The Great Winter Boondocking Vacation, 2012-2013

[tiinytina]

Happy Birthday Patti!!!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Patti says thank you, Dan and Tina!

Today is the big day!  After the coffee kicks in, I have to run down to the UPS Store and mail out another goodie sold on eBay, then fill the water tanks, hook the Jeep back up, and travel the last 32 miles for a while to Hot Wells Dunes!

Let the boondocking begin!  And the hot tubs!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Change of plans!  Mother Nature has thrown a monkey wrench into our boondocking plans that will delay us for 3 more days  .

There is a very unusual cold front passing through this area, and the next 3 nights its going to drop down into the low teens...a hard freeze!

Well...isn't that dandy?  That means we have to stay 3 more nights at this campground in Safford, so I can leave my electric pipe heater tape plugged in in the sewer/power/water compartment.  It would suck the batteries down WAY too fast if we plugged it in NOT on shore power!  Never mind the extra propane we'd have to use to keep the Wave 8 heater on full time...only supposed to be low 40s the next 3 days as well.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

As it is, I have to leave my water on a trickle at the kitchen faucet at night to keep the hose from freezing.  The pipe tape should keep the compartment warm enough to prevent the fresh water tank and pipes from freezing...I'm not worried about the grey tanks since they are empty and open to the sewer hose.  No black tank anymore, so there is that!

So we'll just relax for 3 more days before heading out.  At least this campground is only 21 bucks a night with our Good Sam membership.  I'll probably troubleshoot the genny tomorrow, and we'll more than likely take at least one trip into Safford to visit the antique stores, thrift shops, gun shops, etc.  Poor Sampson!  3 more days locked in the house!

Its supposed to warm back up on Tuesday and stay normal in temps.  Looks like we won't have to worry about rattlesnakes and scorpions for a while though!  Yay!

Kev

[HandyDan]

Hot tub sounds pretty good about now, eh?  Do your best to stay well.  You don't need the flu to add to your fun time. 

[DonD]

Was 20 here this morning, looks like winter's coming  W%

[DonD]

16 this morning..brr. 

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yep!  17 degrees right now as I type this, with an expected high of 42...geesh!

Tuesday at noon we'll be leaving here to Hot Wells Dunes...gonna be chilly that day too, but not a hard freeze at night...high 20s...then back to seasonable temps.

Turns out my pipe heater tape doesn't work anymore...don't know why, but it wasn't getting warm.  So I plugged in the small bathroom heater in the plumbing compartment, and that kept anything from freezing...that and leaving the sink on at a trickle in the kitchen.

Today we'll just stay cloistered in the RV watching the telly, but tomorrow we'll dress warm and go into town...some pretty neat little shops in Safford!  This afternoon when it gets warmer I'll take out my handy dandy Fluke and the Onan manual and at least troubleshoot the genny and see why its not getting any spark.

I wanna get on with the boondocking, dangit!

Kev

[jkilbert]

Skiing today was great. 62 on the mountain. It was a little slushy in places but a lot of fun. I think we had your weather here in Pa.


John

[tiinytina]

58F in MD this morning.. yuck..... send the cold here please....
Tina

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Y'all can have the cold!  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! 18 degrees!

Someone forgot to tell Arizona about global warming!

When it warms up a little this afternoon, Patti and I are going to go into town and window shop in some of the neat stores in Safford.   Other than that, we'll be staying inside and keeping warm with the ceramic heaters!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Welp...being at the whim of Mother Nature, we will be here for yet another night, in addition to tonight.  Apparently the cold front slowed down, and tomorrow, our planned departure date, is supposed to get up to a balmy 32 degrees as a HIGH, and high teens at night.  Oi vey!!!

Wednesday, however, the temps go back to normal...high 50s as a high, 32 as a low, and warming up all week.  Finally!

Some time this year I'm going to have to figure out an energy efficient way to keep the plumbing/electrical compartment above freezing so this crap doesn't happen next year.  I already had a thought:  A 12 volt muffin fan moving air through a duct right to the compartment.  I could locate the inlet, using a register, under the Wave 8 heater, run it down through the floor under the stair well, and use insulated duct hose all the way to the plumbing compartment, putting the fan on the compartment side, since pulling air is more efficient using a long duct than pushing air.

The plans are in their infancy stages at this point, but by next year I'll have a solid plan to beat Mother Nature while still drawing a minimal mount of battery juice...lol!

Anyhow, went to town and the thrift stores were a disappointment, the antique stores were closed (they all seem to have mutually agreed to be closed on Sundays and Mondays), and even the gun shops were pretty lame.  Hardly any revolvers, and nothing I would have been interested in, in any of them!  You'd think that, in light of the current political situation in Washington, folks would be flocking to the gun shops to trade their revolvers on semi-automatics.  I guess not in Safford yet!  I was actually considering trading in my Bersa .380 auto with an extra magazine for a small frame .38 or .357...but it didn't happen today, that's for sure.  Guess I'll have to wait until I get to my favorite gun shop in Apache Junction in a few more weeks!

So back in the RV staying warm, and decided that today was definitely a bourbon day.  Only 3pm here, but its 5 o'clock somewhere!

Kev

[Froggy1936]

Since you have to heat the interior, useing any of the heat is no brainer to heat the compartment . the only advice i nhave is to insulate the compartment as much as possible incl the door !  Frank

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Thanks Frank!  Under and around the compartment its insulated...didn't think about the door...good idea!

So...its was forecasted to be a HIGH of 32 degrees today...that changed to a high of 41, with a low of 20 tonight...brrrrrrrrr!  It was COLD taking the pups out this morning!  Its only 16 degrees right now!  We'll still be staying one more night at this campground though.  20 degrees all night long could still freeze pipes and tanks.

Tomorrow we'll hit the road to Hot Wells Dunes.  I'm already putting the Wave 8 heater through the paces...it took the chill out of here this morning in no time.  The ceramic heater can only do so much when its 16 bloody degrees outside. 

So all you folks out east though following my posts, its coming your way!  The cold front is going to be gone from us tomorrow, but they say its heading east and its gonna be cold all along the east coast.

Today its just going to another day staying warm in the RV...maybe start reading a book...

Kev

[gary19734]

Hey kev take a look behind sewage tanks should already have duct work running to the compartment from the house heater mine does and every other holiday rambler i ever worked on.As far as the heat tape is concerned did the compartment get below 36 to 38 degrees when you checked it most heat tapes have a built in bio-metal thermostat.   Wish i was there jeolous Gary

[ClydesdaleKevin]

It was around 30 degrees when I checked it, so I put the small heater in the compartment instead.  I'll have to look for duct work...never noticed it before...but we don't run the furnace much except to take the chill out of the air.  When plugged into shore power, we run ceramic heaters, but when boondocking we run the Wave 8 catalytic heater.  If there is an existing duct, it wouldn't be hard to add a 12 volt muffin fan and switch to the duct in the compartment.  I'll definitely have to check it out!

So a whole lot of nothing done today, except more episodes of Law and Order, etc.  Ah, vacation!

Kev

[HandyDan]

Well, the hat box the new Stetson came in will certainly come in handy...gotta mail out the air cleaner and carburetor today, and the hat box is big enough for the air cleaner...lol! 

Kev

Stetson hats are made just 50 miles from my house.  A good Stetson costs upwards of $200 unless you get a good deal at the outlet store.  Anyway, if I spent that much money for a hat, the last thing I would use it for is a bucket to water my horse.  I would have to really love my horse!

[ClydesdaleKevin]

LOL Dan!  My good Stetson, the one that is still in the shop at Optimo Hat works, was on sale for just under 300 bucks, but I never had a hat I liked as much.  Gonna cost me about 100 bucks more, in total, by the time they shrink it, clean it, reblock it without changing the brim shape, adding a new soft leather sweat band, reponce it, add the new braided horse hair hat band, and add the cool little hat keeper Optimo came up with to keep the hat from hitting the ground in the wind.  Had I known anything about hats at the time, I could have gotten a custom hat made in 100% rabbit felt by Optimo for around 400 bucks, which is what I have invested in this hat now.  For 800+, I could have gotten 100% beaver felt.  My hat is a 7X, meaning its SUPPOSED to be 70% beaver, but the numbers don't mean anything anymore...it could have any amount of beaver felt in it.  A hat made from 100% rabbit is superior to any blend of beaver, unless the hat is 100%.

But yeah, you are right...lol!  I'd have to LOVE my horse to dip my hat in the water and let it use it as a trough!  Different times though...hats back then weren't all pristine and shapely, and by wetting them, you could reshape them to anything you wanted.  Usually when you bought a new hat back then, it was just a big flat disk for a brim, and a big round crown.  You either wore it like that, or shaped it to your own liking.

Some day I'd really love a custom Optimo, but I can't justify 800+ bucks anytime in the near future, especially when my Stetson really is pretty high quality as far as Stetsons go.  Pretty high percentage of beaver, and wicked soft.  If it comes out as good as I think it will, I'll probably be satisfied with it and never get another hat...lol!

I'd love to learn how to make hats.  Sounds like a challenging and creative process!

So yep...a whole lot of nothing today.  Television, a trip to the bank to pay the office for another night, a few potty trips with the pups...internet.  I can't WAIT until it warms up tomorrow!  Nevermind the challenge of boondocking and testing my systems...and nevermind the hot tubs!  I've got some serious calories to burn off on the mountain bike!

Kev

[HandyDan]

If you haven't watched the Stetson video on how hats are made, it is pretty interesting.  I wasn't aware Stetson made their own felt out of raw materials.  Here's the link:

http://www.stetsonhat.com/video.php

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yep...saw that video.  Pretty neat!  Back when Stetson was still owned by the Stetson family, you couldn't beat their quality.  The number of Xs was the percentage of whatever type of fur followed the Xs, so if had a 5X beaver hat, it was 50% beaver felt.  10X meant 100%.  Now they don't mean anything.  Thus the reason Stetson and Resistol and others have 20X hats and whatnot.  Sadly, you can spend 2000 bucks on a Stetson now, and not know the percentage or quality just by the number of Xs or the price tag.

So today is the big day!!!  Once my coffee kicks in and I take the pups out, I have to run to Basha's supermarket for more canned dog food, plus coffee fixings to last 3 weeks.  Then back to camp to empty the compost bin and add new peat moss...its been a little over 3 weeks so its time...then take all the trash to the dumpster, then fill both freshwater tanks, batton down from travel, and drive the last 32 miles to Hot Wells Dunes!

I hope the camp spot I was in last year is open...it was perfect...trees all around, but if I park with the rig's entry door facing south, I'll have full sun on the solar panels all day long...the trees aren't tall enough to block the sun except super early in the morning, and almost at dusk.

And poor Sampson can finally go outside to play!  I pity the little desert creatures though...Sampson goes on a homicidal rage on any small living thing when he's been cooped up too long.  He makes Hannibal Lector look like Dudley Doright!  Fortunately it will be too cold for rattle snakes and scorpions to be up and about...although Patti speculates that Sampson at this point is spun up enough to drag home a Javalina carcass...lmao!

We are going to be very careful our first couple of days with battery usage and power draw...to see what the system can handle in the winter sun...but we'll slowly add more creature comforts to the mix once we know just how fast the solar panels and charge controller can bring the batteries back to full charge.  Water won't be a problem, and I'm estimating that the 2 freshwater tanks full should last our entire time in Hot Wells, 2 weeks.  This is because we can now carry 100 gallons of freshwater, the composting toilet doesn't use any water, and we won't have to use the shower since the hot tubs have a bathing tub attached off the side.  Drinking and cooking water, and some water for dishes (we'll be using a lot of paper plates)...if we are careful we might not even have to make a water run!  The freezer is packed to the gills with meat, the fridge is full, the propane tank is at around 60%, and we have lots of reading material...lol!  I wish the genny was running just in case, but I'll at least troubleshoot it while we are out there.

If I recall correctly from last year, we had a fairly decent internet signal, but no TV...so we'll be able to keep in touch.

Its gonna be a fun leg of the journey!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Yay!  A leisurely trip here to Hot Wells Dunes...and MAN did Samson love going outside!  The first thing he did was roll in the dirt and dust...Kamo Kitty!  And then he went hunting.  Don't know if he caught anything, but he looked mollified when he got home.  He's one dusty dirty kitty!

We have an excellent campsite, full solar all day on the panels with nothing shading them.  Camp was set up completely by 2pm, and we just sat for a couple of hours in the warm sun!  Well...I sat...Patti brushed Sheba and filled the desert with little Sheba fur tumbleweeds...lol!

The internet connection is deplorable...as a page loads, I have to stop the page, then reload the internet, then click on a link if I want it to load.  Wish there was a program to do that!  Otherwise it either stalls or drops the connection.

The solar panels were putting out a LOT of volts today, although the bank was fully charged and in float mode, so we'll see how she does tomorrow after using the batteries all night.

I just put the inverter on...after unplugging everything we aren't using to eliminate ghost loads...and we are letting the laptops and tablet fully charge.  Once we are done playing on the internet, we'll unplug the computers and plug in the TV and DVD player and watch some movies!  No TV channels at all out here, unless you want to include a few grainy analog Mexican channels.

And silence is all you hear!  Well...you can hear the breeze, and a couple of ravens, and the coyotes in the distance...but no man made sounds at all...its heaven!

Today is an exception internet wise.  We are going to restrict internet usage to the mornings with coffee, and watch movies at night.  And during the day, bike, hot tub, play with the pups, etc. 

Ah vacation!  If all goes well with our solar power system...and I expect it will...our summer vacation and next winter's vacation will be predominantly boondocking, with only very short stints in campgrounds.

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

So it definitely appears that our battery and solar power system is up to the task!  We've been running the inverter from about 4pm until 2am...then putting it back on a 7am until around 11am to watch the telly and get on the internet and recharge our laptops and all that.  Running the big flat screen TV and DVD player off of it all night with a couple of LED lights, the furnace in the morning long enough to take the chill out of the air until the coffee is ready, charging the devices:  All of that only draws the batteries down to 12.5...barely a dent in their capacity.  The solar panels completely recharge the battery bank to 12.7 on the volt meter...full recharge...by around 2pm!  (It actually reads around 13.2-14.2 during the day during its charging phase, and goes to a steady 12.7 when the sun goes down).  And that is with the winter Arizona sun!  SWEET!

The hot tubs are just as awesome as we remember from last year...lol!  And the warm weather is a very pleasant change!  We sat on the porch reading for quite some time after soaking in the tubs, and it didn't start to get a little chilly until the sun got low on the horizon.

Next year...and this summer too...its going to be a lot more boondocking, and a lot less RV parks!

Kev

[joanfenn]

 

[Wantawinnie]

Nice! Off the grid success.

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Looks like all your research paid off. Glad to hear it is all working out.

Dave

[Froggy1936]

Hey Kev cutting expenses is better than increasing income a dollar saved is worth more than having an extra dollar  If you could live for free you would not need any money !!  Enjoy you have prepared and deserve some rest   Frank