Missed A Day But A Little Excitement

Monday was a busy Day! Bill and Dee have ATV's so Bill asked me if I wanted to go for a run in the desert with him, using Dee's ATV. Well, I have never driven one but what is the worst that could happen? After a one minute driving lesson from Bill and a five minute lecture from Norma to be careful and not go fast, off we went. Bill headed for a series of trails with me following and we explored for an hour or two, driving for a bit and walking for a bit. It was a ton of fun! I have to get one of these!

We eventually found our way back to the RV's and opened a beer. Norma and Dee went off to our rig to cut up some Pacific Sockeye Salmon and Halibut for dinner while Bill and I solved most of the world's problems and decided who we were going to make the next US President, all over another beer (maybe two).

Suddenly we heard a commotion like fireworks and looked over to our rig only to see the park's electrical pedestal that I was plugged into explode in a cloud of black smoke, sparks and flames! I jumped up and went running towards it, yelling to Norma that there was a fire. My intention was to flip the breaker but about half way there I realized the foolhardiness of this move. Sticking my hand into an electrical fire and grabbing metal was not the sort of thing my mother taught me to do.

Bill came running up behind me with a wooden walking stick, flipped the door of the pedestal open and pried what was left of my 30 Amp connector out. I then started to think about moving the motorhome away from the hazard but the fire had burned out.

I had a 30 Amp extension cord which I cut the end off and spliced it to the end of the RV power cable for a temporary repair. Bill had another extension cable that we used to reach an unused pedestal behind us. I went in and watched everything while Bill flipped the breaker. The clock came back on in the microwave and everything worked! No damage! The computers, TV's and Starchoice are all plugged into the inverter and do not use the park power so they were never in any danger. Crisis averted, at at least minimized!

I don't know what went wrong. Dee remembers smelling a similar odor as the fire produced when the previous people were parked there but they never had a problem. I am thinking there was a loose connection from before that was arcing a bit and weakened the internal parts of the connector. When I plugged in the connection became worse, leading to sparking and burning.

The manager came over to inspect the damage and told me to buy whatever I needed to repair my damage and to send him the bill, he would reimburse me. Really all I need are a couple of 30 amp male connectors to replace the burned one and the one I had to cut off the extension to make a temporary repair. I may or may not send the bill to him, depending on the cost.

Us on the left, Bill and Dee on the right:

You lead Bill, I'll follow. This is the best photo you will see of Bill. See below:

Uneasy Rider:

 Dissident In The Desert (Check out the Free Leonard Peltier Shirt)

Smoke, Spark, Bang!

"Well, here's yer problem"!

I would have liked to include a shot of Bill but like my friend Kim from Boston, he does not like his photo posted. Darn! Bill is a great guy and almost like a 'Brother From A Different Mother' to me. After the first day we were finishing each other's sentences! It was almost uncanny. We share opinions on so many subjects, but primarily politics.

His wife Dee we knew very little about but what a lot of fun she is! We really enjoyed our time with this couple and it was over far too soon. We will be seeing them again.