FRIED!!!!

I got up early on Wednesday, moving day, to get a head start on rolling up the water hoses, and other paraphernalia  so we could get under way by 10am, and before it got hot.  The exit from our parking spot in Jewell went off much more easily than I anticipated, and of course, with the expert help from TLE via walkie talkies we got the trailer hooked up and backed on to the dirt road running along the property, and ready for our 73 mile trip to Vancouver, WA.

Once we hit HWY 26 to Portland it was all up hill for quite a ways until we topped out at 1642' elevation at the "Coastal Range Summit), and then began a descent into Portland.  We had some shopping to do, and I needed a haircut (last one on June 25th!) so we found a Home Depot parking lot in a Portland suburb named Hillsboro, parked, and unloaded the T-Bird to run our errands.  We headed back a couple of miles to 185th NE and then south to the  Supercuts.  While I was ensconced there Elaine went to do the shopping (milk, wine, and other necessities).  She arrived back just a few minutes after my haircut was finished and we headed back to the Home Depot for a bite of lunch, and then the final 26 miles to our next courtesy parking offer at the home of an old college friend who lives just outside Vancouver, WA.  When he contacted me he said "my driveway is 85' long", and he wasn't kidding....it's long and very level!  

By the time we got parked (we just pulled in front first with trailer and all) it was into the low 90's so we needed to get hooked up to some electricity and the A/C turned on.  Unfortunately his outlets in the garage are only 15amp, and I kept blowing the breaker using my front A/C.  Ultimately I found what I thought was a 30amp outlet and plugged in only to find it was 220.  As a result I fried our Starbucks Barista coffee maker (we have an extra), our GE Profile 1.5 cub. ft. microwave/convection $395)  and our Progressive Dynamics converter/charger ($179) for the house batteries......DOH!  That was a very expensive lesson, and I am still figuratively kicking my ars as I write.  The most urgent item to get replaced at the earliest possible time is the converter/charger, and I have located a good source on Ebay for $179 shipped....I'm trying to find out from the seller if he will ship it overnight instead of USPS Priority Mail.....I'm more than happy to pay the additional charge.

I'm still working on sourcing a replacement microwave, and we just happened to have an extra Starbucks Barista coffee maker back home in our office warehouse, so I'm going to contact my son and get him to mail it to us.  As a result of my error we had to use the Corningware coffee maker I have talked about before, and it does make wonderful coffee, and it really doesn't take that much longer....AND the coffee does stay much hotter for quite a bit longer.

In the mean time I have tilted the solar panels toward the south to catch as much sun as possible to get the house batteries recharged as much as possible.  Since we are only using them for lighting at night, and to run the Norcold basement refer the usage is not that great, so we should get recharged today and tomorrow with no problem.....and, did I mention, it is cloudless today and will get close to 100 degrees today so there will be plenty of sun.  Our coach is facing directly east and west (front is facing east) so the panels will get sun all day long.

We'll probably hang around the coach today and tomorrow and let the heatwave pass before we do much exploring.  By Saturday the temps are supposed to be back in the 80's and then Sunday back in the 70's.  Our plan, right now, is to stay put for about a week, or until our hosts get tired of us (:D).