Month: August 2017

We have solar!

We have been thinking about getting a solar setup for our travel trailer for about 6 months. I was getting really tired of having to run the generator for 4 hours most days. RV batteries get to a 75-80% charge pretty quickly, but it takes forever to get them to 100% (well, it seems like it!). About a month ago Kevin found time to got serious planning out a system. He spent lots of time looking at various websites and forums, figuring out what would be the best for us.

We have two six volt deep cycle batteries that, when new, give us 220 amp hours. Every time you run the batteries down below 50% or so you decrease the amp hours. I am sure they have degraded some, but we planned for that much power. He made templates of the panels and put them on the roof to see how they would fit. The trailer could easily handle 300 watts of panels so he decided that was a good start. First thing we did was update the power converter. I provided information about that before.

He ended up ordering the main items from Renogy and some miscellaneous stuff from Amazon (cable, connectors, fuses, etc.). It took at least 30 hours to get the installation done, but it is a quality job. All the cables are run behind walls, and he even added some insulation to the front cap while he was at it. Here is what the top looked like before he applied sealant to the wires and the small holes needed for mounting.

Roof with panels.

The controller was mounted in the front storage unit, very near the battery.

The Renogy controller and some fuses.

The voltage shows the unit is putting out 13.2 volts at the point I took the picture. It works with both the solar and any electricity we are plugged into. The controller does a great job of adjusting the voltage going to the batteries based on how low they are. The batteries can take a lot more volts when they are low than when they are nearly charged, and this unit does that well.

I imagine we will be able to give it a good try when we head out after Labor Day. We still haven’t figured where we want to go, but Yellowstone or the Gallatin River are possibilities. We are thinking of Baker’s Hole again (Forest Service) followed by Mammoth Springs (NPS), but we haven’t decided for sure. Both of those are dry camping spots without electricity. This is a tough time to go camping. Lots of places north of us start shutting down not long after Labor Day, but it is still too hot to go south.

On a very minor note, I bought new microfiber throw rugs for the trailer today at IKEA. We had been using heavy cotton throw rugs, but they were hard to wash and took forever to dry. The new rugs are the same as I have been using in my bathroom at home, and they are easy to care for. We bought a new teapot and lots of new glasses for the kitchen at home too. It was a productive day. We also had our yearly update with our financial advisor. Still looking good enough to purchase another car in the next 6 months or so plus a big Class A RV in 3-5 years. There is something to be said about living below your income and saving.

The Great American Eclipse

On Friday, 18 August, we headed to Silver Creek campground in the Boise National Forest for the eclipse. The campground is 2 1/2 hours from Boise, 75 miles. Yes, the road is that slow! It is up the Middle Fork of the Payette River, the up a tributary. There is a hot spring there, but we didn’t go swimming because it was just too crowded. There is a small resort associated with the spring and the campground. They operate a cell booster that allowed limited Verizon voice calls and simple texts, but nothing else. The sites were roomy and well separated with some shade, and all for $7.50 a night with our senior discount. We made our reservations in mid February after being alerted to the spot by a member of the Wasatch Mountain Club. It was in the path of eclipse totality, and that is what we got on Monday! It was glorious. I had all these plans for pictures I was going to take, but I was so awed that I didn’t get hardly any of them! Kevin got a few, so here are a few.

Pretty impressive!

While we were in Idaho, we also went to a Winnebago dealer in Meridian to look at Class A motorhomes. We are thinking about buying one in 4-6 years, getting a condo, then being gone even more than we are now. We don’t want a new one since the depreciation is so extreme so we will be looking for a 3-5 year old one. That means the ones new now will be on the list when we are interested. We really like the Forza 36′ so it will go on the list to look at in a few years. We also took a trip up to McCall to see if it was a place to spend time on another trip. spoiler alert – it was!

Catch-up posts – Yellowstone, Bozeman, and The Book of Mormon 13-16 August

I am way behind on posting because I was waiting for pictures from Kevin’s camera. I finally got them, so I will work at catching up.

We decided to sell one of our cars to my son living in Bozeman. To get him and the car in the same location, we decided to drive up there while spending a couple of days in the Yellowstone area. Then we would go to Bozeman, pick him up, and head back home in time to attend The Book of Mormon musical. Since the trip was going to be short, we decided to take the itty bitty motorcycle camper. It is a pop up that is designed to tow behind a big motorcycle, but a Kevin modified the lights to work with a car. We left on Sunday morning early and got to Baker’s Hole campground not long after noon. Baker’s Hole is one of our favorite campgrounds. It is 3 miles north of West Yellowstone so it provides easy access to Yellowstone. It costs less than campgrounds in the park, and the sites are more attractive and roomy than the park campgrounds. You do have to take the 30 minute drive in through the West Entrance, but that is part of the experience. The campground even had decent Verizon data access.

Here is a picture of the little camper as Kevin is getting it ready.

It is called a Bunkhouse model.

We had a great animal viewing experience! We saw both a big bear and a wolf, a rare combination.

The bear walked right up to the road then walked away again.
The wolf was protecting a bison car case from other scavengers.

We spent Tuesday night at the Bozeman Hot Springs campground in town so we could get an early start. Fairly boring, but convenient. We made it back by 3:30 in time to unpack, take showers, and go to the musical which was wonderful! It was funny how certain comments in the show that might have gone straight over the heads of most audiences got roaring laughter in Salt Lake City with a Mormon-knowledgeable audience.

Bonus picture: Moose along the Gros Ventre River in Grand Teton from the last post.

Home for the bad weather

It has been so hot at home! When I first looked at moving to the SLC area, I checked the historic temperature ranges. On average it used to get over 100 degrees four times a year. Last month we had over 10 days! It was the hottest July on record. Even worse it doesn’t get down below 70 degrees at night, and that is by 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning. We have some medical and service appointments these three weeks so we can’t just head out again or I would! Even worse than the temps is the pollution. We sit in a big bowl of mountains with two million people driving lots of cars. Add to that mining and numerous petroleum refineries and we are getting a double whammy of particulate pollution and ozone. We really, really need a storm to come through and blow all this nasty air away, but it won’t be here for a few more days.

I am dealing with the heat by not using my stove or oven. If it can’t be microwaved or cooked in the Instant Pot, it doesn’t get made. We have had a few pork loin roasts and a beef pot roast, and that helps the heat. It is sad that I don’t get to leave my blinds open during the day though since I love looking at the mountains through the windows. Then again, I can’t see the mountains well due to the pollution! We decided to take a drive yesterday out to Antelope Island. Normally we get a great view to both the Lakeside Mountains to the west of the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Mountains to the east. Yesterday we couldn’t see the Lakeside at all, and only the vaguest hint of the Wasatch. In other words, if anyone local wants to do a rain dance, please do.

Is that enough of a whine for today?