What Went On In 2023?

 February 05, 2024

2023 was an odd year for us. Our pickup needed the transmission rebuilt and the shop I chose and trust was very busy. I took it in to get worked on very early spring, and I was way down the list for my turn to get my pickup in. Then I had a sudden cardiac arrest mid March, and really shouldn't be here. The quick thinking of my wife starting CPR immediately is the reason I am alive.

I got my pickup back in time to take the camper to see my mom for Mothers Day weekend. This is two months later than we usually start camping. That's pretty serious for us. There were no major things done to the 5th wheel last year. We used it, and enjoyed ourselves. That was pretty much it for the year.

We went to some new South Dakota campgrounds last year. South Dakota doesn't have a bad campground out of all the ones that we have been to. By far, the worst that we have been to is Bear Butte campground. It really needs some TLC. More gravel on the camping pads would go a long ways to improve the campground, but still, it's not that bad.

We spent most of the summer using state campgrounds and plugging in. That is very unusual for us. We like to boondock or dry camp most of the time. Plugged in camping feels like cheating, it is so easy. Our solar went pretty much unused last year, so I am hoping the batteries will do good for another year. The solar keeps them charged year round, but they are starting to get some age on them. This will be the seventh year with these AGM batteries, so we will see how they do. I don't want to buy new batteries yet, and I want to switch to lithium batteries. Just not yet.

We are planning some pretty serious upgrades this year. I am going to almost double the solar. We will end up with 780 watts of solar. We have 420 watts right now, but 20 of it will be going away. We are also going to switch to a series/parallel solar system and an MPPT controller. That should allow us to start charging earlier in the day and in more shade than we can now. We will see if that plan works or not. There will be updates with pictures during the upgrade.

Here's to another year!