Yikes! That is what I thought yesterday when we were driving back to LeuC at the end of our wonderful tour of Rocky Mountain National Park and the two mining towns of Central City and Black Hawk. We were driving north on I-25 and an electronic warning sign mounted over the freeway was flashing: “Warning, Major Snow Storm This Monday”. Holy Moly! This is not what we wanted. But weather is weather and it rules over this world and especially over us in our bus of a home.
Fortunately, we are plugged in and have three heat pumps, an electric fireplace that pumps out heat and a heated floor. I don’t think we will freeze. We will just have to hunker down and sit things out for a day or two until the predicted warm weather returns and melts the expected 3 to 5 inches of snow.
This morning, Mary Margaret and I talked and agreed that we would stay an extra day here in this lovely state park, letting the snow and expected icy roads to melt and dry up. Thus, we are now planning to leave for Trinidad Lake State Park near the Colorado/New Mexico border on Wednesday, instead of Tuesday.
Late this morning our friend Dave and his friend Royce came over. They are both electronics experts and had offered to set up our new DirecTV receiver/DVR. I had bought this receiver to complement our existing receiver so we could have two of our TVs run by one receiver and the other two TVs run by the other. This would let each of us to watch different shows if that situation ever occurred.
They soon had the receiver hooked up and the DirecTV tech support guy on the phone had our receiver authorized. There is still a slight glitch as it is only getting non-HD channels but I will try to solve that issue tomorrow. We will see…
We then hopped into our little Fiat and followed Dave and Royce over to Dave and Shalene’s house in Brighton. There we enjoyed getting together. Mary Margaret and Shalene went over to an Italian take out to get dinner while Dave and Royce used Dave’s SSB radio to call and talk with an old college chum who lives up in Fairbanks, Alaska. Pretty cool!
By now, Shalene and Dave’s two daughters and their respective 3 kids came over to join us for dinner. It was great meeting the 6 kids and the two daughters. Since it was getting late and the fore runner to the snow storm was approaching, Mary Margaret and I said our rushed goodbyes and drove back to LeuC. Rain and high winds are predicted for tonight as the temperatures start to drop. We obviously arrived at LeuC just fine but the rain was just starting to pour when we arrived and the winds were howling. It was time for bed and to snuggle down under the blankets for a good night sleep as Winter Storm Aiden blankets our area.
PS: We received this email from our son-in-law’s parents, Peggy and Jim. Their analysis of why LeuC’s electronic lock failed makes a lot of sense to us!
“You probably do not have a grounding strap on LeuC. This is a rubber strap that just hangs from your chassis touching the ground. It’s like most vehicles, no need or never used. However, I find that LeuC has so many electrical systems on board that a common ground strap may be needed to eliminate any stray electrical charges that keep some systems energized however small.
Okay, the theory. Peggy has been reading something called earthing. Since we are more isolated from the Earth by non-conductive materials such as rubber and plastic (our shoes), wood, plastic, laminate, and asphalt (flooring surfaces), this method allows our bodies to lessen our internal electromagnetic signature. We make direct contact with the surface of the Earth our bodies receive a charge of energy that makes us feel better, fast.
This, she thinks, may have had an impact on your electric lock. The stray current always present in the RV prevented you from opening the door since you may have had your Crocs on to exit the vehicle and now you were “isolated” from the “ground”. Even touching the metal frame of the door did not help since you could not complete the “ground”. In fact, Mary Margaret probably had Crocs on too and they also prevented “grounding”. The individual helping you, we believe, probably had leather shoes on…a natural material that allows “grounding”. He was able to open the lock because he “grounded” LeuC naturally and the key worked.
However you take this as a factor in opening the door, it is worth wondering….why he?”
Thanks for this theory, Peggy and Jim. This explains away a mystery!
Going Down The Road With The Leu's 