We Survived

Big Horn National Forest - Wyoming 
We have been offline for most of this week.  We had an opportunity to boondock with Howard and Linda.  They have a rig that is really set up for this activity and I really thought I could get over my reluctance to put my foot in the water.

Our rig has A solar panel, Inverter, 6 house batteries and a generator.  My daily activity on the solar did not meet my outgoing amperage from the  batteries, thereby increasing my need for generator usage.  We discussed over time several suggestions to increase my capabilities thus changing some parameters of the inverter/auto gen start. 

Finally, the last night, I just jumped off the deep end and turned off the inverter.  I came up sputtering and splashing and I had success.  Nothing melted in the freezer, although it went from 0 to 16 degrees and withing 3 hours had recovered.

Now to the benefits.  Wowie, Zowie did we have fun.  We are just quiet nature lovers at heart and did we get our fill of that.  After saying that, can you ever get full???  There was plenty of scenery even before we found our site.  While doing that we did have a discussion with the Forest Rangers about what was available for campsites.  End result we were right, they were wrong, and we went down the road and found a quieter spot, just couldn't see the snow all of the time.

The view.

Our campsite.

We had many more photos of the above, but you can not show them all.  I can only say the wildlife, mule deer, marmots, Linda and Carolyn saw a moose, were fantastic.

On the 4th of July we took both Howard and Linda's See Eagle and my brand new, unpacked, See Eagle Paddleski to Tie Hack reservoir for an initial cruise.  Carolyn was a little leery about how small and narrow it was, but 30 minutes into the cruise she was having a ball and felt more secure.  As you can see.

 

I will admit to an overwhelming moment gliding around the lake realizing that July 4th, the designated day of freedom, and with us being totally free on the boondocking experience and finally doing things we had only dreamed about.  I felt like William Wallace and wanting to yell at the top of my lungs, "F R E E D O M".  You just had to be there.  We have Howard and Linda to thank for this as much as anyone.  They gave us their history and experiences to lead us and many others to believe that this experience can be anyone's.  All you have to do is prepare and then dip that toe in the water.

We did have a minor problem upon leaving.  An engine coolant hose burst before we made it out of the mountains.  I made it to the pull off to check the brakes before continuing.  Getting out of the MH we could see coolant running out of the storage bays.  We proceeded to open and unload and try to get up as much as we could while making our calls to Coachnet to initiate help and assistance.  The tow truck arrived at 1 hour and 45 minutes after pulling off the road.  It took 2 hrs to hook up the motor home to the tow truck.  1 hour later we were at the Steve's Truck Service in Sheridan, WY for a Tuesday appointment.  The mechanic looked at it during our discussion about where to park where so I could get some kind of power, and determined that he could fix it quick. :)))
It was a 5" piece of hose connector at the Aqua Hot (I figure for an engine bypass heater).  That fixed, and 6 gallons of coolant and we were in business.  Great because it was hot in Sheridan and all I was going to have was 15 amp power. (I didn't have a 30 to 15 amp connector)  I was prepared to boondock again.  I know I can do it now.  It was just another day in paradise.

We were tired and found a local park, Peter D's RV Park.  We're staying 2 nights and will get to see the OMG hill on highway 14 in the upper Big Horn National Forest.  Stay tuned for more.

It just keeps getting better and better.