June 15, 2010

From Kettle Falls, WA N48º29.004’ W118º 9.984’


Day 13

Because the 110 power was out I got up at 5:15 AM when I saw it was light. First I looked around for Bob’s breakers to make sure none had flipped off. Didn’t find any so I checked the pedestal where I plugged in. The plug was pulled out a little, I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Bob uses a five gallon bucket as a weather head over the pedestal and when he put the bucket on it must have move the plug enough to break the connection.

With the power back on I went back to bed until about 8:30. After catching up on my e-mail and Facebook I reconciled our credit cards. Bills continue, on the road or not. I then took care of some little things around the coach. A piece of wood trim at the back corner of the big slide out had come loose so I glued it back in place. Last year when American Coach replaced the hydraulic cylinder that operates the step cover they reversed the switch that extends and retracts the cover. I was able to reverse the connections on the back of the switch so now it extends when “Extend “is pushed and retracts when “Retract” is pushed.

I have been getting a red fault light on the solar charge controller so I got out the ladder and went on the roof to check connections. I didn’t see anything out of place so I check the connections in the battery compartment. Nothing obviously wrong there either so I’ll call Kevin Mallory at Cruising America to see if he can help trouble shoot that one. I also checked for loose connections or blown fuses for the electric horn. Didn’t find anything loose and didn’t find a fuse labeled horn. I’ll put this out on the ACC mail list and also ask Kevin about it. Since I had the ladder out I decided this was a good time to glue a metal plate on the roof for the magnetic external antenna on the portable CB radio I bought for communicating with others in our upcoming caravan through Canada and Alaska.

Wow the day went fast and it was time for supper. Bob fixed BBQ ribs and chicken with all the trimmings. Bud, Bob’s brother, and Marlene Beatty joined us. We had a great dinner and visited for hours.

It wasn’t quite dark when I got home so I decided to replace the porch light bulb and hey the ladder was still out. This fixture burns out bulbs very fast. The new bulb didn’t light. In the dusk I could see some burned wires, I’ll have to check that tomorrow in the light.

All in all it was a very good day. I know my little projects don’t seem like much but for a person as electrically and mechanically disadvantaged as I am, they were quite the accomplishment.