We had a nice trip up from Madison, WI though the last day was loooonnnnngggg. On the way up, we did stop about 30 minutes south of Eau Claire, WI for a couple of nights at Stoney Creek RV Resort near Osseo, WI. This park deserves the "resort" rating. Think of a Jellystone "lite" RV park. Big park. Large area just for
So we arrived at Voyageurs on Wednesday, and no one, other than the head of interpretation, knew we were coming. No water, but we had power. So Donna plugs us in and lets people know we're here with no water. Took an hour or so for maintenance staff to get to us and turn the water on. Keep in
With water we go ahead and unhook and start setting up. We could get satellite in 2014, so we're off trying to get that going. But it didn't work out with the roof antenna. Fuss forever with the portable antenna as my android satellite app said we should see at least one satellite. We did finally lock on a satellite and get about half our normal channels. Power seemed better than in
Thursday seemed OK. Power was doing good. We loaded up on groceries. No shortages or rationing up here. Well stocked store. $100 single tank full up in 2014. Single tank fill up this time about $55. Going good. Dumped & flushed the black tank and set the sewer system warning light & siren off. Found the alarm silence button and got that turned off. Called maintenance and they called the city to come check. They did
Friday morning we had a quick drop off of shore power, and I noticed that the voltage on one line of power wasn't what it had been. We were back to the low- voltage shore power we had in 2014. That momentary power loss also upset the portable satellite antenna to no end. Fussed with it for three hours before it could see a satellite. In the mean time, Donna does some laundry in the trailer. All is well.
We take our first long walk around the Rainy Lake Visitor Center area and trails. We come back to burning rubber/wire smell. Found the washer/dryer plug was halfway out of the socket (why we never checked it after arriving we'll never know). Figured that was it. Moved it to another socket on the same circuit breaker and started it back up. All seems well.
3:38 AM (per the weather radio) Saturday morning we lose shore power, again, and it doesn't come back on. Go out to the power pedestal, and I know there's power as the bright red light on the sewer warning system is flashing brightly. Flip the circuit breakers and we've got power. That upset the portable satellite, again. I go back to bed and plan deal with everything later.
Later comes about 6 :30 AM. We've still got power, but I ain't spending no three hours fussing with that stupid portable antenna. Gave it a couple of relocation tries with no success. Android app says at least two of the three satellites are visible. We decided to do the Greg & Judy tactic - relocate the trailer in the site and keep adjusting until the roof satellite locks on to satellite. After moving the trailer forward a bit, success! (We kinda had an idea as we'd both thought about it and thought that we'd placed the trailer too far back into the site.) Set the trailer back up and start laundry. First tub wash & dry OK. Donna starts the second tub, and we've got problems when the dryer kicks in. It appears we've probably clogged the dryer vent. We unhook the unit from the wall vent. Donna cleans the machine and what I can't reach from the outside. We try it, again, on a dry setting. Within minutes - smoke! WOW! We've just smoked our third Splendide combo unit!
I'm beyond angry. Why now!!!! I get over it, and we go to the local laundry. (Remember, we're in quarantine. Minimal contact with people, and we're going to a laundry mat.) So we go finish laundry. That took about an hour. Come back to a dead trailer. Nothing we could do would get us on shore power. Everything runs fine on the generator. (OK, we didn't try the Splendide.)
Donna starts calling local campgrounds to see if they know of a mobile RV tech. I dig out our receipts from 2014. It's Memorial Day weekend. We're probably dry camping until Tuesday. Donna finds a 24-hr mobile tech 80 miles away and calls. He answers! He'd be here late that evening. It's just gonna be an expensive service call. He thinks it the transfer switch. (A transfer switch for an RV lets the trailer switch from shore power to generator power automatically.) Based on advice from the Lagrange folks we did not replace the transfer switch last fall when we had the power converter and electrical monitoring systems replaced. They looked at the transfer switch and said it was good. It probably was, but I'll be more insistent next time!
The tech arrives and he's good - real good! I warned him when he arrived that he shouldn't take our descriptions at face value and he should check everything. And he did! He checked every circuit in the trailer and the power pedestal. We ran the generator and he checked that all out. He opens the transfer switch box, and we all could smell the burnt plastic, rubber, and wiring. He wires the trailer's shore power lines to the generator side of the transfer switch and unhooks the generator from powering the trailer. I turn off the breakers at the generator as a safety measure in case I accidentally start the thing - unlikely, but you know me! If it can accidentally be done, I'll probably do it.
Power the trailer back up and ensure the electrical monitoring system is seeing the power. It is and we let it settle down for a few minutes. We then load the trailer back with both ACs on. Seems fine. We then turn on the dryer and the tech rechecks that circuit. All's fine & no smoke or burnt wiring - rubber smell. The tech checks all the power, again. For now we're now back on shore power. It's as strong as it was on Wednesday when we arrived. A new transfer switch is on its way. We're thinking it'll be installed during the latter part of the week.
I kinda warned you at the beginning. It's a long blog post this week. This morning (Sunday) I've run the dryer just drying damp bath towels for 40 minutes with no issues. Donna's already wore herself out riding her bicycle this morning. All's fine - including us. As for our volunteer positions, it seems our job this year is roaming the Rainy Lake Visitor Center area for the weekends plus one other visitor center (probably Kab) during the week. We'll know more after quarantine. Quarantine ends June 3rd. I'm hoping weather's great Thursday morning (June 4th),and we can eat breakfast outside Coffee Landing Cafe.
Thanks for dropping by. I hope you enjoyed this week's adventure! David
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