Jim_Oker

I could read this a few ways. One way would be that any piece of solar equipment can only have a credit taken once - i.e if you sell it used the next owner can't claim a credit. Adding new panels or replacing old panels with new might be allowable depending on how this is actually interpreted by the IRS.

Very nice. We saw the herd along the Umpqua on our way to the coast back in mid October. That's a pretty drive.

Yes, on a recent camp trip to the WA coast, we met a great couple from SC who had their non-functional awning wrapped in duct tape due to a wind gust that flipped their sensor-equipped awning back over the roof while they were briefly away from their site somewhere in AZ or NM (the CG host had warned them about the gusts too...).

My second trip was mid-October a few years later. No problems with the bugs. Mozzies, biting gnats, midges, and brine flies come out from  spring through  early fall depending on the species. The midges were what I'm still washing off my van years later from the causeway drive, but the mozzies and gnats were annoying at the campsite (not as bad up on the hill where I went to shoot most of my photos though, thanks to a bit of a breeze up there).

Well done! I have given a few rides out from remote forest roads - most recently when coming across a poor guy who was starting to walk out after blowing out two tires (he wasn't sure how but after getting him to the main road and cell reception I went back to where I was originally headed and discovered a VERY sharp edged piece of split firewood in the road near his truck which I think was the culprit). In both cases I briefly pondered the risk but in both cases my vehicle guests were nothing but grateful.

Nice shots! Years ago when I was doing some work with the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, the head of exhibits there took one of my co-workers and me out to the boardwalk into the Bayou Jean Lafitte. Being a zoo guy he had lots to say, but the most memorable thing was when he pointed to three relatively small gators. He said those are the ones you want to be careful of because they are too young to be smart enough to not mess with us. What a beautiful place - I'd love to kayak some of the bayous.

My friends with the big combo horse trailer camper mentioned that what they hear of in their circles (and they boondock a lot with their horse crew) is theft mostly of brake controllers at truck stops and horse shows. They use a removable controller and always take it with them when leaving the truck at such places. They also liked the design of my controller, with the main box hidden behind the dash and a control integrated into the dash face.

While I love remote backpack trips and boondocking in a spot we have all to ourselves I also love the social aspect of car/camper camping in campgrounds or shared dispersed sites. We definitely have a growing network of camping friends with whom we are staying somewhat in touch. Not everyone wants this but it's pretty easy to find the people who do if you're at all outgoing - e.g. exchanging pleasantries while walking near the campground etc.

Yeah out at the coast we have learned to be super careful about leaving things unattended that the racoons, and crows might have interest in. The racoons in particular often come in organized groups. Crows and squirrels are the day shift and the racoons come on toward the end of twilight. During one racoon event, where we'd had several around and above us (they travel quite fluidly in the evergreen tree canopy from tree to tree), after I thought that with the help of our big dog we'd motivated them all to move to the next site, I walked over from the picnic table to our van where my wife was doing some food prep up at the counter inside. There was one racoon with back feet on the ground and front up on the step into the van, cooly watching her and deciding whether there was a move to be made. Seeing me, it decided to follow the rest of the gang to try to find easier pickings. Crows and ravens are SMART and definitely watch what's going on and swoop in when the opportunity presents. I pretty much assume anything we leave out on a picnic table or fire pit grate or whatnot is going to be investigated by these birds when we're not right there. Bears are no joke in some areas! Down in CA they know what coolers look like and will break into locked cars to get into them. Up in WA they're not that bad (yet - our population is growing and a lot more newbies are getting out which may train them in unfortunate ways. It's sad because a fed bear usually ends up a dead bear as they become troublesome and trapping and moving usually just sends the problem elsewhere. In WA we mostly just have to be smart about food storage - in a hard sided container (a camper like the Oliver counts! but so do "bear canisters" while backpacking etc.) or carefully hung from a tree (i.e. while backpacking where bear canisters aren't required). Yeah we think way more about that than about security from people but for sure we lock our bikes if we are leaving them unattended and I'm careful with camera gear and such.

I've never had any such issues either while boondocking in dispersed camping spots or in established campgrounds. Including never having had anything I'd left in the camp site for the day stolen (folding chairs, stove connected to 1 gallon refillable propane tank, etc.). I do know a few people who have had some minor but scary harrassment at night while in dispersed camp sites. These very few cases across a great many camping experiences amongst all the people I know sounded like other very drunk campers out for some nasty "fun" more than trying to steal or physically hurt anyone, but in the moment they did not sound great. One was somewhere in southern AZ in a very remote spot, and two were just out at the end of old logging road spurs in WA; all three well into night time.

Thanks. That Level Master bubble looks nice and visible from your photo, which is more helpful than product shots on Amazon for judging that I think.

Which one do you have and are you happy with it? I see ones from Level Master and Hopkins and Camco that all seem decent... Just based on the photos I might trend toward the Hopkins as the photo makes its bubble position appear most visible at a distance of these three, but of course that could just be a difference between how the photos were taken.

I cut my first set from a project leftover. I felt like I was doing something wrong buying a whole piece of lumber to make my second set when the first was done, but alas no recent projects.

Sweet - thanks for the input folks! BTW, to add to my comments above, I got non-treated lumber for my new set of van levelers, as I don't think the pressure treatment was really necessary for these, it's kind of nasty (I don't love the sawdust and the splinters are bad news) and this wood should be less prone to splitting I think. I don't think I've seen "jack blocks" mentioned above, which help make lowering your levelers/stabilizers faster and will spread out the pressure on the ground (less likely you'll leave annoying dents in fresher pavement, etc.). My trailering friends just use thick lumber - I think 6x8" pressure treated cut off wood blocks, but you can also buy things like these or these (I've seen them often used with one piece of 2x8" lumber under them to further spread the load) and again I would be interested to hear from current owners/users on what if anything they use for jack blocks.

Great advice above. I don't know about the lego style leveling blocks you've shown or that others have shown, but I was given an orange set of some that looked quite similar with my custom camper van when picking it up from the conversion shop near Portland OR (long a hotspot for van conversion work). They quickly proceeded to shatter into little bits one after the other on our first few camping outings. Any uneven pavement or worse yet dirt/gravel was just a no-go with the ones I had. I cut some pieces of 2x8 pressure treated lumber (this would have been around late 2004) which I've recently replaced because old pressure treated wood tends to want to split as it ages. A little heavy but cheap. Sometimes they slide around on the ground is the biggest issue - on most surfaces a sheet of rubber helps (there are various ones sold for this purpose on Amazon etc. such as this but I managed to make due before finally repurposing an old rubber doormat that has helped with this). For my coming Elite II I've bought two those nifty Anderson curved wedge plus plastic chock thingies mentioned and linked above (two for the two axles on the Elite II that need to be raised to get level) plus a pair of rubber mats made by I forget who similar to the ones I linked. I'll be interested to see if I like these Anderson levelers better than my lumber bits. I bet I will. I also bought some of those rubber Harbor Freight chocks John shows above. Nifty idea with the rope btw. They seem like they'll work well and I won't be worried about them sliding down a hill as the rolling tires push them at will as I would with the plastic chocks often sold in Anderson leveling combo packages along with those curved levelers. I also got a lock for the bulldog hitch on the Oliver (I hope this one fits!!). Plus a padlock. I'd like to be able to ensure no one can just ease their ball under my hitch and lower my toy and drive off. I imagine there may be better locking solutions and perhaps existing owners can chime in on that front. I also have a receiver lock to ensure that it's not super easy to remove the ball mount from my van's hitch (in my case I'll have the Anderson ball mount as I'll need their weight distribution hitch). I'm told by some horse friends who trailer around a LOT that people with fast fingers tend to surf for towing accessories at places like truck stops at least in our region (including dash mount brake controllers - these are apparently a particularly hot item!).

I have no particularly good knowledge - when I started looking for one (based reading what pulmonologists were starting to say as they got some handle on the "crashing" of patients and how to try to ward it off), there were of course many not in stock. This one seemed to at least have decent reviews and it was available, and so far it's worked for periodic baseline testing at home afaik (I have not calibrated it against equipment at my doc's office for instance). The readings seem to be in a reasonable range. The pulse checks out with what I get with a finger on the wrist and a watch, and the O2 reading goes up if I take several deep breaths and has been happily in the mid-high nineties. I think even if it's not super well calibrated it will be clear if one of us has a significant drop while sympotmatic. And it's simple to use and easy to read. Innovo IP900AP. And it's not very expensive given what it may do for you. The articles I read in places like the NYT mentioned that this sort of relatively cheap made-for-home-use oximeter tends to be fairly decent, but they also stress that if you get low readings that these should be confirmed by a doctor since there are some things that can impact accuracy (and don't freak out before your low reading is confirmed by a medical pro who knows what they're doing!). That said, we've just followed the directions that came with this thing and have yet to see worryingly low readings (I'll leave it to folks to find their info on interpreting the readings since I'm not a doctor! though here's one article for starters).

One other bit of planning I'd add to what John wrote about mitigating the risks you might have if you get the virus is to have a pulse oximeter with you. Get a sense of your baseline and how to measure yourself and if you de get symptoms this may give you early warning if you may have a cliff edge coming. I've read that often there's a drop in blood oxygen before the person notices trouble breathing. If you see such a drop you know it's time to go seek good care asap. Not an awful idea even if you're staying at home for that matter but I think more important if you do decide to go through with a road trip. You can search to find content on using these for this purpose.

Well said John. Everyone has to decide these things for themselves but... Between what you note and finding out I need to have some oral surgery done soon I've bailed on some plans. Thankfully I live in a place where I can do lots of great things including camping without getting far from a pretty good medical network that is currently a lot less stressed than those in many other parts of the country. I won't pretend I'm not disappointed but right now this is a good sort of problem to have I think. Leaving this time to going through the archives and share the stuff above (among other things) 😃

This is Westport-Union Landing State Beach Campground on the northern Mendocino county coast (CA) shortly before 101 heads inland and uphill to the north tp reach the awesome Avenue of the Giants State Park. This is a primitive but super well situated campground, actually a series of three little campgrounds in a row, set right on the bluff between the highway and the Pacific, with a nice small series of sea stacks right there. But as you can see in the photo of our friends setting up the tent they were using on this trip (we were in our van), it was WINDY as the coast is apt to be. I watched one tent that hadn't been staked out well (or at all) blowing and tumbling down the beach as we were setting up.

This is the Mattole Campground, run by the BLM, on the north edge of the Lost Coast in California. It's a primitive campground with one pit toiled and a well with a hand pump IIRC. The sites are sort of dug into the dune barrier that backs up against the beach, which runs for miles and miles - in fact going south is a multi-night backpack route across the road-free Lost Coast. I hiked south about 3.5 miles to the remote Punta Gorda lighthouse while my wife and our friends biked over the quite mountainous road I'd driven to get here. Either way is quite steep and windy and can be closed due to washouts or downed trees so check status if you go. I really LOVED the feeling here. Campendium reports someone getting a 35 foot fifth week into here but all I can report having achieved is an 18 foot van.

This is not a great shot of the campground, but this is from Needles Outpost just outside the edge of the Needles unit of Canyonlands National Park. I was making my itinerary up as I went in late October 2016, and the campground there inside the National Park was full when I got there in mid afternoon, but I was able to score a site just a few miles back here at the Outpost, which is off the grid. Remember to bring your own water though they do truck in tanks for the showers. This private CG is carved out from a very pretty setting up against some red rock cliffs and buttes, and looking out toward the features of Needles. I was happy to be situated very close to the entrance so I could start a looong and potentially hot hike very early the next morning so as to mostly beat the heat. The hiking there is just tremendous - I did the Chesler Park/Joint loop which I can highly recommend. You overlander types might like the road to the back side of this hike from Beef Basin - looks like a pretty remote feeling 4WD venture from what I could see on my edge of it. The twilight picture is from my camp site at the Needles Outpost and the rest from the sweet hike the next day.

Here are some shots from Bridger Bay Campground in Antelope Island SP on the Great Salt Lake near Layton, north of SLC. I've used it as a stopover a few times when doing the long haul from near Seattle down to canyon country in southern UT and northern AZ. By this point in the drive - my second night in - I'm ready for a not absolutely full day of driving and want some exercise and beauty. This fits the bill quite well. The camp sites have stunning views across part of the lake, and there's a little unofficial trail up to a headland/ridge that has amazing views out over the lake, and enough walking to feel like I've gotten some exercise and have worked the kinks out from sitting so long. The first time I was there, in mid-late May, there were SO many bugs hitting my windshield and the rest of the front of the van while I drove out the loooong causeway that connects the island to the mainland. Don't say I didn't warn you ;-). There are pit toilets and not much else - possibly some water spigots but I forget. There are showers down the road at a day use beach area that you can drive up to and use at night. On my second trip there, some of the island's buffalo herd were grazing not far from camp. When I came back down from my evening hike up to that ridge and its views out to amazing thunderheads building on the Nevada side mirrored in a super glassy Great Salt Lake, they had moved in across the trail. I have no interest in being charged by a buffalo so I walked cross country through the sage and other brush in a wide arc around them back down to the campground, watching them warily as they watched me warily. I fortunately passed their test. It was fun to wake up to them chowing down fairly close to my van the next morning. One of these years I'll stay two nights and do some longer hiking on the island, which has many miles of trails.

And this is a camp spot (no hookups) just inside the Island of the Sky Unit, quite close to the Horse thief campground mentioned above

Here another of those breakfast spots. On this trip I'd camped the night before in a very nice FFS campground way out near one of the points in the Island of the Sky unit of Canyonlands NP. This is a nice pullout with a killer view in Deadhorse Point State Park. The second shot is what I got up bloody early to go photograph - the clouds and morning colors cooperated nicely on this morning (it doesn't always work out like that - kind of like fishing). Both are lovely parks. On another trip there I camped for two nights in a reserved site in Deadhorse Point SP in a campground that had hookups. In both cases all my breakfasts were out and about.

The middle photo was shot through the windshield while parked at a very nice dispersed camp spot just a bit south of Boulder UT, along the very cool and scenic hogsback feature that runs from Boulder south toward a crossing of the Escalante River. The other two shots were a few minutes away just before she after sunrise where I shot some photos and then made and ate breakfast with extremely scenic views. I like to have a kitchen with me in my van for after these dawn photo outings. I can think of many memorable breakfasts this way.