A palace, some trips and warm weather..

Geo and I went to Vancouver, Salmon Creek and Longview, Wa. yesterday, he to the doctors and I to kill some time, we hit Home Depot and Walmart, ate at Subway and TacoTime.  It was so warm inland that Geo left Bubba home.  It's getting up to 104F in Hagerman where Mom resides, the air conditioning is having a hard time keeping up during the day, so a larger one may be needed these few days of the year where the temp gets so bad.  I am headed down to Idaho today or tomorrow to assist in fixing things, from sprinkler timers, computer CMOS batteries to Air Conditioning. I'll probably leave my travel trailer here in Seaview along with my fifth wheel.

P.S.  I think it got up to 68F here on the Peninsula... 

EternaBond Roof Seal, roofing nails and a design to battle the dreaded rubber roof BUBBLE

  

We worked on Georges Palace (fifth wheel) and his rubber roof on Sunday/Monday designing and laying down waterproof patterns to prevent the dreaded air bubble from popping up during travel and the flaps and flops during windy weather.  The vents, front and back caps were also cleaned and sealed during the long day up and down the ladders.  This process negates having to use a couple of tubes of Dicor every year to catch those nasty cracks and leaks.  This doesn't mean you don't check (and clean) your roof anyway, it just means for the next 12 to 20 years you won't be using much Dicor.

Ocean Mist- K/M Resort

The totem marking the entrance to Ocean Mist from the beach side.

Sand dunes and driftwood...

Beach side of resort.

I'm staying on the coast away from the heat in the interior of the country, so I'm at Ocean Mist, a K/M resort, between Ocean City and Copalis Beach, Washington.

Kite fest again, WIN's nearby

I'm in Chinook, Washington near the Long Beach Peninsula where the International Kite Festival is now taking place. A local remarked today was the sixth day of sun this summer, what a great day to fly kites. The WIN group is nearby and oh boy, do they have a full plate? From kayak trips, lighthouses, interpretive centers and watching salt being made, to campfires on the beach, they are on the go.

Also I got an ATV to test drive, a rather small Yamaha Moto-4 200, shaft drive, after extensive rust rehabilitation and working on the fuel system, it appears to be running fair, there is more work to be done on it although the plastic and rubber is in good shape. There are places all over Oregon to ATV and miles of beach at the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. There doesn't seem to be much ATVing area in Washington, or maybe I just haven't found it yet. I have found you CANNOT ride ATV's on the beach, although other licensed vehicles are fine as are scooters.

Fruity Ideas

Most people have heard about the new Apple I-pad that was just introduced, some people like it some don't. You know Apple has the I-pod with I-tunes, I-phone, I-touch, besides the I-pad.

All of Apples' technology is geared towards the younger generations, that's not to say that I can't use it, it's just not geared toward me. One of the complaints I've heard is that the fonts are too small, hard to see with "older eyes," the movements, flicks, taps, pinches and drags need to be quick, and we often don't feel like being "quick."




I'm marketing technology called "Prune" for obvious reasons. It's geared toward the large "retired" generation, using familiar movements and ideas, I'll have Prune (P) technology, I already have several items ready, there is the P-ad, which can be written on with the P-encil, the P-en or the Shar-P. I also have a cellular P-hone, which will take P-hotos, and my P-pods are nutritious and good to eat. I also have a P-touch, but I'm not going to elaborate on that function.

(c) Prune-Tech/Ron King/P-tech

Salvation Mountain - Midnight Ridazz

Shouts out to the Midnight Ridazz that I met at Slab City and Salvation Mountain. From Yuma/Winterhaven area, I decided to hit Slab City before moving east.
The WIN dance rally will be in Casa Grande, Az. and it sounds like fun. Hope my feet can handle it, I've been walking between 3 and 5 miles a day so the feet are tougher. Salvation Mountain (wiki) (official website) was a hoot, so much has been written about it, but you have to go there to see and experience it for yourself, nothing will prepare you for the grandeur, love and color in the area. I took a few photos, (Midnight Ridazz) but cannot hope to capture the feeling there.

Quartzsite-2010 style

"Necessity is the mother of all invention" didn't get it far wrong. I had decided to stay in a warmer climate again this year. The place I had stayed in years past in Quartzsite Arizona was having legal problems along with the rest of the town of Quartzsite.

Out of necessity I decided to try boondocking, I have a different rig, more efficient than the New Horizons fifth wheel I had before, so I parked out at the Dome Rock 14 day area for a while and then moved up to Plomosa Road after seeing the WIN group had an area. I finally managed to join the (W)andering (I)ndividuals (N)etwork and even had Diana Tolerico, who writes the excellent "Life on the Open Road" blog sponsor me into the group.

I am not the "purist" with solar panels that a lot of boondockers are, I only get by with the help of a Honda EU2000i generator. With my electronic laden lifestyle (satellite television, cell phone, Verizon aircard internet and laptop) I can buy a lot of gas for the cost of a photovoltaic system (which experts say will NEVER pay for itself). The other side would say it leaves a smaller carbon footprint (I'm not so sure) (is greener) (less noisy.) However, I almost bought a windmill, and saw a couple mobile ones being put to good use. However, after studying mounting specs, I don't think the metal sided Nash 22h would be a good base to mount it. But in the typical male way, I buy gas and survive nicely, thank you. I moved back out to Dome Rock, (it has faster Internet.)

By the time I get to Yuma, (Feb 3rd,) I will have been in the Quartzsite area an entire month, I went to the big RV tent show, got some bargains there, didn't see much new RV stuff like earlier years though. I have managed to scour the other swap meets in the area for desperately needed items, (like I have room,) I got many items for future projects, but didn't manage to get a compact ladder yet, which I need for some "projects."

Again, Quartzsite has some of the most wonderful sunsets. (and Dome Rock is in the photo.)

I'm tired... of RV resort excuses for voltage

/rant on

Over half of the RV resorts I frequent have low voltage. I've seen voltages under 100 volts, when powering up the microwave. It's one of the reasons I have the microwave on the inverter side of the 120 volt system. RV techs warn RV'ers that continuous operation of motors under 108 volts will damage and shorten their life expectancy. I recently purchased a Hughes Autoformer to combat the problem. Autoformers boost the voltage by two percent whenever they are plugged in, until the voltage gets to 116 volts, then a boost feature kicks in, boosting the voltage by ten (10) percent. When at 116 the voltage will magically jump to 127 or 128 volts, which everything happily consumes.

We as consumers have been slowly led to believe 110 volts is normal, IT IS NOT.. Check your labels, 120 volts is what everything has been designed for, and the appliances are happy with anything up to 132 volts, 135 volts is when most overvoltage situations kick in. Voltages lower than 120 lead to more heat, and then lead to shorter life of the appliance. It's a conspiracy, shorter life of product means more sales over the consumers life, and it's all about money, folks. /rant off

A friend emailed me a question recently.

"Is the autoformer the voltage regulator/booster device?
Why are you getting it? I know I have hit a few older parks with shakey power, is that why?
They looked kinda pricey just for the voltage regilator.
Just curious and also where you gonna put it?"

You hit the nail on the head, unfortunately the the majority of the parks I've stayed in have low voltage. I define low voltage as anything under 110 volts. It's one of the things I keep track of.

As you may or may not know, in a travel trailer there are two types of loads, resistive and inductive. That is, heaters/lights/fridge (resistive)(fans-inductive) and air conditioning/ microwave (inductive), the converter (120 to ~12v) is inductive. Getting a little deeper into electric theory, Power is made up of two things, the voltage and the amperage. They have a direct relationship as expressed by the formula (P=EI) (P)ower is expressed in watts, (E)lectro motive force is measured in voltage and I (current) is measured in amperage.

Resistive loads are usually happy with whatever they are fed, if they get low voltage, they may be a little dimmer, but it doesn't hurt the resistive load, the amperage/current is used to heat directly. (an incandescent light bulb heats a wire until it glows and gives out light.)

However, most lights in trailers are 12+- volts, so the actual 120 volts doesn't affect brightness or performance.

Onto inductive loads, anything with a motor or transformer, they are most happy and will last longer with higher voltage and lower current/amperage. The reason is current flowing through a wire heats it to some degree, resistive loads depend on the concept, unfortunately the motor/transformer does not need heat, it literally can destroy the motor (usually by melting the wire covering, be it enamel or vinyl/plastic/rubber and shorting out the device.) Motors and transformers in converters are wire wrapped devices and a short (or open) makes it not want to work, (an open causing the current to stop flowing, and a short causing the current to flow more with the possibility of fire.)

Motors need a certain amount of Power to run, for an easy example, say a motor requires 1200 watts of power, that would be 10 amps at 120 volts. The motor is usually (if 100% duty cycle) designed to handle the amount of heat 10 amps produces. If your voltage drops to 100 volts, the motor now requires 12 amps to run continuously, producing more heat, and over time it will affect the life of the device because it's running hotter than design. However, the air conditioner (13.5k BTU) will pull about 23 amps/120 volts (~2800 watts) to start, then settle down to run at 10 amps. If starting at 100 volts, it will pull at least 28 amps, a great increase in amperage (and heat.) (remember, heat destroys)

By the way, these are real world figures for my trailer,(Nash 22H,) as I had some time and voltage problems on my hands in Rock Springs, Wy. The problems were cured by the power company changing the center tap on the pole transformer (a larger autoformer) and giving the house/shop it's rightful 124 volts.

To sum it up, higher voltages (to about 135v) are better because they produce lower current (heat.) The electric company doesn't care, they get paid for "power" (kilowatts actually). You ever wonder how they get away with using such small lines across the country to deliver it? They use the same theory, very high voltage and small current, (remember, current heats) and then use various transformers/pole transformers to reduce the voltage to something usable by us little guys.

The autoformer/power booster helps the trailer to be more reliable and your appliances to be longer lived. A popular booster increases the voltage by 10% whenever the voltage drops below 116v, ie: 116 + 11.6 volts = 127 volts, if the voltage goes to 110 volts (very common) your voltage would be 121 volts.

Contrary to popular belief and despite what park managers will tell you, an autoformer does NOT steal power, it merely makes what is AVAILABLE more efficient, the autoformer by itself only drops about 1 percent of the load making it 99% efficient.

So while in Palm Desert/Palm Springs, I installed my new (to me) autoformer.

Area formerly under the Jack Knife bed, (now storage area-see blog) where 120/12 volt wiring and panel are. Seems there is some room in betwixt those wires.

A slight modification to the cord box, a little insulation and presto, it fits along all the other wiring.


I converted the 30 amp power cord with appropriate plugs/receptacles so I can use any 30 amp extension. I can also bypass the autoformer if needed.

For a wiring diagram, see my other blog posts on installing the 3000 watt inverter.

I am not affiliated in anyway with Hughes Autoformer, Franks RV power booster, Surge Guard Voltage Regulators or Powermaster Voltage Booster.

By way of CV, I graduated from Denver Institute of Technology with an Electronic Engineering Certificate (AAS) and spent a couple of years working for Texas Instruments (North Building) in Dallas, Tx. A couple of years working on televisions and radios in Rock Springs, Wy. then years of hobby electronics, including hidden cameras, power supply's, building and troubleshooting my own computers, becoming a computer forensics expert, and designing simple circuits for jobs around the house/trailer.

Also see Valiant Sacrifice my hughes autoformer dies

Headin' to warmer weather?

Here I am, below Gold Beach, Oregon headed south under cloudy skies. To the east I can see snow capped hills, and the Siskiyou's reported 12 inches new snow.

I stayed dry all the way into California. Near Port Orford the wind was gusting, and the waves were crashing, I wanted to stay and watch but the truck and trailer were rocking from side to side.

I ran out of dry road and into darkness just north of Eureka, and have pulled into a rest stop on Hwy. 101. California Rest Areas let you stay (rest) for 8 hours during a 24 hour period. I have batteries and an inverter, propane, onboard water and dump tanks, why not just take advantage of anything California offers for free? I'm even getting 15 channels of TV (8 digital) With the Verizon Air card I have internet access and get to upload a photo. LIFE IS GOOD...

Birds on Wire.. Seattle.. and moving again?

As you may be able to tell, I went up to the Seattle area again, some rainy weather, some nice weather, my friend was moving again, this time from Kent into Seattle proper. Talk about location, she's now downtown, close to EVERYTHING... and the cutest apartment. By the way, the above photo is one of her paintings/mixed media in a series titled "Birds on Wire" I had a fun time, got tired and sweaty at times... but everything was finally accomplished before I got snowed on again, (I got a little snow at Tall Chief RV Resort near Redmond.) On finishing I headed down to the Long Beach Peninsula (Chinook, Ilwaco, Seaview, and Long Beach)

You've seen the before, here is the after.

What can I say, I posted photo's I took 23 years ago, here are a couple of more recent photos. The hairstyle has changed, but the beauty shines through. You may have seen her on "Untold stories of the ER" (she's a certified paramedic), "Touched by an Angel" (she's an angel herself), or even at the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Ut. as "Babe" (she certainly is) in "Crimes of the Heart." Of course she has many other credits to her name, and is going to bust upon the scene again. She'll be in the Seattle theaters for a while honing her skills on stage. She has been writing and may be directing again also.

Here she is on YouTube

This story starts long ago, but technology fell short.

Then again, some people say the "old way" is the best way. The photos you see here were taken on film in the 1985 - 1986 era and recently digitized. Some of them have appeared elsewhere, although the copyright remains mine. I will include some of the posts appearing on Facebook.



The Classic Pose ie: Bad Girl






A small rant about Actors, Authors, Dancers and Photographers, and about the whole creative process, the motivation, the research, the choreography and the composition, I realize it is hard work with a little luck (and run-on sentences) that make the dream, the quest, the move and the shot come true for the artist inside.

If I could add the poetry that touched my heart, the comedy that makes me laugh, the film that makes me cry, and the paintings that bedazzle the eye, the story should be told that reaches into my soul, but alas, it is not mine to tell, I have but one chapter, one piece, that is mine, I hold it dearly, for it is the foundation of a love and a life...