Ok, last night, Sept. 24th., we landed in a small town, Memphis, Texas. Memphis is located on U.S. Route 287. 287, starts in Louisiana and ends in Montana. US route is not the same as a Interstate (I).

The first photo shows name, ph number, ad other information like FREE, with 50 amp service and water.

The rest of the photos show the area along with unknown structures.

 If you are looking for a small and quite place to unwind for a few days, you're not caring about people or businesses, or even getting out, then this is the place to do it.


Safe Travels and Journeys
DaGirls AKA Dakota and Tilly
Susan and Dale

On Da Road

We left around 8 am, this morning. Heading, to Albuquerque, NM. We started in mist for about 100 miles. Currently the sun is out and highway is dry. We expect to arrive in Memphis, Tx., In about 1 hour.

Susan is driving and we'll switch in a few miles.

Battery Maintenance or How to Keep my Batteries Healthy

First, lets start with a little help from Trojan Battery Company.

Trojan, has a library for understanding and maintaining flooded wet cell batteries.

Link Link to Multi Media Files 

Next, lets look at battery connections, that is, ensuring the battery terminals are clean and free of corrosion.

The first step is mixing water and baking soda in a container. Once mixed, if necessary, remove the cables one at a time from each battery. This then allows you to pour over the battery, allowing the solution remove the battery acid from terminal and the tops of the batteries. Using an old towel, wipe off any excess solution.

Next, I like to use a battery cleaner:

Something like what you see above. Spray, both the terminals and the top. Follow the instructions.

Next, if need be, pour some of the baking soda solution into a cup (I like red solo), and then place the terminal end of the battery cable into the cup and allow to soak. Once done, rinse and dry off.

Now that the batteries and terminals are clean, you are now ready to add a protector to the terminals with cables connected. Now you can use something like this:

Or you can use grease or petroleum jelly, to cover the terminals.



Now, your done, whoops, I may have left out a few more things to do.

Next when was the last time you exercised your batteries. Not an extended exercise, but allow then to drain for 30 to 60 minutes and then allowed to recharged?

Many people believe this is a waste of time, however, I use this to measure the effectiveness of my battery system and their health.

Once the battery charger is back in the float stage, I use my battery hydrometer to check effective charge rate by measuring the specific gravity of the battery solution. I prefer this type of hydrometer and not the plastic variety:

To read and understand what you are looking at:






To understand how to determine the health of your batteries using a hydrometer, I will refer you back to the Trojan Multi Media link and watch this video:
“Determining the Health of a Deep-Cycle Battery”.
Finally, if it is determined, that your batteries are not being fully charged, I will refer you to this video on, Battery Equalization, at the Trojan Multi Media link at the top:
“ Equalization is Key to Extending Battery Life and Performance “.
See your Battery Charger/Inverter for instructions on how to perform this operation. By doing this once or twice a month, you will be extending your batteries life and performance.

Link to More Information on Batteries


The instructions are extremely helpful prior to going dry camping / boon docking.


From DaGirls Rv Aka Dakota & Tilly

whitesboro Texas

We'll catch you up a little on where we are and what we are doing.

Location: Lake Texoma, Thousand Trails / Good Sam / Annuals Rv Park / Resort. City; Gordonsville, Texas. Closest small town is Whitesboro. US route 82 & US Route 377. Notice there are U.S. routes and Interstate, someday we will explain the differences.

We are currently staying until Sept. 24th, where we will start our migration to AIBF. We arrived Sept. 3rd, labor day. 

Dakota and I have been going on many 2 to 4 miles walk-abouts. Some of them leading us to strange and unique places.

This is a route Dakota & I took, on Saturday. She went thru, and I went over a fence. Along the way we follow the road called Rio Roxo Rd. The road led us down to a old summer camp for young adults / children.

There were actual bunkhouse with bunk beds / Sleeping cabins you would see on movies. In our walking around we could tell, this place had been closed for a while with many broken windows, and floor rotten out. 

 

Safe Travels and Journeys

DaGirls Rv Aka Dakota and Tilly

Susan & Dale

Adding Additional Fuse Block Mod

I started this mod a few ago, and as of today, 9/12, I  have finally finished it.

It started when a friend said, he had a separate 12Vdc line run to his refrigerator/freezer (Basement unit). His explanation was, since 1, 20 amp fuse was used for over 10 items, he did not want his freezer to be affected by a blown fuse.

I thought about this for a while, than did a few analyses, on the circuit. I found that, the further away from the fuse, a bigger voltage dropped was seen. This is what really sold me on running a separate 10 gauge wire as I did not want a large voltage drop to the refrigerator/freezer

About 2 years later, I was changing out our water pump, and notice that the specification sheet stated the motor could draw up to 15 amps. Well heck, back to the earlier issue. Because too many items on the same fuse. So, I splice in a wire, from the refrigerator/freezer, ran it to the water pump, install a 12Vdc cube relay to act as the on/off switch. The water pump switch wire now goes to the relay and turns it on/off. The normally open contact is attached to the 10 awg cable, the new 12Vdc new wire . The common contact goes to the water pump 12Vdc power.  
So now no power drop.

I have been running this for a year now, with no issues, but I knew, I could do more, I needed to add a fuse block for additional items if need be. Today was the day, to add a new fuse block I had found 6 months ago. And here is the finished product. I have fuses for the pump/freezer, new daytime running lights (I installed) and the Magnum BMK.



Safe Travels and Journeys
DaGirls Rv Aka Dakota and Tilly
Susan and Dale - Travel safe

Lake Texoma RV Campground, Gordonville, Texas

So, what happen in between here and Alexandria, La. or even Ruston, La. ? Well not much of anything, except for meandering to Albuquerque International Balloon Festival.

We spend labor Day weekend at Lake Tawakoni, just outside of Point, Tx. or better yet east of Dallas.

Press Here

High point of this Thousand Trails? Well I met 2 gentlemen, both with the first name of, are you ready? Dale, father and son, so where else can you get a triple set.

This is Dale, Dale's son was still sleeping when we left:

Pups and I got in many  miles of walking, even with the temps in the 90's. 

Low point, many sites closed off to accommodate the poor electrical infrastructure. All sites 30 amps, poor 30 amps most of the time, meaning ac voltage was less then 106 Vac.

But in the end, it was nice, people friendly, dog friendly, meaning, lots of open area for dakota to run, and in Texas, people would rather bring their dogs than children.

So, on Monday the 3rd, we packed up, and headed out to Lake Texoma for a 3 week or less stay.

Of course a few photo ops of what we see:

Then I finally completed a small project, I been putting off. Few months I had purchase 2, sets of daytime running lights. Well I finally got around to complete the installation. These are recessed lights, meaning I cut the fibreglass and installed:

So, Safe travels and journeys

DaGirls Aka Dakota and Tilly

Susan, dale