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French 75

Different drinks transport us to other times and places. The French 75 is a bubbling glass of nostalgia. It is to be held in the hand of a silver screen starlet and toasted as fireworks explode in the background. While I forgo garnish on most of my cocktails, the French 75 almost begs for it. And, best of all: it is so easy to make. Heck, if you are willing to prepare it ahead of time and keep it chilled, you don't even need the ice cubes (which is a plus for nomads such as us where ice cubes are in rare supply.) Mix up your evening with this cocktail classic.

Hiking the North Grove Trail in the snow of Calaveras Big Trees State Park in the Sierras outside of Murphys, California and Highway 49.

The Sierra Nevada mountains range is host to a stunning range of natural diversity. With the ocean to the west, the desert to the east, and glacial mountaintops in between, there are new surprises to be encountered with each change in ecosystem. At about 4,700 feet in elevation and just off Alpine State Highway is a collection of giants that can grow to 325 feet tall and 33 feet wide - some as old as 2,000 years. Despite a turbulent, tragic, and occasionally uncertain history, these giants are now protected for all to enjoy in the Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

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.

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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French 75

Calaveras Big Trees State Park

How Much Power Do I Use In A Day?

How Many Lights Do I Need In My RV?