Thursday, June 18, 2009

A Beautiful Day to Travel, But.....

Today was a most beautiful day to travel. The sun was bright and the sky so blue. The temperature was comfortable for us Florida Folks, mid 80s. Then there was the scenery!!!! There is a lot of beautiful country in Northern Maine and Eastern Quebec. We actually had to enter through Edmundston, New Brunswick and the girl at Canada Customs was a dear. No hard questions about what we were bringing across the border. When she asked if we were bringing anything that we wouldn't bring back, I replied "only money". She chuckled and said that's the way it's supposed to be.

When we got to the campground in Saint-Antonin, Quebec, I noticed antifreeze on the hood of the Jeep. The radiator expansion tank is deteriorating and was starting to leak. I was contemplating my options and decided to try a repair. My Garmin GPS got me to the nearest Canadian Tire where I picked up fiberglass cloth, epoxy, and a few sundry items to attempt the repair. The repair went very well and I hope it will do the trick.

Unable to get a cell phone signal at the campground, we headed for the big city, big by local standards. We were able to get a signal, but could use the phone only to make emergency calls. This is the default setting for phones in the U. S., so I was not pleased. Before I changed carriers, I asked if the phone would work in Canada and I was ASSURED that it would, but the calls would cost twice as much. That was OK with me, as long as we had a phone. Now I'm not sure what to do. I'm thinking of getting a "throw away phone" with a little air time to get us through the vacation.

OK, so we've been for a ride and we return to the motorhome. Great! Except that there is no AC electricity and the batteries have run so low the refer is getting ready to shut down. The refer automatically goes to propane with a loss of AC power, but it still need an ample voltage of DC to run the controls. Paul the mechanic is called to action again. Now I recall that this morning the batteries were abnormally low though we were plugged in all night. I didn't think too much about it at the time, but then it made sense. Something was wrong with the inverter.

I've been on this route before, and both times it was caused by me opening the inverter feed breaker by mistake. After trying other things I checked the breaker, though it's in a place where it couldn't be touched by accident. The breaker felt funny. Instead of the healthy snap as the breaker changed position, it felt like a spring had broken. I found a spare breaker and moved the inverter feed to that one and now we are OK. At least OK for now.

No pictures today, but we'll be along the coast tomorrow so we should have some.

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