Traveling Veterans and Seamless Care

I have heard stories of veterans being refused service at clinics and asked my clinic on this.  They advised they are limited in staff and scope of treatments offered at many clinics and often can not handle walk-ins.  I have not had any issues when I called my clinic for a non-scheduled appointment when I was ill.  My son also a veteran and a friend at work did and they had to go to a private clinic.  Our nearest VA Medical Center is 3 hours away our local county hospital and private clinic is just a few minutes away. 

From the above I feel the V.A. Clinics are geared to handle the area veterans route-en appointments and may not be able to always assist us with other needs.  Medical Centers should always be able to assist us or transfer us to other facilities.  

The following V.A. link may be able to assist us all with our other questions and medical needs and concerns.  Also we can always file for medical cost re-reimbursement if forced to go outside the system.  Depending on our priority and disability rating all or part may be approved and reimburse in time (My opinion).  Go to the V.A. web site to down load any needed forms and instructions.

https://www.va.gov/HEALTHBENEFITS/access/seamless_care.asp

Propane Heater Run Test

Propane heater run test started 830am Friday morning at 7 Degrees Fahrenheit with a high of 32 today.  Saturday has a low of 13 and a high of 28.  We will leave the heater on till Saturday morning around 8:30am.  Our tank is full at 3/4 so well will check it again then.  Please note for this test I have the heater set for 66 degrees and am plugged in to a 110 outlet for furnace fan power.  I will do another test with shore power unplugged.

The result's are in!

At 6:30 pm  it is 30 degrees out and the temperature in the RV is at 61 it peaked at 62 so since I set the thermostat at 66 degrees, I now know it is off by 4 degrees.  I will check everything in the morning.

At 7am it is 21 degrees outside inside the RV it was 58 degrees, this is a 3 degree drop from the high in the RV.  Will check at 8:30am both the temperature and propane usage.

 At 8:30am Saturday outside temperature 24 degree inside it is 61 degrees.  We had a full propane tank (6/6th's (6/8) full legal limit) after 24 hours we are down to 1/6th's.  So running the heater for 24 hours at a typical Wyoming winter 7-32 degrees takes 1/6th of our propane.

Put in ALPHA Booster and Repeater

Santa gave us the ALPHA Booster and Repeater  from TechnoRV and it looks great.  Below is a photo from Christmas day showing our two ALPHA presents were unwrapped.  Their (TechnoRV) set-up instructions are easy to follow and simple.

We left the boxes by the tree on the RV table along with a few other gifts we had not got to yet.  I used the suction cup and stuck the booster on the window behind the tree.  I put the router to the left of the tree on the wall see photo below.  I have the power plug in-between the two.  I have the router mounted to the wall with command strips.  This will allow us to place it on the opposite wall, back wall or in the driver compartment based on best signal.

Seems easy to set up at different locations just like setting up my computer or smartphone while traveling.  In some areas we see more WiFi's and some areas we have not as expected for any booster/router.

Here is a photo of our new booster suctioned to a window by our dinette.  It is a little dark in the photo but it looks good.  I did have a question the outfit and the owner was out but called me back so I can confirm that  TechnoRV  gives great customer service.

Installed an Extend a Stay Kit also an Emergency Back up

I put in an extend a stay kit in the RV.  I checked for leaks and ran the RV heater, which I kept at 60 degrees for over 24 hours. Outside it was 20 degrees with no alarms activated as well.

Currently we have no plans for extend a stay use, but if we have a power outage at home we are covered.  I have a full RV propane tank plus two BBQ 20lb tanks for extend a stay.  Plus 50 gallons of usable fuel for our RV generator that burns .5 gallons an hour.  So technically we could run our generator for over 4 plus days and use electric heaters (saving propane).

Once the generator stops leaving a 25% fuel reserve for the RV we can run our propane for another four or more days.  The heater fan would run off our house battery.  We have a 50 watt portable solar panel to help keep it charged offsetting amp loss do to the RV heater fans.  Could keep more fuel in fuel cans, the law here allows us to keep up to 25 gallons in cans on our property for additional 50 hours generator run time.

Finally we have two remaining heat/power sourced one is a full tank contractors (loud) generator 5-8 hours fuel.  Our second is we have a Buddy Heater with several 1lb propane cans for another 24 hours heat.  So without getting more fuel or propane we should be good for at lease 9 days and with luck we could stretch it to 14 days or more.

Other Points

We also have a port-a-potty for winter camping (we set in the shower), we also have a Walmart 5 gallon bucket with potty seat and kitchen trash bags for backup restroom needs. We winterize our water system from November through May.

We also keep at least 10 gallons of water in our homes basement for emergency drinking.  We also have a stream within 100 yards of the house and if winter we can melt snow for more.

For my O2 needs I am good for up to 10 days without more fuel.

I started getting the propane tank ready for painting before the temperature and snow fell so that is on hold.  You can see the extend-a-stay valve (blue cap), I keep the hose for it in another basement compartment.

You can see the extend-a stay hose sitting on the spare trash can.  You can also see my Coleman gas lantern and 30amp extension cord rolled up under it.

P.S.  I also have a 5 gallon bucket, kitchen trash bags,  and a seat from Walmart for the top to be a backup to our port-a-potty.

Happy New Year

Please stay safe and have many more years of great travels:)