Revelstoke

We all piled into our Airstream last night for homemade pizza, local beers and whiskey with a horse on the cork to celebrate our one month caravan-niversary. The perfect neighbors, whether mobile or stationary, make you feel all alone half the time and show up with a helping hand, to shoot the $h!t or with a bottle of whiskey with a horse on the cork the other half. @simplylivingmore #littleairstreamfriends #airstreamwithkids

All the campgrounds in town are closed for the season, so I guess we’ll have to stay out here. #airstream #settledowncanada #britishcolumbia #revelstoke #lakerevelstoke

When people ask me about whether they need a generator, I tell them it’s about tradeoffs. In a perfect world, we could collect (panels) and store (batteries) enough solar power stay anywhere as long as we might ever want. But, ironically, just as the days grow shorter and the sun’s angle shallower making collection tougher, our power needs increase as we crank the furnace and use it longer each day and night to keep our families warm.
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Portable panels that can find elusive sun and tilt bars to squeeze some efficiency out of a few good hours can sometimes save the day, but at some point, you may have to ask yourself, which am I more willing to do; Hitch up and head to town for an electric connection or fire up a loud and stinky generator for a couple hours so you can stay at that prime lakeside spot?
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Yup, it’s a trade off, and in the end, we’ve chosen to carry a 1000W generator that fits in our roof top box, preferring not to have it inside the SUV with us (safety/smell). Our unit puts out about 38 amps, more than a factory 30 amp charge controller can accept back into the batteries (tho we’ve actually upgraded to a 50 amp controller that *could* charge faster). That being said, we do need to be a little careful about how much additional power we’re using while recharging to avoid overloading the generator. So yeah, we’re not making smoothies in the Mixgasmic 4000 or running my hair krimper at the same time.
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For us, it’s just about topping up the batteries, and as much as we love our solar setup, even with our 405W on the roof and 120W portable panel churning out a *max* of 28 amps (in perfect conditions which are rare), even the little 1000W gen blows it away for getting back to 100%. But it’s loud. And stinks. Side note: I think our 1000W may actually be louder than a 2000W because it needs to rev a lot higher to give us the power we need whereas a larger unit could stay closer to idle in “Eco Mode” and do the job. If we had a way to carry it, we’d probably have a 2000W with a “soft start” on our AC unit that would allow it to run.
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I guess what I’m trying to say is, I think we’ll stay here for a while. .
#airstream #airstreamsolar #rvsolar

In the afternoon, our whole group inflated the paddleboards and set out across Lake Revelstoke, dodging weather-worn driftwood logs lurking like crocodiles on the surface and watching for trunks of trees flooded when the lake was created below us.
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The temperature dropped as the sun fell behind the steep ridge on the far side, but we had time to visit a pretty waterfall and start back across just as the kids started complaining about cold toes. Fortunately, we had a clear silver target to aim for back across the water.
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After a few minutes with extremities inches from the furnace vents in the Airstream (which were already warm because we had managed to leave the door open the entire time we were gone!), we roasted up some brussel sprouts and potatoes to go with the flank steak and rib eye cooking over the fire pit behind the @simplylivingmore and @danielpoint1’s trailer and headed over for a potluck dinner.
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First photo by @danielpoint1 #airstream #liveriveted #myrivetedlife #airstreamfriends #sup #paddleboards #familytravel #travelwithkids #revelstoke #lakerevelstoke #britishcolumbia

Before we leave a campsite, we try to send the girls out for a “MOOP sweep,” an idea we came across thru the Burning Man crowd. “Matter Out Of Place” includes not only the big stuff like a discarded coffee cup or paper towel but also any tiny thing, however minuscule, that just doesn’t belong there and we don’t want to end up in the belly of a little animal or washed into a waterway. I’m not sure the Burners pay $0.10/piece, but today’s haul earned each girl a little change for something small at the next gas station (tho we had to stipulate that two half pistachio shells only counts as one piece). #travelwithkids #familytravel #childlabor #moop #leavenotrace #airstreamwithkids