I’ve got the new battery wired in and I have run the wires that I’ll need to patch in the solar charge controller. Why do I need that? Good question, from my understanding, the current/voltage coming in from the solar panel is kind of all over the place and the controller sets things right to be able to charge the kind of battery that you have. I should research to see why there isn’t one for the charging from the vehicle or shore power but I suspect they are already set up for 12v charging.

I have a slight issue with the positive cable but for all intents and purposes, the battery and box have been mounted and are ready to roll. Will wire in the solar controller and finish up the wiring tomorrow so we’re ready to roll on the next camping adventure on Saturday.

One of the things that we learned on our last trip in the RV is that we are woefully unprepared for boondocking with the main issue being that the battery wouldn’t hold us overnight. Also, I’ve got the wrong battery type, I needed to have one that doesn’t start a car with a high voltage/short time but has a long life with low voltage. A ‘deep cell’ battery. The other big issue was that we couldn’t charge said wrong battery without running the generator.

These issues have been addressed by the purchase of a rather large battery and solar panels. I’m not sure how this is going to work but I think that I have all the pieces I need to put it all together.

From an outfit called Eco-Worthy, I’ve ordered the following:
LiFePO4 12V 280Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery @ $599.99
2 x 130W 12V Flexible Mono Solar Panel @ $205.89
30A PWM LCD Display Solar Charge Controller Regulator with USB Port 12V/24V Autoswitch @ $29.99

Also got the ladder to get the panels on the roof as well, and the connection to get the panels to the pre-wired solar port. I think that I need to hard-wire the controller in line with the system but I’m not sure how that’s going to work. More soon on that front.

Because of the flat we had on the way back from the Grand Canyon, the RV needed new shoes. This is my first time buying tires for a trailer and they’re evidently a lot different than car tires in that they don’t drive. I got them from Walmart, here is the invoice.

I had them mounted at the local place for $20 a tire, I’m not 100% sure that I liked that because they weren’t spin balanced but they weren’t before either.
To make sure everything was working good I ran it up to Johnson Branch at Ray Roberts. It was a nice run and not an issue with them.

So with a day to kill we took the hour drive to Aberdeen, WA. The birthplace of one Kurt Cobain. We took a look at the memorial which was underneath a bridge that looks to be where the neighborhood kids met up to get high. I talked with a kayaker who went to the same high school, he was a nice guy. It was a quite trip. Sandy met her friend for dinner and we got laundry done and began to get ready for leaving.

As much as I wanted to get an early start to the day, the campsite we are at is under a pretty heavy canopy and it takes a while for the sun to find us. Long story short we got a late start to the day but we headed out to Mount Rainier. It’s a huge mountain in the same range as Mt Saint Helen, and yes it is also a volcano. So closer to the mountain there are volcano evacuation signs and away from the mountain there are tsunami evacuation signs. Funny dichotomy.

The mountain was beautiful and so were the trails, it was cold though, by the time we got to the main road for the upper elevations they had closed the upper road (3:30pm) but we hiked up and went off the trail to the river bed and had a great view, the river was dried up to a trickle but the rest of the bed looked like a debris field and you could only imagine the forces that left it that way.

We went to downtown Seattle today. Even though it was a Saturday, traffic was stunningly bad both coming and going on I5 to the point where I had trouble contemplating what rush hour must be like. Sandy was kind enough to pull up grunge related sites but when it came down to it a lot of them were a good distance away. We did see the market and space needle. I was kind of surprised at how many people were there but then again it was a Saturday and it was a tourist spot. Riding in Pearl Jam was playing and it took me back to 1991/2/3 or so when ’10’ was released. It was in heavy rotation when I was roommates with Bill Adams. It was particularly poignant when ‘Alive’ was playing as he is not. Died of a brain tumor several years ago. Part of the song goes:

Is something wrong, she said
Well of course there is
You’re still alive, she said
Oh, and do I deserve to be
Is that the question
And if so…if so…who answers…who answers…

It got me thinking of why I’m still here and he’s not. But it’s best to not dwell on questions that really have no answer.

The only grunge related site we saw was the ‘Sound Garden’ where Soundgarden named itself after a wind-channeling pipe sculpture, which was called: A Sound Garden. The installation was featured on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration property at 7600 Sand Point Way in Seattle, next to the popular Magnuson Dog Park.

Well it’s done, we got a mattress at the place Sandy’s friend suggested and it was $300 cheaper than the one we had to cancel BUT, it’s a 14 inch mattress, even I needed to get a step stool so I could get into bed properly. But it is comfortable and that I think is the most important thing. We’ll see, Sandy fell ill when we got back from our hike, the PX and commissary so she went to bed around 7:30ish. I couldn’t sleep that early so I’m blogging, doing dishes and cleaning. We also got the mattress toppers wrapped and rolled and in the truck to get to Zakery. BTW we had lunch with him at Red Hots in Tacoma. Nice place but for 3 hot dogs and a couple of drinks it was $38.38 with tip.

We got a nice 5k hike in after we got back from lunch and got everything packed in the truck and before we went shopping. It was in the city of DuPont right between the police station and city hall, the path went down to a lake, maybe a sound, but it was pretty. I’m in love with the trees everywhere around here. The Pacific Northwest is amazingly beautiful.

The Sea-hawks are playing at home on Sunday so we’re heading into downtown Seattle tomorrow and then Mt Rainier on Sunday. Monday will be a rest day if needed and back on the road on Tuesday. From now on the miles are towards home. Which made me happy but Sandy sad, we’ll have to work on that.

So the bed we’ve got in the RV is horrible, a combination of two mattress toppers that just aren’t cutting it. So when we were camped at Doug’s in WY, I ordered a sleep number bed to be delivered to Zakery’s place last Friday (Oct 20th). They called me when they were there and I was someplace in Yellowstone. So being we’re in town now I called them up to have them redeliver. They said the next window for delivery was in like two weeks. I couldn’t believe it but I had to cancel the order. MF’s could not get a mattress that was out for deliver last Friday to me in the 5 days were here. Sandy went for lunch with her friend Pat and he said there was a place called Cannery Furniture, we’ll see what we can do.

We did get a chance to tour the museum here on base. It was nice as it told the history of the place. We went for a around the campgrounds when Sandy got back from lunch, here are some pictures of the day.

Made it to Seattle today, actually I think it’s more of Tacoma than Seattle. We had been scheduled in at Kitsap state park but we decided to check and change to a military base. So we are currently camped at Join Base Lewis McChord in the RV park they have outside the adventure center. It was kind of a production to literally get on the base, Sandy’s ID wasn’t registered and they had no idea who I was but we’re in and settled for the next 5 days with full hookups and cable TV that I can’t get to work. We got spoiled with the internet at the last site and now are hurting without it.