Trudging Through Snow to Salt Lake City

 

I can hear it now, “What are you and Marcia thinking?”  Well, it is not as bad as it sounds, really it is not.  First, I have driven from Sacramento to or through Salt Lake City so many times I could not even begin to count them, and through all sorts of weather.  Second, we are only taking our HHR, not the motorhome.  Third, daughter Stephanie lives in Salt Lake, works in Park City, and if we don’t see her again now, we won’t see her until we return from Alaska sometime next year.  Yes, we have committed to go to Alaska…so the plan now is to leave Sacramento area right after Christmas and head down to Phoenix to visit a good friend of Marcia’s, then make our way along I-10 to Florida as weather permits.  Sometime after Easter, we will start to make our way north to Alaska.  So "NOW" is the time to make the trek east to Salt Lake City for a few days.

     

Above are pictures of Stephanie taken by my good friend Jana back in Arkansas for her “Senior Pictures” for high school.  The pictures were taken at the "Old Mill", which Marcia and I visited and blogged about earlier this year (The Old Mill -- seen in Gone with the Wind).  These pictures were taken about 7 years ago.  Below is this past May taken by me at Ryan’s graduation in Fayetteville Arkansas.  Just shows that even “Great Things” can get better with time.  

We plan to leave Saturday or Sunday….if Saturday we will only go to Reno, attend church in Reno on Sunday and head on from there.  If Sunday, we will leave after church and drive half way and finish it up on Monday.  We plan to see her after work Monday and Tuesday, but she “might” be able to take Tuesday off.  If not, then we will see her Wednesday before heading back to the Sacramento area.  All of this depends upon weather, and as of Friday night it has snowed in Utah, and will snow tomorrow….but by Monday we should have plenty of days of good weather to enjoy our short visit.

   

Here in the Sacramento area there are STILL flowers blooming!  It is mid-November, and flowers are still popping out….I sure don’t remember this happening when I lived here for my first 30+ years!

And Autumn is still in full force, as we see from today’s picture of mom and dad’s place.  As things are looking….Autumn in Sacramento might just last until December.

   

   

And yes, the Hummingbirds are still coming around, like this one coming in for a long feed.  He is one which I have shown before….the “Owner” of the feeder.  He chases all the others away except for a select few which he allows short visits to the feeder.  The other day I saw four or five Hummingbirds up in the huge tree that the squirrels play and feed in each day.  This little guy had his hands full, but eventually he chased them all away.  One or two had quick feeds at the feeder, but nothing lasted more than a second or two.  Of course, one does not have their camera with them with it is really needed.  Still have not caught a picture of the Woodpecker, or the Hawk.  Well, we have about six more weeks to go, still plenty of opportunities...and Skruffy and Bubba still have plenty of time to try to catch a Squirrel.  Below you can Skruffy's latest tactic...she sits under the front of the motorhome and waits until one of them comes down on the ground because another is hoarding the feeder.  Almost worked yesterday, Arny said....I have no idea what she would do if she ever got a hold of one...I am betting that she is not quick enough.  Before we leave I will try and get a picture of Bubba "stalking" them like a cat...

The FIX Is In

    

A few posts ago we talked about our problem with our Transfer Switch Relay Box.  Well, last Thursday we got it fixed at McColloch's RV Repair & Storage located at 2420 Harvard St, Sacramento, CA.  The owner, Kerry McColloch.  Kerry came highly recommended by my brother-in-law Arny, who himself was in the “repair” business with a Corvette Body Shop for years.  Kerry has a smaller shop, can be very busy at times, but the quality of work and service he gives is real good.  He has been in business for over 30 years, and online reviews speak very highly for his service too.

  

Here is our “electrical brains” under the bed.  The box to the far right is the new transfer relay box.

    

Above is a close up of the new Generator Transfer Relay, showing the inside of the lid on the right.  This relay is of much better quality than the previous one.  A transfer relay automatically senses generator power and prevents two power sources from entering the AC Distribution Panel at the same time.  This includes a time delay feature ensures generator voltage is at a stable level before transfer occurs.  When I first started up the generator, it ran for about 20 seconds before the transfer relay allowed the power to go through to the circuit breakers.  Our other one allowed the power to go through nearly immediately, so this will be much better for the motorhome.

One of the RV blogs I have followed for years now is RV-Dreams.com.  I have had a few communications with Howard and Linda before, and decided that I would share my Transfer Relay Switch problems with Howard so that he could “get the word out” about keeping the connections tight on all of these electrical items.  In their blog today, Howard mentioned our situation, and he had contacted his “technical mentor”, Jack of Living The Full-time RV Lifestyle, and included a good quote from Jack regarding these electrical issues.  I quote Howard’s blog below pertaining to what Jack told him:

"This is typical of the results of a loose electrical connection. ALL electrical connections - solar panel boxes, transfer switches, the main loadcenter and the subpanel - should be checked EVERY year for screws that work loose.
 
The screws work loose even in a residential environment due to heat/cool cycles. In an RV environment this is amplified by vibration so it is more common. Use of solid core wire by the RV industry, instead of stranded wire that is called for in Marine environments, also contributes to the issue. But solid core wire is not the entire root cause. It is a combination of factors."
 
If you “R.V.”, as they say, either full-time, part-time or just on rare occasions, you need to read and follow sites like RV-Dreams for the vast amount of information they provide.  As for me, I also enjoy the humor, the insight, and openness of what Howard includes in his blogs.  I know they have helped many people make decisions pertaining to RVing and especially Full-Time RVing.  Definitely a valuable resource for me, that’s for sure.