First, if any readers are in the area hit by Hurricane Harvey - I am so sorry for you and the others hit by the storm. I live in the area hit by Hurricane Sandy - just out of the heavily damaged areas, but my mom was in the area where she had extensive water damage to our family home - and know how bad that was - and you are in a much worse situation. I hope that all are safe and well. It will take a long time, but life more normal will return.
In the old days when we went to hotels when we traveled - like normal people - we would take several short weekend trips during the year to the Lancaster, PA area and a longer vacation during which we went to Washington, DC for a weekend, then Charlottesville, VA, then someplace different each year (although the place might repeat every few years) and then to the various historic areas near Williamsburgh, VA, two days in Lancaster and then home. It was so much the same that we would take out the prior year’s schedule and change the date - change the few days that varied and book the same hotels. We had it worked out that we stayed in each area when the hotel price was the cheapest - DC on the weekend, Lancaster midweek, etc.
Since the bedbugs and the switch to our tiny RV this has changed. We go away for shorter times, fewer times during the year. Our trip is also much more weather based - why go to some place outside if it will rain and we will not be able to go. We have also changed what used to be weekend trips to Lancaster to midweek trips - it is easier to get last minute reservations at campgrounds and we avoid weekend tourists plus on Sundays most activities and restaurants are closed, so when we went there Friday to Monday - one day there was little to do.
So this year we have only traveled for multiple days once - just before July 4th weekend. The weather has been wrong or something has been happening to cause us not to go away. We have taken a couple of one day trips as a result of this. So we were all ready for a nice week to 10 day trip like we used to take (although back then generally 2 and a half weeks).
We were going back to the Williamsburg, VA area, a place that as lovers of our country’s early history find so many places to go and learn something new each time. Then the trouble in Charlottesville occurred and we decided that we were uncomfortable traveling down there as we were concerned about similar problems arising there among the American Revolutionary and Civil War battle fields and historic sites.
So we were looking elsewhere - meaning Pennsylvania - for a longer trip. Two separate people - in totally unrelated circumstances - told us to go to a textile museum in PA. I took this as a sign that we were intended to go there this summer. We started planning a 5 day trip which would involve our normal Lancaster places plus this museum and a couple of other places.
We were to leave this past Monday and stay through Saturday. Then we found out about our dentist retiring and I have to get my new upper dental plate done before he does. I got a telephone call last Friday that they needed an extra appointment - Tuesday (yesterday). So the trip was postponed and shortened to today (Wednesday through Friday). The museum is out.
Have you ever tried to make arrangements for and around a trip when you don’t know when the trip will be? Oh boy - that takes odd organizing!
So last Thursday I paid and mailed out last Friday all of the bills due until next Monday and transferred money into our checking account for cash for the trip and if any additional bills popped up.
I normally would email out the monthly newsletter of my embroidery chapter tonight. I sent it out a day early so I would not have to do it while away - easier to do it from my desktop computer.
I have a check list that I print out each time we go on a trip. It lists all the things we need to do for the trip by category. I cross out anything that does not apply to a trip and then cross out each thing as I do it. Whatever needs to be done at the last minute is circled and also listed on the side of the paper and crossed off when done.
I normally will do laundry the night of two days before we go on a trip - so the next day (the day before we leave) we can put the clothes and we need in the RV for the trip. I also normally pack snacks that we bring and assorted other needed items. If the bed in the RV is not made up - I make it up. In this case since we had not been away a full week and the next planned trip had been for maybe 3 days, I left the bed made up and covered it over.
I was not really able to do any of the normal things to get ready. In the pouring rain yesterday we did fill the water tanks. If stuck we can fill them at the RV park, but it is easier to fill them at home. I did the laundry last night - filled the laundry bag we use to bring our clothes to the RV (who needs luggage - laundry bag in, put clothes on hanging shelves in “closet”. Use laundry bag for dirty laundry and carry it back into the house in same.
Last night I used a table in the dining room to line up what needed to go out today. Laundry bag of clothes. Cloth tote bag with stuff that goes in the “car” part of the RV - spare eyeglasses, coupons etc. Cloth tote bag with general items to go into the RV - spare paper cups, paper towels, etc. Two cloth tote bags with food related stuff. One, which is the only one with a blue handle, had the stuff for the refrigerator. Soda, juice (in case of a Diabetes low), home bottled water (the water gets rather warm sitting in the tanks on a hot day and such. The last tote bag had the non-refrigerator snacks. Although, since the fridge bag is the heaviest (by far), I did put the 2 liter bottle of soda in the other food bag. All of the snacks which are not in the fridge travel in plastic boxes which seal close to prevent animals smelling the food and getting in to visit. Laptops/tablet were charged overnight and on the kitchen table to go. Spare shoes were in plastic shopping bags to go out. EZPass for tolls was put on the windshield. Bag of last minute stuff to Ready to go!
The weather still seemed to be holding as nice, so this morning I called the RV park and was able to get a reservation for 2 nights - tonight and tomorrow night - for the space next to the one we usually get - so now we know about another spot level enough for us to use.
So we took about 4 trips of stuff out to the RV this morning - I had figured out where to store the various packed bags so that other than the fridge stuff, it did not have to be unpacked until we were in the RV tonight. I have told husband that we could do this and now we have.
So we are finally on a short trip again this summer. So far, so good.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Being able to plan for something that is fluid takes a bit more work, but it can be done. If you do something on a regular or semi-regular basis - make up a checklist and keep it in your computer and print it out each time - and use it. It makes rushing through getting ready so much easier.
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