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As you might imagine, shooting photos at racetracks all over the country means that I spend a LOT of time on my feet over various terrain types… from muddy forests to dusty deserts and everything in between. Cactus, thorny bushes, sharp rocks, broken motorcycle parts…you name it, I step on it and over it.

I used to wear Merrell boots. They were great! I loved em! Then one day, I decided to give Keen a try. That was about 9 years ago and I haven’t looked back since.

keen voyageur mid

I’m just now finally wearing out my 4th pair of Keen Voyageur Mid boots. I ordered another pair from Keen the other week as well as their Targhee Boot. I’ve stuck to what I know works (the Voyageur), but I wanted to give this other syle a test too. Usually, it’s the sole of my boot that wears out before anything else, and the Targhee looks like it might have a slightly more aggressive sole.

Three things I really love about em is how vented they are. They never get all smelly and stuff, as they breathe well when I’m out and about. I also don’t buy the waterproof ones (because I like the venting), which means my feet DO get wet if I step in puddles. Also, because I spend so much time on my knees *giggety*, I love that the sole wraps up and over the toe. Every other shoe/boot I’ve used for shooting pics, the toe of the shoe has separated like a clown shoe. Keen soles have never failed me outside of simply wearing out from so many miles of use. Lastly, they’re SUPER stable over uneven terrain. I’ve staved off many an ankle unjury walking over really garbagey conditions.

If you’re out and about hiking, walking, adventuring, I encourage you to try out a pair of Keen shoes. They aren’t exactly cheap…but you get what you paid for. :D

If you use my links above to buy em, I get a commission. But I promise, I wouldn’t be posting this if I didn’t seriously mean it.

Shop Keen on Amazon

keen targhee voyageur
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So, I’ve had a number of people ask me about my solar setup on the RV. Frankly, it’s not all that extravagant, but it’s probably the single best modification I’ve done to my RV so far. Not just bang-for-the-buck, but all out best thing I think anyone can do for their RV.

I had purchased 6v batteries for the RV, but I didn’t want to waste the two 12v batteries that the coach came with. They’re only 80ah batteries each, but they were brand new when we got the RV…and I’m a waste-not, want-not kinda guy…so I’ve still got the 12v batteries in there, nearly a year later.

Brianna and I spend most of our time off-grid and not plugged into power. In the last 9 months that we’ve had solar, we’ve put approximately 50 hours on the generator. 10 or 11 of those hours were over a 2 day span mid summer when we wanted AC and had no access to shore power.

We do normal things while on battery. We have lights on at night, listen to music ALL the time on the surround sound system, or we’ll watch movies and such. We run the blender for smoothies. We have vent fans and a stand alone 12v fan. You know, normal stuff.

I installed energy efficient EVERYTHING into the RV. The lights are all LED. Even both smart TVs are LED. One is even 40″…So we’ve got that going for us. I check the voltage very regularly, as I’m pretty OCD about stuff being charged…we usually end a night sitting right around 12 to 12.2 volts. We usually wake up to 14 to 14.3 volts.

Solar. Solar was the best thing we’ve done to the coach so far.

I spent $339 on a kit from Renology on Amazon. It had two 100 watt solar panels, the mounting hardware, screws, all the connectors and 10AWG wiring necessary, and a 30amp PWM solar controller.

renology 200w solar self install kit
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