The Greyest Of Grey Days

HOME FOR A WEEK

Waking up on this day I found the outside world in a state of 500 shades of grey. So with a 100% of humidity we won't be moving around outside. 

So time for reflection.

Clearly, we have been busy getting ourselves reinstalled in the house. And that didn't just happen without hick-ups.

Like in years earlier, we found that we had way too much stuff in the motorhome. Our clothes, our kitchen utensils and our gadgets had to find their original places in the house.

The most overshadowing problem has been the water supply. We had days with absolutely no water from our well, and then suddenly water was running for 2 days, just to fail again. On and off it went, never to be reliable. We still hope that milder weather will help to restore a normal water supply.

Then one afternoon our power went out. There wasn't any storm going on, so we wondered about the reason. Shortly before dark, the power came back on. Later we heard that someone had hit a power pole in an accident.

Personally, I still had to deal with my headaches. After a doctor's visit I got a referral for a CT-scan, which will be done tomorrow, Friday. I hope that Friday 13 doesn't imply anything sinister happening.

The past 2 days have been warm and sunny. In fact, day temps climbed up to 10C (50F) and the warming sun even made it possible to sit down outside coffee in hand.

Snow was finally starting to melt and I was able to fix an electrical issue on our motorhome. Before we left in October, I had removed our Magnum Inverter/Charger as I couldn't get it to work. A 3000W Renogy inverter from our trailer was installed instead, which got us through the winter. Now, I tested our Magnum and to my surprise found that it actually was working. So the Magnum was reinstalled in the motorhome and it is working just fine. 

A successful job like this and it makes me feel good.

The coming days will be significantly colder with temps below freezing again. Thankfully, we have lots of firewood so we will stay warm. Our central heating which is run by an electric forced-air furnace has been disconnected. Running that in cold temps is the same as registering for bankruptcy. If I'd be 30 years younger I'd install solar for the house and kiss the power company Good Bye. Besides of firewood, we use a couple of electric oil radiators which are much more efficient that the furnace in the basement.

So we should be fine riding out the last weeks of winter.

I have had days with contemplating whether we left California too early in a panic. But two facts have made these thoughts go away.

As you all have noticed gas prices are on a steep rise due to the illegal and completely unnecessary war the orange pedo-ape has started. And now Iran promised that they will not allow any oil to pass through the strait of Hormuz. But we still got home on much lower prices, and if we have to stay home next winter we will do so.

Number two has more natural reasons: Temperatures in Holtville, CA have risen into the 30s C and will peak at 41C for March 20. This would have been forbiddingly too much for us and directly deadly for Dixie.

So with that consolation in mind, I can live through a grey day and stay in front of my wood stove.

Best way to spend the day

The Homecoming

The trouble of returning home after months of absence can be that "normal" functions" in the house don't function any more. 

This time we discovered that our deep drilled well did not have enough water to provide us with running water. But I think you read about that already in my previous posting.

This is not a good situation. Nobody can live without water.

First day we got by with using our 2 5gal containers we had in the motorhome. But then we had to seek help from our neighbours. 

Then of course, our house was really cold. We connected 3 oil-based radiators and got a roaring fire in the wood-burning stove.

Our property here has been "blessed" with lots of snow. This white stuff is in the way when trying to get into the garage, or the wood shed. And some of it is frozen to a heavy ice barrier. Yesterday we had sunshine and no wind, but today olde sun didn't show itself and we got subzero freezing conditions.

A fellow islander came by with his truck and plow. He pushed a lot of snow out of the way. This makes room for parking our trailer and being able to drive close to our wellhead. Our plumber had suggested to fill water into the well. With our 50gal water tank that could help.

This morning I had my medical appointment. I will have to go for a CAT-SCAN the coming week. 

I was still tired after that long haul homewards. Notice that I am not young any more.

Home Free!

Yes, we made it home - yesterday. But we got way too busy to do a posting.

Yesterday, started with -11C (12F) and that caused a whole lot of problems. Overnight there hadn't been enough battery capacity to run that little fan, so the water was frozen again. But worse things were underway.

Under a routine walk-around I discovered that passenger side tire was down quite a bit. So I unpacked our air hose and connected into the compressor outlet. After starting the engine I noticed air gushing out from that connector.

Removing the air hose didn't make a difference. The connector didn't close. I tried  multiple times but it didn't work. Then, finally after using Bea's hair dryer on it, it did close. But I didn't dare to try the air hose again.

So we left with a low pressure tire. Bea went onto the internet and found a tire service in Portsmouth, NH. We pulled into their yard and found two helpful guys inside the building.

When one of them started looking at the valve stem of the inner tire he discovered a damaged valve stem. A minute later he had gotten a new flexible stem from the shop and put himself under the motorhome to replace the old one. 

At the tire service

It takes a service minded person to do this outside in freezing temperatures. He finished his work by controlling both sides of rear tires and even our trailer.

When it was time to pay, the manager didn't want any money, instead he hinted to pay the worker directly, which I did. What a good man and a good outfit!

\We went back to the Interstate and continued for our last miles northward. We had lost about 2 hours that morning but made it to Bangor,ME before noon. 

3hrs later, we reached Canada Customs, where our bus and car was searched by two agents!  This is quite crazy, given the fact that we are locals here and would never even think of smuggling anything through the border. But I get it. There was no traffic and the agents must have been pretty bored.

We unloaded the car in the Roosevelt Parking Lot then continued home. 

Restarting the house was a problem right away. Our well pump did not produce any water, despite the power being turned on. So either our well is empty, or it is frozen. The latter being the most probable cause.

Our good neighbour Deanna had invited us for dinner so we warmed ourselves under a delicious meal. 

                                

Was This The Most Unpleasant Day?

Waking up this morning it was really cold in the rig, so I was quick turning the heater on full. I think we left Freehold NJ around 7:30am. 

Despite adding antifreeze to our rest of fresh water, the water froze. Our rig has a small electric heater in the wet compartment and we turned on the "system heat" button. Our solar panels should produce enough power to keep it running while driving.

And as we got rolling we joined the insane morning rush hour. Everybody was in a hurry to get to work. I have seen a lot of ruthless crazy driving in my days, but this morning took the cake. Not only were there a million of small cars but also an army of transit buses.

The goal was to get onto the "Garden State Parkway" for a short distance, than transfer to the I-287 with our aim being Newburgh,NY. The 287 becomes the I-87, one part of it veers to the north-east through New Jersey and which we cannot take because of dangerously low bridges. Instead we continued in heavy traffic towards Newburgh. 

Hudson River

While the I-87 continues towards Albany, we left onto the I-84 which leads down to Connecticut and towards the I-90 meeting the I-495 through Massachusetts. 

And finally we got down to the end of I-495 where entering the I-95 gave us that special feeling of almost being home. Besides of the horrible traffic volume around New York, through Hartford,CT and near the Boston area, our other big problem today was the ice-cold weather. Temps got down to -8C (17.6F) which means it gets really, really cold in the motorhome. Those Class A rigs with a rear engine have not enough dash heat to warm up the interior, something we have noticed years ago with our first Class A diesel. So we donned Polar-style clothing and yet it got cold. RVs are NOT made for winter use, regardless of what sales people will tell you.

And I need to mention the frightful state of the Interstates in Massachusetts. Despite the state cashing in on $$$$ in tolls, the roads have giant potholes and terrible bridge crossings. A true nightmare for drivers.

Below: Hartford,CT through our windshield

Once we got across into New Hampshire we turned into the parking lot of the NH Liquor Outlet. A great place to spend a peaceful night. It was also there that we discovered our water was running again. That little fan is a good thing to have.

So after many days starting from Holtville,CA this day feels like something we could have been without. Now, another cold day lies ahead for us and once being home....oh boy we have to restart the house again. But that's for tomorrow.

The NH Liquor outlet

Big Parking lot for ourselves