Author: The Buchanans Rolling Down The Road

What can be said, about a crusty old curmudgeon, with no fixed address … not much I guess.

Day 2340

Thursday February 29th 2024

Dear Journal:

6:05 and Mister Sam was very unhappy with the state of his food bowl, it wasn’t empty or anything like that, but it was not at a level that he felt was satisfactory. And when Mister Sam is unhappy there will be not rest for his humans, so as much as I was thinking a few more moments of sleep would be good, it wasn’t happening this morning.

So happy leap year to all those leapers out there, sun rise was nothing special this morning but there are only a few scattered clouds and we are expecting a sunny day and a temperature of 63ºF (17.2ºC) not hot, but pretty much on the monthly average. A blessed cup of perked coffee and a warm cinnamon bun makes for a sweet breakfast, as we catch up on the local and national news. Late yesterday we got word that Ernie was able to get their coach running, good news as that was the one task that I was unable to accomplish on Tuesday.

We have visitors coming to the Arboretum today, John & Brenda from Dogpound Alberta (Dogpound is located in the center of Alberta). We first met John in January of 2018, at Plamosa Road on BLM land, we were there to meet up with a younger couple who had a YouTube channel (Driving & Vibing) that we all followed. It was a short conversation that day but Miss Laurie has stayed in touch with them. They are fellow snowbird Canadians that head south every fall to avoid the Canadian winters, they are BoonDockers that have moved around through California, Arizona and Texas and like us have found Arizona to be a great winter home.

We wondered around some areas of the Arboretum as Brenda has some mobility issues so we stayed in the humming bird, eucalyptus, Australian, demonstration garden areas, nice wide level walking paths with plenty of chairs and benches along our route. There were a few plants blooming but we seen many that are at the budding stage as next month is the real start of the cactus blooms as well as the wildflowers that make up the “spring bloom” and with this years rainfall most likely this year will be another “super bloom“. It seemed quite apparent that they are now hooked on the arboretum and are actually boondocking less than a mile up the highway.

We made it back to the coach just around lunch time and Miss Laurie put together a leafy lettuce salad that was perfect on a warm day. I have an Arnold Palmer (ice tea & lemonade) on ice and have kicked back in my recliner catching up on some blogs, thinking that my eyes are getting very heavy and that I may have to have a nap in my chair. Then I remember that for some reason I have not been able to log into “Libby” the app that I use to read my library books using my iPad or phone, and I need some more books so I need to contact some one back at the Library back in Hamilton Ontario. So I fill out a form on the library website and after I submit it I get a message that looked like this screenshot below.

And I remember watching the Canadian (Global) news feed on Monday, something I do regularly just to know what is happening back in Ontario and I remember there being some kind of cyber attack in Hamilton but I thought it was just the transportation system, but now I see it has effected a number of public services in Hamilton. So most likely my email will just drift off to a junk folder some where in a library basement … and this has to have been a serious cyber attack to still be effecting things from last Sunday, oh well onto that wee nap.

Day 2338

Tuesday February 27th 2024

Dear Journal:

5:45 and Mister Sam just met me in the coach gallery for his morning treats, as I head for my recliner and after I get settled I’m blessed with a few moments of that precious kitty lap time. But just a few moments before he heads to the bedroom to work on rousing Miss Laurie, it is only after he is able to roust Miss Laurie that he can settle into the queen size bed for his morning nap.

Some morning television, a couple of cups of perked coffee, with a wee Irish blessing, I’m working on publishing the new shorter blogs, as well as trying to keep up with our day to day life.

Today we are headed to Apache Junction to help out a fellow RVer, or at least his wife Julia has asked for some help or at least some guidance. I hate situations like this the wife has asked a lot of questions, that I have tried to answer to no avail. Now we are on our way to see if I can diagnose an issue for a fellow I don’t even know and have never met. I’m hoping he is receptive to assistance, one never knows how people will react to outside assistance.

As we drive eastbound on US-60 we can see poppies blooming on the shoulders of the road, seem too early but some rain and 80° days and poof there are wildflowers busting to life. Traffic in Arizona is pretty much.

We were greeted by Julia & Ernie at their campground, and soon headed over to their coach. Last October they made the decision to move out of their coach and purchased a park model in a different park here in Apache Junction, and after transferring items from their coach they parked to coach in a different section of the park. The coach had been operating properly before the time of parking it. but after being parked just a few weeks all the batteries had lost power. Their coach is a 42′ Monaco with a tag axle and almost every known option back in 2005, when we got to the coach there was no power in the house batteries at all so I pulled our towed close enough to boost the battery bank (4 large 6 volt batteries) and as the voltage started to climb we were starting to see different systems cone to life.

Now to diagnose why the system went dead to begin with. The coach was plugged in but it was drawing no power, so I start at the park power supply and confirm it has power, because the basement doors were all locked and only able to be unlocked by a remote we needed more battery power, but in the coach I found the main power breaker shut off. This is an easy mistake because unlike with a house breaker panel there is not a main breaker. Usually the manufacture can cut costs by just adding a 30 amp or 50 amp breaker that back feeds the rest of the circuits when turned on. In simple terms the breaker box is the most inexpensive and takes less space that a main switch box with a breaker box. After turning on the power to the breaker box, I then switch on the inverter which should charge the battery bank but I also found that the main disconnect switch in the battery compartment was switched off as well. With the power and the inverter now turned on we are charging the house batteries and now the coach circuits have been energized. Now I move on to the chassis battery which power the diesel engine and the generator, so I move the booster cable from the house batteries to the chassis batteries and now we have an attempt to engage the starter on both the generator and the chassis motor.

After some charging time from our towed’s alternator we get enough battery power to start the generators diesel motor, but still not enough to crank the big diesel motor. By this time I have explored most of the major components, such as the inverters, the solar control unit, and other control circuits, most people just have no idea how many different systems operate within the coach’s electrical systems. So I have accomplished everything that was asked other than getting the coach’s engine started but I feel it is just a case of getting the batteries sufficiently charged, so before leaving the coach we plugged in a small 12 volt charger on the chassis batteries and I suspect that the diesel will have enough power to start up tomorrow.

We moved back to their park model where we enjoyed a cold beverage along with some barbequed dogs and burgers, I think they were happy with our progress, and while disappointed with not getting the chassis motor running I think they can see a path to that happening very soon. We left Julia & Erie just after sunset and drove to the local Fry’s got this weeks supplies before heading back to the Arboretum and a very unhappy Mister Sam who was now over three hours late for his dinner. We settled into watch a recorded Voice show, enjoyed some ice cream before heading to bed, I was exhausted after a day of climbing in, on and under the coach.