Last night treated us to one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve seen in a long time. Yellow, orange, red, purple — it was all there. Yellow Wolf got this picture of me, while I got a picture that Suzuki could’ve used in their advertising back in 2011 when this bike was made.
The wind picked up overnight, and will continue to blow pretty hard through tonight. I packed up everything that wasn’t nailed down. My tent was holding up so far, but Yellow Wolf and I laid it flat and put rocks on top of it to prevent damage. It hasn’t taken any damage yet, but that might not remain the case in sustained 30+ mph winds if we’d left it up. Better safe than sorry.
While doing this, the wind blew over my solar panel that sits on the ground. It also pulled the MC4 connector off the positive wire attached to my battery charger in the process. The panel wasn’t damaged, but I put it inside my trailer to keep it out of the wind. It was overcast, so I wasn’t getting much charge out of it anyway.
A bright rainbow appeared in the sky, with a second fainter one above it. Pictures don’t adequately capture just how pure and brilliant these colors were. I managed to stand in just the right place to put my home somewhere under the rainbow.
The sun came out later, and there was a lull in the wind. I easily fixed the connector that had popped off the positive cable, then put the extra solar panel back out. This time I brought a couple of stakes and screwed them into the ground to prevent the wind from flipping the panel over again. I can’t move the panel to follow the sun across the sky with it staked into place this way, but at least I can use it. I’ve spent all day inside the van, using Starlink and my laptop working on a new writing project. I’m using a bit of power, despite it being a weekend, so I wanted to put the extra panel back out if at all possible to maximize my charging. It worked, as I’m now fully charged despite using a fair bit of power all day.
I’d rather be outside enjoying the sun, now that it’s out, even if temperatures haven’t hit 60º all day. I’m also not complaining. My former home in New England got a snowstorm today. It’s much warmer here, and you don’t have to shovel wind when the storm is over. I have plenty of leftovers to eat, so I don’t even have to do any real cooking today. The microwave was a good addition for times days this. I can just lounge in the van, being lazy, productive, or a little of both, pausing only to let Lister in and out when he demands it. He’s gone out a couple of times, but quickly got sick of the wind and came right back in!
Smokey Da Van 