Sunday, October 14, 2018

Day 30 - Cloverdale, CA - TT

It’s been a month since we left Fairbanks and it feels like we just got started on this trip. I’m liking the slower travel though we may need to try to not be in “vacation mode”. This is when you feel like you need to see or do something every day that you’re not traveling. More along the lines of living in different locations. Daily activities don’t have to change much from when we are at home. It may take a while to get properly adjusted.

This is our last day at the Russian River RV Park which is a Thousand Trails campground. No real complaints except that the only dump station wasn't available when we first arrived. It's working now. Also, the bathrooms aren't as nice as some other campgrounds but since we don't use them, it's not a big deal. We are in sort of an in-between climate where the furnace runs at night and the air conditioner is on during the day. I initially thought that we were in a sunny enough spot to do an equalization on the golf cart batteries. But the amount of time that all of the panels are receiving full sunlight is pretty minimal. I went up on the roof to clean the panels (window cleaner and paper towels) and only one panel had no shading. From testing by others, 10% shading is sufficient to cut the power from the panel to nil.

I am finally getting around to trying out one of our appliances for the first time. The propane oven. Last summer, it was too hot to even use the stove but I think it may be fine, today, to use the oven. I lit the pilot this morning. No problem there. Now I have it at 375°F but since I don't have an oven thermometer with me, I used the infrared thermometer that I use to check the hub temperature. No fancy baked goods. Just baked potatoes not made in the microwave. The dial on the oven is close enough. The sides of the oven are 362°F but the pizza stone on the bottom is a toast 425°F. We'll see how this works out.

The only trip today was running to the gas station to get some of that $4.16/gallon fuel. BTW, in case you're wondering, regular gas is around 25¢ cheaper but premium gas is the same as diesel. Still really expensive. Some of the most expensive on our trip. Even the Yukon Territory was $4.07/gallon after you adjust for the exchange rate. In Canada, diesel was usually cheaper than regular gas and premium was rarely available. It's always easier to fill up the truck without the trailer. Since all of our upcoming travel days are going to be under a full tank, filling up the day or evening before a travel day will be preferred. Tomorrow, we will be traveling around 130 miles to Lodi, CA, according to Google Maps. I think the RV GPS has us on a slightly longer route to avoid some of the mountain roads. But either way, I think that we will be going through the fringes of the bay area.

Lodi is a smallish town roughly the same population as Fairbanks just a bit north of Stockton, CA. I ordered another key fob for the truck through Amazon and will be trying out the Amazon Locker in Stockton. I've been wanting to try one out ever since I first heard about them. More about that in a later post...

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