Our RV Adventures

I was up early again (this is getting old) wanting to get back working on my generator problem. After reading the service manual over several times, I had list of questions for the Onan Tech Support guy.

As I mentioned, the original guy I had been talking to up in Elkhart, IN was off all week for the 4th holiday, but I found another support guy in Minnesota who was very helpful.

Except today.

When I called the message said that they were all off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and to call back on Friday. Bummer!

So I ended up spending the rest of the morning and afternoon doing website stuff, and using the Duck Pack & Track system to catalog and store some of my stuff around the rig.

Later in the afternoon we headed over to my Aunt Virginia’s house to have linner/lupper with her. Since we were running a little early I decided to drive through the next subdivision to check out probably the most famous house in Athens, AL.

Designed by renowned architect Paul Rudolph, it was on the cover of Life magazine and reviewed in House & Gardens magazine.

For obvious reasons, I always called it the ‘Parthenon House’. And I dated the girl who lived here, before I went off to college in1966.

It still looks pretty good, at least what you can see of it.

The trees have grown up around it a lot in 50+ years.

We had a great visit with my Aunt Virginia (I’ve always called her ‘Ninny’ because

Honestly, it’s always a little bittersweet coming back here every year to visit. All of my remaining relatives are in their late 80’s to early 90’s, with the youngest being 88 and the oldest being 92.

And it seems there’s always one less each year. Which is why we never miss our yearly visit, even if we make a special trip just to come over here, like we did last year.

After we said our goodbyes, and promised we come back by on Friday, we spent some time just driving around, trying to get my bearings with all the changes.

I spent two summers working for a plumbing, heating and air-conditioning company, and a number of the places I helped build are still here. But a lot are gone, too.

In fact in some cases, things have changed so much that I can’t even tell where they were.

We did drive by the house we lived in here after we moved back from South America, and it still looks pretty good.

Glad to see that.

With the 4th and all, tomorrow looks to be a stay-a-home day. Kinda looking forward to it.

Wrapping up, earlier this evening our daughter-in-law Linda sent over this photo of me that I’ve never seen before.

She said she found it mixed in with some of our son Chris’ old photos. My mother had written on the back, “Gregory the Solemn One’.

But apparently at other times I was a little more cheerful.

I think both of these were taken in early 1949.

Thought for the Day: 

Instead of “Have a nice day’”, I think I’ll start saying, “Have the day you deserve”. You know, just let karma sort it out.

sgf

I was up kind of early this morning, especially the morning after a long trip day, but I had a lot to do.

First up was a call to the Onan Tech Support guy to follow up with some more questions, only to find out that he was out all week for the 4th holiday. Bummer!  But Google being my friend I found another Tech Support number and gave it a call

The new guy was a lot of help, answered my all my questions, wasn’t talking on a crappy speakerphone that kept cutting in and out, and wasn’t nearly as curmudgeonly as the first guy.

He confirmed that I should be seeing 12vdc on the line coming from the controller box to the governor actuator, and that if I didn’t it would keep the genset from starting and/or running.

So getting off the phone, I went out side to unbutton the generator and find out what I had on that line. And it turned out to be no voltage at all.

Well, this brightened my day, since I thought I had a workaround for this possibility. One that might get me running. Since the actuator needed 12 volts, I’d just give it 12 volts directly.

So using a couple of heavy-duty alligator clip leads, I hotwired it with 12volts coming from the power connection on the back of the solenoid and the other lead loose so I could touch it to ground to energize the actuator box.

And a trial run produced a loud ‘clunk’ from the box that I hadn’t been hearing on previous tests. Things were looking up.

But not for long. When I had Jan crank it over, nothing had changed. Just ru-ru-ru.

Oh well. It’s back to the drawing board, or the phone, as it were.

By now it was about 2pm so I got cleaned up and Jan and I drove next door to visit my Aunt Janis, who owns this RV park, along with her son Wes

We were happy to hear that another of her sons, Jimmy and his wife Beth, were visiting from Florida.

I didn’t get a good photo of Beth. it came out too dark to use.

In one of those strange coincidences, we found out several years ago that Jimmy had gone to school in the 70’s with my client back in Houston. Small world.

Finally about 5:30 we said our goodbyes and headed over to Huntsville to have dinner at Rosie’s Cantina, a place we always eat at at least once when we’re here.

We were kind of surprised to find the place so busy on a Monday night, but then realized this is essentially a holiday week with the 4th being on Wednesday.

I had the Beef Fajitas for One and had leftovers. Really good with the meat tender and flavorful.

Jan had her usual Pollo Loco.

Also very good.

Tomorrow it’s back on the phone with Onan, and more relative visits.

Thought for the Day: 

“The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood.” – Thomas Jefferson

ghdgh