Prep A-Go-Go

Mallory’s spring break came to a surprisingly quick end and now we’re all looking forward to summer when she comes home to work and be a full time participant in our very weird little family.  While she was packing we had this conversation:

Me: You should read my blog about our trip.  You’re even in it.

Mallory: I’m a college student, I don’t have time to read for pleasure.

Me: Don’t worry about that, there’s nothing pleasurable about reading my blog.  But it’s actually very popular.

Mallory:  Yeah?  How many readers do you have?

Me:  Oh gosh, there must be at least five and possibly even ten.

Mallory:  Good job, Mom.

Once she’d safely navigated the flight to Denver and the Uber trip to the dorm in Boulder, our prep back in Austin for the next trip of Gap Year began in earnest.  Always lots to be done so I started my to do list by meal planning and cooking food for the freezer.  I absolutely love doing this in advance so all we have to do is decide what we want to eat and boom.  Thawed and done.  Unfortunately, when I was searing the sides of a pork shoulder before putting it in the Crockpot for pork carnitas tacos (mmmm!), I set the smoke alarm off and if there’s one thing dogs really don’t like it’s a high pitched beeping noise that resonates all over the house.

Maiya sprinted out the dog door to hide in the bushes in the backyard, Brodie is deaf as a post so it didn’t bother him at all, and Belle was convinced it was her death knell.  Belle is pretty well convinced everything is her death knell.  Even after I waved a towel in front of the smoke detector and got the noise to stop, Belle was in full freak out mode.  She refused to leave my side for the next hour no matter if I was cooking, folding laundry or trying to avoid being shadowed by a dog.

Dave backed the RV into our driveway so we could do various chores in it without having to dodge traffic in the street which we’ve learned is a good idea.  This beast takes up the entire freaking driveway.

My job is to guide him while he’s backing up to make sure we get as close to the garage as possible without actually crunching anything.  Mere inches separated the garage from the ladder off the back so my work here is done.

The RV was going to need an oil change at some point before we return from this trip so rather than wait, Dave decided to just do it now.  Once again, so glad he’s in charge of the outside arrangements because oil changes are not something that appear on my radar.  I’m more pork carnitas focused.  Turns out that if you want to get the oil changed in an RV, you need to find a place with a bay tall enough to handle the job.  After several phone calls, referrals, actual trips to shops, and lackluster responses from Jiffy Lube and RV dealership employees, Dave watched a YouTube video, recalled his oil changing experience from the past and opted to do it himself.  Now this I have to get pictures of.

Once the oil was squeaky clean it was time to get the rig squeaky clean.  We killed a ton of bugs on our last trip and their sad carcasses were plastered all over the front getting crusty and sticky and… you get the idea.

RVs are very tall (see: not being able to fit in a bay for an oil change) and if you want to get crusty sticky bug carcasses off the top portion you need to be clever.  And daring.  And have good insurance.

In order to get the windshield and under the overhang, Dave needed to climb up and maneuver himself in ways that just screamed for me to take a snapshot.

My giggling got his attention and when he figured out I was just out there to capture him for blog fodder, he said, “Don’t just stand there!  Grab a mitt!”  Hmph.

We spent the beautiful afternoon scraping bug guts off the rig and now it’s ready for another adventure.  Refrigerator is packed, freezer is packed, clothes are packed and dogs are jumping around the house because they know what’s in store.  These animals are hilarious.  When we’re packing the RV for a trip it’s all, “Don’t forget us!  We want to go!  We love the RV!”  And then when they’re in the RV it’s all, “We don’t like the RV!  We want to go home!  It’s too cold!  It’s too hot!”  Sheesh.

Quick business note on the blog:  we are planning to be gone for about four weeks and in that time, we may have WiFi but most likely we won’t.  I downloaded the Starbucks app so I can try to stop at locations near us every few days or weeks to post, and Dave and the dogs will just have to hang out with a few puppucinos while I upload pictures and stories.  I have no idea how that will work out but I will try to update as much as I can.

Off we go tomorrow, heading east!  We hope to end up in the Florida Keys and I’m sure nothing could possibly go wrong along the way.  Ahem.  So goodbye until I have WiFi again!