Feb 28, 2009

Yesterday the rv park needed to do some electrical work so we were without power for about 2 hours. It gave us a good chance to see how our one and only solar panel preforms.........it did well. It actually managed to stay above our use we never did dip into the negative zone. Now, it was daytime and we certainly were not using much electricity, but we were still surprised to see how well it did. And that started a conversation........

We keep talking about the boondocking thing---now, we are not going to be doing it for long periods. We enjoy full hookups and we don’t mind most of the rv parks we stay in, but there are a lot of nice state parks that we would like to enjoy. We have found many do not provide full hook ups and the other problem is that many of the state parks can not accommodate our 40 foot length. Nothing we can do about our size, but we can learn to boondock. At this point, we are looking at adding another solar panel, a small generator, and some type of portable fresh water. Our fresh water tank only holds 65 gallon and we seem to go through that fairly quickly. Here in Yuma, the drinking water is high in sodium. We have been bringing all our drinking water in and between the coffee in the morning and the dogs drinking water we go through about 7 gallons every three days. That is not counting showers, dish washing water, and cooking water. We understand we will have to go into ‘conservation mode’ when we boondock, but we still feel we need an additional source of fresh water. Most parks have water sources near by, but if we do some public land boondocking that will not be the case. We would like to have the set up where we could be comfortable and self contained for about a week at at time.

I’m looking forward to getting this all worked out. There are things I miss in the rv parks. I miss the campfire, I miss the exploring of trails, I miss the “it” factor as Howard and Linda would say, and although I am somewhat of a ‘social butterfly’ I miss that quiet solitude. I just want to have the freedom to go “where no man has gone before’.............hee, hee

As to what we have been up to the last two days.........nothing but nothing. Just enjoying the desert sunshine and thinking of where this lifestyle will lead us next