And while I'm on the subject, why fire rings instead of fire rectangles or fire triangles?
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Sticks and stones
And while I'm on the subject, why fire rings instead of fire rectangles or fire triangles?
Gullibility tax
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Where I've been
At the end of the month I will have been living the van dweller life a year. Time flies. So here's a map of all the places I've stayed at least one night. (No, it's not interactive.) The longest single stay was a month at Slab City.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Maximum sun
A simple type of bliss
Driving in the Sierras, window open, sunny day with fluffy clouds, the temperature somewhere in the seventies, breathing in deliciously clean air.
I could do more of this, please.
I could do more of this, please.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
A frequently asked question
People who live with the benefits of plumbing often ask me how I do without. The answer is a five-gallon bucket, trash bags and a nifty lid.
I started with a Luggable Loo seat-lid combo that snaps onto a five-gallon bucket with a plastic bag inside. They're popular. But I didn't like that the cover just flopped over the seat. It didn't seal. That meant either putting up with the odor or sealing up the plastic bag. One use per bag. Neither was a good solution.
Luckily, there's a lid for five-gallon buckets that does seal. Gamma lids are designed to seal five-gallon buckets of paint, adhesive, food, whatever. It comes in two pieces. One is a threaded ring that fits on the lip of the bucket. You need to pound it on with a rubber mallet. The other is the lid. It has an O-ring gasket for sealing. The lid screws into the ring. They come in a variety of colors.
Though the lid seals tightly, there's enough of a gap in the threads that it can fit over trash bags. I double bag with 13-gallon trash bags. And I hold them in place with a bungee cord.
Another problem with the Luggable Loo is that the opening is too small for large guys. With my system I get almost the entire diameter of the bucket mouth. The ring and bags also provide enough cushion for my bony butt.
So, now you're wondering, how do I dispose of the contents? As often as possible I pour it into an outhouse/vault toilet/regular toilet. I tie off the empty inner bag and then the outer bag and toss them in the trash. But... but..., there's residue of, ew, human waste in the bag, you say. True. But it's far less than in the typical disposable diaper, or a sack of dog poo, which we toss without a care.
Finally, whenever I wash and vacuum the Rolling Steel Tent I give the bucket and lid a good blasting.
The bucket will eventually wear out. You can't really pry the ring off the bucket without damaging it, so I already have a spare Gamma lid for the new bucket. Maybe I'll get it from Home Depot next time.
Luckily, there's a lid for five-gallon buckets that does seal. Gamma lids are designed to seal five-gallon buckets of paint, adhesive, food, whatever. It comes in two pieces. One is a threaded ring that fits on the lip of the bucket. You need to pound it on with a rubber mallet. The other is the lid. It has an O-ring gasket for sealing. The lid screws into the ring. They come in a variety of colors.
So, now you're wondering, how do I dispose of the contents? As often as possible I pour it into an outhouse/vault toilet/regular toilet. I tie off the empty inner bag and then the outer bag and toss them in the trash. But... but..., there's residue of, ew, human waste in the bag, you say. True. But it's far less than in the typical disposable diaper, or a sack of dog poo, which we toss without a care.
Finally, whenever I wash and vacuum the Rolling Steel Tent I give the bucket and lid a good blasting.
The bucket will eventually wear out. You can't really pry the ring off the bucket without damaging it, so I already have a spare Gamma lid for the new bucket. Maybe I'll get it from Home Depot next time.
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
There's a half moon in there somewhere
After a few drizzly days, the cloud cover is breaking up. At least tonight.
Dear Google Maps
While I'm on the subject of maps, routes and GPS, here's a request for the folks at Google.
You show suggested routes in blue. The you-are-here dot in the mobile app is the same blue (though slightly larger). That makes it hard to see the dot. How about making the dot and line contrasting colors? I'm sure one of your interns could whip that out some morning.
You show suggested routes in blue. The you-are-here dot in the mobile app is the same blue (though slightly larger). That makes it hard to see the dot. How about making the dot and line contrasting colors? I'm sure one of your interns could whip that out some morning.
Advice vs. Google Maps vs. Garmin
There's no short way to French Meadows Campground where Donna and Mark are working as hosts. It's in the mountains. Mountain roads are usually narrow and twisty. So narrow and twisty that there's no way I'm going to drive a top-heavy van as fast as the speed limit allows. So narrow and twisty that fifty miles seems like a hundred. The question, then, was which way would seem shorter from Truckee.
Google Maps offered two routes. The shortest one, via Soda Springs, was unpaved most of the way and very twisty. It would be faster to drive two sides of the triangle, taking I-80 southwest to Auburn, then east to Foresthill, then turn onto the paved Forest Service road along Mosquito Ridge, like this:
Google said it would be 54.7 miles from Auburn in just under two hours, if I drove close to the speed limit. That's how I went.
I was sort of queasy from motion sickness by the time I got to French Meadows. Mark suggested a return route that would bypass most of Mosquito Ridge's twisties. "Take the Robinson Flats Road cutoff. It's about six miles of unpaved road that connects to the much straighter Foresthill Road." It's like this:
That sounded like a good idea even though it's a few miles longer.
Not having cell service at the campground meant not having the details. And my atlases were sketchy about Robinson Flat Road since it's unpaved. I knew there was a sign at the turn, but after that...? So I turned to my Garmin GPS, loading in Truckee as my destination. But my GPS doesn't show you the entire route at once. "Just do what I tell you," it says. "Trust me. I'm a professional."
I found Robinson Flats Road, no problem. It started off nice, smooth and wide then got narrower and rougher. It climbed through the path of a past forest fire. It got gnarlier. But it finally connected to Foresthill Road, just like it was supposed to. The pink line on the GPS led me the whole way.
But then, rather than having me continue to the town of Foresthill, the GPS said to turn on another road. Hmmm, maybe there was a shortcut to I-80 Mark didn't know about because he'd had no reason to go to Truckee. So I turned.
Well, evidently Garmin only cares about distance, not time. The route it sent me along was a whole mile shorter (woo-hoo!) than the Mosquito Ridge route, but two and a half hours longer!
Oh, sure, it saved me the 16.4 miles from Auburn to Colfax, and I was driving more or less one side of the triangle instead of two, but all of it was worse than anything on Mosquito Ridge. A lot of it was only one lane wide. I was lucky to meet oncoming traffic only at the wider spots.
But I kept telling myself I was having an adventure, seeing places I wouldn't have otherwise, gaining on-the-ground knowledge I could pass on to my fellow wanderers, such as, "Oh man, don't go that way."
Google Maps offered two routes. The shortest one, via Soda Springs, was unpaved most of the way and very twisty. It would be faster to drive two sides of the triangle, taking I-80 southwest to Auburn, then east to Foresthill, then turn onto the paved Forest Service road along Mosquito Ridge, like this:
I was sort of queasy from motion sickness by the time I got to French Meadows. Mark suggested a return route that would bypass most of Mosquito Ridge's twisties. "Take the Robinson Flats Road cutoff. It's about six miles of unpaved road that connects to the much straighter Foresthill Road." It's like this:
Not having cell service at the campground meant not having the details. And my atlases were sketchy about Robinson Flat Road since it's unpaved. I knew there was a sign at the turn, but after that...? So I turned to my Garmin GPS, loading in Truckee as my destination. But my GPS doesn't show you the entire route at once. "Just do what I tell you," it says. "Trust me. I'm a professional."
I found Robinson Flats Road, no problem. It started off nice, smooth and wide then got narrower and rougher. It climbed through the path of a past forest fire. It got gnarlier. But it finally connected to Foresthill Road, just like it was supposed to. The pink line on the GPS led me the whole way.
But then, rather than having me continue to the town of Foresthill, the GPS said to turn on another road. Hmmm, maybe there was a shortcut to I-80 Mark didn't know about because he'd had no reason to go to Truckee. So I turned.
Well, evidently Garmin only cares about distance, not time. The route it sent me along was a whole mile shorter (woo-hoo!) than the Mosquito Ridge route, but two and a half hours longer!
But I kept telling myself I was having an adventure, seeing places I wouldn't have otherwise, gaining on-the-ground knowledge I could pass on to my fellow wanderers, such as, "Oh man, don't go that way."
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Goin' a-visitin' in a cellular-free zone
Mark and Donna, Thanksgiving 2013
My friends, Mark and Donna, are hosts at a Forest Service campground. They saw from this blog that I'm sort of near them. So Mark sent a text inviting me to come spend some time. I haven't seen them since winter when our paths diverged. As extra incentive, I can stay free at the campground. Excellent.
I'm heading off shortly. A drawback is that the closest cellular service is twenty miles from the campground. Ack, web withdrawal.
Foiled by fog
Yesterday was mostly cloudy with occasional showers. Not great for us solar users. In order to get an early start charging my batteries in the morning, I picked a campsite with a large clearing, away from the shadow of mountains. Being smart, thinking ahead, right?.
But I woke up to this:
But I woke up to this:
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Coming clean in Truckee
There are two places in Truckee, California where travelers can shower without getting a room. There might be others.
The first is the Community Recreation Center. Open Mondays through Fridays, 6AM to 9PM, Saturdays 8AM to 1PM. It's a very nice place. For $5 you can use the gym and the shower. There's no shower-only option. The drawback is that there's just one shower. You might need to wait your turn. Bring your own soap and towel.
The other is the Community Swimming Pool. It's behind the high school. Go around the left side of the building and follow the fire lane to the back. For $5 you can swim laps and shower. A shower by itself is only $2. The problem is, pool hours are all over the map. So, while it's cheaper, it's harder to fit into one's schedule. That's why I ended up at the rec center. And it's why I don't know about soap or towels at the pool. But I'm squeaky clean.
The first is the Community Recreation Center. Open Mondays through Fridays, 6AM to 9PM, Saturdays 8AM to 1PM. It's a very nice place. For $5 you can use the gym and the shower. There's no shower-only option. The drawback is that there's just one shower. You might need to wait your turn. Bring your own soap and towel.
The other is the Community Swimming Pool. It's behind the high school. Go around the left side of the building and follow the fire lane to the back. For $5 you can swim laps and shower. A shower by itself is only $2. The problem is, pool hours are all over the map. So, while it's cheaper, it's harder to fit into one's schedule. That's why I ended up at the rec center. And it's why I don't know about soap or towels at the pool. But I'm squeaky clean.
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