We left Needles this morning and headed southwest on smaller roads though there was more traffic than I expected. Since the weekend is coming up, I thought that the BLM area just south of the entrance to Joshua Tree Natl Park may be crowded. Julie from
Chickery’s Travels, and the YouTube channel of the same name, recommended a free campground at Chiriaco Summit a few miles east of the south entrance to the park. Especially for a fifth wheel. It is also listed on
Harvest Hosts by the
General Patton Museum. The dry campground is behind the museum so we have tanks as neighbors. There are maybe six other RVs in addition to the campground host. Interstate 10 is only about a ¼ mile away but you can't really hear much highway noise.
These are some of the "parts" tanks that are behind the museum. Tomorrow, we are planning to explore the museum as the forecast for tomorrow is wind. The camp host has you register, then explains quiet hours, and the seven-day camping limit. He also points out that this is private property and not BLM land as some people assume. There was only one trailer that had a generator running, Most of the people have some sort of solar system set up.
One last bit of news that may be of interest to anyone in remote areas is that
OneWeb had their first deployment of six satellites. They have a long way to go to complete their low earth orbit mesh of around 650 satellites. Once production is going later this year, they plan on launching 36 satellites at a time approximately every 3 weeks. Alaska is supposed to be one of their pilot sites as there will be more coverage in the high latitudes (northern and southern). I had talked to one of their principals a few years back over dinner while they were visiting Utqiaġvik.
At 4:30, I started dinner with the Instant Pot. We'll see how much power it draws for the 85 minute cook time. (Corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots) Probably enough for several days.
6:30 update - 16 amp hours to build up pressure. 12 amp hours to cook or 28 amp hours total. Out of our 215 useable amp-hours (430 total), not bad at all. The Trimetric battery monitor is a great tool to have.
Darn, we went into the south entrance of Joshua Park this morning and drove in about 15 miles. Had lunch and came back out. And then drove back to Loma Linda. Missed you by "this much."
ReplyDeleteDid you enjoy Joshua Tree? I haven’t been there in almost 40 years (that made me feel really old…). We are planning to head there tomorrow as it’s supposed to be really windy today.
DeleteWe didn't drive in very far but did enjoy it. I found a sandy pullout and we had lunch there and then wandered into the desert. It was so nice to enjoy the solitude and quiet, did not want to go back. Saw lots of campers just outside the entrance.
DeleteHmmm, thought I already commented....great news re the Oneweb company starting to actually launch satellites. They must not be very big satellites to be able to launch 36 of them in one shot.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of videos showing the launch of six which is one of six “layers” of satellites on the delivery system. The really interesting tech is their cpe radio. The ability to track satellites with a fixed, horizontal panel about 5” square.
DeleteDoes it feel good to be back on the road again?
ReplyDeleteSilly question - what is the point of Oneweb launching all of the satellites? Research or some other purpose?
It feels good to be on the road again though the trips are still going to be short for the next month or so.
DeleteThe OneWeb satellites are going to provide global Internet access. The founders developed a passion for providing cheap to free Internet access to third world schools while traveling the world after they sold their dot com businesses. Their primary paying customers will be commercial shipping and transportation. With their mesh of satellites, the access would be the same anywhere in the world with cheap and simple premise equipment.
The OneWeb solution sounds amazing, but after visiting their site, I'm still not clear if they plan to offer service to individuals, or just businesses or institutions. Do you know?
ReplyDeleteEventually to individuals. They really need to get their business plan in place as their initial focus is on third world schools and non-profits, secondarily commercial transportation, and finally individuals. But for residential installs, it would still be more cost effective to use cable, mobile, or dsl and they wouldn’t have the latency issues.
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