Our little corner of paradise....

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8:03 am - Friday - October 27th - Lone Rock - 48º F, humidity 49%, wind 3 mph out of the west.....that is just about right.....clear blue skies from horizon to horizon with a forecast high today of 71º F......perfect!  Via our solar panels we reached 100% charge Thursday before 2 pm in spite of a few early morning clouds!

Looking west this morning....the sun is just hitting the sandstone escarpment

It is certainly interesting to wake up to temps that are not in the low 20's, and it is certainly interesting to wake up to sunlight forcing its way into our bedroom through the closed mini-blinds and curtains at 7:40 am.  It is certainly interesting to wake up in the middle of the night to complete silence, and an inky black darkness that seems impenetrable.  After traversing some 800+ miles ever southward we have finally found our sweet spot again.  I can't help but think of our friends back in Mammoth Hot Springs (Kristal, Dodge, Brian, Caitlin, and Mike) still working at the General Store and waking up to freezing temperatures each day.

The first thing we did Thursday morning was to drag our artificial turf 'awning mat' out of the trailer and the small mat for the entrance to the trailer, then a couple of chairs came out, and eventually our portable fireplace......it's beginning to feel like home for a week!

I think what enamors me about Lone Rock Beach are the larger than life views, the giant horizon, being able to see miles and miles down the Lake Powell shoreline, and the continuously changing colors on the sandstone escarpments which surround us as the sun crawls across the sky each day.  Time seems to stand still here for us, and it is a great place to recharge our internal batteries.  There is something about returning to this familiar place once and a while that touches my subconscious in such a profound way.  This is our third sojourn here, and I am sure it will not be our last.

 My feeble attempt to capture the beauty of Lone Rock Beach

  See what I mean about the changing colors?

Once we finished setting up our environment I got to work trying to troubleshoot the problem with my right turn signal, and brake light which I wrote about yesterday.  As is often the case, my mind was mulling the problem during the night.....I think I lay there in bed thinking about the problem for a good hour before falling back to sleep.  As is often the case when I do  that I was able to simplify the problem to either a bad relay, which could have been damaged by the excessive heat which stripped off all the insulation on about 3 feet of wiring.....

ALL the insulation is gone!  That was a really hot wire!

.....or there could be more damaged wiring which I had not yet identified.  Before we departed Bryce Canyon I had replaced two damaged wires, but still the blinker did not work.  Another thing that occurred to me was that when I replaced that right blinker relay 5 years ago I had not used the proper gauge wire.....I think what I used was 16, or 18 gauge, when I should have been using 12 gauge to match the other wiring......doh!  Anyway, over the course of that time the inadequate wiring caused too much resistance causing the wire to overheat time and again, and then finally failing dramatically as you can see from the picture above......ALL the insulation is gone.....I'm fortunate not to have had a fire.

So, the first thing I did was to test the relay to see if I was going to need a new one.....it passed all the tests, so then I focused on finding anymore damaged wiring relating to that relay.  It took me about 30 minutes to go over each wire and I finally found what I thought was another damaged wire, so I replaced that and then had TLE turn on the ignition and then the right blinker......it worked!  I cannot tell you how happy I was/am that it was as simple as finding one more bad wire to get the right blinker/brake light to work again!

So, now that I had identified all the bad wires I went about finding some 12 gauge wire in my wire stockpile to replace the 16-18 gauge wire I was using.  I found a piece just long enough to replace two of the three wires, but needed about 6" more to replace the third bad wire, so TLE and I drove into Page, AZ around 2 pm to visit the local O'Reilly Auto Parts store and buy some more 12 gauge wire, as well as a few more connectors.

After getting what I needed at O'Reilly's we headed over to visit the local Safeway grocery store to pick up a few items, and then we were on our way back to Utah.  It took me about another 90 minutes to finish rewiring the relay with the proper gauge wire.....I think it turned out pretty good......

 The long 23" wire in the engine bay replaced with 12 gauge wire (the red wire)

......then I got to work on the other two wires......one was the 'pigtail' (two into one) in the middle of the 'R. Turn' relay, and the other is the single red wire on the left side of the 'R. Turn' relay.........

......I spent another 30 minutes making sure all the other wiring was the proper gauge, and found nothing more to replace, so I buttoned up my electrical project with a very big smile on my face.....it's rarely ever as bad as I think it is going to be.....nothing like a little nocturnal problem solving!

By the time I was done putting my tools away I saw that it was after 5 pm, and suggested to TLE that it was time for cocktail hour and our first fire in months......she happily agreed!  

 First fire since we left South Lake Tahoe in June.....it's been too long

 The sun is almost gone.....just beautiful!

7 pm and time to head inside for the night

......as we sat facing east to watch the colors change on the sandstone escarpments miles away we listened to some Frank Sinatra, and then John Lee Hooker....what a way to end a perfect day......another day well lived!

Thanks for stopping by!

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