Eight Legs and a Tail - Packing the Rig!

The last road trip that I blogged about was aptly titled- Ten Legs and a Tail.  I traveled with two of my very best girlfriends and my trusty sidekick- Smooch.  3 Women x 2 legs each plus one four-legged friend = Ten Legs. The tail of course belongs to the dog.   On this trip there are sadly no girlfriends along for the ride. There is me, my husband, Michael and Smooch.  So, this saga will be dubbed Eight Legs and a Tail.  

 

This time we’re traveling in our Ford F-150 pick-up and towing a Little Guy Mini-Max travel trailer.   It is 17 feet long but comes complete with a kitchen, a bathroom and a sitting area that turns into a bed.  It’s going to be a cozy bed, but it’s a bed.  Anticipating that we may want to bring our grand-daughter Mabel camping with us in Colorado, Michael has also outfitted the back of the truck with a bed with a very long slide-out drawer underneath it.  This will give us another sleeping space and more room to store things. Michael has named this the dog house. We’ll see if he is relegated to the dog house on the first leg of the trip.

 

We’ve been packing for days. Buying endless pieces of gear for the rig- special tools, storage containers, new pots and pans and hoses.   The list goes on and on. If we learned anything on our first RV road trip, it's that having the right hoses is paramount.  See our famous blog about the big dump. 

There have been heated debates about our sleeping set-up.  I, being the queen of naps, have naturally tried out the bed  and decided that it needed some kind of mattress topper.  I’ve done lots of online research.  There are Facebook groups galore and people are very generous sharing their tips and modifications of their rigs.  There is almost unanimous consensus that you need a little something to soften the bed set up.  But Michael woke up this morning and pronounced that the memory foam mattress toppers were going to be a disaster and we weren’t even going to need them. HA!  We’ll see about that. He hasn’t yet even laid down on the bed.  This afternoon, we plan to bring all of the bed accoutrement to the rig and try them all out.  Not only must we decide if the mattress toppers will enhance the sleeping experience but we need to figure out what the heck to do with them when the bed converts to a sitting area.  

 

Fitting everything in is the supreme challenge.  Mercifully, the refrigerator is a good-size, at least as RVs go. But where to put the clothes, the dog bed, the dog food, the snacks, the toiletries, the towels, the electric bike, the chairs for sitting outside at the campsite, where to put everything?  This is one area where Michael excels.  It must be his architect's brain that allows him to pack things efficiently and neatly. Despite that, we will be packed to the gills for sure. 

Our plan is to leave tomorrow afternoon, do a modest three hour trip tomorrow and spend the night with our dear friends, the Hornets.  Justine was one of my companions on the last road trip so she will have a discerning eye for all things we are bringing along for the trip.  She'll make sure that we have our quiddler game, our wine, our flashlights- the essentials. 

Various friends are placing bets on when Michael will be sleeping in the truck or better yet, when we will give it up and check into a motel along the route.  I am more optimistic.  I think we are going to have a blast, make some new friends along the way, and see the country.  After all, what awaits us at the end of the journey is our sweet Mabel and her new brother Warren who we have not yet met.  I can put up with alot of discomfort, knowing those two morsels are at the end of the rainbow. I hope to continue blogging and share the adventure.  Stay tuned for tales from the road and as you settle into your own cozy bed later this week, think of us and wish us sweet dreams.