Work has been keeping me busy, especially on Friday when I had my first meeting in over a year. That may lead to more writing and off-roading opportunities, but it’s too early to say much more since nothing is certain. I did take the weekend off, though, because my brain’s batteries needed to recharge.
Yesterday I took a bike ride. It just happened to take me to Yuma again, where I could pick up a few things and print out some paperwork at the library (so much better than having my own printer on board), but I took a circuitous route past Mittry Lake on the way there, which was fun. There were even a few open places by the water where I could have moved my camp to. I seriously considered it, but since I’m heading back to Quartzsite in a few days, I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle of packing up and moving for such a short time. Plus, in the LTVA I feel safe leaving my trailer and motorcycle behind and taking the van into town, which is something I intend to do the day before I leave. It’s better to stock up on groceries in civilization (Yuma) than to fight the crowds and empty shelves back in Quartzsite, which is currently at peak population.
Last night I went to a fire at the Desert Ratt Pack camp. I got to meet a few more people who I’d been talking with on the air, and catch up with a few others. One of them actually recognized me from Instagram and is a big fan of Lister. I gave her Lister and Smokey Da Van stickers.
In return, she gave me a small jar of her homemade “Prickly Pear” jelly. I’m not sure what’s prickly about it, but I had some on a sandwich for lunch and it’s delicious! I don’t even care for pears that much, but this jelly is super tasty. Thanks, Lyn!
This morning I resolved to figure out if my HF ham radio (the one that does shortwave frequencies that go all over the world) is broken, once and for all. It was a cool, sunny morning, so I set my station up outside, making a small modification to the radio’s power cord to run off my BougeRV power station since I hadn’t wired it into Smokey II in the rush to build it. With my antenna, tuner, and wattmeter in place, I could see that I was putting out about 50 watts of power once I got everything tuned up. It’s supposed to be a 100-watt radio, but at least it was working. Then I switched to single sideband, the mode I normally use for voice communication. The meters didn’t budge a bit when I tried to transmit. It seems there’s something wrong with the radio, which explains why no one ever answered my calls. It’s basically a rather nice receiver at this point. I have to seriously consider whether I’m going to replace it or not. HF radios are expensive, even used. While I’d like to participate in Parks on the Air, since I already visit so many, and it would be nice to have long-distance communications in general, I’ll have to think about it.
After lunch, I eventually motivated myself to take another motorcycle ride. This one set off on the local unpaved roads. I visited the North Shore again, but didn’t get far down Ferguson Road before I chickened out. The road has been washed out pretty badly on the hills. I was about to descend but pulled over for a pickup truck coming up the hill. He struggled a bit, even with four-wheel drive, but made it. That’s where I turned around, afraid that my one-wheel drive without a lot of tread on it would get me into trouble. It was still a fun ride, though. I took most of the local passable roads at one point or another.
My solar charging is working extremely well. When I got back to the van my house batteries were at 13.4 volts, which is basically full. I decided to try plugging my extra solar panel into my BougeRV power station to see how well it would charge it. The answer is VERY well! The same 160 watts or so (from a 200-watt panel, which is very good) that had been going into my van went into the power station instead. I’d used a little power between running my lights inside the trailer, charging a Ryobi battery or two, and running the ham radio, so it was down to 93%. When I checked an hour later, it was back up to 100%.
This makes me feel good. Everything in this life should have multiple purposes. Now, instead of riding around in the trailer all summer, I can use my extra solar panel to keep my trailer power charged up. I can also do this while driving, but now I don’t have to.
Something else that makes me feel good is that my van was charged to 100% at 2:00 pm. The days are getting longer, which means more solar charging. It was mid-November when I started to have problems getting enough power. A month later was the shortest day of the year, and it’s almost a month after that now, which means that pretty soon I won’t need the extra solar panel to keep my van charged up until next winter. It also feels good that the streak of nights in the 30s is over, and daytime highs have returned to the 70s. We could still have another cold snap, but it looks like we’re through the coldest part of winter.
Smokey Da Van 