Tuesday, 25 June- Visiting with the Biggers

We got up this morning and said our goodbyes to the Kinleys.  Traci and the kids stayed at their house for a bit while I ran into town to fill up and pick up a few things.  It was great to let the kids play a bit longer before we got on the road.  We eventually headed to Eaton, CO to visit our friends the Biggers. 

Oh, I should mention that I had some trouble with my power cord in Grand Lake, Estes Park… and in Eaton- I couldn’t get it to work at all.  I looked at it and figured that at 6 years old, it might need replaced.  I tested it with my multimeter and was getting juice through it, but I couldn’t get it to power the AC circuits in the camper- major problem.  Anyways, on the way up to the Biggers, we stopped at a Camping World and picked up a few odds and ends.  I needed to replace a broken drawer slide bracket in the bathroom- quick work.  I also picked up one of those flat rolling hoses, and some new power adapters- hoping that would fix my power issue when connecting to 15A extension cords.  When I got to the Biggers’ house, I realized that the adapters were not the problem.  I had a problem in the cord.  I drove all the way back to the Camping World to get a new cord.  I called them at first to be sure they had one, but of course- when I got there, they didn’t have it.  It was a “Computer” problem with their web-based inventory.  I was very frustrated.  I inquired about buying a 25’ 50Amp power cord and then cutting off the female end to put a new adapter on.  The sales people seemed pleased with the idea of me still buying more stuff, but none of them had ever personally done that procedure.  All of their technicians were gone for the day too, so I was not feeling much confidence from their staff that I was making the right choice.  So, the following morning, Jacob, Rhoda, and I made the drive back to Longmont to pick up the right power cord.  It was a pain, but I’m glad I’ve got it.  I sat down on Tuesday night and re-wired the original plug and got it to work.  The plug that attaches to the camper had somehow worked it’s way loose.  The cord was in bad shape.  So—now we have two cords- Until I can recycle the original one- and hopefully sell the plug on ebay.  They were selling them for $75 at Camping World… and another $25 for the waterproof sleeve, so hopefully I can get a few bucks for it… and some money for the 20+ pounds of copper in that cord.  – OK, enough technical stuff.

After my fruitless Tuesday night trip, I got back in time to grab some dinner and go play baseball with the boys.  It was great to get to visit with their family.  We really had a nice time together.  We decided to spend the night in their house- under a roof for the first time in more than a month…