Walt's Corner

I’ve never made red beans and rice before. Well, from scratch anyways. I’ve made that little packet of rice, beans, and seasoning you can get at your local supermarket. But this is the first time I’ve assembled all the ingredients and made it for myself. It was a success! I think I’ll make a modified version of this withholding the sausage to spread over a bed of rice and topped with some blackened salmon. I think that would be amazing.

During my information gathering process I learned that beans, especially red and  kidney beans, contain a toxin called phytohemagglutinin (PHA). How does one pronounce that? I want to say Fido-hee-ma-gah-glutin-in, but I’m sure that is wrong. What are the symptoms of this toxin? According to Wikipedia: “Symptoms can be induced from as few as four to five raw beans. Symptoms usually begin with extreme nausea and vomiting within one to three hours of ingestion, followed by diarrhea. Abdominal pain has been reported in some people. Recovery is usually spontaneous and rapid, occurring within three to four hours after onset of symptoms, although some cases have required hospitalization.^”

With this newfound knowledge, I made sure to hard boil my beans for 15 minutes. Here is my recipe.

• 1 pound red beans
• ¾ cup equal proportion of holy trinity (onion, green bell pepper, celery)
• Olive oil (as needed)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeño, diced
• 6 cups chicken broth (I used bouillon based)
• Earl Campbell’s Original Smoked Sausage, 1 rope, sliced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tblsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tblsp cajun seasoning (I used Slap Ya Mama)
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper
• ¼ tsp dried sage

Directions

Prepare red beans by soaking overnight or utilizing the quick soak method. Drain. Hard boil for 15 minutes. Drain again and set aside.

Slice sausage to your desired thickness. Fry in large stew pot until a bit crispy, remove sausage from pot and set aside.

Sauté the holy trinity and garlic until just translucent (5-6 minutes) in the left behind sausage grease. Add olive oil as needed.

Add all spices but bay leaves to the mixture, mix well. Add chicken broth, beans, and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 2 hours.

Mash some of the beans. This will release some starch and give the liquid a creamy texture.

Add sausage. Simmer for another 30 minutes.

Serve over rice.

Had my first troubleshooting experience in the Airstream and it went pretty well. At least a happy ending.

TLDR

A distribution bar holding 3 heavy duty (I’m talking about cable thick enough to handle 300 DC amps) cables worked loose and was bouncing around on top of the Inverter, right where the power button is. This button being “on,” overrides the power button located on the remote-control panel. The inverter was always on. A vampiric draw of current while in storage that would eventually drain the battery in a matter of days. I mounted that bar over and away from the inverter. Turned the power button off on the inverter. Now it will turn off at the remote-control panel. Both problems solved. Both? But I haven’t talked about the other quirk here in this Too Long Didn’t Read paragraph.  

The Problem(s)

After sitting in the undercover storage for a week, the battery would be very low. Did I turn off the main 12-volt switch? Check. Something is wrong. Not a problem while camping since the battery stays charged via solar/generator/DC-to-DC converter/truck alternator. In fact, while camping I didn’t even notice this was a problem. I had an energy vampire!

Side problem? Energy-wise, I can afford keeping the inverter on while camping. Not a big enough power drain to make a difference one way or another. Driving down the road, I would hear the microwave turn-on beep. You know. That beep the microwave makes once power is applied to it, just prior to having to set the clock on it. Only experienced this while hitting bumps on the road. I figured it must be a loose connection somewhere. Perhaps even in the inverter itself.

Touch Screens

The problem with adapting to new technology is that common tasks such as turning on the bathroom light is software driven. There is no physical switch to turn a light on. Have to piss real bad? Rush into the bathroom, close the door, and realize that you can’t turn on the light in there. GODDAMNIT! I’ve got to run to the touch panel and turn it on first! I’m getting used to this change of practice. All lights are controlled through the Firefly Multiplex System. Starting the generator? Touch the panel. Turn on/off the water pump? Panel. There is a 7-inch touchscreen in the front of the coach and a smaller 5-inch panel in the bedroom. The only physical switch is the bathroom fan. Therefore, if there is a light that won’t turn on, the problem could be a traditional power problem, or it could be a software glitch. Controlling the Timberline 2.0 furnace and water heater is essentially the same – a touchscreen panel.

Inverter Panel

Nestled between the Firefly and Timberline touchscreen display panels, sits the remote panel for the Xantrex Freedom XC 3000 watt (6000 watt surge) inverter. Kudos to Airstream for selecting this premium piece of equipment. High. Quality. Shit. The more I dig into the guts of what makes this RV tick, the more impressed I am.

This panel is not a touchscreen. A standard LED display with push buttons. During my troubleshooting I learned that the panel appears to be the same panel that is flush mounted on top of the inverter. Being hidden as the inverter is, this panel up front is just an extension, or remote-control. Also, as I would eventually learn, the power button on the actual inverter takes precedence over the remote panel. In other words, if the button on the inverter is off, you can then turn the unit on or off via the remote panel. However, if the inverter power button is on, then one cannot turn the inverter off via the remote panel. And this was the crux of my problems. Both the battery drain and the random cycling of the microwave circuit.

After our last camping trip, I noticed that the inverter would not shut off. The display dims after a certain amount of time, so it’s not like I’d notice the display on and say, “hey, why isn’t that turning off?” Nope. I just assumed it was off. But I noticed my microwave clock still on after I thought I had turned off the inverter. I googled reasons why my Xantrex Freedom XC would not turn off and it came back with an answer. The one I described in the above paragraph. I then googled where my inverter was located and google provided that info as well. I had to remove the rear access panel under the bed on the driver’s side, as well as the shelf of that same area. That is when I saw the inverter and the problem. A distribution bar that connects 3 large cables, about an inch thick each, was just laying there on top of the inverter, directly on that power button. You can see this in the picture above. I could not locate where this bus bar should’ve been mounted. I did find a nice location to mount it to the frame of that area. You can see my mounting job in the picture below.

Recently joined Harvest Host for a year. With the new rig and how easy it is to just get in and leave, if even for 1 night, Harvest Host just might make that easier. This weekend was our first time using the service – Rio Grande Winery. No relation to our Airstream Rio Grande.

But first we wanted to get a hike in. It has been a while since we’ve gone to Dripping Springs so that was our first choice. Wrong move. BLM was celebrating 80 years and picked that place for its Jubilee. Vendors. Live bands. Food truck. Guided tours. No parking in the park. Had to park at the Farm and Ranch Museum down the road and catch a bus service into the park. We were welcomed to do that. NO thanks.

We did notice this other trailhead on the way that seemed to offer some parking. Turned around and headed back to investigate. Score. Sierra Vista Trailhead with dispersed camping and some designated pull-throughs. Perfect. We parked and hiked 5.5 miles. From there we headed into Old Mesilla, found a parking spot in the square and walked around there.

By 4PM we were parked in the gravel parking area designated for Harvest Host. Purchased our gratuitous bottle of wine (Cabernet Sauvignon) and ordered dinner. I had a pepperoni/shroom pizza while Carol enjoyed pasta Alfredo.

Dinner was followed by the season one finale of A 3 Body Problem. Our second watch in prep for the upcoming season 2. Shower. Finally, our nightly game of Cribbage (I won).

Imagine my surprise when I woke up one morning and saw I was getting a raise! Upon further inspection, it was for all my employees at BasilWeb. Oh. Wait. I have no employees. Boo.

Nice try, Satan. Not today.

Camping trip 259, or the 2nd real camping trip in Rio Grande, was at Cathy Canyon. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. The weekend weather looked pretty darned good for in-between 2 rain events.

We weren’t even sure about where we would be, but given the size of our RV, we could fit into a parking space at a trailhead if necessary. Either way, we planned on a hike and an overnight stay up in the Lincoln National Forest near Sunspot, NM. The low was 53 and topped out at 65.

So we loaded up Rio Grande Saturday morning, threw in the girls, and headed up into the mountains. We pulled into the Cathy Canyon parking lot, where the Rim Trail goes through, and less than a 1/4 mile north we found our spot – right along the trail. Was still a little juicy from the week’s rain, but manageable.

We parked and were totally set up within 15 minutes. Setup now involves throwing down our patio-mat, setting up the lawn chairs and aluminum table, and taking the grill and charcoal out of the cargo hold. 5 minutes later we took the girls out for a 3-mile hike up Rim Trail, then the Cathy Canyon Vista Trail, about a total of 1.5 miles then turned around. We managed about 650 feet of elevation during that time. After all that rain, the forest smelled magnificent.

Back at camp I showered (using our new Teakwood shower mat), grilled some wieners, had a campfire and enjoyed some Jack Barrel Proof and a Cohiba. Following that we played a couple games of cribbage (she beat me – twice). Finally, it was time to settle down and read (current book: Dungeon Crawler Carl) before sleeping in to about 7AM.

That’s about it as far camping excitement goes. If you’re interested in the performance of the battery/solar/etc while boondocking, read on, Garth. Let’s see what this “Emerald Off-Grid Status,” the highest tier of eco-friendliest and sustainability certification award can do.

When we arrived at campsite, around 11AM or so, the battery was fully charged, obviously, but I thought this would be a great time to test it out. Nothing but battery and solar for the rest of the day, what would the battery look like tomorrow morning after running the furnace all night, AND brewing a couple cups of coffee through the Keurig, using the on-board battery inverter.

I turned the furnace on around 3PM. Kept it on overnight. The furnace runs off the fuel in the gas tank of the Airstream and provides both coach heat and hot water. If you’ve been following along with me on here, you’ll note that this RV does not use any propane. I set the temp to eventually 72 for both the front and rear areas, which translated to an actual 63-64 degrees in the coach. Excellent temps for sleeping with a good set of covers. We describe this level of great sleep amongst ourselves as “RV Sleep.” As in, “Oh man, I got some good RV Sleep in last night,” even when describing a good night’s sleep at home. I heating system consists of two areas, each with its own variable temperature and fan that can be set to manual if wanted. I kept it on auto.

By sunset, battery was still at 100%. 7:30AM the next day and 2 cups of coffee, the battery was down to 65%. A quick check of the fuel gauge showed no visible drain of gas. Running the generator (which also sucks gas from the tank) for nearly an hour brought it back up to 96% and it quickly charged back up to 100% on the way home. Still no discernible fuel loss from the gauge’s point of view.

One quick note on the fridge. It’s amazing. I’ve had these small refrigerators in the past where the “freezer” is a little box in the top of the fridge and they have never been able to properly freeze a tray of ice. This one actually works. I was able to find a small set of 4 trays that produce regular size ice cubes and a storage tray for cubes already made that fit in the little freezer. Impressive.

I am confident this setup will get us through our annual Big Bend Ranch State Park pilgrimage this winter.