Monday, January 14, 2013

I Need An Electrical Degree!!!

Ok ... you guys that drive these huge houses down the road HAVE to be pretty darn smart.  There!!  I said it!!!  Sorry ladies, but the longer I drive this behemoth, the more I find I should have paid attention in my high school electronics class!!

We're off to Yuma ... lovely country here if you like the desert ... and I do.  It seems so desolate and lonely out here.  Around every corner, I imagine myself on one of my horses, riding cross country to the next town.  How the heck did they know which way to go??  and where the water was??  I'm sure trails in those days were immediately covered by sand storms.  Course I would have been a bank robber trying to escape!!  Or maybe Annie Oakley heading to the next town for a shooting match!!  What a hardy people they were!!
Since we were heading by the Salton Sea, I asked to stop for pictures.  We followed a circular road around the housing development before hitting the road again.  I thought this was pretty much a ghost town, but we found lots of nice homes, nothing picture worthy except a passing shot at the motel sign.
Lunch time rolled around, and I swear, Dan could find a good hamburger joint with his eyes closed.  In El Centro, we stopped at Farmer Boys ... world's greatest!!  For a fast food joint, I have to say their food was pretty good.  Since the calories were shown on the menu, Patty and I tried to stay light with a chicken wrap.  Although the service wasn't that great ... we were through eating by the time Dan got his burger ... the food was pretty darn good!!
At last we arrived at Suni Sands RV Resort in Yuma.  Their definition and mine of "Resort" are two different things.  After navigating around the sharpest turns I've ever made, we pulled into our site and got hooked up.  Everything appeared to be going perfect.  I was looking forward to heating, microwaving and some TV.  After dinner at the Last Chance Ranch Mobile Chuckwagon, I walked into my coach to find everyone shivering.  I tried to turn the heater on, but it wouldn't work.  The lights worked, but not much else.  Back to the Chance house to get the electrical wizard, he explained all about WANTING 120 volts versus HAVING 106.  For the ladies, that means you can have lights OR microwave OR television OR heat ... but you can't have more than one at a time!!  This is where I should have paid attention in my high school electronics class.  The surge protector I had installed in Indio worked well by the way.  It shut off everything when the voltage got too low so nothing was damaged.
By 5:45 this morning, everyone else had turned their TV's off and I had a "little" more power to work with.  Really, I thought you just had to get used to driving this thing down the road.  I didn't realize I had to learn so much about electrical systems, fuel systems and engines (which I haven't gotten to yet).   As I sit here in the dark freezing (I have the dryer on) I'm becoming much more appreciative of electricity!!!  Bump bump ... uh oh, there went the surge protector.  Better go check that meter again!!!

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