Saturday, August 6, 2016, morning

It looks like we will be getting on the road on Monday.  It would have been possible to make it Sunday, but I was so exhausted last night that I decided not to push it.  My rule is to get on the road only when I am ready and rested, and so I will follow that rule.  

The big, time-consuming chore yesterday was getting my daily food boxes prepared, which took about six hours. I take with me food rations (and seven gallons of water) for up to 12 days just in case I am stuck or camped somewhere for that long or if I do not have time or the opportunity to pick up supplies on the road. I usually go through one of these boxes each day, although I also pick up some fruit and vegetables each day wherever I happen to find them. I never, repeat, never eat in restaurants along the way since I do not want to experience anything my dogs do not experience. Repeat, never, except for when I am on the ships and I cannot get with them, but not for not trying (Someone please remind me to tell you these stories on the road). Repeat, never.

The first thing I had to do yesterday was buy some of the 8x6x4 boxes I pack my daily food rations into since a few of those I had on hand had seen their best days.  So off to the Container Store we went.

Then, second, I had to zip on down to Whole Foods and Safeway to pick up at the 11 items (12, really) making up a day’s three meals that go into each box and then rush home to make up my own trail mix. (I figure, why spend $5.99 for 90 packages of trail mix at some grocery store when I can make my own for 1/3 that price and control the amount going into each package?) 

Here’s a photo of the food all set out, after the trail mix had already been rationed out into plastic bags. (The perceptive among my readers have probably notice that there are more than 11 of some items, and they would be right. Unfortunately, the days of buying just one item of some things are long gone.) Yes, that’s Donner’s bed under the dining room table, one of his 10 or so “beds” he has or has adopted as his in my home.

Third, to avoid the problem I have had in the past of opening up a daily food ration box and finding two of one thing and none of another, I count out each of the 10 items that will go into a box and set them out in the order they will go in.  (Why 10 and not 11 or 12?  Stay tuned.)  Here’s the menu pictorially (click here): Starting at top row left, clockwise, Juice (3 different kinds); soy milk; oatmeal (2 packets of four different kinds, 16 different combinations); package of peanut butter crackers (Donner will probably get half or more); package of homemade trail mix; small bottle of either Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon  wine; package of soup (12 different kinds); Cliff Bar (4 different choices); dark chocolate bar (Donner will get none of this); can of tuna fish or salmon (Donner will get 2/3’s); can of VA juice. (Not shown, the brown rice, which travels in the pantry and not the food boxes.) The mathematical among you will compute that there are 9216 possible combinations of meals I can make out of this, so for an 80 day trip, I have a long way to go before I exhaust all of the culinary possibilities. BY the way, not all of this will get consumed each day.  What is left untouched is tossed into Donner’s bowl or an extra food bag, which lessens my supply replenishing tasks on the road.

Fourth, I then pack the food into an 8x6x4 box in such a way that it all will fit, except for the soup, which travels separately, I could have gotten 10x6X4 boxes and the soup would have fit, but then in the one food container I would only be able to take six daily food rations boxes.  Believe me, I have tried every combination of boxes, arrangements in the boxes and arrangements in the container, and this is the optimal one for my objectives.

Fifth, I repeat steps 3 and 4 13 more times?  (Click here.) Why 14 in total when I am only going to pack 11?  Well, one will travel in the kitchen container so I don’t have to fetch it from the roof rack in a violent storm, as has happened a number of times when the food boxes got wet when I opened the container. Another I will leave at home for when I arrive back home and have nothing else to eat in the house (all my food is gone by the time leave, and I do mean all of it)., And the remaining one I will give to the guy who is going to help me load the Defender since I promised him I’d treat him to an evening of dinner and wine for helping me, without tell him exactly what they meant.

Sixth, finally, I pack all 11 of the daily boxes and the soups into the pantry container. (Click here.)  Any space left over is taken up by a few extra bottles of wine.  Unfortunately, in crossing the border into Canada, the border patrol always inquire about any alcohol, tobacco or weapons I have with me. Although I have always been waived through (except once, that I will tell you about after I cross the border – someone remind me) one of these days they are going to search every one of those boxes and maybe all my containers and perhaps even confiscate some of that good wine.

By the way, the pantry container weighs 60.2 pounds, impossible for one person to lift two feet over his head to get it onto the roof rack. So I have to unload half of it and repack it when the container is in position on the roof rack. As I replenish the supply on the road, I do so from the roof rack, and so that container will sit there for the entire trip except for the 1000-mile trip up to Prudhoe Bay and in Denali, for reasons I will explain end route – someone please remind me.)

One other chore I had to get done today was unraveling the numerous cargo straps I have accumulated over prior seven trips and figure out what the best arrangement is for them.  As with the organization of the food boxes, I have tried every combination of cargo strap there is. I learned my lesson the hard way in 2000 when my clothes bag flew off the roof rack without my knowing it somewhere between Anchorage and Juneau. (The Defender is so noisy inside that I never heard it blow off, and I did not have a sub roof then, but I do now for that very reason.) In fact, I have NINE different kinds of straps, with the ninth one being straps of at least four different sorts.  If you look at the photo below, everything looks so nice and organized, all the straps neatly tucked away into their own packages.  How feng schwei!  Well, I wish I had done that two years ago when I got back home instead of tossing them all into one big container hoping they would unravel and organize themselves. It took me well over three hours last night to organize them.  And I will not take most of these.  I need only ten of these straps, but will probably take a few extra.  The rest will back go into storage, in their nice packages this time, mostly as a reminder to me to organize all of them when I get home.

That’s it. I have packing and planning to do.

ED