FullTime Living is good stuff

 FullTime Living is good stuff. 

#fulltimeliving #vanlife #traveler #nomad #camping

Hickory Ridge Lookout

Hickory Ridge Lookout Tower ride.

Firewood regift from random horse camper. Harley his wife and group of horse people pleasant morning chat. Sunshine! 

Took Fatass out for a ride. 6 miles to a lookout tower. Wasn't expecting it to be so crowded. Oh well. Didn't climb it. Too many others going up and down . Not sure if I would hit with a panic attack from the height. Which would be dangerous for Pete who I would be carrying.  Oh well. 

Fatass seems to eat battery much faster than Fatso. Even on the single motor setting. Maybe the meters are off, inaccurate.  12 miles total should not have even dinged the capacity. But the meter showed a whole bar of usage. Not good. Oh well. Good ride. All gravel forested roads with mild hills. Probably will make a GravelNuts route of it.

#HoosierNationalForest #gravelbike #dispersedcamping #minivanlife #HickoryRidgeHorseCamp

One seedy dog

Pete's magnetic fur lures every seed within a mile. Four miles worth of deseeding ahead.

Low key day. Zero sunshine. About zero connectivity. Anker is below 20%. Banks are at 13.4v, but readout doesn't show how full they are. Maybe I need a better setup. 

Stayed in until 1. It was drizzling on and off. Came out and made an early campfire after the rain stopped. The clouds remained. 

Rest of the day was gathering wood, burning wood, made dinner, cleaned up dinner. Messed with keeping the fire going. Brushed my teeth. Went back inside at 730 to listen to downloaded podcasts. Pretty much a do little day.

 Routine cold day

Lots of horses today. It's nice. Pete is doing great with the horses, but the handful of dogs that came through got him riled up. Still working on that.

Didn't do much beyond the daily things. Coffee and clean up. Lunch soup and clean up. Made the bed. Deseeded Pete a bit more. Whittled on my new walking stick to smooth it out. Gathered some firewood. Planned out a bike ride to the observation tower. Dinner and clean up. Lit the fire. In to bed by 7:30. It's cold out.  57.

#hickoryridgehorsecamp #dispersedcamping #minivanlife

Weed seeds lured in Pete

 Weed seeds! 

Pete's magnetic fur lures every seed within a mile. Four miles worth of deseeding ahead.

It got cold, really cold here fast. Too fast. Low 30s. But probably shouldn't move on to warmer Tenessee till the 3rd when I have an emergency fund. Crap happens. It's only 11 days away. 

This horse camp is okay. It has a vault toilet. And a trash can. And sunny spots to charge up the batteries. Luxury! 

I may try out the electric blanket if I get enough battery charge. For the most part the bed is pretty warm, even with one blanket covering. There are several layers and a self inflated mattress beneath me. The phone thermometer read 75 degrees in the blankets and 55 in the cabin. It was 34 outside at 8AM. Brrrr! We didn't get out of bed till 10. But it still wasn't even 40 by then. 

More horses today. Pete is doing great! Not charging. Not barking. Whimpering and wiggling in my arms. But not much. There is hope for Assateague someday! 

Went for a long walk with Pete on a trail. I found a great walking stick laying on the trail. Trail ferries? God almighty! I needed it. Right hip acting dumb. Right foot, too. 

Pete got loaded up with weed seeds. Ugh. What was I thinking? Hours of deseeding ahead. 

Great trail.  Would be great on Fatass. But no ebikes allowed. How ignorant. I'm writing Indiana an email!

#HickoryRidgeHorseCamp #vanlife #fulltimelivinig  #dispersedcamping
#minivanlife

Paradise is a vault toilet

Paradise is a vault toilet. 

We are out of the woods and into a horse camp.

So apparently the house batteries did not charge up all the way. This morning they showed depleted. Down to 10.8 volts. The Anker was at 70%. Interesting. 

The morning was spent getting Fatass and the generator mounted securely on the rack. And covered. It was an hours long project. The cover is great, and needed, but there is a problem getting it on properly without covering the tailights and license plate. I might move the whole tailight assembly high on the rear hatch door. It seems the most sensible thing to do to be able to completely encase Fatass and the generator inside of the cover. It's kinda important. Especially out west in the sandy desert areas. The dust just grinds everything down to ruin.  

Made it to Hickory Ridge Horescamp. Luxury! Gravel pads. Vault toilet. Trash can! And sunny spots. I may stay here for a few days to let the house batteries charge up. I'm not sure what to expect at Meriwether. Shade or sun? Crowded with fall sightseeing campers, especially with the next nearest free campground temporarily closed. Not having a site open for me would be a minor catastrophe because there are no funds available for a paid campground until November 3rd. 

Maybe I might hold off until the 3rd and try to stay in Indiana. But it is getting so cold here. 30s at night 50 60s in the day. Brrr. I maybe should have left sooner. In September.  We shall see. 

Lots of sunshine here. And  horses! Pete was whimpering quietly behind me like a little kid getting ready to burst. I looked up from what I was doing and there was a pack of horses walking by. So far... he is doing great and not going crazy like he does watching horses on TV.

 #HoosierNationalForest  #fulltimeliving #minivanlife #HickoryRidgeHorseCamp #dispersedcamping 

Not out of the woods, yet.

 Not out of the woods, yet.

Spent the day breaking down camp. Windy day, made for a few challenges but nothing major. 

It is getting beyond chilly here in the woods. Cold, even Pete is shivering. I put his winter coat on him. Put mine on, too.  

Everything packed in pretty well. Probably, I have too much stuff for the typical minivanner setup. But, that's okay. I'm not minimalistic by any means and am looking forward to some decent ride time on Fatass and getting some quality gamer time in Destiny when I can afford a paid Campsite. 

No need to charge up the batteries. Got that done yesterday. Tomorrow either we make a run for Tennessee or we land at the horse camp if there are sunny spots. Looks like the temperatures go up into the week. Right now, it's too cold for my comfort.

#dispersedcamping #SundanceLake #minivanlife #fulltimeliving #camping

Hoosier National Forest has no mammals? What happened to all the furry critters?

 

Hoosier National Forest has no mammals? 

What happened to all the furry critters?

 
#vanlife  #HoosierNational #SundanceLake #bigfoot #fulltimeliving

Cold, but clear.

 Cold, but clear

Cold but clear. No more rain with the high in the mid 60s. 

The generator ran for five hours on a tank of gas. With an hour more and the two hours from the evening before all of the batteries were topped up with eight hours of generating. Betsy's house bank, Fatass' batteries, and a battery brick for gadget charging cost about a gallon of gas ($3). Not bad. 

In Tenessee, I hope to score a sunnier spot, although even with that the weather forecast looks to be uncooperative. Cloudy, rainy days in the mix. We shall see. 

I have about 10 days to go before funds replenish. Interesting.

#dispersedcamping  #travelingnomad  #minivanlife  #HoosierNationalForest  #FullTimeLiving

Rain. Cold. Gas and screws. A day in the life Full Time Living

The temperatures drop to near freezing as the rain continues for another day in Hoosier National Forest. The supply run to town scored screws to fabricate a mount for the generator, some gas, and some food. #SundanceLake #dispersedcamping #HoosierNationalForest #minivanlife #generator 

Rain was the main event of the day. It eventually waned at 4PM. The other two camps cleared out leaving us completely alone here at Sundance Lake. By 5 I had the generator up and running charging the battery system. 

It was a bit cumbersome at the gas station trying to pump gas into the generator's tank. Spillage. I did get some in, and did get the 1 gallon gas can filled with the rest of the $20 going into Betsy's tank.

Funds are uncomfortably low. Just enough to buy a few needed groceries, screws to fabricate a hitch platform for the generator, and gas to get to Tennessee this week. 

With what was in the generator's tank I got two hours of runtime. Tomorrow I will fill it up and see how long it runs and how much it charges the batteries.

Locked out. Gas run. Tombstone pizza.

 

Full Time Living in a minivan. The adventures of Pete the poodle and Jef continues in Hoosier National Forest. #minivanlife #FullTimeLiving #HoosierNationalForest #dispersedcamping #SundanceLake

Saturday October 18th

I made the shopping trip into town. Desperately need gas so I can charge up the main battery bank so it can charge the solar generator so it can keep the freezer freezing. The banks did great. 5 days till they depleted because of no solar input. Way too shady here for Pizza. Tomorrow will be the maiden run for the generator. Fun stuff.

I pan baked another Tombstone. My second stovetop attempt and last one. Couldn't use the electric pizza oven. No solar. It turned out okay. Better than nothing!

Always carry spare car keys in your pocket. Some fellow campers got locked out of their truck... door key broke off in the lock. Everything was inside it.. including the phone charging cable for their dead phone. I let them use my phone to call for help. Maybe I could have wire hangered the lock, but it was a borrowed truck and the owner lived locally. Sometimes wire hanger attempts go bad. Damage to lock linkage inside the door, torn weatherstripping, scratched interior was weighed against a set of keys showing up in an hour. What's an hour?