It's time to test our new electrical system!

Mark spent lots of time ordering parts and installing all the things that were needed to make our new little trailer better at camping without hook-ups. We have a new lithium battery, another solar panel, and all the electrical connections and gizmos needed to make them all work together. We talked about that in the last blog. So it was time to have a shake-down trip to see if we could live without electrical hook-ups on the road. We'll be on the road for ten days this trip, with camp sites in three different states testing our new electrical systems.

On the way, we stopped by Ottawa, Kansas, at Funtown RV. This is where we bought our trailer and had the hitch installed on our pickup. Mark has been researching and decided that the hitch needed to be adjusted to distribute the weight as it was intended. They agreed, made the change he requested, and we were on our way with a better towing ride. 

We had our granddaughter's birthday party planned at Grand Lake in Oklahoma. Oklahoma seemed like a good time and place to start this testing trip! We celebrated a seven-year-old with some of our favorite people.

Our first stop was Honeycreek State Park in Grove, Oklahoma. We've stayed here several times as we often visit friends in town. Mark keeps a spread sheet of every camping spot we have ever camped in and we have been in site #RR29 in Honeycreek State Park every time. This state park is situated on Grand Lake, where boating and tubing is available for the hardy when the lake water is still cold in May.

All of Carter's grandparents and aunts and uncles met us in Grove for Carter's 7th birthday party. A cold front met us at the lake too, and we were wearing coats and bundling in towels for our boat ride. You would have to be crazy to get into that cold water on this cold day! Welcome to our crazy family when Eli wanted to tube and his Daddy was excited to go with him! 

Later both our sons and our grandson jumped into that chilly lake. Eli jumped over and over until even he had to admit (through chattering teeth) that it was indeed cold.

We used the electric hook-ups at our first stop, since we were partying with family and didn't have much time to monitor the new solar system. After two days at Grand Lake with family, we headed for our second camping spot of the trip where we'll do more solar. We drove from Oklahoma into the second state of this trip, Arkansas. On the way, we made a stop at Pea Ridge Battlefield National Historic Site. The friendly ranger at the visitor center recommended the museum and the movie, and then we headed out to the battlefield.

This National Historical Site is where an important battle between Confederate and Union forces was staged early in the Civil War. As we drove the seven-mile tour road, we listened to the park service audio guide to describe the battles and what we were seeing at ten different stops. One of those stops was the Elkhorn Tavern.

We got some exercise, as we hiked the trails at the West Overlook and the East Overlook and the tavern.

The two-day battle in 1862 saw the loss of more than 2,000 volunteer Confederate soldiers. Cannons are lined up in areas where fierce fighting took place.

We drove the pickup and trailer through the seven-mile tour road, but bikes are welcome too, and a hiking trail is also available. While we were driving, the pickup and the solar panels were charging our lithium trailer battery. We were at 100% battery power while we were visiting this national historic site.

Pea Ridge was right on our way to our corp of engineer campground on Beaver Lake in Arkansas. While we have electrical hook-ups available we didn't use them all the time so we could get a feel for how well the solar could keep up with us.

We spent three nights at the Dam Site River Campground. Like the name implied, we had a view of the river coming out of the dam, instead of the lake at this campground. We drove up the hill to get an even better view of the dam, with its hydro-electric plant. Water is released from Beaver Lake at a depth of about 200 feet below the surface of the lake.

The water found at a depth of 200 feet in the lake is cold! It is released through the dam to turn the electric turbines, and then continues down the White River. This keeps the river water chilly, and the trout flourish at these temperatures. Because of the spring rains overfilling lakes and the need for electricity, they are releasing water every day from the dam. When we first arrived, we found the river water was well out of its banks and was covering the sidewalk and boat ramp behind our campground. The current going down-river was fast.

On a different day when water was not being released from the dam, the water in the river was perfectly still. The sidewalk and ramp were visible and dry in this picture taken from the same location. This would have been a great time to do some kayaking on the White River! But when we were ready to kayak, the water was again being released.

Meanwhile, we're happy to report that even though we have some good shade at this camp site, our solar is doing a good job of keeping our battery topped off. We have to admit that we are "cheating" a little. We're using our electric hook-ups when we want to run the air-conditioner or the microwave. Those are the two appliances that we won't be able to use when we are boondocking with no hook-ups. But so far we're excited about the possibilities of living off the grid in our trailer as we test our new electrical system.