Haines Alaska - Amazing Scenery!! June 21st, 2013

Today I had a busy day - have a couple RV repairs to make and the parts arrived yesterday, so this morning I tackled project number one of three. The electric converter in the RV which converts 110 volts to 12 volts and keeps the batteries charged up was original and started making a weird humming noise, plus it was an older model which only has one charging rate, which means when you are plugged in to electric in a campground for a long time the batteries tend to get overcharged and begin to boil the water out of them, eventually ruining the batteries, plus you have to constantly check the water levels, so I decided since I have brand new batteries (I replaced before heading to Alaska) as they were ruined from overcharging.

So I ordered a new converter, a Progressive Dynamics Inteli-Power 9200. It is a 4 stage charger which will supply a boost charge when the batteries are low and then reduce the charge level down three more times as the batteries return to full charge, then when plugged in all the time, it uses a maintain function which protects your batteries.

The install was pretty straightforward except they put the original charger on the floor and built the trailer around it, it is in a small ventilated cabinet under the stove at floor level with barely enough room to work and involved laying on your belly to see anything and install....other than that it was pretty easy. new unit is much smaller and totally silent. I tested all four functions and it is working beautifully.

This afternoon I decided to take a drive with the camera and see what I could find...chased some eagles for about 15 minutes but no worthy shots, but I did manage to collect an abundance of mosquito bites!! They were ferocious!!

On with the pictures -

Drove back up to Chilkoot Lake and found another dandelion I could isolate with the mountains in the background to drive my friend Greg Lantz crazy, since he questions when I take pictures of weeds!!

Just for Greg the next two!





Now on to some other shots from today!











Stay tuned for more adventures, some salmon are starting to arrive and the bears and eagles are starting to move down towards the river, I hope to get some good shots over the next few weeks. Had another crab feast at the campground last night, it was great fun and the guests really enjoyed it...more coming over the next few days!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest