A Shopping and Fix-it Day

I promised pictures of our sites in the FamCamp, and I was able to get some good shots today in between the raindrops.

The Forbes’ Phaeton on the left, the Hills’ Dutch Star on the right.

We’re directly across from them. All sites are large and have plenty of grass.

Today we had a chance to shop in the BX (Base Exchange) and Commissary at Malmstrom AFB, and also made a quick trip to the local Walmart Supercenter. We stopped by a Starbucks store to stock up on coffee beans, and Don went to an RV supply store early in the day to get a new plug for the electrical cable that connects the toad (towed car) to the motorhome. We’ve had intermittent problems with the turn signals and brake lights when towing the car for some time. Yesterday, we didn’t have any lights at all. The problem turned out to be that the wires had pulled out of the plug. So he bought a new plug, and together we figured out where all the 6 wires went. He connected it, tested, and got the right side lights working, but the left side still didn’t work. I remembered that we had a fuse fail in the past, so he checked that, and it was indeed the problem.

The fuse is so small, I had trouble getting a clear picture of it.

The fuse is a mini-auto 20-amp fuse. We checked 3 places for it – found it at Walmart. However, they were out of the $2.79 package of 20-amp mini-auto fuses. The only way to get one was to buy a Bonus Pack for $16.88 that included 7 each of mini-auto fuses in 6 various amperages, plus a fuse tester. At least we now have the problem fixed.

If we ever need another mini-auto fuse, we’re prepared!

We bought a set of external speakers for our small Acer notepad computer. Don uses it primarily for the Silverleaf system that monitors the motorhome’s operation (more about that in another blog). I loaded Microsoft Streets & Trips 2011 with the GPS sensor (thanks, Rick!) so we could use it to guide our trips. It might eventually replace “Tita” the Magellan GPS Don bought about 4 years ago that no longer can be updated. The program works fine, but the only way to hear the directions while going down the road is to have external speakers. These were only about $12 at Walmart.

Meanwhile, during and after the shopping trips, I did 3 loads of laundry, including the sheets and towels, and together we re-made the bed. Love having clean sheets! Don aired up the tires on the car, as they were all reading low on our Pressure Pro system. It was frustrating because he got them to 32 psi as measured on the tire gauge, but the Pressure Pro was still showing 28 psi.

For dinner tonight, the six of us got together for a ‘burn your own’ BBQ (cook your own meat on an outdoor grill) and potluck at the Forbes’ motorhome. As usual, there were lots of goodies to share and good conversation. After some of us took a walk around the FamCamp, we got together again to review our Alaska TourSaver coupon books and maps and talk about places to go and things to do on our trip. Dennis and Carol are the experienced ones, with 3 previous trips to Alaska under their belts. They had lots of recommendations and ideas for our planning.

The weather wasn’t conducive for traveling today, so it’s a good thing we weren’t on the road. We awoke to a light rain, then it rained harder. Then the wind blew. Then it rained some more, then the wind blew some more. When the front had passed and the wind died, we saw a pretty nice sunset. Not as great as the ones we see in Arizona, but still okay.

Larry took this sunset pic looking toward our site from the left side of his.

I took this one a little later.

It may be the last good sunset we see for awhile, because we won’t be up late enough to see them in the ‘land of the midnight sun,’ if they happen at all!