We were up early Saturday morning, taking the freezer and refrigerated foods and last minute items like meds and CPAP. The “old” Honda was hooked up to the motorhome, lights tested, and auxiliary brake installed. I departed at 7:10 AM.

The almost 400 mile drive to Coffee Creek RV Resort was uneventful, including navigating through the Dallas and Fort Worth metro area. It was early to bed.

Sunday’s drive of just over 300 miles to Monahans Sandhills State Park again proved uneventful. This 3,840 acre state park is located in the southern Llano Estacado, in Texas’ rich oil/gas-rich Permian Basin. The site I reserved was narrow and un-level—back wheels off the ground—but the price was only $19 and suitable for overnighting.

Monahans Sandhills State Park is noted for the presence of sand dunes up to 70 feet high. Although desert-like, the Monahans Sandhills are not a desert; they are a part of a semi-arid ecosystem with average annual rainfall of 12.3 inches characterized by the presence of both groundwater and relatively nutrient-poor windblown sand. There were several families enjoying the dunes, and many of the camp sites were occupied.

Near sunset, I walked over the dunes making a few photos along the way. As day turned to night, a near full moon rose above the horizon and highlighted a working windmill on the campground.

Another 300-mile drive on Monday took me into the Mountain Time Zone, through the busy city of El Paso, and into New Mexico to White Sands Missile Base where I have RV park privileges as a retired Department of Defense civilian. Plans to tour the facility where the US space program began was thwarted by the strictly enforced policy of “absolutely no photography allowed.” I hunkered down, and listened to an audiobook—a western, of course.

Tomorrow brings a new month, and birding opportunities.

It’s been a while since a blog posting was made; every day is pretty much “Groundhog Day” and then life got in the way. We only see the kids and grandkids via FaceTime, exercise care to mask up and socially distance, and avoid crowds. I go out only to do cardiac rehab necessitate by the episode with arterial heart disease, play golf and pickleball, and visit with friend Dan Olson. Kay has kept busy with her social obligations, women’s golf, pickleball, and occasional grocery shopping; even she has cut back on going out.

I have been busy finishing a few projects, mostly with respect to RVing. If you recall, a list of projects was posted several weeks ago as follows:

• Commode repair for house
• Dishwasher repair for house
• Designing and building briefcase solar system 
• Replace resin in RV water softener 
• Collect and organize tent camping equipment 
• Clean and reorganize RV storage
• Add gutter spout to RV
• Make solar shade for RV windshield
• Make shock cords for RV awning and sunshade

BRIEFCASE SOLAR SYSTEM.  It took several attempts to get the Briefcase Solar System completed, and it is still considered a prototype. It could never have been completed had it not been for the encouragement and advice from longtime friend, Wayne Bodenhamer.

After the trial on Sunday (November 1), it was largely taken apart, and a 4-in-1 combination cigarette lighter socket, dual USB ports socket, voltmeter, and on/off switch panel was installed. A template for cutouts was made, holes were cut on the right side of briefcase, and the panel was fitted into the briefcase.

Next, wiring was performed to include an ON/OFF/ON switch for charging either the briefcase battery bank OR the motorhome battery bank, and a fuse block was incorporated to serve all the components. Everything worked, or so I thought. After talking with Wayne, he advised that the wiring was not of sufficient size, the switch should be immediately removed, and the cigarette lighter receptacle should be wired directly to briefcase battery bank so it could be used to charge the RV battery bank.

It was almost like starting over, but the second time around was much, much faster—and more deliberate. Everything worked like it was supposed to—FINISHED!

“ON THE GO” PORTABLE WATER SOFTENER.  Next, I tackled completion of rehabilitating the On the Go Water Softener. The additional plumbing that was thought was to be a big job proved to be insignificant and was quickly done, remaining parts were collected, and another project was FINISHED.

COLLECT AND ORGANIZE TENT CAMPING EQUIPMENT. An old saying when I was a kid was that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” It had been my intent to go tent camping this fall, but arterial heart disease got in the way; hope I’m not destined to hell! Nevertheless, all the old and new camping equipment was organized and stowed in large plastic containers; they are still in the garage awaiting disposition. Typically, the two boxes would be stored in the crawl space under the house, but the stale smell infiltrates virtually everything. The containers are too heavy to store in the attic. So, the tent will be stored in the garage closet, the sleeping bag in the house, and the other stuff (mostly plastic and metal) in the crawl space. Life is too complicated.

The remaining projects will be done in the days preparing for the photography trip to southeastern Arizona after Thanksgiving, and during the winter stay in Casa Grande, Arizona.

I was just a wee bit discouraged after yesterday’s (Saturday, October 31) attempt to check out the Briefcase Solar Generator (BSG) minus built-in batteries and combination cigarette lighter socket, dual USB ports socket, voltmeter, and on/off switch panel; in addition, there was major concern as to whether or not MPPT Charge Controller had been “fried” in yesterday’s attempt to charge the Rockpal 250 Portable Solar Generator. Consequently, this morning Anderson connectors were installed on a 5-foot section of twin wires (+ and -), and everything was loaded into the old Honda and driven to the RV storage garage. There, I measured the positive and negative terminals for lug size, and installed lugs on the positive and negative wires. An excellent crimp was made on the wires using an inexpensive combination crimping and stripping tool. And yes, I did remember to put heat shrink tubing on before installing the lugs!

And then, the battery terminal nuts were loosened; of course, one of the hex nuts fell between the batteries and one battery had to be removed to retrieve it. The connecting cables with lugs were installed; the negative wire easily connected to the briefcase via Anderson connector, but the positive refused to cooperate. After much cajoling, it finally connected but the Epever MPPT controller did not work. I tried several times with no luck. It must have been fried in yesterday’s folly. 

So, it was back home and possibly back to square one with the BSG. First, I wanted to try it on the old Honda to see if I had done something wrong in connecting it. However, the Anderson connector contact separated from the housing on the positive cable (poor job of installing). It was reinstalled, correctly this time, and the positive and negative cables were bolted onto the Honda battery terminals, after which the cables were plugged into the briefcase, much easier this time connecting the positive side of the Anderson connectors. THE MPPT CONTROLLER WORKED; it was NOT fried in yesterday’s experiment!

The next text was to determine if a solar panel would connect and operate. The 30-foot cables were connected to the solar panel via MC4 connectors and to the briefcase via Anderson connectors. EVERYTHING WORKED!