Travel to Grand Junction, CO: May 2 - 7, 2022

 It is June 1st so I have been lax in updating the blog with our travel out west. We took six days to make the trek from NH to Grand Junction (GJ) Colorado. The biggest project that was accomplished during our spring stay in NH was making a rack for two 400 watt solar panels. The rack was attached to the rear underside of the camper. My son Luke was the main architect and fabricator for the project. I was mostly the dreamer and foreman. The plan is to place the 400 watt panels in the sun if the camper is in the shade. In the summer while the camper is in the sun both the 400 watt panels and rooftop solar can be used to power the air conditioner (AC) and charge the batteries. Here is a picture of the rack. Jane made a blue bag to place the panels in before they were placed in the rack. She also made a strap to hold the panels securely in the rack. At our first stop on our way west I noticed a couple of rack screws had loosened and fell out. These screws weren't structural, they only fastened keepers in place and because of that I used wing nuts that were only hand tightened. I replaced the missing screws and tightened all the keeper screws with a tool. After that I periodically checked the screws when we stopped along the way west and they were always tight. Here is the rack with the panels loaded:

The rack and panels hide the rear truck license plate so my daughter-in-law Michelle was nice enough to make a copy of the plate and laminate it, which I attached to the camper. Using a laminated copy was suggested by the truck camper dealer so I can't take credit for thinking of it.

One off grid solar system hitch I ran into was on a hot day in GJ. I went to cool the camper down using the AC and inverter during the evening but the AC would not start up. I had tweaked and tidied up the off grid electrical cabling so I don't know if that created the issue or I was just on the edge of having acceptable power with the inverter and was experiencing being on the insufficient side. Regardless I purchased a SoftStartRV device that makes it easier to start up an AC. With some difficulty and technical support from the manufacturer I was able to install the device and successfully get the inverter to start up the AC.

We started our trek west with planned stops at the Concord, NH waste station to dump our holding tanks, the EZ-Pass service center to replace our (very old) transponder (the battery had died) and then stopped off at the truck camper dealer in west Chesterfield, NH for some advice and discussion. We were able to accomplish those tasks and still get to a rest area in Olean, NY on day one. Camping season, at least in NH, had not started and Cracker Barrels were scarce so we spent the night at a rest area. The truck parking lot was wide open when we retired for the evening but was full when we woke the next day.

On May 3rd, we traveled to the westbound I-70 Illinois welcome center where we spent the night. On May 4th we traveled to Wilson, KS and stayed at a state park there of the same name. We planned on May 5th being a recovery day which ended up being impacted by rain all day. So instead of stretching our legs and showering we just hunkered down inside the camper. We showered the next day (May 6th) and I took a bike ride before we headed out after lunch. Here are pictures of the rig at Wilson Lake State Park:

As you can tell our campsite was on the lake shore. The picture was taken the day after the rain, i.e. the day we left. Wilson Lake is a man-made lake and the dam is an Army Corps of Engineer project. When I took my bike ride I rode over the dam and took a couple of pictures. The first is from the south/lake side and the second from the north/river side.

On May 6th we drove to a rest area in Glenwood Canyon in Glenwood Springs, CO and spent the night there. We didn't realize the rest areas on I-70 in the Rocky Mountains require you to exit the interstate so we went a little farther than planned before we got desperate enough to take an exit for the rest area. The one in Glenwood Canyon was a gem. Here is a picture of the canyon while we were driving the last leg to GJ.

We haven't done any camping in Colorado since we arrived. The price of diesel fuel and spending time with family have slowed us down. My sister visited GJ soon after we arrived. We are planning on camping the first weekend of June with my daughter's family. Other than that we have done a couple of half day trips to nearby parks.