Ok we are only moving about 30 miles today, but it will take a little work just the same. We had a good solar day yesterday 174 amp/hrs, batteries fully charged first day in 3 days, the solar is so high because no other source of power yesterday no generator or drive time, the batteries were quite low, we are parked at the peak direction to maximize the sun. So here is what the solar was able to do that the generator could not, solar carried the full load of the coach yesterday plus slowly charged the batteries to 100% and then maintained any load as long as there was sun. This morning the monitor shows batteries at 88% from when the sun went down to now as I watch the sun rise at 6:35 this morning as we will be producing power any second now. Producing power is so easy, fast, and efficient we just need more storage – ahh – the charge light just flicked on.

I will have to fill with propane today as we head to our hook up site, I’m not just sure how big the tank is, but because when we have full hookups only the stove uses propane and on the road only the refrigerator and cook top use propane so we last topped off the tank last year, the gauge is showing less than a quarter of a tank but never reads more than three quarters so I’m not sure an the actual level.

So the northern trek had us traveling 1550 miles, we will have been 11 days since being connected, all tank readings are still mid tank level, so two weeks boon-docking is quite easy for us. We drive short days like a five hour day is huge for us, we plan to avoid the most traffic in the big cities, but we just plan about a day or two in advance, and it’s still effected by weather and the like, that is why we sat an extra day in Erie PA, because there was snow flurries on the Monday so we just hunkered down till Tuesday. If you book campgrounds or sites ahead of time than your committed to keeping a certain pace which may not always be what you would like and may put you in a difficult driving position because of weather or traffic.

Well we just had the propane tank topped off, 99 litres of propane to fill it, last time we filled it was in October. I have often wondered and been asked how large the tank was now I know, it must be a 30 gallon tank. And now all our Canadian family has that puzzled look because in Canada we talk about how many pounds the tank is…so as a point of reference or conversion a 20 pound tank in Canada is a 5 gallon tank in the States, so in Canadian out on-board tank is 120 pound tank.

Point of interest – so far it is only Ontario that rips off everyone that fills a barbecue tank, everywhere we have been in the states and all the provinces east of Ontario all sell propane by the gallon or litre. Only in Ontario so far have we been overcharged for propane. To our US friends in Ontario the put propane tanks on a scale and fill them to certain weight, which would be fine if we only paid for the amount you got but all 20 pound (5 gallon) tanks would be charged $20 whether the were empty or half full….can you say rip off

Well we are settled into our campground and have all the creature comforts again, stay tuned because tomorrow I will rant about campers who can’t drive….lol

Well to say it has not been a good solar week is very much an understatement, yesterday only brought in 93 amp/hrs, so we are subsidizing with generator power. Which is fine but it is noisy and burn fuel. Still far cheaper than the site charge and we are more centralized here than at the site.

We had neighbors overnight, Bob and Shari Bannon crossed the boarder late yesterday as well, and have pulled in beside us for the night. As I’m writing this Bob is trying to get his generator running, but it keeps stalling out, it sounds like a fuel supply issue. I suspect their batteries are low as it was only 33 degrees here so lots of furnace time overnight, we shut everything down and tuck into bed and fire the heater when I wake up, our batteries are only at 74% this morning so not far from our own generator time, temperature in the coach a toasty 54 degrees…lol

Well a new exhaust on the Sport-Trac so we should be good for a few years, Bob and Shari have moved on to Fifty Point Conservation Area for a couple of weeks, we will be there tomorrow. Full hookups for the Easter weekend, we are having dinner this evening with Gino and Marlese, they own an auto body repair shop in St.Catharines and we have been good friends for more than twenty years, and will most likely be doing some work on both vehicles before we head south in the fall. As we are heading to Lake Huron on Monday we are trying to cover a lot of ground in a little bit of time.

Dinner was great, good to catch up with close friends, they are preparing for a Easter dinner with their kids and grand kids, so a busy few days as everyone prepares, seems like there is not a lot to update everyone about but some times that’s good.

For those who were wondering about the refrigerator, still running since the last time I cleaned the jet three days ago so I’m claiming a victory on this one. The temperature has been better in the low fifties over night, and forecasting in the sixties tomorrow but windy