We've been enjoying our Colorado cabin for the past few years. There is a great community at Arrowhead, the summer weather is absolutely enjoyable. Most days are in the 70's with an occasional day bumping the low 80's but only for an hour or two then down into the 50's overnight. Open window weather fo sho. Cindy and I are both members of our volunteer fire department. We enjoy being able to serve our community and are called out, mostly for medical emergencies, whenever someone has an issue up here. Remember we're at 9400' and the top of our mountain is 11,500' so the altitude can be an issue especially for weekenders who come up to play hard.
But in a few weeks we'll head back up north, way up north to Tuktoyaktuk, NWT Canada. Tuk is on the Arctic Ocean where I plan to jump into the frigid waters. Will I? Won't know until we get there. Then into Alaska where we'll spend a few weeks at Jennifer's brother's 80 acre place parked at his pond. Jennifer is our Fire Chief and good friend.
Last fall while talking with Gary at his orchard (he's a retired fruit farmer near Delta) he mentioned that his wife Diana would love to travel to Alaska one summer. I said that Cindy wanted to return. So once we mentioned it to both ladies the planning started. Gary has a really nice truck camper with 2 slides and we have a cabin. So off we went looking for a motorhome. After looking at everything locally I found a 30' Monaco single slide motorhome in Cheyenne, WY. We drove up, checked it out, and bought it. It drove great on the way back to our cabin. Then I started some upgrades. It is in great condition inside and out, and mechanically. But it had no inverter and only 2 golf cart batteries. From our trip in 2019 in our 36' Foretravel I had a good idea of what was required to be comfortable electrically. So after a few weeks I had added an inverter, 400 watts of solar, 280 amp-hour LiFePO4 battery, DC-DC charger, transfer switch, and a few other essentials. Now we'll have use of the microwave and coffee maker while dry camping. We plan to do mostly dry camping. It's waiting for our return to Arrowhead in a few weeks. Then I spent some time helping Gary upgrade his camper, Kirk (Jennifer's hubby) helped also. Gary had 1 80 watt solar panel so we replaced that one with 4 100 watt panels, added an inverter, and a transfer switch. He already had 200 amp-hours of LiFePO4 batteries so should be good on that. Now he'll have coffee in the morning and popcorn whenever he likes. Then I got a call from Tom wanting to know if he and Darlene could come along with us. Sure! We've known Tom and Darlene for 14 years. He decided to buy a 40' Super C and is adding solar and LiFePO4 batteries. All 3 of us will be ready to dry camp. So when we went back to our cabin a couple months ago we flew to Phoenix where Tom and Darlene picked us up. I spent a couple days helping him with his upgrades. Then Gary and Diana drove down to spend a couple days and meet Tom and Darlene. Then we drove back to Arrowhead with them.
Now we're enjoying our condo in Baton Rouge and spending time with our grandkids. Since my last update we have 2 new grandkids thanks to Mike and Katie. Luke will be 3 the end of April and Jane is 7 months old. Eva is 11 and Ella will be 17 in a couple months. And she will be a junior at EDWhite. I can't be getting that old. Oh yeah, I am 71 now. Ouch, but still going strong, kinda strong, well still going at least.
That's it for now.
