Getting There

A week from today, I leave on my travels. I believe I am almost ready to leave. I think I have all the items I need to travel. There are a couple more things I’d like but nothing I need so I can get them after I’ve made it to another loaction. I was waiting for my topper, for my truck bed, to arrive. It has arrived and is installed. It is beautiful! And, it is now my Garage. I’ve decided it shall be named The Garage because it will hold all the stuff I will be taking with me. Yes, even though I have minimized a lot, there is still stuff. This is stuff I will be using and it is too heavy to put in the RV. Not to mention there is no place for it to be stored in the RV.

I managed to bend my electric hitch jack. I was too tired to be driving and I spaced my usual walk around to make sure everything was as it should be. Truthfully, I was so tired, I’m not sure I would have seen it in my usual walk around.
I had taken my RV to have some repairs done before I leave. The repair shop was 2 hours away. I made it there fine, waited around all day for the work to be done, picked it up, and drove back to Ceraland. Because I waited around all day, in the heat, I was exhausted. I slept some while waiting in the truck but not enough. I should have gotten a room and waited until the next day to pull back to Ceraland but I was focused on a specific outcome. When I got to Ceraland, I stopped in the parking lot to take off the weight distribution and sway bars. To do that, I have to lower the jack so it lifts up on the hitch on the back of the truck. When pulling the horse trailers, I never dealt with weight distribution or sway bars. I got the bars off and put them away. I then got in the truck and pulled forward. I heard the pull on the jack and I knew what I’d done. I didn’t even curse; I was that tired. I got out, looked at it, thought I’d try to bend it back by backing up, backed up, that didn’t work (I hadn’t expected it to work), got out to assess what needed to be done, and was joined by a couple guys who wanted to help. They commiserated with me and both said they’d done the same thing multiple times. We all laughed the laugh of those who laugh about the stupid things they’ve done. We all agreed on what had to be done next. They didn’t have the tools and neither did I so I called Jeff to come, bring the tools, and rescue me. We cut the jack off below the frame, pulled the RV to my parking site, and got it set up and off of my truck hitch.
It was well after dark so I called it a night and sent Jeff home. The next day, I removed the hitch so we could fix it or install a new one. Jeff decided to pick up a new one and we installed it over the next couple of days. We are going to weld a post onto the old jack and use it in case I do this again in the future. The lesson I learned is to not travel while I’m tired. It is stupid and not worth the extra effort it involves.
I have spent a lot of this month with busy work. The last minute details have been more than I expected. I will be very glad to be on the road so I have some time to rest and start enjoying myself more. I think Jeff will be a little glad to see me go, too, so he can rest as well.