New Year’s Day is a moving day for the Buchanan’s, Thunder has not ran since we settled in here on December the first. Today will have us heading north on AZ-85 to Gila Bend and Interstate 8 where we will head west, todays end destination is BLM land near the VFW Post 8242 on US-95 near Yuma. I expect we will make a stop at Dateland for one of their world famous date shakes on the way across I-8 to Yuma, total distance will be only around 162 miles, but I expected driving time will be about three plus hours, partially because the first 60 miles is two lane highway, and then there will be a fuel stop in the Yuma area before heading to the BLM land. And because we would like to be settled in full daylight our time of departure will need to be about 11 o’clock this morning, we are almost packed, last showers on full hookups, dumping the tanks, are the quick part, the goodbyes are the most difficult and time consuming part of any departure.
There are a number of little items that I need to check on, for one I need to start and run the generator, I have not started it since the oil change was completed, and it may be needed to recharge the new battery bank if the solar can not get the job done, I also need to check the battery charging from the alternator on Thunder, and make a determination if any kind of a voltage limiter is required, I do not expect any issues but we still need to check it.
Our stop in Yuma will have a number of tasks to complete, first I will need to get our Verizon hot spot fired up again, then I have an item to send back to Amazon that our UPS driver was unable to make happen so a trip to a UPS store will be required, we will most likely make a trip to a Costco in California for the restocking of supplies before a month of boon-docking, and last but not least a chance to visit with Gilles and Francine who we have not seen since last year in Florida. We will also be taking in a couple of movies while in Yuma, Miss Laurie wants to see new Star Wars movie for sure and if time allows we will try to see if we can take in a second show.
And of course this will be the first real test of the new battery bank and our ability to recharge with our solar system. My expectations are high for the recharging, but this will be our first, indication whether we have enough solar panels to handle the task, or if some additional panels will be required. But that will be a slow process over some time starting with different parking locations and tipping the panels or not, that’s why we have a month or so because it could take that long to figure it all out…just saying.
The Buchanan's Rolling Down The Road 