Loaded up and Truckin'

Loaded up and truckin'.  We are. It's amazing how much you can pack into the bunk portion of a truck. We have a Kenworth W900, Penelope (named after the big blonde on Criminal Minds), and we have all 86 inches jam-packed full. Plus we have additional space in the headache rack that's attached to the back (my outhouse).

Putting stuff on and taking stuff off, that's the motion of a trucker leaving and returning home. It's a trillion times expanded if it's a team operation. Do you want to know what goes on a truck?

Hold your breath. 

Stationary items:

1. TV/DVD player
2. Fridge
3. Microwave/confection oven
4. Printer
5. Cabinets
6. Coffee Pot
7. CB
8. XM Radio
9. DVDs/CDs (most stay)
10. Pillows/tempurdic mattress
11. Qualcom
12. Fan
13. Toaster
14. Blender
15. Electric Skillet

Pack On/Pack Off items:

• Coffee thermos (filled coming on, empty coming off)
• Clothes (enough for 7-10 days)
• Wash Basin
• Shirts, pants, underwear, socks, dresses (dressy and work), bathing suits, short sets, night clothes, shoes (2 pair for him, 4 pair for her) and with winter coming on boots (1 pair for him, 2 pair for her), coats, jackets, sweaters, gloves, scarves, you get the idea.
• Food-frozen, refrigerated and cabinet stock-fresh veggies and fruit
• Rugs
• Linens (which includes extra covers in the winter)
• Toiletries (enough for a month)
• Towels
• Electronics-2 cell phones, + snake-winding cords, 4 laptops, + snake winding cords, a lapdock, + a snake winding cord, two head-sets, + snake-winding cords, and 2 sets of ear buds, + snake-wind wire

Next Wally World trip may be far and in between. Stock up.

 After six hours of solid carrying and placing the items in a general location, we forced the doors shut. The stuff was stacked taller than me, all around, all around. Del say's, "Oh my, where in the world will you put all this and how will we ever find the bed again." I work my magic (as women do) and viola, it's livable.

What do you load on your truck? Non-truckers, what do you pack for a trip? Do you take any extras like irons, coffee pot, or electronics? Share please.

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Comforts, Challenges and Other Chaotic Happenings

Comforts

The best part of being on the road is sharing time with your spouse. It's not always easy, but it's always interesting. My favorite time together is when we have an evening off; we get a new DVD, some popcorn, and a sweet treat. Our favorite shows are comedies, so we snuggle,  chomp and laugh.

Challenges

Preparing food is a challenge. I recently bought an electric skillet (what would we do without inverters?). Soupbeans, covered in raw onions and Mexican cornbread sounded good.

The beans were easy enough to microwave and I chopped up the onions. Then I preceded to mix up the cornbread batter. I added my own touch to the mix and I'm a pinch of this and a dash of that cook. Put it in until it looks right.

Ingredients:

Cornbread mix

egg

milk

peppers (banana or jalapeno)--few 10 slices

grated cheese --about a handful

corn--1/4 of a can

applesauce --about 6 spoonfuls

I throw it all together in a dish, mix briskly with a fork and it's ready to pour. In the preheated skillet, I poured four large pancake blobs.

Takes a bit of fiddling with the skillet to figure out how to fix the cornbread pancakes in it. After burning the first batch (we raked the burnt part off and ate it any way), I learned to turn the heat down and even off occasionally. Slow cooking insures the inside will get done at the same time as the outside.

Chaotic

I'm also a writer and I try to work writing in around everything else. I write for different websites and magazines. Among the magazines, is a men's magazine. I'm the one who writes those articles, the ones that men say, "I only buy it for the articles." Just kidding, it's not 'that' men's magazine.

I also write novels, mystery and suspense.

http://stampoutmurder.blogspot.com/

http://cgrogg.blogspot.com/

Next time I'll post some other sites I write for. 

Now that I've shared a little bit about life in our truck. How about you? Share something about yourself. 

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/blog/2009/03/31/its-that-time-again-april-fools-in-the-test-kitchen/