I have arrived at Croft’s home in Campbell River, on Vancouver Island. Expect me to start flooding the blogosphere this evening as I begin to share the full story of my 3,000km journey from Dawson City.
Month: October 2009
And the tension is broken in Squamish…
Whew.
Total cost of the repairs was 250$ less than the estimate, including all new brakes, a new tire, an oil change, a full mechanical inspection, and a much needed wash. I pulled out of the garage at 10, gassed up, dumped, took on water, and hit the road.
There is one last hairpin turn steep descent after Pemberton. It was nothing worse than what I’ve encountered on the Alaska Highway, but my heart was in my throat. I did everything I normally do at the top of such a hill–overdrive off, gear down, pray–and away I went. I stopped a few times en route to Squamish and finally pulled over here at the Canadian Tire next to which there is a Starbucks where I knew I could get online.
No sooner had I walked into the coffee shop than I heard a familiar voice say “Rae!!!”
It was my neighbour from last winter at Pacific Border, Will Imanse, author of an ebook I helped edit, Full Time in an RV. Too, too, too funny.
I’m off to find a place to hunker down for the rest of the day and then the night seeing as the next ferry is at 3PM and I’ve decided that would put me in unfamiliar territory too close to nightfall.
Home Sweet Coffee Shop
This could be my last time posting from the Mount Currie Coffee Shop in Pemberton. I would have spent a lot less money buying a month’s worth of wireless service from the local ISP, but computing from the car is a pain. At least the coffee shop is warm and comfortable. I’m addicted to their coffee and cranberry scones. 🙂
Last night, I found surprisingly decent Mexican food! I’m still not pleased with the state of Mexican food in Canada, but this was some of the best I’ve had north of the 49th. In Pemberton, BC, where there are practically no other restaurants, of all places! The place was quiet last night and the server let me indulge my desire to practise my Spanish. I must have done okay because at first she would reply to me in English but by the end of the evening we were conversing entirely in Spanish. It was a little surreal, especially when I discovered that I can say ‘It is getting dark’. I had no idea that I had the vocabulary for that!
The brake repairs were completed yesterday and Miranda was taken for a short road test. Today, she will undergo an oil change, a few more mechanical checks, and a longer road test. I was told to expect them to be done by about 10. The mechanic says that by the time I pull out, I can have the same confidence in Miranda’s truck components as I did when I left Ottawa. I sure hope I will. 🙂 So, will be arriving in Campbell River with the knowledge that all I’ll need to do in the spring is put air in her tires… and that her tires should be good for another BC/Yukon round trip before I need to get them reinspected. Some good news at least!
It’s super foggy out and getting worse, so I now doubt that I will be doing any mileage today. Croft’s home from his own adventure so I expect to be parked in his driveway by tomorrow night either way.
The adventure continues…
Scouting Ahead
I’ve discovered another good use for a toad: as a scout vehicle. From now on, I will park Miranda and use the toad to scout ahead 200km before engaging myself with the rig.
*tongue firmly in cheek*
It’s been a long day and it’s not over. I left Pemberton at about 9 after an internet check at the coffee shop and then I drove all the way to Horseshoe Bay, home of the BC Ferries terminal from which I will be sailing in short order. To give you an idea of just how far of a drive it was to West Vancouver, I was back in Whistler, 30km from Pemberton, by noon. 🙂
En route, I stopped at the Canadian Tire in Squamish to buy a new fire extinguisher. There, I was talked out of buying the biggest ass one they had for sale, but the new one is still twice as big as the one I’m replacing. 😀
The road ahead looks fine and I’m feeling a lot more relaxed about it, even though the whole ferry thing is still making me nervous. I had a chance to see what twists and turns to take and what lanes I need to be in, so some of the pressure is off when I arrive at the ferry terminal.
I stopped in Whistler, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics, for lunch, and more about that visit will follow soon as I can upload pictures. 🙂
I then went back home to check on Miranda’s status and found work halted seeing as some incorrect parts were received. It’s therefore doubtful that I will be back on the road tomorrow. This is not a problem seeing as I’m welcome to stay at the garage as long as I need to beyond the point where Miranda is repaired. I’m just not sure just what I will do with myself tomorrow if Miranda is still on the lift seeing as there is very little to do in Pemberton and I’ve run out of reading material.
This incident has saved me from having to do my seasonal roof check. There is a break room at the garage which overlooks the service bays, so I sat up there yesterday with binoculars and made sure everything was okey dokey. Making lemonade out of lemons, I am. 🙂
Boondocking Success
I probably won’t be able to give a write up of my trip from Nugget City to Campbell River, complete with pictures, until I arrive, so in the meantime, I’ll just share my experiences with the house batteries this time around.
I noticed last spring that my house batteries were not charging while driving. I started by blaming the installation of the new truck battery, which proved to be correct as there was no voltage on the cable from the truck solenoid to the house batteries.
There were no loose wires around the truck battery, so I examined the connections from the solenoid to the battery and found them loose. I cleaned the terminals, applied conductive gel, and tightened the connections. After that, there was proper voltage going from the truck to the house batteries. But that only solved part of the problem as I found that the charging was not satisfactory, especially after long days of driving.
My next suspect was the refrigerator. I guessed that by putting it on ‘auto’ it was switching to battery power rather than LP and that I was draining the battery as I drove.
When I left Nugget City, I purposely left the fridge on ‘auto’ and when I arrived at my spot for the night, my voltage read 12.3. I had left with a fully charged battery and driven almost three hundred kilometres. This did not seem right. I switched the fridge to LP. The battery voltage dipped to about 12.0 overnight as I left the inverter on to recharge the laptop.
The next day, I stopped after about one hundred kilometres of driving and my battery was at 12.6, fully charged! This confirmed to me that my charging problem was resolved. When I parked for the night at the turnout, I still had a fully charged battery. However, I had no sooner turned on the furnace than my battery was at a 50% discharge evidenced by an 11.1V reading!!! I turned off the furnace and the battery reading increased to a more reasonable 11.5 to 11.6 range, more than enough for a comfortable night.
I had recently checked the distilled water levels for the batteries and found them to be satisfactory, but decided that maybe they did need a bit of topping up. They each took on a little water, not enough to make a difference I thought, but I was in for a surprise.
I parked in Prince George with the battery at 12.6V. I ran the furnace all night while recharging the laptop and the battery levels dipped down to the 11.6 to 11.8V range and stayed there steadily.
From Prince George, I returned to the Chasm. My voltage was at 12.6V upon parking and 12.1V upon going to bed after running the furnace and charging my laptop. I left the furnace on all night and awoke to a voltage of 11.8. During the day, the only direct use I made of my batteries was to charge my laptop and the voltage hovered in the 11.6 to 11.8V range. It was a nice sunny day and without doing any math, so take this with a grain of salt, I suspect that I was getting enough juice out of the 15W solar panel to compensate for the laptop charge.
I stayed a second day at the Chasm just for a rest and my battery remained at the 11.6 to 11.8V reading right straight up to my departure (so, two nights of running the furnace). I drove only about a hundred kilometres, including careening down a mountain, before my stop for the night where my battery was at 11.5. It was at 11.3 when the tow truck came this morning.
It seems that my batteries rapidly discharge into the 11V readings, but then stay there steadily. I was glad to be hooked to power tonight, but would have had enough juice for running the furnace.
The generator will be useful to help me boondock in one place for several nights, but I now know that I can boondock from place to place with a small of driving in between each and still be perfectly comfortable. This knowledge is very comforting. I’m starting to feel like a seasoned RVer. 🙂