We are starting to get to know this little town of Fruita pretty well in our 5 nights here so far but that only means we will be moving on soon. Our first morning here, we tried to eat at the Hot Tomato Cafe only to find that most of the stores and restaurants here are closed on Mondays. Almost a whole week has gone by and we are finally getting around to try our luck again.
I’m not sure how we ended up in two different cities of Fruita on this trip, but we did. Not only did we never hear of either Fruita before this trip but we ended up being in both of them on the same exact day. Oh by the way, this is Marlene on the blog today. Dan made me pipe up.
Our time at Capitol Reef National Park has come to an end. Tomorrow is Monday and I have pushed off my work obligations as long as I can without causing any serious pain for myself and others. It has been an awesome and unexpected experience as we knew very little about it prior to our arrival.
Our night at Wonderland RV Park was brief. In a more populated area, we would have found a place to boondock instead. But since our 3G card doesn’t work real well, we opted to pay for the night since they promised a great wifi connection. Well, the connection was less than great up until about 11PM. Once everyone went to bed, I was able to take better advantage of it.
We got a fairly early start this morning considering both of us went to bed well after midnight. I actually only got about 3 hours of sleep but I am not going to let that get in the way of our big plans today. Our destination today is Bryce Canyon National Park about 20 miles up the road from us.
It was nice to wake up at a full hookup campground and we are starting to settle into our groove. The kids got to watch some movies in the morning while we got breakfast ready. On the agenda today, not much.
Last night we boondocked at a Walmart at the edge of Cedar City, Utah. It was a great feeling to finally have some relief from the heat. At 5,800 feet, the outside temperature dropped into the 50s just before sunrise. It was so nice to be back in the Mish again and everyone slept in.
Getting your trailer ready for some serious boondocking usually calls for some type of replenish-able, off-grid power source like adding solar panels and a generator. However, power generation is only 1 part of the formula when considering ways to build up your off-grid power. You will also need to consider ways to increase power storage capacity as well as items to help lower your consumption. The latter two are frequently ignored even though they can be more cost efficient.
During our last visit to the shop, we asked the guys at C & G Trailers to install our solar system for us. But rather than buying a complete turn-key solar system, we did some shopping around and put together a basic system of our own.
We live in an older house built in the 1920s. Unlike today, people back then did not subscribe to the ‘bigger is better’ mantra that dominates today’s capitalistic society. So we live in a sub-1000 square foot home with a modest garage set in the rear of the property. That gives us a long and narrow driveway to park our Airstream in.
This photo shows how the driveway looks before the new fence and gate were installed. The old fence is on the right with the jasmine bush on it. On the opposite side is the property line with our neighbor’s side yard.
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People have asked us about the insulation in the Airstream on a few occasions. Since we have not owned a ton of other trailers, it is hard for me to compare with others. But I could comment on how our experiences have been having traveled through various weather conditions in Read more…
We went back and forth whether we should go to Nashville or not. After some consideration, we decided to go and check it out. We thought we could help the city out by dropping some money in town. Every little bit counts, right?
