May 14: Getting ready

Last week, I started my planning for my trip this summer with my dogs, Leben and Erde.  They are now 12, and I am very mindful that they may not be around much longer.  I have such wonderful memories of my previous four trips with them to Alaska, Labrador (2 times), on all through Ontario (three times) that I would be a fool not to try to solidify those memories deeper by one last trip.  This  trip will not be easy because of  Leben's situation (he is paralyzed), but that just makes the challenger greater.  Fortunately, there's little more I need to do to make the trip less difficult because I just about improved everything that could be improved on from the previous trips and I am planning and preparing this trip well in advance.  

The biggest challenge of the trip this year will be space in the Defender, now that I have to make room for Leben's wheelchair and stroller and make him (and his sister) comfortable and clean.   I have already installed a new AC in the Defender because I do not want to run the risk its failing.  I already removed the Defender's front passenger seat to give the dogs more room up front.   I just ordered a new 4.7 gallon Big Kahuna portable shower to give Leben the twice-weekly showers he needs for his skin allergy.  I am now painstakingly scanning in the 1100 pages of my Defender's Workshop and Parts Manuals so I can leave the manuals at home to save space and view them on my iPad. Tomorrow I will start working on  my formidable to-do list and to-take lists, using 2012's as the starting point. I will probably only be posting to this blog each week until the trip starts, and then it'll be every day, or so I hope.  And to make my blogs easier to write, I just bought a new LogiTech keyboard for the iPad.  

The  two options for the trip this year are to head to Alaska via Ontario or via Labrador.  I am sure no one has ever done the latter for the simple reason that it is time-consuming, if not expensive and tiring.  But the three of us have plenty of experience on the road and if we do not do it now we may never do it. 

Until I organize this blogger, readers might wish to look at the blog from last year's trip by clicking here or the reference to it to the right.

ED