+ My main goal when traveling with my self-hosted systems in my RV is no trouble—out-of-the-way automation.

+ I want a seamless experience when we have internet and shore power and when we don't. My kids are at the age where connectivity is a huge deal for them now. So my LAN has to be solid for streaming and network games while literally driving over the Cascade mountains.

#### The first one is what I call my T48 window.

+ That's 48 hours before a trip. Where major changes are allowed, like OS updates, Home Assistant upgrades and addin upgrades, or add and remove a device from the network.

+ If I have been putting off an update, this is when I do it. 

+ This is also the window of time I take my snapshots and check my backups.

+ Of course, it's not just the tech stuff; during this period of time, the wife and I take care of many other trip prep items, and we can make a go or no-go call on the trip if needed.

#### Then we have the T24 window. 

+ 24 hours before we leave. This is when I break down my "home office" setup, so I no longer have a permeant PC setup. I mostly transition to using my iPad or a laptop for more serious work.

+ And this is where the scope of change becomes a lot more limited. At this point I don't want to introduce anything that might cause an issue that delays the trip, or bites me during the trip. 

+ So this is where OS updates and server software updates are put on hold until I am back. IN part, while on the road, I am in a limited bandwidth setup, sometimes in areas with no service. But also to reduce risk.

+ The T24 window is where I manage media for the trip. Purge old shows and movies, make way for the fresh stuff. I want content the kids can watch while we go down the road that I know is kid-friendly and will keep them occupied. Often I start collecting a show for them weeks before the trip, getting them digitized one way or another, and have that waiting on an external disk.

+ I also toss on a few family movies to make the nights we're in a rest stop more fun or during bad weather. This year it was Jurassic Park, last year, Back to the Future. I love doing the trilogies with the kids. 

+ So get all that sorted, and set Plex off on its way to index and scan right away.

+ My last T24 tech task is to verify LTE connectivity on all three carriers.

+ And reboot the router to verify it comes up good and fresh.

#### Results:

+ Our trip to Bozeman was one of the use cases I had in mind when I started project off-grid. I wanted to try and have connectivity in places we could not get signal before. 

+ My new peplink system with the external roof antenna and the multiple carriers worked exactly as I hoped. We've never had a signal in our campsite in Bozeman; this year it was so smooth the family never noticed anything. It was practically like we were on a wired connection.

+ And the solar system is impressive. I was worried 600amp hours of Lithium would not be enough after a couple of week-long off-grid camps.. BUT when we move, get some charge from the alternator, and get some good solar, we have unlimited power. We could not use all the available energy we had. 

+ So when we are moving every couple days or every day, and getting solar, there is nothing different off-grid vs. on-grid when it comes to day-to-day family life. We DO have to play it careful if we're parking in the woods for a week like we are about to do, but we're always down for the challenge of stretching our power.

+ I did have one overheating situation. The Victron power system had to shut down when it was about 90F outside; we had been driving, so the drive train was hot, and I had both A/Cs going. The system gets TOO HOT and does a safety shutdown. I was pushing it to see what would happen, and well.. I learned. It had to cut power to all my gear. So all my Pi's lost power, my switches, router, wifi, etc... But thankfully, it all came up just fine and we continued on down the road!

### TBD

+ Still need to get power / battery / solar data into HA

+ Would REALLY love to be managing this entire setup centrally, and be able to deploy the entire setup via code. Maybe even do T48 re-deployments of everything.