Getting Ready to Travel

I drove up to The Bolt Hole this morning hauling some of the debris from the old deck, three bags of concrete, one-and-a-half dozen tomato plants (I always over plant my seedlings and hate to kill them off) and the clothes Terry and I will need on our trip to Colorado next week. Besides delivering all this stuff to The Bolt Hole, my job this week is to prepare the trailer for our trip.

But first, there’s the matter of the lawn. I was last up here three weeks ago and the grass has shot up 8-10 inches. So immediately upon my arrival, I started cutting grass. I spent four hours and have only half of it done. It will take another four hours to do the areas east and north of the cabin. If the lawn mower holds up, that is. I hit a chunk of wood over by the barn that was laying in wait for me and may have done some damage to an already ancient machine. All I know for sure is that it didn’t run as well after I dislodged the wood from the mower blade. Perhaps the shaft is bent slightly but I couldn’t detect anything visually wrong.

Tomorrow will be grass cutting and tomato planting. Then I will start to look over the 27’ Wilderness travel trailer that will be our home for three weeks. The battery is already hooked up to the charger. I need to flush the anti-freeze from the water lines and the holding tank, check the tires for air pressure and the propane system for proper operation. The refrigerator needs to be checked, too. I may have to do some lube work on the wheels and slide out. And who knows what else needs doing? The inside has to be aired out even though I was sure to leave the windows cracked just a tiny bit. Then I will have to practice hitching and unhitching the trailer to the truck as well as checking the wire connections to the truck. I just pray there is nothing wrong. We already have reservations in Monument for July 1st.


I'm doing all this on my own because Terry has a wedding to attend on Saturday and a wedding shower (different bride) on Sunday. She will be driving north after the shower on Sunday so we can get on the road early Monday morning.