Sunday, January 13, 2013

Art And Batteries

Woke up to 28f in the desert this morning at 6 am.  It was 39f inside the camper. So exactly why did we have to pick boondocking dates during the California desert cold snap of 2013?  If this is Karma, I must have been a bad boy lately.  We learned yesterday the generator hours in the whole State Park are from 10 am to 8 pm.  Sooooo, last night I pulled out the ole coffee percolator and set up to make coffee the old fashioned way.  While I was doing the coffee on the stove, I turned on the other two burners and the oven (with the door open) to try to create a little heat is our casa.  After we got things warmed up to 49f we had breakfast.  The coffee wasn’t too awful for me, but I add enough creamer, sweetener and peppermint schnapps and it all starts to taste the same.  Rosie thought it was “OK” with the little teeny bit of half and half she adds.

We headed out about 10 am to find the rest of the metal art north of downtown Borrego Springs.  Rosie had a delightful time with the camera.  Here is some of her work:

IMG_6311  IMG_6315IMG_6320  IMG_6321IMG_6331  IMG_6326IMG_6328  IMG_6336IMG_6339  IMG_6340  IMG_6347IMG_6353  IMG_6355

After lunch I spent the afternoon investigating the status of our 4 RV batteries.  I pulled them, two at a time, out of their nice little storage spaces, disconnected them, and lifted the battery caps.  Water level was good in all batteries.  I was using my little, bitty cheapy hydrometer when one of our Canadian neighbors came by and offered to lend me a real hydrometer, which I graciously accepted.  I also used my 3 phase battery charger on each battery to get it up to 95% capacity.  Final testing with the hydrometer showed one battery having consistently lower charge rating in all six cells, than all the other batteries.  So I left that battery disconnected, thinking it was possibly dragging down the charge on the other three batteries.  I put all the batteries back in their storage spaces and put away all the tools.  Then I pulled out the owners manuals for my solar panel and solar charge controller and refreshed my memory on those items.  So we will see how it goes tonight.  If the overall power drops back to the 50% range real quick with very little draw on the batteries, something is still wrong and I will have to continue to try to figure out where the problem is.

Now it is Vodka time before the sun goes down and Rosie’s wonderful roasted chicken and mashed potatoes hits my dinner plate.   Not sure when we are leaving here, but we are expected in Yuma on Thursday.

Thanks for stopping by.

2 comments:

owensontheroad said...

Yeah, we're wondering where the warm weather is too. Peppermint Schnapps is always good in coffee :)

TravelBug-Susan said...

Peppermint schnapps is really good in hot chocolate! Schnapps straight is also good for killing sore throat germs.