My Trails

The main purpose of my blog is so that I will have a record of my retirement years. When my mind starts to forget, I can look back at my blog and remember: Oh I hiked the Appalachian Trail, or that’s right I drove to Alaska! It’s my form of a rudimentary diary of sorts.  

It’s hard to think about and even harder to realize I haven’t added an entry in over a year. I think there are two reasons why I don’t write much anymore – let alone I procrastinate everything and I’m lazy – but when I’m not traveling much, I find it harder to think of anything interesting to talk about. The second reason I don’t blog much is because the family keeps close contact with each other through text apps, and a blog post is old news. It’s the main reason most of the family has given up blogging. And we are not writing for the world to read anyway. Our blogs have always been generally read by family and close friends. 

As I get older, I find that I travel less than I did a few years ago. And not only am I getting older but my vehicles are getting older too! Ever since Covid, I have stayed in Arizona, traveling up into the high country in the summer and scooting down to the desert in the winter. I like to think of myself not so much as a snowbird but as a migrating nomad. I don’t ever want to live where it snows again!

I usually live alone but Donna spends a few weeks camping with me up in the national forests in the summer, and Karen and Damon spend a month camping with me in the winter. Everyone is planning to meet up again this January in Yuma.  I still have friends I have met over the years that I will camp with once in a while, but things are always changing and friends come and go. 

I’ve made some changes to my motorhome this year. The mini split, 12 volt fridge, and Starlink have all improved my lifestyle. I have enough solar and batteries that I can survive on total electric. I even removed my onboard generator and bought a small dual fuel portable just for emergencies. I was carrying around a 400 pound generator I only used once a year, if that. 

I found out my mini split worked better on heat mode if I placed a fan by the ceiling to move the heat down.  The built in fan doesn’t circulate the warm air down to the floor without a little help. I solved the problem when I purchased a small ceiling fan that fits perfectly in front of the mini split. 

I got rid of the old broken-down, ragged couch that I didn’t have any use for, and replaced it with an 8” twin mattress. I built a platform out of plywood and framing lumber, and left the plywood so I could slide it out  to the full twin size. Then I cut 8” off one edge of the mattress and made sections that I could drop behind the bed to sleep, and remove them and slide the frame back to the wall to convert it into a couch. I still like my over-cab bed, but there will be a day when climbing up and down in the middle of the night might become a problem. 😂

I think I’ll stop here. I’m thinking not many have made it this far anyway. I’m staying in Quartzsite at the present but heading down to Yuma in another week. I have to have a clutch put into my Jeep – $1700! Ouch!  

Part of my quest to go total electric is figuring out ways to heat water without burning propane. A few years ago I mounted a large black pipe on the roof of Minnie and let the sun heat my water. It works quite well when I have good sun and it’s not too cold out. The only problem is that you have to use the water late in the day and long before the sun goes down. If you wait too long, the water cools quickly to an unusable temperature. In the cold days of winter, it’s sponge baths or burn propane for a shower. I longed for an occasional shower right before bed without burning propane.

I started exploring small electric hot water tanks that are made to mount under the kitchen sink and give you instant hot water without waiting for delivery through long pipes from the main hot water tank. These tanks usually hold only 3 gallons of supply and recover quickly. I found a prime deal of 20% off on one and ordered it for a Christmas present to me.

I puzzled over where to mount the unit and came to the conclusion that pulling the propane water heater out and installing it in the same place would be easy and give me hot water to all my sinks and shower.

I spent the last two days disconnecting the old unit and installing the new electric one. Parts here in Quartzsite are twice what they cost at Home Depot, but the hardware store is close and had Sharkbite connectors I like to use. Four connectors and a propane plug cost me almost $50.

I have been testing it out today and I think it’s going to work fine. With all my batteries and solar, heating the water only uses a small percentage of my power. I timed my shower and came up with 4.5 minutes of hot water. That’s plenty for me( I don’t spend much time washing my hair). The only thing that concerns me is the fact that it takes 1850 watts of power when heating. That’s almost maxing out my inverter. The specs said 1500 watts. I’ll have to be careful to turn everything else off when I use it.

As with everything I tinker with, I’ll undoubtedly find out more as I use it. I’ll try to update how it’s working in a later post.