"if you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room"

Sunday, August 31, 2014

change is in the wind

Fall weather seems to have arrived early here in the Black Hills. The night time temps have been consistently in the mid 40's to low 50's the last couple of weeks. We don't mind though as it makes for some nice sleeping weather. :-)

Last week we hooked up with Dan and Jonell (Liv2RV) and took a trip into Rapid City to visit the Chapel in the Hills which is an exact replica of a chapel in Norway built right here in the Black Hills.


Besides the Chapel they have a small museum and gift shop.
After visiting the chapel we grabbed lunch at the Firehouse Brewery downtown and then visited the local fair. We ended our day by using our VIP passes to get half price at the Fort Hays Chuckwagon Show where we enjoyed a "Cowboy" meal of beef, potato, beans and cake all served on tin plates followed by live music. We were sure bushed by the time we made it back home but we had such a fun time. Thanks guys!


Last winter, while working at Amazon, Rudee smelled something hot inside the motorhome saying it smelled like wires burning. I traced it to the water heater which we quickly turned off and the smell went away. We have since only used it on LP gas and it has been "on my list" to repair. I finally decided to tackle it a few days ago.


The electrical components of our water heater are on the back side of the unit and I was not looking forward to removing the whole heater to make the repair. There is a small access panel under the motor home and once I removed the panel I could see inside but had very little room to work. I did locate the problem, there is another switch that controls the electric heating element and it was burned and melted (cheap plastic switch!). There is really no need for this switch as there is another one inside the coach so I was able to bypass it by unplugging the wires to it and just splicing them together. I turned on the circuit (Whew, no smoke!) and tested all the connections. Yipee, it works! Now we can go back to heating the water with the campground electric instead of our expensive propane! :-)

We are starting to look towards the end of our contract here at Crazy Horse. We are set to work through September with our commitment fulfilled on September 30th. This summer sure has flown by! We are looking forward to visiting family and friends again before heading to Amazon in October. I'll keep you posted.

6 comments:

  1. Going to miss seeing you guys at amazon, but hopefully you'll hook up with George at some point.

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  2. Was the bad hot water piece a switch or a relay? Long wire runs for a high demand device like a hot water heater are not the best thing....

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    1. definitely a switch and a cheap-o one at that. This switch is installed by Atwood for use in RV's that do not have a separate switch inside to turn it on and off. Our Winnebago has a switch inside the coach but instead of them removing this switch, which is inaccessible with removing a screwed on access panel, they just leave it in the "on" position.

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  3. Yea, I agree the summer season has moved at a rapid pace. Judy informed me that we only have 20 more work days. Our last day is Sept. 28th. This has been a GREAT workamper job. Portland General Electric has been very good and the pay is well above average . If y'all decide to move westward to work next season I recommend checking them out. We work at a park east of the Cascades in the high desert so rain is not an issue. Drop me an email if you would like more info.

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  4. We'll be heading towards Campbellsville the end of the month as well. It'll be great to see everyone again. I agree the summer flew by :-).

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  5. Had a great day with the two of you!!! 😀😀😀 How is your nose healing after your water heater repair???

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