Hi All - Yes I Did my Travels This 2023 Winter

Check out the picture above in AZ, but only a mile from NM. Rock hounding took me here on my way home just a few weeks ago.  I came 14 miles in to where I took this picture on dirt roads to get here to look for fire agates.  I found many.

To my surprise, was the beauty I found here too.  It is BLM land, so camping here is ok.  No cell service here but some places do exist closer to the paved highway.  I chose not to stay the night here, but I was torn because of the beauty.  

I marched on as my trip home would include stopping in Chicago to visit my aunt this year, before dipping down to AL for what used to be called the SE GTG.  Going to Chicago to visit my aunt adds about 1,000 to my trip milage.  Since I’m the only one that visits here I know how much it means to have me visit.

It was colder and wetter than normal this year, so I got sone tips of new places to check out in the Yuma area, where it is warmer and dryer.

Here is the synopsis of the travels and I will address more detail in other posts.  I will not be doing daily posts so look out for wonderful pictures at places I think you will like.  I will also post about other things I did and tried out.

Early January- left home in MA early January and stopped in MD to see oldest son and family before heading to the great southwest. I skirted western DC in the early morning and headed over to I81 / Shenandoah Valley to Knoxville where I picked up I40 west.  I watch the weather all the time and had a heavy rain storm to get though on way to Nashville.

My stop that night was the I40 W rest area west of Nashville.  The next day I made it it OKC and driveway surfed for the night at a friends. 

Next leg was to dip south to Alamogordo, NM and stayed at Walmart as it was late into the eve.  

Then over the mountains through Los Cruises and on to Hot Well Dunes in Bowie, AZ for a couple nights.

Next stop was Ajo, AZ for a couple days before visiting Yuma, AZ, Quartzsite, other son and family in San Diego, Los Algodones, MX and around that whole area for an extended period of time to stay warm and away from heavy rain.  It worked.

Eventually I was able to head up though Joshua Tree NP and on to the Mojave Desert to Death Valley, then on to southern NV before more storms came in.  As I watch the storms land I San Francisco, I stated heading south again to BLM between Phoenix and Quartzsite.  Seeing no good weather I gave up on Utah in March and decided to work my way east during March.  

I stopped at many new places along the way and had some fun, like the picture above show.  I continued through OKC again, up though MO to visit aunt and then to AL for some slow time and exploration.  And just a few days ago I headed north to where I am now in VA and will stop in MD to see son and family before I get home. 

Oh this is my 10th year of travels.

Year 1 - Class B

Years 2-4 Prius

Years 5-10 Tacoma and Four Wheel Camper

I hope all the readers are well and feel free to ask questions.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Adjustable Height Stool - Now Part Of My Travel Gear

I like buying things that seem to fit my travel needs and last year I bought this adjustable height stool, but forgot to put it in my travel pile this past winter.  It is so useful around the house and camper.

What is great about the stool is that it’s height adjustment can be set to any of the segments of the collapsing circles.

There are two finger holes on the top and two on the bottom.  So it’s a two hand operation to open and collapse.  Pull apart and twist to lock a desired height and pull and twist in opposite direction and collapse for storage or travel.

Here is mine.  I can set the height to what I’m doing so I am eye level.  I can use it to step on but it’s not specifically designed for that, but it works to reach something.  You would want this to be in a place where you could hold onto something with the other hand.  

It will work as a mini table with or next to your camp chair.

Light weight but strong and stores well.  It is now part of my travel gear.

I am not affiliated with or get any compensation for my review.  It is totally an independent assessment for a product that I paid for. 

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Upgrading FWC Solar - 170W to 210W

As you may remember during 2021 I did go on my travels but did not report my travels as usual because I was concerned about how people felt about me traveling during COVID.  Well, I did upgrade my solar on my Four Wheel Camper from 170 Watts to 210 watts.

I had gotten an email from NewPowa, who produced my 170 Watt panel that they had an upgraded panel with the same width as 170 Watts panel on a new 210 Watt panel.  See picture above.

This meant I could just unbolt the old panel and transfer Z brackets to the same spacing and put higher wattage in my camper.  Above is the finished look and the weight difference was negligible.

The panel comes with MC4 connectors and FWC uses SAE connectors so I did need to change the connection on the solar panel prior to installing on roof of the camper.  Above shows the MC4 connectors to the left and SAE pigtail connected to the right. 

Above are the labels from the two solar panels.  This change resulted in a 20% increase in wattage for my travels.

Of course I checked and had a 30 amp charge controller installed in a previous post so there was no issue with the change.

For those with FWC campers I used rubber expanding inserts drilled through the roof skin into the 1”x1” aluminum supports and sealed them with 3M marine sealant.  As stated above I reused these same mounting locations.

I have a previous post on my original 160 Watt panel install and how I did it.

As a refresher I have 3 ways to charge.  Solar, DC to DC direct to engine, and 120 v charger.  I have a Renogy charge controller that does what is needed to use both solar and DC to charge my lithium battery.

The new solar worked great during my 2022 travels.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Learning Spanish - One Year Later

My goal of learning Spanish continues after 1 year of using the Duolingo application, although it’s a love hat relationship at times.

There are things I like about how the Spanish language works.  For example dropping double letters in words or combining words into one word.  

On the other hand keeping track of word gender to change supporting words on either side of the gender word, can be frustrating.  Then add in if the word is plural changing the word in front and after to plural too, gets me mumbling.

Overall Duolingo is a good tool to learn Spanish.  I have nieces and granddaughter learning languages on Duolingo as well.  I do not pay for Duolingo, choosing to watch ads and earning points to move forward.

Recently, I was in Budapest, Hungry on travel and in a small underground shop I met a young lady who did well with English, and I knew nothing of Hungarian.  I shared I was learning Spanish using an app on my phone and she was too.  Yes we were both using Duolingo.  Small world.

This strategy has worked for me as I need the practice before moving on to ensure I have the logic right and recognize what right way of answering the questions.

Duolingo has tips that may not specifically address your mistake but tips are not often enough for me.  I needed rules early on and Duolingo doesn’t focus on rules.  For example when do you put El in front of Senor Perez.  Or when you use Usted.  This information in adavace of the lessons that use these examples would have saved me a lot of work.

The key for me in learning is practicing the lessons over and over again before moving on to the next lesson.  

What I like about Duolingo a lot is that I learn how to read, write, grammar, and listed to Spanish from the ground up and not just canned phrases.

As you can see I got the badge for my one years work.  Although I am not further along with completing lessons, what I’ve learned is securely in my brain.

Happy language learning.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Prius Headlight Lenses Need Polishing Again

Yes, I still have and travel in my 2011 Prius from time to time.  I was coming home the other night and I had to put the high beams on to see the road better.

The next day I checked and the headlight lenses had fogged over again.

I pulled out the the headlight lens restorer that I still had from last time and decide to restore again.

Above I polished the passenger side and if you zoom in you will see the difference with the drivers side.  What I did different this time was to polished with a polishing pad I got from Amazon that goes in my cordless drill.  I put the compound on the pad and swirled it around with the drill.

With the kit in hand it took about a half hour to get clear lenses again.  Even without using the drill it doesn’t take long to see the results.

In the past I had thought of replacing the lenses but it is involved and basically a lot of work.  This is fast and easy and much less costly.

Above is the finished results and I can see the road so much better again.  Ready now for some sometime travels.

Brent

MacAloney@hotmail.com

FWC Trim Screws Replacement

The above picture shows the finished work of replacing the rear bottom trim screws on my 2011 Four Wheel Camper (FWC)

The problem was I was seeing the screws starting to rust,  so I ordered up some replacement #8 xx 3/4” white head screws.

Then I took the existing screws out and this is what o found.

I could see that they were rusted to the point that in sone cases the threads were missing.  I tried the new #8 screws and found that the corrosion had decayed the hole opening to the point the threads on the new screws would not grab.  So I then ordered up #10 x 3/4” white head screws and they grabbed.  

I put a dab of my go to 3M white marine adhesive so the screw heads would seal and keep our future moisture.

Above is the original screw and the new screw I used to replace them.  

If you see rust I would not put fixing as I did.  In fact I should have done this a couple years ago.  I have not found this problem anywhere else on the camper and don’t know if my winter travels to the southwest contributed to the problem from salted roads.  

Both screws sizes are available on Amazon 

Safe travels,

Brent

MacAloney@hotmail.com

Staying At ACOE - Army Corp Of Engineers

After leaving the National Forest in Eastern Tennessee I decided that based on my driving and overnight stops I would stay at Army Corp Of Engineers Campgrounds before I arrive at my oldest son’s in Maryland

My first night was in Pendleton, SC at the Twin Lakes Army Corp Of Engineers as seen below.

Here is my camping spot for the night.

For all my ACOE camping I paid $14/night as I pay half with my Senior National Park Pass.of regular $28/night.

The next moring I drove east to a friend I had not seen in over 23 years.  We talked and went out to lunch.  It was great seeing him as we used to commute to work for years

. After lunch I drove to Bandits Roost ACOE in Wilksboro, North Carolina.  Picture above 

Above is my campsite at Bandits Roost ACOE where I spent 2 nights.  There I met a woman camping in her plug-in RAV4.  I enjoyed the conversation we had both days.  It’s always fun to meet other like minded people..

On my 2 night stay at Bandits Roost, I looked for a disc golf course to get some disc throwing in.and to my surprise on the opposite side of the lake is Fort Hambly ACOE Park with disc golf.  I couldn’t ask for anything more convienient.

It turned out that this 18 hole course would be one of the most difficult I have ever played.  There are severe elevation changes.  My disc got sone bad rolls down hills.  Sone baskets were on the edge of steep drop offs.  

The above picture shows my second throw lay with the top of the basket dead center over the the crest

 My next throw went in the basket for a pat 3😁

Above in the picture is the tee off location where you throw the disk off the Topo DCS wooded hill with a basket near the lake at the bottom.  I guess I was lucky to hit a tree to stop my disk possibly hitting sone fishermen before taking a swim.

This was the steepest grade to hike on the course and the leaves were dry and slippery.  I could have used spikes.

My next night stay before heading to son’s house in Md was Salthouse Beach ACOE in Henry, Virginia, above.  This wasn’t the most convenient to stay as it left me with a six hour drive the next day.  It turned out ok

As seen out my back door I was close to other campers.  I spend most of my travels with significant distance to others in the desert, but campgrounds such as this brings me closer to others and it’s ok but not my preference.

I hope you get to try ACOE campgrounds, especially if you are like me and get them half price.  It was very nice having cold nights and using my electric heater to keep it warm inside.  You can’t beat the hot shower and electricity for $14/night

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com