Hot Memorial Day Weekend

Last weekend was not a very pleasant Memorial Day weekend. The campground was fully booked. That always makes for a busy and interesting weekend. Combine that with record high temperatures and a power outage, and it wasn't a very nice weekend at all.

Late Friday afternoon, our power went out. Kevin traced it to a blown breaker in one of the main fuse boxes. It was a 200 amp breaker for 15 of our campsites. He reset it, and things were fine for the rest of the day. Friday's high was 92 degrees, so that was a good thing.

Around noon on Saturday the same breaker blew again. The high on Saturday was 95 degrees. Kevin reset it, and it lasted for a whole 15 minutes. We asked all campers on that circuit to put their refrigerators and water heaters on gas, and use electric for air only. That worked for about an hour, and it blew again. We called our boss who called the electrician the county uses. The breaker blew about 4 more times that afternoon. It started that it could be reset immediately to taking over an hour because it was getting so hot.

At dinner time, our boss called back and said the electrician would be there Sunday morning. I went around and spoke to all the campers on that circuit and asked that they not use their air until the electrician could come. We were hoping that we could keep the circuit going without air being run, and that way at least fans could be used. People were very cooperative, and almost everyone complied with the request. The power stayed on all night, and we were able to use our fans. It was very humid, so not a very pleasant night for sleeping.

The next morning the electrician came, but said he was having trouble getting in touch with anyone from the parts house. We told him we had looked online, and we thought the breaker was available at Menards or Home Depot. He went to Menards, and was able to get the part. He was surprised they had it, and thanked us for letting him know. Alliant Energy had to come turn off the power before the part could be replaced. While they were here, they noticed that the voltage was low.

They ended up tracing the low voltage all the way back into town. It took them until 8 pm until they had the problem resolved. They turned off the power several more times throughout the rest of Saturday, but it was only for a few minutes at a time. By the time the power was fully restored, it was 95 degrees in our RV. It took all day for it to get comfortable inside again, but we were just so very grateful to have power back.

We actually ended up having record high temperatures three days in a row. What a crazy way to start the camping season. The good news is that the breaker worked like a champ the rest of the weekend, and that the campers that were here were very cooperative and didn't give us a hard time.

Our friends Wendy and Jim and Terry and Tom camped here for the weekend. We had a good time, but really didn't do much because of the heat and humidity. No one felt like doing much of anything. We did manage to have plenty to eat and drink as usual.

On Monday our friends Tim and Pam invited all of us to go on a pontoon boat ride on the lake. That was a nice break from the heat. We really enjoyed ourselves.

Activity at the bird feeder has been slowing down. Many of the migrating birds have come through on their way north. I did see a new bird for me, a beautiful Indigo Bunting.

Tomorrow the heat and humidity are finally supposed to abate. It looks like the next week will be beautiful. Maybe we'll be able to go golfing on Monday. We're definitely hoping the heat on Memorial Day Weekend is not a sign of things to come for the rest of the summer.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Happy Mother's Day

I want to wish all the mothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day. We will be meeting up with my mother, brother and his wife, and our son Eric for dinner. It's always nice to be able to spend time with family.

We've been back in Wisconsin for about three weeks. We arrived with snow on the ground, and the weather hasn't improved too much since. It has been very rainy and darn cold. We have had a few nice days in between, but lots of lousy days, too. Especially on the weekends. Even so, these hearty Wisconsin campers come anyways. The campground has been about half full each weekend, even with some really lousy weather.

Despite the cold and rain, the spring tulips are blooming. The lilacs are way behind schedule. These beautiful flowers are along my walking route.

We have managed to golf twice since we've been back. Monday afternoons we are both off, and the last two Mondays have been decent enough to play. A bit windy the first week, and quite wet the second week, but we still managed to have a good time. Tomorrow looks like we'll be able to go again, probably still pretty wet.

It was so cold and rainy on Friday (high of 42 degrees), that the lake was actually warmer than the air causing steam to come off of the lake. Brrr!

The bird feeders have been busy. I love seeing the Baltimore Orioles as they migrate through in the spring.

I put oriole food in the hummingbird feeder, but it must not have been big enough for them to sit on. This guy found a way to get at it though.

A female cardinal and rose breasted grosbeak were munching away together.

On May 1st we celebrated 8 years of full time RVing. We've thoroughly enjoyed those years, and look forward to many years of future traveling. The places we've been to and things we've seen have been amazing.

However, since we bought the park model in Arizona and plan to spend every winter there, I'm thinking we won't actually be full time RVers anymore. That's okay though. I really like the place we bought and the friends we've made in Yuma.

We have some exciting dreams and plans for the upcoming years. There will be some changes in our routine. I'm waiting to make any announcement until later in the summer, but stay tuned. Changes are ahead!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!