Listen to narration here
The conundrum and configuration was discussed over lunch with Ron & Tracy Clanton, soon to be full-timers. As the RV aficionado, Ron offered some alternate configurations using some spare bike racks and such that he was not currently using. It was worth a try. After hours of trying out the various configurations it was discovered that none of the combinations were going to work with the bikes that were going. Ron and Tracy even made trips to stores in Garner to see if there were parts that would help solve the tight clearance issue. Thanks for the valent effort ! Back to Plan B.
The main challenge in getting ready for the trip is not the route nor were to stay as that was planned months ago with the help of Good Sam's Club Trip planner. The real challenge is how to get all the Stuff into, on top & behind of the Toad and it then hooked to the RV. This year a new car top carrier was acquired to hold biking, airplane and other non-heat sensitive paraphernalia. This freed up lots of space in the RV 'basement' storage as well as the Car. With the journey including 9 months away from the base camp more stuff was desired. Kevin had his new Drone with accompanying electronic support devices, the original smaller drone, 2 planes, all cameras (for wedding) and video tape transfer project equipment. Theresa had a closet full of cloths (summer, fall and winter), crochet project and several picture albums for a scanning project. Together there were 4 bikes, 1 dog trailer, several boxes with wedding presents to be delivered, file bucket for taxes and other paperwork, as well as wine and other libations for the trip. The packing list was quite lengthy!
The bikes were the biggest issue. Kevin wanted to see if they would fit on a bike rack that was hooked into a 'Y' hitch along with the tow bar for the CRV. This required a test to see if there would be clearance between the bikes on the rack and the CRV (Toad) specifically when making sharp turns that would have the car at a tight angle with the RV. The test result was a very obvious failure! So plan B was that all 4 bikes would be transported using a Yakama rack that was attached to a hitch behind the CRV. This extended the length of the Toad by almost 4 feet.
After that struggle it was time for a final Tasman cul de sac happy hour before the Sunday departure. Chairs where circled on the shady side of the Smitanic which occupied a large portion of the space for it's pre-trip staging area. Tours were offered, toasts were made and hugs were exchanged amongst neighbors for this final send off! See Kevin's Drone video here...
One last day of packing remains then the Smitanic will shove off.
No comments:
Post a Comment