Good friends and problem resolved!

We just had a great time in Pagosa Springs punctuated by our little problem.  With no warning at all, of course, we rolled into Cool Pines, hooked up our electric and the clattering began!  What is that noise?  Where is that coming from?  Turned out it was coming from our Surge Guard Transfer Switch.  Turn off the power!  Okay now what's going on?  First let me explain what the device does.  It is a combination unit with a surge protector and a transfer switch.  The transfer switch determines which source of AC power is accepted on the coach.  If you are on shore power (plugged into a power source at a campground), and you start the generator, after a short delay to warm up the generator, power will switch to the genny.  So the generator has priority, then if you shut down the genny, it will automatically switch back to shore power.  Our unit also has the added benefit of surge and electrical protection.  If a surge occurs or the voltage is too high or too low, or a myriad of other problems occur it will disconnect or prevent connection of that bad power to the coach, thus protecting your wiring and your many expensive electrical items.

The chattering was only on shore power so we first decided to check the power at the pedestal, and even though it showed good, we attempted to plug into 2 other power sources with the same result.  Then we needed to see if the generator would power the coach, it did.  So even though it appeared that our switch had gone bad, half of it was still working and that gave us a temporary work around.  So I crawled into the basement, and managed to switch the incoming shore power wires over to the the generator lugs.  Boom, power!  Believe me it takes much, much less time to tell you about it that do it.  The wires are big and pretty inflexible, so it took some persuasion but it gave us power on the coach until we could verify the switch was bad, see if we could fix it, or get a new one if necessary, oh did I mention it was Saturday afternoon?   

I called the manufacturer on Monday morning and he gave us the bad news, yes it was toast, no it was not repairable, and yes we would need a new one.  Okay.  I found one and had it shipped into our next destination, where we are now, Durango, CO.  We got some very good news that our 2 day shipping would only take 1 day, so it would be there when we pulled into Alpen Rose RV Park.  Great, a few minutes putting it in and we'd be good to go.  Right.  It ended up taking almost 3 hours contorted into the very tight basement, seems the manufacturer in their infinite wisdom put different mounting tabs on the replacement making it necessary to rework the mount!  Then as I mentioned the wires are big, hard to work with, and very stiff, but it is good to go and now works great!

On to the good stuff now.  We went up to Williams Reservoir, one of our favorite spots.  Big beautiful lake surrounded by mountains and incredible scenery to wet the canoe.

Beautiful day!

Coasting along

After several hours on the lake we stopped for a picnic on the banks of the Williams Creek.

Not too shabby

Then we tried without success to find a high mountain road we had been on before, CRS set in, I guess, but nonetheless we had a nice ride and ended up on the Wolf Creek Pass overlook for coffee.

It was a nice day, then when we got back we were pleased to see that Ron and Jo had arrived, and Buzz and Gay also had set up for the summer.  It was wonderful to see them!  You see our good friend, Harvey owns the campground we stay at in beautiful Pagosa Springs, and along with his buddy and our friend Jan, welcome us and the other "regulars" like family.  We first visited quite a few years back when Dick and Ann asked us to stop in on one of our trips out west.  Now we have stayed at perhaps hundreds of campgrounds over the years, but none like Cool Pines.  It is like coming home and seeing all your family.  Everyone is friendly, welcoming, and draws you in.  There are potlucks, and breakfasts, and just good get togethers and visiting.  It is absolutely one of the highlights of our life and travels and count ourselves lucky to be included! 

And no the tires are still not paid for!