Month February 2020

How Much Power Do I Use In A Day?

Aluminum Avion C11 truck camper driving down Shafer Road through Canyonlands National Park.

To know how large of an electrical system we need, we need to estimate our consumption. It's a task that seems simple at first, until you really sit down to think through all the variables. To know our power draw, we need to know what appliances we will be using but we are holding off on buying those high ticket items until we have our power system in place. So, this is a process of educated guesses and many rabbit holes. Many of the numbers in this post are derived from much more involved research broken out in other posts. But here is as close to a summary as I, the obsessive documenter, can manage.

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How Many Lights Do I Need In My RV?

Perched in a truck camper at Zapata Falls Campground, outside Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado.

There are many units of measurement, metric and imperial, that I am very familiar with. But lumens is such an ephemeral value that shopping for lighting becomes very confusing. Lumens are a measurement of brightness. The more light a bulb puts out, the more lumens and power. As there is no "one size fits all" solution for lighting, there's a lot of math and a bit of art to determining what lighting is appropriate for a space.

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Mark Twain Cabin

The Mark Twain Cabin on Jackass Hill, Tuttletown, California was home to Samuel Clemens while writing "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"

I thought my directions were wrong when we turned up a steep incline and wandered down a rough but clearly residential road. I don't expect historic sites to be flanked by rural homes with horses and chicken coops. Yet, standing across the street from the accusatory glare of a neighboring donkey is the Mark Twain Cabin.

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Murphys, California

Camping in the Acorn Recreation Area

The California foothills are full to bursting with beautiful historic towns but Murphys takes a place of special prominence. The "Queen of the Sierra" is quintessentially Californian. It traces its origins to the California Gold Rush but retains its relevance thanks to its proximity to the outdoor draws of Calaveras Big Trees State Park and Bear Valley Ski Resort while surrounded by vineyards. Over two dozen wine tasting rooms line the main street. While the rest of the world visits Napa and Sonoma, Californians in the know visit Murphys and other neighboring appellations .

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Panko Crusted Crab Cakes

Panko Crusted Crab Cakes Recipe

I have a bad habit of collecting appetizing canned foods. Living on the road, I don't have a lot of space to chill perishable foods. So, canned goods are a handy and reliable fallback. Still, at some point, the time comes when I need to make a concerted effort to lighten the chuck wagon by cooking some of the canned food. Fortunately, it's easy to go eat up the crab meat with this relatively strait forward recipe.

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Homemade Tartar Sauce

Spare can of crab meat? Try this simple, campfire approved, panko crusted crab cake recipe as an appetizer or pair it with a salad or soup for dinner.

Living tiny doesn't leave a lot of room for specialized products, particularly if they need refrigeration. When I lived in a sticks and bricks house, it wasn't a big deal to have a random bottle of dijon mustard sit on a back shelf for months. But living with a cooler or small RV refrigerator, there simply isn't space for something without an immediate value. So, while it doesn't make sense for me to buy a bottle of tartar sauce, the ingredients are simple and common enough for me to make my own. Here is my simple, easy, homemade tartar sauce recipe.

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