RVing

by

First Impressions of Texas

When I first came to southern Alberta, I thought that it looked exactly like my vision of Texas: mostly flat with a few rolling hills, lots of county roads with super high speed limits to explore, more pick up trucks than cars, and lots of jeans and stetsons. Add in palm trees, and you’ve got Texas so far.

This is the first place I’ve been with my truck that I can legally drive at a speed that requires me to shift into fifth gear! My truck is a speed demon, the ride just gets smoother and nicer the higher over 110KPH I go. This could be a Ford engine design thing; Miranda drives much more smoothly at 110KPH than she does at 90KPH.

I drove to Rockport and back just to get a charge on the laptop. Nothing much was open, but I did get out of the truck to take some boring pictures:

Rockport

Rockport

Nice mural outside of a touristy shop.

Nice mural outside of a touristy shop.

more Rockport

more Rockport

I met my neighbours, nice folks from Colorado.

My batteries are fully recharged, and I now know my battery monitor is NOT working correctly. 🙁 I resynched it to show that I am at a full charge and it immediately dropped to 98% because it claims that I am running 8A when I have nothing running at all except the fridge, which is only an amp if that much. I should have just paid to get a pro to install the damn thing. I saw a couple of ads for mobile RV repairs and I’m going to make a few calls to see if I can find a mobile tech who can come take a look at it for me. Anyway, I’m not worried about power for the next few days as I’m barely running anything and it’s sunny enough to get a full charge by mid-day.

The laptop charging situation has completely floored me. I can’t believe it’s taken this long for me to realise that it’s not possible to charge a laptop through an inverter drawing off batteries! Are all other computer using boondockers charging theirs when the genny is running?!

Both my Mac and PC need 16.5V to charge. The Mac is a little less fussy than the PC and I can charge it on the small inverter while I’m driving. But that’s still not high enough voltage for the PC! I’ve found a DC charging solution for the Mac that I will be getting on Saturday, but the PC is trickier. I found a charger, but it’s not for my model exactly, so I don’t even know if it will work. It should also be here Saturday, I hope, and am crossing my fingers it will work.

In other wonderful news, the AC on the truck isn’t working. This is not news to me, but I only just remembered to mention it. I’m hoping it’s because of the leaves I still haven’t attacked. I’ve been a bit gun shy about this repair since step one is to remove the radio. The AC worked fine when I bought the truck, so I’m not convinced at this point that there is anything majorly wrong with it. Ha, famous last words.

It’s quite warm today, but there is a lovely breeze coming off the bay so the rig is comfortable. My neighbour says the water is just below 60 degrees. I bought some wading shoes at Walmart on the way home, so I am probably going to get a little wet today. 🙂

by

QUIET

I forgot what quiet sounds like… this morning was the first in way, way, way too long (months? years?) that I was able to wake up under my own steam: no cars racing by, no leaf blowers by the rig, no truck reefers, no birds chirping, nothing. Just blessed peace and quiet.

It was really foggy this morning, but the sun has come out and the batteries are charging. Gina requested a video of the surf, but there isn’t really much of it here on this quiet bay. I have made note of the request, though. 🙂

The water is surprisingly warm and with sunny highs in the low 20s for the next few days, I may actually take out my bathing suit. I’m Canadian. I can swim in 50 degree water if I have to and this water is warmer than that!

I had hoped to just stay in today, but I really do need more computer charge than I have, so I may go for a drive and check out the environs.

Saturday, I’m looking forward to a meetup with blog reader Pam, who was kind enough to accept some packages for me. “Sure, I’ll gladly accept mail for you” is one of the best gifts you can give a full-timer on the move. 🙂 Of course, general delivery is always an option, but with a house address, I can take advantage of Amazon Prime free two-day shipping.

I so wish I was American and that I didn’t have to feel on the move all the time, even when paused. In the back of my mind, I always have that little voice reminding me that there is a very long slog to make back to the border.

But I may end up going just a little further south with the rig this winter. Nuevo Progreso, Mexico, a safe border town, is just four hours away and I’m overdue to see a dentist. So I may get the rig a little closer to the border, drive there with the truck, and walk across for a day, like I did in Tijuana. At any rate, that wouldn’t be well until the end of February. I’d like to sit mostly still at home for a few weeks, rest, and let the coffers fill up again. So I don’t know how exciting the blog will be in the next few weeks, but I will share the projects I’m working on.

Reader poll, what should I do with my new wall?

IMGP5473

– leave it as it is
– paint it yellow
– paint it golden brown
– stain it
– some other option

I was leaning towards stain, but there is a lot of wood filler and it’s not staining as nicely as it should. So paint seems like the best option. The more I look at the wall, the more I think the side panels should be yellow like the other walls in the room and the door should be golden brown like the other solid doors. Hmm, I think I have my answer! But I’m open to suggestions. 🙂

by

The Great Boondocking Experiment Starts

The time has come to truly test my new electrical system. I’m starting with a full charge, my batteries are watered, and I’m looking at a long stretch of warmth and sun. This is going to be my first attempt to truly live off grid on a fairly normal routine. The only thing missing is the DC charger for my Mac and that will be here Saturday. So I only have about another hour on my Mac tonight and an hour total tomorrow, then I’ll need to take it for a drive on Friday. Hopefully, the DC charger will work and I will have enough power to use my Mac as much as I need to!

One thing I am going to aim for is to live as much as I can by the sun. The days are short, so that won’t be super feasible, but I am going to try as much as possible to restrain my computer usage to daylight hours and use my iPad in the evenings.

I tend to spend my evenings sitting in the dark when I boondock, but I’m pretty sure that’s ridiculous with my set up. So I am allowing myself one LED light on in whatever room I’m and will see if that’s sustainable.

Finally, I have a ton of projects to do that do not require power but do require good weather. So I will attempt to spend a little less time at the keyboard and a little more time on other things while I am here, in addition to road tripping around the environs.

Well, methinks it’s time for dinner. Spinach salad, bratwurst, and sweet potato fries anyone?

by

Life’s a Beach

I am not going to explicitly state where I am right now. I’m sure anyone who’s good with Google will be able to find the location, but I found this place thanks to the Texas Frugal Shunpiker Guide and I’m not going to give away this information!

Some clues:

– I am on a hard packed crushed shell public beach (I would be too nervous to park on sand)

– I am near Port Lavaca

– I can stay here as long as I please

IMGP5468

Rig with a view.

Rig with a view.

Standing behind my rig.

Standing behind my rig.

Life the life you've always imagined.

Life the life you’ve always imagined.

The view from my office!

The view from my office!

by

Rae au pays de l’or noir

IMGP5458

Today’s drive was tricky to plan and I spent hours yesterday with Google Maps, my Texas Shunpiker Guide, and my GPS to find the best route. Both Google Maps and my Garmin wanted to route me straight through Houston while the Shunpiker Guide wanted to send me through Galveston. I finally came up with a route that looked pretty good and planned to solidify it once I got my hands on another Texas road map (having lost mine to a cat and coffee collision).

It was foggy when I woke up at 6:30 this morning and visibility was still poor at 7:20 when I had had my coffee and toast and was packed. I decided to hang out for a bit longer until the visitor centre opened at 8:00 so I could get the map and confirm my route. I entered the coordinates for my destination into the GPS but knew I’d be mostly on my own for this drive.

That done, I set off on I-10 westbound, stopping a few miles away at a Conoco pretending to be a Flying J. I missed the first entrance, which wound up being good as entering through the next entrance allowed me an easy exit out of the first and a much easier return to I-10.

From I-10, I took exit 798 and meandered my way down to route 35 by way of route 146. I checked the GPS a couple of times and it finally came up with a route that resembled mine, but with a few more twists.

IMGP5461

The Fred Hartman Bridge was very impressive!

IMGP5462

The first part of my day was in a world of oil refineries, hence the title of this post.

When I started to run out of road, I finally listened to my GPS and turned into… Pasadena.

IMGP5463

I was on Nasa Road and everything was space themed, so I figured I was near the space centre. Yup, I drove right past it! Note to self: you haven’t seen Apollo 13 in a long while.

IMGP5464

At some point, I passed a relic of olden days:

IMGP5466

Entering Bay City, I was overdue for a break, but I had been holding out for a real grocery store, passing only little food stores. So I was quite glad to pass a Walmart, where I was able to stock up on fresh fruits, veggies, meat, and beer before landing at my somewhat remote destination, saving me from having to go out tomorrow.

Port Lavaca was soon upon me:

IMGP5468

Today’s drive was difficult. The roads were in poor shape and I was mostly passing through towns so there was a lot of stopping and going. I really felt the toad today, my gas mileage was the pits, and I could feel both the engine and brakes working hard. It would have probably been easy to just bite the bullet and go through Houston on I-10, but I don’t regret my choice.

Just one damper on the day: I have a nice big crack in my brand new windshield. 🙁 I don’t think a glass place will be willing to fill it. Since it’s well out of my view range, I’m going to get a DIY kit and try to fill it myself before it gets worse.