It’s Monday morning at 5:30, temperature is 13 or 58 degrees, forecast is a high of 28 or 84 and low tonight of 17 or 61, the three day rain storm has been downgraded to two and the daytime highs will be in the high teens or high sixties. I watched too much sports yesterday, but we always seem to be busy or traveling on Sundays so it was kind of nice to enjoy the warmth and watch some sports, I still seem to battle with the time change but we are working hard at getting it straightened out, this in bed at 9 and up before 6 needs at least an hour of adjustment. One of the things that has always seemed strange to me was how short the days are even this far south, sunset is 5:30 and sunrise is after 7 so our days are only a little more than 10 hours of sunshine and the UV index today is 0, I know when we were in Arizona two years ago, over the winter it was almost impossible to get burnt by the sun.

On Sunday we brought in 289 amp/hours of solar power, which is great, again we hit 100% recharge of our battery bank, and again we depleted our batteries below 70% overnight. The majority of the draw is in the evening while we enjoy some television before turning in, and our biggest issue is the voltage, so many items are voltage sensitive as I plan our upgrades as compared to our needs.

Well we drove to Arizona to go kayaking, well not just to go kayaking but we we are, Lake Havasu was created by the installation of a damm at the town of Parker, this was finished in 1938, it was done to create a reservoir to provide water for a couple of aqueducts. The reservoir is about 26 miles long but only 3 miles wide, the lake covers 19,300 acres and is only 35 feet deep on average, and has a maximum of 90 feet at the deepest point. Lake Havasu City has worked at becoming a tourist destination by moving the London Bridge to the town, and developing a whole collection of attractions, the moving of the bridge was an amazing feat but is still just a tourist attraction although it is the only access to the island which is home to a number of RV parks and multiple resorts. There is lots of boating in the area, way too much boat traffic (and this is a Monday in November), and way too many noisy boats for our liking, would definitely recommend stopping to see the attractions but everything seem overpriced for what you are getting.

Day 776

Looking down at our spot at Craggy, as you can see we are tucked into a bowl with a few others, the wind seems to come from multiple directions, and the mountains do reduce our sunshine in the morning and afternoons, the afternoons are very warm, but when the sun dives behind the hills the temperature starts to drop off which makes sleeping much nicer. Today the wind is justing enough to keep bringing in the awning, I think I will adjust our positioning next time to keep the fridge on the shaded side, this means changing the way the solar panels tip, not a big change and should help the fridge keep up on these sunny 80+ degree days.

As I sit writing today on the shady side of the coach at 11:30 it is 24 or 80 degrees, the sky is crystal clear and there seems to be a light breeze from the west, Mr. Sam is in his tent watching the local geckos scurry back and forth, Miss Laurie has mixed herself a cocktail just to keep hydrated. We had a big shopping trip to Walmart about three miles away, to pick up supplies and get some good signal to make some phone calls and catch up on some banking, the ability to deposit cheque’s with your phone, that allows us to pay almost every bill, transfer money by e-transfer, they have made this life style quite easy, in a matter of minutes, I deposited four cheque’s into three different banks, paid three credit cards from three different banks and accepted an e-transfer, plus downloaded a number of statements. Things have become much smoother now than there were even just two years ago, our US Verizon hot spot, out Roam Mobility phones, and my Canadian cell phone as a backup, while not cheap it seems to be working. We do sometimes go to spots that do not have the best reception, but it can change just moving a few hundred feet in any direction, and the terrain is the main cause as much as it is the main draw to these areas.

We are being very hard on our batteries, as much as we are getting them to 100% by early afternoon we are also dragging them down below 70% overnight before the sun rises, we have not ran the generator since getting here and will not until the solar fails to top the bank off. Which could be happening next week, as the news stations build up the rain storm the same way they did at home with snow storms, but down here clouds and rain are not commonplace, so there could be some generator time next week.

It is Sunday, which is football day, in fact the first games are already underway, here the one o’clock games start at 11 so it takes some getting use to. But I’m struggling through. Watched a bunch of college ball yesterday, Ohio State is 10-0, there must be much jubilation in the Ward household, even got a chance to watch a little golf from Mexico, I seem to be settling into the laid back feet up role with out much struggle, and now instead of reading a book, I’m writing a blog and for some reason people are reading it…who’d thunk.