Magnolia-on-the-Ashley (Charleston, SC)

Stone Mtn Campground "orange" site on loop C.

We're back at Stone Mountain, GA visiting Donna's brother and sister-in-law.  We had a great time in Charleston, SC as we finally got to walk around without being soaked with rain.

We got a chance to visit the Magnolia (on the Ashley) Plantation.  Pictures to the right and below are from our walk around the plantation.  This house is the third one.  The first was struck by lightening and burned down.  The

second was struck by yankees and burned down.  The current plantation house was a cabin moved to the site of the second house after the civil war.  Owners realized the need to enlarge the house, so the house you see today was expanded (in increments) to what you see today.  The large pillars were added in the early 1990s to make it appear more of a traditional southern plantation home.

We're not well versed in South Carolina history, so we were caught by surprise that this was a rice plantation.   Makes for some nice swamp land now.

After the civil war the plantation became more of a mining enterprise.  The land was gradually turned into gardens and eventually opened to the public (for a fee, of course).  The gardens are considered informal, but I can't tell you what that means.   If you go, plan on a full day to fully explore it.  The plantation has bicycle trails for your enjoyment, too.

Our trip over to Stone Mountain got off to a late start.  We planned on a 6 hour drive (long day for us), and we've had issues with getting our trailer's "pigtail" plugged into the truck's in-bed socket over the last week or two.  This time we thought we had it fully inserted, but as we started to back out of the campsite Donna noticed that some of the trailer lights weren't working.  We spent an hour trouble shooting it.

As always, people are willing to help.  Most assured us it was probably a blown fuse, and one gentleman gave us the 25 amp fuse we would probably need.  Problem became how to get to the second fuse box under the hood.  First, I was completely unaware of the second fuse box (primary fuse box is in the truck cab).  Sounds easy to do since most vehicles have their fuse box out in the open under the hood, and we've replaced fuses every now and then on our vehicles over the years.  Not our truck.  Our second fuse box is located under a vacuum regulator (or vacuum something) which must be removed to even get to the second fuse box.  Yep, sounds easy doesn't it.  It sure didn't look easy to me or anyone else that looked at it.  So with only one side of the signal lights working, no brake lights and no emergency flashers, we drove over to Stone Mountain, anyway, and continued to trouble shoot - including a full clean up of all the sockets and the "pigtail" - once we got set up.

We have a little tool that we can insert the trailer's "pigtail" into which turns on the trailer's running lights and emergency flashers.  It's primary use is for safety - to turn those lights on if you have to leave the trailer on the side of the road.  Plugging the "pigtail" into that tool didn't give us any emergency flashers, so I figured it was the trailer that had a problem.  A quick scan through the Suites Owners forum found instances of similar trailer light behavior, and the solutions ran the gambit from tow vehicle fuses to bad wiring in the umbilical cord/"pigtail".

So on the phone to a mobile RV tech we went who told us to get the truck checked out first.  A quick call to the local Ford service department got us in the service bay early the next morning (I wasn't dealing with that vacuum whatever that was installed above the fuse box).  But before I left, I asked the Suites Owners forum how to open & check the "pigtail" and it's wiring. Once at the service bay, I asked them to show me how to get to that second fuse box once they were done.  So on to the bay they went with the truck.  15 minutes later they called me back to the truck.  They had that vacuum whatever off and the fuse box open and a neat little 7-way tester with LED lights plugged into one of the trailer plug sockets on the truck (we have two locations to the plug the trailer into on the truck).  The tech had already replaced the fuse and was ready to teach me how to do what he did.  Turns out our vacuum whatever is easy to remove and re-install (no tools needed), but the tech noted that the installation above a fuse box was "unconventional".

So with the truck back in full working condition, it was back to the trailer.  By that time, members on the Suites Owners forum had posted how to check the wring on the trailer.  So once again out we went to check the wiring.  Tightened a few things and all looked fine.  So now it was time to plug the trailer back into the truck.  Crossed our fingers, plugged the "pigtail" in, and...it all worked!  What a relief!

Sooooo...why didn't we get emergency flashers with the "pigtail" plugged into our little safety tool?  Turns out that tool is trying to flash the turn signal lights, but our trailer is wired so that the brake lights flash as emergency flashers vice the turn signals.  As it's not designed to turn on the trailer's brake lights, nothing flashes.  Good to know.

So that's been our week.  I still think we may have a "pigtail" issue (bad plug), but we'll confirm that over time.  We now carry that 25 amp fuse the gentleman gave us in Charleston in the truck knowing we'll probably need to use it.  Oh, and we now have one of those 7-way tester with LED lights.   Neat little toy that thing is!  Later, David