Category: Solar

Day 2773

So close!

6:40 Wednesday morning, we are in a Walmart parking lot in Bowling Green Ohio, it is a strange shaped lot with an area beside a water collection area, the rows have medians with trees, so our spot is on the northside of the lot and was very quiet overnight. We have stayed here before and always find it a good overnight spot, it is not a great store but it certainly has the majority of the the items we could require, part of the reason we like it is because it has so much shopping close by, a Home Depot, a Harbor Freight, an Aldi, a Staples, and multiple fast food restaurants. I’m planning a stop at Harbor Freight, this morning and Miss Laurie visited Aldi yesterday, our departure time is 9:00 o’clock and we hope to get to an overnight spot in Pennsylvania and our last fuel stop in the States.

Breakfast today Miss Laurie made breakfast sandwiches with tomato, bacon and an egg of course to came with a cup of fresh perked coffee and a wee Irish blessing, we have not had many good solar days for a while and there is the threat of Sunshine in the forecast today, but I’m thinking that I will believe it when I see it. Our battery bank 41.4% this morning and as we travelled east after a little light rain the skies started to open and that big yellow ball appeared bringing the solar system to life and now I won’t need to run our generator today. We are passing Cleveland today and while we avoid the city center we will travel on a number of highways, all places we have travelled before but Navi guided us through the route with no issue. Once we clear Cleveland we are east bound on I-90 headed toward Erie Pennsylvania our chosen destination for today, but first a fuel stop in eastern Ohio to top off the fuel tank, today a TA truck stop with a pump price of $3,099 before our discount, we took on 53.735 gallons (203.4 liters) of diesel, pre discount price $166.52.

Our next stop is Presque Isle Downs & Casino near Erie Pennsylvania, a huge parking lot that has some flat areas and some not flat areas, we have stayed here before, I remember a snow storm and cold weather I will have to look back and see when … well a look back shows two previous stays here one in April of 2018 and the second a two day stay in April of 2019 so a little more than 5 years ago. This afternoon is sunny at at 4:45 we are still harvesting 30+ amps of solar power and while we will not hit 100% we should be better that 90%.

The photo of Thunder & Ruby parked at our last overnight of this trek to the border, we pulled in around 2:00 pm and Miss Laurie made us a fried chicken wrap a meal we will call “Linner” being either a late lunch or an early dinner. I spent some time switching our home base on our YouTube TV streaming service to Erie PA, as it is due south from our summer home this year so should have better weather forecast and has the main US channels. It is a dragged out process that needs a cell phone to get a accurate location. I later caught up on both the Canadian & American news and then Miss Laurie and I watched some pre-recorded shows. We are less than two hours from the border with good weather and traffic we should be back in Ontario before lunch tomorrow.

Today’s Numbers: 4:02 hours of run time covering 228.7 mile (368 kilometers), consuming 26.4 gallons (99.9 liters) of diesel, averaging 56mph (90.1 km/h), with a fuel efficiency of 8.6 mpg (27.35 liters/100 km). was not a good cruise control day with heavier traffic and lower highway speeds

Day 2772

Ninth travel day.

Tuesday morning on the sixth of May and todays travel should only be around two hours, so far we have traveled 1766 miles (2842 kilometers), and today will add another 140 miles today, and our destination today is a Walmart parking lot in Bowling Green OH, as we plan a visit with Miss Betty and her family later today.

5:45 was wake up time this morning, and I woke to a thunder storm, although it appears to be letting up, but everything just feels cold and damp, I guess that is the price of a winter of warm dry in the desert. Our overnight spot was without interruption, but a steady drone of the interstate, and a delivery truck at the restaurant at six o’clock this morning. Now we get to order breakfast from Cracker Barrel, it will to go so I can enjoy my perked coffee in the coach will watching the morning news. And yes there will be a wee Irish blessing.

As i walked around the building to pick up our breakfast it amazes me that as much as all the Cracker Barrels look pretty much the same, and we have stayed at a number of them, but the atmosphere can be so different, and the old saying that you only get one chance to make a first impression. And before I have even got my order because the cashier was wandering around the store and almost seemed put out that I would bother her, but I got my order and walked back to the coach where we enjoyed breakfast with a cup of fresh perked coffee. Miss Laurie had pecan pancakes, and I had ham and eggs with biscuits & gravy, and yes there was an Irish blessing in our coffee this morning.

We are only planning of travelling 140 miles (225 kilometers), and every weather app is indicating rain, so to avoid loosing a whole day we will make our way to Bowling Green OH, we pull out at nine o’clock and head north on I-69 toward Fort Wayne IN, where we hook up with I-469 to US-24 as we turn east toward Ohio. The rain is gaining in intensity and the wipers are now on the quickest intermittent speed, again Indiana your road condition in horrendous, and as we cross into Ohio it becomes even more apparent, we ate east bound toward Toledo, but will hook up with US-6 for the last few miles into Bowling Green. The rain is brutal and just wont let up as we find a spot in the Walmart parking lot we are a long way from the store, Miss Laurie needs some items for snacks today so I suggest taking Ruby so I go to unattached Ruby and come back well dampened.

I stayed at the coach while Miss Laurie went shopping, because of the rain I started the generator and ran it for almost an hour and a half, part of the last half hour was to operate the air-fryer while Miss Laurie made bacon wrapped cheese stuffed dates, always a hit where ever she takes them. We are ready to head to Pemberville shortly after two, we have not visited Betty since last October and she has had a new house built since then, so lots to catch up on as she prepares her present home to be shown this weekend. After a couple of hours we drove past the new home, we will tour it when it is complete this fall. our next stop was Brian & Linsi’s home where they had prepared a big pot of potato soup, the perfect answer to this cold damp weather.

Needless to say we were late getting back to the coach and just couldn’t talk myself into finishing off this blog, in fact I was the first to crawl into bed, I even turned on the mattress warmer as I crawled in between the sheets. To say I was tired would be an understatement it is tiring driving in the rain, it just takes so much concentration that it beats you up mentally as much as it does physically.

Today’s numbers: 2:54 run time, 139.5 miles (224.5 kilometers) we consumed 17.3 gallons (65.5 liters) of diesel fuel, we only averaged 47 mph (75.6 km/hr), and averaged 8.0 mpg (29.4 liters per 100 km). The speed was so low because we hit three sections of road construction on I-69 and a accident on I-469 that had some stop and go traffic, the rest of the numbers look good