Day 73 - La Union, NM - HH

We are at another Harvest Hosts site. La Viña Winery is the oldest winery in New Mexico and is located just a bit north of El Paso, TX, but still in New Mexico. We only travelled about 80 miles today and arrived mid-morning. Before they were open. Another class A had arrived just before us. They had stayed here last week as well so they knew where to park. It was another moderately windy drive today with rain and cooler temperatures added in. Lots of police along the highway as well as road maintenance crews.

It was 50°F at noon and according to Weather Underground, this may be the high temperature for the day. The house batteries were down to 68% this morning and due to cooler temperatures last night, I ran the generator so I could pre-heat the engine to help make sure it would start. It ran really rough after starting so I suspect the there may be a problem with the intake grid heater as it shouldn’t need to be plugged in at these moderate temperatures. Oh well, one more thing to possibly repair.

When we arrived at the winery, the house batteries were still only at 82% so I ran the generator for half an hour. Long enough to get them to 88%. Maybe some solar still wouldn’t be a bad idea though it wouldn’t help much on wet, overcast days like today. The question in my head is what total wattage should I plan for. Should cables and components be sized for just enough to get by or plan for additional panels sometime in the future. Even when dry camping like this (not boondocking), it would be great if the generator wasn’t needed. I’ll probably need to run the generator again late afternoon so the batteries are back to ~90%.

We did a tasting here and met some of the other RVers parked here. One couple in a 5th wheel are on their way back to Colorado after traveling for a month or so. This has been another fantastic HH location. Tomorrow, we are headed just past El Paso for several days including a visit with a former colleague that I originally met as part of the planning process for the Barrow science facility.

We both liked the Caliente so we picked up a bottle. A semi-sweet with hints of chocolate and chilies. We got to keep the glasses. Something to put into the curio cabinet?