Is the Truck Full?

Our Truck Was Packed to the Gills For The Road Trip West.

While the factory was building our new Ranger Tugs R25, Jim and I started packing the truck. Quite a feat, considering the circumstances. We sold our Ranger Tugs R29 about a year ago, in Anacortes, Washington. We packed up our boating stuff, all but a few things that were specific to the boat itself, or that we had promised the new owner we would include in the sale. That meant we packed up all our clothes, most of the linens, all the galley pots and pans, dishes, utensils, spice jars, quite a large assortment of personal items, and a small grill. We work a lot while we are boating, so we have work equipment; computers, photography equipment, printer, and office supplies. We packed up all Jim’s tools, air compressor, oil changer, inflatable life jackets, cleaning equipment, and buffer. Our truck was quite full as we made the five-day trek back to Michigan. We had to store everything in our basement until we could take delivery of our new Ranger Tugs R25. We are in Des Moines, Washington, doing just that right now.

The real chore of preparing for our trip west began last spring as we anticipated all the items we would need for the new boat. We discussed each item before ordering and buying. When they arrived, Jim put them into the “boat pile” in a corner of our basement. Some of the bigger items we added were a composting head (to replace the electric macerator head, an electric cooler, an Instant Pot, and an electric pan. Having these items on-hand before we arrived at the boat made it so much easier to settle in once we took possession of the new “Kismet.”

The Process…

Three weeks prior to our road trip to Seattle, Washington, the packing began. Jim, an organizer, made the process go smoothly. He went through all his tools and equipment and set them out in the garage. He then set all the kitchen gear on two tables in the basement and had me go through them. We are downsizing again, so I had to narrow things down and try to only include only the essentials. I tried to leave anything I had used little on the boat before.

About two weeks before our trip, I started putting all my photography paraphernalia, office equipment and supplies, linens, and a few more kitchen items in a corner of our dining room. Later that week, I started another pile in our bedroom. More bags would need to be packed at the very last minute. They contained items we would need to access during our road trip.

One week before we left, I started packing clothes, cleaning the house, wrapping up appointments, and cramming in a few social activities with family and friends. It’s a process, that’s for sure. We have done this so many times, I guess we have it down. Packing is a much different experience if you already have the boat loaded with most of the everyday stuff needed to live on a boat. In that scenario, we only have to pack our clothes, a few personal items, things we always took off the boat, such as our work equipment and clothes, because we needed them in the house. Beginning and ending a trip was so much easier when you have an existing boat.

I usually take cleaning supplies and food items, canned and dry goods we are using at home. However, we left those items behind this time. We would just buy them when we stock the boat in Washington.

Two or three days before we left home, Jim methodically packed the truck.

Remember the famous story that asks: Is the jar full?

A philosophy professor once stood up before his class with a large empty mayonnaise jar. He filled the jar to the top with large rocks and asked his students if the jar was full. The students said that yes, the jar was indeed full. He then added small pebbles to the jar and gave the jar a bit of a shake so the pebbles could disperse themselves among the larger rocks. Then he asked again, “Is the jar full now?” The students agreed the jar was full, so the professor then poured sand into the jar to fill up any remaining space. The students agreed again that the jar was now full. He may have also added water before using the demonstration to form an analogy for managing a meaningful life. I give this example here to give you an idea of how fully packed our truck was when we left home for the six-day road trip to Des Moines, Washington.

Here’s an idea of what our truck looked like. In the rush to pack and leave home, we forgot to take pics at the beginning of the trip, so these photos show after we already began to unpack. So try to imagine all those nooks and crannies filled with little items.

Jim packed our truck just like the story about the jar.

Big items first, some of the purchased items are still in their original boxes to protect them from vibration. When the initial layer (rocks) was packed, in went the smaller items (pebbles), stuffed in between the larger objects. He came in and said, “The truck is full!” I laughed, I know his game.

I continued with my last-minute packing and cleaning. He would go through my pile in the dining room and pick things out that could fit between the “rocks and pebbles.” Each time he came back into the house, he said he didn’t know how we would get all that stuff into the truck. He saved the cab of the truck for anything that we didn’t want to freeze or items that we needed to access during our road trip. We used the electric cooler for jugs of cold water and snacks we would need for the trip.

The whole time he was packing, I was too busy to even look at his progress. I just knew he would get it all in. He’s that good. He added the final pile (sand) hours before we left, followed by the remaining miscellaneous things (water) which were haphazardly thrown into the front of the cab, literally around my feet.

We did it! What a great feeling it was to say goodbye to our home and head out on another boating adventure.

Heading south to Ohio, we visited Jim’s mom for a few days and left from there the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. My concerns for later November weather difficulties and holiday traffic never materialized. We had the best weather the whole way, with the worst being the last few hours traveling through the Snoqualmie Pass. It was raining profusely. The only accident we saw the whole trip was in the pass, just before Seattle. A 7-car pileup in the eastbound lane of I-90. Until the pass, we never had more than a sprinkle of rain and did not see any snow, except far-off in the mountains. Even though it was a Sunday after the holiday weekend, traffic was minimal.

We didn’t make many stops, but we drove by the Corn Palace, in Mitchell, South Dakota, and we spent about an hour visiting the Crazy Horse Monument in Black Hills, South Dakota.

We were lucky to find a place open, in Rapid City, South Dakota, to grab a yummy Thanksgiving dinner.

Jim made one very interesting hotel reservation ahead of time, it was in Livingston, Montana. The historic Murray Hotel is unique in how they have decorated its rooms, each with a different theme. Everything in our room was decor and memorabilia from the fifties.

We arrived in Des Moines late afternoon, seven days after we left home. First stop, down to the marina, to visit the new Kismet, of course.