[tom]

This post is for the guys. The ladies are not allowed to read it.

When we all get our coaches, whether we have traded or whether it is a new purchase we all go through the process of loading the coach. We actually consider if we need certain items and generally we tend to pack wisely. Typically when we think we are done loading and outfitting our coach we still have room and what we are carrying is often enough for the average trip of 10,000 miles.

But as time passes the men decide to add more tools or more spares. We buy different types of tire dressings and waxes. If we have one set of box and open end wrenches we justify adding a second set “just in case”. After a while the space we are allowed is used up.

Upstairs in the house we we men are allocated one drawer and 12″ of hanging space in a closet we find someone else’s clothes starting to crowd our already modest space entitlement. We then find the medicine cabinet crowded with makeup, and other items like 6 bottles of Motrin “just in case”. The pantry seems to be the collection point for enough napkins and paper plates for a small army. We end up with 5 different kinds of cereal “just in case” as well as duplicates of all kinds of canned food that we likely haven’t eaten in years.

We accumulate extra cookware, small appliances, more bath towels than the average Bed and Bath store all “just in case”.

If you are a women this is the part where you have to stop reading. Now!

On occasion is either go on a trip in the bus by myself, or if I have nothing better to do and I am willing to endure the wrath of my wife (if caught) I secretly go in the bus with big black strong garbage bags and start loading them with stuff I see as excessive extras, stuff we haven’t used in years, items we haven’t eaten in a decade but have been carrying around forever, small appliances we haven ever used, etc.

Then I find a spot out of the way in the garage and stack the bags so nothing get damage. In other words I am protecting these valuable assets that I removed from the coach.

If after a trip or two I have not been asked where the 5 extra bottles of Motrin are, or where the bagel toaster is I fess up to the need to take some stuff out of the bus. I am very careful to never say to create some space or room because that is an invitation to load up more stuff.

This method might not work for everyone. It requires a great deal of care in explaining what happened to a widget that was removed four years ago, but it is a vital part of bus maintenance and despite how it has to be done, it is required.

What Andre and Ann are about to find out if they have not already is going from a no slide coach to a 2 slide coach is going to be their wake up call regarding this practice of loading or overloading. Every slide takes up space usually available in a non slide coach.