Monday, July 4, 2022
We had a rather sleepless and worrisome night in Moab. For the third night in a row, the winds roared, flapping the awnings. I got up and put the awnings up. Next door, Juan’s awning was really flapping. He and his brothers quickly put it up, but apparently there was some damage. He is a very nice guy from the northern Sinaloa Province of Mexico.
We also have been having trouble with the air conditioner tripping a hot circuit breaker. I got worried and opened the windows and turned on the fans. That would have been OK, but the winds were gusting so hard, I was afraid we might break a window or the plastic tops for the Fan-Tastic fans. That would seriously impair our trip, so I stewed all night, finally closing the fans and opening the front door. It did cool down by maybe 3:00 am. None of us got much sleep.
Two cups of coffee and something to eat and Karen, Martha and I headed to Grandstaff Hiking Trail to Morning Glory Bridge. Karen gave the kids the morning to sleep in. It is a beautiful hike along a small stream, crossing it 10 times. With beautiful views of the canyon, I kept looking for wildlife, but never saw anything. Surely they were there. Cresting a hill, we could see Morning Glory Bridge, the fifth largest natural bridge in the world.
It’s an impressive bridge of rock. I was surprised to see a man at the top of it. As we took pictures from beneath, we could see the man again. He dropped a rope. This is a big area for climbing and repelling, so I was interested to see this. There were at least two, as they talked to each other. Then one stood on the edge and inched his way over. He began to walk down the vertical wall. Once the wall cut away from him, it was a free drop, sliding his handles down a pretty thin rope. I thought maybe Bear Grylls might be the next one down, but we didn’t wait to see.
Walking back down was easier. We were back at 10:00 and the kids were just rousing. Karen had found a hike by a clear stream with good swimming areas, so she took them on that easy hike while Martha did a load of laundry, and I washed the dishes, straightened, shook out the rugs and vacuumed.
Terry and Polly passed by the campsite and gave us advice on the air conditioner. Terry said she cleans the filters every day from all the dust we get around here. She also said to unplug everything else. I found one of our filters to be pretty dirty, and washed both. I asked if they saw Mike, to send him our way.
I switched the refrigerator to gas and asked everyone to unplug their devices once charged. Mike, with Mobil RV Repair called. I told him what we had done. He thought it might be dirty power, an improper ground.
20 minutes later he pulled up to our site. Checking both posts, they tested clean. I need one of those devices! Next, he went to the fuse box, which was very hot. There was not enough power arriving at the breakers. He moved on to the inverter, which was also hot; then to the converter, which wan’t getting any power.
He asked if my solar power was on. It was, so I turned it off. He thought that was the problem. I thought the system knew to switch between systems, but apparently not. He said to switch the refrigerator back to electric, which I did. After a few minutes, things started to cool down. He thought the two systems were fighting each other, and all should be well now. I certainly hope so, and I have learned something else that seems obvious, but I certainly thought the two systems would know to switch. Anyway, it’s easy to turn off the solar. I really don’t like plugging into power for all the things that can happen, but In July in Moab, you need air conditioning.
Josh had found a friend to play with – Trevor, a nice young boy. First they threw the football around, then went to play pickle ball. By evening, the gregarious Trevor had gathered eight boys to play tag.