North America

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Palm Tree Lullaby

Feeling a little claustrophobic this afternoon, I decided to go for a walk ‘in the other direction’ (away from the entrance to this beach). The sun was warm, but the wind gusts chilly, so I was glad I wore a fleece top.

I walked (or, rather, tried not to become airborne) for a few klicks, hypnotized as I was by the sound of the palm trees rustling in the wind. I passed a lot of vacation homes, RVs, and a trailer masquerading as a motel, but that’s it.

I just checked the map and, to my surprise, if I had kept going just another two miles or so, I would have reached the Indianola Fishing Marina where there is a small bar and grill. Total distance from home round trip is 8 miles, or 13KM, definitely doable on foot! So I may take off late morning one day and go grab lunch there, then spend part of the afternoon on the pier. That sounds so much more pleasant than hopping in the truck to go.

The wind might actually be slowing down a little. It’s still very loud, but the RV is just shifting rather than rocking. Nope, typed too soon!

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Nice Neighbours

I’ve had company twice this morning! That’s got to be a record!

Mr. Colorado neighbour came over to point out a big ship passing by and to tell me what to see in Port Anansas and Corpus Christi if I want to go for a nice day trip and check out the area before committing to moving there next. He says I might be able to see sea turtles and dolphins! He also said not to worry about the wind and that it should die down fairly soon. I know I’m safer parked here than I would be driving anywhere!

The folks parked on my driver’s side in a small travel trailer are pulling out today. The wife came over to apologize for being so loud last night and to thank me for letting them have their fun. She didn’t believe me that I honestly never heard a peep from them! Must have been all that wind!

I hope they will be okay driving in this wind (averaging 30MPH apparently).

I can’t even exit the rig from my house door. I’ve opened it a couple of times and it just flies open and is almost impossible to close. I’m going to have to exit through the driver’s side door in the cab until this wind lets down.

My solar array monitor claims that my batteries are fully charged, which is absolutely impossible, methinks, since they were resting at 12.3V in the middle of the night. So colour me a tad confused and slightly more appreciative of the battery monitor when it’s working properly. At any rate, with these conditions, I can charge my computer without discharging the house battery, regardless of its state, so I’m quite pleased about that.

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Still Blowing Like Crazy Out There!

It wasn’t a particularly restful night, I’m afraid. I woke up at 3:00 and 6:00 because the wind was making the escape hatch cover over my kitchen rattle violently. It’s blowing really, really hard out there. My neighbours think it will be over by tomorrow and haven’t given me any reason to be concerned, although I still have visions of my rig flipping over!

We have clear skies, YAY, so I have about 3A coming in right now. That’s average. I might be able to hit 5A by high noon. Estimating an average of 3A over a 10 hour charging day, that’s 30A per day that could come in, so it would take me about five days to hit a really full charge, and that’s if I don’t use anything. So I’m definitely on power rationing for the next little while, especially since my battery monitor is essentially useless until it’s recalibrated.

Painting is out of the question today since I can’t even use my mouse effectively what with the way the rig is bouncing around! Looks like a good day to curl up with a book!

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In the Words of Lieutenant Dan, Blow, You ?%@, Blow!

It has been crazy windy out there today and it’s not letting up!

The rig was been rocking and making me wish I had stabilizers. It was good to see the clouds being blown to sea this evening and I hope the sky does clear overnight as promised. I used way too much power today and the batteries are super low, probably around 75% capacity.

Tomorrow will be a good day to catch up on household projects and continue painting to give my batteries a good soak regardless of the cloud cover. I’m not in desperate mode, just conceding that the clouds could last a few more days and that I need to go into deep conservation mode.

In other news, a friend in the Yukon has informed me that I have totally lost touch with the reality of what a real, proper, cold, and snowy winter is like. Isn’t that great?!

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Boondocking Trial of the HP OfficeJet 8600 Inkjet Printer Series

The day has come where I had to print something. Eeeeeeesh. My batteries are sitting somewhere around 82% (the battery monitor will be useless until I can resynch it when the batteries next get a full charge). It’s cloudy outside and I’m barely bringing in anything from the solar panel.

With trepidation, I turned on the whole house inverter. No problem, voltage held steady and so did amperage use. That confirms that I got all the bad connections and that my battery is operating at optimum capacity.

I turned on the HP OfficeJet 8600 printer. No problem, voltage dropped a point only and amperage use went from 3A to a mere 4A. Hit print, all the numbers held steady. My job printed beautifully.

To me, this was a worst case scenario for using the printer and it performed better than I could have dreamed! It truly is a low energy printer! It did seem a little slower than it does on 120V power, but that could be my imagination.