Almost Home

We arrived in Jackson Center, Ohio about 6 pm yesterday and are camped at the Airstream factory with two other campers from Ontario.

Once off the Natchez Trace Parkway we stopped at the Mammoth Caves National Park for one night. We didn't tour the caves but enjoyed talking with the campers in the park. There were a lot of young families with children. It turns out that the Michigan schools were off on their spring break. Here you see one problem with solar power....................shadows. Look closely at the base of the tree and follow the shadow, yep, right up and over our panels. That one shadow cut our solar production by about 50%

Here's a better view.

Mary wanted to attend the International Quilt show in Cincinnati, so here we are approaching the downtown core.

This was as close as I got to the show. Mary took lots of pictures but I can't download them to my computer. Looking at her pictures, I thought Mary's quilts could have been on display too.

You have all heard of the "Golden Arches", we drove across them. This bridge crosses the Ohio River.

Saturday was  cold and we had rain for most of the day. Stopped here for lunch then decided to do our first Walmart overnighter; even spoke to the manager and got permission to camp in their parking lot. About 4, the clouds parted, the sun came out and we decided to drive to Jackson Center, another hour north.

We are now camped where our trailer was born, the Airstream factory in Jackson Center, Ohio. Just think 26 years ago, our trailer was sitting here waiting for shipment to Canada. These trailers have all been returned for repairs or updates. The factory here does a remarkable job of refurbishing or fixing old trailers.

We always enjoy stopping here. We can camp right at the factory for $10.00/night, full hook-ups. Not sure if Greg's trailer would qualify.

Time for our morning walk.

Safe travels

Views from the Trace

We expect to reach Cincinnati later today and spend 3 days there while Mary attends an international quilting show. I thought you might enjoy a few pictures taken as we travelled the Natchez Trace Parkway the past few days.

On the Trace

We reached the Natchez Trace Parkway about 4 pm on Sunday. Our destination was the Rocky Springs Campground at mile 58. The Trace is a very pleasant drive from Natchez to Nashville a distance of 444 miles. There is no commercial traffic allowed on the parkway and there are no traffic lights or stop signs.

Rocky Springs was jammed packed; not a site left for us. This is the season the “Snowbirds”  begin to head north, back to Canada and I think we are in the middle of the pack. We decided to stop for supper in the information parking lot and if no one complained then just stay put for the night. That’s what we did and had a very peaceful sleep. In the morning we walked the campground, but still no vacancies. You are allowed to camp here for 14 days. Did I mention that all 3 campgrounds along the Trace are free?

Jim, from Cambridge, stopped by to chat and after he left we decided to have breakfast then drive further north in hopes of getting a site at the Jeff Busby campground. Then Jim showed up again, and said he had parked his car in site 14 when the people left. This meant we had a site for the day and decided to take it. Unknown to us at the time (we can’t get internet along the Trace) there was a severe weather watch for north of Jackson, the area we would have travelled through if we had left.

We have to be in Cincinnati by Thursday so we are back on the road, moving north and enjoying the signs of spring as we drive. Enjoy the pictures and I will write again whenever we get internet service.

Camping in the visitor parking. Campground was full.

Site 14. We were able to move to this site in the morning. Jim saved it for us by parking his car here. Stayed an extra day because of severe weather watch north of Jackson. Saw trees down the next day along the Trace.

Breakfast.

All free campgrounds along the Trace were full so we pulled into Davis National Forest site, 20 miles south of Tupelo, Mississippi. We were right on the water; could have stayed a week but Cincinnati calls.

Keep in touch and safe travels.

First Day of Solar

We are now able to live "off grid" very comfortably. Our shore power has been turned off and we are learning what works and doesn't as we embrace this new technology. One problem we had was the high drain on our batteries whenever we turned on the "inverter". Checking the literature we should be drawing less than 1 amp/hr but we were using about 30 amps/hr. What was the problem? All lights were off, no coffee maker on, couldn't figure out what we were doing wrong. Sent an e-mail to Paul, explaining the situation and asking for help. Paul wrote back and said to .......... unplug the refrigerator. No more problem. Our refrigerator now runs on propane and the   batteries are much happier.

Our trailer in full sun, panels down and facing east. I was too lazy to detach the legs so just left them dangling over the side. In full sun we are getting 22 amps/hr from our 3 - 135 watt panels.

About 3pm I tilted the panels to the west to catch more of the sun's rays as it began to set for the evening.

In the early afternoon the ski became quite cloudy and the smell of smoke was in the air. We were concerned that we might be in danger but soon learned the firemen were doing a controlled burn in our area.

Last night it rained and this morning it is very overcast. We are still getting 1amp/hr from our panels, even without full sun.

Any questions about solar, don't hesitate to ask.

Safe travels

Back in Zavalla

Arrived in Zavalla, Texas about 5 pm yesterday. It was great to see Marvin and Annie after many months of touring seperate areas of the USA. Once we were set up they invited us over for a delicious meal of deep fried fish, caught right here in their lake.

This part of Texas reminds me of home; fir trees, rolling hills.

Remember these? If you are over 50 you probably have memories of movies with the speaker hung on the window, and sneaking your friends into the show.

Solar panels up and working in the late afternoon. The next two days are to be sunny, so our batteries should get a full healthy charge over the next 48 hours.

We will be here for a few days then head north on the Natchez Trace Parkway. Mary wants to attend an international quilt show in Cincinnati April 7th. I'll take a break from posting until we start north for home next week.

Safe travels

Solar on a Cloudy Day

Yesterday's forecast called for hail just east of Dallas and Paul thought we would be safer here in Cottonwood. Mary spent the day baking, I spent the day reading about our solar system and checking our meters every few hours. Paul was kind enough to drop off a wiring diagram of the system he installed and so I filed that for future reference.

As you can see the day was heavily overcast. I was surprised that our panels were able to collect some energy even without direct sunlight.

While we were in Fort Worth (on Monday) another customer dropped of her trailer for repairs. It is amazing how many women are travelling alone in "Airstream" trailers.

Our Trimetric 2025-A meter showing the amps coming in from the solar panels (don't forget this was in heavily overcast skies). This meter is essential if you plan to use solar power and want to know how many volts or amps are going in or out of your batteries.

Paul watches while we use an hydrometer to measure the specific gravity of each battery cell. This gives us a true reading of the state of charge and health of each battery cell.  If you think Paul looks a little different you are very observant; he shaved last night.

Mary records the data, which gives us a history of our batteries for future reference.

Today we leave for Zavalla. How far we get ................... who knows?
Safe travels and stay in touch.

Fort Worth, Texas

Spent yesterday in at the stockyards, reliving the life of a cowboy.

This was quite an operation with over 50, 000, 000 cattle, horses, mules, sheep, pigs shipped through here.

Arrived just in time to watch the herd being driven through town, just as it was done back in the 1800's.

Their horns measure 6 feet across, and they were very effective against predators out on the range.

Even had two "cowgirls" riding "flank".

View looking west into the stockyard.

Today we are hoping for sunny weather so we can see how effective our solar panels are at charging our batteries. Tomorrow we are off to Zavalla to visit Marvin and Annie.

Safe travels