Every day, the car was _very_ carefully loaded to the absolute maximum, so much that if it wasn't done just right, the hatch wouldn't close. And when it did close, the first thing to be done was to lock the car, lest some bump or pothole would cause calamity.
We had to pack:
- Two large roll-aboard suitcases, so full the expander had to be unzipped
- A green zippered bag with overflow clothing, things we bought on the road, dry food, etc.
- A blue zippered bag with miscellaneous items, such as coffee, mugs, medicine kits (2) and more
- A pink zippered bag with Tuna's things: dishes, food, etc.
- A blue zippered bag that served as sort of an ice chest, with food for the next stop
- A large WWDC computer bag with both laptops, chargers, camera readers, mice and more (so full, it barely closed)
- Two backpacks with a pair of binoculars each
- Two small black bags holding maps, tour guide stuff and itineraries
- A large lime green expandable "house" for Tuna that she could hide in, or we could put her into if we went out and didn't want to risk escape (this was mostly solved via "Do Not Disturb" signs)
- Tuna's big litter box
- A box of litter (not shown in the photos below)
- Pillowcase holding extra fleece jackets (stuffed in to -make- a pillow)
- Pillowcase with laundry
- Jacket, towel, sheet
- Cloth bags to hold wine bought along the way
- Tuna's big bulky backpack/carrier (the last thing to go in after Tuna was delivered from the hotel room to the car)
It very soon became clear that the loading had to go in pretty much one way and one way only.
The following pictures show how it got done. Essentially the suitcases went in first in a certain way, the backpacks with binoculars went into tiny spaces left to the side of the suitcases, the litter box, and wine went on the bottom, the zippered bags went in, followed by the lime green house, then the "ice" chest bag, then the litter box and small extras (like umbrella, the bag of caramel popcorn I hauled around for 2,000 miles from Jackson), jackets...
If this was done _juuuust_ right, there was a tiny hole that allowed for a bit of visibility when using the rear view mirror. Otherwise, it was side mirror driving mostly.
The small map bags went in the two inches between the car and passenger seats and the back panel. A pillowcase or two went inside to serve as padding for Tuna, but she didn't have a lot of space in the footwell. Perhaps that explained her trying to ooze on over and under the driver's legs (one had to be vigilant about this).
And after stuffing the back full, there was alway one last chore: putting the cat and Sally inside, releasing the cat, holding the cat and tossing the carrier onto the driver's seat. After some pushing, prodding and muttering, the carrier went into the back as well, the hatch was, ah, forcefully closed and off we went. At the night's stop, the carrier and litter box were at least on top, though the litter itself was almost at the bottom.
So it can be done! One can take a Z4 with two people and a cat around the world.
But I can't wait for the X1 to get over here.
