Camping at a National Park in the Outer Banks. First things first though ... Banana Pancakes! Yup! Banana pancakes for breakfast. It's even tastier while playing Jack Johnson's song 'Banana Pancakes'. These scrumptious flapjacks will get your day off to a good start. So yummy! I knew there was a reason I forgot about those bananas until this morning.
Back to survival in the OBX. When Tim and I are camping we have to think 'conserve' with everything we do in relation to the Airstream. Even more so here. Input of water. Water output. Restroom usage. Showers. Propane and power consumption. Not having a power hook-up to supply electricity creates our first challenge.
Although you can barley see it in photographs the roof of the Airstream has a low profile 125 watt solar panel. This keeps a trickle charge to our onboard batteries keeping them charged. Even with this solar panel we still need to conserve power usage. Also this only supplies our interior 12 volt lights and a few other little things. To conserve on our cell phone usage we place our cells in airplane mode at night. We can also charge our phones by means of an external battery pack that I can get about four to five charges from. And when driving about we always plug our cells into the truck.
Tim can always plug the trailer into the truck if needed but that's not our best option. If worse comes to worse (no sun) we have brought our one little putt putt Honda generator. With this we can plug it straight into the Airstream where it will then charge the A/S batteries and we can also use the 110 outlets to charge needed devices. So far this is day three of not having electric or running a generator. Easy peasy!
PROPANE
Propane keeps the refrigerator running when there is no power. The frig can run on either gas or electric. Propane also runs the in-house heater and hot water heater. With the weather as PERFECT as it is no heater or air conditioning is needed. Highs have been in the mid to upper 70's and lows in the low to mid 60's. The cool ocean breeze helps a lot as well.
Our Airstream contains a combo black/gray tank. Yeah, I'm sure most of you have not heard of that but it's just what it says. One SEVENTY gallon tank that all the black and gray water consumed drains into. This means we can't just hook up a blue boy to drain out just gray water. So we have devised ways to work around this like run-off water from hand washing is captured in a small sink bucket to keep at least a few gallons a day from going into our tank.
Next up is what to do about a shower? Tim and I will be at this location for six days before moving north to our next location. Kinda need a bath! I'll go into those details in tomorrow's blog post.
Jett took a down day today. Seems one of her paws is bothering her. Too much fun I suppose?! We haven't quite figured the issue out but are giving her a day of rest to recover from whatever is ailing her.
In the early afternoon Tim drove us to town where he dropped Jett and I off in front of SMacNally's. This way Jett would only need to cross the street and not walk far. SMacNally's is a fun little waterfront bar and grill located right on the docks near the ferry in Ocracoke. And who got served first? Jett! She got a big dog bowl of iced water before we were even asked our drink order. Oh yeah!
We then enjoyed an early dinner of Bluefish sandwiches and cold beer. Jett met a new friend named Tess. Tess is a lovely three year old chocolate lab weighting in at 106 pounds! I just know they think they are related, probably at least cousins.
More on the shower process tomorrow!
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