Quiet Week

I’ve pretty much kept to myself this week. Lister looks the way I feel. Though I certainly haven’t just been waiting for time to tick away until Overland Expo this weekend. I’ve been working, both on the day job as well as on my personal projects. I wrapped up a one-off freelance writing gig soon after I got here, and just had another one fall into my lap from a completely different place. I’ll talk about that more once it’s a done deal. I also relaunched my Patreon, but I already posted about that, and I promised not to spam you about it.

I ran my generator for the first time in the field this morning. It was rainy and overcast yesterday, and I worked all day, which used up a lot of power. This morning started overcast as well, to the point where once I turned on Starlink and my laptop to work I was drawing more power out of the battery than my solar panels were charging. I was down to 12.4 volts. While not in the danger zone (that’s 12.1), this wasn’t optimal. Since I have it, I decided to run the generator for a while. It was a good non-critical field test, and it worked perfectly. I went from a 30-watt or so deficit to 150 watts of charging, even with Starlink and my laptop running. Of course, the sun came out later, and the combination of solar and generator pumped nearly 300 watts into my batteries at times. I turned the generator off after an hour, and let the sun charge me up the rest of the day. As the days get shorter I’ll probably end up doing this more, but it was a good test before I had to rely on it.

I’ve had fun exploring the local forest service roads, too. On Monday I ended up riding halfway around the side of Black Butte, about 10 miles from where I’m camped. The road wasn’t challenging from a dirt riding standpoint, but still fun and twisty, which is exactly the type of dirt ride I prefer these days. At the end of it, I found a great campsite. I thought about moving there but decided against it since I was only going to be in Sisters a few more days anyway. I did make a note of the location for a return visit, however. There’s a good chance I’ll be back in this area again at some point.

I should stop procrastinating on the dirty dishes, wash them, and make some dinner. Tomorrow I’ll get more work done, then drive the half-hour or so to Redmond and Overland Expo. Feel free to say hello if you see me. I’ll be there all weekend, and have stickers to give away.