Accommodation

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Not Shivering in Eugene

A variety of issues cropped up to keep me in Eugene this weekend. None of the Walmarts allow overnight parking, so I thought I’d end up at an RV park. Then I had an epiphany and I moseyed over to Our Odyssey to find out where Sean and Louise spend the night in Eugene. I’ve been reading their blog for so long and this is the first time I’ve used it as an overnight parking resource!

As it turns out, the Valley River Center (a giant mall) allows up to two nights of RV parking in a remote treed lot against a winding river and walking path. Great location!

I pulled out of AM Solar early this morning since I was meeting Joan in Albany, about an hour away. I got to the Valley River Center around 9, parked where I thought I might be able to stay, and hoofed it to the mall to find security so I could register.

As I got closer to the buildings, I noticed a security car circling the lot and waved it down. Turns out the guard had seen me pull in and was heading straight for Miranda. I think he was surprised that I belonged to the rig. It turned out that I was in the wrong lot, so he guided me to the correct one and had me fill out some paperwork. He was very nice, telling me to be sure not to hesitate calling security if I have any concerns.

I haven’t slept in two nights and knowing that I don’t have to move the rig tomorrow is such a luxury. I’m so grateful that the Valley River Center offers TWO nights of parking. The security guard emphatically told me to not be shy about asking for a third night, but I really doubt I’ll need to be here that long.

As for the title of my post, it is amazing to be able to turn on the heat, get the rig to a comfortable temperature while watching the voltage drop to 11.8-12.0 while the furnace is running, go for a walk, come back into a warm home, and discover the ‘battery is fully charged’ light pulsing. It’s been overcast and rainy all day, but I’ve had a steady 1 to 2 amps coming in!

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150 Watt Solar Panel from AM Solar

Ta-dah!

150 watt panel located in an open spot with few shadows and leaving me room to mount the kayak on the roof if I want

150 watt panel located in an open spot with few shadows and leaving me room to mount the kayak on the roof if I want

you can see the wiring going down the fridge vent

you can see the wiring going down the fridge vent

close up of the installation, lots of Dicor!

close up of the installation, lots of Dicor!

array amps in 'dry camping mode'. This is almost half of what I would get in ideal conditions and it's overcast! It's also about six times what I got from my 15 watt panel on a good day!

array amps in ‘dry camping mode’. This is almost half of what I would get in ideal conditions and it’s overcast! It’s also about six times what I got from my 15 watt panel on a good day!

array amps when in 'shore power mode'

array amps when in ‘shore power mode’

battery voltage (I'm plugged into shore power)

battery voltage (I’m plugged into shore power)

positioning on the side of the over fridge cabinet

positioning on the side of the over fridge cabinet

inside of the cabinet. The wire housing has two sets of wires, one goes left towards the front of the rig where the battery is and the other straight up to the solar panel.

inside of the cabinet. The wire housing has two sets of wires, one goes left towards the front of the rig where the battery is and the other straight up to the solar panel.

I am very satisfied by AM Solar‘s job. Their reputation is warranted! Thank you to Charlie who did the installation (and added some Dicor to other screws on the roof that needed it), and Deb and Roger in the office! It took 6.5 hours to get the panel installed, but I didn’t even see time go by thanks to the comfy waiting room with wifi. There was even coffee this morning!

My brain is a little fuzzy right now (I didn’t sleep last night), but let’s see if I can remember the gist of the important information. 🙂

First of all, the installation of the controller. AM Solar prefers to use the fridge vent over any other route and then they cut a hole in a wall and flush mount the controller. I had a very easy and even perfect set up to do this since they were able to use the side of my new overfridge cabinet for mounting instead of cutting into a wall. I’m still able to put my pantry baskets in there, so I haven’t lost any space. The solar panel is located right above the fridge so the wiring was brought straight down and then across to the batteries.

Second, they left my 15 watt panel on the roof and hooked up, but it’s not tied into the system. It gives me an extra half to one amp a day. What want to do at some point is hook it up to the truck battery when I’m parked for extended periods of time.

Third, I was advised to do a few tweaks to my battery bank, including added vented covers, which they gave me at no charge to install myself (left behinds from other customers). No major issues, just little things that would lessen worst-case scenarios!

Fourth, the HPV-22B charge controller is a nice little device. There’s an on/off switch that I don’t need to worry about unless I’m parking for an extended period of time out of the sun. There is also a dry camping/shore power mode that provides the best charging for both scenarios. I also have three LED displays: battery voltage, array amps, and charging amps. Right now, I forget the difference between the array and charging amps, but for the moment they are the same (I think array is the amperage going out and charging is the amperage coming in). Finally, I have two indicator lights. One tells me if I am charging (solid) or at full capacity (pulsing). Right now it is pulsing. There is another light that tells me if I am charging at maximum capacity.

The total was $1,600. That would have gotten me a 100 amp panel on special in Canada, including taxes, and excluding the tilt bars I can use when parked for extended periods of time. AM Solar is very good value!

The only thing my electrical system is missing now is a battery usage monitor. Voltage readings really mean very little since they vary depending on what I am using. They do not tell me how many amps I have left. Andy Baird explains this very well in Eureka.

I was warned that depending on where I spend the winter (so how much sun there is and how much I heat), I may be tight for boondocking in the colder months. The next week or so is going to be a good test!

Tonight, I am parked against the back of the building and plugged into 30A power with access to the shower room. I plan to take full advantage of it. 🙂 I was told that there is no rush for me to get out of here tomorrow, but I’ll try to do so before ten.

I have a viable solar system!!!!!

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Long Term Weather Forecasts

I spent several hours today plotting my itinerary from the Oregon Coast to Lethbridge, Alberta. It feels like such a long one, across the breadth of Washington and Idaho and up through Montana. And, yet, I’m looking at just 1,500km, just a little over two tanks of gas. At US prices, that’s only about $400 in fuel to get me back to Canada, and I won’t need to budget for RV parks once the solar panel is installed.

Oregon Walmarts are RV unfriendly, so I’ve had a job and a half looking up other sources for overnight stops, including Our Odyssey (first time using this blog as a reference!), Casino Camper, Free Campsites, and All Stays which has good information about Walmarts.

I don’t know how my internet access is going to be in the next few weeks, so having this reference of good overnight spots along the way is reassuring. I tried to find some places no more than a couple hundred kilometres apart so that I can mix up short and long days.

The long term weather forecasts for Idaho, Montana, and southern Alberta point to days above freezing and nights below. I can definitely handle that! Since so many of the places I’ve found to stay at allow multiple day stay overs, camping rather than just overnight parking, I am going to try very hard to pace myself and stretch out the journey so that I don’t arrive at the border before the third or fourth of April.

I’m just about ready to pull out of Eugene tomorrow morning, but I might be back to spend the night, depending on how long the installation takes. If I get out of AM Solar at or before noon, I’ll shoot straight for the coast, otherwise I can go to the Valley River Center (a giant mall) here in Eugene.

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Chehalis (WA) to Eugene (OR)

I awoke to pouring rain that offered no promise of letting up. I try hard not to drive in those conditions, but the forecast told me that I could be camped out at the Chehalis Walmart until the end of the world. So, I took off, slowly and cautiously because of not only the pounding rain but also the wind. The worst was when the big rigs would pass me; the draft was nearly enough to send me into the ditch. It was tiring work and I pulled into each rest area I passed for a ten minute breather.

Croft advised me to take the I-205 bypass around Portland, so I was spared at least some potential trouble today. The drive into Oregon was easy, weather notwithstanding, and the rain finally let up around Salem, capital of Oregon. I was about forty-five minutes from Eugene when five cars passed me, making motions that there was something wrong with the kayak. I pulled over soon as I could to tighten the straps and went back to the rig to find that I’d locked myself out. Fortunately, I learned something from the last time I did this and had a spare set in the toad!

I made it to my friends’ place around 2 and waited patiently with a book until it was possible for me to get settled in. I’ll be here until the 17th.

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Blaine to Chehalis (Washington)

I had a typical pre-departure night filled with strange dreams, with a particularly vivid one waking me up to the sound of pounding rain at 6AM. Weirdly enough, I’ve been on an ‘early’ schedule since I got to Blaine last month, with bedtime between 10 and 12 and wake up around 8. If this had been a normal morning, I would have just gotten up at six. But since I had a full day ahead of me, I plugged in the electric blanket against the chill and went back to sleep.

The rain had turned to a gentle mist when I woke up again at 8. I didn’t have much left to do since I’d taken advantage of yesterday’s warm and sunny weather to dump the tanks and load the car. I lingered over breakfast, then went out to top up the fresh water tank and put away the water hoses. I continued to putter until I saw the park manager entering the office and went to see her to finalize my stay.

I’d given a $100 deposit for power and was shocked to learn that I had used $62 worth of power this past month!!!!!!!! I didn’t even run the dehumidifier. The only explanation is that I’ve had the 12V lights blazing in the evening since I’ve been working on my embroidery project. I really do need to convert to LED, but I don’t find that LED lights up a room as well as the incandescent bulbs do.

The manager wanted to give me my refund by cheque, but I talked her into giving me cash since I wouldn’t have been able to do a deposit for four weeks.

I’ll finally mention where I’ve been staying the last four weeks: Lighthouse by the Bay RV Resort. Lovely park and well managed, with clean washrooms, a club house, and three washers. When I arrived there was a welcome package waiting for me by the door, with everything I needed to get settled in, plus tons of local info. A lot of people there are permanent residents. If I can’t afford the gas to go south next winter, I will happily consider going back there because of the affordable monthly rent, location, and lower cost of living.

I pulled out of the park at about 11 and went down to the Texaco to fill the on board propane tank. I had a third of a tank of gas left so I decided to wait to get fuel; I’d be due at about the same time I’d be glad to have a leg stretch and pee break.

It continued to rain gently as I headed south, but by the time I hit Marysville, just north of Seattle, the rain had stopped even if the clouds were still black and swollen. I saw a highway sign announcing ‘Donna’s Truck Stop’, so I figured that’d be an easy access station, which it was. I took on $125 worth of fuel at $3.76 a gallon, so 33 gallons. That put me at almost full, with more than enough to get to Eugene.

The sky continued to clear and there were patches of blue when I hit Seattle. I stuck to the centre lane and made it through the city uneventfully even with the construction. It was the same thing through Tacoma and Olympia, capital of Washington State. I saw the capitol from the highway.

I’d asked around about good options for overnighting between Blaine and Eugene and was told the Walmart in Chehalis is RV friendly and exactly halfway. Croft says that it is his first stop after the Port Angeles ferry. That was good enough for me, so that’s where I headed.

11AM departures are a pain; too early to have lunch before leaving, but arrival is too soon after lunch to make it worth stopping for food. So, I just drove straight through and had a snack on arrival at 3.

I think I may set up camp permanently at the Chehalis Walmart! What a perfect overnight stop! Besides the Walmart supercentre, there’s a Starbucks with wifi, an Applebee’s, a Home Depot, and more. I must mention my love affair with the Applebee’s chain: awesome food, cheap prices, and portions so huge I always get two meals out of my order. Since I wasn’t driving tonight, I splurged on a ginormous mojito. *hiccup*

The weather this afternoon and early evening has been gorgeous; sunny and warm. Except for a cat who got very RV sick today, it has been a perfect day. I love my life.