Today I took the van in to my mechanic to have a "trip check" done. He'll check all the fluids, the brakes, the tires, the hoses and belts, just to be sure I'm starting out in a safe vehicle. Of course, there's no way to predict if there will be car trouble on the way, but best to get obvious issues fixed ahead of time. I do have AAA but there are places where you just don't want to break down.
I've been doing some changing in my organization just for this trip. Here's what things are looking like, in no particular order:
The green pillowcase holds all of my cold weather gear, including a down jacket, a wool hat, a buff, gloves, rainpants and raincoat.
You'll see two knives hanging near where my head goes at night.
When I'm driving, my camp chair is bungied here but it moves out when I'm parked, and it will probably ride in the car top carrier once I get it put on. To the left you'll see a green spray bottle. That has water in it for putting up my window film. You'll also see my "luggable loo" toilet under that white top. I store the bags for the loo inside. I just bought that rainbow colored netting - not sure if I"ll use it or not. Up top you'll see my two solar lamps.
There is a little storage place on the other side of that green spray bottle. In that I keep scissors and a purple UV light for scorpions.
Next to my bed is a cup holder for water at night and a little bin where I store my sleep mask and earplugs and flashlight.
I usually put my extra battery under this red cooler, but won't need it for this trip, so I put in an extra 3 gallon bucket. I will store food in it. There is another bucket you can't see on the other side. In it is my shower, my rechargeable fans, and my laundry detergent. I put my dirty clothes in it as well. The yellow container is a tool box and the white hose is for putting water into my water container which lives in the hatchback kitchen.
This is the passenger door storage. I keep a fire starting kit, some kleenex, and a feminine urinary device in that place.
I keep my inverter in this storage beneath my backup camera screen.
I won't need it this trip, so probably I'll take it out.
My van has a glasses storage in the headliner - I use it for sunglasses.
I have space for 3 bins under my bed. This is the very BACK bin which has things I don't need to use often. In it I store my BLUE battery charger, my first aid kit, extra batteries and bungies, all the 'stuff' that goes with my Jackery, and a few other items. I keep some warm boots back in that spot along with my super duper rechargeable flashlight which will BLIND anyone I point it at and a container of baby wipes because my toilet is right there next to the bed.
This is my hatchback kitchen. I haven't organized and loaded it yet for this trip, but I usually carry a propane tank where you see the 5 gallon water jug and I usually carry 8 one-gallon jugs of water where you see the yellow case. But for this trip, I'm not taking the propane so I'm moving things around. The water bottle has a rechargeable pump that just sits nicely on top when I want to use it. Very top is for cans and spices. Top left has pots and pans. Top middle and right has dishes, silverware, fuel. Upper middle has my Omia oven, and all the other spaces are for food.
To the left of the kitchen is a storage space for a car jack and tools for changing the tires, if needed. You'll see I've opened it to make sure everything is there.
My Omia Oven makes awesome biscuits!
I keep this very heavy hammer behind my seat in case I need to use it for staking down my side tent. In the little basket are solar tealights and hand warmers.
View of the other side of passenger seat. I keep my garbage bag here. Under it is my 2nd bucket. I store my shower and laundry soap in here and put my dirty clothes in it. You can't SEE it but there's a hole in the top and when I'm camping in the desert during the winter, this is my washing machine. you can do a search on the blog to see how it works. Notice I took the headrest off the seat so I can see out the window. I DO have a seatbelt on that seat, but prefer not to take passengers unless it's an emergency.
I use this little level to level my van when parking on rough ground.
I have some levelers I keep in the car top carrier.
Between the driver seat and passenger seat.
I have this little basket that holds pens, a device for breaking the window in case of emergency, extra glasses, face masks, a notepad, hand sanitizer, water, change for tolls, eyeglass cleaner, and a fan (red and white) for hot moments.
In the driver door storage I keep this rechargeable lighter, a knife, and kleenex.
This is my "bathroom closet" that I keep under the front storeage space of my bed. It's not packed right now but I keep my hair dryer, bath and shower stuff, ibuprofen - anything I'd keep in the bathroom cabinet, in here. It fits in front of the bin that holds my clothes.
This basket is my "office."
I keep my paper, pens, scissors, in it.
This trip, however, the only project I plan on doing is writing on my computer. So I'm putting my coffee, my aero press, and my JetBoil in it so I don't have to get out of the van to make coffee. This bin fits in front of my MIDDLE storage bin that I keep my clothing in.
This is a very useful mat that I put in front of the van door so I don't bring dirt in. It's huge and I got it at Walmart in the RV section.
I rarely open this door, but this is what it looks like under my bed.
To the left is my clothes bin and to the right is space for my 2nd clothes bin (I have freeze dried food in it right now inside the house). I access these from the OTHER side though. I haven't yet decided if I'll use this second bin for food or clothes. I'll probably keep my food in it and put extra clothes in a suitcase up top. I have NO idea what the weather is going to be on this trip. Last time, I was chased by tornadoes! Hopefully this trip will be less eventful and less stressful!
My housemate is picking up my new Cabelas 10 cu. ft. cartop carrier this morning and bringing it home for me. I sold my bigger Thule with the other van, so it'll be nice to have more storage. I'll put some extra clothes in it and my camp chair and side tent, as well as my levelers.
That's it for now!
I'll continue to pack up - but
I'm pretty much done!
Happy Trails!
Annie
