4 nights on 30amp

After 2 weeks staying near our land in the foothills of the White Mountains, it was time to start making our way south. We were in the middle of tackling a big New England to-do list – not one of adventure, but one of necessity. Life threw us a lot of curveballs this past year, and now here we were, new part-time RVers, transitioning into a home after 4.5 years on the road.

We always expected to settle in NH once we stopped full-timing, but after our cabin build got delayed, we decided to rent a home in SC. While it ultimately was the best decision for us, it left us feeling like our lives were split between states. We still had stuff in storage in NH, some of it camping related and the rest leftover from our brief attempt at a winter rental last November. We had more stuff at my parents' house in MA, some that accumulated over time and the rest a result of our unplanned stationary time through winter. Down in SC, we bought everything new to furnish and decorate our cottage. Now we needed to organize and consolidate. Step 1 was to clear out our NH storage unit, and since our White Mountains campground was over an hour away, we decided to camp a couple of nights closer to the storage facility, outside of Concord.

You might be surprised to learn that the Greater Concord area is a bit of an RV mecca. Drive I-393 east from the city, and you'll pass tons of RV dealers and repair shops. Even Central NH Trailers (now SR1 Trailers), one of the ATC dealers, is located in the nearby town of Loudon, also where our storage unit was located (naturally, they do RV storage, too). Unfortunately, that doesn't mean campgrounds are plentiful. Let's face it – people might buy, service, and store their RVs around here, but they often flock to greener pastures on their trips. Of the few options, the best rated by far, was Epsom Valley Campground, an 8.7/10 on RV Life and less than 15 minutes from our storage facility.

But there was one downside: The campground only offers 30amp electric hookups. When we have our full electric setup, this isn't an issue because we're able to supplement our own solar power to reach our trailer's full 50amp capacity. This allows us to run all appliances we need, including both air conditioning units. But we weren't operating on our full electric setup. Not even close. We were forced to turn off our inverter after it kept interpreting battery voltage spikes as surges. Since then, we've been relying solely on whatever shore power we can get at campgrounds. 30amp is fine, as long as we're cautious of our power draw. The tipping point comes when the temperatures rise and we can only run one AC. It sounds like first world problems, to only be able to run one AC in a 28ft trailer, but we live in a poorly insulated tin can! Things heat up very quickly. Running one AC can keep things relatively comfortable, but we also need to think about our dog, a 14.5-year-old fluffball who needs and deserves more than just "relatively comfortable."

We knew booking a 30amp site wouldn't be ideal if the summer heat was at its peak, but we did it for the convenience of being near our storage unit. We were able to clear everything out and close the unit down before they raised the rates again, because that's what storage facilities do. But more than the financial cost was the psychological cost. We first rented this storage unit in the midst of NH cottage turmoil, and we kept it thinking that we might need a space for things during our cabin build. Then the cabin build got delayed, which left us with a storage unit far larger than we needed, filled only with items that reminded us of the craziness of the past year. The NH cottage stuff was symbolic of our failed attempt to get off the road and settle into stability. The camping stuff was symbolic of our tumultuous winter and quick escape from New England – not to mention the very essence of our RV life mindset this year, that our travels were now unavoidable, and we were not prioritizing camping adventures. Closing down our unit helped us close a chapter.

This kickstarted the more...cramped...part of our trip. We had a lot to haul back to our cottage, some of which wouldn't fit in the back of the truck. It wasn't too bad yet. Soon, we'd add my desk to the mix, but right now we only had Anthony's, which fit surprisingly well in the back corner of the trailer. Putting it there made us wonder why we never considered an office nook before. Well, we know why. First, we had Lily's litter cubby there. Plus we always had ottomans for storage, which infringed on the space of something as wide as a desk. But now, we have an ottoman narrow enough to shove under the desk and still allow legroom for someone sitting at it. Our wheels might be spinning about future configurations of our trailer. We think that's a good sign, that even though our relationship with the RV life is rocky right now, we still have ideas for the future.

Our days at Epsom Valley were productive. Not only did we clear out our storage unit, but we also got our truck serviced. As for the 30amp, we were absolutely fine. The temperatures didn't get high enough for us to feel the need to run both ACs. The day we arrived, we had cloud cover and a rainstorm came through. The next day, our only full day at the campground, was beautiful out.

But that doesn't mean we got through our stay problem-free. Oh no no. Turns out, the rainstorm and tree cover that were godsends for our temperature regulation, sent a tree branch straight into our roof. It may not look like much, but it exploded on contact and scared the bejesus out of us.

That's when we looked up and realized that the trees in this campground seemed a tad compromised. Even small gusts of wind sent branches into the air. Thankfully, this was the only one that hit our roof, and I saw it for what it was:

We didn't even bother going up on the roof to check things, but then a couple days later, we had a short downpour, and one of the seams along our ceiling started leaking. This is where our main AC unit is. So if you're keeping count, we now have leaks in 2 out of 2 AC units.

Epsom Valley was only the first of two 30amp campsites we stayed in during this trip, and they happened to be consecutive. We had a site booked at Spacious Skies Minute Man before our blackout. We reserved 2 nights there so we could visit friends in the area. After the blackout, I scrambled to change our plans so we could be on electric hookups as much as possible, and Minute Man became our pivot point. Instead of doing MA home-base, Minute Man, NH, our route brought us to NH first, then Minute Man, and then Wompatuck State Park, our campground nearest our MA home-base, where we could get on 50amp electric.

We knew Minute Man's campsites were nestled in the trees. That was easy to remember, considering the only other time we stayed, we witnessed one of our neighbs crash into a tree trying to get to his site in the dark. I figured, for 2 nights, we could keep our reservation and just run one AC. The weather stayed temperate. Finally, after the crazy heatwave the country experienced, the Northeast seemed to be getting a much needed break. This was where we experienced that downpour that revealed the new roof leak to us – and it so happened to be right when we arrived, so we got drenched trying to unhitch – but just like with Epsom Valley, our only full day at the campground was gorgeous out, and we got to enjoy a sunny summer afternoon with our friends.

But that doesn't mean we got through our stay problem-free. Oh no no. Turns out, our afternoon of fun with friends almost didn't happen. We woke up that morning feeling energized for the first time in forever, and we decided to go for a hike and hit up a couple of the nearby farm stands. Both of those activities are a pastime for us, and we felt like we needed to connect with our inner New Englanders again. Unfortunately, we didn't get far. On the way out, Anthony tried to make a sharp turn to exit our campsite (the sites here are notoriously difficult to get in and out of), and we heard a crunch. The Starlink dish, which he thought he had placed on a rock in an attempt to find clear sky, was actually on the ground next to the rock. Anthony forgot, and he smooshed it.

Our Starlink dishes have suffered from smoosh many times over the past 4 years. Notice how "dishes" is plural. In the past, it's been more of an annoyance than a detriment because we've always had a cellular hotspot that can connect to all 3 major networks. As long as we have cell service, we have internet. This year, we don't have a hotspot. We got rid of it when we thought we'd be out of the RV for winter into spring. Then when we hit the road in March, we decided we could save money by using Starlink as our primary, and if needed, our cell phone hotspots as backup. Contrary to popular belief, Starlink works great on the East Coast, too. Sure, this region isn't as wide open as the West, but there are now enough satellites and the dish technology is now precise enough, that we can get signal even through a bald patch in the trees.

Here at Minute Man, though, we faced a new struggle. We no longer had Starlink. We were supposed to meet up with our friends, and ideally we'd like to take our phones with us, which meant no hotspot. And the campground WIFI had a browser sign-in, so we couldn't use it for our Blink module. In other words, we had no way to monitor the pets or the temperature while we were out. It was cool enough to run just one AC, but if that AC failed for whatever reason, the trailer would still get quite warm. Plus we're at the point where constant monitoring of Tanner is necessary.

There was only one thing to do: scramble to find an available hotspot and activate a plan right away. It was slim pickings, but we found one 30 minutes away at Best Buy, and off Anthony went. He got back and connected the cameras and Cerbo (for AC monitoring) with just 10 minutes to spare before we needed to leave.

And that is how we stopped using Starlink. Truthfully. We called customer service. Sometimes they issue us a free refurbished dish as a replacement, but this time, they said we'd need to purchase one. That's because the plan has changed so that only the Starlink Mini is compatible with the Roam Plan, aka the plan that allows travelers to use it anywhere. We'd need to upgrade to the Mini, which we couldn't do right away. We wouldn't have time to order it and have it delivered anywhere along our route. We considered shipping it to our SC Cottage, but at that point, why bother? We don't have another RV trip planned for the foreseeable future and were going to pause our Starlink plan anyway. So we got a jump on it now. We paused Starlink and delayed our purchase of the Mini. Next time we have an upcoming trip, we'll order one. Maybe by then there will be a new model with upgraded technology.

The new cell hotspot, which runs off Verizon 5G, got us through Minute Man. Next though, was Wompatuck State Park, a place we've stayed many times and are keenly aware that cell service isn't the best. We have AT&T which has always been existent but not superb, and word on RV Life is that Verizon is stronger. We've never stayed without our Starlink, usually reserving the one campsite that we know has a Starlinkable opening in the trees, but this time none of that mattered. We needed to rely solely on cell service.

We arrived on a Monday and everything seemed to be working fine. We barely had AT&T service, but the Verizon hotspot was showing 2 bars of 5G, which would be enough to get through the work week. But then the next day, something shifted. Suddenly, my devices stopped connecting to the hotspot. My internet was mostly nonexistent, and when it returned for short stints, it was very slow. This was a blogging day. In fact, I was drafting this very post, so this is real time stream-of-consciousness right now! Helloooooooo! Fancy seeing you here!

Anyway, my blog drafting looked a lot like this:

But for some reason, Anthony's devices continued to connect just fine...until they just...stopped. In the middle of a meeting, no less! For whatever reason, my devices stopped connecting sooner, but by early afternoon, we were both sitting ducks in the pond of no connectivity. We couldn't yet think about what this means for the rest of our stay. We were supposed to be at Wompatuck until that Sunday, and it was Tuesday. We just needed to figure out our plan for now. One of the perks of being local is knowing without research that we're up the street from the town's library – a very good library because it's a very rich town. We packed up our computers, and off we went to go bum off the public WIFI.

Here I am right now! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Oh wait, it's a library. I need to stay quiet. ₑₑₑₑₑₑₑ.

It's not all sunshine and blue skies in here, though. The WIFI has the worst upload bandwidth we've ever seen. Come on, rich Hinghamites, can't you do better?! And, I know you can see the above library pic now, but I'm actually going to need to upload it at a later time, along with all the other images in this blog. Right now, it's just a note-to-editor that says "Insert library pic here."

We don't exactly know what this means for the rest of our stay, which is also effectively the rest of our trip before we book it back to SC. Will we be able to troubleshoot our new hotspot? Will we need to survive off this mediocre public WIFI? Will we be taking constant trips to my parents' house to use their internet? All this hoopla, coupled with the fact that this weekend, we'll need to go through all our stuff in storage at my parents', and pack our trailer to the brim with cottage-bound belongings.

But at least we're on 50amp electric!

To be continued.