Tag: motorhome

Driving through the Rocky Mountain National Park

You can’t go to the RMNP in person right now but you can ride to the top by tagging along with us on our trip from 2018.

Come along for the ride!

https://www.nps.gov/romo/index.htm

Continue reading Driving through the Rocky Mountain National Park

Ticklish Mushroom

While wandering around Rutledge Lake RV Park near Asheville NC we ran across a very noisy mushroom.

 

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The music used is 7th Floor Tango by Silent Partner, Fresh Fallen Snow by Chris Haugen available from Google https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music

 

Fonts used are Lobster Regular from https://fonts.google.com/

Keepin’ it 100 – fun with electricity

Recap:  Last night we pulled into a pretty camp in South Carolina, hooked up shore power and … nothin.  Would we have to sweat through the night and our shorts?  Would we share loudly rumbling diesel generator sounds and fumes with our neighbors?  Would the Hampton Inn take a mild-mannered Schnauzer?

The RV park had another 50 amp spot available and allowed / suggested we move there, to the edge of the campground where running the gennie all night would disturb other campers less.  They even offered us a refund, if we decided to go to a hotel instead, which was especially gracious and not something every park would do.  So Michael unplugged stuff, stowed the landing pads, and off we went to another spot.  Turn off the engine, the generator, and all air conditioners.  Plug in to this 50 amp pole, and wait for the fancy surge protector to run its checks.  It’s only 88° now but a zillion % humidity.  Wait.  And…. it works!  Happy, happy, joy, joy!  Turn on the cool air and break out the gin, ’cause the thing magically fixed itself!  OK, it didn’t really.  What probably happened, to get technical for a sec, is voltage dips at the old site made the transfer switch say “No way.”  South Carolina’s had flooding and a tornado recently, and maybe this power pole is corroded.  Contacts on our reel probably need cleaning too.  Many points of failure have to agree that today is not a good day to die, in order for the bus to have power.  It turned out fine, nothing caught fire, no misery this time.  Well, none apart from wondering whether essential utilities would function, after a day of driving with another travel day coming in the morning.

Speaking of the morning, guess what?  The generator didn’t feel like it, so it went … On?  …no, how about Off.  Ha ha!  *sigh*  No gennie while driving means no AC in the bus while driving six hours in upper 90° temps, except what blows out of the dash.  Trust me, that won’t cut it.  Parboiled ain’t a good look for Chip.  Experience told Michael to force a hard reboot on the generator’s brain.  Is there a switch for that?  Yeah right.  Here’s the switch: pull open the gennie drawer, take the cover off, remove a coolant reservoir, release a catch with a screwdriver, then lever a ribbon cable off the computer, count to five, and reconnect everything.  That’s how you reboot.  Thankfully, it did the trick and appeased the motor gods.  For now.

It’s another fun filled day of driving along the interstate.  What could go wrong?  Shush.

Keepin’ it 100

…as in keeping it real and honest.  Until now, we have posted mainly happy photos and fun discoveries here on The Great Wander.  Do you want nothing but sunshine and buttercups blown up your hind end?  Hmm, go watch a Disney movie, only not Toy Story 4 because that’s supposedly a tear jerker.  The last thing this big kid needs is more tears.  To all the people we meet who say they’ve always wanted to travel the country in an RV and how amazing it must be, sure, sometimes it’s great.  No, it’s not all gleeful, wacky Hollywood schadenfreude spectacle.  Now and then, usually on travel days, the bad thing happens to you, and that’s not so funny, is it chucklehead?

Today’s RV adventure is electrical.  We arrive in South Carolina (state #19 – whee) on a 90 degree day at a camp wooded with majestic pines and a wonderfully long and level pull-thru site reserved for us.  We’re only staying one night, but we have full hookups with 50 amp electric.  The dog park beckons, and we have fresh peaches, tomatoes, and cobbler in a jar bought this afternoon to entertain us before a long drive tomorrow.  Great!  Michael hooks up electric and water, Susan pushes the Auto Level button, Fay does her magic, no problem.  Turn off the air conditioning units, let the generator run a couple more minutes to cool, check for 50 Amp Service on the monitor panel in the cockpit, then switch the cool air back on.  Thump!  thump-thump—thump.  Nope.  No Service.  An hour and 20 later, after phone calls and Internet searches, we got nothin’.  Stay tuned to hear how tonight’s adventure ends.