Showing posts with label packing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label packing. Show all posts
Saturday, February 13, 2010
And we're off!
Hubby and Deep Thought have made an emergency trip to REI to buy propane for our lamps, and as soon as they get back we shall be away! Tally ho!
Friday, February 12, 2010
Twelve hours and counting
The RV is at least half packed. I put away all the food, cooking equipment, entertainment, toiletries, medicines, and bedding this afternoon. Hubby packed the camping gear like flashlights, lamps, firewood, chairs etc. Little Starlet got home from school and sorted her clothes out. Deep Thought has a pile of stuff in her room waiting to go in. I reckon it should take us about an hour to get departure-ready in the morning. Of course I haven't packed any clothes for me yet; and Hubby cannot find my walking boots in the disaster that is currently our garage.
On the house reorganization front, Hubby has been putting together clothes racks from IKEA and piling his gear onto them. We are putting them in Deep Thought's room, as the one that is least likely to be disturbed while we are away. She is taking it quite patiently.
The kids are getting excited about the trip, but Hubby and I can hardly believe it's tomorrow. I've just spent half an hour Googling directions to our various campsites. I discover that my last but one leg in the trip is less than ideal - a 320 mile schlep from Calico Ghost Town to Merced, which breaks the rule I created at the end of our last RV adventure, never to go more than 250 miles in one day. Ah well, it is the Central Valley we're talking about. Places worth stopping are pretty limited.
On the house reorganization front, Hubby has been putting together clothes racks from IKEA and piling his gear onto them. We are putting them in Deep Thought's room, as the one that is least likely to be disturbed while we are away. She is taking it quite patiently.
The kids are getting excited about the trip, but Hubby and I can hardly believe it's tomorrow. I've just spent half an hour Googling directions to our various campsites. I discover that my last but one leg in the trip is less than ideal - a 320 mile schlep from Calico Ghost Town to Merced, which breaks the rule I created at the end of our last RV adventure, never to go more than 250 miles in one day. Ah well, it is the Central Valley we're talking about. Places worth stopping are pretty limited.
Preparing for the off
Hubby is currently in San Leandro picking up the RV. I have just done the first run to the supermarket to pick up drinking water - 15 gallons so far - and part of our food stock, mainly breakfast.
We are in a crazy position just now, as our house remodel has reached the peak of disruption. Trying to pack while moving things from room to room to accommodate the building works is a bit maddening. And today is the day that the toilet in the kids' bathroom had decided to go into meltdown. Luckily the site supervisor for our remodel project says he'll deal with it....
Back to pacing and making lists.
Oh, and it's just started to rain.
We are in a crazy position just now, as our house remodel has reached the peak of disruption. Trying to pack while moving things from room to room to accommodate the building works is a bit maddening. And today is the day that the toilet in the kids' bathroom had decided to go into meltdown. Luckily the site supervisor for our remodel project says he'll deal with it....
Back to pacing and making lists.
Oh, and it's just started to rain.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Final preparations
Twenty-six days till we depart on our next RV adventure. I still have one night of campsite to book. Then I have to compile our itinerary and general info, get the RV rental place to take Hubby's name for collecting The Beast, and generally start to plan our packing.
Packing will be complicated on this occasion by the fact that our kitchen is being demolished on January 25. We'll be putting the contents of the kitchen into storage this week, and we need to remember to leave the appropriate stuff out for the trip!
Packing will be complicated on this occasion by the fact that our kitchen is being demolished on January 25. We'll be putting the contents of the kitchen into storage this week, and we need to remember to leave the appropriate stuff out for the trip!
Saturday, August 29, 2009
A Typical Morning on a Driving Day
Little Starlet wakes up at 6:00am, reads her book, then wakes us up at 7:30am (though we’re usually already awake). She pulls back our privacy curtain with a big happy “Good Morning!” Deep Thought drags herself out of bed twenty minutes later: She stays behind her privacy curtain as long as she can.
Hubby collects our mugs, kettle and water from outside. Then he breaks Little Starlet’s bed, reconstructing the dinette. We collect our coins, towels and toiletries, and walk round to the campsite showers. Then we eat a breakfast of cereal. (It’s usually cooked food on a stay-put day.)
Everyone gets dressed, then Deep Thought and Little Starlet wash and dry the dishes while I put them away. We tidy everything that is left hanging around, e.g. clothes, shoes, books. We tidy up as we go along: It is very important to be super tidy in such a small space. As we are in bear country we are careful to make sure all food and anything that looks like it might be food (e.g. a mug) is put out of sight. Apparently the bears can try to get into your vehicle if they think they can see food. Hubby tidies up outside, again putting away anything that is or that looks like food. Visits to the campsite toilets, brushing teeth and hair, medicines, and a final sweep of the dusty floor (with the handy brush that collapses down into a very short length of handle, as provided by the RV company).
If we are moving on, Hubby checks the outside of the RV: storage cupboard locked, door step away, leveling blocks away, any hookup unplugged and the cord away. I check the interior: All cupboards securely closed, air vents closed, windows closed, curtains pinned back, nothing loose on any surfaces or on the floor to slide around, all appliances turned off, water pump off, toilet empty and closed, lights off.
And we’re away.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
24 Hours in Calistoga
We're in Ukiah, and this is our first connectivity since setting off from home, so here is my blog post for yesterday...
We finally got away from the house at 10:10am, though not for long. A quick trip around the block and we were back, picking up the bag we’d forgotten. Then we were off in earnest, over the Dumbarton Bridge and up I-880 to Oakland, Berkeley, and beyond. The traffic was heavy, but Hubby did a splendid job of steering Big Bertha. Her acceleration is non-existent, and he says the steering is “casual”, but we mostly stayed in one lane, and we didn’t hit anything – not even close really.
After initial pleas to be allowed to watch a DVD – if they watch a movie for the 2 hour journey, how are they going to cope on the 6 hour one? - the kids settled down in fairly good humor to look out the window and sing all the snatches of Beatles songs that they knew. After forty minutes, they plugged themselves into the iPod, and that was the last we heard of them till lunch, which we ate at a Marie Callender. (We love chain restaurants: The law recently changed so they now have to show nutritional info for their food, which means we can find out how many carbohydrates Deep Thought will be eating, and also tremble at the fact that my chicken pot pie had 1370 calories in it, whilst Hubby’s burger gloried in 1850. Didn’t stop us eating them though.)
After lunch, Little Starlet decided to entertain us with a song of her own devising about how Santa Claus met the Green Cheese People, a rhyming ditty spontaneously composed in honor of St Agur blue cheese in which the word “peas” appeared quite frequently.
It was obviously time to arrive at the Old Faithful Geyser of California in Calistoga. We dutifully paid our $9 adults and $2 children. (Having read online reviews in advance, I had thriftily printed out the $1 off voucher from their website so it would feel better value.) We watched the geyser for about half an hour. It must have erupted about a dozen times, including the advertised 60 feet high, 3 minute spectacular. Pretty impressive.
We arrived at the Napa State Park at 3:50pm. Ours is site 22, a partial shade RV site surrounded by scrubby chapperal, California oaks, and madrone trees. Very dusty, but okay. We finished off Deep Thought’s birthday cake, then Hubby and the kids went off on their bikes to the campsite swimming pool to cool down. I don’t have a bike, so I was left behind. Dinner was pre-made chili and more birthday cake. Hubby and I ended the day with The Economist, tea and crisps next to a fire.
Notable moments of the day:
1) Little Starlet wandering round the parking lot at Marie Callenders looking for the restroom because she had misinterpreted the instruction to “head for the entrance and turn left.” (Not *through* the entrance, you nitwit.)
2) The town of St Helena, very pretty and quaint, with white fire trucks and a Robert Louis Stevenson museum, which we didn’t visit.
3) Making tea using my tiny new kettle and discovering that Hubby had only packed the giant camping mugs.
4) Little Starlet touching a gecko that was sunning itself on the picnic table.
5) Deep Thought wrestling with Hubby’s new camera, a gadget which is obviously going to become a feature of the trip.
We finally got away from the house at 10:10am, though not for long. A quick trip around the block and we were back, picking up the bag we’d forgotten. Then we were off in earnest, over the Dumbarton Bridge and up I-880 to Oakland, Berkeley, and beyond. The traffic was heavy, but Hubby did a splendid job of steering Big Bertha. Her acceleration is non-existent, and he says the steering is “casual”, but we mostly stayed in one lane, and we didn’t hit anything – not even close really.
After initial pleas to be allowed to watch a DVD – if they watch a movie for the 2 hour journey, how are they going to cope on the 6 hour one? - the kids settled down in fairly good humor to look out the window and sing all the snatches of Beatles songs that they knew. After forty minutes, they plugged themselves into the iPod, and that was the last we heard of them till lunch, which we ate at a Marie Callender. (We love chain restaurants: The law recently changed so they now have to show nutritional info for their food, which means we can find out how many carbohydrates Deep Thought will be eating, and also tremble at the fact that my chicken pot pie had 1370 calories in it, whilst Hubby’s burger gloried in 1850. Didn’t stop us eating them though.)
After lunch, Little Starlet decided to entertain us with a song of her own devising about how Santa Claus met the Green Cheese People, a rhyming ditty spontaneously composed in honor of St Agur blue cheese in which the word “peas” appeared quite frequently.
It was obviously time to arrive at the Old Faithful Geyser of California in Calistoga. We dutifully paid our $9 adults and $2 children. (Having read online reviews in advance, I had thriftily printed out the $1 off voucher from their website so it would feel better value.) We watched the geyser for about half an hour. It must have erupted about a dozen times, including the advertised 60 feet high, 3 minute spectacular. Pretty impressive.
We arrived at the Napa State Park at 3:50pm. Ours is site 22, a partial shade RV site surrounded by scrubby chapperal, California oaks, and madrone trees. Very dusty, but okay. We finished off Deep Thought’s birthday cake, then Hubby and the kids went off on their bikes to the campsite swimming pool to cool down. I don’t have a bike, so I was left behind. Dinner was pre-made chili and more birthday cake. Hubby and I ended the day with The Economist, tea and crisps next to a fire.
Notable moments of the day:
1) Little Starlet wandering round the parking lot at Marie Callenders looking for the restroom because she had misinterpreted the instruction to “head for the entrance and turn left.” (Not *through* the entrance, you nitwit.)
2) The town of St Helena, very pretty and quaint, with white fire trucks and a Robert Louis Stevenson museum, which we didn’t visit.
3) Making tea using my tiny new kettle and discovering that Hubby had only packed the giant camping mugs.
4) Little Starlet touching a gecko that was sunning itself on the picnic table.
5) Deep Thought wrestling with Hubby’s new camera, a gadget which is obviously going to become a feature of the trip.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
And We're Off!
It's been a frenzy of packing this morning - fridge stuff, extra books, lost iPod earphones - but we'll be off in about 10 minutes. Watch this space for more reports!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Almost Packed and Ready to Go
Hubby and I watched the Camping World DVD of how to use your RV. It was spookily like the Dharma Initiative videos from "Lost" - and just as complicated.
We've spent a big chunk of the day packing things into the van (now officially, though unimaginatively, christened Big Bertha) and generally admiring all the cupboards and knobs and such like, and starting to feel quite at home in our tin can. But having watched the "instructional" DVD with its many directions regarding the propane gas, the detailed commentary on the tanks and battery monitoring panel, and the discussion of different kinds of hose, we are now feeling a bit less cocky about it all.
Looking on the bright side, we've packed a substantial cross section of our belongings into the van with room to spare. All that needs to go in now are my clothes and the fridge items. The interior has nine cabinets, six drawers, a medicine cabinet, small wardrobe, and a bookshelf. There is additional storage space on the exterior of the van (good for wood and walking shoes) and inside the van under the dinette seats (though that's a bit dusty, so we might skip putting something in there unless we have to). We've been wondering how to stop everything rattling and falling about inside the cupboards, so we've adopted a slightly haphazard but hopefully effective packing technique of putting squashy things next to hard things. So, for example, the jar of salsa and the can of beans is wedged in behind a pack of bagels, while the saucepans are cushioned by multiple plastic bags and a kitchen roll. (Hubby said that the interior rattled quite alarmingly on the drive down the peninsula to home, even when it was competely empty.)
While Hubby took charge of packing the exterior storage, I was in charge of the inside. One consequence of this is that I will be the only one who knows where anything is. Ah ha, power! (Evil cackle.)
We've spent a big chunk of the day packing things into the van (now officially, though unimaginatively, christened Big Bertha) and generally admiring all the cupboards and knobs and such like, and starting to feel quite at home in our tin can. But having watched the "instructional" DVD with its many directions regarding the propane gas, the detailed commentary on the tanks and battery monitoring panel, and the discussion of different kinds of hose, we are now feeling a bit less cocky about it all.
Looking on the bright side, we've packed a substantial cross section of our belongings into the van with room to spare. All that needs to go in now are my clothes and the fridge items. The interior has nine cabinets, six drawers, a medicine cabinet, small wardrobe, and a bookshelf. There is additional storage space on the exterior of the van (good for wood and walking shoes) and inside the van under the dinette seats (though that's a bit dusty, so we might skip putting something in there unless we have to). We've been wondering how to stop everything rattling and falling about inside the cupboards, so we've adopted a slightly haphazard but hopefully effective packing technique of putting squashy things next to hard things. So, for example, the jar of salsa and the can of beans is wedged in behind a pack of bagels, while the saucepans are cushioned by multiple plastic bags and a kitchen roll. (Hubby said that the interior rattled quite alarmingly on the drive down the peninsula to home, even when it was competely empty.)
While Hubby took charge of packing the exterior storage, I was in charge of the inside. One consequence of this is that I will be the only one who knows where anything is. Ah ha, power! (Evil cackle.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
