on the way

Who says fabric hoarding is a bad thing? (Shut up, Andy.)

The car is (finally) all kitted out and ready to go. I had the rear seats taken out which freed up an extra 1.5 feet of space. It’s really amazing what a difference that’s making in terms of packing and sleeping room. Also snagged a big piece of plywood which I covered with fabric in order to make a more comfortable floor (the Trooper has runners which, under normal cargo-loading circumstances, are nice to have, but promised to be a pain to sleep on). My habit of compulsively stocking up on $1-yd fabric at Wal-Mart paid off for once… I was able to lay down quilt batting over the entire surface and cover it in water resistant ripstop nylon — just with stuff I had in my crafting closet. Booya! That’s in addition to the blackout curtains I made for all the windows — also with fabric from the closet — so the only new stuff I had to buy was the stickyback Velcro so that I can affix the curtains to the ceiling of the car. Yay fabric hoarding! (Heather is snickering at me right now.) I also made a screen for the sunroof so that I can sleep with it open if I want to without worrying about bugs. And thusly my Trooper is transformed into a camper of sorts.

The funny thing is that I also have a tent, which I’ll be using for equipment storage and sitting in during the day. I know that’s a reversal of the way things are normally done — but given the option of sleeping two feet off the ground in a lockable hard-sided weatherproof vehicle versus on the ground in a dome tent, wouldn’t you do it my way? Ok, fine. You’re more hardcore than me. Happy now?

It should come as a surprise to no one who knows me that not only have I already bought food, I bought too much. That’s what I get for shopping hungry — but at least I should have enough dried and canned goods to last the trip now. (Well, maybe not tuna. I only bought four cans, and as Rachel can tell you, I can EAT some tuna. Might have to get some more of that later on.) I decided it’d be less annoying to haul it around than to have to stop and replenish all the time. Now all I’ll have to worry about is fresh stuff — veggies, fruit, bread, cheese, etc. — which I can pick up as needed on the way.

The idiocy of all this preparation is that I really don’t know what I’m going to need on the road, because I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve checked a billion online camping checklists and I *think* I have everything, but I just know I’ll be in the middle of somewhere and need some gizmo that I previously dismissed as fluff. Oh well… I guess that’s why God^H^H^H Sam Walton made Wal-Marts.

(I would just like to take this moment to say how much I LOVE the Travel Channel right now. It seems like any time I start to get nervous or whatever about this massive undertaking, the Travel Channel shows something to get me excited again. Like just now — I was flipping through channels and came across “Travel Cafe” — this episode is about national parks. Of course, this stuff is probably on all the time and I’m only just now noticing it, but I like to think of it as gentle encouragement.)

I leave State College the day after tomorrow. I leave Mobile for the West in two weeks.

Looking forward to:
- tonight’s cookout at Leia and Rise’s place
- finding out what music people have picked out for me
- getting on the road
- seeing Heather and Andy
- driving through Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountain national parks on the way to Alabama
- seeing my friend Alan
- seeing my family
- seeing my sister graduate from college!

Not looking forward to:
- cleaning my room
- packing my car…. still
- the billion emails from students I will inevitably get while on the road
- forgetting something REALLY important… it always happens.

In conclusion, I will conclude.