As Promised…….and adding solar

Tuesday May 20, 2014
French Creek State Park
Elverson, Pennsylvania

 

Before I get to where we are and why, here, as promised, is the answer to several questions about how I remember all the details.  I take pictures of some of the information on the markers or plaques so I can remember the details when I later write the blogs which you know unfortunately is often several days later.  Also if there is a brochure with the exhibit I pick it up to use when I am working on the post.  Needless to say that adds time to the already too much time I spend writing these.  So there you have it.  I unfortunately can no longer claim to have a fantastic memory as I once had.  Up until about 5 years ago actually.  This aging business really isn’t much fun in many ways.  But boy the freedom is great.

 

FRIDAY

 

 

We leave Greenbelt at about noon after waiting out a heavy rainstorm.  We had done most of our packing up the day before but I still didn’t want to drive in the down pours.  Lucky for us it quits in time for us to get on the road.  Unlucky for us we have to get gas right away.  There’s that no lower than 1/4 of a tank rule.  We stop at a TA off of I-95 thinking that a truck stop will certainly be easier to get in and out of even for gas.  I checked next exit and the next one is nearly 50 miles from here.  But boy what a mistake.  I kid you not it took ONE HOUR to pump a tank full of gas due to the ridiculous arrangement of the station and its gas and diesel pumps.  The trucks were required to make a U turn in order to get to their pumps so they were lined up single file to even get close to the 4 pumps.  Those wanting gas had to wait in that same line with all the trucks to get into the same area and then fork left to the gasoline pumps.  It is a nightmare.  You can imagine the things I was mumbling.  Even David was furious.

 

 

 

 

But we make it French Creek State Park despite the amazingly difficult and narrow entrance roads out of Morgantown, Pennsylvania.  This is farm country.  Big farms.  Lots of Mennonite churches.  We’re 16 miles from Lancaster which we will not be going to after Karen’s comment pointed me to the heartbreaking stories, including the Washington Post, about Amish Puppy Mills.  Google it for yourself.  So sad.

 

 

 

 

The park has three cottages and two yurts as well as 200 wooded campsites in 4 loops.  The one I reserved on line turns out not to be level enough so we are very lucky to be able to switch all six nights including the week-end to a great site that is wide, deep and level.  I guess the masses won’t be arriving until next week-end  It’s also right next to a water spigot which is way convenient.  The park has 30 and 50 amp electric but no water at each site.  There are two separate dump stations each with two spots.  Our bathhouse heated and very nice.  Two large showers with wonderful warm water.  It’s going to be a great place to spend 6 nights especially given all there is to do here.

The park is located adjacent to the Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site which features a cold blast furnace restored to its 1830’s appearance.  The park was once part of this industrial complex for the fledgling U.S.  Its 7,730 acres  straddles the Schuylkill Highlands and claims to be the largest block of contiguous forest between Washington DC and New York City.

The park has two lakes, a 22 acre and a 68 acre which only allow electric motors.  Looks like good kayaking.  There are more than 35 miles of trails.  The park roads would be great biking if you are up for the hills.  There are 20 miles mountain biking trails and a “Horse-shoe trail” for horses who are not allowed on the other trails.

I’ll let you know in a later post whether I can recommend this to rigs our size or larger based on the narrowness of the roads we had to drive to come up to the park.  I have not yet checked all the ways in and out.  The park roads are larger than the nearly  would not recommend it to anyone based on the difficulty of driving up these roads.  I’ll let you know after we’ve had time to scout it out whether there is a better way in.  I asked the woman at the gate and she said no. 

 

 

 

We would never have known any of this had we not come here solely to have solar installed on Winnona.  At the RV Dreams boondocking rally Howard told us that a solar installer on the East Coast had been trained by AM Solar in Oregon and was wanting to do 3 installations for the price of the materials only in order to get certified.  So we immediately contacted Greg Young of RV Solar Solutions and set up this time and place for the install.   Everything begins tomorrow.

The last thing for today is to swap out half of our lights for LEDs.  With the cost of the solar install, we’re doing the lights we use most often now and the others later.

 

 

 

SATURDAY

 

 

Bright and early at 10 minutes until 8:00  Greg (on the left) and Ethan arrive in Greg’s truck and start to work.  They have an amazing amount of gear and are very careful to cover our indoor carpets and to put their things on tarps they have brought.  I am really appreciative of the care they take when working on our home.   I’m not going to do a blow by blow of the installation even if I could but here is what they were doing on Saturday.  

 

 

 

 

These guys work solid from 8am until after 5:00. The panels are on the roof, wires are everywhere and think they’ll finish it up tomorrow.

But things don’t go so well after that and it is now Tuesday.  After a myriad of problems, we are still not ready to go.  One solar panel was labeled backwards.  Who would think to check that and it caused hours worth of troubleshooting.  The Magnum battery monitor was faulty and Greg is having to have another one shipped over night after spending more hours trying to troubleshoot that.  It seems like everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. But they have worked tirelessly to try to get this finished and were fully expecting a two day install.  It just hasn’t worked out that way.  We have to leave on Thursday since the campground is booked for Memorial Day Week-end and we have reservations elsewhere.   So tomorrow is it; I’ll admit to having my fingers crossed.

More to come…………..