Power to the(se) People...Please?

Since last Friday we have been camping on the beach in Corpus Christi.  A fishing tournament last weekend attracted enough ambitious anglers that even the primitive camping areas seemed filled.  By Sunday evening, however, we had miles of beach to ourselves.  The darkest skies, the tiniest twinkling stars, and the gentle whoosh-whoosh of waves gave way to a gentle breeze.  The water has been clearer than I ever remember...here.  The wet sand is not sugary, the water not turquoise like that of Northwest Florida or the Yucatan Peninsula.  Wet sand here is sort-of tan, but the dry sand leading up to and enveloping the dunes is a bright off-white.  Water here has a sea-green, but not fungal green, hue with bands of deep blue beyond.  (Farther than I will venture, ha.)  Weather, water and vistas are pristine and primitive; despite constant access to phone and internet services we are completely immersed in nature.  This is where the real adventure begins.

In Lockhart we had accessibility issues to services we depend on for our livelihood.  Here, access is not the issue.  Rather, our current problem relates to energy.  Our generator provides enough energy to run the air conditioner, interior and exterior lights, blender or juicer, and both laptops simultaneously.  But it is a bit noisy, so that option is not reasonable during naptime or bedtime.  (Tonight, though, Sage is exhausted and sleeping peacefully while the generator chokes and coughs enough to keep our laptops whirring.)  Besides, this machine requires gasoline and the nearest pump is miles away.  We carry with us 10 gallons of gas (perhaps you have noticed the bright red cannisters perched on either side of the trailer?)  One gallon lasts approximately 3 hours.  The other option is to recharge our laptops via 12V adapter plugged into one of the outlets inside the cab of the truck, or the one outlet inside El Valor.  The cab connection is perfect when travelling but not ideal when parked.  Inside the camper we have one deep cycle battery that is connected to the 12V outlet there.  Even when parked, we can rely on the 12V for most things because the deep cycle battery is wired to the truck's battery.  Every time we start the engine, one of the truck batteries recharges our deep cycle.  Blogging, therefore, requires efficiency and economy of words (a challenge for me, ha). 

Energy is not an issue when we camp in parks.  Neither is water, but when we are off-grid both become quite valuable commodities.