It is now the day after Christmas, and the temperatures are not going to let us have another stay in the fifth wheel this year. It has been a fun year again. We have a lot of good times in the camper. We enjoy the people we camp with and that helps us have more fun.
We started the year with our normal time shore fishing for walleye and get some fish in the freezer for winter when we can't get fresh fish. We have to restrain from eating what we catch. There isn't much better than fresh fish. After the weather and water warm up we tend to switch to kayak fishing. We will target both walleye and small mouth bass. A lot of people look down on eating smallies, but when we feed them fresh fish no one has been able to tell which piece is walleye and which is small mouth.
Our camper lets all us do all these things. The solar lets us camp off grid early in the year when the fishing is better. This year we decided to switch things up and spend some time in campgrounds. It turned out to be a hot summer so the air conditioning was nice. A lot of people say you need two air conditioners when the temperature get to triple digits. We can get by with a single 13,500 btu ac unit. When the outside temps get that high the internal temps get to the mid to upper 70s, which is not bad at all. That is the advantage of having a well insulated rig. They make both ends of the thermometer comfortable.
Last year camping got difficult with the huge influx of new campers. We used to be able to get a campsite about a week in advance. Last year the campsites were booked for the entire summer with almost no last minute openings. We decided to make reservations well ahead of time so we would have places to go. We started with Memorial Day weekend on the Missouri River, and then spent a lot of the summer at Belle Fourche reservoir using our ebikes, kayaks and air conditioning. Then we spent a little more time at various campgrounds on the Missouri river again. This included a fun, hot 4th of July with the ebikes getting included in the 4th of July golf cart parade. The bikes were decorated! We kind of finished the year with a stay at Wind Cave NP, and then a stop for a couple of weeks at Bear Butte SP while we were on our way home from Wind Cave.
One of the biggest additions to our camping was the purchase of a 60 gallon water bladder to help extend our stays without having to break camp except for our stay at Bear Butte. I added a plug to use the 7 pin plug to plug in the spare water pump to transfer water. The problem with that was the power isn't supplied to the plug without the key being on. I will have to change how I power the pump. Right now I am thinking I will use the external solar plug on the fifth wheel. Another addition was a removable flag pole so I can fly a flag while camping
This was our fourth season in this camper, and we still love it. We spent 112 nights in the camper this year, while working full time. I commented that next summer I want to spend more time at places we haven't been to before so we have put a list together of places we want to go next summer. We are still getting this ready for off grid camping when we retire, if we don't wear it out first. :)
