While still planning our forever trip back in Lowell, Indiana, I started thinking about morning coffee.
Catherine and I both like a fresh cup each morning, mine with half and half hers with French Vanilla flavored creamer.
In my mind, I harkened back to a romantic notion of percolating the luscious brown liquid over an open flame.
Impulsively, I ordered an old-fashioned aluminum percolator on eBay for about 25 bucks.
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That was lost in the vehicle loss of Labor day 2025, but Catherine quickly replaced it with a brand new shiny old-fashioned type percolator for less than I paid for the dented original version.
She experimented each morning with different quantities of grounds and the time allowed to sit over an open flame.
Cleaning the ground was also troublesome, but that issue was resolved by using a Mr. Coffee-type coffee filter, which could be replaced with a paper towel in a pinch.
While awaiting my caffeine fix one morning, I stared at the blue flame on the 3-burner RV stove, trying to calculate the amount of propane it took to brew 2 cups of java.
Too groggy to calculate BTUs per minute/hour, the big picture formed in my head, knowing that propane costs $3+ per gallon, more or less depending upon the vendor.
By this time, we had entered Mexico, and while sourcing food at a ginormous supermarket one day, we were both taken aback by the broad range of instant coffee on the shelves, overshadowing that of ground.
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Suddenly, it became a no-brainer.
Any RV Park that offered “shore power” meant that running a microwave added no extra expense as opposed to using a small portion of propane in our 20-gallon propane holding tank.
After a few days of tweaking, we each figured out the proper amount of magic brown crystals we now make coffee on the campground’s dime.
Written by Mitch Rezman
Approved by Catherine Tobsing
