Load ’em up . . .

Spent the day yesterday loading up the van.  First, I took everything out to the driveway–and realized I actually needed more stuff to fill up the shed.  It needed to be full so that the doors wouldn’t collapse down and break off during the trip.  So I looked around for boxes that were already packed that could simply be stashed into storage in the Oregon house.  Among the boxes I found was this one

It’s a box full of baby stuff that my mother had saved and I’ve never been able to throw away.   I can remember wearing that dress.  Hard to believe now.  It’s over 60 years old.

Anyway, I ended up with all this to load.

Started with bigger/heavier stuff.  Figured out early that the larger chairs wouldn’t fit into the shed, so saved them to go on top.  It was awkward getting things in at first, because I couldn’t reach all that far into the shed to arrange things.  The little ladder you see inside the truck helped a lot.  Eventually I had most of it in

And the shed looked like this

I filled it up to the top with bedding and pillows and such, tucked the little remaining items here and there, piled the foam on top of the shed, and got the driveway cleared.

It’s actually not all that efficient a loading job.  My brother and I are among the world’s best loaders; that is, neither of us would win a speed-loading contest, but we’d have a serious shot at a contest for getting the most stuff into a limited space.  So this is definitely not the best job I’ve ever done.  But it works–the shed is full enough to support the doors, and hopefully things won’t shake around too much.

Then brought out the little chest of drawers I packed things into a few weeks back and got it loaded in also.

I’d been fretting about having enough room for both dogs–I had figured out it didn’t make financial sense to tow the car up and back, which meant I had to save room for them in the van.  But I can put the smaller one in the collapsible crate tucked back there in the corner, and CJ can have the rest of that space.  Neither will love it, but I think it’ll work OK.

And there’s still plenty of space for my luggage.  As you can see, there’s still a fair amount of room right at the back

and the entire passenger area is still available.  And I could put some more stuff on top, as long as it’s not heavy.  I’m considering taking up my barbecue–it’s not likely I’m going to use it in California again, so it might as well go up this trip.

So–90% loaded, and almost ready to go.  It always amazes me how hard it is to actually get on the road–there’s always so many little things that need to be taken care of, on the job and also around the house–but I should get out of here this weekend.  I have my fingers crossed, anyway.