I’m not here to poo-poo anyone’s adventure to the edge of space. I’m glad Katy Perry, Gail King, and others had a successful Blue Origin flight this morning (April 14, 2025). As a big fan of William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, he is also a Space Tourist. None are astronauts, none have gone through the years of training to make that claim. Just because I can get on a Delta flight to Las Vegas doesn’t make me a pilot. Is this something we can agree on?
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Lessons Learned While Camping at AMS
I am beginning to remember that not every camping trip is a total vacation. Case in point: I have learned several things from this trip.
First, I replaced my battery with two Lithium batteries. (Read about that here.) But I couldn’t figure out why the 12-volt systems (refrigerator, water pump, stove light, outside awning, side lights, and several overhead lights) wouldn’t work when the generator was off. The folks across from me have a Puma, and we discussed the electrical system. There is a battery shutoff switch, and mine was turned off. I turned it on, and all is good.
This evening, the generator shut down due to a carbon monoxide fault. Before this trip, I modified the muffler to add an extension to direct the exhaust away from the generator. The vibration of the generator running in the bed of my truck shook one of the screws out and loosened the other. After removing the back and only losing one screw, I was able to get it working. I didn’t at first, but I had forgotten to press the Reset button.
It’s been nice to relax and have time to think and sort out issues that have come up. Plus, with all these campers in the infield, it’s like a living, breathing Google search.
Cold Weather Update
For the past several weeks, I’ve had the camper out on a friend’s forest land in the county. Learning things about how things work. However, the cold snap we’re expecting this week gave me the idea to bring it home, plug it in to house power and turn on some heat. See, I didn’t winterize it, since I thought, I’d have gone camping by now. Plus, it’s just about 30 days until I head to the Atlanta Motor Speedway for some race weekend camping.
Getting it in Gear!
I’m itching to get on the road with the Puma. The first trip is about six weeks from now at the Talladega Race. Every few days I complete another item on my checklist. Daughter Jenny gave me an Ozark Trail camp dish set, unopened and still in the box. I thought I’d go figure out the Jensen Audio system this afternoon and it took about 5 minutes. There are two inside and two outside speakers that sound great. Bluetooth connection was quick and easy. I had a similar system in my first camper, which never fully became operational. I’ve got a sewer hose, a clean-out grey/black tank water hose, some leveling blocks, camper toilet treatment drop-ins, and Gorilla tape coming. What’s the tape for? You know, you don’t go anywhere without the Gorilla. Trust me, if you don’t have it, you’ll probably need it!
Camper Jerry and His Friends 