19, 20- Corvallis, OR - Day 7 and 8

June 20 - Much cooler temperatures today. Pretty nice. I rode the bus into town this morning to look for a bicycle helmet. Thank you Corvallis for the free bus service and the nice app with real time updates. Afterwards, I went to Starbucks with my mom and niece. I think I’m pretty caught up with work on the trailer for now. I think…

June 21 - Bridget is back from Chicago and after dropping the dogs off at my mom’s place for the day, we went back to sorting out the trailer for storage. Emptied out the refrigerator and freezer, as well as any boxed items or things that won’t keep for a couple of months. And sorted through tools and other items that we will be bringing back to Alaska. Things like the generators and kitchen appliances will be left for when we continue the trip. 

When we dropped off the dogs, my FedEx shipment arrived. Since our RV isn’t heavy enough to carry any sort of motorcycle, I started looking at electric pedal-assist folding bicycles. Lynne at Curvyroads.info posted a review of the GB500 fat tire bike sold by Greenbikeusa.com and it sounded ideal. But they wouldn’t ship to Alaska. Last Saturday, I ordered one and left a note that it had to arrive by today or the order was cancelled. They shipped it out on Monday afternoon and it arrived today, Thursday, at 11am. And this was using the free shipping option. 

After the 48volt/15.6 amp-hr battery charged for a while, I pumped the tires up to 30 psi (their max) and rode around the fairgrounds a bit. Actually around 5 miles as it was almost effortless. There are 9 levels of pedal assist meaning you just start pedaling and you can feel the rear hub mounted motor kicking in. If you don’t want to pedal at all, there is a thumb throttle. Since I was still getting used to the bike, I kept the speed down to about 16 mph. I’ve never ridden a full suspension bicycle before so that will take some adjustment but it rode pretty well. The bike is taller than I expected. For me, the seat and handlebars are as low as they go. Originally, we were thinking of ordering two but it’s too large of a frame for Bridget. 

Enough playing around. Back to sorting through stuff...

18 - Corvallis, OR - Day 6

Another hot day. The forecast was for a high of 90°F this afternoon. I guess the weather service delivered. I walked to the small mall down the road from my mom’s home and was very hot when I got there. I’m not used to these temperatures anymore. It seems odd that I need run the furnace at night and the A/C during the day. The trailer really doesn’t have much insulation. I used the new vent fan this morning on speed setting #3 and it drew less than 1/2 an amp. 

The dogs needed yet another health certificate as they are only valid for 30 days. Their last exam was 5/31/18. It’s still valid now but won’t be when we arrive back in Alaska. What a racket…

The smaller, 3 qt Instant Pot that I had picked for the RV has been getting a lot of use. Last night Spanish rice 8 min of cooking time. Today, chicken for salad. 8 min of cooking time. Earlier, potato salad with eggs 6 min of cooking time. The 3 qt model is turning out to be a good choice for us. And it only draws 750 watts so it’ll run fine off of the inverter. The last photo is of a dog that is terrified of the Instant Pot. As soon as he hears the beeps, he hides in a corner. 

17 - Corvallis/Eugene, OR - Day 5

Today, Bridget headed out to Chicago from the Eugene airport and is scheduled to return on Wednesday evening. Much more convenient than the Portland airport for dropping off and picking up. 

Last night, I noticed that the refrigerator was still running on propane even though we were plugged into shore power. I think the outlet may need to be replaced as unplugging and plugging the fridge seemed to solve the problem. I also noticed that the Fan-tastic vent draws about 0.3 amps continuously. Between the vent, the refrigerator control board, the solar charge controller, and the Trimetric monitor, the draw is 1.1 amps continuous. 

I remeasured the max height of the rig again and the A/C is still the highest point. The bathroom vent cover is a close second at 12’ 10”. The A/C unit is 13’ 1” which I round up to 13.5’. So it’ll easily clear the railroad bridge on 53rd St. 

No pictures, not much happened today. The dogs are back at the RV tonight. 

16 - Corvallis, OR - Day 4

One more project done. N, as n approaches infinity, more projects to go. The first picture shows the Dicor sealing the edges of the Eternabond tape. Both products are designed for rubber roofing repair. The vent covers go over the pins and are held in place with a washer and spring clip as shown in the second picture. This makes them easily removable for cleaning. There was still some Dicor left in the caulking tube so I went around the roof adding some where it looked a little thin. 

The third picture shows where the vent covers were put and before we leave the campground, we will verify that the A/C cover is still the highest thing on the roof. There is a railroad bridge less than a 1/10th of a mile from the RV park that is labeled as 13’ 4” and 13’ 6”. We’ve been under the bridge several times without issue and, since it’s on the way out of town, I thought it would be a good idea to measure again. 

An odd thing happened. I moved the RV to a full hookup site this afternoon and after getting it all hooked up, I noticed the Trimetric monitor was showing negative current. The charge controller wasn’t showing any errors but after rebooting it, everything was fine again. Current was showing 17 amps charging. Hmmm...