Our first meal in the trailer??? BACON! Well, technically it was a bacon chicken salad but yeah. We also discovered that cooking bacon in the trailer makes the trailer smell like bacon for DAYS. So... we might not make bacon as often ^.^ But it was still fun. Whitney and I took our own private trip with the trailer to test our abilities at setting up, sleeping, and cooking. I think it went exceptionally well and we discovered several things that we need in order to make our trip more comfortable and ideal.
First of all, sorting out the lighting situation. The trailer is supposedly wired for 110 and for 12 volt and only recently have I discovered the 12 volt wiring and where the battery is supposed to go. However, the previous owner seems to have attempted to splice the wiring and in doing so, created a rather dangerous unsafe line. So we will be removing that wiring and replacing it, as well as figuring out how to install a 12v light and power outlet. Right now, the trailer only has 110 lights which means when we are not hooked up, we have no light. We have battery operated lanterns but that's a lot of batteries. However, I have also registered us for a battery charger and some rechargeable batteries. In addition to our car charger and solar charger, that should take care of our electronic charging needs. I am still trying to determine how to run a laptop while boondocking. It may well be out of our capabilities and we might be limited to only using the laptop when in the car, in cafes, or when plugged in. That means my earning potential for writing on the road will be largely reduced and concentrated to those specific times.
Solar Shower: This was a piece of equipment that I admit, I was skeptical about. We got the biggest size because I wasn't sure how much water each person would really need for a shower. However, it works as advertised! There are some downsides of course but with access to full sunlight you can have a bag of pretty dang warm water. It also was enough to give 2 showers and to do dishes with for two days. It cools down overnight but since we were dealing with glacier water at our campsite, it was still significantly more tolerable than that. A shaded campsite will prove very limiting unless there is a nearby place to lay it out in sunshine, which our campsite did giving us the perfect opportunity to try this out. I am considering trading it down for a smaller size to improve the time it takes to warm up. It took most of one day to get it hot -- I would guess around 6 hours. But again, this is for a 5 gallon bag and it provided a lot of water.
More updates to follow as well as pictures of the inside of the trailer!
