Motor Home Away From Home
Noemi's packing list of the cozy-making essentials
1. Espresso coffee pot
"We slipped our small, lightweight Bialetti into a bag before we left. It's not only more portable than a typical American coffee system, but it also delivers the most delicious brew—yes, as an Italian, I'm biased. Most supermarkets now sell espresso grind."
2. Epson Picturemate printer
"Every morning we used this small printer, which connects directly to our Kodak M 1093 IS camera, to print the previous day's photos. We made some into postcards to mail to the grandparents and friends, and we taped up others around the RV."
3. Bright, inexpensive fabric
"The seats of the motor home were covered in gray, itchy upholstery. Before the start of our trip, I bought yards and yards of western African prints, very colorful and very cheap, to cover everything." (For similar fabric, visit AfricaImports.com.)
4. Mad Libs and the National Parks Passport
"These both kept Claire endlessly entertained between stops. The National Park Service passport is a small blue booklet for young people with spaces for stamps from each of the country's national parks, monuments, seashores, and historic sites. It was a big deal for Claire, upon entering a park, to get a ranger stamp for her passport." (The park service also sells an annual pass at
nps.gov—just $80 covers four people's admission to 391 parks for a year.)
5. A good duvet
"We could have certainly slept with the blankets the RV-rental company provided, but bringing the feathery-soft duvet from our own bed made such a luxurious difference. It was the combination of the known—the duvet—and the new—this very cozy bed, with a window just above our heads—that made sleeping not only memorable but pleasurable. The desert air helped, too, of course."
