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Friday Evening -- Lessons
Getting ready to go. We had our "shakedown cruise" with the RV at
a local campground a few weeks ago. Seems like all systems are go
for the real thing.
Filled the rig with gasoline this evening.
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Lesson 1: Find a gas station with lots of room to pull in.
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Lesson 2: Don't park with the front of the rig higher than the
back.
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Lesson 3: If you don't follow lesson 1 and 2, be sure the place
you pull into has a nice friendly store-keeper, such as at the
local 7-11 down the street from us. If you do, he or she will
help you get squared away.
We ended up being too far away from the pump on our first pass
through, so we stretched the gas hose to reach and began to pump.
The pump kept shutting off. We figured it was because we didn't
get a good vacuum on it. The fellow at the 7-11 finally came out
and told us the tank probably appeared full to the pump because
we were parked with the backend of the RV downhill.
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We pulled out of the station and made a few turns through the
church parking lot and then a car-wash parking lot (ever try to
do a U-turn with a 29-foot rig?) and found ourselves finally
heading the right way into the 7-11. We got it right this time.
We thought really nice thoughts about the friendly 7-11 clerk.
Not bad for our first fillup. We haven't even left home and we
already know how to do it.
Tomorrow I'll take inventory and begin to make the final lists.
This is our standard travel list:
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Maps
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Books to read
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Cameras, lots of batteries and film
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Writing supplies
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Computer
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Medicines -- both over-the-counter remedies and prescription
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Casual clothes and necessary toilitries
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Food
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Saturday -- Decisions
Did some packing and arranging today. Set up my "office" space.
Took the speakers from an old computer and hooked them up to our
little portable cd player. Works pretty well. We have a small
assortment of cds to carry in case the radio doesn't provide
something we like at the moment. The variety of our small cd
travel collection represents a compromise -- from Janice Joplin
to Christian praise choruses, from John Williams to celtic
melodies, from romantic piano to Count Basie.
How do you pack an RV? There may be many ways, but this is our
first long trip and we're figuring it out as we go along.
For this trip, we've chosen the Sterlite/Rubbermaid box method.
We can put five 12-quart boxes along the back shelves of the RV,
stacked two high, for a total of 10. We can put two more under
each of the beds, for a total of 14. In the front, we can get
about 4 more 12-quart boxes and a few shoe-box size boxes. Under
the couch-sleeper, we can put four long under-bed boxes.
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We can put three 12-quart boxes under the kitchen sink, plus one
Rubbermaid utility pail with a lid, which serves as a kitchen
garbage can for us.
We've packed our clothes in the 12-quart boxes. We'll probably
use seven or eight for clothing, one for swim wear, one for
sleeping clothes, and few for books, toilitries, etc.
The cameras, film, and lenses fit nicely in a shoe-box size
container. The goodies for the digital camera, along with disks
and the other lens for the 35-mm camera fit in a 12-quart box.
In the kitchen shelves, we've used Tupperware to hold instant
drinks, oatmeal, and other goodies.
The beauty of the box method, we hope, is that the space is
always full, even when the boxes are empty. Our thought is that
this will prevent sliding, shifting, and other annoyances.
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Sunday -- Call from Marsha
This morning I received a call from my first cousin in
Charleston. Her husband is very sick right now, and one of our
planned stops is Charleston and spend a few days near Marsha and
Jim.
We laughed and cried over the phone for an hour. We have both
had some difficult times these past three years, and Marsha and
Jim's difficult times continue. I am about mid-way in age between
Marsha and her mother, a favorite aunt. Our family relationships
are thick because we all grew up in the same area and were
involved as joint families throughout all our growing up years.
It will be so good to have time to spend with Marsha and Jim.
Marsha and I will go to our grandparents' house, which now stands
empty, and go through all the things still there. That house
contains the history of our family for several generations. We
will remember times we were there as children, each remembering a
different part of time.
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Our packing progress continues well. The box method seems to be
the right thing. While we were fixing and arranging today, I
reached for the Canadian AAA campground book. It tells me that we
need to have rabies shots for our cats if we are going to drive
into Canada with them. I should be able to take care of that
tomorrow morning. It also tells me that we need some
certification from our insurance carrier that our insurance is
sufficient. Hope I can get that one tomorrow, too. We really
would like to drive through eastern Canada and then back down to
the US in Minnesota.
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