Arizona Trip – Traveling adventures

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On February 28th, a crew from Living Energy Farm took off to go on an adventure to install 50 solar kits in Arizona on both the Hopi and Dine reservations. Here is our documented adventure as we did these installs.

This is from take off day! Our vehicle and trailer are all packed and ready to go!

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All packed up and ready to go! We are officially on the road to AZ and this solar panel/DC microgrid project! Excited to have a crew trained to install these 50 solar kits for families on the reservations who don’t have electricity or running water. Interested in following our progress? Look at what we’re doing at @livingenergylights or visit our webpage to find out more about this project: www.livingenergyfarm.org We happily accept donations! . #DCmicrogrid #sustainablelife #hopi #diné #solarliving #livingenergylights #livingenergyfarm

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We made a conscious choice to attempt to stay with other intentional communities as we drove out there and back. On our way there, we were a bit rushed to get there on time but did manage to stay at Loraine Community in Nashville, TN!

After traveling over 900 miles, the first catastrophe happened and our overloaded trailer blew a tire.

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Not even to AZ and we already had an adventure! One of our crew noticed the sound change and we pulled over to find that a tire blew out! Coincidentally we pulled over to check this in a hotel parking lot, only 8 minutes away from the only open tire store in the area, and they had the tire AND rim IN STOCK!!! For an adventure, it was a well timed/planned one. We see what you did there, Universe! Thank you for the good juju! Keep it coming! . #LEFAZproject #livingenergyfarm #crosscountryroadtrip #livingenergylights #roadtripadventures

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We got on the road and had a great day of travel, and then on the fourth day on the road, we hit another snag! After we had traveled about 1700 miles away from home, the OTHER tire on our poor overloaded trailer blew out, and our trusty vehicle (named Bert) had a leak, which was causing steam under the hood. Thankfully our friends Darron and Emerson from the Tsaile/Wheatfields Dineh Water Users came to the rescue with their 30 foot trailer!

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Diné to the rescue! Tire trailer has been changed, and we are off to have our truck repaired. Turns out it’s our transmission. Pray for us so that we can do our 8 installs we had planned this weekend! . #totherescue #towing #diné #dinépride #LEFAZproject #livingenergyfarm

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After a sun burnt morning hanging out on the side of I-40, we finally got to Tsaile and the Water Users Office behind the Wheatfields Dineh Chapter House by evening. A nice warm meal in our bellies was nice from all the canned food and snacks we were eating on the road. We were very grateful for our friends to help us out on the last leg of the trip to get us to Arizona. The challenges were definitely worth it, because we were so happy to start installing these kits and support these people in getting electricity.

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Made it safely to the Rez! We are all set to do solar installations this weekend 🙂 Our lovely SUV named Burt might not be so lucky…. . #settlingin #thankfulforsleepingquarters #livingenergyfarm #LEFAZproject #DCmicrogrids #ironsunbox #nickelironbattery

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On our way back we did plan on staying at East Wind community, however due to the Coronavirus our plans had drastically changed. We did, however, end up staying at Ampersand community near Santa Fe, NM on our way back! And while we did, we installed a 20AH Small House kit on one of their buildings they use as an air B&B rental if they don’t have interns.

Ready to see the actual installations? Click here for the next leg of our story sharing!

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