OH OH: Cold and hungry or dead?
Our electrical system runs from lithium batteries. They are powered from solar panels on our roof, and that's supplemented by power made by Baby's engine when driving. If the batteries are drained below a threshold low voltage point, no AC power is provided and only our DC water pump, computer chargers and refrigerator will function. Here's the challenging condition:
- When we parked after dark for the night at Red Rocks, our batteries were teetering around the low-voltage threshold. The 162 miles we'd just driven should have charged them. We were a little puzzled, but also tired. We decided we'd figure it out in the daylight the next morning. We plugged into shore power, confident that would solve all problems.
- Not sure what the actual degrees were, but Baby it's cold outside!
- And THEN....I inadvertently mixed bleach with a cleaning product that created a little chlorine gas in our composting toilet (I looked it up to confirm that's indeed what we were smelling). Deciding that cold was better than dead, we left a window open and an exhaust fan on all night -- and piled on the blankets. We ran the diesel furnace all night, further depleting the house batteries.
- The 'garage' part of the van is underneath our bed and accessible only from the back doors. It contains our water tank, water pump, and water heater. The fan that's supposed to move the warm house air into the garage wasn't enough to do the job when faced with the open window, etc. Thus in the morning when we turned on the water, we got a slushee, And then nothing. Pump and water heater did not like the night temps any more than we did.
- What? What happened to the shore power?
- Bill did Bill magic -- he understands all the systems well. So he randomly reset all of our breakers and Voila! Shore power was back and charging our batteries. Confident again, We happily headed to the Arizona sun!
- Still those pesky batteries remained low. Huh? Ultimately Matt (the original designer of the electrical system) diagnosed the second (real) issue: A critical connection from the van engine to the house batteries had jarred loose somewhere along the way. We were not going to get engine power again. So the sun, which is low in the winter, was all we had to create power.
- We used that power conservatively and plugged in to shore power when we could. Matt and Bill hot-wired the connection to the engine and its working well as we write this. We are expecting a new breaker to arrive today or tomorrow for the safe fix!
- We (meaning mostly me) learned about 8 zillions lessons from all of this.
The Reward
Karma rewarded us with the discovery of a great campground, with shore power, near Phoenix: McDowell Mountain Regional Park. It is just outside of Fountain Hills, Arizona and overlooked our next destination -- Taliesin West. That was Frank Lloyd Wright's Winter 'camp'.
The eponymous 350' high fountain of Fountain Hills, AZ, provides this 15 minute show every daylight hour, on the hour. We post this example of water use in a place with very limited water with no comment.
A look at a warmed-up Baby & the view from McDowell Mountains Regional Park
Taliesin West, also nestled in the McDowell mountains, gives a real sense of the genius of Frank Lloyd Wright; for us it's about surprises, creating spaces and the transitions between spaces. 
Boondocking
Son Matt, who built out Baby Beluga, intended her to be used for true Boondocking, which we hadn't done. She's entirely self contained and has lots of lights, dualies, etc, that qualifies her for such activities and he wanted us to actually use her capabilities so...
... we rendezvoused with Matt and Katy one evening at sunset in the Coconino National Forest near Sedona, AZ. They spent the next two days riding bikes in Sedona and we stayed on for three days after that, sightseeing. Thanks, Matt and Katy, for the kick we needed to get started at this. (iOverlander is a great app for finding spots like this.) And parental bragging rights: Matt entirely built his own slide-in camper that's on his truck -- walls, elegant interior, windows -- the whole thing! He's good!
Sedona is gorgeous. It has to be a blip in some geological space-time continuum. It's a small area of land unlike that which is near-by, sporting incredible red rocks and several vortices where the magnetic field of the earth is different. Legend has it that they let energy into the earth. The word 'rock' takes on a whole different meaning when they are this big!
The majestic Chapel of the Holy Cross is built into the face of some rocks.
We washed all the red dust off and wrapped this all up at a Harvest Host Boondocker site in Mesa, Arizona called Mesquite Twist, presumably named for the beautiful old mesquite trees by their driveway. James and Lynn have created a peaceful spot in the suburbs near Phoenix. We'd recommend this one, too.
Retirement Lessons learned: We can cope!
Retirement Lessons learned: We can cope!
One day I'll get myself to Sedona. But till then, thanks for posting your adventures. Merry Christmas to you all!
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