Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

Partly cloudy skies have given us some amazing sunsets lately. It’s not so much the sun itself going down, but its reflection on the bottom of the clouds that makes the sky light up like it’s on fire. Sunsets like these, plus the dark skies where you can see the Milky Way every night, are the two things I like most about Arizona.

What these clouds aren’t good for, however, is my solar charging. Yesterday morning I woke up and saw it was overcast again. I checked my voltage, and it was down close to danger levels. I’ve gotten so spoiled by the virtually unlimited sun that I’ve been leaving Starlink on all day and evening, with no problems at all — until now. I was about to set up my generator for the first time in Quartzsite, then decided that since I’d just printed out a whole bunch of paperwork on Monday, I’d instead drive to Parker to deal with it and recharge off the alternator in the process.

Some of the paperwork I’d collected and printed at the Quartzsite library was to transfer my van’s registration from Florida to Arizona, where I’m a legal resident. My Florida registration doesn’t run out until the end of December, but I’ve been paying twice as much for car insurance out of Florida as my full-coverage RV insurance costs me in Arizona, so the sooner I switched, the more I could save. So off to the Arizona DOT office in Parker, I went.

On my way to get lunch, I saw Birgit and Tom parked in a lot. I pulled up next to them and asked if they had any Grey Poupon. It turned out they were looking for a place to eat as well, and invited me to join them. The Crossroads Cafe has a small parking lot for our larger vans, but the food and service were great. I’ll keep them in mind for future lunch stops before grocery shopping in Parker. It’s always better for the budget to buy food on a full stomach.

Since it was on my way out of town, I stopped at the Parker post office so that I didn’t have to deal with the Quartzsite one, which is the worst post office in the world. I mailed my Florida license plate back to the county tax collector’s office, since Florida will go after you hard if you cancel your insurance without canceling your registration and turning in your plate. I also had some legal documents to mail, which I’d also been getting ready over the past week or so. The Parker post office is quiet, friendly, and extremely helpful. With that, two of my primary goals upon returning to Quartzsite have been accomplished.

After a quiet, unproductive afternoon back at camp (I’d been productive enough for one day), I packed things up as some even darker clouds approached from the west. I even put the motorcycle inside the trailer, since rain was in the forecast. It rained on and off during the evening and overnight, but nothing significant. I don’t think it even washed the dust off my solar panels, which doesn’t matter much because it’s still overcast today. I did haul out my generator and have it running now while my laptop and Starlink are drawing power out of my batteries.

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These overcast days have made me decide almost for certain that I will not bother adding a fourth solar panel to my roof. The 600 watts I have now work almost all the time. When it’s not enough, the problem is due to a lack of sun, such as overcast days like these, or camping in the forest. Increasing my solar array to 800 watts isn’t going to make a significant difference when the sun just isn’t there. I already own the generator, and though I’ve thought about selling it, it seems a better idea to keep it for times like this.

That means that I’ll be able to use the remaining flat roof space for a second roof vent. While the front side window vents work, they are a bit of a pain in our current weather where I want them in while it’s warm during the day, but take them out and close the windows when it gets cool overnight. Power windows, while usually a convenience, actually make it more difficult to take these in and out. A second Maxxair fan will solve this problem. Being right over my kitchen area, I can even vent out steam (or smoke, if I mess up) straight overhead. I’ll get a manually operated vent for the front, not the fancy automatic one that I have in the back since it’s an area I’m always walking through anyway.

When it comes to solar, I do still have the capacity to add more panels, at least while parked. I’m still using the same Renogy DCC50S charger that I started this journey with in my previous van. Right now I’m only using it for alternator charging, with a dedicated charge controller for my rooftop solar panels. But I can still connect additional solar panels to it, up to 50 amps worth, or an additional 600 watts while parked. So the option is still there, even if it’s not attached to the roof.

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As for the chance of meatballs, I’ll be using them in the “enhanced spaghetti” I plan to make today. Borrowing ideas from Allyson’s book, I’ll be making up a batch later, including leftovers, adding a bunch of extra meat and veggies to the otherwise lackluster sauce I can get at the discount food tent in town to spruce it up a bit. I used up all my ground meat for tacos last week, so the rest of my frozen meatballs will work. Yes, now that I’m parked for a while, I’m starting to get a little more adventurous with my food. It’s not much, but I’m trying things I’ve never tried before, always with a backup meal ready to go in case my experiments go up in smoke.