where NOT to stick your finger!

Wednesday morning we got a later start then normal (for us anyway) from D'Hanis and hit the road shortly after 10 am. We made our way through San Antonio and then north through Austin. We turned off the super slab at Waco and took State Road 31 which is mostly 4 lane and angles northeast allowing us to bypass Dallas. We passed near Fort Hood around 2:30 in the afternoon and at 4:30 learned of yet another mass shooting there. What the heck is wrong with some people anyway? Our thoughts turn to the injured and to the families of those lost is this terrible event that is becoming all to common place. :-(
We turned north on State Road 19 and stopped near Canton, Texas at yet another Passport America Park. This one was a little bit of a disappointment though. The sites were laid out in a very haphazard way and were not very level. They had tried to preserve as much shade as possible but in doing so you are required to maneuver around trees that are right next to the roadway that winds through the small park. The owners and work camper that we met were very nice and we did get a full hook up site (although we really only needed power) but the $20 we paid seemed a little high for this park and that was the 50% discounted price. Oh well, it was quiet and we were able to get the satellite to lock on despite the trees. :-)

Today we were up early because we wanted to get some miles under our belts. We left the park at 7:30 am and continued North on 19 until it connected with I-30. We passed through Texarkana, entered Arkansas and soon found ourselves skirting around Little Rock. We headed east on I-40 and just before reaching Memphis we turned North once again on I-57. We stopped for the night in Caruthersville, Missouri at the Lady Luck Casino. They have a nice campground adjacent to the casino that overlooks the Mississippi River. We got parked in one of the pull through spaces and I hooked up all the utilities. I then took the panel off our basement a/c unit. The unit has not been cooling at all, the fan works but will only cool it down a couple of degrees less then the outside temperature. I had read that one very common problem is the start capacitors going out as well as the run capacitors. There are 5 capacitors behind the access panel along with a ton of wires. The cost to work on these basement units is astronomical and most RV places will not touch them and once the "regular" a/c repairmen hear they are in an RV they wont even come out to look at them. The capacitors are not real expensive so I thought I would try replacing those and if that didn't work I would buy a roof mounted unit and just forget the basement unit. I knew that the capacitors "held" electricity and would discharge said electricity even after the power was disconnected. Sort of like a "zap" just looking for a place to land. My mission today was to write down the numbers of the size and voltage of the capacitors so I could order the correct replacements. I was very careful not to touch any of the exposed ends or connections when moving these things around. I just wasn't careful enough though and with a loud "PZZZZZZTTTT" I found myself flat on my back looking up at our neighbor who was yelling "Are You Alright!" He, as well as Rudee, heard the "zap" and came running outside. Luckily the only injury I have is a few decent burns on my finger, reminds me of the time I had a couple of warts removed. Here is a photo, look away if your squeamish..... oops too late. :-)

I'm sure I'll hear from a lot of you on everything I did wrong and that's fine, I'll be the first to admit I was over my skill level messing with anything above 12 Volts but Holy Cow! I just wanted to write down some numbers on the side of a couple of small tin can looking things. Ouch! Here is what a capacitor looks like.

I still plan on ordering what I need but, since my daughters neighbor is an electrician, I'll let him to the dirty work! I'll keep you posted.