Back home, but I'm sad today...

[gumpy]

Well, we're home. 3 weeks out west on the annual trip. This one was a bit different as my in-laws were hosting a family reunion in Pueblo, and we went out early to help get that ready.

It was pretty uneventful. The bus ran well on the way out. We stayed in a great city park in Hebron, NE, with 30 amp electric and water/dump available for $5. Great place. We found it through the book, "Don Wright's Guide to Free Campgrounds (Western Edititon)". I highly recommend it.

As usual, I worked my butt off at the in-laws. We put in some irrigation line and electric for his garden and trailers. One of his trailers had a short in the brakes, and we ended up pretty much going through everything from wiring to magnets, and finally the problem seemed to go away. I'm attributing it to an improperly terminated wire in the harness, though I couldn't actually conclusively determine that was it. Hopefully it won't come back.

We also installed a new Xantrex 2500 watt marine inverter in his homebuilt RV trailer, replacing the two 1000 watt inverters and multiple plug switching circus that he had. It worked out well, once I read the manual :-)  We did need to upgrade the fuses in the battery feed, and modify some of his wiring. We also had a problem tripping the GFCI, so we opened the unit and added a switch on the ground bond wire, and fixed the problem (see Sean's posts regarding the SW4024 issues). Now he has a toggle switch which will break the neutral / ground bond manually prior to plugging into a GFCI
that trips. The transfer switch inside the unit also performs neutral/ground bonding and works well.
It worked well for the camping trip after the reunion and makes it much easier to use shore power compared to what he had.

The camping trip was good. Brian Brown and his family came up to Wyoming, as did Allan Pieren and his family, another busnut from Pueblo. They both have Buffalos, so had a lot to talk about. The fishing was not the best at the lake but everyone seemed to enjoy the day.

The trip home was uneventful, too, for the most part. We were looking for another inexpensive park with electric so we could run the A/C. We found one listed in Thedford, NE, which looked promising. Said there were 20 RV sites in the city park with electric and water, but no dump. Unfortunately, it doesn't exist! There's a ball field, but no camping sites. The locals said there were none, and that someone else had asked just the other day. They did say, however, that the local motel had some sites behind the cafe, so we checked that out. They wanted $13 but had 30 amp service. Since it was already 9:30 pm, we decided to stay there. We set up, had a bit of supper, and settled in for a movie. About 12:00, my son looked out the window and said, "Cool". I looked out and saw the 3 headlights of a freight train coming down the tracks across the road. It was neat looking, and then it hit the crossing and blew the horn! I thought to myself, this might not be good. There could be a train every half hour or so, but since we'd been there for about 2 hours and this was the first train we saw, I wasn't too concerned. Well, about 3:00 am, they must have released them, because from then till 9:00 am, trains came in both directions about every 5 to 10 minutes!  And every one of them blew their horn at the crossing. There were trains going in both directions, passing each other right in front of us. I've never hears so damn many train horns in my life. It sounded like New York City taxi cabs on steroids! It was a night in HELL! I don't know how the people in that little town keep from commiting suicide. I seriously considered sabataging the rails to cause a derailment because I figured the sound of sirens would be more pleasant than the sound of train horns!

So the rest of the trip was pretty tiring.

All in all, it was a good trip. The downside, however, is that Truffles, my beautiful bus kitty whom you have seen inspecting my work in my bus project photos, was run over and killed while we were gone. She had adopted us a few years ago, and had claimed the bus for her own. She spent many hours helping and talking to me while I worked. She'd come to the door and ask to be let into the bus when I was in there or she'd crawl through the tunnel from the middle bay if it was open. It's just not going to be the same walking out the door and not hearing her greet me from the lillies or rhubarb, or having my kitty follow me around the yard or garden.

So I'm sad today, and we have to bury her. I'm going to put her in the flower bed where she loved to sleep in the summer. I already miss her.

craig

[FloridaCliff]

Craig,

Sorry to hear about Truffles, it always hard to lose a pet who has become our companion.

Glad your gang is all home safe in your quiet (no trains) neighborhood.

Craig wrote: As usual, I worked my butt off at the in-laws.

Man, I am glad I'm not the only one.   

Cliff

[jjrbus]

Sorry to hear about Truffles. The more time I spend with animals the less I like people.
People that live by RR tracks do not notice the horns!
If you are driving towards a RR crossing and decide to race the train. Remember we win all ties

[gumpy]

Craig wrote: As usual, I worked my butt off at the in-laws.

Man, I am glad I'm not the only one.   

Cliff

Oh, I forgot to add, that on the way up to camping, we stopped at my Mother's place for the night. She had some questionable electrical setup on the power pole which my Dad had hastily put in about 20 years ago before he died. It worked so nobody ever fixed it. There was an outlet on the pole we had plugged into whenever we stopped there. It was shared by the well pump, and used barrel fuses. The disconnect shut off the well pump, too. The well house used screw in fuses and the pump was wired improperly due to various circumstances. It all worked... sort of.

When I unplugged in the morning, sparks flew from all the joints connecting the two boxes. The bare ground wire in a line used to power a lawn pump was energized, presumably because the plug on the end of the cord had become wet and shorted, which completely melted the cord end. Needless to say, we spent the day installing new breaker boxes and rewiring everything on the pole and running a new line to the well house with proper direct burial cable. I took the opportunity to install 50 and 30 amp RV outlets along with a 20 amp outlet on the pole. Should have ample power next year, and no risk.

My wife thinks it was divine intervention that the sparks flew at that moment because her Dad was there with us, and he's an electrician.  I think it might have just been my Dad having a bit of fun with me  

[Ncbob]

So sorry to hear about 'Truffles" Craig. I'm sure most of us can share your feelings over the loss of a friend and companion.

We sure hope that the unfortunate collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis didn't claim anyone you knew.  I'm sure there was concern for you in the initial report as come of us didn't know you were off on your trip.

NCbob

[white-eagle]

gumpy, sorry to hear about your furry companion.  pets are hard to lose as we lost an old timer last year, so i know the pain.

so what's it cost to get you to Ohio??  See all my previous topics and posts.  i am so confused about electricity and what i have on here.  and i hate to mess because it mostly works.

just joking, but it would be good to see you.  too bad it won't be till december or thereabouts.

glad your back home safely and the bus and kids ran well.   

[Dallas]

Craig,

I'm glad you guys had such a good trip, even if you did get put to work.
Everytime we go to my inlaws I get put to work fixing the computer which continues to work correctly until about 2 hours after we leave, then it sits until we see them again a year later.

I also want to add my condolences on the loss of Truffles. a great bus buddy like that is almost irreplaceable.
We lost out Turtle Kitty a couple of years ago due to renal failure.
We buried her on my feather pillow which she loved to curl up on for a nap.
It still hurts when I think of her, but we've been blessed with 3 other babies that need us as much as we need them.
They don't and can't replace Turtle Kitty, but they bring back the need to be needed and comfort us in their own ways.

Truffle Kitty knows how much you loved her, and you know how much she loved you. Keep that in your heart, hold it tightly to you, then let it go. I promise it will come back to you a million times stronger than it started.

Dallas

[Buffalo SpaceShip]

Hey Craig:

Glad you made it home safely (and weren't on that bridge). We sure had fun with you all for the weekend we were up there with you all... and everyone treated us like we're just part of the family, and that was so nice. As always, I'll get some pics up on the blog soon enough. We found a magic trout spot up in the Snowy Range on our way back over the divide that I'll have to share with you (shhhh). Logan caught eight brookies in about as many minutes. It was just unreal. We're going back up in three weeks to camp up there and try our luck again in that creek and in some of the lakes around the summit. You sure got us hooked on trout fishing! (pardon the pun)

So sorry to hear about Truffles. That's just awful. Maybe it'd help at some point to dig out all those pics and make a nice tribute to her on your site. Hang in there!

Brian