News from the West!!!

Lisa and I had a great time in Wenatchee National Forest

 

 

 

 

Both of us got some good relaxing time and boy did some of us need it!!! And yes, we camped out in tent and such, so of course, you know me, we had plenty of water, electric and a shower.

 We camped next to a nice little creek in the Tumwater Campground about two hours from our summer house.

 

 

 

  Great to sleep with the sounds of a babbling creek.

 

 

 

 

 

We had some good cooked meals!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We had our own private facilities!!!

 

 

 

 

And don’t worry folks, this gear will get plenty of use. I plan to set this up on our property as a mother in-law suite!!! Judy said as long as she has her own bathroom, she would be good.

 

Bathroom with Shower!!!

Queen Size Bed...

 

I'll even provide her with Air Conditioning!!!

 

 

Actually, I will have to say the comfort level and ease of use of the gear has come a long way since I last camped in a tent. The Coleman Queen size bed was great.

 

 

 

 

Other News:

 

Heat and Power!!!

 

Tired of the heat and tired of waking with low power. Agggg!!!!!!

What’s the deal?? We ran a fan for 1 hour last night and this morning, no power again!!!!

Power is great as long as it’s light outside and the solar panels are charging the batteries. I will say, thank goodness I bought that generator!!!

 

Well, the heat... not much we can do except run the generator and AC during hot spells. Everywhere we go folks are complaining about the heat and how this is so unusual.  I am almost afraid to tell them we're from Florida. They may blame us for bringing it!  So last night we ordered a swamp cooler because most places around here use them. We got a small one to see if it would keep us somewhat cooler until we have to turn on the AC. Well, it came in, but we had to go pick it up at UPS in Moses Lake about 40 miles away. Seems they can’t find us.  Guess UPS needs a better GPS system.

 

And what happened that prompted us to buy a swamp cooler? Well, it was hot last evening and we decided to do laundry,

dump the sewer tank, fill up our water bladder, and go to the pool!!!

Apparently, the gods had it in for us….I pull up and dump the tanks, but when I went to rinse the tank… No water! Not good… Then I look over and see a very large backhoe digging up the middle of the parking lot at the club house. We drove over and saw Kevin, the manager, and he came over to talk to us. He sure had had a rough day, and so now would we. The water main, washing machine,  and pool had all gone kaput that day. I think someone is trying to send us a message!!! (I bet that Judy put a hex on things (Judy, mother in-law))

So back we go to the nice and toasty RV and turn on the generator and AC, and while under the coolness of AC, and the effects of my favorite distilled spirits, we ordered a swamp cooler.

 

Anyway, we had to go pick it up and the lovely ladies there fixed it so UPS will now deliver to our lot.

Since we were in Moses Lake, and not out in the middle of nowhere, I decided to check out a place called Battery Systems, and the guy there was great. I told him my problem, and he taught me the errors of my ways when it comes to batteries.  And yes, size does matter and so does quality. I ended up getting two 6 volt giants together, tripling my existing amp hours. But boy are they big- 88 pounds each!

 

Day 1 with new batteries and swamp cooler:

 

Ran TV, swamp cooler, and fan and all computers last night, and today we woke up to loads of power!!! We ran all day and did not turn the generator on 'till about 7pm.  We ran the AC to cool down the RV, plus wanted to make sure the batteries were full.

So the swamp cooler did well.  It managed to keep the RV cool, well into the late afternoon.

 

FYI... The water main is fixed, pool is open, and we did laundry last night!!!

We had a wonderful dinner of Lake Chelan cheeses and other finger type food.

 

After dinner, the fricking inverter would not kick on!  It said "low power" which is BS!!! The batteries are at 12.5 volts!!!!

After a few attempts it finally came on and has been running all night. I am beginning to realize, when living off the grid, you can't go cheap.