Fall 2017 and Back on the Road! by Mark

Fall 2017 and Back on the Road!

So we are back on the road and it is time for me to catch the blog back up on our happenings.

So what happened today during my adventure. Well to start with I made myself a great cup of coffee using our Keurig. I know Mark, it's a Keurig, you push a button and the machine automatically makes and pours you a cup off coffee. Well lets just say I am a little kitchen challenged so while automatically making a second cup again using the Keurig things all fell apart. The cup is only half full, did I punch the wrong size button? Who knows. But after tasting the coffee it was very obvious the automatic part of the Keurig was no longer working, in fact I thought I had already tasted the worst coffee in the world but I was wrong this truly was the worst cup off coffee I had ever tasted. So no second cup of coffee. You know only I could screw up a cup of coffee using a Keurig! 

This meant I got an even earlier start on getting in trouble. Took My Bride over to the laundry room and then after giving my neighbor Julie some grieve about her New Motorhome got caught up on how her summer went. Julie is from Philadelphia and is the oldest sibling of how many I don’t know. But she did say one of her Sisters is 73. 

Well a few years ago she decided to take off so she bought a New Motorhome and left Philly  to find a new place to live, which lead her to Nevada Treasure RV Resort. She tells me while standing on a ladder putting covers over the wipers and mirrors on her New Motorhome that her friends got her a taser, mace and a baton for safety when she left. She’s a little rough round the edge but what a Great Story she is.

Ed her neighbor and very good friend followed her out from Philly with his Dodge diesel and a 35’ 5er. Now Ed is a bit older than Julie but just as independent so their combined efforts at getting things done are often oddly interest. They have there own way of doing things.

Last year parked on the lot behind us was a independent contracted Programmer. He was working on a project for the military at a base not to far away. Have you heard of Area 51? He often stayed on base for days at a time but when he was around we got to talking. His wife and two children are living in Seattle while he lives is a small RV in Nevada Treasures while working on this project. The RV is much more cost effective for him than using a Motel even with Commercial Rates. He arranges work so he gets home for two to three days every few weeks and is planning to use the RV when his family comes down to see him as well as for camping when he is done with the project. 

So why did I bring this up? Simple this year the guy behind me is a independent Hazmat and ammunitions Cleanup Contractor as well as a pretty good Guitar Player. He works out at the same military base doing bomb site testing and clean up at some of the 70 _ 50 sq. mile bomb sites that are on the base. They work with multiple mini blasts as well as full bombings with multiple building designed to specific demention. Often these sites are also chosen with mountain location approaches and design to simulate a specific train solution. 

Very interesting story here as well as he and his wife live in their 5er traveling from one site to the next. He thinks he will be working in Virginia next. 

Electrical:

We have been running the solar to charge our 4 battery bank for months now and it has worked out well. Since we have been doing more and more boondocking requiring us to use the 3000 watt inverter more often although sparingly this has worked out very well.

We haven’t run the generator since the 9 days in late May and early June when we got back to Mn and it was overcast for over a week. But then most of our stay was in Hutch or @ Harlan’s and at both we had access to shore power for our electrical needs.

Now that we are back on the road parked here at Nevada Treasure in Pahrump, to keep our expenses down our strategy is to run solar all day on both 12 and 120 volt then switch over to short power if we need to when we go to bed to run the extra refrigerator, clock and cell chargers overnight.

As a test ran on solar for most of day and evening then shut every thing off allowing the batteries to stabilize and they pulled 12.73 volts. Fully Charged after running all day even using the vacuum, ice maker, computers, spare refrigerator and phone chargers. Nice!

Propane vs Electricity thoughts:

7 gal propane = 161 kilowatt-hours of electricity or 23 kilowatt-hours per gal. 

2.99 propane per gal. x 7 gal or 30lb tank = $20.93

$ .15 per kilowatt-hour x 161 kilowatt-hours = $24.15 

Propane @ 2.99 per gal is $3.22 cheaper to run 

As always an adventure