PopUpBackpacker Attacked by Russia !!

What's Up With That?

What’s Up With That?

This email was sent from your website “PopUpBackpacker” by the Wordfence plugin at Tuesday 19th of April 2022 at 09:34:35 PM
The Wordfence Web Application Firewall has blocked 197 attacks over the last 10 minutes. Below is a sample of these recent attacks:April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents
April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents
April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents
April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents
April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents
April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents
April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents
April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents
April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents
April 20, 2022 4:30am  81.177.175.244 (Russian Federation)     Blocked for Known malicious User-Agents

Continue reading PopUpBackpacker Attacked by Russia !! →

Upgrading an RV Battery Bank with Lithium (LiFePo4) Batteries

Camper Upgrades, Solar, ,

I upgraded our travel trailer’s 225AH (amp hour) battery bank with a 300AH lithium iron phosphate (LiFePo4) battery. This post will share why I made this decision, what I have learned about lithium batteries, some challenges of installation (it wasn’t a simple battery replacement), the significant differences between lithium and flooded lead-acid batteries, and the changes one may have to make to their own systems to maximize their installation.

The conversation is about large batteries (capacity greater than 100 amp hours) that are appropriate for RV use.

Continue reading Upgrading an RV Battery Bank with Lithium (LiFePo4) Batteries →

A 4-day Backpacking Trip in the Anza Borrego Desert

Backpack Trip Report, Backpacking, Backpacking Gear,

A couple weeks ago I did a wonderful little desert trip.  

Something that I haven’t done in years is share a backpacking trip report gear list. This post will break that trend.

I want to share how I planned this trip, what gear I took, and why I selected each piece of equipment.

Continue reading A 4-day Backpacking Trip in the Anza Borrego Desert →

4 Million: What’s in a Number?

General Talk

Today I received a message that this website’s software needed to be updated with a couple new versions.

Typical stuff. Software updates are supposed fix bugs, and more importantly to me, patch security vulnerabilities. So I installed the updates. As I usually do, I took a quick tour to ensure everything was working. At the bottom of the sidebar, I saw the Page View statistics.

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RV Maintenance: Holding Tank Monitor Replacement

Travel Trailer
Randy Quaid as Cousin Eddie in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Our travel trailer came with the typical, not very good, holding tank monitor system.

RV manufacturers install holding tank monitor systems, built by a handful of different vendors, but most don’t work well.

With ours, the Fresh Water Tank was always accurate, the Grey Water usually okay, and the Black Water tank very hit and miss. Normally, I could guess how much was in the Black Tank, by comparing the fresh water remaining, versus the level of the grey.

Given we often camp for a couple of weeks at a time in remote places, it is important for us to know how much water we have, and how much waste water is in the Black and the Grey Water tanks. If one gets full, and we are not ready to go home, we might have to drive 100 miles to find a sanitary dump station.

Anyway the Fresh Water readings went bonkers on our monitor panel. Time to diagnose.

But first, a conversation about RV maintenance. Continue reading RV Maintenance: Holding Tank Monitor Replacement →

RV Maintenance: Zip Dee Chair Fabric Replacement

Travel Trailer

At 29 years and 6 months one of my Zip Dee Folding Camping Chairs had a fabric (actually a seam) failure. What a bummer! A few years ago I posted this review of the chair.  I figured the second chair might suffer the same demise. It was decision time.

I could buy a couple new Zip Dee chairs for $160 each. Given a 30 year life expectancy, based on the current chairs, that would be a dollar cost average of $5.33 per year. Keep in mind my two chairs have seen thousands of days in use.

Or I could buy a different brand of chair, which probably wouldn’t last as long, and wouldn’t fold down as compactly.

Or?

Continue reading RV Maintenance: Zip Dee Chair Fabric Replacement →

Maintenance: Fresh Water Tank Fill Hose Replacement

Travel Trailer

I knew it was going to happen. It happened on our 2006 Fleetwood Niagara.

The fresh water tank fill hose started to leak. It was cracked from age.

It’s just a hose, right?

Go to the local hardware store and buy some new bulk hose of almost any kind, because the fill hose is not under pressure. Wrong. I went through this with our previous trailer, because I really didn’t want the same exact hose because, well because, it had failed.

There is one problem with this apparently simple solution —  hardware stores don’t sell this size hose. I was able to come up with something on the old trailer, which was expensive, but I needed something right away as we were in the  midst of leaving for a trip.

This time, time wasn’t a pressing issue.

So off to Amazon’s website I went . . .

 

Continue reading Maintenance: Fresh Water Tank Fill Hose Replacement →

Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These) and the Campmor Catalog

Backpacking Gear

While getting ready for my next backpacking trip, I came across a Campmor zipper pull, the last of a couple dozen I bought in the ‘80s. Campmor may not be a household name for many backpackers, so I thought I would share some history. The hit single Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This), was released by the British duo Eurythmics in 1983. 1983 was also the year Colin Fletcher’s The Complete Walker III was written. Walker III, along with Backpacker Magazine, put the mail order company Campmor on the map and in the minds of backpackers. A journey into the past. Sometimes we need to visit the past to understand the present and even predict the future. Continue reading Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These) and the Campmor Catalog →