Friday, September 14, 2012

Motorhome Moving Day

Yes, it's Friday---- it's time to move off this site number 103 because it's reserved by someone else for the weekend.  It's been a nice roomy site with nobody close by at all.


When moving to another site, it's a good time to dump the holding tanks and fill with fresh water, as we have been here on this site for 8 days now.  We can make it about 13-14 days if we are frugal with the water usage.  Of course we use our shower and do the dishes, but we don't let it run needlessly.  Our motorhome tank carries 100 gallons of freshwater, and 50 waste (grey) water and 50 toilet (black) water.

Because I still have 1/3 to 1/4 of fresh water in the tank this morning, I am running the washing machine to catch up on the laundry.  I know by 2:30 this afternoon we will be filling our fresh water tank back up, we can use as much as we want from the tank this morning.  We have on board a Splendide washer/dryer combination unit.  It washes the clothes, then dries the clothes, all in the same unit.



In between wash and dry, I take the wet clothes out and shake them well and put them back in.  Otherwise they are plastered tight to the sides of the drum from the spin cycle.  If it goes into the dry mode with them flat against the drum, they will dry with wrinkles in them.  That is a little trick I picked up from other RVers with the same kind of unit.


Steve worked some overtime again this week.  The DNR does not like paying out for overtime, so they rather he just takes off early today instead of working beyond 40 hours.  So he will be here about 2 pm to help me finish loading up and moving over to site 47 later on today.

We are moving to a non-electric site, but we will be okay because of our four large 6v batteries that are fully charged up right now.  Our solar will not work as well or not much at all this weekend, because all of the sites here are very shaded among all of the tall trees.  So back to "boondocking mode" of not wasting power!


We have been so spoiled by living all these weeks with electrical hookups.  Back to using more of the LED lights, and less of the energy wasting bulb type fixtures.   Also we will limit our tv time, only having it on if it's something we really want to watch.   The newer LED tv we bought a few weeks ago uses about half the power than the older tube type tvs we have mounted in the cabinets.

Other energy saving measures we use are making sure the laptops and camera and phones are charged up today and when using them to draw from it's own battery power rather than using 110v cords.  We do have an on-board inverter which lets our 110 things run from the batteries, but it eats up the power that way.  Instead we try to use the laptops on their own batteries, or use their 12v cords to recharge if needed.  Same with our cell phones and digital and video cameras.

It's been getting down in the lower 40's at night, so our propane heater will be running at night.  We have an Olympian Wave 8 which uses only propane, and no electricity.  The big onboard furnace that most RV's come with drain a lot of battery power to run the fan.  So we don't use that one.  The sunny days have been up in the 70's so we are very comfortable.

To monitor our batteries, our Trimetric gauge on the wall that shows us how much power we are using and how much is in the batteries and how much is left when we are done running things.  We never let our batteries get below 50%.  Here the gauge is showing the batteries are at 13.3 volts stored up.  I like leaving the display at the other mode where it shows numbers from 100% going downwards with our usage.  Easier to keep track of it that way.



On Monday, the park is having an electrical upgrade from 200 amp service to 800 amp service.  Steve will be helping the contractors with the upgrade, run new wires, install new service panels and subpanels, and new outlets on the posts in the electrical sites.  Since that will be going on Monday, Tuesday and maybe into Wednesday, there won't be any electrical sites being rented out in this park anyhow.

We made reservations down at Calumet County Park, just down the shore about 5-6 miles away.

We will have granddaughter Allegra on Monday and Tuesday for her overnight visit.  Looking forward to another little beebopper girl having fun camping with Granmuddah and Granfaddah Pfun!

PS, we had great evening last night, 
with a beautiful sunset 
and a Packer win over Da Bears! 






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7 comments:

  1. Wow, a Cheesehead victory! Nice way to top off a good day. :c)

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  2. Good for you and the Packers! Today is cleaning and laundry day here too. Some things we can't leave behind with the sticks and bricks.

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  3. Howdy K&S,
    Now, as I understand 'full-timin'' & 'boondockin'', you stay as long in one spot as you wish!! What's with all of this movin' the bus every few days nonsense!! Are y'all full-timin' or just 'campin''?? AND STEVEIO IS IN CHARGE OF THE WHOLE OPERATION!!! For the Pfun family I guess thatz part of the Pfun!!
    I love it!!! Hope your day's going great!!!!!!!

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  4. I'm enjoying reading your posts of full time RVing. You make is sound so easy! Perhaps that is because you've been gearing up for the big day, eh? ;)

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  5. I love my Splendide. It is retrofit into the kitchen cabinet under our burners, so this unit didn't have one when it was built. Thanks for all the handy hints. I had no idea I could us the Splendide when I wasn't hooked up to sewer and water.

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