Tuesday, August 16th - Busy Day, Lengthy Post

 It was another beautiful day in the UP. Overnight low 57, todays high a mostly sunny, breezy 78. Sitting in the shade the breeze made you want more clothing than shorts and a tee shirt.

Todays excitement started mid morning. Kathy told me that the toilet wouldn't flush. The toilet is flushed with electronics. You push down a handle, similar to a normal toilet, but a motor opens the bottom of the toilet, and opens a valve to inject water around the top of the toilet. I flipped on the light switch in the toilet area and no lights. I started investigating and found that the refrigerator had switched to gas, none of the lights worked, the heating & AC thermostat control was inactive, etc. I started looking at fuses and breakers and couldn't find anything that looked bad. 

We are plugged in to a 30 amp outlet so instead of having a 50 amp feed on two circuits we have a 30 amp feed that get split between the two coach circuits. I checked the campground breaker and all seemed to be in order. I unplugged us and fired up  the generator, the problem remained. I plugged us back in to shore power and dug out  the wiring diagrams for the coach. Its an 8.5x11.5 book that is over an inch think. As I started paging through the diagrams I remembered that there is a 12v cut off switch in the one of the panels of switches. The cutoff switch is next to the switches for the door awning and the main awning. Kathy thinks that when she put out the awnings she must have inadvertently hit the 12v cut off switch. Flipped the switch and problem resolved.

Buttons/rocker switches for the driver to play with.

Buttons/rocker switches for the passenger to play with. The 12v cut off it on the right in the top row.

Then the daily riverfront show started. It was very good today. I was mid coach working on another issue, more on that later, when Kathy  called out, "There's a pirate ship coming down the river." After a little research we learned that some "tall ships" have been touring Lake Superior ports.

First came the Pride of Baltimore II, a 100' long replica of a Baltimore Clipper.

About an hour later the NAO Santa Maria came down from the locks. The 93' long ship is not really a replica of Columbus's flagship, because no plans exist showing the dimensions of the original. She is a "best guess" by some of what the Santa Maria may have looked like.

After another hour or so the 123' U.S. Brig Niagara came down from the locks. She is a replica of the relief flagship used during the Battle of Lake Eire, during the War of 1812.

She is dwarfed by the 826' Lee A. Tregurtha. The Lee A. Tregurtha was  only 501' when launched in 1942. She was named the USS Chiwawa by the Navy and could carry 134,000 barrels of liquid petroleum products in her 40 tanks, a 10,278 ton cargo capacity. She has underwent numerous refits over the years, including lengthening. Her current cargo capacity is 29,360 tons of taconite pellets.

I'm guessing this U.S. Army Corps of Engineers crane was going up to the locks work on something.

In between ship watching episodes I worked on our pull out pantry. Kathy had noticed some items behind it and I took it out so that we could remove them. I think the expiration date on a package of Jell-O was 2010. In was a bear getting it out of its hole. I had to dismantle part of the cabinet to get it out.

Below is the hole it fits in. I had to remove a piece at the top of the opening to get the unit out of the hole.

It comes out into the hallway. The refrigerator door has to be open as well as the cabinet door below the refrigerator.

Its back in the hole. I'm letting the glue dry overnight before reattaching the clip that prevents the unit from coming out while driving.

Our campground neighbors from Virginia left yesterday. Today a couple from the Dallas/Ft. Worth area pulled in. I have enjoyed visiting with them and look forward to more of the same tomorrow.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours.