Ellen & Me at Farragut State Park

[JudyJB]

OK, I can't remember what I said before, but here goes: I got here on Wednesday and spent a couple of days working (off and on because my motivation is low right now). I like this place because it has paved roads and paved pads, plus water and electric. The pine trees are not too tall, so I even got satellite. (I am becoming a real slug with satellite.) Here is my site:


Ellen arrived on Friday afternoon, and we both had work to do, so visited a while and then got back to work, except cell access is really bad here, so didn't get a lot done. Here is her site right after she arrived. She was parked right behind me, but there was a paved path connecting the two loops.


Saturday, Ellen drove me up to a ski lodge area where there was a fantastic view of the lake. (You have to drive/walk/ride about a mile or so to the lake from the campground.) Ellen treated us to a cheese plate which we shared. She had wine and I had a "gourmet" soft drink, Vernors. (The shop called it gourmet, not me, but it is an old Detroit ginger ale, invented in 1866, and hard to find.



We had a great time chatting and comparing rigs. I came extremely close to buying that brand because I like the quality and the two-year warranty, but Ellen will have to tell you about her battery problems.

[JudyJB]

Now that I got the message uploaded without deleting anything (I do that all the time) here are some more photos. The first two are of the lake I took on my long bike ride before Ellen arrived.



And this one is of the far north end of the lake from the ski lodge. There is a ski life there, but it had just closed for the season.

[VickieP]

Judy, thank you for reposting the gtg, again I apologize for my goof. I love that campground, are all the sites pull-thru?

[JudyJB]

No, I'd say maybe half are back-in. I will say that the pull-through sites are big and not too sharp to get into--you know, like the ones that some strange person designed where they too tight? At least the one I had was long and very easy to get into. No trees or shrubbery on the inside preventing you from making the turn either. Each site also has a tent pad, but no tents other than on the pads.

Also, they let me wash my vehicle there. I asked the camp host and he said he could not give me permission, but that there was no specific rule against it and he washes his trailer there.

Ellen can add something about this history, but this park used to be a naval training base during WWII, so there are open parade grounds and a brig museum you can visit. There is also a boat launching area on the far end of the park.

Another unusual thing about this park is that you can dry camp along these oval parade grounds, but no hookups. BIG PROBLEM, however, is that in spite of what is online, the campground closed today after we left!! Very short season.

[JoanE]

Gorgeous area.

[ellenw]

It was definitely a nice campground, but lousy for cell service, which I rely on to earn a little mad money. Farragut is located on the southern tip of Lake Pend Oreille in North Idaho. This state park is huge, with about 6 varying campgrounds.

On Saturday we drove to the northern tip of the lake, about an hour north, to the town of Sandpoint, Idaho, and from there up to Schweitzer Ski Resort. I was disappointed to learn the Chair Lift had stopped running on Labor Day, but the shared cheese plate helped to make up for it.

Thanks for the banana bread, Judy, and the grabber! It'll help.

Here's my only contribution:

[bluepinecones]

Glad you were able to get this reposted, otherwise I would have missed it all together (poor Internet this past week or so).

[ellenw]

I came extremely close to buying that brand because I like the quality and the two-year warranty, but Ellen will have to tell you about her battery problems.

Well I think after some thinking (wow! what a concept!) and a little experimenting, I figured out there's probably nothing wrong with my battery. This problem was user error: I've been running the inverter to power the TV and charge the laptop and the phone. Doing all that only gave me about 3 hours on the battery, but if I resist turning on the inverter and only use DC powered things (lights, fridge, furnace, fan, water pump), the battery appears to be just fine. There aren't any DC outlets in the coach, but there are 3 of them in the cab. I need to test and figure out if they're running off the coach battery or the engine battery. I think the only way to test is by hitting the battery disconnect switch and check each one to see if it still powers the phone.

[Bethers]

Everything in the coach should be running off the coach battery. Just remember, one battery won't last long if being used a lot, without bring charged.

[ellenw]

Everything in the coach should be running off the coach battery.

Right. But the 3 DC outlets in question are up in the cab, 2 on the dashboard and 1 in the glove box.

And JudyJB's battery runs for several days without being charged, so she was comparing hers to mine and we both assumed mine had a problem. I will rely in the future on running the generator 2x/day, as advised in another thread, to keep the battery charged, but I'll try to use the inverter (i.e., the TV) less.

[BirdbyBird]

My guess is that the outlets in the cab/dash area are all working off the engine battery. Mine do. Even cars these days have two or more outlets for all the electronics that we drive down the road with.

Ellen did you say whether you had one or two batteries?

Look around the coach, you may find a DC outlet somewhere unique. We found Sarah's back by her bed. Mine is over what was the couch area/now day bed near where the antenna is attached. I think it was originally for a 12 volt TV. I use it for charging my electronics when boondocking and just forget about TV and read......

I also run the generator at least once a day to recharge my two batteries.

[Bethers]

I thought Judy has two batteries, and think you only have one. I agree with Tina about all tse 12 volt in the cab - all of those in mine are off the engine, and I only use them while driving.

Again, it also depends a lot on what you are doing - using the inverter and watching tv, etc, will use a lot more - and one battery will drain rather quickly. And remember, if you are leaving things plugged in when not using them, they can be draining the battery, also. I have my tv and dvd player (and computer) on a surge strip - that does NOT let any power through when not in use, but I still turn it off - for when I use the inverter and not those items - which then would be pulling, even if turned off (again, supposedly not on the surge strip, but I don't take chances).

Remember, I learned all this by ruining a battery and almost two. Thank goodness a good friend had me get my 2nd battery at Auto Zone - who the next two years had to trade out my batteries at 1/2 price or better because of how badly I drained them. The third (or maybe the 4th) battery - well, I had learned by then ... mostly.