Packing

Packing the truck cab is still a work in progress.  We are packed and ready to go, but how things are packed will be subject to change over the trip. After a year of frustration whenever we took a tight corner and a loose plastic set of drawers would fall over and spew its contents across the van floor, we have a better, though imperfect solution.  The drawers stay, they are handy for organizing all our odds and ends. I have a medicine drawer, a tool drawer, grooming products drawer, a paper products drawer, and such.  But now they are in the back seat of a truck cab propped against our cooler with the drawers opening into the car door.  That means the drawers only open when we have the car doors open and that is only when the car is stationary.  So far, it’s a major improvement but means we can only access those items when the car is stationary.  Though this can be annoying, something we have learned while traveling is the importance of structure and organization.  We have limited space, so it is handy to have a setup that requires us to be methodical with what items we have accessible and which ones are not.

With our newer, more precise traveling situation, packing became a more methodical process as well. We had three basic forms of storage: immediate, short term, and long term access. Anything packed in the truck cab was pretty easy to get. Next, anything in the close, under-bed storage boxes would be easy to pull out—great for occasional but not everyday needs. Then there was loose, long term storage in the far back, under-the-bed space. This meant that we had to be a bit more thoughtful where we put things. But, the predictability of where to find an item is definitely a plus.