Walt's Corner

Amazon is laying off more of their employees. I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed a downward spiral in that industry over the last couple years.

Used to be, when I’d ordered something as a Prime Member I would have the options to have it here by next week, in 3 days, or I could choose to have it shipped overnight if it was a Prime item for a very small fee. $2 or $4 I think it was. Those were the glory days and are far behind us.

Now when I order something, Amazon tells me it’ll be here sometime between Valentine’s Day and Labor Day weekend. It’s not too fuckin sure. It remains in a “Preparing to ship” status for several days. Get this – even when the goddamn item is sitting in a warehouse, right here in El Paso. WHERE I LIVE!

Wasn’t Amazon building/opening these warehouses all over our United States in order to minimize the time it takes to get from the warehouse to the doorstep? Silly of me to think that. What’s happened instead is, I place an order on a Monday. Amazon thinks about it for a couple days. Tells me it will arrive sometime between next Monday through Friday. The order remains in “preparing to ship” status for the entire week. Saturday I’ll get notification that it has been transferred to the local carrier (USPS). The local Post Office receives it and delivers it on that next Monday.

To make matters even better/worse, Amazon has created their own shipping company. Instead of paying UPS or FEDEX to ship our goods to us, Amazon uses their own. You’ve seen all them Amazon Freight-liners on the highway. They transport my shaving soap from Maryland to El Paso on an Amazon Prime branded truck then deposit it at the local post office for final delivery.

This takes me to my perfect storm. Building all these warehouses along with creating your own shipping line theoretically increases your game, right? Wrong. I ordered an item that was sitting in our local Amazon warehouse right off I-10E. It should’ve been handed over to the post office that day and maybe delivered the following. I was provided the tracking info. I watched it literally get on the truck in El Paso and then head out of El Paso. It was placed on an Amazon truck headed towards Dallas. Item made it to Lubbock (I think it was) before they realized the error. Gotta give them some street cred for that. They realized they fucked up. And fixed it. Amazon removed it from the truck, sent it back to me via USPS from that location and provided me with a new tracking number.

So yeah, Amazon. G’head and cut more people. It’s got to get better? Right?

Quote of The Day

“REPUBLICANS, DO NOT TURN A GREAT TRIUMPH INTO A GIANT & EMBARRASSING DEFEAT. IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE, YOU DESERVE IT. Kevin McCarthy will do a good job, and maybe even a GREAT JOB – JUST WATCH! ” – Said the man who should know a thing or two about a giant and embarrassing defeat.

Wow. Just another reason I haven’t, and never will, voluntarily fly again. Some crazy shit right here. Luggage that was being tracked by the actual customer via an Apple AirTag going all over the place while United Airlines told her the bag was safely secured in their distribution Center. When in fact, it was at a McDonald’s, a wax center, and somebody’s apartment.

I have not been on a commercial flight since 2001. That was for my brother’s memorial service. Too many stupid rules and stupid people. Soooooo… nope. Don’t even get me started on how bad air travel was getting mid-pandemic. As if I need another reason to avoid air travel, this story appears.

One of my favorite times of the year is our annual pilgrimage to Big Bend Ranch State Park in southwest Texas. It’s remote. No phone signal. Temperatures are mild. You might get into the low 40s at night and almost 70 during the day. For reference, we are hauling a 2015.5 year Lance Model 1995 with our 2018 Dodge Laramie with 5.7 Hemi with all available features.

This year’s trip started as one of those occasions where I woke up in the morning and checked my local temperature as well as the temperature of where I would be come evening. I was immediately saddened that it was currently 18 degrees. My high would be 36, while when I reached my final destination for the day I would be sitting in 22 degree temperatures with overnights down to 12 degrees. Ouch. We’ve made this pilgrimage every year for what would be our 8th year. Coldest. Ever.

As soon as I had finished my work for the day, I headed home, loaded up the truck, hooked up to the Lance (which I refer to as “Runabout” in my Star Trek nerdiness) and shoved off towards Big Bend Ranch (BBRSP). Our reservations for BBRSP started on the following day. My intent was to spend the night at the Van Horn RV Park, Van Horn, TX. This gives us plenty of time to make the remaining 170 or so miles to our final destination. Most years when we start this trip, we leave after work, and spend the night in Van Horn. Since it’s already evening, it allows us to get a good 100 miles under our belt.

The Van Horn RV Park appears to be an old KOA that has since left the franchise, but all the “k” monikers are still in place. All the usual array of discounts to apply here that will give you 10% off. We ended up paying $40 for the night. We’ve never had to make reservations, but this year I did simply because I knew we would be arriving after they closed. I wanted to go ahead and pay up front, providing us a simple pull in and pull out without ever having to step inside the office. They have plenty of pull through sites. Internet. Full hookups. Propane (though they were out this time – more on that to follow). Tent sites. A few cabins. Pool. Fishing pond. Included access to a nearby golf course. Pet friendly. Chickens running around. Cafe. Very friendly staff. I can’t recommend this place enough. One year as we travelled on Christmas Day and decided to stay there, they even had a full Christmas dinner with all the fixins provided by both the staff and residents – for free!

The next morning was frigid. The furnace was running most of the night. It would turn off for maybe 5 minutes before firing back up. This was part of the “once a generation” arctic storm that most of the US was experiencing. 12 degrees when we got up that morning. Before we shoved off from Van Horn I decided to check the propane status. One of the two tanks was now empty. No problem. Other than it being below freezing outside. I unsecured one of the two spare tanks I brought along and swapped out the empty cylinder. Also, I set the temperature of the Runabout to 60 degrees. There is nothing more satisfying than pulling over to use your bathroom when it is below freezing outside and you get to walk into a 60 degree trailer. Yes we always travel with the furnace running. For 8 years now. Never an issue.

I’ll also take this opportunity to take a stab at those who, for whatever reason, are “against” running your fridge and furnace while on the move. Y’all can go fuck yourselves. Feel free to have yours on or off for whatever reason you choose. Do whatever makes you sleep well at night. You’ll get no judgement from me. My beef is with those who feel the urge to try make me explain myself or even worse, try to convince me to not do it. That’s what they are for. If it was so dangerous, Lance would have put a bunch of inhibitors in place to prevent us from using them while on the move. I’ve even had one person try to tell me (imagine a squealing, annoying voice, as I did), “but… but… you don’t trust your fridge to keep your food cold for 2 hours of traveling without being run and wasting all that propane? There must be something wrong with your fridge.” Nah bitch. I just don’t give a fuck. I turn the fridge on the day or two before I leave. I don’t turn it off until we get back home and are taking everything out of the fridge. /end rant

Before going any further, I feel the need to differentiate Big Bend National Park from Big Bend Ranch State Park. Both are in south-western Texas. Both can get hot as fuck. Both appear to arguably be roughly the same size when viewed from google maps. Both are next to each other. Both can be reached via Study Butte. Both get conversationally abbreviated down to “Big Bend.” Most times, when I’m telling others that we went to Big Bend Ranch State Park, and I’ll literally add the “Ranch State Park” just to be clear, they like to tell me how they’ve been there too when it turns out they have not.

They were at the National Park. A much more consumer/vehicle friendly park. They have paved roads for fucks sake. There are even a couple gas stations and stores in the park where you can buy groceries. Water hookups. A restaurant. A hotel. Depending on what part of the National Park you are in, you could be at a hot spring, desert trail, or dense pine forest. This is what makes Big Bend National Park so awesome. But these two parks, while near each other, are two totally different experiences and environments. It was funny one year when the National Park was shut down as a result of a government shutdown, the National Park-ites then naturally gravitated towards the State Park. They were complaining about the roads. No hookups. “It broke my car.” I just laughed.

This story? To be clear, it’s about the State Park. The state park is bordered along the south by FM 170 that runs along the Rio Grande from Presidio to Lajitas, TX. Each of these cities contains a State Park visitor center – Fort Leaton State Historic Site and Barton Warnock, respectively. Each contains gas and food. That is the exterior of the park and is totally accessible by most vehicles. There are several campgrounds along this route. Grassy Banks. Madera Canyons (upper and lower). A couple others. It’s a green scenic view along this route. Family friendly. The interior of the park is a different story. It’s a 27 mile trip to the Sauceda Visitor Center up and down the interior of the park that will take you a few hours to traverse due to the harshness of the road. There are several other even worse roads that branch off from the Main Park Road. Some of these have a posted requirement of high clearance, four wheel drive, and a recommendation of 2 spare tires. There are no hookups at any of these sites. No central water. Interior camping sites are remote and far from each other.

This year we had reserved a site on the interior of the park, a site called Rancho Viejo. Amenities include a covered picnic table, fire pit, and bear-proof locker. Like all sites on the interior this is a pack it in pack it out site. While only about 12-13 miles from FM 170, it is a long, hard 12 miles up and down an unkept, waterboarded road that twists and curves into the interior of the park. We have had plenty of flat tires just on this road in years past. So many sharp stones. It takes us a little over an hour until we reach our Rancho Viejo Trailhead road, which holds our site for this years’ adventure. Next to the site is an old metal windmill and water holding tank. Dry of course. The Rancho Viejo trailhead is about .2 miles from our site and takes you on a windy trail up top of those mountains with glorious views of below into the canyon. This trail is a little over 4 miles long before it intersects with other trails that will take you even further and eventually connect with the Yedra trail system, about 9 more miles down the Main Park Road from where we are camped.

We rode our “me powered” mountain bikes 5.5 miles further into the park to the Ojito Adentra trailhead. This one of the most beautiful trails in the park in our opinion. It starts you off in the desert environment just to drop you off in less than a mile inside a canyon full of trees and water. We also hiked just past the Yedra Trailhead and back. This is one of them high clearance, 4×4, 2 spare tire roads.

We could hear the pack of coyotes howling and yipping and barking at dawn and dusk but didn’t see them. Last year we were able to spot a pack of 15 or more running around. On one of our climbs up a mountain we came across a full coyote skull.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t check on my latest mod to my Runabout – replace and relocate my power. I replaced my 200ah AGM battery with Renogy 200ah LiFe battery. That installation held up rock solid to the jarring it received for over 2 hours of that Main Park Road.

About that follow up to the propane issue… I prefer to have more propane than what I think I can use. Since we will be an hour or more away from civilization at our destination, I don’t want to have a reason to have to travel to civilization. No propane in Van Horn. Cool. I’ll stop at Marfa. Same thing in Marfa – no propane. I’ll try Presidio. Same. I stopped at 2 different places in Presidio and was told by both there were no propane exchanges. They hadn’t been restocked for 2 weeks due to the supplier which supplies everyone in that particular region. Not good. A park ranger told me of the place where the propane exchangers get their propane from and would be able to fill our tanks. However, it turned out that we really didn’t need any. By our 4th day, and with 2 spare tanks left, I decided not to worry about it. We ended up having plenty. By the time we made it home, I still had a mostly full tank on the Runabout and and a spare on the truck.

What camping article of mine would be complete without talking about my camp cooking? There was a big pot of chili that we ate for 2 nights of our expedition. Since we spent a Tuesday out in the field, I of course made my field expedient tacos – ground beef. I already had some ground sirloin taco meat made up and frozen so we just brought that along to heat up. Coincidentally, during the hike we did Tuesday I chose Taco Bell Supreme Taco flavored sunflower seeds.

Another day I field tested the newly installed inverter with a crock pot with a roast, potatoes, carrots, celery, onion, and only an Au Jus gravy packet mix for seasoning. Matched with some flaky layer biscuits done in the oven and it made for a splendid pot roast with ready made gravy. Highly recommend this to those with power to spare.

Another usual field meal I like is my Barley Lentil Stew served with saltines and shredded swiss cheese. Also enough for two meals. In between, we enjoyed sammiches and chili dogs.

Spirits of choice was just two this year. A bottle of the 28th Voyage of Jefferson Ocean and Don Julio Cristolino.

We like to leave our mark here in an inconspicuous spot. Someplace where only we would get to. On a mountain top. One that has no trails. So mountain climbing is required. But we know it’s there. And if you know just where to look with some binocs, we can confirm that it is still standing.

Till next year, I’ll have these memories to fall back on.

I went to renew the tags on my Softail the other day…

Apparently, millennials are in charge over there.

Lithium Iron Phosphate, or LiFe batteries are all the rage. They charge faster and weigh about half as much as their lead acid counterparts. They have bluetooth connectivity to report their status. They have their own Battery Monitoring Software (BMS) to protect them against extreme environmental conditions. They will last you on average 8-10 years. Win-win, right? But they are a bit more fragile. You’re not just going to just let this battery hang out on the tongue of your camper like you would a regular acid lead. Those things are indestructible.

LiFe batteries need a little bit more tender loving care. They can safely discharge from below zero all the way up to 140 degrees, but can only safely charge over 32 degrees. The BMS constantly monitors parameters such as these and will automatically cut off charging to prevent damage to the battery – damage being extremely shortening its lifespan.

Another not-so-much of a win is the price, although they are starting to become more economically viable. I had a 200ah AGM battery that weighed over 160 pounds that I paid around $400 for verses the same size LiFe battery hovering around $1000.

We don’t typically camp where it’s cold. By cold, I mean doesn’t reach up into the 50s or 60s during the day. I don’t mind it dipping into the 20s overnight – that’s what the furnace is for. But I don’t want to use a generator, I expect my solar panels to bring my battery back up to full charge during the day, and do that without having to use the furnace during the day. Keeping the windows closed when the outside temps are 50-60s, the RV will get into the 70s inside. If we have to on a day here or there, that’s all right. Our battery is big enough to handle that. But I wouldn’t want to press my luck for a week straight. Besides, I wouldn’t even want to play outside in that kind of weather for that many consecutive days. That’s what we do when we camp – we play outside. Hiking. Biking. Mountain climbing.

First thing I had to was find a good spot inside the RV. My AGM was mounted on the tongue behind the propane tanks. I had created a shelf a few years ago inside a compartment to hold my stainless steel gas grill. I even mounted straps on the shelf in order to secure the grill inside the cubby. I could retrofit that shelf to hold the new LiFe battery instead, in a way that would also utilize the straps intended for the grill. I took off the shelf off the support legs I had built, and dropped the shelf to the floor and secured it to the floor. Battery fits on the shelf, straps wrap around the top of the battery on both left and right sides. I secured a few pieces of wood with screws, essentially framing the base of the battery to prevent it from sliding left/right or forward/backward. The two straps will hold it down. This system works really well for keeping that battery in place. Most of our camping is done in National Forests and BLM areas.

Along with this new lithium battery I was installing a battery monitor. Something to track the amp hours coming in and going out. Since the voltage on a lithium battery doesn’t decrease with use, it becomes impossible to use the standard 4-bar battery meter that comes with most RVs. This battery is going to read between 13.3 and 14.1 (a full 4 bars on the standard meter) volts at all times until it is depleted. Those 4-bar meters rely on the voltage drop to determine how much battery life you have left.

Since I was installing a battery monitor and inverter, I figured I better install a heavy duty terminal bar. That battery monitor requires the use of a shunt on the negative side of the battery so that it monitors every last electron. The inverter uses a 4 gauge battery cable. A bus bar just made sense. I ordered a couple of 1/4 inch thick copper bars, drilled some “H” size holes in them in order to tap a M8 thread to hold a standard M8 bolt that would secure the terminals. Wanting this power distro board to look professional, I also took some fabric and covered some wooden boards that I would eventually mount these copper bars on. 1/4 inch acrylic sheets were cut down to use as protection agains foreign materials coming into contact with the bus bars. The entire power distro board mounted vertically to the wall of the cubby, inches from the battery.

Results: battery fully charged by the 20 amp Renogy Charger as indicated by the battery itself in the DC Home app. I reset the charge indicator on the Battery Monitor to tell it what this fully charged battery looks like – calibrated. The monitor tells me I am using 1.3 amps at the time, 99 hours of use left from this 200ah battery as long as the RV consumes at a constant rate that it is at that time. That is the fridge, display light of the entertainment center, couple LED lights. It is November, so sunset is at 5:45PM, full dark by 6:30. Furnace kicks in. Battery monitor now shows 7.5 amps being used. The time reaming drops from 99 hours to 26 hours. This battery could run the furnace for 26 hours straight. But we know it won’t happen. The furnace will simply kick on and off all night. Which it does. Thermostat set to 65. Outside temps drop down to 42 degrees overnight.

Sunrise occurs at 6:45am. I’m up at 7 and check on the monitor. 164 amp hours remaining. Percentage is down to 82%. Daytime temps reach as high as 64. Temp inside the RV reaches mid 70s with windows open. By 2PM, the solar panels have managed to charge the battery back up to 100% Battery monitor indicates 100% and 200 amp hours for a minute. Then stays at 100% but drops the amps down to 199 where it stays for the rest of the day. DC Home app indicates battery stays at 100% and 200 amps. Impressive.

Another test involved tracking the temp in the battery compartment as it falls below freezing outside. Overnight temps dropped to 26 degrees. Maintained 65 degrees inside the RV overnight. DC Home app says the battery reported dropping down to 42.3 degrees, which did trigger a “warning” from the battery’s BMS. Nothing happens from a warning. You wouldn’t even know the alarm tripped unless you are monitoring via the app. The manual for the battery says the BMS will shut off the acceptance of a charge if the battery drops below 32 degrees. Monitoring the temp overnight with my own thermometer, the lowest the compartment reached says 43 degrees. So 28 outside, 55 inside, and still 43 degrees inside the battery compartment. I think this location will work out fine for the battery.

Over our Thanksgiving week camping trip out to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument’s Twin Peaks Campground, I installed the Renogy 1000 watt inverter. That’s enough to power our air compressor. We use our mountain bikes during our excursions, resulting in a lot of low pressure and tire popping from cacti. Slimed tubes are a requirement if we don’t want to repair or change out tubes daily. It’s nice to be able to use a bigger air compressor. Eventually, I plan on connecting the inverter directly into the power distro box for the Lance with a rotary switch that will allow me to choose between shore or inverter power. On the shore power side, I replaced the stock converter/charger with a Progressive Dynamics PD 4600 series lithium battery charger.

Links to Installed Equipment
(opens in a new tab at the manufacturer’s website)

Renogy 200ah LiFe battery
Renogy 4000w peak/2000w continuous Inverter
Renogy 500 amp battery monitor with shunt
Renogy Adventurer Li 30 amp PWM charge controller
Renogy solar panels
Progressive Dynamics PD4655LIV converter/charger