Our RV Adventures

A little before 3pm we lost power to the rig, so after waiting a minute or so to see if it would come back on, I when outside to check the pedestal. I expected to find a popped breaker like we had earlier in the week. But both breakers were fine.

So next I double-checked our Progressive EMS to see if it had a problem, but it was dead with no power coming in. Looking at our neighbors 3 sites over, I could see they had an oscillating fan going, so they had power.

I then took my test plug and found that the sites on either side of us also had power. So it was just me. Then after I called the park ranger, I ran my AC breakout extension cord over to the empty site next door so we’d have at least one AC running while we waited.

Jason, the ranger, showed up about 10 minutes later and I saw him doing something at a large tree two sites over.

So that explains it. Our electrical system here at the park is run by Keebler Elves. But it turns out it’s even worse than that.

I walked over to see what he was doing and found a main breaker box on a pole right beside the tree. So, no Elves, I guess.

Looking over Jason’s shoulder as he reset our breaker, our 30 amp breaker, I asked him about these ‘fake’ 50 amp sites. He laughed and said they, ‘the park’, didn’t want to spend the money to upgrade panels for 50 amp service, so they just put 50 amp receptacles in the pedestals, but kept the 30 amp breakers. So we have this ‘50 amp pedestal’.

But wait, it gets worse.

It turns out that this ‘50 amp’ pedestal is actually being fed by the 30 amp one behind it on the same post.

And by ‘fed’ I mean it goes through the same 30 amp breaker that also feeds the 30 amp receptacle in the box.

So what we have is a 30 amp breaker in the main breaker box feeding through another 30 amp breaker in the 30 amp box and then through another 30 amp breaker into the 50 amp receptacle.

Note the cable looping between the two boxes, even though both boxes are also being fed via conduits from underground.

So even using my AC breakout, everything was still running off the same 30 amp breaker, or breakers, actually.

Whoever decided to wire things up this way wouldn’t know the Electrical Code if it bit him.

“Code? We don’t need no stinkin’ code!”

I’m really surprised the whole thing doesn’t just burst into flames.

So I told Jason I was going to keep my AC breakout hooked up to the pedestal next door, and he said he’d tell the office to take the site out of service until we leave next Sunday.

Hopefully it’ll all hold together for the next 7 days.

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Thought for the Day:

Resistance Isn’t Futile. It’s Voltage divided by Current.

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After a nice quiet morning, Jan and I headed into the Memphis suburbs about 2:15 for a movie, dinner, and Wal-Mart, all about 55 miles away.

Our movie of choice was Jurassic World, the fourth one in the series. The basic premise is that apparently they didn’t learn their lesson 20 years ago with Jurassic Park, as I guess not enough guests were eaten in the original. So for Jurassic World, they build a new, bigger, better park with more snacks, I mean guests, and larger, meaner, genetically-enhanced dinosaurs.

What could possibly go wrong?

All this said, Jan and I really enjoy the movie, with its non-stop action that never really let up. The two main stars are Chris Pratt, who was in another recent blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Opie’s daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, both very good.

On the bad guy side of things, are two Law & Order: Criminal Intent alumni, Vincent D’Onofrio and B.D. Wong. Plus Wong was reprising his same character from the very first movie.

One thing funny about the title, even going back to Michael Crichton’s original book, is that none of the movie’s featured dinosaurs, i.e. T-Rex, Velociraptors, Mosasaurs, and Pteranodons, actually lived in the Jurassic era, which ranged from approximately 200 million years ago to about 150 mya.

No, they all lived in the Cretaceous era, from about 85 mya to about 65 mya, just in time to look up and see a fast-approaching bright light in the sky.

So I guess Cretaceous World just didn’t have the same ring.

Leaving the movie and extracting Jan’s fingernails from my arm, we headed up the road a few miles to have dinner at Jim & Nick’s BBQ once again, where our favorite server, Joy, greeted us with a smile and her usual great service.

We once again started off with the Sausage Appetizer,

which I probably wouldn’t have gotten if I had thought ahead to what I was going to get for dinner. Even Jan, not a big sausage fan, likes this sausage, but I think she likes the accompanying Pimento Cheese even more.

For our meals, Jan again went with The Pig in A Bun, and Mac N Cheese, the same thing she got last time. She says that the Mac N Cheese is really great.

For my part, I expanded my horizons and went from the 2 meat combo to the 4 meat combo, adding Beef Brisket and Hot Links to my original Pulled Pork and Ribs.

For my sides, I again got the Baked Beans, but added the Slow-Cooked Collard Greens instead of the Potato Salad. And I’m really glad I did because the Collards were delicious.

I was kind of curious about their Beef Brisket, since when we’ve had it here a couple of times at other places here, it was more like sliced roast beef covered in BBQ sauce. Not good. But Jim & Nick’s came thru. Although not exactly Texas Sliced Brisket, it was very close, and very good. I’m glad I gave it a try.

As usual, with the big platter, I had plenty to take home for later, probably enough for a meal for both of us.

I mentioned on our visit last Sunday that we’d spent some time getting to know Todd, the manager. But tonight we got to talk with the other manager, Tyler. As soon as we mentioned that we were RV’ers, he said, “Oh, ya’ll are the ones whose card is on the wall in the office.” A very nice guy.

And even nicer, he comped our deserts, a couple of pieces of their made-in-house pies. We got some last time, and they were great, so we couldn’t miss out this time. Jan said their Chocolate Cream Pie is probably the best she’s every had, and my Lemon Cream was fantastic.

I mentioned last time about their great Cheese Biscuits that they serve with the meal, so good in fact that we bought a bag of their biscuit mix to make some at home. And of course we got a bunch to take home with us. They’re great for breakfast with our coffee.

Finally starting toward home about 7:30, we made a Wal-Mart stop along the way. They must be having a gas war in this area, because both gas and diesel are very cheap, and the same price. At some stations, gas is $2.26 and diesel is $2.27, and in others, gas is $2.27 and diesel is $2.26. Either way it’s all dirt cheap. So I filled up the truck, and wished I had the rig here too.

We finally go back to the rig about 9:39 after another very nice day.

Life is Good!

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Thought for the Day:

“I want to put a dent in the universe.” – Steve Jobs

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