As I mentioned before, while we were at the FMCA convention in Pomona, we were parked in the parking lot with no hookups whatsoever. We were there 6 nights. I think we did pretty good. We ran the generator a total of 32 hours and used a about a quarter tank of gas. I'll estimate that at 13 gallons. That comes out to 2.4 hours/gallon and about $1/hr. We didn't use the generator very hard. No air conditioning, no electric heat. I did use a hairdryer one day, and the microwave a couple times. We mainly need it for the computers and the satellite dish. Without electricity, this is just a very expensive sign, letting us know we're home!


One of these days, we'll buy an inverter, and probably some solar panels, so that we can run our computers off our house batteries. Just haven't gotten around to that yet. It is definitely on my list though because the generator exhaust makes me sick. The generator is located right below where I sit in the coach, and the exhaust pipe is just outside my window. I keep the window closed of course, but it still gets in somehow. The first day, our CO2 alarm went off after just a half hour of running the generator so we had to turn it off. Oh boy ... this is going to be a problem. But, the next day, the wind must have been blowing in a better direction - the alarm didn't go off any more.

One of our neighbors had an extension pipe on their exhaust. I'll bet that would make a big difference. We can't use those big pipes that stick up in the air because it would bump into our awning. Jim says he can pick up one of these simple extension pipes at a Napa auto parts or something similar.



Although the first couple of days were cold and drizzly, the last couple were warm and beautiful. The view of the mountains to the east was beautiful.



We had to leave Odie in the motorhome all day long, but we walked him every morning. It's not too hard to give him some exercise. As long as we can find an open area, Jim and I separate as far as we can, then we call Odie. He comes running first to Jim, then to me, then to Jim ... well, you get the idea!



The warmer weather brought out the sociable side of these RVers too!



We ran the hotspot every day to plenty of appreciative email-readers! Really, it seems like we got more people saying "Thank-you, I really appreciate this service" than at any other rally we've done. They look awfully serious though, don't they?