Wayside_Wisdom Heard Along the Way
|
Northern Migration Time Again, 2009
Of course the "basement" storage area of the trailer must be cleaned out, re-organized and re-packed. I’m always amazed at how much storage space there is down there. But I’m totally flabbergasted at how much stuff Bruce manages to pack in there: three folding chairs, a stool and collapsible small table, garden tools, grilling tools, extra oranges, onions and soda cans, one half of a set of portable generators, the shredder, a file box of tax documents, four suitcases (packed inside each other), small storage boxes of RV parts, extension cords, hoses for water and sewage, boxes of vinyl gloves, wheel chocks, and his bicycle, to mention just some of the things! The bed of the truck, of course, carries the "blue boy," a plastic container for transporting waste water, the other half of the set of generators, and the "wood pile," assorted lengths and widths of boards used to level the trailer at an overnight stop. My bike rides in the back seat of the truck, safely strapped in with the seat belts! The tool kit, the first aid kit, copies of our emergency papers, the jack, the two-way radios, our bike helmets and rear-view mirrors, two neck pillows for napping, insect repellant, another box of vinyl gloves, and a box of emergency highway triangular reflectors keep my bike company back there. To allow room for the two of us, the front seat is not so heavily packed. It holds only two pairs of leather gloves (protection in event of an engine fire), antiseptic hand wipes, a box of Kleenex tissues, a snack box, a plastic trash bag, a Spanish-English dictionary, my travel journal, two bottles of hand sanitizer, maps of everywhere we’ve ever been or think we’ll ever want to go, snack crackers and granola bars, and a bottle of water for each of us. As the truck and the basement of the trailer fill up, the shed empties out. Now there will be room there to store our wooden steps, the bike rack and a spare bike, a storage bin of Christmas items, two lounge chairs and innumerable cans, bottles and bags of ant poison, plant food, and weed killer. Right now the "simple life" doesn’t seen very simple! Nevertheless, the official scales at our first fuel stop reported that we’re only sixty pounds over our maximum allowable vehicle weight! So, we may be limping, but we’ll see you on down the road! 30 April 2009 - mshr
|
D[eparture]-Day
minus one means it’s time to start packing up our stuff again.
Everything that is out has to be put away. Whatever is standing around
must be secured someplace. Anything that won’t fit somewhere either has
to be stored or discarded! No exceptions! No exemptions! If there’s only
room for one of us, the other will have to spend the summer in the shed or
in the dumpster!