Energy management and approval...

We have a 30 amp electrical system on the boat.  The past few nights, we have been using a small ceramic heater.  We don't travel light, and we enjoy some basic amenities while onboard: TV, microwave, Keurig coffee maker, and the various hair appliances Joan uses to make her hair so pretty.  You can't plug 'em all in at the same time.  In fact, depending on what you are using, you can't plug more than two of them in at the same time.  This is about as close as we want to get to "roughing it." ;-)

We are in an RV park in Idaho this morning.  We don't use the onboard shower while we're on land, since the boat pumps that over with a showerbox pump.  While heading to the shower early this morning, I came across a park employee who was heading the other way.  He asked, "Are you in the boat?"

"Yep, that's us."

"That is so #$%&*@ cool!  You get to travel where you want and you can put the boat in at any cool water you see.  I want to do that someday."

We've done that, just not this trip.

We had to pull into a Boat Inspection Checkpoint yesterday.  Two ladies came out of the hut, co-located with a weigh station (that wasn't open).  I don't think they've seen a lot of boats recently - one was excited to show the inspection procedure to the other.  They asked where we last used the boat (Gulf of Mexico); even though it was in salt water, and we weren't planning to put the boat in the water in their state, they walked around.  They looked under the boat, in every thru-hull, and finally all around the anchor... "Clean as a whistle!  Nice boat.  Your anchor is dirty, though."  (Bits of that deep south Texas mud were stuck on there.)

Joan said, "We use it.  It's not just for decoration."

"Well, you have fun with that boat."

Yep, that's the plan.