While this is our first venture on the road in an RV, we did spend hours upon hours researching and preparing for this adventure.  I signed up for several online RV forums, created Google alerts and read virtually every article that popped up on my feed about the “7 Things you need on your RV” or the “9 Rules to Live by On the Road” or the “Fill in the blank” (always an odd number of things about something specific to camping, why are online lists and “best of” articles usually odd numbers?).

Through this exhaustive research (and by exhaustive I mean, “hey Siri or hey Google”) we did come up with a few things that are coming in quite handy on road.

Space is a premium when traveling in an RV so we were interested in inflatables (which are no relation to edibles, although we will be rolling through several edible friendly states and we will get back to you with reviews and recommendations).  We are traveling with an inflatable kayak and an inflatable paddle board.  Christine is a talented paddle boarder while I prefer to sit my ass down while paddling on a body of water.  I used my Advanced Elements inflatable kayak today on Lake Blue Ridge and it was lovely.  It took 10 minutes to inflate, its around 30 pounds and moves on the water like a champ.  The inflatable paddle board comes in a backpack so it is super portable, lightweight and very easy to inflate.  Christine also got an inflatable chair, while I brushed it off when she ordered it, I find it an incredibly comfortable throne (she is queen of this campground and I have seen several people looking at the bulbous chair with covetous eyes).

The foldable table is very cool too—it packs like a camping chair and opens up to form a sturdy table. This is a solid camping supply and actually a gift from Christine’s friend, Fran.

But one thing I found in an article forever changed my life: Reusable zip ties.  Yes, reusable.  I am passionate about reusable zip ties, so passionate I believe there should be legislation to ban regular zip ties. Why are there still standard zip ties when such a thing as reusable zip ties exist?

I am passing them out to some of my fellow campers as an olive branch, extending reusable zip tie love to the masses (Ronnie zip tie seed)  We have not been on this journey long but I know one thing—-reusable zip ties are our future.  

I can hardly wait for Halloween in our campground when little goblins and princesses come by with their pumpkin baskets and I pass each and every one of them a candy bar (with a reusable zip tie wrapped around it).

Quite frankly, I felt like Batman as I unpacked all these wonderful (inflatable) toys from the RV (that doesn’t sound right).  But that’s the splendor of technology and the beauty of the internet, connecting people who are all interested in a similar, specific topic.  

Yes, we are getting the hang of this whole camping thing and when something breaks I know how I am gonna fix it, with a reusable zip tie (and gorilla tape).

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