Bonfires and Bon Voyage
It seems it was just a few weeks ago. I was cruising up the Florida coast toward my winter home. In fact it’s been almost 4 months. Time just goes by so fast. Having already spent a winter here, I had so many plans this year. Most of which have been unrealized. The weather has not been as nice this year and there were so many things to do. I saw the Bad Dawgs play for the first time last night. We just started having bonfires recently and now they are almost nightly as the weather is more permissible and we all feel the looming separation. Tonight is the last Karaoke night and everyone seems to be excited for it. Happy hour starts at 5pm.
I have truly made some great friend here over the last two years and I will probably visit a few on my summer travels as I pass through their part of the country. Emails and phone numbers are being exchanged and I seem to have been fully accepted into this particular snowbird family. Most of us are pulling out in the next week and headed back home for the summer. A couple are heading out on adventures like me.
So as I’m feeling the hope and promise of spring, the excitement of pending adventure. I’m also feeling sadness this comes with goodbyes. I think this is doubly so this year as I just returned from my pre-adventure visit home.
Packing and Procrastination
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As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I lean toward some procrastination. But I have been steadily reorganizing the camper and where I put stuff. I made a low cost purchase that I’m excited about. I bought some shelving for my main storage compartment. You can find it using this link. As you can see in the image below it made a huge difference. Before this was all stacked which meant I had to take things on top out to get to things on the bottom. Now I can reach in a get what I need without unloading the whole compartment.
I also picked up an organizer for the cabinet. The Bamboo Kitchen Organizer from Bambusi freed up the whole right side of the cabinet. Before I had a lot of vertical space because the plate holders were on the bottom of the cabinet. I’m adding rubber shelving liner to keep the plate holders from sliding when traveling. If that doesn’t work the holder already has small holes in the bottom I can use to zip tie them to the organizer.
I’ve added a couple of counter top appliances which has cost some space challenges so I needed to get rid of my cutlery block. I found this one, 16 Inch Stainless Steel Magnetic Knife Bar (The one I ordered is out of stock but this is similar), recommended by KYD and I’m very happy with the results.
My biggest change was related to remote working. I removed my dining room table and chairs and replaced them with a desk and office chair. This has been best change. Using the dining table as a desk put my keyboard/touchpad at the wrong height and I was having regular neck pain. All that is gone now. Plus I have a much better work space. This also allowed me to mount the monitors to the desk so I don’t have to store them to travel. I also added some mounts for lighting to help with video calls and YouTube videos. Here’s a list if you are interested.
- ErGear Dual Monitor Desk Mount
- Cord Management Organizer Kit
- Ergonomic Desk Chair
- Under Desk Laptop Mount
- Camera Desk Mount with C Clamp, 2 Pack (The one I ordered is out of stock but this is similar)
- Under Desk Cable Management Tray
- Table with Open Metal Leg Design and Privacy Panel
- Surge Protector Power Strip
Now I still have projects left to work on. The pots and pans are a horrible mess but I still have not found the right solution. I also want a better solution for food storage containers. Even though I added these handy holders for glasses/tumblers, the actual cabinets are not working for me with the shelves I put in last year. So I’m still working on those too. Basically going to change all the cabinets and/or their contents around in the near future. But for now things are still travel ready.
Countdown to Blast-off
With time winding down faster than my to-do list there are preparations related to the camper and truck. I’m a little overdue changing the fuel filter on the truck. This was recommended by the dealer when my truck was serviced in the fall. The wanted the low price of $387.00 to do this. I passed. I looked and found the part, Motorcraft, for $60 and went to YouTube to see how to install it. Six screws and 3 clamps. Less than 15 minutes of work. Mmmm! Yep, I ordered the parts and this week they are going to be installed.
It’s time to lubricate the slides and wash the camper and do a roof check. This is all on this weeks agenda. I had the truck serviced while I was home, I had the camper bearings packed in the fall before leaving Chattanooga and I have one installation to do before the big adventure starts.
The upcoming trip is around 5,000 miles, so tires are very important. A blown tire can do considerable damage to a camper and when you live it yours full time this can be more than just one bad day. So I picked up the TireMinder i10 RV TPMS with 4 Transmitters from Amazon. Tire monitoring systems are not cheap, but they could save you thousands of dollars in repairs and lost lodging. I will let you guys know my thoughts on this particular system after some use.
I’m sure there’s more that I’m not thinking of at the moment but I wanted to share a little about getting ready for a trip like this. I hope you find it interesting and helpful.