Yesterday we traveled from Verona to Lancaster, New York, on the New York Thruway (and toll road) and dry camped at the Lancaster Elks club. The road was generally smooth and trees lined it all the way, broken by farmlands and urban outskirts. The temperature was in the high 80's during the day and in the 70's overnight, all with very high humidity. Sleep was difficult: with no air conditioning, the fans just couldn't keep moving the air through our place. We ate at the (air conditioned) Elks club last night. I had the fish fry dinner (a huge slab of beer-battered haddock), Patrice had a broiled seafood plate (clams, scallops, shrimp and fish fillet) and Jerry and Marge had the pork chop dinner--all very good.
Today we moved from Lancaster to Kenisee Lake RV Resort near Jefferson, Ohio, where we will stay over the Labor Day weekend. The same temperature and humidity stayed with us all day and tonight--but tonight we have 50-amp power and air conditioning in the rig. Life is good! We stayed at this same park over Memorial Day weekend in May this year on our way to the Maritimes.
After backing into our slot, hooking up the electricity and water, Patrice and I went to the Pilot Station out by I-90 to find a replacement trucker's 12-volt electric food cooler--our old one gave up the ghost after three years of heavy use. It's been useful to pack lunches in for our travelling days, and we can pack grocery items in it that need to be refrigerated. We found one in the truckers' equipment area, and also some other useful items--it's kind of fun to shop in the truckers' department.
Dinner was at a place that we had passed that had a sign "Bar and Grill." Didn't expect to find a very nice restaurant with a very classy menu. The restaurant's specialty was its steaks, so I had the New York strip (with gorgonzola and roasted peppers) and Patrice had the flat iron steak accented with a crab and gorgonzola sauce. Both plates had sauteed snap peas for the vegetable. This place was a really great find.
We stopped in Erie, Pennsylvania, today to have some work done on our rig. We met RV technicians George and Christine, a husband-wife team, at the Lowe's parking lot, having called and arranged this stop several days ago. They do mobile repairs to RVs and have a shop in Erie so it was convenient for them to meet at the Lowe's parking lot to get things fixed.
We had used them at the Kenisee Lake campground to make a few minor repairs in May on the way to the Maritimes. This time we had a few more things to fix. The check valve on the shore water intake had failed several weeks ago resulting in extremely low water pressure coming into the rig from shore-water supplies; it also caused water out-flow whenever we used the pump. Then about a week ago the osmosis water canister platform broke loose under the sink, and when it fell it cracked a PVC fitting resulting in a leak under the sink. Luckily Patrice discovered it before the tub under the leak had overflowed. [We use water filtered through a reverse osmosis system for drinking.] George and Christine installed a new shore-water check valve, reattached the osmosis panel, and installed a new PVC valve (found at Lowe's). They also fixed the osmosis water faucet that had been dripping. We really like the work these folks do and count them as friends--wish they were located in the Palm Springs area.
We still have an electrical problem that may be related to a faulty ground and/or old batteries. In Verona we had troubles getting the slides in and the landing legs up (motors just periodically stopped and hummed). Jerry and I pulled the battery slide trays out and the motors started working again, as if by magic. Later that night we lubricated the slide gears and found one loose battery connection. After tightening all batter connections the slide and landing leg motors seem to be operating okay. Last night two of our fantastic fans failed to work (the third one worked fine). After hooking the rig power cable to the truck they started working again and they are working tonight when hooked to 50-amp shore power. This situation is still a mystery. George and Christine could not find where the 12-volt system is grounded in the rig and mentioned that our batteries show signs of giving out. We will continue on our way and keep a eye peeled for a chance to replace the batteries whenever we can find some. Will have the grounding situation analyzed when we get back to California if not before.
Tonight we will go to sleep on cool clean sheets and plan for tomorrow when it comes.
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