Washington D.C. - Day # 4

When is the COLD going away for good, and when will we not need to use the heaters first thing in the morning?  It got into the low 30's Saturday night....I know, because the middle gas heater started coming on around 3:30.....it only comes on when it gets into the low 30's.  The clock that projects the time and temperature onto the ceiling of our bedroom red 53 degrees at 6:30 am.....that's the inside temperature.  I thought we were done with 53 degrees, which is why we didn't use the extra blanket Saturday night.  I finally crawled out of bed around 7 am to turn on the 3 heaters.....again....and started the coffee on its way to perking.

The batteries had hit 90% just before we went to bed (I had been running the small Honda for a few hours), and they were still at 83% when I got up Sunday morning.  At least now we have a shot at getting them back to 100%, if not then the high 90's will be good.  

No site seeing Sunday.  The laundry is piling up, and there is stuff to do around the coach.  Our nephew, Jonathan, had offered to let us use his laundry facilities when we were at his home for dinner Friday night, so TLE took him up on that offer Sunday.   While TLE was gone doing the laundry and some minor shopping I cleaned up around the coach, did the dishes, and then got the two Cannondale bikes ready to ride when it finally warms up over 60 again.

While I was working in the trailer on the bikes I turned on the Honda generator to provide light.  After I finished getting the bikes ready for riding, I went inside to see if any NBA playoff games were on yet.  While I was watching TV I heard the Honda start surging, then suddenly shut down.  There were no power surges that might have drawn too much power, it had plenty of fuel, and oil.  I was able to restart it with the choke on, but it would not run without the choke on full, so I finally shut it down.  Fortunately, just before that happened the house batteries reached 100%.....yay!  I bought the Honda 1000 watt generator about 7 years ago....used on EBAY for $300.  Since the first day I picked it up it has run flawlessly all that time, and has always started on the 2nd pull....no doubt it needs a tune up after a few hundred hours of operation. 

The sun on the solar panels kept the batteries at 100% the rest of the day, and into the early evening.  Looks like Monday will see me locating a small engine shop to fix the Honda.

TLE came home around 4:30 with clean clothes, and bed sheets, plus a few store items.  I helped put away the laundry, and then went back to reading a book called "Big Lake Blizzard" on my Kindle....this is the fourth in a series by Nick Russell (Big Lake, Big Lake Lynching, Crazy Days in Big Lake, and Big Lake Blizzard).  Nick has a daily blog I follow called, appropriately, "Nick's Blog".  He and his wife have been living full time in their motorhome for over 10 years now.  They publish a magazine called Gypsy Journal.  Nick is a former newspaper publisher, and is a good writer.  I have enjoyed reading his books.  All four books are set in Big Lake, AZ.....a real place, but with fictional characters.  All four are murder mysteries.

I finished Big Lake Blizzard, around 9 pm, and started another book.....at 11 we turned on the TV to watch "The Amazing Race"......they are down to 5 couples now, and so the finale is not far off.......we went to bed with the house batteries still reading 94%......it looks like another cold night is in the offing.  We are definitely using the extra blanket!

Thanks for stopping by!