On the move, and that was Thanksgiving, not Halloween, right?

Well, we have short sleeves on now!  We always have a wonderful time in Kentucky at the farm, but our poor old thin blood just can't seem to take it anymore.  20's is way, way too cold!  So now we are in Atlanta, and the mid to high 60's feels pretty darn good.  We will be here two weeks taking care of mostly doctors and dentists, and of course some visiting with friends before we make our move to Florida for the winter.  

We have been hit with gremlins the last few days, makes us wonder if it wasn't really Halloween instead of Thanksgiving.  I suspect the first two are really gremlins and the last most recent one is just Murphy letting us know he is still lurking no matter how well everything is going:-)

The first event;  Jan and I needed to get behind our drop down TV to get into a couple cabinets.  Now our front 46" HDTV is mounted on a swinging lift that stores the TV in the ceiling when we travel then pivots it down to a viewing position when we are parked.  It works on a simple switch, up and down.  Well, Jan pops it up to get into the cabinets, we get what we need and are woking on it on the dining table when the TV on its own comes back down!  We are 15' away from it when it does this.  Pretty weird.  We look at each other like did we just see that?  So Jan goes and puts it back up, and in about 30 seconds here it comes down again?!?  I figure something is screwed up in the switch, so I take that out of the circuit and down it comes on its own again!  We can hear what we think are relays clicking when it has power to it, so I call the company to see what they have to say.  Turns out our controller is dying, so a new one is on the way, in the meantime, we plug an extension cord in to move it whichever way we need, then unplug it.  We need the extension cord because the normal plug is behind the TV when it is down and inaccessible.  So that gremlin has been conquered.

The second weirdness;  with the cold weather we don't leave the water line or the sewer hooked up, it will freeze.  The drill is to fill our water tank, disconnect and store the hose, empty the back and gray tanks when full, then restore the sewer hose.  We had been doing this on an every other day schedule.  We got a little break in the cold, i.e., it would be above freezing so we left everything hooked up as we normally do.  That way we operate just like a house, all the water you need, and the gray just runs right out.  Well, we were going up to visit Kelly and Todd for the weekend, and when we leave the motorhome unattended we shut off the water.  That way, if God forbid a pipe broke or there was a leak, it wouldn't run forever until we got back.  So, before we left, we shut off the water, left the hose attached, above freezing, and noted we had about 60 or so gallons of water in our tank.  Off we go for our enjoyable weekend, we get back, and of course with my worsening CRS, I forget to turn on the water when we get back, no big deal just turn on the pump and use the water in the tank until I go out and turn it back on.  Well the pump sounds funny and loud as if it is running dry!  How could that be, I know there was more than 60 gallons in the tank when we left??  I turn on the monitor and it shows an empty water tank!  Oh no, we must have a leak, but how would it leak with no pressure, where did the water go?  I run out, open the basement doors expecting water to be everywhere.............but all is well and dry, and no puddle under the coach either?!?!?!  What is going on?  Where did the water go?  

Now the water at the farm comes from a hydrant which is used in areas with freezing temperatures.  It is a vertical pipe that has the on off lever on the top and the hose connector nearby, but the valve itself is down under the ground where it doesn't freeze.

A shortened hydrant for illustration purposes.
The actual vertical pipe is quite long so the valve is below
the frost line.

So the way it works when you shut off the valve is that any water in the hydrant drains out into the ground, so no water stays in the pipe that could freeze.  Hmmmm, food for thought, huh?  So when I shut off the hydrant I did NOT disconnect the hose that goes to the motorhome, so when the water drained out it pulled the water in the hose and set up a perfect syphon that drained the motorhome tank!  Something that I had never thought of before or ever dealt with, so now we all know.

And third; we get here to our campground in Atlanta, stop to unhook the truck from its towbar, we open the door to the motorhome to get out, our automatic steps go out like they should, we unhook the truck, I go back in the motorhome get parked, the steps do not go back in like they are supposed to, we get parked without ripping them off the coach, get settled and they don't work at all, they are stuck out.  It is a concern, even though we can get in and out okay, you can't drive to Florida with them out.  Oh well, it probably just blew the fuse, no the fuse is good...  Out comes the meter and I start to troubleshoot, power is good, why won't they work??  I decide to do some research, and since they are out and I have two weeks to fix them I will work on them in earnest today. I have all my troubleshooting info together, go to the steps, turn on the switch and........they work!?!  Well, as you know, it is really difficult if not impossible to fix something that is working, intermittent problems are the worst.  So later I will call the manufacturer to see if they have some insight, and if necessary wait until they really stop working which will drive us crazy wondering when that will be.