Ready, Set, GO!

Unpacking to pack... That's what Sunday held. Our goal was to come home from Saylorville, pack up, mow and head off by 5pm for a week in Minnesota.

Let's see how we did...

I grabbed all of the clothes and sheets and set right to work on laundry. The weather was perfect to sun-dry everything far faster than my dryer could accomplish (I LOVE my clothesline).

Already there were things I decided to take out of the camper: the outdoor stove (we'll just try cooking inside or grilling and see how it goes), the poor grilling tools (replaced with some Pampered Chef tools I'd gotten years ago), some miscellaneous kitchen things.

I also added a few things like a spatula, pan scrapper and a soft-side cooler that folds down in case we need the extra capacity (still have no idea how far this fridge can take us).

We are taking our bikes and fishing gear on this trip, so we'll need to add an extra bin for equipment. That bin will stow under the bunk during transit and stay outside while we're camping.

Jay quickly built a shelf that will sit on top of the counter across from the sink/stove. On top of the shelf, we'll set our two drawer units. The shelf will stow on top of the drawer units up under the bunk during transit. The shelf needs to be better finished when we get home, but it will work for this week.

He also made a thin piece of plywood fit into the slots on the grill rack that mounts to the outside of the camper (the slots are where the legs of the grill clamp in). This can serve as a table. Our mount is either bent or very unreliable. We'll see how it goes. I'm afraid the whole deal will just fall off the camper with the slightest bump - with or without the table. We cut the plywood wide enough to block the opening of the bottom bunk so it will keep things from shifting back into the aisle during transit. I think we can do better for a table, but we'll see.

Nothing invested so far - everything came from scrap wood we had in the shop.

We worked at a frenzied pace but at about 7:00pm, I asked Jay if we should just give up on the idea of leaving tonight and get up early in the morning instead.

We fed the boys, put them to bed and did some last-minute packing.

One question we want to answer is whether or not we should plan to use our E-Z Up for camping (purchasing optional screen sides) or look for a screen tent instead. We plan to stop at Cabela's on our way tomorrow.