12 Days of Christmas gifts for your favorite RV’er

When you’re living in an RV full-time, you’re constantly making choices about the things you bring into the limited space you have. It goes a little something like this:

“Is this essential?”

OR

“How can we nest this with something else?”

OR

“Paul, do you really need another gadget? (Answer: NO.)

So, if you’re thinking about biting the bullet and moving into a tiny home, or if you’re looking for the perfect gift for the RV’er in your life, here is a list of our hottest holiday gifts ideas for 2016.


On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

12- Sea to Summit X-Pot

Sea to Summit X-Pot
Sea to Summit X-Pot

Most RV’s (or at least ours) has 1 large drawer in the kitchen & 3 burners on the stove, so multi-purpose kitchen tools are paramount.

Also, as you travel things bounce around *a lot* so the compact design and securing lid helps prevent breaking while you’re in transit.


11- USA Travel Tracker Map

USA Travel Tracker Map
USA Travel Tracker Map

Who doesn’t love a good map to showcase your conquered destinations?

Also, this is a great project to get the kids involved! (Fun fact: we’ve lived in 40 states this year.)


10- ENO Double Nest Hammock

ENO DoubleNest Hammock
ENO DoubleNest Hammock

Seriously, everyone needs a good hammock — trust me on this. All you need is two trees and you’re all set.

We opted for the XL straps which gives us a little more flexibility, —for the extra $5, it’s worth not having to worry about limiting your options.


9-DJI Phantom 2 V2.0 Quadcopter

DJI Phantom 2 V2.0 Quadcopter
DJI Phantom 2 V2.0 Quadcopter

As most of you can tell, I’ve spent a lot of time documenting our travels over the past year and the one regret I have is that we didn’t invest in a drone. iPhone photos are great. DSLR photos are great. But the perspective that you can get from a drone is rare and handheld cameras barely capture the big picture.

Hey Mom, if you’re reading this, we want a drone for Christmas. *cough*


8- Amazon Echo and Dot

 

Amazon Echo & Dot
Amazon Echo & Dot

Honestly, when Paul brought our Echo home I thought this would just be another gadget that would eventually retire to my parents house, but I’ve quickly become obsessed with having her around.  Partially because she’s made me way more efficient and partially because we no longer take our phones into the bedroom at night.

Need to order paper-towels? Just ask Alexa to send some to the house. Want the latest news updates? She’s got you covered.  Need to shuffle your Spotify playlist but your hands are full? Not a problem, she’s got it.  She’s basically like an electronic assistant that’s always happy to help.

Now only if she could do laundry…


7- iRainy Silicon Wine Glass

Silicone Wine Glass
Silicone Wine Glass

YOU GUYS. WINE GLASSES. THAT FOLD UP. OMG. #brunchallday

Ever had the opportunity to ride in an RV while in transit? (Hint: not a good idea for your body or anything else breakable.) It’s like riding a horse and I have no idea how any of our stuff stays in one piece while we circle the globe. Anything that’s practically indestructible will be a huge hit for RV’ers.

Bonus: Apparently you can fold these into your back pocket for a quick wine roadie after a long hike 🙂 #TeamPana


6- Magma 10 Piece Gourmet Nesting Stainless Steel Cookware

 

Magma A10-360L 10 Piece Gourmet Nesting Stainless Steel Cookware, Gas, Electric or Ceramic Cooktops
Magma A10-360L 10 Piece Gourmet Nesting Stainless Steel Cookware, Gas, Electric or Ceramic Cooktops

Space, space, space + options, options, options.

There is a fine line between being ultra-practical and then feeling like we’re living like college students.

One of the huge benefits of traveling with our home is that we never really feel like we’re not at home. For me, having all of the tools to make a homemade dinner high priority to make sure we don’t get homesick, and having all of these nest into one makes this a win-win.


5- Coleman Cooler Quad Chair

 

Coleman Cooler Quad Chair
Coleman Cooler Quad Chair

Collapsible chair + cooler. You’re welcome.


4- Beats Solo2 Wireless Headphones

Beats By Dre
Beats By Dre

Beats. Bears. Battlestar Galactica. (See what I did there?!)

When you live in <200 square feet with your significant other *and* build a business together, it’s nice to be able to tune someone else out. (Love you, Paul.)


3- Joby GorillaPod Tripod (Large & Small)

 

Joby Gorilla Pod Tripod
Joby Gorilla Pod Tripod- Large and Small

Ever wonder how we’ve managed to snag a ton of amazing photos this year? It’s because we hang our $5k camera (or iPhone) from anything we can wrap this tripod around.  Plus, it folds up perfectly to fit right on the side of our backpacks.


 

2-  Yeti Rambler

Yeti Rambler
Yeti Rambler

One word: Roadie.


1- Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker

rjtechtour-bosered
Bose SoundLink Color Bluetooth Speaker

Everyone needs a soundtrack to their adventure and Paul & I *love* our Bose system.  We don’t own this exact model, but the addition of the waterproof case would have made us feel a lot better about taking this wherever we we’re exploring this year, rain or shine.

Plus, Paul loves anything that’s red.


For our fellow RV’ers out there, what are we missing?

-d 🙂

 

A behind the scene look at the Tech Tour & code schools

It’s a cold week here in Fort Wayne this week but, in between office hours and workshops today, I found a couple of interesting photos of our tech tour through the last nine months and thought I’d share them.

By the way, I spend a lot of time talking about code bootcamps & visiting local code schools on the road — follow me on Twitter if you’re interested in learning more about that stuff as I find it.

-dana

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Happy Holidays 2016 #rjtechtour
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Lake Powell #rjtechtour
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#rjtechtour
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Rock Creek Marina (Iowa) #rjtechtour
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Vancouver, BC #rjtechtour
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Moab, UT #rjtechtour
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The Grand Canyon #rjtechtour
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Fall 2016 Chesapeake, VA #rjtechtour
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The Grand Canyon #rjtechtour
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Paul Singh #rjtechtour
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Lake Fairfax, Virginia #rjtechtour
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Taos, New Mexico #rjtechtour
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Lake of the Ozarks, Missour #rjtechtour
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Throwing it back to that time I wanted to get a nice profile picture and Bambi decided to photobomb Glacier National Park, Missour #rjtechtour

 

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Picking up the Airstream in Lakewood, New Jersey #rjtechtour
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Day 1 #rjtechtour
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Fort Wayne, Indiana #rjtechtour

 

-d