Dear Dud B,
My husband and I are in complete agreement with Steph. We were concerned that 4.5 cu ft would be too small before we took our North Dakota trip, but it turned out to work just fine for us. And you are right, the food lasts for about 5 days, the same time you're thinking of using the dump station. We also used a cooler in our truck to store extra drinks so you are right on the mark. To make life easier we found that putting all our meats in one rectangular bin and our vegies and fruits in another made it a little easier to pull them out of the refrig. and kept things from rolling around. p.s. We don't eat out much and it held five full days of food.😃 Happy travels to you from Michigan.