Pack, repack and repeat

Question of the day.   “What are you taking and how are you going to fit everything in?” I guess that is actually 2 questions😁

The short answer is 1) only what we really need and 2) very carefully😁

The longer answer will take several blogs and months as we pack,  repack, leave stuff behind we thought we would really need and find better options for stuff that isn’t working. The most important thing we have learned from years of backcountry camping and motorcycle travel is that in such a small space,  everything needs an assigned spot.

Today I’ll just focus on our staging area and what we think we might be bringing.  Most items will need to have several uses and no items are above being cut before being loaded into the Rover or even after.

Here is a picture of our staging area:

Packing - staging areaIt probably looks like a mess, but is actually very organized.

From the left:  Cold weather gear and rain gear, bedding, freeze dried food (plastic garbage bag – this will be reduced and is for emergencies only), a tent for camping away from the Rover or lodgings with suspect bedding, packs and satchels for days hiking or walking around town, pee bottles for night (a lot of places you don’t  want to get out at night in the dark), towels and toiletries, art supplies and knitting needles, med kit, regular water bottles(not to be confused with the pee bottles), travel hot mugs, large water bladder that is great for hanging on the side of the Rover for gravity feed water or warmed in the sun for a quick shower, and a military grade water filter.  The whole right side is the kitchen.  The wooden drawers all go in cabinets in the back of the Rover. These are for our pots, plates, dutch oven, food, etc. Not in the picture: journals, maps, chairs (actually you can see one against the back wall), binoculars, etc.

That’s it, except for the huge clothes pile we are still weeding through.

This needs a lot of work.  I’ll get back to you as that progresses.  (And just to be clear, all those shoes are Darrin’s😎)

So, that is the quick tour.  I’ll post more pictures as we weed, pack, repack and find we packed stuff we really don’t need.

Back to packing!