Pack pack pack pack pack *collapse*

This is the final blog about the weekend of major progress; the last weekend (possibly) before I am there and leaving.

This update is about the core activity and focus of the weekend; the practice pack.

This was the first time I was going to do the lot; put things in Thomas and the trailer and see how well it all fitted together. I had been inspired by a question from a twitter follower to re-visit the possibility of Rambo coming with me; you will understand that I really do want him to however it is all about his welfare on the journey. The last time I'd practiced packing I thought that maybe I might be able to fit absolutely everything into the trailer, the back seat of Thomas and the roof boxes which would leave the truck bed entirely empty and therefore give me enough space to bring Rambo. This was the number one priority, therefore, of the practice pack; can I make room for him.

Man at work loading the desk

First things first I loaded the flat items onto the trailer including the desk top and back, and the shelving units which I had taken down. I do still have one other bookshelf to bring over as it is currently Sassy's favourite place to sit and sleep so it's stuck in my front room; this'll be brought over on the 1st however I'm getting ahead of myself.

Man at work loading boxes

I then started loading in things like my two guitar amplifiers, boxes of books, the two desk upright units and drawers (with stuff packed in them again) and as I loaded I realised more and more that my previous effort had been much more efficient. I forgot to put in several items which needed to go in first, and was left in the end with quite a large number of items not yet packed; large things like the generator would not fit in the space I had left and there I'd forgotten to pack the guitar in the hard case.

Trailer with no room for generator

It had become obvious that my wishes to take Rambo in the back of Thomas were just not going to work out; I had entirely too much stuff which I wasn't able to get into the trailer to leave me any chance of giving him the whole truck bed and I was not going to travel with him in the cage in the back. While disappointed in sense it is good to have a real and final decision made on this point. I am not yet totally over the hope of getting him there with me earlier as someone may know someone else who does pet transport to Bulgaria; my fingers are now crossed that this may be a suitable option.

So, I unloaded the trailer. I was so unhappy with the way it had gone that I wanted to start again completely.

The records, TV and pictures in Thomas

This time I began my load by putting what I wanted to into Thomas. The back seat has always been reserved for all my records (going in the foot well) and the TV (sat carefully on the back seat bench) and with the large pictures over the top of it. With all this packed there was still loads of room on the back seat which I may use to put the snow shovel and other items which I need ready access too (getting ahead of myself again, as you'll see).

Amplifiers, hifi speakers and guitar

With these items in I lifted the guitar amps into the truck bed and then packed things around them until I could not easily fit anything else in. I managed to get loads in the back of Thomas and, when I had to take a drive and hadn't unloaded him, nothing moved at all so I am relatively happy with the choices of what goes in there and where. I took loads of pictures so will be able to recreate this quite easily I hope.

The fully packed truck bed

With the truck loaded I had a very nice thought; as I was definitely not taking Rambo maybe I would be able to arrange things so the lovely dining table which I wanted to take but had decided not to, could come with me in the end. I didn't have the table top available to pack (regular readers will remember that I had moved it into a long term storage in the studio ready for either selling or me collecting at another time) but that was just another flat item to go at the bottom of the trailer bed. The chairs were available along the edge of the storage unit with boxes and packing materials stacked on them and they were the sizable items which would take up the most space.

First attempt with the chairs laying down

First of all I laid them down on the bed however the amount of space they took up meant that the desk uprights would be too far down for me then to fit the generator on (scientific, huh).

The chairs in and upright (including the table top)

So I stood them up and started packing things around them and wouldn't you know it; everything fit. The were high but I calculate that the laycorn boxes on the front will still be slightly higher than them and anyway my aerodynamics are going to be shot by the bikes on the roof of Thomas. The desk uprights slotted in between the slats on the trailer in a perfect way and after that everything just fitted in.

Strap holding the chairs together

I tied the chairs together using straps bought with the tarpaulin and this had the added benefit of making them easy to lift in and our of the trailer as I rearranged things and fettled with my associated packing.

The books supporting the desk uprights

I had retrieved the table top from the studio and this slid onto the trailer bed easily; judicious placement of some thick leather bound books supported the desk uprights and everything was hunky dory.

 Books in small boxes in the voids

I had a lot of fun working out how to fit as much as possible into the voids in the chairs and I had another win as I was able to split my books up out of the open trays which they had been in, into small boxes that wedged in very well between the chairs.

The trailer with everything packed

From this point on it was a game of tessellations again and I do love that; working out what slots where to make sure nothing moves and the greatest volume is packed. I ended up with the gap at the loading end that I wished for to put the generator, toilet and fuel cans so they would be accessible in the drive.

This snow shovel is not easy to get to

By this point I was starting to get very tired and my thinking processes basically stalled. I strapped down all the items I would need during the journey as part of the same strapping pattern as the stuff I wouldn't want to move at all. This is something I will be revisiting on the 1st (as mentioned earlier) and I will also be keeping the snow shovels out of the trailer somewhere they will be far easier to access.

The super sized tarpaulin being fitted

Anyway, with the trailer loaded fully I got the tarpaulin out. How I wish I had taken a picture of it because it is comedy huge; so large that I left it folded in half down the long axis and it was still too wide after it had been thrown over the entire load. I was exhausted by the point and it was a great struggle for me to keep it under control while trying to apply the ratchet straps in the best place.

The tarpaulin finally strapped down

It took a while but eventually I managed it; at least I know I _can_ do it on my own even if the result is not best. I also compounded my earlier mistake of wrapping the stuff I may need for the journey too tightly so this will be taken off and reapplied, with the help of my business partner, on the weekend of the 1st when I really do complete the final pack of the trailer.

It was then time for me to head home and so I had to unload Thomas, a task which didn't take much time but did cause some anxiety as I carried the TV through the unit.

The trailer is propped on concrete blocks for now

I have rested the end of the trailer on some blocks (having removed the useless legs before starting to pack) which hopefully means I can just back Thomas up and hitch him straight to the trailer. This is a good idea however I'm slightly concerned at how accurate I'm going to have to be to reverse to EXACTLY the correct point for the hitch to drop straight onto the tow bar. If I cannot achieve this (and there is no guarantee that I will) I'll have to unload the trailer until it is light enough to manhandle, hitch, and reload. Not an ideal situation at all.

So there you are; I still have both roof boxes empty (but things to go in them) and obviously the passenger seat in Thomas which is where my tool box will go but there's space there too, and also the Laycorn boxes which I didn't get time to attach and load either.

One really good thing about this whole process is how I have found how long it will take to load and just how exhausting it all was; I'd hate to have had this feeling of exhaustion on that Friday just before a six day drive across the continent!

Plenty more to do and therefore definitely another visit to finish all this off is needed.