Preparing for "our summer vacation"

April 24, 2007
Peoria, AZ

Preparing for an extended trip should be simple, right? Pack the coach, lock the house and go. Well, let me tell you, it isn't that simple!

We're doing pretty well, though, and will be hitting the road on Thursday afternoon (4/26).

In addition to all the warranty and upgrade work done on the coach, we have to make sure that routine maintenance is kept up. Today, I had a service guy come out to do the annual furnace maintenance (it's just like an oil furnace in a house). I brought a load of stuff from the house, adjusted the custom under-couch-wine-cellar to hold two cases, replaced the fluorescent light over the sink (who would have thought that interference from a light could cause a thermostat 10' away to act funny), rearranged a series of cabinets, found a bunch of stuff to leave home (we're almost at the point where something has to go for every new thing brought on board), vacuumed, and cleaned the remaining carpet. We'll finish loading the coach on Thursday morning; we'll bring it to the house for that (even though, at 45' long, it's about 5' wider than our lot). It'll be mostly food from the freezer and fridge; food, toys, and medications for the pups; and the last of the clothes. This year, we'll take a look through what we have on board before we leave, though, since we carried a lot of stuff around last year "just in case".

For the "stick house", we've also gotten quite a bit accomplished over the last couple of weeks. On the food front, we had a lot of help from our friends eating down the inventory on hand :-) -- thanks! I got all the yard stuff and most of the patio gear in the shed. The stuff that will travel in the car (chairs, bike, cooler, etc.) is stacked in the garage. Dave helped me put the roof pod on the car last week, so that's a relief for Geri. I'll put maintenance items in there (Alan and I will do a coach maintenance cycle in June or July while we're in CT). I've made arrangements to have the water/sewer/trash and gas services turned off and the cable (TV, Internet, phone) minimized. We have to leave the phone on for the alarm system, and they keep our email accounts (not that we really use those) active.

On the day of departure, I'll go retrieve the coach first thing in the morning and we'll move the last-minute stuff out. I'll turn the gas and water off, drain the water heater (it's overdue), and unplug a lot of electrical devices. I usually unplug the cable connections as well, as there may be a potential for them to carry a charge in an electrical storm -- and there are big storms here in the summer monsoon season, even if it doesn't rain. We'll put the patio table in the foyer for the same reason; a wind storm could blow it over and break the glass top. I'll close the blinds, lock the shed and breaker box, secure the slider, set the alarm and run for the door.

Then, we'll do it all in reverse when we get back in the fall!

Good thing I keep checklists...