The Unplanned

Interesting roadside stop Hwy 191 & I-70

Well sometimes things don't go quite as planned. Today was a prime example of the unplanned and its a big one. We had planned on heading out toward St George, UT and camp a few days in Snow Canyon State Park. Lots of great biking trails in & around the area so we were pretty excited about it. Thought we'd be able to head up to Zion National Park too. 

Unfortunately when I got up a bit before 6:00 AM I noticed something wasn't right with our solar power. Mmm, do I wake up someone or let him wake up on his own. Yup, I let him know we had lost all power at some point overnight. The panels and controller were not working. Bill checked the batteries and all were reading really low...as in how was it even possible to use up all that power?! Nothing was left on except for a few things we cannot turn off...carbon dioxide detector, etc. 

He disconnected the batteries and we talked about options. Do we continue forth for the 6-hour drive and head to St George? Do we try and troubleshoot where we were until we had to vacate the site? Do we try to change our reservations to campgrounds with shore power? Do we pack up and head back to Bozeman? 

Since we had no power we could not use the electric hitch, the water pump so no shower, the refrigerator fan, the fantastic fans to keep cool, or heat when we hit the Nevada mountains later in the trip. If we couldn't find & correct the issue we were essentially pulling a 6500 pound tent through the Utah desert. It was decided to scrap the remaining 10 days and return to Bozeman rather than drive further away from home.

Once in Moab & a phone signal we cancelled the reservations for Snow Canyon, Ward Mountain & Thomas Canyon. It then hit that now we'd be driving through Salt Lake City...so much for planning a trip that avoided pulling the rig on I-15 through Salt Lake. Thankfully for a Saturday afternoon the traffic wasn't too crazy...picked a lane and stayed in it. We were hoping to get to West Yellowstone & through the Gallatin Canyon during daylight...which we managed to do pulling in to our driveway about 9:30 PM.

We had a whiskey once everything was parked. Tomorrow Bill gets to troubleshoot the issue. Fingers crossed the problem can be found & it is a quick fix! 

This trip certainly had its issues...1st the battery chargers were left behind, 2nd the rooftop solar panels stopped working for a period of time, but pulled a fuse and things looked okay (or did they fool us?), followed by the third & trip killer a total solar breakdown and batteries drained too low. 

Our first trip with multiple issues. Let's hope the next trip is issue free!