More Bar Towels, Please!

Since this is my first posting, this will probably be rather long. If you don't know me well, you'll see frequent

references to the following:

• Ed - my husband, a very large man
• Lu - our female dog, 45 pound shepherd/husky/something-for-floppy ear mutt
• Gideon - our male dog, 50 pounds, probably Australian shepherd/doberman/chicken mix

We will be spending 4-5 weeks back home visiting family and really didn't want to impose on people for that amount of time (again). In looking at the various options - including renting a place by the lake or woods while there, KOAs, and renting a travel trailer or RV - we settled on the purchase of an RV as being the confluence of near-perfection. Our own living space, a moveable house, payments we could actually afford, and it could tow the car. Compared to any of the other options, it isn't the cheapest in the long-term by any means, but made the most sense long-term.

We left Sunday morning, and it is now Tuesday morning... I can't say we learned much beyond basic packing and usage of the RV prior to leaving, but we've learned a few things on our drive thus far.

First: You can NEVER have enough dish towels. I mean it. Never enough.

We stopped at IKEA in the weeks before we took delivery of the RV to purchase cheap stuff for it, including those thin little white/red bar towels. They're 50 cents a piece or something extremely reasonable like that. Plus, they were on sale, too, so we bought about 15, to split between the RV and the house.

When I was packing on Saturday, I squeezed 8 of them into a kitchen drawer and it would barely close, so I downsized to 6. Limited space and all...

Now, I think of myself as a pretty competent packer. Years of backpacking taught me lots of valuable lessons on packing things in things, techniques for maximizing space, etc. I'm the designated packer when we go on trips, because I can fit about 25% more stuff into the suitcases, if not more. It's a fun real-life game of tetris and Friday/Saturday was no exception.

Since we will be renting the RV out, we can't pack it with many RV-designated items. We have to empty it completely, so the house was raided. Ed and I brought armful after armful of stuff and for the most part, I packed all the things. And in some cases, re-packed them. I went to bed Saturday night feeling pretty accomplished and satisfied.

Honestly, I did do a pretty good job, we haven't had to do a serious re-arranging of stuff yet. But all 6 of my
bar towels have been used, plus the one pot holder and the dish drying mat. And most of the spare blankets. And at least one canvas shopping bag. And one of my shirts.

Some of the roads we travel on aren't so smooth. Like in Arkansas. The east-bound route we normally take isn't too bad, but since I40 between Little Rock and Memphis, TN was closed due to flooding, we had to take another route. Through the Ozark mountains. Not the worst roads we've been on, but not quite as smooth as I40E.

Things rattle. Things clank. Things ding and ping and tinkle. They bang, too. The spaetzle maker alone does all of this.

Ed doesn't like this. I don't like this. Gideon - is oblivious after the first hour. Lu HATES this.

Lu is our alpha dog. The declared herself the queen of the RV within seconds of getting into it. But she turns into an utter wimp when things go bang - thunder, gunshots, fireworks. And now the spaetzle maker and its companions in the RV.

So for everyone's sanity, I started hunting down all the noisy things while we were going down the road. There aren't seat belts everywhere, so it takes a bit of balancing and jouncing about and bumped elbows. The towels came out and were folded around and about pots and silverware to cut down on the pinging and dinging. The thick dish mat went under pot lids and beneath the spaetzle maker. Blankets are keeping the movies and books in place.

There is somewhat less constant bang-y noises, but I don't have enough dish towels. We have plates in a box that will migrate out and have to be jangle-proofed. There is an annoying squeak on the table now (though I think that will take rubber). But when it comes down to it, I need more bar towels at the very least. We need something to dry the dishes with, afterall, that can hang out to dry and not be shoved between dishes while wet!