Eldon, MO

Thursday - Today, we drove about 300 miles to the Lazy River RV Resort near Eldon, MO, which is northwest of St. Louis. It’s is an electric/water site so we dumped our tanks at a Love’s Travel Center along the way. The drive was windy and I think there is some rain in the forecast. The gas prices dropped around $1/gal once we exited Illinois. It’s still more expensive in MO than TX but reasonable. 

The park is on the Osage River which is running high and there is a flood watch for the area. We will be here for a couple of days before continuing our trip south. We are right next to the pool but it isn’t heated. 

Friday - Today, we drove south to Lebanon to meet up with a former Fairbanks friend. We had previously stopped here three years ago when passing through. This was before we had the Jeep and Micky lent us her car while we were here. We had a wonderful visit over a tasty lunch at a catfish/bbq place. After doing some laundry, we headed back to the campground. 

I did try the unheated pool and it was, well, unheated. The manager said that we needed to come back in July. There is some rain coming in. The current radar is below showing the rain.

We have three travel days in a row coming up with some horrible weather in the forecast through Oklahoma and northern Texas.

Reynolds, IL - MD

Monday - We enjoyed an evening fire complete with s'mores. It was in the mid-60s by 9:30, so the fire. This morning, I took the Jeep to get an oil change and picked up some groceries for tonight’s dinner. Smoked salmon pasta is one of my favorites! (Thank you, David, for the recipe!) The pasta was a hit!

I also was able to lead a test this afternoon. He passed easily, as do the majority of the candidates. 

Tuesday - We went into the quad cities for lunch and as we were leaving, we really got dumped on and the tornado sirens were going off. It turned out that four small tornados were spotted in the area. We didn’t see them and it was almost completely clear when we arrived back at the RV. There was enough rain later to interrupt our StarLink connection. I used AT&T off my phone for the afternoon test session. I didn’t get a screen capture this afternoon. This is from this evening. 

Wednesday - Minimal rain predicted for today but the forecast only calls for a high in the upper 50s (°F). We head out tomorrow and it looks like it may be wet for most of the trip back to TX. 

Reynolds, IL - MD

Friday - A short travel day to Reynolds, IL. Thanks were dumped and the water tank filled. We are moochdocking in a driveway with a 15amp shore power connection. I have the Victron set to 14 amp max and I’m currently running the A/C using power assist. Solar is providing most of the extra current so even after several hours of running, the batteries are still at 100%. When the compressor shuts off, the fan stays on and the batteries get charged back up. We’ll try keeping the A/C running this evening. It has been windy all afternoon at 30 mph with gusts to 50 mph.

BTW, the worst roads we’ve run into so far are in Illinois. The road repairs run straight across the road and are every couple of feet. Lots of dodging potholes and poorly done repairs. There are a ton of loose screws in the RV right now. I need to pick up some glue and toothpicks. 

Saturday - We went to a farmers market just across the Iowa border. I picked up a few things that looked tasty and had a Cuban sandwich for lunch. Toasty, and delicious! We then hit up Costco, Walmart, and Target. But I still forgot glue and toothpicks. It is pleasantly cool today but still kind of windy. No A/C needed. A very relaxing day.

Sunday - After a cool night (44°F), it warmed up pretty quickly. We went to a mini-golf club place this afternoon as well as a couple of antique shops. 

The RV project was simply installing this handle on the screen door. There really wasn’t a great place to grab the screen door especially since it is mounted low. Low as in two steps down inside the RV. This makes it easy to close the screen door or keep it from getting caught by the wind.

 

Hannibal, MO - SP

Thursday - I was thinking of doing the morning test session outside but too many bugs. After the session was canceled, we drove into Hannibal, MO, to get some chores done and maybe pick up a few groceries.

This is the Mississippi River from downtown Hannibal. There is a small riverboat that does tours. We went into town for lunch right across the street from the Mark Twain Museum. I believe that Hannibal is his hometown. 

We wandered around town a little, but it is pretty warm and humid to walk too much. I'm just not used to the humidity.

We didn't go on the riverboat tour or spend time at the Mark Twain Museum. Maybe if we were planning to spend the entire day in Hannibal, we might have visited some of the touristy sites. We arrived back at the state park in time for me to participate in the afternoon test session.

Into Missouri - HH, SP

Tuesday - We left the campground around 9 and crossed into Arkansas around Fort Smith before heading north. Arkansas does not seem “traveler-friendly” as rest areas are almost nonexistent.   We finally stopped at a Bass Pro/Target parking lot for lunch and to pick up a couple of grocery items for tonight’s dinner. 

We are staying at the Missouri Route 66 Welcome Center. We found this location on Harvest Hosts. It is a huge test area with lots of truck/RV parking, so I suspect it may be a bit noisy. But that’s fine. We have open sky above us, so StarLink should work well. 

The picnic sites and the little visitor center are all Route 66-themed. It's a nice stop after 330 miles of mostly interstate driving. 

Tomorrow is a much shorter day at 188 miles to another state park. And we will be there for a couple of days. This is a very laid-back trip. Which I am very appreciative of, as I’m trying to recover from a cough. 

At 10pm, the batteries are at 87%, and we made dinner using the microwave and watched TV for several hours. StarLink is set to sleep at midnight. We’ll see what the batteries are tomorrow morning. 

Wednesday - A relatively short travel day at 190 miles, though it seemed longer. We had to disconnect the Jeep at the gas station as it was kind of cramped. That’s a real disadvantage for a gas RV. The diesel truck lanes are much roomier. Fortunately, it doesn’t take very long to disconnect and then worm my way out around all the parked cars. 

We are at a state park in northeast Missouri, and it is pretty nice. Concrete pad, and the full hookups are nice to have as it’s in the mid-80s (°F). Being able to run the A/C is nice. We are stopping here for a couple of days before heading to our destination in northwestern Illinois.

The batteries were at 73% this morning, and between the solar and the DC-DC charger, we were at 100% quickly. 

Canadian, OK - SP

Sunday - A short travel day from Ada, OK, to a state park near Canadian, OK. We stopped here to visit family, about an hour or so away. The campground is pretty empty. The water level of the lake is really high, with the picnic area completely flooded, but the campground is located on a ridge overlooking the lake. We met Bridget’s niece for dinner in Eufaula, a small town north of the state park. A decent Mexican restaurant with the best carnitas I’ve had in a long time. 

Monday - The state park is on a large lake. I'm not sure of the name of the lake. The water appears really brown due to the runoff from the recent rain. The water level is really high though the campground is located on a ridge overlooking the lake. This picture is taken from what I believe may be the camp host site, as the site is chained off from the road.

We head out tomorrow morning, heading into Missouri.

Ada, OK

Thursday - Today’s drive was only around 160 miles to visit friends outside of Ada, OK. I reset the Starlink obstruction "map" so the ping success is flaky. I signed up for the afternoon test session and will have to rely on AT&T through my phone. The drive up was uneventful, which is good. No wind and not hot at all. I think that we will be here for the next several days. 

This morning, I filled the water tank at the TT park, then after filling the gas tank, I weighed the RV plus Jeep at the Cat scale. The GVWR is 14500, so we are under by 1360. The front axle is by only 260 lbs and 1200 lbs at the rear axle. I think it’s interesting that the axle rating on the factory sticker is 100 lbs more than the GVWR on the same sticker. “Ford math”. 

I just wanted to make sure that we were under the max axle ratings. Plus, I now know that having the tires at 75 psi front and 80 psi rear, as listed on the door, is close enough. Maybe 75 psi all around would give a slightly better ride as the rear isn’t anywhere near max. The rear storage compartment is pretty empty, and I was thinking of having the e-bikes on a carrier. 

Friday - Went into Ada to pick up some groceries. Mostly veggies.

Clouds have been scattered most of the day, and the battery SoC was down to around 50% this morning. The solar charged them up to around 64% by late afternoon. I fired up the generator, and it was charging them for a few minutes, then the inverter disconnected the input. After a few minutes, it would reconnect and then disconnect. The inverter must not like something about the generator output. I am now plugged into a 20-amp outlet, and charging is working fine. 

I need to turn off StarLink and the ice maker at night when dry camping.

Saturday - With StarLink off for six hours and the ice machine off for ten hours, the SoC was at 84% this morning. I had the charger turned off last night as well, just to see what the SoC would be this morning. I suspect t

I joined in both test sessions today, though I relied on my phone instead of StarLink. The obstructions result in short outages every 5 to 10 minutes.

Another Road Trip

Tuesday - Today was spent getting the class C packed up. We will be slowly heading towards IL with multiple stops in TX, OK, and MO. Plus a few more places I don't remember hearing about. I finally found the sticker showing the cargo carrying capacity (CCC). With a full tank of gas, full tank of water, and empty holding tanks, we can carry 977kg or 2153lbs. That weight includes people, the new electrical system, solar panels, plus all of our stuff. I think I may stop at a CAT scale on this trip after filling up (including the water tank) just to see where we are at.

I participated in the afternoon test session since it was getting almost too hot/humid to do much outside. 

Wednesday - Today was a travel day and we covered around 340 miles for one night at a TT park west of Fort Worth. So much easier with the class C. We fit easily and all we needed 30amp and water. We will be boondocking for several days so I need to fill the water tank and empty the grey tank tomorrow morning. The replacement check valve is working as the water tank isn’t filling up when connected to city water. 

StarLink is working well with the antenna inside the class C in the over-cab area. This was a speedtest taken while traveling down the highway. Not too shabby. 

The obstruction map has quite a bit of red. But it’s still working fine. And the dish is sitting flat inside of a plastic box instead of being aimed north. 

More Mods & Fixes

Saturday - It was a nice, cool morning so a good opportunity to install the last solar panel on the class C. This is also a 210 watt panel from the class A. I opted to have the tilt mechanism towards the passenger roof edge. This way it tilts in the same direction as the other two panels. 

This is the location that I installed the small TV from the class A. The red and black wires are from the solar panels and I have some latch duct to cover them but haven’t installed it yet. The plastic mounting points on the back of the TV were cracked so they got coated with some marine epoxy. 

Sunday - The door lock on the class C and the class A looked similar but they turned out to be different. I was hoping to just swap them as the RVLock never worked properly on the class A. I think the door is slightly out of spec so the locking mechanism hangs up. The RVLock company was no help. 

I also needed to install a check valve at the output of the water pump. While connected to city water at South Padre, it filled up our water tank and was overflowing out of the fill port. Hopefully, this fixes that problem. I think that there is a check valve within the water pump. A quick check and water comes out of the faucets! One more project done. And, the water tank is located inside the RV under the bed. And it only fills half of the space.

As an experiment, I set up the StarLink dish in the cabover area of the class C. I also moved the mattress pads into the shed as we don’t need the sleeping space. The StarLink works okay through the ceiling but since I’m parked under a tree, the obstruction map has a lot of red in it. 

Monday - I installed a folding shelf next to the couch. I wanted a place to set my coffee cup in the morning. It’s aluminum, well made, and I used both VHB tape and screws to fasten it to the wall. It should be sturdy enough to hold Mickey…

I filled up the propane tank at Tractor Supply. The gauge indicated ⅜ and I added 7.3 gallons to fill to ¾ which suggests that it’s about a 16.5gal tank which will hold about 12.2gal usable. 

Since gasoline was relatively cheap at $2.42/gal at Walmart, I went ahead and topped up the tank. I believe we are heading out on Wednesday. First stop is a TT park so no need to leave with a full water tank.

Heading Back to TX

Wednesday - Not many posts the last couple of days. I arrived in Portland on Saturday evening and was met by my Turo host in the arrival lanes at the airport. My flight was early. The rental car was an older Fiat 500L. I was expecting a small car like the 2-door 500s but this was considerably larger. I drove to Corvallis on Sunday and ended up staying with my mom. She had fallen last week and had some injuries. She is doing much better after seeing the orthopedic doctor yesterday and getting a better knee brace. 

On Sunday, Brad and Brandy drove down to meet me for dinner. It is always great to see them both again. On Monday morning, I made a quick trip to Eugene to meet Sue, one of the other ham radio VEs doing the Zoom tests. It’s always great to meet the other VEs that you only know from Zoom. 

Right now, I’m at the airport starting my trip back to Texas. Through Seattle as that’s Alaska Airlines hub. Hopefully the flights are on time. 

Friday - Yesterday’s project was relocating the house battery plus adding one more. The class C now has 412ah of batteries and can accept the full charge from both shore power and solar without exceeding the specs. The batteries are on the other side of the RV and the cables had to be run under the floor. Currently, there isn’t anything else stored under the jackknife sofa but I’m thinking that covering the terminals may be a good idea. 

Today’s project was moving the small TV from the class A to the class C. The TV was rarely used. I installed it on an arm so it can be easily seen from the dinette or the couch. For the next trip, I plan on bringing the StarLink and the Roku box. 

Heading South

Saturday - This afternoon, I headed to Oregon with a brief stop in Anchorage. Same plane, different flight numbers. The picture is looking southeast at the Alaska Range from the airport. There are still mounds of snow around and the low temperatures are still below freezing. The good part is that the mosquitos aren’t out yet. 

I’m waiting around the airport for my first flight. It’s pretty empty today and the flight is kind of on the empty side. 

The next leg of the flight was not completely full either but it was the first time I was on a Horizon small jet instead of the normal 737. It was quiet but the seats were less comfortable. Very little padding. 

I was met by the owner of my Turo rental car in the arrival curb. Not optimal as I couldn’t familiarize myself with the car before hitting the road. It is a four-door Fiat 500. 

Sunday - I stopped at an Elmer’s in Salem for breakfast and this tree was just outside the door. 

Fairbanks, AK

Thursday - No angry looking weather maps here in Fairbanks today such as during yesterday’s drive to the San Antonio Airport. Due to the 3 hour time difference, I was wide awake at 6:30am. A former colleague and good friends who babysat the Prius last winter, picked me up from the airport and are letting me stay with them for the next couple of days. 

Friday - I went back to our storage to look for other tools that I needed in TX and, surprisingly, I actually found them. Plus, I was able to rearrange some of the boxes to fit most of what has been stored in the back of the Prius. I met a former colleague, DavidB and his wife, for lunch at a Thai restaurant. I don’t think I’ve had Thai food since we left last Fall. The Tom Yum soup was fantastic. I also looked around Costco and Fred Meyer and found a few things to bring back. Including the Hawaiian ground coffee that shows up occasionally.

On the way back from dinner, there was a moose standing in the middle of the road. It took a bit to dig my phone out but I did manage to snap at least one picture. 

Heading to AK

Wednesday - What a way to start a trip. A very early trip to the San Antonio airport in the middle of a thunderstorm. Heavy rain and almost continuous lightning in the clouds and water on the roads. I think the weather app said we got almost an inch of rain. 

No delays on the flight leaving due to the weather but the Seattle airport feels really crowded. Maybe it’s just the north terminal. Or, I just don’t fly very often these days. But delays in Seattle. They said the plane smelled like rotten fish. Eventually, they moved the flight to a different plane but that process took quite a while. The current projected departure is 1½ hours late.

Later - The flight ended up being a couple of hours late. Other than that, it was fine. 

Back to D’Hanis

Monday - It’s hot in Hondo but it doesn’t feel as humid. We arrived back around 3:30pm and got the class C unpacked and back in its parking spot. No issues, and without the wind, we averaged about 8.5mpg. A little better than on the trip down. Without the wind, driving is much more relaxing. Even when towing the Jeep. 

Tuesday - For me, today was getting ready for my trip tomorrow morning. 

Port Isabel, TX

Easter Sunday - It’s very pleasant at 8 in the morning but still humid. We ran the A/C all night just to try and lessen the humidity. We are still running off of our water tank without issues. The “lights” still say ⅔ tank but who knows how much is really in there. 

I’m not really sure what plans there are for today if any at all. Bridget, Peter, and Carole went to the wildlife sanctuary north of here on South Padre Island. Hondo got 0.2” of rain this morning when  a storm passed to the south. I had left windows open for ventilation. Hopefully there wasn’t too much wind from the north to blow the rain in. 

The Jeep left turn light was intermittent when towing and I had assumed that it was the wiring on the 6-pin socket on the Jeep. Before we left, I took it apart and cleaned and tightened all of the connections but didn’t find anything that stood out as a problem. When hooking up the intermittent still seemed to be there. Today, I examined the 7-pin to 6-pin cable and noticed a small shard of plastic in one of the pins on the 6-pin side. After googling trailer wiring, the plastic bit was in the left-turn socket. Clipped out the plastic scrap and we’ll see if the problem resurfaces tomorrow when we head back to Hondo.

High clouds and wind was the weather for the day. I think thunderstorms are in the forecast for tomorrow. The beach was pretty empty this morning. By mid-afternoon, it was getting crowded. 

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow morning so I packed up (mostly) this evening. All that’s left is disconnecting power, pack up the leveling blocks and hooking up the Jeep. We had a wonderful visit with family and we would return to this park again. Nice sites and nice location. The only negative was all the traffic over the only bridge to/from the island. 

Starbase, TX

Saturday - Today, we ventured south to Starbase. We had breakfast at the snack bar next to Boca Chica Village. We went on a tour of the Starship factory but no pictures were allowed. Huge, impressive facility. The main door to the Megabay was open with views of the booster and the hot staging ring.

After the tour, our nephew and his wife had a crawfish boil at their home with several of their friends most of them were engineers working on Starship or the SuperHeavy booster. 

No pictures could be taken while on SpaceX property but could be taken from the road. It was fascinating to see these locations as I have been following their progress since the started here in southern TX. 

There was a lot of food in the pot. This was just the veggies. After this was blue crab, andouille sausage, shrimp, crawfish, and corn on the cob! The pot was completely full!

This is the test vehicle for the Raptor engine. It took off and made a soft landing. I believe it’s called Hopper. It’s nice to see it still around. 

This is the new launch tower for Starship. It is right next to the highway. The older launch tower is in the background. It’s nice to see  things which I’ve only seen on YouTube. 

Port Isabel, TX

Friday - Last night around 1am, I turned on the fan function of the A/C to get some air movement. It was muggy. I used the Victron app to check on the power consumption and, imagine my surprise to see the battery SoC was 81%. Apparently, our 30amp shore power connection wasn’t working. The breaker on the pedestal was toast. I switched to the 20amp outlet using an adapter. This worked. 

This afternoon, we fought the crowd to Walmart to pick up a few groceries and I found a 50amp to 30amp adapter for half the Amazon price! I’m not going to complain about that. This town is really busy since is a holiday weekend. After installing the adapter, I fired up the A/C due to the 86% relative humidity. 

We need to get an early start tomorrow…

Isla Blanca Park

Thursday - This morning we headed towards southern TX to meet up with family for the weekend. It was a windy drive with some gusty winds. The class C gets tossed around a bit more than the class A but slower speeds help. I could no longer feel the Jeep moving so the hitch gadget seems to help. 

It was about a six hour drive including a stop for lunch and gas. It’s a pretty nice R.V. park with decent size sites and reasonably level. It continues to be windy and it’ll probably continue throughout the weekend.

Another RV Repair

Monday - I replaced the built-in surge protector this morning. It was a pleasant 61°F when I started at 8am, and by the time I was finished, it was 70°F. I also removed the power cord reel and replaced it a twist-lock receptacle. The same one I had installed earlier when I had a problem with the reel and the last surge protector. The power reel is really handy as the 50amp cable is heavy and bulky.

One of the benefits of this model is that you can access it via Bluetooth. The last one, you had to go outside and read the LED display, which had also stopped working. Again, the biggest advantage of this unit is the replaceable components that provide surge protection. 

We went into town to search for storage baskets and bins for the class C. On the way back through Castroville, we stopped at Walmart and I picked up a Roku box to replace the bricked Apple TV. 

Tuesday - It was cooler today so more little things got done. I finally set up the TPMS gifted to us from Mike & Kathy (Toadmama). I had initially ordered the wrong sensor batteries which delayed the setup. I also cleaned the tawing wiring connector on the front of the Jeep as the left turn signal has been intermittent when being towed. The connection was corroded but only that one wire. Odd. Hopefully it’s fixed after cleaning and tightening. I also cleaned off the 7 pin to 6 pin cable as it was pretty greasy after five and a half years behind the class A. I also installed an anti-rattle clamp to the drop extension behind the class C. This should help while towing the Jeep. There was quite a bit of play.

Here is a screenshot when both A/C units are running. The voltage is still good with the front A/C on Line 1 and the rear unit on Line 2. This is handy though it would be nice if I can get it integrated into HomeAssistant. 

Wednesday - This morning, I added two more sections of Unistrut to add a third solar panel to the class C. Initially, it’s on with VHB tape and a couple of screws where I was sure of roof rafters. These were not the full 10’ lengths due the refrigerator vent. But there is plenty of room for one panel. This is on the front-passenger side. I’ll put the panel on in a couple of weeks. We are heading to South Padre tomorrow to meet up with 

Exploring San Antonio

Friday - Last night, my sister and brother-in law arrived in their camper van. Today, we ventured into San Antonio to see some of the sights including the Riverwalk and the Japanese Tea Garden. 

It was a pretty warm afternoon and the shop had a frozen yuzu limeade that really hit the spot. The Japanese garden was built in a former limestone quarry and was really nicely done. There was a wedding in progress plus several groups doing graduation photos. 

Saturday - We headed up to Fredericksburg this morning. We visited the Pioneer Museum in Fredericksburg. We ended up rushing back to Hondo since the power problem showed up at the RV. The problem being all the DC and AC power turns off. I had traced the problem to low voltage at the pedestal causing the inverter to bump up its DC current consumption beyond what the two SOK batteries were willing to provide causing the BMS in batteries to disconnect. I think…

Sunday - This morning, I put the third battery back into the RV and, so far, not a single issue. And we have had dips in the AC voltage. The voltage fluctuations may have caused our Apple TV to bite the dust this morning as well. I have a new surge protector ready to install tomorrow morning when it is cooler. At 92°F, I don’t feel like wrestling with the 6AWG wires and shutting off all the power to the RV. I have the new one set up to replace the cord reel as well as the non-functional Progressive Dynamics surge protector. This is the second failure in 5½ years. In trying a different brand of surge protector this time. A Hughes Power Watchdog. One benefit with this brand is the wearable components on the surge protector are replaceable. Progressive Dynamics just wants you to buy a new unit. At least that is what they told me on the phone when the last one died…