Blog

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.

Day 2333

Thursday February 22nd 2024

Dear Journal:

Honestly part of todays blog is based on the day number, but after getting up at 5:45 and being greeted by Mister Sam in the galley for his morning treats I settled into my recliner as the first light of dawn is showing over the Apache Leap mountain range, and Mister Sam rewards me with some of that valuable lap time. In fact I was granted nearly ¾ of an hour of lap time, but as Miss Laurie stirs my lap time comes to an end, it is now 6:30 and the dawn sky is orange, but with such a clear sky my expectations are minimal.

Today the first MLB spring training games of the Cactus League take place, so that is a major news item on the local stations. The nice thing about the Cactus League over the Grapefruit League in Florida is that all the teams spring training camps are all within the Phoenix valley area as opposed to being spread all across the State of Florida. It had dipped to 58°F (14.4°C) in the coach so I have turned on the electric heater when I got up, just to take the chill off until the sun hits the side of the coach and we have to open windows. We are expecting a high of only 65°F (18.3°C), but with no clouds and the sun angle improving daily it should be a near perfect day in the desert.

I now have a cup of coffee, and yes it has been blessed, just as the local station has switched to National news, and now we get to see just how screwed up the world is. At 7:23 the sun has just peaked over the ridge and I can already feel the warmth, or at least I think it feels warmer, by now Mister Sam is sound asleep on the queen size bed and I could becoming numb to the election propaganda for the American election already and the election is not till November!

Breakfast was a toasted blueberry bagel from the Costco bakery, always a nice change, Miss Laurie is working in the gift shop at the Arboretum this morning to cover for the staff that have an “all staff meeting” this morning at 9;00. This is not our normal volunteering day, but since Miss Laurie has been trained on most aspects of the visitor center she is the one that gets called on to cover the gift shop and the membership office. It is not usually too busy this early in the morning, and it is normally only a couple of hours of Laurie’s day and I personally think she enjoys being the go to person.

As Miss Laurie heads off to I’m moving on to the patio, this is our Sunday as tomorrow is our first day of volunteering this week, as you can see the view from our patio is pretty nice and as I enjoy a beverage under the awning. My beverage of choice today is the Electric Orange straight over a few ice cubes it is a wonderful sipping drink as I enjoy the scenery. Miss Laurie joined me as we spent the afternoon watching birds, and taking in the beauty of the Arboretum, while Mister Sam enjoyed some bird watching of his own. This hummingbird feeder sticks to the RV window and provides hours of entertainment for all of us as we get a steady stream of birds consisting of hummingbirds and Gila woodpeckers that frequent the feeder.

The photo shows Mister Sam watching the hummingbird, but look past the humming bird to the rock outcropping that is being light by the setting sun, sometimes the best sunset pictures are the “reverse sunset“.