The past week and a half or so has been consumed with cabinets and research. We haven’t done much with the cabinets other than answer questions and be properly awed at the progress and the magnificence of the work, but we’ve kept busy with research.
This is most of the wood that will be our cabinets. It’s been cut to size, fitted together, sanded, sealed, and varnished, and is laid out here for its final drying. A few pieces are still inside the shop, but this is the last step before we take the camper back so the cabinets can be installed next week.
We also had a long meeting with Angel where we decided how many shelves would be in each cabinet, and how high they would be. This was harder than I thought it would be, since I had to basically make a provisions list and figure out how big the containers are for the things I want to carry.
Our other accomplishment was meeting overlanders Jeff and Kathy (follow them on Facebook at Jeff & Kathy’s Roam with a View), who are traveling the world in the awesome vehicle pictured below. They’ve been traveling since 2019, and have come from Canada to Belize through the US and Mexico. They also had their vehicle custom built, so as you can imagine we had endless questions for them about everything from vehicle features to what apps they use to find places to visit and park. Jeff had a fleet of Fords much like our F350, and he knows the rules of the road for most of the countries we plan to visit. He had invaluable tips about things like how we need to replace the red running lights on the sides of our rails with amber, which won’t be an issue until we get to the US, but then it will be a big issue if we don’t fix it. Forewarned is forearmed! Kathy is the chief navigator, so I grilled her about things like which maps are most trustworthy, and basically just how they figure out where to go. We spent a couple of days with them, and I don’t think there was a moment of silence. Plus, we made new friends who are blazing a trail for us, and we are really looking forward to following them.
Wow!