Husband has spent the last week and a half with cold - which we are guessing he caught from me. I had been feeling fine and was doing things he would normally do concerning food - such as when we went to Wendys for lunch I would order, pay and pickup the food instead of him - this intended to keep me from catching back the cold. Well, it worked for a while.
I had planned to be telling you about our being in our little RV and dealing with the problems of organizing it for the trip. We had planned on leaving this past Monday and coming home on Friday as the weather was suppose to be nice there all week. As the trip date came closer, Monday and Tuesday were to have RAIN there. Wednesday would be okay there, but there might be some rain on the drive down. Since one cannot cancel RV park reservations this close to a trip, we waited to make same.
Our idea was that we wake early (for us) today and call and make reservations. During the night I started having cold symptoms again - bad and heavy ones. I had trouble sleeping. When we woke earlier than the alarm, husband was concerned about reaching the RV park to make the reservations as the office opens at 9 am, but it is hard to speak to someone before 11 am usually and we had to be on the road by 9 am to try to avoid the dreaded Belt Parkway and the construction along the entire length. I was trying to breathe. We sadly decided to not go today.
As we thought about this during the day - and I started to feel a bit better (amazing what 2 little aspirins can do in getting rid of a headache) and able to breathe again. We decided that I would call the RV park and make reservations for tomorrow night and Friday night and have a 3 day trip. We tend try not to be in Lancaster, PA on Saturdays - especially in summer - as there are too many tourists. (Yes, I know we are tourists also, but we are polite ones who try to blend in, not act rudely as many of our fellow New Yorkers and those from New Jersey do. We go there not for the novelty of the visit, but because it feels like a second home to us.) I was only able to get a reservation in a space that we know (and know it will be level) for tomorrow night, so we are going for just 2 days - and will hope that along the way there will a space we like for Friday night also. Oddly the 6 spaces that they had available for the 2 nights in the section we like, were all ones we have had problems with in the past - maybe others know that they are not level? (For those who have never stayed in an RV or trailer, if the RV or trailer is not level one feels off - walking uphill and down, the cabinet doors either swing shut or swing open, most of the refrigerators for same need to be level to work, etc. Most units have automatic levelers; ours does not. So we will go and see what happens as to how long we will stay.
Yesterday I packed the RV. As I have mentioned before, we keep basic items in it so we don’t need to remember or pack them - toothpaste, soap, dish soap, shampoo, an electric razor for husband, cleaning supplies, office supplies (pens, pencils, paper, stamps, clear tape, stapler...), dishes, pots, tableware, blankets & bedding (bed is still made up from last time as we only used it two nights then - covered the pillows on the bed with the blankets), towels - hand & dish, flashlights, sun hats, rain gear and the like. It is much easier to buy extras of these items than to have to remember to bring them each time - and then remember to put them away when we get home. We filled the water tanks on Monday - this gives us 25 gallons of water for drinking, cleaning, flushing, etc. Yesterday I packed clothing for us for 4 days (we always bring an extra days clothing on a short trip, 2 days worth on a longer one) into the shelves in the RV “closet” (a small cabinet). I packed snacks for us into plastic boxes which snap lock closed and put them into one of the “kitchen cabinets” - two thin shelves one about a foot long and the other about 18 inches long which have doors that snap closed. When we first got the RV we would fill both of these cabinets. Now I use only one for food as we have learned that we do not need as much as thought we did. (Heck, there are supermarkets and farmers’ markets everywhere there - including 24 hour Walmarts.) The other cabinet gets used to hold items such as plastic shopping bags, sweaters, whatever. The refrigerator gets soda - a big bottle to use at night and some cans in case we have lunch at a farmer’s market - which is common - or such, we will not have to buy something to drink.
Shoes were brought in and stored - I bring or wear sneakers and bring leather shoes in case of rain. We keep slippers in the RV. I have a pair of slip on sneakers that I keep in it - in colder weather I might be wearing shoe boots and if I need to run outside, it is easier to slip on these sneakers. We also each keep shower slippers in the RV.
I put the batteries in the thermometer for the fridge - better to find out I need new batteries then, rather than find out when we are leaving. I also put the toll reader into place in the front window. I bring in the store coupons from our car.
How do I keep track of all of this - what needs to be put in the RV when. I have a list of course. I have it memorized in my computer in a spreadsheet. I have a “Do Ahead” section - put water in the tanks, fill bottles of water to bring in the fridge, fill our travel medication boxes and such. I also have a “Check Ahead” section - this is for items which get used up on trips - paper plates, cups, bathroom cups, napkins (well, okay generally these don’t run out as we end up picking up some at different places as we travel) is there enough paper towels, toilet paper and tissues; soaps and related items; did the towels go back in after laundering after the last trip; and such.
I then have categories of what to pack -
What clothing items we need; what snack/food items we need/want.
Items to take from our car and bring - sunglasses, glasses.
Electronics - you know, tablets, laptops, extra or old cell phones as backups (we would not forget our current ones of course), camera if it is touring trip.
Household items - laundry bags (we bring our clothes into the RV in 2 laundry bags to unpack them. One is stored away until the end of the trip and is used to take unworn clothing back into the house. The other is used as a - well - laundry bag and then the dirty clothing goes back into house in it and tossed down the stairs to the basement.
I have some coupons which were picked up on earlier trips or came in the mail related to where we are going and I keep them in an envelope that I bring (it’s on the list of course). Also for our regular main trips (well they used to be regular and main) I have an envelope for each that labeled on the outside on a edge with the name and approximate date of the trip. For example - Labor Day trip- September, Fourth of July trip, etc. I keep them in date order with the next trip in the front of the stack in the same 3 section holder on the wall next to my desk as I keep our unpaid bills (the travel coupon holder is mixed in the same section as these envelopes. If say we pick up coupons for the Kutztown festival in advance - they are put in the envelope for same and will be there when we need them. I also have backpack
Things to do - magazines, my embroidery, etc. Generally they are not touched while we are away, but I always bring them. Husband gives me whatever he wants of same.
Finally, our “last minute bag”. This contains items we might need at home until the moment we leave. I have 3 plastic boxes in the bag. One has OTC medications - if we our stomachs feel bad at home, we take the pill out of the box. If ditto while on a trip, well, ditto. I don’t like to buy these items special for the RV as we use them so rarely, that even the one bottle is not used up by any stretch of when the expiration date is or beyond that seems safe. One has a bit more of same and our thermometer - one can get ill even on a trip and again, we did not want to buy 2 of them. The last box has items we will need on the trip - prescription medications for example - and will taken out of the bag the first night of our trip and stored in the cubby that has our personal items needed for the evening and the morning. We add other items as we use them for the final time at home before the trip. Much of what is in the bag will stay in the bag for the trip and it is stored where it can be more or less easily accessed.
The list also has a section for what we need to on our return to make sure that everything that needs to be is out of the RV and back into the house - and there are always items that we bought on the trip in addition to what we brought. I have a pattern for taking everything out of the RV - but don’t worry I am not going into that now. The list for our return reminds me of what needs to come out and that we need to shut off the refrigerator, air conditioning, inside light, and the RV battery - and put a towel into the refrigerator in case there is any leaking from the small freezer section. (There is a quick version of what absolutely has to come out/be done in case it is raining.
So, everything but the last minute bag, this laptop, and the rain jackets we might have needed for the trip is packed in our RV. Tomorrow we will bring these items, turn on the RV batteries, start the refrigerator in the RV, back out of our driveway and be on our way.
Oh, that sounds so easy. To back out into 2 lanes of traffic on our side of the road involves me standing in the road with a walkie talkie and telling him when he can pull out - talk about needing planning and organization!
I also have a short list, kept on a little clipboard that we use to check off each day of the trip that we have done everything we need to do before pulling out. We would not want to forget to unplug the RV from the electricity so the system is not broken or to lock a cabinet or the refrigerator door and have everything in it go flying when we drive. A common thing that we husband forgets is after we disconnect from the camp’s sources he needs to open the curtain at the back of the RV so he can see out same - good thing it is on my list and I turn around see that it is open and if not send him to open it. Even odd things are on my list. We have an outside light next to the side door. (Same as the light next to your front/back door at home.) We don’t turn it on. One day after driving around much of the day I realized it was on - it must have gotten turned on by accident the night before - I turned it off of course and I added it to the check off list. This short list has several columns so that on a trip up to 4 days can be marked off on the same form.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
If you do something that has many steps or many parts as a repeated thing, make up a list on your computer for what you need to do. Print it out each time you are doing to do the task and actually cross the items off the list. If needed I list the items that are going to be done at the last minute on the side as I see them - and circle them on the list. If I find that there is something that I need to add - I list it on the back of the page and add it when we return home.
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