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Hello, and welcome to the June Newsletter. A hot start to summer.
Thanks, everyone, for subscribing to and reading my monthly newsletters. If you're new or missed any editions, you can always catch up by visiting the Archive Page.
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What's New With Us
What a wacky June weatherwise. It started much like normal with what folks around here call "Junuary" or "June Gloom." After being teased with some summery temps in May, it's not uncommon for June to be cool and rainy.
But man, this year, around mid-month, Mother Nature cranked up her heat lamp! By the end of the month, all-time records all over the region were falling.
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I must have been psychic. I recently did several things to the rig that sure helped us out during this extreme heatwave. If you remember, I gave our old AC unit some extensive TLC, installed more exterior window shades, and just finished recoating the RV roof, making it bright white and heat reflective.
Those things, along with our awning screen room, really helped our AC perform well and kept us fairly cool inside. Below is a comparison of inside temps to the outside temps from my weather station on the hottest day.
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The large swings in the outside temps occur when winds shift, and we get cool breezes off the ocean. The ocean temps around us are in the 50s.even in the summer.
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The late-day heat in the trailer came when the western sun was hitting our more poorly insulated rear end wall and slideout of the trailer. At that point our AC couldn't keep up.
Overall though, not bad considering the Cougar is a cheaper end lightweight fifth wheel. It only has 30 amp power, so just a single 13.5K BTU air conditioner.
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June Fun Stuff
Other than several overly hot days to endure, it's been a great month for us. We were able to get out for some actual camping in Vancouver Island backcountry early in the month. A return trip to Buttle Lake. It was interesting to see how lush it was compared to our fall 2020 visit.
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It rained on and off and was mostly cloudy, but so good to get the rig back on the road. The good news is all went smoothly even after the extended time spent sitting in one spot this past winter.
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I was able to test out the newly updated suspension parts I installed last fall. The trip out to Buttle Lake involves tons of curves, hills, rough highway sections, and a pot-holed campground road. Everything worked great!
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I also performed real-world testing of the Bluetti AC200P portable power station, showing what to expect if using it to power a larger-sized RV off the grid. It was a rigorous test given the heavily treed campsite, and poor solar weather encountered over most of the 3 days.
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However, the big highlight of the month was celebrating our 10th year as full-time RVers! On June 15th, 2011, Anne and I set out on a 1 year RV trek around the US and Canada. Guess we extended it a bit. :)
We are both looking forward to once again traveling south this fall for the winter. The sunny desert was sorely missed.
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To mark the occasion, we picked ourselves up a yummy cake, threw expensive steaks on the barbie, and enjoyed a few drinks to toast with.
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Here's to 10 more, Cheers!
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