Preparations.

When Craig and I were in our 40's and 50's we were skiers.  We would drive up to Tahoe from our home in the Santa Cruz Mountains, several times each winter for a weekend.  We would also take one or two week long ski trips either at Tahoe or at several other locations around the country.


I had packing for such jaunts down pat.  We would watch the weather reports and make the decision to go by Wednesday.  Then I would book a motel room and arrange for kennel space of the dogs and cat. I had everything organized and knew just what to take.  Week long trips always took a little more planning because there was cooking to do.


I expect the same will be true once we have taken a couple of trips in the Alfa.  But for now I keep thinking of what not to take.  


I'm a planner at heart.  Because we won't have a car along I feel I need to plan our meals ahead of time.


I'm making a "white bean chicken chili" for dinner tonight so that I will have leftovers that we can just rewarm and have with a salad for Friday's dinner.  I'm taking the Slow cooker so I can make a pot of root beer ribs on Saturday.  I've got the breakfasts covered to, and we almost never eat lunch.


I did go out a buy a couple of folding chairs today.  I had just washed some old nonfolding plastic yard chairs and put them in one of the bays since we didn't have any folding ones.  I mentioned that to Craig this morning and he told me to go buy some.  It seems to me that there are so many kinds, each person should pick out what they are comfortable with, but Craig said to just go buy what I wanted and get one for him to match.  


I don't like to sit in the canvas chairs that fold up to nothing.  I've tried several, some really expensive ones and was not comfortable.  I do like the Camping World rocker, and maybe someday I will get one, but for now I found two very nice folding chairs for half price at Kmart.  $19.99 each.  So now were all set to sit!


I also scoped out the gas station with the lowest price for diesel (only because it was on the way to Kmart) and looked at which way we will need to enter the station that has the propane fill for RVs.  They are not the same.  The Valero station has diesel for $3.99, but no propane.  The 76 station a few blocks away has the propane, but it's price for diesel is $4.15


Everything costs more in California.  I was looking at an online site that shows fuel prices around the country and see it is much lower else were!  $3.97 is the lowest I can find here and that station is at least ten miles out of our way.  We'd use a couple of gallons to save a few cents.


So friends.  Keep your fingers crossed for us Friday afternoon as we turn the Alfa around and drive up our somewhat steep and curving road.  We can do this!