North America

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Thoughts On Two Possible Routes North

Rather than keep hashing this out in the comments to my post about Wyoming, I thought I would present the two routes I am considering so as to get input on them. One route has me shooting straight north and then northwest through the Dakotas. The other has me going northwest from Austin and then straight north from New Mexico.

There are two factors I would like folks to keep in mind before they give me their thoughts.

1) Weather

I am going to be leaving Austin in very late March or very early early April so as to give me a full five weeks to get to Saskatchewan in case the weather gets ugly along the way. Either route is going to take me a week to do at a comfortable pace, but regardless of how quickly I travel or not, I am going to be traveling through one of the iffiest weather periods of the year in some of the most isolated areas of the US. Facilities may be closed or offer reduced services.

2) Elevation Changes

It’s my belief that the second route is going to have more elevation changes than the first, which could also impact on weather. I also do not want to face any really steep grades. I just want a nice easy lope back to Canada.

Here is the direct route:

route 1

This route mostly takes I-35. I believe that elevation changes would be a non-issue as I am mostly going through the prairies. I have found an abundance of places to overnight along this route, even in the wilds of the Dakotas where you can stay overnight at a rest area.

If I was just focused on getting back to Canada, this route would be a no brainer. But I’ve already been through most of these states.

Here is route two:

route 2

This route mostly takes I-25. It would allow me to add several more states to my map. I am concerned about elevation changes. Most of what I remember of Denver is a 10-lane highway, so driving through that city sounds a little unnerving and there doesn’t seem to be a good way around, but RV forums say to just drive through outside of rush hour. I have found fewer overnighting options on this route, and none that sound like a sure bet in Wyoming.

I like this route because of the additional states I’ll get to add to my map, I really want to see Colorado again, and I’ve heard that Wyoming is gorgeous, but it doesn’t sound like a sure bet in the shoulder seasons.

Both routes are about the same distance and terminate at the tiny Scobey, MT border crossing near my property.

Thoughts?

I don’t want to go back. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

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A Homey Day

Today was really low key. It’s a chilly and windy out there, so I’ve stayed in. An invasion force of pterodactyl-like pelicans landed this morning and have been providing Neelix and me with entertainment all day.

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Caroline and her husband came by in the afternoon to tour the rig. Her husband gave me his thoughts on how and where I could add a giant monitor to my office setup. The number one thing keeping me from doing so is that I want to run the monitor off DC, not AC, so that I don’t have to turn on the inverter. He said that it’s doable so I’m going to do a bit more research on that.

Caroline had a nice present for me, a cross-stitch project that she’ll never get to, so I’ve already started on that and will continue tonight with a movie. I found a DVD with eight surprisingly good movies on it for just $5 at Walmart and have been watching one a night. It’ll be nice to have something to keep my hands busy in the evenings now.

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Nopal

Tonight, I cooked up the nopal, or cactus paddle, that I bought the other day.

I took Melissa’s advice, cut it up like a fan leaving the bottom attached, and then seared it in my cast iron pan.

Removing the spines wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I just scraped a sharp knife along the top and then wiped the nopal on both sides with a damp paper towel.

Removing the spines wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I just scraped a sharp knife along the top and then wiped the nopal on both sides with a damp paper towel.

Searing nicely next to a really good pork chop.

Searing nicely next to a really good pork chop.

Tomate, carne de cerdo con limón y pimienta negra, nopal y arroz.

Tomate, carne de cerdo con limón y pimienta negra, nopal y arroz.

I thought that my palate had been around the block once or twice, but it had never met nopal before. My first reaction to the stuff was that it could not possibly be of this world. Both the texture and taste were complete alien. The texture is so odd, both mucilaginous (slimy, like okra) and crisp. The taste doesn’t even come close to green beans. It’s fresh, but a little sour.

Truth? I have no idea what I think of nopal, but I was not able to finish what I had on my plate. My taste buds were in complete overload.

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Voltage Matters

A few weeks ago, I asked, “Does voltage matter?” I was not satisfied with the answer that I got.

As a reminder, voltage can be compared to pressure. You can have all the battery capacity (amps) in the universe, if you have no pressure (voltage) to get that capacity to your electrical devices, you won’t have power. The amount of voltage your electrical system has depends on the state of charge of your batteries and the size of your wiring as it relates to your load. Small load through big wires means less resistance and more pressure, big load through small wires means more resistance and less pressure.

Voltage is a very poor indicator of the state of charge of batteries. This is because it fluctuates wildly depending on the load on the system. But because voltage is almost useless to determine the state of charge of batteries does not mean it is a meaningless number. Voltage can tell you some useful things about the state of health of your entire electrical system. I therefore disagree with folks who claim that voltmeters just about useless.

Again, voltage is akin to pressure. You only have so much pressure and that has to feed your entire electrical system. If you put too big of a load through wires that are too small (like a a torrent of water trying to pass through a garden hose), you will get a lot of resistance and reduced pressure. This reduced pressure is called voltage drop.

For most applications, a voltage drop of up to 2% is acceptable. For lower wattage items, like lights, up to 4% may be okay. This is where the voltmeter comes in handy. Turn on a typical load one evening, say the inverter, TV, and a light or two. Check the voltage at the batteries and check it again inside. If you’re reading 12.5 at the batteries and 12.3V inside, you’re doing okay. But if you’re reading 11.8V inside and your lights are flickering, you have a problem.

The causes of big voltage drops can be minor, like loose and/or dirty terminals or low water levels. Such corrections can be made easily. The causes can also be major, like undersized wiring for the load. The temporary solution there is to reduce the load and the permanent solution is to run bigger wiring (with a smaller gauge number) for that application.

Regardless of the reason for the voltage drops, keeping an eye on them is a good way to monitor the state of health of your electrical system. I have hit the road in the morning with 12.5V showing and stopped for lunch at to 10.5V, with my fridge having turned off. Did I leave a load on? Nope, a terminal connection got loose during travel over a bumpy road. If I only relied on my battery monitor, I wouldn’t have known there was a problem until my freezer contents started to soften.

I struggled with low voltage at the start of my boondocking experiment on the beach. Not being satisfied with answers that focused on the health of my batteries and their state of charge, I ignored anyone who told me voltage readings were a red herring and not relevant. I knew voltage was a clue and I was right. I wound up having loose and dirty terminals as well as undersized wiring for my application. I’ve resolved all those matters (although the latter one needs a more permanent solution).

Now, I have the satisfaction of starting my evening with 12.5V on the voltmeter and never seeing that number go below 12.3 even with the fridge and a couple of lights running while my computer is charging. I haven’t seen a light flicker in recent memory and I can turn on my inverter to print or use the vacuum cleaner in the evening. If I had believed that voltage doesn’t matter, I would be a much unhappier boondocker this morning. Heck, I probably wouldn’t even be a boondocker anymore.

Tomorrow, I will have been here a month, a full 31 days, and I don’t anticipate having any trouble making it to the end of the first week of March, another two weeks or so.

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Thank Goodness For the Battery Monitor

I’ve been holding steady here these last few grey days, never going below 87% battery capacity. I’ve only used the alternator to get a voltage boost during the day for office-related matters, with the 10A or so I’d get out of it being a nice bonus. The solar has performed beyond all expectations, sucking an average of 4 to 5A out of the swirling dark grey mass above us.

Last night, the battery monitor claimed that I was at about 93% and down 16.8A. Guess what all my volt metres were telling me? That even with the fridge and a light going, I was between. 12.58 and 12.61V. Which meant that with everything off, I’d be above 12.6V, which is considered a full charge.

But I knew better because my amp meter is calibrated properly. Without the battery monitor, I would have gone to bed smug and pleased that I got to a full charge last night and would have just run them down today as though I was starting over.

Imagine if I kept doing that over the lifetime of my batteries, just getting them near, but never at, full charge. That would eventually kill them. With the battery monitor, I know that they need just a little more charging them.

Voltage readings do matter and have a use; I’ll be doing up a post about that. But I don’t know how anyone can do any serious amount of time off the grid without a battery monitor because they really are the only way to know exactly where you stand.