on 

Ultimate Hammock Straps_33An additional feature of these hammocks (as opposed to the ENO hammocks) is that the attached stuff sack for the hammock as enough room for the hammock AND the straps inside. We currently have one bag for the ENO hammock and one for the Atlas Straps and its annoying when they get separated.

Here is the difference in size between our old straps and the new Ultimate Hammock straps:

Ultimate Hammock Straps_37

We are pretty excited about this upgrade to our hammock. Our hammock comes with us backpacking so the lighter and less bulky, the better. We think that every traveler (and well, pretty much everyone in general) needs a hammock in their life and this is definitely a great one!

Categories
Airstream Accessories

Gear Review: Scosche Magnetic Phone Mounts for the Truck and Airstream

Smartphones are a full-time traveler’s best friend, providing music, navigation, email, social media, a camera, and occasionally even phone calls. Of all the places we put our phone on a daily basis, there are two more important than most.

We have a car mount that holds the phone in a good place for navigation, and we have a mount where we place our phones to charge while we sleep. To make alarms quieter, we mount these to the wall right above where we sleep. This makes for potentially faster (and quieter) shutoff when our morning alarms attempt to raise us.

Up until the past few years, we’ve been using these Dockem Smartphone Wall Mounts, but they have both broken in a small way that prevents the phone from falling on our head while we sleep. It was time for an upgrade.

IMG_20160322_173237062_HDR

I had my eye on a solution that would work with a variety of phones, not just the ones we currently have. It had to not require a special case, and should be able to handle different sizes. I settled on the Scosche Magnetic Dash Mount.

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These mounts work by combining a strong magnet in the dash mount with a small metal plate you can stick inside your phone case on any phone. Then, you just place your phone on the mount and it sticks. The hold is strong enough that the phone never falls off, yet can be easily pulled off when we need.

The picture above shows the dash mount glued to a Arkon Dash Mounting Plate left over from use with our previous suction cup phone mount. We’ve used that mounting plate a few times with different products, and it does a fine job sticking to the textured dash, while providing a smooth surface for things that need one.

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In addition to the car mount, they sell Phone Wall Mounts as well, which we placed on the wall where our old holders used to be kept. They look like this:

IMG_20160322_173226106_HDR

Now, our phones mount nicely to the wall and in the truck, with mounting plates that will work on future phones as well! The picture below also shows a black cable clip that we use in several places to hold USB cords in place.

It is worth noting that the same company sells an ‘XL’ holder with stronger magnets for larger devices like full-sized tablets. The normal ones work just fine with our large-ish phones though, so I would only make that jump for a much larger device.

IMG_20160322_173216119

Categories
Airstream Accessories Homeschool

Road School: The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That

Using Cat and the Hat Books for Roadschool

Traveling the United States, we’ve visited many different areas and ecosystems. Beaches, forests, swamps, and mountains are all different and provide many learning opportunities. Many of the National Park sites we’ve visited have well-stocked gift shops with relevant books about the area. One of my favorite series of books for the kids are The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That.

Cat and the Hat_05

“Miles and Miles of Reptiles” We picked it up in the Everglades. “Clam I Am?” From one of the many National Seashores we’ve been to.  Since I’m a sucker for books at National Park Visitor Centers, we end up procuring quite a lot of these as we travel. We also manged to pick up quite a healthy stack of these used for cheap at Powell’s bookstore in Portland, OR.

Cat and the Hat_01

There’s been many occasions where the kids spout some nugget of knowledge from one of these books. They are fairly comprehensive, accurate, and more importantly, fun to read! Each book ranges from $5-$10 and it just depends on where you find them.

Some of our favorite titles:

Inside Your Outside! – The Cat and the Hat take Sally & Nick on a ride through the human body.

Miles and Miles of Reptiles – lizards, snakes, turtles, and crocodiles!

Wish for a Fish: All about Sea Creatures – Jellyfish, manatees, whales, sea cucumbers & more!

Oh The Things You Can Do That Are Good For You – physical fitness, eating right, showering, handwashing, etc. Great when paired with Inside Your Outside during a body unit!

There’s No Place Like Space: All About Our Solar System – See ya later, Pluto! (still makes me sad). All about the types of planets, asteroids, and other fun space stuff.

Recently we also found this Step Into Reading book for Cara from Costco: Stories about Bees and Trees And Feet and Fur- and More! And let’s be honest, when you see something this good at Costco you grab it since it might not be around for very long!
Cat and the Hat_02

She loves it! Its easy enough for an early reader, and once we’ve read a story together she has enough confidence to read it on her own.

We don’t officially incorporate these into our road school curriculum, but the kids love to read and by just having them lying around the books get read! See how sneaky I am?

What are your favorite books for road or home school?