Preparations

We leave in six days.  It’s hard to believe that this volunteering gig we signed up for nearly a year ago is almost upon us.

We signed up for the SOWER ministry after talking with another couple last year.  Sounded good to us.  They have volunteer work projects all over the country, and not surprisingly, the projects in the south are very popular in the wintertime.  After looking at all the available projects, we chose the Cove in Asheville, North Carolina in April 2022 as it had the least chance to conflict with other things that were going on.

Hard to believe it’s almost April, 2022, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been preparing.  Deb has been freezing meal portions in Zip-loc bags, which will fit much more efficiently in the very small freezer we have in the RV.  We’ve begun packing dry food in the RV and today we went through the clothing.  Three weeks is a long time to live in just over 100 square feet of space, so we’re making everything count.

The rest of the dry foods can go in over the weekend and anything containing water will go in starting on Monday or Tuesday, when we can keep some heat on.

While Asheville does, in fact, have grocery stores, we usually pack as much as possible as the preparations for these meals are already done and we have found that food on the road is always way more expensive than food from home, so we try to take as much food from home as possible.

I changed the transmission fluid in the RV last week, a messy job which involved a lot of crawling around under the rig.  At the same time I put new struts and new brakes on Abigail’s car and changed the oil on my Honda, so I was really wearing my mechanic’s hat last week.
 
I also had a laundry list of small items to be dealt with in the RV: fixing one stove burner that would only burn on low, replacing a leaky shower shut-off valve, replacing the converter with one that won’t cook the batteries, and a host of other things.  Also tested what I could that didn’t involve water.  It’s supposed to get quite cold over the next couple of days, so I can’t put any water in the plumbing yet. 

I noticed when we were out and about today that the price of diesel fuel went up to $4.99 at Meijer.  When we finished our errands, I took the RV out and filled the tank for $4.69 at another nearby station that I had seen before it, too, goes up.  Just this morning, I saw an article about a diesel fuel shortage in Europe because of the conflict in Ukraine, so I would expect this trend to continue.

I guess I should count my blessings.  My trip doesn't go through Sacramento, California...

So Wednesday, March 30, we hit the road.  We’ve been looking forward to this for quite a while.