Sauk Rapids, MN

Wednesday - We are moochdocking just south of St. Cloud, MN. The weather app on the iPhone says that we are in Sauk Rapids. Who am I to argue with Apple? I ran the A/C blower for a while last night just to get the air moving inside the RV, and the battery SoC was down to 52% by morning. 

By the time we arrived, the SoC was up to 80% mostly from the engine charging. I have the shore power limited to 13amps and the A/C turned on. At 6 pm, the SoC is 81%. Solar is negligible. When the compressor shuts off, the batteries charge. It works.

We had lunch with my son, his fiancé, and our grandson. I participated in the last test session before the long holiday break. And relaxed the rest of the day. 

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.