August 20, 2015 at 02:33PM by advodna_dave

Since the night before our wet crossing of the Top of the World Highway a couple days ago, it's been pretty overcast. Despite lengthening our days slightly by heading north, we also lowered our sun angle, and the combination of factors has made it tough for our solar panels to get us back up to less than about 70 amp hours down. Recently, we've been finding that even if an RV park is full, there are usually a few dry sites which are the last to go and we're happier in anyway (full hookup sites close to town in Valdez and Dawson were both about $45 compared to $25 for dry, then again, as you'll notice in the pic, this particular one required six (!) blocks to get level). When the sun came out today, I was disappointed to only see 7 amps coming in off the roof panels (see low sun angle above). I briefly considered tilting but then decided that setting up the 120W portable would be easier. It immediately added 7.4 amps, more than the 405W on the roof had been collecting! At almost 15 amps, we should be topped off in about 5 hours. Yet another time I've been glad to have the portable. Side note: We haven't used the generator since the weekend we bought it back in late April but are still glad we have it just in case. We also haven't been plugged into shore power since around the same time! #airstream #airstreamtoalaska #solar #offthegrid #dawsoncity #yukon