April 9th, Tuesday 12p.m ozarks, arkansas
Taking a rest day, embracing the boredom. I do feel the itch to go somewhere, but if I head down the hill I lose cell signal, so I’ll stay put.
Tomorrow, I’ll drive out the way I came in unless we get some torrential rain. If that happens, then I’ll head out the back way to rt 16, then 7 south to Russellville. Ideally if I can go out the same way, I can stop at a site near water, scoop some up with my collapsible bucket thing and have a Geyser sponge shower (or two) before going into town. I’m probably super stinky right now.
Tomorrow will be a resupply day. Depending on how long things take, I may overnight at the Cracker Barrel in town, but hopefully it won’t take that long and I can go find a campsite in the woods around Lake Ouachita.
After Wednesday, looks like good weather until Monday, so I’ll swing by the bike store in town and ask for any suggestions about bikepacking routes. Not sure what gear I need, but I should be able to find something to purchase in exchange for info.
So i’m guessing after I get done with my bike touring, and I clean up for a night, I’ll start driving back North towards home. Not sure exactly when I’ll start heading back, it’ll be 2 days of driving either straight home or to my friends in Maryland. Will play it by ear. They may be busy, which is no biggee. Plenty of time to see them the rest of camping season too.
What would I change on my truck?
the truck has felt more dialed in this trip.
Loves
- the homemade vestibule/rain awning for the driver side GFC tent door. game changer when it’s raining and I’m stuck inside the tent.
- my 40F rated down quilt with the synthetic down hoodie and booties. Slept comfortably down to freezing temps multiple times. Also wore sweats and a fleece jacket when temps were down near freezing overnight. the thermarest mondo king air mattress is super comfy and warm too.
- the mounted Joolca shower stall. so much easier to set up and put away, and it doesn’t add weight to the roof ski box like the shower tent does.
- the usb chargeable 1 liter water sprayer for rinsing dishes, picture below
- the popcorn air popper (no chip cravings!)
- the safe and the usb outlets inside it. and one of the magnet lights Mark and Teresa got me.
- the padded pouch for my coleman stove
- the tiny solo stove and wood pellets
- the weboost (yes I have to move the transmission puck around, but it’s been awesome, 1 bar of signal becomes 3-4 bars, LTE sometimes upgrades to 5g)
the Meh’s
- the surround i made around the fridge has done its job keeping stuff from falling into the drawer space when I slide out the fridge. only downside is that i have to remove it to do work on the electric box. I need to make it easier to add/remove. Star knobs and t-nuts?
- the wool blanket and towel inside the GFC tent under the roof. Works great to stop condensation but gets damp and the wool blanket is a bit saggy (maybe 4 inches lower than ceiling in the center). Makes things darker in the morning though and that’s nice. Should I give up and cement a covering up there?
- the water pumps for my 5 gallon NATO water jugs. functional but annoying at times. the usb powered one is Sloooowww. but it’s easy to turn on and off. The manual siphon pump can be fiddly, but it’s much faster when dispensing a liter or more.
- the primus white gas stove needed a lot of fiddling to get working (should I just get another coleman single white gas burner? or am I’m being whiny because i had to do basic maintenance?)
- the GFC tent floor cushion layout I need to move my paper towel holder now I think
- my camp chair. sturdy but takes up a lot of room
things I should change/fix/remove?
- the positive lead line of the battery monitor should probably be on the positive bus bar instead of the first battery. it’s doing the SOC% (state of charge) off just the 1 battery instead of both.
get rid of the toaster. wraps are just easier when camping and they keep longer. will make more room for the air popper.
go through the campfire milk crate, you brought a lot of stuff you didn’t need for wood pellet fires.
the yard sale I have going on in the truck cab. Bike gear, jackets, shoes, and generally crap everywhere! Maybe that’s just camping life idk.
should I give up being able to put a bike in the back inside the truck? there’s a $800 slideout and tilter for the fridge, then i could have a drawer underneath the cooler…but honestly just putting a bag on top of the fridge when needed would be more versatile and weigh less. I’m leaning towards NO.
things I want to buy/install before next big trip
- 1st and foremost… a wolfbox rearview mirror replacement dash cam thing. then I can stuff more in the rear AND see better than I do now what’s going on behind the truck, traffic-wise. I could also reconnect the OEM wiring harness to the tailgate which would restore the auto-lock.
- a spare olympus camera battery charger, leave in the safe
- spare charger lines for induction headphones
- large metal spoon for mini solo stove ashes
- another 5 gallon `water jug? or….guzzle h20 water purifier (or I should have just brought the msr guardian filter bag)
- circular marine type vents for excess heat in rear bed (to help fridge run cool. cheaper project too <$50
- later this year, I’ll need new tires for the truck, if the online reviews are true about the stock tires getting squirrelly in the snow/rain after they’ve had 30,000 miles of wear.
- a 2nd coleman single burner white gas stove?
