Tortilla Flat . . . Not
Jan hasn’t been happy with her last few pedicures, so I’ve been drafted to fill in. I must have done a pretty good job painting them because Nick says I can do his next.
We had planned to do a day trip this afternoon up into the Superstition Mountains to check out Tortilla Flat and some of the old towns up in the mountains.
But we ran into a couple of problems. I was originally supposed to drive, but found I had a leaky rear tire on the truck, so then Nick was going to drive.
But right before they came to pick us up, they lost power at their rig. They had power at the pedestal, but it just wasn’t getting to the rig.
Since we were expecting temps in the high 90’s today, it seemed like a good idea to cancel today’s trip and get Nick’s power working again.
And a little checking showed us what it was. The big 50 amp twist-lock plug that connects the power cord to the rig was starting to melt. The plastic cover had burned through in a couple of places and wasn’t letting power into the rig.
So our first chore was to find a new plug, and after checking Home Depot (only had 30 amp versions) and two RV parts places (both closed on the weekends) we ended up at a Camping World where they had the part.
Getting back to Nick’s I started replacing the plug, and it didn’t take long to see what might have been causing the long-term problem.
It looks like this plug had been replaced once before, before Nick and Terry owned the rig. And whoever had done it, had done it wrong. They had tinned or soldered the stranded wire until it was a solid clump. This is a big NO-NO.
When the wire is a solid mass, it was no way to flex, expand and contract, with temperature changes. And over a period of time, this causes the connections to loosen, and then they start to overheat and melt.
The replacement job took about an hour and went pretty smoothly. I cut back the insulation until I had bare wires again, and as I put it back together I sprayed all the connections with an anti-corrosion coating that should help keep problems under control.
After powering up the rig and checking things out, everyone was getting hungry, so we picked up Jan at our rig and headed over to a place Nick and Terry wanted us to try called Streets of New York, a nearby pizza, pasta, subs place. Oh, and chicken wings too.
We all had a little bit of everything. Jan and Terry had the Chicken Parmigiana, while Nick had his usual Pepperoni Pizza. I went with a small pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom pizza, and some Honey Hot Chicken Wings.
We all agreed it was really good. Jan and I especially liked the Honey Hot Wings with a crispy crust on them.
Tomorrow we’re going to try our trip to Tortilla Flat once again. That is, if Nick doesn’t break something once again.
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Thought for The Day:
"To learn who rules over you simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize"- Voltaire
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