Hello Arizona

Made it to Arizona today. Shorts and t-shirt weather now but it is going to cool down to a high of 59 and be windy tomorrow. Where I am going though has a high of 77 forecasted so shorts will still be good.

Today was a fast trip along the Interstate for 200+ miles.  Not many places to stop so no pictures.

I decided to stop at Blake Ranch RV Park and Horse Motel because it sounded interesting. It's a nice, clean, well run park with large pull-through sites and only costs $25 for a huge, full hookup site. 

Dinner is cooking in my crock pot and the sun is shining.

Life is good. 

Long and straight roads

Traveled through Nevada and into California today.  Drove I80 from Winnemucca, NV to highway 95.  Took 95 south to 360 which I took over to highway 6 and south to Bishop, CA where I am staying for the night.

The roads were so straight, I would forget how to steer by the time I came to a curve.  My GPS was not warning me of sharp curves because it died.  The plug broke and left part of itself in the cigarette lighter.  Not sure how to get it all out without electrocuting myself so I will leave that until I figure out how to do it.  Anyway, here are some pictures of the roads and hills along the way.

I am finally far enough south where it is time to think about getting my shorts out and putting the jeans away again.

Life is good.

On the road again

Made good time yesterday and stopped in Winnemucca, NV.  I spent the night in a Walmart parking lot where it was quiet once the store closed. 

Saw a sign outside of Bend, OR that said:  "Beetle cleaned skulls".  Don't think I want one.

It was an easy drive yesterday. A few passes but they were only around 5000 feet so they were not bad. Otherwise it was mostly flat and straight. My Rand McNally GPS was a little confused. I would be driving along and looking at a stretch of highway going straight for miles and it would pipe up and say "Warning, sharp curve ahead!".  I think it was just bored and wanted to remind me it was still there.

Life is good. 

Goodbye Springfield

After getting a few questions answered and picking up a 300 watt pure sine wave inverter, I said goodbye to all the wonderful folks at AM Solar. 

I headed out 58 and over Willamette Pass to 97. It had snowed last night on the hill as the locals call it but I was assured I would have no problem.   There was some snow on the side of the road and in the trees but none on the road.

The pass is at 5128 feet and this picture is at a little lower elevation. 

After coming back down off the hill, I arrived in sunny Eastern Oregon.  I am staying in this area for a couple days to dry things out.  I will dump my tanks and fill with fresh water before heading out so I should be good for a while and can camp anywhere. 

It is cold here!  Today was a high of 49 and a low of 31. Tomorrow's forecast is for 58/26.  Brr.  Sunny though.

Life is good.

Batteries

Here are some more pictures. I can't show everything because there is some stuff mounted above the batteries where multiple wires are combined so there is just one positive wire coming to the battery. 

I believe I am going to head east this morning to central Oregon so I can dry out. 

Life is good. 

Solar up and running

My solar installation was finished this afternoon.  During the walk through at about 3:30 PM on a grey and raining afternoon I was getting 2.7 amps from the panels.  According to the installer this means all four panels were working very well.  Hopefully tomorrow there will be some sunshine.

This is all I can see of the solar inside the RV.

 

 This is the remote that shows everything that is happening with system.  The charge controller is in the cabinet behind the remote in a "hidden" compartment behind a fake wall Born Free put in to hide some wiring.  So I didn't lose any cabinet space at all.

I also had AM Solar install a 12V outlet with a heavy wire directly under the cabinet with the controller in.

Here is how it all fits together.

I didn't take a picture of the batteries today so I went out in the dark and snapped a few.  They didn't turn out so good but here is one of them.  Tomorrow I will try to get some better pictures.

The thing on the left with the yellow on is a battery cut off switch.  It all looks nice and neat.

In a day or two I will head for Arizona where it will be warmer and drier.

Life is good.

Panels installed!

The four panels are installed. Everything is complete down to the batteries.  Tomorrow they will remove the old batteries and the sliding tray and put the AGM batteries in on their sides.

Here is what my roof looks like now.

The panels will tilt up if I want to angle them to the sun or clean under them. 

Looks good to me.