For almost one of those two weeks before we head out we will be in Georgia, leaving only a few days to get everything ready.
Getting ready requires a lot of preparation and thought. We intentionally have a small rig so that we can be as nimble as possible. (although we tell our kids that we intentionally have one that's too small for them to move in with us). This allows us to get into places that larger rigs could not. It also enables us to be in more isolated places, which is what we seek.
But this means that we both need to take everything we might need, and at the same time take nothing more than we need. Space is very limited. And we have to be ready for almost any contingency.
In addition to the preparation steps we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Vicky has now organized our canned goods.
Now, one might think that you can pick up canned goods anywhere along a trip, and to a certain extent this is true. However, what she does is plans our meals for the much of the trip. She knows what canned food she needs, and organizes them in such a way as to be able to fix meals with as little hassle as possible.
We both want to eat well (meaning good, healthy food) and easily (because after hiking for a few hours every day one's energy needed for complicated meals is not at its peak). We don't want to spend 5 months eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for meals and instant oatmeal for breakfast.
Vicky makes and packs 5 months' worth of her homemade granola. This ends up being about 30 quarts. Wow! We need to find space for them. That's an example of needing to prepare for being away from home. She can't make it on the road, and there is no place to buy it. (and it's yummy and healthy, with all natural ingredients and no added sugar).
Canned salmon. We like it. But it's oddly hard to find. You can fairly easily find canned salmon that has bones and skin, but most brands of salmon hide that unpleasant fact from you. And you know what else about that kind of canned salmon with skin and bones? It's gross!
Plus, and this is another consideration with food, that type of canned salmon, where we have to throw a lot of it away, stinks. We don't have a trash can in our garage. We have to pack it in and pack it out, which means that sometimes we are carting around 2-3 weeks worth of garbage. We need to have a minimum of garbage, especially the type that has much food residue in it.
We also pack cans and other foods that are low sodium, low fat, and low simple carbs. Some of these are so difficult to find that we have to purchase them on line. We could get by without them, but that's how we eat and we feel better keeping our usual diet.
We have a 3 1/2 cubic foot refrigerator with a 1 1/2 cubic foot freezer. So another consideration in packing food is managing left overs. Our philosophy at home and on road trips is that we throw nothing away. That is easy enough to do when one is retired and has the time to plan and organize. It's much more difficult when you aren't retired. But it makes us feel good.
A large part of that 3 1/2 cubic feet is devoted to a type of food that requires a lot of space---fresh vegetables. And we eat a LOT of fresh vegetables, plus Vicky adds a lot of fresh vegetables to our cooked food. So there isn't even room in the refrigerator for milk. This means that to get the milk Vicky needs she takes along powered milk. And do you know that whereas once it used to be easy to find powdered milk that now it is not so easy? Only the larger grocery stores carry it, and then often don't carry many sizes.
Now, before anyone starts thinking that it looks like Vicky is doing more than her share of the organizing and preparing of food I want to say in my defense that.................well, you're right, I have no defense.
She does virtually all of it, except lifting anything heavy. She loves it.
WAIT! I just thought of my defense. Actually, it is our particular type of division of labor. I take care of half of the food issue, but my half of it consists of what to do with it after it is eaten. So, I have the wonderful task of managing the toilet, the poop bags, the trash and garbage, the toilet paper, and the shovels.
That's my skill level. Go with your strength I always say.
She marks the tops and bottoms of all cans. Otherwise, we would dig around in our tubs for the can we want for a meal, make a mess of them, and then very quickly not know what we had or didn't have. This kind of preparation makes things much easier during the trip.
Here she is organizing 5 months worth of her knitting. Vicky is an avid knitter, and what better place to knit than sitting outside in the desert in the afternoon and looking at mountains and wildlife while knitting?
Here is a portion of her yarn, stored under the back seat:
We bring along copies of our power of attorneys and living wills. Hope we don't need them, but what we've read is that in many instances people can't use them because they can't produce them when needed.
We bring along several types of water bottles. At times we will stay out for three weeks without provisions, so every spare inch of space is used for water. Vicky labels when the bottles were purchased because after a year of use they sometimes start leaking:
We (especially me) have bad feet. Really bad feet. I have special shoes and several orthopedic shoes. We have dancing shoes, and hiking boots. We can't buy shoes where we go, at least ones that fit us, so have to bring extra pairs. We have one entire tub completely devoted to just shoes and hiking boots. This doesn't include the sandals we slip on for our night time jaunts to look at the stars or the water shoes we wear when taking showers. Shoes, orthotics, inserts, boots, sandals, walking boots, etc. Anything we might need.
The maps. Vicky spends many hours collecting and organizing maps. She is the navigator, but actually more than that. She plans the basic outline of where we will go.
I do the driving. She loves maps. I actually enjoy driving.
One of the challenges of camping and hiking on public lands is, well, finding public lands. You can't enter "public lands" into your Maps App and let it do the rest. Instead, most public lands are a mosaic of public and private lands, and finding roads that can get you into the public lands can be a challenge.
These maps are detailed. We also use a "Public Lands" app that is very helpful. But maps, actual physical pieces of paper, are essential. One of the reasons why we can find the isolation we seek is knowing where to go to get it. Maps.
Extra supplies for the camper. We carry an extra camper jack. If we would drop the camper somewhere and one of the jacks wouldn't work, then we'd really be in trouble. A few years ago we had one freeze up, but we were lucky because we were near a city and could find a used one. So we carry a spare:
We also carry extra door handles for the camper and refrigerator, and extra hardware for the tie-downs on the camper. They are stored under the other part of the back seat. We have already had to replace some of these, so now we carry spares.
Here is what one of our staging areas looks like now, 2 weeks before we leave:
Living in the bed of our pickup for 5 months would be little fun without this planning. When we leave we know we have anticipated virtually every difficulty and are ready for it. Makes what we do much more relaxing. We carry a solar charger for the pickup battery, and a battery tester for it. A bottle of Clorox to clean the toilet. Prescriptions. Dozens of batteries and several battery chargers. Cables and cords (one can't have just 2-3 USB cables--our electronics require 5-6 different kinds of USB cables, for reasons I don't understand). Photography equipment (we use real cameras, not our phones, so this necessitates several accessories to make them work).
But we have to say; planning is fun. When we set out on a road trip we feel like we have accomplished something to just get out of the driveway.
