The fall snap is in the air, and everyone is SAD! SUMMER IS OVER.
Well not everyone, some of ya'll like winter. I love the three seasons but I love leaving when it's dark and cold.
Last year, I made a short list of what I'd do differently the next time.
Here it is.
1. While I can do just a car, this time I'm taking my little "Livin' Lite" fold up trailer which will allow me the luxury
of a bed, sofa, lots of storage and six foot plus headroom! AND a propane heater! However I might not always have the situation where I can use this, so I'm still making the car the secondary living/sleeping space.
What's great about this trailer is that you can push it around by hand once it's off the car. And it's only 600 lbs so you can tow it with anything. I love the open "screen room" canvass feeling too when the windows are down.
What's not great about dragging a trailer is that you have to tow it, park it, leave it, lock it, and my car doesn't feel as nimble and zippy as I like it to and gas mileage suffers about a 30% loss.
It's all about trade offs. If you want this, you gotta not have that.
2. I took a solar panel suitcase to charge my house batteries last year and used it ONCE. And lugging that thing around was a bummer. Big and heavy.
So I'm going to wire my car battery to my house battery so it charges when I drive. I Just have to remember to disconnect it when I'm using the house battery for my computer etc or it will drain the car. Lots of audio nuts do this to run their audio equipment on the road. (Maybe that's what makes that bass sound so loud in those crazy loud vehicles?)
I'll see how this works. When I come back and still plan on using the car to travel in, I might put a little flexible flat solar panel on the top of my Honda Accord.
3. The biggest luxury I'm probably going to have to forgo is a 12 volt cooler which means back to the ice chest and buying ice every two or three days.
It takes some serious voltage to run a fridge continuously, which means getting very serious about generating that voltage with solar panels and a bank of batteries.
This generally takes a 400 watt solar system and tons of sun, which works in the desert, but not consistently on the east coast.
The other option for RVer's is a three way fridge which can run off of DC, AC or propane. That's the way to go. But I don't have that in my camper right now. Maybe I'll look into it before I leave just for the heck of it.
AND
4. I took a very very twin large foam mat in the car for sleeping last time because I wanted to sleep well and be familiar with the bed that I normally like. It took up a lot of space, but somehow I managed. So this time, I'm hoping to streamline into a mat made for camping.
There were 94 GREAT "5 star" reviews on LL Bean for this one so it's coming for me to test out. It's called "Camp Futon" it has 3 inch density and it's $99.00.
And what's great about LL Bean is that if you don't like it or it leaks or something (even after you use it a LOT), they'll take it back. For the rest of your (or its) life.
SO................
I'm mostly going to focus on Florida this year. Or I might find myself on the Gulf Coast of Alabama.
First stop, back to Amelia Island and stay with my pal Mike who I met last year when he hosted me.
Would love to drop in on Jed and Dave and see the rebuild of their house in St. Augustine (which hopefully will be spared a second hit!).
Have an old friend near Sanibel Island named Chuck, haven't seen him in a long time.
Around to the west coast to Sarasota and drop in on Pat and her new pooch Flynn.
Will check out "Boondockers Welcome" and "Couchsurfing" invites around the state - generally great way to meet folks.
I might also drop in on A Course In Miracles groups and make friends there also.
Also there is an amazing amount of open space that you can camp for free. I have to get up my nerve though to do this! For more on this check out this video "Gone with the Wynns"
Free Florida Camping -"Gone with the Wynns"
And in between, do some volunteering at Workaway and other places. I'm sure there'll be lots to do if Irma has it's way with Florida.
It's easy to make friends on the road. You just have to be friendly and helpful!
Found a great site for finding volunteer opportunities all over the country.
And of course..........walk on the beaches with Choochi. She's the "dog" part of the Me, Dog, Car.
