Summer Boondocking with Creature Comforts

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This summer has been a bit different from others since we started full-time RVing. Every summer for the past 6 years has been spent at a seasonal workamping job. Whether working at a campground or a popular summer destination, we’ve spent May thru September parked at a location, exploring the nearby sites, and working 8 hour days in customer service positions. Well, this summer, we changed our routine up a bit and had the opportunity to try boondocking instead.

We have enjoyed traditional seasonal workamping. It’s something that we will always go back to doing. Not only did those workamping positions allow us the freedom to explore new places and meet fantastic people while earning a paycheck. They also helped us write our first book, Seasonal Workamping for a Living: How We Did It.  

Taking a Detour to Summer Boondocking

But change is good. Stepping out of your comfort zone is even better. So when Jackery, a company that makes portable power stations, asked us to help promote their product line at outdoor events, we jumped on the opportunity. Finally, we could roam around for the summer with the chance to do some serious boondocking in between events.

Fast forward almost 3 months later. We just completed a third outdoor event and are only halfway through our boondocking adventures! We aren’t new to dry camping but new to camping without hook-ups for an extended period.  

What have we learned? The longer you can conserve water, the longer you can boondock. Watching antelope graze and wild horses roam all around you is both exhilarating and peaceful. While we like boondocking, we also appreciate that we have some pretty nifty devices to make our experiences more convenient and comfortable.

What are these nifty devices we’ve used while boondocking, you ask?

From powering our laptops and phones to cooking, we have found the following products exceptionally helpful when we camp off the beaten path.

Jackery

What do you get when you combine a lithium-ion battery with a pure sine wave inverter in a lightweight little box capable of charging your electronic devices and cooking appliances? Why a Jackery Portable Power Station, of course! A Jackery power station can be recharged in three ways: plugging into a wall outlet, your carport, or using a Jackery solar panel to harness the power of the sun.

We have to include our trusty Jackery Solar Generator in the boondocking devices mix. Levi, in particular, has written extensively on this brand on our blog and other RV-related news outlets. It’s just an overall fantastic backup, clean, and quiet power station.  

What devices do we power up using our Jackery?

We have used our Jackery 1000 Portable Power Station daily while boondocking. We power our laptops and smartphones. We run our compact Arctic Air Pure Chill cooling unit or fan to get the rig a bit cooler. We’ll binge Netflix using our Roku. In the morning, we’ll hook up the two solar panels to it and cook chorizo and eggs on our grill and then make a pot of coffee. For dinner, we’ll make a delicious meal using our travel-size Instant Pot.

We don’t have a solar system onboard our motorhome yet, but we don’t really see the rush to do so when our gas generator and our portable power unit seem to power our needs.

For more information on Jackery products, check out the video below. To order your own unit, follow our affiliate link to the product line.  

Hot Logic

We learned about this following product from an RV couple while vendors at the FMCA Convention in Gillette, Wyoming, our second expo as Jackery representatives. Karen Langston and her husband Ernie sold two separate brands at the show. We had the opportunity to sample some of these products. (We will include Ernie’s product in a future post. Link to come.)

Karen was selling Hot Logic products and some fun self-created RV t-shirts. She took the time to explain how the Hot Logic worked and how it has been helpful to her on the road. Naturally, this intrigued us, and Karen generously let us use a Mini Oven during the week-long event, later surprising us by letting us keep it. It’s the perfect size for just Levi and me, and we haven’t stopped using it since we got our hands on it!

What is a Hot Logic?

The Hot Logic is essentially an insulated, zip-up lunch box with an electric hot plate. The portable food warmer uses low-slow conduction heat to bring foods to the ideal temperature. Plus, it can hold in the heat for hours after completion without overcooking or drying out the food. Customers can opt for the Mini, Max, Mini XP, or Max XP Ovens and cook or reheat a chicken dinner, ribs, burritos, lasagna, you name it, by simply setting their dish on the hot plate, zipping up the bag, and plugging it into a regular wall outlet or 12-volt carport.

How we have used the Hot Logic

Depending on what you are cooking or warming up, your meal can be ready in as little as a couple hours or later on for dinner. We have used ours to heat up frozen meals right from the package and reheat meals from the night before. We’ve also tried some of the recipes posted on Hot Logic’s website and Karen’s own culinary creations she details in her regularly published newsletters. 

For meals that require 5+ hours of cooking, like a BBQ chicken dish, we’ll prepare our meal in the morning, so it is ready around dinner time. We’ll throw the ingredients in a glass dish, cover it in foil, set it inside the Hot Logic, zip it up, and plug it in. If we are traveling to another location, we’ll plug the warmer into our motorhome’s 12-volt outlet or an A/C outlet if the generator is running. We’ve also used our Jackery Explorer 1000 to power it. On average, our Mini Oven draws as much wattage as a laptop. And unlike an oven, it emits very little heat, which is especially important when trying to keep the RV cool on those hot, sweltering summer days.

For more information on the Hot Logic or purchasing one for you and a family member, visit Karen’s affiliate page here. Use her discount code “HEALTHYGUT” to get free shipping and 10% off your order.

Berkey Water Filter

It took us many years to finally jump on the bandwagon of Berkey followers. We finally took the plunge this summer and wish we had a long time ago. Our Travel Berkey Water Filter has been a game-changer for us!

Before, we traveled with almost 15 gallons of water jugs from place to place, assuring we’d always have filtered water. We’d stop at a Walmart, lug our empty jugs into the store, spend 15 or more minutes filling the jugs, then lug them back to our RV. They took up a chunk of room in the RV too. 

With the Berkey, we simply fill the stainless steel top portion with water from our RV faucet or fill up a couple of water jugs from a spigot and head on our merry way to a new off-grid location. 

Berkey’s two powerful filters remove 99.9999999% of pathogenic bacteria and 99.999% of viruses which significantly exceeds the standard “water purification system.” So not only do we have peace of mind knowing we are drinking clean water, but we have the convenience of a compact filtration system that fits and stores nicely on our kitchen counter.

Let the Boondocking Adventures Continue!

With less than a month left of the official summer season, we’ll continue our boondocking adventures and see what fall has in store. So what are some nifty devices you use when you camp off-grid in your RV? Share them in the comments below.

Note: This article contains some of our affiliate links and those of our RV friend. When you purchase an item using one of these links, a portion of the sale goes towards us or (if purchasing a Hot Logic) Karen Langston. We appreciate your support.