Up With Solar!

In Cheyenne, Wyoming at Jolly Rogers RV, Pete is handing up Mike one of my Go Power Solar panels. Which means ...

The two 110 Watt panels are now installed on the roof of the rv! Wow! That is a dream come true. Mike wired the solar panels into the transfer switch and controller today. Tomorrow he will install the control panel and monitor panel inside the RV. He said with the four 6 volt golf cart batteries I can run everything in the RV except the AC for two days before recharging would be necessary. He said most days those two big solar panels will recharge the batteries so there should be little need to ever run Mr. Watts, our little 1000 watt generator, to recharge. I have to check my batteries for water every month. How hard can that be? Only fair to give them some water once in awhile in exchange for the wonderful electrical power they will supply us with. How does Mike know these things? He has been wiring RV's in everything electric for 22 years here at Jolly Rogers RV in Cheyenne, WY. Before that he wired houses and buildings. Roger, Roseanne, Jose, Linda, Pete and Mike here at Jolly Rogers RV could not have been kinder or more helpful with informed advice and getting the job done as quickly as possible (would have been done a lot sooner except I hemmed and hawed as to whether to buy the Big Foot Levelers so as a result they were shipped last week which held up the whole shebang).

The weather here has been cold, cloudy and blustery here today but the sun did shine long enough for Mike to get the solar panels onto the roof. Thank the Lord for small mercies.
However, Pete told me to pull my slides in if it starts to snow as we are predicted to get 3-4 inches tonight and very cold weather tomorrow. I tried not to whine about it. Am such a spoiled baby when it comes to inconvenience. However, so far I can say my worst day RVing is better than a good day at work. But they have to pull Whimsy into their shop tomorrow to begin work on the levelers and she has to have her slides in so she can fit through the big truck bay door. If there is snow piled up on the tops of the slideouts they can't be slid in. They are going to leave us indoors tomorrow because of the cold! So far no snow yet but I will pull in the slides tonight before bedtime just in case. That will make for some very cozy sleeping for me and the kids as our house shrinks to maybe less than half our regular volume. Well there's a first time for everything. Guess if we are going to be fulltimers we better be able to sleep with our slides in should the need arise again. This will be good practice.

Inverter and Batteries Today

Mike of Jolly Rogers RV in Cheyenne, Wyoming, installed two of the new golf cart batteries in the side battery compartment first.

Pete pulled Whimsy around to the front driveway of Jolly Rogers RV with their pickup this morning where I will be staying in Whimsy for the next few days as they install my solar panels, catalytic heater, BigFoot Levelers, fix the water heater, etc. Mike here is wiring in my new 2000 Watt inverter which will magically transform my battery power into usable house current to run everything in Whimsy.
Without the inverter the only things that get juice in the 5th wheel are a few paltry fluorescent lights and the slideouts and landing jacks. With the inverter I can run all of my appliances and all the outlets and lights will work. The four deep cycle golf cart batteries are necessary to store enough power from the solar panels, generator, alternator, and or shore power to run all of Whimsy's electrical systems without being plugged into shore power making her an ultimate boondocking rig.

Lucky is my co-pilot. On the advice of Linda York, President of Pet Pals, Inc. pet rescue, my large dogs are all seat belted in now and the little dogs ride in their crates when we are underway. What a pleasant difference that makes! The dogs are secure and much quieter. Lucky never was a problem but since he loves to ride in the co-pilot seat he sure could have gone through the windshield. Now he has his own seat belt harness, as do Sadie and Jake on opposite ends of the backseat with the other three crated in the middle and on the floor.

Another gorgeous Wyoming day here in Cheyenne. Perfect for wiring in four new house batteries and an inverter. Temperatures were in the 50's and no wind.

Pete plugged in Whimsy out front of Jolly Rogers RV so that the animals and I could stay in the RV while they begin working on Whimsy's new inverter and batteries. They had to drop the bottom off of Whimsy's backside to get to the wiring and electrical panel. As Mike was working on it he noticed that Whimsy's fresh water tank is dropping out! Good thing he spotted that. What a mess that would have been.

It is such a beautiful evening out. It is a totally different atmosphere living in front of Jolly Rogers RV just off East Hwy 30 in Cheyenne. The dogs love watching the cars speeding by and their favorite vehicles to bark at are UPS trucks. Amazing!

One might think being in the parking lot of an RV service place would not be very pleasant. On the contrary it is just different and actually quite pleasant. Lots of hustle and bustle during the daytime, but the city lights sparkle like jewels tonight and there are many Christmas lights visible from this vantage.

Two of Whimsy's new house batteries are in the front compartment with the new inverter. The other two batteries are in the side battery compartment, see the picture at the very top for those.

Movie Time

Tonight thanks to more wonders of modern conveniences like the Verizon air card, and Netflix streaming movies, and of course my Dell Vostro computer, I can watch any movie I want from the Netflix collection of 17,000 movies that stream instantly on line. Of course most of my kids don't watch the movies with me but sleep like Morris and Casey are doing above, but Sadie does watch movies with me especially if there are animals in them.

Tonight I have decided to watch Moonstruck on my laptop. Since I purchased my nifty Phillips speakers yesterday at Walmart we are able to kick back in our reclincer at the opposite end of the living room and still hear the dialog.
Last night we watched An American in Paris. Hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so many blessings to be thanking God for today. Among them are life and liberty, but above all is His free gift of salvation made possible by Jesus' suffering the punishment in Hell for eternity for each and every person who will ever live.
Have you accepted His free gift yet?

Happy Thanksgiving!

What is more luxurious than a nap after a big meal? Why, the meal of course! On the menu today was homemade pumpkin pie, Baked turkey breast, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing and cranberries. Start it all off with a festive rumnog and you've got it made. All of this plenty was prepared by me in my wonderfully fun to work in little RV galley. I used to have a huge kitchen with tons of cupboards, drawers and counterspace but I have more fun working in my little RV galley than I ever did in that huge kitchen. Perhaps the small galley forces me to be a more organized cook?

This detail is of the icy pond in one of my paintings.
However, the weather here in Cheyenne, Wyoming, today was lovely and sunshiney, up in the 60's. Perfect for the walkies I like to take with my six wonderful dogs each day. How is it possible to walk six dogs? Take two walks with three dogs! Oh, and be absolutely sure to use "Gentle Leader" head collars if you don't want your dogs pulling and being unpleasant. Thank you a million my friend, Linda York, for introducing me to these wonderful head collars that transformed my dedicated pullers to well mannered dogs that are a pleasure instead of nightmares to walk. Even my two pugs have "Gentle Leaders" now.
What a fun walk we had today. My dear friend, Sandy, called me while I was walking. She was walking, too. We chatted and walked the whole time together almost like old times except she was walking north of Torrington, WY and I was walking east of Cheyenne, Wyoming about 90 miles apart but we were looking at the same moon and sun setting and describing what we were seeing. As I write this at 8:43 pm the temperature is 47 and it is clear as a bell. Gorgeous.

Monday we are to have our solar panels installed, along with a catalytic heater and Big Foot levelers from Quadra Manufacturing!

Fun With Solar Panels at Jolly Rogers

Sorry for not posting sooner but have been parked at Jolly Rogers RV park in Cheyenne WY. Roseanne at Jolly Rogers is helping me order my solar panels and other goodies that I want to have installed on Whimsy to transform her into a wonderful boondocking RV. Also trying to decide between a Flame or Cat Heater. Asked Roseanne if they ever installed levelers on RV's. In particular Big Foot levelers. She said they don't install them often just because people don't have them installed much on 5th wheels. However, she said they did install a Big Foot leveler on a 5th wheel and they were impressed with the design and quality above others they installed. The reason was that each leveler is a complete unit and there are no long hydraulic lines running underneath the floor to leak out. That makes two good recommendations I've had for the Big Foot levelers. So, Big Foot levelers it will be. Have always wanted levelers and now will splurge on them. As Tioga George was informed parking out of level can cause the fridge to fail in RV's. So in the long run it may pay off by saving the fridge. Who knows if I am ever really level? However George has always had levelers on Miss Tioga so that wasn't his problem, a bad weld he suspects. He said he has had 7 Dometic Fridges since 2003. Mine is a Norcold. Hope that makes a difference.

Also need a few maintenance repairs done on the RV. The Suburban water heater will not flame. The electric element heats the water just fine but that won't work for boondocking. Gotta have the flame. Also there is a leak from the china commode! Like it's not seated properly. Just a slow leak but aggravating. Hope it's not cracked or something.

Guess I will be here awhile longer so will have mail forwarded to Cheyenne. This will be the first time I've ever picked up mail General Delivery. Seems kind of strange no longer really having a permanent address other than my mailing service address. Am sure I will eventually get used to it and it will become a routine like checking air pressure in the tires.

There were lots of big snow drifts between Hawk Springs, WY and Cheyenne even though the temperatures have been in the 50's and 60s. Was really lovely today in the 50's and no wind. Great for walkies.

Happy Halloween!

Christians shouldn't celebrate Halloween you say? Nonsense! What a great opportunity to share the Gospel with friends and neighbors even if your neighbors are fellow RVers in an RV park. Start with some great comic book tracts like a Chick Tract...

Write a Halloween Message on the bags...

Add some candy...

Leave them on your neighbors' doorsteps...

Go back to your RV and pray for the Lord to bless those who are going to eat the candy and read the tracts.

As you can see the weather in Torrington, WY has warmed up and the snow has all melted. It is a perfect evening for Halloween trick or treating. Still 54 at 6 pm as I type this. If you would like to overwinter in Wyoming Torrington is a great choice. The Indians used to overwinter here because the winter weather is the mildest in the state and area. That proved so true with this last storm. Twenty miles south at Hawk Springs the snow depth was 20 inches and the wind made the snow move as if it were the ocean, according to Linda at Pet Pals. Drifts were above her knees just to go to the dumpster and gates had to be dug out or they could not be opened. The snow depth in Torrington was closer to maybe 4 or 5 inches. During the 16 years I have lived in Torrington we only had one really bad blizzard when we were snowbound for several days with no power out in the country north of town.

If you would like to have a truly Happy Halloween, too, be sure to read "A Demon's Nightmare", the Chick tract featured in my pictures, for yourself at:

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0004/0004_01.asp and then ask Jesus to come into your heart and take over your life. He will.

Dreaming of a White Halloween?

Because of the impending threat of a very BIG snowstorm I moved 20 miles north of Hawk Springs back to Torrington, WY City Slickers RV Park on Monday, Oct. 25th. Twenty or more inches were predicted to fall plus 35 mph winds which could make for some very nasty snowdrifts, maybe not the cement hard kind we used to have weekly in Kearney, NE that required a backhoe to dig you out of, but some big ones and the possibility of being snowbound several days in the country and if the power would go out I'd be running my trusty little generator 24/7 since I don't have my Cat heater or solar panels installed yet. Decided it would be much easier living in town until the weather calms down a bit.

Left, Confetti is getting drowsy on this snowy morning. Will she sleep on her head again? We will see.

Snow don't have the amount here yet that was predicted. Talked to Linda out at Hawk Springs, WY this morning and she says they definitely have the 20 inches but the wind hasn't been bad yet. Highways are all closed. Wind is just starting to kick up here this morning in Torrington, WY and the temperature is only at 28 today. It held at 32 almost all day yesterday. So the storm may be strengthening a bit today. It is supposed to snow all day today, which it is. So am glad to be nestled in snugly in this nice, clean urban RV park which was new just a couple of short years ago. It is so nice to have a full 50 amps of power so I don't have to worry about what to shut off in order to run something else and I can also keep my headbolt heater on the diesel plugged in! Water faucets are all heated and I have sewer hookup available at my whim as well. Pure luxury. Ahhhhhhhh. All for $17 per day or $109 per week or $350 per month. Sure is cheaper than house living and no yard work to speak of! Have to say I am really enjoying being here while it is snowing. Might just stay on for awhile until the weather warms up again which it's supposed to do starting Sunday, back to the 50's and 60's. Sure no need to rush off in a hurry. Gotta love the variety, from snow to warm, from country to small town urban. I actually get a kick out of watching the steam rise from the sugar factory into the night sky all illuminated by the warm glow of sodium vapor lights, the sound of the train whistles as the coal trains rumble through town, and traffic's hustle and bustle on Hwy 85 as the beet trucks lumber to and from the sugar factory, it's only a few blocks to my post office box which yesterday contained Netflix movies. I may actually get around to watching one today if it gets nice and nasty outside. Hmmm which one first, Gran Torino with Rowdy Yates, That Hamilton Woman with Vivien Leigh, or Valkyrie with Tom Cruise?

Now that I have a new battery for my camera, Miss Sony Mavica, I can actually take outside shots again. This is my lovely burnt copper truck, Happy, with snow stacked up on her bumper--no wind to blow it off yet.

My gorgeous 5th Wheel, Whimsy, has sparkling icicles adorning her today.