Outland Adventures

 Hey Y'all! Ever have a product you just love? Here are our current favorites! * None of these are affiliate links, or sponsored in any way. They're just products we've purchased and really enjoy! 1) Ozark Trail Folding Camp Kitchen Table - Step up your camping culinary setup on your next outdoor adventure with the Ozark Trail Folding Camp Kitchen Table. This camp kitchen has tons of functionality and provides the campsite chef with a work surface, plenty of storage space and much more. It features an aluminum slat roll top table, a side stove shelf with an adjustable stove platform and a removable lantern holder. As for storage, it is designed with a mesh shelf and a hanging organizer rack with hooks to keep your important items nearby. It is constructed with a compact aluminum frame with matte finish for durability and has a weight capacity of 66 pounds. It also measures 41” x 18” x 31.5” making it perfectly sized without taking up too much space. When it’s time to go, th...

 Hey Y'all, In a previous blog we wrote about 5 things we love about Wildebeest, our 1990 E350 bus. In this blog we'll discuss 3 things we're less than thrilled about. We don't love... 1) That the main entry door is power only. Not a huge thing, but it'd be nice to not have to reach up front and flip the switch (to turn the power on) to open and close the doors. Power doors. 2) That the generator is missing. It'd be nice if that was still installed (and operational). We could run the A/C then. Currently it's only available if the bus is running. It works great, so it'd be nice to be able to use it more frequently. Especially on this extremely hot days. I'm not a huge fan of A/C, but when it's 90+ outside, I like to use it!  3) This one's a fairly easy fix, and we'll get there, but for now it's a bit annoying- No window tint in the cab. It makes driving around a bit warm, and super sunny on nice days. Things have already changed some ...

 Hey Y'all, Hey Y'all! This one is gadget #vanlife specific, but the items from that  top 5 blog  are definitely some great products we love too! TOP 3! 1)  Collapsible Tub : We picked ours up at Aldi! Such a great find. At the time we purchased locally it was just under $10 USD. We use it for doing dishes, or washing fruits/veggies, or anything else you'd use a sink for. 2)  Folding Table/Tray : We found two of these, sitting in the floor of the furniture aisle of our local Walmart & knew we should grab them up for under $20 USD each. We have used them for working on the laptop, coloring/art, eating, outdoors to hold the radio or phones & drinks. Such a useful purchase! 3)  Lights! We upgraded our lights to these, and love them! We like the brightness adjuster and the color selector. Much better and brighter than what we were using previously. We don't ever use the music feature, or the app. The remote is more than sufficient for our needs. ...

 Hey Y'all! We try to keep it pretty positive here, but we also have to keep it real too. So for that reason here's the things we didn't love this past month. ..Err maybe that's bottom three?!?! 1) Replacing the belt...again.  The new one, to bypass the smog delete, lasted less than a day (drive time). We then had to replace it with the old one, thankfully Chris thought to keep it. We had that most of the way back on, when we got kicked out of that parking lot, and had to remove it, put away the tools, limp it across the street, and get 'er done in a Lions Den parking lot. It only took about 30min from there, and thankfully it was a beautiful day. We're never in a rush, but it was annoying. 2) Sugar Hollow Park Campground  Bristol, VA This is a first come, first serve park. (No big deal, we've done that before- with Cowford Campground in AL.) So, I called- nicest lady ever on the phone, said only 3 spots were taken so we should not have any issue later in t...

 Hey Y'all! We were fortunate to do/see a lot of different places this past month. We traveled from NE Ohio, through OH and KY, where we spent a day in Corbin, and then onto NE Tennessee, we took a few days in Bristol, VA, and spent a week in the great outdoors at the quiet, serene Mammoth Ridge near Greeneville. In-between trips in TN we stayed at my mom's and did the whole doctors appointments and scans thing, again. PLACE- While in Ohio we really had a blast, and there's so much to share there it'll be a couple of videos, very soon. Our favorites were the haunted attractions, and getting to cross another National Park off our list with Cuyahoga Valley National Park . Brandywine Falls History runs deep in the valley, with over 12,000 years of human occupation. From the unwritten stories of pre-contact peoples to the environmental disasters and comebacks of modern times, humans have left an impact on the valley. Here along the Cuyahoga River, humans have used, shaped, ...

 Hey Y'all! While we don't like to dwell on the negative too much, we also want to let you know about the things/places we didn't love. Maybe you will love them, or maybe we'll save you a trip! Since we talk about State Parks frequently, let's start there... There are 2 TN State Parks we'd put on the list: Cedars Of Lebanon- https://tnstateparks.com/parks/cedars-of-lebanon While we were here we really just caught up on chores, partly because it was necessary and partly because a lot of the park amenities were closed.  Pros & Cons: The spots here were huge, and the park and it's history are neat, but so much of it was closed. Either for renovation, or seasonally. Only one of three campgrounds were open, two of them being under renovation... looked like plumbing and electrical to us. So that left the remaining one pretty busy, however everyone was pretty quiet, and stuck to themselves. Not near as friendly as other places we've stayed. The Nature Cente...

 Hey Y'all! I fell a bit behind last week, so let's catch up... 16th Tue-   Update on Our Favorite Gadgets Hey Y'all!! We're sure this list will change the more/longer we're out there, and we'll update you as things change, but for now here's our Top 5! *None of these are affiliate links. In some instances it's just the closet to what we have that we could find, but I still wanted to include a link. 1)  Under Bed Storage - (This is not the exact one we have but was the closest we could find in an online search. I believe ours are from T.J. Maxx or a similar store. They are black, and Velcro closed, the top is not clear.) We've had them for years as under bed storage for larger sweaters, etc. Now, we're each using one for all our clothing and it fits under the front of the bed perfectly.  2)  Blackstone 22in - We got extremely lucky and came across one on clearance at our local Walmart for $55 USD. Our only thought as to why is was clearanced out ...

 Hey Y'all! Sorry I'm a day late, again. We did enjoy a great day at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge yesterday, so forgive us- that was a lot of fun, you'll soon see. Onto today's... er yesterday's topic. Things We'd Change: Our Van Specific~ 1) Size, we'd make her a bit bigger. Not so much as to be classified as an RV, but she's a shorty, so we'd go a bit longer. Chris says a bit taller too, he wouldn't mind being able to stand fully upright. That one isn't doable, but the rest of these are, and are on the list of eventually we will.... eventually. 2) Remove the 3rd seat, we don't use it like we'd thought. Stuff just gets piled in it, and then we can't use it as a seat, and so why not free up all that space. 3) Window tint on the front. I don't know if it was a legal issue at the time (some states allow far more tint that others, especially in the 90s) or if owner opted out, but the back windows are all tinted perfectly. Th...