Flagstaff

Sunday, June 03, 2012

Today was half fun and half work!  It was wonderful sleeping in 65 degree temperatures!  After breakfast Jane did laundry but they have good washers and dryers so it was not a bad job. About 10:30 we left for the Museum of Northern Arizona. When we disconnected the power from the campground and plugged the power (primarily for the refrigerator) to Sprinter power and nothing happened…..not a good thing.  Ben tried a couple things and then we went on to the museum knowing that after lunch we would have to try to correct the situation. Just lucky we were in a good sized city and it was not terrifically hot. 

Our Campsite at KOA Flagstaff

 The Museum of Northern Arizona is indeed as special as we had been told it was. Ben has been reading a book – History of the Ancient Indian Southwest by Steven Leckson and we visited the museum primarily on his recommendation.  The story of the Colorado Plateau and the 4 primary Indian Tribes of the Plateau are depicted in both a scientific and artistic way. We enjoyed the geology, history, and of course the baskets, jewelry, and pottery. They also had both a wonderful bookstore and gallery.  I could easily have spent $1,000 but I did not!

We returned to camp and Ben investigated the electricity issue.  His analysis of the situation was the inverter for the two batteries that provide the on-board power had failed. So we started our search for an auto parts store. Finally found an Auto Zone not too far from us and they were open and had all the parts needed.

Returning to camp Ben got to work to install the new inverter.  Yah! Everything works!. He gets a STAR!! 

Now installation may sound simple but the process involved unloading about half our gear from the van because the batteries and inverter are under the side of the bed we usually leave down all the time….oh it was a good excuse to clean everything up again.   Jane spent most of the time Ben was working on the inverter, reviewing the photos from yesterday and getting the blog posted.

Today has no excitement but we sure were glad this happened when we could make the needed repairs as easily as possible.  Analysis is the inverter that has served us well for 6 years of travel – could not handle the load being placed on it due to the extreme heat and stress of keeping the refrigerator cold.  Further analysis is not possible until we get home – but for now we are up and running and back on the road tomorrow seeing for real the things we read about in the museum today.. 

Full Moon and our Campground