Solo life on 30 amps - Living full time in an RV: August 2023

Trip log: 106/186/44

In the month of August of last year, I bought my Jeep Wrangler 4XE, and I must say, it is my favorite car ever. Fiat/Chrysler/Stellantis have really set a high bar with the JL body style and the 4XE power train. More importantly, the 4XE just looks amazing doing absolutely nothing except stand there motionless. You gotta admit, the picture of my Jeep below is awful nice. I have never been this enthralled with a vehicle a year after I bought it. A lot of Jeep owners do lift kits and big tires to make their vehicle even more impressive, but I think the stock 4XE Sahara is amazing all by itself. It has taken me down snowy trails and mountain fire roads without any issues... and it has 22,000 miles on it. Its a good thing I didn't lease it! LOL :-) If you have read my blog in the past, you know I put a trailer hitch on it, and I also have outfitted it so that it can be towed behind my motorhome... but that is about it. A Facebook friend of mine outfitted her 4XE with some beach towel seat covers, and I liked them so much that I had to have them. After all, with all the dogs that come and go from my car, there can be a lot of dog drool to deal with!

With the Jeep 4XE firmly in tow, I have started my second month in the greater Sacramento area, which includes the Yuba and Sutter counties as well. Currently, I have been floating between the Thousand Trails Park in Nicholas called Lake Minden and then up in Oregon House at Lake of the Springs. Both of these parks are great places to camp at. Both parks are a little weak on their electrical service. though all the sights I have stayed at have been "30 Amp " sites, honestly, I'd be surprised if they provide 20 amps before they start to lose their voltage. I have found though that if I turn off everything but one Air conditioner, I have enough volts and amps to run one air conditioner. Everything else though, on a 100 degree day has to be off, or on propane. But, we learn to work with what we got... right. The locations otherwise are very nice. I love Lake of the springs, all though the lake is empty right now while Thousand Trails spends 4 million dollars on upgrading the Dam that forms the lake. The other drawback at Lake of the springs is I'm 2 hours away from the Stockton animal shelter and an hour and a half away from work. Lake Minden is only an hour from the shelter, and half an hour from work, but the mosquitos really like my blood type. But, the location is beautiful and so I can look past some of the inconveniences of both places.

Up at Lake of the Springs, there are lots and lots of deer that are constantly coming through the sites which is always fun to see, but "No, I do not feed them", and most of the campers at the park don't feed them either. There is no light pollution at Lake of the springs either. so it makes the night stars very plentiful. There is also a great trail that Remi and I walk twice a day where we get to look down on the valley and the campground.

The following picture is full of stars, but you may need to dim your room lights to see them, or expand the size of the picture to see all the stars. Enjoy.

Lake Minden has the beautiful, though small lake to enjoy. It is a little over a mile long walk around the lake... Remi and I also do that trail twice a day. Once before I start work, and once just before dark.

In the month of August, I have attended two training sessions for the North Valley Animal Disaster Group (NVADG). One weekend I attended training on their shelter management software called Shelterly. As a professional software developer for many decades I can say that the software has some great functionality to it, but when it comes to ways that software could be leveraged in the field could been done a much superior platform such as ArcGIS Online, but that suggested path didn't allow them to pursue the software as a income platform. It is the platform they have chosen, and so I am working to learn to use it. The best part of the training was being introduced to the new NVADG headquarters.

The other training I attended was an introduction to water rescue for NVADG. We learned boat operation, equipment management, recovering of people in the water, throwing a rescue rope and how to select and put on a dry suit. This class, just like all of the other safety courses that NVADG offers, were great!

I was also lucky to attend a family party in the Long Beach area, where we celebrated Mia Wraights engagement to her husband to be Hunter. It was a wonderful opportunity for many of our Wraight/Anderson family to get together to spend some quality time together.

Also while in Long Beach, my sister Karen and I went by to visit the house in Lakewood that we were raised at 5728 Bigalow. It was so nice to see this and how it has changed over the years.