Today was the first day of our winter vacation. Let me tell you a little bit about it.
We spent yesterday dropping our cat off in Traverse City with Stan who was kind enough to offer to watch him for us so we don't have to lug him all over the country and share the trailer with him and his litter box. I was also wondering if he would ever get used to wearing a leash!
Then we went to visit with Nancy's folks in Leland and had a great dinner with them. Needless to say not much packing took place that day, although we did manage to get our taxes done and ready to submit and we filled out the form for mail forwarding.
(In all honesty, we did do quite a bit of packing and preparation on Monday and Tuesday).
After not getting much sleep last night worrying about the roads and all that we had to do, we got up this morning and started going through the motions of packing and getting ready to go. I first cleaned out the fireplace and built a fire pile ready to light for Laura and Sean when they get here in February. Nancy cleaned our bedroom and bathroom and got the bathroom stuff ready to go.Then, I poured a cup of coffee and took a couple of swallows. Nancy put sheets in the laundry to wash. Next, I put on my coveralls and snowblow(ed?) the driveway. I put out the mail and the notice to forward mail to Leland, then went back inside to have breakfast. After eating I pulled out the stepladder and swept snow off of the camper. When I tried to pull the tarp off I found that it was frozen to the top of the camper and wouldn't come loose. Luckily I have a hot water faucet in the garage so I hooked up the hose and tackled the tarp with hot water. After about fifteen minutes I had the thing loose and on the ground! Next was getting the bikes packed and tools and stuff packed in the truck.
Back indoors we got the last of the clothes packed and then when Nancy was done cleaning the house and refrigerator we started hauling the rest of our vacation goods out to the trailer. Nancy took up her position in the camper squirrelling things into any available nook or cranny, and I kept taking things from the house to challenge her skills. After I made the tenth and last trip, (this included emptying the refrigerator and freezer), we were well on our way to being packed.
Here's a math problem for everyone; how many 25 cubic foot refrigerator freezers will fit into a four cubic foot camper refrigerator freezer? (No fair looking up the answer, just don't open the door too fast or you might get caught in an avalanche) !!
While Nancy finished loading the sardine can, I hooked up the camper to the truck and we were ready to roll. But first we had to go in and shut off power to the appliances and turn the water off and open all the faucets and flush toilets. We turned the heat down to 55 and put some antifreeze in all the toilets. Hopefully we can get through the winter without freezing up!.
Finally at about 1:30 we hit the road. I should say we hit the snow because that's all we saw for the first hour and a half of our trip. The roads were a mess and snow and ice was the rue of the day. I skidded through a couple of our turns and did manage to climb hills with the trusty four wheel drive. We didn't see any pavement until we hit M-115 south of Lake Ann about an hour and a half into our journey. We drove in slush and sandy slush for the next forty miles until we got to US 131 in Cadillac and finally found dry pavement.
We finally had smooth sailing all the way to Indianapolis, and we arrived at our hotel at 10:30! We had bowls of soup for dinner and sat and watched TV. We wondered why the late show with David Letterman came on so early. (Oh, I guess it is 11:30 AFTER ALL)!!
Well I hope the rest of our vacation gets better as we go. Tomorrow we are hoping to be in slightly warmer weather as we will be camping. Tonight we are spending the 18 degree night at a Hampton Inn.
Safe travels to all!
No comments:
Post a Comment