Trip Preparation – And Preparing For The Trip Prep
Have you ever had to do things to get ready for an event, but before you could do those preparatory things, you had to do *other* things to get ready for *them*? Of course you have.
Such has been the case around here for about a month – or maybe more – as I have worked to get my garage (mostly) painted and straightened up so that I could move all the stuff in it around so that I could go through my camping gear (which, of course, was at the bottom of all the stuff) to decide what I wanted to take with me on my upcoming motorcycle trip.
My garage project actually started almost two years ago (I even have a picture folder on my hard drive labeled “Garage 2013” and I’ve been tracking my expenses in Quicken with that tag since then), when I decided to replace some of my shelves with cabinets. This is where I started, in November 2013:
By mid-December I had added a row of cabinets over the workbench, taken down the shelves to the left, and moved some of my tools and such around so that the cabinets were full:
And there it remained until this past May. I had originally anticipated finishing the whole project in 2014, but with all the JeepMonster stuff accumulating and the in-TER-minable wait for the “magic box” that gets power from the second axle to the third one, the year slipped by with no progress (mainly because there wasn’t any room to move any stuff around to clear any space to work in to *make* progress!).
This year, finally, some of the JeepMonster stuff moved to Marana so the frame could be built. With room to maneuver, I was able to push everything to the east side of the garage and get the west half (the side with the workbench) painted. This is where I started in early May:
By June 10, I had the pegboard up, the walls and ceiling painted, the tools hung, and the “I Love Me!” wall finished:
Then it was time to move to the east side of the garage:
Now, this might not look too bad – it is, after all, only one bay of a three-bay garage – but all this stuff had to be moved in with the stuff that was already in the other side. A lot of what you see was originally stored on racks suspended from the ceiling, but that all had to come down so I could paint.
I was ultimately able to squersh everything but the Honda (mostly) over to the west side – at least, enough to paint the walls and most of the ceiling. The Honda went outside when I was working, and back inside at night – except when I had the garage-door tracks partly disassembled so I could paint the ceiling more easily. So I started with this:
And by Sunday (7/5) I had gotten it to this. The walls and ceiling are done (except for the wall with the garage doors in it) and the racks are back up, so I can start getting stuff off the floor.
On Monday I started moving stuff around. It took me more than a day, but I was able to sort and compact my collections sufficiently that everything now (almost) fits in the single-bay side of the garage. The truck fits, too, but just barely – although there’s plenty of space on either side, I have to back it in so the overhangs work out, and I have to back up until I literally bump against an electrical junction box on the back wall. At that point, there are about 3 inches between the front bumper and the garage door when it’s closed. BUT IT FITS (see below)! So does the Honda! So does all my stuff!
So the things I needed to do to get ready to do the things I need to do to get ready for my trip got done. Yesterday I went through my camping gear and pulled out the items I know I want to take (tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, eating and cooking utensils, etc.). I may go through some of it again, if I think there is more that I need, but basically that’s done. I still have to go through the house and pick out stuff that goes (my rainsuit, for instance), and then I have to figure out how I’m going to pack it all on the Honda. But that’s all trip preparation. The preparation needed prior to the trip prep is DONE!
Oh, and here’s a closeup of the two-bay section of the garage:
The driveway looks weird with nothing parked in it!
There’s still a good deal of work to do on the garage itself. I have to paint around both garage doors, which (to do it right) will require someone coming out to disassemble them and take the tracks off the wall so I can paint, and then come back to reinstall them when I’m done; I have to buy or make something to put on the left-side wall (directly opposite the wall with the cabinets) to hang things like rakes and extension cords; and I have to sort out my camping gear (I have way too much) and my Christmas stuff (I have even MORE way too much) and decide what I’m keeping, what goes to Toni’s brother, and what goes in the community yard sale in October. By that time, the JeepMonster will probably be home and the truck will be outside again. *sigh* Oh, and eventually, after the JeepMonster is done, I might get some kind of epoxy coating put down on the floor.
The Peripatetic Traveler 
Beautiful, dad :-). That’s why I love you!
Thanks! I love you, too! 😀