Planning

5/11/19   Where do trips begin? Most definitely for me, I’m traveling long before I’ve set out. It takes a good deal of planning to make the trip run as smooth as your luck allows. It is also surprisingly enjoyable. I found this truth when I decided to make a big trip to Alaska a couple years ago. The truck was new as was too the configuration of the FWC Eagle on it. I discovered then there were a number of categories in trip planning. Some are exciting and others are not but each takes you to the place in your head like you were a kid again, pretending to be someone or somewhere… your imagination puts you right in it.

Trying to imagine circumstances helps you make decisions. I imagined being 150 miles out on a Yukon dirt road and the engine light comes on or that sick wobble telling you a tire is flat. Being stuck in a mud hole or your wiper just took sail. Just things that are unexpected. We were on a trip in the north Maine woods…way the heck in there and the canoe mount snapped. The canoe front line could not hold the sudden straight up flip the boat took. It pivoted just right to have the stern of the canoe smash through the rear door of the camper. It was raining. Black flies as thick as soup. Huh. We solved the problem of how to keep water out and stuff in but when I got home I made a copy of that rear door glass out of 1/8” ply and stored it under the mattress. Experience is the best teacher and having a nature that expects disaster helps. Sometimes being raise by an Irish mother who believed death was probably going to happen in the next move taken did not help build self confidence easily. If you swim you’ll drown or climb a tree… broken bones! Thank God my father was an engineer.

So planning comes in fits and starts. Lists are drawn up on various topics. The repair box is filled with MacGyver  materials: JB Weld, copper wire, small C clamps, Gorilla duct tape, silicon, fuses, replacement parts. The tool box must be small and cover a long list of possibilities, multi-tools and only sockets needed, as compact as can be. The dog box has a wide range of things needed in the just in case scenarios: Tick puller, skunk wash, small pliers for quills, nail clippers, scissors, brushes and comb, belly bug cream…. Then there is the fishing box. The grilling box. The ropes, lines, and clips for the tarps box. The tire repair box (compressor too). The list of things grows over time and refined for the destination. The desert is different than the woods. The only way one could use a winch for extraction on a beach would be to bury the spare wheel for an anchor… better to have sand mats.

Amazing how easy it is to over plan. I took way too much stuff, especially food on our last trip. Having just a few days of food is plenty as staples can always be bought on the way. Beer however is an exception to the rule. If there’s room, beer is a great space filler. Always nice to have extra to offer someone you meet.

The basic route planning is done in hopes that one has a general itinerary good for catching ferries and perhaps making a reservation at a must see place. Having an idea of places to camp either for just an en route overnight or for a few days at a time exploration. Going over maps and being able to “see” what it looks like via Google Earth gets the juices flowing. The trip itself will fly by so enjoying the preparation makes it twice as nice.

For those of you who love to make mods to their camper this too is part of the fun. Each trip ideas pop that would make something a bit handier to get at, store or use. After a few years we decided we never really use the sink. Instead of washing up inside I prefer to do that outside using the Tupperware basin, also used to store  pots and pans. I also did not like where the stove top was located on the counter. When the bed was pulled out it covered the range. When the Mrs. slept in…. I couldn’t make coffee! So I tore out the counter and replaced it with the stove at the other end, the sink gone but the faucet pump still there handy to get the coffee pot full. I also tore out the bench rollover couch and used the hardware to make a side dinette. It works better for us. From the WTW site help was given to rewire the exhaust fan to have dial speed rather than set 3 speed, making it able to be just barely on, circulating air quietly. Started with an Engle top opening fridge/freezer and changed over to the builtin Isotherm 65. Just continually evolving the space.

New England seasons, weather as opposed to climate, makes chores happen when they can and the long cold months a very good time to suss things out. As the date approaches the excitement builds!