Camping without Hookups

Across the street from our site

Across the street from our site

We left Trimble Park and headed back to Ocean Pond instead of Fore Lake because this weekend is going to be rainy and we wanted hookups.  But when we got to Ocean Pond, all of the water and electric sites were taken, so we ended up in a water-only site anyway.

The magic solar panel!

The magic solar panel!

I’m kind of glad, because it gave me a chance to see what our solar panel would do.

This morning, the battery was at 12.22.  At noon, the battery was fully charged, in spite of its being in partial shade for a while.  I was thrilled.  I got my smart phone and Ron’s Nook charged, too.  But I took my laptop down to Gail’s electric site and she charged it for me.

We have all LED lights in the trailer, so that helps keep our electricity needs to a minimum.

Our site -- chosen for sun exposure morning and afternoon.

Our site — chosen for sun exposure morning and afternoon.

Today was beautiful.  It got cold last night, but it reached 70 today.  Tomorrow’s supposed to be cooler, but still nice.

AND Gail and Mike’s offer on the house was accepted!  They close the 18th and will move in 30 days later.  I am almost as excited as they are!

 

Refrigerators & Battery Monitor

We finally got a break in the rain today long enough for me to gather up the food in the Casita and bring it into the house.

After I got the food inside, I thought, I’ll go ahead and clean the refrigerator before putting the food into it.  So I cleaned the shelves and walls and got it looking good.

Then I thought, It’s been a while since I pulled the produce drawers out and cleaned under them.  Might as well do that now.

YERK.  All kinds of goo had leaked under there and solidified into a gross brown mess.  So after soaking, scrubbing, soaking and scrubbing some more, I finally had it clean.

Then I thought, Might as well go through and throw out everything that’s been in there a while.

Then I went out to the camper and scrubbed its refrigerator, too.  So now I have two squeaky clean refrigerators.  🙂

My battery monitor was delivered today, so I unplugged the shore power and plugged the monitor into the DC plug in the trailer.  The numbers jumped around for a while, but then settled on 12.71.  GREAT!  I was wondering if I needed to replace the battery that came in the trailer when we bought it.  Apparently not.

My LED lights should be here sometime this week, I hope.  That will be another step toward making the trailer more suited for boondocking.

I’m hoping to have a nice solar system installed in the Casita by the end of 2012.  That will open up a lot more camping possibilities to us if we don’t have to worry about having hookups.

 

Undoing the Solar

Where the wires go

Today’s project was undoing the solar wiring so I could remove the charger and solar controller.

I have a pretty high IQ, but I am brain dead when it comes to electrical stuff.  Probably because I don’t want to know how to do it.  My dad did wiring, my ex did wiring, and somewhere along the way I internalized the cherished belief that I didn’t need to know how to do it.

Now I am doing it.  Sort of.  I’m taking pictures of every connection and making labels for the wires to remind me what goes to what when

The solar controller

I start putting it back together again.

I also got the other bed removed.  Tomorrow I’ll remove the water heater and water tank and label more wiring.  🙂

Everything is photographed and labeled now, so it can be taken apart.

Stored in the spare bedroom until time to put it back together

Tomorrow's project

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