Telluride Bluegrass Festival Day 1 ~ Awesome Lineup, Fab Weather, GR8 Friend, And Challenging Logistics 17Jun26-18Jun26

Yoho & I followed the 2 concerts in Summit Co with 3 full 14 hr days of concerts at the 54th Telluride Bluegrass Festival in San Miguel Co. Wednesday was a travel day hauling the BC20X over a couple more mountain passes into our camping spot for the weekend, the Mary E Illum CG, on Natl Forest land. It was tight but I squeezed it into one of the few remaining spots at the CG, which is 7 miles from town. It was hardly the bucolic setting advertised. During normal operating conditions the campground hosts 20 sites... during the festival there were 800 people there ~ so cozy. On the way we stopped at Amica's in Salida.

Dining @ 221 S Oak ~ It ended up being a tasting ground as well as a listening ground for us. We decided to go upscale nightly for dinner... Telluride has some great choices and Yoho's eldest had visited a friend there on occasion and Jim wrangled recommendations. Rachel has connections and was trained for finery by J&M, so she steered us wisely. Jim was daily responsible for booking fine dining reservations for us ~ worked well. The arrival night we chose to skip FirstGrass up on the mountain in favor of going to 221 S Oak for a fine dinner and bottle of wine. We took the Crusher into town and were offered 3 hr free parking... which exceeded our hopes as we observed 3 miles of cars parked on either side of the road into town. Dinner and vino were excellent from Chef Eliza. Our experience was pretty wild too as 10 min after being seated, Tedeschi Trucks (Susan & Derek) sat down beside us! We'd see them tomorrow night as headliners.

Back at camp I needed to park the Crusher Too a mile up the road and walk back. We had nightcaps under the canopy while a team of kids played bocce with lighted balls.

Festavarian Scamper Logistics ~ We clothed in layers, coats on early (and likely late), and headed to the shuttle to town to queue for the "tarp run" entry to the grounds. We were not early at #607 in line but caught the view of Bridal Veil Falls from the queue. With just 2 of us we learned we could weedle into tiny spots. And nearby Festavarians, to which we were referred, were nice and accommodating. We had to go front-back vs side-side on Thu.

 

 

Day One @ TBF ~ As shown we anticipated a killer day 1 lineup and over 14 hrs of music. Woohoo. Chris kicked of the show with interpretations of Bach on the mandolin, and his original schtick-work. We visited with Brian & fam and dined during the Scottish Dallahan show but they were excellent from afar and at the chix sandwich spot. Sorry Wilke family; bad f-stop on the cam made you all fuzzy. Back to our listening spot we caught the emerging country start Noeline Hofmann ~ fun with good voice and band. Peter Rowan, of Grateful Dear and New Riders writing fame, played next ~ he's good, and old. The grounds have comprehensive port-a-potties, a merch tent, food vendors, an artist signing spot, and other vendors selling cool stuff. I found my mtn & fish vibe for the rest of the concert @ Loki.

 

 

VID

AJ Lee & Blue Summit and Telluride House Band ~ Next up was one of my favorite bands currently: AJ Lee & Blue Summit. A strong member departed Blue Summit for the '26 year and season, Bakersfield's own XX. He and Sully Tuttle were kind of dups in the band anyway... both great guitarists with good singing voices for lead and vocals, and both songwriters of note. So, bummer, but I understand. AJ won the IMBA top vocalist last year! Their set was a hoot of a wide range across their 3 album catalog, including covers. Very good, always. I caught a vid of one of AJ's unreleased tunes but I can't recall the name. The Telluride House Band sounded great and was in '26 composed of a spectacular lineup: Jerry Douglas/dobro, Sam Bush/mandolin, Edgar Meyer/bass, Chris Eldridge (Critter)/guitar, and Stuart Duncan/fiddle. I was texting with my friend Pippus of Victoria and he mentioned many players were the same as when he came to To-Hell-You-Ride 36 yrs ago... and they are still great. Noeline was asked to join for a tune and the band got campy when Bella 'didn't have a 5 string capo' so Noam Pikelny (Pickles, a great banjo player) came out to be his capo for a song.

 

VID

Watchhouse & Tedeschi Trucks ~ Closing day 1 were two great bands I also "came to see." Watchhouse played at twilight and crushed it. Emily & Andrew have a great way with words and playing ~ Andrew is often sad in songwriting but his poetry is epic. Emily is sweeter but the NCarolina duo joins each others stuff seamlessly. We've seen them before but this was a completely stellar show at a beautiful time-of-day in 'summer' in the San Juans. Tedeschi Trucks are an awesome 10 pc multi-genre band from FL. Mostly it's blues and soul but anything can happen with them. Susan & Derek are the bandleaders who each can hammer guitars and Susan's voice is killer. Plenty of stuff from their latest albums but also crowd pleaser Sly & The Family Stone covers of "everyday People." We noted the shift for the headliners... no sitting and it's time to bundle your tarp. Jim and I got back the shuttle exhausted but satisfied for sure. Returning across the festival grounds with tons of shit still in the way in the dark was harrowing but a lesson for Day 2.

What a day!

Heading Over To Shakedown Street ~ Harvest Hosted @ Ascent Brewery 12Jun26

With a pending major trip west with the Crusher and BC20X I decided to make an overnight shakedown run. I used Harvest Host to book a "free" night at Ascent Brewing. I had checked the Crusher Too for alignment and sway and needed to add assurance of camper and Starlink ops. Ascent is cool; Joe & Steph are great hosts. I watched the Paraguay-US soccer match and tried Joe's beers. Sunset was alive from Falcon. The BC20X was fine in all regards but Starlink draws down the batteries a bit more than I want; I need to remember to unplug when not needed. I was back at Blodgett in time for the Catalonia F1 qualification session.

Camping With BC20X @ Spillway In 11 Mile Canyon ~ Shakedown Street & Some Fish 20May25-22May25

As the subject says, I'm camping @ Spillway with the Airstream to test some features and do some fishing. This is a great campground and my site #23 is fine, #16 looks to be the best for trailer use. I arrived without issue and set up camp including new additional solar for charging the batteries, more secure Moon shade awning, 12v mood lighting, StarLink connectivity, etc. New solar worked fine. It's super windy out here and was a great test for the awning. I made one small addition to hold the poles together but all is right now. Mood lighting worked well from a day of sunshine. StarLink was awesome, when it had power (more below).

Other shakedown testing wasn't as fruitful or at least had some negative aspects. I'd just gotten a new aux battery in the Crusher Too (free from Interstate as the old one wouldn't hold a charge after 26 months and I have 36 mo full replacement). Despite that the battery did not last a full 48 hrs running StarLink and the fridge without being charged. I drove it some today so have a little juice. I need to bring a charger for it that I can hook to my generator if it happens again. I admit I was a bit in the shade of a big tree limiting sun for part of the day. Also, the new inverter can't handle the Nespresso machine, even if we're connected to the generator. I had to tote the machine outside and plug directly into the generator. Far from ideal. I'll have to get to root cause ~ I know it's a high demand appliance and tasks the generator considerably but through the inverter, the inverter just shuts down.

On the first eve I hosted young neighbors. I forgot ice trays or ice and they had some ice ~ so I made margs and we chatted. Cool KC, MO couple and the guy could really play a mean guitar.

It was so windy for dinner though that I blew off making stuff and had leftover Cowboy Caviar. I slept well in the camper but it was chilly; batteries had not been charging at home with the inverter off and if voltage is too low, the furnace won't stay on... grrr. Batteries are charged now and it all works fine. Wed was a fishing day... it wasn't too crowded but the fishing was only meh. The cold nights and significantly reduced flows, down to 68cfs at the beginning to lesser yet at <60cfs today, made catching tough ~ I saw plenty of fish but caught only a half dozen on midges, no mayflies Wed.

It was windy early evening but I made sloppy joes on the skottle anyway. I had to improvise a bit as I forgot the chili sauce but did have a can of fire roasted tomatoes... I had everything else so it worked fine. I invited the CG host over for a sandwich and we exchanged stories. Cool CO software dude.

The 2nd day fishing was even tougher and still windy. I drove down to the tunnels to work that beat in the AM. One tiny brown... I came back to the Spillway area. I managed to catch only several but one was nicer and a little over 18". Today the midges and caddis larva worked. I found a small "stand" of columbine ~ cool.

Update 02Ju25 ~ Gas Line Fix... while in 11 Mile Canyon I noticed one of the two 20# canisters of propane was leaking from its tail to the mixing valve. Grrr. I disconnected it. I have since purchased and installed two new pigtails from tanks to mixing/cutover valve.

Basecamp 20X Repairs And Upgrades ~ Cabinet Edges, Inverter, Teak Bath, Shelving, Additional Solar, Leveling, and Lithium Batteries 04May25-09May25

Cabinet Edge Liners... Well, most of the cabinets in the BC20X are pulling away from the laminated MDF in the corners as shown in the initial pics. This makes them not only unattractive but the edge material gets in the way of proper opening and closing of the doors. Ugh. My first repair scenario was to hammer them back into place (didn't last) then use clear gorilla adhesive (works ok with vinyl) and a heat gun on the vinyl to allow it to stretch back into the corners. I even used a round piece (sexy tool I made) to force it back into place nicely. Despite the notion and effort, it didn't work either. The edge vinyl pulled away again.

I found the exact replacement edging material on Amazon, 1/2" black vinyl T edge, and bought 100ft. Much cheaper than buying from Airstream parts folks. Now I need to decide if I do the install with or without some additional adhesive in the groove... hmmm. I think I'll do some of each to find what lasts best. If the fail above happens again, it'd be nice to have it still removable. So, I won't use epoxy but may try permanent double back tape (used to on autos for trim) on one, clear Gorilla glue on another, and nothing on a 3rd... something's gotta stick.

First step is to remove the cabinet door, and retain the hinge hardware for reinstall. Next step is to remove the old edging. It came out easily, which may not be the case "next time" if I add adhesive. I also learned to only take the top hinge off the door ~ it was easier to align correctly if the lower hinge stayed in place.

To make the T edging manageable, I estimated and cut just somewhat "the right length" pieces off the spool, so I could just handle less in the camper. One tricky part on the new edging is locating and cutting the holes for the hinge hardware. The stock cuts in the original vinyl are beautiful, likely laser cut to length and features. I just noted the locations and used a drill with pilot and then larger, after it was in ~ it worked fine but needed vacuuming. Re: reinstalling the new vinyl, the clear Gorilla glue did not work at all. I reinstalled most without adhesives; but I tried to assure that on the rounded corners there was sufficient material to get into the corner well, and used my "pressure tool." All the cabinets look fine and work well now... and I have material to "do it all over again" if needed. At the end of the day though ~ this is a laborious and tedious task and I did all of the cabinets over several sittings. It gets much more laborious if the T channel is too large to capture new material ~ then I had to use (sometimes multiple layers of) double back tape to get the edging to stick well enough.

2000W Inverter... An inverter creates 120v AC from 12v DC (batteries); I have one on the Crusher Too attached to my aux battery and it's helped run blenders, saws, and fast chargers when needed. For the BC20X I completely over-specified the inverter. The reason is that most of the Amazon inverters are from China, despite wherever they were designed, and fail after 3 years or so. I am willing to pay more for confidence and solid ops and Viktron, an English team, crushes mobile and residential solar, inverter, battery control, UPS installs, and the like. So Viktron... now which one... I over-specified again and got the 50amp Multiplus simply because it had Bluetooth and automatic 120v switching (that is knowing what to do when connected to shore power/generator or not). I only have 30amp in the Basecamp so I won't need both of the circuits/phases, but the 30amp version (w/out BT) was not cheaper when netted with the add of BT dongle... it is heavier so yeah, penalty applied. I also can set the inverter I bought to only deliver 30amps, and I'll not install 3 phase wiring. Electrical in the Basecamp is tight actually. Here I've opened the battery and power center bays and found to find the ACin from shore connections. 

I ran an extra 10AWG 2 + ground from the inverter to the power center (breakers and fuses, etc) as ACout from inverter to drive all 110v AC on the camper. We'll have hair dryers, Nespresso machine, and AC, even without shore power. Unfortunately the rerouted 10AWG (again 2 + raw copper ground) from the ACin is just a skosh short to reach the inverter where it will be installed on the floor under the front dinette seats just outside the battery box. Grrr... I ordered a 2 pole bus to terminate and re-source 10 gauge to the inverter. Mechanically it's a bear, electrically it is pretty simple. I even made my own battery cables to run from the inverter to the batteries nearby. Why? ~ 'cause I know how and have a hammer crimper as well as a heat gun. It's kindof my jam... and saves me bucketloads.

I drilled a couple of holes in the "wall" adjacent to the battery closet to run all the stuff to and from the inverter. I installed the controller-remote in the battery closet wall. Securing the inverter to the floor was a bit of a task; it is expected to "hang" on a bracket but there's precious little space in the BC20X so floor mounting it was. It is permanent in the BC20X so I secured it directly to the deck and modified my rugs covering the flooring. 

The Victron inverter is in and confirmed delivering 120v AC as well as properly recognizing shore power hookup pass-through and switching. Woohoo.

Teak Shower-Bath Floor... Yeah, this is just for a nice warm feel on your feet. Luxury buy.

Cabinet Shelving... I had some extra white melamine cabinet shelving decommissioned earlier @ Blodgett. I cut the right widths from these pieces and used L brackets to add some "organization" to two of the taller cabinets. I encountered cascading issues of course - first off my 6 1/2" battery-powered rotary saw battery was bad and I had to order another one; this was done online only as battery interfaces have changed since original purchase and retail had nothing for me. At least I recovered the saw. I took the delay as a chance to buy a nicer finishing blade as well.

Additional Solar... When we found ourselves in a "no generator" campsite, we ran out of power on day 4 despite sunshine and stock 180w solar on the roof of our BC20X (admittedly we were a bit shaded there). Others in the loop used aux solar to boost recharging. We now can do the same with a potent Zamp 200w suitcase folding solar panel with controller setup which connects directly to an external port on the BC20X. The suitcase and panels are very solid and nicely finished, but they are not light at 47#. I use Zamp stuff on the Crusher Too and on top of the camper as well and all of those work well; good company. The new panels add 200w additional charging from sunshine!

Assuredly Level... I also simplified leveling procedures with installation of a Beech Lane Wireless (Bluetooth) Leveler. It was easy... 1) I leveled the camper both directions and checked with bubble levels, 2) I installed the level transmitter and installed batteries, 3) I downloaded the app, 4) I entered the attributes of the trailer (width & tongue to axel distance), and then 5) zeroed the leveler device in the app. Easy peasy.

Update 11Jun25 ~ Lithium Ion Batteries & BT Dongle On Inverter.. I upgraded the BC20X from 200Ahr AGM LifeLines to 200Ahr LiIon heated Battle Borns. That's almost $2K of batteries... sheesh. Again the issue was not the electrical but the mechanical nature of the install in the cabinet. I chose the golf cart batteries as they are a bit smaller than the G27s, so fit more nicely in my battery cabinet. All went smoothly but for the bruises on my old skin banging around again in the camper's tight spots. Lithium batteries should not be charged below 35° so I bought the heated variants of the BBs for an extra $200 each or so. I wired in a manual heater switch and added a temp gauge to my BMV 712 battery shunt/monitor... I think I can basically predict when temps may fall, or have fallen, to freezing AND I want to charge so... all good. I don't need to keep my computers up really, but I do need to keep power in the BC20X for whatever comes our way.

I wanted the VictronConnect app to show inverter status so I installed the appropriate Bluetooth dongle for the VE.Bus there and violla... added visibility and tracking, just as with the battery monitor.

The DRC BC20X is very dialed-in for boondocking anywhere ~ including broadband Internet provided by Starlink in the Crusher Too, as well as power to spare provided by solar or generators and an on-board high capacity inverter backed by killer Lithium batteries. Kala & I weathered heavy winds, bitter cold & rain, brutal heat, and even some human glitches ~ but power will not be a problem henceforth.