Sleeping Bag Heating Pad - A Game Changer

Vandwelling can have it’s temperature swings.  One or two sleeping bags may be needed if you don’t have heat.  My heater in the Four Wheel Camper is a propane Wave3 and it isn’t vented so I don’t use it while I sleep. I like to be toasty warm when I sleep.

Above my Wave3 heater

In the past I have used an aftermarket car seat heater under my sleeping bag.  It works great but it shuts off after 1 hour. It uses 3 amps of 12 volts when the thermostat calls for heat.  It did a good job of taking the chill off in the morning.  The problem is I usually wake from the chill at 4 am and I have to turn it in every hour.  I like that it has a thermostat that you dial in the temperature.  It’s also designed to be under you so it’s quite safe.

My car seat heater 

This past summer I found a sleeping bag liner heater on Amazon.  It uses USB power and will stay on all night.  It too is thermostat controlled. 

Above is the Amazon add for the sleeping bag heated liner.

It has 3 settings.  Red, blue, and green with red being the highest setting.  It too is safe as it is designed to sleep on.  It has a rubbery side for it to stay in place and it’s very thin and soft. It even rolls up and comes with a bag to put it in

Above is a picture of my sleeping bag heater liner.  If you look closely you can see the heating squares.

This picture above shows my sleeping bag with the heating liner with my flannel sleeping bag liner I made, so I don’t sleep on the pad and can take liner out to clean.

Note: my home made sleeping bag liner is a flat double size flat sheet folded over and sewn on the bottom and up the zipper side to my knees, so it’s east to get in and out of my sleeping.

Next above is a picture of the booklet that comes with the heater liner showing the location of the internal heating spots.

Now the picture of the liner in place with batter pocket/USB connection.  You can put a good size USB brick in the pocket, but I plug it to my house battery that is recharged from solar and engine.  

I  zip the end of a USB extension cord end and controls in the pocket.

Note: zipping the USB extension into the pocket reduces stress on the control head and internal wires if you move around.

Here is a picture of me powering the heating liner with a USB brick.  It’s on red (highest setting), so I connected the USB connector to my USB tester.  It shows 5 volts and 1.42 amps.  This is the highest amps it draws.

Note: on blue and green settings it still draws 1:42 amps but is designed to automatically turn on and off to give less heat by not being on all the time.

Why is this a game changer?

1. It only sips USB power at 1.42 amps when on.  About equal to a cell phone.

2. It goes inside sleeping bag so you are heated and the heat stays inside.

3. It is well made and it works well. I have woken up with the need to turn down the heat setting.

4. It stays on until you shut it off or you run out of power.

5. It is thin and light weight and does not move around.

6. The pocket is handy to store a 3 ft. USB extension cord and battery.

Cautions:  

1. I use a heavy duty USB extension cord for long wear and protection from pulling on control cord.

2. I zip the USB extension cord into pocket as a way to eliminate strain on the controls and cord.

I don’t receive any compensation for this review from Amazon or the seller.  My review is only here and is my honest assessment from my usage in real life situations.

Remember that any power source you use needs to be able to be recharged each day to allow you to heat the sleeping bag heater liner each night.

There are other companies that sell similar products but I have not done a cross evaluation.  

Best wishes from the road.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Hanging With Friends In Ajo, AZ

I hung out with friends a few times this travel season in Ajo, AZ.  Such a beautiful place from a scenery perspective.  Just look at my pictures and compare these pictures to my other posts.  AJo is just north of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and offers the same diversity of cactus and many more hiking options.  

So what do 3 nomads who love to hike, well we went on a short before dinner hike from our camping spot.

Above is our hike through gorgeous cactus.

Of course there are hilly mountains in the area that provide for wonderful pictures shown here.

It’s not hard to take a wonderful picture with all this going on.  

If you pass Gila Bend on I8 in AZ go south to see the wonderful world of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and visit Ajo.

Above is a picture of an Organ Pipe Cactus from my last visit to Ajo on this years travels.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Crystal Hill Another Visit

I’ve been to Crystal Hill last year and founds some crystals but mostly small or broken pieces.  Located at the northern portion of Kofa Wildlife Management Area, in AZ,  Crystal Hill offers rock hounding for crystals and Boondocking in a defunct camping area.  No amenities at all!

This year I decided to go back to Crystal Hill to do some more looking.  The above picture shows you what the land environment is like for the area.

Crystal Hill is an small hill that has warn paths where so many people have come before you and scars where people have chipped away looking for crystals.

I not bring rock hounding tools but I did bring gloves and decided to go through the debris that others had dug or chipped away.

I found crystals and pieces of crystals using this technique, with results shown in the picture above.  The picture shows my efforts To washing the dirt and dust off what I found.

My strategy paid off when I found this crystal cluster above in debris others had dug and pushed aside.  It’s small but it was fun to find.  

There are many things to do on the road and camping and looking for crystals was fun.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Urban Hiking Can Be Rewarding

Don’t pass up urban hiking.  

I took a hike with my daughter in-law this year when visiting in San Diego.  I recommend this urban hike as it was as good as any I’ve had.

The hike started in La Jolla, CA near seal cove, a wonderful place to view seals.

As you walk past the cove and on to the open Pacific view I was treated by a Seagul posing with beautiful blue water and clear skies,

Southern California is a great place to see flowering everything, as seen in the picture above.

We hiked to a coffee shop for a sit down break in this 7.6 mile hike.

What fun to get sone desired exercise and spend some quality time m, with this west coast daughter in-law, while seeing wildlife, flowers galore, and people watching.

I couldn’t ask for more.

Brent

macaloney@hotnail.com

Disc Golf - A Pleasant Activity On The Road

My oldest son got me started with disc golf many years ago now and I’m so glad he did.  This is a perfect activity for vandwelling as it takes up so little room.  

This is my 9th year on the road for winter travels, and disc golf is my go to activity, along with hiking and seeing the wonders that are out there.

Here in Quartzsite, AZ there are two courses and this one that I’m playing near the town park has migrated from hand-made baskets out of wash drums to professional baskets and from 9 holes to include a return 9 holes using the same baskets for 18 holes.

Above is a picture of a new basket 

Course hazards including out of bounds over fences, and rattle snakes, as this sign indicates.  Although I didn’t see any snakes , I also don’t put my hand into and under bushes to retrieve my discs.  A hiking pole makes a good stick to

Flip your disc out.

Here I am, one of a few pictures I share of myself.  

PS.  After my fall and dislocated shoulder 2 years ago that got me playing left handed, I am fully recovered and still practice left handed throwing.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Learning Spanish On The Road

Like many others my age, I took two years of a language in High School.  I took French.  Spanish wasn’t offered and there was no direct use for it at that time.

(Screen capture off my phone of the Duolingo App image.)

I decided last summer, after a number of times trying to learn Spanish over the years, to work at learning Spanish again.  Having tried other phone aps, I decided this time I would try Duolingo 

Unlike other methods Duolingo is a mixture of learning words, sentences, speaking, and spelling.  It is not a perfect software program but it is good and has kept me going.

That’s right! I reached my 200th continuous day of learning Spanish.

They offer the application free and do have ads you have to watch.  You can opt out but you need to pay.  I have stuck to watching ads and have stayed with my training not yet electing to pay to go ad free.

(Above is a picture of lessons on Duolingo- purple colored ones I have successfully completed and ones with yellow rings I have them being worked on.)

I’m actually learning the language.  That is the good news.  I’m not fast but I do practice each day.  Since I’ve been traveling this year I’m just maintaining the courses I have passed and not yet moved forward.  This has proved successful for me as it’s good to get the grammar down through practice.

Duolingo offers many languages, sone being very obscure.  There are things about the software I don’t like, but I like it more than I dislike it.

A couple of hints.  Don’t get frustrated as there are rules you will need to look up, that Duolingo doesn’t tell you why you got it wrong.  Google Translate helps as well as taking notes.  

I am not affiliated with Duolingo and these comments are my own.  If you have been wanting to learn another language Duolingo is helping me and may help you.

Learning with an application on my phone works well for me on my travels.  As little as 15 minutes a day can get you on your way to speaking a new language.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

Sears Point - A Place Back In Time

On my list of places to visit for a few years is Sears Point.  Tucked away 8 miles off I8 in AZ along the Gila River, it is a place that takes you back in time.  

Getting to Sears point should be handled by higher clearance vehicles and preferably with all wheel drive or 4x4.  The road in suffers from two sections of loose sand with hard packed sand underneath in a single vehicle wide section of road.   

These sections of sand are a do not get off road area. I don’t recommend stopping on loose sand, but if you do, back up to an area where the ground is hard packed to let others pass. There are also sections of the road that are warm from rushing water that some vehicles will have to assess how best to get over them.

The picture above is from the end of the road at Sears Point where there is sand from flooding of the Gila River some times of years.  Also you need Google maps or something that will show you what turns you need to make in the section of cross cross roads.

Once at Sears Point you see a hill of rocks.  These rocks are hiding many petroglyphs and more modern inscriptions.  There is no one way to find them other than do a lot of walking up, down and around this hill. 

If you look carefully you will see what the ancients left behind to be discovered by us.  The key is to be respectful and responsible not to damage or destroy them.  Some are without our understanding like the picture above.

If your lucky and work at it you will see hundreds of petroglyphs. The picture above is more distinguishable as possibly a deer or horned sheep.

Then this petroglyph may tell a story.

Some panels have a lot going on, like this one above.  The upper left almost looks like a modern day disc golf basket 

This truck had been there for a few days, with the driver going off the road one Friday after dark.  This actually happened while my friend Roxy (see below) was there enjoying the area a few days before I arrived.

I met a neighbor who was looking for this truck, as it was his friends.  His friend was reportedly drinking and after the accident he walked the nearby old Butterfield Stage route about 10 miles and didn’t remember where he left his truck.

I could not see how this truck would get out of this ditch without significant quality recovery work.  Note it’s doubtful that a wrecker would make it past to get behind it.


(Picture - portion of Google image screen capture for section of Butterfield Stagecoach Route that passes Sears Point)

I mentioned the Butterfield Stage Route that went past Sears Point.  Upon my arrival at Sears Point a met a older man who has been doing research for years on the Butterfield Stage route and was there for more study.  He also is trying to assist with the application to make Sears Point a National Monument.  The location is historically significant as it was an important location for travelers.  Spanish, ancients, Native Americans, and western expansion, used this as a route west.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com

PS. Here is a plug for my solo traveling friend of many years, Roxy 

Facebook Adventure Nomad For Nature

Blog https://nomadfornature.wordpress.com/

Youtube Adventure Nomad For Nature

Im sure she will elaborate on her visit to Sears Point at some point in on of the media methods above.