The Day Before

It's the day before we leave on our trip.  I was up early this morning.  I get excited and can't sleep right before something like this.  Been that way since I was a little kid (and that was a long time ago).  Yesterday, I drove all over town doing last-minute errands.  I bought enough cat food to last the entire way.  I discovered a new brand, the name of which escapes me right now.  George loved it, so I bought all the flavors they had.

Dropped off some books I'm leaving with Sue (my walking buddy), and picked up food for the trip.  Fortunately, I've cooked for the first four nights, so I didn't need much.  I've always liked the challenge of cooking really good food while traveling.  It's much easier to do in an RV since I have a stove, oven, and microwave, as well as all the tools I deem essential.  However, I have always tried to make really good food even for the many, many years we were tent campers and I cooked on a Coleman stove.  I cooked on a campfire a time or two as well when we forgot the fuel bottle or the attachment hose for the Coleman stove.  I was thinking, maybe I'll publish the recipes of things I cook along the way.  I had this idea once that I could do a Food Network show about RV cooking.  Wouldn't that be fun?  Anyway . . . if you're interested, I'll tell you what I make as we go.  I have some great recipes that require little preparation and only a few easy-to-find ingredients.

Also, I stopped by Erik's place.  He and Mae have taken care of our heart-leaf philodendron the last two times we've gone snow-birding.  It always looks better when we get it back from them.  I think it likes traveling too.  We've had this same heart-leaf philodendron since we got married--it's off a start from the original plant.  We'll be married 36 years this year.  The fact that the leaves are heart-shaped seems somehow prophetic, doesn't it?  In any case, I always tell them "No pressure . . . but we've had this plant as long as we've been married!"  (How'd you like to hear that from your mother/mother-in-law?)  They always do a good job.

So today, it's pack, pack, pack.  Things fall into categories:  clothing, toiletries, technology, camera gear, sewing stuff, tour guides, entertainment, and cat stuff.  Most of my clothing and toiletries live in the trailer year-round.  I have a box with tour guides, maps, directories, and articles I've torn out of magazines literally for decades.  Everything else gets packed at the last minute.

So with that, I think I'll sign off.  Next time I blog, I'll be somewhere else.