Last November, we visited the coastal area of South Carolina. This Spring, we stayed in the northwestern part of the state.
We chose a quiet campground near a town large enough to get some chores completed.
A little housework...
We left Austin so quickly that we did not have time to settle some long-overdue housekeeping. Now was the time to get that done. In previous posts, we have mentioned dry-camping or boondocking (depending on how you choose to define the term.) We have the ability to live a (short) period of time without power provided by an Electric Company, water, or sewer. We have a fresh water tank, two holding tanks, two propane tanks, a battery bank with solar panels, and an inverter. Other than basic maintenance, these systems have been mostly trouble-free for the past five years. This year, our batteries decided they were tired. We knew they were nearing the end of their life-span, but we hoped to get a few more months (maybe a year) out of them. Shortly after we left Austin, we noticed a sharp decrease in their ability to hold a charge. While we don't often rely on our batteries for long periods of time, when we need them, they are critical. We knew we needed to replace them immediately. We had priced replacements before we left Texas and had a general idea of the cost. Although we weren't going for anything fancy, six deep cycle batteries, weren't cheap. We found a place in Seneca, SC that sold golf carts and Trey stopped in one day to ask about batteries. We talked to Ronnie and gained some valuable information. We went back the next day to order batteries from him. He priced the batteries we were looking for at almost $50 (each) under what we were expecting. We decided to upgrade to the next larger size (Trojan T-125) and still saved almost $30 per battery. We sat in his office while he ordered the batteries from the distributor and heard him request "fresh" batteries. Knowing batteries have a shelf life, we appreciated his diligence. There are many battery options for RVs and we could have spent a great deal more for newer technology and longer life. But we haven't really dry camped extensively in our travels and don't have big plans for it in the future so we just wanted something "a little better" than what we previously had.
This is our old battery bank - the one that came with the rig. We were too tired to think about taking a picture once our new ones were installed (besides a storm was approaching), but it pretty much looks like this picture, except the batteries are red.
We had one of our propane tanks refilled and re-certified while here. Seneca, SC has some excellent folks!
We also did a little roof repair while here. RVs tend to shake and rattle as they move down the road, so you need to stay on top of things that might jiggle loose - like roof seams, electrical connections, pipe fittings, etc. Some times we fix things before there are problems (good for us), sometime problems motivate us to fix things (usually a frustrating day). Either way, it all gets fixed... eventually.
We did a little more organizing/downsizing while here too. That seems to be a never-ending process in smaller living spaces.
Some Bible work...
In addition to some of our RV chores, we were able to get some jobs finished. We had been re-working some of Clyde White's lessons for ThinktheBible.org since last year. We took some of his Sermon notes from various series and transformed them into Single Lessons. This took some time (going from outlined notes to full paragraph structure and multiple lessons with reviews to a more concise single lesson) but was beneficial for us and we hope others will find benefit also. We hope to add more lessons on a regular basis. If you are between studies or want to start a new one, check out one of these. If there is a lesson or lesson series you remember Pastor Clyde teaching at MBF that you would like to read, let us know and we will see if we have the resources to begin that process.
In case you didn't know, if you click the ThinktheBible Video page, you will have access to the entire Walk Through the Bible video series.
A cool bit news: we hit a milestone on the ThinktheBible Facebook page this month also. We've been creating and posting verse graphics for almost two years now and we finally reached one hundred verse images (actually 101). They are currently only on the Facebook page, but we will try to get those moved to a section of ThinktheBible.org soon. Here is an example of one graphic.
