A 24-foot motor home may seem like a large vehicle, but it gets smaller and smaller when trying to pack supplies for four to five weeks on the road. Take clothing, for example. Because we’re leaving in mid-October and traveling a mostly northern route as we head west, the cold-weather gear has to be packed. Coats, hats, gloves, all that bulky stuff which takes a lot of room in a small closet. We’ll do as much layering as possible, piling a hoodie on top of a long-sleeved shirt and a jacket over the hoodie and leaving the big winter coat at home.
Since we may be as far south as Texas, the shorts and short sleeves also come along. We’ll have to do laundry at a few points along the trip, as it is rather impossible to pack five weeks of socks and shirts and other clothing, as well as have five weeks of capacity in the dirty clothes bag.
Food is another interesting item. Deb has a bunch of meals planned and has done a lot of preparation ahead of time. Leftovers from meals here at home have been packed in ziplock bags and frozen for quick meals on the road. Easy meals, canned meals, food that doesn’t require refrigeration takes priority since refrigerator space is at a premium. Planning also has to take into account the lack of an oven. Instead, all hot food has to be prepared on the two-burner cooktop or in the microwave. So, no baking cookies or pizza. We pre-cooked several pounds of bacon and layered it in paper towels in a large ziplock bag to be used for breakfasts. A whole bunch of dry and canned foods were packed in a large plastic tote and stowed under the bed. Overhead cupboards are stuffed to the gills with additional dry foods, condiments, spices and snacks. For the first part of the trip, we will probably have a bag of apples and another bag of garden vegetables stored in the shower. Kind of a pain to move all the time, but fresh fruit is always welcome. We eat good on the road, but it takes a lot of preparation.
Some of the reasons for packing food so diligently is the lack of many foods and the expense of foods on the road. It takes time to seek out a proper grocery store and they are usually not located on the main routes. Also, on some of the more lonely roads, good grocery stores are few and far between.
And then there’s packing for all the contingencies that may happen on the road. A complete tool kit, distributed between an outside compartment, a few inside compartments, and the bottom drawer in the galley. In addition to planning for mechanical problems, RV’s come uniquely prepared to challenge the owner with plumbing problems, electrical problems, leaky windows, broken doors and drawers, and, because of the motion involved, various food spills. Trust me, I’ve been there. For all of these.
More contingencies: Covers for the bikes. A ladder to access the roof. Extra engine oil stored under the hood. Extra fuses. Quarters for coin-op laundromats. A code reader to determine what that ‘check engine’ light is trying to say. A squeegee to clean the solar panels. And new for this trip: tire chains. Since we will be going over mountain passes in late October and November, there may be times that chains are required. All this stuff gets squirreled away in any space available, even the space under the bottom drawer in the galley, accessible by temporarily removing the drawer.
We’ve been packing the RV for the last week or so, taking a little bit at a time. Last to be packed will be the food items in the refrigerator and the stuff we use every day like toothbrushes.
We’ll have a fair amount of technology along to keep connected and to allow route planning. Since we have no plans and will be doing route planning on the fly, we also have paper maps, atlases, travel guides and other aids. Looking up all this stuff online works well, until it doesn’t. Cell service is not guaranteed and can be quite terrible on minor roads. So even though we’ll have two computers, two iPads, two cell phones, and all their support systems, we have a fairly comprehensive physical library in a large box behind the driver’s seat, easily accessible by the navigator.
New for this trip: an aerial camera--a drone which can be used to “rise above it all” and take pictures from above.
And all this packing is taking place amidst the final planning for a wedding that takes place the day before we leave. Marrying a daughter is already a full-time job for both of us, so planning and packing for this trip has been relegated to whatever down time we can muster, or late at night.
Today, Deb had an event canceled in the afternoon. We took advantage of perhaps the last nice day of the year and went downtown for a while. We stopped at the fish ladder and watched all the fishermen casting their lines up near the 6th Street Dam. Some of them were pulling some mighty big steelhead from the water. We also watched lots of salmon valiantly attempt to jump the dam, flapping madly in the falling water, most of them falling back again and again. Several made it, however and we found ourselves cheering them on.
We then walked along the river downtown for a ways, enjoying the warmth and the sunshine, trying to absorb as much of it as we could before the late fall and winter blahs settle in. In the midst of frantically taking care of the last details of the wedding and packing for a long road trip, it was some much needed white space in our day.
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