Re: Ping Neon John Again

On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:16:18 -0400, Neon John <no@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

On Fri, 17 Apr 2009 00:01:37 -0500, Bob Giddings
<bobgiddings0@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

(How do you travel without using your
microwave, Bob?)

Every time I use electricity, it means I have to listen to the
generator that much sooner. And that much longer. I really hate
that. I'll put up with it to be able to listen to music or read
at night. But not to run the microwave.

Bbbbut a microwave uses so little energy... Yep, it uses a lot of
power but not for long and that's the key to low energy use. I've
watched my E-meter as I nuke a TV dinner. Though it draws over 80
amps, it only does so for about 5 minutes 6 amp-hours. My reading
light uses more than that. I wonder if maybe you're inconveniencing
yourself over a mistaken belief as to how much energy the thing uses?


Well, since you put it that way..... but these things are
insidious. Before you know it you're using it all the time.

The main reason I didn't go larger on the wiring was laziness. I
already had the 8 AWG. Besides that,

1. I'd used it over a year this way on the road and didn't think
I needed anything larger, considering my habits.

2. I connected at the converter, and the DC hole simply wouldn't
take a larger wire... which means I'd have to get further back in
there and Y into it, and my back already hurt from laying
stretched out, and my thumbs were shredded from twisting wire
already, etc. See there, laziness.

But I am putting in the PD when it arrives, and I'll see about
upgrading that short piece of wiring then. Just in case.

But to do it right I'd have to run about 30 feet of heavier AC
line than those little 16/2 extension cords. And rearrange the
plug for the microwave.

In total, that's a lot of trouble for something I haven't felt
the need for to date.


Much better to just cook in or on the oven. Propane is silent.
And food turns out right.

Serious curiosity and not being snarky. How do you do that every day?
Do you cook for every meal or bake TV dinners or what?

I do simple in-stove cooking, like roasts and lasagna, then eat
on them for days. I bake fresh bread. I often cooked in the
trailer while trundling down the road, and I expect to do more of
that in the MH. Nothing like arriving to find dinner all ready.

Thank you, Fireball Hunnicutt!

http://reghunnicutt.com/rv/

I also cook toast on a stovetop toaster, and boiled eggs. And my
own versions of hamburger helper. Pasta. Sausage. Rice. Thin
strips of pork or beef, tossed Chinese style with cabbage and
peppers. Whole baked chicken.

I like thick steaks cooked on a grill over an open fire. About
the only thing I usually fry is eggs and bacon.

The only limitation I notice to not having a microwave on the
road is baked potatoes. I boil them instead, served with butter
and a bit of oregano.

Really the only thing I use a microwave for at home is to defrost
meat, bake potatoes, and heat up my coffee. The One Real Glory
of a microwave is that it doesn't burn coffee.

I do miss the defrosting thing sometimes. For that I have to
think a day ahead. I can do that. I can do that.

Besides, if I started cooking in the thing, what would I do for a
pie safe? I visit a lot of bakeries.


I love to cook but about once a day is more than enough when I'm
vegging out in a nice camping spot.

I cook no more than once a day. Or typically less. But I cook
enough for several meals. I can eat a good roast, as roast or
sandwiches or stew, for three days without complaint. Especially
if there's fresh bread and a bit of dessert.


I take both store-bought and
homemade TV dinners that I can nuke and eat. God help the world if I
tried to cook breakfast before coffee. I'd probably burn it down!

My freezer isn't big enough to store a lot of meals. It's full
of cooked meat to start with, but that's soon gone. No frozen
dinners after that. I generally cook and eat fresh food, and
keep leftovers in the fridge. They are soon gone too. I visit a
store somewhere twice a week.

And in traveling mode, I do eat out.


I'm also curious as to how you tolerate the heat of, particularly the
oven in the summertime in Texas. Are you heat tolerant, just
grin'n'bear it while sweat runs in rivers or ?

If you cook in the oven, you don't need to watch it. I walk or
sit outside. And I range widely in the cooler climes. I don't
like heat any more than you do, but I cook large quantities in
the middle of the day, when I'm outside anyway. Unless it's
rainy and cold, in which case a little oven heat seems homey.
Most of my meals are heating stuff up on low heat in an iron
skillet. It doesn't seem to take much more time than a
microwave, if it doesn't start out actually frozen, but you do
have to watch it and add water.

I don't need to cook every day. That's what the propane fridge
is for. Unless you call coffee cooking.


I'm almost completely heat intolerant (makes me sick) but bulletproof
against cold so summers are spent trying to stay cool. Unfortunately
here in the humid SE that means shore power or generator and AC.


My camping has generally been in the high west, from New Mexico
to Alaska. It ain't muggy out there. If I'm miserable, I travel
a couple of hundred miles a day until I'm not.

Remember this one?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pour a little water into a glass.

The optimist may call it half full.

The pessimist may call it half empty.

The engineer will tell you you have the wrong glass.

Well yeah, you do :-) You spend a lot more time thinking
philosophically than I do. If the glass is half empty, I just fill it
up and go about my business :-)

You and I come from entirely different places on this. I look on
the RV as a large and comfortable step up from a tent. You see
it as a small step down from a house.

Close, perhaps. I view my little rig as a comfort cocoon that lets me
go places and do things and still have refuge from the cold cruel
world. That means a clean bed, a clean bathroom, a comfortable
environment and good food. Other than cooking on a campfire, my taste
in food doesn't change when I crank up the engine and pull out of the
drive.

Mine neither.

But I have had a lot of tenting experience. For many years I
eliminated things from my camping diet, because I had to carry it
all on my back. I got down to a 30 pound pack, including food
for 3 days. And that was the cold weather pack, with the heavy
bag.

If you walk 20 miles or so, you'd be surprised how good freeze
dried food can be. Though I preferred canned meat and rice. The
hardest thing was getting used to teabags instead of coffee.
Coffee takes a little too much paraphernalia.

It takes a few days to acclimate to that. The body rebels.

I don't do that stuff any more, but the habits of mind remain. On
a level below consciousness, I expect travel to be different from
home. I'd be disappointed if it weren't.


Diversity is good, of course. Otherwise we'd all be piling on trying
to camp in the same place!


As much as possible, I want to leave my house behind. Every
camping trip I ever took was designed to get away from it and the
habits that surround it.

Ideally I would shuck it all, and live in my skin. But my
character is weak and my body is old and stiff, and I can't get
away with that crap any more. If I ever could.

I went through the "roughing it" phase in my youth. I was thinking
about that the other night when it was about 40 out and the wind was
gusting up in the 70mph range. How nice a tent would have been
then... NOT!

Tent?!? What luxury! I got down to a light 6 X 9 nylon tarp.
With a little origami, you can make a tight tent out of that.
Yes, I slept crosswise. Ounces count, when you carry them
everywhere. I even experimented with Tyvek, but it proved too
fragile.


Now that I'm older and decrepit, I couldn't do that if I wanted to. I
still do sometimes. Want to, that is. When I'm having an attack of
mild insanity :-)

I get that a lot. Sometimes I even think I'm attractive to
somewhat younger women! :o)

Bob
.

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