Horsethief Lake

Horsethief Lake Campground, Black Hills National Forest, Hell Canyon District, near Mt. Rushmore, South Dakato, May 2008, Nikon D40 with 18-200mm VR lens, Focal length 18mm, Exposure 1/160 sec @ f6.3, ISO 200, exposure bias -4/3 stop, no flash, circular polarizing filter © Steven Crisp [Click on the photo to enlarge]

Well, it's been a while since my last update. Tough making time for the internet when you are wandering through such natural beauty. I have, however, managed to keep Frito-a-Day up to date. So you can look there for our dog's perspective of the trip so far ;-)

This photo is from this morning, just after sunrise, but before the rest of humanity had awakened. A serene setting (with Thistle Dew Too in the background) at a National Forest campsite just outside Mt. Rushmore. A little pricey ($23 for dry camping), but then, I guess one is paying for the setting and the proximity.

It's been exactly a month since we picked up Thistle Dew Too. We are having a blast! No where to go and all day to get there ;-) Actually, we're taking two months to drive back from the Mothership home to New Hampshire.

In addition to the solar (which has been fantastic -- we haven't had to use the generator once except to exercise it), we've made a few more additions. To allow us to get on the internet, we purchased a Verizon aircard, and have that tied into a Cradlepoint router and Wilson amplifier and antenna raised up about 6 feet above the top of the RV. Generally, that will increase our signal strength by 2 bars, often times giving us access when we would otherwise have none. This configuration also allows my wife and I to share the wireless connection simultaneously, and works for her PC and my Mac, no problem. I'll post about this in more detail on a newly established Thistle Dew Too Improvements blog.

We've had great weather, with just a few days of rain. And I'm so happy that Thistle Dew Too is watertight and ship shape! Just one more testimonial to the Lazy Daze reliability.

Alton Baker Park, Eugene, OR

Well, we came to Eugene, Oregon so Steve could run in a marathon. I you are interested, you can read about that over at Frito-a-Day.

As is our plan for this whole 2-month RV adventure, we are not preplanning our camping locations, instead trying to play it by ear. So this time we asked the marathon registration folks where we might stay. They suggested Alton Baker park.

Well, this is just a fantastic place, and is very close to Autzen Stadium where the finish line is located. Now I need to be clear that it is not completely legal for us to be here. While there are a few other RVs, they all have special permits that look like they allow parking for a month. I would have tried to get one of these, but they are only offered on Tues and Thurs, somewhere else in the city. So we took a chance, and indeed were not bothered for either of the two nights we spent in the park.


And what a beautiful park! 300 acres of trails, rivers, ponds, lawn, oh yeah, and we hit cherry blossom time. This is all about outdoor recreation and beauty. A great place to spend some relaxing time. Oh yeah, and run that marathon ;-)


And the name of the Oregon football team? Well, that would be the ducks!

Solar Install

Well, we finally arrived at AM Solar for our planned install. The details were still to be worked out based on the specifics of our rig.

As it turns out, they were able to fit 400W of solar panels (2 @ 150W and 1 @ 100W) and still have them tiltable in both directions (for winter sun angles, if desired).


Then we decided to go for the new larger capacity Lifeline AGM batteries that total 300AH. While these fit into the existing battery compartment of the Lazy Daze, it must be noted that they "just barely fit", and indeed, they ended up going through a number of wiring machinations to do so. In retrospect? Well, let's see what the bill turns out to be.


Finally, we ended up with a Magnum Energy (ME-RC) 2000W pure sine wave inverter and Heliotrope HPV-30DR Solar Charge Controller. And inside, we added an Xantrex (XBM) Battery Monitor, in addition to the panels that came with these devices.

All-in-all, this was a rather involved installation, and took the better part of three days.

I'll report later on how it's all working (after I get a chance to test it out.) I can tell you this much right now: Greg and Deb Holder (the owners of AM Solar) are great people, and treated us like guests in their home, as well as customers. Their new business location is just great.