Preparing for Our Trip

There was alot that had to be taken care of prior to heading out on the trip. My first task at hand was general maintenance on the truck to include replacing the EGR valve. That it in itself is a separate blog and it's not PG rated. The other major item was some minor repairs to the super stylish chick magnet of a truck camper I scored off Craigslist for $150.oo. This would serve as our sleeping shelter on the trip as well as dry storage should we hit rain (if the caulking holds). Drop the dogs off at my sister's in Katy, some minor mods to the borrowed trailer, shopping, packing and then the only thing I would be missing was Deb.

Deb needed to get a new chain & sprocket for her bike, pack up for the trip and get to my place. On Thursday, her friends, Phillip and Dave, helped load the bike. As Deb was backing the bike out of the garage, Dave thought he'd give her a hand by picking up the back of the bike to turn her around. This, of course, freaked her out as she thought she was going to fall over. After the first attempt to load the bike, it was determined that a wheel chock would be a good idea. This was her first time to carry the bike in the back of her truck and the wheel chock made all the difference.

On Friday Deb worked all day and headed to my place when she got off. I started my morning off at 3AM for no apparent reason. As soon as the sun came up I was headed into town for supplies and was on a mission to find a Canon DSLR in my price range. With all the errands ran and no luck on the camera I headed home at 2 PM for a short nap and to start packing. At 7:45PM I woke up in a panic not sure if it was AM or PM. My "Short nap" turned into a long slumber. Deb arrived shortly after to find me still not packed, bike not loaded, truck not cleaned out, and gear everywhere. It was going to be a long night! We unloaded Deb's bike rather easily due to a make shift loading dock at my place and got both bikes onto the trailer rather easily.

It was Deb's Birthday and she was hungry so we hit up Sealy's finest (and only) Italian Restaurant. A plate of Salmon Rosata later were headed to Walmart and then home to pack. At 2 AM we decided to hit the rack. Our 7AM departure time was not looking good.