Saturday, August 1, 2020 – Exhausting Travel Day to Tippecanoe

Hi Babe,
What an exhausting day. I got up just after 7:30, started packing away everything, though I had trouble with pulling the slide in, as I was sloping too much to the right. I broke the hook I had put up, so I’ll have to fix that. Meanwhile, I had decided that I needed to adjust the brakes on the trailer, so I went on to do that. It took a little longer than I hoped, and I wasn’t sure I was doing it right, it just seemed like I couldn’t turn the star wheel the way it was suppose to go. But I did manage to bring the slide in without help by doing it when the Jiffy Jack was on the left side, that put enough weight behind it that it came in with just a little help from a rope around the cupboard above the chairs. Anyway, I finally headed out, right on schedule at 10:00, and had a relatively uneventful ride. I managed to dodge all but a few raindrops, truly missing everything that was out there. But once I got off the freeway and had to go through small towns, I knew there was something not right about the brakes, it was almost like I didn’t have any on the trailer at all. I drove extra careful, and arrived safe and sound just before 2:00, glad to find the site I had reserved for tomorrow available today, and got backed in without any trouble. It’s a nice campground, but there’s less than a dozen other campers here, and I’m sure it will be mostly empty by the end of tomorrow. I set up a nice area with the electric fence (even though, once again, they had hitching posts on site) and got the horses squared away, filled up with water and so on. Well, I was already tired from the workshop, and from all the energy getting ready today, but I was kind of in autopilot, so I decided to adjust the brakes again before I disconnected from the truck. I made a quick inquiry on the internet and found that I had, indeed, gone the wrong way with the brake adjustment (pushing UP the wheel tightens the brakes up), so I redid them all. That seemed to work better, but I won’t know for sure until I leave here. I got the outdoor rug out under the awning, then pulled out the solar panel, since there’s no electricity here. It’s cloudy, so I wasn’t expecting much, but I wanted to get it out to be ready for tomorrow. Well, then the fun began. I couldn’t get my key to turn the lock on the battery/propane compartment. After several other unsuccessful attempts, I finally had to unscrew the frame of the entire compartment in order to get to the lock inside and open it. Not sure how I’m going to make a permanent fix, especially since the lock is held in by the silly 8-pointed star screws for which there is no wrench, and I couldn’t find a four-sided square that fit. At least I was able to get the door open, since there is a manual lock on the inside. Then I decided to do a long awaited job, and connect the proper fixture for the solar panel to the batteries. You remember there was the alligator clips which I’ve been using, but there was also another on for attaching directly to the terminals on the battery, so I decided, since I was autopilot anyway, to just get that done. Fortunately that worked okay, except there was still no connection when I finished, and when I looked, I found a loose connection on the wires directly to the terminal on the solar panel, with a flathead screw deep inside a narrow space, and, of course, I didn’t have a screwdriver the right size to fit inside it. I finally ended up using the bottle opener end of a small folding tool that was in my driver door in the truck. Geesh, when it rains, it pours! Every job seemed to lead to three other jobs. I finally stopped, put all the tools away, and called it quits, but by then it was nearly 6:00. No wonder I’m exhausted! Watched a few Voyagers and had a bowl of soup followed by ice cream, but now I’m MORE than ready for a shower and bed. Thankfully, it’s pretty cool out, albeit damp and rainy, but at least it should be good sleeping weather. I’ll take pictures tomorrow, I’m too tired to do anything else today. I’m definitely crashing tomorrow! Love you, sweetie! Good night!