Wandering With Purpose

Oct 11

No Zion For You

A week ago Kelly and I departed for Zion National Park hoping to spend a week with her family hiking the trails, enjoying the sights, and generally appreciating the natural wonders of the area.

Of course we knew all about the government shut down and how in all likelihood, the park would be closed. Despite this probability, with cautious optimism Kelly and I set GPS coordinates to the park and began our two-day journey. Unfortunately, the grid-lock in Washington continues and we were not able to visit Zion as we had intended.

Also impacted were Kelly’s brother and his girlfriend (who drove down from Boise, ID) and Kelly’s Dad and his wife (who drove up from Phoenix). Suddenly, all six of us were wondering what plans to make as an alternative.

Fortunately, anticipating the on-going park closure, Kelly found a very suitable Plan-B … the solution being Sand Hollow State Park, just outside of St. George, Utah. While no Zion National Park, the location was quite nice actually, and we all made the best of an otherwise pretty shitty situation, especially since this trip was also about spending some time with Kelly’s family.

Our site overlooking the lake

Looking out at the other campsites

Sand Hollow State Park offers a fair bit of recreational opportunity for those who seek it – we saw lots of off-road ATV’s and also some over the top dune buggy vehicles. Additionally, there is a lot of fishing activity on the lake.

Not interested in any of these activities, we sought out hikes and also made the quick drive to Zion National Park.

Kelly’s brother and his girlfriend joined Kelly and me for a hike through some of the public lands surrounding St. George. This area is a haven for mountain bikers and hikers alike … and it’s easy to understand why. The geography of the area is wicked-cool and the views are not too shabby. A variety of slick rock, single trail, and fire roads provide hours of exploration for anyone seeking as much.

Slick-rock everywhere

Views from the trail

Pausing for lunch

Once Kelly’s father and his wife arrived, we all went to visit Zion. Highway-9 is the primary east/west road through Zion National Park and remains open during the shutdown. Park Rangers (who I’m guessing are not receiving any pay) quickly brief everyone and explain the rules – chiefly – that no one is to stop and/or exit their vehicle.

Entering Zion National Park

Mountain goat relaxing above

The park was eerily quiet. What I’m guessing is an otherwise bustling area was nearly devoid of anyone. It was odd to see a marquee park such as Zion so empty. Driving the highway was pretty spectacular, but I know from experience that the real beauty of the parks such as this reside far from the main roads. At one point, we noticed that Kelly’s dad was sleeping .. perhaps unimpressed by the scenery – or more likely, tired from the long drive from Phoenix, Gene assumed full-on nap mode.

Tired or bored?

As for me, I found that driving through the park simply is not sufficient. Kelly and I will definitely need to schedule another visit sometime.

Back at the campground, Kelly’s dad – fully refreshed from his nap, assumed dog duty before receiving the box of stray gold balls Kelly and I have been collecting for him. Living next to and walking Lilly along a golf course provides ample opportunity to gather otherwise forgotten balls.

Kelly’s dad – perhaps momentarily overwhelmed.

All in all, the government shutdown proved to be on only a minor hassle. Lot’s of people are far worse-off than any of us in our little family gathering, so despite our disappointment to come all this way and miss Zion, things could be far worse for me/us and I continue to remind myself of that.

Thursday morning we all packed our bags and departed. Kelly and I relocated to Nevada for a few days before beginning our drive home.

Sand Hollow State Park

Note: for those that might care … AT&T voice and (4G) data signals available at the park can easily accommodate remote working. Conversely, my Verizon MiFi really struggled to carry a decent data signal, even under amplifier boost.

Sep 8

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Pinnacles National Park

Entering the park

Taking advantage of last weekend’s three-day weekend, Kelly and I spent a few days at Pinnacles National Park. Formerly designated as a national monument, Pinnacles attained national park status only a few months ago and is the country’s newest national. As compared to other national parks we’ve visited, Pinnacles is tiny, but located only 2.5 hours from our base in HMB, the location is hard to beat.

The park was originally a giant volcano situated about 200 miles to the southeast – near what is now Los Angeles. Estimated to be 15 miles long and 8,000 feet high, it was a big one. Unfortunately for the volcano, it was sitting atop the famously destructive San Andreas fault. Major earthquakes split the volcano, carrying two-thirds of the mountain up the coast to where is sits currently. Add 23 million years of wind, rain, and ice erosion into the mix, the site is now littered with huge spires and two rock caves.

We arrived late Friday to a surprisingly less than full park. The campground sites themselves are mostly primitive, with one loop shared between tents and RVs.

Our site Friday evening

Saturday, the campground beginning to fill

The RV sites offer 30 & 50 amp electrical, but no water or sewer. With daytime temperatures surpassing 90 degrees over the weekend we were thankful for the electric pedestals. Our air conditioner struggled to keep temperatures cool, but we managed to stay comfortable. For sure, we would have been miserable without the A/C relief.

Like much of California, wildfires are a big concern at Pinnacles currently. No fires were allowed and signs reinforcing the ban were posted all across the campground, including this one upon entering.

Fire danger is high

We had plans for trail hikes both Saturday and Sunday so we awoke early in the morning in an attempt to beat the heat. Comforted with the knowledge Lilly and Moo Moo would be cozy in the Airstream with the A/C blasting, we set out Saturday.

The destination of our first hike was the Balconies Cave. Roughly six miles in duration, the trail starts out mostly flat with some limited shade, courtesy of the high rocks.

The low lands of the Old Pinnacles Trail

About two miles into the trail, we began approaching the first of many spires.

The first set of spires

Suddenly the mostly open trail contracted and Kelly and I found ourselves in a canyon-like area. Gone was the leisurely dirt trail requiring us to begin scrambling rocks and boulders before quickly arriving to the cave.

Approaching the cave

Entering the Balconies Cave

Inside the cave

It goes without saying that visibility inside the cave is limited. Actually, there is no visibility – zero. As advised, Kelly and I brought headlamps. Within the picture above, the bright circle on the center is my headlamp … Kelly is further ahead, looking back towards me.

Comprised of thousands of boulders resting atop one another, the cave trail is about half a mile in length. Once we got past the eery thoughts of being squished like ants, we continued along the trail, scrambling over boulders and squeezing between narrow access points.

Once through the cave, the trail opens, continuing again.

Exiting the cave

We decided to connect to another trail on the return back to camp. This trail was completely exposed and with temperatures well into the 90’s conditions were crazy hot.

Not surprisingly, the spires lure many climbers into the park, including the guy in the picture below (see climber in white clothing near bottom right).

Perhaps due to the heat, Kelly and I had the trails largely to ourselves. The heat was a drag, but it is always nice to enjoy empty trails. I was a little disappointed with the cave itself, but overall, we had a really nice hike.

Aug 24

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Saying Goodbye

Today was bittersweet.

At the moment, nearly every Airstreamer we know is currently attending the North-Central Washington, into Canada, ending in Banff gathering dubbed #aluminogan. Odds are good that this week-long caravan of travelers – most of whom share similar views and values as us, will experience and share loads of fun.

Kelly and I are not attending.

Not able to free ourselves from work to partake in a trip that far/long, we remain here in HMB. We look in at #aluminogan from the outside, with mixed emotions viewing uploaded pictures and reading updates, all the while wishing we were there.

Following a sufficiently effective self-pity session, Kelly and I decided to get on with our day.

We had decided to take measures towards fully committing ourselves to this “less is more” lifestyle, and after breakfast we drove 30 miles to our storage pods for what was only the second, and last time. A few weeks ago I wrote about a day we spent purging stuff from the pods … a day wherein we rid ourselves of most everything we owned. Actually, that day was our initial time visiting the pods – a year after loading them. Pretty sad actually.

Excluding our major furniture, everything was collected to be sold or donated. It was a good day.

This morning, following one final review of contents in the pods, arrangements were made for all our furniture to find a new home. In a few days, our California pods will be relocated. Loaded atop a truck before traveling east to Minnesota, the pods will find a new home with my sister and her family who have a fabulous new house in St. Paul and are in a better position to put the items to good use.

And in the process, Kelly and I eliminate a $100 monthly storage fee. Sounds like a win-win scenario to me.

Finalizing the release of these items is a bit scary, the realization being just that … final. That said, Kelly and I have a strong sense that someday we will look back on today as the moment we completely let go of our old life – one that is fixed to a single location and consisting of too much stuff. In deciding to release our strong clench on all that furniture, we feel like we’ve affirmed our decision to live non-traditionally in our house on wheels. And I’ll tell you what … this peace we’ve made with ourselves feels pretty darn good.

We started the day with lemons and managed to end the day with lemonade. Good stuff I say, good stuff.

Aug 20

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Solar Panel Installation Completed !!!

In my last post, I mentioned that I had made good progress on the solar installation, but had not yet completed everything. Well, within this post I am happy to report that I finished the installation.

The first order business was to mount the various electronics which “talk” to the solar panels and the batteries. Principally, these devices are responsible for determining how much of the power collected from the panels will be sent to the batteries. Send too much and the batteries will be over-charged, resulting in damage. Conversely, if there is not enough charge sent to the batteries, the system will not operate efficiently as it is designed. This hardware, in coordinated fashion with fuses, switches, and other surge protecting devices, will ensure that the overall system reconciles these two scenarios, delivering what should be a harmonious and hassle-free supply of DC (direct current) power to the Airstream.

In order to connect the batteries to the charge controller (i.e. the “brain” of the system), I needed to run three sizable wires from the utility bay, forward into the existing exterior battery box. Unfortunately, there was no extra room for me to utilize within the existing cable run for this additional wiring. This being the case, I drilled a new hole through the utility bay floor to the exterior belly of the trailer and a second hole into the battery box. Utilizing some silicon and a leftover piece of flexible PVC conduit to connect these two holes, I quickly fabricated a weatherproof pathway for the wires (see image below).

New (gray color) flexible PVC conduit routed into the battery box

Flex PVC conduit enters the utility bay from the bottom exterior

Flex PVC conduit — with lots of silicone sealant — enters the utility bay from the bottom exterior

Once all the wires were situated, I moved onto the final significant phase of the project – prepping all the wires to be connected. This process, while very straightforward, took a lot of time … longer than I would have expected, largely because each wire was cut to size, terminated with lugs and heat-shrink insulated, before finally secured into place. Unlike the employees on the Airstream assembly line, I tried to orient the wires in a neat and orderly manner, which took some time to complete. Looking at the finished project, I do not regret taking this part slowly and methodically.

Electronics as installed by Airstream

Wires installed, labeled, and ready for action

Wires installed by me, labeled, and ready for action

Protective partition reinstalled

When it was time to fire-up the system, everything was working fine, less the 12-volt DC system. This issue had me very perplexed, so much so that I spent a few hours troubleshooting the situation to no avail. Frustrated and sputtering curse words as if I were a curmudgeonly sailor, this proved to be one of the low points of the entire project. I finally accepted defeat and secured a service appointment with a local Airstream dealer in hopes they might identify the problem.

As luck would have, I was thrown a bone today (Tuesday), and was able to quickly solve my problem. Standing in front of the Airstream after work, I noticed my mistake and I’m embarrassed at what a silly error it was.

Imagine moving a lamp from one room to another, only to wonder why the light will not illuminate. In your attempt to troubleshoot why the lamp isn’t working you spend hours attempting to solve the issue. During this time, you change bulb, test and re-test wires for shorts, pour over manuals and scour the internet for added insights … essentially doing everything you can to resolve the problem. Everything. Yet despite these attempts, the damn lamp will not illuminate.

Convinced there must be a wiring short someplace deep in the walls of you home, you reluctantly and with a heavy head schedule an electrician to come inspect your home wiring. Then, two days later you notice that throughout all of this, the lamp is not plugged into the electric wall outlet.

That’s more or less what I did.

Three consecutive weekends I spent on the project, only to forget a task so basic and simple. I can be an idiot.

Anyway …

All in all, the process is completed and I can reflect back on what was a super cool and (mostly) fun DIY project. Also cool is that I managed to learn a fair bit about the onboard electrical systems while saving an estimated $1,200 doing the work myself. Not too shabby at all.

Remote monitor panel displaying battery usage details

Now, as I type this, all systems are working properly and the next time we find ourselves dry-camping (Labor Day weekend), the generator can stay buried in the truck while each of the four 100 watt solar panels atop the roof bask themselves under the warm rays above. All the while, quietly and without any additional efforts on my part, our batteries will be recharging. So long as there is a sun above, we have an endless supply of energy to power our rig.

And that my friends, is bad-ass awesome.

Wandering With Purpose

Full-timing since April 2015 … Dave, Kelly, and our dog living and traveling full-time in our Airstream trailer.

No Zion For You

Pinnacles National Park

Saying Goodbye

Solar Panel Installation Completed !!!

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