Monday Miscellany: Getting Ready to Move

Monday is the day for miscellaneous topics

After a week in Santa Fe, today we are hitting the road. When we move the bus, I prepare the inside for travel while Sean does a “walk around” and checks the outside.

Here is what I do to make sure the interior is ready for travel. I start in the bedroom and work my way forward.

In the bedroom:

• Turn off and close Fantastic Fan.
  
• Lock Opal in her carrier under the bed.
  
• Turn on the Engine Heat, which allows the coolant of the engine to heat hot water and (if necessary) run the space heaters.
  
• Cold or very hot weather: close the window and close the window shade. Temperate weather: close the window about halfway and open the blind all the way. This allows a nice breeze to flow into the bedroom without damaging the blind. If the window is open all the way, the breeze is strong enough at freeway speeds to blow the pillows off the bed.
  
• Prepare the aquarium by bungee-cording the lid down and stuffing a rag into the overflow pan. The tank loses about a cup of water on a typical day’s drive. That water ends up in the pan which is difficult to drain, so I soak it up with rags and wring the rag into the sink later.

In the bathroom:

• Make sure the toilet is flushed.
  
• Open or close the window to match the bedroom window.
  
• Close and latch both doors. The two doors in the bathroom have magnetic catches which aren’t strong enough to hold the doors closed in rough driving conditions. After just a few trips where the doors slammed back and forth, we installed sliding latches.
  
• Turn off and close the Fantastic Fan.
  
• Make sure no loose items are on the counter.

In the kitchen:

• Turn off and close the Fantastic Fan.
  
• In hot weather, turn on the air conditioner. The center a/c will cool both the dog in the back and us in the front. In extremely hot weather, we need to run the front a/c to cool off the big front windows and Opal is allowed to ride in the cockpit with us.
  
• Put away all dishes.
  
• Secure all loose items. The coffee pot, dish drainer, two metal canisters, and a colander full of fruit stay in place because they have non-skid material underneath. Anything else loose must be put away. That usually includes only dishes and maybe a box of crackers.
  
• Place small spacer in dish soap dispenser to keep up and down bus motion from squeezing soap into the sink.*

In the living area:

• Close the tambour doors over the TV screen.
  
• Close all the blinds.
  
• Close all the windows.
  
• Retract the awnings.
  
• Secure all loose items on the counter. Two baskets/bins with small stuff stay in place. Anything else should be put away by now, but can be placed on the couch if necessary.
  
• Put my laptop computer on my chair.
  
• Push the Miller folding table as far forward between the chairs as it will go. The chairs keep the table from moving or falling sideways and since braking forces are stronger than acceleration forces, the table cannot move any further forward once in place.
  
• Grab anything that belongs in the cockpit and head downstairs.
  
• Count the cats. There should be two somewhere inside.
  
• Open the roof hatch and visually check that the satellite dish has stowed.

In the cockpit:

• Hang up hats and jackets.
  
• Open the electric shades.
  
• Stow the Reflectix window cover.
  
• Fasten seat belt.

*In response to Robert & Susan's comment below, here is the spacer used in the kitchen soap dispenser. It is made from one of those little foam disks that shoot out of a kid's toy gun, which we use for cat entertainment purposes. We cut a notch through the disk to make it into a "C" shape. This slips over the neck of the soap nozzle and holds it in place.