After getting the trailer ready and hooked up, the next most important thing for us is to make sure WE are ready to go. That includes stocking certain items inside the cab of the truck within easy reach of the passenger seat.

Here's what we do...

One of the things my husband and I like to do on our days off from working at the campground is to visit the local farms and farm markets to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

There are many ways to find these places if you are new to an area.

Before we sold our house and hit the road in our RV, we liked to have dinner parties. You know, where you invite several couples over, cook a delicious meal, maybe serve hors d'oeuvres, then linger over a cup of coffee and dessert laughing and talking.

After we moved into our small space, I wondered to myself how I could ever do that sort of thing again.

Sure, there are potluck dinners at just about every seasonal campground you go to, but I wanted something a little more intimate. I wanted to be able to cook some of my favorite "big" dishes, the ones that are good and yummy but you can't cook just a little bit of it. And I wanted to invite some of the interesting people we had met.

So, one day when we were working at a large resort in south Texas, I decided I was just going to do it and figure out how as I went along.