Managing with the troops on board

Tom and I had spent about 6 weeks in our new home on wheels before Becky, John and Juniper arrived. We had a pretty good routine worked out. Welllllll … THAT got blown up !

The bunk over the, driver's and the had been our storage area for fishing gear, photo gear, warmer clothes that we might but hadn't yet needed, Stinky's travel lounge etc. That nearly queen size area became their bedroom … for all three of them.

Stuff stuff and more stuff !

Toddlers don't travel with a carry-on bag. They needs lots of 'stuff' ... special food, many clothing options, toys, games and activities. Just like Kris, but we won't go there. Back in May, we packed the camper pretty tightly for the two of us, so adding 3 more people added to the 'stuff' management challenge. We did a fair amount of stuff juggling to clear the bunk space, moving our stuff to their rental car. Stuff placed on the beds for day tripping or just living while in camp, all need to be moved for sleeping. As a result of all the juggling, sometimes it was hard to find specific stuff. Fortunately it is a small space, so it didn't take long to find the stuff. In the end, there were only a few spills, lost or broken things. Our stuff is now all back in place, some of it in even better places than it was before their visit. No one was willing to discuss the possibility of just toooooo much STUFF.  Don't even go there.

Toddlers wake up very early. When anyone is up, the whole house is up. We loved hearing Juniper's little voice chattering in the morning and she wakes up so happy. Her sweet personality is a great alarm clock. She happily bathed in a tub within the shower stall.

 

We cooked both inside, or outside on the grill or fire. We ate dinner outside mostly, and ate breakfast inside (each on their own timetable). We took turns cooking dinner.

 

 About every 3rd-4th day we changed camps. Along the way we 'dumped' the RV holding tanks, filled up with fresh water, food shopped, did laundry etc. We call it 'changeover' day. Not much touring happens on those days. They were re-positioning and house chore days. Food shopping was interesting. Locating organic and gluten free foods isn't easy. Fred Meyer stores did it best. There was usually a 'push and pull' in the food store as to how much would fit into the 6 cubic foot frig. We played 'food tetras' every time and did manage to refrigerate the essentials.

We prefer camps near the sites we want to see, and when it's just the two of us, camps without water or electric are fine because once loaded up, we can go about 4-5 days without too much effort before needing more water, battery charging, tank dumping, etc. We usually have seen what we want to see and are ready to move on well before we run out of water. The full facility camps have reservation capability, where the limited/no services facilities are all first come, first serve. With the kids along, we weren't sure how very limited services would work, and we really didn't want to be stuck with no place to stay in some very popular areas, so for their stay, we camped in more full facility camps where we had made advanced reservations. Those sites weren't as remote as they like, but it worked best in this situation.

Picking an RV with two separate living areas helped. People could hang out at the dining table or, back in the bedroom on the two day-beds. So while crowded, there were places for everyone to be. We look forward to more camping with kids and grand kids.

We all had to be flexible and accommodating and overall it went very well. They left with a respect for Alaska's immensity, particularly relative to the size of our little home on wheels.

Stinky's take on the very full house:

 OK folks – I'll tell you how it REALLY went. I lost my loft condo and had to get very creative on finding new places to catch my beauty rest. There was 'stuff' on both mom and dad's driving seats, so I often could be found UNDER the captains chairs. At mealtime, there were ten legs moving around the camper – I had to work hard to stay out of the way. The door opened and closed many times, so I got many opportunities to tell them that I wanted to go out and play. Little Juniper isn't so little anymore and she LOVED playing hide and seek with me. I hid, and she found me. UGH. But she was good … not pulling my ears or tail too much, at least when she was under supervision. I only hissed at her a couple of times. Things are beginning to return to normal, and I am a very happy cat.