Author Archives: Kent

Not exactly a “good thing” for us!

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The Affordable Care Act was more of a “pain in the butt thing” for us.  The new rules prompted our old insurer to unbelievably raise premiums then to stop covering South Dakota residents all together.  Allowing plenty of time (we thought), I maneuvered the market place web page and found an alternative (we thought).  December 12th that company informed us, “no, we don’t cover full time travelers”.  Rats!  Three days until the deadline to secure coverage for January 2015.  Some quick research led us to the realization that the only workable solution was to join Escapees and move to Texas to get access to Texas Marketplace plans.  They do have insurers with policies for full-timers.  We are insured.  Now we begin the adventure of transferring life to a new state

You’ve got to be kidding me

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On our travels back from the Desert Bar we caught up to a motorhome impatiently following a pickup truck waiting to pass on the busy two lane road. When we came to a passing lane, uphill, he blew past the pickup.  Guess emblem on the back was correct, 600 hp, Really?  That’s twice what ours has.

Solar Panel install

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Prints were clear, instructions in every Ziploc bag with screws, connectors, tie wraps and glue filled shrink connectors all sub-divided into steps.

First real step to pull the wiring through the coach. Seemed simple enough.  There are already many wires that run from the fuse panel located beneath the bed forward to the control panel next to the door and refrigerator.  The refrigerator and furnace cabinet runs full height floor to ceiling, seems like a plausible route.  OK to keep the voltage loss to a minimum this baby requires 6 gauge wires, not exactly the easiest stuff to run but I must say the wire supplied in the kit was supple and of good quality but it still is big.  So the route was under the bed, through a short wire chase, under the shower, through another chase behind the toilet, under the pantry, under the furnace then up along the side of the refrigerator to the control cabinet.  The other part of the run was to bring another pair of  6 gauge wires from the roof down through the refrigerator cabinet through the rotary disconnect and then over to the controller.  Oh and then there was the battery temperature sensor which runs from the controller down through the refrigerator and furnace cabinet, through the storage cabinet under the floor, along the frame and forward to the battery.   This little adventure consumed 18 of the 20 foot temperature lead supplied and the 6 gauge wire turned out to be 28 feet used.  All these spaces and cubbies have been used extensively for wires and insulation before this project started.  Lynn and I both ended up with arms back in little narrow openings feeling for or pushing wires and coat hangers.

The actual panel install was a piece of cake. Set them in place and mark locations.  Pull the adhesive covering off the feet and screw them down.  The rooftop electrical connections were made to be heat sealed with a heat gun or a cigarette lighter, but with a lot of patience and a solder gun we were successful without causing any fire.

We have used the system 3 days so far, two have been cloudy by Arizona standards and they system is keeping the batteries charged.  Feels good not to run the generator 1 hour a day just to maintain the batteries.   Something we have wanted to do for a while and now we are up and running.   A Big “thumbs up” for the install kit assembled by AM Solar.

Photo class

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Kent took the opportunity to get some instruction from the Ansel Adams Studio on digital photography.  While all the terminology is the same, there are substantial differences and capabilities between film and digital photography.  The future will tell if the instruction makes a substantial difference in the end product but, he now has a better understanding of the capabilities of his digital camera.  It was a fun afternoon.

I can see clearly now

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Today was an equipment maintenance day. Safelite helped by installing clean new windshields in both the motorhome and the car.  Both were casualties of the Cassiar Hwy in BC during our travels from Alaska.  The “Acoustic Screen” glass in the car raised the replacement cost above that of the Motorhome?  And, the motorhome got another helping of fresh new oil.  Tomorrow we move toward Yosemite.

Blue

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Deep (1943ft). Cold.  Pure (only rain and snowmelt from within the crater).  Huge (5 miles across).   Spectacular.  Unfathomable (5 trillion gallons of water and 34 million of that is exchanged each year with seepage and evaporation balanced by rain and snowfall)  Awesome (some really weird geological formations).  There are many ways to describe the better known volcanic park, Crater Lake, and they are all memorable but the thing most impressive is the Blue of the water.

Crater Lake NP

Crater Lake NP

 

Trails to fire towers on the peaks of neighboring volcanoes gave us panoramic views of the lake and its place in these fantastic surroundings. This was a 12,000 ft mountain.  Now it’s a lake.  Some pretty cataclysmic stuff happened here.  Stops along the drive give great views of the two islands, phantom ship (a cool ship-like rock formation) and wizard island (a cinder cone with a still visible crater).

 

It is dry and high forest fire risk. There are actually two fires burning within the National Park; a very small fire inside the caldera and another a few miles north.   California is having fires too.  We are amid thousands of acres of national forest with lots of beetle kill stands and very low rainfall.  Fire fighters have their hands full.

 

These are serious snow poles!snowpoles comp_8444

We spent the day in a caldera

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We are at Newberry National Volcanic Monument near LaPine OR and I am glad to be here now, not then!  There has been some serious volcanic activity along all of the Cascade Range but especially right here.  The final eruption of the Newbery Volcano left a caldera more than 5 miles across.  It is a beautiful rugged place.

Two clear deep lakes spread Newberry Caldera_8120across the floor of the caldera. Cinder domes jut out of the pine covered landscape around and within the basin. Paulina Creek bubbles across the smooth and the jagged including an 80 foot drop in a graceful waterfall.

 

We walked on glass.   A mere 1300Newberry Glass Comp_8071 years ago molten obsidian found a path to the surface.  On its journey from below some mixed with gases and ash, some entrained bubbles and some remained pure; all flowed at a snail’s pace across the earth cooling all the while.  The result, rock was twisted, bent, folded and fractured.  I know the science of material properties and the affects of heat but it is amazing to see it on this scale.

Even after over 1000 years it is a pretty inhospitable place. I marvel at the plants that call this place home.

LaPine State Park

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The best feature, the meandering Deschutes River.  Its claim to fame is “The Big Pine” a Ponderosa PineBig tree comp web_8053 with a diameter of nearly 10 ft.  It’s the biggest ponderosa in Oregon.  Like so much of the Northwest, not much virgin timber remains.