Dennis and Melissa

Our second Ollie sighting! Shout out to Catherine and Chad. Happy to share time at Grand Canyon Trailer Village It isn’t particularly beautiful but it is very near a cool hole in the ground. 😉

Dead Horse Ranch SP has been very nice. Great access to all sorts of hikes . Quiet, family friendly and clean. In addition, quite a few fiberglass trailers in the park. Including our first meeting with another Ollie in the wild. Shout out to Mark, Lorraine and River! Well met and happy trails. Special mention to Red Rock SP. Small, quiet but oh so wonderful. Next stop Grand Canyon!

Plans changed a bit, but… We finally made it to Dead Horse Ranch SP in Sedona! Here are some interesting tidbits from the last two weeks of traveling: 1) Ollie’s first annual service at the mothership was great (but not cheap🤪) 2) Merriweather B&B was great as always (and actually cheap with the 10% Oliver discount 😀) 3) Mt Magazine SP is wonderful and the lodge is stunning 4) Quartz Mtn SP is great (especially hiking around Mt Baldy) 5) Palo Duro SP is a wonder. We will be back. Maybe for a full week next time. 6) Petrified Forest NP is a wonder. Even if you somehow removed all the petrified wood, it would still be one of the best NPs I’ve seen. One day was not enough. 7) Question: on cold, windy, rainy nights, with the heater running, how do you let fresh air in? Everything we tried seemed to get something wet that shouldn’t be. 8 ) THE STREET SIDE JACK STOPPED WORKING WHEN WE ARRIVED IN SEDONA! Thanks to the wonderful Oliver documentation I was able to fix it. Just a loose connection. But working in that space (especially trying to check the inline fuses, the likes of which I had never seen before) was a job for a circus contortionist 🤪

We were there last year. Really enjoyed it. Alas, we have a conflict this year. Everything in the replies above is what I suspected. Just wondered if I was behind the times. Apparently not 😀 Thanks to all y'all.

We celebrate our 1 year anniversary next month! As planned from the very beginning, we will be making the trip from Tampa to Hohenwald for a checkup. (We are also taking the factory tour FINALLY 🙂 ) It's no small effort to get up there, but we've folded this event into our spring itinerary, so... not too bad. Then, this morning, I just noticed this on Oliver's "Find a dealer" page: Apparently Oliver partnered with LazyDays, which is about 15 miles from my house. Anyone have any experience/advice to share regarding using these new partners for annual maintenance???

At last, all of our campground reservations are made! If you know any of these destinations well, I'd very much appreciate ideas for day hikes or other nearby activities/scenic wonders. 😁 3/22 Leave FL for annual Ollie service in Hohenwald - 4 nights 3/26 Mt Magazine SP - 3 nights 3/29 Quartz Mountain SP - 2 nights 3/31 Palo Duro Canyon SP - 4 nights 4/4 wing it 4/5 Dead Horse Ranch SP (Sedona...) - 9 nights 4/14 Grand Canyon South Rim - 4 nights 4/18 Dark Sky RV Camp (Konob, THE WAVE...) - 2 nights 4/20 Zion NP (Springdale)- 8 nights 4/27 Kodachrome SP (Bryce Canyon...) - 7 nights 5/5 Escalante Petrified Forest SP - 7 nights 5/12 Torrey Wonderland RV (Capitol Reef NP...) - 4 nights 5/16 Dead Horse Point SP (Arches NP, Canyonland NP...) - 7 nights 5/23 Gouldings RV (Monument Valley...) - 3 nights 5/26 Mesa Verde NP - 3 nights 5/29 Brantley Lake SP (Carlsbad Caverns NP...) - 4 nights 6/2 long "sprint" home

We won the ticket lottery for THE WAVE! So now I need suggestions for where to camp near Kanab in mid April (that's where we will be meeting the guide company we hired). Anybody care to share?

We almost put that into the loop. But had to cut something.☹️ But I still have it on my list. I'm considering stopping there for a few days when we take our big trip to UT in the spring. TY

That looks soooo peaceful. I may add it to my "return" trip (from St. Louis to Hohenwald). TYVM!

That would be great! The websites for the Arkansas state parks are marvelous. They give me lots of confidence picking out sites. That plus AllTrails is about all I need to make plans 🙂

We finally have all of our reservations! Sooooo many wonderful state parks. Thanks to everyone for their advice. Continued feedback from those who know the area is still very welcome. Starting mid Jan..... 2 days at Fort Pickens in Pensacola 1 week @ Lake Ouchita State Park 1 week @ Petit Jean State Park 1 week @ Mt Magazine State Park 1 week @ Devil's Den State Park 1 week @ Buffalo Outdoor Center (not a state park 😜) 1 week @ Babler State Park 2 days @ Hohenwald for first annual checkup wander back to Tampa by mid March....

Has anyone ever driven on the "million dollar highway"?

After recharging, everything seems to be back to normal. No worries. 😎 I think I have learned: "the batteries need to be fully charged twice a month to allow the monitor to sync".

I just watched Victron's video for the BMV-712. It says the batteries need to be fully charged twice a month to allow the monitor to sync. So, I guess I just charge the things and hope it clears up 🤪

FWIW, the LI3 Battery app reports each of the batteries at 24% now.

I have 2 lithionics 320Ah batteries with solar. They were allowed to sit in the shade for about 2 months. When I returned today, the batteries were so low the fan for the composting toilet was not running. That's what I expected. But I'm surprised to see my VictronConnect app report the batteries at 100%. I tried resetting the BMV controller (press setup and select at same time for 3 seconds), but that doesn't seem to do anything. I'm currently recharging the batteries slowly (solar + household current). Any thoughts?

@Sully We are planning to visit Newfoundland in about a year (sometime late aug to early oct) @rich.dev was nice enough to refer me to this thread, which I read immediately. Great pictures! And I especially appreciate the campground descriptions in the last post.

We are just starting to brainstorm our trip up north for about a year from now. So, no hurry. 😂 But would anyone care to share experience/advice? We are looking at taking the Trans-Canada Hwy ferry to Channel-Port aux Basques. Dates are still very flexible (late August through mid October). But we're thinking of spending about 2-3 weeks on the island....and taking every day-hike we can find (Gros Morne looks amazing!). Of course, we also have to drive the round trip from Tampa. 🤪 So if you have ideas for that part of the trip, that would be great, too. Anything north/east of Maine will be completely new for us. 😲

We live in Tampa. Minor wind damage at the homestead. Power back on in our neighborhood, but many others still out. Our kids, who live nearby, are bunking with us for the AC. 😎 Ollie lives in a covered, outdoor storage facility in nearby Plant City. We visited him yesterday. All appears to be well,even though many nearby neighborhoods got hit VERY hard. Some are still underwater. We are very grateful to all the emergency crews from around the country who have come to visit. (I met a crew from Nova Scotia at WalMart yesterday!) It does my heart good to see their solidarity, expertise and preparedness.

That looks wonderful TYVM!

My current itinerary has a question mark on that day. 😀 We will probably just drive till we are tired, then find a place to boondock.

We have been talking about this! It's really encouraging to hear you say you've done it. (Gives me some assurance that I'm not completely insane )

We are working on that. Most of it is still unreservable and I have the dates they open flagged on my calendar!

Thanks for the tip. I hope you love your Ollie as much as we do. And my wife LOVES her massages. 😀 P.S. We are hoping to make it to Montana in the fall of 25. I'll create another thread for that and you can tell me everything I don't know 😛

Does anyone have insight into the "tent caterpillar" season in these parks? When is it? How "bad" is it?