24/7 Chat About Anything

[maki2]

Stormy here in Port Townsend Wa last night and today. I put the popup top down last night which made it a lot quieter and the wind. The cross bracing I fabricated for the popup works great, no sideways lean from the wind. But putting the top down also keeps the interior warmer on a cool night. One of these days I will get around to making insulated panels to g
Fit against the canvas but I want to shed more stuff out of my car first so I can more easily store the panels. I am getting there, the more projects I finish on the build the more space I free up! Plus I am doing more consulidation of items  that I only had time to toss into bin boxes. Cleared out 2 bin boxes yesterday.

I really want to have room to move all my clothes into the car to free up the counter space they currently occupy. maybe a good project for tommorow when the sun returns. Heading to Seattle Monday to take care of some business stuff for getting a new mailing address with forwarding service.

 

[travelaround]

Thank you, Sofi, Qxxx, and Brian for travel advice about vans/winds/fires - I'm feeling a bit more confident now. 97 to Yakima is a route I've taken before. Will have to see what the traveling companion thinks. We need to take an overnight break and he will need a place to pitch a tent because he's not sleeping in the van with me.

 

[Qxxx]

I see it's about 460-500 miles from HC to Pendleton via Bend, or about 480 if going to Yakima. The Yakima res is on that route so camping may be more problematic. Either way is a 7-10 hour drive. So maybe your first idea of going through Mt Vernon is better, as there will be a lot more camping on that route. freecampsites.net shows several spots between Mt Vernon and Pendleton.

 

[jacqueg]

Well, while I'm here, let me ask everyone about this. I have a high roof Transit (high center of gravity) and have a concern about driving on the very-windy Columbia River highway. Do you think this is an irrational fear? Is it less dangerous if the van is fully loaded, as it will be on the way home? I already know that the man I'll be with (my daughter's man, not mine) will be driving back in his 35' skoolie and he plans to travel the Columbia River to Portland then south on Highway 5. His vehicle is much more stable and sturdy than mine, as it is a bus built for carrying children. Any thoughts on whether I'm right or wrong to be trying to avoid high winds?

Plenty of Gorge windsurfers travel in the Transit-style vans. I don't think it's a huge problem. In 10 years of hanging around here, I've only experienced a couple of wind storms so intense that I thought driving was a problem. 

But I will say that I think many people drive too fast on the Gorge highway on the Washington side - it's one lane each way, lots of curves and semis. I think you should drive the speed you feel safest, and refuse to be pushed. On the Oregon side, you're on I-84, two lanes each way, and it's MUCH better engineered.

BTW, there's a highway rest area on the Washington side about a mile west of Lyle that is a great place to spend the night. You can't beat the view. On the Oregon side, some, but not all, of the state parks are open.

I actually prefer driving the Washington side. Less suburbia to drive through. The trade-off of course is the narrower and winding road. But that's just me.

 

[crofter]

A vans center of gravity is a lot lower than you think.  The engine (heavy), transmission (heavy) rear end (heavy).  All the heavy stuff is down low.  It is just lightweight sheet metal up high.  Now the high sheet metal is good at catching wind and if from the side and gusting can make you swerve around a little.  It will not blow you over unless it's a tornado or maybe a cat 2? or more hurricane.

I have had a few white knuckles around Lake Meade on the northbound wind tunnel area in the van. Keeping the weight low is a great idea.

If there is a high wind warning going up out of the gorge, take it seriously. I did white knuckle that there, but was driving a much lighter van.
-crofter

 

[maki2]

Driving from Port Townsend to Silverdale Wa which is about an 80 mile oneway trip my Honda Element was getting pushed around by some strong winds. Glad I was not towing the trailer behind me.

The reason for the trip was that my Weboost  signal amplifier arrived at Best Buy today! So now I am sitting in the car at the Fairground campsite and instead of no service on Verizon I get 4 bars of 4g on my phone but tablret is
 a bit more finicky it wants to be right next to the indoor booster antenna then it will get 3 bars and sometimes 4. I guess the tablet's internal antenna is not all that strong. 

Cost more than I wanted to spend but a necessary expense for keeping my Etsy store going while living on the road.  I  will order a Yagi directional antenna and some cable to use when in camp. there are some on Amazon Prime so I will hop on that order for next week when I do some camping time to the north of Seattle so I can pick it up on my my back south before I head to the zoregon Coast.

I had thought about going to Olympic National Park but on the radio the Park rangers were forced to close some camping areas because the park got mobbed by heavy tourist traffic with backups. A practical response to slow down the spread of Covid for the employees and visitors.

The state parks I saw this week were also places to be avoided.  Last weeks of summer madness scenarios.

 

[bullfrog]

Most of the parks have been this way. Glen Canyon National Recreational Area has been at over 130% visitation since we reopened, but now the fires have closed I 70 for the last few days we haven’t gotten as much Denver traffic.

 

[travelaround]

This is it. I spent the day doing laundry and taking things out to the van, including my mattress, so I'll be sleeping there tonight... and leaving in the morning. I'll watch for high wind advisories. Thanks for all your help and advice.

 

[Sofisintown]

I'll be sleeping there tonight... and leaving in the morning.

Have a good and safe trip TA

 

[highdesertranger]

yes safe travels and Gods speed. highdesertranger

 

[Qxxx]

Have a good trip, TA. Plus I think you're doing it right. Taking trips in the van while doing the build. You'll have a lot of time to think about the "next" steps while on the road. Not to mention such nice country to be driving through, .

 

[B and C]

Just got through talking to a friend in southeastern idaho. The smoke from the california fires is pretty intense there.

Godspeed and safe travels.

 

[Qxxx]

It's just incredible. LNU has added 100,000 acres overnight, and SNU had doubled in size in a day. Both at 300,000 acres, now. Plus another one, CZU, in the mountains near Santa Cruz, 60,000 acres. T[font=Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif]hey're ringing the SF Bay Area on all sides. And 3 more down near Monterey.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents[/font][/SIZE]

 

[highdesertranger]

Brian I don't know where your buddy is at in Idaho but there are plenty of small fires around Oregon and Washington and the smoke from these fires is blowing towards Idaho. 3 days ago the wind was blowing the smoke over me, it really put a dent in my solar output but it shifted 3 days ago to it's normal west to east pattern and is now blowing it over to Idaho. I am pretty sure that is where the smoke is coming from not California. highdesertranger

 

[Qxxx]

This map shows air quality. Looks like smoke from SF generally moving northeast into ID. Strange, there's a big hole over Nevada, guess it doesn't count.

https://www.airnow.gov/?city=Redding&state=CA&country=USA
https://www.airnow.gov/?city=Burns&state=OR&country=USAUSA

EDIT: I just discovered this map, which is more interactive.

https://gispub.epa.gov/airnow/?xmin...=5872809.757206662&clayer=ozonepm&mlayer=none

Looks like the High Sierra causes the smoke to funnel north up the Central Velley, so it escapes in northeastern CA where the mountains are much lower. Plus some smoke goes south and escapes into the Mohave desert.

 

[B and C]

HDR, he is near pocatello which from the above links is a red zone. He just reported it as california fires. I would think he knows.

 

[maki2]

No fires near me so far. There has been rain most weeks lately which is good. Not too dry and not too wet. Hottest day here was 80 degrees last Sunday in Port Townsend Wa. Seattle went above 90 so I was glad to be where I had it cooler. Of course fires can start most antwhere at this time of year and they do happen on the Olympic Penisula, just lucky so far.

I keep saying I am going to get to work on the electrical but have not managed a sold days labor on it yet. But I am in town now to pick up a few ring terminals and other stuff. The incentive being able to connect my signal booster to a powered 12v socket in my trailer. I wanted to be able. To run it in the car as well as the trailer. It is the powerful Weblogs fleet model that usually gets hardwired into a vehicle electric al system. But I noticed on the specs that the power unit uses 5v at 4.5 amps which is what my cars accessory plug is rated for. So instead of hard wiring it I put a plug on the end of the wwire to use in the 12v sockets. Works great powering it up that way and was much easier to connect up than creating a permanent install.

I am so looking forward to the day I can put all the tools and bits and pieces of materials away and call the build done. I am tired of shuffling stuff around in such a congfined space. But that is many weeks away yet.

 

[wayne49]

Yesterday the dense smoke advisory in Nevada was covering the upper 2/3 of the state from Tonopah northward, West to East.

 

[jacqueg]

Interesting, there's no smoke in the Gorge whatever, the air is great. There is some high altitude haze, but skies are blue.

Oh well, I'm sure that won't last. A friend of mine who lives near Santa Cruz evacuated yesterday. The fires aren't that close to his house, but the smoke is unbearable.

I saw those pics of the Big Basin Redwoods and had a good cry.

 

[Qxxx]

Good info, and amazing picture of lightning strikes near Santa Cruz. Says the 2 big fires near SF are the 2nd and 3rd largest in CA state history, for now. The secondary link says, due to the high temps, the rain evaporates before it hits the ground, but the lightning bolts strike. Also says, SoCal is having the highest temps recorded in human history, 130F.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...-map-redwood-trees-burn-big-basin/3419083001/